Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Graphic novels anyone?

I have a confession. If I see anything with the name Neil Gaiman on it, I tend to buy that stuff without a second thought.

My latest purchase? Neverwhere and Marvel 1602. Both of them are graphic novels and wonderful graphic novels at that! Neverwhere allowed me to re-visit one of my favourite books of all time, in its illustrated glory. If I thought Neverwhere was good, Marvel 1602 blew my mind away. The story and art is simply stupendous! Brilliant! I think it fully deserves winning the 2005 Quill Book Award for Graphic Novels.

Ahh...wonderful stories and wonderful art. I'm happy! :D

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

6 weird things about me

A friend of mine tagged me to write 6 weird things about me. If you're curious, his blog posting's at http://championloser.blogs.friendster.com/loser_club_president/2007/05/6_weird_things_.html

I can't think really think of any weird things about myself. I'm probably weird in some ways but I just don't know it. As such this list is going to be a list of things about me not many people know. Hopefully that's good enough for you, Zaki!

  1. In my profile, I put one of my interests as "books". That may be a slight understatement. I'm an avid reader and I literally devour books. For those who've visited me at my place, one of their first comments are "Wow, you have a lot of books..."
  2. I play the guitar. To be honest though, I was never really that interested in music when I was younger. I did take organ lessons when I was much younger but I got bored with it. I wanted to play songs that I heard on radio and my tutor was telling me stuff about a bunch of black dots. Suffice to say that my motivation level to practice organ wasn't very high at that stage. Anyway, when I was Form 2 or Form 3, I took up playing guitar. I was very much in love (hey, we all went through those puppy love stages so cut my some slack) with this girl and wanted to impress her. She had such a beautiful voice. She could sing The Cranberries very well. I decided to take up guitar playing. My first song on the guitar? Zombie. ;)
  3. I almost got into a fight in a bar. I was chillin' around Q-Bar quite some time ago when I saw this girl sitting kinda alone at the bar. She was talking with some guys but it didn't look like she was with any of them. She had a sad, wistful smile that sorta tugged the heart strings. Ok, so I have a White Knight complex. Don't worry though, I'm looking for therapy right now. Know anyone good? Anyway, I approached her, we started talking and laughing when suddenly this guy came outta nowhere and started pushing me. I was getting a bit pissed. I'm not a violent person but the temptation to push the fella back was quite strong. He kept saying "What the fuck are you doing? She's my girlfriend!". As for the chick, she was getting a bit hysterical. I swear they did not look like they're a couple. They're not holding hands. They're not touching each other. For god's sake, about the only thing they did was share a cigarette. C'mon, I've done that before with some of my girl friends. That doesn't mean I'm in a relationship with them! Oh yeah, cigarettes. Maybe that's item 4. Heh! Anyway, I decided it wasn't worth it. Well, actually some stranger nearby persuaded me not to. That stranger's words? Something along the lines off "C'mon bro, it's not worth it la. Relax la. Chill!". So I walked away. I gotta admit it was a bit fun glowering at the so called boyfriend while the fella was pushing me. He's shorter than me so I was looking down at him when I was glowering. Sometimes being moderately tall is useful. God...I can be so petty sometimes...
  4. I used to smoke. Not anymore though but there's nothing really stopping me from smoking again. I even bought a bunch of cigars from Langkawi which I plan to smoke sometime in the future. Haven't found anything to celebrate yet though so the cigar pack stays unopened. Oh, the main reason I stopped smoking? It gave me a funny feeling at the back of my throat and messed up with my sense of taste. I like food WAY more than I like cigarettes. Heck, I could barely tolerate smoking. Don't really understand why people would wanna smoke...
  5. I drink booze. Yes I know it's haram. Yes I know I'm going to go to hell. My reasons for drinking is personal and pretty much none of your business. Of course, I'd also like to point out that I fast, I hardly ever miss Friday prayers, I pay my zakat and I'm completely and utterly faithful to the concept that only Allah is my God and Muhammad is my prophet. I know, I'm a blooming hypocrite. I prefer to refer myself as a wonderful mess of contradictions though. :D
  6. I've dated many women, all of them wonderful people. Among the memories I have, some of the best includes ice-skating, eating some weird dessert in the middle of the night somewhere in KL and pizza session in Taman Tun. Of all the women I've dated, I've confessed my feelings to only one person. Shocking, eh? I know, it's the new millennium. I should be expressing my love to everyone. Don't worry, I'm also looking for therapy options on this one.

There you have it. 6 things about me that not many people know.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Hands Down

Wonderful song by Dashboard Confessional.

"Breathe in for luck
Breathe in so deep
The air is blessed
You share with me..."

Monday, June 25, 2007

Let the dice roll...

Savour every moment
of light-hearted laughs.
Savour every moment
of shy gentle smiles.

Let not one moment pass
without fondness in the heart.
Let not one moment pass
without cherishing her soul.

Look for the space
between the heartbeats.
For glimpse of clarity,
purity and nobility.

Let the dice roll
while serenity sets in.
Forever savouring,
cherishing, loving...

Monday, June 4, 2007

Mustafa got married!!

Congratz to Mustafa and Leila! Here's to the two of you getting kids soon (which I hope will look more like Leila since you're an ugly bastard, Mus!).

When we received the wedding invites, we initially planned to take the bus to Singapore for the wedding. After some more discussions though, we decided to go there in 2 cars.

In my car will be me, Shah, Anand and Sulo while in Jeremy's car will be Jeremy and Sangheeta. While we planned to leave at around 2.30 pm, we ended up leaving KL at around 3.30 pm due to someone's amazing grasp of Einstein's theory about time being relative (*cough*Anand*cough*).

It was a nice leisurely drive down to Singapore, which took us about 5 hours or so. Ok, I lied. It wasn't nice and leisurely. The highway was a bit jammed and since I just got my car, I wanted to put it through it's paces. I *may* have driven a little bit faster than normal. Heh heh!

(The car handles exceedingly well at speeds up to 170 kmph. Couldn't really go faster due to the amount of vehicles on the road. Excellent handling and mileage is about the same as my old car.)

Reached Johor Bahru at about 8.30 pm. Jeremy's friend apparently booked us at some hotel but we couldn't bloody find it. In the end, we stayed at this rather dodgy-looking hotel. Later on, we discovered that the place we're staying was actually a brothel!! On the bright side, the room rates were quite cheap. They probably make their profit somewhere else. Hahahahaha!

Still, the beds were decent and the place had an in-compound car park so all in all, the hotel was perfect for our needs (no not *that* needs! sheesh!). Despite our hotel being perfect, Sulo decided to abandon us and stay with her relatives. I mean why would anyone want to sleep anywhere else? Within the same hotel compound is a pub and a 'health' spa! Talk about the perfect holiday getaway. Hehehehehe!

Woke up about 10.30 am the next day because Shah and Anand were basically jumping on me. Guys, don't disturb my sleep! Oh, and keep the damn TV volume down. I woke up to the sounds of a damn infomercial about a magic bullet and the feeling of being crushed by 2 heavy suckers...

Later in the afternoon, Suthesan arrived at the hotel since he'll be following us to Singapore. Macha, my turn is right after yours! Hahahaha!

We left for Singapore at about 4 pm and arrived at Mustafa's wedding venue at around 6.30 pm. It took longer than expected since we took the scenic route (we go lost...).

Mustafa and Leila's wedding had REALLY good food! I really liked the mutton. Damn...I'm thinking about it right now...Anyway, sadly the food was not quite enough for us. While the girls were maintaining decorum, the guys were definitely pigging out. The dishes finished a bit too fast for our liking. Next time round, we plan to spread ourselves around the hall, sitting on different tables. We have 6 men with huge appetites on our table while other tables were generally filled with women eating barely a plate of rice! We're not being greedy. We just don't like to see good food being wasted since other people don't eat as much. We're such thoughtful people.

Mustafa's younger brother, Hamoodi was also eating with us. We all wished it was Mustafa's younger sister, Zena who joined us instead of Hamoodi. Hamoodi eats a lot, leaving less food for all of us to share. That's the only reason why we prefer Zena instead of Hamoodi to join us. I'm serious!

We left Singapore at around 11.30 pm and reached KL around 3.30 am. It was a relatively uneventful drive. I had to stop by for a bit to power-nap since I was too tired but other that, it was uneventful except for one incident. Some idiot driving a VIOS fell asleep on the wheel I think. The car he's driving started drifting into my lane while I'm overtaking him. Arse. Remember, if you can't drive, don't! You'll endanger other people's lives. Not just your own.

With the trip to Singapore, my car has now reached 1000km. Woohoo! First service!

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Greetings!

Dear Honda Civic 2.0,

Hey beautiful! Welcome to my life. I'm sure we'll have an excellent time together. :)


Regards,
Amir