count your blessings!

complaining about the lack of christmas presents this year?

well, blame :
the economy
those who you expected presents from

NO.

Take a look at your life.
If you have food , a roof over your head, and a place to sleep.

you are richer than 75% of the world.

if you have money in the bank , in you wallet , and enough to get you by ,

you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy .


if you woke up this morning ,
with more health than illness,

you are more blessed than the 1 million people who will not survive this week .


if you have never experienced the terror of war, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture , and the pangs of starvation ,

you are ahead of 500 million people .


if you can hold your head high , with a smile on your face , and be truly thankful,
you are blessed , because though the majority can ,

they do not .

if you can read this , you are more blessed than over 2 billion of the world's population
that cannot read at all.


so count your blessings, and have a merry christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

or , EAFMLWE.
hahahah.

anyway , time really flies right.

soon its gonna be 2009 .

*GRDRDGRGGRGRDGRGRGRG*

DRRRILLL.

the 2nd bathroom at home is under renovation ( like, 15 years didn't really change at all.)
at the same time ,hacking the wall to make a door to my room (from bathroom)

for that , i have to clear out my whole bookshelf and cupboard.

clearing out the old tiles in the bathroom , the noise is , grdggrgrggrg . noisy la.
its very dusty . dust hangs in the air . the books i stack in the hall , are kinda dusty now.
run a finger over them and your finger will be a bit gray.

moved everything to the middle room ,
( where i'll be sleeping 2moro night , or when they start work on my room)

also changing the cupboards and table in my room .


weird right , nearing the end of holidays baru start doing-.-



oh, and got plastic sheets in some places to prevent dust from settling on the stuff.
like, virus outbreak . "i am legend" .
the house where the room all drape in plastic.



the pursuit of dustyness.

owning .

okay , my cousin from batu pahat just went back , and so now i have the computer back . :D
if you noticed , i haven't been online for days . and if i'm online, all i do is :

" eh brb , busy "
"gtg , bye"


sorry zoe . LOL .

well these few days , my cousin is "owning" / "dominating" the computer , playing DOTA like , round the clock.

hahaha . i suck in dota btw .
every now and then there will be like ,
" TRIPLE KILL " from the comp . suddenly " OWNING" , or , "WICKED SICK"
then the character(hero) will talk every time u make a move.

"trust in my command. " , " prepare to be mooooonstruck! " << priestess of the moon.

kinda annoying. dwarven sniper is worse. its okay with viper , it just makes funny noises.
haha.

but its okay la. he hardly gets to play ( wonder why my auntie doesn't install internet?)
but still he doesn't skip school to go cybercafe. (unlike some ppl i know :D)


oh and i haven't finished blogging abt my thailand trip. =.=

i have no matches..

i have no matches.

one of the lines from one of the best scenes of " 'Allo 'Allo"

very old sitcom , about the war (nazis) in france. very funny .
showing on okto also , but i've got nothing to do during the holidays , so i watch it on youtube.

ah , my tv has conked out for some reason . ASTRO channels are okay , but not the ordinary channels. i guess there's something wrong with the aerial plug , but when i fiddle with it , sparks fly from the socket next to it .

oh well , the tv's like, 10years old . no, older. yes. hahahahah . ancient-ness. on the normal channels and you get a "shhzhzhahhzhshznhsahahhahahazhzhah" of static .

oh , and there's a constant noise coming from the fish tank , outside , below the window , next to me.

sounds like a bee buzzing . uhh, bees buzzing . well, the tank is ..leaking . so the water level keeps going down and the filter has nothing to suck up and it goes *grdtdgdgdtdgtdgdgdgdgdgtdg*
and its , bloody annoying . so i have to go out and top up the water level.

be right back , i'll go throw the hose in and turn on the tap .


ok back , now , lets talk about hotel 626 . it's an online game , ghost one la. apparently its very scary and yes, it is kinda freaky . but the loading is like, soooo long . meanwhile waiting for the loading , i google "hotel 626 " and read the guide . its a cool game, i passed the level which you take the girl's photo . kinda confusing . take her photo 3 times and she'll go

:O + * cover eyes* + * eyes big big*

wait , i go off the tap , or not the fish will drown .


okay . anyway i gave up playing because the loading jams halfway and there's like, loading music which are heartbeats or dripping taps.

the i was watching allo allo and the colonel and captain stared at each other and there was ,

drip drip drip drip .


what laaa. anyway good luck to those who still play:D

transporter 3 and twilight(finally.)

Finally , I get to watch twilight .
ben, Pavan, justin , and shafiq came along .

Well , before twilight we watched transporter 3.
According to pavan, " tomorrow transporter at 11 ."
So i went at , 10.15 to have breakfast /buy tickets.

Oh yea , ticketing counters don't open at CS till 10.30 yes?

bought the tickets, then went to MPH to browse. Saw benjamin(ashok) and chatted a while.
told him justin would be coming. he's like,
"oh seriously? okay okay ."


for some reason he has a... GRUDGE against him . hmmmm.


:D
Shafiq , Pavan and justin arrived. exchanged CSC stories with perba camp/comp team stories.

I just don't have the commitment to join the comp team have I?


So , ben came late. So we went inside the cinema first . barely seconds after i sat down , ben called.
okay , its always me , isn't it. the kind soul who goes out to pass stragglers their tickets.
hahahah.

transporter 3 was great . its basically about this guy, frank . who's a ... transporter.
like as in, FedEx but for more serious stuff. superb action. its a funny and entertaining movie.

one thing is the actors fit their characters well. you can't go wrong casting robbert knepper
(theodore "bagwell" from prisonbreak) as a bad guy . he's got the bad guy look and is like, natural . just natural at throwing out bag duy lines.

bad guy lines, sry .

the girl in the movie was okay , only that she has...too many freckles. HAHAHHAAH.
i mean, freaking lot . whole face. then halfway in the car she got high on pills and started dancing and acting horny .

many typical transporter scenes , like the jacket coming off during a fight. and pavan was like.
"sure fly off the bridge la. you see la .land on the bladdy train"

ahhahah.

movie ended at around 1.10. twilight was at 1.45 . pavan said it was too tight a schedule.
"watch body of lies la. my brother say damn nice sial."

"what is it about?"

"uhh *open mouth* looks around at the poster*. damn nice one la. thriller"

okay okay , obviously it IS a thriller... okay okay . body of lies it is.
went to summer for lunch . stopped at game shops and looked at games .
"FASTER LA YOU ALL WANNA EAT OR NOT.."

summer is FULL. mcD la. hahahah.
eat already , its 2 pm. a split second decision under certain circumstances , we rushed upstairs and bought tickets for the 1.45 twilight screening .
shafiq ran forward with our tickets. i caught up with him , tore off one, passed it to him .

" run like the wind!"

*kwapinggggg. shafiq's gone*

twilight. twilight . to me it wasn't so great . but it wasn't so bad either.
okay , i agree. edward looks kinda weird. carlisle fits the role but look weird also . hahha.
alice is just like i imagined .

the story doesnt follow the book , but yea its okay . the fight scene was not bad , so was the baseball part . charlie looks weird. when carlisle turned up in the white hospital with his white doctor's coat , i was like,

"AHHHHH WHITENESSSS" *covers eyes*

ben and pavan : "SHUT UP."

and the glittery part was ... uh. *covers face in shame*
james's character casting was suitable.

i give twilight a...3.5 stars.
:D

Causeway Challenge 2008

www.causewayscrabble.com

PICTURESCLICKHEREFORPICTURES

the CSC is now OVER , and i can safely say that it ROCKED.

i gained loads of experience , and learnt new words , like .

DECRIES . courtesy of aganaba matthew . played against dinna.

and cool mnemonics , like front hooks of -OUK

Big Guts Johnny Pokes Scissors Through Yellow Zits .

B, G, J , P , S, T, Y , Z .

and front hooks of -ARE

all the consonants of ,

we are being hypervigilant .

W R B N G H Y P V L T

both courtesy of phillip .

overall i won 13, lost 20 . not very good.

could have won a few more games but i was careless .
learn from mistakes.

took quite a lot of pics. but half of them are in haren's cam . i forgot to bring it that day.
i'll just upload those that i have .

oh yea, and i got to know lots of people too.
most of the youths are going for WYSC , so best of luck!

the 2nd night's gala dinner was interesting . most of the scrabblers sang .
pakorn and jakkrit sang an oldie song , "my way " and changed the lyrics a little like
"from chiang mai , " and "thailand highway. " , about how jakkrit came down to JB.

justin was like , "pakorn!! "


lol .


for some reason we support pakorn . hahah.
i forgot who nicknamed him popcorn .

for the seniors , nigel richards is Nai-kor

phillip hamilton is flips.

pavanjit kept calling tamara "tamade" until he forgot her real name.


during the closing ceremony , michael gave out prizes for like , a certain number of points.

like, a bingo with a 100 points, or 3 letter word worth 10 points.
i got Pictionary Mania for a 5 letter word closest to 50 pts. (TRULY , 52)
michael asked jighere to say a random score .

"78"

the malay guy next to him ran , haren also ran . but the malay guy got the Uno first .
" acctually i was telling Jighere to say 78 , hahahah"

clever , clever . hahah.

then there was the special prizes , eg: high game etc.

"highest spread , 357 , .. "

i was like , "that was my game against , martus, got thrashed .."

"lim mao fong versus martus theodoro , please come up to collect your prize .."

im like , "whatheheck?"

"is he in the room? lim mao fong please come up to collect your prize"

so i got a scrabble scramble , which is like boggle + scrabble.

martus won the causeway challenge, btw . congrats!
david eldar won the master's category . lol!

CSC day ONE .

i'm alive!

yeahhh! day one of the causeway scrabble challenge is OVER .

and i survived , only kinda tired . hahahah.
4 wins 5 losses today .

all the games before lunch , i LOST .
1st game- marctus theodoro jr. (phillipines , 20+ yrs old) . lost by like 350 pts . >_<
2nd - Seshi R. - (malaysian , 50 + i think) lost by 60+ pts.
3rd- Betty Eriksen (NZ 40- 50 yrs old) lost by 100+?
4th- Md.Noorhisham - Sg , 28 yrs , lost by 100+ .

( almost won! i got a nice bingo , GRANITES for 100 pts, nice hooking. but then he got MIRRORED . basket! )

for lunch , we went to Nando 's . pavan and justin were forgotten ( sorry!)
pavan called.
"where you all going"
"nandos"
"alot of money la wanna go nandos"
"you all?"
"eh they go nandos. *justin- crazy ahh."
"what?"
"nevermind, we mamak. '

NANDOS . EAT CHILLI HAVE HORMONES. HAVE HORMONES WILL PLAY.

4 wins in a row after lunch !

bela laginha - AUS , around my age , won by 15 pts i think. very closed board , no oppurtunity.
jerry khoo - MAS , 40-50 , won by 150 pts.
agabana mathew - nigeria 30-40 , won by 150 i think . he wore a pink strip shirt and a cowboy hat , with a buffalo and HAKUNA MATATA on it .

phillip hamilton - aus , arnd my age , won by 7 pts. he got 2 bingoes i had none. hahahah.
but then , i thought the bag was empty . he seemed to be checking the the board for something.
at the end i endgamed with SLAY , PH 301- MF 300 .
added his points , 7 . 308- 301. but then inside the bag, there was one more T.

i felt so bad. i really didnt know . but he said it was his fault cause he didn't check.

still,

dianne ward , AUS , 50-60 i think. lost by 100+ . phoney bingo me.
WOONERS. i didnt challenge. i hooked NASTIER on top to get SWOONERS.


hmmm .


all the best everyone.

CSC 2008

causeway scrabble challenge 2008!

reached there a little after 9 . searched for haren and ben but only found justin and pavan .
they're runners , or basically helpers /officials for the event .

and they get a cool red tag with OFFICIAL on it .
we players get a cool blue one too .

nevermind . anyways ,

today we went to annotate , or observe and record the games . today , the masters begin their 45 matches . we open ppl only begin 2moro .

watching masters play is like , spectacular . there are some who take ages to make a move while some make move after move.

but either way the long move ones always have something up their sleeve.

there's this thai master , Pakorn . 2 times runner up for World Scrabble Championship.
he had STEADI? which he could have done a bingo , DETAINS , STAINED , and many others .
on the upper part of the board .

instead(also a bingo) he tried shuffling his tiles around at the bottom of the board and spent like, minutes thinking.

in the end he used T and A to make JATO . the singapore player , lim li wei, was like ,
"why did you do that??! tell me later okay? "

after that he got new tiles and made CESTOID at the bottom of the board, scoring 10 points less.

why? to keep the board closed and under his control . placing it at the top would open a lot of playing space .
and he OWNED the board and the game . brilliant .
lim was like , but im sure quackle would have put the bingo on top .
pakorn said , quackle is not human . quackle is robot .
hahhaha.

then there was another thai master , taewan . super lucky .
1st move , YTTERBIAS .
2nd move , INFECTORS .
3rd- JUDS . hooked S for INFECTORS .
4th - RENTIER
5th - SENARII .

total pts almost 500. thats not sick , but the bingos in a flash are sick .

then the australian , edward okulicz , did a bingo , FIRELIT .
with a seven tile overlap.



spectacular ! must see to believe!


but i didnt bring my camera =.=

back!

IT IS SO GOOD TO BE BACK !

good to be back home , good to be safe , good to be away from the crisis!

i wasn't really stranded , i just couldnt continue the program ( bangkok - ayutthaya -kanchanaburi)
so i stayed in chiang mai for 3-4 more days ,
and came back a day late .

well , frankly speaking , that's nothing . NOTHING . compared to the plight of the travellers stuck in bangkok , who took trains and buses to everywhere in a desperate attempt to return home .

that's not much compared to those stuck IN the airport itself .
no supplies , no proper accommodation , and the constant tension and fear of the protesters .
fights could break out anytime .

but that , can be considered secure compared to the recent events of terrorism in mumbai , india.
people actually died . 172 deaths , 279 injured .
compared to that , being stranded in an airport is NOTHING .

compared to that ,
stuck in a city which has almost no available airport for a return flight home.

is even less a bother .

and compared to that ,
leaving one day late and being uncertain about the situation of chiang mai's airport .

is nothing . at . all .

anyway i am thankful , that im back . safe. in one piece . and uhh.

in time for the causeway challenge .

argh! i havent trained scrabble in like , 10 days!
i just played a game .

i won . i guess it wont be so bad eh . ahahha.
i'll blog about my trip when im free !