New beginnings
POSTED AT 11:44 PM

natanna

I marked the first day of the new year be BITING MY CHEEK during breakfast. Think of it. "Wow, it's a new year!" *munch munch kraaak* "Ouch" And I had to sing after that. Okay la, I didn't really feel it much while singing... but during lunch, oh lunch! Maybe my new year's resolution should be to NOT BITE MY CHEEK.  

Eating a lot. Yesterday was at E&O hotel for a wedding dinner. And I just came back from another 8 course dinner just now...

Nyum nyummy nyum nyums.

Actually, I have nothing to say. A lot of things happened. But I kenot think. Brains are half shut down already I think. Haha. 

*away*
POSTED AT 06:27 PM

natanna

I'm back in KL and have found that there are several things in dire need of doing.

One would be TUTORIALS. Apparently because all my group mates have presented last week, I will have to present all tutorials this week (serves me right, but *waahhh*). And it seems that all the tutors want you to do A LOT of research (eg: not just answers, but present with ACTUAL case examples. Ish)

Another would be to ORGANISE MY NOTES. Just gotten a stack of notes and tutorials from my group mate. Add that with last week's pile, and its just a colossal mess. 

ORGANISING MY ROOM would be another good suggestion. Including, deciding how to arrange all my notes and books and Christmas prezzies. 

Right now, my new bear, Cappuccino is sitting on my desk.

bleah
POSTED AT 11:06 AM

natanna

The purpose of lectures would to make you realise how stupid you are.

Tutorials then serve either to confirm that or tell you otherwise.

At the moment, it's confirming. Re-affirming.

Buck up. 

silence...
POSTED AT 08:04 PM

natanna

is golden.

I spent almost the whole day (after church) in bed, feeling icky. Sigh. Now that's over with, time will start moving again.

I must stop doing this, really. This is turning into a random-boredom thing due to my utter lack of discipline at thinking and doing all the other necessary stuff.

Don't ask me where my time flies to. At this moment, it's used up in zoning out. It comes with the month. I can't wait for today to be over.

Note to self: study study study... TUTORIAL!!! ish

Feeling: bleah

food?
POSTED AT 06:19 PM

natanna

Today's a bad day for eating.

First of all, I've this idiotic gum ache. Stupid wisdom tooth? (only guessing)

And then I have this idiotic stomach. I've purged 3 times today. Ergh. 

yappy earthday
POSTED AT 12:12 PM

natanna

Haha

Happy birthday, David! Sweet sixteen, huh? Nothing sweet about it. LOL.

---

It's been a while. I've been drifting. Do you know what it's like to drift? It's like... a leaf. Unanchoring yourself from the tree, floating onwards down, spiralling with the wind. Falling with a dip in the ice cold waters. Shivering, but drifting as the swirls of water moves. Circular. Ripples. Effects. But you don't know what. You can't see.

[funny, does my font seem smaller today?]

Rowen has been busy trying to convince me that antihistamines are migraine medicines. Like I said, okay, whatever, I don't really care. 

Paul has been trying to convince me that yoghurt is good for bad tummies. Whatever, I don't really care either. But maybe that'll justify a little indulgence. I don't really like yoghurt, but you know those blueberry flavoured ones... hmm...

And then Timothy comes up with strange ydoraps totally in synch with his sarcasm. Haha. I've lost touch. Reading it, I realised that's exactly what I've been doing in this blog. Pure random boredom.

You know, this place was supposed to have identity.

You know, this place was supposed to be open. 

Traditional conventionalism dictates otherwise. I grow to be a follower of followers. A love affair with words gone wrong. Words mean nothing when there is nothing to back them.

The only privacy a blog provides is the illusion of one. When your readers stay silent. And then you despair, because a blog is not a blog without a readership. But when the readers break silence, you despair because your secrets are no longer secrets.

What the heck. I'm hungry. And I'm rambling.

Good bye, lunch beckons.

My brains are now on hold. 

love?
POSTED AT 10:20 PM

natanna

An ambiguous word.

One reason why I hated the debate team. I can't follow the flow of thoughts. I'm blanked out.

But a love of words gone awry was what I meant, and meaningless in the sense that there's a plethora of words without substance. Yes, you can still love the act of writing, you can still love the results, but there's somehow this lingering sense of... emptiness, futileness.

You can churn out so many words that you don't really quite know what you mean anymore. You can say so many things, but not really understand what you're saying. 

---

Panic.

Panic's the thought right now. 

You'd think that your troubles end when you finish an event. No. They never do. We still need a whopping RM600 plus, with no relief in sight. The teacher advisor suggested taking from the bursary, but the committee seems somehow... reluctant. Well, the president anyway. I don't blame them. I just somehow can't grasp the reason we keep so much cash in the bursary if not to help in emergencies like this. True, they say if we do that there won't be much to help out the next time we have any event. But how often is this next time? We rarely ever do such things. We rarely ever spend so much. So we're going to scrimp and save and kill ourselves getting money when we have it in the bursary? Because we will need that cash next time? Can't we use the money now and think of refilling the coffers AFTER we have our debts settled? We'd still have at least a thou left to cover for a while. It's not like we're drawing our account down to zero.

So it's probably my fault. I'm a spendthrift. The budgets were not controlled properly. The treasurer is darned hard to contact at times, and I end up redoing anything anyway. I don't understand why everytime I ask for figures it takes ages to get any answer. I don't understand why every time I get the figures I still need to adjust it anyway. Is my accounting too confuzzled?

I prayed for things to work out. It's not happening.

I was thinking this morning, is the money not coming in because we have it in the bursary but we're just holding on to it just in case we need it next time?

I don't understand.  

I left it to God. I said I'd trust. We were waiting for miracles. Is the bursary the hidden answer?

Sometimes, I don't believe in miracles anymore. 

beautifulness (pix intensive)
POSTED AT 03:28 PM

natanna

Joanne, Raymond and I went to Alexis last night to catch Noryn Aziz. She's so beautiful!

And her voice is sooooo powerful. *sigh*

Jo went crazy over the drummer, *Jimmy*... hahahaha

And the pianist was super chuntedly skilled. 

And so was the bassist (no pic, he was like hiding behind the other guy)

So this is the other guy. I can't remember what he was playing. Trumpet? Dunno la. Some brass instruments... he interchanged instrus between songs.

Aih. Just say very nice lah. Haha.

We also took pictures of ourselves. Because. I dunno. We were... bored? Crazy? Haha.

That was like... a failed in-the-mirror pic. Haha.

I have no idea what happened, but it looks so ghosty. Haha.

Aih! Lazy to post dy. Look for the rest of the pictures here. 

Oh yeah, Christmas pics, OCOV pics and MANNA pics are up too! 

Haha... just go explore the whole album okay? =)

Toodle doos.

And STOP debating on my taggie! Go find your own blog to debate okies?  

toilet stories
POSTED AT 05:55 PM

natanna

What's it with Jo and toilets? She was trying to take pictures in the toilet at Alexis. Embarassing giler. Especially when some cute guy walked in. Haha. Unisex toilets. Ish. Okaylah, not exactly unisex. Like... the cubicles are designated "M" & "W" but the entrance and sink parts are common.

Second time I went, there was this girl listening at the toilet door. She sort of assumed there was someone inside because there was this sound of running water. Then she started pushing at the door. With an "ooh, I knew it! There's no one inside," she finally was able to enter. Haha. I wonder how long she'd actually been waiting... 

Then two guys came in. So one of them went to the guy's cubicle and the other guy stood there saying, "I hate waiting to use the toilet." Erm. What was I supposed to say? Haha.

I'm having a slighly stuffy nose and a scratchy throat. As well as very tired eyes. I don't wanna fall sick!

Oh and mum, read THIS POST. Sugar highs ARE good for me. Muahahahahaha.

of books...
POSTED AT 03:38 PM

natanna

When you actually sit and think about it, blogging is harder than you think.

Textbooks finally came today, and the arrival of textbooks often herald the beginning of actually sitting down and starting the hard work. In a way, it marks the end of an extended self-proclaimed holiday with the excuse, "sir, can't do tutorial... because we don't have books to refer to." Sad, but handy. Haha. The excuse, I mean.

Fortunately, of course, we have one more week before we start our extended CNY cum "mid-sem" break.  

After that it'll be slog slog slog for 7 weeks before finals and then another month the killer papers 3.5 - 3.7. Sometimes, I wonder why I'm studying ACCA. Can you tell me?

Textbooks are heavy things. You get irritated lugging them around. The funny thing is, I can borrow 3 novels from the libe and not complain about the weight. It all comes down to your motivation, eh? 

Mr Gambus band performs at Alexis this weekend. Me likes. But me's broke. Almost.  

more pix!
POSTED AT 10:17 PM

natanna

Jo just sent me the pix taken on Sue Jan's camera... so here's some of them!

Sort of group pic: Me, Ray, two Korean exchange students, Sue Jan. Jo was taking the picture.

I likes this picture! It's so... thoughtful, pensive, whatever. Paul said poser wor. Hmph! Cacatness.

Yeah, check out the smiles.  

what the...
POSTED AT 09:19 PM

natanna

RAHR.

FRUS.

Would you like me to do the same to you? 

I love Jo!
POSTED AT 11:40 AM

natanna

Hahahaha =)

We caught Mr Gambus (Farid Ali) yesterday. (Hey, he'll be in Penang on Sunday!)

With John Thomas on the drums.

And Jo was so sweet. She bought me his album! =)

Autographed. LOL! She dragged me with her to the toilet, and we came out, Rowen was like walking back to the table, hiding something behind his back. 

Deception, man... Now I know why when I was contemplating buying the CD she's like "wait la, wait la. Can get it later one."

Listening to: Peace & Friendship - Farid Ali - Turning Point

tutorials
POSTED AT 06:35 PM

natanna

So I holed up in my room yesterday afternoon to finally finish my tutorial question. The one that I was to present today. Do you know that I've been reading and thinking about that question for almost one week? Haha...

Starting at 3pm (or so) until 7 pm, then a dinner break and from 9.30pm to around 10.30pm, it's been the longest time I've ever spent preparing the answer for one measly tutorial question. Hm. Maybe minus 3pm to 4pm where I was staring at the question very blankly and was busy zoning out.

Alright, so the total mark analysis is something like 50 marks and I actually took almost an hour to present it in class. But I feel so... fulfilled in a way. My group mates were so impressed. Haha. Mainly because the tutor didn't "shoot" me so many questions as he did to them. Muahaha. Another class mate thought I had the sample answer. Well, I did dig Paul's brains online to get an answer framework. Heh. It pays to know the right people...

It's not a subject I think I will be terribly good at - Strategic Business Planning and Development - the very name puts me to sleep! Add that with a lecturer who talks very slowly and always digresses to talk about MAS, Proton and Nestle... ergh.

I still don't quite get the Marketing Mix thing. I know it stands for Product, Place, Price and Promotion... but then what? Bleh. 

Oh wells. My case study tutor for some reason likes to look at me in class when no one wants to answer his questions. Maybe its because every time he does that I feel obliged to come up with some nonsense which only answers the question maybe 50% of the time. Better than nothing, I guess. Or maybe it's because I'm noisy. We do this relay thing in class. I'll suggest some dumb answer to my classmate, and she'll relay it on to the tutor. And when he asks further questions she'll look back at me and say... "eh, explain lah." To which I'll usually say, "I dunno lah. I just guess only."

I need to stop guessing. Haha. 

blip
POSTED AT 07:49 PM

natanna

"Where are you?" she asked the void.

There was no reply.

"Did I do something wrong?"

Nothing flickered in the distance. She stuck out her lower lip and pouted.

"Come on."

Blinking tears from her eyes, she walked away as a little light flickered in the distance. - too late. 

---

One day, these bits and pieces are going to be sewn into a story. But I don't know how, or where it's going now. It's just that now - bits and pieces.

---

Happy belated birthdays to Tim (22nd Jan) and Benedict (23rd Jan).

---

I woke up this morning with this sudden desire to do another three-week play. Remember the 7 sisters and the butler story? *ponders* Can someone update me on what's happening in fireBRANDS on the 18th of Feb and possibly give me Ps Cowan's MSN add? =)  

What's a three-week play?

Basically, a willing cast sets aside 3 Saturday afternoons to come up with a short play from scratch - no scripts - to be performed on the 3rd Saturday evening. A theme would be useful, but not necessary. There's no time limit to the play. It could be a 15 minutes sketch, or a 30 minutes one. I think when we did it we managed almost 40 minutes? Or so. And as there are no written scripts, everything's very fluid. Meaning whatever was practiced on the first week would probably be totally different from the second week, but hopefully with enough similarities to carry on the whole drama. The scariest part is the actual performance in front of an audience at the end of the 3rd Saturday!

*ponders summore* 

Feeling: hungry

scam
POSTED AT 11:14 AM

natanna

ACCA textbooks are a scam.

I paid RM85 per book for this ugly "official" text by FTC Foulks Lynch which features photostat-quality paper and printing.

Today, I paid RM60 for a supplementary text (McGraw-Hill) which comes in full-technicolour-glossy-papered what-nots. And it smells nice. Like a book.

[Edit: the RM60 book has a free educational CD as well!]

Last year's Foulks Lynch text smelled like dead fish, which was an utter put-off to actually studying from the thing. This year, it doesn't smell that bad, but it doesn't smell nice either.

Yes, I smell my books. It comes from sleeping on them, besides other things. 

 

bikes & packing
POSTED AT 06:50 PM

natanna

Today, I passed up the chance to ride on this super-chunted looking bike. I mean, it looks nice and all that. Big, and rough, and bikerish.

But I'm afraid of sitting on bikes. So. Oh well.

Haha.

I don't know what to pack and how to pack it. Am intending to bring back my texts to do some erm... studying since I will be back for around 3 weeks. Or more. But they're heavy. Oh well. Taking car. Can carry more bags kua. :D

I'm coming home! 

rahr
POSTED AT 12:03 AM

natanna

answer your smses, darlings.

it bugs me no end when you don't.

it's rude.

sometimes, it's irresponsible.

unless it's a dumb forward, then that's okay.

 

ten things that bug anna
POSTED AT 12:14 AM

natanna

In no particular order:

1. when people don't answer their phones
2. when people don't reply important smses
3. computer crashes
4. car break downs
5. losing CDs
   
6. losing books
7. paper cuts
8. being unable to find things
9. out-of-tune singers
10. forgetting to do things
    

yellow!
POSTED AT 04:35 PM

natanna

Hail, everyone from the hot steamy island of Penang. It's so hot. Sighs.

I reached back at 8pm or so yesterday.

The weight update (I only weigh myself when I'm back in Penang) is that I'm a meager 48.5kg. Which is okay, except terribly thin. (Not like anyone notices anyway) Fortunately, I have almost 3 weeks to catch up on eating. Haha. BMI of 19.43 only.

Isn't this weird coming from a girl? My ideal's 50. Am intending to reach that and stay that way. Haha.

Who ever said you put on weight in KL? 

So, Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!

Happy eating, and happy collecting angpow!  

Reading: surprisingly, NOTHING
Listening to: whatever it takes - nate sallie