What's been up man, how's your daughter?

Cookies (omnomnom) to anyone who remembers where the above line came from.

It seems to me that I'm slowly returning to my quota of one blog post a month¹, which isn't good.  But what can you do when your weekly activity timetable's like this?

Monday: Choir practice
Tuesday: Ju & Meo² practice
Wednesday: Ju & Meo practice
Thursday: Tuition
Saturday: Chamber choir practice
Sunday: Choir practice

In other words, I'm occupied on all nights except on Fridays.  I considered permanently swapping tuition from Thursday night to Saturday afternoon, but after getting caught in an hour-long jam getting to Bukit Jalil, I stuck to my original schedule.

Work isn't that much better either as March marks the end of a financial quarter, i.e. I've been working really hard at chasing clients for cash.  Still, I managed to find some things to do over the weekends.  For example, celebrating Sarah's birthday when she came back from Australia for a short while.

  That's Sarah with her default deer-in-headlights expression.

You can't tell from this photo, but that's durian cake.  Mmmmmm...  Durians...

And, celebrating Cze Wien's birthday when she came back from Australia for a short wh ever.

You guys should vote on whether or not I look good in a hat.

Besides, there was also Grand Prix: Kuala Lumpur on March 12-14, giving me and my Magic-playing kakis an excuse to spend an entire weekend geeking our brains out.  A few of us even took leave from work on Friday to have a Bak Kut Teh brunch before heading out to the tournament centre in Cititel, Midvalley.

Nope, I don't smoke. I just carry a Sharpie around.

Pork!  I'm actually referring to Peck Yun here.

I didn't take many pictures of the event, so here's a picture of me and the guys eating at TGI Fridays after all of us failed to make Day 2.

Since we didn't make Day 2, we decided to simply hang around the venue, chatting with other players, and taking in the sights.  Brendan wasted no time in selling cards, though³; so much cash and cardboard were changing hands that E-Foong and I had to act as bouncers⁴ to ensure that no hanky panky went on.

Monies!

We later adjourned to Chili's for dinner.  As per my usual practice, I ordered from the kids' menu⁵, eliciting an incredulous look from the waiter.  He asserted that it's only meant for kids, so I protested.  "I've ordered from the kids' menu before!" I said.  Then I added that I was only twelve years old, slumping in my seat.

Twenty minutes later, everyone else were already digging into their meals, prompting me to check with another waiter about my order.  Some time after that, a third, different waiter walked past our table with a dish in his hand, looked around, went back to the kitchen, then came back out again to ask if any of us ordered a kid's meal (as though it was a crime for me to do so).

It is a lot more filling than it looks.  Also, Cheap + Chicken + Broccoli = Win

If that wasn't enough, it also happened to be Wen Ching's birthday⁶!  That means he gets a free cake!

Check out the "Cheese Cake Beeezdeyyyyy Promotion" in the receipt.

The evening ended with everybody clandestinely spiking everybody else's drinks with salt, pepper, tabasco sauce, and what-have-you.  Despite not playing that much Magic anyway, I felt that we really made the most of that weekend (and in Brendan's case, he made some cash, too).  Good times were had all around...  And then it's back to work the next day.  Bleh.


Footnotes:
1 - I actually started writing this blog post at the end of March, but I've been doing so many things lately that I didn't have time to finish until now.
2 - Ju & Meo is a Universiti Malaya play that Carrie, me, and two other choir members helped out with by providing ambient music, speech, and/or screams.
3 - Brendan had been "trying to quit Magic" for years now.  I've postulated the hypothesis that Brendan has a ten-year quitting cycle.  I may be wrong though, especially since nobody really quits Magic, ever.
4 - We're as buff as it gets, as far as Magic players are concerned.
5 - Try eating a full Chili's meal after you've gorged on their bottomless tostada chips; I always feel like I'm overeating and/or overspending.  Once, me and four other guys from choir all ordered from the kids' menu, had a glass of drink each, and shared a serving of the chips.  We left completely stuffed, and spent only about RM15 per person.
6 - It wasn't, actually.

Handicraftin' for some lovin'

I suck at coming up with gift ideas, but every once in a while, this little light bulb goes off in my head, usually followed by a sleepless night of cutting cards, pruning paper and sticking sthings stogether.  The last time I did something like this for the girlfriend was back when we were only about one month into our relationship; that time it took me about seven or eight hours of trial and error before I managed to come up with this little beauty:

 

  

 

 

This was the second pop-up card I've ever made, and since then I haven't bothered making more because it takes forever.  And if I made them too often, it gets old really fast, too.  Anyway, I'm still really proud of this one, though.

On the other hand, I got a major epiphany for what to make as a belated Valentine's Day gift for this year.  So, last Friday night, after testing a modified version of Kyle Sanchez's Bant Mill deck until 2.30am for Sunday's Grand Prix: Kuala Lumpur Trial (holla if yer a Magic playa!¹), I started working on my next project; a mix tape (or in this day and age, a CD):

 

Front cover

Back cover

 

Side A

 

Side B

For those not in the know, this was a reference to our favourite musical, Avenue Q².  There's this song in there called "Mix Tape" which was, for the most part, a list of songs from a mix tape.  So, from the vast, powerful pool of knowledge and piracy known as the internets, I procured the playlist and pressed my own CD.  Of course, I've already done this long before I started working on the CD cover.  With such projects, I usually begin with an idea, go out and buy the materials, and then figure out the specifics.  Needless to say, I made a couple of errors along the way, but thank goodness I didn't screw it up too much³.

In any case, the CD cover project took slightly over four hours.  I ended up sleeping at 7am, and then waking up again at 9 because I was gonna meet her at 10⁴.  And if you're wondering why the hearts on the CD covers are orange (I know it doesn't exactly look like orange in the photos but I promise you, it does in real life):

And now you know!

Footnotes:
1 - My testing went to waste somewhat, as I audibled after watching Tom Ross's Naya Boss being shown on Deck Tech.  Obviously, at least six other people thought likewise for the tourney.  Oh, and I went 4-2, placing 9th and missing the Top 8 due to tiebreaks.
2 - Have you heard of the song "The Internet is for Porn"?  The one that became a smash YouTube hit? It's from Avenue Q.
3 - For example, I needed the "C" on the orange heart about half a centimetre to the left.  Unfortunately, I used double-sided tape and thus couldn't redo it.  Pros of double-sided tape: Neat.  Cons: If you screw up you're screwed.
4 - It was quite an epic weekend; in between testing and playing Magic, visiting Carrie's relatives, choir practice, etc. I had only nine hours of sleep over the course of two days.  It's not as crazy as my times back in Monash, but it's actually nice to feel positively alive every once in a while, even if it means sleep deprivation.