The Man in the Mirror

For starters, I woke at 7.20 am from a terrifying nightmare. Then I found out that Michael Jackson passed away.

:(

I was born in the late 80s, so MJ was already white when I came to know of him. I was never really a big fan but I certainly have my fair share of MJ music and videos!

I particularly remember 'Black or White'. I laughed when Macauley Culkin plugged in his guitar, turned the volume knob to 'Are you Insane?' (or something to that effect) then blasted his "dad" out of the room to Africa(?). Also, the face morphing of the people starring in the music videos really stuck with me. I thought it was really, really, really cool.

My parents liked him but did think he was weird. I believed that he was eccentric as well, but I guess he's probably just misunderstood. I remember watching his clips and music videos, and never did understand why masses of people cried or fainted during his concerts.
No one does that anymore. I guess it's not cool to do that nowadays. Wait.. do kids still use the word 'cool'?

Michael came to Brunei in 1996 (I was 9) for a concert. I remember my family and I heading up to the city, to Jerudong Park to watch him perform. Unfortunately, we couldn't get into the concert area due to the large crowds so we had to watch his performance on a massive TV screen instead.

Since he loves amusement rides, Michael went on several of the rides in Jerudong while he was there for his concert. I recall seeing Michael Jackson only a few metres in front of me. He and his family had gotten off the water log ride and was in a golf cart. There were body guards everywhere. There was a buzz of excitement as everyone gathered around trying to get a glimpse of him.
I just stood there in awe.

But the cool thing was my mom who managed to sneak through security and walked up to Michael Jackson while he was in the cart. The cart wasn't going anywhere because of the large crowds so my mom grabbed the opportunity. She extended her hand towards him. He looked a litte surprised but naturally, could not refuse to shake the hands of a fan. My mom quickly thanked him and made her way back into the crowds.

I have no idea how she did it.

My mom sometimes can do the most unpredictable things. But I'm glad she did. How many people can say, "My mom shook hands with Michael Jackson"??

Funnily, not many people believe me so I stopped telling people.



Although I'm not a massive fan, I think he's incredibly talented and is a musical genius. I suppose his music did have some influence on my life. The 'Earth Song' had quite an affect on me; I was only a child then but it made me aware of how we were destroying the earth with our greed. I remember singing 'Heal the world' on karaoke at my cousin's place.

Thinking back of these fond memories really sadden me. The world will be mourning for the loss of a legend.

May you rest in peace, Michael.

Life without a full stop

I've lost my full stop

No
I'm not going all emo on you guys

I really have lost my full stop
and my comma

do you not notice the missing punctuations by now?

The sad story

I went upstairs to have a shower and come down to find that my keyboard was going a little berserk
Typing a letter gave me another letter or number and sometimes even nothing!!
I wasn't really that panicky because 'someone' else was doing it for me
Which is odd enough because I'm actually very protective of my laptop as Sharon would know

Nonetheless I called up SK and asked him if he knew what the problem was
We spent over half an hour on the phone but nothing worked

Then after I hung up
that 'someone' made a confession
Now I'm not pointing fingers or anything but it wasn't me who spilled a little drink over the keyboard

Yes
I know
I wish that 'someone' had told me earlier instead of letting me agonize over my laptop trying to fix settings when I could have shut it down and dry it
Liquids and electronics should never go together!!

But it's an accident and accidents do happen
Yes I'm a wonderful and forgiving person LOL~!!



Apparently laptop keyboards are major sensitive
a little moisture and it goes insane
Kinda reminds me of that Gremlins movie
keep them away from water or you're in big trouble

So what if YOU (omg) spilled a little drink over your beloved previous laptop's innocent lil keyboard?

1. The laptop must be TURNED OFF!
   No don't waste precious seconds to 'shut down' your laptop
   TURN THE MAIN POWER SWITCH OFF! PULL THE CORD! Anything that will save you valuable time before the liquid seeps into your laptop and KILLS it
2. Remove all removable parts (eg battery)
3. Tip the laptop over and give it a little shake in attempt to drain it
4. Blow dry your laptop with a hair-dryer on the LOWEST or cool setting
5. DO NOT TURN ON YOUR LAPTOP FOR 48 HOURS to ensure that it's completely dry

I'm not mad or anything
I just wished I had known earlier so I could react to it and save my full stop and comma
Everything else seems alright
A couple other keys such as backspace home and end can be stubborn at times but they still work with a little patience

For now Microsoft Word will have to be my best friend
It's quite hard to type out a URL without a full stop

If I really can't take it I'll just get one of those external keyboards
Though it's been only like 2 hours since I turned on my lappy and I'm already feeling a little annoyed

It is not the end

I wasn't having a good day in lab today.
It was hectic and as usual it involves a lot of running around trying to get everything organize without tripping over myself.

Then I get this text message. It was from my cousin.




"Hey I've got bad news for you. Read calmly okay. Your grandma passed away at 3 am this morning."









Now.

The first thing that came into my mind was, "Ha. That can't be true."

My lab partner Huey Yeng turned to me and asked me what was wrong. I turned to her wanting to laugh it off because it couldn't be true, it was all a sick joke but I couldn't say a word, instead I found myself crying :(






Mom had called me on Monday and I haven't spoken to her in weeks.

I asked how grandma was. Mom said that she was officially bed-ridden and that the doctor said that she was waiting for death.
She also said that grandma asked for me the other day which brought tears to my eyes.


I kinda cried when I heard this because it's just so ironic you know. .


My grandmother was someone who needed constant attention and was always ill. She always wound up in the hospital, wailing in bed, telling me that her time is up.

She always made me cry because I believed her :'(


As I grew older, I realized that she was just saying that to get sympathy from others. Everyone knew her tricks but I still love her anyway.
She may be grumpy, unreasonable and bitter but she was my grandma and no one's perfect, hey? I will miss her . . .



As I grew, I've learnt to tell her to not say such things and to believe that she'd get better.
Everyone tells me to take care of what I say to her because she takes everything personally. But I don't care what they say. I said and did whatever I wanted.
Despite what they say, I've never gotten into trouble with her :)


When I went back in July, she had been admitted into the hospital. Before I came back to Adelaide, she wailed and said that she would not get the chance to see me again. Once again, I told her that she will. I strongly believed that because it's always been that way... I would always see her again.

But I was wrong this time.






I've always thought the reason why she's bitter was because she's old and lonely. As long as I could remember, I've vowed never to grow to be like her. If I'm 60 and alone, I'll just buy myself a cute dog and pamper it.

She was such an unhappy person, always dwelling on negativity. . . constantly tortured herself with miserable thoughts and self-pity.



I want to be like my dad though. In the sense of filial piety . . . he may not be the best dad in the world but he was a damm great son.

He has lost both parents now. I can't imagine how that must feel.

My dad is the fourth child out of seven kids. And yet, everyone says my dad is the only one who truly cares for his parents and I believe that. Even grandma finally admitted that my dad was a good son.
She doesn't compliment people very often you know.


Dad is a workaholic and he's a busy man but he always made time.
He isn't a very affectionate man but when the two of us visited grandma in the hospital, he would fluff her pillows, feed her and stroke her hair.



He says that one should be filial and care for one's parents when they're old.
If there's one thing that my dad's done right, it's being a good son.

Sometimes I feel like he's slowly becoming like my grandma which isn't a very good thing but that wouldn't change anything. I'd still love him and I'd show him the same love that he has given to his parents.

She's only 68.
But she's always been weak and frail. Mom said that it was best this way.
She's in a better place now.

And I truly believe that she is.
Death is not the end of everything.

I remember being five or six at least at the time and we were visiting grandma.
Mom sitting on the edge of the bed and I was dancing around to the radio when my grandma came in.
She laughed at me and said I was silly but I just gave her a big grin and continued doing my thing.

She shook her head as she sat down next to my mom and watched me prance on.

Hey, and I'm a better dancer now ;)

FIRE!

We had a long lab practical session yesterday which required a lot.. a lot... and a lot of waiting.

We waited for an hour for the first section of the prac to be complete before we could proceed.
There were five minutes left before our membranes were completely soaked with anitbodies so like kids in a candy store, we eagerly started preparing for the second part... when the lab technician Daniel stormed in and in a loud booming voice, "Alright everyone. Take all your personal belongings, leave the lab and make your way out and down the fire exit, towards the car park outside. We are evacuating the building."


Everyone: O_o


But we didn't even hear a fire alarm.


Nonetheless the firemen sure came fast.
Yum, firemen :)

We didn't see the building go up in flames though. No signs of fire or a cat stuck in a tree.


It took a while but we could return soon after.
While we continued with our work, Daniel suddenly burst in to ask, "Did anyone leave their personal belongings behind?"

Everyone: . . .

Seeing the looks on our faces, he went on, "Someone did on the level above and their stuff were stolen."

Everyone: *jaw drop*



Turns out that there were 2 boys, aged 12-13 who had broke into the building and set off the fire alarm (which we did not hear -__- . . .) and stole a couple of things.
But they were caught and police were involved.
Woo.. freaky.
And it all happened in the floor above ours.