The Best Laid Plans..

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What an awesome Saturday.


Gavin's staying over in KL for the weekend instead of going back to Melaka like he usually does so I joined him and Edwin for dim sum breakfast at this new place I haven't tried. Food's pretty good but I still think Damansara Jaya's a tad better.


Futsal was cancelled unfortunately, but Nick texted asking about poker with some new friends at some unknown place. Semi-serious apparently, RM20 buy-in with RM1/RM2 blinds, an order of magnitude higher than what we usually play with. It would be fun to play with some serious players for a change, I thought, so I agreed to go.


About around 2.30pm though, I got a surprise phone call from Grace, who was back from the US but was going to leave on Wednesday. She said she was meeting Kenneth at Uptown Pappa Rich and asked if I wanted to join. I haven't seen her in ages and there was so much to catch up on so even though it was such short notice, I texted Nick saying I would be late for poker and headed over to Uptown for a bit.


After the catch-up session, I went over for poker, won (or lost, I dunno) a bit and all in all, had a pretty decent Saturday afternoon....

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Except I DIDN'T do any of the above! Had to say no because I had to go back to the campus to finish up on some lab work and when Grace called, I was already 5 minutes away from the campus so yeah, that was that.


What an awesome Saturday. Pffft...

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Clamshell Packaging..

I hate these things with a passion. Sure, they help the retailers from having their small, expensive items shoplifted but they’re a bitch to open! A pair of scissors is a must as you can’t rip them open with your bare hands. (huge props if you can, though)

Reason for the sudden outburst: I just cut my finger from the sharp edges while opening one. It’s no big deal at all but it’s the tipping point from all the frustration borne from opening these little bastards over the years. Why can’t they just put it in a nice little cardboard box for you to open up elegantly?

Pffft..


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The biggest time-waster in research has to be looking for all the experiment apparatus needed. Take today for instance: wasted a whole day looking for a buchner flask, cork and tube; delaying the filtering process by a day, which in turn, delayed the titration process. I envy the pharmacy lab a lot. They have all the equipment they need and never have to go around scrounging for a lousy beaker or spatula.

Oh right, and one of the stoppers for the flask mysteriously disappeared so I decided to just nick one from the cabinet where the technician took it from earlier to pass to me. So I was rummaging through the cabinet when Yi Jing, one of my colleagues crept up (well, either she crept up or she has a really silent walk) and jokingly asked: “Oi, stealing stuff ar?” There really isn’t a more sinking feeling than being caught in the act but of course, I played it off as cool as I can with a “Haha, no la, yeahh…” before switching topics. Smooth..

Speaking of buchner flasks, the one that was usually connected to the vacuum pump was missing the other day. Ee Von who was there at the time, offered to borrow me one of hers after seeing how lost I was (presumably).

So anyway, there’s this sort of stopper that I needed to seal the flask with and she wanted to ask what size it was. She asked, very elegantly, thus:

EV: “How big is your cork?”

CM: “Well, it’s… *pause* You know what, that sounded really wrong..”

EV: “ *pause* *laughs* Yeah, it does! "


Apparently, only “dirty-minded” people will think of that. Hmm..

A couple of days later, I was guilty of another accidental sexual euphemism. I wanted to ask Seow Yen, the bane of my existence when it comes to iPhone gaming (Clue: She always has a higher score. Always.), if she’s tried this game that was similar to Bejeweled. I asked, quite unassumingly, thus:


CM: “So have you played Trism before?”

Yen: “…….”

CM: (/facepalm)


Yeah, reaal classy…

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I wanted to end this post with a cryptic rant initially but strangely, I don’t feel like it anymore. Hmm, wonder what happened during the 5 minutes I took to cobble this toge… oh wait, nope, it’s still there.

I wish people would stop insulting my intelligence sometimes. It’s very annoying. There, how’s that for cryptic?

Perception of new-ness..

So I got this John Mayer album yesterday which I was convinced just came out as I haven't seen it in stores prior to this. There’s this certain excitement of knowing you’re listening to something new, possibly ahead of everyone else.

Well, a quick check in Wikipedia put a damper to that. Release date: November 2009.

Still wasn’t the worst case I’ve experienced, though. A conversation with Sarah a couple of weeks back:


CM: hey mun
Sarah: heys meng
CM: I have in my hands the new killers’ album! =D
Sarah: day and age?
CM: day & age, yeah
CM: I like it better than hot fuss somehow
Sarah: ah, i see haha, made me so excited for nothing
CM: well, it’s new to me!
Sarah: hehe


Well, I knew the album wasn’t as new as I thought but I had no idea. A quick check in Wikipedia revealed:

Release date: November 2008

Finger. On. The. Pulse.


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I also signed up for the UNICEF monthly contribution thing. Ooh, look at me, I do charity work. Nah, this isn’t about that. What I want to talk about is the fundraiser manning the booth who was a ridiculously enthusiastic hard-sell.

Among the things he said that pissed me off a little was when he used the break down to daily cost thing.

“RM 1.26 per day only. I bet that *points to my boost juice drink <which is awesome btw>* costs more than RM 1.26, right?*

Of course I realize he’s trying to put the costs in perspective but the problem I had with it was that he was putting you in a spot. It’s rude. If he compared the costs to a general glass of teh tarik, he would be saying: “The daily cost is RM1.26 which is about the cost of a teh tarik; not a lot as you can see”

When he makes a reference to something I’ve bought however, it gets a bit more personal. It’s saying “What, you can spend so much on that particular drink but you can’t contribute to our charity?”

He hardly ever touched on what is it UNICEF actually does with my money or how much of the RM38/month I’m paying is going to trickle down to the children, just about how easy it was to contribute and how little the amount was. When you strip it down, he’s getting people to sign up more through guilt than the understanding that they’re doing something meaningful.

Maybe that’s the whole idea but I just found it very off-putting. I’ve been wanting to sign up for this for a while now even before he approached me however, so I was going for it regardless of what he did or didn’t say which was kind of bad because I was validating his cheese-ball fishing tactics.

Things I dislike during a haircut..

1) Awkward conversations with the shampoo girls. With this, it really doesn’t matter how hot they are. I realized the conversations were pointless after the first 3 visits. Well, not to say there had to be a “point” (ie getting her number and getting laid), just that it annoys me to have to answer the same set of questions every time I visit the salon.

For some quirky reason, the hairstylist remembers what I said the previous visit but not the shampoo girls. So, every time it’s the same thing:

a) So, are you still studying?

b) Oh, where do you study/work?

c) Is this your first time here?

d) Do you live around here?

So these days, I just dive straight for the magazine, be engrossed in whatever I’m reading and meet any questions with one-worded replies.



2) Weak neck/scalp massages. I remember very distinctly 2 years ago when this shampoo girl gave me a neck massage that felt like it would never end. It wasn’t really a massage, more like a half-hearted caress or something. I mean, I don’t hate it but it just felt weird, plus if you’re gonna get shampoo lather on my neck, please make it count.


3) Weak neck/scalp massages from shampoo guys. Yeah, what I just said but add a very significant amount of awkward. It happened last month, lasted about 10 minutes and I actually got up when he was dispensing the extra shampoo lather in the sink (he still wasn’t done yet?! what?!) and pretended I thought it was over.

Awkward.


4) The styling that they do for you after the haircut. Usually after a haircut, the stylist will do your hair up for you with wax or whatever but they usually do it in a particularly funky manner that they think looks good but you find weird: the Dragonball hair tousle. And because they don’t put enough wax on it or whatever, it remains standing for about 5 seconds after you leave the salon and you’re left with a flat hair and about 5-10 strands standing, which if you can imagine, looks very stupid.

These days, I’d just say it’s alright because I’d wash it off when I get home anyway. And they happily oblige because they save on time and hair products.




Other than these occasional peeves though, Thomas & Guys SS2: awesome place.




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I remember doing a post a few months back about sending 6 year old me a letter to warn him of future happenings, and wondering how cool it would be. Well, a reverse of it actually happened, sort of, if I stretch it a bit.

In my Windows Live Writer, there’s a draft folder and there are posts in there which I never published either because a) I lost interest in the topic halfway through or b) I didn’t want someone I didn’t want reading the post to be, well, reading the post, and though I tried to make it cryptic for the sake of ranting, it felt pointless in the end so I stopped.

Anyway, in a convoluted and probably inaccurate way of looking at it, in that drafts folder, January CM did send March CM a letter with a very specific set of instructions and the consequences if they were ignored. I guess it can be deduced by the very fact that this post is here that March CM ignored them.

Well, sorry January CM, turns out you were right after all (wrong about the 10 other things you said in the past though) and I really should have known better. I do now. Yes, I realize the post is cryptic, contradicting what I said 2 paragraphs ago but I wanna vent and it feels kinda relieving. Hmm, maybe I should consider publishing all the posts sitting in the drafts folder. *takes a look at posts in there* Okay, maybe not..