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I’m starving as I’m writing this. All because I’ll be going for a blood test tomorrow. Yes you heard me right, a blood test. Why all of the sudden, you may ask. Because sis recently had her blood tested and it was found that her cholesterol level was quite high for her age and size. The doctor suggested that this might be hereditary. Hence my blood test tomorrow. And my starvation now.

Bkworm was just teaching us how to soothe a restless and hot afternoon. Her method, coincidentally, is also one that my sis subscribes to. At least until today. The picture above shows a keropok lekor stall in SS15 - one of sis’ favorite stalls. It was taken on one hot, sunny afternoon. I must admit, their keropok lekor is super delicious. But I don’t eat it always. Honest. Only sometimes I curi some from sis (eh, standard la).

I was just telling her that I don’t believe I have high cholesterol level. I even pinched my arm to prove my point, “See? How can I possibly have high cholesterol level?” (which backfired because she said that didn’t prove anything). Well, high cholesterol or not, there’s only one way to find out. I’ll be going to the lab first thing tomorrow morning. I hope my diet + lifestyle have done me some good. I also hope the garlic smell in my breath won’t distract the nurse (gee our garlic-ish dinner was yummylicious). Ok time to call it a day now, good night.

Edit@June 30th: Cholesterol levels are OK. Strangely, the amount of platelets was slightly below normal range. And the doctor used a coupla other medic terms to explain the report. That moment pretty much convinced me that my 3B (instead of a distinction) for SPM Biology was justified. Worse, they were all in English, instead of BM which I learned in school. Haha. The way ECG (electro-cardiogram) measurements were taken was cool. Sensors were placed on my body, hands and at the ankles. Firstly, some super-cold gel was applied, during which my muscles naturally contracted, lol. Damn cold ok. Then followed by the sensors (with suction power). When the sensors were removed there were hickies all over!! Haha!

Some noise woke me up from my beauty sleep early this morning. Uhm, not that early actually - it was about 8:45am, I think. Such is the blissful life of someone who’s awaiting call-ups and/or employment offers. I had a stiff neck (mom said I needed to put my pillow under sunlight - some old wives’ tale that I can never understand). I grabbed my phone and played some music, and then I closed my eyes.

Suddenly, some time through Def Leppard’s When Love and Hate Collide, the audio was cut off. My eyes peeled open and within a second, the phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number. I answered the call - with that just-woke-up-voice and all. It was the call that I had been waiting for. My heart was beating so fast that I had to sit up in order to speak and breathe properly.

I was told by the HR lady that my interview had been successful, and that I would be offered an employment in the company, an engineering firm. I was struggling to keep cool; it was such a delight. The next step was to confirm my acceptance. I met her later in the evening after getting my parents’ blessings (eh standard procedure la). While in the meeting room, she clearly explained everything in the employment contract.

She was so nice that I felt like I was talking to a friend. I met my superior, my future colleagues, and was taken for a ‘tour’ around the building. Words just fail to describe the excitement that was burning in me. I am eager to begin working at the company - as early as next month. That is to say, next week. I was supposed to attend another interview tomorrow, but I’ll inform that I won’t be turning up.

I’ll also be forgoing another opportunity at another company, whose recruitment process is still ongoing. We’re currently at the first stage. Those who’re close to me would know that I’ve had an eventful jobsearch - during which I didn’t only miss out on an employment offer, but also a highly-desirable training opportunity. I was an emotional wreck but I had no choice but to start over.

Today marks the end of all that tiresome recruitment processes. I’ve weighed all possible opportunities and I believe I’ve made a good decision (who in a right mind would decide against his own belief anyway?). This is where I’ll be able to learn, contribute and be recognized for my contributions (in that order). There’ll be teamwork, projects and a fair bit of running around - which will suit me just right.

Whatever happened today hasn’t really sunk in yet for me. But all I know is that I’m glad it happened!

OOT: My superior, who was also my interviewer, knew about Toastmasters and I felt so much at ease telling him about my involvement in the club, unlike some other interviewers who didn’t give a hoot (or knew little) about it.

Alex, JW and I drove down to Seremban on Sunday to meet up with LW, Jin and Hui. It was an unplanned trip and that made it all the more exciting. Among the places we went to was the Jusco in Seremban 2. It was damn crowded, ok. The cars caused a jam outside the mall. To make matters worse, Jusco didn’t allow anymore cars inside its carpark. Parking was hell. Didn’t know Seremban was so happening. Kinda felt like I was in Midvalley or something. Anyway, I stumbled upon something in Speedy Video.

Wow!!! This album certainly caught my attention because of its unique packaging. I thought someone left his Buku Latihan on the shelf (check out the ’school emblem’, lol)! I picked up the album and took a closer look. To my delight, I felt the album was a perfect representation of my kind of music! When I was in school, I listened to and played a lot of alternative rock music. I had a band in school - we called ourselves MILF. No, not inspired by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but something else (hehe). We played at school functions, talent contests and the prom. When we jammed, it was always alternative rock (actually we called it ‘modern rock’ back then).

The album came in two CDs, and priced at only RM47.90. I really love the way the album was packaged, so old-school (pun intended)! The Buku Latihan-design plus the track listing quickly reminded me of my schooling days. Among the notable tracks in the CD that we used to jam were All The Small Things (Blink 182), Semi-Charmed Life (3EB), Everything You Want (Vertical Horizon), Blurry (Puddle of Mudd), Shimmer (Fuel), Push (Matchbox 20), Hanging By A Moment (Lifehouse), Wherever You Will Go (The Calling), Absolutely (Story of a Girl) (Nine Days), Til I Hear It From You (Gin Blossoms), The Freshmen (The Verve Pipe), Runaway Train (Soul Asylum), and Don’t Look Back in Anger (Oasis).

Those are my favorite songs. Well, to narrow down (hehe…), I particularly like Semi-Charmed Life, Shimmer, Push, The Freshmen, Runaway Train and Don’t Look Back in Anger. When I was in university, my housemates probably got bored with my playing the guitar while singing to some of these timeless tunes, again and again, lol (especially Freshmen and Semi-Charmed Life). Too bad they were not exactly in the same ‘wavelength’ as me.

Ok, back to the School of Rock album; other tracks worthy of a mention are Video Killed the Radio Star (Presidents of the USA), Buddy Holly (Weezer), Everything About You (Ugly Kid Joe), Walking on the Sun (Smash Mouth), Last Resort (Papa Roach), Kryptonite (3 Doors Down), Anthem of the Year 2000 (Silverchair), One Headlight (The Wallflowers) [omg this is one timeless track!], Bitch (Meredith Brooks), You Get What You Give (New Radicals), and Alright (Supergrass). So, are you familiar with these tracks? Between 1993 and 2002, were you listening to the same music as I was? If yes, then we’re in resonance!

Footnote: No I didn’t buy the CD. I have most of those songs in MP3… lol. But kudos to the team who designed the packaging, really. It instantly took me back to high school!

This is gonna be for the noobs. Once upon a time, I used to click on my own blogroll to visit, one by one, my friends whom I had linked up. Of course, not all sites had updates so I just closed the window. Meanwhile, some others had up to 5 new entries and often, I read only the latest. This was of course, before I learned to enjoy the convenience of RSS feeds. I’ve used all kinds of feed readers, including those you can install in your PC, those that are web-based, and those that are installed as an extension to your browser. I’m now a long-time user of Feedreader.

Blogs and online news websites have frequent updates that you can hardly keep up with, especially if you have more than 10 sites to follow. Thankfully, there’s something called RSS. All blogs and news sites allow you to subscribe to their RSS feeds, and you will need a feed reader in order to read them. RSS strips the site down to its bare content, therefore they are lightweight, simple and fast. No background images, advertisements (well, RSS ads are slowing creeping in nowadays though), and other irrelevant information that are not related to the content.

Basically, you receive only the updated content; that is to say, only the text and images of the latest entry. Each time when there is an update, you will be automatically alerted via RSS, so you won’t miss it. For sites which have not been updated, there will be no alerts, so you don’t have to waste time visiting them. This is definitely more efficient than manually checking a site for updates.

Narrowband’s Feed Subscriptions

Basically whatever you see in my blogroll, is whatever I’m subscribed to. The list is identical, except for a few who requested not to have their blog linked up. For those cases, I prefix the feed’s name with a hash (#) in my feedreader.

Normally, when I go around bloghopping, I don’t subscribe to new feeds on first-time visits. But when I chance upon the site again two or three more times (usually via PPS), then I’d add it into my Feedreader. But, it will be prefixed with a hash, unless I decide to link it up in my blogroll as well.

I know most of my readers are subscribed to my feeds. For those who’re not, it’s time you hopped onto the bandwagon feedwagon. I’ve put up a big RSS button in my sidebar, in case you can’t find my feed URL (copy the URL and paste it into your feed reader!). With RSS feeds, keeping up with your favorite blogs couldn’t be easier.

Ah, so much for trying to make Saturday a computer-free day. Anyway, Last night’s dinner was funny. Apparently, one of mom’s friends has this weird thing for body hair on men. So during one of their gatherings, she (that friend) commented about the hair in my lower abdomen. The way mom described the dialogue was damn funny, but a little flattering. One of it was, “Does it go all the way…”. It was both embarrassing and appetite-spoiling. Mom suggested that next time don’t walk around the house without a shirt on when her friends come. My sisters laughed. Scary wei.

I’ve heard about how women see body hair - some like it, some find it disgusting. There was once I tried shaving that area near my navel (if you must ask, no I didn’t go any lower - I’m comfortable as things are!), because I thought that’d make my abdominal lines more clearly visible, especially after having been working out both at home and gym. But the hair grew back pretty quickly; and when it was still growing, the rough texture (of growing hair) was ugh, un-cool. Think I’m just gonna work harder to further bring out the lines rather than deliberately shaving the hair off.

It’s interesting to note how vain men of this generation have become (yes, I hate to admit that it’s just me).

OOT: Btw, remember this? Today I asked her if she wanted to watch Ninja Turtles (TMNT lent by Alex), to which she replied, “Hah? What’s that? Where?”. -__-” Like worlds apart la, we two.

Recently, Giant launched some contest that promises more than RM130,000 worth of prizes. Holiday packages, actually.

And the ‘contest form’ was actually your shopping receipt itself. There is also a questionnaire, in the same receipt, that’s supposed to help them to improve their customer service.
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What happens when a blogger has a camera in hand wherever he goes? The pictures taken are most likely gonna go online. Let’s talk about driving. Sometimes I wish I could change the driving habits of some drivers. I hate queue cutters.

If I could follow along behind the queue, what can’t you? And then there are those who change their headlights to something that could blind people.
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Fridays!! I can smell the weekend already - it’s really exciting. Not that I have anything lined up, but as with every weekend, I somehow just look forward to them. Sings to Rick Dees’ soundtrack “I don’t wanna play, I just wanna bang on the drum all day”~. Well alotta things happened last week but as usual, if I wanted to blog about them I most probably would have done it. But there are some stuff which I don’t mind sharing… like my dental visit.

Dentist Reminds Me Not to Brush too Hard!

I went to the dentist for a periodical checkup (aka cleanup, the sophisticated version) two days ago and here’s what I’ve come to conclude: I need to learn how to brush my teeth softly. My dentist told me not to brush too hard, because my gums are showing signs of recession. She warned me that if the gums keep getting scraped away during brushing, they will not grow back again.
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It must have been a relatively easy drive for Lewis Hamilton who started on pole, because throughout most part of the race, all he needed to do was to keep his tyres warm while cruising behind the safety car. The safety car, a super gorgeous Mercedes Benz CLK 63 AMG, was deployed four times (!!). Just as the front runners were beginning to pull away from the pack, and some others trying to get closer and challenge the driver in front, something happened on track and the safety car had to come out. Of course, no overtaking is allowed when the safety car’s out on track. Lap after lap of no-overtaking, kinda spoiled the momentum for some of the drivers.

(Source)

The 22-year old sensational rookie had never actually raced in the Gilles-Villeneuve Circuit before, so it was all the sweeter to have dominated in both the qualifying as well as the race. Having been on the podium for every single race since his debut into F1, all he needed was a first win and I can’t say I didn’t expect it to come this soon. That guy seems to be writing history with each and every passing race!
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I came across a letter written by one Christopher Loh in Sunday Star today, pertaining to “distracting” and “realistic” sounds coming from the radio while driving. And I thought it was just me.

Some community service messages are aimed at educating people about road safety and driving courteously. And in proving their points, realistic sounds of honks and screeching tyres are used.

Personally, I have been fooled by these sounds on a number of occasions myself, especially in situations which required extra care and attention - like switching lanes during a traffic jam.

I consider myself a competent driver, and I believe that these distractions are a potential hazard to road users. A lapse of concentration, no matter how little, during critical situations may result in an ugly accident.

Of course one may argue that road users are not the only radio listeners. But I believe that the majority of listeners usually tune in whenever they’re on the road. So I think more needs to be done in allowing such sounds to be used on the radio.

Well, that aside, I admit that sometimes I also read and type SMSes while driving, so I guess I’m not much of an exemplary driver anyway.