I haven’t written here in 3 months. Shit. Take that as a testament to how busy I’ve been this past semester. The workload was pretty intense. It felt like there was some project due or a quiz/test/exam every other week, and towards the end of the semester, every week. Unlike last spring, I would not call this a good semester. I cannot imagine my grades being better than what I had last semester either… that pretty much blows.

So for the past week I’ve just been relaxing. Meeting friends from high school, chilling with friends from university… and spending way too much money on food and entertainment. At the moment, I’m actually broke.

Went to the arcade and two cyber cafes. Went biking from Sha Tin to Tai Po Country Park and back. (That was some serious ass-pain.) Watched Avatar in 3D. It was nothing special plot-wise (at all) but one definitely has to give props to the graphics team.

Ate all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ the other day. That wasn’t so bad, but then we had the wise idea of going to a toilet-themed restaurant for dessert. Ignoring the fact that, yes, everything in the place has something to do with urinals, toilet bowls, and of course the stuff we put in them, the actual dessert we ordered was insane size-wise. For 40 HK dollars, you get a toilet bowl with chocolate ice cream in the shape of dog business on top of a cracker, another scoop of strawberry ice cream, mango and jello pieces, raisins, red beans, whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, some candy and three-bathroom breaks worth of crushed ice. We later saw two grown men sharing one of these things, but being the ignorant tough guys we are, we decided to order one each. To cut a long story short, none of us managed to finish.

This was before we started eating, notice everyone’s content expressions.

And an hour later…

Facepalm.

Went to the Asia Game Show yesterday. Waste of 25 bucks. All they had was a huge PS3 stand with a pretty local selection of games and essentially nothing else. There was a Toyota stand with a driving simulator but you had to actually own a damn Toyota just to have a go at it. WTF kind of marketing is that exactly?

Plan for tomorrow? Go to work. I can’t be broke much longer.

I was looking for an old email in my inbox today and came upon a pretty stupid but nonetheless funny conversation I had with some student at my university. Here’s the background of the situation: an email was sent out to all Year 1 students in December of last year by the “Health Department” at HKUST informing everyone of a compulsory unit they needed to complete to pass a required health course.

Apparently, there are some (read: at least 10) students at my university who do not know the difference between “Reply” and “Reply All”. After receiving two emails from two random students (by way of their not knowing how to reply properly) who were meaning to inquire about their progress in the health course, I was already pretty pissed. So the third guy that did the same thing warranted a reply from me directly to him. What ensues is a rather odd conversation between him and myself:

(To save the guy from public humiliation and possible repercussions, he will be represented as “Tough Guy”.)

Illya: Don’t press the “reply to all” button silly.

Tough Guy: thanks and none of ur business.

Illya: It is my business you moron because when you reply all, I get your message in my inbox.

Tough Guy: ohh, i am really fucking sorry for it, smart ass

Illya: Firstly, calm down. I know it’s exam time, but take it easy.

I simply told you to not reply to all because obviously I received your message which is irrelevant to me. Granted, this could be taken as a smart ass remark. But this was after a few other people also replied to all and I received their messages as well. Your reply of “none of ur business” makes absolutely no sense because it is in fact NONE of my business therefore I should not be getting it and you should not be telling me it’s none of my business. Get it?

A “sorry, my bad” or just ignoring my message completely and being more careful next time would have been a more favorable option for you.

No hard feelings man. Don’t get excited.

Tough Guy: Actually, i simply don’t like you saying me “silly”(if you still rmb) and that’s why i am so pissed off. Get it, brother? Learning local culture will be a better option for you before saying Hong Konger “silly”.

However, I found you are quite logical indeed and I like you in another way. The business in what i said “none of your business” was referring to the action you reply to an email that was clearly not related you. It isn’t your stuff, why still bother?

Illya: Sorry, silly was actually the nicest word I could think of.

Tough Guy: No need to be sorry and that’s why i am telling you to learn some more local culture. It helps.

I didn’t bother talking to him anymore after that last email. It’s funny to me how the Cantonese language has so many vulgar and creative insults that are used without second thoughts but “silly” seems to really piss this one guy off.