Atonement

Atonement was OK lah. Didn't really like it all that much.

Maybe it was because they censored too much. See, the little girl (Briony) was suppose to have caught her sister (Cecilia) and Robbie having sex in the library, and misunderstood it for Robbie being aggressive towards her sister. And a sex maniac due to her being such a big kaypoh go and read her sister's letter. Which she shouldn't have done.

But of course they censored it. The whole thing. Too hot for Malaysian screen that it might just blow a hundred fuses in the parliament.

Oh well, damage is done. The whole movie sort of looked pointless. And it didn't look like it was a misunderstanding due to actions on both sides. It points the finger instead at Briony's character solely as a busybody, the of-course-i-know-it-all, i-must-know-everything, and the of-course-i-am-always-right attitude. Typical thirteen year olds lah.

The girl was so annoying that I felt like slapping her every time she came on screen. Oh, and the stupid cousin of hers deserved to be whacked with a broomstick. How can there be so many silly girls in one place? Argh!

Like Lust Caution, this movie is also quite silent and slow moving. The story unfolds similarly to Paper Nautilus (Nicholas Jose), flashing back and forth. Telling the same event from two separate angles - Briony's eyes and what really happened. Quite cool.

Christmas Time

Christmas Time = Busy Time
Busy = No time to blog. Am I forgiven?

Why leh? Because tis the season where there are Christmas caroling (and the practices), Christmas service (and even more practices)... Most people are free at this time, so gatherings of old and new friends are immense. Don't get chance to rest much.

Even with 8 hours of sleep, I still feel tired. Should have just slept the whole day yesterday, instead of going to watch "I Am Legend" at Mutiara Damansara. But it's Will Smith movie man. How can I miss it? Oohh, but Cineleisure seats are the best man! Big, spacious and comfy. The only let down is it's in a land so far far away.

Christmas Time = Flabby Time
Why leh? Because tis the season where there are endless open houses and gatherings. And of course, gatherings in Malaysia are incomplete without eating and MORE eating. So imagine lah. How to eat so much without the risk of expanded waist line? Must jian fei before Chinese New Year comes (another season of binge eating). If not, become fatty fatty bom bom... I don't want!!!

And I can't wait for...



Heroes Season 2! Peter Petrelli so leng zai! Hiro Nakamura so cute! Claire Bennett so pretty! Nikki Sanders so sexy! Mohinder Suresh so cool! Haha. I'm just rubbishing. Except for the first two :P

Merry Christmas Everyone!

The Chronicles of Tolerance Tested

Foreword
I hereby officially declare that there are two people I cannot stand.

Over the years in college, I've met many kinds of people. Good ones. Nice ones. Friendly ones. Parasitic ones. It's only my natural response to stay far, far away from the latter crowd. I have had some classmates asking me to my face for my full reports and full assignments to "look through", when in fact I know they would copy my ideas and points, rephrase and pass them as their own, find new points and add them to their assignment but no they don't share that new information with you. When the smug smile comes when they get higher marks, don't you feel like b#!@% slapping them?

I wouldn't have minded if it was symbiotic.. I give you, you give me, we SHARE SHARE, catch my drift? Not you take take take and never give anything back. I wouldn't have minded either if they just wanted to see how I answered one or two questions. But a WHOLE BLOODY assignment which I placed so much thought and worked so hard on? Dammit, what do you take me as? A complete idiot?

Anyway, those are rather tame and easily handled. Not gonna yak about them. The ones I cannot tolerate the most? Nasty ones. And a fair share of hypocrites. I have two stories for each one. My two "main characters" in this post, of course, shall remain anonymous in this post, lest I get scolded and sued by the institution and/or parties involved allegedly for defamation. I mean, your blog is your journal isn't it? And you should be able to write whatever you want right? And we can't complain? What if all we're writing are just our point of view (which is what it normally is) = harmless?

Aha! Let’s use pseudonyms! Haha. Fortunately the two are one female and one male, which make it easier. Somewhat. They shall be known as Affected Amelie and Egoistical Eugene respectively henceforth.

Ladies first, shall we?


Part 1: The Mask of Affected Amelie

I had the greatest misfortune and displeasure of working under/with Affected Amelie a little under a year ago. To begin our story, we started off on the wrong foot, big wrong foot, i.e. with a misunderstanding. I often wonder what did I do or did I not do to deserve the kind of cold, sarcastic treatment Affected Amelie gives. You see, the date and day of our first discussion in the e-mail she sent was mistyped. And naturally, how do you expect us to be there at the right place at the right time when we got the right place at the WRONG time?

I did double-check and even triple-check the date and day. Naturally when the date and day are not synchronized, you would take the date as the correct one right? It's still a mystery how my two other groupmates managed to make it to the discussion though. Sheesh man, they must have their own calendar with different months which I don't know about.

For weeks, I was asked incessantly and unnecessarily if I was really, really, REALLY interested in the project. Brains man. If I was not, you think I’d waste my time and paid thousands of bucks for it har? Oh yeah, they say I look disinterested. I felt as though from the very first day I was being judged as someone who’s not serious about the project and pointless as a group member. Every move was scrutinized. They say I don’t look excited or serious in what I do. Well, I look like that all the time when I'm doing my own work or doing some thinking or analyzing in my head. Expressionless. Poker-faced. Whatever you wanna call it.

When we chat, she gives the kind of look (Why? Scientists can't have social life??). When we laugh and joke with others, she gives another kind of look (Why? Scientist can't have fun and humour??) although they both send identical message. It just injects the uncomfortable feeling right into the core of your heart. Every now and then the sides of her mouth curl up into a displeased *cough* ugly *cough* expression.

If I may, I am one who in every best way that I can try not to unnecessarily worry or stress myself. Even if I should be stressed, I usually calm myself down, because being stressed and freaked out ain’t gonna help much either. Except to hasten your wrinkles and migraine attacks. (Hmm, maybe that's why she looks a lot older than she really is..) From experience, I can guarantee you 100% that migraines are excruciating and you would be crazy to not take measures to prevent another attack! Ask my friends. You know, real friends who take REAL effort to know me. They all know this is just how I am. Not those who has pre-conceived impression buried in the corner of the brain, and just say hi and bye.

Why Affected Amelie? When I was revising GRE, I came across this word affected. And I just couldn't think of anyone else that fits this adjective so perfectly. To quote from the textbook, affected means artificial, pretended or assumed in order to impress. I know Affected Amelie doesn't like the idea of talking to me if she could help it. But in front of people and strangers, she is so exceptionally sweet, polite and friendly that it scares me even more than the sight of Sadako crawling out of my TV would. At the very least, Sadako does not pretend to be unvengeful and cute.

The irony is that Affected Amelie often describes and, if I may, prides herself as being very friendly and approachable. She does look the part from a distance. But once you begin dealing with her everyday, man, true colours burst out bright and trust me, it's such an eyesore. She is not very friendly. She is not straightforward. She can get pretty nasty. She is rather talented at rolling her eyes. Definitely not altruistic. As far as asking her about something, she is OK but wouldn’t quite fit the approachable tag.

And she’s not as smart as she seems either. I mean this is one lady who once said that C-H bond is a hydrogen bond. ..... Even my brother (recent high school graduate) knows that is poo.


Part 2: Egoistical Eugene... next time.

Surat dari Jabatan Latihan Khidmat Negara

The fateful letter has arrived. For my brother, of course. It probably had hundred pages of instructions, forms and letters of consent in it. All in Bahasa Melayu. As expected. The stuff written in there were utterly hilarious – language-wise, types of questions asked, etc. I’d be kind enough to warn that half of the remaining of this post will be in Bahasa Melayu. Hahahaa. Kenalah latih sikit-sikit kan? Kalau tidak, basi nanti.

Some questions posed to the trainees regarding their health:
(Real questions, but of course answers are pure rubbish)

Adakah anda menghidapi penyakit kencing manis?
Tidak tahu, sebab tidak pernah rasa.

Adakah anda selalu sakit kepala atau migrain?
Tidak, tetapi selalu menyebabkan sakit kepala dan/atau migrain.

Adakah anda selalu demam berpanjangan?
…………… Boleh terangkan definasi ‘berpanjangan’ dengan lebih lanjut?

Adakah anda menghidapi gangguan mental/sakit jiwa?
Lerrr… kalaulah aku ada masalah jiwa, kau ingat aku akan mengaku ke? Pembunuh mengaku ke tak yang dia membunuh orang?

For ladies, they also asked for the date of last menstruation. Out of curiousity, I just want to know – Whatever do you need to know that for? And I don’t know how many teenage girls can answer that. When I was a teenager, I hardly kept track on my cycles.

Somewhere under Syarat-syarat Pengecualian Dari Khidmat Negara (roughly translated as conditions for exemption from National Service) “Orang bercelaru mental di bawah Ordinan Kecelaruan Mental…”, mentally disturbed = bercelaru mental? That’s a first for me. Never heard of it before. I thought we plainly lovingly just put it as gila. Or does gila mean permanent and non-treatable, and bercelaru mental temporary?? I thought the meaning of celaru leant more towards confused than disturbed. You know, when you’re in a dilemma having to make a decision, you weigh the pros and cons and yet your fikiran bercelaru because it's not a easy decision to make.

Then others exempted are - obviously - those with penyakit yang boleh membawa maut atau berjangkit (fatal or infectious disease), and those who're already in the military or the police force. Those who're in rehab for whatever purposes or doing time for whatever reasons are also exempted, including juveniles. I guess it's safety issues. What else can it be?

The Reading Addict

Reasons I've not been blogging as of late:
One, I'm lazy.
Two, just pure utter laziness.
Three, there’s something in the air lately that's making me lazy. Therefore I laze.

Okay. I am aware I’m talking gibberish. Maybe I’m more diligent than I give myself credit for. Just maybe. But I do still have a penchant for laziness. Hahahaa.

Truthfully, I have only recently rekindled a dormant darling hobby I had since before I went to school but coldly shoved aside during college – reading. Haha. Now I’m going crazy borrowing books from libraries. Seriously. All because of one good book.

Once I finish reading a good book, something triggers me and I go on a reading rampage. But once I come across a bad book, particularly one that has me hooked page-by-page only to disappoint in its climax in the last fifteen pages (*ahem* Crisis *ahem*), I immediately get switched off and probably put off reading for a few weeks. Haha. Yes, I am weird unique. And admitting that is no sin.

Borrowed three big books (I mean big physically, not big as in deep, difficult-to-digest literatures) from Perpustakaan Kuala Lumpur under Suet Wan’s grandma’s account last Wednesday, before I even finished Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible which I managed to finish the day after Deepavali – Hallelujah! – no thanks to procrastination, my initial lukewarm attitude and the “no time” excuse.

The Poisonwood Bible is a good novel on a side note. It’s a story about a missionary who takes his wife and four daughters to Congo, away from the comforts of USA, cleverly written from five different points of views (the five women in the book) about their experiences and the plight of the people there.

And when I’ve only finished reading Robin Cook’s Marker – which was, by the way way WAYYYY better than Crisis – and left with two books still, my itching fingers went to my university library today and got myself two additional books... -_-;

So now.

Yang Sudah Habis Baca (Finished)...




Yang Sedang Dibaca (Halfway through)...




Yang Sedang Menunggu Saya (Still waiting)...




And I still want dozens more!!!!

Giler, macam manalah nak habis??

Along The Corridor...

I walk through from one end to almost the other other end to get to my lab every morning.

I have to walk all the way back up to get to the bathroom when nature calls. In the entire floor, there's only one bathroom for the ladies, one for men and one for the disabled. And it has to be at the other end from where my workplace is at!

There is a lot less people around since semester 2 has ended. Which is nicer. Not that I hate people. I like people. It's just a lot safer and peaceful. Nobody likes a noisy, crowded place to work in right? Work is work. I don't think anyone enjoys being followed around and bothered while doing their work. Unless they're juniors or trainee or new staff.

I will be walking along this corridor for the next eight months.

It is really a long walk.

Research Progress

My research had begun quite some time ago.

But Suzan asked me why I look so free like that. I think she was referring to why I look freer than her. Hahaa. Well, I was thinking. To begin with, I don’t have long hours of incubations unlike what you have. And I don’t have to prepare so much buffer / stock solutions as yet. And I think mine is pretty straight forward.

Basically these are what I need to do:
- Prepare the solution containing my antioxidant (analyte). Prepared quite easily. Just have to figure out the solubility in water and do some calculations beforehand.
- Set up the three-electrode cell, begin the experiment and adjust the parameters (depending on what parameter is under investigation).
- The other part is probably to prepare the stock solutions containing different supporting electrolytes, which I gather would be quite fun to do. Muahahaaa. I’ll be doing this probably next week or the week after.
- And last part is to prepare buffer solutions of different pH, when investigating varying pH parameter. Which would be another fun thing to do. I get to play with the pH meter. And remember to uncap the electrode prior to using :P
- Later maybe modifying the electrode.

One more thing is that I can halt and stop the experiment more flexibly, and continue it some other day. If I’m not mistaken, yours have to complete some steps within the day itself?

My research revolves around the machine and the analyte. If one of them does not behave well, that's when I'll be having cold sweat.

I do agree that my research progress is kind of slow nonetheless.

I think the most headache part for mine is probably trying to explain the oxidation and reduction activity and properties of the compound. Because how they behave is totally out of my control. Writing up thesis is probably the most tao tia part. Then, you’ll see me pulling my hair, running into the wall, screaming to Tasik Sunway (the tin mining lake lahhh) from my lab, and crying a river.

But I hope to God that won’t happen.

Rudeness

Please be forewarned that this is an unusually long, un-Daesi-like, entry. I'm in a complaining mood today.

One thing that really, really ticks me off is rudeness. Rudeness is vast. Rudeness is unnecessary. But in certain situations and special occasion, the person might have asked for it herself. Or himself. Occasional rudeness. Otherwise, it is really seriously unnecessary.

Like, you know when someone whom you know but don’t really know asks you and specifically you about what you do or what’s your work like or yadda-yadda, and someone else just butts in and answers that for you when you didn’t even need or ask for his or her or any help for that matter (obviously, cuz you should know your own job). I consider that very rude. Because it’s a convsersation between two other people, and if someone is addressing questions to someone else personally, it’s really and I mean really not your territory to kay-poh and talk.

Simply put, mind your own business.

I mean, what kind of impression are you trying to give others by doing that? That they are incompetent? Or that they are incapable of speaking for themselves? Or that you’re better than they are?

If you are indeed smarter or more skillful, people are not idiots and they can tell for themselves. Who are you trying to fool man? If indeed we are the most brilliant being ever walked the earth (maybe rivaled by chimpanzees), we don’t need signboards or loud public announcements to know what we will know as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. And gloating.

The most appalling fact is that I see people doing that to their friends. Supposedly friends lah I guess. Cuz hey, friends don’t do that to each other! Friends don’t deliberately sabotage other’s reputation or things like that. Man, how can you expect one to like you or consider you as a pal when you’re doing those repulsive things, trying to prove yourself better and stepping on their heads with your dirty shoes?

Another kind that drives me up the wall is what I call 沒大沒小, literally translated as "no big no small" in english. Meaning a younger person / school junior treating an older person / their senior / someone who’s greater seniority in age or rank with no respect or like buddy buddy. I mean, I don’t demand that you kowtow (as in how the Chinese greet their emperor in those days.. kneeling down and ketuking their kepala on the ground) when you see seniors lah. But at the least, regardless of how less intellectually-blessed the seniors or our peers are compared to us, it doesn’t give us the license to treat them like shit.

Be nice lah. If not, what makes one any different from chauvinistic people in those days who were sexist, racist or biased like the caste system? We’ve come a long way since that orthodox system that’s saturated with prejudices and stupidism. Please don’t go back to that Zaman Jahiliyah. For Pete's sake.

Who the heck is Pete anyway?

People shouldn’t be measured or treated according to their IQ. For all you know and I think for sure, their working skills, experiences and EQ could be way greater than yours. People may not have your strengths but they all have their own strengths. There’ll always be someone out there who would be smarter than you. There’ll always be someone out there who would be a better singer than you. There’ll always be someone out there who would be do a better job at laborious kerja kuli than you. There’ll always be someone out there who would analyze problems faster than you... this list is endless. Having humility makes you a gem. Gloating and showing off is just so polar opposites.

I am complaining about no one in particular. It's completely unintentional as I'm just having this mind diarrhea thing going on.. writing whatever comes in my head. If you think I'm writing about you, then oh well, siapa makan cili dia yang rasa pedas. Maybe it's time for a change. And yes, I still want to marah some more.

Only recently I was greatly offended by someone whom I thought or considered to be my good friend. You know this facebook thingy is kinda new, you add your friends and all.. So he wasn't any different. To me lah. And this is what he sent me after he received my friend request...

hey... no need to add me la... I message u tak jawab... leave comment u dun reply... msn messenger u ... no reply... friendster.... facebook... macam sama je... u got like 369 friends of ur friendster & here u got like 50 & counting... nevermind la!! haha.

What in the world is that suppose to mean? If you don't want to approve, don't approve and just click "no" lah. So simple. Do you have to write all those things out like that? It was unnecessary meanness.

Of course, I thought I had to explain myself lah. I hardly come on MSN anyway, and if I do I'm often busy doing work. Ask anybody. I mean, when I don't talk to someone for a long time or just can't reply the MSN message, it doesn't mean I don't treasure their friendship. If we were really friends, you would understand that if I don't reply it's probably because I just can't. There are several friends whom I haven't talked to for YEARSSS. And yet, when we just met up recently, it was surprisingly non-awkward and we could yak as though the last we saw each other was a week ago, instead of 5 years ago. We still consider each other as friends in spite of lack of chit-chatting. And even Keren, whom I rarely speak to online (always poking each other on facebook nonetheless), I consider one of my closest friends still.

Fine. Maybe it's supposed to be jokingly or whatever. But purposely or not, I gather that you're implying I'm just merely adding people to my list, whether they're friends or not. Of which I take great offense. I didn't even know I had 369 friends on friendster in the first place (and I'm not even counting) until then. You think I add people for fun har? Sheesh, man. I didn't know that I am such a cheap and shallow "friend". Thanks a lot for bringing that to light. I'll remember this to my grave. Perhaps engrave the epitaph on my tombstone saying "Here lies Daesi. May she remain cheap and shallow forever".

Smart ass me should have not replied his message. Wasting ATP only. Because all I got in reply was even more of those words. OK. From now on, please do not bother sending private and personal messages to my Friendster inbox. Because I'll never reply any. Because I'll never check it. And because I'll never want to check it. You wanna know why?

This is why.


My inbox is infested with these pests called junk mail. Junk mail. And more junk mail. Hate them. Hate them. Hate them!! Look, I don't care if my love life is gonna be jinxed for the next 10 years or a bloody scary ghost with long pointed and sharp fingernails popping into my room at midnight to eat me up, I will not forward it.

End of commercial :P

Now back to the subject. Where was I? Oh yeah. I don't see what purpose the message serve except that it's just to insult me. Sticking a fine needle into the left side of my chest. So uncalled for. Pretty much say I'm a lousy friend. Oh for goodness sake, you yourself didn't come talk to me when we were at a function months ago! And now this?

You know what, I'm at this point where I really don't give a damn anymore. Misunderstanding or not, I'm through with all this children game. Real friends don't keep count of what you do or what you didn't do to them.

I'm done complaining.


For now.

Lawak

SAPE HEBAT
Man : Bapa aku hebat. Dia polis. Semua orang takut 'ngan dia.
Ali : Eleh, bapa aku lagi terer. Kalau dia suruh orang tunduk, mesti orang tu tunduk.
Man : Wow! Bapa kau kerja apa?
Ali : Tukang gunting rambut.

---

KELAS BI
Ayah : Apasal B.I. kamu nie asyik dapat kosong jer...! Apasal hah?
Anak : Eh, ayah! Tu bukan kosong. Tadi cikgu adik dah kasi bintang banyak kat bebudak lain. Ada dapat 5 bintang la, 4 bintang la. Bila turn adik jer, bintang dah abis. Sebab tu cikgu bagi kat adik bulan.

---

SUDU
Doktor : Encik kena ambil 3 sudu ubat ni setiap hari.
Pesakit : Eh! tak boleh la doktor.
Doktor : Kenapa?
Pesakit : Rumah saya ada dua sudu jer.

---

MAYAT
Cikgu : Hasan,sambungkan 2 ayat ini menjadi satu. 'Ali menaiki basikal ke sekolah. Ali ternampak mayat.'
Hasan : Ali ternampak mayat menaiki basikal ke sekolah.

---

TIRU
Cikgu : Encik,anak awak didapati meniru Ali dalam exam.
Bapa : Apa bukti awak?
Cikgu : Encik tengok soalan nombor 4 nie. Siapakah menemui Pulau Pinang? Seman tulis "Saya tak tahu"dan anak encik tulis "Kalau engkau tak tahu, aku lagi la tak tahu".

---

DOKTOR
Suatu petang datang seorang lelaki berumur ke kelinik ENT, kerana telinganya di masuki biji kacang hijau semasa dia membeli barang dapur di pasar.

Doktor : "Selamat petang..."
Pesakit : "Selamat petang Doktor!"
Doktor : " Ada masalah apa ...?"
Pesakit : "Telinga saya dimasuki biji kacang hijau, Doktor..."
Doktor : "Biar saya periksa telinga anda!"

Setelah diperiksa....
Doktor : " Ada 2 cara untuk mengeluarkan biji tersebut..."
Pesakit : "Apa caranya doktor?"
Doktor : "Pembedahan kecil kosnya 2 ribu ringgit dan pilihan kedua pula percuma..."
Pesakit : "Mahal sangat Doktor, kalau yang percuma bagaimana?"
Doktor : "Yang percuma kena sabar..."
Pesakit : "Baik, saya sabar, dan bagaimana caranya...?"
Doktor : "Anda sirami telinga anda 2 kali sehari dan nanti jika sudah jadi tauge' anda tinggal tarik keluar."
Pesakit : "Huh..."

Oh no! Not my car!

Bunch of no-good, nooby, bloody morons.
Should or should not this matter be reported to the police?

The Checklist: Criterias of The Ideal Guy

Promised Phaik Ee that I would do this a little more than a week ago. Hahaa. How on earth did I get myself this assignment? Funny. OK lah. I oblige to do the list for the fun of it and for myself to think about it. I never really thought about this - seriously or trivially.

Let my brain cells start dreaming! Listed in no particular importance.. what is listed first is what popped up in my mind first.

♥ A Christian. Someone who's spiritually more mature than I am, of course, who can teach and lead. Don't want conflict of beliefs surfacing somewhere along the road because our journey together began with diversed spiritual beliefs.

♥ At least half-a-head taller than I am. Hahaa. Well, I'm not that tall. This shouldn't be too hard right.

♥ Understanding and respectful. Who doesn't want someone who can listen to your point of view or accept your decision without judging and/or controlling you?

♥ Definitely must love music of course. Not just sekadar listening to music that kind, must really really love music and know music. Don't think anybody's surprised though. Being a musician myself, this criteria is hardly optional. Wah... If can play the piano the way Wang Lee Hom plays, sing as good as Cao Ge, compose songs as well as Zhou Jie Lun, good looking like Zhan Yuhao (from NQMM) or He Jun Xiang all in one package... it'd definitely be a dream come true. Hahahaa. Like I said, a dream. Every night can sing me to sleep ;-P

♥ Nice. Needs no explanation. I don't want a puppy kicker, wife slapper, kitten eater...

♥ Honest. The last thing most women want is to be lied to by our loved ones. For whatever reason - good or bad, best is to be honest. Of course there're always the trick questions like "Is she prettier than me?", "Do I look fat in this dress?", etc. We love to hear the truth. But not in an insulting way. Just find a way around the question. Hahaa. Give you chance to hone skills.

♥ No Male Chauvinistic Pigs aka MCPs (sweetONE™, you know you should start a language of your own and called it Wanniese :P). We have come a long way since the days of our moyang. Treating and dismissing us as inferiors is definitely a turn off.

♥ Has a good head on his shoulders. Smart brain, smart looking. No need to have IQ of 180 like Masi Oka lah.

♥ Preferably Chinese lor. Haha. I am not racist. It's just that understanding comes easier with similar upbringing and culture.

♥ Can speak good English. I had this bad experience with this guy once. It was really difficult to talk to him, especially over MSN, because he was misinterpreting every single freaking sentence I was saying. Sometimes I would just say something which is very harmless, and he thought I was insulting or being sarcastic with him. And half the time he couldn't understand what I wrote. And most of the time I had decode what he wrote because of all the spelling errors and wrong use of words. Don't even feel like rummaging through my chat history with him to give you an example. Argh. If he can speak Mandarin, it'd be a bonus.

♥ Good kisser. Not a crime to want that now is it? Hahaa.

♥ Non-smoker and non-drinker.. as in drinking once in a while is OK by me, but alcoholic abusers are no no. Pretty self-explanatory right?

♥ Have a good sense of humour. Knows how to have a lighthearted outlook on life and also when it's time to get serious.

♥ Have a good sense of adventure. Gotta know how to have fun right? Hahaa. But don't lah sampai like David Blaine like that wanna drown himself in water for more than a week. I'll kill him before the water does!

Alahh.. I think cukup liao hor? I can't think of anymore. Hahaa. If you wanna add anything or comment, be my guest. I'm game.

Being a lamp post

(edited on 27/09 for Suet Wan aka sweetONE :P)
Today, I found this in my bukumuka graffiti wall. And laughed out loud.


Copyright of Suet Wan. Yalah, went to watch Secret again. I know I'm nuts. I won't be going for a third time, so chill man.

Anyway that's not the point.

I notice that every time I go out to the movies with Suet Wan, somehow always end up as tiang lampus in the theater. The only twosome who are friends, while the rest are lovey-dovey burungs. Why now not heng go movies with friends is it?

And every time, among these couples would be one particular couple that "stands out". Last time when we went to watch Shrek 3, there was one girl sitting several rows in front of us (we're backbenchers) laughing and squealing out louddddd at every few seconds. Honestly speaking, it was nothing close to mediocre funny.. the jokes were really lame, recycled and unlaughable that I don't know if they qualify to be called jokes in the first place. To grade it Hogwart's way, it was "Dreadful". We seriously didn't know what was so funny.

And yesterday, the girl sitting to my right had her head on her boy boy's arms the whole time the movie was on! It's a miracle she didn't have neck strain at the end of the movie. And he didn't complain of having ants crawling sensation in his arm. Her head was probably 3-4 feet away from mine. When funny lines come, she's giggling away AND whacking her boy boy's arms. Ow.

But she wasn't half as annoying.

And her skirt was probably half-a-foot long.

Sigh. People you meet. Can. Be. So. Entertaining.

By the way, I bought a new pair of tallies (sweetONE ™) from Vincci. Tallies as in tall hence heels. Gold colour. Very sayang. Too bad Malaysian roads and pavements conditions are really horrid to shoes, especially tallies.

To end, this is something I heard from Suet Wan about her friend. This is sweetONE ™ haa, cannot simply recycle without her permission ahh :P. One fine day, somebody asked her friend, "Hey.. how do you spell 'hate' har? As in 'I hate you'? H-E-A-R-T? I heart (pronounced as hate) you?"

Secret (不能說的秘密) - Part II

我愛周杰伦!!!!!


Just kidding. Hahaa. No, I'm not gonna start blogging in Chinese. Can barely read, let alone write. And yes, there are several things I have to admit.

I admit that I'm a bigger fan of Jay Chou after watching "Secret" yesterday.. day after writing the previous entry, tak ada sabar. For first time writing story and directing, he did a good job.

I shamelessly admit that I find guys who play the piano well extremely sexy and charismatic.

I admit that I have an inclination *ahem.. bias* towards singers who write, compose and sing their own songs.

I admit that I tend to favour movies with at least one music/singing element. Like Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, The Pianist, A Walk to Remember, Spring Waltz, Sister Act, Annie, Corpse Bride, etc. And now Secret.

I admit that I dream of marrying a musician someday. Haha. I've had a long day and it's one something in the morning. I'm allowed to dream :P But yah, my man has to love music.. not just sekadar listening to music, but really love LOVE music. If he can play as well as Jay, next time when I merajuk or angry or keras hati, just play a romantic song my hati keras sure melt one. Haha.

I admit that my favourite piece from the movie is probably the duet Jay played with Xiao Yu.

I admit that my most favourite moment from the movie is the piano battle scene. My jaw probably dropped 15 inches watching it. It was phenomenal! If I was watching it on DVD, I would have stopped and rewind to rewatch the battle. My friend told me he really played the piano, but the cooking hands were not his lah. Hahaa. Another scene I like is the part where he was playing a sad, depressing song on the piano (heartbroken mah..), and his father quipped, "Wei.. bu yao zai tan la. Lao ba kuai yao ku le (don't play anymore lahh, or I'm gonna bawling soon).

I admit that I enjoyed this movie. Wouldn't mind going for another round. Thumbs up. Recommended to everyone. Especially those who can understand Mandarin. But they have English subtitles anyway. After watching, if you're a pianist you'll feel a sudden itch and urge to rush back to play the piano, if you're not you'll wanna start learning to play the piano.

Secret

Not one, not two, not three, but 896345783654876132540 people told me to go watch this movie. Haha. OK lah, I was exaggerating. But no less than 10 people recommended this movie to me. Initially wasn't very keen because I was not too impressed with Jay Chou's acting in the other movies (Initial D, Curse of the Golden Flower). But when Riana told me the movie had piano playing and excellent music - which is autonomously expected of Jay Chou - I was immediately sold. Cannot save liao.

Just went to check screening times in cinemas. Pyramid and Timesquare are not viewing it.. Cis! Apparently in the Klang Valley, only Midvalley Megamall is showing the movie in time slots throughout the day. The synopsis sounds hmmm.. like it would be a good watch.

Now is there anyone who hasn't watch it yet and don't mind watching that with me?
Or any die-hard Jay Chou fans who want to go watch it for the 37th time?

O, Graduation & Celebration

Ancora Imparo. I'm still learning in Latin. Motto of Monash.


Of course there was a delay. And it's all Jacky Chan's fault!
But if it was anything to go by the Malaysian standard, it started on time. Hahahaa. What delay? Where got delay? Haiyah, five minutes delay... nothing one lah.


Akhirnya graduate juga.
Sakit kepala from doing reports and assignments, sakit mata from overexposure to computer screen, sakit tangan from doing experiments and solving problem sheets, sakit kaki from walking from Monash building (old campus) to School of Science, sakit hati because won't be seeing most of my classmates on regular basis anymore.


Marching out of graduation.


We're a boring lot. We pose for pictures standing straight.


See.. I told you. This position arrangement looks familiar or not?
Hahaa. Look at the picture below and tell me what's the similarity?


Shortest to tallest? Oldest to youngest? Hair colour gradient?


Me and my parents. Without them, I wouldn't be graduating from Monash today. Obviously I wouldn't have made it through semester after semester. No. Not without their financial support to pay my fees :P Hahahaa.

Songs & Memories

Was just chatting with Suzan online, yakking away until we came to the topic about songs that remind us of our younger days or experiences, bringing back the sense of nostalgia. You know, those kind of songs when you hear it, your mind just automatically flashes back to that point in time, unlocks all the memories and play them one-by-one in your head. Like watching a movie.

Sometimes they remind you of something funny. For instance, when I listen to Backstreet Boys’ “I’ll never break your heart” and Boyzone’s “Love me for a reason”, almost immediately I laugh because I remember those days in primary school where there was this battle between fans of Backstreet Boys and fans of Boyzone. Who was the better boyband. Who dances better. Who sang the sappy songs sappier and cheesy songs cheesier. Who generally had more good looking guys. Who was gay and who wasn’t. Why Nick Carter / Stephen Gately looked so much like a girl. Or why Boyzone only had two lead singers and Backstreet Boys had three (then lah). Who will last longer (that one Backstreet Boys won by the way). Now at this age, it really looks merepek (ridiculous). But hell, it was fun.

Remember Hanson’s “Mmmbop”? When I hear that, I remember the time when my sister and I (and probably the whole world) realized that they were Hanson brothers. From a newspaper article. Not two girls and one boy. Oops. And also, that one of my classmates insisted that we call her Mrs Taylor Hanson or Mrs Ronan Keating. Talk about fanatic. When I hear "Until the time is through" by 5ive, I recall those days where I sat in front of my computer then in my now brother's room (then guest room) replying e-mails to e-pals while listening to the radio. Now all contact's lost.

Then there was “One Sweet Day” by BoyzIIMen and Mariah Carey, which reminded me of my days back in The Word Centre actively involved in the youth ministry, dance ministry, drama ministry and admin. We always requested the same song from the deejay whenever we drop by Sungei Wang Plaza. The deejay's our friend. Hahaa. Even to this day, but he's no longer deejay. Even any Jars of Clay song will suffice. Days of sleeping over at friends’ houses, late night supper, friends sleeping over in our houses, having dance/drama practices one after another.. Gosh I miss those days. Gosh I missed my friends. It was sad that it had to end the way it ended.

Backstreet’s back, alright! Hahaa. In my final year, we actually suggested to our choir teacher to sing that song for our annual prize-giving ceremony. Which, of course, she said no way! And we ended up singing Colours of the Wind instead (plus a patriotic song). And we had won the state competition that same year too! It was crazy because we were just aiming for a top five spot and kalau ada rezeki, top three. The elated feeling of being at that moment and announced as champions just flows back. We were practically in tears, up jumping on our feet and screaming when they announced the first runner-up because there was only one spot left and we were the only school left unannounced. Crazy man. Crazy. Surreal.


Then there would be "Heal the World" by Michael Jackson. Hear the song until phobia liao. This song would remind me of - no, not global warming or world peace but - my librarian days in high school. Heard that song for three days straight in the motivational camp. Heard that song everyday in the library since. Even performed it in front of the whole school for God-only-remembers-what event. Dengar sampai boleh gilerrr. Now whenever I hear that song on radio, I subconsciously change stations. The memories are sweet, but the song is bitter to my ears now man.

"Big Big World".. I forgot who is it by. When I hear that, I remember our trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. My brother was at this mode where he couldn't get the song out of his head. And he sang that song where ever he went and whenever he wanted. My sister and I couldn't and wouldn't stop teasing him about singing about being a girl since the song went "I'm a big big girl in a big big world, it's not a big big thing if you need me". That's pretty much all he sang all the time. The morning we were heading up to Mount Sinai, it was pitch dark (3am) and we were all separated because we were sitting on separate camels (butt damn pain ok) up half the mountain. We couldn't see each other. But I knew I passed my brother at some point. Because I heard a singing "I'm a big big girl in a big big world...".


Leaving you with a picture of the sunrise seen from the peak of Mount Sinai, makes waking up at 2am, sitting on the camel for hours until butt super aching, climbing all the way to the peak with our two legs. Then coming down from the mountain, which took hours of trying not to slip, fall and land on camel dung yang bertaburan di sekitaran.

Things in Malaysia that I'll definitely miss

Happy uuuhhh… belated birthday, Malaysia?! Sorry lah, was busy on Merdeka day to wish you earlier :P

OK. So I’ve never really stayed in countries out of Malaysia for more than two weeks. And that one also for holiday. It’s no secret that I do wanna live abroad someday. Not necessarily permanently. Maybe for furthering studies or work, since Malaysian career prospects for Biotechnologist are not as bright as they’d promised it would several years back. Nevertheless, I do know some things in Malaysia that I’ll dearly miss if I were deprived of Malaysian environment.

Listed in no particular order or favouritism…

Assam laksa, curry laksa, Sarawak laksa, Penang laksa, all kinds of laksa. Yum.

ABC or more famously known as ais kacang.

Bintang Walk. And all the shopping complexes associated with it.

KLCC Petronas Twin Towers.

24-hour Mamak stalls.

Badminton – not easy to find other sources for news and updates on this sport besides our local newspapers.

Celebrations all year round – Chinese New Year, Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Hari Raya Haji, Christmas, Deepavali, Vasakhi, Thaipusam, Wesak – and all the public holidays we get along with it.

Sales all year round – Year End Sale, Christmas sale, CNY sale, Mega sale… fuiyoh.

Durians! Durians! And more durians! Sultan! Musang Emas! D24! D101!

My mom’s red bean soup. Double yum.

Pasar malams. Especially my Sri Petaling's pasar malam. The best! Hehe.

Nyonya food.

Hokkien mee.

Ramadhan bazaars during Ramadhan month.

The selamba culture we have. although this tidak apa attitude may annoy us to our very guttest of guts, it shows that we know how to kick back and relax when we need it the most.

There's one thing I will not miss though...

The traffic jams!!
Siao ah? Who wants to miss that??

Poster Done!

For the past weeks, I’ve been busy doing and preparing for this – a proposal for my Honours research. In case you don’t know, my Honours year is research-based, not an extended whole year of extra subjects and classes like any other normal semester. I’ve been waiting for this day for so long. Finally this morning, I was busy doing this...


Standing next to my poster for four straight hours on standby alert mode to present my research to anyone at any time, which includes yakking away about my objectives and how I’m going about with them as well as answering questions shot my way.

To put in simple terms, I’m actually using this method called Cyclic Voltammetry to detect two specific antioxidant compounds. While at that, the best suitable parameters (conditions) will be determined as well. If you don’t understand that, you can ask me the next time we meet face to face. Einstein said, "You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother". Got to put that into practice right?

Of course, I had 2 examiners – one was really nice and asked simple questions rather than bombardic ones which I initially expected and dreaded since he was quite seasoned on this area, while the other was new to this field so I didn’t know what to expect from her. She did ask me one question which I – timely and awfully bad timing – blanked out. I could only recall very little details bleakly. Sigh. Nevermind. It’s only worth 3% of my overall marks.


P.S. I was gonna put in a picture of my poster, but Madhu hasn't sent me the photos yet. Argh, I really do need a digicam small and light enough to carry around.

P.P.S. Edited on 02/09, thanks to Madhu for the pic. I still need a slimmer camera.

The Crisis in Crisis

OK. So I've always been a big fan of Robin Cook, thanks to my sister. So when I went to Timesquare Borders 2 weeks ago, I was drawn to buy this book after reading the short synopsis printed on the back cover. No kidding, the synopsis was brilliantly written to intrigue and catch the eyes of even the ones who were casually selecting random books off the shelf to pass time. Can't say it attracts book-haters cuz if they hated books so much they wouldn't be in the bookstores in the first place.

Accused of medical malpractice, Dr Craig Bowman feels shocked, angry and humiliated. He has spent gruelling years in the service of others before eventually becoming partner in an exclusive medical practice which allows him to lavish personal attention on just a small number of clients. But this idyllic situation grinds to a halt one sunny afternoon... and this are about to get much worse.

Medical examiner Dr Jack Stapleton agrees to travel to Boston to offer his forensic expertise to Bowman's beleaguered defence attorney, but his casual suggestion of exhuming the corpse merely opens up a snake pit of further troubles. While the doctor's reputation and career are put on the line, Jack is on the verge of making a most unwelcome discovery - one of tremendous medical and legal significance.

However, there are some who will do anything to keep him from learning the truth.

Sounds interesting right?

BUT...

The revelation at the end was so anticlimatic that it totally killed the book. Killed the story, I mean. The entire mystery was unraveled right at twenty pages from the end of the book and it probably took only under five pages to present evidence of no malpractice. Could be more, but I wouldn't be bothered to look through again. The point is the story plot was very, VERY well built up only to greatly disappoint at the very end. The ending pissed me off so much that I had to control myself from ripping off the last few chapters of the book and burning them, then rewriting them myself. Eesh.

Along the way, there were great many conspiracies thrown in the plot. Maybe it was the young husband who murdered the rich old lady for her money. Maybe it was the lawyers trying to make money out of the lawsuit and protect their investment. Maybe it was the local hospital doctors who are determined to put Craig Bowman to blame to cover their mistakes and to end the, to put it in their words, outrageously stupid idea of concierge medicine. But as it turns out, it was neither. It was a case of ego and narcissism of the protagonist-turn-antagonist. Sigh. SIGH. S-I-G-H.

The ending came too late and went too fast. There was no explanation for anything or the attacks that happened. Like why was the assistant of the district attorney for Bowman's lawsuit attacking Jack Stapleton every so often? He couldn't have been working for Craig Bowman since they're on the opposite sites in the court. So what was the story there? And who hired the two guys to break into the Bowman's house, tied the children up and threatened them to warn their parents? Was it Bowman? How could he have done that sort of thing to his own children is just appalling. I may sound naive but I'm gonna say it anyway. I never once believed that there is anyone who was born a bad fruit. It's always some turn-of-events, peers and upbringing.

Me not happy girl. Not happy at all. Nasihat saya? Jangan beli buku ini. I remember Suzan once showed me this Indonesian website that reviews international and Indonesian movies, and rates them using two kinds of rating. For good movies, they're rated with stars (I think). Naturally the more stars it get, the better the movie is. And for the really bad movies, they rate them with underpants. The more underpants they get, the more sucky the movie is. If I were to use this rating system to rate this book, this one layak dianugerahi lapan setengah pasang underpants out of ten.

Ironically, this book is entitled "Crisis". Big crisis - can't come up with better ending.

I need good books to make me happy now.

Clouds of gloom & Shouts of joy

Last night we witnessed the crashing of our remaining two men singles in World Championships. Can't help but feel frustrated. One lost to a player seeded 7 places beneath him, and the other lost to an unseeded Indian player (the one who shockingly eliminated Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat earlier). Again and again, we have always fallen short in crucial stages and tournaments. Sigh. I think that sometimes we become too obsessed with chasing and beating bigger names that we tend to dismiss others too easily.

The thing that was most disappointing of all was the fact that Lee Chong Wei lost to Sony Dwi Kuncoro without putting up much of a fight. And newspapers report that he blamed the head coach for putting too much unnecessary pressure on him to win. So he thinks he's the only one being pressured to win? Kinda ridiculous, if you ask me. I bet it's many other reasons.

Although I may not like Lin Dan much (mainly because he's always eliminating our players from tournaments hahahaa), I think Lee Chong Wei needs to learn from his example. Ok. He may not be the most charismatic character on court. But he delivers when it matters. And he does it with tons more expectations from others than Lee has. He's the defending world champion. He's been world no 1 for God knows how many centuries. He has the team and coaches counting on him. He has the whole China population counting on him. The whole world is expecting him to win. He has more to lose. And yet, he delivers.

Or maybe if emulating your competitor is not a good idea. Think about the all-rounder, Sun Jun (player back in 1990s).

All this while, we've always had two so-called jinxes. One, no Malaysian woman has EVER become the world champion. Two, no Malaysian woman has EVER beaten the world champion. Yesterday, in the most unusual turn of events, our Malaysian player defied the odds and defeated the defending world champion China's Xie Xingfang (21-10, 21-8). It was the single most lopsided match I've seen with Xie Xingfang being - oddly and ironically - dominated and not the dominatrix. It was really her off day, making one too many unforced errors. So today, Wong Mew Choo has defeated a world champion, breaking all skepticism and pessimistic views, remarks on our local women badminton. Who knows in near future we'll have another breakthrough.

Good thing our men doubles defeated that Danish pair. Full of dirty little tricks and degrading badminton quality with their utter silliness. Delaying serves. Keep delaying getting ready to receive service like hundreds thousands of times. Changing shuttles, don't wanna change shuttles. Talking to the umpire unecessarily. Trying to get popularity vote har? So super annoying, irritating and unsporting behaviour. Serve them right to get booed by the crowd and probably the millions more who were watching from home. Even the commentator was going, "C'mon! Let's get on with this!".

Should ban them. Or tape their mouths. Or give them both red cards for lousy attitude and stupid behaviour. They have talent, but it's such a sorry sight to watch them having to resort to silly tactics like this as a strategy to win. I don't care if people say that those so-called psychological tactics are part of the game. Or whatever other excuses they give to justify them. It's pathetic and a disgrace to the sport.

Extra extra! Read all about it!

Few days ago...

"Jie Jie, what are the chances of getting selected ha?"

"Small, but still there is a likelihood. Whether you get selected is 50-50. Then you have to consider how many are they selecting this time around."

"Hmmm.. chances so small. Most likely won't kena one right?"

"... But still can't rule out anything. Tak tau *shrugs*"

Few hours ago...

I was just casually sitting on the sofa arm while my brother checks his fate... didn't think we can get through the website so fast as probably 100,000 17-year-olds were also trying to check the website too. And thus jamming the network. It's the survival of the strongest connection!

Anyways, moments later we managed to access the website. Nokkie inserts his I.C. no. And waits. And reads.


[translates as congratulations, you have been selected for the national service training program for 2008]
And re-reads. After a while, his jaw drops a little and eyes widen in disbelief. His face then slowly develops into the why-of-all-the-people-i-can-still-kena expression, banging his head against the table and screaming "why?!!" to all different directions you can think of. Hahaa, of course the later part was exaggerated. I pat him on the back and give him my condolences. But not after I have laughed out long and loud. And announced it to the whole house. Sorry lah. I know I'm mean. But I couldn't help it.

Nasi sudah menjadi bubur. Bukannya kita ada suara dalam hal ni. Apparent only one other person in his class also terpilih. And the unselected ones are telling him, "Good lah.. now you can lose weight".

Untuk mengakhiri cerita ini, bak kata pepatah (versi 2007 oleh Nokkie), "Kerana pulut santan binasa, kerana N.S. Enoch merana".

Tahniah, tahniah. Anyone wants to wish him the best / offer condolences?

A disappointing season

If someone had told me just last year that I would completely lose interest and quit watching CSI Vegas as faithfully as I did since their first season, I would have laugh my head off thinking if the person actually know me at all. But right now, the person might have made a pretty good career as a prophet. I not only lost the drive to watch it episode-by-episode (as though missing any will cause me my life), I switched allegiance to Heroes and CSI New York. I still do catch episodes of it here and there when I have the time.


The recent season was an absolute bore and disappointing. Even incorporating the Grissom-Sara relationship didn’t spark off any fireworks – firstly because there wasn’t any chemistry between the two, secondly because I found them to be such an odd couple, and lastly the idea of them being finally together sort of killed the excitement rather than bringing ‘em. Maybe the other reason being that I never liked Sara Sidle’s character.

Lack of any character development also made the story rather bland. Greg Sanders definitely lost his wicked sense of humour. Makes me wonder if one does become more pessimistic, gloomy, joy-less and humour-less when they become a CSI. And Hodges... he's funny sometimes but annoying most of the time. Hope he'll be less annoying in the next season.

This season finale is probably, by far, the most boring-est finale ever. I thought they would give us some shock at the identity of the miniature serial killer. But much to my – and anyone’s – chagrin, the identity was revealed within minutes of the finale! With the team nowhere close to identifying the killer! Totally killed the entire episode. It ended with Grissom desperately trying to fish out the location of Sara from the miniature killer, who was way beyond psychosis by the time they arrested her. And in the final scene showed someone pinned under a car in the middle of the desert struggling to get out. The hands presumably belonged to Sara. The end.

Yes, the end. Nobody knows whether she’ll be found alive or not. Until the next season, that is.

Oh, please kill off the character! That’ll be exactly what this series need. Revamp and revival. Besides, with Sara Sidle killed off, then it brings some kind of reality to the series. The last time Nick Stokes got buried alive (the finale directed by Quentin Tarantino), the team finds him in time and he survived. They can’t be that lucky every time, right? Might as well rename it to CSI Pleasantville, where everyone is happy, everything is smooth and justice is always served. Or have her comatose with 0.05% likelihood of coming out of it. Can always decide to pull the plug sooner or later. Or if killing her off is too much to bear, lose her memory. The point is, get the character out of the show.

Grissom retires to lecturing and to his insects (he looks more tired each season). Maybe a new character for chief supervisor but I think that would be a bad idea though. Loses the touch somehow. The idea is to bring something new to the series without wiping out the original touch. It’s high time to bring in a woman as the big boss (currently all CSIs have men bosses). Have Catherine Willows promoted to the chief CSI supervisor with Nick Stokes second-in-command. Bring in new characters as CSIs. Perhaps more racially diversed – Hispanic, Asian, etc. Archie Johnson as CSI? Hmm. That’s not a bad idea.

Killing off one or more characters is not being mean. Neither does it ruins the stories. I think it does help strengthen the stories and characters alike. Issues can be brought up. Stories come alive. The Miami and New York spinoffs had their turn at killing off a number of main and recurring characters. And they remain as interesting, if not more, as ever. So why not do the same for Las Vegas?

Boring holidays

1) Sneeze and cough. This probably lasted for slightly more than 2 weeks. No thanks to the fact of being the only one surrounded with two other coughing and sneezing individuals in the house for most of the day (dad's not counted because he's hardly in). My motivation to get well = Durians! Hahaa. Why not?

2) Sorted, arranged and packed up my last semester's notes, reports and assignments. My mom has been waiting for this day ever since the semester began. After I shelved away my stuff/mess, it was the first time seeing the dining table ever so empty. And gleaming... not! The table's made of wood.. how can it gleam?

3) Finally bought very-much-needed formal black slacks. My previous one didn't fit me anymore over more than a year ago. Since then, had no time to hunt for a good pair. And if I did get the time, never came across ones that looks good, feels good, quality good and priced good all in one. Now need formal shirts and shoes. Always excuses to shop.

4) Typed out my CV. Yes I know I've applied for Honours. But no harm typing out my CV first right? Besides, there is still room for non-successful application despite the fact that I already have 4 subjects with average of 70 and above from my first semester and research project. The offer letter only comes after the release of the recent semester results. Argh.

5) Watched tons of movies. Sampai mata terbeliak :) - Shrek 3 (cinema), 200 Pounds of Beauty, My Wife is a Gangster 3, Cicakman, Transformers (cinema), Stranger than Fiction, Hot Fuzz (funny and lame British comedy), Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (cinema). I haven't watched Die Hard 4. Is it very good?

6) Watched episodes of Taiwan's variety game shows - Tian Cai Go Go Go, Guess show, Yu Le Bai Fen Bai. Especially the ones featuring He Jun Xiang, Wang Lee Hom, Gary Cao, Lin Yu Zhong, Zheng Yuan Chang, etc. I particularly liked this episode where Zheng Yuan Chang pranked He Jun Xiang into lending 1,000,000 taiwan dollars (I hope I translated this figure right), supposedly in trouble with loan sharks.

7) Jamming with my piano lorrr. Of course. I think it needs tuning now.

8) Sleep.

9) Eat.

10) Mandi.


When the semester is in progress, you wish for holidays. When mid-semester holiday comes, it doesn't feel like a holiday because you still have to work all day long within 7 days to finish up heavy-weighted assignments and reports (usually no less than 5 in total). Then when the end of semester arrives, this is the most boring holiday ever. Especially the mid-year holiday. Bah.

Of friends and friendster

By this morning, within a week after my exams, I've had four new friend requests. Out of these, I only approved one cuz he's the only one I know. The others either had no connection whatsoever (not even third degree) OR are those, you know, just adding people for the sake of making their "friends" network hit hundreds and, if they could, thousands. I don't know why they do that. Maybe to appear popular or likable or glamourous. Not saying that everyone with gazillion friends on their account are definitely like that. Maybe they do sincerely like to make friends. If none of these reasons are it, then they probably have itchy fingers on the mouse, itching to click "add as friend".

But *sigh* if you are likable or popular, you don't have to prove it or show it. Or start a forum thread in your school network account entitled "who know me?!?!" to see how many respond. People would know. It's like a person's character. A person might be able to hide his/her flaws or pretend that he/she is someone else. But after a while, people can see right through you. And they can tell between fake and real deal. They're not that blind. God may have given us physical eyes to see the physical. But He also gave us another set of eyes, i.e. discerning mind and heart, to see right through the physical.

It's kind of a tug-of-war. I used to put sentences that state and imply that I don't simply add people I don't know under the "Who I'd like to meet" column. But then, that would look too cold and unfriendly. Which I admittedly am not comfortable with. When I take that off, strangers come adding. For me, and I think for most of us, we like to keep our network between our friends only. I mean, isn't that what it should be? To keep in touch with friends? For all you know, these strangers adding you could turn out NOT to be the pictures they post or the nice, charming persona they adopt. I hesitate to click "no" to friend requests because that would seem so rude.

Argh. I must learn to say no.

Three Four years. I am exhausted.

I sat for my last of my finals yesterday afternoon. It was not a tough paper but I had a tough time going through that paper. Know why? I had to have stomach cramps for the first hour and 10 minutes of the 2-hour paper. Talk about tough luck. I was even contemplating just finishing the MCQs and essay, then walk out of the hall cuz it was so unbearable. But I didn't lah. Can't even enjoy my final moments of my degree in a high note. Hmph!

Come to think about it, I spent four years here. Four years! Four freaking years!! Can't believe it has been four years since the day I first step foot into this place. The campus which I have gotten used to, and the people whom I've gotten to know. Sigh. Won't I miss you all. And I can't believe I'm saying this but I think I'm gonna miss this old campus as well. After all, it has been four years. Despite the suffering we had to put through with, we had our fair share of better times. So fair enough. Out with the old, in with the new campus!

Foundation Year...
I remember the first day of MUFY in Sunway College. Unlike most of the others in MUFY, I knew nobody and I mean NOBODY. Nobody from my school, church, other places was doing MUFY the same intake as I was. It was a really tough first week. Knowing nobody and wandering about by myself. I don't know if it was the wisest thing to do then. I don't know what made me do it. I must be mad, I admit. I am always doing things out of the blue. Ask my mom. But I don't think I would have changed anything. Things gradually took a turn for the better. It took a while to settle in but it was way faster than I thought it would be. All of us in MUFY became good friends all the way until Monash.

Soon enough, I made many good friends - one in particular was Pranati, partly due to the fact that we had ditto timetable and classes. And I mean DITTO. Then from there, we switched from Physics to Math B in the second week. There, I met Madhu and Simrit. Now that was the last class of the day and it was the fun-nest class ever. The one class I've always looked forward to at the end of everyday. Mr HC Lee is still one of my favourite lecturers. English was fun too. All the mad people in there... Dayaa-bear, Juwin, Justin, Louis, Jasdev, Christopher... to the point that Ms Angela assigned their seats at opposite corners of the class. Then few months later, assigning seats didn't work anymore because the whole class went equally nuts and loud. She sighed, "Lord, I know there are many crazy and interesting characters in this world. But why did they all have to be in the same class?? My class???"

I would do anything to relive MUFY classes.

Freshman Year...
I think entering university life was a culture shock for me. The amount of work doubled, classes were different, even more interesting characters came in (and then left after one semester.. I think most of you know who I'm talking about) . Then there were reports after reports, late nights after late nights typing up reports, tests after tests and yada-yada. Man, if we knew what was coming in year 2, this was nothing to complain about. The batch began with about 130-150 people (can't remember precisely but I remember it was a large crowd). By the time it came second semester, it was down to probably just below 100. And there was peace. Hahaa. Just kidding.

The other factor which made the first semester such a nightmare was Chemistry Part I. Couldn't understand a word from that part-time lady lecturer who spent only 4 seconds per slide on an average. Her part took up half of the paper, and I could do nuts. I was surprised that I passed on first attempt because it was soooo soooo soooo bad. Second semester was a breeze with Business Statistics as elective. Probably the most relaxed subject I've ever taken - from all aspects.

Sophomore Year...
Then there was THE crazy year. The workload quadrupled and the standards went up like crazy! When we were not at lectures, we were in the laboratory. When we were not in the laboratory, we were at tutorials. When we were at neither of those, we were in front of the computer typing out butts off. Fighting against time to finish up this torture tool called reports in laymen's term, stopping at nothing. Not even to breathe. Sacrificing sleep. Hectic! This was the year when we all wished for 25 hours a day. It really took a toll on me - physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. To the point when exams arrived, none of my brain cells were not exhausted and not tired. Which explains my first semester results. And I sat the exam, looking less human-like and more racoon-like.

I hereby declare that I will forever hate second year. Period.

Final Year...
And then there was light! Third year was a lot, a lot less stressful and less busy than it was in year 2. I just felt that I had just shifted from riding a bullet train to an MTR (not LRT lah.. too slow :P). Less work? Yes. But the catch was each report and assignment carried a heavier weightage in the final marks. Subjects were definitely more interesting but more difficult lah, of course. So there, you can't ask for too much right?

By this year, the batch size shrank even more. Everybody knew everybody. Everyone who was close since the beginning became even tighter-knitted buddies. And by now, everybody was friends with everybody. Even lab sessions became fun. Well, sort of lah. Hahaa. I even had my first outstation trip with my university buddies which was a BLAST! I would jump at the chance to do it again. Hopefully the group will be bigger. But not too big :) Among all the three years in Monash, I would say that this final year was probably the best. Really. Am I mad? Hahaa.

Hard to believe that it's over. It's all finally over after three long and full of hardwork years. Hard to believe that I won't be seeing most of these guys anymore after graduation. I would miss all the conversations we had in the cafeteria or lecture halls after classes. I would miss lepak-ing in Adillah and Mahani's room whenever I wanna kill time. I would miss the jokes cracked and exchanged during lectures and lab sessions. I think I would definitely miss listening to the 4 homies talking. Hahaa. Sure laugh until jaw pain. I would miss sneaking into Suzan's lectures and smuggling her into mine (don't think we can do that anymore can we?). I would miss the lunches with Ka Yin. I would miss QiaoQiao and her batch... nobody would be calling me Ying Ying anymore :( I would miss my lab partners-in-crime.. you know who you are. I would miss making yoghurt in the lab.

But I won't miss the reports. Haha. What lah. Spoil mood only.

Anyway. My life would have been boring without you all. Thanks for being part of my life - big or small - all the same size. I will miss you guys.

Broken

Tell me how do you concentrate on your studies when there are just one million and one freaking problems and thoughts going through your mind all at once?

Tell me is there a way to just simply erase them from your mind to make space for the most important stuff right now called exams?

Tell me how can you not feel like a puppet when you really feel like you're being treated like one?

Tell me how do you tell someone that you're just not interested in this study field called "genetics" or "embryogenesis" because you're just not into that area and you don't give a damn about whether you'd one day become a pioneer or some big shot?

Tell me how do you do it without breaking his heart and then feeling guilty to tears about it?

Tell me how do you make somebody else shut up?

Tell me how do you tell someone that you don't care if something brings all the money in the world because you're just not a business person and would just wanna have a career of your own choice and work by your own effort?

Tell me how do you tell the person that I'll be happier that way, although we don't know for sure, I just know I will be because it was my own choice?

Tell me how do you tell someone that while I appreciate his advice and encouragement, you are your own person in spite of everything and you're not a child anymore who doesn't know what you want in life?

Tell me how do you tell someone that you just don't fit in to that one certain place, and that you're sick of "jumping" and "hopping" around because it is not doing any good to me?

Tell me how do you tell someone that I'm just seeking stability in life which I found in that one place without him being furious?

Tell me how do you make him see?

Tell me how can you get over feeling emotionally-divided and depressed?

Tell me how do you make it all go away cuz they're making my head hurt really bad?

Tell me why does it have to be this hard?

Tell me why does it have to hurt so bad?

Final Invasion of Penang

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Sorry. Necessary post-bioactive chemistry paper frustration blow-out. Studying past-years didn't help. The questions were totally different. Not much on mechanisms and processes. Asked too much about other small, little stuff. I'll be grateful if my B.S. turn out not to be B.S.

Where were we? Ah yes, Baba Mansion. That was probably the highlight among all the places we've been in Penang. We wanted to go to Batu Feringghi's pasar malam after that but decided against it, knowing that the taxi fare would be a killer. Then, we thought of the pasar malam at Jalan Dato' Keramat which a kakak, whom Adillah met at City Bay View, recommended to her.

Calling her for directions, she offered to drive us there. Which we hesitantly accepted. It's not really safe to accept ride from strangers these days. Who can we trust these days, really? Thankfully, the kakak turned out to be really nice and friendly. Seriously. All the Penang people we met on the streets were super-nice and super-friendly. If I encounter these kind of people on KL streets, it would be one in a million if the person does not have other sneaky intentions playing at the back of their minds.

The pasar malam was seriously not well-litted and over-crowded. I think the main reason why it seemed over-packed was that half of the crowd there were on motorcycles, not on foot. And it wasn't really safe because half of the motorcyclists were unlicensed and underage. Seeing the way they "balance" and manoeuvre their machines, nobody in their right minds should allow them on the road.

Fifth Stop: Penang Hill


I think this was the earliest we got up in the three days we were there. Adillah, as usual, got up the earliest for her sembahyang. I got up probably slightly before 7, and Suzan around 15 minutes later. We've been getting up in that order every morning. Hehe. No pulling of hair or catfight over who gets to use the bathroom first.


We got on the first tram up to the peak of Penang Hill. It was so early that our sleepiness were quite apparent on our faces and our lack of chattiness on our way there and up. Well, it was also the last day of our trip. Who doesn't get tired?


There was nothing much to see though. The view (as you can see from the picture) was rather blurry. Don't know if it was due to the haze or the early morning mist. It was kind of lonely up there too. Not many people on the first tram.

Of course, there was the breezy and cooling climate up here which was a welcome change to the hot, humid and ruthlessly scorching weather down there and back in Kuala Lumpur. Maybe next time we'll escape to Cameron.


Final Stop: Kek Lok Si Temple

From Penang Hill, we walked to Kek Lok Si Temple which was nearby. We were looking for the entrance, imagining it to be a huge 20-feet-tall gate with magnificent, detailed gold carvings from top to bottom on each pillar and a huge signboard written "Kek Lok Si" in gold. Well, no. You make your way up the steps to Kek Lok Si through many, many sidewalk stalls with really, really aggressive saleswomen who tells you, "First morning business is good luck". Hmmm.



Adillah and I only walked outside in the gardens, admiring the view while Suzan was the only one who went inside the main hall and up the pagoda. Not that our beliefs and religious teachings prohibit us to enter other religion's worship sanctuaries but it was our own personal choice :)

The forecasted weather was rain and thunderstorms everyday. But not a single drop of rain came down until two hours before we were heading back to Kuala Lumpur. God is good, isn't He?


Goodbye Penang. We had a great time there. We'll definitely do this again. This as in going holiday together. Just not sure if we'll come back to Penang so soon. Our next destination... Langkawi? Terengganu? Bali? India? Haha.

But for now, home sweet home.

Penang Invasion (Part 4)

I am supposed to be studying Bioactive Chemistry right now. Reserved last 4 days for the protein sequencing, DSP, protein design and engineering. Today, tomorrow and the day after were, according to the timeline I scribbled in a piece of rubbish paper, booked for CYL's part.

Very oddly, I actually finished all his topics today. All in one day alone. Think I'm going too fast. Maybe I'm fast because I went through all his topics a month back. So maybe it's the revising mode now. Good for me. I hope. But will have to practice nucleophilic attack more to familiarize myself so that I won't get lost during the exam. and to save time as well.

Anyway!!! Back to Penang. Yes, I'm not done with pictures just yet. Looking at the rate I'm going, there's gonna be at least one more Penang post after this one too. After Fort Cornwallis, we walked to nearby hawker centre at Padang Kota Lama to eat. Not many eateries in Penang are open during the day though.


This is mee soto penang mamak-style fried mee (correction by Adillah.. hehe). Of course it was about 10% eaten when this was taken. We did have every intention to snap photos of what we ate while we were in Penang. After all, Penang is supposed to be the food haven right? But of course, being the hungry active and energetic young girls women that we were (and since we walked all day), we only think of eating when the food is set in front of us and remember about the camera after they've gone down to our stomachs. So these are the only pictures of food. Don't they look good?

And they taste just as good!


Penang and their variety of ABCs! Hehee. I must have ate at least 3-4 different kinds of ABCs while I was there. Some gave more red beans, some gave more corn, and some gave ice-cream! Yum. Happy.

Fourth Stop: Baba Mansion


Via trishaw. Courtesy of two really friendly uncles who was really nice to send us all the way to the mansion from Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (we missed the tour time for that one), OFFERED to wait for us while we tour the mansion and sent us back to YMCA for only 20 bucks per trishaw. Despite what we heard about Penang being dangerous and all, we were pretty blessed I would say because all of the people we met there were a really, really friendly and nice bunch. Maybe like Adillah said, we probably have muka kesian (pitiful face) that everyone feel compelled to help the pitiful us.

Aha! Senget pictures.. guess who took them?


This is the Baba's bilik pengantin (newly-wed's room?? or bridal suite? tak tau). Apparently the Peranakan in Penang spoke Hokkien, not Malay like Malacca's. So that was the difference, according to our guide. This mansion once belonged to a Kapitan who controlled tin mining in Taiping back in those days. He had not one, not two, not three but eight wives. EIGHT WIVES!!!

And if it wasn't for the tour guide who told us, I would have thought "Man.. these Babas need to eat so much har?" due to the dozens of dining rooms and thousands of eating utensils we saw on display there.





Before that, I thought that this family actually had these many dining rooms. After all the Kapitan had eight wives and goodness-knows how many children all living under one roof. One wife per dining room perhaps. So that cat fight and food fight can be minimized. Hahaa. Our guide said that they were all merely exhibitions of different dining rooms among Penang Peranakan. Thank goodness. If they really had these many plates, they don't need to wash their plates for a year!

Now that's just plain gross.


Baru aje makan, so fast nak cari food. Heheheh. The only reason why I'm not posting pictures with me in it is because I had become a giant red lobster due to hours boiling under the mercilessly-scorching sun. And the redness, my goodness, was bad. Really really bad.


But I'll entertain you with one - and just one - picture that has me in it where the redness was not apparent. Hahaa. Taken at the sanctuary built at the side of the house for family ancestral worship. Even with my wearing jeans, I have to awkwardly take a big step over the wooden panel at the bottom of the door... imagine the nyonyas with their nyonya kebaya. How ah?

Us: How do the ladies come in here with their nyonya kebaya?
Guide: Don't know. Just walk in, I guess.
Us: Har? But it's so high wor. Won't the skirt rip or something?
Guide: Hmmm. Then the men carry the women in lor.
Us: HAARRR??
Guide: *mischievous grin*
Us: ....... Baba men very strong hor.