then things started to get a little better for me. my company had a quarterly review meeting the other day. and that’s when people voice out their challenges the face, and solutions in order to achieve better results in the next quarter. i was just sitting there listening, up till the part where they announced the quarterly achievement award or something like that. i was pretty shocked to see the 4 alphabets on the rear projection screen.

A D R Y

i was like eh? i deserve this meh? but i only worked here for several months… 10??? 11 months?? how can i get? got so many other people working harder then me! then my boss spoke a little about me.. saying how at times i had to work late in the office, till almost having to sleepover to finish some proposals. or how i had to bring work home to get them done.

I WAS TEARY EYED OKAY! i mean i’ve worked late in my previous jobs, worked till the wee hours in the morning to finish projects as well… but this is the first time someone was actually praising me for the effort i put in. and when they asked me to say a few words… i had to decline, saying..

“i cannot talk leh.. i shy… and i think if i talk.. i scare u all see me cry but thank you thank you thank you…”

i think would have cried if i spoke.. seriously never felt appreciated like this before.. damn malu wei…

the rest of the night.. i was just in shock, and a smile was chiselled on my face. i definitely slept well then..

lol that’s all for now.. i wish i could dramatise this post more..but i can’t.

i’ve dreamt of you ever since i was 16. riding my bicycle around ss14 and i saw you. it was definitely love at first sight. friends who saw me never would understand how i could just stand there and appreciate how you looked, even with all the rust and damage. i still thought that you were beautiful. i vowed to myself that one day i’ll own something like you, but just maybe thats a dream that may never be fulfilled. i don’t know much about cars an how they work.. hehe i’m no grease monkey ok..

things back then were just made with so much more ‘feel’. i’d rather be seen driving this old car compared to be seen in any other modern days sports car. who the hell needs to be traveling at break neck speed when they could be cruising around in style. some has made remarks that i’m dumb to want somethign THAT old. older then me even. 26 years old and yet still a beauty. now thats what i call design.

amongst others that i would really love to have one day..

a fiat 128 rallye

Datsun 510

ok i’m nuts.. and i don’t know anything else to write about. and i’ve been writing about cars in succession. but i couldn’t keep myself from writing when i saw the pictures online..

i didn’t think much of it at first. i told myself that i could see it coming, and it was about time that she left me and made another person happy. I remember the first day i met her way back in 2001. And i can’t believe that she stood by me for the whole 7 years? i wasn’t really impressed with what i saw, i couldn’t imagine myself being with her at all, but i needed her as i didn’t have anything else. She definitely served me well, even though sometimes i got odd stares from people when i’m out with her.

It was 2001, and for the first few weeks, my family and i were often in a heated discussion because i told them that i wanted to get a suzuki FXR to ride to class. they kept telling me it wasn’t safe to ride a bike to school, whereas I on the other hand insisted it was fine, as i was already riding my mountain bike to class from subang to kelana jaya everyday. secretly, i wanted the fxr because i didn’t want to burden my parents by asking for anything else more expansive.

so that friday morning, i followed my dad to Sg. Buloh before class. We walked in to an empty lot and there she was, shiny and in my favourite colour, RED. my dad told me that he was going to buy me a kancil. i cringed at that thought. i once vowed to myself that i wouldn’t drive a kancil, just like how i would never ever ever ever ever drive a honda… any honda. but what could i have said? she was a 1995, a six year old car and we bought it for 13 thousand. in my heart, i felt a little weird and overjoyed. weird because i felt like a giant in such a small vehicle, overjoyed because i finally had my own car. i reached college and my face was beaming with joy.

months later, i saved enough cash and fitted her out with a cd player. then later on came the subwoofer and amplifier… she was definitely the loudest car i’ve been in. utter joy when i cruised down the streets, i couldn’t care less about what people thought of me when they say me with my windows down smoking a cigarette listening to No Doubts Hellagood or Eurhythmics Sweets Dreams on the radio. it was that year that i got involved in South Saturn Delta. And she became the official bandwagon. She took us everywhere, racing from LUCCT in Kelana Jaya on thursday nights to play at Waikiki, took us to Sri Damansara to the jamming studio, heck, once i even raced through the streets of old klang road heading towards PJ to withdraw cash in the wee hours of the morning because a friend of mine urgently needed cash as he got in trouble with some loan sharks. those where the days when i really enjoyed driving her, with her stiffened and lowered suspension. bliss.. i even remember using her to ferry around a mahjong table when the lan dou kuais (jeslyn, jerome, kee eng and I) wanted to play mahjong after class.

for my final year in college she served me even better. I ripped out the front and rear passenger seats to fit in the table i made for my project. i even got pulled over by the cops and got questioned about why i was overloading her.

“Encik, saya belajar lagi. Ini project saya (pointing at the table). takda kete lain nak pakai yang boleh muat meja ni.. nak sewa van pun takde duit”

i guess he couldn’t see a fault in it, and he let me off without a fine or anything.

but few years down, i began to neglect her i suppose. there were times when i was so broke, she ran out of gas a few times. me and my mates had to walk to a petrol station to fill a bottle with gasoline and drive her back. sometimes i got a little fed up. I kept taking her to the workshop and yet when she was out, another problem occurred. but what hurt me the most was to see that her paint was fading. from a deep red to a pale pink. but then again, it just cost too much to give her a new coat.

i called rueben the other night, told him that she’s gone. sold her to some other guy that wanted to give her a new turbo-ed heart.

“what the hell!! you sold your kancil? ah.. i’m gonna miss it. now that you mentioned it, i remember you car had this certain smell”

“What smell??” i asked

“yeah your car had the cigarettes mixed with some air freshener smell.. i’m sure going to miss it. aww man.. but your car really served you well man… driving to gigs and all that.. now we don’t have a bandwagon anymore”

“dude, stop talking like that lah… actually i’m starting to miss it also.. even though i used to complain about it all the time.. haih.. i guess i never really realised what kind of companion she was eh?”

and that was that. nowadays, i wake up from sleep, open the front get to leave for work. and she’s not there in her usual spot. no more red kancil with the www.foosball.com sticker at the back. no more red kancil with the FRAGILE sticker that rueben stuck on the rear. no more read  red kancil with the faded pink roof and right fender. my only hope is that your new owner appreciates you more then i did, even with the new L200 turbo engine which he plans to put in you. i don’t even have a picture of you to emo about

the initial plan was to go watch the MDG finals at 1 Utama, but i guess last night turned out to be much better than i expected as Eyeris told KY that he had some tickets for Iron Man screen. hehe.. i’m one lucky person kan? so i shall extend my utmost gratitude to them for giving me this wonderful opportunity.

The Plot

Tony Stark, son of an industrialist involved in manufacturing military weaponry, takes over Stark industries when he turns 21, and later on continues to prosper in war profiteering until one day he gets into trouble somewhere in Afghanistan (i think… i wonder why everytime there’s a movie with terrorist its always AFGHANS..bleh). During the ordeal, Stark was forced to built the terrorists some missiles and instead Iron Man was born. the plot thickens slightly, when there’s deception amongst tony starks circle….. and the rest you should watch it yourself

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr).

Robert Downey Jr did a marvelous job playing Tony Stark, who was a rich, cocky, womanising and remorseless SOB prior to his ordeal in Afghanistan, where he built the mark 1 suit out of junk. Downey’s performance erased any doubts i had about him being able to play a superhero.

bombshell Gwyneth Paltrow playing Pepper Potts, Starks’ sexatary and perhaps love interest?

Tony Stark in Afghanistan. i shall not elaborate further for fear of spoiling the movie. hehe

Iron Man’s nemesis. I shalln’t name the actor in the suit except for saying that his name has got ‘jambatan’ in it.

being a person who’s really interested in 3d animation, i would say that the visual effects used in the movie was top notch. the level of detail in the renderings of the iron man suit certainly awed me, and is a must see. Oh, the movie also has a few comedic touches in it, as seen in the interaction between Stark and his robots. Also not to forget, I think I saw Stan Lee making a cameo appearance as Hugh Hefner in the movie.

NOW I PROMISE WHATEVER I WROTE HERE ISN’T AS BORING AS THE MOVIE.. SO GO WATCH IT

i guess i kinda miss my good friends who are currently in perth at the moment. they’re working there, not studying. haven’t seen them in months. i really do miss the times we used to spend in the jamming studio with all the arguments and what not. I remember when we were all still studying in limkokwing, kelana jaya. and played every thursday at waikiki. I’d have to rush out after autocad class which ended at 10pm and drive to Waikiki. We were newbies in the pub scene but we still tried our best to put on a good show. just me on vocals and my mate rueben on guitars. and later on jason raj joined in to play bass and that was how south saturn delta was created.

though there were many disputes between us, i think South Saturn Delta was probably the best band i’ve ever been in. with the raw talent of Mr Rueben John on guitars and the fantastic groovy sounds on bass by mr Jason Raj. More often then not, i felt as if i was letting the band down because i found myself unable to keep up with their level.

we still get together once a year to play and have fun. i get a certain kind of high when making music with the two of them. and i can barely wait till i have the chance to jam with them again.

before i sign off today, i’ll leave you with a sound check recording that South Saturn Delta made in the beginning of the year with Vishnu Byron Joseet on vocals, Rueben John Joseet on  Guitars, Jason Raj on Bass, and adry azad on the Harmonica. I might warn you that what we are playing in the recording isn’t even a song, but more like us just having fun, no lyrics no fixed rifts and no parts. we just ‘hantam’ everything. as for me, i think it was actually the first time i really played the harmonica to a song since i only started playing the harmonica a few weeks (months?) before.

Click here : South Saturn Delta

*i don’t know why but my myspace seems to come up in some foreign language… haha

*don’t watch if you don’t want your ears to bleed

“when i grow up i want to be a pilot”

“karang bila aku dah besor aku nak jadik juruterbang”

perut aku besor siut.. dah start nampak macam kaki botol, padahal aku tak minum, untuk pengetahuan anda, orang india panggil kaki botol ‘kudhi karan kupe’.. cis, buncit betul. member aku cakap perut aku buncit pasal aku minum banyak sangat air. aku tak tau la sama ada apa yang dia kata tu betul ke tak. malas aku nak dok pikir. jiwa aku tak cukup tenteram skarang untuk pikir pasal benda cam tuh. nak meletup rasanya kepala aku. ISHK!!! angle gambo ni buat aku nampak pendek la. tapi.. aku memang pendek.. hehe

okay.. obviously thats no flight suit, and obviously i don’t even have the physique to be mistaken as one (hopefully that will change soon..heh). just got back from site (of which i shalln’t disclose the location) a few hours ago. and i’m not really in a very good place mentally at the moment. my thoughts are mostly out of sync. there’s still alot to do. i probably smoked more then 2 packs a day in the past few days, and thats a hard to reach number since we aren’t allowed to smoke on the premises. there were so many questions that i could not answer and some many decisions that i could not make. i only wish what i have said there and then were the right words to have been spoken. and i also hope that i don’t land in the hot seat in the next coming days.

looking at my picture i suddenly think of what it would have been like if i was a pilot instead. i’ve seen planes taking-off up close, and every time the landing gear lifts off the ground, i find myself awestruck-ed. how can something so hefty and huge fly off so gently as if weightless in to space? yes, i’m amazed by the feats of people, and appreciate the laws of physics, but in that moment, i feel that there definately a supreme being looking down on us. okay, that was pretty unrelated, but hell i just feel like writing.

we stayed in a resort by the sea, a little run down but, it wasn’t all that bad either. had some awesome food. for two nights straight i had tom yam and rice. yeah, i love rice, perhaps thats why i’m just THAT fat anyhow. i got a parking fine while stopping at a hardware store to buy some supplies. i didn’t know that i needed to use parking coupons on a saturday in that state. bah.. such luck. to make matters worse, someone tried prying into my car boot. if found out after trying to open the boot with my car keys and all i managed to do was spin the lock in place, and the next thing i knew, the lock just popped out of the hole. thank god, they didn’t take anything, perhaps we walked to the car in the nick of time, as my colleagues and I saw a duo walking away from the car when we appeared.

oh, and i think i got a speeding ticket. haha. i was trying to chase down this toyota hatchback on the highway while heading home. i’ve never seen that model here in Malaysia before, and the dude was driving pretty fast. when i finally got beside him, i glanced to the right and saw the policeman pointing his radar gun at me. SIEN.

right now i wish i could whisk her away to somewhere quiet and lay beside her and do nothing, just enjoy the company. thats what i want, but just like what the rolling stones sang..”you can’t always get what you want”.

while i was out of town, i thought about writing about semantics (read design semantics), but i can’t seem to recall the example that i wanted to use.

i particularly like the way the light fell on her

cowboy lost in the midst of chatuchak weekend market’s madness

view of a riversider at a temple

golden gateway

a hawker riding his bike

a monk with his phone

child divers, diving for creatures to sell

amulet fanaticism

my first tuk tuk ride

ky tryign to march

-__-

rows of gold

casualties of war

solace?

stark contrast

feminine warior statue?

please do check Ky and Terenceg’s sites to see their view on the trip.

i was at my table in the office today, when i had the sudden urge to take a piss. so off to the loo i went. I stood outside the toilet door, and pressed the switch, but i found myself standing at the door waiting for the sound of a beep. Took me a while to realize that i DIDN’T HAVE TO PRESS THE DOOR RELEASE BUTTON to go in the toilet…

i laughed at my stupidity and walked in to relieve myself.

anyway, vacation is over and its back to some serious work. gotta get my head into it or else i’ll fall behind. i’ve yet to find the time to finish going through the photographs from the bangkok trip. i’m not even half done in fact. but they shall come. sooner or later

as previously said, KY , Terenceg and I went to bangkok from the 2nd of April to the 7th of April. We were huddled up in a hotel room quite some distance from town. One night, i guess terence just got bored and said..

“Hey, have you seen how Kim Jung Il’s (i think thats the name he said lahhh) wife’s headgear is made? Come i show you…”

you need a face towel

divide into three and fold to overlap

fold the ends in

repeat 2 - 3 times

repeat the same at the other end. Part the middle and wear it on your head. Its perfect for some camwhoring shots

Here’s KY in his ever fashionable headgear

Ky again

terenceg and the ky

urh… thats me.. lol

who would have thought that 3 guys could do such things.. i know i was shocked. DAMN.. now i’m embarrassed that you’ve seen these pictures.