Greetings from Melbourne

melb_arrive.jpg

Hello, I’ve arrived in Melbourne yesterday or the day before, I
really can’t gather my scattered thoughts right now, The outdoor doof
was very cold. More about that later, got back yesterday and slept for
more than 24 hours (what a waste) to recover from my non sleep in the
day before I left and the non sleep in the plane. Anyway, I’m going off
now, I’ll do a day by day run through when I reach home, it will be
sporadic posts like this until I get back. Later!

Destination: Melbourne, Australia (and a contest for readers)

melb_convo_baggage.jpg

Greetings, my excellent friends! This is the last post I’ll be
making before leaving for Melbourne. I will update there, but posts are
likely to be sporadic since I’ll be very busy once I get off the
flight. Anyway, due to a mess up with bookings, I’ll be staying at UniLodge
[unilodge.com.au] on Saturday and Sunday. Technically staying anyway, I
won’t be in for most of the day. It’s the one smack dab in the middle
of the city (Swanston), beside Melbourne Central, the one with a Subway
beside it. I’ll be moving to The Paramount [theparamount.com.au] after the first two days till the end of my stay.

I will be going to the Deviant Species
[deviantspecies.co.uk] (dark sounding psy, lovely!) headlined outdoor
rave (which makes it technically a doof?) at the abandoned mountaintop
airstrip on Saturday, right after I arrive. It will be fucking awesome,
I’ve been looking for an event to put a cap to the Melbourne scene, and
I had thought the Lab4 one at Hard Kandy would be good (the circle
completes), but I will not be able to make it to that one due to my
flight.

However, my buddy Liam, who happens to be staying at halls over the
summer, told me about this psytrance event and it sounds absolutely
perfect – the venue sounds amazing, and it’s has an underground feel to
it. Call (03)88104396 for venue details. I’m looking forward to this
one, good thing Liam has bought himself a car so transportation is
sorted. πŸ™‚ Yeah, Liam is the same guy some of you might remember in the
“last rave” in Melbourne [sixthseal.com] before I came back.

This will go on till Sunday so I’ll have one day to recover before
my convocation ceremony on Tuesday. T+ 48 eh…prognosis doesn’t look
all that good, but that’s never stopped me before. πŸ˜‰ It will be my
last (really) rave in Melbourne in the foreseeable future, so I’m going
to have fun. You go in hard, and you go in fast! Don’t stop! Which hard trance song has this sample? Name the song title. Hint:
The one word title is biblical in nature and is tied to this site’s
domain (sixthseal.com) in the events depicted in the book of Revelation.

The first one who gets it right will have to email me a postal
address to receive a gift. The gift will be something from a headshop.
Should the winner be from Malaysia or another restrictive country, it
may be considered “drug paraphernalia” or “counter culture”, so there
is the option to request an alternative item, or accept the gift at
your own risk. Naturally, the item will be mailed from Melbourne and
the contest will end on the 17th of December 2003 at 12:01 am so I’ll
have time to send it out the next day. If there isn’t a correct answer
by that time, the prize will go to a commentor (on this post) chosen at
my discretion and the winner will be announced.

This is important: The winner must agree to provide a photo
of himself/herself with the prize (upon receipt of the gift) for
publication on sixthseal.com. If the winner does not own or have access
to a digicam, a photo print from a non-digital camera can be mailed to
a physical address which I will provide or scanned and emailed to my
email address. By doing this, the winner agrees to transfer full
ownership of the photo to sixthseal.com and forfeits all rights to the
photo, thus giving sixthseal.com full ownership and copyright to the
photo. Obviously, this is based on trust, so please don’t agree unless
you’re willing to fulfil the above requirements.

You can comment on this post without entering the contest, the
contest is based on the correct answer to the question above. However,
commenting on the post without answering the contest question qualifies
you as the alternate winner in case where there is no correct answer,
though you will be given the option to decline if you don’t agree to
the contest regulations. Another alternate winner will be chosen based
in the case this happens until someone who agrees to the conditions is
selected. sixthseal.com reserves the right to publish all (if any) the
names of the alternate winners who decline. Without the pretentious
legalese, this just means I’ll say something like “xxx was contacted
for (reason) but declined. yyy was then contacted for (reason) and
agreed. yyy is the alternate winner.”

Anyway, we’ve digressed far from the real reason I’ll be going to
Melbourne. πŸ˜‰ Regarding the graduation ceremony, it will be at Robert
Blackwood Hall @ 8 pm, and since it’s summer, it should be relatively
light during the photography session after the regalia hire. I will be
using the on-site professional graduation photography services, would
be doing the standard boring degree in hand, smile on face, “I have
graduated from university” pose with a backdrop of bookshelves…as
well as family shots (all of them will be there) and…unorthodox ones. =D

No one would possibly want to publish the unorthodox ones, so, dear
readers, anyone with deep pockets who’s willing to put out the
obligatory “announce to the whole world that someone has graduated” ad
with a very subtle and discreet subversive message will have my
external thanks as well as the shared notoriety of (probably) the first
subversive graduation congratulations ad of this manner in the history
of Malaysia! πŸ˜‰

I’ve always had a bit of a pet peeve at the “I study 16 hour days
and I attribute my good results to the blood, sweat and tears from
that. Self discipline is very important, I force myself to study when
people go out to have fun and I don’t have a girlfriend because that
will affect results.” type statements in UPSR/PMR/SPM/STPM high
achiever interviews. I’ve seen other people with similar results say
“Hmm…never did study till the last 2 weeks…crammed my ass off and
what do you know, straight A’s. I’ll be damned.” but those never get
printed/shown, presumably to not affect those poor impressionable minds
out there.

My unofficial graduation photo would be one which accurately shows how I got through university. πŸ˜‰

The next update will be from Melbourne. Till then, take care of each other and have an excellent weekend!

Set engines to Warp 9. Engage! Bring us out of here.

Genki genki sushi sushi

Greetings Earthlings! These are the photos from Genki Sushi
yesterday, read them and weep! Yes, that doesn’t make no sense, but
neither does anything else in life. πŸ™‚ Anyway, a prelude before the
pictures, I took unpaid leave (again) today to wash my laundry since it
won’t dry if I take leave tomorrow and people who knows me in real life
can attest that my wardrobe is rather limited, to say the least. πŸ˜‰ I
don’t buy clothes, it’s not how I choose to use my expenditure. But,
sushi! That’s what we’re talking about now. Here are the photos from
Genki Sushi:

genki_chicken.jpg

Some sushi with chicken on drop and which I dropped promptly the
moment I picked it up. We also got something like this, but didn’t take
a photo.

genki_parcels.jpg

Some deep fried parcel like things.

genki_moshi.jpg

Something that looks like moshi and it’s sweet.

genki_salmon.jpg

Salmon sushi, we think, there is one with a different shade of red.

genki_satay.jpg

Genki Satay. Or something. Tastes like chicken. Lost the receipt so I dunno wat it’s actually called. Very aerodynamic.

genki_tea.jpg

Green tea that can be refilled with a tap labelled “Hot” on the table. Nifty. Quick I have to be fast.

super_sauce.jpg

Obscene radioactive sauce with liberal wasabi (not made by me). My
friend went “Johnson & Johnson No more tears” went and ate one
slathered with this. Indeed, no more tears. Myself, first try made me
cry. Fared better on the second endeavor. Desensitized after that. πŸ™‚

genki_tempura.jpg

Tempura. Done!

Anyway, I shall throw down the gauntlet and ask if I can finish my
work at my company before 12 pm and then go to (client’s place) to
finish my work there and then leave to ensure that I can make it to the
airport on time. I don’t know, personally, I think that’s pushing it
quite a bit and it reflects badly on me, since I’m basically a new
employee on my first job, and the IT industry is not exactly booming
now due to outsourcing to countries with citizens who will accept lower
pay for similar results like India and China.

However, if I’m ever going to taper off my pharmacopoeia I’m going
to have to STOP worrying about everything and chant “Que sera sera”.
Come on now, do it with me!

Que sera sera
Whatever will be will be
The future’s not ours to see
What will be, will be!

=D

Let’s go to Melbourne! They have this e-visa thing going on now. Now
where did I put my reference number? Nevermind, let’s go to Melbourne
anyway!

I can’t believe it’s not sushi!

genki_sushi_chef.jpg

This is a photo of a chef preparing sushi at Genki Sushi today.
Well, he’s assistant chef but anyway, the most important question
is…er, I forgot. Anyway, I ate at Genki Sushi today with a friend and
the photos will be up tomorrow and I will have to reply the comments
tomorrow during lunch hour too. I’m sorry, I’ve been saying this in
most of the recent posts, and it must be getting old.

However, I realized that tomorrow is Thursday and I’m flying to
Melbourne on Friday and I’ve not done all the things that I need to do
yet! There literally a shitload of things to arrange (the least of
which is the fact that I don’t have a “clean” bag and my laundry would
not be ready by Friday if the rain continues) before I go over and I
have to work on Friday, so everything has to be done by tomorrow (won’t
be sleeping then) so I can come back to work on Friday, pick up my
bags, take a taxi to KL Sentral and take the KLIA Express to KLIA. My
plane leaves at 9:20 pm (wtf, I thought it was a midnight flight) and I
finish work at 5:30 pm.

Bets on whether I make that flight or not comes with odds of 3:1,
and I’ve taken too many leaves so I don’t think I can take another one
on Friday without finding myself on the unemployment line. πŸ˜‰ I don’t
know, I’ll ask just for the sake of asking. Wish me luck ya, and
someone hire me if I get fired. :p

Suria KLCC Santas

klcc_santa.jpg

There were two Santa Clauses (that doesn’t sound right to me too) at
Suria KLCC today. I think there have scheduled appearances several
times each day to hand out balloons (with the Suria logo, what else) to
anyone who wanted them. This was taken at around 6:45 pm while I
walking to the KLCC LRT station to get back after work. They were two
of them, one female and one male and the Christmas tree has been strung
with er…strands of lights. It looks good, and the tall tree is topped
by a pink glowing Suria KLCC decor.

monitor_nasi.jpg
How to cook with a monitor.

I have a lot of photos and things to write about today, but there’s
not much time left before I have to sleep, so this will be a shorter
one. See that photo up there? I just took it, the nasi kandar was
bought at around 7:30 pm in Bangsar (where I get off the LRT and take
the bus for the final leg) and the food is getting cold, and it’s been
sitting there since I got back. I’ll try to reply all the comments
before eating and going to sleep.

If anyone is wondering, my monitor produces an obscene amount of
heat (I think it’s faulty) even at the lowest gamma setting and with
all tweaks to reduce possible causes. It will keep the food somewhat
warm, if I overturn it once every 15 minutes. πŸ™‚ It’s very useful in
colder climates, turning it on for more than an hour in your room would
make it seem like an oven. Thus, you have a monitor AND a heater at the
same time. This unique monitor/heater combo can be YOURS for the low,
low price of RM 1000. And if you call within the next 30 minutes, we’ll
even throw in the packet of nasi kandar (it has a drumstick, sotong and
meat inside) JUST FOR YOU! Yes, that’s the monitor/heater combo and a
nice pack of RM 6.20 nasi kandar, what a bargain! So act now before
it’s sold out, you wouldn’t want to miss this chance of a lifetime!

What do you think? Should I change my career into telemarketing and annoy the shit out of everyone who watches late night TV? πŸ˜‰

HWM 1st Anniversary Celebrations @ Low Yat

hwm_stage.jpg
HWM carnival stage.

This is Hardware MAG Malaysia (HWM) organizing their 1st anniversary
celebrations at the square in front of Low Yat Plaza. I was in the area
Saturday evening and noticed the air filled structures so I hung around
and took a couple of photos. It was meant to go up yesterday, but I
wrote about other stuff instead. Here you go – a day late, but not a
dollar short, unlike some other posts…the XM buka puasa one comes to
mind. πŸ™‚ Speaking of which, I applied for emergency unpaid leave today
to sort out my remaining graduation issues which had to be done today
and also went to a doctor. I actually have medical insurance cards
issued by my company, but I’ve never used it and I never will, due to
the insurance company’s liberal disclosure policy. Poor Hippocrates of
Chios…with this and the hospital – police unholy matrimony, he’ll be
rolling in his grave if he weren’t reduced to dust already. πŸ˜‰

Here’s the carnival photos:

bull_ride_1.jpg
Rodeo!

bull_ride_2.jpg
Unfortunately, the bull did not like being straddled like cattle.

bungee_run.jpg
The (reverse) bungee run.

adidas_putting_girl_1.jpg
Adidas mini golf putting.

adidas_putting_girl_2.jpg
Angle looks promising…and she did sink it.

rocky_mountain.jpg
The unpopular Rocky Mountain at the far corner.

rocky_mountain_scale.jpg
One of the staff tried to scale it but failed. May should have been there to show them how it’s done. πŸ˜‰

sticky_jump_1.jpg
Sticky Jump…watch this guy.

sticky_jump_2.jpg
Reverse somersault.

clowns.jpg
Two clowns leaving the event…one walking and the other on an small
bicycle that did not scale well with his stature. The air blown dancing
man is featured at the entrance.

This post was brought to you by sheer willpower and the letters M and B.

It’s a Sesame Street joke, nothing else lar.

Anyway, I shall refrain from writing posts that like the previous
one. I think the Book of Asian Etiquette dictates that issues of that
nature should be discussed only within the family. I wonder which way I
should go:

me_wary.jpg
I’m keeping an eye out for the grim reaper. (Wary)

or

me_exhausted.jpg
I don’t give two shits about his scythe. (Exhausted)

I’m leaning towards the latter, and yeah the photos were taken just
a couple of minutes ago. I’m really tired, as you can see. Dead tired.
πŸ˜‰

This is the last time issues like this are going to be shared
publicly. sixthseal.com will be put on a course of SSRIs starting
tomorrow, so expect light, fun and easy to read posts! It’s a fucking
blog after all, and like most people, I would have no problem churning
out “happy posts”, regardless of the actual state I’m in. There were
actually several episodes during ever since I started the blog in April
2001, but I’ve only mentioned it once.

There was a really bad one where I had to struggle with a
surprisingly dark void and suicidal ideations every fucking night. I
wondered if it would actually hurt and set my obligations in order, I
wanted it to be clean and DOA, not some fucking suicide attempt to
attract attention (no offence intended for those who do this), and I
was going to do it right. This was the third night, and well, again, I
mean no offence, but the people who wonders why someone would
contemplate the final solution has never been in a real serotonin
depletion before.

The best way word to describe it is “sheer and utter hopelessness”,
in the strongest sense of the word. The first two nights were test
runs, and it became clear that I don’t need to worry about chickening
out due to my impulsive personality. I can say “Now” and my body obeys,
without latency, it won’t go “Har?”, “Come again?” or “Shit, are we
really going to do this?”. He’s a good guy, follows orders. πŸ˜‰ Whether
that’s a gift or a curse is something I’ve yet to ascertain. Heh.

The first two nights were spent kneeling down and feminizing about
past memories and I’m not afraid to say some tears were involved as
well, but I had convinced myself that it was for the best, I’m a fuckup
and my life is going fucking nowhere and my lifestyle is self
destructive, I wasn’t going to be nobody and I wanted to be everything
in kindergarten. I’ll say again, sheer and utter hopelessness. πŸ™‚

People close to me no doubt noticed a certain attitude change and
got me out of bed and into the population, which I must thank for
prolonging the decision. πŸ™‚ I think my parents were pretty sure about
the general direction I was heading and it did made me sad but the
depression was so overwhelming that it’s just something that register
and made me cry, but didn’t change my mind. I was afraid of going to
hell. I feel bad for leaving my parents and sister behind, but it was
hopeless, most people would agree that.

And you know what? I didn’t miss a fucking post (technically one,
explained below) during all that. I hardly got out of bed, and the only
thing I did was to switch on the PC, post a photo from my personal
archives and write something witty. Replying comments were easy those
days, since I didn’t have a commenting system! Heh! I’ll eat my mouse
(and mine is not optical, so I might choke on the ball) if anyone
except close friends and family knew anything was wrong with me at that
time. I could be dragged out, and acted relatively normal, though a lot
of time was spent planning the final solution.

Well, there’s technically one daily post missing but it had two the
other day so that means it’s still daily – this was the old HTML blog
which the majority of you would not have come across, and my standards
for daily were different then, will explain some other time. Anyway,
the first two nights were spent kneeling beside the suitcase and
regretting everything I’ve done and how things would be different if
the several identified incidents did not happen. Making the decision
made me serene, there weren’t any more desperate and crazy sounding
fast repetitions of mantras while facing the side off white wall and I
stopped needing to stuff my fist into my mouth to distract myself.

It obviously won’t work for everyone, but stuffing fists into my
mouth and the common “making myself trip” and fall to get an injury
were the more common distractions I used to drown out all the guilt and
craziness swimming around my brain. My mom called it “craziness” but
didn’t bother too much about it since I had other more socially
noticeable manifestations then, which she called “habits”. The advances
in research has enlightened most people (except Neanderthals) about the
various neurotransmitters that has been isolated and several classes of
prescription drugs went into the market, which effectively managed
“craziness” (which is now called GAD) and “habits” (which is now called
OCD). πŸ˜‰

She caught me once when I was 9 or 10, I scraped my knee by
“accidentally” fell outside when I excused myself to “go for a walk”,
but it wasn’t deep enough and I had a lot of worries that day, so it
wasn’t satisfactory. The pain must be something that you feel
constantly, or else it won’t work. I made a lot of mistakes when I was
younger, I’ve never told a soul about some of them, and this was one of
the big ones. No one knows about it, but it was not something that gets
a simple slap on the wrist, if you get what I mean. I’m was very young,
but what I did then would get me in prison for decades and whipped if I
did it now. No, it’s not drugs, and I won’t say what it is anyway.

Well, about the funny (in hindsight) falls, I did it again, with a
rougher concrete surface, but it just wasn’t enough. I’ll tell you that
shit will hit the fan if what I did was found out, but it never did
happen. And before any of you judge me, yes I have a conscience and
yes, I do feel guilty, but I can’t do anything to rectify the situation
now so full stop. Well, I didn’t find the second one would last me
through the night (it was evening then) so I knelt down and scraped the
lacerations on the concrete carpark to do it right. Unbeknownst to me,
my mom had come out to water the plants and has been noticing the
admittedly unusual fall. She did grill me a bit, but yeah that time was
one I remembered the house being full of emotional instabilities.

Those were tricks I used to control situations when I was in primary
school. I favor the fists then since it’s really hard to fit into your
mouth and you must fit the whole thing AND hold it in there till it
hurts. It’s a short term treatment, something you run off into the
toilet to do three fists into mouth inserts when someone talks about
something that makes you feel guilty. The wall of insanity (but it
keeps you sane) was from way back, I’ve been using that technique since
I was young. We didn’t have exactly have Xanax (alprazolam) at that
time you know. πŸ˜‰

Anyway, there is a reason I digressed into my coping techniques when
I was younger, but that comes later. This is the third night, and the
funny thing is, things like “Oh, I haven’t been to (some country)”,
“There’s so much to live for!” and “You’re wasting your life by ending
it at it’s prime” never came into my mind. It was moot, I didn’t care
about those things anymore, I just wanted to be free from the
debilitating depression. I couldn’t help but be a little out of
character on the third night…I said “I love you all” and that “I
believe in God” to my parents, and emotionally, I feel the “feelings”
of sadness, but I think it’s for the best. I’m the black sheep of my
family and I don’t want them to have to worry about me all the time.

It’s everything that snowballs into one huge motherfucker with
“Reasons to Kill Yourself” rolling down the hill at you. The
uncertainty from two years back (which I’m also not talking about since
it’s serious), the guilt from indiscretions and lies, even the dusty
window, they all add up and jumble together, so you’re left with no
options. I turned off ICQ, said I was going to play Counter-Strike and
that causes problems with the sound. I called my gf and told her I was
extremely sleepy so I’ll have to go to sleep and the battery of the
cell is low, so I’ll turn it off while it charges.

I was alone. I felt sad, but it’s mind boggling, I felt happy
too! I wrote long emails saying that it’s not their fault, I just
fucked up, they were the best parents I could hope for and all that. I
meant every single word I said. I wrote confession letters to some
other people and set the mails to go out the next morning,, which I
think my death would not have been noticed yet.

I knelled by the black suitcase and prayed for forgiveness (hey, you
never know) and took in a deep breath and said “Go!” in my brain, which
is how I do stuff I’m not willing to do and for fucks sake, my other
phone rang! I swear it sounds cheesy enough to go into a B movie, but
then it was dark at that time, and I also didn’t want to say something
which was another major factor in the decisions. This is not a
confessional post, certain details does not have to be included. :p

Anyway, the caller was my dad – he was really worried because my
parents agreed that I was acting extremely strange today. I laughed it
off and said I’m perfectly fine, just wanted to play CS that’s all, and
I really have to get back to the game. Suddenly my dad said that no
parent wants their child to die before them. I laughed lightly and
said, what are you thinking? I’m perfectly fine, but fuck, atmospheric
moisture started to find my ocular region a nice place to settle. I
didn’t know what to do, but I had everything prepared and it would be
so easy, but what my dad said kept bothering me.

I stood at the side off white wall and started chanting, I was
pacing back and forth, breaking the rule of ensuring maximum
concentration. I thought about everything, but the top two suicide
reasons were dominating. Did it happen or was I just tripping? The
second one went, you know about that, it’s a fucking teenage mistake. I
don’t want to know, I want to go like this, the way I choose! The
flashback of the first reason came then and I was crying coz I was sure
it’s not a ring, it’s something else and I didn’t even say “Go”, I
wanted the choice and this is the only choice!

I’m still here am I not? πŸ™‚ Suicide is a very easy way out in severe
depression, and I’m sure most of you who has experienced that would
agree. I would have killed myself the first time, I was going to ignore
the phone and just do it, but the sound shocked me since I thought I
had turned off all the communications. When I think about the things
I’ve been through, I’ll say I’m one lucky motherfucker. Devine
intervention would be blasphemous. πŸ™‚

I didn’t tell you what went on after the phone call interrupted, I
still went for it coz it didn’t look like a ring (please don’t ask) but
this time, I couldn’t do it. I kept on thinking about what my father
said and I remembered very vividly the events that happened when my
paternal grandfather died. My father was devastated while his brothers
didn’t seem to be to my 12 year old eyes. This is when my hand turned
on me, it’s fucking silly, I know, but I don’t want to kill myself
anymore, but my hand wanted to because it was not a fucking ring!

I didn’t dare to let the thoughts go on, no rings, no beer bottles,
no three fingers. I fucking ran out of the door and ran as fast as I
could several times around the jogging track by the pond until I threw
up. I didn’t dare to walk back, since I was still thinking about the
ring, because it’s not one! That’s just the first issue, and the other
ones stacked up there would have to be slowly forgotten, but the two,
which I will call Not Ring and Satria, interconnected even due to the
distance, will always haunt me.

I started getting into a negative loop again when I reached my room
and fuck, this must be Deux Ex Machina day, coz Jimmy was there and
wanted to go for pizza. I was considering whether to go or not, before
I finally said, fuck everything, I’m going to Monash Pizza and I’m
going to eat Chicken pizza with BBQ sauce and anchovies and prawns on
top. The serotonin levels started filling up a couple of days after
that. I wasn’t suicidal anymore after that day, though I was still
depressed and slept most of the day.

I still get severe depression and debilitating anxiety for two weeks
every time I subconsciously think of those two issues, benzodiazepines
works wonders in increasing the latency and reducing the severity of
the episodes. I should not have written this though, didn’t know what
passed me, I don’t want to her about those two things ever again. No
one except my parents and sister knows what the two biggies are and why
it would drive someone to suicide. No one knows about that disgraceful
crime that happened when I was 9 or 10, and I’m not telling anyone
about that. It’s technically the worst thing I’ve ever done, but it’s
the past now and let bygones be bygones.

Blood is always thicker than water. I don’t know anyone who would have stopped me except for my family.

Notice: The writing above that starts with the sentence
“There was a really bad one where I had to struggle with a surprisingly
dark void and suicidal ideations every fucking night.” is complete
fiction. Any similarities to events in real life is purely
coincidental.

I was compelled to write tonight and it took up more time than I
expected, so I’ll have to go to sleep now. Your feedback is appreciated
and I’ll reply every one tomorrow. We shall look forward to a happier
sixthseal.com content and a decrease in the superfluous usage of the
f-word, unless it’s justified. Too much fucking around going on lately.
πŸ˜‰

Time flies when you’re having fun…

it really does. I can’t say I had fun in the exact sense of the word
today, but even though people think that today is a beautiful day to
die, I will not kick the bucket today, so that’s a cause for
celebration if anything. πŸ™‚

Hey, look at me, I did not buy the farm, it’s nearly 12 AM! I told
ya, que sera sera and all that since the prognosis for an ICH
(hemorrhagic) stroke isn’t exactly very promising. πŸ™‚ Don’t ask me why
I’m quite sure it’ll be this variant that hits me, I’ll just say
predisposing factors and leave it at that. I made sure that my wishes
for a DNR was clear after the first incident (self diagnosed as TIA)
happened. I’ll state it again, I have strong feelings about it, so in
the case of severe neurological damage, Do Not Resuscitate. Thank you.
:p

Anyway, I can’t answer any questions about why I have conditions of
these nature at a relatively young age. I’ll just say I’ve been
stressing my cardiovascular system for a long time now, and I don’t
mean exercise if you catch my drift, and it’s not very happy at me. πŸ˜‰
I also have hypertension, highest recorded was over 220 systolic in ER,
but usually 145/100 (measured with those portable units instead of
hospital grade equiptment though). Blah blah, will update again later,
I’ve been feeling less than optimal for the whole day.

Also, no lectures about not going to a hospital please, for reasons
of my own, I do not want to check in unless the big one is definately
impending and even then, there’s no point since well…my brain would
probably be ravaged before the ambulance arrives when that happens, and
the doctor would be all “Hey, your son’s prognosis doesn’t seem to
good, and er…oops there goes his brain, slippery fucker, the
cerebellum just herniated, now that’s not good…no sir, that’s not
good at all…”. πŸ˜‰

Its funny huh, how I always fear losing my cognitive abilities more
than anything else. I didn’t even give much thought to the delibitating
chest pains, even though it was, er…theoretically capable of
making grown men with high thresholds of pain accidentally produce
moisture in the ocular region and also gave them an urge to lie on the
ground, though the person in this example insists he did not collapse
in pain, but merely felt like sitting down. He just sat down a little
faster than usual. *cough* So there.

Do you people get this? I mean caring more for your gray matter than
anything else? I had the time of my life (heh) this morning, the
headaches and “pressure” around my head was killing (pun not intended,
but the previous one was) me and to top it off my body thought it would
be nice to shout me some malignant hyperthermia, how nice of him. Oh
yeah, if any of my housemates reads this, don’t eat the ice in the
freezer, I made batches to “agressively” reduce my core body
temperature (brain damage = bad) by putting ice cubes in my groin area.
So yeah, it probably won’t taste all that good with coke after I was
done with it. πŸ˜‰

Anyway, some doctors seems to suggest that ice bags in the groin
area to dissipate heat works better than a full on ice bath or a cold
shower in some cases, like mine, where cardiac complications were
present. Which reminds me of something funny, now my sister has just
graduated not too long ago, so she’s a “real” doctor now, but her
knowledge in the areas of this particular medical emergency and
biopsychiatry disturbs me quite a bit. The second bit is
understandable, since I’m…well, rather familar with the issues and I
have a personal interest in it as well.

However, her suggestions for managing the unfortunate morning
incident should it repeat itself seems to be less than optimal, no
offence intended of course. She knows more about other fields while I
just read about what would affect me and things I’m interested in. She
doesn’t think that hyperthermia is related even after I told her
(legal) sympathomimetic substances were involved. She’s going to kill
someone one day, hyperthermia is usually present in cases of excessive
consumption of sympathomimetics. πŸ˜‰

Disregarding that fact, that leaves the two possiblities – either my
thermometer broke down sometime between last night and this morning but
yet managed to get consistant records, or the readings are somewhat
accurate (it’s a first aid kit supply, so it’s not exactly industrial
quality, but it’s rectal, which should be more accurate). It’s 51 C
btw, my body has a golf player’s mentality…always seeking the perfect
high score and beating previous records.

[Note: My sister states that it’s its not possible to survive
that reading, and since the thermometer is working perfectly, and
barring devine intervention, the logical conclusion would be human
error – I must have misread the temperature in the confusing mental
state during the incident. I measured it again now (3:49 AM), and it
reads 39 C which is slightly above borderline, so I would guess that
the previous reading was 41 C. I feel much better now though, and
that’s the benzos talking since I literally took the advice of
“generous” amounts. πŸ˜‰ I am tolerant (call it dependant if it makes you
happy) so I am able to remain cohesive and awake on high doses.
However, this is something my doctor is helping me with, I am on a
taper plan, so we’ll not talk about this. I’m concerned that the
readings are above borderline even though I keep trying to remain cool.
There is no other issues besides this and chest pains. Fever is present
but I don’t “feel” hot. Cognitive abilities not affected, though I’m
concerned about the prolonged nature of higher than threshold
temperature measurements and the predisposing factors are all there. I
will take a shower now and see how it goes, even though I feel cold (?)
though my forehead is very warm. Rhabdomyolysis is becoming a concern –
lack of fluid intake, use of a sympathomimetic with known toxicity and
direct links to reported deaths due to renal failure from
rhabdomyolysis, muscle weakness and pain since morning but was told not
to worry about it by sister. I don’t know man…I can’t be having these
levels of anxiety while on a high dose of benzodiazepines and urinary
output is very low (haven’t gone in 12 hours, but will go now) but then
I’ve experienced these before and came out right as rain. Question for
anyone who knows, can a GP provide a Serum CK test or would going to a
pathology lab be better? Thanks.]

I would not have shoved ice cubes down my pants and got so worried
if it wasn’t for that and the TIA. πŸ˜‰ The incident passed after a while
though, except for the hyperthermia, why the fuck would I append
“malignant” to it if it’s just a once off event? :p I still have ice
cubes in the freezer. Anyway, residual “strangeness” (confusion),
problems with feeling extremities and the occational chest pain was
present till now but naturally, those were taken like a man ;).

I’m not worried about kicking the bucket due to heart failure or
rhabdomyolysis induced liver failure…I’m only worried about the
possibility of hemorrhagic strokes and the severe and recurring
hyperthermia because that has a high possibility of causing permanant
neurological deficits. I usually keep this shit to myself, but today
was special. I wouldn’t want to describe the feelings during the
suspected TIA, but it wasn’t fun, ya know, plus it’s a little blur to
me, my chronological sense was heavily affected.

I felt that it was necessary to remind them about my strong feelings
against being put on life support coz I’m a green vegetable, thus I
called my sister and told her about my wishes for a DNR, just in case,
since TIAs are usually followed by the big one. It still hasn’t come
though, and I believe it won’t. πŸ™‚ Que sera sera either way. You’re
wrong, I didn’t buy the farm today. I agree that it’s a beautiful day
to die, but I don’t want to. πŸ™‚

Hmm…I’ve been quite personal in this post. Just a disclaimer to
say that I’m not some poor sick kid, I’m perfectly fine, I just have a
couple of medical issues like most people, which may manifest itself
like it did today. Doctors would probably know what triggered my
existing hypertension and cardiac problems from the symptoms and
medical issues that I’ve mentioned, but please note that I didn’t want
to go to a hospital and self medicated for a reason.

Thus, I have go on record saying that the catalyst is a perfectly legal sympathomimetic agent – caffeine,
commonly found in coffee and other drinks. I do not possess or use
anything illegal. Which reminds me, I have to give my sister credit for
her perceptiveness when she mentioned that if it really was caffeine,
then it would be out the system soon. In my defence, I said I drank a
lot and after a certain threshold, the elimination rate would be unable
to keep up and maintain textbook half lives. A pat on the back for me
too, for a good comeback. πŸ˜‰

Anyway. there’s no need to worry about me too, I’m perfectly fine
after generous administration of lorazepam, a fast acting
anticonvulsant, unlike slowpoke clonazepam, which was why I was never
worried about seizures. God’s gift to man. πŸ˜‰ I took diazepam in adjuct
to lorazepam as well, works pretty well, managed to bring down the
hypertension to a more managable point, slow down my heart and give it
some well deserved rest (it balks, then hurts me, then threatens to
stop when I do the mildest movements, like moving my arm) and also
calmed me down to boot. I swear benzodiazepines would be more handy in
a medicine cabinet than Panadols. πŸ˜‰

Anyway, keep in mind that I’m not a doctor and my sister disagrees
with me about the efficacy of benzodiazepines in treating the symptoms
above, but she can’t tell alprazolam from clonazepam, and medical
literature (not quacks, established ones) has shown that
benzodiazepines does produce the three desired effects either directly
or indirectly and it’s indicated for treatment of sympathomimetic
triggered complications, and not just to sedate patients. However,
standard disclaimer applies, I have a legitimate prescription and self
medicating is not an alternative to seeking medical help.

It can be very dangerous to self diagnose and self medicate and it
can make things worse. Just go to a hospital, at least they can break
out with the CT, MRIs and ECGs with leads that leaves a sticky residue
on you for ages. Do as I say, not as I do and all that. Trust me, it’s
fun, especially when the doctor shows you the CT scan and explains the
diagram to you. It makes you wonder when the intracranial bleeding will
start manifesting itself, and it’s wonder and anticipation that makes
life fun! =D

You’ll be all looking forward to the day when you start noticing
that your brain isn’t all that nifty anymore. The anticipation! Such
joy to be derived from a simple pleasure! I’m not speaking from
experience of course, veritas told me about his in Australia. Anyway, I
would advice visiting a hospital in such cases, however, I just can’t
and I don’t want to, due to personal reasons. Oh, Malaysiaku, aku sangat bangga dengan undang undang mu! lalala!

Right, I’m popping into the fridge to get some supplies. Excuse me.

You know, that incident felt like ages ago. πŸ™‚ Admittedly, I was
rather confused (hypertensive states tends to have this effect) and
don’t remember much, but I’m not worried either. That’s not the
benzodiazepines talking. Que sera sera. Whatever will be will be. The
future’s not ours to see and all that. There! I told you, my number is
not up today. πŸ™‚ My apologies for any disappointment caused by not
being 6 feet under. My cards weren’t up a couple of months ago and my
cards weren’t up today either. Someone up there loves me! πŸ™‚

There is only one purple Christmas tree…

klcc_full_xmas_tree.jpg
Behold! I am one! I tricked you all.

It’s so obvious that we (meaning me and veritas) should be beheaded
for even mistaking it. There were never two or three trees. There was
only meant to be one. If you squint a little (though squinting isn’t
really necessary once you’ve seen the light) you can see that the
coniferous objects starts to become smaller in circumference, and
together with the unfinished top (which AlCee
[tripod.com] pointed out), it might be obvious to someone of a superior
intellect and/or observational skills that the 3 trees were meant to be
stacked on top of each other to form one gigantic, disturbingly pointy
and phallic looking Christmas tree.

klcc_full_xmas_top.jpg
AlCee, it has both a top with the Suria KLCC decor…

klcc_full_xmas_bottom.jpg
and a bottom. With performers to boot.

However, that still doesn’t change the fact that Suria KLCC
duped me into believing there were three trees in the first place. I
just realized yesterday (Friday) on the way back. My whole belief
system has been shattered. πŸ™ Thus, I am going to stop patronizing the
place in protest! Well, except for the necessary passing through during
my daily commute that is. *cough* It’s like if one day I go “Hey guys,
sorry for misleading you all, but there never was a veritas in the
first place…”. You’ll be going wtf and “That’s it, I’m out of here.”
and all that too. πŸ˜‰

Anyway, enough nonsense…just got back from Bukit Bintang, will
post up photos of that event in front of Low Yat just now later. I
won’t be going anywhere tonight, I have heaps of things on my “To Do”
list, starting with writing my long due The Weblog Review review and
ending with a through cleansing of my wallet (which I’ve decided to
bring over). I’ll be flying to Melbourne on Friday! πŸ™‚

Oh and btw, there’s this question for anyone who has the experience
before. I’ve only had experience with Melbourne -> Malaysia, not the
other way, so just to be sure. Anyway, I have a Schedule 4 (Australia)
prescription which I have to bring over. It’s 100% legitimate, I’ve
explained the situation to the doctor and he says to get customs to
call him if there are any problems. It’s a go right? A few concerns:

1. He doesn’t work Saturdays (which is when I’ll be arriving in Melbourne).
2. The prescription does not have the name of the substance, only “morning” and “night”.
3. I have to declare it and I’ll have to say what it is and the tablets
are generics (one local and one popular recognizable generic brand).

I mean, it should be okay, since it’s just Schedule IV and it’s
legit after all. No problems right? I just don’t want to be given the
third degree and have sniffer dogs all over me, ya know. I probably
won’t through, I’ve brought flunitrazepam (Schedule 8) and clobazam
(Schedule 4) back to Malaysia before, no one even blinked or showed any
interest, but this is going the other way.

Disclaimer: The flunitrazepam was disposed of in-flight since it’s illegal in Malaysia.

I’m not going to state my prescription here since a lot of people I
know in real life read my blog, the schedule should be enough
information and not bringing it over is not an option since…well,
don’t ask, it just has to go with me that’s all. Thoughts? No problems
right?

Go forth and multiply!

klcc_xtree.jpg

Well slap my ass and call me Sally! The stork cometh for the purple
Christmas trees at Suria KLCC! There was only two Christmas trees in
KLCC yesterday. However, as I steppeth, er…sorry, I mean as I stepped
into the central court today, I beheld the sight of three purple Christmas trees!

It must have happened sometime last night or earlier today. For the Lord sayeth:

“Be fruitful and multiply!”

and damn it, those faithful Christmas trees went forth and multiplied! Now, that’s showing initiative!

Well, actually, Genesis goes “As for you, be fruitful and increase
in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” but let’s not
go into semantics.

klcc_xtree_balls.jpg

It looks like these things aren’t just for show. πŸ˜‰

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