I need something to keep me occupied...

The title says it all... I need something to keep me occupied... Reading is one... clicking and surfing doing nothing is another... watching TV is another... and that's about it...

currently, i'm planning my trip to either Seattle, Washington or Tampa, Florida... i think for about a week or two... well i think 8 to 10 days is more like it...

so... i'm really bored... and when did i last update my blog?? alright... i think is the Midwest Games thingy...

so, the midwest Games is GREAT!!! The organization is awesome... Kudos to UIUC and the committee... it's really good... for not only Malaysian standard... and it's way above my expectation...

so i shld start from the first day of the long weekend to UIUC(university of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) hope i spelled it correctly... so, it all started at about 3.45pm... where my senior, Yazid picked me up near my place, in front of South Quad... and we went back to the Malaysia kampung in U of Michigan, at Northwood Housing... where i think most of the Malaysians are residing. So, there, we waited for others to come, and i the huge convoy of 6 cars (if not more) set off to UIUC at about 4.40pm... (2 SUVs, and 4 cars...I think 3 Chevy Malibu and another dunno wat car...) the one i'm in is a Chevy malibu... anyway, i'm on the same ride as Yazid (the driver), Sheikh(the co-driver), Awang and Sharence.

So, i expected a long journey and also a short congestion because of the construction work on the freeway to Chicago... but my expectation was kinda low, cos we were stucked in the middle of the pile-up for more than an hour, and that's bad...

on the way, i dozed off every now and then, and we stopped in the middle of no where..(sorry for my lousy sense of direction...), and most of us took a leak or a break, and we continued on our road trip... and stopped at Long John Silvers to grad a bite.... and I dun really like the food there becoz a) it is too oily... and b) it is too salty... the crabcake is not bad though...

and then, after dinner, we continued our 2nd half of the road, and it's about 9.30pm now...(slight digression oh yar, it's amazing that t-mobile updated the clock on my cellphone at about 7.02pm when we crossed the timezone from Eastern time to Central Time.... )

we reached our lodging place...Travelodge at about 11.00pm.... ouch my back... i jumped out of the car instantly to stretch my back... then, we went to the Union (seems like every university has it's own union building...) to register for the games... but it was closed...(it's supposed to be open til 12midnight...) but, nvm... so, there I met some of my friends from other Uni... namely, Sian Mei and Nizar from Northwestern Uni... and Nurul from the Host Uni... and...

Then, I went back to the hotel/motel... watever to call it a night... I wished... but i needed to stay up becoz some of them who were sharing the room weren't here yet... Kai and Seng Fatt reached the place at about 1am... while Faisal(or izzit Faizal) reached about 1.30am... so, ended up sleeping at about 2am...(actually 3am eastern time...)...

Couldn't really sleep for the night becoz 3 of us sharing the bed... well, and it's kinda hot in the night and it was quite cold the next morning, and too bad... Kai and Seng Fatt kinda grabbed hold of the blanket... so, the chill kinda woked me up at 5am, 6am and 7am... went to grabbed a donut at the front desk...(dunkin donuts... :P) and I'm off for the big event... well, the opening ceremony wasn't bad... but well, the speakers and the emcee are not good either... so, ppl started to have their own chats while the speakers were giving their obviously-written-by-someone else speeches... forgot to mention that the honorable guests are the Minister of Higher Education from Malaysia... Datuk Dr. Shafie Salleh and also the Ambassador of Malaysia to US Datuk Ghazali Sheikh....

so, after the opening ceremony, the launching of the games, and all, the game started at 10.40am... well our first basketball match, up against the 4-time defending champion team...Nebraska B... and fair enough, our amatuerish and never(really never) get together hybrid team who was worried that we would be disqualified becoz couldn't meet the minimum 7 team members was quashed, stomped, humiliated, screwed, and watever with a devastating score of 67 - 6... oh yar... i played for the first half only because of my table tennis match at 11.30am... and when i got there, i waited for 10 minutes, and yet, my opponent didn't turn up, so i just won my first match without lifting my racket... next match at 12.30pm...

so, i ran back to the basketball court to watch the horror butchering from University of Nebraska over our hybrid Michigan team...(with a friend from Carnegie Mellon University...and some frens from RPI....) after that, I went back to the table tennis court and won a tight match 3 - 2... wow... with the 3rd game in the ended up with a score of 14-12...(duece...) well, i'm a better player... but i'm nervous and wasted the opportunity of winning the game early on... but... whew... a win is a win... :P (i won the last point with my opponent making a mistake of serving the ball long... :P)

so, went back to the basketball court at about 1pm... this time, we played against Case Western Reserve University(CWRU)... well, we did took a lead... and we were quite close in terms of the points for most of the first half... suddenly, we just got lost, and we just threw the game... and ended losing like 11 - 20+....

and at about 1.30pm, i went to play my Quarterfinal Match... won the match 3 - 1... yeah... I'm thru the semifinal... next game at 3.30pm... right now.... i'm really starving... imagined the only thing that I ate for the past 18 hours was just a donut.... so, at 2pm, we played our last match of basketball... against the host team... UIUC... and again, we were really close at first... and made a few mistakes here and there and let them to have a comfortable lead, and that's it... We lost all our matches in the group and sank to the bottom of the table...

after that, we went to grab our lunch... well, had nasi lemak for lunch.... not bad... but it would be better if it was spicier... that's about 3pm... didn't drink the Mountain Dew becoz i've a game at 3.30pm... so, i went there with a full stomach... and whew... luckily it didn't give me a huge trouble... and i went on to win the match 3 - 0....(i think).... so, that's it, i'm in to the FINAL... tomorrow 12pm....live at UIUC...

so, the next match at 4.30pm... doubles... we waited for more than 10 minutes again... we got the free win again.... then, our opponent showed up... and they wanted to play... so, Kai and I decided to be nice and played them, and we won the match too... and the next match at 5.30pm... and we lost it... :(

so, after that, we found our friend...my housemate back in INTEC, Yik Han to be our tour guide... he led us around the campus, UIUC is not bad... nice place, nice acrhitecture... nice town... but it is more 'kampung' village-like... later, he brought us to a Chinese restaurant - Mandarin Wok... and he rushed back to work... the food was delicious... and the price is cheaper than that of Ann Arbor... well well.... i think JPA should re-evaluate our allowance... at least use the COLA....(Cost of Living Allowance) system... it's unfair for us to be paid the cheaper rate and having us to spend the high cost of living here in Ann Arbor....

after dinner, it's about 8.30pm... Kai and I walked back to our hotel...(dun wanna trouble our senior...), it's not a long walk... just about 20 minutes... reached the hotel/motel and bathed and all.... watched the basketball match... Spurs vs Suns... well, Suns won the match and was 3 - 0 up...

later, we watched the AC Milan vs Liverpool Champions League Final on my laptop... and not a bad match... those saves... and those celebration... and went to bed at about 1am....

woke up at about 7am the next morning... called home... and then, watched the F1 lived from Germany... and then, went to judge table tennis match at 9am... and then, for about 2 hours... and then, practiced awhile...and practiced with my opponent from 11.30am til 12noon... and the Final match went bad... well... he was the better player... no doubt about that... but i thought i can pressure him by winning the first match... i was leading 10 - 6 and i lost 6 points in a row...

and the next two matches went even worse... and luck weren't on my side today... with like more than 5 smashes which caught the net and bounced out of play... well.. just bad...

still, i'm happy to be the runner up... after that, we went to the Illini Union Bookstore to get some souvenirs... I got a cap and a t-shirt... then, we went back to the sports building to catch the other finals... with badminton... singles and doubles both won by my senior Kai Soon (with Izzudin for doubles)....

then, went to watch the Basketball final... and again, the team that slaughtered us yesterday...University of Nebraska B team won the match...

and then, we walked around to kill some time... and lined up for the Hi-Tea at 3pm... well, the food wasn't bad... and then, we went to Old Navy to get a pair of pants and a shirt... well... there's a performance night tonight and I got nothing but t-shirts and jeans and shorts... so, spent $25 on it... and rushed back for the night....

AND something came along and it burst my bubble... I noticed that the racket which Kai borrowed from KaiSoon which was supposed to be in my bag wasn't there... I made a few calls... and tried to go back to the sports building to look for it but couldn't find... nobody handed it into the lost and found... damn...

went to the performance night.... and there were way too many dances... and got my medal from the most 'Loved' guy, the director of MSD-Chicago... Rahim is his name...(i think)...

then, i met the nice committee person who was in charged of the table tennis thingy... and he gave me the number of the person who was there... Cat... and she told me that she saw the racket there and at that moment... Uni of Minnesota team was still there... so, I tried to ask Boon Yi of U of Minnesota... and then Der Ueng (also from Minnesota) said he saw that nobody took it, so he kept it... Thank goodness... Whew... so, we went back to thier place (Lincoln Lodge... right beside our hotel) and got it back from him...and problem solved....!!!!!

that's about 11.15pm... went back to my room to start packing, coz i'll be leaving and going back to Ann Arbor tonight... at about 12midnight... i went to Yazid's place... and then, waited for them to get ready and all, watched the Iron Chef America while waiting... and at about 12.40am, we left UIUC...

so... at about 3am... we stopped at somewhere near Michigan city for breakfast... the breakfast at Denny's was good... had a county breakfast... (3 pancakes...and 2 eggs with hashbrown and 2 sausages and bacon...) and I managed to down it...(almost... left some hashbrown) we left that place at about 4am... and continued our journey... and we reached Ann Arbor at about 8.40am... I'm dead tired... I couldn't really sleep on wheels... and I'm stucked in the middle back seat...

i'm checked my mail...and took a shower and drop dead on my bed... and woke up at 4.00pm in the afternoon.... felt a bit groggy and all... and went dinner with Eric... and had 2 scoops of Stucchi's too....(almond ice cream....nice)...

went to sleep early again at about 11pm and woke up the next morning at 9am....

had cereals for lunch becoz i didn't do groceries last week... so basically, my fridge is empty...(actually quite full, but not with my stuffs...)

so, it's Tuesday... so, had Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner... Eric and I chowed 40 wings... and was too full for any dessert..

was quite tired too... but still i had to settle my homework for tomorrow... and stayed up late... and woke up even later the next morning....

that's another story... wow.... can't imagine that i just crapped for so much....

take care...