at some point i think i’ll say something but for now there’s just more to do than talking

and so i’m back home, lovingly wrapped in the familiar mid-year haze and the sounds of the tau foo far man trundling through the suburban afternoon. i’ve been home for a little less than a week now, and my activity spent so far can be summarized as a heady mix of slothful and irresponsible. four days of unadulterated sleep, eat and play have done much for my soul! i would gladly extend this hedonism, but alas, work knocks on my door.

i love my new job! actually, it’s probably too early to assert that, because it’s only my third day on the internship. can’t talk much about the job as usual (at least this time there wasn’t a discretion contract to sign), but it’s been all sorts of fantastic so far. well-defined hours, a wide spectrum of tasks, flexibility to choose what i want to be involved in, exciting and meaningful work, and a great boss — he took me out with some other colleagues yesterday for a bak kut teh lunch at a secret spot in old klang road. bak kut teh!!! i dont see how lunchtime gets any better than this! plus i get my own room at the office, and my colleagues keep feeding me various snacks. best! :D

also, there has been a new addition to my household:

2 month old male pomeranian, nameless as of now, belongs to Tall Brother and his girlfriend. this comes after many years of me begging my parents to let me keep a dog, which for as long as i can remember has been met with dismissive and unreasonable rejection. and they thought it fine to mention the new puppy to me only mere hours before i was to fly back. so, being the green-eyed monster that i am, i was feeling quite resentful throughout the flight, and vowed to not talk to the dog when i see it at home. BUT THEN they brought it with them to the airport, all swaddled in soft cloth, looking absolutely angelic – and it was love at first sight. how does one not love something that looks like that! i mean, look at it:

sigh. defeated by cuteness. now i have to play with it every day or i can’t sleep. i also have to excuse myself early from my appointments so that i can go home and see it. even the fact that it has no name is quite cute.

in other news, i just picked up a Blackberry yesterday. i havent played with it too much yet, but some preliminary comparisons with the iPhone 4 are that the BB’s OS is more robust and takes functional to a new level. but being a fairly new user on both phones, i have to say that the iPhone is much more new user friendly. i didnt once have to look at the manual when i got the iPhone, but there was a lot of fiddling around with the BB before i knew what went where (eg how do i close all apps simultaneously??). the BB reminds me of using a PC after spending some time on a Macbook — too many clicks needed and a lot of clutter when i’m trying to do something simple. i do think that once you go touch screen, you can’t ever go back (or at least that’s the case for me), and customizable touch screens are going to be a bare necessity for smartphones in time to come. but then again i’m quite n00b when it comes to this stuff :) so i’m going to play around with the BB for a little bit more before i verbalize any further opinions. but if someone could tell me how i can quickly and painlessly transfer my contacts from the phone memory (inbuilt memory, not SIM or SD card memory) of my former Nokia N82 to the BB, i would be very grateful. currently i have all the contacts copied to the SD card as well, and sending via bluetooth seems to not work for some reason. i’d like to avoid going to a store, but if i must then i guess i must…

oh before i forget! dear folks, are there any new eats in the Klang Valley that are absolute must-tries? i’ve been hitting up all my old favourites in the past week, but i hear the dining and hawker scene has sprouted some new limbs lately with places like solaris, brickfields and hartamas undergoing some metamorphoses. i actually haven’t been to cristang yet, so i suppose that’s my next to-do. i’d muchly appreciate more suggestions of places that have just opened, or even old places that have revamped themselves!

also, just one last time:

Saya sebuah kereta Proton. Saya dilahir …

does one do on days like these?

thanks everyone, for all the lovely comments about Kafka :) i gave him Kafka on the Shore by Murakami the other day, as an insight into his new moniker. but really, once upon a time, in our first gchat conversation, he referred to giant cockroaches as ‘Kafkaesque’ and it made me laugh.

i have a midterm on monday so i’m in my usual reading room at the wonderful Butler Library (recently placed on CampusGrotto’s Most Beautiful College Libraries of the U.S. list — see #4. though i am sure we deceptively earned our spot). i’m wearily crunching numbers and squeezing as many optimal bundles as possible out of the Lagrangian, and by crunching numbers, i mean procrastinating. i actually haven’t gotten very much done at all, and already i’m contemplating ditching the stacks for dinner and drinks. it is friday night after all……. but then there’s a guy behind me who is hard at work creating the most comprehensive set of notes you’ll ever see. it looks award-winning and quite intimidating. so i guess i’m staying in…

but not without sharing some funnies!

first, for all Little Mermaid fans, especially those who know all the words to the movie by heart:

and a cute conversation with my dad, after an average of two emails a week for the past month asking me to buy him an iPad (and i DID):

dad: your papa wants this… http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/#design-video
me: hehe i am getting mine in 2 weeks!
dad: buy one for me
me: no money ah… very broke lately
dad: dun be so bad… get me one. I really want it.
me: WOW YOU WHAT ALSO WANT! SUPER GREEDY LOR. u think money grow on trees is it???
dad: How can you say your father GREEDY. I am SAD !
me: so fierce for what…
me: hellooooo
(no reply)

and today i went to the bank only to find out that my malaysian credit cards no longer work. WTF. lesson of the day: parents are expensive and very sulky, so don’t buy any.

also, kakicucuklangit recently told me that Istana Budaya is staging Tun Mahathir the Musical. i froze, processed it, and then dissolved into uncontrollable giggles for about 5 minutes before going on twitter, plurk and facebook to announce it to my friends. i’m SO EXCITED but incredibly bummed that i won’t be in KL to watch it when it opens in September. like i keep saying – it has such creative potential! bound to be the hiroshima of humour if the right people were allowed to develop the script. but alas, we all know none of that is happening. so we cracked our own jokes in anticipation. some samples:

me: THEY’RE MAKING TUN MAHATHIR THE MUSICAL????? HAHAHAHAHA
response 1: it’s titled RENT(seeking)
response 2: now the question is .. will ur tickets be subsidized?
response 3: the tickets won’t be subsidized. in fact they will raise prices for it and offer protection by slapping ridiculous taxes on foreign musicals
response 4 : i can see it now – there will be a song titled: (If They Can Make Avatar) They Can Do Anything
response 5: I’d go just to hear the so-do-mi chorus.
response 6: it will be sellout shows by phantom watchers
response 7: dilemma: protagonist says he owns the land the stage was built on
response 8: dont forget the crooked stage
response 9: “mahathir mahathir… he reminds me of a look-east story!”

hahahahaha. oh. /dabs at tears of joy

lastly, i’ve been catching up on Glee episodes, and really loved that episode called Bad Reputation! the show’s been getting a little redundant but this episode blew it all out of the water for me. it featured all these gloriously tacky songs like Physical by ONJ, Can’t Touch This by MC Hammer, Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice and Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler!!!! excitedly, i plurked about it, and Alvin then showed me the funniest/weirdest ever cover of Total Eclipse of the Heart that you will ever watch, performed by Hurra Torpedo, a Norwegian band that plays using kitchen appliances. my favourite dude, by far, is the headbanging percussionist:

okay, great. library admin just walked in to say that the library closes in 20 minutes. blasted summer school schedule- i’ve barely gotten any work done! so much for studying all night so i can guiltlessly watch US vs England tomorrow. boo, bring back the 24-hour library schedules :( but then again it is friday night…