Weblog Wannabe

Read this news, because my little brother wrote it. Last month he was a management trainee at Pizza Hut, this month he's a reporter. I wonder what his next job's going to be. Stock broker? ♥

Start your day with the Annoying Song of the Day. It's guaranteed to make your morning a little bit, um, colourful? Guess who sings today's song ;) ♥

Assuming that no one has translated this entry into English for Caroline, I'll gladly do:

"'Kosong' means empty or nothing...: that's to answer the question from prolific so that they won't be too confused about the meaning of my log. Now I'm the one who's confused, is this Prolific person Indonesian or Dutch? Why didn't they know the meaning of the word 'kosong'? Well, that's all right... We're here with the same color of blood. One Love, One Blood, Sister n' Brother... says Bono."

That's the meaning, more or less :) ♥

Now I know why I was so depressed when I turned 27 last April. Many celebs died/killed themselves at the age of 27!

Happy birthday, Paul! :) ♥

Finally, I saw a sign of life coming from my blog bruddah's place. Hi, Mike! :) ♥

I can relate with what jack wrote in the current entry of jack.nu. Shyness has always been my problem too. I won't say hi first to people I know, let alone to strangers. In a party, you'll most likely find me standing in the corner with other wallflowers, just watching the scene, yet not wanting to be part of it. Watching people has always been my favourite pastime. Sometimes I go to the mall just to watch people. I find it very entertaining.

Anyway, the same also applies online. I have to collect my courage and give it a long consideration before I decide to message anyone on AIM or ICQ. I'll set a time and tell myself that I'm going to message them in 15 minutes. Usually that 15 minutes will turn into half an hour or even an hour or I'll totally lose my courage and decide not to message them at all. And I've never messaged anyone I don't know unless they message me first. I am really that hopeless.

I don't know if the reason is really shyness or if it is more like a fear of rejection. Maybe it's the latter, I don't know. You tell me. I didn't do very well in Psychology class back in college *grins* I've always been known as a good listener but a bad advice giver. ♥

Good luck in college, Jordan! Now you'll have to love me forever *grins* God, how I miss college... ♥

Thursday Morning Haiku

We're halfway there, pal
We're halfway to the weekend
We'll try to enjoy.

Who are we? Me and myself, of course. Pathetic as it may sound, I'm my own best friend. I understand myself. I listen to my heart. I let myself down sometimes, but I quickly forgive myself. I like myself the way I am. I know my dreams. We both don't know if my dreams will ever come true.

I had a beautiful dream last night but I don't feel like sharing it with anyone but myself. Ok, maybe a little. I dreamed of having someone to share stories and memories with. I've had similar dreams before, but I never remembered exactly who that someone was when I woke up. But I do this time. That's what makes the dream this time somewhat special. But I'm quite sure that it'll remain a dream, me and him. It reminds me of this song, "The Impossible Dream":

To dream the impossible dream,
to fight the unbeatable foe,
to bear with unbearable sorrow,
to run where the brave dare not go.

To right the unrightable wrong,
to love pure and chaste from afar,
to try when your arms are too weary,
to reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest,
to follow that star --
no matter how hopeless,
no matter how far. ♥

I just rediscovered Funster multiplayer word games. I used to play this a lot during work hours in my first job (which was even more boring than my current one). I never won, though. But still it was a fun way to kill the time. ♥

They carried some tests on Tough Men, including extreme heat and mother-in-law tests, and report the results in Tough Men: How tough are they? These Tough Men are not really like what you think they are. ♥

These records in The Internet Museum of Flexi/Cardboard/Oddity Records look strange. But do they sound strange? You tell me. My old, dumb computer is still enjoying its muteness. ♥

Are you listed in the Index of Famous Monkeys? Ok, so it's downright mean. I'm sorry. I was just kidding. Honest. Yes, Splitzy is listed :P My favourite monkey is definitely Lancelot Link. I think one of the joys of being a child of the 70's was you got to see and love Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp :) This chimp was definitely better than any Pokemon character. ♥

Could you tell me if there's anything at all in The Foreigner's Guide to America that's totally wrong? I'm a foreigner but I don't want to get fooled that easily by believing everything written in this guide. ♥

Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie is an effective, low-cost solution to combating mind control. Or so they say. I don't think anyone would want to control the minds of people whose heads are wrapped in aluminium foil. They'd think that something must've controlled their minds already. Something evil, that is. ♥

I was in such a good mood yesterday, I just knew it was going to be downhill from there. I'm feeling so crappy right now. Argh! :( ♥

Great minds think alike :P But of course, his is better. ♥

For the cost of a high-end sports car, you can get your own SoloTrek Exo-Skeletor Flying Vehicle. Now that's something I'd love to have. Any vehicle that's traffic jam-free is worth buying in my book. I've always said that I'd rather have a plane than a car. ♥

I always wanted to see Fairvue Central in pink, so I borrowed Kottke's bizarro bookmarklet script and made Bizarro Fairvue. I must say that I'm quite happy with the result :) Go to Fairvue and try it!

Uh-oh, I just noticed that the Bizarro Fairvue made the webcam pic disappear. Oh well. I never said that I was good at scripting. ♥

Wednesday Morning Haiku

I am so sleepy
I do not feel like working
Nothing new, really.

I went to bed at 9 last night and then set my alarm to go off at midnight so I could blog. The alarm did go off at midnight, but I didn't wake up until half past one. I blogged until 4. Couldn't find any good links which really upset me (hence my good links equal good guys theory) so I went back to bed and sleep until 5 when I had to wake up to get ready to go to work.

In my one hour sleep, I dreamed of dreaming of chatting on AIM with Nikolai where he tells me that my site gets a mention in a Spanish weblog (huh?) and that I probably wouldn't know what they're talking about since I don't really understand Spanish (in reality, it did get mentioned in a German weblog and it only says "links via wannabe", which is not really that hard to understand *grins*).

Then I wake up from that dream I dream in my dream, and find myself online and surfing the 'net, and seeing that Psionic has a new design (which is spooky because it's true). And then I really woke up, feeling rather disoriented.

I am such a dork that even my dreams are dorky... ♥

I couldn't believe I blogged this Scroll Lock Online: THE interactive scroll lock key page. But all good links have already been blogged! You know, just like how all the good guys have already been taken. Well, most of them anyway. The ones that aren't taken are hiding from me. Same case with good links. Sigh. ♥

I finally found some poems that are worse than my roadkill haikus in Monoverbum Poems. I can think of many monosyllabic poems to dedicate to this site but I don't want to spoil your fun so I guess I'd better just keep them to myself :) ♥

Darth Vader For President? Wait a minute. I'm no Star Wars fan so I'm not really sure about this, but isn't he supposed to be a bad guy? ♥

In the spirit of Kottke, I'm going to ask you a question:

Have you been to MetaFirda lately? What about Haiku the Blog? ♥

Ooooh, this is cool! Go to kottke.org, get the Bizarro MetaFilter bookmarklet, go to MetaFilter, get the bizarro kottke bookmarklet, go back to kottke.org, select the bizarro kottke and finally select the Bizarro MetaFilter one. You'll come up with a really cool looking kottke.org with a touch of yellowish green. Neato!

Selecting bizarro kottke and Bizarro MetaFilter on this site will also result on a really cool looking Weblog Wannabe. Try it! It's fun! Jason, you're the man! :)

[Update: As it turned out, it doesn't really matter whether you select bizarro kottke first or not. Bizarro MetaFilter still gives the coolest effect IMHO.] ♥

Since no one's asked me how I'm feeling today, I'm going to ask myself.

Me: How are you feeling today, Firda?
Myself: I'm cool. I'm happy. Thanks for caring! :) ♥

You know, it amazed me how so many people really got a kick out of reading my about me page because I personally think that I sound really pathetic there. Well, I am pathetic but I could at least try to sound cool and tell people that I'm actually a beautiful model who has everything, including a gorgeous boyfriend, who lives in a luxurious condo with her Persian cat named Queenie and who drives the latest BMW. But I didn't because that would be lying and I would feel dead guilty for that. Besides, I don't think you'd like me better if I were a beautiful model who has everything. I think a pathetic dork who has nothing is more lovable. And love me you do :) ♥

Tuesday Morning Haiku

My eyes were heavy
But I had to leave anyway
Weekend's still so far.

I keep on telling myself over and over to hang on, because next weekend is a 3-day weekend. It is a consolation, but still not quite enough because I still have today plus 3 more days to get through before I can enjoy the lovely weekend. Sigh. It's such a long, long time. Anyway, thanks to everyone who messaged me yesterday. You made my Monday a little bit better :) ♥

If you don't want to spend a fortune to get your eyes checked by a real eyedoctor, try the Virtual Eyedoctor. It's guaranteed to make you feel stupid, but hey, it's free and you get a free prescription! ♥

Cat owners, describe your cat using the Cat Codes. Cats, describe your owner using the Human Codes. Oh by the way, if you're a cat, please email me. I've always wanted to get an email from a cat. ♥

I couldn't listen to any of the songs listed in The Worst of The Worst! (Very Bad Music) since my computer was still mute, but reading the song descriptions and the hate mails kind of amused me so I blogged this anyway :) ♥

Godzilla For Hire will do anything for money: barber, chain smoker, receptionist, valet parker... You name it, Godzilla will be it. ♥

Hey, look what I've found! It's an Amish Laptop! Be sure to read the FAQ to learn more about this rather advanced technology (emphasis on 'rather'). ♥

To answer the most common questions:

No, I did not design this weblog. Nikolai did, though he wouldn't say that. He'd only say that he "made it happen".

No, I've never studied abroad or lived in any English-speaking country. I'm just lucky enough to be the daughter of the best English teacher in the world, that is my mother :)

Yes, my English is weird sometimes (most of the time?). I never said that I was one of my mother's best students :P ♥

Monday Morning Haiku

Monday, oh, Monday
Have I told you lately that
I hate you, Monday?

I just got to work half an hour ago but I already feel like going home. It's such a grey morning. I wish I was still on my warm bed. Anyway, I need your help to make today a bit bearable. Please AIM me or send me a cheer-up email. I need all the cheering up I can get to get through the day. Please? ♥

Layman's Guide to Medical Terminology is very, um, informative. I didn't know that "miscarriage" meant "losing your shopping cart" until I read the guide. ♥

According to The Feels Like Forecast, tomorrow will feel like a Sunday even though it's actually a Monday. Hmmm. Does that mean I'm going to have a good reason not to go to work? I hope so. I hate Monday with a vengeance. ♥

Take revenge for the millions of helpless animals slaughtered through the centuries in the name of science. Dissect a biologist. ♥

Play Rock-Paper-Scissors (Roshambo) against Roshambot and win some prizes. Well, if you play Roshambot Pro anyway. I didn't try the pro version but I did beat the amateur Roshambot. Yes, I rule! It's good to know that my natural intelligence is still better than Roshambot's artificial intelligence :) ♥

If you're interested in web designing, Web Designing Purity Test is for you. My test results prove that I'm just a web designer wannabe. "You answered "yes" to 70 of 130 questions, making you 46.2% Web Designing pure (53.8% Web Designing corrupt); that is, you are 46.2% pure in the Web Designing domain (your strangeness is 53.8%)." Well, excuse me for being strange... ♥

When the X-Files meet Barbie, the truth is better left unrevealed. Seriously. ♥

Is it just me or is my weblog getting boring? ♥

For some reasons, I kept on thinking about my old scouting buddy. You know, the girl next door who died at the age of 21? Well, I kept on getting flashes of the last time I saw her and talked to her. She looked happy. But then again, she'd always been happier than me. It makes me think which one is better: to die when you are happy or when you are miserable. Tough choice, huh? ♥

Bashing commercials is fun :) There are plenty of TV commercials I hate but I don't think you've ever seen any of them since they're only aired by local TV stations. But I can tell you my favourite TV commercial. You've probably never seen it either but what the heck. It's the Qantas Airways commercial. The one with the children's choir singing in some beautiful places in Australia. I think it's really cool. ♥

Just got hired by a mafioso? Better check out the Reputed Links to Organized Crime & the Mafia so that you'll look less like a newbie on your first day. ♥

I think SA Guide to Driving and SA Guide to Driving 2 are really cute. The pictures really cracked me up :) But then again, I'm too easily amused. ♥

Sunday Morning Haiku

Why, oh, why Sunday
Has to come oh so quickly?
Monday tomorrow :(

You don't know just how much I hate Monday. I wish tomorrow was Labor's Day (I was going to write it "Labour's Day" but then thought it was an American holiday so I decided to use the American spelling :P). Hmmm. I don't know what to say. I just woke up. I'm still half asleep. Yawn. ♥

I took the dork quiz and found that I'm a real dork! Yippeee! I'm not a dork wannabe anymore! :) ♥

Reading through the list of the Final Meal Requests from the people in death row before they were executed, I found that fried chicken, steak, burgers, french fries and jalapenos are very popular. I don't know why they couldn't be more original for once and ask for something unusual like, I dunno. Indonesian food, maybe? ♥

I always keep an open mind. I'm open to new ideas. But to make dogs wear lycra just because the owners are allergic to fur is plain ridiculous. Not to mention that it makes the dog look incredibly stupid. If you're allergic to fur, don't buy a dog. Get a goldfish! ♥

In my area, exit sign is always green. I think. Hmmm, now I'm not so sure. Maybe it's red instead. I dunno. Anyway, Americans are lucky because they can always go to the EXIT Sign Color--East/West page to check the colour of the exit sign in their area. ♥

Unless you're a Londoner, I don't think you'd care much about Project Wheelybin. But then again, if you were a Londoner, you've probably heard about it. ♥

Saturday Morning Haiku

Cloudy Saturday
So glad I spend it at home
Because it's weekend!

Stupid haiku. If I get rid of the daily haiku, will you miss it? I always wonder if there's anyone at all out there who's looking forward to read my haiku every day. I wouldn't if I were you. If you're a serious haiku enthusiast, you're probably looking forward to the day I stop writing haikus. That's the thing that keeps me from quitting, actually. I just love torturing people with my words. Bwahahahaha!!! It reminds me of this song: "The more you ignore me, the closer I get. You're wasting your time..." Ok, so it's totally irrelevant but I'm feeling irrelevant this morning. You see, I just found that I have pimples. There are two of them on my right cheek. No, scratch that. There's only one now. Yay! Well anyway, I thought 27 year olds didn't get pimples, but I must be wrong. I think I'm having a second puberty. Ack! ♥

Nikolai updated this site design to reflect the changes in the now-deceased Barbelith. The Barbelith-style navigation bar has been replaced by Plasticbag-style one. Plasticbag.org is the new Barbelith. Apart from the changes in navigation, Weblog Wannabe is still the same, so you must love it still. Or else. ♥

"...and wonderfully amazing things will begin to happen and you will never be miserable again in your entire life."

Roald Dahl, 'James and the Giant Peach' ♥

Today I spent half of my lunch hour standing in queue: 15 minutes at the bank and another 15 minutes at the Japanese restaurant. There was no incident at the bank, fortunately, but there was one at the Japanese restaurant.

The restaurant was packed with people. There were only a few tables left when I finally got to the end of the queue. I was so hungry I just took the closest table right next to the queue. I had almost everyone in the queue watching me eat. That was when I got the feeling that something really stupid was bound to happen. And as usual, I was right. As I was enjoying my bowl of soup, somehow I managed to tip the bowl and spill the soup all over the table. Typical. I don't know if it was a good or a bad thing that I knew none of the people in the queue.

I think I know what I want written on my tombstone when I die: "Here lies Firda Beka. She spent her life trying to put the 'o' into 'dork', but never quite made it." ♥

Must. Wake. Up. And. Go. Back. To. Work.

I've never been as sleepy at work as I am right now. Boring jobs do that to you. ♥

I just found that Weblog Wannabe's official birthday is actually 18 February 2000 instead of 20 February 2000, which was the day I posted my very first entry. That means my blog was born exactly a day after harrumph! and a day before randomWalks (the home of "links open windows" script *grins*). Cool! :) ♥

Friday Morning Haiku

It's Friday again!
Dum diddle diddle dum dum
I just love Fridays :)

I always wear my Mickey Mouse polo shirt to work every Friday. My workmates must think this is the only polo shirt I have. It's not true. I actually have two, but the other one is grey. Ugh. I hate grey. I don't know why I bought that one. This one I'm wearing is dark blue with a Mickey Mouse pic on the left breast. My big bro's girlfriend bought it for me when she just started dating my bro. It was some sort of a bribery, I guess. Not that I can be bought but still it was sweet. None of the other girls my bro went out with ever made any effort to befriend me. ♥

I like Jim. He writes well, and I owe him an email :)

I am so behind with my email and I'm not proud of it. If I owe you an email, please be patient. I'll try to get back to you this weekend. Promise. Scout's honour.

I used to be a girl's scout when I was a wee little girl. It was fun. We played in the mud all the time. We went camping at the schoolyard a few times. My best scouting friend was a girl with a long braided hair. She lived next door to me and we played together all the time. Yet everytime I think of her, it's the image of her in her girl's scout uniform that comes to my mind. She got killed in a car accident 6 years ago. She was only 21. ♥

Actually, Joe, that was because I was already late for work *grins* Work is already depressing as it is. Coming late to work only makes it even more depressing. ♥

Create your own geekish dialog and seduce a computer geek! I created this: "I want to squeeze your upgraded hard drive and make you scream." Heh. Would that seduce you? ;) ♥

Who would've thought that Benjamin Franklin is alive and that he is there to talk to you about "honesty and deceit, or body parts and clothing"? I asked him if he loved me and he said, "You should know, Firda, praise to the undeserving, is severe Satyr." Who me? Praising you? I didn't praise you. I asked you a question, dummy! ♥

Vote Nobody for President! Silly as it may sound, I tend to agree with their points. To quote them, "A vote for Nobody is better than no vote at all!" ♥

Learn the philosophy behind the design of women's shoes. ♥

Do you know that Sharon Stone has a scar on her neck? Even if you knew, would you care about it? You would? Wow. I don't know what to say. ♥

I don't know how to describe this site so I'll just steal the description from them: "Do you want to become an Objectivist but do not have enough time and patience to read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged? Now you can join the fun in just ten easy steps!" ♥

But Mr. Foop, my question was not a rhetorical question! Or was it? Now that's a rhetorical question *grins* Oh, nevermind... ♥

Happy 1st Birthday, Blogger! :)

Four days ago, I should've celebrated my half-year of blogging. Too bad I didn't remember it. Now I have to wait until 20 February 2001 to celebrate the first anniversary of Weblog Wannabe. I hope I'll still be blogging by then. ♥

Thursday Morning Haiku

It's Thursday again
It's yet another pay day
Be broke again soon.

It's the end of the month, which means there are plenty of bills to pay. Ugh. Hopefully this time I'll be able to spare some money to spend at the record store.

Anyway, there was an unusual thing in my site stats yesterday. My number one referrer was Dan's SubHonker Filter. I only know one person who uses the filter but he only visits my blog once a day. I think there must be 2 or 3 other people who visit my blog from the filter. But yesterday, there was 17 hits coming from the filter! It's either the filter has become so popular or there was someone who was really obsessed with my blog that they visited it like once every 2 hours. I kind of like that theory *grins* Ooops, gotta go to work. ♥

I love this Battle of the Apps. If you love robotic actions, you'll love it too. Well, I'm not really into robotic actions but I love it nonetheless so you can be sure that this is something worth checking out. Just click the link, okay? ♥

Make your own professional-looking faux business cards in one click. These cards are ready to print. "To hell with Federal Law - adopt multiple identities with Liar faux business cards and tap in to fun and contentment!" Their words, not mine! ♥

Push the buttons and make Nina the Goddess dance the way you want her to, just for you! ♥

Check out the colourful photographs of famous people as they lay dead in Celebrity Morgue. I'd rather see some photographs of them alive and smiling, thank you very much. ♥

Wednesday Morning Haiku

It's my dad's birthday
He's now 60. I'm sleepy.
My bed is calling.

I should've listened to Bryan and gone to bed before it was too late, or rather, too early in the morning. I'll listen to you next time, Bry! Now I have to get ready for work again. Bummer. I wish I could stay at home and go back to bed. Sigh. ♥

Am I so old-fashioned to believe that everyone was born with the colours that are best for them? It's not only skin colour. It's eye and hair colours as well. That's why I never know what to say when anyone asks me how I like their new hair colour. My response would be really predictable: "What's wrong with your natural hair colour?" Does that make me a stuck-up person? ♥

Hey, "z" is "zed" to me too! I'm more British than what I appear to be *grins* Not that I know what I appear to be virtually. Why don't you tell me?

Uh, I've got only one response and it says I appear to be weird. Oh well... ♥

Roger's Profanisaurus is nothing like Roget's Thesaurus. It is like what the title suggests. Expect a lot of British slangs and profanities that you might never know how or when to use. ♥

Why do mobsters have all the best nicknames? The article doesn't answer the question but it made me smile so I blogged it anyway :) ♥

Names of Things You Didn't Know Have Names. I bet you don't know what the bottom part of the nose between the nostrils is called. ♥

See your name written in Runes. The rune system was used before 500 A.D. by the vikings. ♥

If you're interested in supernatural stuff, you might want to check out the FBI's real life X-Files. Make sure you have Acrobat Reader installed because all the files are in PDF format. ♥

Tuesday Morning Haiku

Back to work again
I wish I could just stay home
How I hate my job.

No comments. I'm too depressed to give any comment. ♥

For MTV's The Real World's fans, here's the Application Form for The Real World in Butte, Montana. Care to apply? ♥

Earn a four-year college degree in minutes at College-in-a-Can. Their motto is "Scholasticum et Schtickum" which is Latin for "Scholarship with a dash of Show Biz". Go figure. ♥

Bored at home? Here's some weird stuff you can do at home. They're pretty, um, scientific. Just make sure your parents aren't home before you try those stuff. You don't want to make them panic, don't you? ♥

Retail Alphabet Game must be really easy for avid consumers and couch potatoes. Being neither an avid consumer nor a couch potato, I can only guess 8 out of the 26 alphabets. I'm sure you can do better. ♥

Find out if your manager is a Monkeybrain Manager. Reading it should make your Monday at work a little bit better. ♥

I just played my favourite pieces: "Fuer Elise", "Danube Waves", "English Country Garden" and my favourite variation of "Sayonara" on my piano. I played each piece over and over again until I could play it so perfectly that my mean, old piano teacher would've been proud had she been able to listen to it. For awhile, I forgot all about my problems. There was only me and the music. It felt great. I'm feeling great now. I really should play it more often. It's good for my soul. ♥

I guess I'm not really a big fan of Jason Kottke. 0sil8 just doesn't feel right to me. Osil8 does. I mean, how could a zero be read "oh"? "0" is zero. "O" is "oh". Right? ♥

I think it's me who is suffering from Alzheimer. I've only been out of school for two and a half years. But it does feel like four years. I miss being a student. I really do. ♥

I'm quite sure that my mother is not suffering from Alzheimer, but she just asked me, "Are you going to school tomorrow?" Excuse me? School? I've been out of school for 4 years! ♥

My Hairy Brother has been writing and recording parody songs for over ten years. Their latest parody song is "Isle of Survivor". Yes, it has something to do with the show "Survivor". This is yet another site that I can't enjoy due to my computer's muteness but I blogged anyway because I thought you might enjoy it and because I love you. ♥

The folks who bring you the Varieties of the Balloon Hat Experience travel around the world, make local people wear some silly balloon hats and ask them their definition of laughing. I just love this site. ♥

Turntables' Scratch Simulator is a must try for every DJ wannabe. Too bad my computer's still mute. I really, really want to try this :( ♥

Some people always try to read between the lines, even when there's nothing between the lines. I think that's what makes these cards unfortunate. ♥

Have a lack of artistic talent but want to be the next Andy Warhol? Well, with pop-o-matic, anyone can be the next Warhol. ♥

Monday Morning Haiku

It's the last day of
My 5-day weekend. Bummer.
How quickly time flies.

It's back to work tomorrow. Ugh. And I still haven't added anything to my site. I'm such a slacker. The only good thing about today is that it's Monday yet it's a day off for me. Nothing can beat being home on a Monday. I have a serious case of Mondayitis. Well, actually, I have a serious case of Mondayitis, Tuesdayitis, Wednesdayitis, Thursdayitis and Fridayitis, but my Mondayitis is the most serious of all. I'll feel numb as soon as I get to work. Anyway, I'd better start posting some links now. That is if I could still find anything worth blogging. ♥

Bad Hemingway Story Creation will help you write a story Hemingway-style, badly. Yeah, I know. I'm so good at stating the obvious. ♥

Lovely mini redesign at Fairvue Central. And MetaFirda has a little sidebar icon there too! Woo! :) ♥

Sunday Morning Haiku

My mind is so blank
Can't think of any haiku
I think I'm braindead.

I blogged a lot last night because I don't think I'd be able to blog much today. I'm going shopping with mummy and big bro. I'm not really big into shopping (unless it's shopping for books and/or CD's which I currently don't have the budget for) but it's the only chance I have to go out of the house during my 5-day off so I guess I'll just go. It should be nice for a change and hopefully it'll be able to improve my mood.

I haven't been in a very good mood since I woke up. In fact, I've been feeling kind of sad. I keep on thinking about that dog in an animal shelter whose picture I saw in a magazine. The dog looks so sad. If it could say anything, it must have said "love me". It's written all over the dog's face. I hope someone has adopted the poor dog by now and is taking good care of it and that the dog is no longer sad now.

You know what? Actually, the dog kind of reminds me of myself. If I were a dog, I'd probably look like that sad dog in the magazine. ♥

Did you know that reading MetaFirda can improve your sex life? No? Neither did I. I was just looking for a reason to link to it *grins* It might not be updated daily but it could use some more visitors. ♥

Before you start college, be sure to read Four Sure-fire Ways to Successfully Drop Your GPA. It might come in handy someday. ♥

From you can find anything in the internet department: Cool Ways to Kill Yourself. They are royalty-free. As if it mattered. ♥

Learn how to be a Japanese Hawaiian wannabe. ♥

I've got another song stuck in my head. It's called "Perfect Day". It was originally written and sung by Lou Reed but the version that's stuck in my head is the one sung by a British band, Duran Duran. I just love that song, especially the lyrics. It must be great to have someone who can make a day spent by doing simple things like going to the park and the zoo and the movie feel like a perfect day. If you have someone like that, I envy you. I really, really envy you.

Anyway, clicking the link will bring you to a page in BBC site where you can listen to the song and read the lyrics. Check it out. You might like it too. ♥

I finally told my mum that I'm quitting my job. She was cool about it. She didn't really agree but she didn't try to stop me either. She knows that I'm not a quitter, and that I won't quit unless things get too much for me to bear. I've even told her my plan to try to be self-employed for a couple of months and that if it didn't work out, I'd start hunting for another 9-to-5 job.

After working 9-to-5 for two years, I'm convinced that I'm not really a 9-to-5 kind of person. I like making my own rules. I hate monotony. And most of all, I'm sick of feeling unhappy because of my job. I want to live by my own rules and do something that I love and get paid for it. I know it'll make me happy. But everyone needs money to live, so, if my self-employment didn't work out, I'm going to have to go back to the monotony of the 9-to-5 world.

There are still two people left to break the news to: my father and my supervisor. My father would tell me that I'm stupid for quitting my job, that's for sure. Whatever. His opinions don't really matter to me but I just think it's only fair to tell him about it since I already told my mum. As to my supervisor, I don't think she would mind since I've never been her favourite person in the world. I rarely get my job done. She should be happy to know that I'm leaving.

September is going to be my last month as a 9-to-5 worker, hopefully for good. During the transition in October, updates in Weblog Wannabe might become rare because I don't think I'd be able to afford a lot of online time, but hopefully it'll only be temporarily. Cross your fingers for me and wish me luck! I'm going to need lots of it. ♥

The song stuck in my head right now is "Breathless" by The Corrs. I bet you've never heard of it :P I love it when I like songs that most people have never heard of because usually it's the other way around: you like songs/bands that I've never heard of. It makes me feel like you all belong to a secret society: "Society for Lovers of Songs and Bands That Firda Has Never Heard Of". ♥

I feel kind of sorry for all the pervs in Internet Perverts: Exposed. It was very well-deserved and I do think that cybersex is sick, but still I can't help feeling sorry for the pervs. They must be really desperate to get laid. ♥

The Japanese Engrish site is definitely one of the very few sites I've ever visited that could keep me laughing for more than 5 minutes. If it didn't make you laugh, I don't know what will. And yes, it's even funnier than my Power Bloggers dream. ♥

Do you want to look sophisticated and environmental-friendly? Wear The Ant Bracelet, have a bunch of real-life ants walking around your wrist and carry them wherever you go. It's better than Tamagotchi! ♥

Mmmmm, Bug Cuisine! Chocolate Covered Crickets sound yummy. I don't think I've ever eaten any insect intentionally but I did eat one of those wall lizards once when I was a kid. But lizard is reptile, not insect, so it's totally irrelevant. It is gross, but it wasn't all that gross back then. I guess children are more open-minded than grown-ups. Not that I'm a grown-up now. Well, maybe I am a grown-up but I'm not an adult. Yet. Really. ♥

Have a family gathering coming up but are not so excited to go? Why don't you just Rent-A-Relative to be your stand-in? I don't think my relatives will get fooled that easily but still it's worth trying. ♥

I had yet another weird dream last night. In that dream, I go out of town with my older brother to attend a cousin's wedding banquet. We stay in a cottage at the foot of a mountain. Before we go to the banquet, we go sightseeing first. We see a laboratory nearby. The place is so quiet. There's no one else around. I'm really curious about this lab so I wander around and finally find this safe deposit kind of thing attached to the wall. I open it and see a lot of glass tubes filled with urine in it. As I'm wondering what all these things are good for, a man shows up and he tells me that they use the urine to determine the ranks in Power Bloggers. Now you may laugh.

We then come back to the cottage to get ready for the wedding banquet which is held in a hotel which is supposed to be quite far away from our cottage. Soon we find that there's no means of transportation at all for us to get there and it's getting dark as the night is coming. But then we see two bikes standing there: a red one like the one I used to have when I was a kid and a blue one like the one my brother used to have when he was a kid. I take the blue one and my brother takes the red one and we ride the bikes to the hotel.

We take separate ways to the hotel because I think I know another way to get there which is supposed to be shorter. In 5 minutes, I get to the hotel and I think to myself, "Whoa! That was fast!" I park my bike in the parking lot and meet my brother in the banquet. We then meet the bride and the groom, congratulate them, have a little chit chat, and instead of having a big meal after that, we decide to go back to our cottage before it gets darker.

My brother parked his bike at the parking lot in front of the hotel and I parked mine at the back of the hotel so we go our separate ways again. Then I find that someone has stolen my bike. I get panic. There's no way I'm going to walk back to the cottage in the dark. I run to the front of the hotel, hoping to catch my brother there but he's already gone. As I feel the tears of frustration gather up in my eyes, I woke up. It was only 4 AM. ♥

Saturday Morning Haiku

I woke up at 4
With an itchy face. How nice.
Am I allergic?

I don't know. I don't think I ate anything that could cause an allergic reaction. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing I'm allergic of is long-term commitments. I didn't have any of it yesterday. In fact, I've never had any. Don't ask me how I could be allergic to something I've never had. Maybe I consider myself allergic to it because I've never had any of it and because it makes me feel better about myself. Do you think I'm pathetic? If you do, I don't blame you. I am a pathetic little creature. But I know you love me nonetheless :P ♥

From bad spelling gets noticed department: it's "haikus", not "hiakus", and it's "provocative", not "provacative"! ♥

Ugh. If I had to listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication" once again, I think I'm going to throw up. It's all MTV's playing these days. Sigh. I wish they'd play something from a musical for a change. ♥

Actually, I did make an attempt to write a limerick a couple of weeks ago, but it didn't turn up very well. I think it's better to torture my readers daily with a badly-written, three-line haiku than with a badly-written, five-line limerick, no? ♥

Ever wonder how long you'll live? Take TheSpark.com Death Test to find out (not to be mistaken with the Death Clock). According to the test, I can expect to die on August 9, 2055 at the age of 82 years old. Heh. If only they knew... ♥

Check out these Stupid Questions and Witty Replies on bodyart (I think that means tattooing and piercing). Honestly, I'm more likely to end up being the person to ask the stupid questions rather than being the person to give the witty replies. ♥

Did you know that you can really change the colour of the blue screen of death into green, yellow, purple or even black? I like the sound of the yellow screen of death. It makes death sound less morbid :) ♥

Friday Morning Haiku

It is a Friday
But it feels like a Sunday
Woke up at 5 still.

No matter what day it is, I always wake up at 5 AM. My natural alarm clock just can't tell the difference between a day off and a work day. Maybe it needs an upgrade. Hmmm. Anyone knows where I can download the file to upgrade my natural alarm clock? I think the one I have is still a beta version. If you know of a full or pro version of it that I can download for free, please let me know.

Don't ask. I don't know what I'm talking about either. I'm in a weird mood this morning. ♥

I just wanted to give a plug to my design hero Nikolai for being the only one to wish me a Happy Independence Day :) ♥

There are many signs of the Apocalypse in the Archive of Plain Old Wrongness. ♥

The Random Stump Speech Synopsis Haiku Generator is, well, a haiku generator. Can anyone explain to me what "stump speech synopsis" is? ♥

Now here's another contest: Cyberdog vs. Chihuahua. Who's going to win? ♥

And the winner of The Tackiest Place In America Contest is... No, I can't do that to you. Just see it for yourself. ♥

Let's travel the wonderful and frightening world of Japanese snacks! ♥

Thanks for the mention, dplanet! :) I really dig the design. While I was there, I found a link to Swatch Internet Time. Interesting concept. ♥

I was babbling something about resigning to Bryan last night but he thought I was talking about redesigning. I should've suspected that there was something wrong in this conversation when he said, "Again?" *grins* ♥

Thursday Morning Haiku

It's a holiday
It's the Independence Day
The flags are waving.

Today is the 55th anniversary of our freedom from the Dutch colonialism. The Dutch ruled Indonesia for about 350 years. Had it been the British that ruled Indonesia for that long, Indonesia might have been a better country. But we were unlucky enough to get the Dutch so, well, we got nothing from them.

I'm feeling really, really crappy. Everything is depressing me. I wish there was anything I could do to make me feel better but there's none. You can try to cheer me up if you want. Don't ask me how. If you're so smart, you'll think of something :P ♥

I hate it when someone asks me how I am but I love it when someone asks me how I am feeling. It makes me feel special. It makes me feel like you really care, even if you don't. So please, the next time you talk to me, don't ask me how I am. Ask me how I am feeling.

Now tell me, how are you feeling? I care. ♥

Get some faux webcam action of your favourite or not-so-favourite celebrities from Icebox.com. ♥

Want to buy some fossils? Try FossilAuction.com - The Online Fossil Auction. I kind of like that Mosasaur Tooth. ♥

Does anybody read MetaFirda at all? It still hasn't been listed in the Blogger directory yet so, well, I'm curious. ♥

Wednesday Morning Haiku

Tomorrow, please come
As soon as you can because
I can't wait for you!

That's yet another stupid haiku by yours truly. Actually, I don't really want tomorrow to come soon. I want this day to be over soon so I could start enjoying my 5-day weekend. But I already came up with that haiku and I'm too lazy to compose another one so what the heck.

Anyway, I had yet another weird dream last night. In my dream I see a woman who is swimming in the sea getting kidnapped by a sea monster. The sea monster looks more like a robot but once it's got hold of the woman, it transforms itself into a Concorde plane. Told you it was weird *grins*

i must've missed flying so much that I had flying-related dreams two nights in a row. I love flying. It's been 7 years since I took my last flight. I really miss it. ♥

I love you. ♥

Search Referral of the Day: agonising bdsm. ♥

I've been wanting to write about a dream I had last night all day but I just couldn't find the words to describe it. It was such a magical dream. It involves a plane crash, a little boy and a little girl dressed in white, immortal people and someone who can bring the dead into life. It's not really a nightmare. As I said before, it was magical.

The thing that I remember the most is when that person, a man whose face I can't remember anymore, brings a dead fish (of all creatures in the world) into life. He presses the fish onto the wall and suddenly some ants come and carry the dead fish and the next thing happens is the fish comes back into life. It's floating in mid-air instead of swimming underwater. It looks magical. I remember asking the man, "Did you really do that?" and he nods and smiles.

It was such a weird dream, yet it was magical. I love it. ♥

More uselessness from Stupid.com: Your Name In Japanese and Your Age In Dog Years. My Japanese name is Furude Beka. If I were a dog, I'd be 189 years old. Boy, am I glad I'm not a dog! ♥

I've seen this mispelling once in a very popular blog a couple of days ago but I saw it again in another blog today and it really irritates me, so here goes: that city where the 2000 Olympics is going to take place is spelled S-Y-D-N-E-Y and not S-I-D-N-E-Y! Got it? Good.

Now that I've got it off my chest, I'm feeling so much better :) ♥

Am I really too old to jump with joy (in the bathroom)? [Yes] [No]
♥

Are you afraid of flying? If you do, do not click this link! But if you insist... I had to pretend to be in a coughing fit to disguise my laughter *grins* ♥

Have you ever seen any of these artistic roadside signs? I always pay attention to this kind of thing during a long drive or a train ride. It keeps me amused. I'm so easily amused :) ♥

Yay! Jordan is back! That's another reason to jump with joy in the bathroom *grins* ♥

The Shape Test will tell you your personality based on your choice of shape that you find most appealing. Don't worry, you only need to answer one question in this test :)

According to this test, I am "analytical, trustworthy, self-assured". Here's the rest of the report:

"Your momentary sensitivity represents that which is of high quality and durable. Consequently, you like to surround yourself with little "gems," which you discover wherever they are overlooked by others.

Thus, culture plays a special role in your life. You have found your own personal style, which is elegant and exclusive, free from the whims of fashion. Your ideal, upon which you base your life, is cultured pleasure. You value a certain level of culture on the part of the people with whom you associate."

I don't think my personal style is "elegant and exclusive". It's more like "clumsy and simplistic" *grins* But the rest is pretty much accurate, I think. ♥

The Cult of Getting Some? Huh? Getting some what? ♥

Go dress a buddha! Even a buddha wants to look stylish. ♥

Say it with DNA! Send a DNA-o-gram to that special someone or decode a DNA message. Try to decode this: TTGAAGATGGCTGTCGGAACAATGGAGGTCGAATAG. ♥

Tuesday Morning Haiku

One more day to go
Until my 5-day weekend
I'm jumping with joy!

Well, not really but I would if I could. Maybe I'll go to the bathroom later and do just that. Mind you, the only place in this office where you can have some privacy is the bathroom. I'll be away from the office from Thursday to Monday. I can't wait!

Oh, before I forget, this Nikolai guy linked to me and I got the honour of representing the word "weblog". Should I say thanks? :P ♥

Say Weird Things In French without having to know any French! "Voulez vous me montrer une paire de cuisse de grenouilles apres 300 croissants au beurre?" sounds very sophisticated, but it really means "Do you want to show me a pair of frog legs after eating 300 croissants?" ♥

Hey, look! There are new entries in MetaFirda! What a surprise!

I'm beginning to enjoy metablogging. Can you tell? :) ♥

Stole the following link from Metajohn: Free Geek Shirt Design. They provide "t-shirt designs and ideas which can be freely copied, printed and sold by anyone who wishes to do so". Very cool! ♥

Is it just me or does the first part of Matchbox Twenty's "Bent" sound kind of like the first part of Enrique Iglesias' "Bailamos"? ♥

Um, Chris, did you know that you don't have to be *really* sick to call in sick? I also call in sick when I'm feeling sick of my job. It's not really a lie, isn't it? ♥

Somebody hates my Openlog design *sniff!* ♥

A search for Britney Spears in AudioFind resulting in the following (among others):

Oops! Slim Shady Did It Again - Eminem vs Britney Spears
So Fucking Crazy - Metallica & Britney Spears
Make My Boobies One More Size - Bitchney Spears
My Name Is Crazy - Eminem vs Britney Spears

Interesting, eh? ;) ♥

Monday Morning Haiku

This is a haiku
5-7-5 syllables
But you know it, right?

So it's a crappy haiku. Just sue me. I hate Monday. I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise to come up with something new. The idea was there but I was too sleepy to work on it last night. Mind you, I only got 6 hours of sleep all weekend.

Anyway, I had a weird dream last night. In my dream, my work supervisor is my old piano teacher (who's probably one of the scariest women I've ever known) and she is married to my supervisor from my old workplace (who's probably one of the most annoying Canadians I've ever known). My workplace is like my mother's old workplace. Mum used to have a small fish tank on her desk. I have that too on my desk in my dream. I hate my job there as much as I hate my job in real life.

The dream's ending was a bit nightmarish. I have half a dozen men running after me in one of Jakarta's main roads, which is strangely deserted, because they want to rape me, so I run and run and run, trying to remember the closest police station in that area but none comes to mind. And then I woke up because it was already 5 AM and I had to get ready for work. ♥

There'll be something new in this domain today. I haven't decided what it's going to be, but there'll be something new. I promise. ♥

See some bloopers in Star Wars Blooper Guide. I don't get most of the bloopers, though. But then again, I'm a Star Wars clueless. I can't tell the difference between Yoda and Jar Jar. ♥

Whoever made this site believes that every computer mouse manufactured after 1987 includes a tiny "Z-Chip" that reads your brain waves and sends them across the Internet. Take the demonstration. If they can guess your card, that means your mouse has a "Z-Chip". They guessed my card all right *grins* ♥

Take the generation gap quiz and find out the decade that suits your personality. I was born in the 70's but my quiz results show that I belong to the 90's. Hmmm... ♥

Things people say in chatrooms... At least there's no a/s/l question. Well, there is the "a" question but luckily the answer is enough to scare the other party away. ♥

Have you ever wondered what happened to Pamela Anderson's breast implants? Neither do I. But if you ever need to know, BitMagic has a cartoon that can show you what happened. ♥

Sunday Morning Haiku

This was the morning
Mother gave me a haircut
Short and sweet it is.

My hair is really short now and I look 10 years younger again. Yay! I can't stand having my hair longer than top-of-the-neck-length. It makes my head feel heavy and it makes me look like an old witch, especially when I'm holding a broom. Anyway, my mother made a blunder which made my hair didn't look balanced but I've fixed it and now I'm loving my freshly-cut hair. Wish I could show it to you. It's sensational, baby! And no, I'm not planning to dye it. I like it black. ♥

I have a confession to make. I actually like "I Wanna Be With You" by Mandy Moore and "Lucky" by Britney Spears. Does that make me a bad person? Blame MTV for that. Ever since my TV started to behave and decided to let me watch MTV, I've seen the videos being played at least once every two hours. I think I've been brainwashed. Eeeks! ♥

Street Level allows you to get 360-degree panoramic views of 6 cities of the world: Beijing, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Singapore and Warsaw. Make sure you have QuickTime installed. I didn't have it installed and I had to see the movie sideways, which kind of reminds me of Haiku the Blog *grins* Nevermind. ♥

So You've Decided to be Evil. Just follow the step-by-step guide and you'll be the Master of Evil. Bwahahahaha!!! Erm, that's supposed to be an evil laugh. But trust me, I'm not evil. Annoying, yes. But definitely not evil. ♥

I am, uh, flattered to be part of Jonno's nightmare *grins* Anyone else ever had a dream with me in it? ;) I'm curious! ♥

This key should be made available in the next generation keyboard. More funny photos here. ♥

Sick of Pokemon? Why don't you cook them? It tastes like chicken. Or so they say. ♥

Before you start writing your resume, check out Resumania, which is "the place for real-life examples of how not to write a resume". Pretty amusing stuff. ♥

The FTP server of afn.org is finally up (after 2 days!) and the haikus are finally posted in Haiku the Blog. Do you want a haiku? Just send me your blog URL and I'll see what I can do. ♥

Saturday Morning Haiku

I hate PMS
Is a haiku-friendly phrase
Ha! It cracked me up.

Well, not really. I'm too depressed to laugh. PMS always makes me feel really, really depressed. It makes me think of how old I am and how I haven't accomplished anything. It's like the pre-birthday syndrome all over again. How I hate PMS... ♥

Ugh, I'm in such a bad mood right now. I'll tell you what. Why don't you send me a story about the last time someone made you *really* smile? I need it for my next project. If I get enough responses, I'll put it up this weekend. Please? It'll cheer me up. A lot. ♥

Do you love movies *and* maths? The Math in the Movies Page: A Guide to Major Motion Pictures with Scenes of Real Mathematics might be able to help you get the best of both worlds. ♥

Learn the science behind the X-Files. It's not really as boring as it sounds. In fact, I find it quite interesting even though I'm not really a big fan of the show. Well, I used to, but not anymore. I've grown out of it, I guess. ♥

Not sure how to spell a word? Have no fear for SpellWeb is here. Let the web decide! You can even use it to check your or other people's popularity. Derek Powazek turned out to be more popular than Jason Kottke (according to WebCrawler). Derek gets 21 votes. Jason only gets 12. Love is more popular than hate. Marriage is more popular than divorce. Blogger.com is more popular than Weblogs.com. I could go on and on for hours but I'm sure you've stopped reading by now so I guess I'll just stop typing and post this entry. ♥

The evils of tea (and the virtues of beer)? Huh? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Tea good, beer bad! ♥

Some words and phrases are so irritating that they deserve to be banished. "It's all good" is one of the phrases, so please, don't use it, even if Kottke did. ♥

There are actually lots of people named Betty. What a surprise.

Yeah, whatever. ♥

Friday Morning Haiku

Slept for 4 hours
Have to work for 9 hours
At least it's Friday.

I went to bed at 1 A.M. last night after finishing the redesign of Openlog. I didn't regret it, though. I like the new design. No, scratch that. I love it. I very rarely love my own design. That's why you should check it out :) And post something too! They don't call it an openlog for nothing. ♥

Thanks to everyone who has sent me a weblog haiku request. Unfortunately, the FTP server of afn.org, where Haiku the Blog is hosted, is down so I can't upload the haikus yet. Hopefully the server will be back up again soon. I'll be sure to let you know when your haikus are posted. Thanks for your patience! ♥

Woohoo! My pay rise is effective! Now I can breathe a little :) ♥

I'm honoured to be the model of Jordan's little demonstration :P ♥

There's a poem for every sweater in the Lloyd & Trevor Kriegel's World of Sweaters. Cute. I'm wearing my purplish sweater right now. I know I said I hated purple but this pastel purple I like. Still I don't like it enough to write a poem about it. ♥

Wooo, I've got a lunch date! Well, not really. A guy from IT section asked me if I'd like to have lunch with him today and since I'm not really in the mood for spending more time than I have to with my ancient, grumpy, cranky supervisor, I said yes even though the IT guy always smokes like a chimney which really annoys the hell out of me but I'll do anything not to have to have lunch with my supervisor so what the heck. At least the IT guy can make me laugh and I can always tell him off when the smoke from his cigarette is beginning to suffocate me. We're going to have fried rice for lunch. Yay to fried rice! ♥

Hey, look what I've just found in my inbox: a poem from Carrie of Go Figure!

We all love Firda.
who would have thought
a wannabe could be so cool?

Maybe I'm not quite so unlovable after all. Thanks, Carrie! You just made my day a little bit better :) ♥

You know, sometimes I wish I was a cabbage. A cabbage's life can't be this complicated. ♥

The Virtual Boss made me believe that there's still hope after all. Hope for what? I don't know. For this day to get better, I guess. ♥

Taking this Personality Profile Test was no help either because my test results show that my personality type is "Unlovable, uncommunicative, know-it-all, bossy, self-hating, fuckwit." Sigh. What a consolation. ♥

I was in a bad mood and the first link I came across today was Useless Sexual Trivia. Sheesh. Life is weird. ♥

Thursday Morning Haiku

I am so sleepy
And my throat is killing me
It's been a bad day.

And it's still 7.5 hours to go before I can go home. Argh! I wish it was Friday already. Maybe I'll just call in sick tomorrow. Anyway, today is pay day. That should cheer me up, but it doesn't. Hmmmph. I just want to go home and sleep. I always want what I can't get. Typical. Anyway, I'll stop moaning and complaining now and go back to my regular blogging schedule. ♥

Do you want your weblog to be haikuised in Haiku the Blog? Just send me the URL and I'll haikuise your blog. I used to do it all the time back then and I kind of miss it. This is a limited time offer so hurry! ♥