The Merdeka Post.

For starters, something seen on the landing page of TheStar Online on the eve of Merdeka, where as you can see, the left panel dictates on Budget 2009 which aims on helping the poor (yeah right) and on the right panel, is about a particular private college in Penang using 17kg of chilli, 250kg of sago and 20kg of lentils costing RM800 to design the spicy Jalur Gemilang to show their patriotism.

Image courtesy of TheStar Online. Nothing much, I just find it funny for these posts to be displayed side by side.

So, its our 51st celebration of Independence, much less lavish than the one held last year and not forgetting the fact that there was even a cut on the budget allocated for the Merdeka celebrations, hence the buy your own Jalur Gemilang campaign.

Up until early Friday, the August 29, I have only managed to spot 3 vehicles attached with those mini-stick-on Jalur Gemilangs around KL which is a pretty sad number considering how things used to be.


This Merdeka also marks the first time ever I am working around the KL area during the rehearsal week, the traffic was pretty bad due to road closures. Kinda pity one of my colleagues who was stuck for almost three hours. If I'm not mistaken, there were some suggestions previously to move the parade to Putrajaya instead, since most of the government offices and such have been moved there, which to me is pretty good stuff but then, I seriously have no idea what happened after that.

To me, it seems as though ideas that are dynamic and beneficial in the long run are never taken into consideration nor implemented, just suggested.

Patriotic songs overdose for the whole week, I never knew there were so many of them! Playing the songs back to back, it lasted like what, forever?


When I was much younger, I used to stay up on the eve of Merdeka till the clock strikes 12 and together with all the others in the idiot box, I would chant 'Merdeka' for three times, the usual count, before heading to bed.

And I would make sure to be awake early in the mornings to catch the parade proceedings on TV, momentarily wishing hard that I could be one of them marching past our King and Ministers. Semangat patriotik yang berkobar-kobar. That was actually one of the reasons I joined the uniformed body after knowing that the participants were selected from random schools each year but the chance never came for me.

That was back then, now, I fell asleep much earlier than usual yesterday night, totally drained from all the activities throughout the day and cursing at the planes and choppers in the morning for jolting me awake with the fly-past. Semangat patriotik sudah tenggelam mendalam-dalam.


I may not be as enthusiastic as I used to be, I may dislike or at some point even despise the some of the politicians governing us, I may be wishing a certain segment of rowdy Malaysians eat shit, drop dead and die, I maybe unhappy with just about everything about Malaysia but this is still the place where my blood first fell upon its ground, literally, this is still home. For this, I wish for nothing but only the best for Malaysia in the days to come.


Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan yang ke-51, semoga hari-hari yang bahagia akan datang dimana kita boleh lagi sekali menyambut hari Kemerdekaan dengan gemilang.

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Happy Birthday to @dri@n.

Its your birthday, but this post came just a little too late but what to do yesterday really too busy lah next time tell you why so I backdated it to your actual day. And this is not cheating, its creativity okay? Anyhow, wish you good health always, many happy returns, faster get married don't become like Rames who should have seen this coming hahaha and last but not least, wish your collection grow bagaikan cendawan tumbuh selepas hujan or something like that.

Gambar ini kamu macam sedang sembahyang sama itu kek yang super sedap itu lebih daripada sedang membuat hajat. Hope you like that green 400% thing that we got you, hehehe. Oh, image courtesy of Jen cause I din bring mine, malas ler.

Gathered for makan in celebration of his birthday on its eve at Tony Roma's which turned out to be quite disastrous, the food that is. With the absence of its oh-so-famous pork ribs plus myself not feeling like taking beef that particular evening and the others not recommending chicken (according to Junn, his was disastrous while Jen's one, which I sampled, was thin but hard and difficult to digest), I had no choice but to turn to fish. I had Blackened New Zealand KingKlip with rice and brocolli.


Note: Blackened is a process of cooking on a very hot surface so that the surface appears black and crispy while the inside moist and flaky, this is what I know.


Sadly, mine nowhere near black perhaps they were afraid it might scare me off, was still alright on the outer surface but waterish and gave a tough texture on the meat. I barely managed to finish off the fish if not for the help of loads of black pepper shower, quite jelak I tell you. The brocolli was boiled a little too soft for liking, pretty bland as well.

The only commendable thing dining there was the top-notch service provided, very attentive and helpful waiters knowing us being us eh? I think we probably refilled drinks that could've last them for a week, lols. Anyway, it would definitely be a long time before I return here due to the not so positive experience with the food, might be due to the wrong choices I made as well.


Should I head down to SG again, I would probably head for the Tony Roma's in Suntec City there, if I'm not mistaken, just for the experience and comparison, hehehe.

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Here I am.

But not for long, need to catch up on some sleep yo, been really, really tied up with work lately since things have almost fall to a 'one leg kick' situation. Fear not for Super-Jed, the self proclaimed workaholic who slaved through yesterday and only managed to grab dinner at 10 something fuh after that continued until 3 something hence feeling like shiet for the whole but he shall still be able to make it through the drain, as in energy drained, not the longkang lah hai-yo-yo (quite tempted to put wtf here but shall refrain from doing so for no apparent reason).


Actually, the main purpose of this post is to let it be known that Jacklyn has hippity hopped onto the online shop bandwagon and the range of wares available in this virtual store does not really reflect its name alright, so, please do not expect to be bombarded with clothes that are only cute-ish, sweet-ish or pink-ish. Before I forget, also many thanks to Miss Julia for coming up with the name as well as the banner yang asyik kena ban finally settled for the first draft, lols.

Show some support yo! by clicking on the IMAGE as you might just find something you like and there's more to come! Alternatively, StrawberryClothes can be reacheable at http://strawberryclothes.blogspot.com/.

It has been raining cats and dogs continuously lately, be it in the morning, afternoon, evening, night, midnight, past midnight, way past midnight what I wanted to say is that its coming down like there's no end to it. Increase your supplements and keep a healthy diet to combat viruses, else you might end up like Jac and Jen who synchronously did the action of sucking-in mucus in their nose on numerous occasion, kesian them but at the same time quite funny. I wonder if Junn is doing alright now...

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Claypot Chicken Rice.

Because I am so bloody forgetful, I totally forgot to take note of this restaurant's name, champion in the making. But no fear, for I shall have no trouble guiding you there or even keep you company all the way provided I get a free meal, muahaha. Okay, the mentioned restaurant is located in Equinne Park, right behind the Jusco complex and from the entrance nearest to Jusco, its located on the left-most lane, around the middle left-row, fuh, I felt that I'm almost as powerful as GPS, at times.

Nothing is more refreshing that a glass of icy cool herbal tea on a blazing Saturday afternoon, slurps. Taking on the first sip, it almost felt as though it was heaven sent.

Pig's stomach in black pepper soup (Hak Jiu Jue Tou Tong) and surprisingly, the soup was boiled with chicken as part of the main ingredient me thinks, notice the chicken meat in the soup? In the beginning I was complaining on how the soup lacks the black pepper OMPH and in the end, it was too thick to handle, choking on every spoonful, oh, the irony.

I spent quite a bit of time thinking, how "Luk Yau Choy" is supposed to be referred to in English. Oiled Steamed Vegetables since Lou Luk = Steamboat? Boiled vegetable served with deep fried garlic and soy sauce? It was fresh and crunchy btw.

Main dish, the claypot chicken rice. What? Didn't I mention this earlier *scrolls up and reads* Well, I guess not, ahaha *pai seh* So, the best part of this dish is its huge serving and the taste sector faring quite well. The bad part, its huge serving and good taste as well because you tend to try your best to finish it up no matter what, lols. And end up bloated for the rest of the day.

Before I forget oh typical me, all the above costs about RM22, quite cheap considering the huge serving of claypot chicken rice, cooked using the traditional method, with charcoal that is, also camed with chinese sausage as well as small chunks of salted fish yums. Another plus point, cleanliness of the claypot itself. Can fight with the one in Pudu (along the main road beside Maybank) as well as Taman Desa Aman (one of the shoplots inside the flats).

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Cancelled?

Hey! Hey! You! You!
My concert has been cancelled!

No way! No way!
I can't believe it either!

Hey! Hey! You! You!
What the hell has happened?

Hey! Hey! You! You!
Cause I'm bad influence?

No way! No way!
You really must be kidding me!

Hey! Hey! You! You!
I swear I'll never come again!


The UNBEST Damn Thing has happened to the Best Damn Tour. Source HERE. We should all just be locked up at home watching replays of religious video clips showcasing morality until the day we die.

Its 20082008 (twentieh august two thousand and eight) BTW, really losing track of the dates when we're no longer writing them down like we used to.


Updated: Seems like the concert will be ON after all, tsk, tsk, tsk... typical decision makers of Malaysia.

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Visible.False

It was a Saturday night and we were just done with a scrumptous BBQ dinner at marc residence, somewhere nearby KLCC. I was driving tentatively while she was yakking away like usual when she suddenly mentioned about how dangerous it was for those bunch of guys to be sitting on the shoulder of the road as I made a turning into Jalan Tun Razak.

Out of curiousity, I had a quick glance at the direction pointed out by Jacklyn but much to my surprise, I saw absolutely no one, kosong, zero, sebiji pun takde, yi-lek.


So I brushed it off as a case of blurry eyes due to tiredness and half-asleepness as we are all aware of the incredible ability of Jacklyn being able to fall sleep no matter where, no matter when, no matter how in the quickest manner. Champion. But of course, being herself, she insisted on seeing those fellas and blamed me for not trusting her all the time, double champion. Of course, things didn't end just like that.


Passing Loke Yew just after Taman Pertama, once again Jacklyn motioned for me to look at towards the middle of the highway where an old man is supposingly to be sitting in the column seperating the to and fro lanes. Needless to say, I saw nothing at all, nothing beside, on my side mirror, on my rear view mirror, not even in front of me but this time around, a thought suddenly strucked me.

In the chinese calendar, this is still the month where spirits can wonder freely around us, right? Coupled with the fact that there's not much occurance or even none, where you chance upon individuals or groups squatting/sitting on shoulders and columns of roads/highways, among the trees and bushes, right? Makes me wonder.


Truth to be told, I think I scared the *insert body organs or parts of choice* out of her upon sharing the above opinion on her sightings. Sigh, me and my big mouth, I ended up spending the rest of the night keeping her company. Not only that, she kept me occupied with the task of verifying her sightings of single individuals by the roadside throughout all the subsequent journey that night *pengsan terus*.

I leave you with a picture of Beef Ball Noodle from Soong Kee, located at Medan Pasar, yummy, yummy must jilat jari.

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Latest.Update()

# SO, instead of the much anticipated GOLD, Lee Chong Wei had to settle for silver but its still a first for Malaysia, in the individual category that is. FYI, the first silver medal was won by the pair of Cheah Soon Kit - Yap Kim Hock back in 1996 but I'm sure you knew that already.

I felt that while Lin Dan was on top form during that match, the same could not be said for Lee, perhaps the pressure of shouldering Malaysia's only hope for the gold medal and also the deafening cheers from the crowd (not for him) was really getting into him, hence losing succumbing to his opponent's game rhythm. I know I would.


OF COURSE there's disappointment but I believe that what I felt is only a tiny fraction of what Lee must be shrouded in, confirm, I've been through this working extremely hard and end up losing senario before. Anyway, he has already made us proud by reaching the finals which was not an easy feat at all, facing world class players such as Lee Hyun Il, a dangerman known to create upsets, Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Ronald Susilo along the way.

For that, he should be sung praises instead of the abundant negative comments and discouraging remarks that I've come across so far. Then again, I guess that's what most Malaysians do best, totally tumpang glory if win, tumpang bashing kaw-kaw when lose. Shame on you guys lah.



# Have you heard, the Cabinet has agreed on a new administrative charge rate for PTPTN loans, applicable to new and existing applications as well as those currently paying off their loans, that's ME! Instead of the previous 3% for degree courses and 5% for master courses, a flat rate of 1% across all courses, which is calculated on a reducing rate basis, has been approved.

I will finally be able to see the actual amount being paid off rather than just servicing the incredible amount of interest, a good news indeed, very much welcomed! Have you started paying your's yet? More information here.



# In Malaysia, nothing can be worst than our political system, not even our public transportation or our public washrooms. Instead of stability, we have everything else including chaos, finger pointing, the blame game, unusual activity, interest as well as behaviours, and so much more.


We have politicians giving their opinions about an issue when not required and not uttering even a single word when required, from both the government as well as the opposition. Its a total circus, if I may say so and some are still left wondering the cause behind Malaysia's massive brain-drain. It makes me wonder what is to become of us, the poor rakyat?

Ah, enough about them talk so much later kena visited by ACA or ISA or whatever A then masuk lokap cannot bail.



# Which kind of bring us into the next issue and yeap, you've guessed it right (if you did), the suggestion to open up 10% of UiTM's intake to other races/international students. Perhaps one would need to be a bumi and have the bumi mentality in order to understand the severity of such proposal, hence the uproar from a PPIM project director, a vice-chancellor as well as thousands of students' of UiTM who should actually be studying instead of holding peaceful demonstrations.

For me, I totally tak faham at all lah.

It's not like they're being suggested to donate 10% of their campus land for pig cultivation and farming kan? Its not like the other 10% are going to be studying for free or steal all your scholarships/sponsorships away kan? Its not like the non-bumis would definitely enroll in UiTM even if given the chance, please lah, kan?


And we're supposingly looking at the future generation of leaders, and sporting such behaviour, so much for racial integration, strength in unity, multi-racial community and all those crap kan?

Some people should just go eat shit and die, too harsh ah, I don't think so since I'm not referring to anyone in particular only those who did what they did will terasa loh, I would say.



# Moving on to happier things again, refer to the image below. I don't know bout you but everytime I take a look at it, I'm all smiles. Don't mind the reflections though, this the main wedding photo frame btw, the one that'll be typically hung above the bed that one and I will NOT layan any questions on why my lips are so red and shiny.




# I am unable to find the transfer cable for my previous camera thus cannot load games into my NDS cause the MicroSD USB adapter sudah rosak and I currently do not own any memory card readers. The built-in reader on the notebook doesn't work, can detect but cannot display and plugging it on the printer prevents the files to be modified, some write protection issue WTF lah so sad can? :( :( :( :( :(



# There you go, there's enough information in this post to last you for a week, lols. I sacrificed my sleep in order to come up with this post, make sure that at this very moment you're reading this sentence, you have previously read all the others above else please scroll to the top and start all over again. Don't say I didn't warn you.

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EyeSight(Bad).IsNull

A quick check in the local optician reveals that my level of short-sightedness has actually decreased but before I could go YAY, I found out that this phenomena could be translated into either of the following:

- due to spending too much of my time focusing my eyesight on close-by items, such as monitors, books, newspapers and such, this is according to the optician lah, not I merepek (spouting nonsense) one

- signs of old age (as usual), eyesight deteriorating at a much faster rate hence 'fixing' my short-sightedness, a condition known as 'lou fa' in cantonese, which actually should only start affecting an individual by the age of 30. Something like those elderly you see needing glasses for better clarity of neaby objects, newspapers, books and such


Let's see, my astigmatisme had also gotten worst, perhaps due to the countless hours spent facing the monitor or watching TV which I think I should spend less time doing and here I am blogging, such contradiction can only be achieved by yours truly, champion. There's no urgency in changing glasses but I was advised to do so as wearing one with the power higher than required would actually cause strain and tiredness to the eyes quickly, so they say.

Just for your information, according to the optician, again, having a high level of astig. is actually worse as it could cause tearing and pain due to straining on the eyes. So now you know.


And BTW, today's the exact date of the Hungry Ghost Festival, try not to stay out until too late aye? Prevention is always better than cure, lols.

Taken whilst atop the bridge towards Pandan Indah on MRR2 in the morning, it did made my day feel a little bit better, hope it will do to yours too.

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Mood.No = True.

Not so long ago, approximately 4 hours back, I had multiple trains of thoughts just waiting to be penned into lyrical words and intense sentences that would move many in marvel and a roller-coaster of emotions.


But now, after witnessing Wong Mew Choo losing out to Lu Lan of China in the Women's Singles Quarterfinals when she had 5 successive plus another 4 to bring the game to a rubber set after literally giving away the first set at 21-7, though she did put up a good fight in the end. Also witnessing the hopeful pair of Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong losing to Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan in straight sets in just 34 minutes for the Men's Doubles Quarterfinals, can't really help but to feel deeply disappointed. Could see that they were not really on form and playing quite defensively padahal they're supposed to be an attacking pair, sigh. Now, all that's left is just Lee Chong Wei in the Men's Singles since both Wong Choong Hann as well as Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah are out as well.


Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, Sigh ...

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M-in-A.

Okay, here's to sum up what happened few days back that kept me so occupied to the extend that I couldn't even spare a minute to breath appropriately:


# Workload increased 8.3672-fold in the midst of rushing for bug fixes and deployment to the production server. Things got a little mad I would say considering how at one minute you're too free, on the verge of getting bored to death and you wished upon a star every night to be given some task wtf. Then, the next thing you know you're too busy to even refill your tumbler with water or head out for a quick piss because every single second matters, the pee can wait but the client can't. There's some truth in the saying, be careful what you wish for.

A quick coffee break, the vietnamese drip coffee from Bong Sen, KLCC.

# I'm still attached to the daily-clean-the-house-after-work routine due to ongoing renovations and most fortunately, the paintings has finally started = less work for me, finally some good news. Normally would be too tired for anything else after all the cleaning, shifting and unpacking, blogging included. The good news, I get to choose my room's colour for the very first time or rather, she's the one who actually did the choosing.


# Due to work, again, I could only head home much, much later and as if that's not bad enough, got caught in a deadly congestion, stuck for so long that I missed the very initial part of the opening ceremony deng! Still very much impressed of what I managed to catch though I have to say that they kind of overdid the fireworks. So much fire-power and smoke that they could probably launch an invasion with all those fireworks.


# Saturday afternoon was spent travelling to Sunway to collect the wedding frame as well as album, after such a long wait due to the complexity of the customised album cover. Through-out the journey there, I was particularly worried on whether the frame would fit into the car, considering its huge-ass size and we already drove her father's car in anticipation of that but still... Fortunately, after some adjustments, everything fitted in accordingly and we were on our way home, happy, happy.

Morning Glory, supposingly only blooms in the morning.

# Late afternoon - shifted stuff out of my current room to get the painting done, almost died-ed of exhaustion + drowned by dust. Watched 10,000 BC at night, finally, after the purchase of the DVD many, many, many months back. Almost a total waste of 2 hours, if I may say so.


# Sunday was spent admiring the wedding album the whole day just kidding. Shifted into the much bigger room in preparation for the new furnitures as well as the new family member coming in later, hehehe. Oh, did I mention that on Saturday, while rearranging the TV, someone go and pandai-pandai adjust the 4 feet wooden plated speaker then ended up crushing it onto my index toe WTF damn pain okay! Felt as though someone pressing a 10KG dumbbell onto my tiny toe, I shall remember this day for the rest of my life.


# I have a new room. My new room is very empty. You, yes, you over there. Buy me something to lighten up my room before I decide to hunt you down. Thank you.

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08.08.08.

To make things a little more auspicious, I stepped into the office at 08:08:08 am and somehow only managed to head off around 8pm, so the chinese in me convinced myself to only step out at 08:08:08 pm, hence, missing the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 29th edition, since I was already that late, bah.

Oh, did you know that in actual fact, the date 08.08.08 has been predicted as one of the worst days, in terms of auspiciousness, in the chinese calendar according to some feng shui practitioners? Well, one of the reasons might be due to the month August on the Gregorian calendar falling on the Hungry Ghost month in the chinese lunar calendar, which is kinda bad. Its those days when the elders would warn their younglings to not stay out so late at night and stuff.


Anyway, rather than being overwhelmed with superstitions let's just hope for the best with Malaysia finally ending the gold-less draught, winning in both the badminton singles and doubles and female singles and also the cycling events, woo-hoo.


Note: The Hungry Ghost Festival falling on the 7th month of the chinese lunar calendar is believed to be the time when the gate between the spirit world and the world of the livings are opened, with the exact day falling on the 14th. This would be the time where you will be able to witness chinese burning paper money, paper gold, paper clothes, food and many other stuff as an offering to the spirits (was prohibited from taking pictures of those stuff), if you don't practise them yourselves.

It is said that, once you've started the offerings, one should continue with it as spirits are believed to remember these locations and would return to the same spot every year. I have heard stories of people hearing sorrowful cries late at night after stopping with their offerings though I have no idea how true they are. During the offerings, one should not shout or raise their voices as well, it is believed that by doing so, the spirits (if not mistaken, especially the child ones) might be frightened from approaching thus more crying at late nights.


The above are solely based on my personal knowledge, it might or might not be totally accurate and I hope I did not scare anyone.

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Beh Tahan.

A phrase commonly used to express dismay or intolerance, in a joking way of course, towards certain actions from another party or a situation that causes uneasiness. An example of usage would be a wife talking to a husband regarding her inability to tolerate the scent of durians: I beh tahan already, faster throw it away! Or getting stuck in a traffic congestion for the longest time ever: Waliao, really beh tahan already lah how come so jam one?!?!

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8 to 5, maybe.

A directive have been passed down from the higher ones for us to observe the OFFICIAL working hours of the client which begins at 8 and supposingly ends at 5 but of course, in this industry (referring to the industry I am working in that is), you hardly see an END to work unless you choose to end it, one way or another, much like loans and debts.

There goes miss flexibility and say hello to mr strict rules.


Truth to be told, I have just gotten used to starting at 8.30 in the morning recently and now, I have to go through reconfiguring my biological settings forcefully once more. Having such difficulty getting up in the morning everyday, I felt that I'm really getting too old for all this lah.

Speaking of lah, I have a few counterparts from India who have been working for quite sometime in KL, hence some assimilation in spoken language. But the thing is, their LAH, LOH, LEH and such comes only after a pause from the final word, like, "I think so *pause* lah". While there's actually nothing wrong with that, it just felt funny and awkward at the same time.

Anyway, back to what I was saying, sigh, I have to wake up so bloody early now that it feels like school all over again.


BTW, its the month of the Hungry Ghost Festival which coincidentally, started with the first day of August and the truth is, in accordance to the old folks, this supposed to be a rainy season. But so far, the weather has been nothing close to even a light drizzles, most of the time, its hot and dry with occasional cloudy skies every now and then, no rain.

For me, its as the saying goes, too hot too handle.

A blooming Japanese Rose, from the Flower Power series, again.

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Random Chat Log.

jed chuan is sibeh stressed says: eh, from dayabumi what is the fastest road to reach ur place?

JEN says: ermmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
JEN says: actually where is the exact location of dayabumi
JEN says: ><

*much later*

jed chuan is sibeh stressed says: the only part dunno is whether reach already or not lols

JEN says: hahaa
JEN says: dont worry
JEN says: call me if anything
JEN says: *imagine purple happy tree friends giggling emoticon*

jed chuan is sibeh stressed says: that's the part i worry LOLS
jed chuan is sibeh stressed says: jk jk
jed chuan is sibeh stressed says: dun tembak your star at me ala care bears

JEN says: lol
JEN says: hahahaha
JEN says: i agree actually
JEN says: i also canot help you me buta jalans
JEN says: hahahaha
JEN says: *tembak star*

jed chuan is sibeh stressed says: *dies of brightness*
jed chuan is sibeh stressed says: *screams*
jed chuan is sibeh stressed says: *rolls around*
jed chuan is sibeh stressed says: eh sorry die already hoh salah order

JEN says: lols

Another one from the intended Flower Power series.

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