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.