Family Trip to Genting & Port Dickson

若不是真爱，谁能耐？

这篇文其实和标题没啥关系。

我最近在家里翻旧东西，挖掘出很多“宝藏”：我写过的小说（永远都写了个开头，却没撑到结局的）、手制的杂志、为中学图书馆布告栏设计过的字体、甚至还有一些我原创的服装和卡通人物手稿。

看着自己从小到大的作品，我忽然有感而发，特别想和大家分享一下这些我一直都珍藏起来准备当嫁妆的东西。对，你没看错，我说“嫁妆”！这些东西不值钱，却是我珍贵的心血。我以前一直很希望，我能在未来把这些作品拿出来给我的丈夫看，让他夸夸我；让他能通过我的作品，参与我的成长过程，就算是一点点也好。

时过境迁，现在我的想法变了：我没有兴趣再逼着一个未来的人去看过去的东西。我也不需要痴痴地等一个人的肯定，因为我有家人和朋友的支持。所以，我决定把这些曾经让我异常自豪，现在让我非常尴尬的东西秀出来，娱乐一下大家。

手制的杂志

小学四年级的年杪学校假期，你在做什么？

当时我们全家都在和一种叫做“芽菇”的淡水植物打交道。我、姐姐和爸爸奋力地洗洗洗、削削削，妈妈和合伙人拼命地刨刨刨、炸炸炸，赶在农历新年之前将其制作成年饼畅销八方。很多个早上，我都是被炸芽菇片的香味给馋醒的。后来我一逮到机会，就往我学校附近的大众书局跑。那里有空调吹，有书看，最重要的是，书局里没有满屋子怎么驱都驱不散的芽菇味。

那段时间我也一直在想，怎么没有报纸杂志报道一下这炸芽菇片呢？这东西很好吃啊，这东西在本地颇有市场价值啊。好吧，没人报道，我来开这条先河！（炸芽菇片在我上初中之后才开始收到本地媒体的关注。这事不怪谁，以前网络没那么发达，一样东西要在民间红了好久才被媒体发现。）

大众书局和芽菇，这两个毫无关联的东西，在我的脑海里已分不开了。所以当我要“出版”一本关于芽菇的杂志时，杂志的出版社一下子就敲定是大众书局了。可是不能真用《大众》啊，侵犯版权的事我不能干！左想右想，最后我的手制杂志是由《甴曱书局》出版的。甴曱是什么？甴曱在粤语里是蟑螂的意思！

好好的美食（和八卦）杂志为什么和这么恶心的害虫扯上关系了？！甭问我，我也不知道！小学生的创作哪有这么多逻辑可循啊？

（下图）杂志里的其中两页。补充一句：我妈是本杂志中提及的芽菇代言人。

小学五年级的年杪学校假期，经过一年的沉淀，《甴曱书局》出版的美食杂志在本编辑的幻想里广受好评，连一年一本的杂志号都免了，直接办展览会和生活营！瞧瞧，连宣传单都写好了！哈哈！

（上图）其中两张《甴曱书局》的宣传单。

第一本写作品

小学六年级，我突然不当编辑了，改行当编剧。这份全对话式的作品就是当时写的（看下图）。

那会儿每天下课小休的时候，我们都会围一个圈坐。别人边吃边聊天，我就边啃面包边奋笔疾书在画这个。每次写好了一张，就强制性要求圈里的同学都看一遍。小学的时候，我的霸道绝对比我的文笔高出好几个层次。

这个故事到底是说啥的，我已经记不清了，现在也没胆量重翻一遍。这个故事绝对是个搞笑爱情故事；至于内容嘛，我只记得当时很流行那种主角得癌症的悲情韩剧，所以我的作品里恶搞这个概念，讲其中一个主角也被诊断出有癌症。当然最后是沿着搞笑风格讲述那全是一场乌龙，大家皆大欢喜呗。

这本作品，大概是我寥寥无几有写完结局的作品耶。

初中的那些创作

六年级那年，我认识了同班的一个写作鬼才。她可以同时写七本不同种类的长篇小说，爱情古代现代鬼谈什么都有，而且她的文笔真的很好很细腻。可惜她的妈妈并不支持她的创作，所以她只能偷偷在上课和考试时写。她的毅力感动了我，我以她为奋斗目标，开始学习写小说。

六年级还有中一那两年，我也开始迷上看各类小说：金庸的武侠小说、西方的经典爱情小说译本，像《茶花女》、《简·爱》之类的、还有一些比较悲情的中国近现代长篇小说，像《家·春·秋》。

青春期，加上我接触的东西不一样了，那段时间我超迷恋写那种略带悲情的小说。不过绝大部分的作品，都是有了构思，下笔写了两下子，最终却没法成型。虽然读了很多名著，能感受到的风景较多了，却还是缺乏自身经验，加上写文章时常常有种心中所想传达不到手中所写的乏力感，所以很多时候我都轻易放弃了。总结起来，那段时间是我“为赋新词强说愁”的全盛时代。

（下图）我从六年级至初中三的作品。值得一提的是：我中二时其实完成了一本轻小说，书名为《相恋·十天》。不用多说，一本爱情小说是也。

为中学图书馆布告栏设计的字体

小学最后两年外加中学五年，我一直都是个快乐的读书人，也是个吊儿郎当的图书馆管理员。中三那年，我如愿进入我向往的图书馆设计团队。咱的图书馆虽不大，分工起来却挺细的。星期一的团队负责多媒体设计，主攻摄影；星期三的团队负责室内设计，主攻摆设；而我所在的星期五团队，负责每个月更新布告栏。

我们有两个小组，一组三人：一人负责按照题材找资料、一人负责画插画、一人负责设计标题字体。我特讨厌找资料，画的插画又很幼稚，没法只能学做字体。设计字体也是大有学问的：不能太单调，否则吸引不了人驻足；也不能太花俏，否则就会喧兵夺主，别人也读不出标题到底在写啥。

每一次的标题，少则二十来字母，多则五十多个字母，我有时候为了赶工会彻夜不睡。我在那个团队里呆了两年半，试验了很多不同种类的字体和设计。从一开始跟着学姐的指导和喜好设计，到开始实践自己的创意，至后来摸索出自己较擅长的创作格式，我只能总结说那段时间我获益匪浅。

（上图）我设计过的字体样板，一个款留了一个（有些留了两个）。我最喜欢的头三个设计：第一名是那个以猫猫为样本的字体，第二名是用了旧相片胶带的铂金字体，第三名是用了光碟和剪纸当背景的字体。

高中的那些创作

高中生要专注高考，所以不能写作了。个屁。高中那两年，我该吃照吃，该玩照玩，想写东西的时候就照写呗。

上图中的五本册子，其实都是讲同一个故事的。那段时间我开始关注除了剧情以外的东西。我知道想要写好一个故事，除了需要好的主题之外，还要巧妙编排人物的出场次序，讲一件事时的切入点，还有第一人称还是旁观者式的说故事手法等等。

那段时间，我边构思着一个关于魔法大陆的故事，边思考着这种细节。我换了很多种技巧来讲这个故事，所以弄出了这么多本子。可惜这个和魔法有关的爱情故事最终还是没法写到最后。

失败最主要的原因是我不适合写这类型的小说，我的故事牵涉到很多打斗的描述、很多新奇梦幻的场景，可是我的创意根本不在这些方面上。我看了很多武打小说和《哈利波特》，看时觉得很好看很惊叹作者的心思，却始终没法感同身受。

这段时间虽然没有作品问世，却不是白费的。我通过重复讲述一个故事，体验到写作时选字措辞的重要性。

大学的那些创作

进大学后，鉴于课业的要求，我开始自学如何剪接短片。在沙亚南读书的那两年，我和同窗合作翻拍了很多音乐录像。那些搞笑的录像，没法上传到部落格里，就留在我的硬盘里当压柜私家货吧。现在在待业期间，我闲来没事也会剪接一两个旅游短片来排遣无聊。

至于我大学期间的写作，精华都收录在恰淡日志这里了。你要是有兴趣就自己翻来看吧。

我捯饬了这么一大堆旧东西后，才重新发现原来自己是真的很喜欢创作。这么多年过去了，我的习惯兴趣脾性身边的朋友改了又改，唯独这个兴趣一直没变。真想讲一句：若不是真爱，谁能耐？

至于投稿嘛，我在大学期间试过一次投稿给大马的某间报社，无奈被拒绝了。这不怪别人，我初期写的旅游后感真的不怎么样。可是那次之后，我至今暂时没胆再投稿。我想我有着无论怎样都坚持创作的毅力，却还没练就出无论多少次都持续投稿的勇气。

Little things that count

Some dates that I bookmarked in my calendar for these 4 months are:

June 22

My family had never taken any family photo in a studio, by a professional photographer before. We really wanted to try it at least once, so we decided to do it in conjunction with my graduation photoshoot. Out of many studios available in Ipoh and Kampar, we picked Christal’s Dressing Room because the lady sounded very friendly and helpful over the phone; furthermore, we found a promotional coupon on Groupon for this studio, which made the whole deal incredibly sweet and affordable.

Upon arrival at the studio, Christal gave me a full face makeup. After that, we went straight to the photo shooting session. Instead of getting our photos taken in front of the traditional fake bookshelves backdrop, my family decided to have our photos taken at the set prepared for indoor wedding photoshoot. The photographer, Jacky, was very patient with us. We looked very stiff in front of camera, so he kept teasing and joking with us to get us loosen up. Besides that, he allowed us to use any props available in the studio that we like to help with the photoshoot.

After the shoot was completed, we stayed back to pick out the photos that we want before we left. The whole process took around one and a half hours. The photos were ready for us to pick up within a week.  The outcome was nice: everybody looked natural (even after the editing) and genuinely happy in the photos, and the background was simple yet classy.

Picture above: A little of "behind the scene". Picture below: One of the final outcome.

Overall, my family and I were happy and satisfied with the service, so we would highly recommend this studio to the others.

July 21

My dad work in the construction industry and I have always loved how he involve us in his job. When we were still little, he would bring my sister and me to the construction site so that we could bike on the new tar roads. When he worked in other states, he would try his best to plan a vacation with the family at the state he was in. So growing up, I have seen (and played in) lots of showhouses, and I have played with many tools used in construction.

This time, I learnt how to use an optical level, an instrument used during the early stage of surveying, before any building process could take place. Optical level is used for elevation check and alignment; in layman’s term, optical level is used to measure how tall a ground is at a specific point, and how much its height differs from the height of another point on the ground.

After leveling is done, the workers could theoretically put sand or whatever it is on the ground to make every point on the ground the same height, so that the building is built on a flat surface.

It was pretty easy to learn how to function an optical level; the challenge was how to read the scale accurately. Just like in any sciences, precision and accuracy are highly emphasized in practical work of construction. I mean, do you think it’s an acceptable mistake to have a dangerous building built just because the architect or engineer or site manager missed a decimal somewhere in the process?

August 12-14

If you follow my blog or my FB, you might recall that I was in Hatyai during these three days. I did a short video about the trip, you can watch it here, but I want to highlight a particular moment in this post:

On the second day in Hatyai, we went to a shopping mall and my mum and E were busy picking and buying some cosmetic in a beauty store. My sister and I were bored while waiting for them, so we used some of the product testers available in the store to create a burn wound. We had tons of fun making it and scaring my mum and E with it. They thought the wound was real at the first glance. Ha!

We learnt how to make fake wounds from our high school St. John casualty stimulation course. Burn wound is one of the easiest wounds to make. Here’s the outcome:

The beauty products that we used were:

(I’m sorry, I accidentally deleted the list so I don’t have the exact products’ name and price with me)

Egg peel off mask – to replace glue in the making of the affected skin area

Various shades of lipsticks – to replace fake blood made from food coloring

Eye shadow – to replace 8B pencil in the making of the burn skin

August 21

Y was in town for the weekend! So N, Y, and I had a girls’ night sleepover at my house. We watched the Olympics badminton final match, chatted, and tried out some snacks and drinks N brought back from her study abroad trip. The next day we went to a tourist spot which I have always wanted to go: Lost World of Tambun!

We kick started our day in the waterpark by soaking in the 38, 40 and 45 degrees Celsius hot springs. Then, we moved on to the slides! There were only 2 types of slides available: the Cliff Racer and the Tube Raiders. I liked the Cliff Racer because right after you raced down the initial slope, the momentum will push you up to another slope, and finally you will slide down backwards.

The Tube Raiders was a lot of fun too! There are 3 kinds of slides that you can choose: the semi-open slide, the closed slide, and the dark slide. We tried all 3 and my favorite was the dark slide because it felt like I was traveling through space when I was sliding down the almost pitch-black tunnel. I checked the website and apparently Tube Raiders is the longest inflatable tube ride in Malaysia.

Besides hot springs and water slides, there are roller-coaster, carousel, pirate ship pendulum ride, and swing ride in the park. We tried all except the carousel because we were too tall. Oh come on!

In the late afternoon after lunch, we watched an animal show. After that, we watched a dance concert while soaking in the jungle wave pool. I was hyped cheering for the dance teams while getting gently pushed by the artificial waves. It was definitely a fun time at Lost World but I wouldn’t go there often because the ticket is pricey.    

Sept 6

Y, N, Q and I went on a roadtrip to Putrajaya. I think the last time all four of us travelled together in a car was during Thanksgiving 2015 when we went to Wisconsin Madison? Boy, that was so long ago! N drove throughout the whole 2D1N and I am so proud of her. Driving long distance in Malaysia and driving in the chaotic KL area are two very stressful tasks. But she did it!

I met some of my INTEC (preparatory college) friends during the meet-up in Putrajaya. Things have changed and I know we will grow further apart as time goes. I might not be able to meet some of them ever again. Or I might meet some of them again after years, perhaps in another country or city. Who knows what the future holds?

Let’s just be thankful that at this point, I still keep in touch with some of my high school, INTEC, and IU friends. I hope that in the future if we ever meet again, we will not be stranger to each other; instead, we can still hug and have tea (or coffee) together.

Picture above: Night view of Taylors College 

(the preparatory college N, Y, and Q went to).

Picture below: View of Putrajaya from 7th floor of the building we went to for meeting. 

Before I end this post, I want to tell you guys, one of the reasons why I started blogging:

Why do I blog?

I bookmark these happy moments, tough journeys, sad feelings that I encountered in my life through blogging, so that I can come back and visit them during the days when I feel down and intimidated, or during the days when I am frustrated and ungrateful.

Why do I revisit my own blog post?

Each time as I read through these blog posts, or those Excel files which all my finance, involvements, and achievements are nicely categorized in, I am reminded that God is with me, throughout every seasons of my life. He will not forsake me; instead, He will lead me through every mountains and valleys.

These posts remind me of my friends and family as well. They are my faithful travel mates; furthermore, they lovingly tolerate my quirkiness.

Overall, these diaries and records are constantly reminding me to be grateful and be observant, because a lot of times it's the little things in life that count. God has guided me this far into the journey, not to perish, but to overcome.