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.