JYSim for jobless-yokel Sim

From the moment I step into CLHS on the 16th of May I knew I’d go through another memorable schooling experience. I came to appreciate the scholarly environment and how easy it is to forge friendships in school nearing the end of Form 5, then which I grieved because firstly, the future is bleak at the moment (when you have exams looming ahead the future is always bleak), and secondly, I’d lose contact with a lot of friends which is like the back of my hands to me back then. Of course, sometimes names can’t really stick in my head, but I’d always bear in mind your faces, actions and gestures.
So, back to Form 6, the first few days were, certainly, a struggle as we get to know the opposite sex from the another school, which was like aliens to us since we had been disconnected from girls 5 years ago. (The following will be a totally honest account): As I listened to seniors describing how hard it would be to go through Form 6 (of course at the end of the day they’ll assure you that it’s an enriching and rewarding experience if you study regularly, do group studies, listens attentively, yada yada yada)  and how a slight hiccup would mess up your golden ticket to U, I was (blush) relieved as I was, back then, bound for JPA. Nevertheless, I wasn’t so evil hearted as to smirk contentedly and sending prayers like ‘Thank God cos I’m not in Form 6!’ (I swear I never did that).
Then came the holiday that changed my perspective of life. If ‘A’ is Jun Yi’s thoughts during March 2006 (JPA is heaven, JPA is God etc), and ‘B’ is that of June 2006, then we can conclude that the change is not a transformation but a trasfiguration in total.
So I made another atypical choice during the holidays, which is not the first since I dropped ASEAN 3 years back, and was terribly denounced for it. And since I’d have nothing to do for the following 3 months, I decided to go back to school since - 1. I actually liked the schooling environment, and 2. Even wonder how it’s like to go to school but don’t really put all your efforts into studying?
However, the hardworking Jun Yi inside me still motivates me to work hard at times. To the hardworking part, even if you’re staying for a day or a year, as long as you’re staying, you’re equal to your other classmates and you should pay equal attention to lessons and do the equal amount of work as well as work equally hard. At times it’s so gloomy it got depressing, and I felt like giving up and stop schooling there and then.
I never regretted my decision till now, except that my classmates put a lot of effort into sending me off, and I felt they should instead study hard and just do something simple (or nothing at all would be alright too).
June and July passed so quickly before I make myself comfortable in class. My classmates were absolutely great people, which I soon learnt, and although some teachers were lame and hypnotic, others were great. However, following them through a whole lesson will eat up a lot of mental stamina and you’d better come prepared before she starts rifling on the LCD projector. The best part about Form 6 is the free periods. Hail to those who invented free periods for 6th Formers! Instead of the recommended ’self-studying’, we talked, read the newspapers, discussed class activities and played pranks on each other (such as undressing a helpless Jun Yi). This, I later learnt, is in another way beneficial such that communicating keeps you sane while you’re being drilled by chemistry equations and biological terms back home.
There were also incidents (and sequences of events) I remember vividly and will try to continue to remember, such as me contracting bronchitis which resulted me being dumped from the choir, such as I’m so lucky as to spot a large locus in the backyard I caught for our insectarium the following day, such as throwing a tantrum just because the math questions are out-of-syllabus, such as the Rafflesia joke, and such as promoting MAS rapidly.
Good times don’t come without the equal share of hard and difficult times. I went through events which I matured from them eventually, such as the issue of friendship, Mum-and-Dad issues and study plans. In contrast to what I experienced in Form 5, I came to know that you can rely on friends and it will be a great relieve if you just share your problems.
Let me honestly tell you that daily lessons in Form 6 can be a drag at times when you have chemistry or math. However, at the end of the day, when you’re driving home or walking along the sunny pavements leading to the car park, your mind goes ‘hey, this is another meaningful day spent in school because…(everybody has their own personalised reasons)’.
Nevertheless, as AFS says ‘ expect the unexpected’, I came into Form 6 expecting some knowledge to at least base me for U, but ended up having a bunch of great friends at the end of the day. I’m very sincerely touched by what they did for me, as well as what we did together as a whole. Though our class’ MUET is not on-par (partly due to the paper’s fault as well), if there’s some prizes like ‘best class of 2006′, it would definitely end up in our hands. Whether it’s the democracy shared between all of us, or the spirit of unity, it’s a special bond that is certainly extraordinary.
I went through heartbreaking farewells during my stay in Italy and I can say this will be the saddest yet. That’s why I should once again repeat, bearing no offence though, that if it’s not possible, please do not go through the trouble to present yourself at the airport. I know your blessings by heart and I sincerely thank God for making Jun Yi such a blessed person. At times I felt I’m indepted to you guys because of your good deeds and kind blessings. Of course I’ll not cry to show it (which I also did not do in Italy), but it will be so well-remembered that whenever I reminiscise about it, a sweet feeling arises and your mind just goes off for that particular moment.
Thank you for making my days in Form 6 worth more than the 3 months. And I feel like being the exchange student again.
Postscript: Exchange students come into class drawing a lot of attention, even though sometimes it’s unintended, and they kept the attention while they’re there. Bullies will try to ’settle’ them, friendly classmates will talk to them and forge friendships, and teachers will do whatever way to make him hand up the last piece of assignment before leaving. Lastly, the exchange student draws a even larger attention when he’s leaving, which is bad at times because he might be so sad he’ll break up and cry all the way on the flight.
I’d like to enjoy my 4 hours on the plane, so please don’t do anything to make the nerd cry onboard a plane half-filled with students.

Without everybody (except me) realising ‘JYSim for Jobless-Yokel Sim’ had reached its 50th blog (51st including this one). It’s an honour of this blog to be older than our beloved country (if you count age by number of posts). Here’s a brief interview with the blog (not the blogger).
So, how does 50 feels?
I’ve been dreaming about approaching 50 since 46. At first I thought I won’t be able to achieve 50 before my blogger leaves Malaysia, due to the stupid exams (which left him abandoning me). However, things change and he updates me fairly frequently lately. I guess some posts nowadays are not as good as before, due to my blogger’s busy schedule and lack of inspiration as well as distractions from his classmates!
Anything worth mentioning about the past, present and future?
I’d like to draw your attention to my blogger’s mental development from the moment he starts blogging to the present. If you’ve read anything in his previous (meaning accidentally-scrapped) blog, you’ll notice there were loads of junks inside. Well, he was just entertaining himself back then, no worries about the huge audience out there. And back then blogging was easy with numbers and bullets, unlike now he likes blogging with huge paragraphs and long-long sentences. Anyway, gradually (especially so after he came back from Italy), his blogging topics grew wider as well as more matured (this is not Jun Yi boasting himself, it’s ‘JYSim for Jobless-Yokel Sim’ speaking). Nevertheless, after he went back to school, you see his blogging style deteriorates, and his English as well. What I hope for the future is that his English will at least maintain at the present level (God knows how Taiwan English can influence him). I’m not so worried about the lack of inspiration because I’m sure there are loads to write about TCU.
What did he usually do when he blogs?
It depends. For example, he’s listening to Josh Groban, MSNing 3 friends and praying his iTunes won’t break down while typing this sentence. Usually he will open this page, disconnect, and blog for as long as he likes, That saves online time (since Streamyx 44 comes with 60 hours only) as well as reduces disturbances. Once he was watching ‘Malcom in The Middle’ while blogging, and if you’re wondering how that blog turned out, it was a great success. You have 3 guesses of which blog I mentioned just now.
Any encounter where he can’t blog at all?
Countless! And if you’re thinking ‘gawd, blogging is so easy, it’s like switching on the computer, typing some crap on, post it and promote it, you’re WRONG! You gotta select which topic to write about, filter some useless and unrelated crap out while maintaining your honesty, and make the blog worth a lesson or two.’ And sometimes when you can’t blog, you can’t blog at all. Besides that, there are some topics you just don’t achieve the ‘uumph’ when you write about it, even if somebody else manage to do it. Take my blogger for example, he can’t describe how good a piece of music he listens, he can’t write about movies, though he tries, and he can’t write about love, because he’s totally dumb at it. The one you read on last year’s grad mag is total *beep*. I’m ashamed it even got published. I advised him not to write something like this but he insists. haiz.
In your opinion, what’s the most difficult aspect about blogging?
You should ask that to my blogger and not me. Anyway, I think it’s doing everything in English. As you might have noticed, my blogger comes from a Chinese environment, and sometimes it is hard to acheive the same linguistic effect you wish to achieve in your mother tongue in English. And sometimes you just have to improvise, due to the language barrier. Undeniably sometimes the English comes naturally and it’s impossible to translate it to Chinese.
(Now Jun Yi’s speaking) Eerm…I feel that it’s not using emoticons, short forms and Manglish while blogging. Ok, my language is not perfect and I mingle around sometimes. However, for me, emoticons get to my nerves, and it waste bytes. Short forms…some are nice, some are just weird, and some Manglish, like lar is ok, and it’s a show of mildness in speaking, but siao, sot etc are downright rude.
How long will a blog take usually?
The longest I’ve experienced is 2 hours. The shortest would be the one with his experiences in Italy. That was just cut and paste.
Wanna highlight some good ol’ blogs, to the newbies especially?
Gladly.
http://junyi2002.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/2006/07/_what_people_sa.html
This is real good (in my opinion), but not timely enough, according to Jyh Liang.
http://junyi2002.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/2006/03/a_letter.html
I like his way of writing in that one. And that reminds me of the good old days when he was still an idlist.
http://junyi2002.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/2006/03/ways_to_cut_cos.html
Ok, you might think this is another obsession of his about MAS, but this is not totally about MAS. Again, we should really support MAS.
http://junyi2002.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/2006/02/il_pasto_dellit.html
Things Italian.
Any last words before your blogger shuts you up for another 50 posts?
Eerm…thanks for supporting us all the way, and my blogger would like you guys to know he loves it when you comment, of course, don’t leave anything crappy or non-relevant. We apologise if occassionally we might offend you, and hope you’ll take things cool. Tolerate the moody JYSim if his posts appear to be pessimistic at times, and…thanks, again.
Right, thanks for your time today. See you in another 50 posts’ time!

Sunday, 20th August - KTM from Butterworth to Sentral Kuala Lumpur, overnight train. We stupidly booked the upper cubicles (bunk bed coaches), which are cheaper, but with relatively less head space. I purposely exhaust myself out so that I can lie flat and sleep all the way to KL. However, a Jap baby was making noise non-stop beside my cubicle, and later an Indian family came in and they talked about their daughter’s convocation at USM late into the night. Bed was clean but uncomfortable, so i literally tossed 4 to 5 hours (till 1am) before falling asleep. Train ride not fun at all.
Monday, 21st August - Arrival at KL Sentral delayed 30 minutes, KL Sentral absolutely beautiful, of course it’s all OUR money, and not 100% used up (i mean rasuah). My always-helpful aunt took us to breakfast, and reassured us we’ll get to Putrajaya on time. The ministry opens at 8.30 sharp and it’s no use getting there earlier as the whole place is completely deserted like Sahara. Later my aunt drove ‘very quickly’ to Putrajaya, and ‘we might be lost’ for several times before successfully locating an odd-building on top of a hill. My number was 1011, and to process 11 customers, they took 1.5 hours.
10.30pm - desperate decisions were made and we agreed to take the LRT to Bukit Bintang so as to avoid the morning traffic. LRT functional, and this led me into believing someday our capital’s transit system will be as good as Taipei’s, or perhaps London’s Underground. Traffic static in front of Pudu and Bukit Bintang. Taxi actually got stuck stationarily for 20 minutes, and when we were finally ‘in front of Eden Restaurant’, we discovered that the building is actually 2 stories only (in contrary to Taipei Economic and Cultural Office’s address: 7th Floor, Menara Yayasan Tun Razak).
11.55pm - I called up the office again and scolded the reception. she passed me to her supervisor, who immediately told me to walk down a few more blocks to find an RHB Bank. Office closes at 12 noon, and by then I was running like all typical scenes in The Amazing Race. Sadly I wore sandles, and my foot was blistering already. By 11.57 I banged into the office, but I went to the wrong department.
***commercial break***
12.05 noon - My passport had been accepted for my visa application, my wallet is RM384 lighter. My certs were being screened yet and later another RM84 went off. My only consolation was that all of these will be processed by today and I can collect them at 3.30 later and left Selfish, Smoggy, Arrogant KL.
12.20pm - Dad and I bought bus tickets KUL-PEN. I was sweating like an elephant and the cancerous air inside Puduraya didn’t help at all. After that we took the LRT again back to Sri Petaling (my aunt’s house) for a short break and lunch. LRT still functional.
2.56pm - My aunt fetched us back to the station and we hopped in. Seeing so many people assembled there I assumed the train was coming really soon.
3.30pm - No trains yet, and a pregnant woman is really getting mad. She mumbles at nobody and stands way out of the yellow line. The PA informed passengers about the delay, but no further explanation was given. I roughly estimated my schedule and knew I’ll need three miracles - train comes immediately, no traffic jams downtown, office do not close by 4.30.
***commercial break***
3.34pm - a half-packed train arrives and needless to say, after adding all waiting passengers, it’s like a can of mobile sardines. 20 minutes more to Pudu, and we immediately got a taxi (who so coincidentally passed the way because he’s bypassing a huge jam outside).
4.03pm - stuck in massive, static traffic jam in god-knows-where, taxi meter ticking as usual, but most importantly time is ticking away fast and we’re doomed if we do not make another desperate decision, even if it means getting ourselves baked under the sun and maybe getting crashed by ruthless RapidKL buses or motorists.
4.16pm - If you saw two figures running with backpacks around Times Square around that time, it’s not Amazing Race contestants but me and my Dad. We ran down Times Square, passed a whatever Hotel and made our way to a relatively traffic free street. No taxi avaliable.
4.25pm - An Indian taxi driver approached and we told him we gotta get to this stupid office by 4.30. He drove so slowly we argued and finally struck a deal - RM10 and he’ll guarentee we’ll get there on time. Indians.
4.29pm - I banged into the office again, and collected my documents within minutes. My whole body was aching and I can feel carbohydrates hydrolising beneath the skin.
4.35pm - We took another taxi to Puduraya for our bus back to Penang. Taxi driver was friendly, he bypassed some jammy streets and got us to the as-if-it-had-been-a-warzone building after filling up petrol and telling us who got knocked down at which street and why you shouldn’t come and stay in KL.
4.49pm - Successfully boarded our bus. Back in Penang in 4.5 hours time.

Hail CLHS - for preparing my leaving certs, graduation certs, and results sheet in 3 languages, so that the officer in Taipei Office won’t have any reasons to reject my application
Praise my Dad and Aunt - for running about like contestants of The Amazing Race with me
Many thanks to my friends in Penang - who put up with my uncertain schedule
and thank God for getting us through successfully today (except the LRT thing and traffic jam issue).
The Amazing Race hereby declared complete. Jun Yi will, in his remaining life, not do anything of these sort again except in extreme circumstances i.e. Malaysia being attacked, migration, marrying a foreign wife etc.

Thursday, 17th August - Upon finishing my MUET paper, I packed up and left school on foot. Stupid Sami (our school caretaker) was waiting at the front gate for truants like me, and he requested my early-leave slip. ‘But I’ve gave it to my monitor. How the hell is she going to explain to my form teacher if there’s no early-leave slip and one student is missing?’ ‘Aiyah, saya tak kisah-lah, if anything happens to you when you’re out how? Sue the school how?’
So I sulkingly walked back to class, and amist stares, removed my slip before flying back to the guard house and away from school.
Coincidentally a Transit Link bus was passing by, so like most cartoons you see I stand right in front of the bus, it emergency-braked, and I boarded the bus, paying 70 cents from Air Itam to Dato Keramat (my Mum’s school). I robbed my Mum’s car keys and oversped all the way to Ban Eng, Anual and Foong Advocates and Solicitors, where Claire is waiting with her husband. After finding the car a nice, suitable but very-far away parking space, I boarded a 4X4 and off we go to the Supreme Court of Penang.
Initially I thought our Mahkamah Agung is situated near Dewan Sri Pinang in the old and dilapilated, moss-grown building, but when Danny (Claire’s husband) drove into Northam Tower, I then realised that they had already moved here, long ago. So 4 minutes later we were in the maze of Northam Tower. To get an interpreter (jurubahasa), you’ll need to take the lift to Level 2, turn right, left, left, right past 3 corners, climb up two stairs, go through 4 doors and see if they’re there or off for tea. Luckily for us, two Indian ladies were there and after some struggling with my translation (I actually translated my results myself), and understanding the urgency of the matter, and Danny’s sweet talk, she charged RM30 before doing what she’s supposed to do.
Off we go again, back to Claire’s office, some compulsory but time-consuming friendly chit-chat, and I oversped all the way to Adventist Hospital (for my HIV test). I parked way at the back, and while my head was still filled with question marks about where to go to ask for a HIV test, I saw this nice building written ‘Pathology Lab and Blood Bank’. Instincts told me to go in there. 5 minutes later I registered (skipping all the queue), paid, get my parking ticket rubber stamped (discount), and bought some buns on thw way back to the lab. 4 minutes later it was done and I sped back to Mum’s office.
Now even though my Mum is a government servant I still have to say our government servants are really lazy. They’re unproductive and have this lackadaisical attitude which delays everything. For example, Mum spends the whole morning doing her school accounts, which actually don’t have to be left till the middle of the month. Then, during office hours she drove so slowly, but it’s the opposite during non-office hours. So the race was timed out while I waited for Mum to complete her account, finish ordering her office boy and clerk what to do, and going round the school 4 times. By then it was lunch time.
After lunch Mum decided to fetch my maid, so that took us another 30 minutes. Then while collecting my HIV test results Mum met an old friend, and that took another 27 minutes. By the time Mum decided to go to JPN for my documents, it was 3pm. We reached JPN enthusiastically (or rather, I, enthusiastically) to find that all ketua sektor will be absent for one week (the curse works!). Mum said don’t worry, and sped us down (cos it’s already off office hours) to PPD (Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah near Citibank.
Our Ketua PPD was chatting with a lady then. So we borrowed his rubber stamp (Mum knew him well) and start stamping all my documents (nearly 60 sheets). After more long-winded conversations, he certified my documents, without looking at the original copies (I should have added more subjects in my SPM slip). More small talk before I yawned and Mum dragged me out of his office.
Our race ends at 5pm sharp that day. I consider myself lucky since I managed to finish everyting that day, with assistance from Mum and Danny. If i’m to go banging into the supreme court or JPN alone it’ll take a week perhaps. Till then, hope you’ve enjoyed the race and stay tuned for another round in Kuala Lumpur on Monday! (which includes The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Putrajaya followed by our beloved Taipei Cultural and Economic Office in Bukit Bintang).

For those who went overseas by AusEd, UniEd, IDP and agencies like that, be thankful even if they charge you a tonne over the administration. Recently TCU sent me this very short mail about getting my certificates certified. It sounds easy, but they specifically wanted it to be certified by Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. Initially I thought everything is going to be smooth and it’s just a chop-sign business, that is, until this afternoon.
Dad called up the office and was told that, in order to get your documents into Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Kuala Lumpur, you have to photocopy your documents (that’s common sense), get it certified by Jabatan Pendidikan (in your state), then by Kementerian Hubungan Luar Negara (Ministry of International Affairs or something like that, in Putrajaya), and only then you can walk into the Office. Opening hours 9 to 12 noon daily, fees: RM55 per certification.
By then I was screaming in my head ‘What? Is this the Queen of England or what?’ I remembered what I studied in PA - ciri-ciri birokrasi: hierarki and peraturan-peraturan dan prosedur rasmi.
Sulking and cursing everybody who crosses my way, I shouted over the phone with several people while making plans to get my paperwork done while have fun during the holidays. After all, I deserved a break after the exam (ok, maybe not).
Mum came back and called her friend in Muar, whose daughter is going to the same U as me, studying the same course. She said her documents (not only academic documents, but also medical reports, recommendation letters, income tax form, bank statements etc etc) are ‘proven genuine’ by Makhamah Agung Malaysia before sending into Jabatan Pendidikan for verification and all the processes following behind. My jaw dropped when Mum decided to follow her way. Now, I have to:
- photocopy my documents
- correctly translate them
- buy a new ink tank to print my translated
- get a verification at Makhamah Agung Malaysia to say that this is an accurate translation of the original dicument (for BM documents only i.e. SPM slip, income tax form)
- bang into JPN and ask the head of department to verify the information on whatever’s printed on my documents (and in the love of God please let him not be on leave, on course, on maternity leave or on holiday)
- teleport myself to Puterajaya, start queuing from 5am and get a signature of whoever’s responsible for this thing.
- Concorde myself to Wisma Tun Abdul Razak, Jalan Bukit Bintang before 12 noon and pay RM55 per document, just for a rubber stamp mark and signature of whoever’s responsible again.
- return 3 working days later to collect my documents.
God have mercy on my soul. I have math paper tomorrow and I didn’t touch a single number or algebra just now because I was busy banging my head on the marble table. 3 things to kill Jun Yi - take away his broadband connection, give him 100 trigonometric questions, and make him do loads of paperwork and running about. Seems like I’m almost qualified for death except for streamyx, which is still working, yet.
I’m now praying for a miracle that these paperwork stuff won’t crash with my holiday plans. I know my classmates had whipped up something fabulous this hols, and I’m very honoured to be…well, sorta a guest of honour. I dare not trample and ruin everybody’s plans yet, not after Benjie’s.
Miracles do happen…i hope?

On Early Saturday morning around 6am I was awaken by the washing machine and my maid battling to open the back door. I almost nearly shouted ‘gawd damn it, can’t i NOT go to school for one day?’ before I realised today is a Saturday. And so before my maid finished her battle, I was back sound asleep.
Come 9am, I reluctantly got up and scouted around the house. Dad’s not around as he’s going to KL to meet his ex-classmate from Taiwan, who believed Dad’s praises about Malaysian tourism and came for summer vacation. Mum dragged my sister and me to the mamak stall opposite my house despite we threatened to go to Shangri-La for Dim Sum. I steal RM1.20 from the tosei change for The Star, which I spent another 1 hour reading from cover to cover later. At 11 I started tackling Math questions in Federal. I found some questions to be less difficult this attempt, probably I was very worked-out the last time and my mind sorta made accusations about the author being nuts and thus I cannot concentrate.
I accumulated my first 2.5 hours that morning, and decided to reward myself with McDonalds (ok, my profile says I avoid McD, but then I saw a report on The Star that day which recommends the Chicken Foldover, which is ‘relatively healthy’). I stroll to McD and did my business. Despite 4 Chicken Foldovers lining up along the food counter, the sales assistant told me I had to wait for 4 minutes, while she allows a Middle Eastern man and his 2 girls to choose their Happy Meals.
I had my Foldover (no fries, no drinks), an apple and a slice with peanut butter while watching the first 30 minutes of an Indian movie.
I slept (or sorta slept) for the next 1.5 hours, and woke up to discover I’m supposed to pick my sister up in Pulau Tikus. I excitedly jumped into the car and sped downtown, honking 3 motorcyclists who doesn’t seem to know how to differentiate ‘kiri’ and ‘kanan’. 100 meters before my destination, Mum called and told me my sister is not finished until 30 minutes more. I blew up and told her to ask my sister to walk home instead. She live a life too pampered she wouldn’t appreciate other’s time. Nevertheless I waited at last, and the car was so creepily silent on the way back.
Despite being mentally exhausted from blaming my sister for wasting another 30 productive minutes in my life, I managed to do 78 chemistry MCQs in 2 hours (ok, that’s way too long). Then we had dinner, while I still verbally attacked my sister (ok, Jun Yi is not a nice guy when he’s mad).
I admired the aspiring sentences our past leaders wrote again at night, and discussed with Mum what will us Chinese be soon. That was really intellectual as we touched Chinese Education (Hua Jiao), diplomatic relationships with Singapore and our people’s attitude. ‘Meningkatkan keupayaan pengetahuan dan inovasi serta mewujudkan ‘minda kelas pertama” Abdullah said. Watched ‘Dumb and Dumber’ later while Mum’s struggling with her statistics and our printer, who never failed to do anything, yet.
Today I woke up at 9 feeling like hell (cos I slept at 1 yesterday, Jun Yi cannot miss sleep, he’ll become a banshee if he did), and blur-blurly cycled to USM, typical on weekends. Mum forcibly stuffed breadcrumbs and packed them in a bag for me. I did not eat them, but I fed them to the fishes and turtles in a pond in USM, which I used to 4 years ago. Some turtles are still there, while a lot of fishes had became much bigger (that’s so lame).
Back home, I read The Star again, and was tempted to write to CAP (Consumer’s Association of Penang) to complaint about AirAsia’s misleading advertisement (RM0.99 one way). I checked my mails and skytrax, and was happy to see another 2 passengers writing positive comments for MAS, again. 2.5 hours more on aspiring leader indoctrination, while constantly checking if my sister’s rabbit is eating his carrot and not the potatoes i intend to cook someday later.
I can’t sleep this afternoon, but I inststed on laying on the bed, so another 3 hours passed unproductively. Soon thereafter I did 2.5 hours on Chem again, and was ever so frustrated when I still cannot solve questions on percentage of purity, even it’s like…my 5th attempt since April. Before this I went to aviation-photos.com to check on AirAsia’s planes…they really look like bleeding vampires in red, black and white. Also, initially I thought their Manchester United livery would look nice, but it turned out the opposite. Maybe their aircraft (A320) is not as grand as B747 or A380, that’s why it looked like…forgive me, a bleeding male sex organ.
Just before writing this I fixed my first post-test movie with Soon Khen, and I checked the price of the restaurant which my class would go after the test.
This sounds lame really, forgive me.

Prologue: Firstly please accept my apologies for some delays over this blog. I have nothing solid to give as an excuse, so let’s just say I ran out of inspiration. Secondly, I found out that the friendster blog is losing some of its most inspiring and talented bloggers (leaving behind those…(fill in the blank) ones). Well, in my opinion, friendster wouldn’t be fun anymore without blogs, as the profile and silly testimonials thing is well past our age. So I’ll keep blogging on friendster until, let’s say, the blog turned real slow to load, friendster scrapped my blog (again), or friendster closes down. Thirdly, this is actually a very personal post, let’s just assume you’re privileged enough to know that my family quarrelled with me yesterday, and, as usual adolescent-parent quarralls do, justice is never justified. I know Mum would never read this blog (what is a blog hah? Aiyo! Blog ar, bloggers very dangerous you know, will get caught if they break the law!).
About not informing Mum and Dad about receiving the TCU International Student Scholarships:
Jun Yi received an e-mail informing him about being successful in the application of TCU International Student Scholarship on Wednesday, 11pm. The e-mail was in fact sent on the same day ar around 3.30pm. However, judging by how tired I am, and Mum being asleep then, I decided not to break the news until the next day. After all, what’s the big deal? Yes, getting a scholarship is supposed to be grand and glamorous, but then again we’re still ordinary people (it’s a different thing if we knew Malaysia won the World Cup or a Chinese get to become PM of Malaysia), no need for banging the gong and informing the whole village about such a small matter.
Then, on Thursday 7.30pm, I logged into Gmail again. Suddenly I remembered a situation more grave than publishing an ad on The Star announcing that I got this scholarship - arrangement and plans for the Jim Brickman concert held less than 48 hours away. So I hurriedly skipped and hopped to Mum’s mobile phone (as mine ran out of credit), transferred MYR 3 to mine, and SMSed Benjie. At the same moment Dad returned home. As usual, his first question would be ‘anything from TCU?’, i replied ‘yeah’ aimlessly, waiting for DiGi’s authorisation. Dad continued ‘the scholarship?’, and I replied ‘yeah, I got it,’ more aimlessly this time, because DiGi wants me to re-enter the phone number.
Consequently, Mum and Dad decided that Jun Yi is not being sincere enough as Mum and Dad have to literally question him for the information of the scholarship. Jun Yi, being a sensible, matured and university-bound boy should automatically inform his parents upon knowledge of the receipt.
About not willing to show Mum and Dad the e-mail about TCU International Student Scholarship:
After dinner, Mum requested to have a look at the e-mail despite Jun Yi repeatedly telling her it’s just a brief note saying ‘congrads, you got this scholarship, regards, whoever’. She insisted on reading and I told her I’ll access my mailbox upon finishing my PA studies, then she can have a thousand copy of the notes and send it to everyone in Penang. She turned on the computer, clicked on the gmail bookmark and accessed my mailbox (and it’s supposed to be personal). I reluctantly clicked the mail TCU sent me, and, after reading 37 times, and completely believing that it’s just a short note now, she deliberately opened my other mails (I was then quite absorbed in Rancangan Malaysia Ke-4). ‘This e-mail, a girl wrote to you ar? This is Jieyang’s mail loh right? Why you guys mail so short one? And what’s this…this word?‘.
I was relatively upset by then (as Mum deliberately accessed my hotmail account once too, and read all the mails inside). I softly accused her of tresspassing private ‘territories’ and swiftly closed the gmail tab. ‘Haiya, gotta print out the note mah! What’s the matter with you?‘.
Once again I offered to print the note AFTER I finished the stupid Rancangan-Rancangan Malaysia-s and it’s her turn to be mad this time.
Consequently, due to Mum’s inability to respect privacy as well as my short temper, Mum and Dad accused Jun Yi of not being respectful enough. Since Jun Yi will be leaving soon, he should act like a saint and teach Mum and Dad about using MSN and other computer programs so that they could communicate with him later on (and trust me, having Mum on MSN is no fun at all, I experienced it during my time in Italy).
About wanting to take the F6 first-term test and thus neglecting ‘duties’ and spending quality time with your family:
This is Jun Yi, even if there’s no test, he’d still study (maybe not as hard) and treat schoolwork seriously (heh, not boasting though). Jun Yi never take exams to prove anything, and in fact, Jun Yi hates exams because it kills everything, including inspiration for blogs. Jun Yi studies because he’s a little worried about not being able to catch up in U.
Secondly, kill him as you might, Jun Yi is a person who finds joy in following schedules, planning and sticking to plans and living another productive day. He’s not a genius, and thus he cannot, I repeat, he cannot dump everything at an instant and take your place cooking dinner just because you feel you deserved a break today. He actually appreciates it if you leave him completely alone while he’s studying and only bother him about the 10-m stack of books in his room after he finished studying.
And due to the fact that Jun Yi is paying more attention to studies and not spending enough time with his parents and sister (and he’s leaving for Mars soon, for God’s sake, and I don’t know when he’ll come back again), Jun Yi is accused of not being thankful, appreciative and whatever. Maybe I might feel homesick when I leave, but that’s up to me to handle the situation and no amount of pre-preparation will help. It actually worsens it.
About attending the concert in Genting and spending a lot of money which could be used to your shoes, shampoo etc etc:
As an introduction, let’s meet Mr. Jim Brickman. I get to know Mr. Brickman from the radio when they used his song for a counselling session background music. Then one day I ran through Dad’s CD collection and was so delighted to find that particular song (Angle’s Eyes). I’m gonna deny the fact that I downloaded a lot of his songs from Kazaa and LimeWire eventually, but then I did buy some of his originals, and frankly his music healed me from the weariness of Form 4 as well as endless school politics. I found peace, which has left me after I started F4 with the very-cunning prefect with WF as initials and KK as the 4th (unofficial) class monitor. In early Form 5 I bought his book, Simple Things, and that eventually became the one and only book I’d proudly mention as my favourite book. I got my book prize cert stuck to it.
So Mr. Brickman is coming to Genting for a performance, and though that’s not one-in-a-lifetime, it’s a good opportunity to catch as ticket prices are relatively cheap (from RM 40 onwards), and I incidentally found some friends who are willing to come along.
Dad saw the ticket price (well, we bought the RM100 ticket) and said no rightaway. Appearantly his son has never been to other concerts i.e. Jacky Cheung’s will cost at least RM150, and those handsome Taiwanese will cost well above RM200. Dad says it’s the 7th month, and it’s unsafe to go. Well, coincidentally, I’m leaving for Taiwan on the 7th month also, and is it unsafe to go?
Then Dad says the money can be put into better use i.e. buying things you need after you reach Taiwan. I do not deny his idea, but let’s agree that’s a little lame to stop a 17-year-old from spending to see his, yeah, idol, right?
Well, acomodation is a problem, I do not deny this.
So judging by the conditions and faux pas Jun Yi committed in one-shot yesterday, Dad decided it’s his best chance to stop him from going there and then.
And once again I have to apologise to Benjie for my irresponsibility. I will compensate the MYR 100 to you and please do count me in the next J. Brickman concert 10 years later, I’ll definitely come rain or shine.

Epilogue: This is not a complaint or rant, even though it sounds like one. Jun Yi tried his very best to make it look more like a series of explanations from a misunderstood guy, and hope you’ll forgive him least you find it’s too personal and friendster is indeed running out of talented bloggers.