A little story about Dicky Tan...

I picked up my 'new' car from the dealer. Man, I was so excited. I took it out for a brief spin with the dealer just to check if everything was in order. I stalled five times within the first 45 seconds of turning on the car. But that was my fault, not Dicky's. Anyway, everything checked out, so I was content, and I drove off the lot towards home.

Glancing down at my cracked dashboard, I noticed something was wrong. I was low on gas. No problem, It'll be my first cost associated with the car. I put 20 ringgit in the tank, felt content, and started to drive away. Unfortunately though, the gas gauge didn't change. I quickly realized my gas gauge was broken. No problem, I'll guestimate using kilometers.

Later on, I picked up Stacey, my housemate, to go out for a ride. Before pulling out of the parking lot, I tried putting down the window. It got stuck, then I put it back up and tried again. This time, the entire window fell into the door. It came completely off of its track within the door and slammed into the bottom of the door. Ugh....such is life with Dicky Tan.

(note: the gas gauge is still broken, but the window is fixed:-)

Hmm, do you really mean that?

This will be a short post but perhaps the one you're most glad to have read. I am sitting in my office grading papers from a listening test I administered this morning. The monsoon rains have just quieted, and I'm hoping Dicky Tan is still in park further up the hill. Students are intermittently coming by to finish their final graded component, the interview. In between the interviews, I begin reading one listening test, a fill in the blank section. It reads as follows: "The worst _______ in human history was probably Mt Tambora 1815, in Indonesia." Because the listening deals with natural disasters, you might've guessed that the answer is eruption. Nevertheless, my students seem to struggle particularly with this word. A common response has been the following: The worst erection in human history was probably Mt Tambora 1815, in Indonesia. Despite the prevailing (and emasculating) notion about Asian dudes, apparently the West should have taken another gander in the early 1800s to determine its truth. Now the real question, do I mark the answer wrong?

A New What?!?!

Thats right...I bought a new car. Well, not quite new. Its a 1984 white, manual-transmission Toyota. I'm not quite sure what model it is, because the car doesn't say...and the dealer didn't either. Regardless, it was Rm 1800 ($500) and it's running well now.

So, I decided to have a naming competition. Please feel free to post a comment with some ideas for names. For right now, I have decided to name the car after the guy who sold it to me. Provisionally, then, it will be called Dicky Tan.

Enjoy these few pics and I'll post more later on the car specifics:-)

Langkawi Island!

Located north of Penang, Langkawi is a group of peaceful islands with nice beaches and some nice eco-tourism. I took a 3-hour ferry ride to reach it. Upon arrival, some friends and I rented a car...manual transmission car. I took the driver's seat--the last time I had driven stick was en route to San Diego last summer...that was also the last time I had driven on the right side of the road (with the stick on the right side)...which was also the last time I had driven:-0 Needless to say, I felt pretty confident:-P

After checking in to our beachfront room, I headed north to Tenaga Tujuh (Seven Wells). After a hike of about 500 concrete steps, my friends and I arrived at the wells and rock slide (pictured above). There was some beautiful scenery and some fun times. We then drove to a larger waterfall (also pictured above) and hung out there for a bit. That night, we went to one of the only cool night life places on the island, the reggae bar! Great band, great times...danced a bit then asked one of the singers if I could play the congas. They were cool with it, so I got to play a song with them. Lotta fun!

The next day, my friends and I hopped back in the car and headed to the cable car ride (pictured above). Despite the cloudy weather up top, the ride was spectacular! The mountain and surrounding islands were beautiful. Even though it was just a weekend trip, I was able to see a lot of what Langkawi had to offer. Still, I'll probably head back to go on the island-hopping tour, on which they feed a bunch of eagles...visitors welcome:-)

Formal Apology

I must apologize publicly for not blogging in a while. You, the reader, have the prerogative to be angry. Regardless, I'll press on and continue to blog--please enjoy these two new posts:-)