Monday, November 30, 2009

ANBU and their dietary habits

Brick-faced man, irritating kid, and daft dog. Fin.
Today’s outing was a sort of reunion-farewell for a friend who’d just returned from India, where she’s studying dentistry. We’d decided on Times Square (why does everyone feel the need to recreate that noisy intersection in their home country?) as our meeting place, around 2pm, after which we’d have lunch.
The previous night: I tortured myself by watching nine episodes of the second season of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, from episode three till eleven. I say torture, because episodes 2 till 10 make up the infamous ‘Endless Eight’ arc, which is basically an infinite time loop. Silly me, I watched about five or six episodes of nearly identical episodes before finally giving up and repeatedly hitting the ‘fast-forward’ button. More of that some point. Anyway, I was awoken sometime around 11 in the morning by a phone call from Star-Wars maniac Alv… it seemed like they’d arrived already.

Strange, I thought. Didn’t we agree to meet sometime past 1.30? Or at 2? My mind was too frazzled by last night’s ridiculous marathon to remember. Ah well, see you at 2, I said, hung up, and went back to bed. Dad was heading the same way, so I decided to hitch a ride. We had lunch on the way- oops. I’d forgotten that we were supposed to have lunch together.

Found Yuki (no, she’s not Japanese, it’s just a nickname we gave her back in high school- no idea why) and Alv at a Starbucks by the entrance. Alv went on about how she’d just blown 80 bucks on something, and asked me to guess what it was- not too difficult. Got it on my first guess: Probably a CD, I said (Yuki: Ohhh!). Some Korean boy-band, no doubt (Yuki: Am I that obvious?!).
Alv: “Congratulations, you can be a prosecutor”

Me: “Nah, I’d rather be a psychic”

Hmm. Just realized that psychic has the word ‘chic’ embedded in it. Maybe I should actually consider being one…

The third member of our gang arrived- Geoff, although I like to call him Glock, from his initials: GLCK. We’re a diverse bunch- Yuki in dentistry, Glock in IT, Alv and me in law. All this makes for quite a bit of confusion whenever we talk about our respective courses- “do you know what mandibles are?” from the dentist, while lawyer Tan gurgled in confusion. I only passed that question because I dimly remembered mandibles having something to do with the jaw, haha.

Lunch, luckily, was put off. Yuki had too much coffee. The other guys were in the mood for food, though, so we ended up in um, Mary Brown? Some sort of fast-food restaurant, where we clowned around with this ANBU mask Alv bought earlier.
Whatcha looking at? Clowning around, literally.

Geoff- probably wishing he had a girl on his lap:P

ANBU Alv and his burger.

ANBU Geoff, going local with nasi lemak.

Demonstrating the fine art of drinking through a mask.

Eat chips with flair, or you don't deserve the mask.

We had quite a bit of trouble deciding what movie to watch. I’d already watched District 9, Alv had watched half of Up!, Yuki wouldn’t go within ten feet of  Orphan, Proposal was too late, and everything else was just pathetic. We ended up watching Up!. The last one to arrive was Jimmy, another IT boy. Some clowning around before entering the cinema (always fun to fool around with movie posters- see this post for more):
Couldn't figure out a way to mess with this poster.

Horrible lighting. Dangit, I forgot to grimace.

Up!. I’m not going to bother with an in-depth review. It’s just a generic family-friendly movie that parents can bring their kids to without any worries. I was quite happy that Pixar finally seemed to try to attempt to use extended silence as a cinematic device, like the Studio Ghibli movies do. Never mind that the silence here was applied to a fast-forward through a bloated kid’s life and not a breathtaking vista. After that, back in real-time (And more characters), it was back to the normal pattern that blights almost all of American animation- characters that never, ever, shut up. Some reviewers have suggested that the idea of a flying house is a subtle nod to Howl’s Moving Castle, but Up! doesn’t deserve to be placed anywhere near Howl.

After that, we struck out for Low Yat Plaza, the ‘tech-central’ of KL. No longer a pirate haven, it’s now mostly filled with technological ware, from notebook computers to cellphone chargers. Yuki was looking for an external hard drive- that’s where the IT maniacs took to the stage. Countless yawns and stomach-rumblings from Yuki and me as they scrambled around asking questions and comparing prices.

We ended up having dinner at Kenny Rogers. I’d have preferred Nando’s, but didn’t know where to find one. The three techies sat together- a big mistake, perhaps, as they went on and on speaking techno-babble. Might as well have been an alien tongue to the rest of us.

"Just ignore him..."

After dinner, it was Yuki’s turn to take the lead- she needed to buy (stock up on, actually) presents for some friends back in India (her college is in some backwater town, so that’s understandable). Shopping for her girlfriends was easy- any random soft toy would do the trick, but for the guys- much more difficult. We managed to get- what, three out of five gifts. Not bad, I suppose.

Along the way, we wandered into a shop specializing in Gothic fashion- actually, it was more a case of me leading them in (as they cringed in discomfort):
Me: “Hey, let’s take a look at this one!”

Them: “…lead the way…”

I wonder why they seemed so scared to enter… like husbands/boyfriends being tagged along lingerie shopping. I don’t have any problem going along with that either, but that’s another story. Glock picked out a Gothic-lolita inspired trench coat from a rack, and modeled it out on Yuki- she didn’t like it and squirmed away. I asked him to model it against me- not bad, he said. No pictures, sadly.

It’s quite funny how I was the only one who didn’t mind being in there at all- once out of there, Glock and Yuki said that the music played there was just ‘creepy’. It didn’t bother me at all. I just remembered a silly quiz I took on Facebook a while ago- I think it was called 'what Japanese fashion trend suits you?' or something like that. My result was something along the lines of 'Gothic Lolita'. Haha, perhaps I've found my true calling? To walk the streets of Harajuku, complete with thick black eyeliner, Vivienne Westwood jewelry, and a frilly dress?

Some more fooling around with the ANBU mask after that. The techies plan to photoshop it into a single picture, so that it appears like we’re all wearing the mask. We parted ways sometime after 10pm. Monorail to the bus terminal near college, and a long wait for the bus. Arrived home sometime past 11pm. That's the end of this one. Next time we see Yuki she'll have completed her second year and will be back home for the third. But before I sign off- all together now:

Photoshopped. Obviously, since we only had one mask.

Till next time. Watch out for me if you happen to be in Harajuku;)

4 comments:

  1. What is an ANBU?

    Also, did you not see Wall-E? It came out before Up and didn't have much dialog.
    I'm sad you didn't seem to like Up. I thought it was fantastic, and I cried quite a bit. Pixar isn't quite as good as Ghibli, it's true, but they try really hard, and they're the closest American equivalent. Pixar movies have a lot of heart. There's a reason why, when there is a Pixar film and a Dreamworks film competing for an Oscar, that Pixar always wins.
    I wonder if you have ever seen a Spencer Tracy film? The old man in Up reminded me a lot of Spencer Tracy.

    Also, Geoff is adorable! He totally should have a girl in his lap.

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  2. ANBU is like the Naruto version of the CIA, only with... animal masks^^;

    Nope, I skipped Wall-E... I've heard that a lot of people liked it, that it was just sublime, but I couldn't be bothered to watch it. Dunno why- it was the same thing with Transformers- although in the latter case I actually swore that I'd never watch it, no matter what.
    Pixar, Dreamworks- gah, I know that they're different companies, but when it comes down to trying to recall who made what movie, I fail entirely. How did it go again? Pixar made A Bug's Life, and Dreamworks followed suit with that Ant movie... Pixar made Toy Story... ah, I can't recall. I do know that I've always preferred Pixar though.

    Up! was fine, actually. I mean, I didn't go in expecting something like Howl's Moving Castle- I went in expecting something like, well, Up!. So I wasn't really disappointed. It was an OK movie- entertaining enough, quite sweet at times (especially the bits about the old guy's life with/without his wife). I guess I just wasn't that attracted to the... overall feel of the movie. One thing I do know is that I really couldn't stand that kid, haha.

    Spencer Tracy? Nope, never heard of him. But you're right about the resemblance:D

    As for Geoff, haha- he already has one in it most of the time; she just didn't come along on that day;)

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  3. Pixar made both Wall E and Up, I guess. Like Kris, I loved Up! (And cried at parts too.) How can you not! -pokes- Must be a guy thing. Boooo.

    And lol. Crossplay gothloli one day! Wahahaha!

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  4. @Jenn: LOL at 'guy thing'. I didn't cry, but I did sniff a little -pokes back- when the old man's wife died.
    Crossplay gothloli? Who knows? Keep an eye out;)

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