As I was driving to work this morning, I heard the most bizarre story on radio.

It was about this guy who chatted with an unknown girl he picked up from the net. From chatting online, they switched to chat using the web cam instead. Then this guy "claimed" that he heard a weird background sound... and thereon was "hypnotized". For the next 10min, he undressed himself and ahem in front of the web cam. But just as sudden as he entered the "trance" state, he suddenly got the jitters and decided to log off...

Some time later, he got a call from the same girl who apparently posted his nude video online (apparently she managed to record the entire 10min). The girl then blackmailed him a large sum of money, but in the end, he paid her RM2,300 the first time and RM800 the second time. In the end, he brought up the issue to MCA when the girl continued blackmailing him. So some big shot from MCA then called the girl to warn her from blackmailing the poor dude or else face the consequences of jail (distribution of pornographic materials online are illegal of course)! Only then, did the girl stopped harassing the poor dude.

Now isn't this bizarre... considering the following?

• Can one really be hypnotized online??? Hear a weird sound (via webcam) then immediately enter a "trance" like state and start undressing and ahem in front of a stranger for 10 MINUTES???
• Why must the MCA big shot guy warn the girl? Shouldn't she be arrested or sth? Can't they trace her via her IP or phone number or her account number or sth? The dude obviously saw her face... so can't they do the face recognition thingy...?

So anyway, the DJ's ended the story with the following "community" messages:

• Guys caught on video ain't worth a lot (unless of course if he's a public figure)... like this guy, he was only worth RM3,100... so if you wanna blackmail... make sure you blackmail a girl instead for your hard work to be worthwhile
• The next time you wanna chat via web cam, make sure you turn your speaker OFF...

Hehehehe... so guys and girls... be careful when you use the webcam...

Has it ever occurred to you that Malaysia is really a big place??? I mean half the time when I see classifieds on missing person or families seeking missing relatives etc etc... on TV, newspapers, websites etc etc, the immediate conclusion would be that the missing person has already left the country. But today... I came to realise that this might not be the case.

My mom went for a check up today and accidentally bump into my uncle* whom we had lost touch for nearly 16 years!!!

Background
When I was younger, my family used to live together with Uncle Chen who married my father's sister. When they divorced 16 years ago, my aunt had the custody of my cousin brother... and Uncle Chen moved out. Then eventually, we also shifted to another place and had separate lives.

I was only 12 years old when Uncle Chen left but I will always remember him cos he's kinda unique in his own ways:

• He used to be very clumsy... e.g. there was once he parked his car next to a drain... when we got out of the car, he was no where in sight... guess what? He fell into the drain!
• Another time, he took my cousin, my bro and I to somewhere (can't remember where specifically) but my brother's leg got stuck in one of the holes in the cement drain cover but he continued walking and pulling my brother's hand until my bro had to cry before he noticed that his leg was stuck...
• Then there was this once he nearly broke all the 5 fingers on my right hand. He closed the door without looking and my fingers were stuck in between... only after several screams, shouts and cries did he realised that my fingers were stuck...

But despite his clumsiness, Uncle Chen is really a kind hearted soul who is not just kind to my family but adores us kids as well...

I don't have many memories of him as I was only 12, my bro 8 and my cousin 6 when he left. But what I remembered most was the jigsaw puzzle set he gave me. Long ago, when the jigsaw puzzle craze was in, I begged and begged him to buy me one. Even when he was showering, I would stand outside the toilet and chant: I want jigsaw puzzle, pls buy me one... pls pls pls... Although he pretended as if he wasn't gonna get it... he came home with one the following day!

When I heard the story from my mom today... I teared a little... cos after so many years, he remained single still. He was at the hospital today for his routine check up and was using crutches cos he got into an accident 4 months ago. And because it has been so long since we last met, he couldn't even recognize my mom at first. But guess what... he remembered me!

This Saturday, I'll be fetching him to my house for a mini reunion with my family. Am just so glad that we finally get the chance to meet him again after 16 long years! Although my aunt has then remarried... to me, I will only have 1 'gu-jiong' who is Uncle Chen and my parents shared the same sentiments. Just goes to show that Uncle Chen is really a nice guy although things didn't work out between him and my aunt.

And I truly believe that we are fated to meet albeit after 16 long years...

I've been having sleepless nights for the past few months. Nearly every night I would be tossing and turning in my bed and when I'm finally dozing off, my alarm would ring to signify my wake up time. If you ask me how many hours I sleep a day, I honestly cannot answer for I myself am not certain if I slept at all.

But the thing is that, this only happens on weekdays. I have no problems sleeping on Fridays and Saturdays but starting Sunday, my insomnia would kick in.

To be honest, I'm really physically and mentally exhausted. Initially I thought all I needed was a break away from my routine. Thus in Nov last year, I followed my parents to Beijing for 8 days and in Jan this year, took another trip on my own to Phuket for 5 days. But when I came back, the feeling of exhaustion was even greater than before. I just dread going to work... and eventually started adopting the bad habit of procrastinating.

I felt like I'm no longer as productive as before and I hate myself for being this way. Day in day out I told myself that I need to stay focus and to just do my job but day by day it's getting tougher. I'm not even sure if I need to seek help on this or if it's a common thing amongst working adults... so I checked with my other colleagues...

Surprise! Surprise! Of the 3 people I spoke to... these were their responses:

• A: I can sleep but I get up at 4am every morning before my alarm could even ring
• B: Ya... I also cannot sleep at night... slept at 4am yesterday
• C: Had to be on MC today cos didn't sleep at all last night and had a migraine this morning

Now that I've established that I'm not alone in this... it felt better (as in I'm not mentally unstable or something) but the thing is... I still don't know if I can ever get out of this endless misery... sigh...

I was so inspired to find out the destiny of my life after reading Dokodemo Door's blog on Palm & Face Reading that when I stumbled upon a palm reading stall at Sg. Wang earlier, I didn't hesitate to have my palm read (as you can see, I'm kinda impulsive... hehe).

So anyway... I got my palm read by this guy (dunno Mandarin and I forgot to ask him for his name... so errrr... let's just call him "Master"). His fee was pretty reasonable... RM30 for face reading and a quick check on your date of birth.

Here are some interesting stuff from the session:

Thumbs

• The first thing that he did was to bend my thumbs
• Apparently if your thumbs can be bent outward easily, you are a soft at heart sort of person
• Vice versa, if yours is stiff and hard to bend, you could be stubborn like a mule

Longevity

• The blue line here indicates your life line
• If yours is curved all the way to your wrist... congratulations... you could possibly live a super long life (past 80 years old)
• When he saw mine, he asked me if any of the older folks in my family lived past 80 years old and I excitedly said... ya ya... my great-great-grandma was 103 when she past away, my great-grandfather was 90+, my own grandfather was 80+
• Of which Master calmly said: Yes... as you can see... this is usually inherited as you have an unusually long life line

The rest of the things he said after that was done rather quickly. He drew lines on my palm using a red pen and in the end, the lines were all crisscrossing one another. Although I generally remembered what he said, I couldn't really figure out which line meant what... but what I remembered most was this conversation with Master:

• Master: Your best years to get married would be 2006, 2008 or 2009
• Me: O_o Does that mean that if I missed those years, I'd end up being a spinster forever (I've already missed 2006 you see...)
• Master: Not necessarily. What it means is that your "tou fa" blooms the brightest during these years and choices will be aplenty...
• Me: Oooo...

After the entire reading, my bf scolded me for revealing my excitement esp. at that part about family members with long life. He said I should've just look skeptical all along:

• BF: Another few more questions and you'd be barring your entire family history to him... tsk tsk tsk... how not to be cheated? (then proceeded to mumble mumble and grumble grumble)

Then out of the blue he said something that gave my heart a tug:

• BF: Hmmm... if you're gonna live past 80... (all along looking at his own life line)... you'd be all alone if I leave first... that'll be so sad hor...
• Me: Sheeeesh... nola... what nonsense!

Sigh... then I realised hor... I do lup lup him lor... hahahaha! And oh... Master said I'm born "crever" but must "jaga" my head wor (which is kinda true also cos I was previously hospitalized for my tension headaches).

So that's all for now and Happy Birthday everyone... Today's "Yan Yat" (or more commonly known as the "lou-sang" day). May all of us work till wind mountain water rise (lou tou fung san sui hei). Cheers!

Came across this blog entry from ((d[-_-]b)) on how one can "do it" in a mini. Very interesting... comes with complete illustrations and instructions too... kekekeke. Guess the folks at mini wanted to show how spacious and roomy a mini could be despite its small outlook. Check it out here!

I must be one of the few lucky ones to start work on Chor Sei. Why? Cos I've been cruising to work for the past few days. No traffic jam what-so-ever... It usually takes me about an hour to reach office but the past 2 days?? 10min!!! 10MIN!!! Can you believe that? So much so that I reached work at 8am on my first day back (work starts at 9am). Needless to say, I slept in awhile longer the following days... kekeke...

Next week, everything will be back to its normal routine and the next CNY will be a full year wait... so before the sun sets today and before happenings of today become memories of yesteryears, here's an attempt to remind myself what I like and dislike about CNY this year:

Top 5 things I like about CNY:

Ang Pau
I'm sibeh greedy I tell you. I sememangnya will not be paiseh to holler out CNY greetings and will not hesitate to take ang pau from anyone... I mean... when I was younger, all my ang pau money are put into savings... and when I finally think that I can make use of the ang pau money for more shopping, I realised that my-ang-pau-receiving-days are numbered. Why? Lets just say I get married at the age of 30 or 31. That's another 2 to 3 years from now. Thereafter, it'll be ME giving out ang pau like mad... sigh...

Ang Ang
Practically anything and everything during CNY will have a splash of red showhow or rather. Heck, even cookies and sweets come in special ang packaging and I just find it so auspicious. Red is nice for its' boldness and loudness and I think it's especially suitable for festive occasions.

The Yang Energy
Come CNY time, my house will be filled with families, relatives and friends. It's such a merry time for all and everyone's in their nice bajus. Both last year and this year, we had someone visiting almost everyday and it's just great cos everyday feels like a holiday!

Food
I love it when we get to eat all sorts of CNY delicacies from a variety of biscuits, snacks to a variety of auspicious sounding dishes like "nin nin yau yu" which meant "every year also got fish" (something like that la)...

CNY Melodies
I prefer CNY melodies than CNY songs. The melodies have a very festive feel about it just like the Christmas jingle.

But with the good, comes the bad. So here's the top 5 things I dislike about CNY:

Nosy Relatives
This is also the time where they will conveniently gang up on the unmarried ones to force the "truth" out of them… when are you getting married? Why not yet etc etc and will conveniently barge into your sanctuary (like your room for instance) for a chit chat when you were obviously trying to take 5 from the smiling and entertaining.

Lousy Clothes
Although it's nice to be in an ang ang mall, it's really not much fun shopping during CNY cos predominantly everything is in ANG! I mean, there's only so many ang baju one could have you know.

Emotionally Drained
I hate returning to work after CNY. It's like an emotional roller coaster (going down) right after a great high!

Food
After awhile, you'll be dying for a meal of just plain vege. Why? CNY is all about meat meat meat and more meat from chicken to roasted pork to fried pork to fish… to everything meat la.

CNY Songs
I don't know about you but I hate CNY songs… they're so supermarket-ish. Gone were the days where CNY songs are melodious and soothing to the ears. Today there are even techno versions to CNY songs and I especially hate the 4 little girls (with thick make ups resembling a monkey's ass) singing and dancing.

So ya, as a true blue Chinese... actually more like true yellow-banana Chinese, I do lurrrrve CNY!

Oh well, a lot of you asked the most natural question pertaining the dispute between me and my bf's sister: What is / was my bf's stand on this?

Before Dispute
In a way, he started the whole damn issue. Cos if he insisted in staying in the house, none of these would've happened. Instead, he opted to go with what his family said.

During Dispute
During this time he regretted his earlier action. But needless to say, it was too late. But he did what he could in explaining to his parents.

When his mother asked me to apologize, he told her not to interfere and that she has no right in asking other people's daughter to apologize when she doesn't even know head or tail of the entire story.

When the sister scolded him, he said he will always stand by my side and yes, he is willing to do anything for "the woman" (sister asked if it's worth abandoning his family for the woman i.e. me lor).

After Dispute
Respected my wish to not attend any of his family functions. Told his parents not to help salvage the relationship between his sister and I anymore cos it's defintely not possible if his sister expects an apology.

His Stand:
Just like what you guys said:
Respect the parents
Ignore the sister
Concentrate in building our future

Sigh...
I don't quite know what to expect out of him. On one hand, it seemed like he has done what he could in protecting me. On the other, I truly truly wished that he would stop talking to his sister!