Roommate

My roommate at the company hostel just tore into me what seems to be pent-up frustration from the past months living here.

Frankly speaking, I have many counter-arguments of my discontent towards his contribution to the overall cleanliness of the place too. To avoid escalation, I just brush them aside and turn a blind eye, apologising more than I warranted.

But yes, I'll admit I don't clean the place up every week. Who does?

Either way, I guess I'll start "contributing more" now. I'm feeling rather blasé about this, truth be told.

College had prepared me for dealing with difficult people. Or at least made me more desensitized to minor issues.

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Danish

I'm writing this as I finish the final 20 minutes of The Danish Girl.  

Wow.  Just... wow.  

It's so hard to explain what I'm going through right now.  And it's so beautiful to see transgenderism portrayed so well, for someone who has not been exposed to it much.

Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander deliver equally strong performances, encapsulating their screen times so fully when it was their time.  Both are wonderful artists and the movie offered the most breathtaking of scenery from and around Copenhagen.

Not wanting to spoil the ending, but the relationship developed between Einar and Gerda Wagener constantly shifts as the movie progresses, and it was immensely touching.  

It reminded me of Alan Turing's relationship with Joan Clarke from The Imitation Game, played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightly respectively.  Such a wonder, how two minds could share their brilliance and have each other's company under the veil of matrimony.

It was the complete opposite of a quote I had came across:

"You look to your best friend and can't help but be extremely happy, knowing that, one day, someone will be so madly in love with them".

Coincidentally, May 17th is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.  Promise it was a coincidence.

Friction - Kygo ft. Tom Odell

Title

The World Youth Jazz Festival was short-lived due to the rain.  I'm still wrapping my mind around what aspects of jazz had I listened to from a rock band.

But hey, I got to watch Captain America: Civil War and loved every bit of it.  Thank you Sabr for being a good sport.

Segway-ing that, my phone's starting to show its age by consistently dying on me  even when it is charging.  I had to dash back home at 10 pm midweek in a panicked state as my phone refused to wake up.  After 3 hours of rummaging through old phone boxes, I found an old Nokia phone as backup.  That being said, the HTC had decided to play nice again the next day (I charged it overnight).  But it's time to look for a new phone...

I've also just started writing my book.  Taking Sabr's advice and making baby-step progresses with it.  We'll see where that takes me.

The Barclays Premier League also ended last weekend.  I need to brush up on my game analysis.  Finished some 48 percentile in the world, which is awful.

Bam Bam - Sister Nancy

Heritage

My dad was adamant on having Kluang Station for dinner.  Not thinking much about it, I obliged.

Casual dinner became a more significant occasion because of my Hainanese roots with the franchise.  I vaguely know my heritage, because I was too young to appreciate it, nor did my grandfather reveal much.  I suppose my dad found it opportune to shed some light on it.

My great grandfather, and grandfather had emigrated from Hainan, China amidst the growing Communist influence there.  My grandfather refused to share his past, but from what my dad gathered, my ancestors were loan sharks of the time, amassing quite the wealth in the process.  Communism meant that they had to share that wealth with others, and the enemies made from their days of collecting debt meant that Malaysia was a good place to move to.

Seeing as the Hainanese were one of the last ethnic groups to move to Malaysia, work was scarce.  The Hokkiens and Cantonese people occupied most of the mining and rubber tapping industries for the Chinese immigrants.  Most Hainanese turned to cooking, providing meals for the British colonist.

Which led to the establishment of Kluang Station.  It was a popular spot for the Hainanese community, with my granduncle securing a contract to manage all the Hainanese food stalls in Malaysia.  This made the Lim family well-known, as a result.

A worker under my granduncle had the idea of making a franchise out of the Hainanese style cuisine, which was a marriage of Chinese cooking to British palate.  Hence the emergence of the Kluang Station brand.

So yeah, that's my history.  It was a much-welcomed thing to have, learning more about my roots.  Here's to leaving a legacy behind for my progeny.

Ultralight Beam - Kanye West

Early

Figured that the dark rings below my eyes are a testament that I need more sleep. So here I am, laying in bed when it's not even 10 pm.

So I've been wanting to do this for a while now and finally, here it is. Being the unrelenting personal critic of my own life, I've been looking back at my adventure in The States, wondering why I didn't do this or that. That list grew long rather quickly, and made me feel a tad of regret for not getting more involved.

Yeah. It sounds crazy when I want to get more involved, considering the amount of work I immersed myself in those 3 years. So for the past month or so I've been listing all the things that I did do in The States. Here's that list:

- Diagnosing my hyperthyroidism ( I'm fortunate to detect this early in life to better manage it for my later years)
- Volunteering at the Ames Public Library (understanding how a community can grow through simple acts of spreading knowledge)
- Learned to ride a bike (getting over one of my fears)
- Learning to clean a fish (I've never cooked before)
- Loving Middle Eastern food (hummus, baklava, and Turkish coffee, to name a few. Still dying for proper ones in Malaysia)
- Rode the Hulk Roller Coaster (getting over my other fear of thrills rides... Ish)
- Enjoying Butterbeer at Wizarding World of Harry Potter (it was a transformative experience)
- Travelling in a van TWICE for ASM 14 and 15 (getting to know my Microbiology peers at an intimate level, while having a budget roadtrip)
- Segway-ing around Minneapolis (most fun impractical device to operate)
- Wrote a script for a play (10,000 words of originality)
- Talking to Boy Scouts about Malaysia (you know how I hold high regards to being a Boy Scout)
- Getting drunk for the first time (see AiSO, got to loosen up a little for once. Made me more familiar with the taboo of drinking)
- Danced... Quite a bit (because I should be more expressive)
- VEISHEA (was the largest student-run organisation in The States. A damn shame that it's banned now)
- Hiking the Rocky Mountains (beautiful in Spring, much more in the Winter, did both)
- Seeing President Obama (being a witness to his eloquent public speaking skills)
- Seeing Frank Abagnale Jr. (brilliant man, who has a movie based on his exploits)
- Seeing Norah Jones (an underrated musician from another generation)
- Seeing Adam Savage and Jamie Hynemann (childhood idols who inspired me to pursue a STEM career)
- Seeing Michio Kaku (renowned quantum physicist)
- Seeing Bill Nye (another childhood idol from an earlier time)
- Witnessing the sheer nature of Niagara Falls (and my first Wonder of The World)
- Having Hurricanes in Bourbon Street, New Orleans (and loving creole food)
- Enjoying cannoli in Boston (cemented the spot as my favourite dessert)
- Celebrating Holi (plus playing with colored powder)
- Organising a nationwide conference in AiSO (because I'm marginally insane)
- Been inside USS Blueback, a US submarine (an engineering marvel, in my opinion)
- Snowboarded (although never once stayed on the board for more than 20 seconds)

So yeah... Quite the list. And I'm sure I've missed out on some things. Regardless, I did quite a number of things, with memories to cherish for a long time.

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Tragedy

A flash of red, the rumble of drums, the ensuing melee, sets the stage for my Sunday evening.

Sabr (or as I've recently discovered, "Bean") had made me her plus one for her friend's show of Macbeth in Damansara Performaning Arts Center in Empire, Damansara Perdana.

What was unique, was that this theatrical play was conducted in a Chinese Opera style. The dialogue remained in its original Shakespearean English, but with an Asian flair to it. The costumes were wonderfully crafted, and some the cast had shown their experience with stellar performances.

It was a good night, albeit a long one. The play lasted slightly over 3 hours. And although the dialogue was occasionally hard to follow due to voice projection, I could thank Wikipedia for giving me a crash course of this tragedy prior to the show.

Today, I had met up with Atia and Sabr again for lunch. We have not been in the same room together for five years. That's crazy. And although it was slightly awkward to catch up on so much lost time, I still love them to bits.

I wish I could post photos, but Sabr promised to hurt me if I do.

Going back to love, it's an interesting phase where I'm the one that's single of out the three. And it's not a competition: I'm happy for them. However I can't help but wonder when will I be loving someone intimately.

Oh, don't think that I'm impervious to emotional yearnings. That's my job.

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