Just at the tip of an iceberg.

"Welcome to hell!!!" That's the common greeting i receive from my manager when i step in the store room of my current work place for the night shift. It has been 5 days of work. Im cramming a hell load of things into my head, but i think im adapting to it slow and steadily... So it seems la. Minus the trippy-ness of remembering recipe and name of drinks, plus the sore legs, aches and blisters on my toes. Limited free drinks during shifts, mark out foods, enjoyable staff and definitely the smile you put on customers faces is the ultimate combination for a great day at work. Currently, nothing makes me happier than to see myself through this so called "tough life" everyday. But in reality, the level of toughness is but the tip of an iceberg. See, my parents are overseas, leaving my bro and I to take care of the house. Considering the fact that i've been working night shift (3pm - 11+pm) and come home quite late at night, i feel like there's no equal distribution of work in this house. So chores aside. Today, i was unlucky as my bro couldn't drop me off to work. Why not drive? To hell with that! Driving to work should never ever be an option unless you earn a shit load of money to pay parking and mr. traffic is kind to you. So i decided to be less fortunate (No im not cheap, im being smart). I walked out under the scorching sun and took a bus to work. The same thing happened after work. Waited at the bus stand i thought i wouldn't have to wait in, took the bus and walked home. I only spent 2 bucks on transport, amazing! But I cant feel my legs... Anyhow, its all about the experience. Try putting yourself in the shoes of those who dont have a car or would try to save as much as possible. Tough...

Happening happenings!!

Nothing much going on with my life... Usual routine on every working day... Nothing happening on class days... No dance classes until next year... Dance performance last weekend... and finally Christmas Eve at Sunway Pyramid!! Let the pictures do the talking.

The feast:

The hungry people:

The Santa Claus:The snowy effect:The single and lonely peeps on X'mas eve:

Remember, life's a bitch, live with it, deal with it. No escape routes there.

Cheers, im off. Starting work earlier 2mrw.

A series of unexpected events of the same type...

I waited about 3 weeks or so... Well ok i did not really wait, i just left it aside and moved on. What did i wait for? A phone call. A business call? hmm. just one that'll get me an interview @ Starbucks! I dont understand why i've always wanted to work at Starbucks, maybe because its one of the top 100 best places to work (according to website), its famous, heard its fun, friendly, for experience, or maybe just a flexible job for my bombastic summer classes timing. Anyway, i received a call last thurs and being stuck in a traffic jam never felt the same again... for that moment only. I was called up for interview at Starbucks Gardens! So I went to the outlet the following day. When i was there, there were 6 including myself who were interviewing as well. How did it go? Wonderful. I could roughly remember his compliments, "I like your personality, it is not something you can weigh and I like your enthusiasm too". So that was the side that boosted my confidence. The inescapable 'but' comes in. He added, "But to be honest with you, your timing REALLY SUCKS!", I agreed. He was referring to my summer class timetable. If you were to go to Starbucks and pick up a green brochure regarding job application, you would notice a working timetable behind for office use only. Lol when i told him my timing for the week, he took that timetable and filled in my class timing instead! "your timing really sucks", if you were applying for a job with a demanding manager, that short sentence could virtually crush all hopes or compliments. Nvm. So i would know whether im selected 2 days after or else sorry la, according to him. I really understood if I didnt get chosen as i mentioned before, which manager would want to hire someone and have to suit his schedule? But what i didnt and probably would never understand was the unexpected phone call this evening saying that im hired! I was freaking happy. Whatever he was thinking when he picked me, he definitely made the right choice. I wont let him down. I want to thank my grandma for her prayers for me as she knows that i really want this job. I have Shea to thank for her incredible lady luck, seriously its quite freaky especially if it happens twice in a row... Today Ee Von also mentioned that they called her for the job only after sometime, I find that a lil freaky too cuz i told her i didnt make it before that, but anyway thx!

Well ppl, visit me at Starbucks Gardens soon!

And for the next 3 months...

...and waking up from the dead, no seriously all i've been doing is attending LAN classes four days a week from mon to thurs. It sure feels like a regular school week of sem 2 except that im there physically but not mentally. Ok whatever it is, im gna suffer through and be done with this once and for all. My one and only motivation. So im doing National Language A and M'sian Studies this summer and to be frank, it wasnt as bad as i expected! Thank goodness i have friends suffering alongside me haha! But for M.S. ok honestly that lecturer dude has some issues. He is like a humanoid, what do you call them... a cyborg? He pauses after a couple of words everytime. I remembered during the first class... He drew our attention, the whole class went from bazaar to pin-drop silence... we looked at him, he stood there, -information processing...- in his pentium 1 mind, for at least 10secs before continuing another 4/5words? After about 6secs or so i was like " go on... and then?" with gesture. Come on man do you need that long to charge your batteries before you talk? Ok a bit harsh, but on the good side he doesnt give 2 shits if everyone was making noise behind. Ill give him credit for that! :D

It has been 2 weeks and 6 more to go, yay me. Because of this its hard for me to look for a suitable job that suits my schedule. Yeah what kind of job would suit YOUR schedule its more like the other way around agree? So there goes 1 of my major plans for this holiday, its not off but got a whole lot dimmer. 60kg by March 09, is one im doing my best to focus on, no artificial powders and shit, just pure determination, hardwork and ignoring discouragement.

Results came out on yesterday (thursday).. frightening? Very. It was suppose to be out friday noon but caught us by surprise and on the before doomsday party night for some of us. News of this epidemic spreaded quickly and soon enough all of us were affected. Ok i admit i did pass the unfortunate msg to others as well haha. Did i check my results immediately? No.. but i wanted to.. It was a tough decision. Whether to be happy knowing the results and partying my ass off at the club or ruining the night. Enjoy the night, period.

So back to the beginning... I found myself gaining parts of my life back by having fun with friends at the Loft KL last night. Not my kind of way to enjoy a night out with friends so i found it quite ok and some parts were just so-so. Dancing and drinking in the club is fun no doubt but smelling like shit later and your hair also like shit smell only, disgusting. Not to mention inhaling 2nd hand smoke for hours and yelling into your friend's ear. Well.. once in a while ya? once in awhile indeed.

The Past.

Dating only as far back as after the exams... Malacca was the destination for our year end after exams vacation. We reached a consensus somewhere during the mid of the sem itself, incredible! Though I really wanted to go to a place full of sand and a vast volume of water. Anyway, back to the trip.

It was the 8th of Nov 2008. The "historical" city of Malacca needs a better F***ing road system, my God! I cant imagine living and driving around there, its so friggin jammed, trishaws are cool to ride on but not cool when you're driving and constantly avoiding them and the signboards lead you in circles. Moving on to the highlights of the trip.

Day 1

Yes... this was definitely one of them. After the long drive on kampung roads from malacca to muar(accommodation), most of, if not, all our stomachs were pleading for food. My back and butt ache contributed to the hunger. Dinner was great. What was even better was the creative game we played to finish almost all the vege. Very healthy indeed, a lot of vege and toilet visits.

Day 2

LMAO!!! This is what i call a sunshine after or while its raining itself. It never fails to cheer me up! Sorry Jo! i enlivened the pic didnt I? hahaha. One of the funniest moments of the trip. It was after our tea time? Famous chicken and riceball place at jonker street.

Here's a nicer one to redeem myself from the wrath of Jo. This is something i love to do. The scenery was not all that magnificent, but i loved the breeze, the night air, the sound of waves, the gradual silence after a car has passed by, the sight of that eye on malacca behind and the company of course.


Later that night... my goodness Ruth was just... pure funny during our card game. Again another funniest moments of the trip.

Day 3

At least we got to go to the beach for a couple of hours... :)

A holiday is not a holiday without the wonderful company of friends. Eventhough i may have missed a quarter of the conversations as they were in mandarin (i still understood a bit ok!), i still had loads of fun nonetheless. Introducing the crowd with Crystal in our hearts and minds throughout the vacation...

From left to right: Johnson, Sze Nee, Me, Ruth, Joanne, Patricia, Xiang Ting and Peggy.

15th November 2008

A samba dance performance at Sri KL...

The preperation:

Left: the guys prepping up, the girls doing make up. Right: man heels (latin dance shoes)

The crew:

Hopefully ill have new costumes for future performances... Not just one tight black singlet. Hours of practise and less than a minute of performance. It wasn't too bad. ah whatever it was fun. Jon's spastic hip shaking was a killer! Lol... Great job everyone!

Petrol price dropped to RM2/L wooooooo!! that was a few days ago as of today.

First the worst...

Since this is my first post, id like to be a lil' creative and give it a twist from normal 'first posts' by using a different format. Let me break it down in a roughly standard full science lab report. lol Here we go...

Title: Jo's blog - An introduction.

Introduction:

Im Tijo, i usually introduce myself as jo for convenience purposes, such as easier to remember; simple pronunciation; and a super common name when you add an 'e' at the end. Simple pronunciation, is excluding the koreans... lmao, no offence to my korean friends! I remembered that my korean basketball coach back in high school used to call me "tizo!". Good thing he didnt call me "zo" back then, sounds like some retarded punk zorro wannabe. Im a KL-shian? I was born in KL, raised almost entirely in KL and will most likely die in KL too without being pessimistic. Why blog? Well... I feel that sometimes life's stories should be written/typed out and (not forgetting) shared instead of keeping it in one's mind. Especially for people like myself, who's memory is kind of crappy, seriously, i forget movies after exiting the cinema! So this is my blog of chequered life and thoughts. Events, happenings, whereabouts and whatever of myself will be posted starting from today. Im not such great writer so you can keep that dictionary as i dont use words that'll blow you away.

Aims:

• To share life's stories
• To gain knowledge about and appreciate the exciting world of blogging
• Free myself from 4 months of boredom?
• Have something to talk to... wtf im gna quit blogging before it gets any sadder

Methods & Materials:

OK... so... ill obviously type using a PC, you're going to read and feel free to leave comments. However, preceding these events ill be thinking by my backyard on what to post.

Results:

Id be insane to have results.

Discussion:

You may be wondering why i named this blog "A junction, half a map and a gun in one hand". Its an analogy to my perception of life. In life, you'll confront many junctions or impediments. At each junction, you have to choose which lane to depart upon. You'll always have options. The amount of choices is directly related to the type of junction i.e. whether its a T-junction, 4-way, you get the drift... Half a map would provide some guidance but not fully. Your loved ones fall under here. They will guide you throughout life but ultimately it is you who will make the last stand. A gun in one hand simply refers to giving up and taking the easy way out.

Conclusion:

I think that's enough for an intro... So its safe to conclude that all objectives were met for this experiment.