moon river

so what's up with the classics?

classic icons; classic movies; classic books; classic music; classic style.

sometimes they come to you in black and white, from a completely different time. take grace kelly and audrey hepburn. breakfast at tiffany's and the sound of music.

some of them you'll never get sick of. in my case, it would be pride and prejudice.

then there are fail proof ones that you can watch over and over again, at any time, no matter what mood you're in. i'm looking at you, Friends.

sometimes, they're not really that old, and yet, harry potter is a classic to me. 

heck, some even turn into a cultural phenomenon.

most of the time, they speak funny. in SATC, Mr Big always greet Carrie by saying "how're you doing, kid?" Seriously?

oh and one more thing, Black is always in. always. everything looks good in black. the only exception being a wedding dress.


how do they survive through the changing times? fashion comes and goes, but style is forever. what determines that style factor?

they say we learn history as to not repeat the mistakes from our past. is this really why we're fascinated by the past? or is it because it's so unrelatable to us now, that we're so fascinated by it. us Gen. Y kids will never know of stolen kisses or vinyls playing in the background as your parents dance in the living room. and i guess that's part of the reason why i keep going back for more.

the grinch.

christmas eve. i used to look forward to this day. even though my family wasn't christian, christmas was a big thing in my house. 

every year we'd put up our 6 foot tall christmas tree. sort through the christmas lights, hang up ornaments, cover the base with the gold covering. we had two train sets. both were lego, but one was the kiddy version, with big blocks and a battery operated train. the other was super complex. you could change tracks, and you really had to plan out the route because there were limited number of tracks to use. make it too big and you'd have to dismantle and start all over again. it ran on electricity, and you could adjust the speed etc. over the years we added our lego toys to build bridges and flyovers. if you let the trains go too fast, they literally flew off the tracks.

and of course, no christmas tree is complete without the presents waiting at the base of the tree. wrapped up all daintily with pretty ribbons and foldings. my mom used to pick out presents for us, but as we got older, we each picked out what to buy for each other. 

i love getting presents. who doesnt? i think most of my love for christmas stemmed from the excitement of getting ready throughout december. and when you finally get to open the presents, it's just such a wonderful feeling. i love the surprise of tearing through the wrappers to get to your gift. i'm not one of those girls who unwrap their presents slowly, trying to save the wrapping paper for memory - i'm too impatient for that. those presents have been sitting under the tree, taunting me for weeks! i just have to get to it!

that was christmas in malaysia. 

christmas in russia is different. sure, there were christmas parties and gift exchange going on, but this year i just wasnt really feeling festive, and for the first time since coming here, i think i really do feel homesick. 

christmas eve and i wont be doing anything. the little gift exchange i'm supposed to have with a few of my best friends, yeah that's been postponed since we've got an exam and a test to sit for respectively. christmas dinner, what dinner?

my mom's half of the family is at my home now. they all came over for christmas, and i cant remember the last time they came over, all together. my relatives from jakarta and singapore all came over on sunday, and they're all spending the holiday together. 

it sucks that they've all gotten so close in the recent years, i.e. when i'm stuck here in russia. all alone. with no one who's able to drop by. you think its hard for malaysians to get visa here? wait till you're indonesian. it's hard to get visa for so many countries. 

i was all excited to skype my mom's half of the family. i even put a reminder on my phone, to set the time i'd skype home. i planned it out with my sister - it was a date. 

lo and behold. they're all out in kl, celebrating. i couldn't even get in touch with them. they were all so busy and having so much fun. amidst all the noise and the bustle, my texts all went by unnoticed. my older brother was the only one to reply me. he was at work, see, so he wasnt with them. 

he's sad that he wont be joining them for the genting trip. yeah, all five families and my grandma will be heading up to genting for two days. my brother started working not too long ago, so he only had one day off for christmas. so he's staying home. 

it sucks to be him, but guess what. it sucks to be me more. i dont even want to be here anymore. 

have yourself a merry fucking christmas. 

maudlinism

So the PMR results came out today, and my youngest brother was one of those to get their results today. he did pretty well i guess, 5As, 2Bs and 1D. the D was naturally for mandarin, his weakest subject ;p since my sister was the only one to get all 8As, i'm not in any position to berate him for not getting an A for a subject that coincidentally was my first B on a major exam ever. 

the other Bs were for sejarah and BM. i'm fine with BM(in which he did wayyy better than expected), but he could have totally gotten an A for sejarah. he did so many careless mistakes and didnt bother re-checking his answers so yeah i'm pissed bout that B. 

but all in all, his results were a Huge improvement from when i went back during my summer break. at that time, he had only one A, multiple Cs and many Ds. 

naturally my mom is over the moon with his results. he can get into science stream if he wants to! funny thing is, my sister and i are way harder on him that my mom. but i do acknowledge that it's a huge improvement and quite an achievement for him, so i congratulated him and told him to go celebrate and enjoy today.

he was actually a little afraid to tell my dad his results.

tomorrow it's time to scare him about SPM. my sister thinks i'm evil, but hey, this is probably the only time he will care so much about his results and the repercussions of his actions on his academics. you can literally prepare for PMR by doing the MCQs over and over again, which was what i forced him to do, but for SPM, you have to write essays. and honestly, reading sample essays of students who had no idea what they were talking about were just plain hilarious. but if it was my brother goreng-ing and spouting crap, now that would just be plain painful. 

i will never forget about the whole "zaman gelap because there was no TNB at that time" sejarah essay everrrr. 

so he can and should celebrate today, because when we skype tmr, i'm gonna scare him a little and then help him choose which stream he'll go into... my mom says she's fine if he goes into either pure or sub-science, but my sister was all "no! he must suffer through pure science like me too!" crazy girl. lol. 

but i guess pure science would be his best bet, since the humanitites subjects are in BM. and his BM is not strong. at all. besides, neither my sister nor i can help him if he took econs, commerce, or accounts. till this day i still think the A1 i got for my accounts is a joke. 

on the topic of highschool, i was checking out instagram today when i stumbled upon this pic. 

a friend of a friend uploaded this pic, and i dont know why, but i just think its damn cool to have a touch 'n go card that's custom designed with my high school emblem no less. i totally want one!

and this made me realize that for some reason, i've always clung on to high school. those were literally the best days of my life. and for some reason, nothing measured up to all the fun and activities that i've had in high school. 

was i biased because i spent the six years prior to entering high school in a chinese primary school? college was fun too, TCSH was the newest and fanciest Taylor's campus at the time, yet it seemed anticlimatic after my KDU days. 

most people dread highschool and cant wait for it to be over. Uni life was supposed to be the best thing ever. and looking at some of my friends, i can see how that would actually apply in real life, but i guess it just hasnt been that way for me. 

i'm loving the freedom uni has afforded me, but so far it hasnt exactly topped my high school memories. one can only hope that the remaining years would get better.

fanfiction vs fictionpress

so it seems that after nnwm i've become sort of addicted to writing. or maybe it's because i hadn't let it out in such a long time, once i started writing, the floodgates just burst wide open. 

okay, first and foremost, the novel i did for this last november is a fanfic. a castle fanfic, to be specific. its AU, and editing's a Bitch. but yeah, it will be posted onto ff.net sometime in the near future...? i'll start soon as i've sorted through the first five chapters to my liking... and i'll put the link in one of my posts here... 

but yeah, getting fanfiction to work is such a hassle. first you have to upload it, and if you select the wrong format while uploading, you can only edit, but not publish. i dont even know how betas work. pfft. 

anyway i kinda posted a one shot while i'm searching for time to edit my novel, and it's a castle fic too ;p so pm or msg me if you're interested to read that. gahhhh.

fanfiction vs fictionpress. 

one is a platform for fanwork, the other is for original works. i've mainly stuck to ff, since i could pick stories or movies that i liked etc, but i only venture into fp when a friend recommends something to me. 

since i've written two novel length works, (one's a fanfic and the other is completely original) i'd like to take some time to talk about that. so essentially i'll be comparing a fanwork(on ff.net) and an original fiction(on fp.net)

the thing with ff is your characters are already created. they have a background already, and you're only exploring more of said character. even if you introduce your own Original Character, the rest of the "world" is already set. you've got your main characters and supporting characters with all their quirks and personalities already. the author doesnt have to delve too deep to bring the characters to life. how many OCs do you have to focus on anyway? even if your OC plays a major role, you wont have more than a few, or it'll be over at fp instead of ff. if you choose to write something set in the fantasy world, magic already has it's rules. you already know what kind of creatures exist in that land. the technology available has already been predetermined by the original writers or authors. you're just borrowing them to explore.

on fp however, the authors have to really work on developing a character. and the hardest part of that is to create someone who is real, and not this perfect version of who you'd like to be. it takes a whole lot more effort to create someone that's completely authentic and real, and three dimensional. you want to create your own magic, sure, go ahead. good luck making your rules though. oh what, you dont need rules, you say? then say goodbye to your storyline. what's your character going to do when he or she faces any complication? just magic it away? sure, do that and your plot will magically disappear as well. or maybe you decide that in your story, animals will be able to talk.  do you even realize the repercussions of that? try writing a scene. how are you going to keep the focus on who you want when the insects that you dont see, but will logically be in the scene, all begin clamoring to get their opinions heard. only some animals can talk, you say. and how is this selection made? how do you distinguish the animals that can speak and those that cant? i'm rambling away, but see, this is the thing with writing on fp. you have to think out all the details and rules and reasoning. it's more of a challenge, but it's more rewarding as well, since you set the boundaries for your story.

anyway, lots of people out there say ff is a really good place to start writing, and it's true. it's easier, and a great practice, not to mention the reviews you can get to help you improve. (reviews, not that easy to get actually. i've had 187 visitors in the past 90mins, but 0 reviews. boohoo.) but if you're up for something more challenging, go try your hand at writing something original. think out of the box and create your own world ;)

yeah baby...

so i went to the post office today, and successfully collected my parcel. wheee :D

my mom sent me EIGHT pairs of shoes, and i cannot wait for spring to come. unfortunately, i have a long wait ahead. a very long wait. hopefully the snow and slush will be gone by late march or april at the latest...

opening my parcel was like getting a huge ass early christmas present. i packed it with my mom, but since it takes more than two months to get here, i've completely forgotten what i packed inside.. so yeah... i'm pulling things out and going 'hey! cool i've got this...' or 'omg thats so awesome' but mainly 'oh my god, more shoes?!' but i'm not complaining :)

on a side note i finally have milo! i swear to god milo is like one of the best malaysian products everrrr. 

oh one more thing that totally made me feel like i'm friggin' awesome. 

see when i went to the post office, i didnt have the slip that you're supposed to show to collect your parcel. i tracked my parcel online and saw that my parcel arrived in the post office, so i wrote down my tracking code onto a piece of paper and just brought that slip there since i figured they could confirm with their database in the post office(which they've done before). 

okay, why did i not have my slip? simple. because most of the time, the slip just goes missing. you can go bug the commandant downstairs, but it's always the same few slips, and you normally only see yours a month after your parcel has been sitting in the post office, and you pray to god that your parcel hasnt been sent back to  malaysia. 

so anyway, after an hour's plus wait at the post office, it was my turn, and i passed my tracking code to the woman working there. she said the internet was down and langsung dont wanna layan me. due to the language barrier, i find that malaysians here get pushed around alot and dont get the type of treatment customers are due sometimes. in fact, i know of only one other girl in my year who dares to scold the guards etc and tell them off when they bully or cari pasal with us for no apparent reason.

Here's the best part. 

i sort of told off the woman working in the post office. yeah baby. even with my russian that is not as good as i'd like it to be, i explained things to her, and made her manually look through the records, and go search for my parcel. 

BOO-YAH!!!

she actually listened to me and layan-ed me. felt so awesome. haha. and i collected my parcel. :D

for those of you who dont live here, you're probably thinking "so what? consumer rights and all that.." 

but that's the thing with living in a country where you can hardly use english, you really get brushed off due to the language barrier.and even when they're trying to help you or just asking you a question it sounds like they're scolding you -.-

 i know that as a foreigner in their country, we should respect their language and learn it etc, i'm all for that, but seriously, some of them could seriously use a healthy dose of friendliness. not all russians are like that, the few that i know from here and there are really nice and friendly, some are really helpful and awesome, but as a population on a whole, russians arent exactly teddy-bear friendly on the outside.  

so for today at least, it's Amanda 1, Moscow 0.

if only.

So i completed my NaNoWriMo sometime this morning around 2:30am. typed in "The End" and after a moment of hesitation, hit the key to put in a full stop. 

i'm... happy with how it turned out. the worst part was probably not knowing how to end it, but i managed to straighten out the kinks and mold it into something i'm satisfied with :) 

Progress throughout November

Anyway, the final word count is.... 62723words! 

I've got no idea how much will survive after i begin editing, but i dont think the numbers will plummet much since i'm quite happy with the plot. or at least i was when i wrote it anyway :)

And since i've been pretty public about joining nnwm this year, i've got loads of friends asking what my novel's about, and to read my work when i'm done. i hate people reading my work, gleurghhhhh, but i might be inclined to share it somewhere when i'm done editing. so its not a flat out no, just a later. (and even though a teacher of mine always say later means no, my later means later) Be patient. Patience is a virtue, and i'm new to writing, so give me some time to give myself a pep talk.

On another note, December's here, and everyone's getting into the Christmas spirit. i think i'm turning into a softie or something, since i'm actually getting all gooey on the inside watching christmas episodes when my old self would normally just scoff. or not be affected. 

i'm actually getting pretty excited for Christmas, what with all the hype my friends are sharing using various medias and social networks.... sad thing is, moscow doesnt celebrate christmas until january. and there's no malaysians-hosted christmas celebration this year. Or at least, it wont be a huge event like the previous years...

word is, there's a paper we have to sit for our finals on 25th December. jolly good time. christmas just lost a little of it's spark for me. 

and the old amanda is back.