First accident with the Swift

Had my first accident yesterday with the Suzuki Swift.

It was morning. I was going to a makan at a relative's house in Bangi.

When I got there, there were already several cars parked in front of the house.

I found an empty spot and went over to parallel park.

There was another car in front facing me, waiting to pass. So I thought I'd just do a quick job of this.

I stopped, engaged the reverse gear and pressed the accelerator. And suddenly, "Prak!"

I looked in the rear view mirror and my heart sank: there was another car behind me with the driver not looking very pleased.

I had no idea when he sneaked up behind me and so had absent-mindedly reversed into his nose.

So I parked my car and got out to inspect the damages. Fortunately, they were minor: my car wasn't damaged although I managed to break the other guy's bumper and grille (it was a Satria).

We exchanged phone numbers and I promised to pay for the repair.

Was I upset? Of course, but not overly so. I believe in life you cannot design a system that does not allow for people to make mistakes.

Funny thing about the incident was that I was listening to ABBA's When All Is Said And Done when it happened.

Standing calmly at the crossroads, no desire to run
There's no hurry anymore when all is said and done

OMG, I can levitate!

It's 4am and I just woke up from a lucid dream.

I dreamt that I have figured out how to levitate.

I was in my parents home and was standing up. I lifted one leg and then something said I should try lifting the other as well.

This I did. Slowly. And I discovered that my butt did not come crashing to the ground.

I thought, "whoa, this is new." I held both legs up with my arms and started floating around the house in this position.

I moved at walking pace and was waist-high up in the air and therefore was able to glide over some of the furniture, which was really cool.

But I couldn't just float in one spot. I learnt that I needed to carry some speed in order to maintain the levitation. It was sort of like riding a bike where the only way to stay upright is to have some forward movement.

At one point, I saw my brother Dudin and demo-ed to him my latest trick. He just said, "well, that's cool", got into his Toyota Wish and drove off.

I got back on terra firma after a while and was able to repeat the levitation feat a few more times. At will.

The thing is, I did not feel overly ecstatic about my newfound ability. Instead, what I felt was that I had tapped into an unused part of the human mind, the floating part.

That there was some sort of scientific explanation for how levitation is possible.

And that anyone can learn this if they want to.

This must be the best birthday I've ever had

Because:

1. My friends and I tried something different this year: karaoke.
2. Went to see Mamma Mia with someone I REALLY like. It was fun.
3. Someone sent me flowers on my birthday.

So a bunch of us -- me, Aswad, Gerald, Christian and Julia along with Julia's housemate Jena -- decided to do something different this year: we went to karaoke at Red Box in Low Yat.

I organised everything, which was a big deal as I had never organised anything in my life. I was always happy to go with other people's plans.

Everyone had a great time singing their favourite kind of music.

Julia in fact gave me a 'preview' of her singing earlier in the day when she called and sang Happy Birthday over the phone -- a repeat of last year's performance. ;)

Jena, who is a Muslim from China, turned out to be an excellent singer, belting out a couple of Chinese songs. We were looking at the video while she sang, and it really looked as though it was the person in the video that was singing.

But, nothing beat this: I stunned everyone including myself when I sang Micheal Buble's Everything without the aid of lyrics.

We stayed at Red Box past midnight. Everyone went home happy.

I love my friends.

On top of that karaoke thing, a nameless person gave me a bouquet of a dozen white roses and made cupcakes for me on my birthday.


I had never received cupcakes or flowers on my birthday so thank you, whoever she is. That was a big deal.

It reminded me of an Agnetha Faltskog song, If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind.

I would bring you flowers in the morning
Wild roses as the sun begins to shine
Sweet perfume in tiny jeweled caskets
If I thought you'd ever change your mind

I would take you where the music's sweetest
And feed you winter fruits and summer wine
Show you things you've only read in storybooks
If I thought you'd ever change your mind

I would bring you happiness
Wrapped up in a box and tied with a yellow bow
I would bring you summer rain and rainbow skies to make your garden grow
And in the winter snow my songs would keep you from the cold

Activators Bumblebee review

Saw this at Toys R Us while shopping for Zuhayr's birthday the other day, and decided to get one -- for myself!

Yes, yes, you've probably heard it before: I plan to feature this in Thingamajiggy. It's not for fun, it's work. Right.

Yes it's true. In fact, the review already came out. Last week in NST on the first day of Hari Raya.

Activators is a new line of Transformers that boasts a spring-loaded one-touch conversion. Sort of like an idiot-proof Automorph. For just RM34.90, you get a Transformer that, at the touch of a button, pops into a robot from its alt mode. And at Toys R Us, you have a choice of between Bumblebee, Ratchet and (that big green guy, whattisname) Bulkhead.



As was the case with my previous Bumblebee review, poor Moussa the Moose has yet again been subjected to abuse but it's a crime I can't refuse.

OMG, shall we try that again?

Poor Moussa the Moose
Has yet again been subjected to abuse
It's a crime I can't refuse!