Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Who let the cat out?

FOREWORD:

I love cats.

I love Mother Nature; I love animals, but above all I LOVE cats!

Cats are another perfect creation of God. They come in all shapes and sizes but just enough to be cuddled and hugged comfortably. Their furs are just soft, silky and smooth to stroke. They move stealthily in the dark. At night, their eyes shine like two silver discs, x-raying every movement around them. They make soft purring sounds. Whenever you are lonely at night, they are good companions that sit beside you and listen to you (and pretend to understand you).

I am not a cat specialist but I do know several things about them:

1) Cats have nine lives. They do? NO!! Cats DO NOT have nine lives. They die and succumb to disease as easily as other living things on earth. The ‘nine lives’ myth is due to their seemingly exceptional ability to survive falls from great height that will otherwise be fatal to others.

2) In ancient Egypt, cats are worshipped and honoured as goddess. Mistreating cats are punishable by death.

3) Chocolate, or anything that are made from cocoa, is poisonous to cats. This is due to the presence of a chemical, theobromine, which is fatal to cats.

4) Cow’s milk which contains a type of sugar, lactose that is indigestible by cats.

5) Cats are able to see well in the dark, but they see the world in black and white only. (Correct me if I’m wrong)

6) Cats have a keen sense of home. Studies have shown that cats intentionally separated from home are able to return their master without failing.



~~~~~~~~END OF NOT-SO-FUN FACTS ABOUT CATS~~~~~~~~~



The Story of Cat (Cat is a name, and a ‘she’)

We found Cat several years ago in a drain, abandoned by its mother. Cat was still a kitten by then, and my sister decided to nurse it back to health. I was sceptical, since a kitten depends heavily on its mother so the chance of survival is slim. Sure, I really pity the kitten, but that was the truth.

“This is the law that governs Mother Nature, the law of the survival of the fittest.” I explained. But my sister refused to listen further when I tried to elaborate on the cruel law of survival.

I never know how she did it. But after several weeks and a series of visits to the vet, the kitten shows promising sign to live on. My sister’s dedication, perseverance, and the iron will to keep Cat alive is truly admirable. Cat grew up healthy and strong, and was a hyperactive and energetic kitten that always brought smiles and laughter with its playful acts. Cat food is expensive by the way.

I had to admit that I was wrong to say nothing can be done to save Cat the first place. It is indeed unfair to judge a situation based on cold hard facts and assume that nothing can be done to turn things around. Sometimes, a little hope and faith is needed to overcome a problem that seemingly has no solution.

My message? Never give up until you try.

"What are you looking at?"

ZzzzzZZZzzZZZzzzZZZ..................


They told me to never try this at home. Technically, I'm not at home so I....


You are never gonna believe what I saw on news today....

No!!! I'm not the culprit!!

So.. this thing is called a 'bed'? Humans sleep here? What else can you do on a bed?

I saw u! Initiating system..lock on target..ready......


The hardest part was of course to leave Cat behind when we moved. We have thought of taking Cat with us. But on second thought, Cat is just happy in the neighbourhood she lives. Besides, she might not adapt to the new surroundings here, and transporting her is risky and a hassle too. Hence, it is better to let Cat stay.

On the day of our departure, Cat was not around, so we never have the chance to say a proper goodbye. I imagine her returning to an empty house, meowing at the window looking for someone to let her in, and that feeling always pain me greatly. Occasionally, I will freak out thinking the worst that might happen to her after I left. Why shouldn’t I? Cats aren’t humans. If we left our friends we can easily call up and say “Hey! Long time no see. How’s life?” But leaving pets behind is an entirely different matter. You will never know where they wander off and might never see them again. (Hmm... I wonder if the recent fuel and food price hikes might affect Cat? Food more expensive, less leftover? Or maybe global warming is destroying her habitat? Nah.. I’m being paranoid.)

Nevertheless, my sister and I will always pray for Cat’s well-being and safety. Cat is an irreplaceable companion and a special friend.

As I end this end post, I’m sure Cat will be somewhere out now just as usual, under the moonlight, exploring her territory and tormenting the mice, the forever agile hunter of the dawn...

Yay!! I found a treasure chest!

Have you ever watch the movies in which the hero/heroine wandered into a secret room or underground chamber in search for hidden treasure?

Luckily in my case, I do not have to crawl through old, dusty rooms or manoeuvre through treacherous trapdoors. The treasure chest I discovered a few days ago appeared out of the blue right in front of me!!

To be more specific, it was not even a treasure chest, and there is no gold, jewels or whatsoever riches or ‘blink blink’ inside. Instead, it was just an old cargo box...

Sorry to burst your bubbles. I know u’r gonna hate me. (Innocent smile) ^_^

Here’s the real story:

Having just moved into our new home several weeks ago, my family and I were just clearing the last few boxes of cargo until.... Lo and Behold!

There’s one cargo box with my name on it? I thought the box with my clothes in it was my last.

Overcame by curiosity and excitement, I hauled and dragged the heavy cargo up to the third floor where my room is. (Hard work, luckily nothing fragile is inside)

Cutting open the sealed box, I found many old stuffs inside that evoke old memories. Some of them I had long forgotten and never thought about them! So I sit back and relax (wait, that’s your job), and I embark on a journey into the past... (I’m a bit melodramatic so just play along)

My old Stamp albums

First pile of stuff out is a stack of my stamp albums. (They are responsible for half of the weight of the box.)

My stamp collecting hobby started long ago when I’m in primary school. There used to be a club for stamp collectors like me where we can share our albums and trade stamps. It was a great way to get those rare ones.

Other than that, I also get my stamps from various sources: my mailbox, relatives, and even bought them if they come in one set with limited editions. I love stamps that illustrate plants or animals.



Let’s do the math,

Hitherto, doing a quick count, I have a 4 completed albums amounting to a total of more than 1000 stamps. Just an average achiever compared to those stamp fanatics who have...I dunno...a bookshelf of albums?

On the other hand, they say that quality counts, not quantity. But I’m not sure how to judge the value of a stamp. Obviously, their age and origin matter. But the oldest stamp I have is dated back to 1998... @_@ Not that much of a value but still my favourite stamp anyway.

Sadly, time changes, computer games and net surfing take over the minds of the young generation (me included) in the digital era, and soon I gradually lost interest towards stamp collecting.

However, flipping through the time-worn albums right now bring back memories of when I was just a happy-go-lucky child that lead a carefree life with no responsibilities except school and homework. I had all the time in my life to scrutinize each stamp and try to extract the message within.

Perhaps the stamp is showing a great and powerful political figure? Or is it a memorial to peace-makers, scientists and other great heroes that had contributed significantly to the world? Perhaps it could be showing one’s country culture, races or famous landmarks. It could also be urging the world to protect Mother Nature by illustrating various rare species of floras and faunas that will go extinct, together with humankind if global warming continues to escalate. Each individual stamp is unique and tells its own story. Stowing the albums neatly away, I move on the next item.

The Neglected Coin Album (Don’t get me started....)

Next stuff out is a somewhat new and unused coin album. That’s right, a coin album. I’m beginning to sound like a collector that tried to collect everything, but in vain...

I was inspired by my grandpa’s dazzling collection of coins and old notes. He has it all: rare coins and notes before Malaysia’s Independence, the British country, and other neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and China at different time eras. Each of them is related to each other like a huge jigsaw puzzle of time.

I couldn’t believe it, but hearing my grandpa’s stories and his difficult past really make my most detested subject, History, came alive again. How fortunate that in Malaysia, the present generation is able to live peacefully without war and turmoil.

Filled with burning passion, I soon got myself a coin album. Unfortunately, my coin-collecting hobby didn’t kick-start too well. I vowed to gain my collection without my grandpa’s help. But cruel reality shows me that it is easier said than done.

Until now I only had a few Malaysian coins plus a few game tokens from a game arcade. Perhaps the most precious stuff in my album is a brand new still shiny RM 1 coin. In the end, I emptied the album and all those coins are now warm and cosy in my wallet, ready to be spent, or in better words: ‘journey on’ to a new master, well, excluding the RM1. But something will never change: History is still my most detested subject.

Moving on..

The Memorable Photo Album

Ahh, another album! Do I need to have an album for every single thing?

I received this special photo album from my parents during my 2003’s birthday. The cheerful happy birthday note written with thick permanent marker with the date was still clearly intact and visible on the back cover.

Looking through it bring back bring me fond and bittersweet memories of the past. Some pictures I never know why I put them there. Remember those moral projects portfolio that we need to complete and we had to take a few pictures for each of our ‘kerja amali’? I still have some extra pictures of me and a few friends carrying out ‘gotong-royong’ in our SAL (Self-access learning) room. High school is definitely the good old times we had. But destiny is forever cruel to separate us from our comrades that we had cherished for 5 years.

Another few pictures reminded me of the time I participate in the Melaka student exchange programme. I still don’t recall why I had agreed to join in the first place since I’m the only Chinese there and History is not my thing. Nevertheless, I’m glad that that I had went because the trip really served as an eye-opener for me and the experience gained is priceless. I lived with my Malay foster parents and it was the first time I actually slept over at a stranger’s house. But I soon drop the term ‘stranger’.

The family was really kind-hearted people and I warmed up to them in no time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stand the spicy food. A little spiciness is nice, but what I’m talking about here is the insane degree of spiciness that forces your tears to gush out in torrents and next you feel like a flamethrower spitting out fireballs.

Other than that, the rest of the trip is just fun. We visited lots of places, although frankly speaking those historical sites left little impact on me and I only remember them as vague memories of blank monuments and solid buildings. To me, it is the people I have met, their culture and customs that really matters the most.

Cards (I can build a house with it)

Yeap, the books and album frenzy finally came to an end. The rest are miscellaneous items.

Next stuff out: I pulled out a big heavy plastic bag (another major contributor of weight) an inside is an unimaginable amount of cards that can take me a whole day to count. I love strategy card games: Yu-Gi-Oh, Duel Master, Magic the Gathering and even Pokemon and Digimon has their trading card games.

Being more a Yu-Gi-Oh fan, I used to buy the cards in small packets and smart businessmen really know the trick to keep you buying. Inside a packet, say like 15 cards, there will only be about 3 to 5 cards that are worthy of value in a game. The rest can be considered ‘trash’ cards that a player will never dream of putting in their card deck. Not only that, in order to make a combo or synergy, a set of specific cards need to be collected so just imagine how many packets you must buy until you finally have a complete collection of the set of cards.

Now living in the 21st century, I realised there’s a cheaper alternative: computer games. No hassle, no worry, not a single cent spent as all the card u need is in the game. Of course, the ‘feel’ when holding a real card in hand is unsurpassed. But then again, the money spent....Arrghh!! I still felt like hitting my head in anguish over the money I had wasted having spent on all these cards, which now accumulate in a large pile to collect dust, a real white elephant indeed. I just wish there is a money converter which I can shove all my cards into and then money will spurt out at the other end.

But I can’t blame myself though. I really used to enjoy buying and collecting those cards. But now my perception changes and I see things differently. I realised that the money I carelessly spent can be put into far better use than this. But that is a past, and I can’t change it, only learn from it and look forward to a new day. (*Sigh*~)

P.S For those interested, let me explain the rules of Yu-Gi-Oh card game battle briefly.

Basically in a standard game, each player has 8000 Life Points (Lp) and your goal is to bring your opponents Lp to 0. Players do so by inflicting damage using their monster card to attack and this is aided by magic cards or traps cards to disable your opponent. Each player’s deck comprise of 40-60 cards and each player’s field consist of 5 monster zones (which mean a each player can only has a maximum of 5 monster on the field), 5 spell zones (magic/trap cards are set there), 1 field card zone and the a graveyard (where used cards or defeated monsters are placed). There are also special ways to winning a match. For example, a player is declared a winner if they successfully collect the five ‘Forbidden’ cards in their hand, (just like in a game of Big Daddy or Big2, a player automatically win if he/she has four ‘2’ cards in hand, am I rite here?) But it is never that easy because the chances are unlikely and the plan can be easily foiled by a card effect that discards a player’s hand. Yeah...and I think that’s all you need to know for now.

Last but not least, Trinkets for Thoughts

My job is almost done...

Most of the stuffs left are given to me by my friends and relatives, some given during their occasional visits and some given during my birthdays or when I attend their farewell parties.

I found a huge box of stationeries seemingly enough to last me the next semester, a big bunch of key chains collected over the years, a few pine cones that I had collected during our family trip to England, and a few decorative items given by my friends.


Finally, with the empty box, my job is done. Almost done...

It is time to clear up the mess and put everything to where they should belong. Then I vacuumed and mop the whole room. Finally, I’m proud to admit that after all that hard work, my room, which before this mostly vacant and empty, now looks brighter, cheerful and feel more like home to me with all my familiar belongings back. The hard work is worth it. I heaved a sigh of relief.

Mission accomplished.

~~Home Sweet Home~~

MY TREASURE CHEST OF MEMORIES

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Holiday Plan

MY HOLIDAY TO-DO-LIST

It’s been almost two weeks since the holiday. Reflecting on what I have done during these few days, I agonizingly discovered that I had done.....nothing.

Nothing really useful except:

1) Eat, sleep (and other basic necessities that a living organism carry out to survive, reproduction excluded)

2) Doing the house chores, (the only exercises I had done)

3) watching movies,

4) reading the news (oil price rising, salary not rising)

5) Go online, netsurfing.

Netsurfing routine involves:

Facebook -> Friendster -> My blog -> Friends’ blog-> NST online (Chatting on msn or google chat occurs at any intervals in between)

Fortunately, before all is lost, I’m brought back to my senses and suddenly realisation struck me. What am I doing? I had been wasting precious time loafing around at home aimlessly. For God sake, do something useful!

Ok. Dire situations call for drastic measures. I need to cleanse my mind and kick the lazy part of myself out of here to get a fresh new start.

“The historical moment has arrived for me to unearth the hidden and long forsaken manifesto that had been digitally fossilized after being buried under gigabytes of data for billions of years. Like a devoted archaeologist, I carefully decipher the ancient and arcane text worn out by time in order to fulfil my quest to grasp the true knowledge within...”

@~@ Big deal. That’s just a little drama. The holiday to-do-list is fine. Just took me a little trouble to search for it....

Anyway, here’s my 7 week holiday planning. (Actually only left around 5 weeks for me to accomplish everything. But better late than never!)

8 THINGS I NEED TO DO DURING THE HOLIDAY

1) Improve my driving skills, learn to master the Big and Bad highways in KL city

2) Learn to cook (Not even an iota of progress yet!)

3) Read the books/magazines that I have bought and accumulate over the years but never have time to read them.

4) Create my own blog (Done and off my list. Yay!)

5) Familiarise myself with window movie maker, Microsoft publisher, n other programmes (in other words, be more tech-savvy)

6) Play more sports, spend more time on exercising (Maybe I should try out something I never did before, how’s tennis or bowling?)

7) Learn to speak Cantonese

(Yup, most people in Selangor speak Cantonese and my average Mandarin is not enough to help me adapt here. I would also like to learn some tamil, and other international languages if possible)

8) Last but not least: Start reading second semester lecture notes and textbooks.

Typical reactions from my friends:

a) a) Raised eyebrows,

b) b) Eyes widening in disbelief

c) c) Pupils dilation

d) d) Increase in heartbeat

e) e) Increased blood pressure

f) f) Responses such as: Hah? What the? R u ‘.........’! (insert own text)


(Sigh~*) I know the word ‘studying’ is quite a common taboo during any holidays but I just wanna make sure that my mind stay fresh and avoid turning ‘rusty’. Besides, those books are heavy and I ain’t gonna waste my strength carrying them all the way here for nothing. Anyway, it is the last priority on my list and be rest assured that I WILL have, AND GOING TO have fun during the holiday.

With this holiday plan neatly typed and pasted on my screen, hopefully my actions speak louder than word and I can get the ball rolling. No point spending my whole night thinking of what to do but in the end do nothing at all. But just in case I start to deviate and stray away again, this blog will be a constant reminder of what I should do whenever I visit it.

~Cheers~ :)

May you all have a fun, out-of world, but at the same time fruitful and meaningful holiday together with all your family members and friends. To those working and studying now, balance your life between work and play, find joy in your life, enrich your life with wonderful experiences, reward yourself, and may success be your destiny.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

The Dawn of a new day, a new blog is born....


Some great landscape pictures. For more cool pics visit deviant art


Ya..i know. It's 1.30am in the morning and I got this sudden 'jolt' of motivation to start a new blog. WhaT a way to start! haha! Well, it's about time anyway, since 'create own blog' is in one of my 'to-do-list' during this 7 week super long holiday and i can happily tick it off the list.

OK, let's start with the intro:

WHY THE NAME 'MIDNIGHT BLUES'?

Well, let's first make a rule: I will write on my blog ONLY at dawn, any hours after midnight till 6 in the morning. Dun ask why, just feel like it. That's why I call my blog 'midnight blues'.

Dun worry, doesn't mean that I'm in the blue mood all the time and REST ASSURE I won't bore the readers with all sorts of whines and complaints. ^_^

Ya, although there's a 'midnight' word in it doesn't mean I have to start writing exactly the moment the clock strike 12 midnight.

Pls, I have 3 timepieces in my room:
1) A typical alarm clock (i think the alarm is broken....
2)My loyal POLO wristwatch
3)My cellphone's digital clock

All 3 of them are NOT synchronized. Wat am I suppose to do huh? Find the average time?? ^~^"

PERSISTANT READERS MAY ASK: WHY MUST YOU START AT DAYBREAK?

Frankly speaking, I'm more awake and refreshed at midnight than other time. The time late at night really suits me.

Quiet, peaceful, everyone's asleep, just me and some light snacks accompanied by soft soothing baroque music. What better way is there to put ur mind at rest and let ur thoughts flow freely? P.S: Night is my optimal time to study too.

The downside is i snooze like sleeping beauty o maybe 'handsome beauty?' under a sleeping spell during the day!! WARNING: Seriously, this is abnormal sleeping habits that should only be done in the holidays. Need to set my biological clock back to default b4 school reopens..

WHAT KIND OF BLOG IS THIS?

Haha, I'm not sure either. Just want to make it as interesting as possible for all readers but at the same time be it a memorable online dairy for me. So to all my friends and kind readers, all ur thoughts, comments and opinions are much appreciated to add some 'colours' to this blogspot.

(P.S: No baseless insulting, flaming, accusing, and use of intimidating swear words allowed)
Ok ok, moderately obscene words like 'shit' or 'wat the hell?' allowed but dun drop the 'F' bombs pls @_@

======END OF Q&A SESSION (thanks for reading)======

So there u go, tat's basically something u should know about my blog. Guess i haven't intoduce myself much.. ^~^'' To view a more complete profile bout me just add me on friendster or facebook. (I prefer the latter)

Friendster/facebook/MSN chat: chua_wee_kheng@hotmail.com
Gmail/G-talk :chua.wk01@gmail.com

Oh yeah! Today, i mean yesterday is Father's Day so i wish every dad in the world Happy Father's Day and keep up the good job for being a good father. Also, Happy Birthday to my friend Sandeep.. As for today, Happy Birthday to Laura. Wish u guys have a great birthday!

Everyone's turning 18, i still got 2 months to go!! Haha xD