Free Physics Tuition

Now every Thursday, my class has a free Physics tuition class after school. It appears that the inhabitants of my class suck at Physics, including me. On Thursdays school ends at 1.10pm and the class starts at 2.30pm. That's 1 hour and 20 minutes of free time! For some people it's total bore because they're too scared to leave school and walk around malls for abit before returning back for class. All they have to do is eat lumpy school canteen food :(

As for me, my trusted bicycle store is right nearby! After school me, Brian and Adrian headed of the bike shop. I brought my Commencal on that day. The brake cable clips on the top tube appears to have dropped/picked off, so the cables are really loose and hanging with no support. Johnny, the bike store owner gladly gave me a few zip ties to save my bike. Now it's El Neato!

Also, I got Brian his birthday present.. a bicycle repair/parking stand. He's getting a new expensive bike this weekend so it's only appropriate that I got him something to add with. As you can see, mountain bikes don't use a tongkat.

Gotong Royong

Today my school had gotong royong (cleaning up day) because tomorrow there is Hari Koko and there'll probably be some important guests expected. Each class has a max of 6 people cleaning it. Me, Jian Ming, Brian, Chuan Yew, Belle and Najwa stayed in class to clean it up.. first the rusty fans, then the very dusty windows, an effortful attempt to remove marken pen shit drawn on desks, the transporting of broken chairs and tables to the Dump Site, the filling up of wall holes with newspaper and covering it up with sugar paper, the pasting of newspaper cutouts and articles on the boards surrounding, the sweeping of the floor, the rubbing off paint spots that some asshats spilt on the floor, and heat we endured when the block's electricity failed. Yeah, that many things happened.

How very tiring! But still had fun to slide across hallways. Eh? Pour some turpentine on cement floors and slide your way across. People walking about the school. And the last thing I have to say about this topic is..

.. there's a headless wooden giraffe laid to rest at the dump site. RIP.

Update for the past week?

I have only done so much to update my nearly dead blog. I'm too busy doing other things such as online gaming, online window browsing, online nose-picking, spending my money and learning C++ programming language.

Instead of waiting a bit more to buy a Razer gaming mouse I blew off my money on a pair of Philips headphones and CyberClean, a sort of gel that absorbs dirt and kills germs. Example: My keyboard is full of biscuit crumbs, dead ants that I accidentally squished while in an intense gaming session, and dust. I slap the CyberClean gel between the keys and voila! All the crap are gone!

CyberClean is on sale now at ThinkGeek, the world's leading geek item online store. I now use my CyberClean on my phone, my PSP, my camera, almost anywhere my CyberClean slime ball can fit. It reminds me of the Thinking Putty.


I came across this wonderful cleaning substance when I read an article in The Star reviewing this. Then I went on ThinkGeek and it was on sale there too. Feeling beat, I went to All IT Hypermart and saw it for sale for about RM19.90.. what to do, just buy lah! Grabbed a pair of headphones I needed too.

Reen's Outing

Last Sunday, Reen made an outing for her old SKBUD(4) friends (with the exception of Belle). She's going back to Australia soon, so yeah. AS USUAL, pics would be on my Facebook. I am not one for slow upload processes.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ALBUM OF REEN'S OUTING

SMKBUD4 Malam Bakat / Talent Night

10th July: 7pm-10:30pm

I'm too lazy to say anything. If you want a full review, go read someone else's blog.. not in the mood to give a damn about blogging full-length.

Anyway, I must say that all the Michael Jackson dances, the Chinese diabolo players, the shufflers, the hip-hoppers certainly rock my socks. Hope to see them again at next year's Malam Bakat!

Club Day is Fun Day

School today was rather uneventful on the morning half when we were supposed to be learning.. but after school was filled with good old-fashioned fun that doesn't involve online games, for once. Science club seems inexistent today, so I wandered around school and stumbled upon Marwan who wanted to take a picture of a group on the ground floor. It was rather interesting how they (the people below) make something simple so hard LOL.. all they need to do is assemble themselves in the P shape. P for Photography club.

Daryl, Brandon, Timothy and Ah Yang said that they are gonna play football, but they lied! We ended up going to Chess Club (which is generally, a board games club). I requested that we play Monopoly, but the school only had Saidina sets.. these are Malaysian-made real estate board game. The game was really fun. I also saw many people playing Chinese checkers. They seem interesting, I might wanna try them soon.

Our group soon dispersed and I walked around again. Our ground floor foyer is always a busy area. A place where dance groups practice, those black hoodie wearing Malays shuffle to hardcore trance, and also where cheerleaders can be seen warming up. But today is a club day, and there is Fitness Club going on. This fella named Raymond from Celebrity Fitness, One Utama will come with sporting equipment like weightlifting stuff. Then the members of the club would exercise and lift weights to some energetic music.

I went home, and at 7.00pm I went to the local field to have a game of football. Daryl was already there, and soon people poured in to play. Yeah, we play that late.

Cheer '09 - It's Over, And We Won

Dayumm, I'm a bit late on reporting this due to procrastination. I can say is that I took well over 2500 shots during both days, most of the cheerleaders look real fine, the hosts were funny and entertaining and the imported judges such as Santwon and Tye never failed to keep the crowd on their toes everytime they approached us.

Aaaaaand;

BLITZERZ WON. WE WON.

Blitzerz took home the overall cheer champion, best makeup, and best supporters category. Check this, yo!

As for pictures, I've uploaded them onto my Facebook instead as all blogs make uploading photos a bitch. Don't worry, Facebook albums are public so you are free to browse through. And at the time of writing, not all pictures have been uploaded yet. FYI, most of the pics aren't so high standards because I had to sacrifice quality in order to snap a photo at the *cough*perfect moment*cough*

CLICK HERE FOR CHEER '09 PHOTO ALBUM BY AFIQ FEISAL

The Really English Vacation

To commemorate my arrival in Malaysia back from London, to do something special but not special for this 80th blog post, and also to purposely invoke jealousy (admit it, I didn't even write anything about my trip yet and you're already planning to wage war against me).

1. Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios - very fun.
   
2. Legoland Windsor - nice!(not to mention Britney Spears sighting there!)
3. Eiffel Tower - it's really tall!
4. Oxford Street - Shopping artery of central London.
5. The London Dungeon - scary attraction with live actors and props!
6. Buckingham Palace - boring guards.
7. Hyde Park - peaceful area in the middle of the city.. really nice!
8. EuroStar - fast train that takes you to Paris via Channel Tunnels
9. Fish n Chips - certainly unbeatable! It's soo.. nice :P
10. Candy - just how many Jelly Babies did I consume?
11. Tube - Try not to stray into wrong network lines!
12. Stamford Bridge - Chelsea's Home Stadium! I took the tour there :D
    

So that's the main points of my 2 week trip there.. in case I'd want to elaborate more, I might as well write a damn book and make money out of it.

Life Snippets #30: Nikon-ized

Hey guys sorry (again) for lack of updates. I'm having my exams now, which basically means that I ain't studying and I'm still here in front of the computer every day for hours at length and too lazy to update.

So, as per title. Gonna get a D60 soon.



Did I just say, Nikon D60? Yes, it's a DSLR cam. I like photography but my current compact camera isn't very.. versatile. It runs on two AA batteries and each pair lasts only minutes of use. It's a black Olympus FE-310, by the way.

On Friday the 29th of May, I am leaving for London with my family and also drop by Paris via Eurostar train that runs in the Channel Tunnels, connecting the British Isles and mainland Europe (France). We'll be there for about 2 weeks. I am gonna get to eat some real British fish 'n chips! Also, a perfect chance to fool around with the D60!

A happy British family enjoying fish 'n chips on the pier.

Your Britishness,

Afiq Feisal


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British Family Eating Fish 'n Chips photo taken from Devon-Holiday.

I'm A Bookworm

You know what, before I get carried on with today's post about my book obsession, I think I'll slip in a tiny section here about sunglasses. I've seen T-Pain wear this pair of white sunnies (the older version) and I was like "Dayummm! That is da bomb!". After some Googling I found out it was a pair of Oakley Gascans. The ones you see him wear now is Oakley Oil Rig. Here's a picture of the Gascans.


As many of you know, I am a huge fan of books. I don't know why most of you find books are boring, but boy don't you guys know what you're missing!

So yesterday, me and my mom went to the Big Bad Wolf Books warehouse sale. It has like a kajillion books, and a whole crowd of book-fans like me. I wound up taking a whole box of books (when you feel that your arms can't carry anymore, you may take a box to fill up books with). Alot of books, and that was just ME. I know it sounds geeky, but I'm really a geek of all sorts so here goes a list of the books that I chose for myself.

1) Real World by Natsuo Kirino (Novel)
2) Memoirs of an Exorcist by David Devereux (Novel)
3) London and The South-East by David Szalay (Novel)
4) The Joy of Swearing by M. Hunt (Leisure Reading)
5) Avalon High Coronation Vol.1 by Meg Cabot (Manga)
6) Avalon High Coronation Vol.2 by Meg Cabot (Manga)
7) Princess Ai: Ultimate Edition by Misaho Kujiradou, Courtney Love & DJ Milky (Manga)
8) Carrie by Stephen King (Novel)
9) Snakebite by Robert Swindells (Light Novel)
10) Java in a Nutshell by David Flanagan (Reference Encyclopedia)
11) The Game Maker's Apprentice by Jacob Habgood & Mark Overmars (Guidebook)
12) C++ Programming In Easy Steps by Mike McGrath (Guidebook)
13) The Complete Bike Book by Mel Allwood (Reference/Guidebook)
14) Kaiser Chiefs - A Record of Empoyment (Band Scrapbook)

Other than that, I also bought a Spanish Starter Kit from Teach Yourself for only RM20. Not to forget, a Spanish language accompaniment book to go with it. For some reason I love learning new languages if it doesn't involve 2000 symbols and characters (I don't mind Japanese!).

Pic from the Oakley Gascan site.

Broken Collarbone

I'm back, fellas. With a broken clavicle (or collarbone), or should I just say, shoulder. No, not the right one. The left one. OUCH! Get your dirty hands off my shoulder! Nuff' said.


I'm too lazy to write bedtime stories about how I ended up with a broken collarbone, so let's keep it short and sweet. It involves a 15 year old Malay boy, a red Commencal Normal Disc mountain bike, a kapchai motor, an Indian man, a sweaty Indonesian tractor driver, a Bobcat tractor, a stretch of long downhill tarmac, and a speed bump. To top it off, a 10-metre Superman fly off. Use your damn imagination, kiddos.

The two pieces of bones are overlapping by 1.5 cm. I could opt for surgery though, where they'll use a scalpel to slice open my shoulder skin, drill in holes on the clavicle, put on a titanium plate and secure it with matching titanium screws, and sew back my shoulder skin. Sweet, no? Oh, I'll have a bitchin' good time walking through airport metal detectors too! But my injury's not that bad, and since my growth stage is growing into an adult, I won't have to worry much as the bone will widen into an adult bone anyway instead of leaving a huge irregularity when compared with the other shoulder.

Your Crippledness,
Afiq Feisal

Le Boring School

Man.. anyone notice how school has just gotten a whole lot boringer lately. Our new pengetua has recently posted some revised or original school rules on each class noticeboard. There are so many unnecessary rules spotted there and the whole class were having their own say on each rule. The weather isn't helping either - it's gettin' real hot and just the perfect weather to induce students into a short nap in class.

Today, I've changed my Commencal's pedals to a pair of platform pedals by the name of Kona Jackshit. I wanted to get a pair with sealed bearings (more safe/last longer) but those platforms cost like RM200++ per pair. The Jackshit was only RM80 (after discount) but I only had RM50 so I managed to persuade the boss to let me pay RM30 later in the week. C'mon, I'm a regular customer xD.


Recently, I've found out that I was on a slowpoke on discovering this music group called The Lonely Island. They're the brains behind the songs called Jizz In My Pants and Dick In A Box. I know - it sounds weird at first (the song name) or either gross to you, but hit up the music videos on YouTube and you'll find it funny. Justin Timberlake is featured heavily in Dick In A Box, and this'll probably be your first time seeing JT on a lighter side.

Kona Jack Shit pedals picture courtesy of PinkBike

Life Snippets #28: Die, Frog, Die!

I'm late to post this by a day, but what the heck. Yesterday I decided to go to Science Club meeting 'cos I heard last week we gonna dissect frogs. I mean, it's sort of cool. Better than adding chemicals into a boiling beaker and watched it wonderfully change color.

I entered the science lab which was abuzz with kids eager to watch frogs die at their fingertips. True, I was there for the same intention. Here's a secret: I have FROGOPHOBIA, or whatever phobia it is. Go figure.

Anyways, here are the pictures of Operation Leapfrog.

The tools necessary to perform a surgery on a frog.

Frogs awaiting their turn outside the Emergency Ward.

Two young doctors practice castrating a frog.

A thoroughly dismembered frog up for shipment to a Thai roadside snack stall.

Life Snippets #27: Cyclo-Crash, Cacat Club

Last Friday, at around 7:45 pm I was cycling back in the rain from Saiful's new house. As I cornered a junction, my bike tyres slipped on a sand spill on the road. It was WET and before I knew it I was faceplanted on the ground. Groaning and slightly confused at the split-second fall, I mustered up the strength to push my body up and sat in the middle of the road, groaning. What to do after a fall?

Inspect your injuries. Yeah? Okay so I was looking at my right knee.. there is a strangely large WHITE spot on the knee.. also noticed two white spots on my feet. Suddenly the white spot on the knee turned pinkish-red and blood finally emerged and started flowing down my thighs into my pants. (I was sitting down). Skin tore right off, gone. As expected. My arms are scraped all around. My right palm had a small spot that has been skinned just like my knee. Double groan. Must there be so many spots?

**You were here for the pics, weren't you? Not for the pregnant ladies. Scroll down.**

I was rubbing my chin due to some gatal feeling and saw blood.. triple groan! My chin too?! What I did next was to scream. I was screaming "ARGH!" and no one heard me. Except some bangla labor workers in a under-construction house nearby. They waved at me and shouted a shrill ""WUUUI! at me. Then they waved at me some more and went back into the shady darkness of the construction site. Annoyed at them, I raised a middle finger towards the construction site.

Suddenly.. I saw a bright light. Could this be.. salvation? Nah, it was a Proton Perdana. The vehicle stopped before me and a middle-aged lady came out of the car with an umbrella saying "Are you okay?!", yeah you get it. She called my mom after successfully extorting my house number from me. Within 1 minute the familiar engine roar of a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado came within earshot. The Land Cruiser pulled up beside me and the windows rolled down.. my parents were there. Blablabla, I went to the nearby clinic, got an injection to prevent infections and had my wounds cleaned and all those stuff.

Anyway, pictures.

Skinned wrist/palm. Hard to write now.


Free shaving?


The one near the ankle looks like a bulletshot wound!



You haven't seen it after I took off the plaster.. dayumm.

Guess what? I'm in the Cacat Club now. If anyone has noticed, both me and Nabilah (the cheerleader) is limping in school now. We both have injured legs haha. So we're like temporary OKU's (Orang Kurang Upaya).

Selangor Mountain Bike Race & Mattel Warehouse Sale

This Sunday at Sungai Buloh, there will be an event called Selangor Mountain Bike Race. Don't expect any big-air stunts, as this is a cross-country race and not a freeriding contest a la Crankworx Slopestyle. My dad is joining, so by default I will be there too, joining the event for the Open Category.

My race is 25KM long through Sungai Buloh/parts of Kepong and will probably be very tiring. Better check on my own bike to see that everything is in tip-top condition.

Check out the website here.

Mattel Warehouse Sale. Probably the hottest warehouse sale of the month. I did not manage to go to school yesterday (it is 12:55 at time of blogging, and I had to be correct) so I went with my mom to the warehouse sale at Atria, Damansara Jaya. Today is the first day, and it opens at 10am. I went in at about 10:40am and already MOST of the good Hot Wheels are gone!

I grabbed a large empty box and started stuffing. Over a course of 2 hours of squeezing and body contact with at least a thousand other shoppers (not joking!), I managed to come up with a nicely filled cardboard box. Got around to getting most of the good stuff such as nearly the whole series of Volkswagen California Cruisin', a G-Machine '67 Chevy Nova, several Since 68 cars, two Monster Jam trucks, two Racing Rigs, two Speed Racer cars, a Speed Racer R/C car, six Matchbox playsets, and 3 Hot Wheels racing track sets. I'm stocking up on my toys (I am a collector). I chose some Cars themed toys for my bro, and my mom chose some Barbies and Polly Pockets for my sis.

The baby (Fisher Price brand) section was hilarious. The products are strewn on plastic card tables like in mamak shops, and the products I am talking about are almost gone. Every single mother there was shouting to the workers to open up another crate. It's as if Mattel is giving away free stuff! All the noise like you've never heard it before. A woman was standing on a table to get attention from the workers. The rest were shouting and pointing at crates in which they think that they can find the desired item.

Mom 1: "Bang, tolong ambilkan My First Steps baby walker tu!"
Mom 2: "Hello, hello, can open up that box and see if got the Pop-On Blox or Jr. Baseball set?"
Worker: "Sabar, sabar, jangan rebut, ada lagi 2 kotak kat belakang!"

Things really went out of hand went several impatient mothers managed to collapse some card tables on the floor, thus a whole crowd of greedy baby-toy hunting moms stampeded into the 'workers only' area and started to rip open boxes. Some of the workers even videotaped those 'hungry' customers!

Next, time to wait in line to the payment counter. The line was snaking and there were 2 u-turn bends in the line I lined up in. It took 2 hours to reach the counter, no kidding! In between the wait time I went to buy a drink while my mom jaga the stuff, then go check if got any other stuff turn up.. it was a seriously long wait. In the end, we managed to reach the cashier and we heaved several heavy plastic bags to the car park.

Life Snippets #25: New Mountain Bike

Finally, I've got my new bike. It's a Commencal, by the way. Decisions were hard. Should I get a Scott Voltage YZ 0, a Da Bomb Tora-Bora Dirt, or what? Until I went to KSH Cycles.

Today is my paternal grandma's birthday, so my family headed to a cake shop in Taman Tun to get, well, a cake. If you read my second last post, I mentioned about getting a new bike, but that was my dad's. Conviniently we went into KSH to take a look at the bike frames and complete built-up bikes. Dad wanted a trailbike but was instantly eye-glued to the Norco Atomik, a full-suspension downhill bike complete with a RockShox Boxxer World Cup dual-crown fork, at a relatively cheap price of RM7,000. Cheap, considering it came with a champ's dual-crown fork, a Manitou shock, and other whatnots such as a pair of Kenda Nevegals 2.35 and other crap which would cost well more than RM10,000 if bought separately.

In the past few days I had noted my parents that I'd like to buy a dirtjump bike, or the frame at least. Weren't interested in buying any dirtjump from KSH (there were only 3-4 models), until suddenly I spotted a salsa red colored bike with an unmistakable dirtjump frame. It was only RM2,990, tolak RM300 jadi RM2,690. Because it was so cheap, it has good parts, and my whole family likes it (red colored bikes are nice). It comes complete with bombproof (they meant UNDESTRUCTIBLE) frame and rims, SRAM/Deore groupset, Avid Juicy 3 hydraulic disc brakes, and dayumm! They set off to servicing and properly checking the bike before use by the new owner (me).

Then I realized, that dirtjumpers need either a bowl/skate helmet or a full-face helmet. I can't wear skate helmets because I am wearing glasses and it's not very reliable for us four-eyed. The cheapest full face helmet was the SixSixOne Strike, and it came in a red/black color combination. This one costs RM400, but heck - safety first!

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A few guys from my favorite thread in Lowyat.Net which is Mountain Biking Heaven decided to get together tomorrow (in 5 1/2 hours, to be precise) at 8am to go and hit Kiara trails. They invited me and I was anxious anyway to try out my new bike in it's proper environment.

Just now I called up Irfan who just came back from Singapore last night, and I told him that I got a new bike and a full-face helmet. He was like, "YOU LIAR! DON'T TRY TO FOOL ME, DUDE" and I can't help but laugh, which made him think I was joking even more. So I said "You come see lah". And in 5 minutes he arrived at my house at around 12:50am, driving his dad's Toyota Hilux (with permission).

He kept on chanting "LIAR, LIAR" all the way to the door until I opened the door and he saw the bike and his reaction was *mouth gapes open*. He went "Holy crap, this is such a sweet bike! Hydraulic brakes! Great fork! Oh man.. is that your new helmet? What the hell.."

Life Snippets #24: Kiara 2k

Today I invited Irfan to go to Kiara for a mountain biking session. We reached Kiara park at 4:30pm and pushed our bikes up Rock Garden, and went uphill through the short Carnival shortcut towards the jogging road beside KLGCC. Pedalled uphill on tarmac for a minute or so, reached the first pump house, and entered the famed 4k trail. Here, is a fork. Taking a left turn would take us to the downhill wooden ramp, which we already conquered previously. To the right, is a trail which takes us past a small lake, a smaller wooden bridge, and God knows where because we didn't go pass the bridge before. The trail hasn't been used for some time due to most of the cyclists who are adults are busy working I suppose, so the overgrowth are quite annoying and it made the trail feel rather narrow.

There are alot of parts where pushing the bikes are required (slope too slippery). After some time, we reached a tall slope which led to a tarmac road. Went up the tarmac road to the famous T-junction where there is a pondok. Saw some mountain bikers there, about 8 of them. Half of them are using BH bikes while the rest has a Santa Cruz, a few GT and one or two Giants. The BH's and Santa Cruz went into the 2k trail first and we followed suit. The trail was quite easy to navigate through. The only drawbacks are a few gnarly roots, and some uphill switchbacks which are rather slippery thanks to the rainy season.

Today there are quite alot of joggers around, and bikers love joggers because we get to go faster than them. And also they act as obstacles to train on. Going downhill down a tarmac road at top gear, top speed, joggers are good for training on - they're like the orange cones in a driving academy. But unfortunately most of them know today is also the day alot of bikers come down so they like to go to the road shoulders instead. Bah, cowards! Eheh, I was just kidding on these part. But seriously, train going around people - try not to hit them!

Went down the Carnival and Rock Garden back to the Kiara park parking lot, where the BH's and Santa Cruz are cleaning their bikes at the bike wash. The Santa Cruz guy chit-chatted with us for a while. Then we left for Devi's Corner to quench our thirst. It started drizzling a little and we gave up our table to the BH riders - we're done drinking our Milo Ais, anyway.

Stopped by KSH, the mother of all bike shops in Taman Tun. Which is, coincidentally, the only bike shop in Taman Tun. Love those THE full-face helmets. Especially those One Composite series. Then we hit the roads again and back home. Reached my house at about 7:14pm.

Life Snippets #23: Bad Hair Day

Today was sort of a bad hair day. I can't really say if it's bad or good. My fringe was swept aside and held in place with hair gel to mask the lenght of it at school. And it just so happened that today the tips of it were curved like the Ripcurl logo. Some say it's bad, some say it's really cute and nice.

Finally I converted my Giant XtC Team into a hybrid dirtjump/semi-downhill bike. It can also become cross-country like it was before conversion, because it still has its shifters, derailleurs and other whatnots, while pure dirtjumpers are single-speed with only one (front) or no brakes at all, but most dirtjumpers are not purists due to the hassle.

I exchanged my light industrial steel pedals for a pair of yellow platform pedals with Adrian, a regular at Johnny's bike store. Those yellow platform pedals sure do match my black/yellow bike theme. A new pair of Wellgo colored platform pedals would cost me RM180 per pair and I got mine free (although a bit scratched, but all pedals get old fast!) for next to nothing, seeing that my previous pedals aren't much to behold.

White Skyline Spotted!

In an effort to update my blog more often, I'll find anything to post up here if I can. Today I spotted a pearl white Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II parked in my 'hood. If you're doubting me, I have peektures too. Back-side only sorry, the owner was at the garden and I was too shy. Click on image for larger pic.

Pickup Pimp-Out

I was doing laps around my neighborhood when I spotted this black Nissan Frontier which apparently has been modified with the owner thinking big, and I mean big. It has tyres that has been widened out from its axles. It has an undergrille that's looking shiny. It's got at least a 4" jack-up. Snorkels, reinforced roll-bars, half-steps, a Thule open roof rack, isn't it the ultimate 4x4? Feel free to click on the image for a larger version.