WHERE THE HECK IS MARIO?!

Buon Juorno guys! is how you can say hello in Italy with a :D on your face.
Of course, being the troublemaker we are, the middle finger still applies but works well with the :D face too. Just get ready to make a D: face.
Speaking of which, the peace gesture is an awesome accessory for cute photos right?

Aww look at how cute she's doing! It's a she right? Dammit.

However, doing it with your backhand facing viewers is a long-established insult in Italy. You should be able to figure it out by yourself. Hint: Put your nose in between the two fingers.

Before the Mafia. After the Mafia. He's sorry.

Seems like Bel's already given the summed up view of whats been going down in the lives of our PotatoSLAMmers, crudely explained in the previous post so I'll just attach a scope to my pen and give you a guys a little rundown of my recent spring vacation in Italy! :D

FIRST OFF!

MILANO - Milan, home to the AC Milan FC and the city of fashion. Nearly every man is wearing a business coat or blazer even if it's just an afternoon walk in the park, gotta be prepared cuz' you'll never know when an important business client will pop up! or not.

I'm working today. Just kidding.

Ow yeah Milan has Duomo di Milano, meaning Milan Cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the fourth largest cathedral in the world!

Duomo di Milano! 4th largest in the world, JB and some say Batam!

The Square at where Duomo di Milano is situated is a tourist hotspot so there's a need to spend all that foreign cash! Where else but at a huge shopping complex just right beside it. Within, there's branded franchises like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Mercedes Benz and even McDonald's.
The ironic thing is that in shops like Prada and Louis Vuitton, you can only find ASIANS browsing through their wares (even Malaysians are among them...haiyo of coz i can sense them la).
Owh yeah did I mention that there are dozens of classy sassy restaurants right beside these franchises? What's even more ironic is that when the ASIANS come out brandishing their purchased LV/Prada/Trashbag...they turn to McD's for lunch. LOL?

When LV's bags are exploding, so are your pockets. BOOM.BOOM.BOOM.

Well that's pretty much about it in Milan...

Right.

MOVING ON!

VENEZIA - Venice! The beautiful city of river veins and streams of water that circulates the traffic in and around the islands. Venice is actually an island connected by rail with the mainland of Italy. There are other notable islands around Venice like Murano, known for its Murano Glass, and Burano, known for its narrow line of houses washed by different shades of colours.

There's also the Carnival of Venice, a masquerade festival where people wear masks of various shapes and colours! I'm surprised why superheroes or supervillains aren't born in Venice when it's so easy to hide one's identity there.

There are even masks that are worn by the doctors in Assassin's Creed!

Woody Woodpecker looks sick.

The masks, either for display or play, are pretty cool to have. Great for playing Batman.

Batman agrees.

Then there's the Murano Glass. This type of glass is famous for its shape, colours, design and form, and the art of glass-making used to craft it. From paperweights and room ornaments to pendants, rings and jewellery, Murano glass is one of the main trades in Venice.

THEY BREAK RAINBOWS FOR THIS!

And I stumbled upon colourful pasta too which is also an attraction in Venice. They sell for 3-5times the usual price of normal pasta >.>
Not only are they colourful, but they're very shaped after real stuff like hats and...well..stuff.

It's written NOT SEXY for a reason. Zoom in for some...stuff.

OK for the island of Burano, it's when their town planner got high on weed while watching Care Bears and said "I LOVE A CITY OF RAINBOWS" but the closest idea to his delusional plan(besides breaking rainbows and Murano glass) is to negotiate with the Care Bears to wash the whole town with their rainbows and loving hearts. But the Care Bears don't give a F*** and gave him their leftover Dulux Weathershield and Nippon Colour Paint instead. So the Italian town planner gave the Bears a backhand peace sign, in which the Care Bears mistaken it for a peace gesture.

The Care Bears Show was replaced by Teletubbies the following day.

Care Bears + weed gives you...

Burano, where the rainbow's on the ground instead.

There's more to see in Venice like Piazza San Marco and other interesting places which I won't go over here cuz' they're a sight to personally behold by yourself :D

FINAL STOP!

ROMA - Rome is the capital of Italy with many phrases and expressions amounting from it like "All roads lead to Rome", "Rome wasn't built in a day", "When in Rome, do what the Romans do" and "THIS.IS.SPARTAAAAA!!!". No wait the last one didn't come out right. But yeah you get the idea how famous Rome is that it got pretty much its own name in sentences like:

"Hey my phone's on Roaming now".

Alright that didn't come out right either. But hey you don't hear like New York's nickname coming out as the Big Apple in usual phrases...unless there's "A(n) BIG APPLE a day keeps the doctor away" then HELL YEAH I LOVE NY! GUHUHUHUH.

Speaking of which, I noticed there's a lot of peeps wearing I <3 NY and the S for Superman shirts in Rome... modern propaganda huh.

Oh and there's the famous Vatican City also made popular by the movie Angels & Demons. It's where the Pope lives and home to only 500+ residents and the church there is currently the largest in the world! Here's a picture of the entrance to the church, Vatican Square on Easter Day and Sunday Mass. There's thousands of people attending.

I saw the Pope! On a huge screen instead -.-"

Here's a shot of the Vatican Square from which I took from the Cupola (the huge dome up there). As you can see, sculptures of saints line the rooftops' edges. Wooo..

So dude, where are the Demons?

Next when you think about Rome, you gotta think about the fabled Colosseum. It's as colossal as the name adheres. To my disappointment though, it wasn't anything like the movie Gladiator(what? that's bullsh**!!) but pretty much like the movie Jumper( o.o )

From the outside. Looks like something you can eat XD
hungry bah >.>

On the inside. That's the arena?!
LET'S GO PAINTBALL!

Likewise, many other beautiful sights & sounds for your own adventure :D
I haven't mention food now, have I?

AND WHERE'S SUPER MARIO?!

IT'S A ME! MARIO & PIZZA!

Ironically, Mario being Italian, Pizza being Italian gives you Mario's Pizza which is a restaurant that exists only in New York (why am I comparing Italy and NY anyway?!)

Well at least there are other famous Italian foods to try out in Italy itself like:

WARNING OMG FOOD TOUR!!

Pizza with mushrooms, ham, artichokes, and mozzarella cheese


Pizza with cheese and 3 slices of ham in tabasco sauce


The classic Spaghetti & Meatballs!


Spaghetti Carbonara (with pepper,eggs and bacon)


Homemade Lasagna (layers of pasta and meat)


Bucatini Amatriciana


Bucatini Roma Style >.>


Assorted cookies & bread


Cappucino (smooth blended coffee)


GELATO!!! (smooth tasty ice-cream)

So voilà, more to find out for yourself xD I've only filled in a few holes to your knowledge about Italy and hopefully instilled some cravings for you to go there. I've not listed the dangers and precautions to take as I meant this to be a fun post but hey do always take care bah XD

Guess my next trip will be back home to Miri for the summer break. WO YEAH LOOKING FORWARD TO IT! That's when the Po-SLAMmers can meet up again yo :D so till then guys and readers! Take care and remember to eat your tomatoes so you can grow up to be fat and strong like Super Mario!
It's a he! Mario!

Uh oh porridge's on fire!
hach

We're Still Alive - to SLAM mo!

Hey, guys. How have you all been this time around? Been enjoying life lately? Been hitting the cards, the movies, the dairy farm and such? Well I have -

- Now if you think that I would be talking about what I've been up to lately, that's the thought where everything goes wrong. I mean for awhile back there. In fact there's been a lot going on from environmental mixes to political flicks and dodges. But not gonna elaborate too much on them. I'm sure most of us are aware of how the world is taking hits from everything that is around us - and even ourselves. But ah, to get smaller into the picture, I'll be discussing -

-Now if you think I would be ranting about what I thought that what should have happened to the world and such, that's where you'd be saturated with never ending issues - from me of course. But that's not gonna happen tonight, or now, yet. Anyways, the point is that, hmm how should I put this. Well 1st of all, I would prefer to start with a new paragraph.

There we go! So here I am, who just proly wasted a minute or two of your time reading the first few punching paragraphs (Thanks for being a great, patient and curious reader back there :D ). But hey, so far we potatoSLAMmers have been digging out our futures in life ( Naw, I don't think we're digging our graves yet.) and have been caught up in many different areas - in life, yet again.

Well, for Bui - or some of you may prefer to call him Bui (pfft, as if that made any difference) OF COURSE, IT DID. For Bui, you tend to pronounce it as Buuui in low monotone. But for Bui, it goes up like this - '!'. See, it's more hyped like this. Well if you guys remember him from "The Pond", which is a place which exists only in our heads (But if you do, then hey, welcome to The Club!), or even heard him. To refresh your memories, I'll play back one of our daily conversations

Bel and Hay walks into the coffee house to meet up with Rol, Chris and Bui.
*Start of conversation
Bel: Heya fellas.
Hay: Yoshas.
Rol: Hey guys!
Chris: Eh, hey dudes.
Bui: Woot.
Bel: I heard Bui tried to hit on a girl yesterday night.
Rol: Woah, really?
Bui: .....
Chris: WOW, serious?!
Bui: .....
Hay: Has Bel ever been serious?
Bui: .....
Hay,Rol, Chris: .....
Bel: Can stop imitating Bui ka?
Bel: .....
Bel: Oh, crap.
*End of conversation.

So that's how Bui got famous, in particular. Yeap, he's been handling life by his grasps lately. He even stopped playing the old yet hooking game of DotA for this semester ( O: ) and - still looks the same ol' Bui :) Not to mention his ear piercing laughs and sometimes contagious ones - maybe he's better off being "....." instead at times right? BUT if he were to do that, you'd not have the formula to being a perfect Bui. No wait, it's Bui.

Yes, he's still my roommate. And I'm sure he's active and all that. He's being a.good.roomie. He's always looking.after.us. ( I dare not speak much of him, otherwise he'll E.A.T me. eex.(save me(if you got my message in the bottle(please drop by to rescue me when you're free(hurry!)))))

Care to feed me?

.....

So enough about that, we'll skip over to - Rol. Rol's been up in KL for his studies. From what I've heard he's been doing alot of research and projects. He's been to exhibitions exhibiting his innovative invention which is a 'non-pump generated' water pump. The details are in the box. And he's been to organising backdrops and design for an exhibition. And I believe he's currently handling some management stuffs at a company he's docked at for his project.

So Rol has been busy all this while I suppose? Naw. Not really. Impossible Rol can be busy. Right? Well, naturally he finds time to play DotA draft matches with his mates over there. There would be batch against batch matches - and yes he would report to me about his winnings and uber comebacks and turnovers of losing bouts. (Gotta love that feeling huh :/) Other than that, Rol is the type of guy to go out whenever he can. To prove it, I'll reroll a recent conversation.

On Facebook Valz chat group, the members are getting ready for war.
*Start of conversation
Chris: Madek, where's rol now.
Zing: I think we should rez the fort now.
Hay: Yea, the members are getting restless.
Bel: I'd say we go in 1 min, give rol some time bah.
Chris: Okai.
*After the war ended
Hay: Ah, almost got it.
Bel: Darn failed to snipe.
Chris: F this S
Zing: Haiz.
*Suddenly
Rol: Nuuuuuuu, I just got back. Got stuck in a traffic jam!
Rol: Hey guys, how're ya doing?
Hay, Bel, Chris, Zing: We're good. Rol. We're good.
*End of conversation.

And there you have it. Rol's been tackling life his own way and is doing well with it. Despite the many joke complaints and hoorahs, he's still Rol.

Yeas, Rol's on the right end. He's Batman btw.

Moving on, there's Chris - the man to turn to when you need to talk some sense into. I mean when you wanna have a good time talking some cents and nonsense. When it comes to LOL moments, he's sure be up to it post it up on Facebook - mostly with the intention to blackmail or frame close friends like Bui. And boy, do we love it. Good laughs should be shared for all yea?
One such example can be seen.

Bui let his guard down.

Besides the frameworks, Chris' updated on animes and KPop and many Youtube vids to keep entertainment up close. Though this might affect his studies, he's still got guts to go ahead with it - along with his usual "MMFHH, Wad Da Fuuhhh" kinda thing - and still come out OK with exam grades.

He also keeps in close contact with his bro, Fui. Hi , Fui! And enjoys eating his bro's cooked meals, which I have yet to try. And I'm still waiting for it. Waiting..
Chris also reveals that he'd like me to draw all the SNSD girls in a single paper. Here's how it rolled.

Bel and Chris are having a normal conversation at night.
*Start of conversation
Bel: I finished drawing SNSD's Jessica!
Chris: Yeah, I saw it. It's good stuff. I didn't even know you started it xD
Bel: Yea, I started it a few weeks ago. And I've started alot of projects but put on hold because it keep jumping.
Chris: Kewl.
Bel: Now, Hay wants me to draw Taeyeon.
Chris: Aww.
Bel: What about you, who would you prefer to draw?
Chris: Hmm, I would want.
Chris: ALL OF THEM. IN A SINGLE PAPER. MUAHAHA XD
Bel: Oh, no Chris. You want them all, you greedy bastart!
Chris: HEHEHEHEE, ALLLLL -
*end of conversation
Edit: I only remembered until the last two lines of the convo. The rest were based upon my impressions of what I could gather for that night.

I finished drawing SNSD's Jessica!

http://ioxygen.deviantart.com/art/SNSD-Jessica-205101965

And there's Chris, one of the persons who I would show me art to receive critics, opinions and response based on his anime and KPop knowledge and the many LOL views he has.

Next, there's Hay. The person who moved to France in Aix for the time being, and is having a heck of a time there - meaning good and fun moments and some wtf shiet moments. He's staying alone there due to studies. So he learns to cook and prepare meals on his own, budget his expenditures, plans on when to buy groceries, and even estimate when would there be a strike.

He cooks most of the time for his meals, and through life's long journey of learning, he's still not good. I mean - he's just getting by with his taste. I've yet to try his cooking! For the first few times of cooking, he came out with burnt or overdose of quantities. But at least he's better now, but he recently decreased posting pictures of his cookings to observe and report. At least he likes to make funny things out of them before chomping.

I goth sumthinh stuckh in mee headh.

And yea he's been learning alot of French. So it comes to be useful when needed. In one of the daily convos, this is what happened:

Strange enough when it comes to learning, yes. But it happened!

Yeah, Hay's doing a lot of language learning and exploring Europe. He's just embarked on a tour to Italy. Hopefully he would bring back something cool of the Italians. He also just won a basketball tournament for M'sians only in France. That's what I heard, couldn't believe what I heard at first though. Apparently, only 5 teams registered including his. His team came out first. But that's a surprise to me, cause we would talk about what we can do in basketball whenever we can in chats. And now he's got a medal to show me. T_T

Anyways, as for me? I'm still with Bui (Yeap.) And looking out for each other. Been catching up on studies and such, what else is there to say about me? Ow darn, I can't make fun of myself since I have a reputation to keep :/

Well, trying to improve on basketball is another but that's more to fun and games. I can't reveal too much about my secret practice O: Church activities are going great as well and have learnt a lot of values of growth. Oh yeah, I have been catching up on art as well. I joined a Wacom 5th Anime Contest and submitted La Danse in which I have reedited an older version of it, into making it - well, better.

I turned to Hay for criticisms and he opted me to ask others, especially girls since guys would be bias towards the picture. (o_O) So I turned to two of whom I know has relation to art - Vern and Mel. Vern recommends to increase the contrast. Mel added that the background to be with more colours. Later, I asked help from Bui, Chris and Javier. Bui - I forgot what he said. No, it wasn't "....", I believe it was more to "Yea, agreed with the rest :D". Chris wanted the sparks to be more flashy. But I couldn't deliver to his anime style, oops. Javier sent an email regarding the review of the art LOL. And he pointed the background to be more clean. And I did most of the requested items, except for Chris' (it was alil' too late by then!)

So after all the ASAP editing, it finally came down to this. Thanks for the help peeps x)

La Danse

http://ioxygen.deviantart.com/art/La-Danse-192634503

I would've asked for more help, really. But due to shortage of time to hand in the art before the deadline, editing and reworking to uber display was limited. I actually founded the existance of the competition just 2 days before the deadline. And hey, I had to give it a shot - for a new tablet. The results aren't out yet though.

So visit me DeviantArt gallery to view more of me pieces :D

Well, that should be enough ranting for now. Exams are around the corner. And I should have used this time to do my assignment. Oh oh..

Hope you guys enjoy the read fellas!

P/S: Write whenever we can, bubs.

Bel out!

Fui's special appearance!