Rather Be a Climbing Ape than a Falling Angel

I am listening to ABBA, which means that I am now only a few grey hairs away form becoming my mother. I couldn't be any more serious if I tried.

But I'll save the ranting for another day when I'm out of things to say and want to waste time.

Instead, I'm just going to babble on mindlessly and dump some links before wishing everyone a Happy New Year and going off to celebrate with my family.

The first time I was exposed to ABBA was when I was rooting around my mother's collection of tapes (yes, tapes. Cassettes. One step away from 8-tracks or vinyl or whatever the hell people listened to before the birth of the iPod).

Needless to say, I was hooked. However, years passed, disco died, and I moved on to other genres. It was only when I saw Mamma Mia! that my love for the band was revived, which led me to downloading some of their music today. Currently, I have this song as my pick-me-up when I have to drag my ass out of bed in the wee hours of the morn':



It was later covered in the movie by Christine Baranski, who completely owned that song and made it her own.
Does Your mother Know - Movie Version

Ah hell, have some more music:
Voulez Vous
Super Trooper
Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie!

But enough of the past. Tonight is New Year's Eve (once again, So Very Important), and it's time to look to the future.
My resolutions:

1. Lose weight
2. Cut down on smoking (no, I am not going to quit just yet)

...That's about it, actually. Stop laughing, I can so do it.

In other news, Terry Pratchett has been made a knight. This just makes me insanely happy *insert big cheesy grin here*

I didn't go to university. Didn't even finish A-levels. But I have sympathy for those who did.

- Terry Pratchett

Happy New Year, folks.

Merry Christmas!

Seeing as how it's Christmas Eve, I thought I'd make a holiday-themed post =)

First off, the Christmas goodies:



Songs!
12 Days of Christmas - Reliant K
Santa Baby - Kyle Minogue
Happy Christmas (War is Over) - John Lennon
What's This (Nightmare Before Christmas Cover) - Fall Out Boy
Last Christmas - Cascada
Fairy Tale of New York - The Pogues
Carol of the Bells - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Other links of interest:
Top 10 Bizarre Christmas Traditions
A Visit from St. Nicholas
Top 10 Unconventional Christmas Movies
Christmas Jokes

I was so poor growing up, if I hadn’t been a boy I’d have had nothing to play with on Christmas Day. -Rodney Dangerfield



Of course, it's not Christmas without a visit from Santa!

Good Morning, starshine.

It is 8am here. I have just returned from the Dawn Mass (it actually does, in fact, warrant the Capital Letters, it is That Special). I was cheated: after dragging my ass out of bed at whore o'clock in the morning, it was still dark when we had finished. Seriously, WTF?

The same thing happened last year, and I refused to leave until the sun rose. Despite the cold, it was fun: we kept on miss-calling Sharbil because he had the nerve to stay home and sleep instead of joining us in our torture.

The internet made up for my lack of sleep when I logged onto Twitter and saw the following:

hey hurley, what are you doing later? we should play ping pong. love mix.

So cute. Twitter is teh sex, y'all. Get an account, and we can Twitter together ^_^

Today is Christmas Eve. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. My gifts to everyone will be posted later on today ;)

Quote of the day:

I tried making a swear jar. But I would be in debt so much money if I did.
I tried once.
I currently owe myself $403.00
I am kidding.
I owe more.

-Astrid Sloane

Lost in Transit

Currently, I am in the Abu Dhabi International Airport waiting for my connecting flight to Muscat. For some reason, I can’t connect to the internet, so I’m typing this out on Word so I can post this later on. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I issued a challenge to everyone to spam my Facebook page. Astrid Swift saw it first, and the last I heard of her, she had already reached over 100 messages in my wall. That means I’ll have to sift through at least three times that amount once I get home. Oh dear…

The best thing about airports is that it provides ample opportunity for people-watching. As I am typing this, an old English man is sitting across from me reading a book. His face is red, and every now and then he looks up from the pages and seems to stare into space. On the other end of the row is a younger Asian lady. She’s reading a magazine, her face resting on her hand. Every now and then she rakes a hand through her hair, as though thinking about what she had just read. Her lips are pursed, and her brow occasionally furrows. I feel so tempted to ask her what she’s reading, but she seems so engrossed that I hate to break her concentration. She now seems to be glancing at my feet with what seems to be a look of disapproval, which might not be a good thing for me and my choice of footwear.

Well, I’m off to have a smoke in the Smoking Room (aka, Oh-dear-God-I-am-going-to-get-cancer-just-by-breathing Room). Maybe I’ll find something else with which to while my time away. I think I might get some over-priced coffee…

(Later)

Well, here I am in Costa, having a shitty-tasting Mocha Frescato. It’s strangely quiet here, and my flight is just beginning to board. It doesn’t leave for another 45 minutes, though, so I’ve got a little time left to kill. There’s another woman sitting across the hall from me, also alone. She looks a little sad and lonely, her eyes casting about for a familiar or friendly face.

Why am I making these pointless observations? It’s because I was stupid enough not to bring a book with me. It’s a first, actually.

The Challenge

All right, here's the deal.

By the time you read this, I will be on my way to the airport for 12 non-stop hours of Economy Class and all its quirks. I know that while I'm airborne, I'm going to be leaving behind some very, very bored individuals (I am so tempted to name them, but will restrain myself from doing so under the guise of protection).

So here is my challenge:
While I am gone, I want you all to spam my Facebook page

That's right, you heard (er, read) me. While I'm gone, I want you all to post on my wall, comment on my pictures or notes, poke me. Hell, even send me those stupid invites to applications! Do your worst! To make it easy, I won't even log on to Facebook while I'm in transit, only once I've gotten some sleep and a decent internet connection. That'll give you, what, 24 hours?

Bring it on, do your worst. Bet you losers won't be able to make it to 300 notifications...

Seriously

So. Fucking. Cute.
Go see more at BluBoy
I'm gonna have to thank Astrid Swift for indirectly pointing this out =P

In other news, I'm leaving in a few hours. I still haven't finished packing. Heh.

Edit: I just saw this at the bottom of my page, and had to printscreen it for great justice:

Honestly fanthings, how can you take a character like that seriously?
Here's a video I found that pretty much reflects how I felt when I saw the movie. Minus the beard, of course.

On my way home

In Subang Jaya right now. It's good to be back in my old bedroom.

About Law School (aka, the Thirteenth Circle of Hell)

So.

I study Law. That should give you an indication of why I don't update as often as I want to. That and the fact that I am unbelievably lazy, but I digress.
In a nutshell, I don't really regret my choice to study Law, but sometimes the workload is so overwhelming I don't have much energy left for anything but curling up into a fetal position and crying myself to sleep.

Just kidding. I don't have the time to cry, I just pass out the minute I hit the bed (which, incidentally, is quite comfortable once you get over the hard-as-a-rock thing it has going on).

But hey, look at me blogging away into the wee hours of the night!
Before I go to sleep, here's something I found that made me laugh at how ridiculous my field of study can be seen:

"Contracts aren't masturbation; two people are required for a valid contract."
Contracts Prof
From Overheard in Law School.

Right, new resolution

I, Michelle B., promise to update my blog more often with more interesting things to say.

STOP LAUGHING. IT'S NOT FUNNY.
...


NO SERIOUSLY.

*insert witty title here*

Heh. So much for me updating this thing regularly.

I guess I could make up a million excuses as to why I haven't blogged (OMG, it's been recognised in spellcheck as a real word. What is the world coming to?), but here's the main one: I'm fucking lazy.

Hopefully I'll be able to do more in the future, especially since a ton of my classmates have their own blogs , so I'll be under pressure to make mine somewhat cool. Somewhat.

Oh yeah, on a side note, my lecturer, Mr. Bo Feng, is on the lurk kepoh-ing our blogs. Sir, with all due respect, IT'S NOT FUNNY ANYMORE!

Well, today's the funeral. And it's raining. Heavily. Why am I not surprised?

Well, it's the second day since my grandmother passed away. To be honest, I think I'm still in shock, but the sun's still shining, people are still going about their lives, and everything looks the way it should be.

I guess it might be the fact that I had already made my peace with my grandmother's illness, or maybe the distance helped soften the blow a little so I don't feel as... devastated, I guess at her passing.

I just got off the phone with my mom. She's coming down to KL on the 4th to attend the memorial service for her mother (my other grandmother. See what I mean when I spoke about an extended mourning period?) and leaving on the 22nd.

In other news, I've changed the layout of my blog. Whaddya think?

My grandmother passed away. I just got the call a few hours ago, and it turns out she might have passed away sometime during the night. My family only found out this morning, I just found out earlier this afternoon.

I'm still in shock, and very emotionally confused. On one hand, I'm happy that her suffering is finally over. On the other hand -- She's gone. And I didn't have a chance to say goodbye. I don't even have a chance to attend the funeral, even though I want to with every fiber of my being (it's funny how cliched that phrase is until you actually experience it. Wanting something with every single fiber of your being, until it's pretty much all you can think of, really)

Right now I'm trying to continue like nothing's happened. After all, I usually don't bounce around like a hyperactive chipmunk. I'm pretty sedate most of the time, so I shouldn't look too different right now. I think. I feel like there's a big sign on my forehead: GRIEVING. DO NOT DISTURB.
Or at least, there should be one. I really wish I could be the melodramatic type: Sobbing everywhere, rocking in place, tearing my hair out etc., but what use would it be?
My grandmother would still be dead, and I'd have no hair.

She had pancreatic cancer. The doctors had basically given up on her a few weeks ago, as she was too weak to operate on.
She didn't deserve this, not one bit. She suffered so much in life, raised some kick-ass kids, and worked so hard for them. She. Did. Not. Deserve. This.
She shouldn't have to live her last days in so much pain, wondering what was wrong with her, with no-one telling her. She deserved so much more.

But then, who am I to decide that? I'm not God, although I often wish I was, just to know what was going on in the Big Guy's head.

It's kinda funny, in a sick, twisted way. I'm almost done with the mourning period for my other grandmother, and this happens. Looks like my hair's going to reach the floor by the time we're done here*.

I'm sitting in my hostel's common room as I type this. It's raining, just like it was when my other grandmother passed away. I guess it's times like these when we realise just how precious everything is to us. I don't know what I would have done if my friends weren't with me when I got the call, I really don't.

I don't really know what else to say at this moment.

*The Chinese believe that when in mourning, you're not supposed to cut your hair or nails for 49 days. Since I'm 1/4 Chinese...

All right, I know I've promised myself that I'd keep this thing updated on a regular basis, but I just can't. Well, I can, but I'm just too lazy to do it.

Nothing interesting happened today, really. Woke up late (such a luxury after nine months of sleep deprivation), and just lazed about. Was going to walk to Subang Parade just for a change of scenery, but it started raining. Granted, it only rained at five or so, which was well after I was supposed to go, but hey, who am I to ignore a sign from Mother Nature herself?

Tomorrow, I think I'll go back to my hostel to surprise a friends who's leaving for Pakistan. Urgh, this means I have to suffer the public transport system with no iPod. I really should buy some ear-buds...

Anyway, nothing much to report here, so here's a video of Darth Vader being a smartass:

Why, hello there

So I've decided to start a blog.

It's not the first time I've done this, oh no. It was during my emo, nobody-loves-me-but-the-internetz phase when Unnecessary Evils was born, and died. And was revived. Several times.

I have a short attention span, so whenever I start something new, chances are that I'll keep at it for a short period of time before I lose interest.
This time, though, I'm going to be a little different. That's right: This time I'm going to put much more effort into updating it, and should I lip up and/or get lazy, I guess you all (as in, the readers) have to nag me to keep it going. Unless it sucks, then you'll have to help me bury it.

So here we go: my first entry.
This is pretty difficult, because it sets the pace of whatever's to come. It's basically the first impression I'm going to make on the world, which is why I want this blog and all its entries to be just. Like. Me.

I would really like to list down the things you could expect from this thing, but what would be the fun in that? The surprise would be lost, I'd just be spending all my free time scrambling around trying to keep this thing updated and freaking out if I really can't find the time or inspiration to do so.

So I'm going to stop here, and leave you until my next post with one word:
Welcome.