One Hundred.

In honour of my hundredth blog post,
Let there be Fireworks!

Also, let us explore the mysterious wonderland that is hundred!

A hundred year old man

 

 

The Hundred Acre Wood

 

 

 

 

Hundred(s) of Harry Potter books

A hundred dollar bill

 

 

 

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

 

Hundred Islands

 

 

"Hundred" by The Fray

 

The Hundredth Episode (of Friends)

Hundred Eyes Dragon

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a lovely milestone - and I've had a brilliant time blogging so far. And I hope you've enjoyed reading my humble little scribble pad on the Internet, you beautiful blog reader, you.

 

And here's to a hundred more!

Birthday-ing It Up!

It's been a year since my last post.

Therefore, by my unfathomable mathematical skills, today must be .....
Drumroll Please!


MY BIRTHDAY AGAIN!



Cue the Fireworks!

You know what time it is -- it's Customary Annual Birthday Blog time!

In which I turn 12 for the eighth time!

And what did I do on this fine, gloriously sunny day?

Exploring, relishing cakes and cupcakes, chopsticking my way through an incredible lunch, taking pictures, reading, penning stories, Potter-ing, making animals out of newspaper, pancake smileys and ---- wait now. What's the fun if I tell you all of what I did.

It was a lovely day.

Let's leave it at that.


And let us reflect on the days that have passed and the days ahead.
And I must mention,
I love you, Sirius - the most beautiful, wonderful canine in the world! :)




Lessons have been learnt and mistakes are waiting to be made - hark, am I getting old? Where is all my immaturity!

The Cake was absolutely delicious! - That's more like it.

As always, I find it quite hard to believe I'm a year older. I enjoy the cake, balloons, wrapping paper and candles far too much to believe I'm ninet.... 12 for the eighth time.

Anyway, let's hope this year is as delicious as my cake.

And Happy International Peace Day!

And Happy The Scribbler Kid Day!






And now, it's time for me to get back to my cake!
It's only fair that I give that beautiful cake the attention it deserves!
Thanks for sticking by me, folks :)
And Happy Unbirthday to You!


P.S. I know I'm quite late with the new blog stuff, will commence shortly!
P.P.S CAKE!

What A Little Birthday Bum!

In which I give my customary yearly blog post!

After months of negligence, I cannot come up with enough excuses to cover up my absence on the blogosphere. But one ritual every year, for the past few years, is to give a Birthday Blog Post :)

So a year older and still as immature and silly as ever! :)
With a day filled with Pumpkin Cream Cheese muffins, chocolate cupcakes, Chinese food, massive cookies and the traditional (triple-flavoured) slushie, it was a sweet birthday indeed (as always!)!
And not to forget the scrumtilidumptious cake! Apparently in an attempt to  surprise me (which they did!), my family plotted to have a beautiful, heavenly-tasting Red Velvet Cake with 'Happy Birthday' icing, delivered right to my doorstep!
It was simply marvelous - a cake that I will taste many a time in my fond recollections of this day.
Getting lost in massive, endlessly winding libraries, getting drowsy in overstuffed armchairs with a book in my lap, exploring the streets and cuisine, taking pictures and writing at cafes, watching football and movies, and best of all - ALL THE POTTER! - yes, what a lovely day.

And all the wishes, calls, emails, voice mails and online messages - made my day warmer :)
Thank you!

I love doing these posts at the end of my birthday - as I reflect upon the day, remember the previous ones and look forward to a better and brighter year.
Thank you for staying by me and reading till the end.
I hope you had a great day too.
Remember when you earn some cake, eat it too!
Or stuff half of it in a miniature fridge and eat it endlessly, ecstatically, euphorically lost in its unbelievable delicious-ness for an entire week, like I will! :)



[P.S. I'm working on my blog revamp - on some level of consiousness!]
[P.S. (2) That cake is so amazing it should eat itself - but I'll probably do that before it can even try!]

Another little Update

I've realised why I haven't spent much time on my blog, lately.
It's been stagnating - the same dreary text, overly dark colour palatte and the occassional un-funny pictures.

So, I'm going to revamp. Yes! Let's have that again, in lights!
REVAMP!

[Source: http://dev.rehoboth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/room_redecorating.jpg]

Starting July, I'm going to be tearing out the wallpaper, working from scratch - painting up the blog with personality - creating the framework with my very own HTML tags and GIMP fiddling skills.

I'm going to be more quirky, less preachy.
And I'm going to do some shameless blog/self-promotion, to make stuff engaging.

Anyhooo... that's all I wanted to say.

[Source:http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/mpe0104l.jpg]

And that I was one of the first persons to hear about Pottermore - just for the record.

Look! It's Me, Again.

I've been missing in the blogosphere for the past 5 months.
Of course you didn't notice - I didn't expect you too.
But if you did, I'm flattered.

Why have I been hiding under my desk, you ask?
No, it's not because of the supposed rapture.
After two years of soul-sucking, dreary, high school work, I've put my IB diploma days behind me. And got out alive.
The endless coursework and exams meant no time for moments of frivolous blogging.

But now, I'm back. Here to stay.
Will post something substantial in a bit.
How have you been?

                                [And here's some hazel-eyed doggy love for you]

5 Things I Loved About 2010

Well 2010 has been, like most years, eventful. I'm in a list-making mood, as of now.
Sooo, Presenting...




5 Things I Loved About 2010

5. The Chilean Miners safe recovery after months of deliberation and hard work. The attitude, determination, will and good humour of the miners, especially that of the supervisor, astounded me.
Also tied for 5th place is Earth Hour 2010. It highlights the growing awareness and initiatives taken all around the world to take a step further in combating Global Climate Change and Energy Wastage. Please, continue :)

4. Aung San Suu Kyi's release. A bright symbol, a tribute to fighting for human rights, feminism and freedom. Such a humble human being with such a big heart. She's still fighting after years of isolation, separation and imprisonment. A true and inspiring hero.

3. FIFA 2010 "It's Time for Africa" - The addictive anthem, the festive, explosive culture and most importantly the wonderful game of Football at its beautiful best. What better way to top off such a glorious event than to crown the much deserving, fiesty Spanish Team the kings of Football!
And R.I.P. Paul The Pscyhic Octopus :'(

2. Harry Potter - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 The Movie and the Harry Potter Theme Park; both in one year? HELL, YEAH.

1. SIRIUS! He's always the highlight of my year :) Thanks for everything buddy!





They're probably not in exact preferential order (except #1) but it's a list nonetheless.

T-2, folks.

Ready?

My Bloggie is an Oldie

6 more to a Century!
Woooo!

That's an achievement.
100 posts - WOW! (Well, not yet.) I've been rambling a lot haven't I?

So as a treat, I'll not ramble - and instead post up some of my pictures. Remember, the photography hobby?
I'm proudly addicted to it now.

It's all copyrighted, so don't try anything :)

Well, this isn't my best work. Because those are up for sale and I don't take to people using my work without giving me credit. Anyway, this is just a few of A LOT of pictures. And they're all taken with a compact digital camera- you know the small ones that fit in your pocket - save for the first one.

I would have put up more but Blogger was being difficult (I still love you Blogger. Very, very much.)

Anyway, that's it for now. Ta!

Season's Greetings!

Hello World!

Wishing you a...
Merry Christmas!
Hope your holiday is filled with cheer :) and your stockings with gifts.

Have a great time with friends and family! And try to remember the significance of this much-celebrated day.

Now, go, hurry to bed and pretend to be asleep. Santa is watching.

Have a Happy Christmas, folks.

Eyes on the Prize - But What is the Prize?

Keeping with the theme of Muse, I found myself staring off into space, contemplating on one of life's many mysteries. I was trying to piece out the difference between competition and envy.

Different things, you argue. Maybe. But they seem awfully close, it's hard to tell which one is which.
Do we work for first place - for self-satisfaction or for the satisfaction of beating others? Are our motives purely selfish and self-indulgent? Is being competitive mean that you are jealous of others' victories?

You see, there's a very fine line. And it's hard to distinguish between them - as our convoluted human emotions swirl into a tangled incomprehensible mass.

It's an honest, open question.
One that I pose to you.
Can we be 'in the race' because we need to quell a personal burning desire or is our motives inclusive of 'ensuring no one else gets to win'?

To keep your churning brain cogs company is a Paint doodle.
Happy Musing.

Green-Eyed Vs. Gameface : Food for Thought, perhaps?

Falalalalala... Oh it's just not the same any more.

It's T-5 to the big day, eh?
The one with the jolly old man, the one that wears too much red and has too much time and money on his hands?
Yup, It's Christmas time. *Cue Play tape of Off-key voices singing carols*

The Commercial Holiday for the Ages.
What better way to cash in on the merriment of others than a buy one ugly plastic tree and get a smorgasbord of gaudy lights, that can cause your house to short circuit, free.

IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!

The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the media is getting the largest slice of pie. Whoopee.

What happened to Good ol' Christmas?
You know the one with having family home cooked dinners and surprising people with gifts?
What happened to the holiday humanitarian spirit?
What happened to REAL people standing out in the cold, yelling carols in off-key voices?

Sighhh. The individualistic, materialistic, metallic heart that pumps adrenaline into the blood of men has killed the Christmas Spirit. Chalk out an outline of Santa. REAL Christmas is dead. (Unless you're an eight year old girl - in that case, Santa is real, Christmas is NOT dead, and eat your veggies.)

So do me a favour folks and do something good this Christmas. Restore my faith in the human race. Make a donation. Help out at a shelter. Or just don't splurge out with Christmas as an excuse.

Christmas, or any holiday for that matter, is about being with friends and family, cherishing what you have and being thankful for it.

So, go ahead. Say Thank you.
And then be good and crawl into bed.
And pretend to sleep and maybe something good will drop into your stocking.

The End of a Decade

It seems awfully cliche to start of with, "It seems like only yesterday that people were getting drunk over the turn of the millennium".

Well, not that cliche.

Oh, well. How about "Remember the good old days?"

Nope?

Well, let's try again.

The Noughties are over. What do we call the next one - The Tenies? The Tenos? The Tennetubbies?

Ahh. Third time is the charm.

Well, yes. It's been ten years. TEN whole years. That's quite a lot. Isn't it?
We've lived through an entire decade that has seen the invention of the hybrid car, the laptop, the iPod, the iPad and basically anything Steve Jobs has churned out.
Boy, it's time to get those journals out.
Need to get these younger generations a wiff of what it was like, back in the day, eh?

So expect an onslaught of nostalgic, back through memory lane posts in the coming month.
Someone out there must be wondering if I'm a fifty year old man facing a mid-life crisis.

So how about a mix of aspirations and reflections? That sounds good, doesn't it?
Good? hmm. Maybe a bit too strong a word, perhaps?
But now with a little (read: scarce) time on my hands, I'll hopefully be posting up some interesting posts, soon enough.

Till then, how's December working out for you folks?
I've already seen people get their Uggs and scarves out.
But then again, it's about 30 degrees, the only thing you'll probably need is shades and some Snapple.

Yum, Snapple.

Rah-Rah-Raw-Meat-Dress. No. Just No.

'Lady Gaga' (what a sinfully disyllabic second name, speaks volumes of her aficionados) has always toed the line - in the name of weirdness.
No judgement there. No, really. Weird is good, in my book.

But what weird is too weird?
Enter Lady Gaga.

For a while, I sat and smiled at her harmless outlandish get-ups, smiling because it showed how impressively oblivious she was to others' norms (which I valued) and sitting because the newspaper kept tearing loose.
Big hair, crazy eye-make up, flashy synthetics. Great. great. As long as the she fed her digitally enhanced voice to the world.

But toeing the line is quite different from crossing the line.
Who, seriously, would want to wear a dress of viciously slaughtered animals?
But there she was. Strutting, with meat hanging off herself.
Disgusting.

If that wasn't enough, Kate Walsh later decides to put on a sushi dress. Yet she wore a dress covered with fish guts.
Charming.
And she wonders why Derek Sheppard left her.


But the main point here is not the hideousness of their appearance but the atrocities animals are subjected to, especially to satisfy the whims of humans.
It's stomach-wrenching, nausea-inducing truth that makes me sick.

I hope one day, karma gets a bite of human ass and we see a cow, sporting a very fashionable human dress.
That's unbelievably and cynically bitter.

But once again, humans prove not to make any arguments to elicit sympathy for their side.

Karma is a b*tch.

The Confessions of a Potterholic

Last Post: 21 September 2010
Today's Date: 11 November 2010

What?!

What happened to the proclamation of a broken hiatus?

Shameful, really.

I solemnly swear to spend more time on this blog.

On the bright side, my mantra today is ONE MORE WEEK!

Yes, push together all the holidays on the calender into one giant celebration and you get 18th November 2010. Why? You shouldn't be asking actually. You should know. You do know, don't you?

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 the movie is hitting the big screen at midnight. Woooooo. Yes, yes, yes, It's that time again.
Remember last year? I did book and movie marathons, scavenging YouTube for tantalising scraps thrown by Warner Brothers, reeling us all in, and scoured the Internet for every Potter sign possible.
Crazy? Maybe. Probably. But I'm proud of it :)

ONE MORE WEEEK!!

Seventeen Forever

It's that day of the year again :)
Yes, the one with cakes and multicoloured candles and flourescent balloons that stay afloat even a week later.

Seventeen!

Wow. That's hard to believe. Let's get that in capitals, shall we?

SEVENTEEN!

The message hasn't quite sunk in.
I still haven't shed my seven year old maturity level. This evening I could hardly contain my excitement at my extra large quadruple layered slushie.
Seventeen indeed.

So like last year, my birthday, besides chocolate oozing cakes, has been filled with messing around in school, eating tonnes of ice cream, watching Agnes nearly hug her toy to death, playing around with the best dog in the world, Sirius, and gleefully taking dozens of pictures with the brand new camera.

And to top it up, International Peace Day is catching on quicker. White t-shirt, poems, documentaries and a moment of silence - just a small token of recognition and gratitude. A small yet significant step. :)

And, something that brightened my day - The Ballad of Nearly Headless Nick!
J.K.Rowling is a legend.
Squinting at the tiny print on the images splashed across the middle pages of today's newspaper, I hope to see it published officially. Soon.

Well, well, what do you know.
It's been quite a good day.

Seventeen sounds a bit too soon, growing up too fast.
But it seems to come with a good looking supply of cake.

Mmmm. Cake.

:)

Hiatus || Musing Again

Wow.

It's been ages.

Months, actually. I'm ashamed.

It's all this work, these examinations, these deadlines, the second blog and the infuriatingly addictive Redbubble - I've hardly had time to pay attention to poor old bloggie.

Well, I'm back, now. Fixed the fuse. More regular and devoted than before, I hope.
I still remember the first five months following the birth of this rather premature blog - an obsession, writing page long posts, euphoria, unbelievably and unnecessarily exuberant over Don't Fuse The Muse.

If I remember correctly, this little blog began, christened with another name - The Canvas.
Indeed.
With a Pyzam Journal background and a lengthy, forgettable URL that had too many hyphens for its own good.

Ahh. The good old days.
Time has whizzed past.

And now, I must stop rambling like an eighty year old, rocking-chair-ridden, bespectacled Ruth.

Chocolate, sugar-glazed oreos await me, calling out from their hermetically sealed packaging. Musn't disappoint them.

Bang that Gavel

Hundreds of teenagers conglomerated this weekend to debate and discuss issues that have bemused even the greatest intellectuals of our time. The annual Bahrain Model United Nations was hosted over a three day period this week to witness Bahrain’s best teenage orators strut their stuff, and to tap and harness their dormant potential. The standard of sophistication, maturity, responsibility and critical thinking was extremely impressive and it only goes to show what Bahrain’s youth is capable of doing when it puts its mind to the task.
On issues ranging from curbing the repercussions of the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajokull to the eradication of the illicit rough diamond trade, student delegates battled it out with such conviction and passion that Generation X may go as far as to say that they feel secure knowing that the future of the world lies in our hands.

The Bahmun weekend was an invigorating experience indeed; I got to meet people from different schools, countries and even beliefs. A true epitome of the purpose was that despite our differences, we collaborated for a common cause.
It would be great if Bahrain could host more of these programs, seeing that it involves a great deal of student participation and spreads awareness. It also involves lobbying and merging resolutions and clauses, researching extensively on problems and solutions, considering the multi-faceted real-time solutions from all perspectives and having the courage to promote your stance to hundreds, standing nervously at a wooden podium, draped with the brilliant blue UN flag – preparing us for the future.
It was heart-warming to see that even though teenagers have had a bad precedent of being aloof and uncaring, so many of them had the courage to prove this common perception wrong. We, as teenagers, do care – and we believe we can make a difference. We have bright, fresh ideas for the world though sometimes find it hard to channel them effectively due to the dearth of such enriching conferences.
In addition, Model United Nations and similar events are eye-openers; a week back I was unaware that 1% of the world’s diamonds have been tainted with the cruel slaughter and gruesome bloodshed in conflict wars in Africa and now, I find myself well-read on the history of Blood Diamonds.

Thus, I feel glad knowing I was apart of this wonderful event, met lots of great people and contributed to the united step towards change. I had a great time and as an added bonus, got to look important and diplomatic in a black suit, with a personalised flag pin-badge!

I don't need no SAT :)

The clock ticks away audibly, with every second the tension grows. Every sound is amplified – pencils scribbling away, etching answers on to paper, meticulously filling in random answer bubbles, making a pattern of some sort. Every circle makes a difference that can change lives and futures.
It’s that time again when the SAT fever is virulent and it seems about everybody is walking around shuffling about flashcards, sketching abstract graphs and reciting tenses and formulas. 2B Pencils are abundant, strewn over tables and found materializing from pockets, and abhorrent answer bubbles are revolving around dazzled heads.
For those of you unfamiliar with the nefarious SAT drill, it is a Standardized test taken in high school by teenagers thinking about applying to universities. It tests Math, Critical Reading and Writing skills and scores your performance on a rather gargantuan scale of 2400 – a score that heavily influences your applications and résumés.
So, for nearly four hours, just about seven times a year, hundreds of students crouch uncomfortably over creaking desks, their noses nearly up against their answer booklets, scratching out choices and guessing answers, armed with calculators, erasers and lucky coins.

Though the SATs give a general overview of your academic brilliance, it is no way representative of it. That’s the problem associated with ‘standardized’ tests – you are looked at like a dreary fish in the ocean, expected to have the same abilities, tested on cognitive thinking and effective communication and nothing more.
But we are more than just beings that can multiply three digit numbers and juggle around convoluted words; we have a farrago of talents and abilities that cannot have numbers attached to them.

When we apply to universities, we like to think that our acceptance is a reflection of our achievements not a reward for an impressive number. We like to be taken seriously as a competent, well-rounded candidate that has done more than rote-learning and astute manipulation.
There is more to a person besides their academic potential that can do far greater good in the real world.
The SATs have lost meaning along the way, with people suffocating themselves with piles of work, in order to score above the sacred 2200. True, academics are an essential piece of the pie but to be truly savoury, you’ve got to have the filling.

Turn it all off

We were trudging through what appeared to be the middle of the desert, squinting through the dust haze, with dogs trotting by our sides. The blurred vicinity resembled little more than a wasteland with lumps of plastic bags skimming the scarred ground, buffeted by the wind.
An eight year old boy walking with us in silence dutifully squatted down every few minutes or so and picked up a scrap of recyclable material that lay abandoned in the middle of nowhere.
By the end of the walk however, the boy was laden with a box full of things that could be easily sorted and recycled for future use.
I was rather startled looking into the carton; bottles, cardboard, paper and an array of other things had been procured from what I had imagined was a scarcely inhabited area.
Sure, the boy would have gone home and dropped his collection into one of Bahrain’s set of brilliantly coloured recycling bins. But if he could fill a box with litter from a relatively empty lot of land, what could we fill with the litter that lines the pavements of Bahrain and mars its natural beauty?

Recently, the World celebrated the ‘Earth Hour’ with participants plunging themselves into darkness for an hour. It was a worldwide message raising awareness about the amount of electricity we waste and how much more we can conserve. We experimented with Earth Hour at our house and to our surprise we realized the large number of hardly necessary lights that were switched on regularly.
It cannot be denied that Bahrain itself uses a colossal amount of electricity to keep the Kingdom alive and whizzing with life. If you’ve ever just sat out on your porch at night and leaned back and gazed into the heavens above, you would have realized that hardly any stars twinkle back at you. Instead, you stare into a cloudless, murky purple sky, with the glow of city lights and football floodlights dotting the horizon.

The World may not crumble into oblivion in 2012 or be conquered by zealous aliens with webbed fingers and green antennae but the Earth is undoubtedly dying, unable to cope with our profligate ways. We can’t boycott electricity or eradicate Styrofoam, but we can help, maybe by recycling all the papers we accumulated in the past academic year or walking to the shop at the corner - Small gestures to improve the grand scheme of things. So take shorter showers and save the world!

2400 is the magic number

I haven't posted in quite a while.
I'm ridden with the guilt of neglect.
What with the endless tests, World Literature essays, lab reports, assignments, worksheets, presentations and community service, time seems scarce.

But as of now, I'm on Spring Break.
Well, not SPRING Break.
The other one.
The one when you don't party till four a.m. and then suffer from a mind crushing hangover.

It's the one you get when Easter comes along. A time to both relax and do some light revision.

Ha.ha.

Then they invented College Board who decided that it would be excruciatingly fun to administer a standardized test to all teenagers to ruin their prospects of ever attending a university that has its own hoodie.

So now I'm confined to a writing desk with a prescribed 2B pencil and a 800-something-page book.
If this carries on any longer, I'm going to be walking around with answer bubbles polka-dotting my view.

Now, I must go and practice.

Where's that pencil, I need to randomly jab options with, gone?

...And where has my lucky blindfold disappeared to?