It wasn’t too long ago that I was missing from work on Sunday, on a date to exist once every 4 years. I was at the National Science Center for a MENSA IQ test. (Thanks to Hannna for the information.)

I sat for the Advanced Progressive Matrices test. I forgot most of the details, but there were no words, just 3×3 patterns, where you’d have to pick the missing one from 8 answers. There were no “if A is B and B is C therefore…” questions; all the questions were abstract patterns free from the constraints of language. I think there were 36 questions, for a maximum of 180 marks. The passing rate was 148 for entry to MENSA; whether that implied that you’d have only 6 chances to answer wrongly at 5 marks per question, or that the answers were weighted differently, I did not know. I did not even know if your score translated directly into the classic benchmark of your Intelligence Quotient or IQ. The guy said he’d send the results by courier in 2 weeks.

Anyway, enough of sounding smart.

Yesterday my momma, she tella me-a to go eat dinnah and go home mahself. And so I called Shaz and he was in KLCC dependably as a lepak buddy. He brought Penang dudes from the Incubus concert! (P.S. My review is here.) The Penang dudes, they uh say hey let’s be at the Kinokuniya, the bookstore upstairs, and we go up the escalators. Hmm if a place has no stairs, like getting to Fitness First on the 2nd floor of Maxis Tower (which is dumb for a fitness center), can we still say upstairs? (Whoa Hannna-ism there.)

Speak of the devil or at least the gollum-lookalike, she was there at Kinokuniya, standing at the counter, so coincidentally near more 4D puzzles. We walked, we talked, we bade farewell to the Shaz-in-a-rush and the Penang dudes about to watch a movie. We convinced Nora, Hannna’s friend, (come to think of it I don’t remember if her real name has one N or two Ns but heck) to get a squirrel 4D puzzle for her friend’s birthday. We chose Starbucks over DOME and watched the Hannna-the-MENSA-member struggle with her oh-so-cute-and-yet-elaborate hedgehog puzzle. (Yes the same one Aznin made me get her.)

When I reached home, a letter was waiting. It was from the Malaysian MENSA society, and had a 30 sen stamp on it. Nope, none of the grandeur of a courier mail. What, were they considerate enough to tell me I didn’t get in anyway? *does a Dick Solomon egoistic pose* (Of course, if I got 180, they’d be camping outside my house ready to shake my hand and toss me in a duffel bag for shipping to an underground lair where they would extract my brain and conduct experiments without my consent yes?)

Anyway, back to sounding smart.

It said I got 156 out of 180. Yes I barely passed. That means if you’re thinking I’m bombastic, then you must feel stupid, and if you’re not as smart as I am, you probably wouldn’t pass. (And yes, I was braggartly deliberately complicating my sentences.) Of course, if you’re already in MENSA, then you must be equal or greater in intelligence to me. I bow to you.

The membership application form was attached. You could be a genius and be a lazy procrastinator at the same time, and so I did not rush out in the dark night to a Pos Laju (speedy courier mail) office and send my application. Plus I had no experience with money orders or cheques (despite my father’s attempts at forcing lessons down our throats.)

What would I want with MENSA anyway? To meet brainy chicks? Well, that, and to find some Rubik Cube enthusiasts, perhaps.

Friday

Jing dragged me to Kelana Jaya for a birthday dinner. The place had plenty of funky curry servings, but to be safe, I would pick a less stomach-contorting fish and chip meal. Turns out the coleslaw was cold and funky.

Later at Midvalley, Syefri and I queued for entry into the Lord Of The Rings Marathon at 11pm. Nope, there were no pajama-clad people trying to win free stuff. However, before the movie started, some dude said the Subaru ticket winners would have a free buffet… Supper? Clap! Hooray!

What say me?

I stayed well awake for the interesting Fellowship Of The Ring (3 hours 30 minutes), anticipating each scene with just the right amount of enthusiasm. (No ARWEN!!! giggly screams…) I read attentively up to the part where the hobbits bump into a Nazgul, and read somewhat until they meet Strider, so it wasn’t so bad.

The Two Towers (3 hours 44 minutes) was a bit too subdued at the beginning, and I was waiting for the scene to change. Syefri snored. Hear that, Ed!

Proud to have stayed awake so far, I bought Teh Tarik, having the sleepless dragging torture of the second.

That did not help. Figuring I’d be able to see it again soon, Return Of The King (3 hours 20 minutes) had me sleeping during the starting war (and preparing-for-war) scenes. I didn’t know who or where or what anymore. Some dude would just take a horse to this kingdom/country/place and call for reinforcements, and he would be the heir. I’d even confuse Eowyn for Galadriel.

I’d catch some winks when I hear whooshes, and open my eyes when the sound changed. Gollum and gang would still be in the same place, so I knew I didn’t miss anything!

What about the ending? Why would ghost pirates suddenly come out so conveniently? (Orlando Bloom was in Pirates Of The Caribbean too… coincidence?) Why didn’t they just call upon them and wipe out the KISS-inspired Uruk-hai?

Someone said the war scenes were emotionally draining, but alas, they were all too fast for my eyes. All that motion blur! All that registered in my head were the whooshes.

It wasn’t butt-numbing, it was leg-cramping. I wished I had more leg room. This, coming from a vertically-challenged person.

Please don’t convince me to watch any part of the trilogy again. It was too daunting in one seating! (Okay, so maybe a Gold Class ticket might convince me…)

At 10:20am, I walked out, a free man, welcomed by the huge queue for the movie I just watched. Syefri and I complimented each other loudly and proudly about our 680 minute adventure.

I went home, slept like 15 minutes, and headed off to SAITO to meet Dustyhawk. We bummed around a bit before I went to KLCC Park for Rock The World 4.

The ticket-less crowd hovered over the barricades, toppling it over impatiently. We waited until their technical difficulties were over, and I greeted Hassan the All-Access-Pass-bearer. “Hassan! Shaz was in Pangkor so he didn’t get us media passes!”

Pan Global Insurance gave out bright neon-colored T-shirts for the moshers, but I took a blue one nevertheless to add to my free-T-shirt wardrobe.

There was no noticeable problem with the sound throughout the show. Fantastic! OAG’s show, starting with the must-jump 60’s TV, ended right after that song as the front stage barricade crashed.

Syefri, Aznin, Michelle and I ate a long dinner at KLCC, to come back much later to discover that the show was still on hold.

Highlights? Prana having the jumpiest funk mosh-core, causing some poor dude to twist his leg. Butterfingers, for something new. Of course there were many other notables, but that shall be reserved for a proper review.

Sunday

I bought an Alcatel SpeedTouch 510 ADSL modem and router with 4 ports for RM300 at PC Fair 2003, PWTC. No comment on it, since I had yet to test it. 🙁

Monday

Er, I blogged about my weekend.

It’s been a while. Freedom for a short while! I handed in my Director project on Friday, meeting the ever elusive lecturer. I then walked to Imbi. Yay! My 19″ Princeton monitor was done with repairs! Sadly, I would not be free to pick it up in the next two weekends, so it would stay at the shop as a display model. Bentley also had all these new axes (well, rather, old axes that were not on display before.) I can imagine licking and shredding it already.

The next day, I went to Aznin‘s open house. (Yes, I finally mentioned your name. Yay.) I went in a crammed Kancil, with 3 people at the back. (4 people are very much doable, but short and skinny people ought to be in the middle, while long-legged people sit on the side!) We spun a few rounds, looking for house 28. The corner house was 24, while the next was 22… I checked my phone reminder for the address, and the memorable genius Fazri got it wrong. It was 24!

We sat, we ate, we stoned. The sleepy people gelled into the sofas.

Fazri’s Kancil-riding gang went off to Ezone at Low Yat Plaza first. It wasn’t until Fear Factor was on that we sat up – Playboy Playmates were the contestants! With all the advertisements, Syefri and I decided not to wait till the underwater challenge and keep them waiting.

Upon reaching Bintang Walk, we called Fazri. He wasn’t there! The jams stopped them from going. Ah well. We went to Bentley and then Combo Mix, but he had to leave. Ezone would not be as fun without anybody to watch me reap players in anything but Counter-Strike.

Sunday would be even more interesting. I walked out at noon, waiting for a bus. I figured I’d be late for Syefri’s open house at Shah Alam so I took a cab to the Kepong KTM Komuter station. The cabbie, an old Chinese man, was telling me how he beat an Indian can collector who went from there to Jinjang. He had RM10 in his hands but he refused to pay the RM4.50 fare because he said it was all he had left. I could just “um” and “uhuh”, knowing I had no small change, careful not to provoke him. 🙁

At KL Sentral, the wait was less than 15 minutes, and the trains I took were on time! Too much on time, indeed, that I arrived at the Shah Alam station an hour early.

We sat, we ate, we stoned. The sleepy people gelled into the sofas.

We then went to Wangsa Maju for Ed‘s open house. Met Choo Ki and Shaz there, among other local celebrities. Why am I mentioning them? Just so I have something to link to. 😛 Yes, some of these links can get really interesting…

We sat, we ate, we stoned. The sleepy people gelled into the sofas.

Oh yes, Iris the iristated phish is also linked from About Me!

How about today? A whole load to read since I hadn’t been in the office. A depressing load, even. Move I will!

This has to be the most uninteresting talk-about-your-weekend post ever. 🙁