A little corner of myself

Toiletries...and pic..etc...

(makeup is neatly in a box stashed...sumwhere else :P)

Pics that I printed from my stash of pic in my HDD album X3

....also some candles (which proved to be VERY useful the other day during blackout :P ) ...and lipsticks :P

Transformers

QJ asked me to ask ppl to try guess what my photography subject would be this time...and he said that 10/10 ppl would not guess that I would be taking pictures of these figures... :P

My friend, Yeap, came over today to play some Magic: the Gathering with QJ and Yii...so he brought a few of these figures over....and I was bored...so...I decided to play with it a bit :P

I asked him if it would break easily...(been watching Genshiken lately and the episode with Gundam 'plamo' that's so....fragile >.< )..and he chuckled saying "Its built for kids...they have to make it less fragile" ...haha...so true :P

This is my favourite shot. I know its much bigger than my default picture width of 400px, but when I resized it to 400...it looks like shit...Shot using manual focus...it turned out much better than I expected it... :D

His 'back' looks so freakin elaborate.

My niece would say "Big red truck" :P

Somehow I felt obliged to post this pic of Optimus' ...butt...LOL

The twins

WTF?

Some IDIOT actually made a google search of the phrase "Yasmin Ahmad padan muka" and somehow landed in my blog...because I had 2 separate posts that has the keywords in my blog's main page....(the post about death of the 2 snatch thiefs were named 'Padan Muka')

The fact that it landed in my page..doesn't really surprise me.

However...the fact that some inconsiderate, heartless shithead of an asshole from Malaysia...had actually searched for that combination of words. What exactly were you looking for you piece of...dirtbag! Someone as kind and forgiving as Yasmin...how could you? What has she done to you to make you hate her so much? She's already dead!

It's because of narrow-minded pigheads like you that Malaysia is nowhere near her Vision 2020...dream of becoming a first world country and what not. People like you should just sit under your 'tempurung' and rot inside. Least we be rid of your stupidity and 'ulu-ness'... Pfttt!

A most gifted person. A great loss to the world.

When I saw it in my friend's Facebook update...I refused to believe it.

I look up on The Star Online...then googled it...but it wasn't reported. Then I saw a link on my friend's GTalk: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/33339-yasmin-ahmad-dies ...the only one that reported her passing away...and part of me still refuse to believe it.

Farewell, Kak Min. May you rest in peace with Allah. And you and all your marvelous works, will not be forgotten...

The world suffered a great loss today.

_____________________

**Edit: I just realised...Malaysians have yet to have the chance to watch Muallaf! Reasons being that our beloved censorship board had wanted some vital scenes to be removed from the movie, that would have rendered the story meaningless...they had even wanted Yasmin to change the name 'Muallaf'....to what I wonder... =.=

Muallaf has been screened and re-screened in Singapore. It's even recognized internationally, bagging a 'Special Mention Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film' at the Tokyo Internation Film Festival last year...Most (if not all) of Yasmin's film are applauded internationally and yet certain 'katak bawah tempurung' critics in our country (or maybe envious competitors)...have time and again condemned her and her works. It's such a shame that she is condemned by these individuals in her own country when the people in other countries think that they are masterpieces.

Following is the link to Yasmin's Muallaf Q&A Session at Picturehouse, Singapore. It's only of Part 1/4 of Session 1 of the Q&A but navigate yourself to all the other parts. It's cheerful to see her views of the film and etc...and it won't be a waste of your time.

Importance of Cooling Down

Most people are aware of the importance of warming up prior to exercising. However, many are not aware that it is equally imporant to cool down after working out.

Cool-downs are important as an adaptation made during the body's recovery process to return to its normal state after exercising. Among benefits of cooling down are to aid the dissipation of waste products from the muscles, including lactic acid ( produced when carbohydrate sources in your body is broken down for energy, in the absence of oxygen.). This is because the muscles that help to pump blood back to the heart are no longer active post-work out and thus maybe in insufficient to move blood out of the muscle. Thus, mild rhythmic-type muscular activity (easy jog, brisk walk) will help in the recovery phase.

Cooling down also allows the heart rate to return to its resting rate. During aerobic exercise, peripheral veins, particularly within muscle dilate to accommodate the increased blood flow through exercising muscle. Cooling down would allow a more gradual return to venous tone, and allows a gradual decline in heart rate that reduces stress on the organ that would otherwise have to beat faster and harder to adequately oxygenate the body and maintain blood pressure.

Cool-downs are also said to reduce potential for * 'delayed onset muscle soreness' - DOMS (yes that "omgwtf why my muscle so sore 2 days after intense exercise" soreness). Contrary to common belief, lactic acid does not seem to be the cause of DOMS. The precise cause of DOMS is not known. Some research claims that DOMS is not caused by the pain from damaged muscle cells, but from the muscle's reinforcement process (muscle's response to training by reinforcing itself up to and above its previous strength. This causes the cells to swell in their 'compartment' and put pressure on nerves and arteries, producing pain. Warm ups and cool downs are among suggested ways to reduce DOMS, but it is also important to note that the act of overstretching the muscle itself can cause DOMS.

Other benefits of cooling down include reducing the chances of dizziness or fainting caused by the pooling of venous blood at the extremities, as well as reducing the level of adrenaline in the blood.

Previously, I felt intense muscle soreness and stiffness 1-2 days after training and frequently whined to QJ bout it. And he'd nag me to do cool down after my training...which...I kinda brush aside, not knowing the reason why it's important :P Well, we actually did cool down last Thursday after training...and till today, the expected intense muscle soreness is still not there. Hee! (yeah and he went like "I told you so!" :P )...so I guess it holds some truth why you should perform cooling down, especially after an intense round of exercise.


Note: *I'm not sure if my facts are right...because one site says one thing and other site says another...and there's no telling who's right (cuz even Wiki cant fully be trusted these days...)

Padan Muka

Read on The Star today about a case of snatch theft brothers who died while attempting to escape.

They had smashed the window of a lady's Mercedes Benz to snatch her handbag from the front seat...and while they were trying to get away from the victim who were pursuing them...they crashed into a taxi. Both of them died.

There's not a single bit of pity in me for them...they deserved it. With criminals so rampant these days and our law enforcers unable to deal with them....this is practically 'a gift from God'...1(in this case..2!) less criminal for us to worry about.

Kudos to Junaili Abdul Hamid. You are indeed brave to continue pursuing your attackers even after the shock of being robbed. It may be out of rage...but majority of women out there would be too shocked or scared to do that.

I read quite sometime ago about another case of snatch theft...in Penang I think. The culprit was getting away on his motorbike when a taxi from opposite direction swerved in and crash into him in his bid to stop him, as he witnessed the incident. He did not die, but he was apprehended. There was another case where the public beat up the snatch thief. It's kinda nice to know that the public is doing their part in stopping these crimes. At least it feels a little bit more safer...even just a little.

To these criminals who got justice served to them by the public...one way or another...there's only 2 words for them... "Padan Muka"

All the talented ppl...

What's with celebrity mishaps lately? First it was Ida Nerina's (she starred in Sepet, Gubra, Talentime and was a cheerful participant in Amazing Race Asia last year) injury, which she fractured her spine in a fall.

Then it was MJ's death...

Then today QJ smsed me while I was in campus telling me Yasmin Ahmad's hospitalized.

Gosh...my favourite Malaysian director...hospitalized? And critical too...urk. The thought of possibly not being able to watch those nice, bitter sweet, nostalgic shows from her...makes me a lil sad. Lets just pray and hope that Allah will not take her away from us just yet! I'm really looking forward to Wasurenagusa (Forget Me Not).....

Yasmin Ahmad is always so bold in her presentation...teasing Malaysians for their silly racial issues in her movies. This ever so talented director also presented us with many heartwarming advertisements, especially those Petronas made for Merdeka day.

Lets all just hope she'll be okay :)

Sugar, spice, and everything nice!

So I was thinking of making some pancakes for some of my meals...since QJ wun be around and I'm too lazy to go out and eat alone (and I'm out of rice to cook any chinese meals and we just finished our last piece of ramli burger patty the other day)...and thought of having it with bananas...so I walked to pasar malam after class....bought my stuffs...then head home...practically made one whole HUGE round from CLC to Wednesday pasar malam, cross over to 'vegetarian shop' there...and then head back home....only to realise... /facepalm. I forgot to buy the bananas. Aih!

So its just gonna be pancakes with honey...or with scrambled egg...or plain :( ....or with apples! (no I dun think those pickled radishes will go well with pancakes :P ....awesome with porridge tho X3333


So I sliced 2 red apples and prepared them as I would have for my Apple Pie, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon and pinch of salt. We'll see how it turns out tmr! :D


p/s: Northern side punya chee cheung fun is the best! ....umm Teluk Intan ones are not bad too :D
pp/s: Egg tarts are DELISH!

Blackouts

Just as Benee has commented in Facebook that he felt nostalgic at times when he was small, blackouts would make the whole family light candles and sit around in the living room and talk nonsense...and I had to cheekily reply and ask him to go trip his circuit boards...

Then just as I was about to start a new post...the screen (and everything around it) went blank. Screamings were heard in nearby houses (one fella had to do his report to be passed up tmr nyahahaha)...blindly felt around for my HP for the some form of light source, then went into QJ's room to look for his torchlight (which he didn't know he had)...took me awhile to remember that I had a bunch of candles, perfect for the occasion. Lit up a bunch of my tea light and all 3 of us, me, QJ and Razz sat around in the living room and played Settlers. Thankfully it was one of those...cool nights so it didn't really bother us much...except the insects that were too happy for some light (so much that they kamikaze-d into the wax -,- )...finished the game...wandered around the house...ate an apple....then sat around and whine bout being unable to sleep...and FINALLY the lights came back on...ah thank goodness it didn't last whole night (worse till tmr >.< )...I hope it's only a 1 time thingy...the last time it happened, it was for 3 freakin days! ...or at least nights....was during Ramadhan summore so one of those nights we actually went McD with Amran around 1-2am and lepak there till 5am...ah those were the days....

Aih...it better not go blackout again tmr night....gonna be damn $^##$@ if it is..zzzz.... /charge up the emergency fluorocent lights!

Hmm...I had forgotten what I wanted to blog about initially...isk...ah watever la...nites peeps~

p/s: Yaaayyy...its raining its raining!

Ignorance is bliss~

"Ignorance is bliss" - if they don't there's a problem, the problem doesn't exist. If they choose to ignore the problem that is present...well...the problem simply disappears....until shit 'avalanches' in and buries them neck high.

Still...its amazing how 'blissful' some ppl can be...to totally block out their 'issue at present' and to continue lying to the world like nothing happened. I suppose it shouldn't matter to the world-us, either, even if we know about the truth, since it's their problem to begin with....that is unless this 'avalanche of shit' will seep in to our side too...hmmm...

Sigh I best get to bed now. Slept at 10pm hoping to shift my time back and be able to wake up at 6am with plenty of time to do my stuffs....only to wake up happily at 1am thinking that it was already 6am..kena tipu! >.<

Been chatting a whole hour plus with Eo (delightful chat about boys, friends, boyfriends, cute kids and most of all delish foods)...yes yes we shall have a cookout one day XD ...

Now I need sleep...maybe some Milo before that first XP...nites!


p/s: Mosquitoes and hot room, definately dun go well together
pp/s: I played/think bout Magic so much...I dream bout it... X.X isk!

Cinnamon Toast

What do you do when you suddenly crave Cinnamon Rolls, too lazy to walk out to buy (and prolly too broke to spend so much on cravings that would serve as dessert...tea...whatever)...and the thought of making Cinnamon Rolls yourself make you groan at the length of the ingredients required....

And what would you do with the leftover bread in the fridge when you dun have jam/kaya/eggs to go with it...out of burger meat to make burger....and not enuff ingredients to make Bread Pudding?

You toast them, butter them up, and sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon powder over it! :9 ...Delish!!! Should think it would be better with wholemeal bread or other non-plain bread but hey...if it helps me finish my bread before they go all moldy...why not?

1. Toast bread until golden brownish.

2. Spread butter over it

3. Sprinkle pre-mixed brown sugar+cinnamon powder (adjust the ratio to your liking) evenly

4. Eat immediately!

What I did was toast it awhile after I sprinkle the mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon powder but it will do fine either way. The bread crusts are the best!

Recipe taken from here!

Harry Potter (and the Half Blood Prince...wait what?)

(May contain spoiler. Steer clear should you not want to be spoiled)

Initially I wasn't interested to watch HP:HBP, until I saw the trailer to the 6th installment during our rewatching of Star Trek (which QJ got free cuz of his birthday in June thanks to GSC)...scenes we saw were heavily packed with rich CG that actually made me go "ooooo....OK now I wanna watch" ...'sides, it's been a while since I've seen something from the fantasy genre ;3

Went watch with Kel and his GF (yes that bastard has a GF and he didn't bother to tell his friends! boo!) and his bunch of friends...had no expectation...nor much memory of HBP cuz the last memory I had of reading that book was probably before I got together with QJ. I vaguely remember holding Dexter's copy of HBP inside Baswira riding back from town...scribbles in the potions book and debates over who exactly is this Half Blood Prince...

Overall...I thought the movie was decent. I thougth the filmakers did what they could do best with the material they were given...afterall all the book did (the parts I did remember anyway) was run in circles about who this Half Blood Prince was...

What the movie did was...remove this 'frustrating running around in circle' and put only minor emphasis on the Half Blood Prince...No Harry and his friends didn't really ponder much who this Half Blood Prince was...they never really suspected it might be Tom Riddler...they never really put too much thought to it until in the end the owner of the book just steps out to say "Oh yeah btw...I'M the Half Blood Prince" .....kinda makes me feel that the whole title of the movie's rather pointless since it does not seem to be the main focus of the movie....but in a way I suppose it makes it less dull....

Instead..the movie focused A LOT A LOT on Ron Weasly's love life...as well as Harry's....much more than I remembered anyway...actually make that every girl in Hogwarts. Hormones seem to be raging this year...*shudder*...very little on classroom life in Hogwarts, and all the side characters got minimal screen time. What was excellent was that all the casts have pretty much settled snugly into their characters like its their skin. Everyone's grown up so much, and their portrayal of their character is so much more 'in character'....even when Harry was supposed to be 'out of character' after drinking the Felix Felicis. Luna's as charming (in her own way) as always...the girl really knows how to play her character well...gotta love her. Dumbledore felt like Gandalf. McGonagall aged so much in the past 'academic year' of Hogwarts...that it felt like she was gonna double over anytime >.< ...Draco drank some 'manly potion'...shot up so much that you'd almost forget that he was that white haired whiney kid he used to be...but also made him lose whatever 'sleekness' he had in him previously...repetitive scenes of him 'pulling cloth from cupboard' got a bit meh after awhile....

Nitpicks aside...I had a good time :) It wasn't 'true blue' to the book...but I felt it was good.

...and some guy behind us actually said Transformers 2 was actually so much better than HBP.....well at least Harry Potter actually HAD a plot... =.=

Pancakes

Fancy having soft fluffy pancakes for breakfast but don't want to spend money on Pillsbury pre-mixes? Try this recipe :D

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons granulated white sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cup (240 ml) milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted + extra for greasing the pan

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and melted butter.

3. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, all at once, and stir or whisk just until combined.

**The batter should have some small lumps. Do not over mix the batter or the pancakes will be tough.

Serve with fruits, jams, chocolate, ice cream (ooooo!) for sweet version, or with fried sausages, burger, ham, egg etc for savoury version

Serving: 3-4 person, (I kept unfinished batter in the fridge...should be fine...I think :P )

Taken from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/Pancakes.html

The most popular page in volvoxx.blogspot.com

The most popular page in my blog...at least to those who are not regular visitors to my blog...especially hits from out of Malaysia....is THIS page.

=.=

Nevermind that its a screenshot of my PC, with the taskbar on it and my rainlender watermark on the upper right corner and the reso is 1024X768...they still hit that page like no one's business...too bad it can't be used as your wallpaper (lol!) ...yes I know that pic is very nice I took it myself at Genting back in 2006 yes I know thank you very much (nyek! Perasan...hahaha!)

So here's the pic...without my desktop stuffs...in 2 larger resolutions

1600X1200 | 1440X900 (Widescreen)

The weekend spree~

Well at least for my sisters :D ...I kinda 'puasa-ed' and managed to escape temptation and not buy a thing :P ...My eldest sis kena paling parah, eventho it was my 2nd sis who came all the way down to KL to shop...hahaha. I did want to get a new bag but the one i saw kena kritik by my 2nd sis...and I didn't have time to go Why Pay More to check out the stuffs there...the stuff at R Studio is either too bloody expensive for no reason...or looks like shit...or both. Ah next month next month.

These 'shopping marathon' trips usually happen twice/year...where 3 of us girls would go jalan till our kaki sakit then we go for coffee or snacks..then continue shopping until we totally just rebah. One of the more memorable trips was the one 2 years ago during raya break ...stuffed ourselves silly with my sister's bekalan pasar ramadan in her fridge :P This time..I think we walked more that we ate (thankfully)...(celaka bro actually ask us how much weight we gained this trip...luckily we all not only didn't gain weight but prolly lost some...muahahaha) ...

Bumped into Loo Mun and Shindee on Sunday at MV...chatted for quite a bit before I had to run off to join my sisters...some other time when more free (and when my wallet not so kering) can lagi go lepak at Starbucks or sumthing..

Forgot to pack my 'chang' from my sister's freezer (again) ...isk...memang takde jodoh to makan the damn thing asyik asyik forget.

So yeah. Short weekend which felt so much longer than it was...endless walkings and sore feets and bumping into old friends - simple weekend, but a sweet one. Best part was to have a warm companion for the journey back ;3

Chocolate Cake and Chicken Wellington

This post is *counts* 2 months late...hahahaha...

Made these to celebrate 3 years of QJ and I being together.

Khurshid, if you're hungry, now's a good time to close the browser and go eat something first... XP

The stupidity of our public transportation system

One of the things I hate most about our nation....is the level of inefficiency of our public transportation system...

Imagine...to get from my place to Melaka Sentral it takes almost an hour (if I stupidly ride from the other side of the road where the bus will take me throught one huge round around MITC and back to Bukit Beruang area)....and most of the busses are old and feels as if they're about to fall apart any given time. And they cost RM1.90 for the (barely) air-conditioned busses to get from MMU to Sentral...and if you're unlucky...you'll be stuck for a few hours cuz the damned bus broke down in the middle of the road (happened to me once just the other day...thank goodness William was there to save me :P )

After that...it's 2 1/2 hours ride to KL.

And then there's the 1/2 hour traffic jam to get from Sg. Besi tol to Pudu.

And the 10-15 mins walk to Pasar Seni LRT.

And 25 minutes train ride to my sister's place in Taman Bahagia

And then on one unfortunate day, the 1 hour wait for RapidKL bus from Taman Bahagia to my sister's to come...and the guy at the front of the queue had been waiting 1/2 and hour before I got there.

That's about 5 hours just to get from my house to my sister's...about the same time it takes for me to get from SP-KL


This is prolly one of those 'worst case scenario' days but still...for it to happen....geh. If I had driven, it'd only take me more or less than 2 hours for the same trip, but of course, I'd probably be taking shorter routes...

Still...the stupidness doesn't just stop on the road.

Puduraya is one hell of a hell-hole. Smack in the middle of town...the place often suffers traffic congestion. And one would think that since it's in the middle of town, and Pudu being the 'terminal' for people from all around Malaysia...or rather...a 'transit point'...to have accessibility to our railway services...but noooo....the nearest one is BEHIND Puduraya, at Plaza Rakyat...a godforsaken building which has been an abandoned project since god knows when. Awesome planning ain't it? That you rather have the line joining some stupid abandoned building rather than just on top/beside Pudu. I know it's not too far from Pudu but that's not the point. Since our beloved railway system is almost always unreliable...during one of these times where you have delays or breakdowns and it causes you to have to run for your life to 'chase your bus', that 'little' distance matters.

OK fine...if you insist on saying "But it's still connectable to a rail-line...rite?" ....for one, I dun use the 'STAR' line...more often than not I'll be using the 'Putra' line so I'll have to run 10 mins from Pasar Seni to Pudu anyway. So lets look at some other smartass planning....

Monorail Station at KL Sentral. The station's name is KL Sentral...but to get there, I have to cross the road, then go along a pavement...get up the escalator...THEN only I'm at the KL Sentral building. I mean...it's prolly only another 100-200m worth of rail to connect the damn monorail to the building itself so why is it not done? Cuz it feels freakin damn stupid that KL Sentral that's supposed to be the central point..connection...watever...is not actually connecting all the possible lines when all that needs to be done is another 200m worth of rail....seriously.

Another example...I curse the planners everytime my train stops at Abdullah Hukum station....cuz it freaking overlooks Mid Valley and EVERY FREAKIN TIME my train stops at this station....no one ever boards from, or gets off this station! Okay maybe there are people who use this station early in the morning but I'd say if you just bloody connect this to Mid Valley...SO MANY MORE PPL could use this public service rite? So everytime I wanna go Mid Valley...I have to first get off at KL Sentral...then wait for ages for KTM train to come and THEN only get to Mid Valley. And KTM train is one awful line that at any chance they get...refuse to follow their schedule. Imagine last week during Nats when QJ and I left Mid Valley an hour before our bus, confident that it's plenty of time to relax and slowly get to our busses....the damn service got delayed for half an hour...and as a result we had to run everytime we got off the damn train, and ran all the way from Pasar Seni to Pudu and arriving 5-10 minutes before our bus is scheduled to depart...ONLY to see that our damned bus TOO was late. GEE! So yea...if Putra line was directly connected to Mid Valley...we wouldnt have had to rely on the 'oh so reliable' KTM...

A few days in Singapore is enought to make me curse our transportation system kao kao...Their rail line is so clearly marked and so very awsomely conveniently I'm just....lost for words... <3! style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">
Ah...forgive the....incoherentness of this post...as well as any spelling errors or trouble understanding what I'm trying to convey...cuz it's 5am....and my head's slightly blur (but I can't bloody sleep) and I've been wanting to blog about this for ages....so I just wanted to get it out. Perhaps one day I'll construct it better =.=

On another note, I am and always will be proud of Melaka Sentral's bus station....it's so organized and air-conditioned (tho it's not so cold anymore these days) and stocked with McD and A&W etc etc...but shame that the floor bloody cracks left right and centre (it's actually quite scary...)

Sunset@Klebang

Last Wednesday, my Moral group of very nice juniors went Klebang to film our presentation drama. Only 2 actress were involved but the whole bunch of us went just for the heck of it...crazy us :P

Anyways, we were supposed to meet up at 6, but delays here and there, we set off to Klebang only around 6.20pm. We were supposed to film a sunset scene so it was one hell of a race against time to get there before the sun sets. Dah la the road there damn gila tak pasal and traffic was blek as it was after office hour...never mind all that...we got there in the nick of time and manage to get our videos shot.

After wrapping up the 'official' work...I took my camera back and played around with my first (I think) 'sunset at the beach' shot. Could have had better shots if it was earlier but....will have to make do with what's left XP

Mah groupmates





One of my favourite shots :D








Another one of my fav shots...almost the same la :P











My groupmates :D

Homemade 'Katsudon'

I didn't have MOST of the ingredients of a proper katsudon...but I cincai cincai agak agak made what resembled a Katsudon...with breaded chicken patty, and sauce made out of....chicken stock, dark soya sauce, maltose, sugar with egg, capsicum and onions. Results: tasty but a bit too....watery... :P ...not as bad as I thought it would be...and the chicken actually tasted really good, despite the little marinate it had.

Piccies piccies...

Nationals - the aftermath

Overall, I enjoyed myself there...but some assholes...I tell you....isk. Really makes me think if that's the reason girls dun like playing at such competitive level.

As expected, I was the only girl playing that day. There was another girl who qualified I think...but didn't take part. Hmmm...

I played 6 rounds in day 1, 1 round I got off bye (meaning there's no opponent cuz odd number bla so basically...I get to lepak while others are playing)...and practically crashed thru all of them...HAHA! ALMOST!! (but no I'm not dead last...wakakaka)... Blame me lazy not wanting to play a more efficient decks and insufficient practice at timed drafts. I felt the first 3 games of constructed, I've played the best I could but yeah....lack of practice...but yeah.

Enough gibberish that most readers here wouldn't understand.

What ticks me off is how this ass reacts to a mistake I made (my bad, but judges came and sorted it all out and I was given a warning...so fine!) and made a huge deal out of it, accusing me of qualifying for Nationals illegally...saying that QJ somehow cheated me in etc...to the point he went to confront QJ about this whole thing. Reason why he's so worked up? Because I'm the 75th person to qualify (last on the particular category to qualify) and his friend is #76 and he didn't qualify. Well...I'm sorry but don't push other's failures to blame ppl's success! Too bad la! The playgroup in Melaka is small so its no surprise that I can do better than the newer players here! Also...WHY BLAME ME ALONE? What bout those who've easily qualified higher on the list and chose not to play? That one lagi waste of space rite??? If I had qualified illegally, I don't think I'll dare show my face to play in Nats, you dumbass...what more with so little practice I had. Also...I'm not used playing in such a competitive level where some players (like you) are all dead shitty serious, no chats, and 'bitchy pissy faced' like someone stepped on your tail this morning...your attitude during gameplay with me...was like I owed you money and refuse to give it back. Gee...IT'S A GAME...we're supposed to be enjoying ourselves, eventho money is at stake.

You accuse me of cheating my way in because of my bad plays. Let me ask you this: IF I was a GUY...and IF I had played JUST as badly...or even worse...WOULD YOU HAVE QUESTIONED MY ELIGIBILITY OF QUALIFICATION??? No rite? You'll just brush me off as another lousy player yay too bad for you tehee lucky me.....it wouldn't even tick you off that I was number 75 to qualify and that your friend can't qualify...nevermind that it's only your friend's fault to not have qualified. GENDER DISCRIMINATION arse. And you 'pros' wonder why your girlfriends (I doubt you have one tho) all duwan play Magic...or refuse to play at this competitive level...If I see lansi ppl like dat all the time I oso duwan play la.

Thank God there's only 1 of you. At least I'm LUCKY to have ONLY met one of your kind.

Out of 6 games I played, 5 of them were really nice ppl. Especially my first few opponants, Peter and Ian. I really enjoyed playing with you guys :D (Peter asked me how I did thruout the day...which was really nice of him)...

QJ of course, fared much better than I did...hehe...9th out of 84 players in Malaysian Nationals 2009, you really made me proud. Its not Top 8, but its still an improvement from last year...and of course having people actually recognizing your work at MagicMalaysia.net, makes me even prouder and happier (eventho you dun really see it as much as I do :P)

Congratulations to Joe Soh on grabbing the top spot...you played really really well.

What did I get out of Nats? A very nice T-Shirt and bunch of random cards (most which I threw to Jia Yung cuz his friend wanted it :P )

Shud I try to qualify next year... /shrug...We'll see :P

Magic and Me

3 years ago when I first started going out with QJ...my policy/stand of Magic is...."Sayang you play your game, and I'll do my...watever"...I don't mind him playing...but don't put much hope in me playing it much. I'll help him sort out the cards (berbukit bukit of them)...I'll go watch him play...but I won't play. It took him awhile to convince me to play a little...then I started drafting a little...usually as replacement player or the 8th player to complete the 'pod'....

Then I started having interest in the cards, spells and mechanics...the planeswalkers...the story.

Then I started drafting better (only slightly :P ) ...

And this weekend I'm playing in the Magic: The Gathering Malaysia National Championship with QJ and a few of his friends...

...and prolly be the only girl there playing

/facepalm...now I'm nervous >.<

WISH HIM LUCK!!! (and wish me luck not to end up last! XD )

Lemon herb chicken sandwich with grilled veges

Bought quite a bit of fresh veges from Jusco the other day...and since we were running low on rice, we decided to go on some sandwich meals.

Whipped up this dish based on the lemon basil chicken my sister made for me during ITP last year...modified here and there based on what I'd think would be delish...and turned out it was :P ..would have been better if I had baguette or maybe even croissant...

Here's the rough recipe of it. No picture cuz we were too hungry.

Lemon and Herb Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Vegetables

Bread

The meaties

1 chicken keel, sliced

1/2 lemon juice and rind

herbs (I used dried basil and thyme)

salt and black pepper

1 small yellow onion, chopped finely

3 cloves garlic, crushed and pre-grilled with the veges (optional)

The veges, sliced thinly

1/2 green capsicum

1 tomato

1/2 brinjal

butter

herbs (used dried italian herbs)

black pepper

1. Marinade chicken with all the 'meaties' ingredient except garlic and onion.

2. Grill/bake the veges for about 20 mins. You may like to grill the crushed garlic too before using them for the meaty part.

3. Fry pre-grilled garlic and chopped onions with oil/butter until soft. Add in chicken and fry until onion gets brown-ish and sticks to the pan. Add a bit of water to caramelize the onion. Remove from pan

4. Toast/grill bread (with garlic butter if you like). Assemble sandwich.

p/s: I managed to get QJ to eat brinjals! Yey!!