Say ‘Good night!’ and Go

There’s a site called Interfacelift.com that selects digital image/photo submissions accepted from the public for the purpose of supplying desktop wallpapers to all for free. I think I’ve submitted around 8-10 photos with only three being good enough to be selected. I was under the false impression that the number in parentheses beside ‘Add To Favourites’ was the number of downloads for my photo. Two photos had 8 and the other had 6. I was just happy that it wasn’t 0 (thus confirming that the Interfacelift people made a mistake selecting my photos).

Tonight, I decided to update my account. After doing so, I noticed the ‘Download Stats’ button. I clicked on that and was astounded when I saw these figures:

6,302 downloads
14,927 downloads
8,512 downloads
Total 29,741 downloads

OMG! There are actually people - more than 5, who think my photos are good enough to be downloaded! Well, maybe they downloaded them and then deleted when they realized they made a mistake. And then they got amnesia and downloaded them again. Repeat process till the numbers have escalated into the thousands. Yup, that has to be the explanation! I still can’t believe the numbers. All this while, I thought there were 22 kind souls who had downloaded the shots. I’m stunned to learn that there are 29,741 kind souls!

Hmmm, just imagine if each paid US$1! *gasp* No, I won’t think about that. I’d go crazy thinking of the possibilities. XD I can still dream though. Of course, if I told my parents about the numbers, they’d want to know if I got paid for my efforts. I may as well just keep quiet. =D

Exactly a month ago, I submitted an entry to the Gh0st R1der contest. This was after Mum brought the paper to me to check out. There would be two winners for the Grand Prize (Timex watch worth RM509), three winners for 1st (Gh0st R1der T-Shirt worth RM200), three winners for 2nd (Gh0st R1der metal key-chain worth RM120), three winners for 3rd (GR silver note book worth RM80), three winners for 4th (GR Collar Pin worth RM80), three winners for 5th (GR Bandanna worth RM60) and finally, thirty winners for Consolation (US version GR Poster).

I figured that with so many prizes to be given away, I’d have a chance at getting the Poster. Earlier tonight, I decided to check the copies of the previous Sundays’ ‘Cars, Bikes, Trucks’. Mum had already tied up the stack of old newspapers under Dad’s writing desk, and usually…I wouldn’t have bothered checking because she usually warns me about messing up her neatly-tied stack. Something spurred me on though. So I carefully untied the knot holding the papers together and proceeded to look for the Sunday editions. The first copy didn’t have anything. The second copy, dated March 18th had something about it. The first thing I noticed was that they misspelled my name. They omitted the R in my first name. Ugh. I’m SURE I wrote it clearly! Oh yes…what prize did I win? My name was first on the list for 2nd! I got the overvalued metal key-chain! Yaay for me! Before the list of names, there was mention that a representative from Buena Vista Columbia Tristar Films would get in touch with the winners. It’s been a week…Have I missed the call?

…so let’s celebrate! I gained 2kg in two months (maybe less than two months), there are no weighing scales at Tesdec for me to regularly weigh myself. I decided to see if I had lost weight when I came home last week and surprise! 52kg. My weight range is usually between 48kg and 50kg. I always try to stick to the 50kg weight.

As you know, skinny people have a problem gaining weight. I do think it was a combination of these factors:

1. Eating keropok lekor after class (not regularly, of course)
2. All that walking and climbing the stairs (exercise) got me hungry.
3. Adequate sleep (though it was often distrupted by other people’s alarm clocks/noises) - Slept before 12am and got up around 6:30am (set my alarm for 7am - rarely wake up to that).

Ugh, I guess this means that since I’m out of that place, I’ll actually have to exercise and sweat! Nooo… XD

Mum bought a tub of Magnolia ice cream the other day. Vanilla. I like vanilla. Especially when sprinkled with chocolate rice - Yum! Since we didn’t have any, I substituted chocolate sprinkles with Milo!

It rained just a little bit today/yesterday (seeing that it’s past midnight now). I didn’t go out into the garden. Most times, I was either in front of the laptop or watching TV. Can’t really recall what exactly I watched in entirety.

I emailed the Universal Music people regarding the results of the Valentine’s Day iPod contest. I wasn’t sure if I had missed the results or if they hadn’t released the results yet. I got a reply a day later and they informed me that they had already notified the winners to get their prizes. ;-( So sad. But at least I’m glad that I don’t have to wonder and be stressed out about it. I’ll just have to keep my eyes open for another contest offering iPods as prizes. And no, I will not be interested in those sites that offer free iPods/laptops to people who sign up with companies, etc. Please resist the temptation to spam me out of my mind with invites. Even if you did invite me, I’d delete the invite. So why waste your time and mine? Please note that this message is for people who come by this blog by accident/not by accident who are looking for prospects to invite.

While surfing around the other day, I came across a site that sold compatible batteries for my Kodak EasyShare LS755. The last time I was in KL, the search was futile. All the shops I went to did not stock the KLIC-7000. One proprietor said that the model that I had was not sold in Malaysia. I don’t quite believe that, because when it first came out, there were reviews on it in the magazines. If they didn’t sell the camera here, they wouldn’t have printed the price in RM, would they? If the guy had said that the model was discontinued, I would have believed him.

Anyways, I ordered the battery yesterday (sent the Purchase Order around 3:26pm) and waited for the ‘e-mail from personnel’. Nothing arrived in my Inbox this morning. Since I was online on YM, I decided to add them as my contact. I asked about the status of my order and received a response before 11am. I was told that I could bank in the money without waiting for the e-mail because the ‘.com.my e-mail is slow’.

After telling him that I was unemployed, he then asks me if I was interested in Herbalife products. I had to explain to him that I wasn’t the type of person who could sell stuff to people. Besides, I look unhealthy with my skinny wrists. I had to drop a few medical terms such as arachnodactyly and Marfans Syndrome. Then he says that I could always sell online. This guy doesn’t seem to quit! Well, as it was already past noon, I took my leave. If all else fails, I’ll just say I’m broke and I have no money to invest and I’m not going to borrow money from anybody.

Went to the bank at 2:36pm and I looked for the form to fill. I asked the security guard and he instructed me to inquire with the bank officer (of course, how silly of me). After waiting for the people in front of me to get their queue tickets, I asked the man and he said that I just had to use the transaction machine. First I joined a queue in front of one machine, and after waiting for a bit and looking at the other machine (no queue), I figured I was at the wrong machine. I do believe the first machine I was queuing up at was the Cash Deposit Machine. XD Anyways, I inserted my card and followed the instructions. I had written down the account number in a small notepad and then realized that I had omitted an additional zero. How did I realize it? Well, I distinctly remember thinking to myself, “There are three zeroes, I mustn’t make a mistake and omit one zero!”

Do I actually check the number I wrote down to see if all the zeroes were there? NO! It was a good thing that I decided to add the extra zero when I was prompted and the correct account information was displayed. Yaay for remembering, and boo for not checking when I told myself to be careful. *slaps forehead*.

I was done in less than 10 minutes. Easy-breezy-one-two-threesy!

Then my Mum and I crossed the road to Pustaka Seri Intan (a book and stationery store) to get an i-Talk card. What irks me is that Mum wants me to buy the card. What if I wasn’t there? Would she wait until Dad comes home (release date yet to be determined by my sister) and not make any calls? She’s a Malaysian citizen. She knows Malay and does just fine buying her groceries alone at the Payang Market/Pasar Payang. What’s up with that?

She’s the one who keeps telling me that if I don’t know anything, ASK! Hmmm…oh well. Just had to get that off my chest.

I caught a TV show on Channel [V] earlier this evening and it was called ‘Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty’. The premise of the show is to help a person break up with their boyfriend/girlfriend (or not, as in the case of the couple that I saw). When I switched to Channel [V], I saw the tail end of the first part of the show. A girlfriend was suspicious of her boyfriend (he was being secretive and shifty) and Shannen came up with a plan to make it appear as if the girlfriend was being arrested for a crime and the ‘cops’ had to question the boyfriend (’What is your relationship with her?’-type questions). It turns out that the boyfriend had a live-in girlfriend somewhere else (which explained why she never got to see him at his home) and the jerk kept bragging about his being a ‘player’. He truly sounded pathetic and Shannen was clearly P.Oed with the guy.
Errrm, I’m getting sleepy now. I think I’ll continue this tomorrow. Hey, since it’s already past midnight, I guess I should say ‘later today’.

Take care!

Okay, so I am back in the mood to add to this post.

The next segment featured a girl who has been in a relationship with this marriage-shy guy for 5 years. She was prepared to give him the ultimatum. Either marry her or it’s Teletubby bye-bye. Well, not in those words exactly, of course. The plan was to hire the boyfriend to be Shannen’s personal assistant and get him to relay the message to Shannen’s fake boyfriend that if fake boyfriend wasn’t willing to take it to the next level, then she was dumping him.

To cut a short story shorter, commitment-phobe boyfriend has no choice but to comply and proposes to her on TV. If I were the boyfriend, I would have been really angry to be forced into that situation. But I understand the girl’s situation. There, end of my post now. On to next post. Maybe later.

It started raining last night and it didn’t stop til this afternoon. Sky remained cloudy throughout the day. Yaay! I appreciate the cool air after suffering for over a month. Parts of my skin that have been exposed to the sun are two to three shades darker than my butt, for lack of a better spot where the sun don’t shine.

Of course, I went out into the garden before the rain stopped to snap photos like the ones seen here. I missed taking raindrop photos. I like how they’re so refreshing to look at. Soothing…

And then there were the legions of mosquitoes to kill. I think I squished 5 unfortunate female mosquitoes. Muahahaha! Die, die, die!!!

According to the news reports (and the Meteorological Dept website), it will be raining all day until Friday in Kuala Terengganu. Rain as prolonged as this is rare at this time of year. Hmmm…Al Gore, are you listening? =)

I’m back home! Yaay! Today was my last day as a Photonics and Fiber Optics student. Incidentally, we finished the (snooze-inducing) class syllabus today. The Hands-On classes haven’t ended yet (I think). Exams covering FFO chapters 3-8 will be on the 28th and the 29th of March.

Yesterday, I attended the T-GAS ‘interview’. I think there had to be more than 150 people there. It started around 10:30am and I was there around 9:50am (the letter said it would begin at ‘10am’). Filled in the yellow form and read the brochures for a couple of Quality Management courses held by SIRIM Bhd, the Tourist Guide course (which I had to miss earlier), Microprocessor (organized by SigTech - which is also in charge of the Photonics course). When the presentations were over and the registration counters were open, everybody queued in front of the T-GAS counters. Nobody seemed interested in taking courses for at least 2 months.

When it was my turn, I just handed the guy the copy of my degree and he ticked the boxes (in the ‘Official Use Only’ section): Physical Handicap, Prepared to Move, etc (I forget!). It was all over in 30 seconds.

Went for lunch as it was already 12:30p.m. When I came back to the main building at 2pm, I decided to get the application form that would allow me to end my course. Went to the admin office, waited for the staff to ask around among themselves where the forms were, etc. Spoke to the guy at the desk (he asked why I wanted to stop), I told him I was already 33 and just wanted to work. I’m done with studying and calculations!

Was told to meet with the coordinator first. Went to her office and explained why I was there. She said, “Takleh nak gi, doh?” (loosely translated to, “You can’t proceed [i.e. ‘understand’/'go along’] with it anymore?”). She seemed very understanding. She told me to get the form from the Student Affairs Dept (HEP). She mentioned that after I filled in the form and gave it back to HEP, HEP would arrange everything with her directly. So I went to the HEP office, and it was empty! I waited outside by the door, then figured it would be so much more comfortable inside, with the a/c on. I may have waited 5 minutes. Someone came through the door, but she ignored me. So I figured she wasn’t the person in charge. She left and I decided to wait outside again. Finally, a man and woman came into the office and I asked for the form. They did some form checking and finally found the right form for me to fill. When I was done with that, I handed it over to them. And they said that they couldn’t accept it without the coordinator’s signature there! *ugh* I told them what she told me and they insisted that they couldn’t do anything. I didn’t want to waste anymore time and just took the form to give it back to the coordinator. I caught her just as she was leaving her office.

She instructed me to leave the form on her table, which I did. Then I went back to my class. I had taken around 30 minutes to settle everything.

Incidentally, we have a 6-day break. Starts on Wednesday and ends on Monday, the 26th. The 3-day orientation for the T-GAS participants is on the 27th. I am SO glad I don’t have to study for the exams! But I have a hunch that the people in charge will ensure that everyone passes, no matter how low their marks are.

Initially, I was planning to stay in my old room with my roomies. And then I remembered the crazy study hours some of my roomies kept. While I was trying to sleep, a girl in the next bed was reciting, “Mega, Giga, Tera!” and this was around 4:30am! And as I had predicted, nothing closely resembling those answers were to be seen in the exam the next day. My best bet would be to stick with the T-GAS participants while my roomies are studying hard.

… because it pertains to body hair removal. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!!
The other day, I caught a documentary about Razor Blades/shavers. And they showed this person shaving her underarms. It looked very convenient and fast. Very unlike the method I occasionally used, which is tweezing. It’s a tedious and painstaking process, trust me.

So when I was at Mydin Mall, I decided to check out VEET. I know, it’s got nothing to do with razor blades. After seeing the animation of how a razor burn occurs (just looking at an illustration of skin being sliced off as the blade slides across the area was enough to make me cringe), I decided to not use a razor shaver. I looked at the Razorless Veet thingy and it cost more than RM21! Finally chose to try the new Veet in-shower cream.

I couldn’t understand the vague instructions the first time and the hairs on my legs weren’t any shorter. So I tried again after a few hours. It worked then. The next day, I tried it on my underarms. Everything done in under 5 minutes. Felt fine. Then I left for the training center and opted to leave the Veet behind. The next two days, I felt like I had TWO porcupines/hedgehogs/spiny anteaters under my arms!

Pokey as heck! I would rather go through the hassle of tweezing/using my Braun Silk epil than endure another spiky regrowth episode. At least with tweezing, the hairs took longer to regrow and they had to start from the roots. With creams, the hairs grew from the point where they were cut off, which made them thick and stubble-y.

Okay, I’ll stop now. I am sure that there were people who did not heed my warning earlier. Hope you haven’t been scarred for life.

Tesdec has a healthy population of insects. Plenty of moths, especially the big ones. The fuzzy green moth above was found one morning on the wall adjacent to the door. I took way too many shots of it, mostly under bad lighting. I’ll have to delete them all later.

I love how fuzzy the body is. I had to force myself to keep my hands on the camera and nowhere near the critter. It just goes to show how much I miss having a dog/guinea pig. I want something soft and cuddly and alive! Something I can teach that won’t cry. =)