speaking of which

yes, speaking of which...

happy birthday, damn it.
i really don't want this to last.

on the day before

a homeless man, all shabby and messy and bushelhairy of him, waved to me from afar while i was working last night. he limped nearer and asked if i had some spare change.

i shrugged. "i got nothing, man. sorry."

a sad smile. then quiet murmur: "it's my birthday, today..."

"oh heyy!" i said. "god bless!"

his beamed a brighter smile.
i drove off, and from my rearview mirrow, i saw him waving goodbye.

happy birthday you mister homeless guy you. God be with you, even if people like me can't help you any.

ms303

lil' ms 303 emailed me a happy birthday note.
wow, she remembers...

*glad*

sent me a pic of her new baby girl, her second daughter. omg goodness graciousness how i want one of those really really badly.

she sent me a song, too.
that's what we share, she and i, our love for good malay songs. and cats cats cats.

i missed making her laugh. but the opportunity's gone now.

tivo tv

got my own tivo today.
yay!

actually, i shouldn't call it tivo. it's a dvr (digital video recorder). "tivo" is a brandname. it's like calling all photocopy machine a "xerox". dvr is the more correct terminology.

but, whatever, for simplicity purposes, i'll call it tivo.

so... i got my own tivo today.
yayyyy!

i've wanted my own tivo for a while now, coz the one we have in the living room is basically community tivo. everybody records their own favorite programs in it, and sometimes when the capacity is approaching full, people'll start deleting other people's program. it happened to me when i recorded "the constant gardener" and found out it was deleted before i got the chance to sit down and watch it.

so now i have my own tivo in my own room. woohoo!! i'm like a kid in a candy store now. i went thru the cable lineups and i was, like, "i wanna record this, i wanna record that, and ooh THAT and ooh oohhh THIS too!"

for those of you who might still live in the Dialup Era (ie segamat.. hehe) tivo is a device to record programs on tv. it's like a harddrive for your cablebox. you surf thru future programmings, pick the ones you like, press record, and you're all set. or maybe you want to record the same program everytime it comes on, no matter what time it comes on. record the series option, and you're all done, too.

or maybe you want to set multiple recordings, even if the programs air at the same time. click, click, done.

so now your dad can watch bola, while your mom can record Akademi Fantasia, and you can record - i dunno - telenovella, maybe.

also, you can record the program as it airs, if you like. coz let's say you have to go out and buy some makanan kucing. see? you won't miss a song from AF. or perhaps you may want to pause the live program, to see if Aznil's nostril is flaring. yes you can do that also, coz now you can even zoom the pic in. or maybe you want to rewind and see the last performance. go ahead, and the tivo won't miss a beat. slowmotion reverse/forward? done.

cool, huh???

i LOVE my tivo!!!

work ii

got a call yesterday.

the people who are doing the job i did before? they quit.
apparently the only person who could do the job is me.

so, now, i'm offered my job back.
i said fine.

(i swear this time around i'm going to plot and exact my revenge.
mark my word. no more mr nice guy.)

by the way, my vacation lasted.... one day.

*sighhhhhh*

work

yesteday was my last day on the job.

here's what happened. there's some management changes. somebody else is taking over the operation. they will hire their own people. i'll have to find another job.

fine by me.

i wasn't yet in a panic mode. worse comes to worst, i'll probably go back to USAToday. but i was pissed, though, that i got ejected with short notice. but no panic, not yet.

i spent the day relaxing, as a matter of fact. i'm treating this as a vacation. i don't want to go out jobsearching yet. i just want to sit around and do nothing for a change.

truth be told, my job sucks. well, i shouldn't say that, coz it does pay a lot. (by a lot, i mean a lot more that i needed to spend, which isn't very much to begin with, really.) also, i'm not tied to a desk, and confined to an 8-5 workhour. and so it frees up my time, so during the day i now can go golfing or shopping or reading at a park. don't get me wrong, i loved that part.

but the sucky part of the job is how i get treated. somehow, i get treated with a slightly lesser standard that everybody else.

the fact that i got paid a lot? sure. but when i relinquish some of the burden that i carry for some other burden i was asked to carry, the other people - who, remember, are now doing stuff that i once did - now get paid a lot more that i was before. unfair? very.

the stupid company wasn't making enough money. ok, point accepted. but when i found out that other people are paid more than me, for exactly the same workload i once did, i nearly blew up. yet, calmly, politely, i raised the matter. the answer i got?

"syamil shut up your mouth!"

that's a direct quote, word for word.

whenever there's a problem with other people work, the burden to carry it will fall on me. and, i had to the extra work for free. you go figure.

on top of that, i rarely get paid on time. when i get my paycheck, it's because i actually asked for it. other people? pay on time. how do i know? coz i'm the one frikking delivering the frikking paychecks for them.

earlier on, i was promised extra pay. that was july when i started, and the extra pay was the reason why i quit USAToday. the money will come october, promise! then, it's december, yes, promise! the month then came and went. later, it's going to be march, really!

by the month of may i've stopped expecting any. surprisingly, august was when the extra money actually came. even then it was meager. did i get it? no. other people did.

wtf??

ha bagus la tu kompeni dah bungkus. banyak kena makan sumpah la ni.

pose

first day puasa today.
is it bad of me that i only realized it was going to be ramadan, like, just two weeks ago?

is it bad that i no longer have the very least of the love i used to have for this blessed time of year?

i am, i've realized, far removed from who i was before.

goshdarnit

was finally feeling better.
still swallowing pills. still gulping nyquils. still zombie-like.

got woken up at midnight by my housemate. something about the car.
groggily dragged myself outside. found out that somebody had smashed the side mirror.
sighed. went back to sleep.

got woken up again. phone call, early morning. it was the boss.
bad news.
i lost my job.


(.....)


ok, wtf, now i don't feel better anymore.

unwell

i was soooo heavily medicated, soooo not over my cold and flu, but had to force myself to work last night.

coz unfortunately, in my line of work, illness is an absolute no-no.

my body's still sooooo aching, and my head was sooooo spinningg-gasingg from the many-many-many ppill-ppopping, - that i had to stop by the streetside for a few minutes and dozed off uncomfortably in the car.

what torture...

no outing

took last night off from work coz demam.
definitely no golf today.

remember yesterday? bergasak main golf in sub-sanity temperature??
huh? HUH?? padan muka...

outing

temp was 50s.
didn't bring my jacket.
wasn't expecting it to be THIS cold.
but still i hacked my way on the golf course.
shot bogey average.
happeeeee.

studio 60

series premiere of "studio 60 on sunset strip" last night. tivo-ed it, today watched it, and absolutely loved it!

studio 60 is written by aaron sorkin, which is why i wanted so much to follow the show. sorkin, you should know, is the creator and writer of The West Wing - the best drama, like, ever! he also wrote the American President (movie) and Sports Night (tv).

the pilot episode studio 60 truly did not disappoint me, it even in fact surpassed my already huge expectation. the episode was very sorkinesque - all quality rapidfire dialog, fast walk-n-talk, and a lot of in-media-res scenes and storylines. it really brought me back to the west wing again, which i sorely missed, that i was half-expecting president bartlet to burst into the studio at any moment.

the series has won many praise from the critics and i do hope the high will last. sorkin has a tendency of writing a great episode and then follow it up with - albeit still good - a clumsy "huh?"episode. i hope it'll be as classy as the west wing, and not flop like sports night.

here's to hoping.

article: For the Love of Words

For the Love of Words
Posted by Robert Needlman, M.D.
on Sun, Jul 16, 2006, 6:10 am PDT

If you could give your child anything in the world, you might want to give a love of words.

Young children who can express their feelings don't have as many temper tantrums. They also learn to control their own behavior using words. A two year old reaches toward the oven door, then stops, tells herself, "Hot, hot," and turns away. Psychologists call this "self-directed speech." It's one of the ways children learn to do what's right and avoid what's wrong.

With each new word, a child gains a broader view of the world. Early on, all four-legged creatures are dogs or maybe cats. But new words transform them into horses, cows, pigs, elephants, zebras, and gnus. Children who have a wealth of words have a wealth of ideas.

By age four, the number of words a child understands is a good predictor of how easily that child will learn to read in elementary school. It's an even better predictor of how well she'll be able to understand what she reads and convey her ideas in writing later on.

So, how do you give your child this wonderful gift? First of all, talk a lot. Talk when you're breastfeeding or preparing a bottle; talk when you're changing a diaper; talk when you're doing the dishes or walking down the street.

Second, do a lot of listening. Even before your child can speak clearly, ask questions and listen for the answer. Assume that your child has ideas, and try to figure out what they are. Researchers have found a direct connection between a child's vocabulary and the number of words he hears, and especially the number of questions he is invited to answer.

Third, read aloud every day. There are many reasons for reading aloud, but maybe the best is that books contain words; lots of new, different, interesting words. Even picture books can spark conversations that wouldn't come up in everyday life. You don't meet many gnus these days, except in books.

Here's an exciting thing that happens when you read aloud every day: You begin to hear "book words" in your child's speech. You're walking down the street, and you see a pretty flower. "Look," you say, "a pretty flower." "Actually," your child corrects, "it's beautiful."

Actually? Beautiful? That's when you know you've truly given your child a love of words.

ost

one of the things that i loooove abt k-drama is the OSTs. even though 'full house' disappoints me, the OST is quite nice. loads of good songs, even the instrumental ones.

here's the list of my absolute fav OSTs:

1) One Fine Day - all songs are good. the best by far.
2) My Lovely Samsoon
3) Summer Scent
4) Princess Hour (aka the Palace)
5) Hello God!
6) Full House

if you want to sample a stream of any of these OSTs, you may wanna try: http://www.mjgraphix.com/korean/klist.htm

should you want to download, try:
http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/torrents.php

also, www.youtube.com has a bunch of music videos, performances and sometimes even episodes of the series, if you're interested in watching.

enjoy!

k-drama: full impression

you know what, i'm disappointed. for all the hype, it didn't impress me.

i've watched two episodes already, and "full house" didn't deliver. bi (rain) could not act. the writing was subpar. only ji-eun carried the show. and she's the reason that keeps me watching. coz she's so cute omg!

sometimes i think the only reason i watch the korean dramas is because the girls are adoooorable! the eyes nose lips cheeks eeeeeeee rasa nak penyet2!!

and i loooove the korean language. it's soft, kinda like baby-talk. lots of 'o' enounciation, and 'o!' in the end syllable of every sentence. like, 'annyoung haseyo!!!"

i first got into the korean craze after, by chance, watching the music video "because i'm a girl" by the k-popgroup Kiss. i was just absentmindedly flipping the channel, one after another, when i came across azntv. the music video was just starting, and the cute korean girl got my attention. as i watched more, i was thinking, "oh hey macam ada jalan cerita lak ya?" when i got to the surprise ending, i was stunned.

the mv was so good. soooo heart-wrenching. and the song's very good too. so i kept watching the program. one after another k-pop song popped out and they all quickly became my favorites. i fell completely heads-over-heels in love with allthings korean.

this was 2002-3, back when BoA was hot, and so was FinKL, and SES, and Se7en, and JoSungMo, and more, and more.

this was also the time when k-drama Winter Sonata was a hit. surprisingly, when i saw the drama i wasn't impressed at all despite the hype, just like 'full house.' even the OST didn't catch my fancy all that much.

but later on i watched several supergood korean drama that got me utterly hooked. one was "The Immortal Yi Soon-shin" (2005), a very impressive historical period drama (circa 1500s maybe?) about the life and times and politics of Admiral Lee Soon-shin of Chosun. very good writing.

then i saw another period-piece, even much much better at it, called 'the Great Jang Geum" (aka "Jewel In the Palace" - 2003). very very highly recommended. watching it will make you hungry (you'll know what i mean), and it'll make you feel so inspired by the girl whose infinite persistance elevated her to the career pinnacle no other woman in her time and history had ever before achieved. again, excellent writing.

(by now, u'll probably realized i pay close attention to the writing of a drama than anything else, so my perspective/taste probably differs from yours.)

earlier this year, i got hooked with the drama "hello god." i didn't watch it from the beginning, so i had a lot to catch up. every friday and saturday at 7:50pm, i was glued to the tv.

this particular drama was ok. the writing was so-so, but the editing's really nice. the cinematography was very good too. one of my fav thing in this drama is the camera rarely stayed still. it always moved, even if ever so subtly. very fascinating.

plus, the OST made the drama works. there's always a special *brief* instrumental track for a special mood/moment in the scenes, whether it's happy/sad/awkward/funny. they're featured prominently in the scenes, you won't miss it. very good use of OST.

the heroin eun-hye was hmm ok cute. but she had this habit of biting the corner of her mouth when she's upset, and i found that so adorableeeee.

when the series ended, i wasn't much expecting to get my fill of anythingkorean anymore. but replacing "hello god" was the drama "summer scent" and i was absolutely smittened by it.

summer scent was surprisingly good. for such a lowkey drama, it was surprisingly good. the very first episode dispatched everything you'll need to know about the drama, and thereon threw you the key hook/conflict, which is nice because you don't have to stay two-three-four episodes with a whole lot of nothing just so you'd find out what is going on and whether you should keep watching or not.

the thing about "summer scent" is that it's slow. it's very sweet, but slow. but worth it.

it has very good writing (obviously). there's always some twist, some wrench thrown in. very classic hook-writing, like a good novel: grab the reader's attention after a few paragraphs, grab them more next page, and then more, and big bang at the end of the chapter. start again.

in every episode, i swear, in EVERY episode, i'd gasp and shriek out loud, "NOO you did NOT say THAT!!!" and i'm not that easily perturbed.

a typical "summer scent" scene would include a bunch of (mostly VO narrative) flashbacks. we're in the characters' minds a lot. a unique "summer scent" feature is in its dialogs, where there's a lot of double meanings, when somebody said something and somebody else thought it meant something else and only we the audience knew. i loooved that.

also, like "hello god," the OSTs are slotted quiet nicely in between dialogs and scenes, whispering the sense of the moods. thre're a lot of the sound of heartbeat (you'll know why), usually before commencing into the main song, sporadically in all episodes. very effective.






Son Ye-Jin


(sidenote: i had a huge crush on the the actress Son Ye-Jin who played Hae-won. she has these heart-sinking bambi eyes, and very sweet smile. everytime she's on screen i'd melt. heee! i adored her so much that i had to find her movies. "a moment to remember" is kinda nice.)

when "summer scent" ended, i got seriously depressed. coz i was riding so high on the hallyu.

then "my lovely samsoon" premiered, and i got my k-craze addiction soothed. for the moment, anyways.

now i got nothing.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

full house

oh by the way, replacing "my lovely samsoon" in the azntv lineup is - you guessed it! - "full house."

no no, not the one with olsen twins and uncle jessie and whomever else.

this is "full house" the favorite big-hit korean drama that came out in 2004.

and bloody hell, it's 'bout god damn time! that frikking drama been shown everywhere else on the planet but USA. many have recommended it, especially my sis. and i've been scrounging the internet like crazy for it, wanting desperately to catch if but a glimpse of any of its episode, and i've gotten nada. no nothing nowhere nuh-uh. so i merely managed to content my heart with just listening to its OST (many good songs!).

azntv season premiere of "full house," today at 1:30pm.

eeeeeeeeeeeeee can't wait!!!!

my lovely samsoon

on the bright side of this otherwise otherworldly boring day...

it's the final episode today of "my lovely samsoon" on azntv. i am truly going to miss this quirky funny little drama.

the gist of the series is this: she's loud. she hates her name. she yells and curses. she eats like she's never seen food. and she's depressed. on christmas, she got fired from her job. she got dumped by her bf the same night. yet she have a heart as big as the world. and this is us watching her come back.

samsoon (aka "my name is kim sam soon" in other parts of the world) got me hooked from the very first episode. it's freakin' hilarious, yet wholeheartedly touching at the same time. every episode always has at least one screaminglaugh-out-loud moment. and the rest to the time you'll find yourself rooting for samsoon. the drama has very good writing, and good acting too boot, especially by actress kim sun-ah who plays samsoon. no wonder the drama got the highest 2006 viewership rating.

and it has an excellent OST too, tons of good songs. you should get it.

bored

labor day holiday.

did nothing these three-day weekend but stayed home watch tv sleep.
am truly amazingly insanely superduperly bored to my nutsssss!!

september

i was bothered today by something i-dunno-what which felt very curiously annoying. it was as if a burr there by the side of my brain, itching and poking me. it was a feeling of something very eeriely familiar, something yet i can't seem to quite place a finger on. i racked my mind for three days now trying to figure it out, and was stumped.

then, i remembered:
it's september.



it's september...

and you-know-what is coming up.

... seriously, i'd feel a lot better not remembering it, don't mind telling you that.
don't need help, no thank you, but it does make feel kerepot old already.

update ii

forgot to mention this:

i'm at a different apartment now. i actually was at two other places before this. (that's how long now i've realized i haven't been writing in this blog.) when i last wrote, i was staying at the UIC area. loved that place, but opted to not renew the lease coz my other two housemates could not be civilized to one another. then moved into my friend's (and his family's) place for a couple of months because i couldn't find an apartment to my liking. later did, and rented in cicero township for about a year. it was a one-bedroom apartment, very boring, very quiet, very slow services. (could not get internet wired into my apartment, despite my constant asking; one reason why i didn't get to blog at all.)

finally had enough, and decided to find a place with housemates for a change. and decided to come back to UIC area coz it's a nice neighborhood. and close to downtown.

and, boy, am i glad to find this one. it's a six-room house, HOUSE!, with front gates and front porch and a cute little flower garden. it has a hugeeee backporch, enough for maybe fifteen people to linger around and party. inside's fully carpeted, everything's newly remodeled, with alarm system, centralized digital heating/cooling, two full bathrooms, and a laundry+dryer room. in the living room we have big comfy sofas, and BAD-ASS superduperbig-screen hdtv set. in the kitchen we have ultra modern stove, ultra-modern fridge, and complete with microwave and dishwasher. ample cabinets all around.

all this for much less rent that i've had before, and it already includes all the utility bills and cabletv and internet and etc and etc.

goodness me, i loooove this place!

and i have the COOLEST housemates ever!

they're college students, all. so i am waaaayyy older than any of them. but, since now living with college kids, i am back to being hollered to as "dudeee..." and "yo bro!" and "my mannnn!!" hikhik. loving it!

one of my housemates is the son of the landlord. polish name, lots of alphabets so i won't even try to spell it. having him in the house means he takes care of everything. which is good, because i'm really at the point in my life where i couldn't care less about who should take out the trash or clean the kitchen or scrub the bathtub or something like that. but being the oldest-est of the bunch, i help around as much as i could. i tidy up the place, sweep the floor, wipe the table, load the dishwasher, whatever else. my housemate is grateful, and i'm only glad to contribute.

they are all very quiet, my housemates, which is very odd for college students. i would've expected weekend beer parties and loud activities constantly, but no nothing there. not that i'd mind much, really. but my housemates, wow, they studied A LOT. and i mean a lot! i don't even remember studying THIS much when i was in college. jeez-louiseee, it's probably a medical student thing.

they asked how old i was. and i told them. you should've seen their astonished faces.
- really??, they said.
-yeahhh how old did you think i was??
-like, 26 dude!

hee! *flatteredddddd*

update

also:

i don't know much yet but i will definitely not try to post frequently in this blog this time, so help me god.

i've written some before, but never bothered to publish it here for whatever reasons. so once in a while if you find yourself reading something that's aged and a bit sour-old, please don't mind it much.

now, news update on me? nothing new here. older-er, for sure.
still no gf. still hasn't dated.
i have a different job now, not anymore at USAToday. i make more money, more that i know what to do with, although godhonestly i think i should've been paid more.
still no career.

and no, still not an inkling of any desire to come back home.
still absolutely refuse to step on the same soil, or breathe the same air, as her.

no komen

new ground rules:

i've gotten some idiotic gutless anonymous comments previously therefore there shall be no more comments for you people out there. so quit your jibby-jabbah. got something to say now, heh punks? huh? HUH??


...well, ok, you can email me...

resumption of service

i hereby proclaim this blog to now recommence.
stay tuned.