Jump For Joy or How To Be A Bad Student

Matt took this photo years back and I remember him saying something along the lines of, "Bayangkan esok kita dah grad, we have to take more pictures like this, okay?" He badly wanted to make a commercial out of it so he added the slogan "Achieving beyond possibilities" (which in my opinion says a lot about what he really thinks of my achievements and possibilities - Gee thanks a lot Matt). Any takers on UPSI's real slogan, anyone?

Pretty soon we'll have something real to show for everything we've had to put up with for the past six years. God, has it really been that long? Oh I feel old now.

Pretty soon it'll be payback time and all my ex-teachers are rubbing their hands with glee. Remember when your teachers used to say, "Esok kalau awak jadi cikgu, baru awak tahu..."? Here's a quick list of things I'm sorry I ever did because I know kids will give me the same in the definitely-not-too-distant-now future (Wow I must really like lists):

1) Skip classes (school, for that matter)
2) Skip homework
3) Cook up lousy excuses for (1) and (2)
4) What the heck is "revision"?
5) Not pay attention
6) Show a preference for the tuition teacher (She was nice to me!)
7) Fashion Police certain teachers (Not many of us could resist this one)
8) See No. 5 again
9) Fight back and refuse to believe in much of what they were saying
10) Not fully apply myself (This one I regret the most)

Truth be known, a lot of motivational so-called self-help stuff will tell you to go ahead with No. 9 but what do I know - I don't write those. I always end up being forced to believe in a lot of things anyway (except God but that's a given - I love God). This is what we call learning new things every day :-)

Got that, class? Understand-ing? Understood-ed?
[And they trust me to teach English.]

I miss my students.

Torture And The Like

I know this is horrible to even suggest but is anyone else of the opinion that people who can think of the most simple yet effective methods are just pure genius?

Here are a few of my favourite examples:

1) Cili mulut - Any idea how ouch this can get? This has to be officially/legally classified as a form of torture somewhere in the world.

2) Waterboarding - To hell with fancy schmancy technology and expensive nonsense; all you need is a board and a watering can. Let's face it, there are people (can we even call them that?) who deserve this.

3) My dad's paint remover plan - Just one swipe of this and the mat rempits will think twice before leaving their motorcycles in front of our gate ever again. Same goes for the illegally parked cars clogging up our street every night.

4) Chemical castration - Self-explanatory.

I'm sleepy. More on this another day... Pleasant dreams :-D

We like Spitz

Nitenai bokura ha hosoi ito de tsunagatte iru

Yoku aru akai yatsu ja naku

We, who are unalike, are connected by a thin thread

Not one of those red ones you see around

Snaps and Crocs

My dad had an accident this morning on the way to Johor because some ding couldn't control his car and hit my dad's car from behind (this is why I pantang punya lah pantang datuk nenek moyang orang kata degil nanti marah pulak tapi kalau dah degil tu degil lah kan ha ni ada je yang nak bagi aku membebel tahap nak semput tak tentu pasal if people i.e. my parents go anywhere without telling other people i.e. me where they're going - crazy how people should think this rule only applies to youngsters).

Anyway, alhamdulillah he is safe.

My (this close to twenty months old) niece Sara has got a very cute pair of Crocs now - this is probably as tiny as they really are:
Incidentally, I can hear her crying in her parents' room now. She probably woke up and realized that she didn't have her new Crocs on :-) The women in this family have a thing about brand new stuff - one of my aunties (of course I won't tell you which) likes to sleep with brand new (clean) shoes on. If I buy new books, they usually spend the night on the pillow right next to me. This is my roommate for the night (purchased just this evening):

Sara was very nice to Faiz today. Faiz was immeasurably pleased. Usually she screams and cries whenever she sees him but just now she salam him like a good little girl and was all manja and stuff. They even played ball together. She hasn't played that with me for quite some time :-(

Motivation

Chapter 2 of Kage No Yuurei is finally finished! Hope Chris likes it. Just this afternoon I told my brother-in-law about the story and he rather liked it, too - so fingers crossed, everyone!
My mother wants me to hurry up and finish the book so that I can sell it for millions and buy her a house by the sea - in Penang, where property like that is upwards of RM1 million. Wish me luck! I've planned out all 20 chapters so now all I have to do is write them but of course that's easier said than done. Thank God for Chris pushing me and pushing me and asking for more otherwise the book might never get written until I'm retired (and I haven't even started teaching yet).
Ishizuka-san, you're definitely gonna be in the dedication :-)

The Invitation

The other day I realized that I have never had the honour of an invitation to dance. 23 years - nothing. If it's not me extending the invitation (and getting rejected most times), it's something plain taken for granted i.e. Riza and myself leading the pack at family gatherings (not that it isn't "YAY" Riza my dear, but...) No one has ever really asked, "Would you like to dance?"

So here's to a sweet gentleman (who shall remain nameless) for making history sometime this month. It may not seem like much to you but I thank you from the bottom of my heart :-)

Apologies

You said sorry for everything the other day
And so did I
But somehow I feel it wasn't enough
You and I haven't always been the most logical of friends
We've loved and loathed
We've laughed and cried
Coming from two different worlds, we could not see eye to eye
But somewhere along the line
You and I met in the middle
We know now - friends don't always need to be the same kind
You accept my differences and I accept yours
You've got my back and I've got yours
And even if we need to keep making more sense of each other
I'm glad that we are friends, and will continue to be

Here's to (a fresh start of?) you and me!