Behind Islands and Not Caring For A While

So I was gone to Redang for 3 days. Twas a class trip. I decided unwind myself and just not care for a while.

Big mistake.

Boy, was it eventful.

Even before I left the mainland, memories happened.

I actually missed the goddamned flight to KTerengganu. I couldn't really blame anyone but myself for being such a blurhead and not noticing the difference between a Subang Airport and the LCCT.

I guess I deserved the following 7 hours only with myself as company. And I'm telling you, myself is a total bastard. The poison myself said cannot be reproduced here in this blog. All I can say is that I arrived to the Redang Reef Resort in a super foul mood, and did an unspeakable thing. After that, they say they were fine with it, but I wasn't fine with it, so fine me then.

And that's one.

SO the whole thing blew over quite well. And we went snorkeling, which is what you normally do at an isand like Redang. And I decided to go shirtless, since it was cloudy out. Only a Gaussian Blurred Sun can be seen in the sky, and I did have my sunblock, so I thought, I've cared enough, let's go under the sun!!!

And that's two.

I could swear that my shoulders were GLOWING RED the whole next day. It hurt when I put my hands up, put my put my hands up! (Standard party song line. Slightly related:

I love mashups.)

Always apply liberal amounts of sunblock at extremely short time intervals, especially during summer time, regardless of how cloudy the sky is. I JUST WANNA FEEL better shoulders.

And the rest of the trip went pretty dandy, with cards and drinks and food (repetitively and in no particular order). I really enjoyed myself there. Perhaps I'll mention this in another post. Because this post is a self-depreciating post about the downsides of not caring.

Thus, I will skip to the end of the trip to the airport before we leave. I went and paid Nicky RM 119 for the flight ticket ( reminds me, haven't gotten my 1119 cert yet. Hmm. ) And guess how much money I have in my wallet. Go on, take a wild guess.

RM 30. Frikking RM 30. From supposedly RM 400 I've withdrawn a week ago + RM 100 I got from my dad at the airport before I left.

I counted and I counted and I only calculated that I spent RM 350 at most.

Not exactly the correct meme to use here,
but with all this careless spending...
You get my point

Where did that money go?

How much did I actually spend there?

How much did I actually bring there?

And now I have a heart burn in addition to my skin burn, and awaiting a further word burn by my parents.

And that's three.

I just reckoned I'll be fine if I had enough in my wallet, ie I still had that purple 100 ringgit note.

 That's more like it.

And I ended up not caring at all.

Not about the feelings about my friends, not about my health, not about my finances.

This keeps up, I can't survive studying alone overseas. Definitely. I have to learn to care, even about the small things.

Cause small things say a lot about yourself.

And I think I've said enough about myself today.

Cya.

PS Those guys could really drink!!

PPS I really had fun there, despite all that. Really I did. I'm gonna miss them.

Behind Work Lag

lag       : Fall behind in movement, progress, or development; not keep pace with another or others.

jet lag  : Extreme tiredness and other physical effects felt by a person after a long flight across several time                     zones.

work lag : Fall behind in the progress of a project by various factors such that postponement becomes                                 inevitable and deadlines cannot be followed.

I hate work lag. That's my own term by the way.

I mean, good grief. I'm working on this yearbook for three months now? I ask for pictures, and I get no reply, or a reply that goes along the line of "I dunno, maybe you can ask so-and-so for pictures..."

I need results. This yearbook is for you. How do I do graphic design on the book if I don't get pictures?

But that is just me ranting. Back to work lag. Work does't get finished because of work lag. Work lag occurs because:

1) Problem Upstream

Which is the problem I'm having now. As an article graphic designer, I cannot do my work without the article (of course) and the pictures to furnish it with. I've been sending messages, calling, and patiently waiting, and yet most of my pictures come from the Head Ed herself, who of course is rushing all of us for the deadline. Meanwhile, other sources remain elusive, ie simply do not reply my messages. 

Shows the difference between efficiency of the team and individual efficiency, eh? 

2) Malaysian Timing

Malaysians are never on time is the sad truth. The first guy is late by a day, the second guy is late by another day, and so on and so forth, until there is a backlog of work lag. Enough said.

3) Procrastination

Very common. Finding pictures is a kind of work. There are many more things funner than work/There is another work more important than this. Therefore, the insignificant task of finding your pictures can be done tomorrow, provided no other pressing matters pop-up by then.

4) General Blurness

Example:

What, I'm supposed to find you pictures? No one told me that?

OR

Huhuhu, deadline's yesterday? Totally forgot, sorry.

OR

Sorry, I don't know, maybe you can ask so-and-so for pictures...


Sometimes I fear I may be guilty of the 4th one. But even so, I wouldn't know, due to general blurness.

I just wanna get it over with.

Time to work. Cya.

Behind Longest Camp Ever Part 2

Did the SAC/BTN camp change me at all? If it did, I probably won't notice.

It's like the age old wisdom where the only way to tell that you have not been brainwashed is the knowledge that you are being brainwashed.

To tell you the truth, that sounded like hogwash to me.

Only slightly related:

But then again, any washing in the camp seemed to focus primarily on our cups, plates and cutlery. (Had to restrain myself from playing the cup song there and then. Always stuck in my brain, for some reason.)

With six meals a day, that's a looooooooooooot of stuff to wash.

I guess the whole point of the food thing is that they spend you out really fast with some camp activities like Spider Web or Marching or A Trip To The Nearby Dam or Fishing A Bottle With A Nail or Coming Up With A Group Slogan or Building A Raft or even Watch A Movie. (Hati Melayu 1957. Not a bad movie, if you ignore the lack of flow and shaky dialogue. Informative? Definitely)

And THEN they give you a recharge (main ingredient: sugar) every four hours.

I thought that's how phone batteries die out fast. But I digress.

That's a dam nice view from the top and bottom of the damn.

Did not bring my camera. Had to steal from someone's
else's blog. Credit link in picture.

What makes this camp different from other camps, other that its insane length, is its insane amount patriotic songs and reference to governmental programs. Not in a bad way, of course. Most of the songs sound good and are REALLY sticky, esp Sudirman's. And it's good to know about what's actually happening in our country before going out so that you actually can talk about Malaysia with your overseas mates without sounding like you live under a rock/up a tree, as the common joke goes.

But how much of it is actually necessary?

I really hope I don't have to explain that Msia is between Singapore and Thailand.

Ah well. Something learnt, horizon broadened, blah blah blah. Maybe it might come in useful, who knows?

Okay, that's it for today. Cya.

But... will there be a part 3?

Behind Longest Camp Ever

Right now there is a firework display outside my house (even better than the ones during Chinese New Year).

There is also a Coldplay concert playing in the background, currently Fix You.

Or as Tweets go, #np

Life now is good.

Certainly much more relaxing than an 8-Day camp in Ulu Sepri, N9. 8 days?!, I hear some of you say. What kind of camp goes on for 8 DAYS?!!?!?

Well, this one does. And let me remind you that National Service goes on for 3 months straight. 8 days is nothing.

Well, what is this camp for, exactly? It's actually a pre-requisite for JPA scholars (aka scholarship from the government) before we can go abroad, in addition to having good results and an unconditional offer to a uni in their lists. (I can write a whole rant about that last part, but I'm in a good mood now. Don't spoil it.)

Well, since I have nothing to do with my time anyway....

And it's actually a decent camp. I had fun. Met a lot of fun people. Learnt things old and new.

Actually, I think I had fun because of expectations. I mean, you hear stories about govt camps having horrible facilities and lots and lots of brainwashing. Not to mention six meals a day, but I'm not complaining about that. Food is food.

And I am pleasantly surprised to find that in the face of these rumors, my batch remained sporting and made this a very memorable experience for all of us.

Details in the next post.

Cya.