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.