NOTE-TO-SELF FOR 2014

These are not my wishes or resolutions (those words are too strong!) but these are the things that I wish to change or start to change or do or do not do in this year.

Never, ever buy locally made carbonated drinks

It’s not that I’m saying I prefer big company’s juices over locally made ones, but the quality should be taken into consideration. I was always disappointed with the local carbonated drinks where they put too much sugar and little carbonate that is not enough to cancel off the sweetness.

It tastes like drinking a whole beehive of honey. And apart from that, the drinks usually taste like cough syrup, which makes me feel like I’m paying to get myself tortured. Did I mention that some of the bottle caps were already rusty when I bought them? Yeah, drinking local carbonated drinks can get you kancing gigi, apart from rotting them.

Do not buy Biffi and Ayam Fiesta frozen food, EVER

I love frozen foods (my guilty pleasure!) especially nuggets and BBQ marinated chicken wings. So it becomes normal that I would take serious offense if there are frozen food products that are not up to my standard. Frozen food wise, Biffi and Ayam Fiesta are the biggest offenders, yet.

Biffi and Ayam Fiesta taste like plain flour with no apparent chicken taste. Biffi products are usually cheaper, but the taste, to put it mildly, is not great at all. The brand biggest failures are the frankfurter and the patty.

Ayam Fiesta, while priced higher, does not differ significantly in taste. I never managed to finish them off, and they are largely thrown into the garbage bin, uncooked and cooked. To prevent myself from further wasting money on frozen foods, I have made a vow to never buying them again.

Bring kain pelikat along whenever going to unknown places for more than two solat times

Not to sound holier-than-thou or anything, but praying while wearing jeans is usually a chore, sometimes almost a torture. And sometimes wearing pants can get your aurat behind exposed while you sujud (prostrate), which would make your solat invalid. So I made a note to myself, not to forget bringing kain pelikat along whenever I’m travelling for more than two solat times.

Besides being worn to pray, kain pelikat can also serve as a blanket, emergency kain basahan and also a pillow which becomes handy when you left one of those items behind.

Not to make eye contact EVER, when another man is using the urinal

I’ve had my share of public humiliation, and making eye contact with another man while he was using the urinal, which was un-strategically located in a toilet, was one tenth of a public shaming. It was awkward and gross and filled with innuendos when we made eye contact and then smiled.

Right when he was urinating!

It was so wrong on so many levels. It was like saying “Man, I saw you peeing in that urinal – Cool! – Yeah, great piss. Good job, man!” It is normal for people to smile when their eyes meet, and they would automatically do so even while using the toilet.

So it’s none of their fault, and the moment it happened it felt like nothing is wrong, but the ensuing moments would usually engraved with unease and awkwardness.
So yeah, uh, not gonna happen again.

Charge the power bank fully every time I’m going to travel

I used to not charge the power bank before going places, but I have experienced enough to change that view. I usually got lost when travelling and depended greatly on my phone for GPS, and the real horror came when the battery began to die out.

I memorise very little of my important contacts’ number, and while the battery is dead and I am lost in nowhere with no GPS, I started to panic and drive like a maniac. The remaining power bank battery did little to help, and it usually manages to provide me enough battery power to navigate to my destination just in time.

Some other time, low battery means I would miss important moments to capture in photos that would never happen again, and I could not receive important notifications, as well as very little chance to listen to songs while I’m bored or to avoid awkward situations.

To spare myself the pain, I would rather charge the power bank fully before travelling anywhere.

Do not reply messages while some other person is talking to me

I offended some people by doing this, and luckily that experience taught me to never repeat this behaviour. It’s downright annoying and inappropriate. Fortunately, I have not done this in ages. So I got that one going for me, as opposed to many other things in this list that I would only started to do.

Never ‘pancung’ while driving

I was caught in an accident because of this improper behaviour and lose my car for a few weeks, as well as RM550 because of this. I went directly from second lane to an exit, and a motorcycle hit me there and then. It was an unnecessary occasion, avoidable by simply not turning too fast.

The afterwards events were such a pain in the ass. I have to lodge a police report, which took hours, and pay the summon and having to send my car to the workshop and take it back a few weeks later, having to fill the insurance form, retrieving documents from bank, contacting many people again and again etc etc. This is the lesson that I have learnt the hard way, and I am never going to walk down this path again, ever.

Hydrogen peroxide is a STRONG oxidizing agent

Taking lightly the power of hydrogen peroxide as a strong oxidizing agent has cost me many of my samples. Too scientific, but a note to self nonetheless.

Under any circumstances, do NOT use KTM commuter

You see this coming, don’t you? Yes, KTM commuter, last time I board the train was in last year (duh! 2014 baru 7 hari). I was rarely satisfied with the service, even when boarding the long coach. You see, the inability of the train to follow the schedule they put on the screen has cost me much of my valuable time.

There was this one occasion, when the train was stuck at KL Sentral for nearly an hour because there was another KTM train going to pass the railway that they had to stop the commuter in anticipation of the other train. 1 hour is a torture in a KTM train, hands down. 1 hour of doing nothing.

Mind you, I was on my way to my niece’s wedding and I only managed to come over when everything was over.

I could never forgive KTM for that.

Boycott Nescafe and Gillette and ALL other brands that put their commercials on YouTube

I was never a fan of Shaheizy Sam, but when his Nescafe commercial pops up invariably every time I’m trying to watch a YouTube video, I became a hater. The ever so annoying dialogue that can make me puke was this: “Minggu lepas Sam sangat sibuk.....”

And other commercials that sound in full volume when we were least expecting it, with beats that could blast the stereo. It’s even annoying when the actual video that we are about to watch is just at the correct volume, but the commercials are way louder. Gillette and whatever brands that put their commercials on YouTube, just f**k them all. I am not going to buy them again as a sign of protest.

Some things are meant to be that way. Some things are not meant to change. Accept the fact of life and just be happy that they even happened.

Kids grow, couples separated, people die, and go separate ways. These are the things in life that you could not change. You could not simply hope somebody whom you love will love you back. They are beyond your powers and you should not be sad for not being able to change that.

If you could change everything so that they would all come your way, what’s the fun of life? Where’s the fun of taking risks?

I was a person who believes that if I hoped for it strong enough, then it would happen. Some of them did, and some of them didn’t. And I was sad for I was hopeful, but later I have to accept that some things are beyond our grasp. People’s emotions, especially. You can put so many efforts and hope for the change, but if the change did never come, do not be sad. Life just has to go on the way it is.

So guys, cheers.