Take Five On Friday!

So I got tagged again by the Giddy Tigress about two weeks ago. And this tag should only be completed and posted on a Friday. How dictatorial! *pulls a haughty face and flips hair like a beauty pageant contestant* Lawl.

Image credit

Here goes the tag...

DO YOU PREFER...

1. To watch or to participate?
Depends on what la! Never specify also... if it's an activity I like, you betcha I'll be participating. I might even initiate it and lead in the activity. If it's something I don't like, then I'll be watching lor.

2. Malls, catalog shopping, or the Internet?
Malls, definitely. Didn't you know already that the Curve and 1Utama are practically my home away from home? Well, now you do know. But I have to add a caveat that I don't like malls when there are lots of people - e.g. school holidays and public holidays.

3. A bath or shower?
I don't have the luxury of having a bathtub in my bathroom, nor the time to go soak and play bubbles so I'll go with the shower.

4. To talk to people by telephone, in person or by email?
Depends on the subject but I prefer to either express myself by the typed word or in person. Somehow I just don't "get the feel" of talking to another on the telephone. For one, you can't see the person, facial movements, gestures, etc. These are the things that make conversation, well, conversation! And I think I express myself better in the other two methods.

5. Typing or writing?
Gonna steal someone's answer here and say writing by typing. Cos I'm lazy to write by hand - too much writing makes my hand cramp! (Hated exams, btw. I'd come out of the hall with hand cramps and aching wrist.) Plus my perfectionist nature would make me want to form my letters perfectly and cross every T and dot every I. So writing is just too much work!

Now, I wanna tag :

Adino
Adrian

Klang Valley bloggers tea party

Yup, you read that right. rinnah is having a blogger tea party to get to know the faces behind the blogs, especially those anony-mouse ones.

If you wanna know the who, what, when, where and how, keep reading...

Who?
Organizer : rinnah (and Paris Beaverbanks as co-organizer)
Attendees : So far... there should be six of us.. besides your lovely organizers - zewt, angeles, winn x 2 will be coming
Who else : You, you and you reading this! If you're a blogger / blog-reader in the Klang Valley, you are invited to come join us. Email your RSVP to me at rinnah [dot] lee [at] gmail [dot] com.

What?
Blogger tea party loh. Tea party because it's more informal than a lunch or dinner and you can come early / late and leave early / late too. Less protocol. Hehe. To get to know your fellow Klang Valley bloggers.

When?
Next Saturday, 31 May 2008. Tea time begins at 3.00pm and ends whatever time you want it to end...

Where?
IZZI – Uptown, PJ
No. 45G & 47G, Jalan SS 21/37
Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia

Telephone : +603 77290855
Fax : +603 77290955



How?
Like I mentioned above, if you're a blogger / blog-reader in the Klang Valley, you are invited to come join us. Email your RSVP to me at rinnah [dot] lee [at] gmail [dot] com. Feel free also to let other bloggers know about this get-together.

Addendum @ 14:40hrs : I forgot to mention that Izzi has free WiFi access, so any bloggers from places other than the Klang Valley can also join us remotely cos I'll be bringing my laptop... let me know how you can be contacted online, yea?

I'm really looking forward to meeting you all, so I'll see you soon, 'kay? *wink*

Fab Five of February

Picture taken by rinnah at the 2007 Flora Fest

I have a confession to make. o.0 *blink blink*

You see, rinnah has been very lazy of late. Oh yes! We are stepping into the month of May and I have only published the THHC™ chup results for January! Oh me oh my! *runs around like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland*

To all my fansee... sorry la... the offline real-world life suddenly seems very busy of late. The work deadlines were pretty close together (a number of submissions to do within days of each other and are still coming thick and fast) and not so new (read: delayed) projects have now come back with a vengeance. LOL. I've even been leaving the office later and later... used to be 5.30pm sharp, then 5.45pm, then 6.00pm, 6.15pm... you get the drift. Nowadays my average time to leave office is no earlier than 7.00pm. Aw man! That is so not the work culture trap I wanna fall back into! Then when I get home it's exercise (if I feel like it), dinner, teevee (my AI fix), bloghopping, shower, sleep. Where got time, you tell me? And with my Indonesia trip series, I have half a mind editing photos while the other half a mind is busy trying to keep up with my favorite blogs... the number of unread items in my RSS reader is close to 1,000+. Bleh. And owh, I've already declared RSS bankruptcy a couple of times but within a matter of days its back to the same old levels. When the weekend rolls around I have activities to check out, friends to meet and catch-up with, places to go and see... help! my world is spinning faster and faster and beyong my control. Guess that's why I named my blog It's all about the spin...? LOL.

Aiyah, I got diverted off the topic. See? Easily distracted of late. *grin*

Actually hor, I ramble on so much above is to divert you from the very small results of the THHC™ chup results for February. Laziness to the max leh. Only 5 posts for you to chup and it takes me forever to compute the results. Ahahaha. Oh yeah, another confession to make. I worked on other (time-sensitive) blogposts first before this one... like the Chiling Falls trip, the Indonesia trip series, baby announcements and Mother's Day dedications. And I still have tons of back-dated drafts in my work folder that need to be edited, polished and pictures added. And I've become a wee bit addicted to editing and putting my own photography work in my blogposts. All of that consumes time! Argh!

Cheh. Kena diverted yet again. (Kononnya!) Sorry ya. Back to the subject at hand. Here are the Fab Five of February!

1st - l b
2nd - angeles
3rd - may

4th - parisb
5th - winn, chev, kyh

The tales of T H E H U G H U G C L U B™ (THHC™) can be found here.

Now, let's KFC (keep fingers crossed) that I won't dilly dally again till the next edition of chup results!

Mothers are God's gift to mankind

Photo taken by rinnah at Lake Toba, Indonesia

rinnah would like to wish the following wonderful ladies a very happy Mother's Day. I salute you for your courage, your stamina and most of all your love for your families. It's not easy to be a mom (dunno when will be my turn) even though this is the highest calling any female will have in her life.

~ my Mom! (the Ellen O'Hara to my Scarlett)
~ my Mama, my mom's mother who looks down from heaven
~ the Giddy Tigress, mommy of Ethan boy
~ Eastcoastlife, mommy of Jaymes
~ King's Wife, mommy of Allyfeel and Sam
~ Nyonya Penang, mommy of two boys
~ Laundry Amah, mommy of Kieran and Kylie
~ Zara & Zaria's mommy
~ Everyday Healy, mommy of Elizabeth
~ Poey Chin, new mommy to Rachel
~ Wennnn (soon to be mommy of BB, any time now!)
~ (Momma) Misti, who mothers us all in blogland
~ Chev, mommy of Ah Boy
~ Misha's mommy
~ Trinity
~ Collin's mommy
~ Zewt's mommy, we remember you even though you are no longer with us on earth
~ And last but certainly not the least! uhm, Adrian's wifey. :o)

My wishes also go out to all the mothers of the bloggers I read and follow in my sidebar and RSS feeder. I apologize if I've missed out any lovely blogging mommies whom I read or who read It's all about the spin...

And finally, a touching blog post by stars go blue on what every mother wishes for her children.

Happy Mother's Day.

Baby you're so wonderful

Today is a very special day.

Today, a beautiful baby angel came to earth to become the daughter of a special couple. :o)

Everyone, say hello to Princess Leia baby Rachel, the newborn daughter of Adino and Poey Chin!

Dearest baby princess Rachel, jiejie rinnah wishes for you :

"God's bountiful grace, beauty, blessings and presence to be ever-present in your life.

The brightest sunshine, clearest skies and coolest breeze to accompany you every step of your journey in life.

That you will experience the deepest, purest, truest love, joy and happiness always.

To be the greatest blessing ever to your parents, family and to all whom you meet."

I can't wait to meet you now and when you grow up. :o)

Luv & hugs,
jiejie rinnah


**********

And you know what? Baby Rachel made her debut just in time for Poey Chin to celebrate her first ever Mother's Day! So congratulations to both Adino and Poey Chin, and a very special first Mother's Day greeting to Poey Chin. Rest well and be back soon! (Our Scramble games will be waiting for you. Hehe.)

Pain is not everything

I survived paintball! Bwahahahaha.

Paintball almost didn't happen because I woke up this morning to the sound of rain merrily tip-tapping on the rooftop. But, I'd been looking forward to this day for some time now so rain or no rain, I was going to go a-paintball-ing! Luckily, everyone shared the same sentiment, and we were soon out there sloshing around on the paintball field doing battle.

The idea of joining a paintball session actually took root after I read Narrowband's post the other day. It seemed like great fun, and I was determined that I should experience this at least once in my life, so thanks to Narrowband and his friends for allowing me and my colleagues to join 'em!

Whatever you've heard about paintball, it's all that and more. First of all, I gotta say that the initial shock of being shot is... It HURTS! Then the adrenaline rush kicks in and you forget about the pain in like ten seconds. The tension of wondering when you might get shot at and killed bugs me (a lot!) though. Lawl. Since I am such a newbie at paintball, I don't do kamikaze runs. I don't do attack coz I can barely defend myself. Haha. I don't do more than peep out from the safety of my bunker and try to shoot the head/hand/foot of my opponent that I see sticking out there. (But since my aim is pretty much off-target mostly, I don't think I managed to "kill" even one person in five rounds of play.) But that strategy isn't a guarantee of safety since I nicked my first war wounds of the day in the very first round. Ta-dah!

Someone's killer aim (or lucky shot?) meant that a paintball connected with my right hand, leaving a nice crater-like impression that bled because the skin broke on impact. (So the first aid kit was needed after all.) This here hurt more than any of the other shots I took on my legs and body combined! Although I do have some nice round reddish bruises on my legs as well. Ahahaha. But this isn't as bad as some of the injuries that the guys sustained... but you would expect the requisite injuries to accompany any game of paintball la.

Oh, and I think my colleague made himself famous (or is it infamous? Teeheehee!) with his "super flying leap" that brought down a bunker on top of his unsuspecting girlfriend (who was on the opposing team). Really, really crazy stuff, man! After that he was referred to as Commando by his team leader. LOL.

Photo credit to narrowband

Since I am anony-mouse on this blog... here's a pic of the ladies all masked up for the final game of the day. When the guys bullied persuaded us into playing one more round just to finish up the bullets. They were such gentlemen that they very nicely gave up the option of playing themselves. Yeah right. I think they just wanted to hear us squeal and scream and get some free entertainment gua... J/k. (I *might* post unmasked photos on Facebook... not sure yet.)

But when all is said and done, it's surprisingly addictive. Yup, even with the pain factor and all. I would be game for a second round of paintball and if the chatter just now was anything to go by, my colleagues and I might just pitch to management the idea of paintball as team-building. Now, THAT is gonna be fun to watch. *grin*

Edit: Narrowband has updated his blog about it too... here.

It's just a blog-lah... or is it?

It's not easy being a blogger in Malaysia. We get called names. We're accused of being liars. We're dismissed as being unemployed good-for-nothings who have nothing better to do. Lately, according to our Youth & Sports Minister, we are purportedly rumour-mongering cowards and a nuisance to UMNO. Huh.

I'm not a political blogger, no sirree, but hey, I take exception to being tarred with the same brush, okay? It's like generalizing that the whole world outside of US is unimportant. Or it's like saying all females are weepy and emotionally complex creatures. You get my drift? Yes? No?

I thought my blog was just you know, a standard, run of the mill kinda blog. A whole lotta ranting and raving going on about people who annoy me or amuse me. Rambling on and on about insignificant things that happened to me today. The occasional sponsored post or two to make some moolah. *grin*

Oh, by the way, the Home Affairs Ministry is monitoring bloggers too, not just mainstream media. If ever they chance across my blog, I wonder if they'll be able to make head or tail of this really silly, useless post? If you can, I'd say kudos to you! Say, maybe you should apply to the Home Affairs Ministry for that job too? Get paid for reading blogs all day long. Hurhurhur.

BUT...

It's not just a blog. Or any old blog. Through this blog I've met great friends and I'm quite happy (and proud) to say that I've finally met my 'big sis' the Giddy Tigress!

Yup. Face to face in the Curve on Sunday. Hehehe. And the first thought that popped into my mind was that she, Mr Giddy Tiger and the lil' Giddy Tiger Cub are exactly as seen on her blog! That's how I could spot her before she spotted me. Hehe. Now I'm kicking myself for not doing it, but I wanted to give her a great big HUG when we said Hi. (Can I hug you now though? *hug*) Though our meeting was cut rather short (no opp to snap a pic of the momentous event!) by the lil' Giddy Tiger Cub wanting to get a move on to Ikea. Eheh. Next time we go makan, can?

So, who says blogs are no good? *wink*

First appearance day!

I'm not out to steal anyone's thunder *grin*, but here's a welcome to the world shoutout to baby Collin, newborn son of Allandog, the brother of the Giddy Tigress! Some of you may remember that Allan was the chap I supported at the MRSC last December. :o)

Baby Collin, jiejie wishes you a good long and healthy life, superb intelligence and physique, prosperity and success overflowing, and most of all, love, joy and happiness everyday. *muack*

==========
And you know, twenty something years ago, on January 28, a baby girl made HER first appearance in the world. And that baby was me la. *grin*

I had initially thought that this year's birthday would be quieter than previous years and that maybe I could slide past it unnoticed, but no... other people had other plans. Like...

~ may's super duper early birthday blogpost

~ l b's birthday blogpost with tag present & very on-time SMS all the way from Italy

~ the giddy tigress' blogpost & mystery pressie (but mysterious no more since I've opened it!). Thank you so much dear! How'd you know that it was the type of thing I'd like?

~ angel's birthday shoutout

~ chevchen's birthday blogmilk... hehe. Got milk? *wipes milk moustache*

~ doreen's birthday wishes

~ Birthday wishes from family, friends and colleagues

~ And oh! all the bloggerific birthday greetings from bloggers all over - mistipurple, narrowband, paris beaverbanks, zewt, pelf, adrian, eastcoastlife, adino, mudpie, kyh, jemima, cocka doodle, huisia, leonard, laundry amah, trinity, bongkerz, huei, _butt, kat

~ One birthday dinner on 26 Jan at DELIcious

~ One birthday lunch on 28 Jan at Secret Recipe

~ A karaoke session on 31 Jan at RedBox Plus

~ One more birthday lunch on 01 Feb at The Daily Grind

~ One more birthday dinner on 01 Feb at Opus Bistro

So, this year was more happening than I thought it would be. *grin*

p.s. I haven't had the time to do up THHC charts for January, so bear with me, k?

Not quite everything you wanted to know

Well, whaddaya know? I have been tagged for the first time ever by Simon. It's a tag on my blog habits, which promises to be quite fun to do (Thank God it's not the photo tag I saw over at pinkpau's blog! That one really faint kaw-kaw). It's not tabloid fodder (haha!) so therefore the title of "Not quite everything you wanted to know (or not know) about rinnah".

1. What is your blogging name?
I am known as rinnah, and if I can't register that as my user ID then it's ryarin. Both are completely made up names, btw.

2. When did you start blogging, exact date?
For this blog : January 02, 2007. I had originally intended to start from January 01, but got sidetracked by something else (I can't remember what). But I'd been sporadically blogging at Multiply.com before then.

3. What was your first blogpost title?
The very boringly titled "New Year Resolution". I think I've gotten better at creating funky titles, no?

4. Which post do you feel is the best so far?
Blogging and me. Because writing this post really felt good and was an honest expression of how I felt (and still feel!) about blogging. Kinda apt post for this tag, don't you think? *grin*

5. Who promotes / is the source of inspiration for you to blog?
Me. Ahahaha. I'm kidding, but there is a bit of truth in that answer. I get inspired to blog for myself, because I want to have a record of how I change even as I age. It's interesting to look back at my first few posts and remember how I felt and what was I doing at that point in time.

6. When do you usually post entries?
When I feel like it. LOL. Sometimes I post 2 - 3 entries a day, sometimes once a day, or once a week. I blog when my muse is active. But nowadays, I'm trying to make my posts more... complete. So I might take a few days or a week to craft a single entry to my desired perfection.

7. Where would you prefer to be when you are blogging?
Ideally, at a cozy cafe, curled up in a comfy armchair, jazz music playing in the background, a cup of warm (not hot!) Irish cream flavored latte at hand, watching society go by. But then again, I might be too comfortable to do much blogging there! Lawl.

8. Have you met other bloggers? Who?
Yup, the list is here. But there's still so many of you, you and you whom I haven't met yet! Let's make a date this year, okay? *wink*

9. How many entries do you make in a month?
On average, I'd say about 25? entries. Not counting sponsored posts, of course.

10. Would you reveal your face or your family in your blog? Why?
No. This is a strictly anony-mouse blog. Hahaha. If you want to see my face, meet me in person. Or ask someone who's met me before what I look like. Or go stalk my Facebook. *grin & wink*

11. Would you promote the concept of blogging to your friends? Why?
Only if they're the IT savvy type who loves the Internet. Heck, I can't even get them onto Facebook, much less blog!

12. Would you feel restless / guilty conscience / incomplete if you didn't blog for a month?
Actually, I feel kinda restless if I don't blog for a few days. And incomplete too, so how do you expect me to not blog for a whole month? You've gotta be kidding me... ... ...

And how do you blog? Let's hear it from...
Chev
Paris Beaverbanks

Hello 2008!

Woot! We've stepped into 2008 and I hope that you're finding that this year is gonna be kinder and better to you than the last. Without further ado, here are the successful chuppers for the month of December...

1st - No doubt about it, it's LB!
2nd - It's the ever constant Angel!
3rd - Back to uni KYH!

Congrats to them and also to these people...

4th - Mistipurple
5th - May
6th - Chen
7th - Zewt
8th - Adrian & Misha
9th - Eastcoastlife (Woot! New chupper!)
10th - Giddy Tigress
11th - Mudpie, Narrowband, Tine & Simon
12th - Wennnn
13th - Paris Beaverbanks

**********
After much thought and deliberation in 2007 (gawsh, that sounds like ages ago, eh?) I have decided to make major changes to my blogging life. Thank you for all your feedback to my questions in this post here and the following is what I've decided.

~ I will be moving the major part of my blogging to my own domain and not publicizing it beyond this post. If my readers follow me there, they follow me there. If not, I don't mind too, because...
~ My blogging style at my domain will still be me, but with a much more personal spin. So there will be happy / thinking / emo posts and will be much less light-hearted than Blogspot.
~ I am not shutting down Blogspot, but will keep it for funny stuff / tags and memes / sponsored stuff. *grin* The writing style will still remain the same here anyway and will probably consist of shorter posts.
~ THHC still remains open here, but there may be less posts to chup on since I will be cutting down on the frequency of my posts.
~ Also gonna be commenting on fewer blogs - due to time constraints and other things. But I still love all of you!

It's not exactly a blogging sabbatical nor retirement, just a reprioritizing of my life. I've come to realize that I was over ambitious (what was I thinking to have nine blogs? *faints*) and close to running risk of burnout. So, that's that.

Hope to (still!) see you all in the new year.

How long are you going to live? and the year that was...

Wouldn't you like to find out? Visit this site and find out your virtual age and your estimated life expectancy.

Based on these results I got when I took the test, I am *seriously underage* with a virtual age of 9.7 years and am expected to live up to the ripe old age of 87.3 years. Uhm. So, does that mean that virtually I am but a kid?

**********
Okay, so lemme cut to the chase. Each year, come year-end, I start thinking about what happened in the past year and whether or not did I achieve my goals set. This year I...

~ Finished my undergraduate degree course with the honours qualification I aimed for. Not bad at all, considering the fact that I did it part-time while working full time.

~ Found myself a church that I can see myself being happy in, after years of being a 'rolling stone'. One of my goals was to attend church faithfully each week and find a church I can call 'home'. I'm finding it easy to do so with this church so, mission accomplished.

~ Got meself a job that I can really be good at and love.

~ Set myself a target to earn a minimum of USD500 with my blog and while I'm not revealing the true figure, yes, I did exceed that amount with my PPP activities this year. Thank you for putting up with all my sponsored post nonsenses. *muack*

Didn't complete the full list of resolutions, but hey, I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished so far. Time to reset the bar for next year!


**********
And to round it off, here are some of my favorite-st highlight posts from the past year:

~ Blogging about the Oscars. Waaaaay too much free time back then. Don't think I'll be able to do it again next year, but I had fun doing 'live' blogging on that day!

~ The grand opening of THHC at my humble little blog! I'm glad so many 'stars' graced the ceremony... Waaa....

~ The A - Z tag based upon the Imperial saga... some of my best spinning evah!

~ And Chapter 9 of The 48 Concubines (whatever did happen to the storyline? I wanna finish up the tale leh...) which was the fun-nest thing to write... yup, gotta work on my goal for 2008 - write my own novella!

~ One of my emotional posts... no, narrowband, this is not about M_ B_ _ _, but the one who preceeded. *grin*

~ Diagnosing myself with blogivitis... I think I'm still infected to this day!

~ Another spin story... this time the fairytale of Cinderinnah! (And that is not a typo. Hahaha.)

~ Got my own domain. Now I really should make better use of it, ya?

~ Pictures galore from my trip to Putrajaya for the Flora Fest. One of the rare occasions that you see tons of pictures on my blog.

~ The few posts on Freddie's short stay with us. His arrival and departure, his life story told here.

~ My Nokia loyalty... another tag I enjoyed doing.

~ My first deep thinking post... I don't do too many of these. Heh.

~ The happy memories this post brings back. I want more days like this!

~ Surprises keep me happy too. Lawl.

~ Another thinking post about why I blog... like I said earlier, I don't do many of these posts.

~ Doing some good deeds with my blog and saving the world. Heh.

~ My dad's hospitalization this month. 'Twas an ordeal in spots, but we got thru it.

~ Review of the MRSC concert. My first review evah! Hehe. I still need to upload the mp3s though.

~ Christmas Day post. It's pretty meaningful for me.


**********
Righto... I have something to ask my blog-ders (blog + readers) for the new year, but I'll do that in the next post! (Gotta do something to keep you coming back, rite? *grin*)

One tag to end 'em all...

I was tagged by this lovely momma and it seems like a good tag to end the year with (I've finished my pending tags list and provided no one else decides to tag me between now and 31st December 2007. Lawl.).

Favorites
Color: I think I answered this in my last tag, but I'll answer it again anyway. I'm currently in love with baby blue, although baby pink runs a close second.

Food: Junk food. Must eat healthier nowadays, so I'll go with sushi. Yum!

Movie: Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've grown to like it even though Peter Jackson didn't follow the book exactly to a T but I guess he did what he had to do to keep it more 'acceptable' (i.e. fast moving) to the masses.

Sport: Pro-wrestling! *giggles* Football aka soccer. I have been a ManUtd fan since 1990 (so no wisecracks about me being a Beckham groupie - Giggs is still my idol!). Anyone wanna pick a fight? *grin*

Day: Tomorrow. Because you never know what you're gonna get (I'm paraphrasing Forrest Gump a little here). Oh, you meant day of the week? Okay. Saturday then. Because Saturday's the start of the weekend.

Season: Malaysia has four seasons too - Sunny, Rainy, Hazy and, uhm, Cloudy? I wish we could have a temperate climate that's not too hot nor too cold. *after much thought* Sunny la.

Ice-cream: Cookies 'n' Cream rock my socks! Ahahaha.


First
Best Friend: I think that would be Clement in Standard One. Until the other boys teased him mercilessly for hanging out with a girl and he ditched me. Yeah, I got dumped at age seven! Wuahahaha.

Crush: Hmm, that was also in Standard One. All of us girls thought that Alex was the cutest guy in class. Yes, I started looking at eye-candy at a young age.

Movie: Wah, how to remember this one? I'll give a variation of my answer to this one - my first movie in movie theater. That would be Disney's Beauty and the Beast and I drank too much soda and had to go to the little girl's room midway thru at the most exciting point when Belle was being chased by the wolves. *grin*

Music: Probably the nursery rhymes that my Mum sang to me. But again, lemme do a variation - first male and female artiste. Johnny Mathis and Whitney Houston. Still favorites to this day.


Last
Drink: Water. Aqua. H20. Very boring and healthy loh.

Car ride: To the LRT station for work and back again.

Crush: *ahem!* I dunwanna answer this question, can? Oh, but it says last crush and not current crush. Okay, last crush was errr... Elijah Wood?

Phonecall: Mum. Asking when I'm coming home.

CD played: My own Christian compilation of songs in the car coming home.

Gone out with good friends: A few weeks back, when we went to check out The Banquet in Bangsar Village II. Oh yeah, I'm supposed to blog about the food there. Now where are those pics?

Broken a law: Hello? I is law-abiding citizen, you know... Okay, I ignored the one way direction sign (I only saw it after I turned) in a shopping mall carpark to get a space. (No, I did not steal that space from anyone. LOL!)

Been arrested: Hello? Refer to my answer above. I have never even been stopped by cops, k?


Taggees:
Who wants to do this year-end closing tag? Any takers? Anybody? No? Okay, I'll give you guys a break... until next year! *cue sniggering laughter*

You Ask. Me Answer.

20 questions. It's almost like an interview questionnaire, no? Or perhaps 20 questions one has to answer at a speed-dating session. *grin*

Instructions:
Remove 1 question from below, and add in your personal question, make it a total of 20 questions, then tag 8 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged.

1. What color do you like the most?
I love many colors, but right now I am fascinated with baby blue, just like my personal blog. Baby pink runs a close second too though.

2. You like rainy or sunny day? Why?
Neither. I like cloudy days because I get sunburn if it's sunny and wet if it's rainy. But if I really had to pick, I'd take a rainy day, provided I'm indoors. *grin*

3. Where is the place that you want to go the most? Why?
Paris, to see the Eiffel Tower. Saja-la. Because it's really romantic and is an excellent place to practise my photography skills.

4. Which part of you that you hate the most?
Eeeee! Must I answer this question? Off-hand, I'd say my butt, but that can be rectified with lots of toning exercise!

5. When you encounter a sad moment, what would you do?
When I am sad I... make like a Taiwanese serial actress and not express myself, but just let the teardrops flow silently. Ahahaha. Drama queen, hor?

6. What is it that you are afraid to lose the most?
My sense of identity. If you can figure out what I mean by this very cryptic phrase.

7. If you win $1 million, what would you do?
Pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming. Then spend it all on the things listed here.

8. If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her? Or would you keep it to yourself and observe from afar?
The last time I fell in love, I didn't confess it to him because I wasn't sure whether or not it was love or just a puppy crush. If I'm truly sure, next time 'round I would.

9. List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you.
The Giddy Tigress is kind-hearted, funny and sexay! lovely.

10. What are the requirements that you wish for your other half?
He has to be someone I can trust and respect. Of course, it also helps if he's got a great sense of humor, good-looking and loaded. Lawl.

11. Till now, what is the moment that you regret the most?
I regret giving up my ballet lessons to this day. I love to dance!

12. Which type of person that you hate the most?
Rude people. Ewww!

13. What is your ambition?
To be a rich tai-tai mommy.

14. What is the thing that will make you think he/she is bad?
If he/she is a hypocrite.

15. If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?
Find Prince Charming. Win a Nobel Prize. Be a tourist in outer space. Live happily ever after.

16. Christmas is coming, who do you like to celebrate with?
Family and loved ones. Friends too!

17. What do you think it's the most important thing in your life?
My family and loved ones. Can I add that blogging is a loved one too?

18. If you have a choice to choose your gender, which would you choose to be?
No change! I wanna be a girl cause... Girls just wanna have fun... plus we get to make guys turn cartwheels with the merest lift of our little finger! ROTFLMAO.

19. What is your perfect theme song, based on this quizlet?
Same as GT, I got Don't Cha by the Pussycat Dolls.

20. My Question : If you could, who would you like to trade lives with and why?
Ha, trick question, this one. Lawl. I'd love to be Natalie Portman because she's so brilliant at acting (Star Wars aside!) and is one of a minority: an intellegent actress in Hollywood. Plus, I'd get to look like her! (Dunwan her vegetarian diet though...)

Eight candidates to tag:
Eight is too many... I'll give this tag to the first three chuppers for this post!

I hate KL traffic!

The cops were crazy in KL today. Yup, you read that right. The cops. The guys in blue, black and white and neon yellow vests. Who ride in Wajas or on bikes. Who are supposed to be anti-rasuah.

Does anyone know anything about a protest / rally / march / whatever planned for today? Because it certainly seemed like something was in the air today. Early in the morning on the way to work, I encountered a police roadblock on a busy highway, no less. Then I got in to office (barely on time) to chat with my friend in another office who told me that traffic was madness from PJ to KL. Then I heard from my mum that she got stuck in a traffic jam going to PJ in the morning. Leaving office today, I got stuck in a 2 hour jam going home because traffic was at a standstill in the heart of the city. Bah.

And that brings me to a list that Chen asked me to make. I have to list out the ten things I hate the most and today, traffic jams take the cake!

1. KL city traffic jams, especially when it rains
2. Rude, inconsiderate drivers who weave in and out and steal parking spaces
3. Smokers in a non-smoking area
4. Stewpig erratic Screamyx connection in my housing area
5. End of the month bills that drain my bank account
6. People who think they know it all and are arrogant about it
7. Animal haters
8. Getting caught in the rain
9. People who sing off-key and loudly too
10. Caramel

Okay, so I was running out of things to list. Lawl. I'm not going to tag anyone on this because it's pretty long overdue and I think this tag has already made its rounds a-visiting to your blogs.

I'm a 'fraidy cat...

I have never subscribed to the theory that one should pay perfectly good money to be frightened out of one's wits and neither do I buy in to the other theory that it's thrilling to be scared / shocked / creeped-out by scary flicks. However, I got dared tagged by the Giddy Tigress to tell you the scariest movies I've ever watched.

Ghostbusters
Ah, an oldie but goodie. Mind you, I was a tot just around 2 - 3 when I first watched it and very believing of ghosties and shadows lurking under my bed at that point of time. The thing about me is that once I get scared, I don't sleep for fear of nightmares. So there I was, poor little me, afraid of the dark and whatever lurked around my bed, desperately wishing I'd never watched it. Oh, and to make matters worse, my Dad had a casette tape of Ghostbusters theme music which he tended to play at night, adding to the suspense just before bedtime. I think it was a week or two before I dared to sleep again. *grin*

Jaws
This one again, I watched when I was small. Slightly older, but with a vivid imagination, I was convinced that the shark could get me even though I was no where near the sea. There went all my beach holiday fun until I reached teenhood. But nowadays, I like watching scary creature movies (especially those B-grade flicks cause they're so corny and cliched).

Enough of the past... let's talk more recent movies. Oh wait. I don't watch any scary movies to make the list but I did watch...

The Village
The suspense in the beginning was just killing me (like the part where the kids were playing a 'dangerous' game of chicken beyond the fence) cos' I never knew when the creatures would strike. But all was made clear in the end, so it wasn't that scary after all. LOL!

Now, let me hear these guys scream like a little girl!

L B
Narrowband
Leonard
Adrian (After reading your 'see ghosts' posts I think you won't be scared at all la!)

Santarina is giving out free hugs!

Wow! Time flies. Can you believe it... it's already December and time for me to publish another The Hug Hug Club round-up. I'm sure you're waiting to find out who's been naughty or nice topping the chupping charts, eh? Since we are at year-end and so near to the X'mas season, I shall adopt the role of Santa-rinnah Santarina and hand out free hugs (it is called The Hug Hug Club after all) for the lucky chuppers who made it to the top of the X'mas tree chupping chart... so boys and girls, this is Santarina's list:

Mistletoe smooches and candy cane hugs for LB
Angel tree topper hugs for Angel
Reindeer hugs for Mistipurple

They were very good and quick to beat the rest of the pack who were following behind...

4th - Ehon
5th - KYH
6th - Giddy Tigress & Mudpie
7th - May
8th - Wennnn
9th - Adrian & Chen
10th - Misha & Paris Beaverbanks
11th - Doreen, Pelf, Simple American & Zewt

Consolation milk 'n cookies hugs for all! No lumps of coal since you were very productive. :o) The coals are reserved for and given to light a fire under those who didn't get to chup last month. Here's hoping you manage to do so this month!

For more about The Hug Hug Club and it's many resorts, visit here.

Wishing all a Blessed Merry Christmas in advance!

You take 2 steps forward, I take 2 steps back

And that's the way the Paula Abdul song goes.

First he wanted me to look forward. Now he wants me to look back. Gawsh. The iPort's not invented yet so it's really tiring, you know. Make up your mind, will ya? *grin*

*** INSTRUCTIONS: ***
1. Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given below.
2. Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.
3. Don't forget to read the archived post and leave comments.
********************

Link 1 must be about FAMILY: There's a hole here where you left...
Link 2 must be about FRIEND: Rrrrrrrrrrr...... (what is that?)
Link 3 must be about YOURSELF: Ding dong bell...
Link 4 must be about YOUR LOVE: Hello world!
Link 5 can be ANYTHING YOU LIKE: Blogging and me

Five lucky duckies to tag:
Doreen
Mistipurple
KYH
May
Zewt

Hyppy Hoppy Tag!

Maybe it's because he's currently staying Down Under, but our dear sai loh Ehon seems to have gotten things the other way round. House warming means that guests bring tags gifts, not receive tags gifts. Anyway, I shouldn't rain on his parade so I shall do this tag like the good girl I am. Lawl!

LIST OUT THE TOP 5 PRESENTS YOU WISH FOR
1. Black 8GB iPod Nano
2. Something sparkly that comes in a Tiffany-blue box
3. A terror-byte storage device
4. A pair of Nine West or Aldo shoes
5. A DSLR camera

THE PERSON WHO TAGG-ED YOU IS
Sampat Lovable Ehon

YOUR 5 IMPRESSIONS OF HIM / HER
1. Funny boy
2. Kind-hearted (check out his dream of sponsoring a child!)
3. Close to genius
4. Lots of compassion (why else would he be a Youth Ambassador?)
5. Hyppy! (a word he invented, btw)

MOST MEMORABLE THINGS HE / SHE HAS DONE FOR YOU
Uh, he cheers me up when I'm depressed?

THE MOST MEMORABLE WORDS HE / SHE HAS SAID TO YOU
"Pom chak chak" "Money money come"

IF HE / SHE BECOMES YOUR LOVER, YOU WILL
Get hauled in for soliciting a minor? He claims he's only sixteen or fourteen, depending on which blog you read. Lawls!

IF HE / SHE BECOMES YOUR LOVER, THEY HAVE TO IMPROVE ON
His age, naturally. *grin*

IF HE / SHE BECOME YOUR ENEMY, YOU WILL
Be sad cos he's a good friend to have.

IF HE / SHE BECOME YOUR ENEMY, THE REASON WILL BE
Most probably because he wrote one too many funny posts like this one? J/k!

PASS THIS QUIZ TO 1O PEOPLE THAT YOU WISH TO KNOW HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT YOU
This is a pretty hard quiz to answer, so I'm *gasp* not tagging anyone!

Saving the world, one blogpost at a time

I was quite aghast when I read in my Bloglines feedreader today that Pelf was *this* close to selling her other domain - The Giving Hands - this week. Oh no!

I do understand Pelf's consideration that she can't devote as much time as she would like on the site but I have to say it again - I've never met another blogger as passionate about causes, be it environmental, charity, or just simply making the world a better place as Pelf. (And please don't be modest about it, m'dear!) Rather than let a site with such good intentions and potential just die a death of neglect, she was actually thinking of selling it off to someone who would be able to put in their time and energy into The Giving Hands.

Thankfully, another blogger has managed to persuade Pelf to give it another go but she needs our help and support. How to help? Read on below (copy 'n paste from Pelf's post)...

So right now, I am looking for guest bloggers who can commit one post per week to The Giving Hands. As a guest blogger, you may write about anything at all, pertaining to the environment, or charity, or health, or nature. Your posts can be in the form of a blog post, or poem, or an image with some description, or a list of tips, or a list of links. So you see, it is really very flexible.

If you can’t commit to one post per week, what about 2 posts per month? You could send me your write-ups, and I would publish them, with full credits back to you, of course.

However, as a guest blogger, you will not be paid a dime because I can’t afford to pay you. I wished I could, but I can’t. However, you could be proud to be doing something that your son/daughter would come across one day many years down the road, and they would be proud that their Mum/Dad championed for the environment/charity.

I've been meaning to put in a post or two towards The Giving Hands but somehow or other, I'd find my attention distracted and wind up doing other blogposts (like tags and rants. LOL!) for my other blogs. Nope, not any more! I do hope that I'll be able to contribute at least one or two posts a month to The Giving Hands, and I'm starting right now with this public commitment. (Dear readers, do feel free to terrorize remind me when I haven't posted there!) If you could spare the time, would you consider doing the same for Pelf? Even if you can't commit to a series of regular posts, I would love for you guys to spread the news on your blogs and let more people know about this really good site. It would be a shame to let all of Pelf's hard work go to naught.

So whatcha waitin' for? Let's go save the Cheerleader! Oops. I meant Save the World. Hehehe.

This is a community blogpost brought to you by rinnah (and nope, I'm not being paid a dime for it because Pelf doesn't know yet that I've written this! *grin*)

What to eat in the mornings

I'm gonna do something unlike me with this post. I wanna kill two birds with one stone two tags with one post. Muahahaha. Nope, never been done before, but since the topic is the same - FOOD! - I thought it would flow very nicely together. Both tags are from my favorite tag-mistress, the Giddy Tigress. First, she wants to know what I eat for breakfast and also what tip I have for healthy living.

Let's start with brekker, shall we? Now boys and girls, breakfast is the most important meal of the day so you should never, ever skip breakfast. In fact, some dieticians even advise that you 'eat like a king' for your morning meals. After a whole night of fasting with no food, you need to 'break your fast' with something nice and yummy and hopefully healthy! Most weekdays mornings I have a slice or two of bread or cake with chocolate milk. Nothing too fancy, huh? But on the weekends...

Saturday - Four slices of kaya toast with two soft-boiled Omega eggs at any coffeeshop (but the nicest is from Deli Cafe in Kota Damansara)

Sunday - Spinach noodles (the best ever from Setapak!)

Yes, I eat like a queen on weekends, and like a normal citizen on weekdays. Hehe.

On to the next tag! What's my healthy tip?

**********

Copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.) Share one of your own health tips (tip on how to be more healthy) with others. Try to make your tip short but informative. Tag at least 2 persons.

1. Be happy - Everyday health and beauty
2. Everything in moderation - Giddy Tigers
3. Eat a good breakfast everyday! - rinnah

**********

Healthy people to tag:
kyh - Kena both tags! Muahahahaha! Consider it a semester break gift. LOL!
ehon - I know you've done the brekkie tag before, so yours is only the healthy living tip. *grin*