Missing the Good Old Days

I recently gave a ( not half bad ) oral presentation in front of my class about Australia, or more specifically, my four years of experience in the aforementioned country. Anyone who knows me at all will know that I went to Australia ( an awesome country, by the way ). If you don't, then get off my blog you weirdo. Half the time there I talked about the school system in Australia. It really is true that you never know what you've got until it's gone; I hated school ( who doesn't? ) in Australia, and I thought that it was bad until I got back to Malaysia and realized just how bad it could be.

And the answer is: very. Many of you won't know this, some of you will disagree, but that's because you haven't seen the light. You haven't seen how a proper, effective school system that doesn't have students killing themselves ( literally, I've read news articles about it ) over exam results is like. Well I have. And it works, a hell of a lot better than this. It may sound like I'm trying to criticize and point fingers here, and that's because that's exactly what I'm doing. It's hard not to think about Australia when I realize just how much I've left behind.

I almost left behind my entire life, save for my family. My school, my friends, my home, all the places I'd been, and the hopes of all the places I'd wanted to go. Man, this oral test has reminded me of what was, and what could've been. All my friends, most of whom I'm likely never to see again. I'm starting to regret leaving; although I didn't really have a choice. There isn't much I wouldn't give up to go back there, except my computer and my friends. Well, some of them, anyway.

Slumdogs, Love Stories and Exams

Having recently watched Slumdog Millionaire, I feel an inclination to tell you about it. For those of you who don't know, it's a film about an Indian "slumdog" who enters a quiz show, wins 20,000,000 rupees and how events in his extraordinarily appalling life provide the answers for each of the questions. It also was the show that ate the Oscars, winning eight out of the ten Academy Awards which it was nominated for. Which means like, you should watch it. I was actually going to watch Valkyrie that day, but I guess I'll have to save that for later.

Next, I've heard the song Love Story, the song that Shaun has so prominently posted on his blog, five days in a row now. Hmmm. I don't even listen to the radio that much, the only time being when I'm in a car. One thing I fing funny about it though, is that, for those of you who don't know, Romeo and Juliet both commited suicide. One hell of a love story. Just sayin'. Anyway, it's stuck in my head now, and I'll keep bashing it until it flies out.

Lastly are the exams in all their hideous glory. I remember a time ( Australia ) when school wasn't solely about exams, that instead of exams being at the centre, and the studying being there to help with them; the learning was at the centre, and exams were almost non-existent, only ever there to simply test your current mastery of a certain subject. Instead of say, madly forcing you to get a frankly ridiculous string of "A"s ( the average score of any sane exam is meant to be a "C" or a "D" anyway ). Another thing that goes hand-in-hand with the exams is my English oral test, which I have seen a rather large portion of my class do appalingly bad. Wish me luck!

Spy Extraordinaire

With Mirror's Edge completed, Far Cry 2 too long and drawn out for me to care about it anymore, and Company of Heroes saved for my likely skirmish with Brandon in 1 Utama tomorrow, I have since devoted my entire gaming time to Team Fortress 2, specifically the Spy class. Team Fortress 2 is a class-based multiplayer shooter, of which the most interesting class by far is The Spy. A Spies' main weapon is his butterfly knife, but his true power comes in what he can do. He can momentarily render himself invisible the sneak into the enemy base.

Then, he disguises himself as any class of the opposing team. Then, when an unsuspecting victim walks by, he grabs his knife and shivs him in the back for a one-hit-kill backstab. A good Spy can slip flawlessly between the enemy ranks, backstab their most crucial players, stop an offensive in it's tracks, and cripple the most powerful defense. A Spy like me however, gets set on fire, shot at, exploded, bludgeoned, sniped and even backstabbed by other spies at every turn.

I thought I was doing almost okay, with a near 1:1 kill ratio ( yeah, okay, laugh ) until I saw OMFGNinja's Advanced Spy Tutorial. Search it if you want, that guy must have been born with a knife in his hand. In the real world meanwhile, on the bus, I've been making Shaun and Jezzey laugh to the point of tears two or three days in a row now. I'm gonna try and do it again today, just for fun. I also finally ended up listening to Love Story; a song that Shaun has posted quite clearly on his blog of super emo death.

The problem with love stories though, is that's they're just stories. Just ask every movie star in the world. And then ask Michael Jackson. One last thing, I have an English oral test coming up, and I've no idea what I'm gonna talk abbout, so if you could give me a topic that is politically correct to say in front of a classroom that I happen to have a ridiculously deep understanding of, that would be great.

For the Sake of It

I'm seriously just posting for the sake of it now. I don't really have anything that I've been burning to share to the world like a piece of butter being spread onto a jaded slice of bread ( or toast, if that's what you're into ). So I'll just make this off the top of my head. The first thing that comes to mind is Valentine's Day, on which we had SCHOOL which makes me want to asplode. I didn't really do much, but Weng Yan gave this rose thingy that opens up and has a bloody ring inside of it, which probably cost a fortune ( maybe thirty bucks ).

I myself didn't do much, I wrote a comic, but considering that I'd normally do that for no reason at all, it's not much. Next thing that comes to mind is that I watched Bee Movie yesterday night. It was OK. Yawn. However, there was one specific song in the soundtrack that I really liked for some reason. If you can figure it out, I'll give you a free cookie ( that is, if you happen to be right next to me at the time, and I also happen to be holding a cookie in my hand ). I also went to Atria after church, along with Brandon, and had Nando's.

Yum. The thing is, though, is that we got a table with three seats and it was only the two of us, so I said to Brandon that if anyone we knew walked by, then we'd invite them to eat with us. Then Shaun came out of nowhere and walked right in front of our table. Seriously. We had some fun, and Brandon had the amazing idea of pouring a ridiculous amount of Nando's Garlic Sauce into his Sprite. Suffice to say, it was the single worst drink I had tasted in years, if not my whole life. Well, that's about all that comes to mind, so 'till next time.

Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge, a game I recently bought for 25 bucks. It's about free-running, or parkour, as some of you may know it, typically running away from bad guys with guns. I've said this all before, but now there's one important difference: it actually works now. Why, I don't know. After crashing five times in a row, it suddenly decided to work without a hitch ( I hope ). Maybe it just gave up when it realized I wasn't going to stop trying. Oh well. But one thing's for sure, it's great. And on top of that, I've been having a string of particularly humiliating defeats in Team Fortress 2, so this is the perfect time-filler.

I'm not going to give up on Team Fortress 2, I'll juts play it after Mirror's Edge, which means I'll continue sharpening with that fish. I'm guessing about 90% of you guys won't understand a single word of what I've just said, so I'll switch the subject. Valentine's Day seems to be upon us, although the mood would be anything but exciting; in fact, each day seems more boring, more monotonous than the last. Oh well. On top of that, as far as I know, Valentine's Day was to commemorate the decapitation of someone, either that or gunning down of a man by gangsters. If so, well, Happy Valentine's Day.

On and On

The grind is officially grindier then ever. I'm at the end of a three day weekend, but that too is being rendered moot by the fact that this Saturday is a school day. Oh, the humanity. On top of that, Mirror's Edge still doesn't work; I've tried reinstalling my graphics drivers, and I still can't for the life of me figure how to fix it, or even why it's not working in the first place. One thing's for sure, if I can't figure out how, then that's 25 bucks down the ever larger drain of doom.

On the bright side however, Team Fortress 2 is better than ever, and that's all I really need anyway. I find myself shunning all the time I used to invest in other games just to squeeze out that one extra minute of Team Fortress 2 game time. Just as well, as I spent 150 bucks on the thing. I am, also slowly but ( hopefully ) ever-so-surely advancing my skills, especially in the Spy area. It's kinda like sharpening a knife by rubbing it against a fish; it's probably going to get the job done eventually, but not in a very timely fashion. Until then, I guess.

Aftermath

I now seem to be in what I can only describe as the aftermath of the holidays. Now you'd think that something that good wouldn't have any bad repercussions, but just as I said that the chocolate bar tastes sweeter than ever after a meal of dirt, so does the dirt tastes crappier, blander and more of a chore to have forced down your throat now that you've once again experienced the joy of tasting true greatness. I am, however, slowly sinking back into the grind, and the holidays will soon be a distant memory, drowned by incessant homework.

Oh well, I can always look forward to the next one. Some things have changed, however. I have never, ever been elected ( as far as I recall - which is hard to determine given how much my mind has decided to suppress ) for any position of any significant importance in any class. But now, it seems, thanks to Jagdev and 15 others ( how'd I get that many enemies? ), I am now the vice president of ICTL class, of all things. Oh well, at least I didn't become the president ( a title held by Elaine, meaning I can just push everything on her ).

And whatever. I also during the holidays had a Call of Duty 4 match with Jezzey ( *twitch* ), Der Cheng ( I think that's how you spell it ), Shaun and Brandon. I got second, but Jezzey cheated his ass off, then denied it, so that doesn't count. Next I also had a Team Fortress 2 marathon with Aaron and Jun Yee ( on the same day, by some freak coincidence ) which was OK, except for the fact that they kept screwing up the chatbox. I also bought Mirror's Edge, a game about free-running, or as some of you may know it, parkour. It hasn't been able to work so far, but I've been told to get new video drivers, which have just finished downloading. Adios.