Raya Money Expedition

Finally, after a month of abstaining from food and and other wickedly wicked things, Ramadhan gives way for Syawal to shine. And you know what that means! It's RAYAAAAAAAA!!! :D Following our yearly routine, we excitedly ate our breakfast after the Raya prayers. Atuk's house was full of warmth and laughter, as it is the time of the year where everyone would gather at the house. Although celebrating is on everyone's mind, kids have prioritized  something else during the festivities; Raya money.

 'Tis a tradition for working adults to give out Raya money to the children, whatever the amount is (The minimum being RM1.) The living room was brim full of cousins, ages ranging from 5 - 20++ (Yeah we teens can also be considered as money-hungry children in this case. XD) lining up to receive the once-a-year colorful packets from aunts and uncles situated in different parts of the room. Laughter ensued as sly kids attempted to double their profit, and many snickered when I tried (and failed) to extort some Sterling Pounds from my older cousin. (He's currently vacationing in Malaysia during semester break.)

Yet, I felt that I was missing out on something. My dear mother enlightened me in the car on our way to visit open houses. 'Did you know,' she started. 'That when I was a kid, we would walk around the neighbourhood, visiting the neighbours and collect Raya money?'

Lightbulb moment.

 When we returned to Atuk's house (No house was open, which was expected, since the first day of Raya is always spent with family.) I headed to the back of the house, to find all my cousins dying of boredom in the dim room, with only the TV screen as a light source. After berating them for lazing about, watching TV ('Now you know the true meaning of Raya.' one of them smirked.), the 'Raya Money Expedition' team was formed, which consisted of me, the eldest of the group (My peers declined, due to them being 'too mature' for this activity, or what I prefer to call as their 'lack of courage'.), 4 girls and 4 guys, ranging from 5 - 15. God, I felt like a black sheep.

 So for all the houses we visited (Only three.), 17-year-old me would be forced to holler at open doors by the girls (Who kept their distance from the boys, to avoid embarrassment of being with a guy who hollers at open doors) in hopes that someone would notice and invite us in. When someone does invite us in, the girls would appear right behind us. We would then proceed to eat the kuih (Small delicacies.) and stare around the house in an awkward atmosphere as the the people of the house sit unblinking and throw around occasional questions at us. At the second house, however, somebody turned a little clumsy (Hint: ME) and dropped a jar of bahulu.
 Don't blame me. How was I supposed to know the lid wasn't tight enough to be lifted? Thankfully, they were all too far at the back of the house to be within earshot.

 Though we only collected RM4 from the expedition, we had a fun time. I sure did. It was due to the fact that it was a first time for me, as when I was younger, Raya was celebrated at a less festal atmosphere in the UK, and I never thought of doing so the past 4 years I've been back in Malaysia, because of the city, and citizens' attitude towards random strangers who holler at open doors isn't that warming (Increase of crime rates, wariness towards people etc.) So yeah, I had a really fun time.

 Next me, I'll force the others to join me so I don't have to wallow in awkward embarrassment alone. (Insert evil laugh.) >:D

Experimenting on Smart Nerve Wreck Friends During Exams

During the trials (Which ends tomorrow, thank God.), I noticed a peculiar thing about a friend of mine. I realized that this thing happens during all the examination periods. He is a smart guy, and yet his worrying attitude doesn’t match his grades. We all have that kinda friend, right? I decided to experiment on my assumptions:

Aim: To determine the effects of the level of worry of a person on the grade of their exam results

Hypothesis: The more worried the person is, the higher the grade of the exam result

Variables:

Manipulated: The difficulty of the exams

Responding: The level of anxiety of the person

Fixed: The person

Apparatus and Materials:

• A human lab rat nerve wreck anxious friend
• A chair
• A table
• Exam papers (Three subjects based on friend’s skill)
• Pen
• Clock
• Malicious laugh track or any anxiety increasing device (Optional)
• Rope (Optional)

Procedure:

1. Place the human lab rat nervous wreck friend on a chair.
2. Push the chair to the table.
3. Place easy exam paper on the table.
4. Give the friend a pen and order instruct him/her to finish the test within the allotted time. Another subject person (Me) is needed to take the exam as well.
5. Wait for an hour or so.
6. Collect the exam paper, whether he/she is finished or not.
7. Observe the subject friend and record on table.
8. Mark the exam paper and record the grade on the table.
9. Repeat the experiment with medium-level and hard-level exam paper.

Precautions:

•         If the lab rat friend is unwilling, tie him/her to the chair on the rope.
•         If he/she does not display much anxiety during the exam, the laugh track/anxiety-increasing device is used.

Tabulation of Data:

Level of Exam	Anxiety Level (%)		Exam Grade (%)
	Me	Nervous Wreck Friend	Me	Nervous Wreck Friend
Easy	20	48	75	84
Medium	46	63	69	89
Hard	52	82	64	90

Conclusion:

The hypothesis is accepted.  The more worried the person is, the higher the grade of the exam result.

However, the hypothesis does not apply to the normal subject (Me).

  I’m sure all of you can relate to this. It's not easy having this type of person as a best friend. But hey, what's the point of being called a best friend if you can't put up with the downsides of people, right? :)

 Plus, it's fun to fool around with his anxiety. XD

Aren’t They Too Young To Get Hitched?

 I've watched the most recent video that made it to every chatterbox’s (Well, it probably means every housewife in Malaysia.) ‘List of hot gossips to chatter about during the teatime get-together’. Now, you guys are probably wondering which video I’m talking about (Unless you’re a chatterbox, or housewife, or BOTH.) Answer: the marriage between 16-year old Syafiq and 14-year old Yana! Never heard of it? Now you do. For those of you whose attention I’ve captured with my answer, and wish to watch the seemingly interesting video (Obviously interesting enough to captivate me.), but fails to find it, fret not; I prepared the video beneath this paragraph. Enjoy:

Why now?

 Lovely, isn’t it? It had a sort of happily-ever-after mood going on there. But the beauty of the video is not the case in this post (Although it has good quality). What went through my mind the whole time was: Aren’t they a tad too young to get married? Now, don’t get me wrong. I approve of this marriage. It’s better for lovebirds to marry than to elope and making your parents worried sick about you. But isn’t it just too early? I heard that this ‘early marriage’ trend existed once. It ended DECADES AGO. I can’t seem to grasp any logical explanation to this, other than it being an arranged marriage. If it is so, then we can question the parents.

Married Life Needs Something

 My grandfather married my grandmother at a young age. They bore 7 kids, the 5^th being my father. I guess in the olden days, it was pretty normal to get hitched early. Jobs popped up everywhere. The prices of things in those days were probably a whole lot cheaper than it is now. In the 21^st century, however, we need a little extra something in order to survive in this materialistic world, and that something became the reason why many decline to wed at an early stage.

 I believe it is called education.

 Nowadays, it’s hard to find even mediocre jobs without it, let alone being the big boss of a worldwide company. If you were to get married at a crucial point of your life, how are you going to support your family AND study in school? Do they have the choice of dropping out? There are lots of jobs offered, such as being taxi drivers, stall vendors, construction workers, etc. But is it enough to work so hard to earn a wage that can barely feed the family?

And They Call It Puppy Love

 Other than education, there’s also something that teenage couple needs to make a happy married life: Love. Now, we all know what love is. It’s the desire to be with that special someone, even if they have no desire to do ‘it’. Yet most of us teens tend to misinterpret another feeling as love. LUST. Now, can anyone tell me what lust is? Simply put, it is the desire to do ‘it’ with someone, even if you have no desire to be with them. It’s true, many people get mixed up between the two, and that is the source of all the illegal babies and the rise in abortions in Malaysia. Teenagers have really, REALLY unstable hormones, and it sometimes cloud their judgement. If all lovesick teenage couples were to marry, I guarantee you that half of their new bonds would crash and burn in a short amount of time. And mostly for meaningless reasons.

 Nevertheless, not all marriages are a burden to couples. They probably have their financial problems covered and had their feeling sorted out before going through the once-in-a-lifetime event. Either way, I’m happy for them. Maybe I should get married too.


 If I had a girlfriend. T___________________________________T