Humbled

Three nights ago, after my Chinese class, I thought I’d wrap up the day by playing even more of Super Mario Galaxy on Wii, and thought before I do so I’d go online and check things out for a bit.

Chris left a message on my MSN, to which I replied, and before I knew it we chatted away endlessly for 4 hours wtf. =.= We found out we had so many things in common: part of our personalities, interests, our very liberal points of view, even life ideas.. I honestly don’t quite know how to put into words what I felt to finally discover someone imbued with that many similarities to yours truly, but it was probably a mixture of relief and gratitude. Odd choices of adjectives I know, but it was the first time that someone (sorta) understands my thoughts completely. :)

And it’s safe to say that the both of us are probably the most amoral persons on earth (maybe Chris is far more amoral than me wtf) which is why I think we clicked so bloody easily. In fact, the way he logically dissect and analyse things remind me awfully of Haruki Murakami’s characters lol.

Haven’t had such a long, uninterrupted chat in ages, that that one was mentally gratifying.

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So yes I did went to theCICAK’s prize-giving ceremony yesterday (held at Pavilion), and it was somewhat eye-opening, with me trying actually to be sociable especially when I was the only male participant who attended there wtf (imagine lots of uninterrupted giggles and laughters from the opposite sex).

Snapped at the food court in Pavilion before we went to the actual venue, Madam Kwan’s (it was actually damn hard to even snap this photo, my brother likes to do un-smiling poses on camera wtf).

Elena, Debra, Christie (standing), me and my brother.

Jeff Ooi, one of the judges, attended too.

No, she wasn’t one of the participants, but TheStar’s reporter Naza (or was it Nasa) looking quite elegant and demure. We had casual conversations, and the girl of Iban/Finnish parentage didn’t look like a stereotypical reporter that I had mentally pictured before arriving. (And there’s my brother looking bored out of his mind.)

The event was actually quite casual, a stark difference compared to the IMPAC Dublin prize-giving ceremony I attended.

My mum with Yvonne Foong, who was one of the participants (read her incredibly inspiring story here). She suffers from NF2 (a rare genetic disorder that causes multiple benign tumours to grow on her brain and spinal cord, read her blog for more info) and her condition deteriorates day by day. She can hardly hear now, and we had to communicate by her speaking and me writing down sentences on her notepad.

I am especially humbled when I met and talked to her, and I felt ashamed even because I discovered there was a fund-raising event (which involves selling T-shirts and various other accessories) for her in my college once, and I selfishly decided not to purchase. Truly, nothing could be much more worse than her problems that she has to face: consistent MRI scans, family troubles, and possibly endless surgeries for the rest of her life.

I’ve always thought it was curious how some people throw their lives away so easily (like that girl who committed suicide over her UPSR results wtf), and how there are also people who are fighting with every ounce of their energy, every cent of their money just to live.

I used to subscribe to the dogma that it’s impossible to care for every single person in the world (from the book “How to be a Happy Teenager” wtf) as each individual has his or her own problems to deal with, but sometimes, it’s just impossible to ignore.

I got third – prize was RM500. I wasn’t actually particularly exhilarated about the win – I don’t know why, probably because I’m already contented with being shortlisted – but just today I thought Yvonne must’ve been disappointed at not winning as she needs the money for her dad’s cataract surgery far more urgently than I do.

Gabrielle who studies A-Levels at Taylor’s and who was recently robbed of her money and handphone (2nd prize winner), Debra who used to study at King’s College, UK (1st prize winner), and me.

Being interviewed and all wasn’t as bad as I thought because it was conducted so casually with Naza – can’t even remember what I said now anyway but I think I came off as very pretentious =.=, saying something like “The stories that we wrote can bring hope to a decadent world” wtf. To be honest I didn’t even think properly before blurting it all out.

One of her questions was whether I have a blog, to which I replied yes, but I prefer to keep it low-profile lol.

My parents fetched Yvonne back to her house in SS15, near Sri KL, and I was sleeping in the car mostly throughout the journey way back as I was tired. When I opened the door for her to get down, she turned around and said “Congratulations for winning”, and somehow I felt awfully sad for her. I donated part of the prize money to her a few hours ago, and maybe if you’re financially capable, do donate to her – every dollar means a lot.

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My buddy of Form 1, Danus, who migrated to New Zealand came back for a holiday. Boy, did he grow well because he was taller than me T___T, probably all the food and milk he drank there wtf.

Snapped on Friday night. Loads of things to catch up and he probably didn’t change much.

At that awful Nasi Lemak USJ mamak/restaurant behind my house yesterday night.

Shawn who was probably dejected over MU’s loss to Bolton.