helloooo there

you got it right la :)

and to make you very very very happy, in addition to enlarging your katherine tag i will do something else that i know you much anticipate >=)

i know i'm so nice (A)

mens rea - guilty mind.

after all my instalments regarding my manipulation of Australia Post with my mail experiment conducted with katherine, my subconscious self must have felt guilty.

why? because just then, checking my mail, i received an email from Australia Post.

and guess what was the first thought that entered my head? it was kinda jumbly but it was something like: omg AUSTRALIA POST? they must know that i've been messing around with their system! they must've managed to use RELATIONAL DATABASES and navigated around them and found my email address connected to my home address! oh dear.

then i look at the subject. EPIPHANY. right. oh. ehee :)

on the topic of ipt invading my everyday life, i think my internet's dead today cause this commonly occurs:

DNS SERVERS OMG.

AND asynchronous communication annoys me when my friend (*cough**cough*katherine*cough**cough*) gets my text almost 10 minutes after i send it.

P.S.S. i'm wondering if anyone will point out anything about one of my screenshots BY COMMENT. it's nothing unusual, just something stuck in my head. if you do - chances are it'll be by luck - i'll give you an entire post and TAG ENLARGEMENT :D

Fifth Instalment: SUCCESS!

as the title reads . . . WE HAVE REACHED SUCCESS!

today, after school, Katherine Fan finally received her letter addressed to her from me posted in a mail box nearer to her home . WOW. at 4:14pm my phone received her text reading 'I GOT YOUR LETTER'. i guess you can imagine our excitement at the fact :)

so therefore only two hypotheses prevail:

1. the post office simply mails the letter to the address that is nearest to them, writing RTS (return to sender) when the from address is nearer (which should be in most cases?)
2. the post office does not bother about returning to sender, etc. and simply mails it to the person for you (this will render RTS a . . . MYTH!)

yay! we have cut it down to 2 :) now in order to distinguish between them, my next run will be posting a letter TO katherine FROM me in a post box nearer to MY home . if the letter goes to katherine, the second will prove true but if it returns to me, the first will be.

and katherine is currently editing out the addresses of her millions of photos that she took of the letter and envelope . . . i am awaiting her email containing the final images. when i get it i will add it here :) and she will provide her in depth account of her experiences on the other side of the mail in the form of a comment to this post. hopefully :)

here are the photos! flickrrrr - remember to tell me if links are broken!

Fourth Instalment: A Second Run

if you are confused about what this is about, read:

First Instalment: The Letter

Second Instalment: Failure

Third Instalment: A New Hypothesis

so having all my hypotheses proved wrong except for my last addition of the postman mailing it to whichever address is closer, I finally got around to testing this hypothesis yesterday :)

I ventured (yes, ventured) to Hurstville and mailed the letter :) WOOT! Theoretically Katherine's house would be closer to Hurstville unless the closest post office branch is closer to my home .

kudos to Katherine's photoshopping skills . . . the address is GONE.
security issues, you know.

this time the letter was addressed TO katherine's home, FROM my home with no postage stamp.

Prediction: The letter will be delivered to the TO ADDRESS - Katherine's. It will have the same orange markings and weird printed code on it.

If that is so, then that will prove my current hypothesis correct. However if the letter is posted back to me or otherwise . . . I WOULD HAVE RUN OUT OF HYPOTHESES rawr.

so yeah :) keep yourself updated on this blog as you await my results :D thank you for reading me advertising.

and no, you did not just realise that you could go straight to Katherine and ask if she got my letter. no.

yellow mini cooper (THE SQUEAKEL) and an explosion

well . . . regarding the previous post about the yellow mini cooper . . . I SAW IT ON MY STREET AGAIN! with it's lid thing raised so i think it broke down cause i recognised the driver and he was on the phone. sad. oh and why squeakel? i just thought of alvin and the chipmunks and how i wanted to watch that but the cinemas was really full and the queue was long so i think my bro and i ended up watching avatar cause it got sold out. yeah. seems like the car'll be a common sighting from now on :)

and the explosion? well my dad, bro and I were eating lunch in the cafe at Brighton Beach when we saw black smoke in the distance. right above the airport. yes, kind of concerning. SO I TOOK A PHOTO :D

and when we finished one of the employees packed our dishes. she smiled at me and i thought HEY SHE LOOKS FAMILIAR . . . and it took me a while to identify her and realise that she was simona ermilova from primary school! my dad didn't believe my epiphany since she looked so much more mature than me :( but i seem to recall that she was younger than me. hm.

well :) yeah. i was going to make this a short post but it wasn't so short after all :P

mahjong ... the new 'teen thing'

ehehehehehheyeheyeheyehahaha :)

did i mention that kelly and katherine came over to my home? looking through my blog i couldnt believe i didnt talk enough about it!

we ate pizza :) and did random stuff. and i took them a tour around my home and showed them my baby born  and my domo and stuff like that :D we also ended up watching a bit of Arthur and reminisced in the end :)

well of course the highlight was MAHJONG EHEHEHEHE. anyone reading this and know how to play? comment and we'll arrange some sort of game somewhere :) yeah, well we've got my brother and three teenage girls sitting around a table getting all excited with mahjong hehe. i couldnt explain the game really well cause i wasnt good myself and i couldnt get into the complicated stuff cause it got too . . . complicated. kelly won in the end cause she won a 自摸 which means she finished off her 'legal set' by drawing and not 'eating' someone else's discarded block thingo. twas cool :D

so to a certain halim / yourmum / 8D who likes turtles, DO YOU KNOW HOW TO PLAY? cause it'd be awesome if you did >:) then we could 'totoes' play asian one day and eat rice and knit (wait what?!) and got shopping in discount stores and shake packets of chips to see which one is the least shattered and take freebies that they're handing out :D yeah. we'll be cool.

she did it again.

a complaint.

this time because i was getting distracted from my work because my brother manages to wrench open a treasure box thing that i couldn't open since like 7 years ago. yeah, i was pretty excited so i started looking at the jewellery and reminiscing but then my mum told me to get on with my work since i was the one who kept complaining i didnt have enough time in the holidays to finish my work.

and of course i apparently threw a cold shoulder at her and put on a bad attitude and made my face contorted apparently .. all in a matter of time between one sentence and another. sure. i wish my brain could make myself throw all these signals subconsciously in a split second too.

she's also getting very complaining herself. currently, the most common phrase she says is: 'if it weren't for me ...' like, i know it's true but you don't have to rub it in our faces. like if there are dishes in the sink when she walks in, she will definitely mutter (mind you, her mutter is far from inaudible) '-sigh- what is the problem with the people in this house ... they're so lazy .. i'm always the one washing the dishes ... of course no one else will ... it's always me ... next time i won't wash them and see how you survive ...' and if there are unfolded clothes on the sofa she will say 'omg ... of course everyone is too lazy to fold the clothes ... they pretend they're blind when they walk past so they don't have to fold it ... it always has to be me doesn't it ... if i don't fold it i'm sure not a single one of you would ...'

AND IT'S JUST BLATANTLY ANNOYING. yes, i know you're the really cool person  keeping the house together. yes, i do. but i do my part and it would really help if you could stop 'muttering' around the house everyday because i'm never going to get a moment of silence coupled with your bickering with dad. i'll fold the clothes, whatever but PEOPLE FORGET, OK?! it's just frustrating when every second sentence your mum makes is a complaint. yes, i know, my bro, dad and i are far from perfect but your annoying tone that you add to the end of your sentences doesnt encourage us a bit.

but then there are the good times :) we mahjonged for 2 hours yesterday ... AND IT WAS SO WEIRD CAUSE THEY ALL WON GAMES BY THEMSELVES. like, they got the thing they wanted by drawing so we all had to pay them. oh, and did i mention that i didnt even win a single game? aha, that was funny :)

a complaint

this is going to be stereotypical teenage superficial rant about my parents - well, in this case, my mum. stop reading here if you're disgusted.

you know when your mum says something that they dont like about you? okay well my mum does that.

and after she says it i'm like . . . ok . . . and you know how there isn't exactly much you can do? so i usually keep quiet and continue what i'm doing. what does she expect me to do? start screaming 'I AM SO SORRY I WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN!!! FORGIVE ME!!!!!!!!!!!'? that's weird.

so just then i was drinking milk when she complained about how irresponsible i am getting. so i was like :( really? oh dear. and i kept quiet drinking my milk and, naturally, when i finished i went into the kitchen to wash my cup.

THEN MY MUM GOES OH SO WHAT'S THIS ATTITUDE YOU CAN ONLY ACCEPT COMPLIMENTS AND WHEN I CRITICISE YOU YOU THROW A COLD SHOULDER AT ME? GO ON, IGNORE ME ONE DAY YOU'LL LEARN FROM THIS HORRIBLE ATTITUDE OF YOURS.

and i'm like O.O WAIT WHAT!? and the thing is, after that i AM angry cause she's leaving me no options. if i try to explain or say that i'm not, OH OF COURSE then i'll be talking back. if i keep quiet I'M IGNORING HER. that really really gets on my nerves.

fgsdf. argh.

this post is dedicated to a dedicated follower

repetition much.

HI THERE OH YEAH YOU'RE SO COOL I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM SAYING OR WHY I AM USING CAPS BUT PLEASE OH PUHLEASE TELL ME I GOT THE PERSON RIGHT CAUSE IT'D BE SO EMBARRASSING IF I DIDN'T.

uh huh. the person tagged in this post often shares my asian experiences and is able to understand my canto rantings. she is younger than me but taller than me. a win on her behalf, let's put it that way :P

there was a mini cooper outside my home

. . . it was really cool cause since Maggie keeps spotto-ing on yellow cars and i poke her when i see a mini cooper, we talked about seeing a yellow mini cooper.

a photo! :)
. . . sorry about the graininess and artificial-ness of the photo . . . it was dark and i really wanted a photo without flash so i took one of a blotch and then just dragged the brightness notch to its fullest. oh and i also kind of -cough- schmooshed the license plate -cough-.

very badly taken photo of a yellow mini cooper

the story:
i was packing my stuff on my desk, which faces the window which faces the road :)
FLASH OF YELLOW.
me: wait what that looked like a mini cooper .... -looks out window-
DDDDD: OMG IT IS! =D
-attempts to take photo but fails due to excess, unkempt shrubbery outside our flat-
mum: you can throw the rubbish out and then take a photo ...
me: :D yes yes yes

. . . and so i throw the rubbish and take these photos. it just occurred to me that my mum could be hiring people with yellow mini coopers to park outside and make me throw the rubbish. ANYWAY. yeah :)

Third Instalment: A New Hypothesis

i was thinking about it today, and i realised that i may have generated a new hypothesis . . .

• it doesn't matter whether it is the TO or FROM field, but whichever address is closer they mail it to :)
• arguments for: it may explain why they mailed it to me . . .
• arguments against: although the post box i shoved it in was closer to my house, chances are the post OFFICE which the letters were delivered to wasn't

so there :) a new thing to think about. did i mention that i realised that the Americans spell instalment as installment? i found out writing out these posts :D it's weird cause it's usually the Americans skipping letters.

Second Instalment: Failure

so this is what happened today.

walking back home after school like usual. taking the usual path, nothing much.

UNTIL I SEE A SCUBA DIVER WALKING TOWARD ME.

. . . well . . . not really. it was actually my brother in his swimming costume with his goggles strapped to his forehead going out to swimming lessons :) that and my lack of glasses itself suggests a myriad of possibilities other than scuba divers. and so hehe i hugged him and kissed him (yes, i kiss my brother to all those flinching atm). then he told me that he came 7th in the cross country out of his grade and it was cool.
yes, how sad, no scuba divers walking around, i know.

anyway when i got to my unit i was going to go through the garage cause i assumed that on coming out my dad and brother would have checked the mail (i usually do after school). but i decided to go my usual way anyway.

LUCKY I DID THAT. why? well, there was one letter in my mail box. and what other than the very same letter i posted to Katherine (with my address in the 'TO' field)? i almost laughed out loud when i saw it. there was extra printed writing on it reading SWLF 01APR11 ML 502 and another one that was right above it reading SWLF 01APR11 ML 519. and also random short orange stripes that look not really straight (hinting its handwritten nature) although i dont think anyone did that by hand since there're quite a few (think a barcode in orange, not black).

. . . i still haven't opened it, maybe due to the sinking feeling in my stomach that i didn't succeed in this experiment the first round. and despite my first reaction to text Katherine updating her on the latest events, she still hasn't replied.

i am planning to take the letter out and put it on an envelope with Katherine's address in the TO address and my address in the FROM field, just like normal. After all, the letter DID get sent to the TO address.
but maybe i should wait, since this run proves both my parents' hypotheses incorrect . . . leaving only Katherine's mum's. READ ABOUT IT HERE :D so yes, i should wait in case there's a big fine :( but then i can't get Katherine to pay it all, maybe we could halve it or something.

so there. i managed to write two blog posts in little more than 30 minutes. now off to mylitterbother to link to this post since the first bit is dedicated to my brother only :')

First Instalment : The Letter

although i actually finished this part about a week ago, I realised just then that i HAD to share this story :)

my friend and i are conducting an experiment in order to get around buying postage stamps for mail.
not that either of us are too lazy to buy one, too poor to buy one or too cheap to buy one - rather we are just doing it for the sake of fun.

method:

1. i will write a letter to my friend katherine (hi katherine if you're reading this :D)
2. i will post it with my address in the TO field and her address on the FROM field
3. i will pop it into the POST box on my way back from school

hypotheses:

• katherine's mum: they will send the letter to the 'to' address and send a bill to the FROM address 
• katherine and i disagree: it would  be far too much trouble to send a bill for 50c or so
• on a second thought just then: what if they incur a fine o.O
• my dad: they will simply not mail the letter
• i disagree: they can't do that. what if it held important information?
• my mum: they will send it back to the FROM address
• katherine and i support this: makes most sense, commonly accepted RETURN TO SENDER concept

prediction: the letter will be sent to the 'FROM' address (in this case, Katherine's address) which will satisfy my aim of sending a letter to her home free of charge.

now will all the deets set out, i'll detail stage one of the process: WRITING THE LETTER.

i can't exactly remember what the letter said, and i cant be bothered going and fetching it (SUSPENSE: QU. TO CONSIDER: how can i fetch it if it's not with me . . .). BUT i did incorporate a letter to the postman (in case my dad's hypothesis was correct and the postman decided to read it) concerning the importance of my privacy. oh, and of course i wrote a message to Katherine in the event of experimental success :D

after several days of constant forgetfulness and the agitation of Katherine (who, as you should by now be able to conclude, was intrigued by this idea that i brought up), i finally remembered to post THE LETTER.

how this happened: i walk past the post box. hesitate. glance. think. REMEMBER! back tracks (like those epic cliche dramas), pause, drops bag. takes out letter. inserts into post box. SATISFACTION. leave.

well, the end of the first installment. now to the second and final installment for today ~

P.S. i love it how Katherine kept asking me whether i'd 'posted it yet' and my brain keeps referring back to blogger posts and i wonder what i needed to post on blogger . . .

why do i like cliche asian dramas?

i am an asian and i love cliche asian romance dramas. you may take this as no surprise , but there are (surprisingly), actually many many many asians who despise them :(

first argument against: they are so cliche i know how it's going to end from the beginning. why watch it?

i totally agree . it's obvious that the two arch enemies will fall for each other the moment they open their mouths searching for an insult. but the journey is more important than the destination - everyone knows that a vacation ends back at home, but you wouldn't skip the vacation altogether will you? it's the emotional experience you are anxious for :) 

don't you just love watching them bicker and fall for each other? it makes me believe that the world is a good place :')

second argument against: the acting is horrible

maybe the acting IS horrible , but i believe the plot is much more important than the actors. after all, i AM meant to be as superficial as my stereotype goes and awe at the handsome boys?

third argument against: it's too cliche. it will never happen in real life, it's so fake!

. . . all the more reason to enjoy the drama?! i am not stupid enough to genuinely believe that a prince charming will one day find me and take me for his princess, but don't all girls at some point in their lives imagine what their life would be like if it really did happen? there's no harm in thinking. 

when i watch such dramas, i am in an 'prolonged disbelief' phase . isn't everyone? i sit there and watch the lives of some people play before me and marvel at the concept of love . it is BECAUSE i cannot witness these events unfolding in reality that us 'fobs' (according to a certain friend of mine - no criticism intended) resort to an artificial reality . . .