Messing around with the microwave is always fun, provided you know what you’re doing. This serves as something to get rid of my boredom. Maybe you’d like to try doing this too sometimes, if you happen to read this. All you need:

6 tablespoons of butter (or 50 grams), softened or melted.
1/2 cup white sugar (less or more to your liking)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup floor
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk (fresh milk, low-fat milk, whatever)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg

You can actually bake this in anything you like, provided they aren’t plastic. And make sure the milk is not cold. Cold milk doesn’t do the butter good, or so I’ve been told all of the time.

Personally, I don’t care much about following orders of which one you have to put in first. I just go ahead and beat the hell out of them in a large mixing bowl. If you prefer a mixer, you can do that too.

Grease your choice of mold with butter and pour the mixture that you’ve beaten. Put it in the microwave, on high power, for about 2 to 5 minutes (or until you think it’s ready). Different microwave, different time. I’d advise you to bake only the amount that you wish to eat as it could harden over a long period of time if exposed. Once you have the mixture, you can store it in the fridge, and bake some whenever you feel like eating.

Still bored? I demand you to check out this video now for great lulz. If you’ve seen this, just laugh anyway.

Lol, I must have been bored when I did all this.

It feels like time is moving faster than ever. February is approaching, and already my legs are like jellies. I don’t want to go back to Auckland… yet. I know it’s hard to let go of a life where you have everyone else do things like cook and laundry for you, even harder to leave thsi endless supply of unlimited internet. Gah, I really am lazy I shouldn’t be thinking this way.

I’m still trying to decide my electives for this year. I have absolutely no idea what I should be taking, so I e-mailed Sheryll. This is an excerpt of her reply:

I would suggest that you find courses that will help you in the school setting - e.g. maths - comp sci - esol papers - education papers that reflect your interests (like gifted children). The choice is what ever you decide helps you get a good grade or can sustain your interest.

Oh, easier said than done. The problem with ESOL is that they only have two stages. I am in no way interested in any of them right now. Gifted children (EDUC) sounds cool, though. Now if I can just look at the syllabus, maybe I’d consider. As long as I don’t have to do what I did in EDUC225 again. That was a total nightmare.

I guess I really am in need of suggestions right now. I’m thinking of doing Japanese 130 (or 230, if I pass the test) for one, but I have no clue what the other other one should be. Anyways, let’s just lay down all the mandatory subjects for 2009:

First Semester 2009
EDUC 384 - Information Technology in Education (I think I’ll be enjoying this)
LANGTCHG 303 - Instructed Language Learning (Erk…)

Second Semester 2009
LANGTCHG 301 - Intro to TEFL Curriculum (Huh, TEFL? Can we teach English in Timbuktu now?)
LINGUIST 307 - The English Language Worldwide (Pft, wth?)
EDUC 348 - The Reading Process (Err…) + 1 tutorial session
LANGTCHG 302 - Practical Language Teaching (Double err…)

How come we have so many subjects in the second semester? That doesn’t include our school experience yet. Why is this happening? *sigh*

It’s been a while since I sketched anything. It’s not like anybody cares anyway, so I suppose it’s okay. I’ve been thinking of the reasons why I don’t feel like writing a long list of new year resolutions for 2009. I never missed dedicating one or a few journal entries babbling all about my resolutions. This year, though, it’s different. I don’t know if that means I’ve stopped believing in resolutions or that I’ve simply grown up to become more realistic.

Making a list of new year resolutions (I’ll just use the abbreviation, NYR after this point onwards) is customary in many people’s life. Not making one makes one seems estranged. I’ve come to ask myself why I made NYRs in the first place. Do I want all these, or do I hope to be able to do what I enlisted in my NYR? If I only wish for it, how is that any different from simply making a wishful thinking?

How many people actually put as much efforts into realising their NYRs? I know people who do, and I also know people who don’t. I remember asking one of my friends about her NYRs:

Me: I’m just wondering, but… Why do you write new year resolutions?
Her: *chuckles* What are you talking about? Isn’t that the normal thing to do?
Me: Normal?
Her: When the year’s coming to an end, everyone talks nothing but about new year and new year resolutions. Making your own is like a custom, you know.
Me: Customary, huh…

One of her resolutions, if I remember correctly, was to buy Nintendo Wii (hahaha! I beat you to it, dearest~). It confused me greatly, though I was trying so hard not to burst out laughing. In my honest opinion, resolutions shouldn’t be taken as ‘what I want in [insert year here]‘, but they should be viewed as ‘what I must do/achieve in [insert year here]‘. My friend can sock my face all she wants, but my opinion stands.

If I do, perhaps, have a resolution for 2009, it would be this:

I promise myself I’d make 2009 better than 2008.

There, simple and very general so it wouldn’t hurt me too badly when things don’t go my way.

And so this entry marks Caramel Toffee’s journey into yet another year of honest, somewhat sarcastic/humourous and hopefully witty collection of journal entries.

Haven’t been doing much these past few days. Both the Maal Hijrah and the new year (interesting that they’re so close this year) have sent me into some kind of thinking mode about the past and the future. My childhood friend, who’s probably the first friend I’ve ever made (considering we are neighbours and we met each other when we were no older than 1 year olds, and both our mothers are from Perak too), pointed out to me that I’ve been way to quite in 2008. Losing contacts with people around me, dissappearing almost without a trace. I’ve only been updating my Livejournal. My LJ is semi-friends-only, so they couldn’t have had access to my entries.

Why was I being a hermit this year? I have no idea. There was this strange feeling of wanting to let go of many things. I had no desire of going out and hanging out with friends. Heck, I even avoided going to gatherings and events, spending holidays in my room. I think it started around April that I stopped caring about my social life. I can’t remember what happened despite having kept a private diary.

Despite all these years of growing up, and despite being over 20 now, I’m constantly reminded that I’m still a child. By my mother, of course. I wonder why it’s so hard to be understood. I’m always what they call the ‘uncaring’ and ‘unfeeling’ one. Is there only one way to show familial love, I wonder? Have I been doing wrong all this time?

Now isn’t the right time to dwell, I suppose. I’m not even making any sense. I probably should stop feeling all down and weary and miserable now. I’d pick myself up from the pieces I reduced myself to, and start over with a fresh start in 2009 and beyond. Yeah, I probably should do that.

Goodbye, 2008. I’m sorry that I’d rather not remember you.

p.s/ My download speed is being a total prick after being praised a bit in the previous entry. Looking at the ‘Speed’ column in my download manager makes me want to pull my hair out. Grr…

Just when I’m getting into my ‘uploading mode’, TMNet decided they want to screw with my mood. Weeks of crappy internet connection is bad for my rationality. After experiencing crappy datacapped internet plans though (that’s you Woosh Wireless!), I try to tolerate the crappy broadband. One good thing about this connection is that it’s unlimited. I can download and upload as much as I want. My Megaupload speed is wonderful although during this service interruption, it’s practically running on half the usual speed.

I’ve been wondering about this unsecured wireless network in my hometown. I wouldn’t be aware of its existence if not for my EEE PC. My Vaio could only catch 60% of it’s signal strength, and my Dad’s PC only up to 55%. My Asus connects to this mystery network easily at up to 95% signal strength. Even my DS goes at only 75% while playing Ragnarok Online DS. Any Kelantanese living in Pasir Mas, or anyone else happen to be here who’d tried using this wireless network? Video streaming is surprisingly fast. Updating and installing new applications for linux is  fast as well.

Who owns this network, I wonder. Doesn’t seem like my neighbours’ XD

p.s/Something seems to be wrong with my HTTP Server. The FTP Server and Exim are working great. I have no idea why I had to restart the service twice in the past 48 hours.