Good News vs Bad News Part II

Fatin. Yep. She is one of my biggest worries right now. Remember my post about her headaches the other day? My mom took her to the hospital the day I went back to KK last week. So the good news was, it's not cancer. Bad news was, it's brain virus infection. I don't know how serious her situation is or if it's contagious or not, because I wasn't with her every time my mom took her to the doctor (she had been to the hospital for this reason twice so far). I'm not even sure if she had been diagnosed or not. I did some reading, and I found that acute brain infection is not very contagious, whatever that means.

I quote, "Unlike the flu or the common cold, which can be transmitted by casual contact or by simply breathing the air in the same room with an infected person, most of the bacteria causing meningitis are not very contagious. It would take the exchange of respiratory and throat secretions, from coughing, sneezing, or kissing, to spread the bacteria. The only exception is meningococcal meningitis. Anyone in the same household, or who had a prolonged contact, or was in direct contact with a person's oral secretions would be considered at increased risk of contracting the infection. People who have been exposed in this manner should receive preventive antibiotics." Click here for the full article.

The doctor gave her many medicines, which I've never seen in my life before, but I don't think the doctor gave her any antibiotics. So... I shouldn't worry about it being contagious yet, right? But I'm still so worried about her. I don't even know what to do. She still screams in her sleep. In fact, she's screaming right now. I hope she took her medications before she went to bed. She's supposed to take them before bedtime. What I'm worried about the most is, who would look after her when she's in Unisel? She's going back to her uni next Monday. I'm so worried. Her stubbornness is making me worried even worse. Sometimes I'm not even sure if she took all her medicines as advised by the doctor. Ada jak alasan dia. Ubat tu limited la, kena jimat2 makan, ubat tahan sakit nda boleh campur2 dengan yg lain lah, ubat ni makan bila perlu jak lah apa lah. I wish I was with her during her check-ups. When I asked mom, she only said, "Ok, tiada apa2 jugak. Doktor suruh Fatin makan ubat jak." The thing is, IS SHE TAKING HER MEDICINES???? If she is, then why the hell is she screaming in pain right now??? And btw, she lost 6 KG! Now losing weight because you're on diet is a good thing, but losing weight abruptly like this is not an occasion we should be celebrating. I quote again, "Unexplained weight loss or losing weight without trying - particularly if it's significant or persistent - can be a symptom of an underlying medical disorder." Click here for the full article.

Dad said, if it is really what it is, we shouldn't be surprised if one day an operation is required. He added that it is going be to very risky. It could either make Fatin paralyzed or be the cause of her... death.... It gives me chills whenever I think about it. I don't even want to imagine it. :( Maybe I'm just being paranoid, maybe I'm just overreacting like I usually do, maybe I'm just catastrophizing this situation, but tell me, shouldn't I be worried? Wouldn't you?

Learn to Drive: Qualifying Test at the Institute (QTI)

So... My QTI... Hmmm... I passed. Yay (in a flat, unexcited tone). To be honest, not so successfully though. I couldn't do the hill at one shot (and so did at least 5 other people), but luckily, we were given another shot. The man who observed (and marked) us said that if it was a JPJ test, we wouldn't have a second chance. *gasps* I better do better next Tuesday. My mistake was, I didn't press the accelerator enough so that made me slide down backwards. Urgh. Okay, okay, I'll make sure I won't do it again during my JPJ test. Andddddd.... I was given the third chance during the side parking test. The poles! Arrgghhh I hate those poles! The butt of the car kissed one of the poles just as I was getting out of the parking lot, meaning, I did park successfully! Urgh, those evil, evil poles. I secretly hoped that they didn't notice it and I proceeded to do the 3-point turn. I did this part so smoothly. When I went to our observer (a different dude this time; Saiful and Encik Sabri was watching too uhuhu - he also watched during the hill test - malu mak nyah!) to take the green QTI paper, they said, "Kenapa kau langgar tu tiang tadi? Nasib tidak jatuh. Kalau JPJ test fail tu." I was like "Iya.... hee..." yet, they still gave me a pass. Hehehehe. I consider it my luck? Syukur alhamdulillah... Hee... Thanking them, I left and joined the others who had finished their first part of the test outside the office to wait for the second part, the final part, the road test part. I wasn't too nervous about the road test. I think it was the easiest part of all. I got 18/20. Not bad. Not bad at all. My mistakes were 1) signal; not using signal while at the roundabout (trust me, nobody had told me this during my driving lessons, zzzz) and not giving signal before reaching the corner. 2) gear; the tester said that I didn't use the right gear for the right speed. I was like, what? I thought I had done pretty well at that. Well, ndapalah, I was given too many chances today anyway. Hehe. I hope that my luck won't run out for the JPJ test, but, I will do my BEST. Insha Allah, I will PASS not because I'm LUCKY, but because I truly DESERVE it. I'm very grateful to Allah for allowing me to pass my QTI. Thank youuuuu sooooo much Allah! I love You! :)

Learn to Drive: LAST DAY!

So I had my FINAL driving lesson yesterday. It went well (but I did drop THREE poles while doing the side parking for the second time arrrggghhhhh). Other than that, everything was okay. So I'll have my Qualifying Test at the Institute (QTI or more commonly known as pre-test) this Thursday which is TOMORROW, while my JPJ test is going to be on the following Tuesday (3rd June), provided I pass the QTI. I'll be on a half day leave in the morning tomorrow because I have to be there by 9 AM. I'm going to make it count! I'm going to nail it! Yes, I CAN!

Learn to Drive: Day 15 & 16

I think I did okay last Saturday and today. I think I'm doing alright circuit-wise. I just got a little nervous every time Encik Sabri rides the car with me when doing the hill so I tend to let the car slide backwards. But if I do it alone, I can do it very smoothly, like I feel more confident doing it alone. I have to overcome this like ASAP because my JPJ test is coming soon this 3rd of June. Another thing is that I tend to switch gear from 3 to 2 whenever I'm nearing the school/hospital area. Apparently, I don't have to this do but I just need to slow the speed down. I tend to forget that. Zzzzz.... Encik Sabri was like a bit agitated today. Not that I was butthurt or anything, not at all. But I noticed that he was a little worked up today. He mentioned that another student of his complained about something (he didn't say what), so I assume that was what got him into the mood he was in today. The thing about Encik Sabri is, I never felt like he was scolding me whenever he thought he was doing that. That's how cool he is. Like today he said to me, "Bukan aku mau marah, aku cuma kasi ingat kau seja sebab kau selalu lupa." Hehehe, sorry Encik Sabri. I was like (dalam hati), "That was you scolding me?" Lol. For some reason I don't feel intimidated by him, and it's a very very good and important thing to me. 

I can't come for practice this Saturday, but I'll try my best to make it on Sunday evening. I'm going back to KK tomorrow morning (I'm on annual leave today until Friday, so yay for me! :P). Farah's engagement day is on Saturday. So I will be spending tomorrow afternoon and Friday to find gifts for her and Macik Inah as well as baju kurung for myself. I hope can find something nice for less than RM100 (baju kurung). The cheaper the better. Yeah, I'm frugal like that. Ahaha.

Fatin is going back to KL on 2nd June, morning. Syukur alhamdulillah she already received a scholarship offer from MARA. That is surely going to help her a lot. :) And btw, AirA*** owes her RM400 for the baggage delay the other day. Luckily I bought the travel insurance. I always buy travel insurance because I'm aware of how important it is. See? Nda rugi pun beli, hehe. It's gonna be very busy weeks this coming 3 weeks. I'm gonna have to rush back to Sipitang after Farah's engagement because this weekend we're gonna start arranging stuff for Macik Inah's wedding next weekend. And the following weekend would be Farhan's engagement. Not to mention, my FINAL driving class (hurray!) as well as pre-driving and JPJ tests in between. Pergh. I hope everything will go smoothly. Insha Allah.

Oklah, I guess that's all for today. It's almost maghrib. And I need to pack my clothes too. See you later alligator.

P/S: The word "AirA***" was censored because I don't want people from the company I'm working with to find my blog post. If you must know, AirA*** is one of our clients so censoring the word is necessary for me so that this blog post won't be captured in our system. I wouldn't want my colleagues to be reading my stupid blog, would I? Zzzzz....

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I did a lot of net surfing/blog walking today (while working, cough cough) and  from various blogs to Wak Doyok (Wak who?) to Tweed Run (tweed what?) and finally, THIS made me stop!

What?

This AWESOME The Beatles Yellow Submarine collection from VANS!!! Oh my, I WANNNNNTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! Forget Doc Martens! GIVE. ME. THESEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! Arrrrggghhhhh I'm going crazy here!!! I feel like flying to KL tomorrow and grab one or two or three of these babiessss huwaaaaaa I seriously want these!!!!! But if I had to choose only ONE pair I would definitely go for the high cut one! Oh how I wish I was in KL right at this moment........ :(

Disclaimer: All images belong to VANS Malaysia

#nowplaying 505 - Arctic Monkeys

Throwback Thursday: Fek Bagon!

Today I'd like to talk about "Fek Bagon". What is Fek Bagon, you ask? It's some kind of a game, which I believe is familiar among most Sabahans. How is it played, you ask? Well, it requires at least 2 players; a "feker" and a "fekee" and a Volkswagen Beetle car. Hahaha sorry, it's really hard to describe the word "fek" in English (or any other language for that matter) because this word really only exists in Sabah (as far as I'm concerned), but I'll try my best.

"Fek" (verb) is an act where the feker hits (with only a little force and not meant to hurt) the fekee's head using his/her index and middle fingers. "Bagon" (noun) is a word used by Sabahans to refer to the Volkswagen Beetle car, which is my favourite car. :) This game has only one rule; who spots the Bagon first is the only one who gets to be the feker.  So it's like this, when one of the two people sees a Volkswagen Beetle car, s/he will "fek" the other person's head and say "Fek Bagon!" at the same time. This game is typically impromptu and the players will never really see it coming, which makes it all the more fun and exciting, depending on the fekee's mood. Hahaha. I used to love playing this silly game with my ex-boyfriend and I have to admit that it is one of the veeeeeeeery few things that I miss about being with him bahahahaha. We would scramble to fek each other's heads when we saw a Bagon and it would usually turn into our silly little competition. I would fek his head as hard as possible. Well, because he was my boyfriend and it was funner that way hahaha. He always won the game though. And I would sulk because I was the one who introduced the game to him and Bagon is MY favourite car, not his. I found that Fek Bagon was more enjoyable in Ipoh and I believe this was a mutual thing between me and my ex-boyfriend. This is because we could find countless number of Bagon cars in Ipoh. Sometimes, more than 10 in a day! If we were lucky (or should I say the feker?), we could even spot 5 Bagons one after another within very little time in between. This is one of the many things I love about Ipoh.

Whenever we saw a Bagon car and we were not together, we would take a picture of the Bagon and MMS it saying "Fek bagon!" Hahaha. Memories. I stopped playing the game with him since I found out about his cheating. Hahaha. Memories. Zzzz.... But yeah, when I see a Bagon now it will definitely remind me of the good old times that we had. The times that were filled with silly fun and laughter. Those days. They feel so far away, like they were thousands of years ago, so far from my reach. Huh, sigh. I'm not trying to romanticize my ex-boyfriend okay, I'm simply trying to do a Throwback Thursday post here. And please don't get me wrong. I don't miss him, I just miss the memories. There is a difference okay! Anyway, here are some Volkswagen Beetle photos. Aren't they beauties? I would loooooooveeeeee to have one one day. Adorned with groovy-hippie-psychedelic airbrush painting. Huhhhh such a dream. Hahaha. Oklah. That's all and....... fek bagon (10X)! :P

Disclaimer: All images are labeled for reuse

Word of the Day: Jejune

According to Wikipedia:

1. naive, simplistic, and superficial
their entirely predictable and usually jejune opinions

2. (of ideas or writings) dry and uninteresting
the poem seems to me rather jejune

According to Dictionary.com:

1. without interest or significance; dull; insipid: a jejune novel

2. juvenile; immature; childish: a jejune behavior

3. lacking knowledge or experience; uninformed: jejune attempts to design a house

4. deficient or lacking in nutritive value; a jejune diet

According to Urban Dictionary:

1. naive, simple or childish
He made jejune generalizations about how all students were lazy and never did any work

2. The worst word in the English language, jejune just bleeds pomposity and snobbery. If you seriously use jejune in a sentence you a) are automatically an asshole and b) should be slapped across the mouth.
"I detected a jejune air that had not irked me before" - Brideshead Revisited

DO NOT PUSH MY BUTTONS!

Disclaimer: Google image labeled for reuse

I consider myself as someone who has a quite high level of consideration and patience, especially when it comes to dealing with people involved in my job. But like all other things in life, my patience is not limitless. I understand that it is an editor's obligation to be profoundly concern for accuracy and exactness, in short, FUSSY, but I hate to be treated like I'm some kind of a mentally challenged person, like I haven't the slightest idea of what I'm doing, like I'm that stupid. For instance, I hate it when my editor asks for information that wasn't there in the first place, like why this netizen said this or that, especially if it is a tweet. I write reports based on the information that is available to me. How should I know why or what made a netizen tweet what s/he tweeted if s/he did not mention it in his/her tweet? Did you expect me to go and interrogate the netizen about his/her tweet? C'mon man, I am a Social Media Analyst, not a Twitter police! For almost 3 years with this company, I've never had any problem working with other editors. I've always been able to understand their fussiness, their super thorough attention to details. Heck, I could still be "kind" to J** and pretend like nothing happened even after what he did. But this one particular person, oh gosh! I'm starting to feel like he's getting on my nerves on purpose, like he is purposely trying to push my button, my BEWARE, MIGHT EXPLODE IN YOUR FACE, PLEASE DO NOT PUSH button, even if he had no intention whatsoever of doing so. I'm just hoping that it won't get to the point where I no longer want to settle with just biting my tongue or choking on my suppressed anger just so I won't say things I will definitely regret later. I don't know how much longer I can keep up with this good girl facade, y'know. It's not like it never happened before. I lost my patience once, but thank goodness it was with someone who was no longer my colleague at that time. Ah, sudahlah. Why am I focusing my time and energy on something negative like this? I better go take a shower and eat some dinner. Kbye.

I ❤ Bitstrips! (and always will)

Ahaha. Tiba2 mo blog pasal Bitstrips. Well, I love this app. I was introduced to the world of Bitstrips when I saw a Bitstrip shared on Facebook by my friend Kym in late October 2013, and I was hooked since then. To some people, it is just another fad that will pass and eventually die like Myspace or I dunno, KPOOP? Whatever. I can see that the Bitstrips hype is dying, that people don't bitstrip as much as they did when they first discovered the app, but, who cares? I enjoy it and as long as I enjoy it, I will continue doing it. I'm not the type of person who does something because everybody else is doing it or because it's the "in" thing to do, I bitstrip because I really do love Bitstrips. It's fun, it's cute, it's funny and I love the clever puns. Most of the time, I use the app to quote my favourite songs or be sarcastic or just for the heck of it. I love it and I will continue using it even though some people think that it's annoying. Don't worry, I will never abuse people's Facebook news feeds with stupid Bitstrips jokes.

Here are some of my own Bitstrips that are my favourites.

P/S: Fatin said that my avatar looks like me. :P