birthday post

too fast too furious too bloody boring tokyo drift(ing to sleep)
have you seen this lame excuse for a movie?
other than a cameo by vin diesel at the very end, its a disgrace to the celluloid its been filmed on.
just make some stuff clear; the girl looks nothing like shiren. unless she fancies herself as a square-jawed, lollipop-head, cant act to chew gum, piece of movie floss. do you, fred?
she was totally unnecessary to the plot. i am ashamed to share the same name as her, even just phonetically. (Neela vs Neila)
the lead actor sucks, surely theres some height requirement to star in a movie, surely he's too short.
the car/chase sequence are old and suprisingly uninteresting.
serves me right to expect anything outta a movie like this. a sequel to a sequel, to boot.
but to defend myself, the first installment of this franchaise was at least entertaining.
and i didnt hate the second one as much. both prior movies with their elaborate car chase sequence at least didnt bore me to tears, asamatteroffact, i was looking forward to their distinctive super-cars on the road, massively digitized kejar mengejar car stunts.
of which tokyo drift failed miserably to deliver.
other than the vegas flashy cars that they continously wrecked, this third movie has piss-weak plots. i mean, japanese mobs? oi pleasela. the stench of burnt rubber emanates strongly throughout the whole movie.
a waste of (company) bandwidth and (company) laptop memory space.

in memory; Steve 'The Crocodile Hunter' Irwin
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/04/australia.irwin/index.html
dead at 44. there was a joke that went on last year that he died too. apparently this time its for real (CNN says so, so surely). he was stung by a stingray and is survived by wife terri, daughter bindi and baby bob. i am explicitly sadden by this news. his death means a lot more than a loss of a great australia naturalist and an adorable father to his kids, but i frankly admired the work he's done for the animals and above all stood in awe of his apparent love and the connections he shares with all animals. one can only dream of being that gifted.
however, i do realised this would be the way Steve-O would want to go. for someone of this greatness, to die in such a way is somewhat fitting, if not ironic. made me think that if i would die falling down after slipping on scrabble tiles and fracturing my skull on the book rack. but he died doing what he loves and not everyone can have that. here's to the incomparable Crocodile Hunter!

the day i was literally afraid for my life
i was on closing shift at starbucks last merdeka eve and i believe had my first brush with death. the store, being located between bukit bintang and klcc was swarmed by (malay) teenagers out to celebrate merdeka as early as 8pm. the standard chartered building my starbucks is at boasts of a courtyard with fountains and that night the whole courtyard was completely populated by kids of questionable moral. i assume this (their moral) from their colorful garbs and hair-do as well from their conduct that said night (looks like a duck, acts like a duck, runs with other ducks, must be a duck).

although the store business hours are to 9pm, another more street-savvy barista was wise enough to lock the doors leading to the courtyard as early as 730pm; which basically saved our lives. as the crowd grew more rowdy from the booze they were clearly chugging and glue they were clearly snorting, i lost count to the number of time they actually came up to the door and roughly rattle the handle, screaming to be let in. and later screaming at us (who is in plain sight thanks to the glass walls. snort) to let them buy drinks. i was scared, yet strangely entranced by watching the (mis)behavior of my country's proud, blessed younger generation, out to celebrate the independence of their country.

since it was the end of the month, the managers need to do some auditing that requires us to stay back a bit late. the partners switched off the store's light and watch the fiesta continues outside the door.

there was a guy in a kilt, with an elaborate punk spiked hair. unfortunately, it wasnt a kilt-kilt like the braveheart kilt. what he had on was a skirt, in checked pattern. wonder if he knew that. there was more than one girl wearing tudung smoking and drinking and snorting and being sexually liberated with their boyfriend. one was even liberated of her bra (yes, all this in plain sight)
i watched first hand as a drug of indeterminate name was being sold to a boy who looks no younger than my older brother. i was told it was possibly Ecstasy. i watched how two skimpily clad goth girls bought 3 large bottles of whisky from the nearby 7-11 and transferred it into separate bottles of Coke or Sprite for friends to drinks. i guess they were kind enough to buy everyone a round and apparently you can get arrested if the cops catch you holding a bottle of alcoholic beverage hence the dupe pop bottles. even with zero personal knowledge of booze drinking i know that it was some hardcore drinking going on, since everyone was chugging on the drinks straight up and admirably able to hold it.

around 10, the barista boys decided to step out for a smoke. i stayed in my observatory spot behind the counter as they unlocked the front door and sat on the stacked chairs nearby to smoke. 1 minute later i saw a group of punk/goth kids striding up to the door and i seriously panicked cause i cant remember if the barista boys locked the door after them when they went out. shit. i already figured that i would run upstairs to the managers office, lock the door and escape via the air vents a la prison break riot if the punks come in and riot.
thankfully the barista boys did lock the door. whew. didnt stop from the punk kids to gegar gegar the door a couple of times and screamed at the door though. retards.

later, i watched as a gang fight broke out between the groups. i turned violent when some guys started chasing some other guys with belts and punching each other. i saw a guy stumbled and fell, his friend picked him up and lay him next to the fountain. we thought he was high on drugs and perhaps ODing. i was all, "is he dead? is he dead? he's dead?" but unfortunately he was just wounded from the fight and the friend was there administering druggie first aid (take bandanna, soak in stagnant fountain water, wipe blood from friend with wet bandanna) he injured guy was up and running aroung in no time.

i left soon after (the building's security guards escorted us to the car park) but i was thoroughly entertained watching kids get high, get drunk, get sick, get laid, get beaten, get creative and get enterprising all in one night. and all in the name of 'menyambut kemerdekaan negara yang ke-49'

license to drive
am getting a hang of driving pretty well. i've drove at night, during a storm, paid my very first toll, ran 2 red lights already and got a summon for illegal parking. proud. even went all the way to KLCC for a wedding last sunday all by my happy self. yay for me. but everytime i take a corner or a bend the only thing that came to mind is "hurtling". but its all good. that red P sign on the shield means i get to drive like a maniac and take a bend at 50 kmph. muahahahaha.

happy birthday!
yay to me! am 23 today. thanks for the wishes. i cant believe im this old (and still single, fat and poor). but im happy and i have a lot to be grateful for. happy upcoming birthday ida and khairul. join the 23'ers bandwagon! woot.