Happenings

Today I am supposed to work, as I hadn't been given the day off. Unlike most of my friends who have the whole week to party, I have to wake up on Monday morning and face the blues...

But then again, when I reached my lab, it was locked. Ho ho, my supervisor wasn't here.

So what does one do when he finds himself locked out of his workplace?

He snakes around finding something else to do :)

Initially I went to the computer labs which are open 24-7, but it was lonely and cold there so I came up to the library which was open. Yep. Right now I'm typing this post using one of the computers in the library.

Naturally, I'd look up the usual sites; Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, The Star online paper, and chat on MSN. Not many people online today (my best guess is that they are all out partying or just sleeping in bed) so I ran through The Star, reading up today's headlines

But I found it so boring... dull... unfulfilling...

Started to look at other sites online (by the way I cannot access THOSE kinds of sites here, my admin will come running after me with a knife if he finds out). It started off with plain old University of Melbourne's website, reading up more about the university and the courses and everything else that I already knew ten times over. I remembered I wanted to learn Mandarin so I googled up for Mandarin courses in Malaysia and LifeLongLearning, went to the MCA site and found a few leads but nothing interesting in particular.

I don't know what made me start googling for "laser hair removal treatment". Yep. I've always told my friends that I want to be a white chicken (i.e. hairless boi) but the irony behind it is that most of my friends want to be like me, as they equate hair with masculinity… they have so little hair to spare (read Sahara desert) while I’m having enough to spin me a scarf (read Amazon Jungle)

I beg to differ. Cleaning up hairballs under my bed, clumps of hair under the shower, and having to consistently trim and shave has become an annoying routine.

I’ve always been jealous of my not-so-hairy male counterparts while they’ve been jealous of me. I like the feeling of being hairless but we will not go into the mushy details, shall we.

So I was reading up on this IPL, “Intense Pulsed Light” treatment. It is actually treatment using a device that sends light of various wavelengths through your skin, and the hair follicles supposedly absorb the light and get burnt by the heat it produces, killing the follicles (saying goodbye to the poor ol' strand of hair). From there I proceeded to google for the cost of the treatment and places where I could get it done

Then I remembered about Men's Skin Centers, some centre catering for metrosexual men like me who are insecure about their outer appearances so much so that they are willing to fork out thousands to "change" it... and of course, I remembered about Carl Ng who posed as a model for Men's Skin Centers' advertisement in The Star.

But googling for Men's Skin Centers resulted in irrelevant search results.

One search result was particularly interesting. I came across a blog belonging to a guy who named himself "drownedglass". There was no actual name on the website so I'll call him DG from now on to save my sorry fingers from typing out such a long name.

So Mr DG had a very interesting blog indeed. I started reading a few of his posts and intuition knocked on my door. He was too PLU to be true.

From the ramblings to the terminology, you could tell. I started to read more and more about this mysterious DG and I found that he sounded very much like the type of person I'd love to make friends with; witty, opinioned, bitchy, flirtatious, open minded, hilarious, intelligent... the qualities I associate with good character and the ability to carry out an interesting conversation.

There was one thing I liked about DG, and that was his frank remarks about anything and everything. As compared to me, I was more "reserved". I tend to think twice about what I say when posting on this blog of mine, whether it may offend anyone that is reading it. DG on the other hand was not afraid to speak his mind. Too bad he didn't have a face pic to show otherwise I would be able to match a face to the posts

On the left side of his blog there were links to other blogs. Since I was so darn free I just clicked on this link called "alex"

And lo behold.

I came to a website which was very tastefully designed (seriously guys, do you think I'm overdoing it with the praise? I'm genuinely impressed!!) and had many pictures. It belonged to this guy named Alex Tang who resides in Damansara (near my place. VERY near)

Of course, the first link I clicked on was "photos", judging by the fact that there was this cutie photo above that link hence everything else that followed should also be cutie...

And I was right.

Tons of bodies, beautiful beautiful gym bodies, trips to Bali and the like... faceshots and portraits of beautiful people, landscapes and panoramic views of beautiful places, candid shots with funny poses...

And suddenly it occurred to me that I wanted to be like these people… I wanted to have fun

As these people are having fun out there, I am obsessing with work and study. I am complaining about everything and anything that comes in my way (which includes people I meet), hating every small detail about a place and passing rude remarks about strangers on the street whom I'll probably never get to know in person

I'm obsessed with the way I look (read "laser hair removal"), with the way others look, with the amount of money I have, with the number of gray hairs I have on my head, with the type of car and house I wish to own upon graduation, with what I'm going to do after graduation or even before I enter my university...

I am thinking about everything and anything else B U T... having fun.

I'm thinking about growing up fast when everyone else wants to be a kid again.

It occurred to me that so much was happening in my life, but I wasn’t having FUN per se because of my stupid attitude

These people, strangers to me, posting pictures online to tell the stories of their escapades... they seemed very much a world away from the world I am living in.

I cannot say that they are genuinely happy people or that they are accomplished in their lives as I do not know them in person. But all I can say is that I wish I had memories like them... friends like them...

The one photo that really captured my attention was a picture of the four of them, Mr. Alex and his three friends, smiling. So what they say IS true. A picture speaks a thousand words.

What is it I want now? Do I want a holiday like theirs? Deepavali-Raya is around the corner and I've got nothing planned. Then again, I must realise that I am only 19 years old while these people are fully grown (in the more humble sense of the word) mature people with incomes which make overseas travel affordable...

DO I NEED A VACATION OVERSEAS? AM I LOOKING FOR ONE?

No. I'm just looking for happiness.

Where will I find it? Perhaps today, I found it in the many portraits of anonymous people smiling their way into the lens of some camera...

Many things are happening in my life... just like theirs. And many things will happen in the future, God-willing. I’ll probably have tons of opportunities like these anonymous people in the future; after all I am merely a teenager now and have YEARS ahead (don’t I just love to make you people sound OLD hehe) Perhaps all I just need to do is stop and savour those moments instead of being jealous of other people's moments… and of course, make sure the events are well documented so that I’ll remember them for life

Now I truly understand why I was making such a fuss about owning a digital camera in the first place