Tales of random encounters

Just watched a hilarious vlog posted by my childhood friend's sister.

It made me think back of the times where I was flirted with, complimented on my looks or asked out by strangers. Now, I'm not super pretty or extroverted and friendly, so these events are few and far between. But when it does happen, it's normally pretty awkward and funny in hindsight.

Here are some that stand out:

15 years old

When I was in secondary, I took the bus to school everyday. Normally I'd just sit and stare out the window or sleep+drool until we reached. One day, after I alighted, a girl (1 year my junior) runs up to me and hooks her arm around my elbow.

"Can I walk with you?"

For a moment, I just stared at her. I mean what do you want me to say? No? She was already clinging on to me like a lost puppy hoping for food...the time to ask her to beat it was long past.

So I shrugged and said okay. The school was only like a 100 feet away anyway, so I wouldn't have to put up with this horrible invasion of space for too long.

"Stephanie..."

Wtf how does she know my name?
She gazed deeply into my eyes as we walked.

"You know, you're really beautiful!"

Commence awkward silence.

...WTF? How am I supposed to react to a girl whose name I don't even know, who grabs me out of the blue and tells me that I'm attractive? Furthermore, I was NOT beautiful in high school. I had pimples! Oily skin! I also had a shitty haircut, braces, a uniform that was too big for me and I had NEVER been sociable.

That made her compliment even more awkward because she was either:

1. Lying (which means she wants something from me. OH GOD WHAT DOES SHE WANT?)
2. Crazy/half-blind

Anyway, I managed to shake her off before we reached school, before we could fuel rumours of me swinging THAT way. She never spoke to me that way again after that day, but she would still smile at me every time I got on or off the school bus.


17 years old

I had just started college, and was feeling massively out of place among girls who dressed well, with heels, made up faces and all. One day, one of my classmates, a guy that I was not particularly friendly with, came to me and said:

"Stephanie. My friend from another class asked for your number wor."

I was VERY suspicious, as my classmate was known to be sarcastic and slightly misogynistic. When he came to me, all smiles and speaking with a sweet tone of voice, my red flag went up immediately.

Being the unfriendly soul I am, I didn't reply. I just stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

"By the way, my friend is a GIRL! HAHAHAHA! She saw you in moral class and thought you were a boy. Then she asked me for your number! HAHAHA!"

Wow. Can you start to see a pattern here? It's like the world wants me to be a lesbian, throwing girls at me left and right.

Anyway before gathering my stuff and leaving, I sniped back.

"Well, if I'm a boy, at least I'm considered a lengchai. Can't say the same about you. She picked me, after all."

That shut him up all right. What an asshole, laugh some more la! >_>


19 years old

Downstairs on the corner of my apartment block, there is a souvlaki shop. It's open until 3-4 am so sometimes I go down there around midnight to take away some food if I'm really hungry.

Anyway, the young guy who took my order was trying to chat me up. And I was not used to being chatted up, much less have the experience to know how to shut him down immediately. He complimented me on my hair, and started interrogating me.

What's your name?
Where are you from?
Do you have a job?
What are you studying?
Where do you live?

What. The. Fuck. Where do I live? Do you honestly think I'm going to tell you, you creep?

All the while, he was giving me this huge creepy smile. And note, this was AFTER I had paid AND collected my souvlaki.

I kept trying to leave and he just kept on talking and asking me personal questions.

I'm pathetic. Can you imagine me taking one step away, and then stopping cause he shot me another question?

I should have just asked him to fuck off and leave me alone but I was just stunned, pathetically helpless in that unfamiliar situation.

Eventually, I managed to escape. I noted that he had given me extra meat for my souvlaki, which was one good thing that came out of the awkward encounter. Awkward for me anyway.

The story didn't end there. When my boyfriend visited me here in Melbourne, I brought him to the souvlaki shop. As luck would have it, the same creepy guy was there. As someone else took our order, he gave me a big smile...which vanished when he saw I was holding my boy's hand.

"Your boyfriend?"
"Yea, I brought him over from Malaysia!"

I returned that his huge smile.

To say his face turned sour was an understatement. His expression and body language was outright hostile.

HELLLOOO. You don't even know me, how are you entitled to being jealous of my boyfriend? That's just downright creepy.

Last...


19 years old (again)

I was asked out for a coffee by a stranger...while I was sitting right next to my boyfriend.
That is all.

______

Anyway, I'm already bored of this post, so to reward you peeps who have struggled and successfully reached the end of this post, I will now show you the uglier-but-not-ugliest pics of myself when I was...

15

17

19

Yep. That pretty much sums it up.

I look cracked out and getting worse all through my teen years.

...don't ask me what was going on in the last pic. I don't know either.

Bonus: Match the photos with the corresponding story for extra authenticity/giggles!

Minimalist

Subtract until it breaks
The way of the minimalist

This is the philosophy which shaped the creation of Minimalist for Facebook and Gmail.

With each update, Facebook seems to introduce more and more clutter. The new features can be useful, depending on the type of user you are, but what I dislike about it is the inability to customize the layout of your Facebook. Not every user would like to use EVERY single feature that is introduced - I'm not much of a stalker myself - so it makes sense to allow more flexibility in choosing what does and does not appear on your Facebook page.

Today, I was browsing extensions for Google Chrome as I was bored to death staying at home on a Sunday. Initially I was looking for Ad Blockers to get rid of all those pesky ads on the sidebar. Eventually Minimalist Facebook caught my eye. I read the reviews, previewed the interface and decided to give it a go. It's free, why not? :D

The interface is extremely well-organized and clear. You can't really get confused at all (unless you're technologically impaired!) One thing that I REALLY liked was that a small preview pops up as you hover each option, clearly showing what you were about to change in case you weren't sure.

Anyway, straight to the point: Before and after screencaps!

Before:

After:

Damn different right? You can even change the colour of the menu bar as well as the background colour! The font colour changes according to the menu bar. Looks really good, imo.

Things I changed:

1. Completely hid the navigation bar 

2. Completely removed the right sidebar, including ticker and adverts (you can also select individual elements to hide if you don't want completely remove the sidebar)

3. Changed theme colour to deep purple (my favourite!)

The old pop-up chat is there because I never had the chat/ticker sidebar in the first place. I ctrl+scroll/arrow up twice to increase the size of facebook in general so my chat appears as the old one did and the ticker just hovers on the right sidebar, above events and ads. Anyway, not having a ticker improves productivity by 300%, so just as well that it's gone. (Making a rough guess here, but who wants to bet I'm roughly right? XD)

If you're wondering whether it was inconvenient that my left navigation bar was gone, don't worry! Just by hovering your mouse over the left border line and clicking brings your navigation back. You can hide it again by doing the same thing. Super convenient, eh?

To access the Minimalist options interface to make changes again is super easy. The Minimalist icon is located next to the bookmark icon in the search bar. Clicking on it shows Options, which brings up the Options interface in a new tab; Toggle on/off, which allows you to switch between the original and modified facebook with a single refresh of the page; and PANIC! ...which I have no idea what it does. I would really like to find out though.

Furthermore, the Minimalist icon only appears when you're on the relavant page. That means the icon for Minimalist Facebook only shows up in the search bar when you're on Facebook, and the Gmail icon while you're accessing Gmail. I find this a really nice touch to an already well-planned app.

Being super pleased with the results, I searched for more apps from this guy. The only other one that I found that I could use was Minimalist Gmail.

Interface works the same. The subject lines of the emails have been removed for my privacy, heh. Otherwise it still shows. Here are some before and after screencaps:

Before:

After:

Things I changed:
1. Got rid of top menu bar
2. Drastically cleaned up left sidebar
3. Got rid of disclaimer and miscellaneous junk at the bottom of the screen
4. Changed attachment icons to show the type of attachment it is (jpg, pdf and etc)
5. Took away redundant Archive/Spam/Delete bar at the bottom of the screen (my list only shows 20 emails maximum so it was unnecessary)
6. Cleaned up email options bar
7. Removed Search Web and Filter Options/Advanced Settings beside the search bar
8. Removed border dividers between messages

DAMN CLEAN NOW RIGHT? Checking my mail is so much more pleasant now!

Both extensions are free and easy to install. Just click 'Add to Chrome' and that's it! The options interface opens automatically and you can start making changes straight away. Changes are applied as soon as you refresh your Facebook or Gmail.

So far, I've not seen any performance issues from my browser, (the creator does put a warning under certain options that might drain CPU usage so I would just avoid those.) I highly recommend trying these out of you're bothered by clutter like I am. :D

Minimalist for Facebook

Minimalist for Gmail

Also, note that these extensions are for Google Chrome. I have no idea if there are versions compaitble with other browsers, but you can try searching for it. If not, just get Google Chrome already! It's fast, the interface is clean and it is highly customizable. Why aren't you using it already? O:

Boredomiscruel

After much effort moving all 48 posts and 50-odd pictures to a blogspot site, my new/old blog is now up!

For things to make more sense, you probably should read from the oldest post to the newest.

(Might be off-putting seeing that the latest post is a post telling you to go straight to the blog's successor, Snarkie)

The choice of font and layout was what I felt best represented myself at that moment in time. (Well, best among the choices of default layouts and fonts I could pick from Blogger.)

Anyway, first things first. Before you proceed to discovering or discovering my 14-year-old self, please note:

1. Pictures are at thumbnail quality as I did my backup in MS Word. The hyperlinks to the original .jpeg files have been deleted of the Friendster server, so the pictures are mostly in crappy quality. You can try enlarging them to scrutinize pixels. I have no idea why you'd want to do that, but then again people do weird things.

2. I lied. I used to lie and withhold information and twist the truth in my first blog. Not often, but when I did it was mostly to protect myself and make myself look better than I really am/make things seem more interesting than they really are. I'm not going to correct my manipulated statements (I did them in the first place with a reason) so please take everything I saw with a pinch of salt. :)

3. I was possibly offensive. I named names and called people names. I was young and I had a very different mindset then. It may have seemed like a very good idea to do it at the time, but I realize now that it probably wasn't a very prudent move. Also, relationships change. People I hated last time, I may like now and vice versa. If anyone wants their name and references to their person removed, please ask (though that does not necessarily mean I will do it!) 

4. My views are different from what they are now. A lot of things I said back then are no longer valid or don't make sense anymore. For example, the opinion of my post on how gay people are still people has not changed, but the logic and reasoning behind it has.

5. I was VERY spoiled. I was bratty and angsty, much like any teenager of that age going through raging hormonal changes were. :) Please don't cluck your tongues or shake your head at the selfish and  thoughtless things I've said. There is a high chance (though not 100%) that I have changed since then, so don't hold my 14-year-old self against me.

6. I had crappy word formatting. I bolded and underlined and italicized words unnecessarily. I had a shitty sense of spacing and lots of posts look messy. Some posts have been spaced better for the sake of easier reading, but they are otherwise unchanged. Everything you see was as it was 6 years ago.

7. I made horrible pop culture references and I listened to shitty music. Also, I used teeny words like 'prettiness,' 'evilness' and 'huggles.' You have been warned. 

8. I was ugly. Oh my god, the hair, the pimples, the inability to smile...EVERYTHING. Going through photos from the earlier 2000s just made me feel like facerolling on the keyboard. Why was I so keen to dress like a boy but paint my nails glittery pink?!?!

Anyway, to remind you that I am now less ugly than I was when I was young, here's a picture of me, dated 24th September 2011:

Now, without further ado, I proudly (and hesitantly) present to you:

Boredomiscruel!

Pictures :3

As I was transferring my old blog posts over to a new blogspot site, I realised that when I was younger I like to post pics. Sometimes to illustrate a point, sometimes just for shit and giggles. I found the posts much nicer to read when broken up with some pictures, so here I go again! I have a new camera and I haven't been using it much, so let's take it for a whirl today :D

My hair, redyed back to purple by Amanda.

The colour is Deep Purple from Special Effects. My cousin brought it back from the US; it costs only about $12 a bottle, which was enough for 2 rounds of highlights on long hair.

Definitely try this brand if you've ever fancied unusual-coloured hair. The purple slowly fades to a pretty cupcake pink after a while; you'll only need to touch up after about 6 months if you don't mind the pink. :3

Viv asked me to dye my hair a healthy brown colour, but I've grown so attached to my highlights I don't think I could part with them :( Not for a long time more, anyway. So many other colours to try! 

My latest mouse - the infamous MX518. I used to think it was hideous and that the paint effect was cheap-looking. However, I decided to give it a go after many recommendations and the fact that it fit within my budget.

I don't regret it at ALL. It's a fantastic mouse; incredibly smooth and responsive. It's also very comfortable and has never, ever given me blisters no matter how long I play.

I used a Razer Salmosa and Abyssus prior to buying this.

The Salmosa was too small, but not bad. However, it's too expensive and the ergonomics are horrible.

Abyssus played well for a couple of months before it developed click problems (not registering clicks/double clicking automatically.) More ergonomic than the Salmosa, but the non-bevelled edges of the buttons chafed my skin as I grip the mouse very tightly when I'm tense. The Abyssus broke after 13 months of use (just in time for the shop warranty to expire) during a casual game of Left4Dead2. And I mean casual by 'slapping zombies with Gnome Chompsky' kind of casual. The mouse button announced it's demise by emitting a horrible CLACK and then silence. Goodbye present from my sweet bf. T_T

Anyway, the only gripe I have about the Logitech MX518 is that the scroll wheel of my mouse is too sensitive, sometimes it scrolls even when I haven't reached to the next scroll notch yet, resulting in a double scroll. This is only mildly annoying during web browsing and since I don't scroll much in games anyway, it's not a dealbreaker. :)

 These are my nails that were stained by washing my hair after dyeing it purple. I've only had 2 washes so far, so the water that runs off is still a very opaque violet. I've learned from my last experience and painted a clear layer of polish over nails beforehand, so the dye won't stain my nails directly :)

This is my workstation. The term 'work' used loosely since I play most of the time...actually ALL the time. I go to uni to do my work cause they have bigger screens and faster processors. My poor tablet, serving as a placemat for my late night instant noodle sessions (with a hotplate underneath the pan of course!) I pitied it, so I have put it in a proper stand. :D

Also, my laptop is placed on a box cause it wouldn't meet my eyelevel otherwise; I started getting neckaches from the minor bending of my neck to view the screen properly. That box cost me 10 dollars. I bought it on a whim. I saw it and fell in love with it's gorgeously soft pink and equally soft felt pattern. When people asked me what I bought it for, I said it's to store my socks. But now there's nothing in it except a bunch of paper sculptures from foundation year. Just as well that I've found a good use for it now!

As for the clutter on the left side of the desk...

I challenge you to count the amount of food I have on my desk alone. Here are some Arnott's Orange Slices, BBQ Smith Chips and White Wings Choc Chunk Drizzles. YUM! (There is also a 900g M&M bucket in the background...but it's contents were devoured long ago. Now it just holds a bunch of stuff.) I didn't see it at first, but after I took this pic, I realised there was a half-eaten pack of Mint Pods under the chips...

1-a-day multivitamin gummies from my cousin (Ridiculously, the serving size is 2 gummies a day.)
Arnott's Caramel Crowns...

Assorted chocolate and candy bars...Triple Chocolate Mars, Cherry Ripe, Boost, Frutips and some random Chupa Chups thrown in, just to name a few.

A half-eaten packet of Milky Bar and a Jar with a packet of gummies in it. I bought the jar with 3 packs of gummies in it for only $5! 1 pack of those gummies sell for about RM8 in Malaysia wtf. Candy haven if you work here and earn Aussie dollars. *__*

 Okay. I'm guilty of overspending on nail polish. I don't even paint my fingernails. I only paint my toenails, and only during non-winter months. I have no idea why I have so many bottles here in Aussie. The best part is that this is less than half the amount that I have back home in Malaysia.

My favourite brand is Sally Hansen. Lasts reasonably long, smooth texture and has lots of bright colours that I love. I just bought 3 bottles that day for only $4 each, bloody cheap -.- Arguably, OPI has better quality polish and even more gorgeous colours, but going for RM60 a pop, I would never buy it for myself.

Thanks to another cousin of mine who bought me 2 colours for my birthday! Also, my mom just bought me Justin Bieber's line of OPI polish from HongKong cause it was on sale. If my mom were a teenager in this era, she'd be mocked by teenagers worldwide for that. Justin Bieber, Twilight, Nickelback - 3 strikes you're out! However, as she is a mommy, she is just considered endearingly cool <3

Another thing I'm guilty of: Hoarding soft toys :D Just try to count the amount of toys you see here. That unicorn cost me only $1 off eBay LOL. When I met the girl to collect it, I felt pretty awkward handing her 1 measly gold coin in exchange for that glorious toy O__O Again, this amount is only a fraction of the amount of toys I have back home in Malaysia. :)

And how can I end a bimbo post without a picture of me? :D Granted, half my face is obscured by my camera, but it's a cute camera and I don't mind showing it off. It's a Canon SX230HS if anyone's interested. I chose it because of it's good reviews and the fact that it comes in pink.

It reminds me of the time when I was 13 and opened the present from my parents. A dinky little 2-MP Cybershot, powered by 2 triple-A rechargeable batteries and in soft, pastel pink. I loved it so much. It started off my photo-taking craze which lasted a few years before abruptly ending...I'm not sure when, why or how.

I have this feeling it was when my family started pressuring me to take pics of everything at every conceivable angle while on holiday. I was also the designated camera person at every concert and outing. It was fun at first, but after a while I realised that while I was capturing memories of my family and friends, I was pretty much excluded from the moment.

How can I enjoy a holiday if I lost myself trying to find the most gorgeous angle to document everything I saw? Maybe some people can, but I rather be completely in that moment, rather than trying to capture a feeling I never felt in the first place. Now, mom has her own camera and has acquired her own snap-happy habit, leaving me to enjoy new places without being nagged to take pictures of every single doorway, fountain, flower or tuktuk car.

I am now content to snap a few pics for visual memory's sake and put away the camera to enjoy the moment. :)

The end!

Yay, not an angsty post. Pat me on the back please! :P

Welcome back emobunnie!

Shortly after I started blogging at the age of 14, I've wished to seen my blog entries printed onto paper into a nice journal and preserved for my older self/love one/my children to read in the future.

All my teenage pain, angst, happiness, hatred, folly, sadness and excitement contained in one precious tome of memories.

Imagine my sadness and shock to discover that Friendster had recently purged their databases of all blogs, leaving only the barest bones of one's past Friendster identity. Today, while I was reflecting upon my wish and loss over the deleted blog, I remember that one fine day a few years ago, I was fearful of this very event happening.

Struck by a memory, I plugged my old external hard drive into my laptop and waited in anticipation as it connected.

Lo and behold, all my Friendster blog posts from 2005-2006, painstakingly copied and pasted in individual word files with each post's title. ALL of them. I'm so excited and happy! I'm going to start a separate blog on blogger to put up all my old posts again.

:D :D :D

However, I am contemplating making it private as some of my childish rantings are pretty embarrassing -_- Hint: I was a HUGE fan of Good Charlotte and hated on 'teenyboppers' (although I DEFINITELY was one)

The pictures are all gone as I hadn't bothered backing them up, so that's a little bit sad. I probably have some of them floating around orphaned on the hard drive but I don't feel hardworking enough to hunt them all down and reassign them to their proper posts at the moment.

Yes. I used to blog with insane amounts of pictures and drawings from MS Paint. I used to be so entertaining. I remember random people complimenting my 14-year-old english and how I was an inspiration to them LOL. What a joke. Now all you have is a sarcastic, un-dedicated blogger who likes almost no one and posts up huge chunks of text with repetitive themes.

Bah.

Sorry, I've grown old. :c Anyway. Back to the blog restoration business. I shall even try to name it after the friendster blog, let's hope that name is still available!

Update:

Just finished transferring all the posts! Some of them need to be reformatted and much to my delight, all the pictures are intact! Smart 17-year-old me copied them all into a word document and it has preserved all my pictures (albeit low quality thumbnail versions) :D The original files were stored on the friendster servers, which have been wiped :(

Unfortunately, I got to see hideous pictures of 14-year-old me and now I feel damn paiseh to post them up. Oh well, for the sake of complete disclosure huh? (I'm not even sure what that means, but it sounds pretty legit.)

Anyway, I just realised how entertaining I was! I made stupid statements like 'if I were the ruler of the whole world, I'd abolish all the schools and get scientists to manufacture a microchip containing all the useful information we'd ever need and implant them into babies' heads when they are born so no one would ever have to suffer school life ever again. WTF 14-year-old me?! And on my bucket list was 'crash my arch-enemy's wedding in a banana suit.'

?!?!?!

I miss my younger self LOL. I'm so bitchy and emo and whiny but I was fucking hilarious. I remember I even had fans! FANS. People who didn't know me left encouraging and cheerful comments asking me to blog more!

And now? I have people telling me my tits are small! How times have changed. I think I should blog more random stuff with more pictures and stop complaining about the world.

Yea. I feel like I like the 14-year-old me a hell lot more than the 'now' me. Oh yea, rock on emo kid!

Overprotective parents

Fuck them. I've had it with people who insist on being so politically correct and sensitive.

As some people may know, not long ago, I helped design a zine for children based on the compilation of artwork, stories and jokes from kids. I did this willingly and gladly when asked.

Anyway, a few hundred copies have been printed (with funds from a grant) and circulated. Somehow, a copy had fallen into the hands of a family with NO sense of humour.

A joke zine + lack of humour = disaster.

They complained about some content and requested that it be removed. The message was passed along through several parties and I was asked to make corrections immediately or pull down the content from my portfolio (as they didn't want any copies with 'inappropriate' content circulating on the internet.)

I am a university student, and I have assignments and my own things to do. I was upset and irritated by the request, but I was also busy and tired at that moment, so I just chose to temporarily remove the offending pages from my website and deal with it later.

Today, I received another email with even MORE things to be modified/removed completely form the magazine. Can I do it in two weeks?

Hell fucking NO.

Firstly, my obligation to handle the design of your magazine was over the moment it was published.

Secondly, these are not 'mistakes,' these are things that children have created, drawn and written. They've had the joy of seeing their work published; to take this small bit of pride away from them...what kind of monsters are you?

Thirdly, from the wording of the emails that I've received, the complaint came from A family. ONE family. Why are we giving in to the paranoia of ONE uptight family and neglecting the joy of the other parents who have seen their own children's works in print?

Fourth, the hard copies have already been printed and circulated. No more copies are going to be printed. What are you hoping to achieve by removing children's work from online sources? What if one of them goes on the internet and sees a revised copy of the zine and notices that their work has been rewritten for them, or worse, removed?

Fifth, humour is almost always offensive. If you don't like it, don't read it. Violence, suicide and stereotyping? Why don't you ban your children from cartoons? God knows how many of us as children have experience Tom getting bashed over the head by Jerry. How about roadrunner leading Wile E Coyote over a cliff?

Here are some examples of content that were advised to be removed/edited:

1. A boy wrote a space adventure. In his story, he mentioned being chased by a sun master who hit him over the head by a baseball bat and knocked him out cold.

Reason: Being hit in the head by a baseball bat is 'too violent' for kids.

Fuck that shit. Let's have some guns!

Can you believe that because of one harmless sentence, the poor boy is going to have either have half his story cut off and replaced with a shitty but inoffensive 'to be continued...' or have his story be COMPLETELY REMOVED? Are you fucking shitting me?

When I received the pdf file containing this boy's story, it was neatly typed out, formatted and even had bloody WORD ART for its title. The boy even spent enough time and effort to look up relavant pictures and clip art to adorn his work. It was one of the few files that I didn't redesign. I just realigned the pictures and gave the story a whole page of its own because I saw the amount of love and effort that went into it.

And now, because of ONE complaint from ONE family, people are willing to take it down? Fuck you and fuck crushing children's spirits for your own sick, perverted sense of justice.

2. ALL blonde jokes, with one specifically mentioned:

There was a blonde who tried to commit suicide. She tied a rope around her waist really tightly.
Then a redhead said: "Aren't you supposed to tie it around your neck?"
The blonde said: "I did, but I couldn't breathe."

Reason: Stereotyping and reference to suicide.

WOW! Double whammy! Making fun of blondes AND talking about killing yourself! Wow I can't let my kid read that cause he'll grow up to be an asshole who kills himself...but wait, that would be doing us a favour, right? One less stereotyping asshole to piss the world off.

Anyway, I was obviously being sarcastic (in case you don't have a sense of humour WHICH YOU'VE ALREADY PROVED.) What I'm trying to say is that children are not stupid like you smug-ass adults like to assume. Children may be curious, but they are generally smart enough to separate fiction from reality. And if they can't, it's YOUR job as the parents to ensure that he/she DOES know how. Don't blame other parties and let others suffer watered-down versions of jokes for your failure to bring up a child who can actually tell right from wrong.

P.s. That joke made me laugh. Hey, it WAS funny!

3. Another kid wrote a story. In the first sentence, he described himself walking to EB Games (a video game store.) He then wrote: "Nobody was there but a nerd checking wii games."

Reason: 'Nerd' is offensive. Please replace with a more appropriate word, eg. 'boy'

What the fuck.

'Nerd is a term that refers to an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit.' - Wikipedia

Stereotyping, my arse. He even complimented the boy saying he was intelligent. Bah. But seriously, nerds are a socially acceptable stereotype these days; some people even take pride in being called a nerd or a geek. I refer to my bf as 'my geek' and he doesn't give a shit. If you don't use the term in a derogatory way, I don't see a problem with it.

Furthermore, they said to replace the word with a more 'appropriate' term, for example, 'boy.' If that isn't sexist, I don't know what is. If you can be outraged by a child using the word 'nerd' in a contextually appropriate way in a story, well, I can be 10 fucking times more outraged by your implication that only boys play games. Fuck you and your close-mindedness.

***

Those were only 3 examples from the emails; there are more requests to edit/remove content, mostly anal stuff like:

'violence'
(a paragraph written a kid being surrounded by bullies and getting bashed)

and 'references to homicide'
(a comic of someone asking Homer Simpson to strangle him, and the latter obliging; a caption of a clay sculpture of a man in a sombrero pushing a woman - 'Why did the man push his wife off a cliff?' 'Tequila!')

Are you fucking kidding me? Did you not even chuckle?

Is the girl who made the clay sculpture + joke going to push her boyfriend off a cliff when she grows up? And then realize her childhood joke isn't valid cause her boyfriend is a 'him' whereas her joke said 'tequila' (to kill her) ?

Lighten up.
GROW up.

Your children need a childhood with some humour, or else god knows they'll grow up to be uptight old farts like you. Uptight old farts who want to take away an ill child's little ray of pride and happiness in having their work appreciated by the masses, by asking it to be taken down or rewritten for them. I'm not even sure which is the worse insult.

Fuck you. Fuck all of you.
I'm glad you weren't my parents and didn't get the chance to completely ruin my childhood and alienate me from the world of humour.

You can get someone else to do your dirty work. If you are going to make kids miserable and wash their hands every half hour with antibacterial gel, get someone else to do it.

I'm having no part in it.

My job is done.
I refused payment for the initial job because I did it for the kids, no one else.

When I was a kid, I'd be delighted to see my work in print and available for other people to enjoy. I remember reading Mickey Mouse magazine and K-Zone and feeling excited seeing drawings and stories by other kids, hoping one day I could be part of it too.

Now, you're expecting me to go against my principles and expecting me to do it for FREE. Don't fucking take me for granted. I am an art student, but I don't need your 'opportunities' and I don't need you.

If you want a pixelmonkey or photoshop slave, ask any other willing person out there; I'm sure they can aid in you in destroying children's dreams. Anyone with a cursory knowledge of Photoshop can remove pages and  block out text. I'm certainly not going to.

To hell with your politically correctness.

P.s. I am raging at the family who made the demands to have the content moderated or taken down. Although I am also angry at the party who chose to give into their demands, this post is not aimed at them. And no, I will not do the editing even if you paid me.


P.p.s I'd like to make it clear that if the editing involved mistakes that I made, I would do it immediately without complaint. It is my responsibility to do so. I even edited the content with only minor grumbling a few times during the work period, due to your mistakes that were found during content moderation and multiple spell/grammar checks (some usage of punctuation and vocabulary were still wrong in the end, by the way.) However, I am definitely NOT responsible for the aftercare of your product, especially over something so trivial that does not in any way concern my failure in performing the job.


P.p.p.s I use the term 'job' loosely as this was purely voluntary and I was not paid for any part of it.

TF2

The best and worst parts of playing Team Fortress 2 when you're a:

1. Scout

Best: Flying all over the place and killing a very disoriented enemy, yea!

Worst: Flying all over and getting blown off a cliff by a pyro or sentry. Boo. :(

2. Soldier

Best: Taking lotsa damage from your opponents...then taking a chunk outta them with your equalizer, yea!

Worst: Trying to blow up an annoying scout flanking you...and end up blowing yourself up. Boo. :(

3. Pyro

Best: Burning the shit outta everyone and nabbing double/triple kills with the flare gun, yea!

Worst: Getting outburned by an opposing pyro. Boo. :(

4. Demoman

Best: Blowing shit up in midair, yea!

Worst: Not blowing shit up at all. Boo :(

5. Heavy

Best: Feeling invincible like a tank, yea!

Worst: Boring, fat and slow. Boo :(

6. Engineer

Best: Moving your sentries constantly and watching opponents get pissed off. Also, teleporting the shit outta your teammates and hearing their thanks, yea!

Worst: Getting accidentally killed by my own sentry. Boo :(

7. Medic

Best: Never allowing any teammates to stay off the battlefield for long, and watching your opponents shrink under the pressure of the push. Also, when my patients line up to be healed and thank me afterwards, yea!

Worst: Demanding patients, people spamming 'MEDIC!' and patients who don't protect me/charge recklessly into 100% fatal situations as if I were the fountain of invincibility. Boo :(

8. Sniper

Best: The feeling of headshotting a scout in mid air, yea!

Worst: Getting outsniped by an opposing/getting backstabbed though YOU CHECKED 238472648726278 BLOODY TIMES FOR SPIES. BOO :(

9. Spy

Best: Chain stabbing and tricking the opponent's medic into giving you an uber, yea!

Worst: Meeting the opponent you're disguised as 874298742 times in a row. Boo :(

This is from personal experience of course. I'm sure everyone has a best/worst moment of their own. :)

Anyway, this game is the shit and after quitting for a long time, I'm getting into it again. I certainly need a break from the rude/retarded ahbengs of DotA.

My favourite classes are the medic, engineer and pyro. Medic is one of the most important characters but sadly, lots of people don't like using it cause you 'can't own with a medic.'

Rubbish! Medic is awesome. Only if your teammates are as awesome as you are, though. I remember back when I played with the aussies there was this guy who was a fantastic demoman. I'd seek him out whenever my uber was charged and we'd go on pawning sprees together. I remember there was once I teamed up with another medic and unleashed a double uber push.

The opponents were crushed so badly they couldn't even leave their supply closet LOL. Their 2 sentries got mowed down in less than 5 seconds. Hilarious.

A few days ago, I was playing medic and suddenly 4 people rushed up to me screaming MEDIC! As I started healing one, I was very amused to find that the other 3 had formed a queue behind and were patiently waiting their turn. AHAHA and all them thanked me before they left. Why don't we get manners like these in DotA or CS? Incoming racist statement: Sometimes I feel only the angmohs appreciate their support...most asian guys have this 'killkillkill' mindset where they just go for the frags and glory, and ignore everything and everyone else. >__> *yawn* Selfish.

Engineer is also a very fun class to play, if you have like-minded engineer teammates. And when I say this, I don't mean turtling, cause turtling is for newbssss (unless the circumstances really call for it.) My greatest memory of playing engie was with a great teammate in Mountain Lab who seemed to enjoy the element of surprise.

We helped each other build up our structures quickly. He dropped an entrance teleporter right outside the supply closet and I dropped and exit. Quickly, we built up our level 3 sentries, covering each other. When the opponents came, they had no clue how to push. Every 2 minutes, we'd pick up our turrets and put them in a new location. It was hilarious to see an uber couple rush in and look at the wrong direction, wasting precious time. By the time they realize that the turrets have moved (again,) a competent pyro would have rushed in and separated them already.

We wreaked so much havoc that we were able to push back into Blu's base although we were defending. XD Great times.

Pyro is just fun for burning people. Even if I don't kill it's ok. Seeing people on fire and screaming for a medic is joy enough for me. Seeing people run and thinking they've escaped, only to be hit and killed by my flare gun - HAHA! Loves it.

Anyhow, my least favourite classes are the Heavy and Sniper simply because they're so PASSIVE. You can't really be an aggressive sniper unless you're as good as one of my aussie friends. He uses the crossbow and can actually push an enemy back, not just defend. Fearless and accurate. Geez.

The heavy I dislike because he walks so slowly when he's attacking. I love running around and he just pisses me off. He's basically a wall of bullets with skin like steel (if there's a medic behind him.) God knows I've been medic to many a great heavy (probably due to my ratio of time spent being a medic) and it's fun to rack up points and getting achievements by just dodging bullets during a push and tanking bullets during an uber.

But I've been medic to equally bad heavies and I just facepalm. There was once I ubered a heavy in front of so many opponents. I tanked all the knockback from the sentries and he was at a loss, not knowing who to shoot first. So he just started spraying at ALL of them, completely ignoring the sentry. 8 seconds of uber later, no opponents were dead and I fled, leaving him to face the sentry alone because he was also dumb enough to not know when to retreat. God knows a medic's life is more important than a shitty heavy's. LOL. Not taking down the sentry first...*faceroll*

I also rarely play demoman cause I'm absolute shit at him. I have NO idea how a demo should be played. I always have the urge to spam grenades and I have next to no ammo. -o- No fun at all. I know it's really fun if you're a kickass demo (note my friend above has gotten a 15+ kill streak with the double uber, and only because the opponent's couldn't respawn fast enough for him to make go boom!) But sadly, I suck, so I don't enjoy him at all :(

Mmmm I want the cute pyro alien hat and googly eyes *__*

Okay time to recharge for more gaming tomorrow :D

Nightsss.

Bounce

"If you're free, favour pls? ^-^"
"What kind? I'm a conservative guy :P"
"Oh, just an invitation to an orgy...but if that's not your thing it's ok."
"Lol ok :P"
"Anyway, try this."

If you have any suggestions/new bugs to report, please leave a comment/message me on facebook or msn.

Bugs found so far:

1. Using the rocket will cause the ball to shoot through the ceiling and not come back down (under conditions which have not been ascertained yet) [RESOLVED]

2. Stars have a strong tendency to spawn below the ledge at the bottom-right corner [RESOLVED]

3. Typo on instructions screen [RESOLVED]

4. Rocket count/timer not refreshing after game over (multiplayer) [RESOLVED]

5. Pause menu still activate-able on the game over screen [RESOLVED]

6. Ledge looking blocky on the final bounce (single player) [RESOLVED]

Suggestions so far:

1.Animation for big star

2. Moving ledges

3. Collectible power ups
   
     a. Duplicate ball
     b. Flip whole game upside down
     c. Reverse ball control
     d. Moving/growing/shrinking ledges
     e. Altered gravity
     f. Ghost ball (altered visibility)

4. Multiple difficulty levels

5. Shooting stars that give bonus points/penalty

6. Music toggle

7. Timer graphic/countdown sound effects when time is ending

8. Game over graphic and sound effect

9. Faster respawn for stars

10. Allow players to submit score after game


Constructive feedback will earn you a place on the credits list after I polish the game at the end of semester. (Sorry that's the most I can give in thanks - I'm just a financially-challenged uni student after all :C)

Playtesters so far:

1. Sam
2. Denise
3. Wilson
4. KC
5. Leon
6. Alex
7. Jern
8. Chao-Lin
9. Helena
10. Daniel

Sensei:

1. Junki

If I left your name out, please notify me!
Kthxbai <3

Chor lor

I still remember the time I got my report card back after the exam period. I was about 10 years old. When I brought it home to my dad, he identified the 2 words written at the comment section as 粗鲁.

I was mystified, as my command of mandarin was very bad, and my report card was the only one among my classmates' with such a brief message with such alien looking words. Then, my dad started laughing and said it meant 'crude or clumsy.'

WTF?

During the PTA meeting my female teachers expressed concern that I wasn't 'sitting properly' (my legs a mile apart) and that I kept picking fights with boys. My parents laughed it off...then sent me to a girl's school for my secondary education. -o-

Eventually, I learned to sit with my knees together and I stopped picking fights with boys. But I guess I was never born to be all feminine and demure.

That day, I was discussing with my friend on how to remove nose hair. I said that I'd like to try waxing it...but how would we get the waxing strip up the nose?

My friend then suggested that we slather a cotton bud with wax and insert it into the nose, let it set then RRRRRRRRRRRRRIP it out!

LOL. Then it would look like a feather duster, only with nose hairs instead of feathers. Arghhhh. Then, we had a verrrrry intellectual discussion about porn genres. (Can you feel my sarcasm?) After that, I had an internet date with my beloved long-distance boyfriend.

That night, my bf's friends introduced him to this entertaining website that they liked to surf together. So, we decided to check it out for ourselves. We then went to laksaboy.org to surf for hot chicks and laugh at the clients' comments. (It's a Singaporean prostitute directory.) You guys MUST go and read the comments in the forums!

It's super hilarious. Some guys probably play too much COD or something and they kept describing their sexperience in military terms. I'll list some of the funnier quotes here:

"i cumming, buay tahan liao, shot out million of soldiers and feel she cum at the same time, my didi feel a warm layer of fluid over it"
"so tired after the battle, lie for a while den go wash up"
"My canon (sp) ready to cum anytime"
"If she continue to do that, game over for one shooter like me"
"my dick below was harden like mad. Screaming and struggling to get out of my pants"

OK, the last one wasn't really military-related but I found it funny anyway. I can imagine a cartoon dick wearing a soldier's helmet screaming "LET ME OUT GODAMMIT" and ripping the zipper apart LOL. CHARGEEEEEEEEEE!


But seriously, wtf? Why can't they just call it 'dick' or 'dong' or just plain PENIS like normal people do? MY CANNON IS READY TO FIRE! BAM!


Anyway, all those quotes were taken from the reviews of just one lady of the night. There are many more at the forums that I didn't get round to reading, but they're mostly really funny. So there you go, an idea for you to kill some time if you really have nothing to do. :D

It's obviously NSFW, so if you don't have a disgusting sense of humour like me/are really religious, DON'T GO THERE.

That said, I feel like I should find more demure and ladylike friends to talk to. But HELL NAWWWWW I enjoy talking rubbish with my friends <3 ^-^

Lately, I realised that a lot of people don't really see me as a girl. -.-

Like the time where I wrote to Garena to ask them to please change my avatar to a female one. My classmate commented that he had always thought I was a 'male' person and he found it amusing that I preferred a female avatar.

SERIOUSLY? I may not be as gentle and polite as society's image of a perfect female, but you don't have to make ominous sounding comments that seem to imply that I'm...gay? LOL, he used the word 'tomboy', but past a certain age, I believe that the word implies something else. (But I may be wrong, please don't hold it against me D:)

:I don't have anything against gay people - in fact I fully support their fight for equal rights, but PLEASE LA. Please don't think I'm gay just because I don't wear dresses and makeup to uni.

*facepalm*

Many family members and close friends have commented about the dynamics of my relationship with my boyfriend. Most of them say that 'I wear the pants,' but I don't think that's a fair thing to say. Certainly, my bf treats me like gold and would go through crazy lengths to make me happy, but in no way am I forcing him to do it. If he wants to pamper me, of course I'll let him! What reason do I have to say no? :/

I feel insulted when people say I'm the 'man of the relationship'. Are you undermining my boyfriend's masculinity, or are you trying to imply that I'm very controlling - like a dominant male? Even if I WERE the dominant one in the relationship, you don't have to say I'm the MAN of the relationship. You're just implying that only men should be in charge and that my boyfriend is not 'man enough' to be the one 'in control.'

It's ridiculous in that people assume there must be a dominant one in a relationship. Sure, it's a common thing to have one partner that has more control in the relationship, but that doesn't mean that every relationship is like that - or that it's a bad thing.

While I may not appear submissive and am not afraid to hide my opinions, (like I'm doing right now, hoho!)  it doesn't mean that I automatically become the boss of my relationship just because I suit the image of the 'aggressive bitch'. Sure, my boyfriend is definitely the more romantic one - trying to get me to wear couple tees, hand making gifts for me and all. But that does NOT mean he is 'sissy' or weak.

Get over your stereotypes. Relationships exist in many forms, and when a relationship doesn't comprise of the manly hero and the damsel-in-distress, it doesn't mean there is something wrong with it.

Sam and I are not just lovers, but best friends. Best friends don't judge each other. He knows I snore like a pig hooked up to a sub-woofer, and I know his idea of a romantic date would be a walk along the beach or something cute like that. And we love it. We complement each other and I certainly don't try to restrict his freedom. He can go out with his female friends and come home late and I don't really mind. Hell, I even accompanied him to visit sex shops to find a dildo for his female friend.

We enjoy each others company, but we don't NEED it to feel happy.
Being in his presence makes me much, much happier (and milder) than I normally would be, but I don't mope and fall into depression when he's not around.

People have this twisted, Disney, Hollywood, Taylor Swift idea of love.

"I can't live without you."
"You're the only thing on my mind, I can't think about anything but your love."

"The moment I saw you, I knew we were meant to be." 

Rubbish. When you experience love, you'll know what it really feels like. It does not mean we have to be together all the time or go for romantic candlelit dinners or shower each other with romantic little surprises or experience fluttering heartbeats when we hear each other's voice. Geez.

Love doesn't need to justified or explained. Love begins as mysteriously as it ends. Sometimes you may be able to pinpoint the exact moment that you fell in love, but often, it just happens without you realising it. You don't need a REASON for it.









Meh, I lost my train of thought. LOL. Okay abrupt good night. :D