The Best-Guy-Friend's Guide to the Love-alaxy

Don't panic.

Here's a scenario: It happens that your bestfriend just got himself a girl. And she happens to be a mutual friend. Now, the situation just got a little messy and you find yourself forced to adapt to their relationship (you're a guy in this scenario). So let's examine a few hard truths, what you should do (important), what you should NEVER do (extremely important!) and some difficult-to-categorize-together statements.

No. 1 You have lost your bestfriend. Yea, really. He longer calls you because he's busy SMS-ing her. And ooopss, he just forgot to reply your SMS. Also, he no longer seem to logon into MSN Messenger (where the both of you chat about guy stuff).

No. 2 If the girl happens to be a friend who you often chat with, there goes another friend of yours.

No. 3 The reason behind statement No. 2 is that guys are an egoistic and possessive bunch. Truth is, contrary to popular beliefs, guys get jealous easily. By now, you should realise that you must stay away from his girl.

No. 4 Unless absolutely necessary, never talk to his girl. This is an extension from statement No. 3. An absolute no-no is flirting or joking with her because you won't like your eyes to be blue.

No. 5 Unlike before, between the three of you, you're now an outsider who may not be that welcome in every situation. Like the Malays love to say, "Don't disturb the leaves".

No. 6 Avoid making fun of their relationship. That puts a lot of strain into the newly formed and fragile relationship, especially when this is the first for one or both of them. Be considerate.

No. 7 Get yourself busy. Hey, you've just "lost" two of your best friends so don't act as if it doesn't affect you at all. This is a suitable time for you to expand your social network. Talk to others, make new connections.

No. 8 One precaution though -- getting yourself a girlfriend may not be a good decision right now. You may just be feeling desperate or indirectly pressured by your friends "spreading the love around".

No. 9 Don't offer any advice to them. If you're good in those lovey-dovey things, it's your bestfriend who would be reading this now.

No. 10 If you pray, pray for their happiness (and yours too!).

No. 11 Continue to learn and adapt to them... Like me. =P

A short mid-autumn poem

Suppose tonight the moon shall shine the brightest,
Grand feast, beautiful lanterns everywhere,
Yet the overzealous cloud bore too heavy a weight,
And dampened the earth and its spirit.

Oh well... I guess it's in the blood. Chinese scholars like to recite poems during Mid-Autumn festival.

Snapshots III

A book I'm currently reading to get my brain moving.


At Kahan's room. That's her at the back.


While Kahan was out, I robbed one of her stuffed toys with a Swiss army knife.


Actually the robbery was just an imagination.


Oh hey, what if Statue of Liberty holds a Shieldtox instead of the torch? I guess, then all of NYC's mosquitoes will be dead...


Ahh... stupid thoughts of mine.


Understand the subtlety of this post?

Tenom camping trip

Finally I managed to gather our camping photos. Selected a few of them to post here. I hope you have a broadband connection, because I didn't compress the files. It can be slow to load.

Tenom. A nice, peaceful town. Hadn't been there for exactly 3 years... Changed quite a lot from my last visit, and this is how the town looks like now.


Group photo at Yit Foh Coffee Factory. Had FREE coffee testing session. I had 3 cups.


This is what you see when you enter Sabah Agricultural Park. The building right ahead is the Information Centre.


The camp where we slept.


A photo taken during jungle trekking, at an observation gazebo on top of the hill. Cikgu Hisyam, Jiron, Miss Aileen, me.


Found this really nice spot during jungle trekking, I climbed up, and Miss Aileen took the snapshot.


Jiron, Denna, Icha (Clarissa), me, William. The five of us virtually hung together the whole camping.


After a beautiful bamboo forest a la Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, we reach a small lake (or should I call a pond?) with flying fox facility.


A snapshot outside the Bee Museum.


Everyone's getting photographed from the front. So I tried something different...


After the jungle trekking and visit to the Bee Museum, Jiron and I rent bikes and rode around the park with Denna and Icha. Later we regrouped with others, and took a small fancy train that brought us around the park (again...).


Really-really nice...




"Help!!! The big pitcher plant is having me for dinner!"
Actually it was a rubbish bin... I almost put my head in it for the above photo, but common sense prevailed. =)

At Tropical Oriental Garden. Exhausted. Hadn't had a rest since the jungle trekking. So let's sit for while.


After collecting enough info and photos for folio, Jiron and I went back to the camping site, where Denna and Icha were waiting. Why were they waiting? Because... we were going boat-rowing at the lake! William joined us later. I don't think any of us noticed, but the evening sunset was great.

That night, we performed short plays. The performances were sicker than Stephen Chow's movies, and all of us had a great laugh. Just ask Jasmine... Rite, Jasmine? Then it's time to barbeque to fill 60+ hungry stomachs with sausages and chicken wings. If I remember correctly, we stopped barbequing at 12 midnight. Full stomachs. Most went to sleep. We didn't. Guess what we did? Midnight walk on a full moon beside the lake. And so we didn't sleep until about 4 a.m.

I had two hours of sleep before awaken by teacher's whistle. Hastily packed up in semi-consciousness and head to the bus that would take us to the train station 15 km away. The train wasn't leaving till half past 7, so we took the opportunity to go to the pasar to have the famous chu ken noodle for breakfast. I showed the way, Miss Aileen paid for the noodle. Yay!

"KK, we're coming home!" (but this picture was actually taken when we were halted by a minor landslide ahead...)


Oh... I left out much of Day 1's story, didn't I? Well, maybe next time.

I am a Minesweeper freak

Here's my Minesweeper record:

Beginner : 4 seconds
Intermediate : 56 seconds
Expert : 216 seconds

I've not better the times for a long time, which makes me wonder, "Can they get better than these?". What are your Minesweeping times?

Sidewalk art

Ah, blogging on a breezy Sunday evening... What a pleasure. But I would have enjoyed the evening better going out to play golf with Avila. No further words from her yet... Macam kena tipu saja ni -_-...

Anyway, I got these cool images from an e-mail forwarded by Cat. The artist, Julian Beever, produces paintings on street pavements of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. When viewed from the right angle, the deformed paintings form 3D images. Take a look:






















Viewed from the wrong angle, this is how a painting looks like:

The same painting as above, viewed from the correct angle:


So, what do you think?


*Disclaimer: I do not hold the rights to these images, nor I know the original source of these images.