Running from the rain

Weather, weather, how arcane you are. Nobody can tell

Whether you’ll rain or shine. Nobody can tell

When you should hide from the lasers of the sun. Nobody can tell

When you should hide from the blizzard of water.

 

Today I experienced a bizarre experience. I ran from the rain. That, I did.

I was playing frisbee in the evening, around 6 o’clock, when some clouds suddenly gave birth to rain. It signaled the stop of the disc throwing. It’s time to go back, I thought.

So I walked back toward my hostel. But there was a stretch of greens I had to go through to circumvent the perimeter of the hostel fence. I walked back with the green frisbee on the top of my head, protecting it from the harshness of the rain and the illness it might bring. Come to think of it, from the top view, I might not be so visible as the green disc was in color with the grass.

It was drizzling when I walked a steady pace on that green stretch of grass. It’s just a drizzle after all, I thought. So I took my own sweet time walking. Then a curious some made me turn my head to the right, and I beheld a vanguard of heavy rain coming toward my direction, bringing along a threatening sound of high speed water projectiles. The sound was getting nearer and stronger. I ran.

Just as I came to the end of the stretch and about to turn left, I looked back at the rain. The path I just walked past was covered by a motion blur of white as the horde of water army pounded down. The boundary of the severe and the mild was a few meters away from me.

How mystical the rain can be. Sometimes we see in cartoons that a character has a cloud above its head and rain falls from the cloud. This really happens in real life too. Silly how cartoons reflect reality. Every time it rains, there is bound to be a boundary between the wet and dry. And if you’re lucky enough, you may end up in that boundary, witnessing the magical phenomenon of mother nature. It was like watching an cinematographic effect in a movie.

The rain lasted only for a while though. It was as if the heaven teared from above, coinciding with the departure of some friends and friends’ friends to a destination abroad. May those friends and friends’ friends have a safe trip ahead.

Life is ever-changing. For a change, next time you see rain coming, try out-running it. But first, let me wish you all the best.

A reason for the night to die young

The need for sleep.

Malaysian IT Fair 2011 at Mid Valley

500 GB external hard drive for RM 99, 4 GB thumb drive for RM 10, and more…

It was held over a 3-day period – 28th, 29th and 30th of January.
The only reason my friends and I went there was for that super discounted 500 GB external hard drive. To get that, we had to be the first 60 customers to get that discount. Read on.

A crowd of IT aficionados already gathered there when I arrived a little before 11 am. Everybody was waiting patiently for the “gates” to be opened. To decrease competition, I slowly made my way to the front of the crowd.*hehe*

Soon, the time had come! Everybody literally bulleted into the IT wonderland, but it was a total chaos. Nobody knew  where to go. A woman on stage was shouting directions into a microphone. There was no sign of the 500 GB external hard drive in sight. Circumstances explained my lining up for the RM 10 thumb drive instead. And as soon as I got stuck in the line, I knew the prospect of achieving my main mission was going down the drain.

The 4 GB thumb drive. Not bad eh? It was well worth it for RM 10. Just look at the thick rubber coating! It could even survive a dog attack besides being a bit water proof. It simply has to be the toughest and most durable thumb drive I have ever seen.

After claiming my thumb drive, I found the line for the external hard drive in question. What a disappointment! The line was already damn long by that time. Oh well, I can only console myself with my 4 GB thumb drive. But still, it’s only 4 GB, arrrgghhh. Sigh, I guess it’s better than nothing.

Let’s digress a bit. As Chinese New Year was just around the corner, Mid Valley had something in store for all patrons. There were stalls selling new year goodies, mostly of food. And there were some performances too, like the lady on a unicycle kicking up and balancing bowls on her head.

Guess what is shown in this picture? Clue: it’s edible.

Still don’t know? It’s actually a maltose lollipop. The fun thing about this lollipop was that unlike the conventional ones, this was soft and moldable. However, the downside of this golden blob was the long time it took me to finish it. Yep, I took more than an hour to finish it, and I got a bit of a sore mouth thereafter. Can’t believe I got tired of eating that.

Going back to the IT Fair, it was considerably small and nothing much can be found. But I have to say that the organizers did a good job to promote the event. Sadly, the space utilized wasn’t actually big enough for the so many happenings and programs in the fair. So most of the time, it’s crowded.

Another highlight of the event was the auction. Items of auction included the IPAD, tablet pc, GPS navigator and many more. It was this segment that got people excited and pumped up as these items on auction had a starting price of RM 1!

 

A strange thing happened, at least I think it was strange. An item was sold to a guy who got it with a bid which was higher than the original price of the item. Imagine paying more for an item in an auction. Hmm…didn’t really make sense to me. Anyway, the winners of the auction got to take pictures with the show girls on stage. Lucky lucky them.

I also got a bookmark with feng shui tips in a lucky draw. The following is quoted from the bookmark.

Artistic, creative, sensitive, sweet-tempered, dislike arguing and fighting, always strive to achieve life vision, with peace and calm.

Lucky color: Yellow, Brown, White, Silver

Compatible Noblemen: Horse, Rabbit, Boar

Health: Fair

Career & Wealth: Excellent

Love and Relationship: Excellent

Great business & career advancement, a busy year. Good school results (yay!). Take care in health (no!), do health check and dental scaling. A lovely year, can plan for marriage or to have baby.

Information provided by Master Kenny Hoo of GOOD FENG SHUI

www.GoodFengShui.com

That’s about it. I don’t really believe in Feng Shui though. Why, this is a general prediction for roughly 1/12 (one of the 12 animals) of the population. So it’s not surprising that many of us would find some things hitting the jackpot. It’s just a number game. If I’m not mistaken, it’s labeled as pseudoscience in the science community.

Happy Chinese New Year to all! Take the time to enjoy life. Life is not meant to be taken too seriously. Like my friend always says, smile always. =)

Freeze!

KUALA LUMPUR: In the heart of hustling and bustling KL, stood a group of 3 men covered in colorful sparkles from the tips of their hats to the tips of their shoes, all probably in the name of money and of course entertainment.

Their exact motive was unbeknown as they remained tight lipped and literally frozen in motion. Plus, the super refracted shades they donned did not betray their eyes. They must have felt really hot and sweaty under those poker faces and colored skins, but they succeeded in stifling them.

They were spotted at the corner of Bukit Bintang street opposite Lot 10, just below the Bukit Bintang monorail station. This reminded some passers-by of the scene from old Batman movie in which the villain freezes his adversaries with a freeze gun whilst shouting “FREEZE!”.

Picturesque scenes like this are quite a norm in Bukit Bintang area, known for being a happening place besides being a popular hotspot for tourists and locals alike. As people are hurrying by and rushing to their destinations in mid-evening, these as-still-as-a-statue men in colored sparkled clothing served as a paradox, reminding people to take life easy and be in the moment, albeit not so a frozen one.