Ixion in Blood

Wah never blog for 5 days what a record. But that was because my presentations and assignments kept me at bay, but all of those are finally over!

So on Wednesday night, we (Kai Tzin, Ding, Heng, RB, Suet, Esther, me) had an emergency meeting at Jon’s place because we wanted to discuss travel plans of going to Bali or Kota Kinabalu. Initiated by yours truly of course, because I saw this huge-ass advert of AirAsia’s free 1,000,000 tickets to any destination this carrier covers, and I immediately jumped on the opportunity.

After phoning my college in the afternoon where I get pretty futile responses, I even went to my college to ask about next semester’s mid-term exam with Suet (teman her go to Kelly’s Services and INTI as well, even helped her park her Atos which was quite scary because the accelerator and brakes are so sensitive), blablabla in the end!

Only Jon and I could go to Bali wtf. Let’s exclude Suet and Esther ‘cause the former is going with the boyfriend and the latter with college classmates. Let’s also exclude Andy who insists on not going if it’ll only be just the three of us, because 3 is an odd company heh.

err why have a discussion when it’s already known it’ll come to naughts? =.= I actually learnt my lesson to have minimal hopes that any of my friends can go at all butbut not until just two people!

New Year Resolution 001: Quit initiating planning travelling plans. I’m not the only one who wants to travel in our gang, but everytime you hear a travel plan forming incongruently in the horizon (which eventually fails), you’ll hear my name somewhere. So my name is associated with failure of travel plans now ah!

Then on Friday night (when I was reeling off from my fatigue because I had a fucking busy day as usual in college), dad asked if I’d like to go with him to Summit so that I can take a look at my new wife camera.

So you don’t need to guess what my answer was, and after looking at the beloved at the camera shop near this yin wo store, we bargained for a better package of the Canon Ixus 850 IS and finally got it for RM1.5k, which includes a 1GB SD card (didn’t really need it since I have a 2GB SD lying around at home), mini-tripod (even more worthless since it’s really.. mini), supposedly genuine leather case (woot!), and a screen protector (much needed for any LCD-equipped electronics).

I shall now christen my new baby with the exotic male name of Ixion, after Final Fantasy X’s lightning elemental Aeon which is a grand beast with large electric-generating horns, and er since it resembles close to the Ixus name. (Ixion is also the son of Ares, in Greek mythology.)

Hohoho yeah I like naming my gadgets like they’re my own babies hohoho.

So I have a Mandarin class on Saturday morning where there was only two students, me and another silai. Uh huh I prefer that small of a class since more attention can be given to us. Also had to leave early at 10am, rushed to college, and delivered our presentation.

For some reason I was not nervous at all :D Other than the fact that I wasn’t prepared at all (didn’t memorise my presentation script, so I kept looking down at my two cue cards which are really my entire script), I have no idea why I felt duly calm or even that creeping feeling of apathy. Maybe because I know the lecturer would be bloody lenient, hence the lack of nervousness. Does that mean that I shouldn’t be prepared next time I have a presentation?

Group pic of our Business Comm class, in which not everybody is in the pic.

The girls in my college gang.

The guys in my college gang.

My presentation group minus another girl from another batch.

We celebrated the end of our very long week filled with presentations and assignments at Canadian 2 for 1 Pizza at SS15, under my suggestion. Total bill amounted to RM81 with 2 large pizzas and 2 extra large pizzas, filling up our rather empty stomachs quite quickly. Got about leftovers of 4 pizzas so I tapau-ed them home.

Because I was extraordinarily tired I took a nap, and didn’t really wake up to my alarms until Andy phoned me at 4.15pm. Heng dropped by my house, I picked up Suet, Esther, and Andy, and we went to Summit to catch Blood Diamond. Met up with Ding and Kai Tzin outside the cineplex.

Movie was scheduled to start at 5.30pm, and it ended at about 8pm, making it a rather long 2 hour 30 mins film. I had quite low expectations since I didn’t think a Leonardo diCaprio show would be good (I’ve never watched Titanic so no comments), but again as the show dragged on, it won me over completely.

It’s hard to explain to great effect what the movie had detailed to us, but the fact that the mindless and pointless civil wars in African nations battling over natural resources and control of the country is a sordid reminder of the reckless insanity of our humanity. And one even disconcerting fact is that even after watching the movie, after we have sympathised with the Africans in the real world for their endless suffering, shed a tear or two in the process, in the end we get on with our own lives without helping these literally forsaken people because it’s next to impossible to do anything about it, and because if we feel sorry for one people, we’ll have to feel sorry for the other million people.

How is it that people of the same nation can go at war with one another? Child soldiers are even sadder still – brainwashed, tortured, and misguided.

After all that had happened in the Sierra Leone civil war, my own problems pale in comparison to what these people had and have to face. A million people displaced by civil war, a million people in utterly shabby conditions that are much worse than our own penduduk setinggan here, arms forcibly amputated by the RUF, kids given their first taste of drug and blood.. sometimes I feel ashamed to be labelled as a human even.

I think this movie is powerful enough to deter many people from purchasing diamonds, and focus on the fact of whether it’s conflict-free or not. Blood Diamond is bloody good enough to make you realise – again a clich? – how lucky all of us are to not be in the shoes of the war-torn Africans.

So after watching the movie, I felt slightly shaken up. Lots of thinking done because of the reality of it all.

We managed to squeeze 7 of us in my car uncomfortably and dropped Heng at his house for a while to feed Aldo. We went to SS15’s Pan Bakery next for our dinner.

Suet, Andy, and me forming part of the picture.

Still waiting for our food.

Kai Tzin showing Esther’s handphone.

Fetched Kai Tzin back home, then we then went to Taipan to buy a DVD to watch at someone’s place, and it was only that when we almost reached Court 8 that the rest finally decided to watch it in my room instead.

We were all feeling pretty tired, and to watch The Pursuit of Happyness cramped on a single queen-sized bed in my room didn’t make it better. The movie was slow-going and constantly show Chris’ (Will Smith) misfortunes which could get rather discouraging and depressing even, which, of course, ended on a happy note.

After movie ended at almost 1am, when all of us were dead tired.

One week of study week, and I’m feeling a little freer now.