in my coconut shell

Stop and Listen

2011-12-07T13:38:00.000+08:00

This article is copied exactly from *here*

"In Washington DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After about four minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About four minutes later, the violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At six minutes, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At ten minutes, a three-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At forty-five minutes: The musician played continuously. Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. About twenty gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After one hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:

In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…

How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?"

In addition to that, in a relatively similar blog post I have written not too long ago, which is to take a moment from our hectic lifestyles and appreciate the mother nature.

Click: Stop and look at the sky I
Click: Stop and look at the sky II

We're humans, we're NOT robots. Don't overworked.

i love beach vacation!

2011-12-07T02:34:00.000+08:00

As an islander, isn't it weird to confess that I love beach vacations / island holidays?

I live in a small, humble island but the fact that it's an island doesn't make it perfect. I only visit the beach only when I have visitors around (which could be up to zero visit per year). The only thing that I appreciate is our local food that is inviting enough. (we have poluted beaches with black, filthy sea water)

Furthermore, the place I live is like the second most happening city in my country, hence we have kinda fast-paced life. It's jammed during the peak hours and most of the time due to my lifestyle, I'm always seen rushing. (no time for proper, relaxing breakfast!)

So far, i've conqueered a few islands:-

Pulau Lang Tengah (way back in 2004) - that includes Pulau Redang when we island hopped.
To give a quick say, if you have watched Love You You starring Angela Baby, that's the setting of the movie - Pulau Lang Tengah. That was my first ever beach vacation with my lovely family members. 30+ of us travelled via bus and met up with a few of my cousins who travelled from KL. Beautiful place for snorkelling

Pulau Pangkor (2010)The only memories etched is the presence of my family members. The beach is as dirty as penang island, so there's nothign to shout about. There, we had our own activities such as flying saucer, volley ball, ping pong, mini club, dipping ourselves in the polluted sea water.

I love my family!

cousins!

The sea water was dirty. but we did have fun with the rough waves!

volleyball in session

water polo included!
Bali island (2011)

This is a beautiful island, rich with culture and its slow paced lifestyle. The only regret I have is not be able to enjoy the beach down there. Click *here* and *here* for my previous blog entries on Bali.

Koh Samui (2010)A very small island. Less thigns to see as compared with Bali, but the fact that the holiday I had there was a very, very relaxing one. And i fell in love with Koh Samui...with the slow paced lifestyle. The sea water was clean, but not as clean as Pulau Redang/Lang Tengah.

waterfall!

the view from where we stayed

the weekender!

Koh Lipe (2011)
What can I say! Definitely a place to RELAX. Not really beautiful for snorkelling but what i like most on the island hopping is the sight seeing and enjoying the crystal clear water. Ahh..breathtaking.
me, camwhoring

note my top: I love Lipe!

so pure and beautiful!

Love this!

Can't resist to camwhore!

again, i love my family members!

More beach vacation?

Sipadan next year!

Nicholas Sparks' The Best of Me

2011-12-05T23:49:00.000+08:00

Purchased The Best of Me!!

Thus, it's added to the family of Nicholas Sparks in my cabinet!

However, the size is too large. It's much taller and it's much wider. How is it to fit into my cabinet?

Somehow, I gotta hide the book somewhere first until Thursday....still need to mug for my exam

Then after that it would me....

"All work and no play makes me a dull person"

Gah! Despise it!

2011-11-10T02:49:00.000+08:00

Ok. Here's what i personally think.

I lost in the final.

Okay. Here's why.

1) my opponent's quite good. Note: QUITE. He is not unbeatable.
2) my first blunder was giving a free rook to my opponent.
3) why? Because I lacked of time, hence did some short thinking, hence the carelessness.
4) why? Because I wasn't informed that the match was an hour per person. Hence, I got nervous at the 35th minute.
5) and sir, sorry. There rules did not state that it's an hour each for the finals.

DISPUTE DISPUTE!

Both of our openings were equally good. But I'd like to beg to differ thar my exchange of bishop n knight for your rook is my own comfort and strategy.

So, to lose out to u in such manner ... Hhmmm

Still boh kam muan.

DISPUTE!!!!!

we didn't lose, we won 2nd placing

2011-11-10T00:51:00.001+08:00

You know what?

The fact that me, the captain had already lost interest in it, and only organized ONE official training three days prior to the competition date, achieving 2nd place isn't that bad after all.

And the fact that how we survived dangerously in the first round, and then surprisingly breezed through in the semi finals were indeed a surprise and an unexpected feat.

A year ago, we were on top of the world.

Okay, maybe not exactly on the top of the WORLD, but were the champion in the inter-firm chess competition.

This year, we failed to defend the title, losing 3-0 to our opponents.

It was definitely a repeat of last year's finals , with the scores mirrored.

Anyhow, from my perspective, we didn't lose, we won 2nd placing! *grin*

rants on cancers

2011-10-28T01:55:00.000+08:00

About cancer post #1

About cancer post #2 - Motivating a cancer patient

Until today, whenever I hear of a person diagnosed with cancer, part of me want to say: All the best, but part of me longing to say: Keep praying. Miracles happen when you believe.

There is no doubt that cancer is a deadly disease. I think the chances to get healed is <1%?

And patients shall consider themselves lucky if they can prolong their lives.

Steve Jobs is one of a great example. Honestly, I haven't researched anything about him on his course of treatment but what I respect about him is that, he really LIVED his life. He had a fulfilling life towards the end of his life, changing the world with his creations.

I know, not many could have lived a life like Steve Jobs. The majority would have been bedridden as soon as they undergo chemotherapy. Once they're bedridden, it's about time they leave the world.

Yeah, i realize that this post is going nowhere, and there's nothing much we can do as friends and family of a cancer patient.

All we can do is to keep on motivating them by saying all the positive things.

Lion King Revisited, this time in 3D

2011-10-22T13:02:00.000+08:00

I'd recommend it for families who used to watch the movie together when they were young. Bring your parents, your whole family to watch it just as you guys did when you were younger.
All of our childhood songs, memories shall be recollected. Great soundtrack, among my favourites are:

Circle of Life
Hakuna Matata
Can't Wait to be King
Can you feel the Love tonight

It might be a bit of waste of a money if you have watched it when you were young and did not have the interest in it. However, for those like me, who practically grew up with Disney's cartoons and characters, it is worth a re-watch.

Did I tell you that I have actually watched the Lion King on the old-school tape for like a few 100 times already 17 years ago?

Reminiscence

2011-10-07T03:32:00.006+08:00

There was a picture divided into two sides.

The left side was DARK, and GLOOMY.

The right side was bright and cheerful.

As narrators of the Anti Nuclear Exhibition, we were supposed to convey the message of the picture. The choice is yours. Go against nuclear weapons in order to be in the right side of the picture.

However...

He happilly narrated to me.

He told me....

Look at the DARK and GLOOMY side. Imagine this picture as pencil drawing. You can actually use the eraser to slowly erase the dark side. It shall eventually turn white and nice. Then it shall join the right, and there will be no sides already.

He indeed, had his own ideas of delivering such messages.

And I remember... the frequent phone calls He used to make. Almost daily, and several times per day, just to crap about nonsensical stuff. However, never for once, did I take the initiative to call Him before. After that, the phone calls became less and less and eventually I even lost His number when I lost my sim.

And I shall always remember that He called me right after He received the news. He acted as if He didn't know anything about it but be His usual self by being chatty, crappy and all that. He wanted to keep me away from the sadness.

***

Life's like that. We will appreciate people more when they're gone. Just the same case like famous classical musicians, poets, artistes etc. No use to only start appreciating when someone's gone.

Never, ever repeat my same mistakes in your life.

Rest in peace, "Mr Coolman". You will always be our "Mr Coolman".

***

2011-10-06T20:21:00.002+08:00

While the whole world is mourning for the loss of Steve Jobs , co founder of Apple, I, on the other hand have just lost an acquaintance.

Thus, sending a message to any readers out there, appreciate the ones around you. Don't be like me. It's just too late for me to say anything right now.

Steve Jobs quote

2011-10-06T11:02:00.002+08:00

''Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,'' Jobs said during a Stanford commencement ceremony in 2005.

''Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.''

''Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.'' - Reuters

Updating during office hour because I like the quote, hence copying it here.

More to that later, of course.

This is just a goodbye...

2011-09-29T23:12:00.000+08:00

As we go on, we remember all the times we had together

As our lives change, come whatever, we will still be friends together - Vitamin C

I console myself that it's just a matter of time that we part ways but this fast? Without a strong, thick buffer?

Part of me is ecstatic on your behalf, the other part of selfish me refuse to face the reality.

The self-centered me wants you to be there whenever OT requires us to stay late.
The selfish me wants you to be there to accompany me when we order for McD to deliver to us.

Although it's only been 2 years + that we have met, you've been part of our lives. We're all one, huge family who're always there for each other, albeit we can be a lil over-the-top at times and being nosy at each other's businesses. But it's our compromising terms and straight-forward in expressing what's on our mind make us get along so well in these 2 years.

We're unique for sure. It's like the saying of "United we stand, divided we fall". We're all ONE and we make decisions as ONE. That's always obvious.

One by one leaving. Again, the selfish me wants to leave first but to no avail. Hence, gotta bear the painful side of watching FRIENDS leaving the "community".

My dear FRIEND,

It's all the thick and thin that we have journeyed that makes us stronger and closer. Thanks for always being there whenever I need to vent my anger, thanks for just listening to my complaints and sobs over the phone. Thanks for being patient with me when I'm an idiot at times. Thanks for teaching me Chinese. Thanks for teaching me audit. Thanks for laughing together with me. Thanks for the entertaining bantering. Thanks for allowing me to call you names. Thanks for scolding me too whenever I got outta control. Thanks for accompanying me during the late nights till wee hours. Thanks. Thanks for being my FRIEND.

My dear FRIEND,

I'm so very proud of you too. You've grown so much stronger in these few months. These two years have been a tough training for all of us and that you have decided to call it quit. That requires courage. Yes, part of me does envy your decision. The desire to follow the same suite is so strong but there's no consent from the other part of me. You've been through a lot. As I mentioned earlier, I do support your decision but the selfish me doesn't want to see it end so quickly.

I know that we have to move on....those memories that we had together in these 2 years will be be like a film without sound.

Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round?

Will these memories fade when we're apart?
I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly

All the best. As per An Shi, this goodbye means the beginning of your new chapter. With that, I wish you all the best and will treasure the good moments we had.

Sincerely,
Your FRIEND of 2 years and counting....

My New Baby

2011-09-26T17:06:00.003+08:00

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

Also a movie tie-in novel, and a "chick-flick" novel too.

This is a more realistic story which might happen in our lives (as compared to the more fable romantic stories by Nicholas Sparks) The maid of honour (who is also the best friend of the bride), falls for the groom (mutual feelings).

It's a thin line between love and friendship.

Still in the middle of it.

And I shall make a vow that this would be the LAST novel that I shall purchase. Enough as for now =)

Currently reading...

2011-09-13T23:49:00.003+08:00

NICHOLAS SPARKS - SAVE HAVEN!

Reading rate: Slow due to other distractions such as facebook and tv.

I only have four of Nicholas Sparks' beautiful collection

The above shows my four collection of Nicholas Sparks' writings. Four from the right.

The books I've read (in sequence)

The Notebook (this is borrowed)
Message in the Bottle
A Walk to Remember (e-book!)
The Last Song
Dear John
Safe Have (currently reading)

Each of it has its own meaning attached to it.

Was touched with The Notebook

Love the concept of Message in the Bottle's Love Story (hate it movie though) - I shed a bit of tears reading the final chapter of the book ...the letter from the guy...(can't remember his name already!)

A Walk to Remember portrayed a very positive Christian faith (touched with the religious teachings)

So much to relate to on The Last Song. Touched by the bonding of the father and the daughter and was emotionally attached to the story

Got frustrated that the lovers in Dear John could only reminisce their time together. An act bravely performed by John to keep the woman he loved happy by being an anonymous donor to save her husband's life. She missed John but John did not intent to destroy her marriage. In a marriage, there will be only two person, not three. So he decided NOT to show up anymore in front of Savannah, knowing that Savannah was also missing him badly.

Still reading Safe Haven. Still unsure about the ending yet. Perhaps I might cheat myself...and read the ending first. ; )

m.u.s.i.c

2011-09-12T01:20:00.001+08:00

Lately, I've been a bit engrossed in musical notes & its ornaments. I have been associated with music for a long time but not really that into the musical notes & its ornaments until recently.

Once, I walked into MPH Bookstore and saw musical notes sticker. I fell in love with it instantly but chose not to purchase it because it was expensive.

There was once when I went to a Yamaha Store and window shopped its musical instruments. I was awed with the guitar pendant but did not purchase it because it was expensive too.

A crochet rest

the sexilly curved treble clef. love it.

Drew this when life was hectic and I needed MORE and MORE REST. This is so technically WRONG but I needed LOTS OF LONG RESTS!...LMAO

These are the recent properties I own ;)

Bought these stickers!!!~ =) About RM10 per set

and I decorated it on my co's laptop!~

My dear friend bought this for me!~ Nail Stickers <3

And I stick it on my thumb. ONly Thumb because the stickers are just too precious!~

AND FINALLY...MY FAVOURITE AMONG ALL GOES TO.....

MY IPHONE SKIN!

Love it sooo much!~ For RM25, I decided to buy it without second thought. With the price I pay, you'll be able to guess the quality. Anyhow, I go for the design first ;)

2011-09-04T16:13:00.001+08:00

Meet Giraffe. Jealous Giraffe.

She is born on 31 Aug 2011.

Chopsticks variation. Just too great.

2011-08-28T02:51:00.000+08:00

This is one hell of a talent.

No, this person should not exist. Why?

Because he's making people like me who simply bangs on the piano, envy over him.

The world isn't fair, is it. That's why I can't make a living out of my pure interest.

2011-08-15T01:13:00.000+08:00

"Setiap manusia ingin berjaya, namun tak semua miliki tuah" - Ella , Standing in the Eyes

Can be translated as: Each of us wants to succeed but not all of us have the luck

Go ponder on it

The World Badminton Championship Finals 2011 (Wembley Arena, London) between Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan.

There are many angles to analyze it.

LCW lost in the final hurdle but nobody seems to curse him like Kien Keat/Boon Heong's loss in the Quarterfinals.

He played beautifully, with skills on par with the great Lin Dan, anticipating the shuttle greatly, did amazingly with his cross-court smashes, held 2 match points but failed to capitalize to its advantage. Luck just wasn't on his side.

You could also debate and say that his loss could be due to his lack of mental strength when Lin Dan broke his 2 match points to force the deuce. Those were the crucial moments which Lin Dan has been dealing with it very well on each major tournaments. He wins it when it matters the most. He delivers his winning shots perfectly which earns him all the major titles in the world. He's one massive champion. One of the greatest, surpassing Taufik's record way too far.

It was a dream final. Those two players possess their own class, and no other players manage to break both of their domination yet for the moment.

It's no easy feat to be where LCW is now. Hats off to him as he is the only one who can challenge the great Lin Dan and has been consistent with his performance for these few years.

Thus, lessons learned: Show your greatest effort in whatever you do. Once you've given your all and if it doesn't go the way you want it to be, then there'll be less regrets. Fuck those who don't see your effort and penalize on your failure.

Life isn't always fair. What to do?!

Luck is all we need!

90% effort, 10% luck.

p/s: Also, would like to say kudos to Peter Gade too for where he is till now and still sustaining his high level standard of play even though at the age of 35! That is no easy feat either. Persistence, persistence, persistence.

Food for thought - general lessons in life

2011-08-15T00:46:00.000+08:00

When you're raging, you tend to blurt poisonous words to hurt your loved ones without realizing it. Certain people are an ass when it comes to controlling their temper. However, if you really need to seek reconcilition on your misunderstandings, wait till you cool down. Don't jump into conclusion yet. You might just lose the person you love the most.
Appreciate the people around you. The ones you love, the ones you hate, your regular cliques, your hi-bye friends. Life's fragile. You'll never know when you'll bid farewell forever to them forever aka death.
Learn to let go. No matter what you do. Getting dumped by your gf/bf or involved in a divorce or failure in whatever shit you do. It takes time to heal and to get back to your previous state, but you've got to let go in order to move forward. There are so many things in life ahead of you, waiting for you to explore. Learn to love again. Learn to pick up from where you stumbled. It's easier to be said than done, definitely. Cry, if you must, But make sure you'll never cry for the second time on the same matter. Past experience shall make you stronger and more mature than before.

These are the general lessons in life I've picked up, reading from "Message in a Bottle" by Nicholas Sparks.

A beautiful, touching love story. Highly recommendable. Rating: 4.8/5.

Don't ask me where did the 0.2 point go. ; )

Beauty Killers by Kathy Braidhill

2011-08-07T13:36:00.001+08:00

If you have read this: Harry Potter's sub

In less than 3 weeks, I have finished reading "Beauty Killers" by Kathy Braidhill. It's a non-fiction, with certain names being replaced.

What prompted me to purchase this was the synopsis at the back of the book. The well written back cover successfully lured me into reading it and curious to know more about the insane crime that Michael Thornton had committed - mind control, sex, rape, violence, depravity.

And they say...never judge a book by its cover.

It definitely does have its own excitement, but finally, I found out that I'm not a fan of crime novels. Or perhaps detectives would be a better word.

The author wrote it in a way that it sounded like they were on an investigation and the first few chapters were all suspense and collecting evidence on-site without much into the real thing yet.

As if not having too much stress from work - mentally (due to the brainstorming which is the nature of my job), the novel kinda requires readers to think, especially in the first few chapters when they were gathering all the data from the crime-site.

I dislike the fact that it was written based on "detectives" manner whereby the there will be dates given in each chapter. It went past, then present, then past, then present. I may only read a page or two per day during the days when I was caught up with work, hence there were umpteen times when I had to flip a few pages back to get the where-i-am-now situation. Many officers were involved, many investigators were involved, hence there were quite a number of unnecessary names, in my opinion.

Anyway, back to the story, I'm actually still wondering why Michael Thornton would be so lunatic to love raping and killing troubled teenage girls as PLEASURE. I know he was under the influence of meth most of the time but why rape and kill and what's with the obsession with the mind control? There's no other explanation which I can gather except to come into my own conclusion - he is clearly psychopathic, no doubt about it.

Countless girls were his victim, including Janeen Snyder. She was the most pitiful victim as she was chosen to be Michael's partner and worked in pack with him. Other girls died but at least they did not commit the sinful act. Janeen Snyder, the innocent teenager was lured by Michael's mind controlling act and resolved into collaborating with Michael.

What disturbed me the most is they found pleasure in their act. One of the victims got raped, then murdered, and the whole body was torn into pieces. She was Michelle Curran. As it was described in the book:

"Do you know what it's like to shoot someone while you're sexually assaulting them" Thornton said. "The look on their face?"

As he spoke, his eyes flashed with excitement Rea noticed with disgust, Thornton drooled.

To cut short, finally, karma speaks out. Both Michael Thornton and Janeen Snyder were pronounced death penalty.

Extracted from the final paragraph:

Janeed Marie Snyder is currently in the California Institute for Women in Chowchilla, California, awaiting sentence of death. Michael Forrest Thornton is confined to death row at San Quentin Prison in California.

I don't think their souls is gonna rest in peace somehow and I do feel sorry for them to have wasted their lives. Thornton was a successful businessman - millionaire - in the hair styling business, while Janeen Snyder was innocently caught in his bait which changed her life.

Overall, the writing is not my cup-of-tea. On the other hand, if you're a fan of such true story, it''ll be a good read.

Junkie, go away!

2011-08-03T00:44:00.001+08:00

A snippet of my eating habit:

Too much of the devilish, health-killing tidbits being gobbled up for the past 2 weeks.

Don't mind gaining a few kilograms but those are really, really detrimental to our health.

The worst part is, my stomach growls so often during the weekends when I'm not working.
Been trying my level best to refrain myself from feasting such junkies.

Failed to the max definitely.

I'm still enjoying feasting on "Three Little Teddies"! My childhood teddy-shaped cookies!

Childhood memories playing in my mind:

"Should I eat up the left teddy first? or the right or the front?"
"Should I start with the head, or the hands or the legs?"

But finally, I just grabbed whatever cookies with my little fingers and chuck it into my mouth.

Ahhh...taste so good.

No no no no no no no no....NOOOOO...

Stop it.

You've got to do something about it!

Co-incidently, on facebook, Jonas Rasmussen posted up a video regarding the Badminton World Championship. Imagine, just one post on facebook changed a bit of my plans:

Well, hey, it's been a while, ain't it.

So took the chance for exercise purpose and my oh my. I enjoyed so much running like a headless duck chasing for the shuttle cock unsuccessfully.

I foresee lots of baddie sessions coming soon, coupled with the World Championship to be held next week.

I don't even recall the last time I followed a tournament so closely. Was it last year's Asian Games? No? I don't know. Fuck work for making me losing track of the baddie news.

Who's the world number one in the ladies singles? I don't know!
Who's been dominating the mixed doubles now? I don't know!
Where is Lee Yong Dae now? I don't know!
Who is who in the women's doubles now? I don't know!
Who consist of the Malaysian team for this coming WC? I don't know! (well except for LCW, KKK/TBH )

Ah. Hope to follow the WC closely. Attended the 2007 WC actually when it was held in KL. Was a superb experience tho =)

Guess should stop crapping as for now.

Eat healthily, live healthily and exercise more! Go baddie, go!!!!

Harry Potter's sub

2011-07-31T21:47:00.001+08:00

If you have read this: The night plan which did not take place

The very next day after work, rushed to the mall to search for the final book. Went to the only two bookstores in that mall. Was disappointed when was told that it was out of stock.

Never mind, never mind, I consoled myself.

For someone like me who doesn't quite follow the "books news" on which novels are the hottest right now, it could be a hassle to pick one for myself without regretting buying it.

So, I think I spent an hour walking up and down between the bookshelves, while my thoughts conflict themselves.

Do I like detectives? Do I enjoy non-fictions like Eat, Pray, Love? or do i like motivational books? or do i prefer romance novels? or perhaps those stories shown on the big screen would be my cup of tea?

Finally...

these two books won my hard-earned money for that evening.

I am starting with Beauty Killers.

My pace is slow cuz I'm still caught up with work pretty much. And the first few chapters of Beauty Killers..well, i'll get to it when I have completed reading it.

How do you motivate a cancer patient

2011-07-21T23:48:00.004+08:00

It's difficult to stay positive when your body is in pain.

I know too many cancer patients.
I've seen too much cases.

All hope seems lost and all you can think of is death.

So how, as a friend or family of a cancer patient, can you do to motivate them?

Be a staunch believer in your own religion
Having faith in your religion is one of the main factors of a motivation. You may be a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Jews, a Sikh or whatsoever. By understanding your illness through the perspective of a religion will definitely make you deal with your illness in a more positive way. When one feels positive, it reduces stress level and all the negative toxins that a body creates. Besides, some patients will continue praying in hope of miracle. They believe and have the fighting spirit to challenge the illness till the very last breath.
Family and friends support
Through the hard times, family and friends support plays an important role too. Remember, this is the period where cancer patients feel insecure the most. Lots of negative thoughts shall could their mind. Their emotions are not stable. Therefore, as close knitted family and friends, you should chat more with them on general stuffs just to bring their mind away from the illness and pain in in the body. Always be there when they need assistance such as reminding them when they are due for medications, cooking simple meals for them, accompany them for their evening/morning walks etc.
Careful in choosing words
Avoid from saying the negative words such as : Death, die, life sucks etc. Instead, bring all the positive vibes into the patient's room. Always motivate them that they'll get better and that the doctor, the patient himself and all family and friends is still not giving up and fighting to recover.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Although the doctor might discount the chance of recovery (which is very common), the fighting spirit is really important so that when one leaves (aka r.i.p.,) there will be no regrets.

Live life to the fullest.

p/s: Click to read this wonderful article.

well...the night plan which did not take place

2011-07-18T22:21:00.000+08:00

Gleefully reached home kinda early today.

Went to my cabinet, searched for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

*searched searched and searched*

*eh...did we lend it to anyone else?*

*searched and searched again...*

*where could it be?*

I do not remember reading it yet. With the hype that is going on, I guess I should continue following the Harry Potter novels.

My oh my.

Then only I realized that neither me nor my sister purchased it.

I only have these three books.

Which are the
4th: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
5th: Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
6th: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I think I borrowed the 1st till 3rd book either from my friend or from the school library when I was in secondary school.

Hmm...so here I am, sitting in front of my laptop instead of reading. The funny part is that, how come I thought that I have the book when I didn't even buy it in the first place.

LMAO. Alzheimer...which shouldn't happen now based on my current occupation.

quality time

2011-07-17T16:20:00.000+08:00

Had a very, very short getaway a few months back!

Went for a 2-day-1-night local cruise.

LIBRA!

The view of the oceannnnnnn

this is the view of the small, humble island i'm living since forever...born here, grew up here, went to school here, and now working here

a picture edited with my iphone...looks as if it's a sunset but it's not! LOL

nice sleeping on the deck chair..too bad there's no coconut tree and sandy beach

It was fun with the accompaniment I had with my close friends. Had fun chit chatting with them, and also entering the casino. At least to be away from the nonsense from the office even though just for two days

The ugly truth

2011-07-12T21:39:00.000+08:00

The fact that such conversation made me feel even worse.

Bear in mind that my actions are definitely NOT due to you.

Certainly that eveything has lost its sparks and it's time to move on without regrets. I value other things more.

This kind of life is not meant for me. Ill. Hence resting but mind is still clouding with worries. It's detrimental to our health in the long run

Say what you want, fuckerz.

cancer

2011-07-10T01:48:00.004+08:00

What is cancer?
is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth, invasion that intrudes upon and destroys adjacent tissues, and sometimes metastasis, or spreading to other locations in the body via lymph or blood.

Ok. In simple words.

Cancer = die

Perhaps not to be that negative. Well...

Cancer = once you found out that you get cancer, the chance of your survival (depending on the stages) is quite low. And you will be worried. Your days on earth are numbered. Your whole family members try very hard to be optimistic about the recovery rate even though the doctor doesn't give high chance on the recovery. ~~And then every religion leader will come to you. Asking you to convert into their religion, persuading that you will have higher chance of survival once you're converted.~~ In short, cancer is a deadly disease.

What do you do when someone finds out that they have the cancer cells in them?

Get worried with them.

No.

Obviously when someone is diagnosed with cancer, obviously he'll be worried. Consult the doctor. Then get all the necessary medication help as soon as possible. NEVER drag until it reaches the final stage. Be it chemotherapy or radiotherapy, just follow the doctor's advice.

Moral support is VERY VERY VERY important. Pray. Have faith. Motivate the cancer patient to live his life to the fullest, to have the fighting spirit even though the end seems near. He has to fight till his last breath so that even if he lost the battle, it'll be a battle worth fighting for. And YOU have to give all the moral support. Never, ever mention the word death in front of them.

Though the probability of recovery rate is low, I have seen lots of cancer survivors too. I have interacted with a lot cancer patients. Most of them seem fine from the outside, but inside their vulnerable body, it's aching every second. Their bodies weaken especially after going through chemotherapy.

So, any ways to prevent cancer?
That you can actually google it yourself. But in my humble opinion, no matter how healthily a person's diet can be or a lifestyle can be, that doesn't guarantee that cancers do not find them.

Anyhow..

If you're a cancer patient, have faith. Keep on fighting.

If you're an acquaintance of a cancer patient, motivate them. Give them all the moral support that they need.

Trust me, they need you.

2011-07-05T17:26:00.000+08:00

Do you know Hiro Nakamura from the Heroes television series?

Before he developed his special powers, he was working in his father's company. Every morning, he aimlessly participated his company's compulsory group exercise. There was no meaning in his work. He desired MORE than sitting on his own cubicle.

He wanted to save the world from his time-travelling power so badly.

****

There she is, reflecting on her then-favourite tv show and connecting it to her own life. No, she doesn't possess super hero power nor does she want to save the world.

But she just can't seek the meaning in her living. Not when she has to work 16 hours per day on a weekday and sometimes 12 hours per day during the weekends.

And they say that life's ~~a bitch and~~ bitter before it turns sweet. Is this the only kind of thick and thin route that one has to go through as a stepping stone? Does it guarantee that life will be so much better after taking this ugly path?

There's no guarantee to anything.

Work-life-balance is important. There's more to life than just w.o.r.k.

That's definite.

And there's no guarantee to anything.

**
Thus, ending this post with this beautiful love song from Transformer III

Stop and look at the sky II

2011-07-03T23:58:00.001+08:00

Pictures taken from my recent Bali Trip.

With all the nonsense that has been going on, it's time to reflect back and enjoy the nature...

The beauty of the sun...sunrise, sunset....the untouched nature

Ahhh...Enjoy..

Padang-padang beach in Bali. This is the place where Michael Learns to Rock shot their video of "Someday" here

Love-Shape Island. Love it.

The sunset in Tanah Lot, Bali

Also a sunset view from Tanah Lot, Bali

Sunrise view in Lovina, Bali

The view in Tanah Lot again..it's too beautiful...sunset

Scenic view in Bali

The pictures can all be clicked for better quality.

Anyway, you can also view other sunset pictures here:
Stop and look at the Sky I

The tranquility of such nature is undeniable. Often, we are too hooked up with our daily hectic lives. Work our ass away and not getting appreciated at the end of the day.

So. Stop. Take a second. Look at the sky.

Feel the cool breeze if you live in places like Bali. Just feel the cool breeze blowing onto your face. Close your eyes. Spread your arms wide open and just feel the love of the cool breeze.

Mother nature is just too beautiful to be ignored.

If you're living in a city, with no cool breeze, then just stop for a moment. You deserve a break.

Loving the third 'I" from Eat, Pray, Love

2011-06-28T22:30:00.003+08:00

I have challenged myself to finish up reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I can't recall when was the last time I started picking up this novel, or how I came to know about Eat, Pray, Love.

I only know that I stopped reading it due to the hectic life I have with my work.

Hence, I was stranded halfway in the third "I" of the Book.

After returning from my Bali Trip which lasted for 8 days, I vowed to finish reading it. I have fallen in love with this scenic island, the slow paced lifestyle, the very well-mannered driving habits (as opposed to what was written in the book), the food, and the cheap stuffs we can buy from markets by using our bargaining skills. To quote from Elizabeth Gilbert -

Bali is therefore a strange and wondrous thing; it should not exist, yet it does

To digress: I came home on time today after work.

Due to some reasons, after some thorough thinking, if that's how I've been treated, I shall give no damn anymore. I shall only treat work as work as I have other more priorities in life. I've missed reading so much. Hence, I was so eager to read right after I've returned home from work today. No OT, no checking emails or whatsoever shit.

But, I'm not going to write a review because I suck in doing so.

Somehow, we had a great time in Bali. In fact, I could have used another extra week just to lie down and doing nothing on the untouched island just for pure relaxation and finding out balance, similar to what Elizabeth did on her three I (Italy, India and Indonesia). Since lots of stuffs are cheap here, I suppose it won't hurt to just stay for a week...to read, to laze around, to find peace within myself.

We met Ketut Liyer - the medicine man! For palm reading and other fortune telling of 15 minutes, he charges Rupiah250,000 which is way too expensive for us.

He's getting popular among the Westerners due to the novel and the movie and according to my logical friends, it is reasonable for him to charge such high fees to avoid even more visitors consulting him (ah, I'm in a sleepy mode right now, so whatever I describe may be a bit off)

So somehow, none of us consulted him due to the price he charges.

Anyhow, ladies shall be ladies and we camwhored!

Ketut Liyer consulting two Westerners

Posing in front of the sign-board

Well, it's also a shame that I left the novel to rott as I visited Bali. If I were to finish it earlier, I would have also searched for Wayan's restaurant whereby Elizabeth Gilbert managed to collect donations just via an email message to help the Wayan's family to get a house cum restaurant cum medical treatment area. After all, I have came a long way to this humble island....Ahh..missed out this opportunity

Another restaurant was also using the populariy of Eat Pray Love. This restaurant is called as Nuri's Warung and it is famous for its pork ribs. Simply delicious. Look what we found there!

That's right!

You EAT, you PAY, then you LEAVE.

Clever, isn't it?

Okay. Next mission: WATCH THE MOVIE!

2011-06-26T23:38:00.002+08:00

Challenging myself:

~~To finish reading: Eat, Pray, Love~~ (28 June 2011)
To finish reading: Charlie St Cloud
~~To start and finish reading: Black Swan~~ (30 June 2011 - I've googled, there's only a movie on it, no novel!)

2011-05-04T23:00:00.004+08:00

A lil kid was weeping endlessly. The maid was trying all sorts of ways to console him but to no avail. His cries was defeaning.

In a few minutes, his Dad walked into the room. He held his son in his arm and consoled him. The kid ended his wailing.

Not too far away, a lady in her twenties stared, her lips curved a smile, touched at the bonding of the Father and son.

Looking back, badminton was an obsession shake head

2011-04-30T23:05:00.000+08:00

A sports fan, I am.

Been watching lots of sports when I was schooling and now, I still do make the effort to watch it as a source of entertainment.

First ever tournament I went was 1998 Malaysia Open (Badminton) - in Penang
Followed by 2002 Malaysia Open (Badminton) - in Penang
Then in 2007, I went to Badminton World Championship held in KL *click here* to read all about my obsession last time! Those were the days...
Followed by 2008 Penang Open (Badminton) - *click here*
And then 2010 Badminton Thomas Cup - KL *click here* and *here*
oh, i even met Lee Tsuen Seng on the road (2006!)! So fucking crazy last time! *click here* - don't laugh!

Today, I went to watch squash (Asian Championship)- 2011 at Bukit Dumbar, Penang

Believe it or not, this is the first time I've been here!

I am never a squash fan but I went anyway just to join the crowd.

Can you believe me! I almost fell asleep during Nicol David's final match!
LMAO

Okay. It was a very one-sided match, really! I mean...That Hong Kong player wasn't at all near to our Dato's standard! I even heard one of the workers there said "2 markah lagi, cepatlah habiskan dia nih...aku nak balik nih!" LMAO

I did not exactly watch live either.
Bukit Dumbar could not accommodate the high capacity, so I ended up watching the screen beside:

Yeah, so this is the screen!

I can never find squash exciting. Don't know why.
Imagine. It's free entrance but the crowd isn't that much either!

No wonder this tournament is lack of sponsors. Seems that PBA is the main sponsor. Don't think that the venue is appropriate somehow.

Oh there she is, sitting just right in front of me!!

musing

2011-04-24T23:08:00.001+08:00

It's been quite a week.
A week of tears.
A week of me getting serenaded by 3 Danish guys. (shall have a blog post about it soon)
A week of a few laughing moments.
A week of indecisive behaviours.
A week of hatred.
A week of fear.
A week of being emo, and seeking self-realization.

***

And they say that this is supposed to be fun but I dont feel it yet. I do not know why there's this negative feeling keep on coming to me when i have tried my best to disallow it.

Good moments don't last long. Same goes to hellish moments.

Nothing is permanent, the Buddha says.

It's actually very interesting to explore on religious stuff, but I do not have the ample time to be involved in it. I believe that with proper religion guidance, it does show us the way of life and encourage us to deal with life difficulties in a more positive manner.

Started reading about Buddhism when I was 17, and was actively involved in my school activities when I was 18&19, hence I do have some knowledge at the surface. Along the way, was also interested in reading about Taoism and kinda have some knowledge about the linkage of Buddhisam and Taoism.

Then came this Soka Gakkai organization which I was very actively involved in when I was in my early 20s. My oh my. This Soka Gakkai organization (Buddhism organization which promotes peace, culture and education. A religious movement within Nichiren Buddhism, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism derived from the teachings of the thirteenth-century Japanese monk, Nichiren Daishonin). Guided by the Lotus Sutra, I was very positive in everything I did and even the hardest obstacle in my life ever (yes, read that ..EVER) did not dampen my daily spirit. I felt happy, I felt satisfied with my hectic life! However, I stopped going to its activities due to some personal reasons.

With all these involvement in spiritual, religious movement before, sometimes I do stop and think about life. and work. and what can I do to improve my life and others who are in need of me. I do ponder over these things but never for once any action was taken. Like...why am I born in this world? What's my mission in this life? What am I supposed to do besides just working and earning for myself? What is there for me in the after-life?

I think, after my journey with my current company, I should really take the initiative to be involved in charity movements. I need to do something more fulfilling, to find something more meaningful in life than to just work. and sleep. and spend money. and to talk crap with friends.

Issues of heart and head

2011-04-21T01:30:00.000+08:00

My heart says stop it, you've done enough and it's now time to gather your courage and put a full stop to all the nonsense.

My head says it's only training you to be your best. Pushing yourself to your limit means giving yourself the chance to grow. Challenge each day, advance each day, my head reminds me.

My heart says it's unnecessary stress and it's detrimental to your health. You sacrifice your sleep, you sacrifice your quality time spent with your love ones, and you're actually married to your office.

My head says you're still young and energetic and this is the time to go all out and learn as much as exposure as you can.

My heart says there's no end in learning and this is not the only way for you to gain such exposure. You have more options elsewhere. Btw, you're not that young and energetic as before already!

I have issues with my heart and my head.

Quote

2011-04-20T00:35:00.001+08:00

Stole this from my friend's facebook page:

Everyday will be meaningful to you and others if...you take time to give someone a smile....to express a word of kindness...to lend a helping hand to someone in need...to write a note of gratitude...to give a word of encouragement to someone who is temporarily overcome with problems... Be kind and empathy to others less fortunate....

How do you expect kids to listen to their parents when, Tarzan lives half naked, Cinderella comes back home at midnight, Pinocchio lies all the time, Aladdin is the king of thieves, Batman drives at 320KM/h, Sleeping Beauty is lazy and Snow White lives with 7 guys. We shouldn’t be surprised if kids misbehave at times! They get this from their own storybooks.

Auditor's death sparks debate on overwork

2011-04-15T23:45:00.001+08:00

http://english.cri.cn/6909/2011/04/14/2021s631992.htm

So what?

There's nothing to be done.

There's still silly people like me who continues such lifestyle. Topsy-turvy sleeping habit. Unnecessary work stress. Moving heaven and earth without satisfactory return.

Complaining is the only thing we can do but they always turn a deaf ear.

When shall the courage come to me to say "That's enough! You have just got to stop doing what you're doing now!"

Friendship is the only thing that's keeping me going on. Or else I would have switched to another path long time ago. Gah!

LOL, LMAO, LMFAO, ROFL

2011-04-09T01:35:00.002+08:00

It's WEEKENDDDD!!!

WEEEEEEE

Time to rejuvenate.

It's been quite a week, ain't it.

Lack of sleep, a few matters going on. Not really my business, but i'm a bit kaypo, but that's all right.

Hope all is well with everyone though i don't think it seems so at the moment.

*hugzzzzzz*

Well...

Anywayz...

what I'm trying to say is.

it feels so great to be finally LAUGHING MY ASS OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been quite some time, ain't it

must be the 'pelampung' thingy! LMAO

HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHA

****

Hahahaha..
One more thing:

Quite insane stuff happened at a petrol station. Shake head and laughing at myself!!!! HAHAHAH

food for thought 2

2011-03-12T00:14:00.000+08:00

And if your plane fell out of the skies
Who would you call with your last goodbye
Should be so careful who we left out our lives. - Kris Allen

***

So, Japan got hit by earthquake.

Another sign of the Mayan's 2012 prophecy approaching?

Just pondering. If you know that tomorrow's your last day on earth, what would you do?

Spend more quality time with your love ones? Or just expressing your love and thoughts to them? And then just say your final goodbye?

Well one may argue that it's good to express it all out so that at least before you leave them, they'd know how you feel.

But then again, what's more important is NOW. By showing your love and care during your last 24 hours on earth is definitely not enough. It's the actions throughout the whole life that matters most to show you care, and to show that you love them. But of course the final goodbye adds a little spice on it.

Just let me link it to death. When someone dies, there will definitely be a few nights of memorial services. In the spiritual point of view, it is important to let the soul rest in peace. Sure, friends and family flock together for the memorial service, and then to attend the funeral. And then, that's where lots of long lost friends and relatives come together like a reunion party. The deceased might not have met a lot of these visitors for quite some time...years, decades.

What I'm trying to bring out is...what's the point of them coming when someone is already dead? Where were they when he was still alive? Where were they when he needed them the most? It's not that their presence during the nights of memorial services is not appreciated, it's just that the most important thing is what they have done to show love and care to the deceased when he was still alive.

So back to the main idea of this post.

So, before it's too late, or *touch wood* if the Mayan Prophecy comes true, take your action now. Show your parents, your siblings, your wife, your husband, your grandparents, your relatives, your friends that you care about them. You still have roughly 1 year + to show them (assuming the Mayan Prophecy is accurate).

Maybe you don't believe in that Prophecy. But that's fine. Totally fine.

But one fine day you and your beloved ones shall leave this earth too. So why not start NOW to show that you care; rather than on the very last minute before you leave this world.

Well, if you ask me what would I do during the last day of my life on earth, I'd.....

food for thought

2011-03-11T01:26:00.002+08:00

Do you know...

that excessive travelling causes fatigue.

Do you know...

that excessive travelling, followed with sleep deprived due to the hectic-work lifestyle causes depression.

Do you know...

that when one is depressed, one starts to avoid meeting with people and getting a disease called anti-social.

Do you know...

that all these shall lead to weeping.

Do you know...

When one weeps...how does that feel?

Do you know...

that something is seriously wrong when one sacrifices the American Idol and the All England Badminton championship due to working till the wee hours nightly?

Ahhhh....

Randomly.

2011-02-27T00:48:00.003+08:00

At this hour, I know I should be packing for my outstation job. But then...random thoughts came in:

My friend said: My dad has finally approved me to tender my resignation and get a new job!

Never knew that her, saying this one sentence would caught me, and protude straight through my heart.

(btw, see..i'm calling you FRIEND instead of colleague!)

the final flop

2011-02-22T00:46:00.003+08:00

It was the final hurdle, but she failed to achieve the target yet. Though disappointment is there, it's fine, it's all still fine.

Just that it shall involve more money, more time, more effort and perseverence.

Not that she hasn't tasted failure before anyway.

I had a GREAT CNY celebration, how about you?

2011-02-19T11:14:00.002+08:00

CNY is officially over. It's not that I celebrated till the 15th anyway. Mine stopped when I started working on the 5th day.

What does CNY mean to you?

Food? Ang Pau? Relative visitings? Reunions with friends and family? Gambling? Drinking? Just resting? Just getting away from your gruelling work? Or is it just another day goes by during the CNY? or is CNY a "just for kids celebration"?

To be born in such huge family where everyone gets along very well, I'm so lucky and so grateful to say that I have always looked forward to this annual festive celebration. And no, it's never a "just for kids celebration".

All is well in the year of rabbit. Just that demotivation might find me once in a while.

But it's fine...still fine....cuz I'm not alone in my current situation and I'm grateful for that too.

Speak cautiously II

2011-02-11T22:15:00.000+08:00

I started feeling annoyed with this one person whom I call as Monstrous Being a year ago.

Exactly one year later, I have another person whom I dislike and shall call as the Rudely Spoken Being.

I detest malicious speech. Harsh words which dampen one's spirit when spoken. These people should be awaken one fine day.

The Monstrous Being and the Rudely Spoken Being both get along very well.

No wonder they say that birds of the same feather flock together.

The friendship that matters

2011-01-31T02:38:00.002+08:00

It's been only such short journey that we have gone through together and yet I am amazed how close we can all be.

Looking out for each other, concerning on each other's feelings, and to enjoy mingling with each other.

We face the same obstacle, we are from the same background, we don't have the age gap, and the bond that we have makes us feel so close to each other.

All those crazy stuffs that we do to console each other when we're down really touch my heart and am grateful that I have such wonderful people around me.

In fact, it's indeed scary that we've grown so fond of each other that we're afraid of losing it by the distance. - be it only across the bridge or over a few continents.

Each of us have our own characteristics which makes our lives even more colourful. We have a few who can always speak so sarcastically in a crazy manner which makes us laugh, we have a few who has this thick-skinned faces who make shameless remarks to lighten up our day, we have the quiet ones who is sometimes blur enough for us to laugh at, we have the fierce one whom we can rely on for important stuffs.

All of us have our own, special nicknames that we call ourselves and then just laugh about it.

I admit, we're just too special.

So, what's the purpose of this entry?

It's only a emo entry to express how I feel lately as I don't really expressively tell everyone about it. not on facebook, definitely.

It's nostalgic

2011-01-16T06:30:00.014+08:00

She still misses Him. It's been 3 years.

She was allocated for the year-end stock take where she went to the place He used to work before. The moment she stepped into the factory/warehouse, she felt it immediately. The place was dusty, filthy, unhealthy, and grueling. He was there more than 2 decades ago and now she was here, feeling the sacrifice He had made for the family in order to support them financially. Never did He for once complain about His hardship.

She still wonders what would He say to her if He were to see her condition today. She ponders how would He had reacted if He knew how badly she got treated by a few brainless freaks.

She misses the deep-fried ice-cream He made for her. The last time she had it was during her 21st birthday.

Deep down for sure, she realizes that He would have objected all the late nights she has - be it working or hanging out with friends.

Sure, she has moved on, but that doesn't prevent her from looking back all those great memories she had with Him and gets all emo thinking about it.

Somehow, losing someone very close to her is difficult to accept. Even though it's been 3 years.

She just wants Him to know that the whole family is doing very well now and that they have all grown up into fine adults. She has a stable job, her siblings are all carrying on their daily activities as normal. Everyone has been getting along very well despite having hiccups here and there at times, but no worries though..these are all just part of the bonding process. She shall continue the tradition of decorating the house for the coming Chinese New Year. She promises to stay happy always and to think of the positive side whenever things aren't going her way.

***

16 Jan 2008 - 16 Jan 2011

it's been quite some time...

2011-01-14T03:17:00.001+08:00

Aaaahhhh....I live a very challenging life, facing all walks of life.

It's good to see that the drive is still soaring and I'm not running away from it yet. No doubt tears are always there based on my soft nature but I'm still persevering.

Sometimes is it worth it?

I know, I get emo when stuffs like that come up.

Caught up with a friend of mine just a moment ago.

She was working in the same field as I am but she has tendered a few months back.

Right now, she lives a contented live, happily influencing the lives of children, hopefully colouring their daily lives appropriately. I am definitely happy for her.

What do I actually seek in life? With the path that I have chosen, I don't seem to have much choice at the moment.

Sadly, what I love doing can't be used to pay my bills.

Ahh..thinking too much. It's 3.14am now btw. So, I guess I can rant as much as I want to but it'll be full of rubbish. I hope I don't show up blury in work tomorrow. After all it's TGIF!

ahhh..anything goes in this public blog.

There you go..you do have a snippet of my current thoughts.

2010 events worth documenting.... in a nutshell

2010-12-19T23:28:00.006+08:00

Okay. Should refrain from writing yet another emo post.

It's been quite some time since I last ACTUALLY blog about events of my life which was the original idea when I started up this blog. Yeah, used to document my life down here (happy moments) just for the fun of it!

It kind of swayed off a little after I've graduated.

So...EVENTS of my life in 2010, which matter to me ( I think I did not even blogged about any of these even once!! Damn it! What has happened to me! It should actually have separate posts, but since I'm planning to squeeze all in one post, bear with the quality of the blog post.

Scanning through.

Jan - April:

All work and no play really made me a dull person! Yes, and I mean it. Jan - April was the hardest period of the year which made my life miserable but thank goodness I have my family members to support me. Mum, Dad(24/7 in my heart), Brothers, Sister, Best Friends from high school and university who called me up regularly/via msn to be concerned over my situation, to lend me their shoulders when I need one to cry on to, and to support whatever decisions I make. I really appreciate that.

In between was Chinese New Year. That has ALWAYS been the most looked forward holiday tradition of the year. Grateful that I am born in a huge family and all of us are so close-knitted that we actually get along very well. Hong Family, Lee Family. The superstars of my life.

First day of CNY! Look at the wonderful red colours

Posers....LOL At Equitorial Hotel in one of our dinners!

Me, camwhoring

I remember when this was taken. Right after work - Rapid, i think. That's why I look very "chan"

Posing with my cousin's "silly car"!

A few of the Hong Family

Last minute shopping with my sister!

As usual, the happy laughters, the family gambling parties, the late nights of gambling and mingling with each other, the FOOD, and FOOD and MORE FOOD during chinese new year. Not forgetting ang paos too! =)

And then, during this period, I partied quite often with my close friends and we did have our crazy moments, when we were so drunk and wasted. We had to get other guys to fetch us back because we were so unconscious to even drive . =) ahh...I think those crazy moments are over, so yeah...not that wild anymore =)

My bestie!

And now reduced to only makan:

Camwhore

Fast forward to May:
THOMAS CUP in Malaysia. Not that I enjoyed so much of the matches because the Malaysian team lost in the quarterfinals (I think). But was glad to go over to KL to watch it live yet again. Love watching the sport since young, name me any players from all over the world and I shall know who =). - Oh, and it kinda spread to the WHOLE office that I was so patriotic to get down to KL to support our Malaysian team. It's not that I'm offended or what, but I'd like to remain low profile. That's why with Facebook, I think it's really a bit of a trouble whenever I try to post something up. I want the privacy between my personal life and co-workers. Facebook is a mean for communications with FRIENDS on our lives. True, I treat a few colleagues as FRIENDS already. But then again...since i'm with a huge company, I can't control whoever wants to add me in facebook. SO there goes. Anyways, what's the purpose of me writing this emo paragraph. LOL.

He is deliciously good looking

my teenage obsession - GADE!

After that, life kinda slowed down a little. Not that emo anymore, managed to view life quite positive for a while.

Vacation month:

SEPTEMBER!!!! Whoooooo!!!!! 4 weekends consecutively.

First week: A trip down to Klang and Malacca. First time to the historical state. Not that I shall visit there soon, but it's just nice to spend the quality time with my family members, eating and just snapping pictures.(Surprisingly that I didn't save any of the photos into my laptop!, so no pictures)

Second week: Genting for our company's annual trip. Yeah, the place is kinda cheap but the company we have with our friends was great!! Love them loads. Gambling all the way when we travelled from Penang to Genting, and to gamble again in Genting was fun! Not that I'd earn fortune but I was always trying to minimize my losses. LOL.

LOL! I'm the only one ready for the pic, so here goes... =)

Third week: Pangkor Island!! With my maternal cousins!! Wheeyyyyy. It was a very short vacation - two-day-one-night holiday. Half of them travelled from KL, half of us travelled from Penang and we met there. Never wasted our time at all there with our self-organized activities. Sight-seeing, dipping ourselves in the strong waves, playing volleyball, drinking, small partying, playing ping pong, playing flying saucer, stuffed ourselves with the buffet, and just to RELAX, get away from the hustle and bustle of our lives. I'd suggest we have this kinda outing annually. We went Pulau Redang before, we went Hainan Island before, and now Pangkor! Love them loads. The pictures below sum up our activities there.

Flying Saucer

Siput digging

Die die also must pose for a pic

The rough waves

Hornbills so close to us!

*mwah* Lovely people

Pose again!

Volleyball which i failed miserably

On the way to Pangkor

the challenge continued till the wee hours. Ping Pong

cousins posing

Fourth week: Koh Samui
My most anticipated trip as Koh Samui is high profile in terms of tourist destination. This time with my paternal side. This trip was specially very relaxed as we travelled in a very slow pace. Drove slowly, ate slowly, walked slowly, enjoyed everything slowly and we actually drove all the way from Penang to Koh Samui! Imagine the milleage! The kids were so so so so so adorable that you can grab and squeeze them in your arms all them time when you see them. Ahhhhh!!! Heavenly vacation. Really really recommendable for people like me who work like cow to go there for relaxation. Just leave everything behind, without any phone lines and internet connection, and just enjoy the quiet moment.

Don't mind going there again soon.

On a ferry to the island

Aren't they adorable!

Lovely

Of course me posing againnn

the view from my hotel..breath taking

Well, that marks the end of my vacations.

I'm blogging about happy things, right? So I shall not go further than that.

Ask me about what I shall do in 2011? Nah..don't have any resolutions or whatsoever. In fact I actually do fear thinking about it.

So...I guess I shall make a resolution to STOP being so emo, to become the positive minded girl, the cheerful one which my friends have always been describing me, the confident one, the one who always motivate the whole team whenever we're down in a difficult situation in terms of assignments and all that, the one who is always in high spirit whenever we were in a competition or any presentations and always appear so confident that they wouldn't know how fast my heart is beating down there.

Yeah, that should be it. It's so easy to say all these, but at least Im trying already right? Ahh..difficult January indeed.

Looking back and forth

2010-11-30T02:21:00.000+08:00

10 years ago...

She was an average teenager who was actively involved in school's stuff and being energetic on everything. First Aid manual, bandaging, marching, chess, gaga over badminton!, boybands, chats over the ICQ with everyone she interacted from other schools, and hacking ICQ on those guys she hated without considering the consequences. She was just too care free!!

5 years ago...

She was already a uni student, grew up into a typical local university student. Attended class if she felt like it, and skipped class if she couldn't get her ass off her comfy bed. There were so much freedom of time!

3 years ago...

She was a third-year university student. Drastic changes said hello to her but she kept herself in high morale to battle the thick and thins. That was the toughest moment in her life thus so far. She was faced with the most cruel reality in life but she continued to keep going on. There were lots of tears, with lots of hopes but they were all ended up with false hopes. In the process, she discovered lots of things and experienced ample of self-realization incidents which opened up her eyes. Trying to leave all the sorrows behind her, she picked up the momentum to have a fresh start again though those moments still haunt her occasionally.

1 year ago...

She has already joined the workforce. She was very enthusiast with everything she did. The fire in her was still burning. She was so positive in her mindset and was ready to venture more into her current field. She became more mature. She left her teenage obsession behind her. She bade farewell to the late nights and waking up after the sun rose, however still longing to go back to those lifestyle.

Today...

She is so demotivated. She feels lethargic. Suddenly, she has no aims in her life. She fears millions of stuffs where she has to shoulder more responsibilities. She doesn't simply trust anyone anymore. She feels that the world is fake that everyone's chasing over their own self-interest and has become individualistic. She's skeptic over everyone's motives..as if there's always ulterior intentions behind every action. As much as she refuses to believe all the negatives, her past experience over the one year has taught her to look beyond what is seen by her naked eyes. She forces her mindset to think that there's always a veil in every laughter. On the other hand, she's lucky that she still has trusts in a few of her friends who's always looking out for each other's backs. She still has places to go to to vent her anger, to complain, to share similar experiences, and to be consoled and loved. She still has her good friends to go party with her, to keep her sanity and to feel concerned. She still has her lovely, supportive family to rely on for advices 24/7. But something is certainly missing. And she's still searching...

How long shall she search? No one knows for sure. She's taking one step at a time and is going with the flow. She's no longer a girl, however not yet a woman, trying to discover the world, breaking her innocent shell, emerging into the harsh reality.

Happy Birthday to her.

a zzz entry

2010-11-13T04:30:00.001+08:00

Exam mode: ACTIVATED

~~I LOVE EXAMS~~

No. I don't love exams but I love my study leaves! *smiles excitedly*

Being an excessive sleeper if given the freedom, study leaves grant me the permission to hibernate for more than 12 hours per day to rejuvenate myself.


The beauty of sleep!

Looking forward to those weeks! Back to the nerdy me, becoming as anti-social as possible! *speckie smile*

Meanwhile...
Currently ~~banging~~ learning: Road Trip by Jon Schmidt
Search it on youtube. It's definitely a very fun song to play with its joyful, jazzy tunes.

Blessed Part II

2010-10-18T02:20:00.001+08:00

Blessed I

Just to write a few sentences:

After 3 months, I was reminded of a conversation with a bitch which has already slipped my mind because it was a very non-significant event of my life. Ever. I did not realize that the outcome of the conversation would have resulted myself getting a tarnished name from a newcomer. However, I am truly blessed that it did not happen the way the bitch wanted it to be because the newcomer, thankfully, understands the true nature of yours truly. *grin*

you've been checkmated!

2010-09-15T22:13:00.010+08:00

A year ago, I was reminiscing about what I did best during high school.

A few days ago, I was into the mood again. I was nervous as hell before it started perhaps due to my characteristic of desiring victory on what I do best. I ended up losing in the first two rounds because I was out of time. Luckily, I delivered when it mattered most - finals, romping to victory. It was a good whitewash, full with contentment

*grin*

Isn't it a miracle that a year has passed!!

Team Members!~

With our supporters

Updated on : 19 Sept 2010, Sunday

Funny thing is, I also competed in badminton (my favourite sport) for the first time ever! No, I have never, ever held the racket the way it should be but still, the birdie can be hit! Fortunately, we did not lose by huge margin as we had expected to pack our bags in a one-sided game. My game ended with a 15-11 lost. Good game indeed with other amateur players! I truly enjoyed the beauty of this sport

blessed

2010-09-03T00:59:00.001+08:00

Shit happens. Sometimes I'd rather not know the truth behind the drama. It doesn't even matter already for now as there's nothing that can be altered except to be wary. To be aware of fakers.

On the other hand, being aware of what happened behind the scene makes me feel even more grateful for everything I have now.

I've wronged good, innocent people.
I've put trust on evil people.

Confusing, huh?!

I'd just suggest to do not simply trust anyone not personally close to us. Do not simply come into conclusion of any books by just judging on their covers.

Ahh..come, come next vacation! I need to be away from all these rubbish. (2 vacations down, 2 more to go!)

picking up novels once again! =)

2010-07-27T23:45:00.000+08:00

Currently reading:

Errrrrr???

Only every friday tho when I'm in class!! hehe!

But my bedtime story at the moment is:

An amazing story. Shame that I only started to pick up now. Each person he met concluded in a very unpredictable moral story behind it that explained the rationale of the significant events in his life. I'm only at the 4th person atm.

Also currently reading:

E Book! I only read it if I'm not occupied while using my laptop. If you like Twilight, then you'll like it. The concept is almost similar, and there's nothing much to expect from the beginning till the page I stopped. Except maybe more actions and more violence. Oh, that's also the reason I stopped watching the series because it involves too much deaths.

Also currently reading:

Haven't finished reading it yet. It's a motivational novel where the writer, Robin Sharma conveys the motivational message by writing the fable of an outstanding lawyer who quit his job and sold his ferrari to seek realization in life. Wonder when I shall be able to finish reading it! =) Initially, I got hyped up. However, halfway through, I got a bit bored by it. No doubt it contained countless advices, but it's all easier to read and have the knowledge of it than practicing it ourselves.

***

Till here for now.

*humming humming humming*

I miss Stephen Gately of Boyzone!!!!

reason why i love kids!~ =)

2010-05-22T15:59:00.004+08:00

A short conversation of me and a 8-year-old kid.

Me: Your brother Alvin finished studying already?
Kid: No, still studying.

Me: What about your sister, Amy? Finished studying?
Kid: Yes, she is already working. She's sleeping now

Me: Your eldest brother, Andy? Still in Singapore?
Kid: No, not in Singapore. He's with girlfriend now!

LOL!!

an early shame and wake up call in the Thomas Cup 2010

2010-05-12T00:33:00.005+08:00

BOO!

The Thomas Cup atmosphere here in Penang is building up, at least in my community.

but BOO!

and BOO!

haven't actually followed much of badminton matches on tv for quite some time already but I rushed home from work just to watch Japan vs Malaysia group match today.

As you already know, it was definitely very, very, very disappointing. I'm not an expert, but I do know the simple, silly errors made by Hafiz when given so many opportunities to kill the shuttle when it was at half court. Roughly, out of 10 smashes he made, 9 went OUT. As an audience, it was definitely a frustration! Same to our 2nd doubles - Fuzzy. It was all in a mess!!

Well, that reminds me year 2002 Thomas Cup - Lee Tsuen Seng vs Taufik Hidayat which Tsuen Seng surprisingly won. Year 2004 Thomas Cup - Chew Choon Eng - Koo Kien Keat (scratch pair) nearly beating an established Indonesian pair. Yes, we want that kinda action in order not to anger the fans due to the lack of fighting spirit.

So BOO!

and BOO again!

But Yay to Shoji Sato for his Kamikaze spirit.

That's me with Sato back in 2007!!

and Yay to the Japanese second doubles! - one of them is the deliciously good looking player. I'll be seeing more of this pair when I go down to Bkt Jalil on Friday!

So Yay!!

I bet it's kinda slim chance for Malaysia to beat Denmark in the quarter finals, knowing that Denmark's fighting and team spirit is very much better than Malaysia's.

There is not much difference in skills but when it comes to team events like Thomas Cup, the team spirit and how much you are motivated to WIN and slay your opponents, it is one of the major factors!! We'll see how it goes!!~

i've been waiting for this!

2010-04-23T22:35:00.003+08:00

Hehe! This makes me HAPPY!!! =D

Will only be attending the semis but it's enough for me to FINALLY take a short break.

HERE I COME!!

Love and the ......Rest‏

2010-03-21T01:38:00.003+08:00

OK. My blog was off-limits for a few weeks due to some reasons.

Anywayz, I'll continue posting some touching stuffs here today. It's a forwarded mail from my friend. Enjoy.

***

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined See what you think:

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.' -Rebecca- age 8 -

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.' - Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.' Danny - age 7

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,' Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.' Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.' Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.' - Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.' Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.' Elaine-age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford..' Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.' Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.' Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image) Karen - age 7

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.' Jessica - age 8

And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

***

Well, some of it did hit me at some point to make me feel touched.

At least I feel loved =D

Having gratitute is the simplest, and yet many people do not practise it.

2010-01-17T23:20:00.004+08:00

List of things which I should be thankful for:

Grateful that I still believe in prayers. Prayers are VERY VERY important if we were to survive in difficult situation. Prayers and faith will definitely get me through this hardship.
My FAMILY members. Thank you so much for lending your support and shoulders for me to cry on. Thank you so much for understanding me
My PEERS. My FRIENDS. Thank you so much for responding well to my complaints and lending your ears to listen to me whining. Thank you so much for your moral support.
Grateful with the health state I am at now. At least I am not prone to illness.
Grateful that I still have the conscience to have the intention to get into charity. I am looking for a charitable organization to get involved in. Need to open my eyes more.
Grateful that at least I have a job, comparing with those who are still suffering from the effect of recession. Grateful that I don't live from pay cheque to pay cheque.
Grateful that I still have my list of songs to accompany me when I feel down. Grateful that I have my two musical instruments with me to bring me away from the reality for a while and to keep my sanity.
Grateful that I'm not in the situation of Haiti.
Grateful that I'm not in the situation of the CLHS's students who are involved in the dragon boat practise mishap.
Grateful that I have been raised in a family with proper guidance to teach me to live in a selflessness environment. To be considerate, to think of the good in everyone instead of the negative side.

There are more things to be grateful for, but I'll stop here at least for now. I believe instead of whining so much on what was going on in the first few weeks of 2010, I gotta look on the positive side. I believe that with perseverance and prayers, I'll be able to make it through. That marks th end of this post.

maybe my boss should read this

2009-12-24T23:02:00.006+08:00

This is an awful office:

This is a neater office, but plain boring:

This is a typical office, which you might dread to get your ass off your bed every weekday.

Below will be my favourite office so far! I know it's not something new, but I ought to share it here too.

GOOGLEPLEX!!!!

Ain't it cool? ;) Naming their office as GOOGLEPLEX? Don't you even feel motivated when hearing GOOGLEPLEX?

"Hey, I'm going to Googleplex, u coming?" "Googleplex? Sure. Why not?"

"Hey, I'm going to office, u coming?" *yawn yawn* "I'll pass*

Well, you get the picture. See what's in store:

cool meeting place to generate ideas!!!

free buffet mealsssss!!!

destress by feeling lazy for a while and slide down!! Whhheeeeyyy!!!

You know what's my FAVOURITE among all other facilities found in Googleplex???

The SNOOZE bar...or whatever cool name they call it. I know it has a cool name for it but I forgot.

My wish for this Christmas is for my office to have a place for me to ~~sleep~~ nap.

Maybe not. Building castles in the air again, i know.

However, I still envy Matt Giraud, one of the American Idol finalist.

He tweeted this:

Here's a pic of my office today!

Because that one tiny lil tweet triggered me for this blog entry.

~~How I wish~~

Ok, I should stop wishing. Because I know that unless drastic things happen in my life, I will not be able to call my office something as cool as Googleplex, of having my office as cool as Matt G's.

Merry Christmas to you!!!

the personality job test which contradicts

2009-12-09T17:38:00.000+08:00

Not too long ago, I took a very, very simple personality test which had this result:

It's either I'm now in the wrong industry or the personality test is a total failure.

I'm more inclined towards believing the former. Ironically, my conscience unceasingly reminds me that I excel way better in crunching number than in the creating industry.

time to wake up, the battlefield is in less than a week's time!

Ho ho ho, it's december!

2009-12-07T18:39:00.007+08:00

First two weeks of December's lifestyle:

Rising time: between 1-3pm
Hibernation starts: between 4-5am

Sounds like I'm having an awesome time only to the extent of the my bedtime. On the other hand, I'm becoming nerdy once again in preparation for my examinations which will be in a weeks' time.

Meanwhile, Jon Schmidt's All of Me is done! (*p/s: i cheated the last few pages, but they don't sound obvious). I'm now working on Waterfall. Click Play to listen, uploaded by some random youtube user:

Sounds serene, huh! This type of music never fails to impress me =)

Paying tribute to MJ

2009-11-14T01:02:00.008+08:00

Warning: All in words.

This is It - Michael Jackson
I had a mixed feelings before I went to watch this show. I am always easily influenced when I read movie reviews. Some said it was awesome and they had watched it umpteen times, some didn't like it, some commented that it was only so-so and not up to their expectation.

What I like about This is It is getting to listen to Michael Jackson's songs in a different way. The thing is, I know that we only start to really really appreciate a singer when he's dead. When I saw him putting soooo much effort in this concert, it really proved something to me. It makes the RM6 ticket underpriced. I realize that with editing and putting all the positive parts of michael jackson into this movie seems a bit biased, so let's just leave that aside okay. What I saw from the movie was, he knew his music too well. He felt the music so deep inside his heart that he wanted to make them connected to his fans. He danced like nobody's business, he conducted how he wanted his dancers to appear, how he wanted his guitarist to steal the show, how he wanted his "keyboard-ist" ok la...pianist on the keyboard to play with more passion. He controlled everything, of course with the aid of kenny ortega's expertise in directing. He was there during the audition for dancers from all around the globe. He was involved in the video shooting for his background. Most importantly, his songs brought him back. The only complain I have is...how come they never showed him singing Heal The World because that's my favourite song. It was only played during the credits at the end of the show.

Watching the show and listening to the lyrics of his songs carefully makes me wonder on his negative images received. He cared so much for the world, the children, world peace, equality and how u can change the world by changing yourself. It was impossible for him to sing these songs with so much feelings if he wasn't genuine about it (unless he was a good actor). The only thing which I still don't comprehend is the time when he held his daughter/son when she/he was only an infant, out at the balcony dangerously for the public to see his baby. That was the only thing I wish I knew the reason behind the insane act.

All in all, if you really appreciate music (you don't have to be his fan), this is a good watch. At least audience get to know what was going on behind the scene in the course of a concert preparation especially the effort he has put in.

When there was an error done by his keyboard-ist or whoever, he replied something like this:

It's okay. That's why we rehearse!

This quote is something which I will keep in mind as for now especially during the learning stage of my profession. "It's okay, that's why I start from below - to learn!"

i'm such an indoor person!!!

2009-11-10T23:31:00.006+08:00

The blog is a bit dead.

And I'm kinda 'dead' at the moment, having lack of sleep esp during weekdays! It's been almost half year that I've entered "universiti masyarakat", but I'm still adjusting to this 9-5 job "sleeping lifestyle". I have been sleeping-late-waking-up-late ever since I was 12years old, and it's very unlikely that I am expected to get used to it in half a year's time.

Caught Red Handed!!

Randomly:

1) I'm now reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger. -After finishing this, only will I watch the movie! Reading this has made me pondered over where would I want to be if I could time travel? Past? Future? Why would I want to be in that period? What would I do? Would I change the past that has made me who I am now? or Would I just time travel to the future can get myself prepared on what's coming? Would I go and grab other opportunities that I have missed before? or Would I look into my future and see if I can change any dim parts of my future? I still haven't really have my answer for it yet.

2) I'm excited over Jon Schmidt's announcement in his official fan page facebook.

Jon Schmidt:We have been contacted by a major production company in doing a concert tour within Malaysia and surrounding countries. Stay tuned!

I once wrote an entry about him before that I'm learning one of his songs. I believe that any piano students who plans to give up their piano because their piano teachers are boring people who only force them to learn up THREE Classical songs just for ABRSM exams, will get their inspiration to continue their piano after listening to Jon Schmidt's beautiful creations. His songs are the contemporary classical music that can make you flabbergast. In fact before this I wondered if I could get any chance to see him play live but had given up this unrealistic dream since he's not really that international yet. Somehow, after only a few days of day dreaming, I accidentally clicked on his facebook fan page and his latest update was the one I posted up there. Are you kidding me? concert tour WITHIN MALAYSIA!!!! Praying hard that it doesn't clash with my important schedule!

3) Oh, one more thing. I have been an idiot. I only know about Stephen Gately's death only 3 weeks after it happened. Silly me, call myself a boyzone fan. Grrrr!!!!!!

Brings back a bit of my high school memories

2009-09-01T23:34:00.004+08:00

ish. Just when the mood of competing is back, it all ended too soon.

I remember when I was in high school, I used to be so enthusiast over competitions. The MSSPP. PFS Open. Union Open. MSSPP Team was always our main target, to at least get a bronze. I would borrow books from the library, analyze openings and defenses and practised diligently. From Std 6 till Form 5, I was engrossed in the game. I had the patience to think, to strategize, and to sorta "enjoy" how heart thumping every move can be.

After Form 5, I slacked. I played for less than 5 times up till today, which is already 6 years. I stubbornly didn't want to attend practices despite numerous invitations from my coursemates during my uni life.

Hence, the rusty brain.

Hence, I have a still brain for the game.

Today was the competition. I was placed as a reserve, so I observed. To lose out in a close margin was a bit wasted since I only started to get the "feel" of the competition after 6 years. It's so difficult for me to get the competition "feel", and too bad it couldn't last.

Better luck next time :)

Meanwhile....

my life shall go on with the flow. I really have no other aims or plans except to carry on with my daily life.

Perhaps, another holiday during Raya Break?

All of Me by Jon Schmidt

2009-08-31T01:07:00.002+08:00

Beautifully played by McK (some random youtube user). This song is composed by Jon Schmidt who is famous for his "Love Story Meets Viva La Vida" arrangement.

The song, when I first saw it via youtube, it totally won my attention. It's a modern type of classical piano song, it's fun, it's catchy!!!!

At the moment, I'm so in love with this piece of song. I'm now still learning how to play it properly and I'm at the 6th page already. There are 6 more pages to go and god knows when I'll finish learning them with the limited time I have. The notes aren't difficult to learn. The only difficult part is the tricky rhythm of both left and right hand (odd timing), and the speed which requires lots of practice and understand the song itself.

"All Of Me" is the title. I totally agree with Jon Schmidt for naming it All of Me. It's fun to play because it's challenging and it's requiring me to put "ALL OF ME" onto the piano if I were to play it beautifully. With the speed, at the end of maybe 15 minutes, my whole right hand will be tired enough to force me to stop practising already.

I know lah, I produce lots of noise when I'm at the stage of learning up the notes, that's why Pin Yin say it's such a noisy song...hehe!

A new phase of life officially begins!!

2009-08-18T22:55:00.002+08:00

4 years of university life has concluded.

I'm right now too tired, too busy to update my blog so only 2 pictures for this blog post. I think it can be clicked for larger size.

up north, away from the haze

2009-07-06T22:40:00.003+08:00

After two consecutive travelling weekends, last weekend was a more slow-paced, relaxing weekend.

On 20 June....

Penang sky was super hazy. So glad we travelled up north, away from the dusty and unhealthy air we breathe in.

Welcome to the land of Thailand.

HATYAI

In fact, it was the first time I had been to Hatyai. Despite everyone has been saying that there's nothing much to do there except to eat, nevertheless, I do feel excited for this trip over the weekend.

Even today, the thing that I miss the most is the Thai Body Massage. Super cheap wei, it's around 250 baht for 1 half hour!!

At the massage room, waiting.

Next is the food.

Thai food has always been one of my favourite besides Japanese, so you can imagine how much I enjoy going to Thailand. When I was in Bangkok last year, I had a great time with the green curry and everything spicy there.

There is no difference this time in Hatyai.

This is the Chinese Restaurant we went upon the recommendation of the locals, but with Thai's taste of course!

Restaurant 59

During dinner, we had the original Thai cuisine. All was great except for the green curry. The sambal was the spiciest sambal I've ever tasted, and it was awesome when it's eaten with raw vege. Simply delicious.

Sawoei Restaurant. Quite a distant from where we were staying

Well, to mention about shopping, the shopping complexes have different brands, some which I haven't seen in Penang before, but they're untouchable because I am yet up the "status" to buy designer accessories and clothings. But it was fun just doing some window shopping, checking out the prices.

The "pasar" was more inviting for a "student" like me. Cheap but still had to bargain till I get the price that I want. In the end, I didn't really buy a lot, I was more towards sight seeing in Hatyai, to see the environment, the people, and their lifestyles.

The ladies working in supermarkets are all very well dressed up with HEAVY make ups. They are definitely very well presentable, with GOOD MANNERS, always WILLING TO SERVE you politely whenever you are at their shop.

Overall, I don't mind going there again in maybe one or two months just to makan their food and to get the relaxing massage.

Everything's cheap there, so why not? =)

Which is my hand?

Random pictures:

Thai's McD fries with cheese!

Thai's Swensen beautiful glass!!

Promoting Harry Potter

Our Hotel Room

Hotel Coffee House

Have a break, have a snapshot!

Variety of kuih can be found here

Cheap cheap slippers

Handbags for sale, anyone?

Kementerian Belia and Sukan Malaysia's Van spotted in Hatyai.

I'm not sure if you can see it from here. His tight uniform!!!!!! S Size is it?

Ok. that's it from the land of Thailand!

Flags everywhere!!!!

He, who loved me dearly

2009-06-21T23:34:00.004+08:00

What does Fathers' Day mean to you?

I don't celebrate Fathers' Day. It has never been a tradition for our family to celebrate Fathers' or Mothers' Day. To us, it's just commercialized. In fact, we treasure birthdays more than all these days.

However, think about it. At least we have Fathers' Day especially for kids to have a special thought of their Dads. In school especially, teachers will ask students to draw a picture of their Fathers, or write an essay on topics related to Fathers.

Most Asian Fathers (the typical ones) are always stern & strict, always showing their macho-side instead of their lovey dovey side. They rarely show their emotional sides, be it shedding tears in cinemas or expressing how they feel towards a movie. They scold you, giving you strict warnings, work and save every penny for their kids, but they never tell you expressively that they are doing it because all they think is for their kids. Everything is so implied and sometimes you are guessing the wrong thing. They are so protective over their little kids but they never explain to their kids how they feel or why they're disallowing their kids over some activities with friends when they asked permissions.

I had good relationship with my Dad. Our relationship was so good that everyday was a Father's Day to us.

My Dad once reminded me, said "We are not made of papers" when it was raining. He taught me to be tough, taught me that whenever I had any trouble, or even if i were in a wrong when in trouble with outsiders, he would always be on my side.

As a family, we discovered many things together. We discovered various religions, various traditional self-healing practices, blogging f0r money (which I am a huge let-down for not keeping his blog alive after he had his blog established in quite a good Google Page Rank), discovered the beauty of playing piano when he signed me up for lessons in Yamaha Music School, choosing my first guitar, and discovered how untalented I am in baking when I baked my first cake - carrot cake.

Ahh...how I miss those things so dearly. The routine phone calls He made in the afternoon after we have finished school just to check on us. The Hokkien Mee or sometimes Curry Mee He ta pao when He finished work. How we as a family would sit together to watch American Idol, all of us supporting Carrie Underwood. How we as a family would sit together to watch the Thomas Cup involving Malaysia's matches. How we would sit down as a family to watch the TVB shows on Wah Lai Toi.

I appreciate everything He has given me. I had received all the love that He could have given me.

I sympathized with those kids who are parentless, some even raised by single mum. They do not even know how it feels like to call the word Dad, or Father. They do not know how it feels like to get sounded terribly by Fathers. They do not know how to get scared when they did something wrong under the "house rules". They do not know the joy of getting the money from Fathers to buy some entertanment stuffs like CDs, Video Games (now you call it PS or PSP), Handphones, Foods, Movie Tickets. They do not know how to feel hopeful for their Fathers' help to rescue them from their mothers' nagging. They do not know how untasteful it is when Fathers cook for meals. They do not know how horrible it feels like when Fathers' tempers are going topsy turvy.

For all that, I do know every single thing of it.

It's because of Fathers, we have all the good and bad memories to remember for our lives. Something for us to share with our friends, as lessons in life. Something for us to treasure as we grow older each year.

For you reading, appreciate your Fathers while you still can.

Remember, we only have ONE Father.

And for that,

HAPPY FATHERS' DAY to you Fathers out there!!

Cross Road

2009-06-11T21:06:00.004+08:00

"Two roads diverge in a yellow woods

Sorry I could not travel both"
-Robert Frost

I guess I'm at this point of life where I do not even dare to think of my future.

I think every fresh grad will experience this for some period at this transition moment, where we tend to look back and miss the happy moments, but at the same time we're wary of what's lying ahead of us.

You call it Quarter life crisis?

I do not know which direction to head. Which way to walk. Which company to go to. Should I stay? Should I go? Should I pursue for the monetary benefits but will make me unhappy? Or should I be content with the relaxing environment but not so much emphasis on the monetary side? Should I go for the sake of the reputation? Should I just walk out of this path that I have been walking for the past couple of years? The Road Not Taken? Or the road that is being taken?

All questions. No answers. It's confusing.

And any remedies to help me to focus? So that I don't keep on forgetting things. Like all the tiny tedious stuff I have to do in the office. Hello, Alzheimer. Can u pls don't find me.

All right. Till here for my short entry.

Just when I look at these pictures...

2009-05-16T03:20:00.007+08:00

..... makes me miss my university life.

Spot the similarity of these two pictures

Answer: I'm the only one being hardworking with my notes with me!! Heheh!!

I am seriously suffering from erm.... "student withdrawal symptom"?

My heart makes me feel that I should continue studying for another year to complete my professional examination (by the time the economy might have already recovered) but my logic tells me not to. I am kinda enjoying what I'm doing at the moment, never for once thought about anything negative about it, so i believe i'm on the right track.

That's the school of management, the place to perform all those admin stuffs, and sometimes getting sounded by the rude staffs.

Some people of my batch, a few not recognizable at all!! Hehe! Not that I will miss the lecturer (no, i NEVER will), but i just made a quick pose when the picture was snapped.

Till here for now. Now I really appreciate weekends so much!!!! I love weekends!!

The not so anticipated cruise at all!

2009-04-29T22:00:00.008+08:00

When u think of the word Cruise, or when I say I'm going for a cruise! what do you have in mind? Cruise Ship - Heavenly Relaxing to get away from the hustle and bustle of the concrete world.

Dipping myself in a pool, lying down on a deck chair, sipping juices (no, i dun drink. yet.) listening to your iPod, enjoying the sea breeze blowing at your face, eating luxurious meals, going for massage on the cruise and doing everything just to pamper yourself while you're in the middle of the ocean - it all seems like zero gravity.

So there goes my naive, or rather simplicity mind of going on a Cruise, kinda like being influenced by Titanic, movies, tv shows but of course we didn't expect a high-class-titanic-like-of-cruise, but we had that rough idea.

I was so eager when I planned on a one-day Cruise. Just sailing and stop in between of Penang Island and the mainland. Never mind the not-crystal-clear-water-at-all, I needed some very, very small, economical so-called "vacation". It's RM60, with 2 meals, which means the price is reasonable.

Ok.

So. When I entered the cruise, my first impression was : not bad for the interior design at the so-called lobby where we boarded the cruise.

After a while, I began to explore and was in a dismay!

I wanted to go into a movie room - Closed
Massage & Thai Massage - No customers at all, expensive, bad environment
Deck Chair & Enjoy the sea breeze - Sorry, there isn't place for that kind of relaxation.

Since we were on a morning cruise, there was no other shows or other entertainment.

Other than that, there was NOTHING ELSE.

Seriously.

And where were the other passengers??

CASINO obviously!

In that mini casino, all the "lau ee" and "lau cik" were seemed to be happily giving away their money to the cruise owner. They placed bets like nobody's business - not like i haven't seen this scenario before since I'm a genting casino fan(not a regular tho..hehe), but the way they threw away their money was ridiculous. I think 99.9% of them are REGULARS on that cruise, it seems like they're on the cruise as a hobby!

A random conversation with an Auntie during lunch (in hokkien):

Auntie: You got gamble or not?
My mum and me: No, not really.
Auntie: *looks at us in a weird way* Aiyo. Where got worth it? Pay RM60 just to come and eat? Have to gamble then only worth it la

Apparently, a lot of them lost by thousands, some by hundreds, and my figures were nowhere near them.

We were making so much comparison on the cruise's casino with Genting's and MGM Macau casino (I've only been to two Casinos!!) and came to the obvious conclusion that the cruise's casino was NO WHERE near the other two in terms of professionalism of the dealer and the players.

Well, obviously I did play a bit, but ended up losing a bit. Yes, only a bit which I'm quite proud about it because I managed to maintain my "capital" throughout the duration. YOu know...gambling is just some past time if you were on that cruise with absolutely NOTHING ELSE to do.

In the end, it's not that i've made a terrible choice of going for a cruise. I've gained an experience and I shall NOT recommend to anyone. No wonder it's not even popular among my friends because i haven't heard them going there before.

Guess what!!

I'm the YOUNGEST passenger there!

Hah! One day mingling with the lau ee and lau cik, speaking loud hokkien(yay, i'm proud of the dialect) , but most of them were kinda rude and I hated that kind of environment.

Going for a cruise makes me kinda miss going to genting for a while.

You see...this is the only place where I can have the sea view. No place for relaxation at all! It's uncomfortably humid!

zero gravity, zero sakae sushi

2009-04-27T12:07:00.004+08:00

i'm floating. soaring.

All I see is Heaven. The Bliss. The Serenity. Ahh...it's wonderful.

The Joy of having gatherings with my coursemates without worries, without even looking at the time. All we know are...i'm hungry. Let's grab a bite somewhere. Which movie to watch? Erm, it's going to rain soon, rite? so how r we gonna bbq with the rain? Send me pictures alright! What tv series are you recommending? When are you gonna shop for your office attire? *gossip *gossip *gossip*

The zero gravity. No strings attached. How wonderful. I wish it would last.

Along the way, I vow that I will NEVER ever step into ~~Sakai~~ Sakae Sushi anymore if I have the choice. Yes, I'm banning ~~Sakai~~ Sakae Sushi.

Had a bad experience a few years back, and a few days ago, it was worse!!

A few years back, we didn't order anything else other than eating sushi. We even had a small argument with the staff. (but i forgave that incident and still never really vowed on not coming back again)

A few days back, we ordered the ala carte. It wasn't even worth the value that I was gonna pay, erm...let's say about RM15-20 for only the rice and the main dish - it can be unagi, chicken, fish -whatever. It does not include other side dishes like you have in sushi king or other typical japanese restaurant. Furthermore, the menu didn't look appealing, so i only ordered RM9.90 dish. Rice with Unagi. Okay. I know it's considered cheap! It was RM9.90 ...so i wasn't hoping for something good either. To give some credits, the unagi was alright (up to my standard) but it was totally unforgiving when JAPANESE rice wasn't served. We were given some ordinary rice which i can even cook it myself at home. I mean, we're at SAKAE SUSHI, some well-known brand of japanese restaurant, it's NOT even hawker serving sushi which i dun mind getting ordinary rice from the hawker. In a discussion with friends after that, I was told that Sakae Sushi doesn't give Japanese rice. Well...is that really true??? Or was it just me that I don't have any fate with Sakae Sushi (which I dun mind AT ALL)

THIS is from Sakae Sushi. Not appealing at all. Don't order this

Today, I went over to Sushi King! Total Satisfaction!!! As most of you Sushi King fans already know, the price we pay is worth the value we get! My lovely Unagi, served with JAPANESE RICE! Plus the miso soup, plus some vege, plus the egg(I don't knwo what u call it), green tea!, plus a yogurt drink. How good is that.

Heaven, heaven. The Bliss!

Oh well, I'm off to enjoy the last few moments before the gravity takes off again!!

* humming * skipping up and down like a little child *

Updated:

Just bothered to save these pictures from Facebook uploaded by my friend.

Here, more pictures:

I ordered this, my friend helped me to get that "thumb down" signal for me!

The group pictures

Check out the "zero-gravity" faces - our lunch, right after our final paper.

P/S: Did I mention before that I didn't even sleep even for a second on that night before my final paper? Either I was too excited for it to end, or I was too "berat hati" to leave my student phase of life. But that was the second time so far in my life that I didn't sleep at all before going for my exam. The first was before my Company Law exam which was a few years back but all these were definitely not because of too nervous for exam. *shrug* Right now I'm still awake at 1.46am on a Sunday night (aka Monday morning) and I have to get up early to work tomorrow! I guess it's the weekend staying up late habit and it's difficult to switch back to sleeping early on Sunday night!!!

David Archuleta - the swot analysis!! =)

2009-04-09T23:34:00.010+08:00

Well...whenever I turn on the radio while driving, the advertisements will be on David Archuleta's showcase in Sunway Lagoon. There are many profits you can generate out of this appearance.

Can't believe I'm doing this. Must be the effect of mugging for final exam. I can actually do a simple SWOT Analysis on David Archuleta as a product!

Strength:

His boyish good looking features that melts teenagers' heart.
Voice - it's as if he has gone through Six Sigma process. Oh crap. Sorry. I mean, he can sing anything perfect with almost 0% ~~defect~~ of pitching problem.
His singles, Crush and A Little Too Not Over You (LTNOY) is catchy and well-liked
Sweet little boy who always smilesssssss widely everytime he speaks.
Humble
Musical talent - piano and guitar

Weakness:

Most of the songs in his self-titled album isn't that appealing. I like Crush and LTNOY, and only a few of the songs in there (I like Running!). The rest are crap. Touch My Hand has its own beating but i feel like i'm going back to the 90s of westlife and boybands, Barriers' intro started off weird but the chorus is alright, My Hands are alright, Desperate is a total crap, To Be With You is alright, just alright...the rest? What? I forgot! In fact, I'm listening to it now just to get the feel, but I guess it won't last long in my playlist.

Opportunity:

The fame he got from American Idol Season 7
The hearts of teenagers who drool and scream every time they see David Archuleta (very good target market)
Malaysia, Singapore, and Philippines which get good coverage of the American Idol, thus generating a lot of fan base there.

Threat:

Well, the only threat I can think of is the emergence of other cute guys to compete with him. Erm..let me see...Jonas Brothers? Jesse McCartney? David Cook?

Anyways, the managers of David Archuleta is very smart to capitalize on his strength and opportunities as fast as possible (before his weakness and threat comes in) especially by coming to Malaysia and Singapore. Since he is still fresh from the 7th Season, they see it as an opportunity to expand and reach out to the Asia market. The consumer(fans) target is teenagers and it's very easy for them get money from their parents to purchase more. Moreover, the showcase in Sunway Pyramid needs a pass.

Yes, speaking of pass, great move by the entertainment companies, telecommunication companies to come forward to generate more sales.

You need a pass to get into his Showcase in Sunway Lagoon. From what I remember, you can either:

Buy his CD only from certain date. If you have already bought David Archuleta's CD earlier, it's not valid to get a pass. Insane. I mean, hardcore fans sure don't mind buying another CD. Smart move from Jive Records I think
Reload your mobile - DiGi. If I remember clearly, you have to be the first 700 to reload your DiGi in order to get the pass.
Set your caller tunes one of David Archuleta's songs. It has got something to do with Hitz.fm, where your caller tunes have to be a David Archuleta song in order to be eligible for the passes.
SMS more to Hitz.fm in order to win the passes, and also emerge as the winning school for David Archuleta to visit

I am a David Archuleta's fan and I know it's good in a way to generate his CD sales (because it's HIM, it's HIS STUFF), but the rest are clearly taking advantage. Exploitation of the consumers (fans) desires. Good for the companies, however clearly very wallet-damaging for the fans.

Obviously, I'm not attending this showcase. Thank goodness I'm in Penang and busy revising for my finals or else I might want to go but will not go all out to get the passes.

I have viewed a couple videos seeing how Malaysian fans mobbed David Archuleta in KLIA upon his arrival and it got up on Perez Hilton's website.

Anyway, he is nevertheless getting a good start for his post-American Idol journey. However, to sustain in the industry needs a lot more effort. He needs good management system, good songs and a very good marketing effort from the management team. A lot went nowhere after the first album, Taylor Hicks is definitely the joke of the American Idol ever.

Perhaps they should hire me to be part of the Archie management team to help promote on him and to build a competitive sustainable position in the entertainment industry. *evil giggles*

Kay, back to my books and hope to ENJOY sisa-sisa and baki-baki kehidupan of a student by stuffing myself with books!!

The Power of Make Up

2009-03-20T15:19:00.014+08:00

There are many versions of myself.

Let's see the transformation

The Specky me - which i believe is studious, and not so nice. Below are the two versions of the specky me - the old glasses and the new glasses
Me, without the nerdy glasses: One taken in KLCC (on duty), the other one taken in HK Disneyland
Me, with sunglasses: Pictures taken in Sanya, Hainan Island
Me, with makeup!

During the Management & Accounting Night 2009 with the theme Bella Noche, all of us were dressed to kill. In fact, all of us looked so beautiful that night. There are some whom I needed some time to think who they were and went "Oh, it's you!! I can barely recognize you"

It isn't an insult or anything. It's just that the only time we meet is during lectures. In lecture classes, most of us wore casual - jeans and t shirt, no make ups, all specky, and nothing really attractive.

So when girls really went all out to dress up and look nice, well the magic is there!

Here are the pictures:

Sheu Suang and the gang (without make up)

Below: Sheu Suang & gang, looking beautiful:

2. Me and my close frens:

Below: me and close frens (with make up):

3. Geok Yet & me,

Below: Geok Yet & me, with looking great!

4. Fong Yin & me, taken at a beach in Batu Feringghi:

Below: me and Fong Yin, looking fabulous:

5. This picture is Lee Pheng (I don't have a one to one picture with her)

Below: This is Lee Pheng and me, she looks absolutely stunning!

5. Sally, me and Geok Yet at ASC 2006:

Below: Sally and me looking gorgeous,

More pictures below! Won't be doing the without make up picture and the after make up picture because I'm lazy to dig out my old files for a one-to-one picture already. So here goes:

Woops...below are the guys. Looking quite normal, nothing much changes. Welcoming the soon-to-be "pupus" accounting guys :

Ok that's it for now. For the "Bella Noche" entry.

Bye!

****
End Note:
Regarding the previous entry...well, thanks for all who cared for me. Actually it's not relationship problem. It's a small matter, but since that day when i wrote it was a heated moment, that's why all the vulgar words came out. Sorry. And erm...i'm actually a nice girl =)

Sorry, but i just have to %^&(&^%$%^&

2009-03-19T00:03:00.007+08:00

I haven't done this kind of post for a while.

JUST ALLOW ME TO SWEAR AND USE RUDE WORDS

FUCKING BITCHES AND BASTARDS

JUST FUCK YOU GUYS FOR ALWAYS TELLING ME POSITIVE WORDS AND MAKING ME PUTTING SO MUCH HOPE ON YOU

FUCK YOU

AND FUCK ME FOR BEING SO STUPID & NAIVE (despite everyone's warning, i chose not to take any action)

NOW THE WHOLE WORLD CAN START LAUGHING AT ME. GO ON. LAUGH. LAUGH ALL YOU CAN. LAUGH TILL YOU DIE OF LAUGHING DISEASE. I ADMIT DEFEAT.

And I SHALL RISE.

HAVE A LOUSY DAY TOO BECAUSE I'M PISSED OFF.

gay or not, Adam Lambert is still great!

2009-03-15T01:30:00.005+08:00

I have been following American Idol since the 4th season. Now's at the 8th season. There's nothing much memorable about the previous seasons except the 7th. Yeah, Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks won as predicted. The joke was Taylor Hicks managed to win the 5th season. But last year, the 7th season, it was between David Archuleta and David Cook, both are my favourite too, so the last season was definitely my favourite. I love Cook's sexy rocky voice and his creativity in making songs his own.

This season, I hope the same thing for Adam Lambert. I don't expect him to be as creative as David Cook, but i'm expecting to hear a lot more from his voice. His beautiful attention catching melodic voice!!!

I can't get enough of his live performances on American Idol.

So far we have only entered the first episode of the Top 13. He wowed me with his Black and White, originally sung by Michael Jackson.

I love his voice. I am predicting that he and Danny Gokey (or how u spell it) will be in the final 2. Danny is likeable but on the basis of voice, I prefer Adam's voice because of his super wide range. When i listen to him hitting the high notes, doing his falsetto and his own thing, i'll be so damn amazed, jaws opened, eyes stared at the tv, unbelievable on what he has sung.

Black or white, gay or not, I don't care. I just want his music, his voice, his performances!!!

Go listen:

Amazed, aren't you? =)

it's already MARCH!!!

2009-03-08T22:41:00.004+08:00

we have entered the month of March.

which means we have less than a month to go through the student phase of...

attending lectures,
skipping lectures,
sleeping in lecture hall,
dreaming in lecture hall,
busy copying notes in lecture hall,
busy highlighting our notes and textbooks
having the blurness state whenever we don't understand a thing in the lecture,
walking up and down the campus during the hours in between lectures,
gossiping about whoever we hate,
staying up late to do the BSG assignment to adjust the figures,
going chaotic to meet our other assignment deadlines,
kap chai - not from our course, because they are most not available anymore, but the international students...those from the west, korea, and japan,
loitering around the campus, finding a comfortable place to sit in the foyer DK while waiting for tutorial to start
thinking of where to go makan lunch...red house? or that "bird nest"? or the RM2 rice? or go shuang xing? or McD? or ~~Mandarin Cafe~~ Bali Bali? or bakti? or go further down to QB?
just talk crap with my friends and not paying attention in classes
sleeping as late as 5am, waking up as early as 7.30am
or sleeping as late as 5am, waking up as late as 3pm
spending the WHOLE day watching dramas ...tvb, english tv shows while neglecting other things that are quite important etc.
going to cinema on a weekday to catch the earliest movie of whatever I want to watch
paying the student price to go Red Box and GSC
going to vacation and skipping class without taking MC or writing letter to our lecturer
asking friends to sign attendance for us if we're absent

And the list goes on and on and on....without end.

So to say, I actually enjoyed a lot during my student phase, from high school to form 6, to university. I made many friends, some are very close to me, many are just hi-bye friends, a lot are always willing to help me, a few are so damn selfish, some of whom we can just joke with.

I once blogged an entry about all these a year ago when my management friends were graduating last year. Click *here*

Till here for my entry. I'm so good at emo-ing. hehe! =)

Hopefully i will blog about the Management and Accounting Night 2009 in the next post...which always depend on my mood! =)

I have the most amazing childhood story!

2009-02-28T01:36:00.023+08:00

These few days my mood has been so down (as can be shown from my previous blog entry), I really don't know why and whether I'm really bad in handling and controlling my mood. I'm really not sure what is going on either. I get frustrated easily, I get emo very quickly, and I "tembak-ed" a lot people whom I don't see eye to eye with. It's so obvious that I'm having some depression. (No, you shut up. It's NOT PMS for sure!) As usual, internship application is worrying me. The company of my choice hasn't given me any call yet, so what I can do now is to wait, and hope and pray for the best given the economic recession.

So, I'm now gonna blog about HAPPY THINGS =) =) =) to take my mind off from all the unhappiness.

I feel like going back in time whenever I feel down. I have one of the best childhood memories that any adults can ever wished for.

HAHA!!

You see, when I was young, I had a best friend called Snow White.

I would go to her small house and play barbie doll with her. Each time we played barbie doll, I would laugh innocently at every stupid lame joke we made. And I even fell in love with one of Snow White's friends. I always mixed up their names, but Snow White called them the Seven Dwarfs! I liked talking to Dopey because he never argued with me. All he did was to nod and smile whenever I spoke. He was so cute when he always fell. Now that I've grown, I realized that Dopey actually couldn't talk!!!

You know who was my first crush?

It's SLEEPY!!!!

No wonder now that I've grown, I got hang on his bad habit - need at least 10 hours of sleep per day!!

Snow White brought me for swim at the nearby beach. In those days, the beach were so clean and clear, the sun wasn't that sizzling hot thanks to the thick ozone. Sometimes, I managed to meet up with Ariel the Mermaid there!

You see, Mermaid was so friendly that she swam up to the shore to chit chat with me. I learned a few notes from her knowing how well she could sing! Sebastian the crab was so funny in crapping. He told me stories of how the sea monster humiliated herself by changing vocal chord with Mermaid and many other fables which I believed every single word he said.

Every now and then, Snow White and I would go into the jungle for a walk. However, we were so afraid of a creature called Buzz Light Year. No doubt he always smiled with his biggie eyes, both of us always find him terrifying. I disliked him that I even made fun of him with his "To Infinity and Beyond" signature pose.

At the end of the jungle was a BEAUTIFUL Castle!!

Snow White and I always envied the couple living happily ever after the jungle. We would play hide and seek around the area hoping to catch a glimpse of the happily ever after princess. Guess what! One day, I cheekily hid myself in the garden of castle and a breathtaking lady came up to me. I was shocked and scared and didn't know what to do. Luckily, she was so friendly and brought me and Snow White into her castle! We made friends with her! She was Cinderella!

Apparently, her story wasn't that happily ever after. She was married to a handsome guy who managed to find her through the glass shoe. Cinderella got moved by his effort to find the owner of the classy glass shoe, that was why she hastily agreed to marry the Prince!! However, after 6 years of marriage, the stupid bastard prince wanted to get concubines. Cinderella was so upset but chose not to run away from the castle because she loved the luxurious lifestyle in the castle without having to work for it.

We continued to hang out every weekend, until one day Snow White got poisoned after swallowing a red apple in Cinderella's house. It seemed that Cinderella got jealous that the prince had his eyes set on Snow White. Believe me, Snow White hated that stupid prince too because he was such a playboy!

I did every thing to save her.

Went to Buzz Light Year but all he could do was to show his stupid pose.

I went to look for Ariel the Mermaid but she couldn't even get on to the shore. All she could do was to sing this song which I can remember vividly the lyrics which went something like that "What would I give if I could live out of these waters? What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand?" and also "Flippin' your fins, you don't get too far, Legs are required for jumping, dancing, Strolling along down a - what's that word again?Oh..Street" Oh damn it. Stop singing because your voice has become hoarse after changing vocal chord with the sea monster.

At the brink of giving up, the younger brother to that bastard prince arrived. Which made him also a prince, I call him Prince II! He gave a kiss onto Snow White lips and miraculously, Snow White opened her eyes. They both got married and lived happily ever after (I hope).

And that leaves me ALONE. I went back to school to study. Got into university and i am at my final semester, wondering where my prince charming is hiding himself.

Two months ago, I decided to pay a visit to Snow White and the rest.

I swear I could have strangled Snow White because she charged such a hefty amount to enter to her castle.

I wondered where she is now because all I saw was her maids and gardeners and a few mice, ducks, and a dog up strolling around her castle.

I asked them where Snow White was but they couldn't give me any answer. Instead, they said they were now serving Belle, the Beauty, and the Beast. I had a glance at them because they were busy dancing in the ballroom with other friends whom some I heard of before.

In the end, I left the place where I grew up. I guess Ariel the Mermaid must have died with all her friends due to the water pollution. Aww...poor thing, or else I would have wanted to bring Sebastian home and cook him alive! That must have been delicious.

Disappointed for not being able to see Snow White, but was glad and happy to be back to where I played and enjoyed most of my innocent days. The place was properly upkeep and was perfectly lid at night.

Well, WELCOME TO HONG KONG DISNEYLAND!!!!

Emo

2009-02-18T01:40:00.004+08:00

I wanna emo a bit here.

I have been enjoying myself so much during the chinese new year. If you have seen my previous posts, they are mostly about my vacation in january. Hong Kong, followed by Hainan Island, China trip.

The FAMILY!!!!! Malaysia + China

Hainan Island especially, was a very memorable trip. Albeit the trip was a bit expensive because it was during the peak season, well...it was the FUN, the PEOPLE, the MEMORIES that even the richest man in the world can't buy.

The 18 Cousins!!!!! Complete!!!

We, 37 people, made the trip to Hainan Island all the way from Malaysia, spent our first 7 days of the Year of Ox there, played firecrackers like never before, enjoyed the fireworks which were more, more , more a zillion times much beautiful than the ones we have seen in Malaysia, and listened to the deafening sound of the RED, LONG firecrackers.

It's the time that we spent with our loved ones that we will treasure most, something which really touched my heart whenever I think back. The 4 ladies in China who cooked for the 37 of us lunch, and dinner for the first two days, they squad down to wash our plates wearing their boots without even complaining but all smiles on their faces. The warmth of the relatives from China even though some of us have not even met them before. The farewell tears that we had at the airport upon departing to Malaysia weren't fake. Even kids, yes...a kid who is only 8 y.o. sobbed because of the ONE-WEEK bond that was built with the China kid from this trip.

This kind of happy family tradition MUST be carried on. The strong love for each other, the rightful, mindful and rational thoughts to sustain the harmonious family must be realized. We despise, and shall defeat those who try to destroy the bonds that we have. (I'm not being direct here, but there is certainly some issues which only came to my attention these few weeks, and I'm definitely very much emo-ing to it even though I don't have the right to speak up, and due to my "status", there's nothing much I can do about it too)

***

So, as soon as Chap Goh Meh was over, it all came back to REALITY. WORK. WORK. WORK. STUDY. STUDY. STUDY. Back to USM. Midsem tests, assignments due, and the internship application.

Do you know how stressful I am now due to the internship application? I am a very stubborn girl. Stubborn in a silly way? Or stubborn in a good way? I hope it's in a good way. But there's nothing I can do now. I have sent in application to my choices of companies and I only want these few companies to work. And one has already rejected. The other doesn't seem quite hopeful. The final one which I am PRAYING SO HARD to get into it, still pending for their confirmation. So, in the end, I have only ONE company of my choice to rely on. I was so confident that i could get into this company based on my good results in uni (Yes, I do admit that my results are good and I am damn proud of it, ask me about my CGPA, ask me ask me! Ok forget it. I'm really a bit insane now due to STRESSSSSSSS), my above-average English in both writing and speaking (Yes, I achieve Band 5 in my MUET, I know it's NOT band 6, but still...Band 5 is already alright to me), and I have good resume and working experience. So, what's worrying me? It's the competition. I bet there are other students who also have good results, good english, good resume and good working experience. Oh Gawd. Will YOU please call me up and confirm my placing??????????? Oh dammit. I know I sound desperate, but what else can I do now? I got offered an internship with not-my-choice-at-all company just as a back-up plan. I didn't expect them to give me a call so quickly. I tried to delay the confirmation by telling them that I would give them the answer in a week or two, but he told me he wants the answer latest by friday. That's why I'm now caught in the middle. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. And I don't know what to do!!!!!

This has been the only one that is bugging me after the Chinese New Year. OK, except that I still have to worry over my Islamic Accounting project paper. I feel that I have put my group in a hot soup because of the topic choice. I admit that I chose the topic and managed to get everyone agree to it and now the whole project paper is hanging because seriously, we do not know which direction we're heading. Bad mastermind me!!!!! And my Petronas Strategic Management project paper. And the BSG Simulation Game which need to put more effort in the next few weeks, and the interviews to conduct with the Accountant General office in KOMTAR for my Public Sector Accounting, and Management Accounting's yet-revealed assignment.\

OH dear. Help me. I still want to watch several movies. Red Cliff II (still showing or not???), Valkyrie, The Legend of Chunli (showing already?????), Bedtime Stories ( I Know I missed it already)

I still need time to get my dress for the mgmt night. I know it's still a few weeks away, but since I love to think ahead sometimes, you know...it's bugging me too.

Ah. I wish I could turn back time. I wish I have the power to manipulate time. I really miss China. I miss Hainan Island. I miss my HK trip. A lot times, I tend to stop and think back all the good times. I tend to stop for too long and not knowing how to advance. Because I am afraid. I am afraid of what the future holds for me. It's gonna be only a month plus before I sit for my final exam. And then for my internship which I still have yet to confirm my placing in the choice of my company. And then the convocation. And then work.

I hope I'll be prepaed by then.

Meanwhile, I have to get back to reality. To gather all my courage to overcome this obstacle. I know I can do it if I want it. I have been such a confident girl before and it's time for me to get back to those times.

Sorry for being emo. Sorry for the lengthy and long-winded post. I just need some place to type down my thoughts.

****
End note: Wow, I never knew that if I want to actually rant, I can also rant this much!!!!!

I Love Hainan Island!!!!

2009-02-06T15:35:00.007+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year!! 新年快乐!!

I had my BEST CNY Trip so far to Hainan Island, CHINA! (Read: China!).

It's surprising that many people still do not know where Hainan Island is until I said it's in China!

Think think think!!!: Where does the name Hainan Chicken Rice come from? Where does the Hainanese originate from? Takkan lah from India or Arab!

Anywayz, it was a one-week balik kampung trip to Wenchang, a very small area of Hainan Island, and to tour down south to Sanya.

Sigh...after a week of enjoying myself up there in Hainan Island, I'm still struggling to get back to my "normal" rhythm. it's always the post-CNY syndrome where things are starting very slowly and nothing are quite done yet. So to say, I have 2 midsem tests next week, and another midsem test on the following week, with a few other weekly assignments and sorta-huge project papers to work on. To add in, it's the internship application fever at the moment. I really do hope that the company shall give me a call soon to confirm my placing so that it does not worry me!

So, only a few photos of the beach in Sanya to show how much I miss Hainan Island!!! More pics to come (I hope!) because there are over 1000 pictures all together from various cameras, so it takes time to organize.

Ahhh....the crystal clear water...makes you feel like wanting to go for another beach vacation!!!

Sight Seeing and Jalan Jalan in Mong Kok, Hong Kong

2009-01-19T03:38:00.009+08:00

Since we were on free and easy tour, most of the time spent was on sight seeing without wasting much money. We stayed in Mong Kok, a very centralized place for you to go wherever you like. So basically while waiting to meet up with my HK family members, most of the time we did was walking around the Mong Kok area and Tsim Sha Sui.

The air was cooling, the breeze was relaxing, I walked a lot without even complaining because I didn't even sweat (comparing to my 9-day KL trip last month!)!!

New Year Eve at Mong Kok

New Year Eve. Very hardly you see bikes in HK!

HK ppl is ALWAYS RUSHING. I can't compare with SG because I haven't been to SG. As a tourist, I took my own sweet time jay-walking along the streets and quite often I got shoved!

And you say lah...the economy is bad, but i don't think it's affecting the HK ppl that badly because everywhere I go, the shoplots are always full of ppl!! Furthermore, there were year end sales everywhere, reduction up to 70% for branded goods. How lah to resist the shopping mood? It was unfortunate that I am only a student, so my self-control was pretty much commendable.

I like their transportation system. MTR is very efficient, their bus is always there for you, and they have ample of taxis. I don't remember waiting for more than 10 minutes for any of these public transportation. If Penang, yeah, just say ONLY Penang manage to have a good transportation system, I would have willingly NOT drive to USM or to work!

In MTR oso have to pose for picture

Posing with our HK cousin and her husband in MTR

My HK relative said: Wow, you guys can drive? That's so clever! I don't even dare to drive!!
Me: Our transport system sucks, and we can't reach our destination if we don't have car! So we have no choice!

The Lui Yan Kai was full of people. I enjoyed barganing with them. Click *here* for pictures cuz I lazy to upload.

I wanted to get a bag there during our last-minute shopping, the night before we went back to Malaysia.

The opening price was HKD 280 for ONE BAG
And then we bargained till HKD240 for TWO BAGS

Thanks to my aunt for her good Cantonese communication skill.

Oh ya, speaking of the ppl in HK. They are RUDE. Maybe we call it rude because we're not used to their speaking culture.

My Aunt strolled along the Lui Yan Kai (ladies street) ONLY for a few hours and one of the workers there recognized her, and said to her sarcastically:

That Rude girl said (in Cantonese): From morning till night you have been walking and still you 're not buying anything. Don't come here and disturb lah!
My Aunt: "-.-

In another situation where the shops were already closing, my aunt wanted to buy shoes
My Aunt said: Let you earn more money also don't want meh?
The Lady said: Money so what? (Dai Sai arr?) No need to rest arr?

In one of the small restaurants:
My mum said: Anything to recommend?
That Rude Waitress said: It's all in the menu. Read by yourself and I'll come back later
My mum: "-.-

***

I guess that's it for this entry. I am currently quite busy these few days with studies, CNY Hainan Island trip preparation and the internship application fever. There are so many things to accomplished. Hopefully I'll be successful in my interview. It was quite wrong to think that final semester would be much easier because we were being made busy by lecturers who want us to pass up tutorial assignments each week.

Btw, the paintball experience with my course mates were worth it. Being an unskillful shooter and most of the time a coward, I hid myself and also kept on shooting at the wrong person. Wrong person means: I shot my own team member, and also shot the camera man who was so kind enough to take pictures/videos for us. So, in the end, I only ended up with ONE minor bruise on my left hand. The place we went was at Bkt Gambir. The only thing that I complained is the COW SHIT everywhere!! Maybe next time should try at Pulau Tikus if there's chance. Perhaps their attire and facilities would be much better.

This is the only picture I got from Facebook which has one of my friends wearing the mask!

Not much pictures to be uploaded in this entry because it takes time to upload and to compress the size of my pictures, so I'll only upload a couple of pictures. The rest you can just click on the links which direct you to my sibling's blogs.

A Park in Tsim Sha Tsui!!

Eating Chao Tau Foo in HK

2009-01-13T01:05:00.003+08:00

Neh...it's not as bad as you think ok. I wanted to try it despite the warnings that it stinks like mad. I ignored their warnings and went ahead to makan.

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

It doesn't smell THAT bad. It's NOT like the rubbish kinda smell that stinks. It has its own unique smell. Take Durians for example. Durians don't have the rubbish kinda smell, but it's smelly. The smell is STRONG.

So the same for Chao Tau Foo. The smell is STRONG. So strong that it doesn't affect my appetite at all.

Mission failed in posing. Just ignore my addition of the bubbles through MS Word! Heh!

I forced my Aunt to eat. She refused. I convincer her to take a bite.

After bravingly taking a bite, she said: COME LET'S BUY ANOTHER PIECE AGAIN!!!

And now here I am, sitting down here in front of my laptop, still thinking of Chao Tau Foo. I actually miss it. *Stomach growling*

YUMMY SQUID!!!

Hong Kong, Macau, First and Last Day....

2009-01-06T02:39:00.008+08:00

..... of a little, little mishap

I was on a vacation, the most anticipated moment for my whole 2008. Our main purpose was to pay a visit to my 87 year old Tua Pek (means, my father's eldest brother) in Hong Kong.

First day - 30 December 2008

It was all alright when we reached the Macau airport, travelled in the taxi for sight seeing, entered the casino (MGM) just to walk around, just to have a feel of the Macau casino atmosphere, didn't gamble due to time contraint.

We had dinner in a small restaurant, only walking distance from the MGM Casino. I was anticipating excitedly for the soup noodle, camwhoring in between.

And then due to some small accident, the soup almost boiling, poured onto my right feet.

Oh shit, was my first thought.

Blister, it is, my next thought came in.

How am I gonna walk for the rest of my holiday?, my mind worried me.

While my crazy thoughts still running, my scream was simultaneous. My shrieking scream captured the attention of other diners as well.

Managed to keep my cool down while comforting myself that bad luck has been washed away.

The owner of the restaurant suggested that I poured salt onto my feet.

It's a crazy idea.

It's gonna hurt. No, I don't want the salt.

My thoughts were speaking to itself only, so I obediently obliged.

Well, guess what! Lesson learned: Put salt on the burned parts.

I mean, it worked perfectly and no blisters at all!!!~~

Okay. Scene 1 ended.

30 december 2008 was a peak day somehow. I think we reached Macau ferry terminal at 10 pm or so, bought our ferry tickets which had this 12.30am time on it. The locals assured us that we didn't have to mind the time because we can catch the earlier ferry.

However, it was so jam packed.

The system was a hassle.

We didn't understand the system at first, so we kept running up and down, didn't know which direction to head to, carrying so many bags and other stuff with us, feeling lethargic due to traveling all day, and worse of all, I was feeling a bit hungry already.

So we lined up. We waited. and waited. and waited.....

The first lined moved. We thought that we would continue to line up so that it would be our turn after that. But no. The line got dispersed. Apparently, we had to rush to OTHER LINES in order to catch the next ferry.

WTF.

The officers in charged were rude.

To keep the story short, we met a good Samaritan who somehow helped us - 11 of us to jump queue to catch the 11.15pm ferry. We got cursed by the others who were lining up from behind.

But I didn't care at that point. I was so so so so eager to jump into the ferry and get to HK at once.

And then. The sea sick problem. I was holding my vomit for the whole journey. It was around and ONE HOUR journey for me to endure.

Vomitted straight away as soon as I reached Hong Kong ferry terminal.

After the immigration, I vomitted again.

We only managed to check in to our hostel in the wee hours. Probably 2-3am.

And I continued to vomit every single liquid I swallowed, every munch of food I've taken in.

Slept and woke up to vomit for a few times until 5.30am

Lesson learned: Take direct flight to Hong Kong instead of going to Macau first. Macau's Ferry Terminal's System Sucks!!!

*****

Last Day. 3 January 2009

I think this entry is getting a bit lengthy, so to keep it short, we were also rushing to catch the ferry to Macau (again!). So based on the first horrible experience with it, we were so scared of the hassle but luckilly it wasn't a peak day, so not much problems arised from the ferry terminal.

But my dear sister got lost at Mong Kok MTR Station, so somehow we were all so worried and all that because we were rushing for time to catch our 7am ferry.

Rush Hour began and ended in less than 10 minutes when we finally found her.

My dear mummy's bag left outside the immigration in Hong Kong airport. We were supposed to board the airplane already but she went to get her bags and we were the last to board the plane.

Another Rush Hour.

Like Mother like daughter LMAO.

******

So, this is the kind of experience we went through for the first and last day of our holiday, which i guess....made the overall rating of the holiday 7/10 only.

But but but.....GOOD and ENJOYABLE MOMENTS happened too!!~~

Will update my blog in the next couple of days after I have done compressing and organizing my tonnes of pictures taken in HK!!!~~

Meanwhile, check out my brother's blog and my sister's blog

A record. Read 4 novels in 2 weeks.

2008-12-19T03:36:00.006+08:00

Yep. That's my own record. I can't believe it myself either because I've never finished reading any books (not even textbooks!) other than Harry Potter ever since I finished Form 5.

Twilight Twilight. What spell has it given me?

Firstly, the movie poster. I walked past the cinema swiftly and threw a glance at the movie poster. Twilight. I saw the guy briefly. OMG. So good looking! I didn't even pay attention to the girl.

Then I went to see the movie after coming back from my 9-day KL trip. Not bad, and I actually like it. Robert Pattinson played Edward Cullen quite good and there were parts that were unanswered because my brain slows down when it comes to watching movie.

Hence. MPH. The Book.

The one I bought doesn't have the Apple as the cover. It had Robert Pattinson and Kristen on it. for RM30+, it's not really that expensive. The movie didn't quite miss out much from the book but at least through reading, I understand a lot more.

Then the second one. New Moon.

To be honest, I dislike the part where Stephenie Meyer featured Jacob Black in it. I know the Quillettes played an important role to spice up the whole Twilight Saga, but whenever Stephenie Meyer writes WAY TOO MUCH on Jacob Black, I began to feel the drag. Who needs Jacob Black when she already described vampires' features so perfectly already?! I'd rather read more of Edward Cullen than Jacob Black. In New Moon, the Cullens left, so more than half of the book were on Bella's unsecured thoughts and how she suffered through the absence of her love, Edward. And she spends a lot of her time with Jacob Black. I hate this part seriously. I know the second movie will have lots of Jacob Black in it so I don't think I;m anticipating much of this second movie tho.

The third one. Eclipse.

It doesn't have much impact. It's like a continuance of where Twilight had stopped. James was killed in Twilight, Laurent was killed by the werewolves in New Moon, and Victoria was the main antagonist in New Moon. Stephenie Meyer managed to drag and drag and drag the whole thing. Bella is STILL a mortal. That made me want to read more. The suspense is killing me. I wanted to know when and how and who is going to make Bella a vampire. Although it seemed kinda obvious that it would sound more appealing that Edward's the one who's gonna bite Bella.

So, I moved on to the final one. Breaking Dawn.

Bella and Edward got married when Bella is still mortal. They had their first sex in an island called Isle Esme during their honey moon. Yes, vampires do have sex too, it's just that when both parties are vampires, they don't get pregnant because vampires' cells are all dead. So Edward was too strong for her. Bella got bruises everywhere. That led to something quite imaginative. Bella got pregnant, and her daughter was born half mortal, half immortal. Her daughter also had her own gifts as a half vampire too. You know what was annoying when I read Breaking Dawn? The middle part. Where Stephenie Meyer shifted the story line to Jacob. It was so so so so so so DRAGGGGYYYYY, almost put me to sleep but I managed to pull through. She was going into too details of how Bella is suffering due to the pregnancy, carrying a creature that was too strong for her...bla bla bla.....bla bla bla...ugghh...will you get over those details! Oh, Bella turned vampire when she was delivering her baby girl. She couldn't survive. Edward turned her into vampire to save her.

What I like about this is the confrontation of the vampires. It sounds a bit like Harry Potter, just without the chanting of spells. They do mind readings, they have shielding through minds, they see the future, they have the ability to control your feelings etc. Not much action, not much "darkness" of death as I read in Harry P, but at least it's interesting.

***

So, in the end, I think that Twilight is still the best. Breaking Dawn is good too if those draggy parts were to be taken out. I like the confrontation of the vampires part the most.

I read from somewhere that Stephenie Meyer said that for Breaking Dawn to be made into movie, it should be made in two parts. I beg to differ. You want the whole cinema to be falling asleep during Bella's pregnancy phase? I would say that the only interesting part that you should put in more screen time is the vampires' meeting. That would be good. It's still so long, not even sure if it will become a movie tho =)

So, conclusion: a good read if you are as FREE as I am now. Not worth it if you're sacrificing other things for the book. No, Stephenie Meyer still can't be compared to JK Rowling yet. Stephenie Meyer is now working this book called Midnight Sun which is concentrated on Edward's perspective on Twilight. It might be good if you're a fan of EDWARD =) The draft is out on her website. Go Google it =)

Btw, I still don't understand the title of each book.

Alright, it's late. About 4am, and will be heading off to Klang tomorrow before I come back for the final semester of my student life. Nitez!

Vegetarian Vampires, or so the Cullens call themselves

2008-12-10T04:54:00.009+08:00

Quote of the month: When you can live forever, what do you live for?

*****

Can you believe it!

I haven't been finishing any story books that I have started (or did I even start reading?) in these 6 years, except for Harry Potter. I have totally lost the interest to read story books. Gone were the days of Sweet Valley when I was in secondary school. Gone were the days of the Famous Five when I was in Primary School. Gone were the days when I re-read over and over again the Enid Blyton's children short stories.

Until I watched Twilight.

I was so in love with the movie, went over to MPH immediately after watching the movie, and purchased Twilight - THE NOVEL.

I always had second thought of buying any novels few years because I never have the confidence to finish reading the book. That's why I haven't bought any story books apart from Harry Potter.

Guess what. I finished reading it in 5 days. Believe me, it was considered fast already and an unexpected record that I have achieved in finishing a book.

I'm always slow in interpreting the movies that I watch. If I were watching from a DVD, I would rewind those parts that I do not understand. But obviously I can't do that in the cinema. I didn't comprehend certain things, and I got the answer from the book.

Btw, I read from somewhere that Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen) really played on the piano for Clair De Lune. Wonder if I will get the inspiration from the movie to learn up another classical piece (like I did on Mozart's Kv576 after watching Nodame Cantabile live action). I admit that I did not like this piece at first, but after listening the full song again and again on youtube, I think it might be classy to play it *shrugs*

I'm gonna go over to MPH to get New Moon soon. (I hope it's not the new-broom-sweeps-clean attitude) Heh!

Can you imagine someone who is icy cold being around you all the time, holding you, cuddling with you, kissing you with his cold lips, and you won't feel anything warm but deadly COLD. He loves you, tries to be as gentle as he can be when he touches you, and at the same time, holding his thirst for what's inside you. Your blood. Your blood that can be so addictive to vampires and can be compared to as a morphine for drug addicts.

In the book, the writer describes Edward Cullen's physical appearance as though he is so godly perfect that Bella always gets carried away by just looking at him. He doesn't even need to breathe, but he breathe just to smell. Every time he breathes, his breath always smells good. With such character, no wonder Bella falls so easily for him.

In the movie, there were actually some parts where Edward actually looked scary, but there were parts where he played the role well with his looks. But I prefer the guy who acted as Emmet Cullen. I still think he looks more killing than Edward.

All in all, I can't really write a proper review for Twilight movie(cuz i suck in writing reviews), but anywayz, it's a good movie to watch. Not that type that will awe you so much like The Dark Knight, but at least you know....with vampires and love...how bad can it be? =) Good watch.

I never knew vampires can be sexy!! ;P

Where was I?

2008-12-06T02:14:00.003+08:00

In the final semester break, I guess I'm really taking a good, nice break. Things have been good so far and I hope I do have the "hardworking-ness" to blog about the past week.

Many things happened. To keep it short and simple in this post, I attended two conferences. In between, it was sorta like a "holiday"

(24-26 Dec 2008) National Accountants Conference 2008 (NAC)
(27-28 Dec 2008) Off to Genting Highlands. I actually like going to the Casino, not as an addict, but just to enjoy the cooling atmosphere (in Genting Highlands) and doing a lil bit of an investment up there.
(29-30 Dec 2008) Stayed in Puchong. Shopped a bit
(1-2 Dec 2008) Accounting Students Conference (ASC 2008)

So on and off, my luggage was HEAVY and I carried a lot of other small little bags with me, some were from shopping, some were shoes that I brought all the way from Penang to the city. You know lah...being a girl so susah. I had my sneakers with me for walking, I had my court shoes with me for Formal Wear, I had my heels with me for dinner wear.

Overall, my route was:

Penang - Bukit Bintang (and KLCC) - Petaling Jaya - Genting - Puchong - Gombak (UIA)

Imagine, I kinda walked a lot due to travelling, sometimes by LRT, sometimes by car, but most of the time we walked....like:

from Bkt Bintang to KLCC and back again to Bkt Bintang,
also from Pudu to Bukit Bintang,
also from SS16 to catch the public bus,
and then walked again somehow from Titiwangsa LRT Station to Titiwangsa bus station
In Genting also walked again from the bus station, to hotel lobby for check in, and then bring our HEAVY luggage to our room, and upon checking out, we brought everything in again

Basically, we did a lot of walking and carrying HEAVY bags. It was nevertheless adventurous to travel in the big city, the city which is I always hear of crimes. It was really scary, and I really had to be very cautious at all times. I didn't feel save after all the stories i've heard from people around me. Furthermore, I met up with my ex school mate in Petaling Jaya. He is a law student in UM and he got robbed that night before at 2am after having supper with his friend.

Food wasn't as good as Penang's food either. We were tourists, hence we ate at places like Jalan Alor, Pavilion and KLCC food court. Either the food we ate were actually not up to the standards of our taste buds, or we really did choose the wrong food on the menu. More to food when I blog about the ASC2008 in the upcoming posts (if I do have the "hardworking-ness") to blog about it! Hehe!

So, after coming back from the city trip, I am unpacking, cleaning up my room, and out of the ordinary. I THREW away aaaaalllllllll my badminton collections which I had been collecting since 1998. It wasn't a lot, just a few cuttings especially the ones I collected in secondary school. The collection kinda stopped when I reached the uni. Badminton has always been one of my obsessions as a growing teenager apart from music. I guess there are many factors which led to my decision.

One - I guess I'm growing up. I'm starting to be very rational. When I put those baddie collections for recycle, I told myself: Hey, these people don't even know that I existed. Why do I even bother keeping their stuff in my shelf?
Two - I don't even use them. ever before. or in future. I mean, i do collect all these. And the only times I took them out and review them were when I do spring cleaning.
Three - They are collecting dusts.
Four - I'm joining the masyarakat soon. To work. To earn $$. To work hard. It's meaningless to keep baddie stuff.

Nevertheless, I do appreciate having baddie as my teenage obsession. It's all over. I'm in my quarter life right now =)

=) =) =)

I'm happy. I'm satisfied for now. My stomach too, is satisfied after it got disappointed by the food provided in the ASC especially. More to that in the coming posts.

Till here. C ya! =)

Hanazakari no Kimitachi E (Hana Kimi) Review

2008-11-14T02:11:00.007+08:00

How did I got to know about this Japanese Drama? One fine day, the day before I had my two papers, I turned on 8tv and watched a bit on Hana Kimi. It was only Episode 2 and somehow the scene definitely caught my attention. And then I went over to mysoju.com to start watching. Imagine, I was supposed to be studying for my exam but I ended up watching up till 6 episodes that day itself.

Anywayz, forget about exams, I won't even wanna write a "review" about exams since it's over right now.

So this Japanese version of Hana Kimi tells a story about a girl named Ashiya Mizuki, disguised herself as a guy to enroll into an all-boys school. Typically, the reason would be that she fell in love with one of the guys in the school. Well, kinda true. But the initial reason was that she wanted to help this guy, Sano Izumi to start jumping again. Sano was a high jumper with reputable achievements but had stopped jumping, perhaps, as perceived by Mizuki, the reason was her.

That was why she had to migrate from American to this Osaka High School in order to repay her debt. During the course of helping Sano, well...typically...Mizuki fell soon fell in love with Sano.

What I like about this drama?

When you hear J-Drama, you think of kawaii guys. Yes. I like the guys there.

But let's not get into it first.

The sillyness of Hana Kimi was acceptable. It was always funny how the 3 Dorms compete against each other to win any competition organized by the principle, awarding winners lucrative prizes.

L to R: Dorm 2 Leader (Nanba-senpai), Mizuki, Sano, Nakatsu

Dorm 1 had Tennoji Megumi, leading his dorm under his martial arts skill. He was a fierce and his members all respected and feared him. The funny scenes I get from him is when his fierce spot became soft whenever he sees Kanna (his gf).

As for Dorm 3, they were all hyped over performing arts and they were actually quite sick. But I had a good laugh actually.

Dorm 2 - it's the centre of attention of the whole drama since Mizuki was in this dorm and shared the same room with Sano. Apart from trying to help Sano, there were other added spices to the whole drama. Then came in Nakatsu Shuichi, someone who played quite a lot of parts in the drama. He had a crush on Mizuki at first as a guy, and he didn't feel right about it because he couldn't accept that he was homo. The Dorm leader, Nanba Minami - perceived as a hottie who can get lots of girls he wanted. (Note: Indeed, he IS HOT!)

Umeda Hokuto - the school's male doctor was the first to find out that Mizuki was a female but he was cool about it after he knew Mizuki's intention of going to the school. He had helped Mizuki in a lot occassion from bocor-ing Mizuki's identity. Oh btw, Umeda had hots for male only.

Sano came to know about Mizuki's identity when he overheard Mizuki and her brother's conversation one day. He, same as Umeda and Nakatsu (who found out when he unintentionally looked at Mizuki taking bath one day...remember...he liked Mizuki as a guy...that's why he couldn't resist but to take a peep!), secretly protected Mizuki a lot when Mizuki was very close to get her identity disclosed.

Well, in the end, somehow, Mizuki's identity got disclosed when she was hurrying to go and watch Sano making a jump in a competition. She dropped her wallet, and got found by Hibari, and from there, the search went on and Mizuki's identity got exposed. Hot Soup. Somehow, the problem got solved due to their tight friendship that had built, and everyone learned to accept it later on.

I'm bad at writing reviews, especially with this kind of drama.

Really...apart from the good looking actors, I don't really have much to comment. Unlike Nodame Cantabile Live Action where it had some music elements.

So, the guys are hot, the foolishness is acceptable, you can have a good laugh, the story line is alright, the main character actually managed to jump, there is a little love story in there, and yeah...the GUYS ARE HOT...so what are you waiting for??

GO WATCH!! HANA KIMI!! - the original Japanese version, NOT the taiwanese version (starring Ella from SHE), no offense but I haven't watched the taiwanese version yet, so I don't know much about it. But i bet Jap guys are hotter than taiwanese guys..!! LOL

Ok, this blog entry is getting nowhere. So I will end my post with pictures of the hotties from Hana Kimi: (erm...actually it's only Ikuta Toma who played the role of the funny Nakatsu!! )
Ok la...lazy to post go search his pictures..zzz.

So, have you watched Hana Kimi? what do you think? Do you like it? Do you hate their lame jokes?