Left 4 Boredom

Melbourne’s not so boring... Footscray is... Or maybe all of Australia’s like such. After say 7, or 8 p.m, everyone just goes home, lock themselves up and watches TV until they fall asleep. Or they really really quietly sneak out at night into the bars and pubs and then end up in a police line for a breathalyser test. I think mis-spelt that but what the hell. Well, that’s my opinion so far because Footscray (my current place) is quiet as hell after the afermentioned hours. It’s just so damn creepy and unsettling! But then again, I’m getting weird chills down my spine as I type this because I’m pumping some rad techno into my head. I guess I’m creeped out by the sudden noise even mor e but then again, I’m head bopping to these awesome beats.

Anyways... yeah, been hanging around the city and such during the weekend. On Saturday, I went out with Kang Wei to meet some of his old high school buddies in the city. Just 2 girls. Sisters. Chinese, but thankfully not typical M’sian Chinese girls that think camwhoring, acting cute and being a fashion disaster sustains their lifeforce. Nice people, even better looking. Had a good time with them, had lunch at a chink restaurant, cracked a few jokes to wash out the usual unsocialble me (when it concerns other M’sians that is).Discussed the city a bit. Told them all about what tourist shit that I’ve done so far with my mum and bro. Yeah, went to the aquarium, nothing special there. They had this “special” showcase of penguins. Really nice things but then again, like I joked, “It’s not like they had swimming kangaroos there or something!” Told them about the Melbourne River Cruise as well. The Yarra Raiver’s water is on par with M’sian waters. Brown, murky and probably have fish with two heads, a tentacle or three and spikes for teeth. After lunch we went to Waterfront Mall, it’s open air mall that’s by the Melbourne docks. By then the wind had picked up and was killing us tropical climate people. But nevertheless we managed to get a good look at a lot of stuff... checked the prices for shoes, especially basketball shoes since mine are torn as hell. It’ll last, but not for long! The main attraction there is shopping (DUH), loads of nice shops and shit... branded or otherwise... nice selection all round but no gelato! Damn it, love that shit man! Hahahaha...

The other attraction there is definitely that huge ferris wheel. It’s kinda like M’sia’s own uh, was it called the Millenium Eye? Or was that the name of another gigantic ferris wheel? I don’t know... but it was similar in design but unfortunately broke down in the summer due to the extreme heat ( which was weeks ago) and the nuts and bolts started to expand pass the limit and caused damage all over. It’s not down on the ground pinning hapless people or anything but it’s a hazard to get on it nonetheless. We took a few pictures here and there...

Waterfront Mall entrance



Alternative side shot



The waterfront itself. Water here's nice and blue, unlike the river!



Further down the boardwalk



City view from the docks



An alternative shot... further to the right.

It’s a seriously nice place... Only place in M’sia that reminded me of this place is the Curve, but this place is swankier and doesn’t have those little kiosks in the middle that’re peddling overpriced psuedo-Petaling Street wares. Yeah... so we eventually ditched the chicks and went back to Footscray ‘cause in the night, it’s supposed to be dangerous! I can see why... it’s so damn quiet out there who knows who’ll stick one up your gut from behind.

Anyways, been playing Left 4 Dead like nothing now on the Australian GG servers. Would love nothing more than pawn my fellow M’sians but the sucky Streamyx connection never helps and those fairy boys that have the teeniest ounce of IT knowledge will start hammering you with indignities regarding your mum’s nether region and whatnot... so I think I’ll pass. Luckily it’s starting to pick up a bit here in Australia but some of our versions are different so some people can’t play with other people. Bummer. Whatever it is, I got onto the Garena site and found a useful forum post that gives specific instructions on how to update it and all that junk. Unfortunately, one of the vital patches that is needed, and listed on by the dude, is unavailable. I already sent a PM over to ask him to make it available ‘cause I was kinda halfway through the updating steps and I would love to finish off the damned thing.

Whatever it is... So far it’s just been me and Kang Wei playing and we’ve yet to finish any of the final missions. The hospital one, I got whacked off the roof by that damned Tank. The airport stage one... the “fort” is totally unprotected. It’s just a minigun, a table, with the usual Medpacks, ammo and nifty guns. Even the damned farmhouse is better equipped. Speaking of which, the damned farm house final stage doesn’t have bombs! I checked everywhere but there were none in sight! Not even a damned Molotov!!! A pipe bomb would be wonderful but these zombies don’t come altogether so one would be absolutely insufficient. Damn it.

Anyways... classes started today. Monday... but I have no classes on Monday. Whoop-de-doo. It’s gonna be a seriously lazy semester but I hope that’s not the case ‘cause this is the 3rd year, man. So that means it’s gloves off, it’s time to rumble or get bloody raped.

So yeah... all the best that’re here in Australia for the first time to study and also to the others back in M’sia for your studies! Peace out y’all!

Settling In

My mum and bro just left my place a few hours back. They probably haven’t boarded the plane yet but they’re pretty much gone from this country. They’re probably wandering around Melbourne Airport looking for food! Hehehehe...

So this is it... Day 1, Year 1 of 1 (for now) in Melbourne, Australia! It’s seriously way too quiet around here. There’re students starting to pop up around this apartment but I bet just a few have just moved into this establishment. I know for a fact that there’s a couple staying on my floor, just down the hall, an Malaysian Indian dude living near the front entrance right downstairs and 2 apartments that have inhabitants on the 2nd floor ‘cause since their electricity hasn’t been connected yet, they’ve been mooching off the building’s own power supply by making a line from one of the hall switches right into their room! Hopefully everyone will get their electricity soon ‘cause this’s just one huge pain in the ass ‘cause you’re in a foreign country and you’re already in a jam and probably have no one to call on.

Anyways, did my enrolment shit 2 days ago. Took a lot longer than usual because VU fucked up. Hm, apparently VU HERE fucks up as well. So it’s not a Malaysian thing. Hm, it’s still too early to tell though. We’ll see. We had to refill that giant ass enrolment form all over again, talk to some academic, uh... guides that’ll check whether your subjects were in order. I don’t know whether they were being nice or what when I was telling them about my failed subject but they seemed rather incredulous at the fact that I failed it when I said I went in with full confidence.
Well, the weather here has been increasingly fatal... it’s getting colder and colder. I’m walking around in 3 layers of clothing and these white kids are riding against the wind on the teeny weeny BMXes with nothing but gloves, a singlet and a pair of shorts. Fuck. So much for enjoying the natural air-conditioning. Peh.

Also, I just realized how much I spent in a day... My McDonalds dinner was 13 bucks... I did eat a bit tonight since I was damn hungry but then again, a McDonalds meal doesn’t come below 5 bucks ever. I spent almost half my weekly allowance in a DAY! Alright, maybe since it’s my 1st alone here and I do need loads of junk, that’s no excuse! So, I guess something’s gotta give... And so be it! I will survive!

With that, I bid thee adieu and wish that anyone and everyone reading this prays for my survival in the white man’s country. Peace out y’all!

Melb. Melbourne.

*groan*

Went to the city and spent the whole day there twice in a row. I am seriously pooped! Gonna crash now. Will update, this's just to keep rolling, although this albeit kicking the ball with an amputated foot wrapped in bubble wrap. Peace out y'all!

Connected!

Alrighty then... finally got my Aussie number! Optus number, I really have no clue as to how these providers fare generally so I had to go with what my cousin and uncle had to say about them and so far the only thing I could pick out is that don't touch Telstra even if the ghost of Steve Irwin is advertising it to you.

So, my Aussie number is... 0431395363. Yeah, it's not as glamorous as M'sian numbers but at least they get more sales this way because all prepaid packs come with a blank number and are randomized upon operation, therefore people who have that knack of wanting cutesy numbers (I can think of a few bimbos already) can crawl up and cry now.

EDIT: Just add 00116, according to Fattyma. Screw the 39 unless you're calling a home number

Anyways, yesterday was starting to revert back to the warmer side of summer. Wasn't awfully hot but definitely an improvement from the day before yesterday. My uncle took us to Mount Dandenong. Yeah, I thought it was a rather tricky name to remember too. Must be one those Aborigine names. If someone had just told me about this place prior to visitng it, I'd go, "What? Mount Whose-dong?"

We rode up in my uncle's slick red Mazda RX8. I think it's one of those midlife crisis purchases, where you strive to feel young and do the nearest possible thing, in this case, buying a nice sports car. It's definitely a beast and it can seat 4 people! Awesome... Funny way the doors open too. You gotta open the front ones first, then the back ones can be opened but must be swung backwards instead of forwards like regular cars. Also, you can close the front door with closing the back door first. ALSO, if you're reasonably tall and big, it's gonna be a rather bumpy ride when your head's knocking into the ceiling everytime the driver shifts a gear.

Anyways, I totally forgot that it was Valentine's yesterday and was actually surprised to see the amount of couples walking around Mount Dandenong. First of all, chicks there are chooiiyyyy~. White, brown, yellow, take your pick. They're tight as hell. Another point for leaving M'sia behind. Second, the word conservative has been blasted out of their diction decades ago. Hallelujah!

The view on top was alright. Nothing special since it was just overlooking Melbourne. Later we tried their maze where we had to stamp 4 things onto some "passport" thing they passed to us before we entered the maze. Going through the maze was slow but surely as we applied the famous left hand rule that we use all the time while playing games.

After that we went downhill a bit and the forest scenery in the mountain is vastly different from the type of forest you get in Malaysia. Here, you can see the tree straight up, the bark is straight all the way to the top and it doesn't form a dense canopy like the M'sian trees. We got off at this spot that was pretty much halfway down the mountain and it was a spot where we can feed the birds. There were 3 types of birds, white cockatoos, parrots and another type that I have no idea what it's called but it was rahte plump, smaller and had pale grey/silver and red feathers. Parrots and those other ones were the shy ones whereas the cockatoos have no fear of people whatsoever. If you stick your hand out as if you have food in your hand, they'll soar up to your arm and eat it off your hand. Man, if they stand on your hand, those claws are going to go deep into your palm. Anyways, we later decided to actually go and get some seeds to feed the birds. Boy, were they rough. I put some in my palm and one came onto my hand to eat it off my hand. Later, another one started heading my way and I was startled and yelled. It came back for another round and teared the bottom off the seed packet! Smart fellas...

Anyways, gotta go now. More uncles have come to show us around Australia... or rather, Melbourne! Peace out y'all!

In a Land Down Under... Look at My Brand New Hyundai...

1st sentence is right. 2nd isn't for sure. I just remembered that line from Family Guy when Peter tried to entertain Chris' date singing this song. Anyways, yeah, I'm in Australia right now, freezing my ass off. It's easing into autumn now but there are projected heat waves coming this way. Seems like summer just wants to squeeze out a few more shots before it shrivels up and dies in a cold icy blast.

Spent my last proper day in M'sia with the Indahvilla dudes. Just chilled around, went to Chola Spice for lunch and played poker at Rikaz's place. Simple, good, clean fun. Oh yeah, Rashmi has this trick where he doesn't look at his cards while playing and he still wins! Firstly, he gets his cards and without looking at them he places his handphone on it and places bets normally and in the end when all the chips are down, he suprisingly gets an awesome hand that beats everyone else!

=/

Man, these benchouds... I had this gut feeling that they'd do something like this... They got me a brand new Lego Batman set! And the set that I wanted! Alright, not REALLY wanted, but I was trying to build the Batpod, or a bike for Batman for weeks now and this was the perfect gift because this set was the one with the Harley Quinn monster truck and Batpod-looking bike! Awesome! Thanks to all you guys and special thanks to Raashid for suggesting it to them! Yaayyy~

UNFORTUNATELY, I couldn't bring it to Australia with me 'cause I was afraid I might lose it or lose a few vital parts. Sure it's in a box but then I remember my past 2 Lego Batman sets. Shake the box a bit and parts start falling out the cracks. Besides, we had quite some hand luggage as it is. I did complete it thought but did not get the time to take a few snapshots. So yeah, I left it behind at my grandaunt's house. Sorry guys.

Anyways, my new place is awesome. It's really really close to VU and the whole building is brand new! Gonna get some shots or even a video tour once I move in. A'ite then, time to go laptop hunting and get my new Aussie number. Orientation's on the 16th and subject signup's on the 19th. Classes start on the 23rd. Peace out y'all!

Power Shift

Yeah, it’s kinda old news by now but for those who choose to be left in the dark, here’s the skinny on Perak. Politicians jumping around alliances, losing majorities, unethical power transfers and unhappy protesters. That’s pretty much it. End of story, BN takes Perak back. Personally, I believe that this will be a short-lived victory as most probably they’ll realize that this is STILL a democratic country. If they play the snake and the people play the piper, maybe they’ll get lucky and have another term in this state.

*sigh*

In a sense, I am glad to leave Ipoh but I don’t wanna leave Sunway. Too much people there that I still wanna chill with, despite the fact that Indahvilla’s lifts keep fucking up. But I think I’ve done my fair share of bitching about Australia and the whole leaving thing, I think I’ll stop because I’ve long passed the point of no return and Australia’s becoming more and more of a comfortable idea. I will definitely miss everyone in Malaysia but there’ll always be MSN and e-mail. God bless tech! Gonna miss the “pow pow pow” times the most. Most defining moments in Indahvilla but it’s time to open a new chapter on that chronic chronicle in Aussieland!

=P

Recently got so bored that I decided to Danny’s “25 things” tag and Fattyma’s randomized music playlist questionnaire tag. It’s all on Facebook. Seriously considering posting up here on Beneath the Thorns but nah…

Hmph. Nothing really serious to talk about, just wanted to keep the ball rolling. Recently finished downloading Ocean’s 13 and Spawn. Huge fan of the Ocean’s series, pity they aren’t doing anymore of those but since Bernie Mac’s gone, it’ll be a tad tougher, innit? Spawn, loved the dark nature of the HBO series and loved the movie when I was a kid. Watching it again just showed me how much it bloody sucks! It’s sometimes a huge pity that most comics or games have had their image tarnished by horrible misrepresentation in large scale media mediums. Getting confused with the big words, caveman?

Here’s an example. Punisher. Dude’s a psycho killer in the comics, awesome character. 1st movie fucked him up. 2nd movie… Hahahaha… it’s like digging up his corpse just to rape him all over again. Here’s a more recent travesty – Max Payne. Fuck, this is the worst misrepresentation by far in my books as of now. The game was freakin’ groundbreaking with bullet time gameplay. Yeah, listen, time and time again I have to say that the Wachowski brothers (creators of Matrix) did not create bullet time! Max Payne came first, but this’s pretty much useless trivia, but get your useless trivia straight, man! Speaking of Mark Wahlberg… I should download Four Brothers. That was an awesome movie and Sofia Vegera (did I spell that right?), that Latin hottie that was a air stewardess in Soul Plane, is in this as well.

I think that’s enough garbage for one day. Peace out y’all!

Another Youtube-heavy Post

Here’re some videos that people have introduced to me recently and some that I found alone. Music videos, skits, and everything downright crazy! First up is the one that I found the most hilarious is this…



Next up is a bunch of videos from this show, or comedy troupe, called Whitest Kids U Know. Yeah, it’s spelled with a large “u” only. Check these dudes out…





A’ite… done with the comedy stuff. Let’s move on to music. These two videos aren’t that new… First up is Travis Barker, ex-Blink 182 drummer and probably still +44’s drummer. Real talented dude.



It’s sick, right? It’s my fave track right now. I’m trying to get into Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ new album, The Lonely Road, that I recently downloaded but so far nothing but “You Better Pray”, their latest single from the album, has caught my attention. Hmm… perhaps it needs a bit more playtime. Here’s another mind-blowing video… Rashmi showed it to me ages go.



How does he freakin’ do that?! He looked so at peace playing that like it’s second nature. Brilliant! A’ite, this next video is from a game that has been recently released for the PC and Xbox 360. Graphics are grand but not the groundbreaking and PC-raping type. Multiplayer gameplay for this game is fucking awesome. I have not played it myself, just watched these dudes play it in Imax while they were here in Ipoh and it was fucking mindblowing. Here’s the intro video…



I wanna play this soooo badly on LAN! You can have 8 people play at once tops. 4 Survivors and 4 Special Infected (zombie side). It’s fast, it’s intense, it’s gonna make you pee in your pants and shoot your weakest team mate and leave him there to die. Yeah, great game indeed! Peace out y’all!

Annual Affair

Yup, every Chinese New Year, my family, once again hosts the buffet dinner at Casuarina. This time the turnout from KL was a tad better since Rushdi, Rahul, Altaf, Yaseen, Rikaz and his brother, Rumaiz had turned up for the shindig.

Chinese New Year was as Chinese New Year as it always is. Relatives coming and money being given. I don't even open my ang pows anymore because it usually stays the same amount like the last time and rarely it gets more and may God have mercy on that poor relative's soul if it gets less.

I had an amazing time with these dudes while they were in Ipoh, 1st day we were stuck roaming around town in my Vios... 7 dudes in one Vios. Yeah, I know you've got better stories but still, it's not about how amazing it is, it's about how cramped it is.

First night was the dinner, we went, laughed our asses off. After that we went hunting for sheesha, was a tad tough since Ipoh hasn't exactly established the whole sheesha thing yet but as I suspected, Greentown Business Centre was the 1st 2 pick it up. They were amatuers of course and I am seriously not exxagerating when I say that 5 out of 7 of us could have made the sheesha better and faster than those dudes we were getting sheesha from. Not much smoke meant not much flavour. Not much flavour meant not much fun.

Next day was a tad slow since I wasn't available for lunch and dinner, as that was the 2nd day of the Lunar New Year but I managed to get my aunt's Inova (did I spell that right?) to transport these guys around! Thanks, the car was really helpful! Took them to one of those temples in a cave, Kek Look Tong in the afternoon before I went for another buffet dinner. These dudes went to Greentown by themselves and had dinner there and I joined them later and we went to I-net but the games there were kinda crappy.

Next day we went to Sunway Tambun and had a brilliant time there but it's just a watered down version of the original Sunway Lagoon. Only 2-3 tube rides, 1 teeny wave pool, 4 normal rides and one motherfucking dirty ass jacuzzi. Spent about 3 hours there and finished the night off at Imax while these guys had an intense session of Left 4 Dead there. Awesome game! I would love to give it a spin before I go to Australia. Rumaiz inducted himself into our Hall of Fame that night alone with his antics during the game. 

Twas a heartbreaking moment sending them off home to KL via train but all good things come to an end. Cliched, yeah, I thought so too. Less than 2 more weeks to Australia and possibly every good thing that was in store has been done. Peace out y'all.