20th Birthday; 2 Decades Later

 

Let it be said now that my previous birthdays (the past 19 of them) haven't been much of a big affair, to me at least.

How so?

Well, for you see, all the past birthdays I’ve had the pleasure of having UNDOUBTEDBLY pales in comparison with the birthday celebration (or what bizarrely passes for one) of the year 2011.

So, what say we take a trip down memory line so as to give a context to my exact words.

Seeing as how my birthdays, or the occasions on which they were celebrated, were usually thrown to me by my family every year, it was more of a family affair. As the years went by, and as I progressed from early adolescence into my teenage years, my birthdays were pretty much celebrated the same way, as if in strict adherence to an unwritten tradition of sorts.

Nevertheless, my parents were always the first to instigate plans for my birthday parties. As they secretly schemed, my close friends would also be included in the thick of things. So naturally, they would always be invited to parties courtesy of my parents. As the cycle goes on and on, it became a norm for my friends to always wait for the birthday invitations and go along with the festivities as planned out by my parents.

To sum it all up, I never quite gotten to experience a birthday celebration as thrown to me by my friends in the name of friendship and camaraderie. Sometimes, I feel taken for granted as a friend of theirs, and I understand that it is by no fault of theirs. My parents, the most loving and caring people of whom I cherish most, kind of did spoil my friends where my birthday parties were concerned.

As college came knocking on the front door, as it does with all young adults, I heeded its call and found myself in Shah Alam with a whole new bunch of great people and even greater friends.

New faces, new acquaintances, new environment and practically a brand new life.

I can finally start over. See what it’s like to experience a birthday as thrown to me by the initiative of my friends. A festivity especially for me, not as per the request of my parents, but out of the goodness and kindness of the bonds of camaraderie we share.

Today, I somewhat got that wish. Not just in a small trickle of goodness but a whole friggin’ wave of it crashed all over me. I was inundated with the compassion and kindness shown by these new friends. And the very circumstances surrounding this beautiful day accented it only further.

And boy, was it the best feeling ever. In fact, I literally feel as though I could die now and die a happy man. But heck, then I’d be unable to enjoy the awesome presents.

Oh, did I mention? The final DLC for Mass Effect 2 releases on the date my BIRTHDAY no less. Whee~~

Aptly named Arrival, and arriving hot on the heels of my birthday, that speaks volumes of awesome right there. Must be Bioware’s birthday gift to me. =D =D

Also, 8 am classes for Physics (the Kryptonite to my Superman) on Tuesday was postponed. Another gift to add to my litany of presents!

Speaking of presents, my best bud Bryan Kho has a gift up his sleeves and he's really keeping mum about it.

Wonder what he’s got planning for me this time. The only clue he left was this cryptic message:

“Starts with a ‘p’ and ends with a ‘s’. Start guessing.”

Pies? Playstation…..3s? And oh, I will literally keel him if it involves a phallic-shaped organ of the human anatomy.  

Special ‘thanks’ also go out to this sohai here, Howard Chung. I’ve had plenty of unique and sometimes unorthodox birthday presents and wishes in the past, but what he’s given me definitely takes the cake.

FYI: Howard, NO. I don’t need a new birthday suit. Thank you very much.

Also, the chocolate mud cake that I think the entire ATUSA members got for Marie and I meant a lot. I believe it’s the first time my friends took the initiative to get a cake for me to mark this significant milestone.

While I absolutely loved the cake, I’m loving more of the thoughts that came with the gifting of the cake.

As if the day couldn’t have gotten any better, it pleasantly did.

Come dinner time and I was off to the nearby Secret Recipe to catch up with the rest of the MINDS members and committee. Feasting on meals fit for kings, exchanging witty and often times ridiculous banter, and just plain having a good time, it made me realize just how much I missed being in MINDS.

The presence of such awesome guys and girls truly made MINDS an incredible and integral part of my college life, despite the short-lived tenure of President in the club.

Still, I took home with me many wonderful revelations and epiphanies, courtesy of none other than the uber-hip and infallibly hilarious Aysha Khan.

Humpty Dumpty and the Wall Street Crash? A quest for Blue Cheese? The night doesn’t get any more epic than that.

The day was truly more than the sum of its parts. Frankly, I can’t quite recall a day like today whereupon I could just sit back and have everything work out the way I wanted it to. To put in short, I was beyond happiness at this point. A feeling that today was my day and nothing was ever going to go wrong at all.

All in all, a big hearty thank you goes out to all who have, in one way or another, made this already wonderful day, so much more special and endearing. Thanks to all who have proven to me that birthdays are truly indeed a day to call your own, and a day to be celebrated LIKE A BOSS.

It’s officially been 2 decades now that I’ve been brought into this world. And it’s been a long wait for the birthday gift that I’ve always wanted.

Today, on the Tuesday of the 29th of March, 2011, I’ve finally, finally gotten that gift of mine I’ve been forever wishing for. Mind you, it’s one I’m going to be cherishing for the rest of my life.

So, I thank you God for breathing life into me and this world and all that in between, and here’s looking forward to many more awesome birthday bashes to come!

Of Slow Internet Speeds and WAY Too Much Free Time

 

Spring 2011. Irony doesn’t even begin to describe it.

For you see, just a year ago, at this very same period of time and age, I would already be buried neck-deep in unfinished assignments, tutorials, lab reports and unwritten essays. Basically, it was a semester filled with last-minute work, sleepless nights, fatigue and stress. I constantly bemoaned the fact that I didn’t have enough free time to just sit back and savor the journey that was college.

Now, I look at the current state of my life. The proverbial phrase of ‘be careful of what you wish for’ has proverbially bitten me in my proverbial ass.

Sure, the usual flood of assignments and tutorials from classes are still present. However, instead of the deluge of workload that inundated me back in the Spring of 2010, the flow has now trickled into the soft, flowing waters of a gentle river.

Taking only four classes this semester: Physics 2, Technical Writing, Literature and Legal Issues, out of which only 2 of them mandated the sitting for of examinations, I’m pretty much a free man. Yes, that’s right, key emphasis on the word ‘free’.

This has been my most carefree and laid-back semester yet! I guess I should be happy, right? But like most other normal human beings, I’ve decided to indulge a little in greed and officially declare myself discontented with the current state of my life so far.

Took me a while to realize this but, I . Am. Not. Satisfied. With. Life. So. Far.  

To put my take of ‘free’ into perspective, allow me the use of some examples to better illustrate my point.

1. I’m finally getting to fulfilling several of my New Year’s Resolutions which is about GOSH DARN time. Wait a minute, I’m actually, finally getting around to fulfilling these pie-in-the-sky aspirations? HOLEE CRAP.

2. Gym workout sessions are now a daily routine to me on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. True to America’s Second Amendment, I’d want to exercise my rights to bare my muscular, well-toned and chiseled arms. Wishful thinking? I think not, seeing the amount of free time that I have.

3.  While it’s been a creative brainchild  floating around in my head for quite some time now, I’ve finally decided to actually take the effort to put onto paper this idea of mine. The initial results are looking promising. It’s been much too long since I last got involved in the creative writing process and boy, does it feel good to be back!

4. All these free time isn’t doing much good for my productivity either. Too much free time tends to dull the workaholic in me and transport several parts of me to the States already. With my university applications done and over with, the prospect of setting foot in the States becomes more and more vivid with each passing day. There I go, digressing again. In short, I just can’t be bothered much with my studies anymore. 

5. Lastly, the bane of my very existence and also of Spring 2011.

“SHAH ALAM, WHY YOU NO AWESOME INTERNET CONNECTION?”

Analogically, like how water is the sustenance of life to a fish, so too is how the Internet is like to a gamer like me. Imagine the keyboard-bashing, laptop-smashing, Bieber-killing frustration that is the Internet speeds in Shah Alam and (I speak for all of us in this matter, I believe) in Malaysia.

Gwaahhhhhhh!!

So enlighten me, o deities of the Internet connections in Malaysia (read: TMNet and the IT staff of UiTM), how is a soldier supposed to pop off those headshots and draw a bead on a target if said target is moving erratically like a hamster on a friggin’ caffeine high? I’ve got my copy of Black Ops lying patiently in wait on my laptop to be played with! When is it going to be given the attention and love it DESERVES???

Moreover, how is a commander to lead his armies to intergalactic victory if I can’t even go online to log on to the virtual and digital battlefield of which said interstellar wars are being waged?

How? How? HOW?? And no, the very offer of cake alone will no longer be enough to appease me.

Thus, it comes as little surprise that life as a student in Shah Alam is actually, contrary to popular belief, hazardous to one’s health. Rather than spending my prodigious amounts of free time productively, behold the causal reasoning theory of mine that I’ve cooked up which I now present to you readers of my pitiful blog.

Nat’s Causal Order of Free Time and Inevitable Suicide.

Too much free time. And too little fun, enjoyable things to do.

will soon lead to:

Boredom. A copious amount of it.

An over-accumulation of boredom will soon spill out into what I call the Isaac Clarke Effect.

The onset of dementia and schizophrenia about dead, murderous ex-girlfriends.

Soon, these mental illnesses will reach a flashpoint and then:

The inevitable bouts of depression, delusions and suicidal feelings soon follow.

Then, game over, dude. Game Over.

Lol. Readers, please do not take anything I say here too seriously. I’m grumpy and looking for an outlet to just vent and rant my heart out. So why not an update to this blog ey? Doubt if anyone’s going to even care much for what I have to say anyways.

So yeah….

Fates and Destinies

 

As a favorite TV character of mine once put; we are all brought here into this life for a reason. So he says; take a leap of faith and live life by that very reason.

Destiny, as John Locke would put it.

A chance meeting, a trivial coincidence, a role which we inevitably settle into in our lifetime, we would logically just brush off as just mere luck and coincidence.

Like say, this opportune encounter with a lost Stormtrooper wandering the streets of KL, making ends meet so as to one day traverse the dimensions and rejoin the Empire.

Or perhaps even this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to plop myself in its posh leather seats and get behind the wheel of an Audi R8?

Whether these events were already set in stone by the powers that be or just plain happenstances alone, there is however, one thing that I absolutely believe with my every single fiber of my being.

There comes a time when revelation just dawns itself upon you; a time when epiphany hits you so hard you shit yourself in your pants; a time when you are so sure that in a world of so many wrongs, doubts and insecurities, you are RIGHT about something.

Today, at approximately 1.50 pm local time, I knew that that time has come.

This. Is. My. Destiny.

There and Back Again

 

I do believe that the lack of updates on this blog of mine can be rather frustrating to some of the readers who faithfully return to this blog, only to be disappointed to have the same wall of text and parables staring back at them.

Well, the only thing that I could say in defense to justify the lack of updates on this blog of mine is one that is synonymous with every college student, or human being, for that matter:

PROCRASTINATION!!

Here’s a smiley face to cheer you readers up:

=D

Don’t be mad, and don’t lead a village mob on a witch hunt to my hostel doorsteps, please?

Well, the least I could do is provide you all with a short but sweet recap of college life so far, no?

As we usher in the Fall Semester of 2010, one cannot help but notice an omnipresent void that clings onto our day-to-day activities in Intec UiTM.;a feeling of emptiness that tugs at the back of one’s mind but never making itself known.

No doubt that rift left behind was by our beloved friends who’ve left us for the States to pursue their dreams.

In hindsight, it’s a funny thing to note that these individuals have carved out such a niche in each of our lives within such a short span of only a year.

To think that they leave behind a deeply-ingrained depression in our lives where their presence have taken root is testament to just how much of an impact they’ve left on us.

So, here’s wishing these wonderful guys and girls luck and that may fortune smile upon whatever sheenanigans they get up to in the States.

Now that the teary, somber, morbid and emo bit has been done and away with, what say we address the more entertaining facets of college life?

For starters, this Fall Semester saw me clothing myself in all manners of fashion and accessories (in an absolutely so-not-serious manner of making a bold fashion statement.)

The prevalent themes for each week did wonders in helping me decide what article of clothing to garb myself in.

1Malaysia Week:

Total Badass/Cool Week:

Sexual Ambiguity Week:

Military Week:

Also, Fall Semester saw me progress leaps and bounds in addressing my issue of addiction to video games!

By leaps and bounds, I meant that the progress was done in the reverse manner and not the forward manner that everyone is always referring to nowadays. Pshh, progressing forward in curbing your gaming addiction? Talk about being overrated…

To list several milestones in addressing said issue:

1. I’m currently on my 4th playthrough of Mass Effect 2. (Inter-stellar, inter-species romance with incredibly hot alien chicks that are WAY out of your league? Oh, and the occasional inter-galactic ass kicking. What’s there not to LIKE?)

2. Smashing a zombie’s brain in with a skillet for the umpteenth time never gets old. Especially if there’s four like-minded, questionably sane individuals running around the map bonking the living shit out of every zombie they see.

3. Also, we’ve finally managed to relive the glory days of Call of Duty 4. Although it doesn’t hold a candle to the heydays of Spring Semester, we make do by totally disregarding standard military protocols, and and just plain blow shit up with whatever ordnance our itchy trigger fingers can get their hands on.

Having friends who exude artistic flair in expressing their destructive creativity does wonders in mindlessly leveling building after building.

4. Finally, Starcraft II. The. Single. Biggest. Moment. In. Gaming. History. Ever

I must admit though, playing a strategy game is tough! And I hate playing games I’m not good in(yeah, my ego is THAT inflated). However, Starcraft II has given me reason enough to sit through moments after moments of getting my base orbitally nuked, ling rushed, zealot raped, thor gangbanged or whatever creative ways of ownage the Starcraft community can think of next.

5. The advent of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fallout: New Vegas, and Dead Rising 2 is SO totally, going to multiply my addiction ten-folds. And that’s just the way I like it.

Oh, did I leave out the part of having to cram for my finals and exams? Hmm, guess I did, didn’t I? Goes to show just how much I prioritize my tasks in college.

Oh well, time to hit the books I guess! Till I master the art of pulling solutions to those parametrically defined surfaces and iterated integrals in Calculus out of my ass, I believe I have much to catch up on!

Till my next post, toodles!