Outing: Terminator 4

My green tea blend from Coffee Bean

Jon Lai was supposed to join Franklin and I to catch a movie yesterday night since Franklin had been stashed away in the jungles for months for National Service and will be leaving soon. It has been ages since I’ve seen those two Lodgians anyway. Unfortunately, that Jon bum couldn’t make it today so we asked Jonas to come along instead.

My half-eaten dinner and a MacBook

Since I was hungry, Franklin and I went to Coffee Bean. I had some tomato and cheese thing. It was amazing that Franklin (a guy) actually bothered more about how fattening this and that dish was compared to me (a girl). So we stood for ages at the counter and finally, he ordered a plate of salad…We met up with Jonas at Star afterwards and suddenly, Franklin and Jonas developed some camwhore-mania and posed a lot. I guess Gabrielle suddenly became the manliest of them all. Met Emmanuel at Star, who will be watching his 3rd movie today, 3 movies in one go… ran into Chun Hoe as well. A photo while giving Jonas a short ride to his car in the car park. Oh yea, why so many photos? That is because the Franklin bought a new Lumix camera.You will be SERIOUSLY PROSECUTED according to the sign in Star Cinema. Could anyone be JOKINGLY PROSECUTED?

Macbook vs. Vaio, who stands out more?

Old Residents

I didn't receive any letters from JPA yet and now, I am really curious which country will I be sent to. I spent half an hour yesterday evening, standing in front of the window in hopes that I will see a Post Laju van. What a waste of energy.

Again, I have another pair of lovebirds in my garage.
I don't have a good picture of them both together.
But the above is a HE.

And again, I have their noisy babies in my garage.
This is the third time I have noisy baby birds in my garage.

Then, when they start learning how to fly... there will be fat baby birds making a lot of noise and zooming around. They fly into windows a lot and fall a lot too.

Hiatus: Restoration

Layout under technical restoration.

Firstly, Adobe Photoshop CS4 must be obtained again.
Comiting piracy...again.
Previous license just expired thanks to my itchy hands.
Retired to restoring my blog layout using Photoshop Elements on my Vaio.
However, functions are limited.
So... I currently do not have a proper header.
But yea, I have an awesome dog at the top right hand corner of my blog.

No Photoshop CS4 on desktop = Work Cannot Be Completed

Anyway, Chong found out that she'll be doing her JPA preparatory program in INTEC before going overseas but she still doesn't know what country is she going to. I, on the other hand, do not even know where will I be doing my preparatory program let alone which country I will be sent to. There is one thing that I do know, I will not be doing medicine in Russia since the Russian program scholars already received calls from JPA or so they say.

Random thought: Boy-who-dunno-how-to-boil-eggs thinks I am poser-ing him. Thick faced indeed or could it be that you are subconsciously poser-ing me? ^_^V

Equinox Egg Balancing

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO CHERYL TEO

At 12.00PM on 28th May 2008, which is the first day of spring or the first day of the vernal equinox, and the only day you balance an egg on its tip and it will stay upright vertically. Or is that just some myth? I am more excited by the fact that today is Dumpling Festival.

According to BBC, the egg is used because it is a symbol of fertility. Apparently rabbits are symbol of fertility too but according to BBC again, eggs are easier to handle than rabbits. Equinox Egg Balancing legend was started off in ancient China, something about the "balance" in gravity between the Earth and the Sun. BBC says it will work today and it will work on any other day too if you are extremely patient. The trick is to shake the egg first according to BBC again. Hmmm, why only eggs can be balanced?

Why not stand a mango on its tip and it will stand upright vertically?

Egg on its tip

Windows 7

I finally decided that I would attempt at installing the evaluation copy of Windows 7 on my desktop and so, I did after backing up my files. That was what the whole RM22 stack of empty DVDs that I bought yesterday at PC Image were for.

The installation was a success, installing a new operating system turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. You can stop calling me a noob and you can drop the illiterate nickname. Come on lah, my computer skills aren't that bad. Sexist people. ^_^

Unfortunately thanks to my decision to change my operating system, now I have so many drivers and softwares to reinstall. Not to forget that I have Microsoft Office Professional to hack...

And I finally completed 80% of all that by 4.00AM... Had no choice but to go off to sleep since I had a review with my orthodontist at 10.00AM. Thankfully some patient was late, so by 9.30AM I was done and back home, sitting in front of the computer.

I don't know but... Windows 7 just seems like a big brother to Windows Vista and apart from that, nothing impressive or interesting about it.

Random thought: I am about to get my hands on a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

An Afternoon Out

Went to watch "Night In The Museum 2" with Jonas and Stefan in the afternoon. It was an okay movie, nothing very special about the movie but the Bobbing Head Albert Einsteins were very cute.

After that, it was duck noodles in Hong Kong Noodle House. Since I did not have that much of a big appetite, I gave a share of my duck noodles to this needy fellow. In the process of dividing the share, I realized that our skills with the chopsticks suck. That was because it took us forever to split the noodles. (No offence, but yours is seriously no match compared to the older generation.)

Besides that, I bought a stack of empty DVDs at PC Image to back up my files and so when I finally have the guts, I will perhaps attempt at installing Windows 7. Did I mention that I hate Windows Vista for causing me all those technical problems?

Marinara and Funghi from Bella Italia

On my way back, I ordered takeaway pizzas from Bella Italia for dinner with my family. Bella Italia's pizzas are a bit overpriced though, two pizzas cost me RM47.00 but then again, they taste better than pizzas from Pizza Hut. This post pretty much sums up what I did the whole afternoon with this and this. Random thought: Windows 7, Windows 7, Windows 7, Windows 7... here I come.

Games, Food and Cameras

Now that salmon roe in a salmon fish, I am now thinking of Ikura Gunkan Maki served in Sushi King. That is where all those little orange balls in your Japanese meal comes from. Please note that I absolutely detest fish roe.

I detest fish roe, I am saying this again.

Anyway, I went to the game shop yesterday after church to pick out a new PC game and after failing to decide what game to walk out with, I ended up chit chatting to the shop keeper about Left 4 Dead. Since I was a pretty frequent customer, he was nice enough to give me a discount this time without me having to ask. Thumbs up for that. I walked out of the shop with a copy of Devil May Cry 4. I installed the game last night and played it for a while this morning, Devil May Cry 4 is quite a boring game with terrific graphics.

This morning, I finally satisfied my craving for Foochow fried noodles at a coffee shop before sending my dad to the airport.

In the afternoon, I went out with a friend from Lodge School who wanted to go compact camera surveying at Tun Jugah and The Spring. At the end of the day, I was pretty impressed by the Lumix FX-48 and the Sony Cybershot W290. Not to forget that my favourite camera dealer is still Digital Copal.

Random thought: Windows 7 is coming out and I found out from the man in the Sony retail shop that I am not allowed to change my operating system this year, thanks to my Sony Vaio warranty.

Vent Holes

Enough said that my mood has already been in the dumps since Monday. A bit of karma that I got for being a smart mouth at the wrong time. Thank goodness that there is the existence of certain people, they drag out you out of the hole. On the other hand, there are also people are... let's just now mention about that.

Ya, that is my best angry face. The glasses helps emphasize my anger.

Left 4 Dead keeps crashing daily, irritating. That just spoils the mood to game.

My bad, I just need to vent today. I am currently calm. Halo above my head.

Randoms

I always thought that Megan Fox (every guy seems to kind Megan Fox is hot) looks familiar. Then, today it struck me that Janice Dickinson looks like an older version of Megan Fox.Turns out Adam Lambert didn't win American Idol but Kris Allen did. Hmmm... I wonder why. I am no fan of either finalists but Kris Allen certainly does have a nice T-shirt in this picture.

Today, I have been brainwashed by Amy Lynette to listen to Linkin Park. You know what? It turned out that one of the Transformers soundtracks by Linkin Park is actually nice.

Banks and Fingerprints

I went to Maybank on Monday afternoon with my dad to open another bank account and to apply a supplementary credit card for me. A credit card for emergencies and necessities okay, not a piece of plastic for shop-and-swipe usage.

I filled in the application forms (and got nagged by my dad about why my "e"s do not look like "e"s) and waited for my turn to be entertained by the bank worker. It was a rather short wait but it felt like ages and I was sleepy.

Finally! My turn! I was eager to get all of these banking things done, go home and relax for the rest of the week.

Unfortunately...

Bank worker: Sorry, your IC can't be read. I think the chip is spoiled, there is this little crack line in the plastic behind the chip. It could be that the chip is bent. So our machine cannot read the data stored in it. We need the data to process for opening an account and your credit card application.

What?! I passed through the immigration counters at airports just three weeks ago with my Identification Card in that state and just about less than two months ago I had my IC data extracted during all those driving test procedures. What a waste of time queuing up at the bank only to find out that they cannot extract the data so that I could open a Maybank account.

Today, I tried my luck at another Maybank branch but was unsuccessful. So, I put on my back a black blazer over my jeans and shirt, and headed over to the Immigration Office with my dad to get our new ICs done. At the Immigration Office...

Officer: Tak ade fingerprint punya. Eh, kamu punya fingerprint s'karang dan dulu tak sama punya. Tak apa lah, tukar data IC kamu. Kes special ini. Gambar fingerprint kamu terlalu hitam, tak dapat tengok garisan putih. Lu punya jari rosak ha?

That was just another of those classic reactions I get during thumbprinting at offices.

Penang Curry Mee, tasty spicy stuff

Went to have Penang curry mee at Asian Recipe before heading back to Maybank to submit my application for a credit card. Now, I have to wait for my new IC to be done.

Random Thought: Downloaded, installed and played Left 4 Dead because THIS PERSON kept promoting the game. My verdict would be that this game has too many zombies.

Confusion?

Here is the thing about the picture above, would you say that it is the girl kissing the rain or the girl being kissed by the rain?

G: "Kiss The Rain" is a nice song.
S: Yeah. Kiss the rain. I'd like to see you try. Kiss the rain I mean.
G: Why don't you try? Stand under the rain and pucker up.
S: The song would now me "Rain Kisses Me".
G: What is the difference? It is still kissing the rain.
S: No. If you are water, you SINK under oil. If you are oil, you FLOAT above water. Matter of perspective. So are you kissing the rain or being kissed by the rain?
G: You're still kissing the rain because you puckered up and the rain didn't.
S: How do you know the rain didn't kiss you instead? Did you touch the rain first or did the rain touch you first?
G: Because the RAIN NEVER PUCKERED UP to kiss YOU. It is only a personification that the rain can make out with you!
S: How sure are you? Animisme.
G: Okay. Picture this okay. You were standing stationary, facing upwards in pre-kissing more and suddenly, this girl falls off a building naturally and you kissed her. So see, it is you who is kissing the girl (the falling rain) because the girl (rain) did nothing.
S: Think this, what if the girl was already puckered. Ha! So now who kissed who!
G: I don't think any rain spirits or that girl wants to kiss you.

That happened probably due to another day clouded with boredom, laksa, blue clay, playing the piano and driving.

Random thought:
I got an offer for some IT diploma course by College Yayasan Melaka on Saturday. For a moment when my mum handed me the envelope, I thought it was from JPA and my heart was thumping. Then, I realized it wasn't and I went, "chey..."

The Twilight Saga

"Ugh! Twilight! Chick lit..." said Perry

I am sick and tired of staying at home, doing nothing except staring at either the computer screen or the television screen. To make things even worse, all the programs on television are a great bore and there is hardly anything to do with the computer. I had been too lazy to take out my laptop lately.

So, I have been reading... a lot...

I bought "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer on Wednesday. It took me almost 4 hours to complete the book.

I bought "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult on Wednesday. It took me 1 hour to get through half of the book. Then, I chucked it aside. I will get back to it after I finish reading all the "Twilight" sequels.

I realized that "Twilight" had sequels. My bad, I never knew about that since I was never a "Twilight" fan. So, I had my dad drive me down to MPH on Wednesday night and I bought all the sequels to "Twilight".

I finished reading "New Moon" with 2 hours from Wednesday night and 2 hours from Thursday morning.

I finished reading "Eclipse" in 4 hours on Thursday night.

"Breaking Dawn", the last sequel to "Twilight" is next to me now. Just 300 more pages left for me to finish reading.

I realized that not only I have to learn how to speak slower, I have to learn how to read slower too. I realized that I will be needing a third bookshelf pretty if I do not stop overloading my second bookshelf with novels.

I came to a conclusion that the "Twilight" storyline just gets dumber and dumber until the last book, "Breaking Dawn". Captivating due to my curiosity yet the whole saga is mostly bland, stale and very anti-climax.

Dim Sum, Sushi, "Sell Out"

Gabrielle: Eh, what time go for breakfast? 10.00AM?
Stefan: What?? I am going to die of hunger by then. 8.00AM lah, when food is still fresh.
Later...
Mum: What time are you going out tomorrow?
Gabrielle: 8.00AM...
Dad: Crazy.
Gabrielle: Because Stefan says he will die of hunger by 10.00AM...
Mum: Ask him eat biscuits first lah.

And so, I had to wake up at 7.15AM this morning... so unbelievably early, explains the cause of the new zits on my forehead. Jonas picked me up first then headed over to pick Stefan up and we had dumplings for breakfast at Mitsu Tea House. The dumplings were not very filling.

Headed over to The Spring after that, I got two novels (My Sister's Keeper and Twilight) from MPH. I was also educated by the two of them on the action figures on display, who was who and who does what. Uninteresting. Then, we decided to have sushi at Sushi King for brunch. (Rhema, Jon Lai and Frankie, you should both be so proud of me that I finally tried unagi!)

A last minute decision to catch any movie was made... After a long debate all the way from The Spring to Star Cineplex on which Malaysian movie to watch, "Sell Out" or "Coming Soon", we ended up watching "Sell out" because..."Coming Soon" was coming soon...

Both of them started getting cozy...

And cozier... until...

I decided to be a pest and intruded with permission. So I broke their intimate coziness.
Too bad.

Random Thought: The movie "Sell Out" turned out to be pretty amusing. Somebody in Australia got chased downhill by a German Shepherd.

Slacking

Gabrielle Jee feels like a slacker.
All that is done lately is...

1. Staring at the computer screen, wondering why time passes so slowly.

2. Reading "The Appeal" by John Grisham and "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens.

3. Sending hundreds of text messages. This explains the short lifespan of my mobile phones.

4. Baking an Ukrainian Honey Cake which, turned out to be like the Eastern Europe version of our local honeycomb cake.

5. Very, very minute studying.

I should seriously start doing something more beneficial and time consuming. But, the question is what should I start doing?

1. Read the entire Encylopedia?

2. Take Mandarin lessons?

3. Pick up a new hard-core sport that demands at least 3 days of training per week?

4. Study a new subject?

5. Go hard-core on practicing the piano for 5 hours each day?

6. Continue slacking?

Even this post is a slacker post. Meaningless.

Mothers' Day

A trinket box from RCR Crystalleria Italiana that I gave my mum

Today is Mothers' Day. So, Happy Mothers' Day and how did my family and I celebrate it? By waking up at 10.00AM for kolo mee with soup at this coffee shop located opposite Eu Yan Sang. Thumbs up for their kolo mee but as usual, I couldn't finish one whole bowl of it.

That was what Big Sis gave to mum.

However, Big Donkey/Big Sis (she started it first with calling me Little Donkey, approximately 10 years ago) was working in Sibu General Hospital. So, she ordered online a bouquet of roses from Pods & Petals and they delivered it to our house this morning. Wonder why is everything so orange by coincidence.

I went to a computer hardware commercial centre and instead of coming out with computers and related items, I left the centre with a hairclip and a bangle. Dot dot dot about that...

The bangle was way too big, so I ended up having to remove several beads and restringing it.

My JPA 2009 Results

God, don't laugh at this but You are definitely the most awesome person who spoils and pampers me. Gazillion thanks.

Been through an emotional roller coaster today while waiting for JPA results. Heart thumping moments then moments of eerie calmness. Not to forget cold, clammy and shaking hands.

Besides that, gazillion thanks to the Malaysian Government.

Much thanks to Perry for having to be a monk, praying and suffering listening to me worry everyday for five months.

and...

Stefan for keeping my head in place today. All that good friend support or should I say SARCASM, kept my mind off the possibilities of my JPA results.

and...

Rhema, for being such good company during the whole waiting process.

Nevertheless, gazillion thanks to O Big Great One Up There.

Sharing Planet

"He looks like he is lost again," says a human being.

We (Jonas, Lilian and I) went out today, because Jonas will be leaving in 2 days' time. Amazingly, we ended up in Bintawa by accident again today and made several unnecessary rounds. But overall, the driver's sense of direction has improved.

Lilian and I at The Spring

We dropped by at The Spring so that I could do my Mother's Day gift shopping. Unfortunately, all the gift boxes have sold out, so I only managed to leave The Spring with this heart-shaped RCR crystal trinket box and some ribbons. This time, Jonas did not get lost on the road or in the basement car park but... he lost his brand-new, pimped-up MyVi...

Gabrielle : Jonas, I didn't know you have boxers behind your car. *points at flowery boxers in backseat*
Jonas : *Not listening, takes car keys and tries to open the white MyVi. He pulls the car door's handle. It doesn't open*
Gabrielle : *walks to front seat of the MyVi and sees Muslim beads hanging at the rear mirror* Eh! THIS IS NOT YOUR CAR!
Jonas : *laughs* No wonder the Myvi looks so ugly. You see, no hot rims like mine and see the tail lights, so ugly! Not like mine, mine is so nice looking. My car has beautiful rims and tail lights.
Gabrielle & Lilian : Heh...Then, where is your car???
Jonas : Oh shit! Where's my car???

At Sharing Planet

Then, we drove over to Sharing Planet. Not much thanks to Stefan who gave half completed directions and left us hanging, we couldn't find the place. So we sought help from Gavin Wu and thanks to him, we found the place.

That was what I had, salmon steak with vegetables, mashed potatoes and butter lemon sauce.See this O Rotten Joints Stefan Lim? I was REPLYING YOU and it was 7.11PM!

Amy Lynette!

A very unflattering picture but whatever, it has Amy in it and it isn't one of our "stupid" pictures

Amy is leaving tomorrow!

That means, nobody to...
1. Tell me that Linkin Park is the best.
2. Convince me that I want to do medicine because I want to "explore" the human body. Sheesh, sounds so obscene...
3. Teach me how to identify and name all the members of Linkin Park.
4. Tell me that she can kill people with a smile.

That also means...
1. I will have one person less reading my blog, all the rubbish that I type.
2. One person less to bully and be bullied by,

3. One person less to talk rubbish to until 3.00AM.

Finally! A proper and sane picture.

Well, I'm sure going to miss all of that from you!

Footer:

I watched 15 minutes of "Whose Line Is It Anyway" just now and I still think it is stupid.

I took the car today and drove to town. Driving to town is annoying. Out of the blues, these annoying Malay kids in thick jackets will sprint across the road. So many times. If my car didn't have any brakes, they probably would have been ran over by me accidentally. Road killed.

Even more annoying, I was blocked from the front by this Toyota Vios with nobody inside. So, I signalled to move out to the right. This old man in a Kancil saw that I wanted to move to the right lane, so he HONKED ME AND STOPPED RIGHT NEXT TO MY CAR.

Excuse me?? How does he expect me to get out if there's a car in front of me and he is NEXT TO ME? Then, he drove away after 5 seconds... Weird.

Insomnia, Mandarin

I do not know why but I seem to draw things with only one eye...

I am...suffering from a terribly awesomely not awesome syndrome (rolls eyes) called INSOMNIA. I kept seeing faces of people I do not recognize in my sleep, no wonder I have been drawing faces too. I slept at 3.00AM listening to "不得不爱" and waking up at 6.00AM to cook a bowl of extra spicy curry Maggi mee with cabbage and shallots. Then, I went to download Korean songs. Rhema and Linda will be so proud of me that I am finally listening to Korean songs.

Could it be insomnia due to news that JPA results will be released this some time this week?

I found it very amusing that Cordelia thought that my taste in guys lies in PUNKS and PUNK WANNABES. That was irrelevant information to this post.

Anyway, I confirmed it yesterday night that my Mandarin is very...fantastic not... retarded.

Rhema is non-Chinese and taking Mandarin classes, Alvinder is non-Chinese too and taking Mandarin classes too... dot dot dot... I am Chinese and I cannot write the last character of my Chinese name. FAIL.

Cartoon Disease

Suddenly... I thought of this little stupid creature.

Lately, I keep seeing cartoons in people's faces. Hang on, I think it is just a disease that I have.
I looked at one of my former teacher's face and an image of the orange mushroom in Maple Story popped into my head... No wonder I was such a *ahem* good, quiet girl who did all her homework in this teacher's class.

Grandpa Simpsons

I looked at this particular him (you know who you are) one of the days and suddenly I thought of Grandpa Simpsons. Then, when i think Grandpa Simpsons, I think of the round purple Sunsweet prunes on the Sunsweet prunes packet. Hmmm?Then yesterday, SOMEBODY with the same disease as me came up to me trying to convince me for 2 hours that I look like that creature in the picture below. Banzai...not.

Pooh indeed.

Gabrielle Jee's Cyborg

Banzai to my "cyborg" and it is click-able for a larger view

Today, I decided to do a little bit of sketching to take my mind off some issues. So here's the final product, I think it is something that deserves to be called a cyborg. Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be a creepy picture as planned. Banzai (learned off a Japanese emoticon) to myself.

Classmates and Non-Classmates

I woke up at 8.30AM today and had breakfast with my parents before sending my dad off to the airport. Then, I went over to Esther's house to meet up with Amy, Bethany, Cordelia, Esther, Irene, Lilian, Linda and Rhema. We watched a really nice movie, "Fireproof". It had a lot of "best" parts according to Cordelia and I wonder which is the "best" of the "bests"? Good movie though. Then, we walked over to Chicago 7 to have lunch and then after that, the day ended for our meet-up. I have not seem them for quite some time and most of them are leaving for matriculation soon, :( to that. Oh, we ambushed our former EST teacher, Puan Kong at Maybank too.

Then, I went home at 2.00PM and Stefan was like, "I will pick you up at 2.15PM"...

At Star with the driver for today.

Bathed a.f.s.p and Stefan showed up at 2.30PM instead because he GOT LOST on the way to my house and refused to call to ask for directions on how to get to my house. Taking care of his I-am-a-good-driver ego maybe? B+ for his driving in overall. Instead, he spent 45 minutes searching high and low in the wrong areas. Dot dot dot... We arrived really early too at Star and I was his GPS to get to the cinema from BDC.

We (Gavin Yap, Jonas, Stefan and I) watched the 4.00PM XMen Origins: Wolverine and thumbs up to the movie, it had awesome graphics and a young Scott Summers.

At open air, where I bumped into Madam Euphrasia

After that, we went to eat at Open Air Market again and Stefan was the driver. We did not get lost today. I had kolo mee and I only finished half of it.

Kolo mee seller: *came over to our table and spoke in Hokkien* You didn't finish your kolo mee ah? Why?
Me: Aiyo full already ah.
Kolo mee seller: Full already???

Damn. Cannot return back and eat kolo mee at that stall again or else he will remember me as the girl who didn't finish up his cooking.

Overall, I like the fact that the driver today doesn't get lost as dramatically as the other driver but today's driver scarily drove without his hands on the steering wheel.