Friday, May 23, 2008

A Day Out with Kentaroh

Most of my Fridays over here in Kamloops will be occupied with dinner and gathering with my usual hang out friends. Sad to say, today didn't appear to be any of my regular Fridays as most of my friends had their own plans. Cindy, one of my Hong Kong friends was invited by her Hong Kong friends over for a drinking party while Maaya, my Japanese buddy had to attend her friend's hip hop concert. It so happened that my Korean roommate was away in Vancouver until this coming Sunday, so I decided to volunteered my place for my usual friends to party and make lots of noise; but seeing that most of them had plans of their own, such rare opportunity was wasted down the drain. Fortunately for me, today wasn't as boring and dull as I feared it would be when Kentaroh, one of my Japanese friends took the effort to hang out with me.

At first, I never thought about asking Kentaroh over to hang out with me since Maaya reminded me once that Kentaroh is always busy. Just this morning, I wondered how I was going to ensure that today will be a good day. I had plans to study my dreadful Statistics today but I never thought about studying the whole day as I knew it would be so lifeless. A chapter of Statistics will do fine today but knowing that a chapter wouldn't occupy the entire day, I had to figure out how to fill my remnants of the day. Knowing that walking might give me some ideas, I decided to stroll my way to the university's computer lab which was located not far away from my residence.

On the way to the computer lab, I bumped into Maaya's new roommate from China. Bei Di is her name and she's a year younger than me; I happened to know her at the beginning of this summer semester at a dinner gathering organized by Maaya. After exchanging greeting, she asked me where was I going. I briefly told her that I was on my way to the computer lab and since she took the effort to fired up a conversation with me, I was tempted to ask her out for dinner today. On the other hand, after realizing that there's a Chinese guy who's always hanging out with her (which she always regard as just a mere friend), I decided to drop my intention of asking her out for dinner as I didn't want to be a "thorn" in the potenial courtship between Bei Di and this guy who's always hanging out with her. So after exchanging good bye, I continued my way to the computer lab.

At the computer lab, I fired up a computer before checking my mail and updates on Facebook. I then logged onto Meebo's MSN Messenger to see who was online. It so happened that Kentaroh was online so I decided to say "hi" to him as we haven't seen each other for a while. Although I knew that he is usually busy, I still decided to ask him whether he was free to hang out with me today. 3 minutes later there was no reply from him so I thought, there goes my Friday all by myself. Fortunately for me, things didn't turn out the way I fret it would be; Kentaroh eventually agreed and he told me that he will drop by at my place at 3:30pm today. Joyfully, I told him that I will be looking forward to seeing him later before I logged off Meebo. I left the computer lab and returned to my apartment to begin my studies for Statistics.

As 3:30pm arrived, I went down to the lobby of my apartment and waited patiently for Kentaroh's arrival. I had my Statistics text book with me, so I decided to read while I waited for him as I thought time waits for no man. 10 minutes later, he arrived and we greeted each other. He was curious about what I was reading so I immediately showed him my Statistics text book. Realizing that Kentaroh is a 4th year business student who was graduating very soon, I asked him a couple of 2nd year probability questions which I had problems solving. Fortunately for me, he solved my problems and at the end of his brief tutoring; I realised how careless am I not to notice the little details he pointed out which I ridiculously missed. After finishing my Statistics, I went up to my room to leave my book behind before the both of us headed for the nearest bus stop.

We took a bus ride to downtown mainly to visit this video store which rumored to have very rare international movies on its shelves. I was looking for a new movie (shown last December) about the Chinese civil war entitled Assembly and I was hoping that this video store has it. Unfortunately, the shop keeper regretfully said that there is no title in his stock. However, I still insisted on getting the movie as I wanted to watch it badly, so I asked the shopkeeper whether he could place an order for me. Fortunately, the shop keeper said he could make a few calls to get a copy of the movie I wanted. After giving him my name and my phone number, I thank the shopkeeper before Kentaroh and I left the video store.

Our next visit at downtown was an electrical appliances shop which was located not far away from the video store. Kentaroh wanted to get a digital camera, so I accompanied him to the electrical appliances store. While he was browsing for his digital camera, I was at the High Definition (HD) TV section checking out prices for a HD TV. I thought about getting a small HD TV for my Play Station 3 but after a lay down of prices on an average HD TV by the sales man, I know I had to pray for the sky to rain money if I wanted to get a HD TV. I then asked the shopkeeper at the store regarding my investment on a Blu Ray movie for a standard telivision set only to be told off that it wouldn't be a wise investment. Unless I had a HD TV with me, I wouldn't be enjoying the high definition video quality and great sound quality of the Blu Ray movie. Kentaroh wasn't happy with the variety of digital camera offered at this store, so we left shortly.

As the day was getting late, we decided to go for dinner. Mexican food was on our mind for dinner, so we visited my favourite Mexican restaurant in downtown: El Mariachi. It has been a while since I visited this restaurant and my visit today surprised me a little when I noticed they had new staffs running the restaurant. The staffs at the restaurant weren't the only change I noticed but also the food price. Frustrated to know that my usual dish just sky rocket by $4, I felt reluctant to come back again to this restaurant. The dissapointment didn't end there when I was told that the hot Mexican waitress who happened to be my favourite server was not working there anymore. I was tempted to change place for dinner but since one of the waitresses handed me a menu waiting for my order, I thought it would be rude to just walk out. Eventually I had my dinner over there and I ended up paying more than before. Well, at least the meal was still good and I thought it was slightly better than usual; so I guess it wasn't so bad after all.

After dinner, Kentaroh and I visited the park next to Thompson Rivers. Before that, we got ourself a cone of ice cream from the dessert store not far away from the river. Over there , we took a seat on one of the few benches in the park, enjoying the beautiful scenery of Thompson Rivers while feasting on our ice cream. There were a dozen of ducks wondering near the river and Kentaroh was tempted to catch one of them. Kentaroh wanted to lure one of the ducks with my ice cream but seeing that was my ice cream he was using as bait, I rejected his suggestion. We were observing the interaction between the ducks only to be interrupted by a speeding cyclist who ran through the ducks violently. Despite witnessing such ruthless behavior, we couldn't help but to laugh at the way the ducks avoided the cyclist desperately. When we finished our ice cream, Kentaroh taught me how to bounce a pebble on the surface of the river. Initially I had difficulty sending the pebble bouncing through the surface of the river but after a few tips and advice from Kentaroh, I managed to pull it off. After a few minutes of stone throwing, we left the park and headed home via bus.

Fortunately, today wasn't as boring and dull as I feared it would be when Kentaroh, one of my Japanese friends decided to hang out with me. As mentioned earlier, Kentaroh is going to graduate very soon which I couldn't be any happier for him. At the same time, it's also hard for me to know that he's graduating soon as I will be missing a good friend. All I can do right now, is to spend as much time with him before he graduates and return to Japan.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

It's been a While but I'm Back

It's been a while since I last blog. If I'm not mistaken, it's almost a month or maybe even more since I left my blog all by herself. Honestly, I've been slightly lazy to share what has been going on in my life recently but I'm not totally to be blame for as sometimes it can be discouraging to blog when there are spammers sending rubbish to my comment box or worst still, anonymous assholes whom "flame" my comment box if they are unhappy about what I post. Just in case you're wondering why all of your comments require approval recently, its because of what I've just said seconds ago; spammers and anonymous "flaming" assholes. Another reason why I've neglected my blog for quite some time can also be explained by the typical busy university life that I've been undergoing the past few months which revolve around studying and also playing (maybe too much of the latter). However, the biggest reason that explains my absenty from the virtual space of my blog is because of my unlucky fate which costed me my laptop. How did my laptop ended up broken? I'll narrate the tale later on in this post. I'm sure some of you might be wondering what prompted me to return to my neglected blog after a long time. Well, it alll happened today when I logged onto my Facebook only to discover that I got a message from a complete stranger who wanted to know me all because of my blog. I guess she read one of my posts on the blog which somehow interest her to know more about me. Knowing that if a complete stranger even bother to read my blog, most of my friends would most probably keep up with my blog from time to time. Since I realised that it wouldn't be nice to dissapoint my friends who visit my blog frequently only to find out that there is no new posting, I've decided to continue blogging. So here am I back on "What's on Shenji's Mind". Just in case you're wondering how am I while I was "away", I had my ups and downs for the past few months but nevertheless I'm doing alright so far (could be better though...).

Shortly after the date of my latest post, I visited Kelowna for the first time ever with my usual hang out friends. Kelowna is also another small town not far away from Kamloops. It was only a day trip on the other hand, the visit was surprisingly not bad given that our climatical (and only...) itinery for our visit was this big shopping mall which was bigger than the one over here in Kamloops. The girls were hyped about shopping which I can't really blame them seeing that there are more variety of goods to shop over there in Kelowna's shopping mall compared to the one in Kamloops. Instead of following them around, looking at them spending their green bills on clothes and accessory hoping to "upgrade" their "display', I visited Kelowna's Chapters, which is a chain book store. Although there is also a Chapters outlet over here in Kamloops, the one in Kelowna is way bigger with a better variety of books. So while the girls were shopping for the clothes, I was browsing different books in Chapters mostly about political issues. We spent nearly 5 hours in the shopping mall which I thought was a waste of time seeing that we could visit other intresting places over there in Kelowna, but seeing that I manage to indulge myself with books for a long period of time in the bookstore, our visit wasn't so bad after all.

It was shortly after my visit to Kelowna did my laptop started to demonstrated symptoms of permanent malfunction. My Ben Q laptop frequently restarted automatically whenever I was running any computer program. It wasn't long until one day that it just "died" off when I couldn't turn on the laptop ( yes James, I had my laptop battery intact and my laptop was connected to a electric socket when I tried to turn it on...just in case you try to "help" me with my problem). Initially, I was perplexed about the reason behind the "death" of my laptop. Seeing that I was unable to figure it out, I decided to "drop it" and move on with life. The worst part about losing my laptop wasn't the loss of my personal files as I had it backed up on an external hard drive but the fact that I lost my entire writing for my 4th installment of the ficticious Inter Continental Paramilitary Unit (ICPU) series; that just devestated me. I thought I wouldn't survive without my laptop and internet for the next few months, therefore I was deeply worried. My streak of bad luck continued when I discovered after my final exams that my Play Station 3 was also "out of commission" which forced me over the edge. I nearly broke down but instead of whining about my miserable misfortune, I decided to do something about it as I always strictly believe to control my luck instead of having my luck control me. Without wasting any time, I called up Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) the next day and I told them about how dissapointed am I with them regarding the break down of my beloved Play Station 3. Seeing that my video game console was under warranty, SCEA promised me to repair my Play Station 3 free of charge. They told me that they will even pay for my shipping fee but the bad part about it was that I had to wait for a month or more to get my Play Station 3 repaired. Anyway, seeing that it was better than not getting it repaired, I decided to wait patiently for it.

My winter university semester this year was surprisingly great...in terms of academic. What thought to be a streak of bad grades given the fact that I hated Economics and Accounting surprisingly turned out well when I scored A+ for the overall grades for both subjects. I'm not smart as you think I am, in fact I have to admit that I lack of knowledge and I even let stupidity take over me at times, nevertheless I always try to scoop up knowledge especially from books (although I hate them) as I strongly believe that ignorant is mostly not a bliss. The reason why I scored A+ for both the subjects I dread about was mainly because I only took 2 subjects compared to the average students over here which take mostly 5. So this gives me more time to focus on those 2 dreaded subjects. Well if you're thinking that I'm lazy since I only took 2 subjects last semester, you're mostly right. However, another reason why I decided to take up only 2 subjects was also because of the fact that I wouldn't be coming back for my summer holidays this year. Instead, I will be taking up classes during that period so I thought why pressure myself with 5 subjects for one semester when I'll be also taking up summer classes. I thought it would be wise to focus on 2 subjects and score well for them instead of taking on all 5 subjects at the same time with the hope of graduating faster only to do badly for all of it; afterall, my main goal for university is to achieve merit results when I graduate. I'll definitely agree with you if you conclude that I'm lazy, but then again don't you think that I should also receive credits for managing my courses smartly?

Surprisingly with the absence of my laptop, internet and my Play Station, I survived until today. Ironically, life became better without the laptop and the Play Station as I spent more time doing beneficial activities. Usually with the laptop around, I would surf the net mindlessly like a virtual zombie. However, since my laptop is "decommissioned", I started watching CNN more often to know what's happening around the world and to find out who's taking the lead in the 2008 American Presidential election, as an alternative. With my Play Station away, I frequently visited the book store almost on a daily basis and I recently started reading books about World History to learn more about past events which shaped today. I've even signed up for daily kickboxing classes over here in Kamloops as a supplement to my source of entertainment while the Play Station is away. Although it's expensive but nevertheless with the straineous work out and drills, it's worth the money and it's a better alternative than spending most of the time in my room playing video games and becoming unfit.

During the holidays, I visited Vancouver alone mainly for the variety of food which I couldn't get over here in Kamloops. At first, my usual hang out friends were suppose to accompany me for the trip but due to bad planning and last-minute-cancel-the-plan attitude, the trip was called off. Knowing that I had enough with my friends incompetancy and last-minute-cancel-the-plan attitude, I decided to visit Vancouver nevertheless. Lucky for me, James one of my comrades I use to serve with at ICPU (International Canadian Pre University for this case) a couple of years back is currently studying in Vancouver, which makes him the perfect candidate to accompany me during my visit to Vancouver. My visit was just a day trip and both James and I went around Vancouver for food hunting. In the morning, we had Chinese egg tarts together fro breakfast followed by Mexican food for lunch and Singaporean cuisine for dinner ( I was hoping for Malaysian food though...). In between our food hunting, I visited my regular military surplus shop to get myself a police jacket and also a Bruce Lee t-shirt which happened to be on sale that day. As usual, I visited Chapters again with James and we spent a couple of hours reading books there. James was occupied with some book about mythical creatures which happened to be written by a wizard (Oh, come on...) while I was kept busy with a book about Bruce Lee's philosophy on martial arts which James smartly reffered to as "Bruce Lee ism". Seeing that I've been into Bruce Lee lately until the extent of trying to watch all of his movies and even mimicking his battle cries, I eventually bought the book as I thought it would be a helpful tool for my Bruce Lee imitation kit. James didn't buy the book on mythical creatures but he bought a couple of books on magic which was as old as him from another book store. Overall, my trip to Vancouver was fun despite it was just a day trip.

A few days later, my summer semester began. I got myself enrolled in Managerial Economics and Statistics for the 1st session of summer classes (there are 2 sessions for summer semester, each session comprise 6 weeks. It's basically a crash course). Things are not looking too good for me this summer as the subjects I've enrolled do not conform with my expectations, thus throwing me into a volatile position where doing badly is very possible. Furthermore, my bond between my usual hang out friends are not as strong as before mostly because I can hardly talk to them online as I don't have a laptop unlike before. In addition to that, the fact that all of us have different class schedules excarbate the problem. Conversely, I managed to make a new friend this semester; my new Korean roommate introduced me to his Korean girlfriend. She's pretty nice and very generous as she bought me lunch and dinner a couple of times; I'm pretty lucky to know her and I'm hoping we can be good friends soon. Things just got better when I got my Play Station 3 back from SCEA; the machine was working like brand new and I was reunited with my gaming world.On the 2nd week of the summer semester, my usual hang out friends and I visited Vancouver. My good Japanese friend Maaya wanted to get her hair fixed by a proffesional hair stylist that can't be found in Kamloops, so we all follwed her to Vancouver. We stayed there for a night and I managed to introduce James to my friends; however, James was pretty shy, so he didn't talk much to them. It so happened, that Victoria Day was approaching when we visited Vancouver and we managed to witness a convoy of the Canadian army with their Armored Personal Carries and army jeeps preparing for the Victoria Day parade. The 1st sight of soldies and army vehicles appearing on the streets of Vancouver alarmed me with the thought that Vancouver was under state of emergency. I knew that Canada's was once a target for terrorists not to mention that country has been suspected of harboring Al Qaeda operatives, but I didn't expect that they (the terrorists) would strike Canada so soon which triggered the state of emergency. James later calmed me by informing that the presence of Canadian army on the street was solely for the preparation of the Victoria Day parade which was coming very soon. Basically, that wraps up what I've been up to while I was away from my blog.

So here am I back on "What's on Shenji's Mind". Despite not having a laptop with me right now, I will continue blogging and I'll try my best to upload any photos on the university's computer. Hopefully I don't get caught for that by the university staff as they are very sensative to people attaching external hardware to the university's computer. Despite having a difficult beginning for this summer semester, I hope that things will get better and I hope to improve my academic performance like always. For those of you who are wondering when I'll be coming back to Malaysia, it'll be on the August 10th this year. I'll be only back for 3 weeks the most as the main reason of my return is to settle my travelling documents, passport and student visa that are on the verge of expiry. In other words, my return would be for business purpose but hey, I can always slot in a space in between to hang out with you guys. Anyway, mamak will be on me when I come back and I look forward to seeing you guys soon. Keep in touch.