So I’ll just fast forward until AFTER the exams! =D

On the very last day of our final exams, and after many exhausting, sleepless nights, nobody was going to care anymore what the Nyquist’s Frequency was or if they knew about the Shannon’s Sampling Theorem or whatever.

It was very difficult indeed to get this group of people (my classmates) out for any kind of outing. Eternally not free and eternally armed with excuses!

But when we were finally free from the satanic grasp of final exams, we had a day when everybody was present and undoubtedly free!

So we went for dinner and movie!

It was also Tee’s birthday this month! Poor Tee! It was very evil of us to celebrate with him only after the final exams! Kekeke…

Tee’s birthday very unfortunately fell on the Friday of our study week. We had actually made plans to celebrate it nonetheless, but in the end due to… Ah… Anyway IT’S ALL MMU’S FAULT!!

But we got him a very HUGE birthday card to compensate!

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As I’ve mentioned, I’ll be going to Penang next month to do my industrial training, so this month my Dear and I went to Penang for a pre-work holiday!

Another purpose of this trip is also to hunt for a place to stay during my four months in Penang.

I think our accommodation objective was completed in like the first 3 hours of our 3-day stay. And so the remaining of the 2-and-a-half day was all ours to enjoy!

To me, Penang has always been a holiday destination. The beach, the food, the breeze… everything! I simply cannot imagine anybody would have the mood the work on this island!

Take Batu Ferringhi for example. The beautiful blue sea, the long stretch of golden beach, the large number of ang-mohs, everything reminds me of the destinations my previous club – MMU Tourism Club – used to go every year!

And I happened to be wearing the Tourism Club T-shirt that day! Such memories!

Is it just my naivety or are there no other tourist beaches in Penang besides Batu Ferringhi? Whenever people talk about beaches in Penang they think of Batu Ferringhi… And whenever tourists come to Penang they’ll go straight there…

So concentrated!

If a tsunami hits Batu Ferringhi directly we’ll have a warehouse of corpses to feed the poor fishies and sharks which having suffered so long the invasion of the tourists in the area.

After the beach we had dinner at The Ship. And I thought that The Ship in Jln. Sultan Ismail or PJ was cool, look at this one in Batu Ferringhi!

The Ship is a friggin’ real ship!

Maybe it was a merchant ship that got washed onto the shore a long time ago and the sailors abandoned it for exotic pretty island girls…

Or maybe it was a ghost ship carrying deceased spirits to the underworld but got wrecked…

Or maybe it was a US navy ship mysteriously teleported here through the Philadelphia Experiment, with all its crew members brutally burned to death and their body infused into the ship’s hull by the unstable magnetic force field…

… And then some rich Malaysian Chinese entrepreneur came along and said to his pal: “Eh Ah Seng, see that? Let’s open restaurant on it! Can save restaurant construction cost somemore!”

And thus The Ship was created.

But who cares if it’s haunted? The steak was really nice and the waiters and waitresses were very polite!

And following a little tradition of ours, we always have a bottle of red wine whenever we go on a holiday by a beach together!

Steak + wine + ocean breeze + gal = loud sigh of satisfaction.

Apart from the beaches, this island is also home to the Penang Char Koay Teow. The most evil food in the world that is guilty of causing obesity to uncountable Malaysians due to its devilishly good taste!

I have been in some kind of Char Koay Teow craze for the past few months. I’d always go all the way from Cyberjaya to SS2 just to eat Char Koay Teow. But NOW – Haha… Nobody and nowhere can ever beat Penang on this:

LOL just look at the imba SIZE of the prawn enough said.

Also check out the Fried Oyster:

How much will I weigh when I come back from Penang four months later?

As the Organizing Chair, the preparation works for this event consumed much of my time in April, which was also the month leading up to my final exams early this month!

Fortunately, I was able to juggle my time, albeit precariously, to make sure that both events received sufficient attention.

The event turned out to be a blast!

The Ice-Breaking Speech Marathon is an event where our club encourages six selected new members and special guests to take their glorious first step into the public speaking world of Toastmasters.

The participants had been given a month to prepare their speeches, which were basically stories that revolve around their respective own lives and experiences (hence the name ‘ice-breaking speech’).

To make this experience worthy of life-long memory for the first-time speakers, we managed to invite a very impressive panel of external speech evaluators:

From left to right: Francis Ng, DTM, District Lieutenant Governor of Marketing; Robert Ram, ACS, CL, President of IEM Toastmasters; JON TAN, ATM-G, Creative communicator and advertising consultant; Geoff Andrew, DTM, President of MIM Toastmasters; Sharifah Raudhah, CC, Founder and Managing Director of Face2Face Tech.; S.K. Walia, DTM, HRDC Certified International Corporate Trainer; Hoo Sze Ling, CC, Senior Student Exchange Advisor at Taylor’s University College.

These very experienced Toastmasters and professional speakers were really kind and encouraging to the first-timers!

How I wish my first speech was given in an occasion like this!

As a supremely biased organizer and shamelessly egoistic boyfriend, I shall now do a special mention of only one of the six participants of the marathon.

Participant #2 was none other than Teh Shu-Yi with her speech title “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman”. =D

Haha… It was her very first time giving a speech in Toastmasters. Although she kept telling me how terrified she was days before the event, but she turned out doing fantastic!

I daresay I totally understood her fears because after my first ever speech in public three years ago, I wrote this.

Her best friend Felicia from Ipoh was also present to support her, hand in hand!

After the participants made their speeches, the evaluation session kicked in and the evaluators did their job. One-by-one, the evaluators commented encouragingly on the participants speeches, focusing on excellent parts and those that can be improved.

In the end, participants were given a certificate for completing their first ever speech in a Toastmasters environment!

Here’s our President Megat Zahid presenting the certificate to one of the participants. =P Yup, a random one.

As per Toastmasters’ tradition, ballots slips were passed to the evaluators and audience after the speeches to vote for the winners of the Best Speaker of the Day and Best Evaluator of the Day awards.

Participant #2 Shobana won the Best Speaker of the Day Award!

And Robert Ram, ACS, CL won the Best Evaluator of the Day Award.

This is my final event in the 2009/2010 EXCO term. After this an election will be held during the next AGM and we will all have very different roles by then!

Cheers to MMU Toastmasters!

Perhaps it’s the stress, but in the same month, I actually played FOUR games in a go!

First – RESIDENT EVIL 5:

I LOLed very hard when I first heard from my friend a few months ago what the game was about.

In the previous Resident Evil games (Resident Evil 1, 2, 3…), most of which I have played, we fought ZOMBIES, like human zombies that were real slow, gruesome, and always moaning stupidly.

But in Resident Evil 5, these human zombies are extremely sophisticated. Not only had they learned how to carry axes and throw petrol bombs,

… and how to ride motorcycles to chase you,

and even chase after you waving a chainsaw!

And you know what the most unbelievable part of this whole game is?

They made all the zombies black. Like African black. So racist! Even the plot is of the very typical type where a poor, rural village in Africa is being infected by some zombie virus and it is up to the strong, militaristic Americans to go and massacre them and save the world.

LOL!

Regardless, after finishing the entire game, I still feel that it is the best among the four games listed here.

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Another game that I played was DEVIL MAY CRY 4:

This superb fantasy-ego-feeding game with a super leng cai protagonist, ultra yeng attack moves and combo, and an incomparably cool attitude (smirking and taunting enemies even when they are 100x larger than you and spouting deadly flames…) that you can share with the main character when you are controlling him.

It really does make your balls feel monstrously larger while playing the game, I can quite guarantee that.

I think this is the kind of game that guys would want to play with girls around (or at least let them know that they’re playing).

Just imagine the scene when that most attractive girl of the gang comes over to your laptop/PC and peeks over your shoulder, “Hey, what game are you playing, James?” and you ‘happen’ to have just finished an ultra-difficult-to-do, super cool perfect SSS (smokin’ sick style) combo in front of her wide, amazed eyes…

Then you look up casually, and say:

“Uh what? Oh, Amanda… No, this is nothing… Just some easy game that I’m starting to get bored with.”

LOL!

I know girls don’t care and don’t find a 20-second SSS combo even remotely cool but unfortunately us guys don’t realize that. =) So yeah, this game is still uber cool.

If you’re still wondering what exactly the ‘combos’ that I’m talking about are, check out this video on Youtube:

If, after watching the video, you have no idea what just happened, or thought you saw nothing more than some flurry moving colours… then perhaps we can just forget it and move on to my third game.

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The third game is none other than the legendary LEFT 4 DEAD 2:

An excellent game to let of steam indeed, L4D2 is! After a long and hard day’s work/study, to go into a world where groups – no, I mean HORDES – of mindless zombies charging frenziedly towards you all trying to rip you apart!

That would have been nothing cool except that now, you have a good ol’ pump shotgun / heavy assault rifle with a hell lot of ammo. Merely by holding down the left mouse button and swaying your wrist left and right is sufficient to generate some kind of indescribable ‘high’.

This is in sharp contrast to Resident Evil 5 where bullets are a rarity and every shot must be calculated and accurate.

In L4D2, we shoot zombies Rambo style.

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The final (and longest) game that I played in April was…

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POKEMON DIAMOND!

What? Don’t laugh la…

As I have written in my previous, long Pokemon article, I have been a great Pokemon fan since my pre-teen days. And until today I still find the entire Pokemon franchise bursting with sweet childhood memories, especially the original 151 Pokemon!

Now with Pokemon Diamond, it is absolutely bliss to return to my room every night and have a wonderful, carefree time playing the game before sleeping. Catching wild Pokemon, raising their levels, battling trainers, solving puzzles, winning gym badges… It’s just like last time! When I would cling to my Gameboy Color stubbornly, and sit on the sofa for hours until I was being forced to stop by my mom.

It’s kinda magical, The last Pokemon version that I played during my schooldays was Gold/Silver. And I had thought that I would never have the chance to play any other versions again (since I grew up)…

But then 2007 came and I (again the few weeks before final exams) suddenly started playing Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire version with one of my old friends! It was an absolutely amazing period when tons of sweet, long-forgotten memories from my childhood came flooding back to me just by looking at the screen.

It was also that period when I actually started re-watching the Pokemon series and movies, and actually found my Pokemon trading card game deck and played with it!

And now, I’ve FINALLY played Pokemon Diamond, the latest version. After more than ten years, I’ve actually caught up!

Haha but I’ve temporarily stopped after battling the 8th gym. I’ve still got the Victory Road and Elite Four in front of me but, so far, my Pokemon stand at these levels:

So… There you have it! Four games in a row in the very month before my final exams!

Haha somebody come try and break my record! Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cafe World and other Facebook games DON’T count! =D

You see, for the past three months I’ve not been posting anything, but now I’m gonna shamelessly repost an entry for each of the empty three months, highlighting the major events to ganti balik! Here we go!

Two major events, both Toastmasters related, happened in March.

First, the Area Level speech competition, which was held in SHELL IT International Sdn. Bhd., home to the Cyberjaya Toastmasters Club. This club is the OLDEST Toastmasters club in Cyberjaya, hence claiming the official name.

Remember back in February when I very miraculously won the club level competition? Now this is the next level, to represent the club and compete with the champions of the other Toastmasters Club in the area!

Another representative of our club is Taufeeq, a very respectable and experienced English Teacher.

As I have mentioned in my last post, the type of speech that we were participating in is called the Table Topic Speech, which is a kind of impromptu speech where you are given your speech topic only when you are standing on stage.

Perhaps due to the fact that most Toastmasters members are working adults, I was given a speech topic that I was most UNqualified to speak of.

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“What is the one advice that you would give to a newly married couple?”

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Since I was only allowed to offer ONE advice only, I would have blurted out “Mr. Bridegroom juz try not to embarrass us men tonite LOL”, if I had not (in time) looked down at the very serious faces of the Chief Judge, Area Governor and a number of important-looking VIPs and Club Presidents all peering up at me grimly expecting a very knowledgeable and enlightening speech something like that.

I shall not disclose the content of my speech that day but suffice to say I blabbered some utter nonsense (to me), as best as I could, and tried to be funny. The audience very accommodatingly laughed! LOL!

In the end, it appeared that I managed to impress the judges and I, very unbelievably, won FIRST RUNNER-UP!

To add to the pride of our MMU Toastmasters Club, Mr. English Teacher TAUFEEQ got first place and will represent the area to compete in the Division Level!

It was a truly a glorious day for our club as our dear Vice-President of Education, Alia, had also won in another speech competition and our club being a relatively new and the only student club in Cyberjaya, sapu-ing three trophies in an area competition is something that had never happened before!

Haha who said students are noob speakers?

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The second major event of the month was the EMCEE WORKSHOP!

After months of negotiations and arrangements, we managed to have prominent creative communicator and advertising consultant ATM-G JON TAN, with more than 25 years of experience as an EMCEE and public speaker, to grace our event as the principal speaker!

Now how great this guy is, is plainly beyond words. The few of us who had worked with him could simply feel the incredible professionalism radiating from his words and actions!

Ariff (Left-3rd above) was the Organizing Chair of this event. Being the Deputy Organizing Chair, I was already nearly suffocated under the intense pressure of Jon’s professional expectations, imagine poor Ariff. That’s just how crazy our speaker is!

In addition, the seminar was attended by delegates from huge corporations across four states in the peninsula like Sime Darby, Shell, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Bank Negara Malaysia, Petronas, and even the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya! Imagine the stress!

A small delegation also came from the Corporate Comms. Department of MMU, showing support from our own university!

Apart from the ‘official’ goals of educating the public and elevating the public speaking standard of blah blah blah, the REAL reason behind this event is to raise funds for our club. Since Toastmasters is a non-profit organization, by-annually dues paid to our club are all eventually paid to Toastmasters International, therefore our club desperately needs MONEY!!

As the official club Treasurer, I was also charged of handling all the financial ins-and-outs of the event. Collecting workshop fees alone made my wallet fat fat happy happy that day… but unfortunately none of the stacks of money are mine. >.<

The event was a huge success and I think I’ve grown a few years older after going through it. =P

Besides having had an extraordinary Chinese New Year, meeting many relatives, and receiving a huge fortune in Ang Paus, PLUS a wonderful make-up Valentine’s Day… I have another FOUR major accomplishments!

#1 – Winning a Toastmasters speech competition.

Having joined Toastmasters for quite some time, this is my very first time taking part in a speech competition!

The club level competition was held on the February 3rd, and by the end of it I was given the great honour to represent my university’s club in an area-level speech competition, which will be held on the 24th of March at the Toastmasters in SHELL IT International Sdn. Bhd., the IT arm of Shell in Malaysia.

The type of speech is called table-topics speech, which basically is an impromptu speech. You are given a topic on-the-spot while you are on the stage, and you start speaking right away.

Being a first-timer, I doubt I’d have any chance of winning in the area-level competition. With so many professionally-trained speakers coming from different Toastmasters clubs in the area, I guess I count myself lucky just to be able to attend and watch and learn!

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#2 – Receiving my very first Dean’s List Award!

Remember my very daring aim to get a four flat GPA in the last semester?

I managed to get it! Woohoo! 

Now OK, I know that there are countless four-flatters out there and this is SERIOUSLY not at all a big deal. And some super nerds/geeks – I mean hardworking good students – probably get it every semester!

So what? This is my first and I shall shamelessly blow the trumpets and sound the heralds! Hmph!

And due to the achievement, the Faculty has awarded me with…

-

*cue sound of horns and holy light shining from the heavens*

-

Behold! My very first own Dean’s List!

Kakaka… I’ve wanted one of those since my foundation/pre-U years!

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#3 – Being offered an industrial training position in AMD, Penang!

Finally, the labour of applying for internship is over! I received a call from AMD the week before Chinese New Year, went through a phone interview, and a week later was told that I have been accepted!

I was afraid that they would ask me to go to Penang for an interview but luckily they didn’t!

Well, Let’s see… I had my primary and secondary education in Ipoh, foundation studies in Malacca, undergrad studies in Selangor, and now industrial training in Penang! Yay! Where’s next? Sarawak?

Apart from the monthly allowance, AMD also gives us a ‘food allowance’ of RM2 per day, which sounds like nothing initially, but a friend of mine whose sister is working in AMD told me that the food in these giant companies are kinda heavily subsidized, so apparently you really could have a meal with just RM2-3.

Amazing huh?

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#4 – Getting a free HP Notebook!

… From the most unlikely giver – the Malaysian government!

Apparently this is a government initiated collaboration with TM to offer free HP notebooks to university students subscribing to a certain broadband plan. Freebies! Who’s gonna let it slip?

Received my notebook about a week ago, and it is great!

The specs of the notebook ain’t that great, as it is an HP mini. But who cares? It’s free!

My housemates Alvin and the rest are all applying for the plan. In due time, I think all of us will be having one! Thank you Najib!

Is this a good enough reason for us to vote for Barisan Nasional in the next election? Hmm…

As we grow older, a lot of people say, we don’t celebrate our birthdays as much anymore. Especially guys.

It is a sad fact that indeed as you grow older, you find less and less friends who are ‘free’, or think that celebrating a birthday is important enough to take up their precious time! As opposed to more ‘important’ things like doing assignments, clubbing, shopping, watching PPStream at home etc.

But I still count myself lucky enough to have a group of friends who are willing to do just such an unimportant thing! Celebrate with me! Yay!

It was more or less supposed to be a ‘surprise party’, but unfortunately the hidden agenda was pretty much obvious when they asked for a friends’ gathering on a sudden Monday night…

And also when I asked them what we were going to do (movie, dinner, karaoke or something), one of them replied: “Aiya, later when you reach then you will know lor…!”

LOL, didn’t even bother to make up some fake events!

But I am absolutely not complaining, I can’t express how much I appreciate their time and effort. In fact, I was so happy that I could not stop smiling.

That’s just Hanif experimenting with my camera’s smile shutter function.

After the dinner, a few people had to leave, but the remainder of us went to Alamanda.

Originally, we had wanted to go for bowling… but unfortunately there was some kind of bowling competition (10PM at night!) going on and so we changed plan and went for a movie instead!

We happily bought the tickets for the movie ‘Legion’  (which would later prove to be a ridiculously bad movie) and while waiting for the movie to start an hour later, we went to the arcade to kill time.

We spent most of our tokens playing race cars, as they were the only machines that the many of us could play together. Although that was just for killing time, but we had a really great time in the arcade!

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The night before, on the eve of my birthday, my dear had already celebrated with me on a very different scale: just the two of us in a quiet corner in a TGI Fridays, The Gardens.

And she also gave me a wonderful present to celebrate me having roamed the Earth for 22 long years!

… A wonderfully packaged CK Eternity Summer eau de toilette with a very delightful scent! It’s really no secret that guys do not (or utterly rarely) buy perfumes for themselves, and if they happen to have a bottle a two, the fragrances are usually given to them by girls!

I dunno why that seems to always be the case but the only reason that I can imagine is that fragrances are historically feminine and perhaps it strips certain men of their ‘manliness’ to shop for them along the aisles of some beautycare shop.

Anyway, who cares? Happy 22nd birthday to myself!!

Just hope I don’t get old too soon… =)

In a poll by The Star, out of 14,150 Malaysians who voted, more than NINETY PERCENT or TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE think that it is a waste of time having a program to rehabilitate Mat Rempits!

And the most amusing thing is… more than 50% think this particular brand of Malaysian bikers is - beyond rehabilitation.

LOL! Poor fellas! Even drug addicts and terrorists have rehabilitation programs prepared for them. But Mat Rempits are apparently of a breed of evil that is simply beyond all hopes of salvation.

Just received it several weeks ago! The black one is mine, and the red one is my Dear’s.

In the beginning, it was only the Apple notebooks that were shiny and all, but now Dell laptops have managed to gloss up their covers too!

Actually it is so shiny that I feel that even with extra care, it will probably be full of scratches by the end of the year!

LOL I don’t have pictures of my own laptop so I’ll have to use my dear’s. And I can’t take new pictures of it either! My Sony USB cable is lost so all pictures taken lately using my Sony camera are stuck inside and irretrievable!

That, of course, is one of the reasons I have not been blogging for quite some time (besides being lazy).

Now one of the reasons that I chose a Dell as my second laptop is that Dell is DELL. Unlike my previous dear Acer, Dell doesn’t seem to have the notorious reputation of breaking down once the warranty period is over!

Everyone knows that there seems to be some ‘breakdown time-bomb’ installed in Acer laptops. It works this way:

If your warranty period is 1 year, the timer is set to 1 year and 3 months; and if you have extended warranty, say, 3 years, then the bomb is mercilessly set to detonate in 3 years + 1 hour or so.

Once your warranty is over, *click*… booooom~~

All the problems come flooding in. And they have no obligation to repair it for you… without cost.

Anyway, this laptop really not bad leh… For my casual use – Core 2 Duo, Windows 7 and slotted with Graphics Card… What more to ask for?

That’s the business than my group of 15 friends and I are doing for the university subject ‘Cyberpreneurship’!

FYI, Cyberpreneurship is one of the most retarded subjects in the universe as it requires us to form groups of 15 ‘business partners’, think of a business, write up a business plan, do the business preparations, and finally run the business (with profit) … in six weeks!

That’s a running, profitable business in 42 days!

Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and a whole lot of entrepreneurs should totally kneel and learn from whoever succeeds in this quest!

AND THAT ‘WHOEVER’ IS – US!!

Yes! We planned and prepared everything and after just 3 days of running the business, we’ve managed to break-even, sold out all our stock, and even made a modest profit!

And not to mention we had a direct competitor (selling EXACTLY the same product) in front of us! Their stall was like… just THREE METERS in front of us!)

But somehow… There was always hoards of customers around our stall and the sales just kept going!

Maybe that’s because our competition had nothing more than an ordinary long table as their stall, or maybe it’s just because we have 11 *ahem* super leng luis sucking in customers from all directions.

Anyway, our three-day-business was filled with incredible experiences, such as two wire extensions bursting into grey smoke, a guy fainting in the room right behind our stall, and a badly-scalded hand (injured by hot water)!

A little behind-the-scenes:

Sam and Sina, our logistics department guys, cleaning our stall before the business:

Pushing it all the way to our business venue:

Some of us at our ingredients supplier’s shop:

Grace testing if our supplier’s products are up to standards:

Buying other ingredients in Carrefour:

Found the best one!

OMG just realized that Sam is showing his middle finger!  Bad Sam!

I wish we could have taken more photos but I guess everyone was just very busy with the business. It was really a great success and everyone was so cooperative!

And a huge thanks to our great Bubble Bobble customers too!

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Alright now give me my ‘A’ for this subject please!

Check out this mineral water vending ‘machine’. It needs no electricity, no stall owner, no nothing to operate! Lowest operating cost ever.

All it needs is your amanah, and is therefore rightly named: Amanah Kiosk!

You take a bottle, drop RM1 into the metal box, transaction done! No one else even notices!

This stall was found in one of the residential colleges in UM, apparently the university students there are really quite amanah, because I predict that if a similar stall were to be deployed in, say, Cyberia (where most MMU students live), NOTHING would be left, besides the rack.

The stall even says thank you!

Next, is it just me or is this really so cutely weird?

A mini motorcycle! A grown man sitting on it is like shitting on a squat-only toilet while wearing a helmet.

Also check out what’s on the other side of this mineral water bottle!

Remember Fairuz Fauzy, the Malaysian F1 driver? if you’ve been to the cinemas lately you must have seen him in an advertisement where a lameass guy who doesn’t fasten his seat belt drives to the petrol station  and spots this Fairuz guy, who then gives him an autograph and asks him to fasten his seat belt, like ‘Eh, pakailah’… remember?

Well this time he’s here on the mineral bottle asking us to unite and support him with all our combined effort.

But something seems to be really ‘wrong’ with this guy’s attitude!

He’s rolling his eyes!

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Sigh… Aiming four flat this semester! No slacking! T_T

Have you ever imagined what it would be like after you’ve died?

Suddenly thought of this topic and decided to blog about it. Death.

You’ve never thought of what’s gonna happen to you after you die? Well you should! Because if you are lucky, you would have around half a century left to live; if you’re typical, you’d have a couple more decades to live; and if you’re just slightly unlucky, you’d have only a few hours more to live and breathe and talk to your friends and family!

You could die the next time you drive out and some drunkard slams into your car and pierces your brain and stomach with glass and metal shards. WHAM! Done.

And then? What happens?

Do you go to heaven or hell? Why would the creator of this whole vast universe bother to reward or punish one tiny little creature on a typical planet in a typical solar system in a typical galaxy in the entire universe, so gloriously (to live in heaven with god and his angels) or so severely (to burn in hell for eternity), and so personally (every single person to be judged)?

If god created the entire universe, and possibly multiple universes, what makes this particular species of ape, us, so special?

Or maybe according to some others, after you die, you would be punished for your bad deeds and then your soul reincarnated. But then again, why the punishing? Our entire system of right and wrong is designed to increase the overall survival rate of human beings. As if we care about the mass murder of a thousand bees when a ‘threatening’ bee hive is burned or the brutal genocide of the Aedes mosquitoes, just because they were unfortunate enough to transmit certain diseases when they have their food (suck blood).

Obviously, there’s no bad or evil intention in the mosquitoes’ mind. But just because they happen to be harmful to our species, murdering them by all means is moral.

This does not happen to cats and dogs and elephants and lions and whales, the killing of which is illegal and greatly despised.

So I ask this: How ‘moral’ are we when we brag loudly about animal rights and human rights when we mercilessly murder animals that are simply ‘not so good’ to us?

And reincarnation? Well, that’s if god does not have enough souls to spare and does not have the ability to create new ones that he needs to ‘recycle’ used ones.

And perhaps you would just end up as a ghost, or a spirit, that lingers and prowls the world aimlessly and indefinitely, playing pranks and scaring people for entertainment.

If humans do linger as spirits after we die, then I would boldly say that we do not have spirits. Because there would be no reason for the creator to create them in us in the first place. And if spirits were a product of the natural world, then any animal from goldfish to fleas would have spirits.

And if that’s the case, the ‘spiritual world’ would be so overpopulated that spirits of all animals from the ancient past to the present would be either piled up to outer space or crushed into the core of the earth.

So finally, what’s left? Many people would say that we would all lose consciousness when we die, and never regain it, forever. Because our consciousness is in the brain and when the brain dies, it ceases to exist. The body rots and returns to ash and earth, and nature and all universe moves on.

In other words, it didn’t even notice you died.

To me the last explanation makes the most sense. Although it is indeed the most depressing one. Or maybe because it is simply too depressing to believe that we are nothing special and just a species of animal that happens to roam the earth at this particular time in history, that we made up hopeful stories of afterlife, and faithfully believed in them.

And so, if we are to just live our lives, and regardless of how well you lived it, die, and disappear into nothingness… Why the hassle to live?

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P.S. Haha no worries I am not thinking of suicide and never will! =D

As to cause, 250 years later, a poor guy names James to stop studying in the middle of a night, in the last few days of his crucial study week, to go out and have… beer!!

It was Arthur’s Day yesterday! And it’s gonna be my final exams the day after tomorrow! RAWR!

I had been anticipating September 25th for quite a long time ever since the ads of this incredible ‘worldwide celebration’ were flooding cinemas and TVs and websites everywhere…

Friends had been inviting me to join partying with them on Arthur’s day and everything was all hot and going… And then only to realize a month ago that it would be only a mere couple of days before my final exams!

3 days before exams… That’s so great, Arthur. 

But then suddenly, it was announced that the Black Eyed Peas were coming to Malaysia as KL was to be one of the five cities in the world to host this celebration!

And the greatest and most unbelievable surprise of all, our dearest government, who attempted to ban alcohol sales in certain parts of the country, who fined and caned a model and mother simply for drinking beer, and who had initially banned all Muslims from attending the concert, had suddenly gotten to their senses in the last minute and allowed anyone above 18, Muslim or non-Muslim, to see the concert!

(Although it was approved on the grounds of encouraging tourism LOL, but that’s beside the point…)

See that’s the power of the Black Eyed Peas and Arthur Guinness’ black beer combined!

So if a huge miracle like the government compromising and allowing beer concerts and not arresting Fergie for not wrapping herself up all the way from the neck to knee should happen, who the hell cares about exams??

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For two-hundred-and-fifty remarkable years… TO ARTHUURRR!!!

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*Drinks…*

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*knock*

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P.S. Whoever named Arthur should be very happy on Arthur’s Day. When do we get a James Bond 250th anniversary?

(Although this photo was taken ages ago… )

Now all of them, except Steven, are working. And it has been years since we have hung out together.

They may look all good and nerdy on the outside, but believe me, they are some of the craziest people and fun friends I’ve ever met!

Being old-time clubbing kakis, we went to MoS last Saturday night.

With this being a catch-up gathering, I can’t believe that my camera decided to forsake me and refused to be switched on!

Out of battery on this special day where the four of us finally had the chance to go out together once again!

Especially when the venue is a place with extreme low light conditions, where camera phones simply don’t function well!

Anyway, still tried to take photos using camera phone…

I can still remember the first time I came to MoS, I wasn’t even 21 yet, and I was lucky enough to be let in… But this time around, especially weekends, identification checks were all in place, and Steven who totally looked like an under-aged kid was I think being checked twice!

With a stroke of luck, my housemate Alvin and some of friends, including foundation studies friend Soo Wai, were there as well!

Yeah I know can’t see a thing in the picture, but Alvin’s the one next to me and Soo Wai’s the one next to Alvin.

Alvin did something naughty that night! Kekeke… *keeps quiet*

Anyway, Steven, the super insane heavy drinker, totally drank like almost half of all the liquor that we had; and for the record, our experience of drinking with Steven had given us really crazy memories!

Memories like him lying drunk beside a drain while we had supper, confessing to a girl that we didn’t even know too well, as well as throwing an entire guitar from his apartment window all the way down into the public swimming pool on the ground floor while he was drunk!

Not crazy enough? Check this (unrelated) video out. Steven being smacked-down by Jon!

I was to bring the honorable external examiner of my degree course in MMU – Prof. Dr. Wolf-Fritz Riekert, from Stuttgart Media University of Germany, on a 3-Days-2-Nights leisure trip to Cameron Highlands.

Dr. Riekert’s job as the external examiner for MMU is to evaluate and advise on our Degree program’s structure, curriculum, marking schemes etc.

He is also to visit our university at least once during his term of appointment, and during these visits give lectures, seminars, workshops, and finally write a report on the faculty’s progress to the University.

And now he has come to Malaysia to do just that!

Dr. Chang (second from the left), the program coordinator of my course, had been planning a trip around Malaysia for the Professor after the Prof had finished his last task in MMU – an evaluation interview with a few students, where I was also selected as an interviewee.

It was at that time when he thought it would be good to have a tour guide accompanying the Professor on his trip, since he was not familiar at all to our land… and so I was given the job!

Also coming along were some of my good friends: Hanif (the one acting cool in sunglasses), Ariadne (behind the camera), and the terrorist from Arab, Osamah (first on the left).

I was the driver for this trip. And not only that the petrol and toll costs were all paid, I was also thrilled to find that my automatic-geared Wira was totally awesome because it could carry the weight of SIX people (five people plus the Prof’s super-uber-ultra-heavy luggage the weight of a sixth person) all the way up to Cameron Highlands!

We took up three rooms in Equatorial Hotel, at the very peak of Cameron Highlands!

We didn’t do much on the first day because we reached only at seven in the evening.

We all had classes in the morning and the Dean of our faculty, who was also there when we discussed the trip with Dr. Chang, had personally ordered us to attend the classes in the morning before going on the trip – so we obeyed – and thus arriving so late…

That night, we brought the Professor to have steamboat for dinner!

The Professor had never heard of steamboat before! And he was so amazed by the way we simply threw all the raw prawns and fish and chicken meat and vegetables into the boiling pot and just scoop out and eat!

He must be thinking in revelation that this must be the way people in Asian third world countries have their food…

Luckily, he didn’t seem disgusted or anything (or at least he didn’t show it)… Haha

If anything, he in fact seemed pleasantly fascinated with how we could, in his own words, ‘turn a regular meal into an activity’, and tried to learn the names of the various local vegetables and food… Ariadne also taught him her so-called ‘proper’ way to peel prawns! (without using hands, of course!)

Truthfully, we weren’t very sure if he was full or not after the meal! Because all he managed to scoop out of the pot were tiny bits of meat and some veggie, plus most of his time were occupied in taking pictures, chatting with us, peeling prawns, and drinking Chinese tea!  

After the dinner we had a drink at Starbucks. Where he told us that even in Germany, people thought that Starbucks was overpriced given the products they sell – coffee – which could be found in similar quality just anywhere.

The Professor also enthusiastically showed us pictures of his wife, his children, and the place where he stayed in Germany!

The garden outside his house was… like… UNBELIEVABLY WONDERFUL.

The picture above is not a postcard! It is his garden!

Totally makes us wish we could stay there and study there and work there and get married there and grow old there and die there and be buried there and rot there.

That night back in the hotel, after saying goodnight to the Professor at his room, we took the opportunity to tell scary ghost stories among ourselves in our rooms!

Hanif was so not afraid that he fell asleep during the ghost storytelling.

The next day, we had a really nice breakfast in the hotel, and then went out for jungle trekking.

It was a rather easy track and Ariadne even wore slippers! Which however, in the end, caused her to have to stay behind for a particular steep path! Haha!

Easy as the track was, it was nevertheless a tiring journey – climbing up and down the muddy slopes and stepping over huge tree roots and gigantic fallen tree trunks…

It was the first time the Professor trekked in a tropical forest, and he totally liked it!

We ended our jungle trekking at a waterfall where cool, fresh mountain water flew endlessly from inside the forest…

There were also some ‘ducks’… but, haha, never mind…

Next, we had lunch in a famous mamak stall in Cameron Highlands, where we ordered banana leaf rice with curry mutton and roti canai for the Professor. He had said that he was very interested in trying as many of our local food as possible!

We also made the professor eat with his hands, the Malaysian way! (we didn’t actually make him do it, of course, he voluntarily and sportingly did it!)

And we made a video of him eating with his hands!

A really interesting thing with the video is that if you watch it carefully, you’d see the Caucasian woman behind wearing an extremely disgusted look at our direction, where the Professor was eating with his hands!

It’s totally hilarious, the way she looks at us, you know! She’s probably thinking what these barbaric teenagers are making that poor European old man do… LOL!

After the very interesting lunch, we headed off to the one place in Cameron that the Professor declares a ‘must go’ after he had seen it on the internet:

- the BOH tea plantations!

To us, the plantations were nothing but a lot of well-ordered green trees. But to the professor, the scene of infinite rows of carefully-planted tea plants stretching over mountains was truly, utterly amazing.

Like….. this amazing.

Hanif fell to the ground and worshipped the plantation in amazement.

Of course he wasn’t, joking only lah!

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Some random pics at the tea plantation…

After coming down from Mt. Brinchang (yup the plantation was halfway up the mountain!), we went to the Bee Farm, where there were beehives with thousands of live bees all around you – unprotected!

Kinda had a hard time convincing everyone we won’t die after this visit!

It became worse when there were even disclaimers at the entrance telling you that the farm people will not be responsible if you were injured or died or something…

But we had a good time inside anyways.

After that we went to a number of other great places as well, such as the Strawberry Farm where we could pick strawberries ourselves, the Aborigines Village where indigenous people lived, and the Cactus Point where we found cactus with balls, literally!

At night, before dinner, we had a nice long walk at the famous Brinchang pasar malam, where local people sell all sorts of locally-produced stuff – from strawberry umbrellas to cute little pots of cactus!

We also brought the Professor for a treat of a lifetime – something the westerners had always dreaded… Durian!

It was the very first time that the Professor had durian!

Whether or not it would be his very last time, we could not tell for sure… Because we weren’t sure how we should interpret his comment – “well, it was quite nice…” accompanied with a kind, warm smile, slowly nodding head.

The next morning, we made a final stop at the Cameron Valley Tea House, where they served fresh Cameron Valley tea on the spot, before descending the hill.

We all had a lot of fun with Dr. Riekert over the three days on Cameron Highlands, I bet that he felt 30 years younger during the period of the trip too!

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Stuff that we learned from a Professor coming from Stuttgart, Germany (Place where Mercedes-Benz came from ):

We, as well as many people around the world, shamelessly pronounce the names of the top cars manufactured in Germany WRONGLY! (At least compared to how the German people pronounce it.)

For example, ‘Mercedes’ is not pronounced as ‘Mer-SAY-des’ but instead ‘Mer-SEE-des’.

‘Volkswagen’ is not pronounced as ‘Volks-WHERE-gen’ but ‘Folks-VAAR-gen’ (‘V’ is pronounced as ‘F’ and ‘W’ as ‘V’.)

Finally, ‘BMW’ is pronounced as ‘BMV’ – yes ‘V’ as in ‘Bee-Am-VEE’!

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P.S. We happened to see a lot of Mercedes cars all along the roads that we travelled in this trip, as well as a number of Porches, BMWs, and even a  Hummer on Cameron, followed by an impressive sight of over TWENTY FERRARI‘S speeding up Cameron Highlands in a line when we came down… Kinda gives the false impression to the German visitor in our car that the people in our country drives a hell lot of expensive cars and are not stuck with stupid Protons and Peroduas.

We’ll miss you a lot, Professor! Come visit us again soon!

She was on the show ‘Cheer 2009′, aired on last Friday, 14th of August at 9PM!

The interview screenshots on this post were taken from the streaming video in the members’ page on 8TV’s website, so the image quality sucks.

A few weeks ago, she was invited by 8TV to an interview as an ex-cheerleader in Titans – her secondary school cheerleading team!

Titans is one of the teams to make it to the Top 5 in the National Cheerleading Competition 2009 held in Bukit Jalil earlier last month.

We went to watch the competition too this year, as well as last year!

You know what?

The cheerleading competition is one of those rare, fantasy-like places on earth where thousands of young, active, open-minded, and irresistibly-charming schoolgirls gather in a packed place, all just having fun!

And best of all,  the ratio of girls to boys in that place is probably… like…

10:1

And the ratio of pretty girls to not-so-pretty girls:

10:1

Therefore:

Girls (10:1) X Pretty Girls (10:1) = OMG HEAVEN!!!

…

You would totally wish that cheerleading is the national sport of our country…

Back to the interview, my dear and some of her former cheer-colleagues were asked to talk about some of their past experiences and stuff about cheerleading.

Sitting next to her is Chooi Yee, one of her good friends and also Titans assistant captain of year 2005.

My dear has a blog entry on the day she went for the interview.

Two days – 17th and 18th, of last month, were very musical days to me – because I went to TWO music concerts in TWO nights!

On the 17th I attended the performance of the great oratorio ‘The Seasons’ by Haydn, and on the 18th ‘Mass in B minor’ by J.S. Bach.

If you’re bored skip the following paragraph (stuff read from concert booklet):

The Seasons was performed by suprano Sibylla Rubens, tenor Maximilian Schmitt and baritone Michael Nagy, all three of whom were German, music by  the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), and choir by the Swiss Chamber Choir. The concert was performed in the German language.

And it was performed at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas just underneath the twin towers!

My brother always attends these concerts and this time, he was so kind that he got me real cheap student-price tickets!

They were only RM15 instead of the usual RM90+ per ticket!

Really great, isn’t it? =D

There’s my bro and his friend, who went to the concert together.

Apparently you had to wear like totally formal to get in. Probably because the organizers were afraid of the Malaysian teenage culture where students would probably buy the RM15 student tickets and wear FCUK™ t-shirts with pasar malam short pants in.

According to my bro, if you don’t have a suit or blazer, you could rent one from them, free of charge!

My dear and her brother went too!

The interior of the concert hall was so architecturally beautiful that they disallowed any form of photography within the concert hall, even before the concert had started.

If you took out your camera and took a photo, the ushers would walk over to your seat, inform you that photography was prohibited, and request (or more like demand) you to delete the photo in front of her eyes.

But, they forgot we had Google Images, so here you go – the interior:

The second concert that I attended, J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor, was held in Menara PGRM, Cheras. In case you haven’t known, the Mass is a Roman Catholic rite, so naturally, the Mass in B minor is a very religious piece of work.

This time, the orchestra and part of the choir is from Yin Qi, a Christian Music Organization that is rather well known in its own industry.

While The Seasons was performed in German, the Mass in B minor was sung in Latin. If you had not paid attention to the translations on the screens or booklets, you would have no idea what they are all spluttering about.

While the hall was huge, the crowd was only average. I guess a RM50 ticket to listen to the work of J.S. Bach, who was indeed the greatest composer in history, loses out to a RM200 ticket to watch Jay Chou live in Stadium Merdeka…

Sad, our new generation, isn’t it?

I had considered not blogging this trip but then I realized that if I really did, I would have not blogged for my past THREE Cameron Highlands trips!

That’s so bad of me! THREE times and I didn’t even bother to record it in my diary!

Cameron Highlands has given us so many sweet strawberries and even sweeter memories – I’ve decided I simply cannot be so bad to it!

On June 28th, I went to Cameron Highlands with my dear!

Also went there in November last year, but didn’t blog… (picture taken at the exact same spot)

ALSO went again exactly 365 days before the latest trip, on June 28th, 2008, but also didn’t blog…

So this time I am totally going to blog about Cameron Highlands, before I neglect it for the third time!

Looking back, it is weird and extremely coincidental that my hair happens to be dyed brown every time I went to this place!

Cameron Highlands is a really wonderful place with wonderful memories!

My dear and I went back to Cameron a few weeks ago for a special occasion which had taken place there.

It was a relaxing trip with no pre-planned schedule. We just went wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted.

We stayed at Heritage Hotel, a hotel that was excellent in terms of its location which was away from the town areas, and was – despite already being on a ‘highland’ – situated on top of a hill!

Cameron Highlands is one of the most beautiful, scenic places in Malaysia.  If you need a serious breakaway, locally, this is the place!

In this trip, we went back to the wonderful Smokehouse, which was a small, traditional-English-cottage-styled hotel outside the town of Brinchang.

We had visited this place the last time we came to Cameron Highlands, and we had been so fascinated!

This place had an interior of a nice Englishman’s cottage, with fireplaces and comfy couches and candlelit tables and grandfather clocks… but the exterior, the garden, was heavenly!

It was superbly well kept, with lovely bird fountains and huts, and a small, winding path in the middle of the green bushes and flowery plants flourishing all around you… You’d have thought you were in some Swiss countryside or something!

All the gracefulness of the garden, set with a white marble table with warm tea and freshly-baked scones…

Oh… this blogger is drooling on his keyboard…

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We also went to pluck strawberries at a ‘self-pluck’ strawberry farm!

We’ve each been to Cameron Highlands almost a dozen times since we were young and we had never tried out the self-plucking process…

… which turned out to be quite pointless, actually.

Because one of the workers over there seemed to be too free and he got around the farm and kept running back to us with huge, ripe strawberries!

He must have been thinking that we were going to be so happy to receive so many guaranteed-sweet, professionally-plucked strawberries when the fact was that we thought, politely, that he was merely spoiling the fun!

We ended up plucking only TWO of the dozens of strawberries that we walked out of the farm with!

But it was still quite a fun experience, really!

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Also in Cameron Highlands, the bee farm where you could experience being surrounded by live bees:

And lots of cactus shops and centers that strongly tempt you to purchase pots and pots of cactus (what’s the plural word for cactus?) home only to regret buying them later when you got back.

I always ride home with my parents with at least some cactus each time I went to Cameron Highlands when I was young.

And I always abandon them in no more than three days.

And they always live on even after I had abandoned them.

Unbelievable living things, cactus are, aren’t they?

If God Himself were to look down from heaven, He would have wondered what those little humans had done to the hills below that He had once planted with tall, majestic trees:

The lush green blanket of tea plants on the hills has become some sort of an icon for Cameron Highlands!

I think it would also serve as an ideal, spacious, carpeted landing spot for alien spaceships.

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One thing I feel about Cameron Highlands though, is that it is getting a bit too commercialized, really.

The place used to be a small town where people farmed and grew vegetables and fruits, while some other folks owned beautiful orchards and gardens.

But now it has become a bustling commercial town with tourists and price tags everywhere…

Sigh, but I guess whenever a place attracts people, it attracts businessmen, and traders, and Starbucks, too.

Anyway, I still love Cameron Highlands very much and it remains one of the blissful venues of my comfortable childhood memory!

The King of Pop passed away from cardiac arrest this morning in his house in Los Angeles.

Everybody’s got a tribute for MJ today so I wanna have mine too!

But I’ll be brief, hehe.

Strangely, my impression of MJ was that he was a really good guy. I wasn’t really a fan of his, but with some of his songs like ‘Earth Song’, he seemed to me a man with a good cause.

Furthermore, when I was a kid, like really really young, I saw one of his performances on television, where a female fan had ran on stage, plunged onto him and hugged him tightly, and kissed him!

It was to my amazement when I saw that MJ was cool about it, and that he actually hugged and kissed her back!

I was young and when I saw that I was like “wow, this is really a fan-loving guy!”

If I were to see that scene at my present age, I would have thought “OMG after this she can get rich by charging each of the fans $100 to touch that inch of her skin that Michael Jackson has kissed with his royal, sexy lips.”

So generally, I thought good of Michael Jackson… until Southpark came along.

Episode 117 of Season 8 parodied him as a man who behaves completely like a child, has tendencies of molesting children, and ends up having his surgically enhanced nose ripped off his face and his whole ‘artificial’ body gruesomely falling apart.

That, coupled with some previous controversies of him molesting children – successfully planted an image of him as a total freak in my mind.

However, I later learned that the child-molesting charges against him (in real life)  had been dropped and he was acquitted as an innocent person.

Personally, I am not that interested in him being a good person or not, because even if he were a serial killer, I would still admire his sleek moves – the moonwalk, the anti-gravity lean, the trademark yelp – “AW!” and everything else that had been so influential in the past few decades.

He was so cool in his MVs… Can you do his moves? You can’t, so he wins. He’s the man.

His death is a tremendous loss to the entertainment industry. I think the world would never find a substitution superstar who had such a warm, bright smile, such unbeatable dance moves, and such great passion toward penis-grabbing during performances.

Michael Jackson, you will be sorely missed.

OMG!!

OMG!!!

James-Chow.com is THREE YEARS OLD!!

YES!!! On June 21, 2009, James-Chow.com officially turns three!!

Isn’t it incredible?

I’ve been writing on this blog for this many years now, it feels like she will follow me my entire life! It feels like 50 years later I will be sitting on the old armchair with my long, white beard in my long-retired 70s and still blog with a laptop!

For the record, James-Chow.com was created on June 21, 2006, but my blog posts began in December, that’s because I spent the six months’ time designing the blog template and stuff!

So, which is the birth date of a baby? The day she learns how to speak, or the day she was born? Of course the day she was born! Hehe!

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A little about campus…

The first week in the first trimester of my fourth year in university has been really, really tiring me out.

In fact, my schedule has actually brought about a great, unprecedented change in my lifestyle:

For the first time in my entire university life, I am sleeping and waking up at ‘normal’ times (i.e. roughly 12PM – 8AM) daily, voluntarily, consistently and naturally!

No big deal? OF COURSE IT’S A BIG DEAL!!

Previously, my early-sleep-early-wakes had been either involuntary (like exam tomorrow morning), inconsistent (only maybe two days a month), or unnatural (achieved by unnatural means such as relaxants, two days before didn’t sleep etc.)

I’ve always felt that college is the final period of your life to live whatever ‘abnormal’ life you want, because right out of college, you’ll never get to do it anymore without incurring the wrath of either your boss or your wallet.

Anyway, it hasn’t been too bad sleeping and waking up early too! I get to breathe in fresh air every morning and have a proper breakfast (wow, when was the last time I did both of that? Form 5?), not having to dread 8AM classes and rush home desperately to sleep after attending them, and most of all – I get to see a lot of sunlight!

Previously, I was awake for more dark hours than bright hours, now it’s the other way round! Yay!

Sigh, I guess it is also necessary for me to start adjusting back to normal, because I have less than one year before I begin my internship and have to start working – unless I plan to work as a night-shift security guard or something…

And the greatest downside of all the adjustments and busyness is that I do not have time at all for James-Chow.com, at least for this week!

Poor blog!

That means that my scheduled completion date for the renovation works on my blog has to be delayed by three weeks, but I’ll make sure it’ll be no longer than that…

My poor blog must be so angry with me as I am typing this right now on its page. The new renovated version of James-Chow.com was supposed to be her 3rd birthday present by me! And now it has to be delayed!

OMG forgive me milady…

In less than 48 hours, however, I will already be going back to class again!

What is this??

Semester (or what we call, ‘trimester’) breaks in Multimedia University are shorter than a certain erected organ of a guy who is suffering severe erectile dysfunction.

They are so short (they = our sem breaks) that we don’t even realize its existence!

After one hectic study week and two dizzying exam weeks that follow it, we laid down our lecture notes and text books, took a deep, relaxed sigh, had a few nights of much-needed, lengthy sleeps to cover the sleep debt accumulated over the past two weeks; went out for a few days of most-deserving after-exam celebrations, of course, everybody does that after they finished something big and stressful; went back to our hometowns for a few days to be with our family members who had missed us so much – just like what we do during some normal weekends…

… and then the day after tomorrow… we’re having class again!

So, semester break? Har? When? Where got?

Look, a ‘semester break’ of a pathetic length of fourteen days is not a semester break. It should be called an ‘exam papers marking period’.

I think the only reason we were having this ‘break’ of two weeks is because, of course, we cannot start our new semester without the results of our previous semester’s exams!

Come on, can’t ya’ll see it? If they could finish grading our exam papers in three days, then our ‘semester breaks’ would be three-days-long!

Why? Because we used to have 3-week semester breaks, but this semester, our dear University probably thought that we would rot and die in our homes waiting… longing… for the long, pointless 3-week holidays to pass, so they decided that they would do us a favor and shorten this semester break to two weeks!

Because three weeks is like – wow – soooooooo ‘long’, you know…

Whatever happened to the college life where students could go for full-time summer jobs, hitch-travelling around the country, take up seasonal singing, dancing or whatever competitions, or maybe just taking a month-long retreat to some relaxing beachside or countryside summerhouse?

No! We can’t do shit! We cannot even survive a part time job until the monthly salary is being issued!

Sigh… anyway, before the two weeks end, let’s try to recap what I did in the last two weeks of my exam papers marking period.

May 28 – May 30: Finished exams! Watched movies, had some fine dinners, spent time accompanying my dear. She was still having her LL.B. exams until June 2.

May 31 –June 1: Visited Sebastian, Jon and Heng who had just moved from SK to their ‘new’ house in PJ. The word ‘new’ tells you that the house is ‘new’ to them, but the house ITSELF – is by no means new.

Rented at RM1,000, although slightly more expensive than double-storeys in SK, this house is definitely a bargain, considering it being in PJ and within walking distance to the Kelana Jaya LRT station.

There were some really ‘classical’ things that we would never find in slightly newer houses, such as this really antique staircase light bulb socket:

… and this:

There was also an ‘extra’ bathroom on the first floor, in a small corner outside the kitchen and beside the backyard, that was so disgustingly dirty and smelly that they had decided to quarantine it for as long as they stay there!

They swore they would never open the door of the bathroom, use the two other bathrooms instead, and treat as if it had never existed.

They were very firm about that!

Also revisited Blitzone with Sebastian a couple of times to play DotA. It’s been so long, like more than two years, since I last set foot in that cyber cafe!

June 2 – June 5: Celebrated my dear’s and my ‘finish-exam’. Started the long works for the new James-Chow.com template scheduled to complete on June 21 – the day my domain turns three-year-old.

Also went to TM Tower for the first time to settle the billing dispute.

June 6 – June 8: Went back to Ipoh to visit my family.

For the first time I took the interstate KTM train service, which was fairly good, compared to the incredibly scary rides on KTM Komuter trains in KL which are infamous for their great reputation of ‘sardine-ing’ during rush hours – packing huge (and I mean MONSTROUSLY huge) numbers of people in a single train compartment, feet stepping on feet, body rubbing on body (yeah, it’s disgusting), and marinating them in an inescapable, juicy blend of sweat, body odour, bad breath, cheap imitation fragrance, armpit smell, and if you’re extremely unlucky, fart.

The interstate KTM service that I took, however, was better. At least there were seats and the number of passengers were limited to the number of seats.

Although there were a few people eating nasi lemak in the air-conditioned compartment when I first went in, making the trapped air stink heavily of rendang chicken, the train service was, however, generally good.

They even had people walking down the aisle with a trolley selling food and drinks every now and then, just like those flight attendants selling duty free items on international flights.

Only instead of wine and cigarettes, these trolleys were selling Jack n’ Jill potato chips, Milo, Nasi Lemak and other local foodstuffs.

It was also the very first time that I boarded a train from Ipoh!

It was the first time I used the train station in Ipoh, which was a really magnificent building that, unlike the ultra sophisticated and modern design of KL Sentral, had a really grand, ‘olden-days’ architecture, having built in the nineteen thirties by the British.

June 9 – June 13: Came back from Ipoh. Watched some movies and continued on the development of my new website design. Yesterday, I went to a FOREX Expo at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Also spent the night playing Mahjong with Jon and the rest. The last time I played Mahjong was in Kukup where I played the whole night, without sleep, and only won one round – lost all the rest!

Luckily yesterday, with Jon’s girlfriend Agnes as my ‘advisor’ I managed to breakeven by the end of the game – no net gain or loss!

Two days ago, my results came out! I passed everything! YAY!

Two days later, however, my new trimester will start. Gotta go class again… SIGH…

*Pics for this blog post are not ready yet because I haven’t been home to extract he photos from my camera.  Hehe give me three days and I’ll add them in.*

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This month is, without a doubt, going to be the most exciting month for James-Chow.com in her entire history!

In slightly over two weeks’ time, ladies and gentlemen, James-Chow.com – the fair domain that hosts the blog you are reading right now – is turning THREE!

Yes, James-Chow.com is gonna be THREE YEARS OLD on June 21, 2009!

Hooray!

Now, I feel that’s pretty awesome for my little blog to turn three – and still being alive – because from what I’ve seen, many blogs die within two years from their creation.

And by ‘dying’ I mean without any new updates or posts for at least three months in a run!

I’m right, aren’t I? Don’t you have a blog that is either dead (no updates for more that three months), half-dead (there was at least a one-month period in the blog’s history in which there were no updates at all), or still growing-up (less than three years old)?

Hehe… Alright, maybe you do have a healthy, grown-up blog – so now you can be happy with me! Yay!

To celebrate this glorious occasion, I have prepared a gift for my blog:

A brand-new hairstyle, the most gorgeous make-up, the latest designer heels, the most glamorous accessories, and the wildest, sexiest dress ever seen by the insatiable blog-viewers on the internet – on June 21, 2009, you will look at James-Chow.com like you’ve never seen her before.

Renovation works has already begun! Hope we’ll make it in time!

**********

Meanwhile, I went to Menara TM on Tuesday and ‘kinda’ sorted out my TMNet problem!

Before I tell about how it went inside, let me tell you about the outside of the building first. Without a better word – it was parking hell.

The compound wasn’t too big, with very limited public parking space, and that’s because most of the space were purchased by those pesky parking operators putting up signs saying ‘PARKING – RM8 sekali masuk’!

And there were not just one, but MANY of these ‘parking areas’ surrounding the building! More incredibly, most of these parking areas were FULL! Damn crazy corporate people can pay so much everyday working in this place.

I could pay RM10 for a parking spot like this in downtown KL, but not in PJ – not even RM8; more so when all I needed was 10 minutes in-and-out to complain about a friggin’ ridiculous problem that wasn’t even my fault in the first place.

So, I turned into a small path with very few traffic, made sure I was on the left lane and that cars could still pass in the opposite lane; I stopped the engine in the middle of the road and got out of the car.

Who cares.

Stepping into the tower itself made me understand instantly why these people were willing to pay a fortune for parking to work here. The interior was like a goddamn hotel, with a really comfortable and quiet environment as well as convenient points like a San Francisco Coffee outlet in the lobby beside the huge glass pane facing the busy PJ streets outside.

I stepped into the TMPoint there and a receptionist promptly tended to my problem. She ran a check on the system and immediately confirmed that I was indeed still using two packages. She gave me a number and a form, and asked me to fill in the latter.

I think probably the most admirable thing here was that this TMPoint was… empty. By empty I mean no customers, of course, and a counter was immediately available to me even before I could fill up the form!

(Contrary to the standard 2-3 hours waiting time needed in the stupid TMPoint in Cyberjaya.)

In the end, after checking though the records, I was told that the branch in Cyberjaya really HAD NOT processed my cancellation request in March.

Meaning that the lady in Cyberjaya had, despite her promise that she would process my request the next Monday, completely FORGOTTEN about the matter, and made me pay two months of package fees for nothing.

I was slightly annoyed. But they quickly provided a solution for me: they would submit the complaint to an investigation team, who will look into the matter; in a couple of weeks’ time, if they can confirm what I said is true, they would refund the full amount that I had paid for the package in the past three months.

They cancelled my package on the spot anyways. So nothing can go further wrong.

Gotta wait 3 weeks before I get the results of their ‘investigation’, I’ll wait and see… Meanwhile, you should wait and see my website’s new look on the 21st this month!

(This entry is a rant. So no pictures hehe… )

Despite the fact that my university is owned by these guys, I really have a lot of shit to say about this company – TM.

TM, if I’m not so badly mistaken, is one of the greatest companies in Malaysia. And they have improved a lot since the old Telekom Malaysia times.

But, is it enough? No! Hell NO!

Where to start? A couple of months ago, I seeked their support when I lost my TMOnline password (TMOnline is the website where you can view your bills and pay them etc. and you have to create your own username and password on that site to use it, what I’m saying is – you don’t use your internet account’s password but a different password specially created for that site.)

Also, I know it sounds stupid but I lost my username ages ago too, because I’ve registered on that website since the day I signed up for Streamyx and have never used it since then.

Last year, when I finally had the need to check my bills immediately and not wait for the monthly paper bill, I decided to recover my password. Without my username, of course – I could not use the TMOnline website’s password retrieval system.

So I called the TM hotline, they verified my identity, recovered my username and password, spelt it out nicely to me through the phone, and I happily thanked them and hung up the phone… only to realize that it was NOT the TMOnline username and password that I needed, but they had instead retrieved my StreamyX username and password!

My head steaming, I struggled to recall back and was sure that I had made it crystal clear that I needed my TMOnline username and password, not the friggin’ internet login password.

Anyway, realizing that talking through the phone would not be clear enough, I went to a TMPoint (their customer service centers), queued for 3 hours, and asked them what I should do. The lady in the TM-branded coat pondered my problem for a while, tapped her keyboard confusedly, and turned to consult the guy sitting beside her.

Then, she turned back to me, smiled, and asked me to hold on while she tapped on her keyboard. I sat there, expecting some expertly intelligent solution, only to see her browsing to the website and trying to password retrieve my password using the website’s password retrieval system!

I was  speechless. She then asked me for my username, which I promptly broke out of my stupor and iterated – clearly – that I had lost it.

I continued to tell her that I had tried using the retrieval system before but failed because I didn’t have the username. But she tried anyway, and of all things, she keyed in my Streamyx username instead in the login field! As if hoping that I would have been stupid enought to have confused the two! Of course, it didn’t work.

After trying for some time, she then turned to me and said calmly: “Sorry ya, but we really need your username to do this…”

I wanted to stand up and take off all my clothes to show her that I wasn’t hiding my username underneath my armpit or something, but resisted. I  just repeated that I had, very unfortunately, lost BOTH my username and password.

The lady sat stunned for a full three seconds, as if she had finally discovered the earth-shattering truth and at the same time, had never met with such a moronic customer who could lose both his username and password at once. She then looked up and told me blandly – there was nothing much they could do.

I  asked desperately: “Isn’t there some ways that the system can recover, like, both my username and password? I am here in person and I can answer any questions regarding my identity!”

I was, despite apologetically, told that there was none, and that the only thing I could do was to find my username.

Defeated, I decided that I wasn’t going to use the damn system anymore, anyway. Sticking to the old paper bills would be good enough to keep me alive.

That was at the end of last year.

This year however, in late March, I again found the need to use the TMOnline system to check my bills because I had just cancelled one of my packages (The Voice28 package), and the officer in charge had said that my account had just recovered from a suspension that day, so she would have to do the cancellation process for me the following week (because that day was Friday); the following week, however, would have been April already, so she told me that because they would be processing my cancellation in early April, the bill for April would have already been processed by then and I would have to wait until May for the package to properly stop working. She asked me to check the bill routinely to see if my package made it to be cancelled before April’s bill went out.

Despite having to pay 2 months of extra package fee for nothing (I no longer make land line calls), I wasn’t complaining much, because I knew big companies were memang macam tu.

I had also tried creating a new username and password and somehow, even with the new username and password, I still couldn’t log in to TMOnline. I even used the password retrieval system to retrieve a new password for that new username to confirm that the system recognizes my password – still it didn’t work!

I called the TM customer line again, and this time kept reminding myself to make perfectly sure that the operator understands which username and password I was referring to.

I succeeded in making my point! The lady seemed to finally understand, after many rounds of me saying “No no no no no, not the Streamyx username… the one being used on TMOnline, the TM website used to pay bills!”, that I wasn’t looking to recover my Streamyx password…

… But she seemed clueless of what I was ACTUALLY looking for.

She even blurredly asked me for the address of that website that I was talking about. So I spelled out: “t…m…online…dot…com…dot…my”.

I heard her type on her keyboard and clicked. Worrying over her seemingly confused and uncertain voice that she might have never actually seen the website before (OMG, TM employee?), I followed to say: “ OK, now you see on the upper right hand side, right? There’s an orange box with the login button…”

Jeez, I felt like I was the customer service operator, not her.

She tried, and tried, and tried again to log in with my username and password (as if I have not already tried countless times before calling her), and finally, she seemed a bit impatient and said: “Could you please hold on?”

And she left.

LEFT!

I waited bleakly on the phone for another 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes… and as I saw the time counter on my phone reach 10 minutes, I hung up.

I GAVE UP.

**********

I just received my telephone and internet bill for May last week. Somehow, I was not too surprised when I saw that the package fee – was still being charged to me.

-

OMG

-

THREE MONTHS STILL NOT ENOUGH TIME TO CANCEL ONE STUPID PACKAGE AH?!

… so I sent them an email to confirm this absurdity.

After 3 days, I got this:

Dear Mr. Chow,

Thank you for contacting TM. Firstly, we would like to apologise for the late reply.

Referring to your e-mail dated 26th May 2009 on billing issue, upon checking in our system, we found that your Voice 28 package is still active. Therefore, we would like to advice you to refer any nearest TMpoint at your area for termination this package. Kindly visit  http://tmpoint.tm.com.my/content.cfm/ID/9B23CE18-F53B-4088-B8B0FFC3D6BFF971 to check the nearest TMpoint outlets at your area.

We hope the above revert to your query. We truly apologize for any inconveniences caused. Nevertheless, we would like to express our high appreciation for your patience and understanding.

For further assistance or feedback, kindly e-mail us at help@tm.com.my.

Alternatively, you can also contact TM at 100 and select “Internet Services”.

Regards,

Che Ashaliana

Customer Care Support, Internet Services,

Customer Service Management,

TM Retail.

-

-

I’m going to sort this out once and for all in their corporate headquaters building – Menara TM, this week.

Hope it goes well.

Yup, Bali Trip entry again! But thankfully, this is going to be the third and final part of the longest travel log ever recorded on James-Chow.com!

Read Part 1 and Part 2 first ya!

I hate to start this entry with a bad note, but this is really how it went…

Departing from the hotel on the third day, we were brought to yet another temple, only this one was unanimously agreed to be the supreme most boring-est of all boring temples in Bali, ever.

I think it was called Taman Ayun Temple or something…

The only area that seemed a tad more interesting was the centre court of the temple, where most of the impressive-looking ‘towers’ were located.

But that area too, unfortunately, was closed to the public. So all we could do was look from outside the ancient moldy walls surrounding the area!

Although the overall compound of the temple was very large, the buildings were generally dull and the temperature was scorching hot!

I can remember some of us saying we’d much rather cancel this visit and head to the beach instead… By the way, so much for a Bali trip, there was NO beach activity in the tour guide’s official itinerary!

So, in the temple, everyone was just taking photos around and doing things that only people in extreme boredom would do.

And soon we were headed back to the bus and, after lunch… guess what?

That’s right! We were brought to visit another temple!

I can’t even think of anything to write about this temple besides that it was much cooler there and there was a beautiful lake at the edge of it.

We left the place after taking some photos along the lake.

Now, if you thought our temple trips were over, you thought wrong – it was almost 6PM and we were brought to our third temple visit of the day!

Really gotta salute these guys… After going on one of their tours, you’d start to think that Bali has only got nothing but old temples to offer its tourists!

However, this temple was… finally… slightly different.

We were brought to this place called Tanah Lot, and there was a temple built on top of a huge ‘rock’ on the beach.

When the tide rises, the path towards the entrance of the temple would be flooded and the rock becomes a mini island!

Sounds really mystical and sacred, doesn’t it?

I also found this small cave-like place that got abandoned by the people after the tide rose and covered the place with sea water.

I was really curious about what that mysterious little white sign could possibly be pointing at, since there was nothing but a dark, low space beneath a humongous piece of rock.

So I went through the shallow water to have a look.

I was stunned.

Holy shit! I found the Holy Snake of Bali!

Until this day, I still can’t figure out what in the world – is – a Holy Snake. All I can imagine is a huge, talking snake wearing a gold crown and granting people treasures and gold coins and stuff…

LOL!

Back to reality, at Tanah Lot we saw one of the most beautiful sunset views in our lives!

I believe that the Tanah Lot sunset scene will be etched in my mind forever.

**********

After dinner that night, finally – after three days blundering in Bali, we found it… the gem, the heart, the very soul of Bali’s tourism industry:

No, it ain’t the seaside, and sure as hell not the temples. It wasn’t about the shopping places or any other cultural stuff…

… It’s the clubs, baby.

Lying at the very heart of the buzzing tourist town of Kuta, was a long stretch of street, called Legian Street.

And if you’re on this street, open your eyes… and be awed, as we totally were.

Bali tempts you with one of the best… no, in fact, the – best – clubbing experience that you can never find in any of the clubs in KL!

Why?

Because the clubs here were, firstly, adequately spacious with huge dance floors, the music was damn syok, the DJ was awesome, and the dance floor was never empty, or never even less than fully-packed…

But above all, the clubbing crowd in Bali was, for lack of a better word… perfect.

You could never find a club back in our place where there were so many angmohs from all over the world mingling with each other in such a friendly and open way!

It was as if every single person you happened to be facing on the floor was an old friend! There was very few talking over the booming music, of course, but everyone would see each other and smile, dance, shout, and laugh…

No groupings and gangs scene… no six-guys-dancing-around-one-pretty-girl scene… No girls being taken-advantage scene… No group of single guys acting cool with cigarettes scene… Nothing!

These people were just friendly tourists, just like us, trying to get a taste of Bali’s sweet night life!

And if you think clubbing here would burn a nasty hole in your wallet – it’s free!

There is NO COVER CHARGE – you just walk in and have fun!

Even the drinks were insanely cheap, by clubs standards I mean. While a bottle of Chivas cost us a standard Rp1,080,000 (RM340); a bottle of beer, however, cost only Rp20,000, that’s only like RM6!

Now, there was something that none of us realized when we were actually in the club:

The club that we happened to visit, called Paddy’s Club, we had no idea, was actually the – very – club that was destroyed in the infamous suicide bombing incident in 2002!

See Wikipedia article!

Apparently, after the nightmarish incident, Paddy’s Club was rebuilt and there we were! Standing on ground zero where more than 200 clubbers had been horrifyingly blown to smithereens! And we didn’t even know it!

Holy snake, I mean… Holy shit, dude!

**********

We left Paddy’s Pub at around 3AM, tired but satisfied. For the past 4 hours or so we had danced and danced unstoppably and there were times when it had felt dizzy and wobbly but we just couldn’t stop…

When we finally did stop we were totally exhausted and drained.

We slept so well that night.

The next morning, to treat the hangover and aches all over the body, we went for a spa – no Bali trip is complete without trying out their spas!

A 120-minute spa session cost Rp350,000 (RM110) per person.

I had been slightly reluctant to go for a spa at first, but the moment I stepped into the private room, I knew I had made the right decision.

The 2-hour full-body massage + scrub + floral bath was heavenly!

And with the nice, relaxing music and aromatherapy, plus my super-exhausted and sleep-deprived body… I could have laid there on the soft massage table whole day and stubbornly refuse to leave until they called security.

**********

Our last destination in Bali was Ulawatu Temple – a serious contender against the beautiful sunset scenery of Tanah Lot Temple for the best temple in Bali!

This time, instead of being on the beach, this amazing temple stood majestically on top of a cliff overlooking the sea!

The scene, as you can see, was breathtaking:

The thing about camera shots is that they don’t really look as amazing as they do when you look at the scene in reality.

So if you think the scenes in the pictures are nice, think again – the reality is actually a thousand times more magnificent than what you see in the picture!

I don’t know if the photos make it any clear to you – but it was very, very high up!

And there was no fence or walls or whatever along the cliff, one slip and even the ferocious Balinese gods can’t save you.

At around 4PM, we left for the Bali airport and departed from the wonderful island at 6.30PM.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I had already been cautious about the ‘over-temple-ish’ tour itinerary before I went for this trip itself. And now it has been proven that my worries have become reality!

All in all, I think the only temples that are worth going are the last two – Tanah Lot and Uluwatu Temple. The others would be better off cancelled and the time scheduled for visiting beaches instead!

Really, our schedule was so packed that we virtually had no free time at all except at night, which of course, was not suitable for beach activities as well!

OK, all that’s just my opinion – There could be many other tourists who totally enjoyed the temples so much and had the time of their lives strolling around the moldy old temples admiring cracked walls and terrifying gods.

**********

Complaints aside, I cannot express enough how happy and contented I am with this trip!

The local people were nice; the tour guide was fabulous; the sceneries were magnificent; the prices were unbeatable; the places were unique, and most of all, the friends that we made during the trip were the best!

Although we sometimes complained that some stuff were boring, the trip itself had actually never had a moment that lacked flavor.

Bali – I’ll definitely be back again someday!

But anyway, I guess it’s good to refresh my memory on Bali too! So, here we go, part 2!

After the relatively uneventful first day (really, because it was only dinner and sleep!), we started off our second day with a really ‘special’ traditional performance called the ‘barong and keris dance’.

Why I call it ‘special’, I’ll explain later.

Basically, this dance revolves around a mythical story with, you know, kings and gods and demons and their conflicts and stuff.

.

There was also a ‘talking monkey’ which did not contribute much to the storyline (to me) but was one of the major characters that had appeared since the beginning of the show.

The funny thing is this:

In the end, in a seriously desperate attempt on humor (I think), they staged a scene where, for no good reason, the monkey lied down on the floor and a group of actors surrounded the poor animal and started hitting its penis!

… And they (the actors) were laughing loudly as they hit the shaft of the penis repeatedly (the ‘penis’ was created using the tail of the monkey being erected upwards from between its legs), making it swing elastically in all directions on top of where the private part of the lying monkey should have been… in front of a huge crowd of multinational audience!

I think for the rest of my life I’ll be able to remember clearly – amidst the stunned crowd, there was a shocked, seemingly Australian, young mother who was sitting behind me with her three small kids, gasping loudly in horror and covering her mouth as all three of her kids cried out in disgust before the so-unconventional scene in front of them.

Here’s a close up shot of the monkey’s dick swinging:

You can actually see the blur caused by the swinging…

**********

After the very unusual traditional performance, we next became victims of a special ‘scheme’ arranged (I believe) by the local tour guide and a local-products store to earn the millions and millions of Rupiah that we had brought to spend there!

The tour guide had told us that instead of bringing us to multiple shops to buy and shop for different local Balinese stuff as we had requested, he knew ‘this place’ that had ‘everything under one roof’ and that we didn’t need to waste time looking around!

Somehow, I could not shake the feeling that this was all commission-motivated.

We were brought to this warehouse-like store selling all types of local souvenirs and stuff, and our tour guide couldn’t stop telling us how he had got for us this special ‘just-for-our-group’ 50% discount and why we should buy stuff there etc etc…

Anyway, we did buy some stuff, and were next brought on a three-hour journey to Mt. Batur, which was an active volcano that had erupted multiple times in the last centrury, thus leaving a layer of black, dried lava on some parts of the island.

Of course, we only went around the mountain, not up the mountain itself; but the sight seen from where we were was really beautiful!

A very interesting thing took place at this restaurant where we had our lunch!

The interior of the place where we had lunch was a rather classy buffet restaurant with air-conditioning and everything, but outside the restaurant was a monstrous horde of local sellers, each holding a variety of items ranging from key chains to paintings to chess sets to Harley-Davidson motorcycle miniature models, all trying (very, very desperately) to sell to you!

The way they tried to sell to tourists was as though their next meal depended on the sale. It was as though, if you didn’t buy it, they wouldn’t have money even for dinner!

It was that crazy!

They persuaded and talked and kept pestering you wherever you walked to, and sometimes, begged you to buy their stuff…

… Literally – “Tolong… tolonglah beli… Berapa awak mau bayar…? Tolonglah…”

More interestingly, after you’ve gone into the restaurant and sat down comfortably (we sat at a window-side table), there was a number of these sellers stalking blatantly outside the window, each trying frantically to get your attention whenever you turned your head to their direction!

And if they somehow managed to get your attention, your lunch is half-ruined – these people would actually start an attempt to negotiate prices with you in sign language and refuse to leave for a very, very long time!

The prices that these sellers offer you can be marked-up anywhere from 200% to 1000% or way above.

After the lunch, we journeyed downhill and stopped by a plantation area where we were offered free, freshly-brewed coffee made from freshly-roasted coffee beans!

There was also the legendary Kopi Luwak for sale. A small packet of this most expensive coffee in the world, which makes around 2-3 cups, was sold for Rp120,000 (around RM40)!

If you’re wondering what’s the big deal about this Kopi Luwak, lemme tell ya – it is made from coffee beans harvested from the feces, that is to say – shit, of the Paradoxus Hermaphroditus – an animal that looks like a mongoose.

Apparently, this Luwak only eats the finest coffee berries it could find and after passing through its stomach, the undigested beans (taken from its pile of shit) has superb aroma and taste and is unparalleled by any other coffee bean in the world.

Some of us bought this shit.

Next, we were brought to a temple – forgot the name – and it was the first of the FIVE friggin’ temples that we were supposed to visit in this tour.

Needless to say, the temple trip was fairly uneventful, if not downright boring; but the ancient design and architecture of the place was really unique and would be rather interesting to people in the structural design field.

Here, I also realized that the Balinese Gods were totally fearsome and err… I guess very protective, because if I myself were a demon trying to harm the Balinese people, I would first have my shit scared out by the sight of any one of their Gods!

At night, we had dinner at a fine restaurant in a hotel.

The only thing weird about this hotel-prepared dinner was that we were served a dish of fancily decorated, but unmistakably identifiable… chicken rice.

And we were served only plain water, any other drinks ordered would be charged separately.

Ah… Forgot to mention – the money that we paid to the travel agency had all our meals included. So naturally, it would have been foolish to have expected lobsters and oysters…

After the dinner, we did some shopping, and had our first ever foot massage in Bali!

Most of us had female locals doing the foot massages for us, except for a few unlucky souls, like our good friend Sadra (the guy behind) was unfortunate enough to have a guy whom his colleagues claim is a pondan, touching and rubbing his hairy legs with massage oil… all he likes.

A 45-minute foot massage here cost us only Rp50,000 (around RM16)!

**********

Note: Haha, I didn’t expect this entry to be this long… Seems like we’ll need a part 3…

And this time it’s not some boring cultural or academic event. It’s an event with a magnitude that has never been seen before in this country.

The dream event of all gamers.

Ladies and gentlemen, but gamers in particular, behold – Cyberfusion 2009!

The event is set to break the Guiness World Record for the single longest LAN Party in the world!

The previous record was held by Nvision, a 2008 LAN Party held in San Jose, California, sponsored by graphics cards industrial giant Nvidia.

This year, the record-breaking attempt is, unsurprisingly, sponsored by none other than AMD, parent company of ATI Technologies, and generally seen as a vicious counter-attack by Nvidia’s ‘most-hated’ nemesis in the GPU industry!

With almost 500 computers in a gaming event set to run for 38 hours non-stop, this is an event that’s totally against the disciplinary and academic culture of a university, but who cares!

This is an event that pwns evry n00b hard lol gg.

It’s a friggin’ cyber cafe of monstrous proportions!

Sadly, I did not participate in it, because I didn’t think I would be able to take out the time for it…

You have no idea, participating in an event such as this drains every single ounce of energy from you after it’s over!

You would need, at least, an extra 12 hours just for sleeping – and still feel utterly exhausted after that!

Alvin had gone to the event on the first day, and told me that it was really exciting!

On the second day, to make it a bit more special, we visited the event at 12 midnight on the second day, exactly 24 hours into the event, to see what was really going on after all the initial hype died down!

(For a brief coverage of the first day’s excitement, Alvin has got an entry on it here.)

After gaming non-stop for 24 hours, some gamers simply couldn’t tahan anymore and were taking quick, stealthy naps.

Some were taking refreshing naps openly:

And some curi-curi tidur:

Anyway, besides their own computers, there were also many gadgets and stuff that the gamers brought themselves!

Steering wheels for racing games:

‘Instruments’ for music games :

And control pads… played on a very nice sarung too! I guess at LAN Parties its all about comfort!

And speaking of comfort, since we were there at midnight, we had the entire viewing gallery to ourselves, comfortably watching and taking photos from above!

Haha!

Cyberfusion will officially end tomorrow at 2PM, breaking the world record by two hours. I know two hours ain’t a lot, but hey, it’s still a world record!

Yes, I know what I’ve said before about setting stupid world records but this is simply such an awesome event that I have nothing bad to say about!

*********
Bali Trip part 2 coming up in the next entry!

P.S. Got new poll on the left sidebar! Go vote! =)

It is really incomprehensible why someone would have the lunatic idea to bomb such an incredible place as this.

Yet someone did! In 2002 and again in 2005! (Click to read Wikipedia article)

Calculating the time interval between the two bombings, it was really a little scary to go to Bali this year, 2009, as it seemed that the next bombing was already ‘due’.

LOL!

Forgetting terrorism, the Tourism Club (yeah, i know the names sound similar) had a wonderful trip to Bali a couple of weeks ago!

This time, except for a few veterans like CK, Pegan and myself, the entire committee was formed by new, energetic members eager to bring Tourism Club’s second ever international trip to its very best!

It was the first Tourism Club trip that I had brought Shuyi with me, and also the first that Abang Ray, the super-cool university officer designated to ‘watch over’ all our trips,  brought someone else too!

For this trip, we boarded Air Asia. Instead of our regular Malaysian pronunciation of ‘Air Ay-sher’, the Indonesians call it ‘Air Aa-sya’.

It was the first time that I had boarded Air Asia, which was lauded as the premier low cost carrier in the region.

Compared to other airlines, they weren’t too bad, except for a smaller and less attractive terminal, free-seating, no free drinks or meals, had to walk right down to the cement ground to board the plane, and their boarding pass looked like the receipt I usually get from the petrol station.

But who cares if their boarding passes sucked, Air Asia is generally much cheaper, which saves up your money for you to spend during the vacation itself!

And fearing the cramped middle seats, some of us paid an extra RM50 for Express Boarding, which allowed us to get on the plane first, and secured the top seats in the very first row in our tickets!

So front that can see flight attendant putting on make-up somemore!  

One important good thing to note about Air Asia is that their flight attendants’ uniform beats Malaysia Airlines’ uniform kao kao, anytime.

I totally like everything from their red suits and white blouses, to their design and color combination. (Red and white is my favorite color combination!)

And yes, I sure like their cute red skirts too, as a protest to some politician who said that Air Asia’s uniform was an embarrassment to women because it (literally) showed too much ass.

Read the news article here.

Cheers to the Air Asia stewardesses! You ladies were so warm and friendly!

After a few hours, we landed in Bali and were greeted by our tour guide and some Balinese people, busy ‘decorating’ us with flowers…

… on our necks, and later during dinner, the ears!

So typically island-ish! Very nice leh!

I had thought that all these ‘flower chains‘ and stuff were only found in places like Hawaii or… I dunno, maybe some Caribbean island place…

but we got ‘em in Bali!

-

After a brief rest in the hotel, we had our first dinner in Bali, which was served on the beach itself – during sunset.

The scene was so beautiful and to have dinner in such a nice atmosphere makes even the lousiest food the finest cuisine in the world.

We had a grilled seafood plate with rice. Apparently the grilled stuff here on Jimbaran Bay was very famous.

One thing to be noted, except for a selected few brands of bottled water, most drinking water in Bali had an inseparable weird taste in them, and drinking boiled tap water (the worst) can seriously cause nausea to me.

I think the weird taste may be due to the possibility of Bali reprocessing its fresh water, either from used water or sea water, as they do in Redang Island.

Anyway, after the dinner, dancers started appearing on the numerous stages along the beach and started performing interesting traditional Balinese dances that regretfully, looked pretty more like demon-summoning to me.

All the pictures that my camera took were absolutely frightening:

Close up:

I dunno why the eyes have turned white in this picture. I swear I did not edit this photo besides cropping it.

And here’s another demon from hell:

Haha, that’s just badly taken image of this… thing:

Which also seems to be some kind of ugly demon in the Balinese folk legend.

Haha, scary stuff away, they were actually very great dancers!

Got the opportunity to take photos with them!

If you’re wondering why everyone in Bali is doing this hand gesture – that’s because more than 90% of the Balinese people are Hindus, and that’s also why the rest of our trip was slotted with so many visits to different temples!

After the wonderful dinner on the beach, we headed off shopping at Kuta Square, where all the biggest international brands like D&G, Versace, Ripcurl and Roxy were gathered!

Not to mention familiar places for snacks like Starbucks, Haagen-Dazs and McDonald’s were all in the square!

Oh, by the way, a cup of McFlurry in Bali cost 5,500 Rupiahs, which was only slightly over RM1.50!! OMG!

And, as every traveler to  Indonesia would surely remark – with less than RM1,000, we could instantly become not just millionaires, but multi-millionaires in Bali!

Oh, I so lurve the feeling!

-

(Except the feeling that they look like ‘hell money’ with so many zeroes on one paper…)

Like this one:

LOL!

-

The shops around Kuta closed at around 11PM, and we got back to the hotel and rested early, because we had to wake up early the next day!

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Note: This is only part 1 of the Bali blog entry… The full story is too long hehe… Part 2 coming soon!

It was a sooo marvelous trip and I’m gonna blog about it in one of the next few posts after I’ve got the other photos from the other friends!

P.S. Unfortunately, there was no bombing in Bali.

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Meanwhile, check this out – I went to the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009 in Putrajaya!

It was an ‘international’ event, kinda like the International Fireworks Competition held near Merdeka Day every year in Putrajaya.

What’s the big deal about ‘international’ events anyway?

Gigantic balloons from countries like France, Germany etc. were lying dead on the floor at 5PM, and under the scorching late afternoon sun it was not entertaining at all…

… not until the large round thing in front of us started inflating and revealed its green nipple-like thing…

… did we realize that it was an orange!

It was one of the first to be fully inflated and became so big that it looked really menacing to the poor inflating blue balloon beside it.

I think it could crush the blue balloon with a long beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep sound (like a high-pitched, long fart) if it decided to fall on it.

One by one, as the other balloons were starting to be pumped, everybody was getting pumped too!

There was also the super cute pink elephant balloon! I think it was the balloon that caught the most attention in the entire event…

… because it was really cute and charming!

… and also because the trunk was inflated last. Everyone stared at the long, dangling ‘thing’ and, as the (crowd) ‘excitement’ grew, it slowly became bigger, longer and harder in front of the cute, smiling elephant face.

Somehow it reminds me of the, er… election happening next week.

-

Check out the happy and sad balloons!

Sad balloon being set free into the air…

… becomes happy!

Cute, isn’t it?

Look! A huge Nescafe mug floating in the air!

Seems like a blissful illusion sight of a coffee adict!

Sadly, the Nescafe mug never really lifted off, due to some technical problems. We waited for quite a long time in hopes of seeing the Nescafe mug float up to the sky, but we were disappointed in the end.

Perhaps this could have done better.

Last but not least, there was the grand peacock. Which was the single most enormous balloon of all.

I bet standing under its uh, butt, would feel like an alien mothership descending on you.

Although it lost to the pink ‘errecting’ elephant balloon in terms of cuteness, but this is surely the grandest of all balloons!

It also has the most un-balloon-ish shape ever for a hot air balloon!

Watch the bird fly!

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On that day we also went on the Putrajaya Tasik Cruise, which I had had my eye on the first day I came to Cyberjaya, but had yet to have a chance to be on.

Now I finally got the chance to be on it… really happy! Because  I’m entering my final year in Cyberjaya soon, not many chances already!

The cruise basically makes a tour around the man-made Putrajaya lake with a guy introducing to us the buildings and landmarks that we could see along the ride.

For the boat, there was a choice between the cheaper ‘perahu’s…

… and the slightly more expensive cruise ship.

We chose the latter because the ship had decks at the front and rear for sight-seeing anyway, and it seemed to have less risk of throwing its passengers into the lake.

During the cruise we had the opportunity to see and capture sights that were rarely seen along the river bank or anyway else on land in Putrajaya.

Like the Seri Wawasan Bridge in the close up angle:

and the bottom of it:

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It’s April Fool’s day tomorrow! Watch out!

Lately, I realized that I’ve been writing blog entries a month late of time.

I wrote about New Year’s Eve celebration on January 31st, posted pictures of my birthday on February, and now, February stuff – recalled in March!

It is a sin to have an inconsistently-updated blog, because all blog-deaths are caused by nothing more than this!

So this time, I’m going to write just a small piece on February, and concentrate on March! It’s better to look ahead into the future.

In February, I was:

Rich – because I got a load of cash from selling my laptop for a very handsome price.

Even richer – because I bought another laptop for RM1,000 and resold it for RM1,300 the next day.

Lazy – because in the end, without my laptop I feel lazy updating this blog.

Guilty – because I’m lazy updating this blog.

Enthusiastic – because, to divert my guilt, I’ve set a goal to do very well in my studies this semester.

Demotivated – because I found out I had six monstrous subjects each with long lab sessions and tough assignments to go through the next twelve weeks.

Encouraged – because people close to me told me I could still do it.

Confident – because I knew I could still do it… Somehow.

Romantic – because I had a wonderful, enchanting February 14th.

Happy – because she was happy.

Luxurious – because I’ve had my most luxurious dinner yet, for Valentine’s day in Shook, Starhill Gallery.

Poor – because I paid for the dinner.

Even poorer – because TM sent me a warning letter telling me I had an unpaid balance of RM446.

Sad – because I am poor now.

**********

Anyway, March is going to be so excitingly different!

I’m going to Bali on March 22nd!

Before I signed up for this trip, my impression of Bali had been that it was a beautiful, serene island where people go for honeymoon on its golden sandy beaches, dive into the clear water flourishing with colorful corals, and the whole place is like totally peaceful and exotic. 

After I signed up for the trip, and before I’ve actually gone to the place, my impression now has changed to that it has a lot – A HELL LOT OF… temples.

When I looked at the travel itinerary, I saw at least three weirdly-named waluwatu-something temples.

If it’s all about temples, then maybe it isn’t worth taking the tour package after all! But we’ll see.

I know, many of you all out there who’s been to Bali are probably laughing at my naivety towards Bali right now, but that’s really my impression right now.

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Next Sunday, March 15th, is going to be a very special day to me.

I am going to celebrate a ‘friendship anniversary’ with the oldest friend of mine. A very special occasion – our 15th anniversary of friendship!

If you think 15 years is nothing, think again – I have only just turned 21 this January, that means I’ve met her since kindergarten!

How many friends whom you have known since you were 6, and is now still your very good friend, do you have?

I have one!

Details in the next blog entry.

My first month of 2009 has just passed.

And the passing of January 2009 is nothing ordinary.

It marks the incredible milestone of me stepping into the glorious age of 21, baby!

Now, how glorious, exactly, is 21 - it’s the age that you are, finally and completely, on your own.

No more age restrictions, no more consent forms, no more nothing!

More practically, no more thoughts of smuggling into clubs and casinos, no more – NOT – being able to do anything just because of your age!

You’ve complete broken out of the last of any age restrictions or supervisions – you can even get married without your parent’s consent! (Not that I condone it )

Now, of course, we all know that these age restrictions were there to protect you. And activities with an age restriction (well, except marriage and arguably, sex) are generally ‘unhealthy’ activities – smoking, drinking, gambling etc.

And at age 21 you’re expected to be mature enough to judge for yourself what is good and what is bad business.

So yes, you’re free to do anything you want at age 21, but if you do screw up, you also lose all the protection afforded to juveniles and face the consequences straight and hard. No chances, no mercy! Bad huh?

Why? Because you’re already a grown-up; no longer an innocent kid or a wild teenager. You’re an adult… A man.

So, moral of the story – try all the crimes you want before you come of legal consent age. That way at least you won’t go to jail!

No, just kidding!

So, back to myself – if 21 is such a great milestone age, and the next milestone age, 55 (the retirement age), is just so far away, I had expected to celebrate my birthday this year, like – very, VERY EXTRAVAGANTLY.

But alas! Check your desktop calendar and you’ll find that January 25th – my birthday, was on, of all days, Chinese New Year’s Eve this year!

What does that mean?

It means I didn’t get to celebrate my precious 21st birthday the way I wanted! Because no one was going to stay back that day! Everyone had to go back to their hometowns to have their reunion dinner! And that includes me, too!

Note: No, this isn’t a photo of my reunion dinner.

And typically, you don’t just leave the house anytime  soon ‘before’  or  ‘after’ the reunion dinner. You gotta stay back and sit in the house for “reunion’s” sake. So there went my long-awaited 21st birthday party, at least that was what I had thought.

Luckily, I can still write right now, that I still had a very, very memorable 21st birthday.

Still having a small number of charming, special friends (and one particularly) putting in a wonderful amount of effort, surprise after surprise, to prevent my 21st birthday from sliding into the list of my most terrible birthdays ever…

I am so, very wonderfully blessed…

…

… but one of the birthday cakes was definitely not!

It was terrifyingly destroyed by our special, barbaric eating method!

The beautiful ice-cream cake, at first:

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:

There were no plates involved.

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Haha, it’s been a whole month without any updates!

This new year – year 2009, however, is going to be different! Why? Because this year, my New Year’s Resolution #10:

I’m going to make absolutely sure that this blog is updated regularly – and this is no joke. If anything like this happens again (whole month no update) in 2009 – listen carefully – I am going to TAKE DOWN James-Chow.com, as a penalty to myself.

Meaning – I am going to destroy this website, along with the domain name, all the posts, all the photos, – EVERYTHING – if I fail to update for so long ever again!

Now that’s some motivation for me, since James-Chow.com really means a lot to me! Hehe…

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This new year has been great so far… But 2008 wasn’t bad either.

So it was really a happy moment to throw 2008 into the dusty storeroom and welcome glorious 2009 into our lives!

This is the countdown celebration that I attended at The Curve.

The fireworks were magnificent, and the crowd was as though Anwar and Najib were turning up for a one-on-one wrestling competition.

As midnight approached, it was almost impossible to even move through the monstrous crowd!

After the countdown, confetti, streamers and fake ’snow’ were everywhere, the next picture looks like it was snowing over there!

It seemed a crime to be clean without a serious mess on your hair and clothes, and I guess the ‘cleaner’ you are, the more you got sprayed on!

No one had any mercy on my hair:

I looked ridiculously like an old rabbit with fluffy grey hair… and with a very bad haircut. Anyways, that was how 2008 passed me by!

Well, I’m not gonna write too much into this post, since I’ll be updating regularly lah! Can relax a bit on the content…

Trust me. I’ll keep to my word, or else…

Although I may have been shamelessly missing in action for some time now, but you can be very, very sure that I will be back to blog for Christmas!

And here I am! Why? because Christmas is the best and most happening festival of all – for me!

Yes, I know – for many of you, Christmas is but a one-day *only* holiday in the middle of the assignment submission week and a week before the accursed MMU final exams…

Why, me too! I’m an MMU student as well! But that isn’t going to stop me from celebrating!

Let’s not wait – Check out my very own Christmas room!

I think it is so beautiful and comfortable! I really couldn’t have done it on my own!

Compare it with last year, and you’ll see that there are some really exciting improvements! The extra mini Christmas trees, the Christmas candles, and…

… the super awesome structure beside my table is the very same Christmas tree as last year – only that this year it is much, much more awesome!

See the tree!

It is transforming into more of a ‘Toy Tree’, actually… But it feels really warm and happy to see such an innocently decorated tree that reminds us of our childhoods – in my own room! 

The first picture of this entry is my classic Teddy-Bear-hug-tree^TM Christmas tree tip decoration! Like last year!

HOHOHO… It’s 2 days till Christmas! Are you ready for it?

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Last year, I did an entry on Malaysia’s Top 7 Christmas Malls, which resulted in Pavilion KL topping the list with its magnificently tall, occupy-able, Christmas tree structure.

This year, I wanted to find out if the malls kept up their marvelously good work, so we set off on a journey to check them out again! Santa bless us!

Like I said last year, only shopping malls seem to have the ability to deploy massive Christmas decorations  in Malaysia. Yup, not even the most expensive hotels can do as good!

Throughout the December month, we went though many of the most prestigious malls in the Klang Valley, and, ladies and gentlemen – here is what I consider the seven most wonderfully decorated and ‘Christmas-est’ malls in the country:

*drum roll*

Rank #7 – The Gardens

(Visited December 20th, 2008)

A newcomer! The Gardens wasn’t in my list last year because there were hardly any Christmas decorations in the mall save some usual Christmas trees along the walkway… But this year – it’s different!

The Gardens has deployed a three-storey high Christmas tree and what’s really special is its ‘cage’ theme.

Of course, there are many ‘ways’ to see this theme – it could either be:

(a) a tranquil garden in the middle of city filled with tall Christmas trees and gigantic, nicely-lit bird cages,

or,

(b) erm, looking at the human size structure and the multiple entrances into the cages, is it just me, or do they look like dance cages in strip clubs that would do well with a pole added to the middle and having strippers dancing inside? 

LOL!

I think the chandeliers in the cages are really beautiful and somehow, the combination of lights and finely-crafted cages in the middle of the greenery creates a really peaceful yet elegant impression – if that is what the designers had had in mind, then I think they did a great job!

Yes, I know The Gardens Mall is under Midvalley’s management, and by principle its decorations should be counted as part of Midvalley’s… But anyway, I really think the decorations are that nice that The Gardens deserve a separate rank of its own!

The Gardens: A refreshingly new design concept, but still relatively small in size to leave a deep permanent impression. Yes, size does matter, but great job nonetheless!

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Rank #6 – Pavilion KL

(Visited December 7th, 2008)

Don’t be surprised to see Pavilion at number 6, it is really quite a let down this year.

Most malls deploying the same Christmas decorations year after year become boring to us viewers, but few actually become worse - and now we’ve seen one.

The gigantic Christmas tree structure that had proudly stood at the concourse last year probably couldn’t afford the rental fee there, and was thrown unceremoniously out of the mall! Poor tree…

I had walked pass Pavilion a few days before December and had seen the unfinished tree outside Pavilion. I had thought they were just assembling or moving it…

I still can’t believe they actually moved the thing outdoors! They further coated the tree with some white stuff that looks like cotton from afar… and they removed the chandeliers!! (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see last year’s entry!)

The thing that I applauded the most last year – the chandeliers – was completely dumped! And replaced by some gold baubles that looked like they had been placed on last-minute!

Walking into the mall, this came into view:

The concourse area, looking rather bland with the absence of the three-storey Christmas tree in the middle of the symmetrical escalators, was turned into a decorated shop selling Christmas stuff, operated by Tangs.

The wonderful lights above, decorated with long arrays of (again) golden baubles, is really nice – but insufficient to salvage the interior’s otherwise disappointing Christmas atmosphere.

I’ve tried to be very neutral and not let my previous impressions and expectations blind my opinions on any of the malls that I am going to review… but this really isn’t that good – the interior is just so-so, and the tree wouldn’t exactly be a wonder to me either, even if it were the first time I visited Pavilion!

After the lights are on at night, it looks like this:

The structure is still big and impressive, and decorations in Pavilion are indeed renewed every year. Pavilion still deserves the spot at number 6 in my personal Malaysia’s Best Christmas Malls’ list.

Pavilion KL: An admirable effort to ‘bring about change’ (quote Obama!) to Pavilion’s Christmas decoration concept, but changes seem to not always be for the better. An additional note: In my review I am not expressing disappointment at the shopping mall itself, but just the decors. As a matter of fact, it is the reality of Pavilion being one of the most prestigious and reputable malls in KL that empowers us to hold high expectations for its everything – including Christmas decorations.

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Rank #5 – Sunway Pyramid

(Visited November 27th, 2008)

If Sunway Pyramid really did disappoint me last year, they totally made it up with me!

This year, Pyramid’s decors were the first to make me ‘WOW’!

I’ll just make this short: the decorations are simple, they aren’t really humongous and storeys-tall, and it’s apparent that it is not really a super high-budget project – call me childish, but it really brought out the excitement in me! The warm smile etched across my face didn’t fade until I left the area completely. The area radiated a vibrant aura of fun, of joy and of laughter – the spirit of Christmas. They did it!

What’s more, it seems to me that Sunway Pyramid was one of the first malls in the Klang Valley to have its Christmas decorations fully set up! This photo was taken in November!

Sunway Pyramid: A definite improvement from last year. Simple yet joyfully meaningful. I’m sorry for not being able to explain how exactly it is meaningful, I myself do not know why, but it is – at least to me.

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Rank #4 – Suria KLCC

(Visited December 20th, 2008)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! It is still the same!! THE… TREE… IS… STILL… THE… SAME!!

It’s been five or six years already lor!

Petronas must be losing money now that world oil prices are so low… There’s not even lights on the tree this year! Of course, they changed the decorations on the tree, but I still think that the last year’s was way better.

Someone please tell Santa Clause to give Petronas a new tree next year! Tell him a smaller and shorter one is OKAY!

If I were to review this in my own biased, previous-impression-based mindset, I’d think this old tree wouldn’t even make it into the top-7 list… but let’s be fair, I’m not the only person whom they are displaying the tree for.

The fact is: The gigantic five-storey Chirstmas tree bought from Giant Hypermart (yes, just a pun), although being used year after year, is still one hell of a skyscraper to behold.

I came up with this logic: Maybe the guys in Petronas are so proud that their twin-towers is standing as the tallest stucture in the country, they are determined that their Christmas tree should also be nothing – literally, NOTHING – but the tallest.

Suria KLCC – This is one mall that I would not be disappointed if they followed Pavilion’s footsteps; in fact, I had even jokingly suggested it last year – plant it outside the twin towers. It’s time to change to a new Christmas decoration concept, KLCC, you’re good enough for it!

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Rank #3 – Midvalley

(Visited December 20th, 2008)

My first impression was… Oh God, a voodoo ceremony!

In my opinion, Midvalley has definitely played down its Christmas decoration budget this year. This year’s fantasy-like theme is a creative idea – but I’d still go for the previous year’s ‘autumn garden’ concept any time of the day.

Anyway, don’t be fooled, the Christmas tree behind the smiling face is three-and-a-half storeys high!

Midvalley has never been too stingy in decorating its interior. This year, a huge, round stage with this enormous, grinning, joker face stared down at the passerbys in the megamall!

“The Midvalley God is watching… Don’t steal.”

It was very impressive: the play of bright colours, the concept of a population of jungle animals all gathering around in a circle like some ancient ritual about to begin… I’m sure there must be great performances on the stage at some other time as well! Too bad I didn’t get to watch them!

In a way, I liked this ‘fantasyland’ theme quite much, especially with all the animals gathering around the stage! I particularly like the elephants, I dunno why.

Another thing incredible about Midvalley is that apart from its main decorations at the Centre Court, it has so many ’sub-decorations’ all around the mall!

And each of these ’sub-decorations’ are not too inferior after all! Like this one at the North Court (or was it South Court?)

The red, old Santa in the middle looks like he’s being hanged to death! And there’s a soldier beside him!

Midvalley: Impressive large-scale project as expected. Although perhaps not that much to my taste, the decorations are evidently the brilliant product of creative design and tonnes of tireless effort.

(P.S. Please don’t hang Santa Clause, breaking into people’s houses through the chimney is a crime – but not one that deserves the death sentence.)

**********

Rank #2 – 1 Utama

(Visited December 5th, 2008)

So gorgeous that it is only fitting to have a diamond exhibition underneath these glamorous babes!

A 180 degrees shift from the playful, innocently cute Toy Soldier concept last year, this year’s electric wired-tree display is simple, yet ingeniously sophisticated!

1 Utama had wasted no time in starting to impress me, way before the stage was even completed. Just looking at the construction site in November tells us that something big is coming up, again!

I realized that 1 Utama had always liked the display concept of a center stage with some huge, towering decorative stuff behind.

The brilliantly lit Christmas trees are somehow reminiscent to last year’s acclaimed Pavilion Christmas tree. I find them so nicely lit (yes, there are trees that are lit but not nicely lit) that I couldn’t take my eyes of it for many, many seconds when I first saw it!

However, this year, young kids will probably NOT be so enthusiastic about the decorations. Yes, they are really nice and everything but they simply aren’t – cute – anymore!

Seems that 1 Utama alternates between captivating the hearts of kids and of adults! Last year, kids were probably crying when asked by their parents to leave the area; this year, adults would probably scold their kids for asking to leave!

… or maybe not!

I think that their theme this year is poker cards – an item long associated to gambling. (less children friendly!) But the entire area was surrounded by this beautiful green wall and just across the entrance was a walking path of gigantic poker card pictures.

Even their ‘regular’ Christmas trees had poker cards on them! How unique!

Haha, I don’t mean to offend the good and thoughtful people of the 1Utama management… but well, the theme and glamorous decorations would really make, and be fitting of, nothing but a splendid casino!

1 Utama: Absolutely fantastic display with a very unique theme, wouldn’t have expected anything less from this great shopping mall (just don’t add roulettes and slot machines next year!). Keep it up!

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Rank #1 – The Curve

(Visited December 14th, 2008)

The Curve in Mutiara Damansara reigns as emperor this year for the best decorated shopping mall in the country!

The entire concourse area was turned into a goddamn garden! (pardon me. I couldn’t think of another adjective to describe the incredible awe I had felt at the sight of it)

The area was so vast that I couldn’t even take it all in with my camera, not even in 16:9 widescreen mode!

Everywhere was scattered with brilliant lights and every angle that you turn to, you come face-to-face with beautiful, lush greenery!

With a towering three-storey-high Christmas tree standing proudly at the side, the garden features many really cute animal-shaped trimmed trees!

What’s more, they’ve got adorable Christmas Elves doing the job!

Again, elephant.

I thought Christmas Elves were supposed to be in Santa’s village in the North Pole busy manufacturing presents by now? Or had they taken leave? And it’s almost Christmas already, Santa and his wife will have to do it all by themselves!

People were photographing almost every other step they take, and I believe every photo snap was absolutely worth taking!

To complete the garden picture, there was even a small pool with fountains adding real moisture to the already refreshingly natural environment!

This garden, no doubt, will fascinate both boys and girls, kids and adults, humans and elves alike. And one of the best parts is even when the Christmas display is so magnificent, The Curve has minimal, and really few, commercialisation involved in the decoration area…

… meaning that you don’t see a lot of stalls around the display area. The display is genuinely – just – for display. And we appreciate the intention that the marvelous displays are not there just to attract our wallets, but rather us - as persons – trying to indulge a little in the joyful spirit of Christmas.

The Curve – Uber cool garden themed display! Very fresh concept that is superbly compatible with this relaxing time of the year filled with enchanting dreams of distant fairy tales. Both kids and adults will no doubt adore it! Excellent job!

**********

Overall, I still think that shopping malls are better decorated last year (maybe due to the financial crisis?) But of course, Christmas this year is not that disappointing as well, it is always a very good feeling to be able to shop or simply walk in places where Christmas atmosphere fluorishes!

There are some other shopping malls that I have visited in the month of December but that did not make it into the top-7 list. Here are some of them that are worth mentioning:

IKANO Power Centre

(Visited December 11th, 2008)

Has a great tree…

… an area with fake snow for children to play with…

… and also a small hut for pictures with Santa and Santarina!

-

Berjaya Times Square

(Visited December 7th, 2008)

Dropped out of the list this year… Sporting the same tree as last year:

The most notable decoration was this Santa that looked totally like Doraemon! Cute!

-

Cineleisure Damansara

(Visited December 14th, 2008)

Looks great, doesn’t it?

This structure of a Christmas tree and three angels was actually built ON the fountain in front of the main entrance!

-

Starhill Gallery

(Visited December 7th, 2008)

There was a heavily guarded exhibition in Starhill during the time that I visited.

There were security guards armed with rifles at every corner!

You had to register yourself with your identity card and scan your visitor pass every time you pass through a different corridor!

As for Christmas stuff, there weren’t much:

Just some huge silver baubles hanging from the ceiling.

I’m not sure if they have added more decorations after the exhibition ended on the 14th, or they are just gonna leave it like that for Christmas.

-

The Street

(Visited December 14th, 2008)

I’m not really sure if The Street is under The Curve or Cineleisure’s management (or both), so I’ll just put it as an individual place! (Although I have a feeling it’s under The Curve)

There was no night market but all the stalls were specially decorated for Christmas, and the lighted trees and hanging lights really gives it a distictively Christmas feel!

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Now you know where to go shopping this 25th!

HAVE A MERRY, BLESSED CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

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Please remember that:

All rankings, reviews and writings in this blog entry are entirely my honest opinions based on my findings and perceptions as a customer being present at the shopping malls at their respective dates as stated. My visits to these places are casual in nature and it is possible that I might have missed or overlooked some or part(s) of the decorations in the malls. Please also remember that there might be better shopping malls out there that I have not visited or known; and that the shopping malls listed above may have added or improved their displays after my visit.

Right now, this very second – *tick* – that I am writing this entry, I am supposed to be on a one-day Ipoh trip with tourism club…

Yes, Ipoh is my beautiful hometown and where the irritatingly popular Old Town kopitiams came from… a trip to my own place, but I still signed up for it, because I knew it was going to be very different going with friends.

HOWEVER, I am now – instead – sitting lazily in front of my computer writing this entry because I am sick – got a head-splitting headache, fever and some very annoying sore throat…

… and it has been haunting me for like almost a week already… Huhu…

I hate missing the trip, I really do, but thanks to waking up only at 2PM this afternoon (instead of 4.30AM if I went for the trip), I’m feeling slightly better now.

Anyway, come to think of it – if I went for this Ipoh trip, this would be the 4th consecutive weekend that I’ve gone back to Ipoh!

It’s like – go back – come back – go back again – come back again – and again – and again… 4 TIMES – more than 1500 kilometers in journey! Simply double that distance and we can reach Taiwan by air!

The 1st trip back to Ipoh was made in the week straight after the Endau Rompin trip. I went back for the semester break and then returned after a few days for a very special Genting trip;

We stayed there for three nights because of the terrible afternoon fog that scared us from driving down after the second night – so we stayed for another.

By the way, check out the brand name of the bumper cars used in the Genting indoor theme park:

… as if reminding everyone to say:

Anyway, the following weekend, went back to Ipoh for a wedding dinner, at which Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan made an honorable speech, and then tendered his resignation from his ministerial post less than two weeks later.

Then last week, I went back to Ipoh again as an assistant in a children’s camp.

…. where kids were painfully tortured and laughed at.

NO LA! We were very good teachers… The other kids did it to them! And the ‘victims’ volunteered themselves…

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Before I end, let me announce that my laptop is – again – not working!

This is neither the first, nor the second, but the THIRD time I have to bring my laptop to friggin’ Times Square (so far away) to fix it…

… And that’s because local computer shops have checked it and don’t think it’s a small problem and asked me to bring back to the official service center - terrible huh?

What’s more, all three times it’s been the same problem… And although each time it seems to be fixed, it comes back again!

(For the record: I have an entire house of IT students staying with me and I am an Electronics major myself. I’m not being infected by some stupid virus or other software stuff, thank you.)

And to add insult to the injury – my laptop is just slightly over a year old! The warranty has only just expired!

Let this add me to Acer’s already stinking unsatisfied customers’ list.

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Sigh… It’s dinner time now, I think the other committees who have gone for the Ipoh trip are probably having their steamboat dinner now…

I gotta go for dinner too! Update soon!

Just came back from Endau Rompin!

Finished my exam last week, and this trip followed almost immediately!

Huhu… I haven’t blogged much for a while and that’s because of my exams – AND – my laptop betrayed me and went totally black in the middle of my exam week..

Got it fixed in on Friday, and then I was off to the forests in Pahang on Saturday night… So here we are!

We all thought that Endau Rompin was supposed to be a national park - Taman Negara – but it turned out that it was a Taman Negeri - state park!

The Taman Negara Endau Rompin, though, was not too far away from here, in the same stretch of forest as this park that we were in… But nevertheless, the trip was uniquely fun in its own way!

The Endau Rompin trip is not really that different from the Jerantut Taman Negara trip that I went a couple of years ago… with a few notable differences:

There were three different places that you can choose to stay in – longhouses, chalets and bungalows, each with its own respective price tag, of course.

Longhouses look culturally delightful from the outside, but are essentially very uncomfortable to sleep in.

The interior walls are made of wood, naturally, and we’ve got 8-10 people staying in 2 rooms on each of the longhouses that you can see in the picture.

They say that while it was burning hot in the afternoon, it was freezing at night sleeping in one of those!

One of the more interesting things of the longhouses is that they don’t have their own toilets, and guests would have to use a common toilet nearby.

While the toilets themselves have serious hygienic problems, the bathing area puts everyone in awe!

It’s a common ‘bathing’ pool, probably the kind that you guys stand naked along the side and get water from it using shower buckets. Like the ones that the people who have gone through National Service would have seen and used before…

Only that… this bathing area was unisex – there was no guys or ladies room – the area was NOT enclosed (meaning everyone could see you bathing), and not to mention that the water was extremely dirty…

… and got cat bathing with you…

… and upon further inspection, we found something deep within the murky waters that you’re supposed to wash your hair, face and body with…

… a fish!

I don’t think anyone used that area to bathe at all throughout the entire trip and instead went to use the bathrooms in the chalets and bungalows!

Chalets, on the other hand, are upgraded versions of longhouses with built-in bathrooms and a queen-sized bed. It also has slightly more space.

But one of the chalets was emptied and the people moved to other rooms because apparently someone saw a giant lizard inside! Not joking!

Finally, Bungalows are made of bricks and concrete and have their own living rooms with TVs. Their rooms are also air-conditioned.

Before I got too happy that I had chosen a bungalow during my registration for the trip – so I could escape the intense tropical afternoon heat with the air-conds – I realized in great annoyance that there was… no electricity!

In fact, there was no electricity in any of the living areas – longhouses, chalets and bungalows alike! Endau Rompin had an irritatingly interesting regulation of supplying electricity to rooms only after 7PM, and only until 7AM in the morning daily! LOL!

We had already been told about this during the meetings that we had had leading up to the trip. But it was still very unbelievable to try switching on the fan during the hot afternoon and hearing nothing more than ‘clicks’.

Anyway, the activities were just as interesting! Just like Jerantut Taman Negara, we had jungle trekking on the first day.

It was a very pleasant trek until the leeches started coming out and joining our tour!

Then everyone had no more eyes for the green nature around but the wriggling leeches on the floor desperately trying to suck everyone’s blood throughout almost the entire way.

Here is proof that everyone’s forgotten that we’re supposed to be looking at trees and nature in this trip:

There was a beautiful waterfall at the end of the trek!

We threw a surprise birthday celebration for our Director for this trip – Xiang Hue, at night! She cried… and Crystal kena pukul! Awww…

… and the other October babies!

Also in the activities were river crossing:

… and water tubing:

The tubes were sat on and then went through rocks and rapids, and everyone was supposed to waddle back to the river bank after they had finished, but in the end… because it was very difficult to move in the water while on the tube – many had to be dragged back!

Not to be forgotten was kayak-ing! Kayaking was not actually a scheduled activity but since the good people at Endau Rompin allowed us to freely terrorize their kayaks, some of us played them whenever we had time!

However, kayak-ing here almost always ends up with you in the water, and very seldom can you reach the river bank dry!

Because one second you might be on the boat, and the next you’d suddenly see two pairs of hands on both sides of your kayak, and then you’d be in the water!

We had a small competition among three people:

… before we even got started:

… tried again! All three kayaks started off the race:

and with people watching…

That night we had a night walk in the forest, with no lights and a few torch lights only… It was pitch black when the torches were off, but the experience being in the forest at night was special!

Also saw many jungle bugs and night plants!

Some of us had our (of course) ‘unofficial’ casino after we came back…

The next morning we had team games at a nearby tennis court!

Very hot and tiring… but fun!

Got all sorts of faces and expressions! Let’s see…

Some were just enjoying the games… like a couple…

Some look like punggung kena gigit…

… and some were too serious in winning…

And then we went to the river bank with tubes and bamboo sticks to make our own rafts!

The trip ended with everyone happy and taking group photos around the entrance area…

As committee members, the trip was unavoidably tiring, but everyone had great fun and it was nothing short of a spectacular and very successful trip!

Thanks to the comms of this trip who brought the event to existence:

… great people such as these!

Cheers to Tourism Club! 

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P.S. Did I mention? The MMU officers played, of all movies – You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, at 3AM while everyone was trying to sleep on the bus, on our way to Endau Rompin!

They take every happy and colorful moment out of your life and replace it with stupid numbers and symbols…

… at least that’s what my exams do.

My final exams are coming – next week. And every single day is basically either:

- studying and trying not to fall asleep on the papers; or the more common alternative:

- not studying, keep enjoying the wonderful life that we are blessed to live in… but feeling dead guilty about it.

If my head exploded due to the pressure, do I get to claim life insurance? Or is there an exclusion clause in the insurance policy for this?

Sigh… really miss the peaceful and relaxing Smokehouse that I happen to have visited last week on Cameron Highlands…

Huhu… I want to sit in the lush green garden, feel the gentle cool breeze and forget all about electronics and maths…

… and, I want to be faced with an abundance of lovely flowers and greens and not symbols and numbers…

… and while we’re here, I want to sit on this couch, sip some tea, take a nap, and throw those annoying past-year exam papers away…

… maybe into the back of the fireplace… good idea… *drools*

Bottom line… I don’t want to be here stuck in my room with exam stuff!

Then, people might say: “aiya, if you studied earlier then wouldn’t have to study so much now lor…”

… That is – without an effort for a better word – bullshit.

Now, don’t be too quick to judge me, please, hear me out:

Because studying is never enough. You won’t feel alright until you’ve studied through every single free time that you’ve had in the days leading up to your exams…

… and now I’m not grumbling about not having enough time to study but the process of saturated studying itself.

Now do you see why I declare having studied earlier wouldn’t have helped? It would help the results, sure, but not the pressure of pre-exam studying.

By the way, read carefully, please  – Even if you somehow managed to study ferociously hard in your ‘normal days’, the insane motivation that drove you through all the intense, ‘normal’ studying would definitely not leave you at rest on your ‘exam days’ as well.

Get it? That’s what I’m saying.

Come on, why is this news to you? You’ve never been a college/university student before? Or were you a hardcore oh-I-so-damn-lurve-studying… nerd? (Or maybe you were just exceptionally smart, I dunno )

“Nerd or Die”.. I think I’ve mentioned something like this before in one of my earlier entries… You either be a nerd, or you have to go through hell studying…

… or you can choose to Die – fail your exams!

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No offense people, please. I’m just trying to let of steam a bit… It’s been a really tough week…

So, unlike last time, I now choose to sleep like a pig…

… and still pass my exams!

Come on, folks, life is too beautiful to be ended with a bloody, gruesome brain explosion on top of your college text book.

There are other ways of doing good in exams than stressing through the final hours!

Like, erm… you know, studying earlier and not wait till the last minute!

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err…

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… Ok, ok, I know – such a meaningless blog entry…

Guess that’s also one of the negative side-effects of exams – can’t even blog properly…

Gotta go back to my books and notes!

Tonight is supposedly the night that the moon shines the brightest… I’m not too sure about the astronomical accuracy of this, but the moon tonight sure shines like a spotlight!

For the innocent fun of it, my housemates and I bought a bunch of candles (the kind that kids play with) and a dozen lanterns!

Yes, we are over 20 years old…

One of my housemates was online playing DotA when the rest of us started playing with the candles and stuff, making him having to leave his game…

As I mentioned in detail in one of my earliest entries, being a leaver in a DotA game is disgraceful enough, but my friend even had to write:

[To All] “hey i gtg ady… mooncake festival I want to go play candle…”

… and receive such responses as:

[Vengeful Spirit] “…”

[Zeus] “wtf”

[Spectre] “f*ck u la… don’t play candle go play c*ck better la”

[Razor] “swt”

[Chaos Knight] “…”

[Bloodseeker] “swt… u how old lor?”

LOL

I was there I saw the conversations myself…

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We formed nice shapes with the candles outside our house!

Nice or not…? A heart shape within a greater circle! The candles were first put into place and then lit together!

It was slightly windy and some of the candles went off sometimes, so we had to keep re-lighting them.

We wanted to light and hang the lanterns somewhere but couldn’t find any place or anything to hang them on…

So in the end we decided that they should go up in flames! Like some sacrificial ritual… being burned within a circle of candles! Kakaka…

OK, I know we seemed like no-lifers and had probably watched too much fantasy movies; and yes, I know we were being totally wasteful and it was not a good thing to do at all… But what should we have done?

Keep them for the next year? Not worth keeping – the lanterns cost less than 50 cents each…

Throw them away? It would be more of a waste…

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… at least we had some sick fun seeing them being burnt into ashes…

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Something unrelated:

A few days ago, something rather scary happened.

It was 5AM and I was about to go to sleep when suddenly there was an eruption of loud barking noise.

I listened carefully in my room, and could recognize the sound of our neighbor’s dog Ruby, a Rottweiler with a very powerful voice. She was definitely barking at something, but still… the noise was too loud for a single dog.

I creaked open my window and peered outside into the darkness of our backyard (my room was facing the other side, the back of the house).

It was pitch black. I saw nothing… But I made a startling discovery – almost all the dogs in the neighborhood, front and back, were barking… ferociously. Almost madly.

There must have been something. But I couldn’t see it…. Suddenly, a sharp, unidentifiable, but terrifyingly loud scream pierced into my ears.

Immediately, the dogs’ barking intensified. But still in the deafening barkings I could distinguish the direction of the scream clearly. It came from the front of our house.

It was undoubtedly NOT made by non-living objects like car tires screeching or something. It could also NOT have been made by a cat or human being attacked. It was very high-pitched, terrifyingly hoarse, and almost… demonic, gasping scream.

It was like someone being tortured – or something – in tremendous agony and suffering…

And then, it seemed for a moment that the dogs’ barking was going to drown out the scream… when it all stopped. All the barking and screams fell into dead silence – as suddenly as it all began.

I was very sleepy. I went to bed. It was way past 5AM.

The next day, I found out that two of my housemates had also been awakened by the noise, but each of us thought it was only us alone who heard it.

When we found out that all our descriptions matched precisely – the barking, the strange hoarse scream, the abruptness of how it all stopped at the same instant…  along with the time that it had happened, and with them describing the sound as having come directly from our front gate… it was bone-chilling!

We discussed and concluded that it could not have been an animal, or human, being attacked. It did not sound like an attack at all. Another housemate had gone out and looked around the area – there was no sign of any struggle or attack.

Then what could have made the strange scream?

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… or it could have been just a cat…

I’m not at home but just felt like writing something… so now I’m essentially writing this sitting in my car, with the engines running and breathing-in carbon monoxide.

(Therefore don’t have many photos with me now… Hehe…)

My class had ended at 5PM, and I was sitting in the library waiting miserably for time to pass before a meeting at 8PM.

Have I mentioned it? Staying away from Cyberjaya seems not to be the best decision ever!

With petrol bills soaring over RM500/month not-to-mention (of course not all are spent on traveling to/from campus, but still it contributes..), the most torturous part is whenever there are activities, meetings or exams at night – or simply when there are a few hours’ break between classes – I wouldn’t be able to go home…

I would have to stay in campus and entertain myself!

… and it becomes particularly worse when the activity or meeting is at 8PM or 9PM – because the time between that and 5PM (the typical time at which my classes end) is not pleasant at all – everything is closing and friends have gone home…

… and now, even the library where me and other simliarly-fated (or less likely, hardworking) students can usually ‘camp’ in during these hours is being closed for ‘buka puasa’ at 6.30PM-8.30PM and they actually close the lights and air-conditioning system to make you leave…

Check this out:

You’re studying (or sleeping or doing something else) in the library, you feel hot, and then suddenly half of the lights are being switched off…

… and then if you don’t leave soon, it becomes pitch black!

(It is still bright outside! And the library normally closes only at around midnight…)

… scary huh? I’ve been in this campus for over three years now, but I’m still not used to it!

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Anyway, gotta go now… Updating soon ya!

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Wow, it has been like the longest absence span ever from my own blog… Anyway, thanks to those who have expressed ‘concern’ over my life/death on the chatbox…

… and also the small number of other lovely people who have approached me and genuinely asked me if something had been wrong… Thanks a lot…=) My humble blog and I myself really do not deserve your caring attention… I am ever so grateful…

Anyway, I am fine, totally fine!  As a matter of fact, I’m better than ever! So, let’s see if I can re-maintain this blog like I used to… starting from this week.  =)

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I won’t be able to write on this blog for some time, maybe for at least another week or two from now. I’m sorry but I have to suspend its updates for an indefinite period. I’ll be back, I promise…

If you’re waiting for any photos from any of our recent activities and events that we’ve been to together since I came back from HK, I’ll try to give them to you by some other way. I’m really sorry I couldn’t upload or write about them this week as promised.

James.

I had planned to get this specific shot of Central Hong Kong, from exactly where it was taken (across Victoria Harbor), half a year before the trip itself, to be used as my blog’s new banner!

Kakakakakaka… Now it’s become reality!

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Came back from Hong Kong few days ago!

It was a Tourism Club project and a hometown friend, Eric, was the Director. I happened to be the tour leader of the trip.

I’ve been to Hong Kong with my family – but going with friends, this time, was a very different experience!

One whole year of hard work by the committee members of this trip, we made it happen – we went to Hong Kong!

Buzz Lightyear (behind) wanted to come back to Malaysia with us but was stopped by airport security for bringing metal and laser weapons on board.

We went to quite a lot of places and I’ll try to briefly go through them one by one :

Our flight took off on Monday evening:

Reached Hong Kong late at night, and checked into our hotel past midnight.

The next day, we went to Disneyland!

It is the smallest Disneyland in the world, but still – it is nothing short of spectacular!

We were very lucky it didn’t rain that day. The season was late spring, and before we came to Hong Kong, it has been raining heavily once every two days or so!

Some new attractions had been built since I last came, and the traditional Disney parade was replaced by a water-splashing parade!

On ‘Space Mountain‘, probably the most intense roller coaster ride in HK Disneyland, we were caught on photo screaming and looking stupid during the last, most intense segment of the ride, in which they purposely took photos of you screaming…

We decided to have a second ride later and have our revenge, and ruin the roller coaster’s reputation as a scary ride – with these photos:

Observe the right front passenger:

… and this:

T

Hehe…

One of Disneyland’s legendary attractions – “It’s a small world” – which was not completed the last time I came, was opened this time… but we missed it because we didn’t have time… =(

We went on almost all of the rides and visited most of the performances. Of course, the final “Disney in the Stars” fireworks display was as magical as ever! =)

Personally, I love and appreciate Disney stuff very much, especially the older Disney cartoons – Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin etc.

I can’t help but reminisce on the sweet childhood memories – from pre-kindergarten to early primary school – the time at which the cartoons were really quite popular among kids of our age…

There are so many sweet, wonderful memories attached to them. Whenever I hear Aladdin’s “A Whole New World” or Lion King’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” etc… Whenever I see Snow White or Ariel or Timon and Pumbaa or Princess Aurora’s character…

I would wish I was back in those long gone, carefree days…

Somehow, I find it that very few people share my passion for Disney, or have similar feelings as I do towards it…

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with going to Disneyland just to have fun and excitement; but for me, I would prefer to think that it is more than that…

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The next day, we visited the Hong Kong Space and Science Museum – they are two separate museums!

and took a lot of photos… and some weird ones:

Also went to Peninsula Hotel, the oldest and probably most expensive hotels in Hong Kong, with its best rooms costing up to $68,000/night:

The Avenue of Stars – commemorating the works and contributions of famous Hong Kong artistes. Our hands beside Jacky Chan’s own handprint…

Took the ferry across Victoria Harbor and took some photos of the famous Golden Bauhinia Statue, which was a gift from the Chinese government to Hong Kong and a symbol of Hong Kong’s handover to China.

Took a ride on the traditional tramway which was more than 100 years old:

Watched the Symphony of Lights, which, err… somehow seemed to have fallen short of a lot of people’s expectations :

A lot of walking on day 2 and also some confusion on the roads, really sorry!

But it was nevertheless a great experience!

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Went to Ocean Park on Thursday!

Dolphin Performance!

Took a long, scary cable car ride to the top of the mountain,

and had some great rides!

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Pots of lovely Lavender found in Ocean Park!

A special (and permanent) dedication to Lavenderlover.

Hope you’d Like it.

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Ocean Park was just so big that we didn’t have time to visit all the attractions…

There were so many marine displays, all in their own, separate buildings – Jellyfish, Dolphins, Sharks, Sea lions, and an Underwater World with starfish, turtles, sea horses, huge and small fish, beautiful corals… etc. etc.

… and everyone was so tired after so many days of walk, walk and walk, that some of them could just sit down and accidentally zzzz….

At night, I split up with the group and went to visit my cousin and auntie while everyone else went shopping at Mong Kok…

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On Friday, we made a visit to Wong Tai Sin temple, and shopping around Tsim Sha Tsui before going up Victoria Peak in the afternoon.

The very, very steep journey up the peak in the peak tram was kinda scary :

and on the Peak, we met Andy Lau!

… Forcefully stopped Leon Lai on his bicycle…

… Eric danced with Michael Jackson…

… James Bond got pointed in the head by Way Chow…

… my Hollywood sister, Marilyn Monroe…

… and gave President George W. Bush our opinion!

… all in Madame Tussauds wax museum on Victoria Peak!

The Hong Kong nightview seen from Victoria Peak was totally breathtaking:

That night, we had dinner at at Yung Kee, a rather expensive restaurant near Lan Kwai Fong that some of us had already been looking forward to visiting, even before we started the trip!

It was very late when we had our dinner and we were the last customers of the restaurant for the day!

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Since we were in Hong Hong, we couldn’t miss out trying the authentic HK dim sum! We had it for breakfast on the day of our departure, in a restaurant near our hotel!

After checking-out of the hotel, we made our way to the airport, and ended our long-planned Hong Kong trip – very tired, but happy!

I personally enjoyed this trip a lot, and experienced much more from it! The weather was perfect and I think it was really fun. I only hope that all the others would feel the same!

CYBERJAYA, MALAYSIA – Poor James Chow is also homeless. His own old house’s tenancy agreement has ended, and his new house has 1-inch-thick dust covering the floor and windows, no fan and light, contractors and workers walking in and out freely, and – NO ELECTRICITY yet!

In an exclusive interview, James told our reporters yesterday that It was impossible for him to stay in the new house for the time being, and having just returned from Ipoh last week, James doesn’t plan to make another trip back again this week.

Right now, James is essentially living a homeless, hermit’s life; visiting and staying at different friends’ houses for the nights – until next week.

Really, really sad.

Sebastian’s house, where he has been staying for the last couple of nights, is in a new housing area and has no internet connection yet.

Eyewitnesses claim that James is – right now – using (and sometimes stealing from inside the car) public WiFi from a nearby restaurant! Very cham of him!

According to experts, James can’t really write a proper blog entry with just 30-45 minutes of time in the restaurant… Not being a great writer himself, plus the time needed for processing photos – a normal blog entry takes around 3 hours to complete.

If all goes well, James’ll be moving into his new house the day after tomorrow. we’ll see what happens.

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Show some support and donate to the poor homeless victims in Szechuan, and, if you have extra money and a BIG kind heart – also donate to poor homeless James. All donations will go into his bank account.

Please send an email to the Homeless James Chow Fund (HJCF) at james@james-chow.com to donate, or, call him personally for payment instructions. Show him your loving and caring heart!

All proceeds to the HJCF will be channeled to his entertainment and shopping expenditures… or maybe buying a new laptop…

THANK YOU!

P.S. Due to the large amount of funds received, James is currently limiting all donations to over RM1,000 only.

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LOL, please pardon the stupid entry… I think days without internet is driving me crazy…

… But really, if you can, donate to the poor Szechuan earthquake victims… That is real!

*Just a short update. (Huhu… how come my holidays are busier than my school days? )*

Shortly after my friend’s car was stolen, my own car – was crashed.

I was sleeping in the front passenger seat when the car hit a truck on the north-south highway.

I’m OK, or I won’t be writing this entry, right?

… but the car is finished…

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We (finally) started moving to our new house today!

We rented a lorry to transport the big bulky stuff like cupboards and tables – things that cannot be moved by car. It was incredible how much stuff we can cramp into a single journey!

… and that wasn’t all of them yet!

We had originally thought that we were going to live in this house until we graduated, so we all had quite a huge amount of things…

Alvin (and me too) had to come back specially for this because we had to empty this house by the end of this week!

At six o’clock, we successfully moved all the bulky stuff downstairs, including – after an extraordinary combined effort by me and my helpful housemates – my incredibly heavy 3-door cupboard and L-shape table!

Soon after, the lorry came and we moved everything up, leaving behind those that we are going to move by car.

Check out my room’s current condition – with the things to be transported by car scattered everywhere!

Yup, the Christmas tree is STILL standing! Haha… But this time for a few more days only, that’s for sure! Hehe…

We’re going to move the remaining things to the new house in the next couple of days.

I’ll try to update more…

It was terrible.

The news of the fire will be up on newspapers tomorrow – but you get it first on James-Chow.com. I must’ve been crazy to have stopped and taken the only picture of the fire above!

Two people suffered second-degree burns and were hospitalized, two more had mild injuries (I’m one of them – my right index and middle finger got burned when I took the picture above), and even some deaths – five barbequed rabbits.

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No lah! OK!

Actually, we went to our new house in Seri Kembangan yesterday, to clear the grass and weeds that had grown on the front and rear lawns over the past six years of the house being empty.

It is indeed a good question to ask: Why is it OUR – and not the landlord’s – job to clear up the mess in front of the house…?! I was wondering that too.

Apparently, the agent had asked one of our friends if we could clear up the grass ourselves, and he (that friend) agreed…!! on behalf of all of us! LOL!

Anyway, we soon found out that the agent’s idea of clearing the grass was, not using any gardening tool or chemical, but to simply burn ‘em all!

I personally didn’t think it was a good idea, but it was technically not our house yet, so we just stood and… watched.

The guy got a liquid sprayer from his house and filled it with diesel. The effect was quite incredible, kinda looked like the kind of flamethrower weapons in computer games…

It was very environmentally unfriendly, and the fire that my friend had set at the backyard even went slightly out of control!

The flames were as tall as us, and we had to close the back door and hide inside to shield ourselves from being burned!

Haha, that was how the first photo was taken… In fact, the flames were worse than what it looks like in the photo, seriously!

* Fire went out in less than a minute’s time.

After that, we proceeded to cleaning the mess – removing all the remaining weeds, ashes, burnt branches and stuff…

We’re officially moving into our new house next week! YAY!

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It was our housemate Heng’s birthday!

I think it was very unfortunate of him to have his birthday in the middle of the final exam week! Every year he has to celebrate his birthday with people around who are all stressed-up by exams!

Haha…

Heng received a free, HUGE glass of milk tea for his birthday from Wong Kok Char Chan Teng!

It was so insanely huge and it was very, very heavy!

Heng is only 21, but he has always been our ‘dad’ among us housemates! Yup, he really acts like one! Haha, that’s not an insult ok!

This picture is really great… He finished the whole bucket of milk tea! Or at least it looks like it!

We bought a birthday cake for Heng from Secret Recipe, but they forgot to give us the candles!

Birthday cake without candles ler! We only realized there were no candles after we had opened the packaging…

The cake was supposed to be a surprise to Heng, so we were quite lucky to have the opportunity to get some candles (used candles from another friend’s previous birthday cake ) and light them on the cake before he saw it.

Shheeesh I know it is totally pathetic to use second-hand candles for a friend’s birthday cake… But we had no choice!

Haha… Heng knew it but he was very happy, nevertheless!

**********

My friend’s car was stolen!

His Proton Waja was parked inside the compound of Cyberia Townvillas, with 24-hours security (kononnya), car locked, at a resident parking lot!

It was very unfortunate because he had left his access card, which was required to get past (enter/exit) the Townvilla security, in the car…

So we guessed the thief probably used the card and happily ‘beep’-ed his way past the security gates, perhaps even waving at the guards as he passed…

We reported the incident to the Cyberia security department, the management, and lodged a police report at the Cyberjaya police station.

The police were unexpectedly helpful and friendly. After the report, some police officers came and ’sort of’ investigated the place – questioning security guards and taking pictures.

One of the police officers actually jokingly admitted that all it would take was two minutes to steal a Proton car… LOL!

We went back to the police station that night for my friend to meet another officer for making statements.

With the police report, my friend was able to apply for his insurance claim. It might take a few months to approve though…

What are the odds of the Malaysian Police being able to find a stolen car?

-

P.S. My exams are finished! Yay!

Then, the house – despite its terrible piping and electric problems (one of the rooms have not had any electricity at its sockets) – was raised by RM300 in monthly rental.

And NOW, our horrible agent, the one who uttered the infamous sentence:

“… so, I guess you all are just… err… unlucky lor…“

is refusing to refund a RM300 deposit to a friend who had paid it for the agent to find a new house, and she had promised that the deposit would be refundable if she couldn’t find a house for him…

… which she did, actually – yeah, she found a ridiculous RM1,900/month house, which was

small in size,

awful location,

terrible environment, and

ludicrous architecture!

… one of the ‘rooms‘ actually had to – and could only – be entered by getting out to the rear lawn and entering from its door placed there (there’s no door into that room from inside the house)!

I didn’t see the room myself, but from what my friends described to me, I Imagined it to be like some garden shed!

A BEDROOM that could only be entered from the back garden! A house like that, you stay lor…!

We’ve decided that we had had enough – we’re not gonna stay in Cyberjaya anymore.

OK, to be fair - Cyberjaya is a great, hi-tech, peaceful place, and its housing areas are very nice…

… all except those around the university! Despicable landlords and agents monopolizing the student’s market and capitalizing on the helpless students’ desperation of finding a place to stay near campus…

… teamed with terrible food choice and quality, shameless groceries price mark-ups, disgusting service attitudes… That’s my opinion on Cyberia – the place where many other MMU students and I are now staying at.

RAWR!

**********

I’m gonna stop criticizing…

A few friends and I went to Seri Kembangan yesterday to look for a house. It’s already May and it’s quite late to look for a house, but we had no choice, we needed to!

We went around this area called Bandar Putra Permai and simply called up whichever telephone number being displayed on the ‘for sale/to let‘ signs on houses…

Of course, there were some that we didn’t want to call – like this house that has a fully-grown TREE near the front door:

… or this one – with a perfectly preserved wildlife habitat in your garden…

The rental fees for houses around here are typically RM500-RM700 for single storey houses, and RM600-RM900 for double storey ones.

Very cheap leh! Compared to the RM1,300-RM1,800 range for townhouses in Cyberia!

And the sizes are almost the same! Here we have better food, more places to buy stuff, and much friendlier agents!

We even found that with RM1,500 – the rental price for our current Cyberia house starting next month, we can rent a semi-D with a super, incredibly HUGE lawn, in Seri Kembangan!

Can even play football in the garden!

Yesterday, although we didn’t really intend to get this house, we arranged with the owner to take a look in the house the next day, but the owner called us today, last-minute, and told us that she had decided to sell the house – not renting.

Finally, we settled with this house:

The outside looks kinda messy because it is a new house and it hasn’t been occupied for years – so I think after the landlord clears up the mess outside a bit – it should be very nice!

20-minute drive to MMU, I think this place is quite ideal!

**********

I’m going back to Ipoh tomorrow, coming back on Tuesday or Thursday…

Haha!

This dinner was made specially for the Hi-Comms and Excos of the club who had worked so hard for the club in the previous academic year.

Shogun is one of the rather famous Japanese buffet restaurants in the PJ area, and, Japanese food + all you can eat = a very tempting combination indeed!

We arrived at around 6.50PM and started gathering our food at 7.15PM, once everybody had arrived.

It is no secret that I always lose out in buffets because of my average appetite size… People always say that I can’t even ‘eat back the price‘ in buffets…

Shogun might be slightly expensive, but with the club paying for it, nobody’s going to care!

Our group occupied three long tables and was probably the noisiest and most attention-grabbing group in the restaurant.

There was another group of people beside us celebrating a birthday – and our side sang with them too!

Everyone ate for only around the first hour, and spent the next two hours or so taking pictures, and like… simply moving around…

For some of us, this dinner marks the end of our active involvement in this club as we are ‘retiring’ from the Committee. Many are entering their final year next year, and are going to be less active…

Of course, we will be glad to help out and participate in trips, and I’m very sure the new batch of Hi-Comms are going to do an even better job in this coming academic year!

It is difficult to find such a dedicated and energetic (and noisy) group!

It’s kinda sad that some senior members are leaving as well….

A picture of the current (old) Exco:

Jon, Me, Suzanne, Shuh Yin, Rebecca and Wee TIng.

… and the upcoming (new) Exco:

Kean Kong, Jansen, Nicole and Shirly.

To make sure that Shogun blacklists Kean Kong’s name, our handsome upcoming President, for making noisy reservations, here’s our extravagant Tourism Club yum seng!

Haha, just kidding!

Finally, came the scary RM1.6K bill…

… which our pretty Treasurer smartly paid with a card…

… err, what card?

Haha, no lah… In the end it was Kean Kong who paid it!

The dinner was truly wonderful, and to cap it all, the club treated us all to a movie before leaving!

**********

For photos please click here!

I was (sort of) deaf since I came back from Redang, and I think some of my closer friends would know that…

Apparently, some Redang seawater, or sand – or fish – had gone into my right ear, causing it to be somehow ‘blocked’!

A GP (ordinary doctor) had suspected that there could have been an infection in the ear, and recommended me to an Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) Specialist in Damansara Specialist Hospital.

I didn’t have the time to go and see the doctor because it has been a busy couple of weeks, plus the fact that the hospital is so far away!

So, all this while, I could only hear with ONE ear – my left ear!

When friends talk to me, I had to tilt my head to the right side and concentrate listening with my left ear! Huhu…

… and when I talk to friends, they told me, I would uncontrollably talk softly, much softer than usual… I think that was due to fact that I couldn’t even hear my own voice completely; so even when I tried my best, I couldn’t effectively control my volume.

I knew this problem had to be solved, the Nemo that had swum into my right ear had to be removed immediately – so, two weeks ago, I went to see the ENT Surgeon for the first time; and yesterday for the second time.

Both times, the doctor peered deeply into my ear with some strange metal device and used a really small but loud (considering it was operating just beside my eardrum!) ‘vacuum cleaner’ to ‘clean’ the insides!

It was quite painful also!

Anyway, since yesterday, I have totally recovered. Now I can hear with both ears… and talk normally! YAY!

**********

I didn’t have a phone for the past two weeks. Ever since my phone was spoiled, I had been using Jon’s ‘backup’ phone!

I could have easily continued using Jon’s phone until, at least, I’ve passed my current ‘financial crisis’…

But unfortunately, Jon’s phone is not at all suitable for ordinary use – calling, SMSing etc. If it is ever suitable for something, I think it would be doing magic tricks!

Why magic tricks? Because, you don’t need to press the ON/OFF button on the top of the phone to switch it off!

All that is needed is a tiny little knock or impact to the back of the phone, and the power’s gone!

Jon had even removed the battery cover because the cover itself was enough to cause the small ‘impact’!

Basically, whenever there’s a small knock to the back, or when the phone is held too tightly, it switches off!

Here’s a demonstration:

If David Blaine sees this and wants to buy it from Jon, contact me! I want a commission! Kakaka…

Anyway, this phone would turn itself off simply by the pressure of my jeans! So, basically it was useless… I was still missing all my calls and messages carrying this phone in my pocket…

Yesterday, I went to Low Yat to get my new phone. I could not wait any longer…

I had always wanted to buy this phone, even when I had my original phone; I had wanted it as my ’second’ phone.

It is not exactly a new phone, and the functions are so-so only… but it is a 3G phone nevertheless. Anyway, I really like the design!

My humble new phone – Sony Ericsson Z610i!

And, its MP3 player is really quite OK, so I think it can also replace my lost iPod for the time being!

Update on my room:

It’s April and my Christmas tree is still standing!

Haha!

I can still remember, this magnificent Christmas tree was bought and built on December 2, 2007. The date today is April 19th, 2008, and I still haven’t got time to remove the decorations and store away the tree!

Or maybe it’s because it is too beautiful that I don’t really want to take it away…

Or maybe I was just lazy… Hehe…

**********

Update on my house:

We’re moving out next month. This house is still in danger of flooding!

Oh no no, the piping problem is still not fixed yet!

We’ve been having this problem since last year, and we were pretty sure that we hadn’t done anything to stuck the toilet pipes and stuff…

Check out this video of us sweeping the overflowing (and still flowing/moving) water down the staircase from the upper floor!

But the problem is, the agent / landlord isn’t claiming responsibility either!

One of the most famous (and totally annoying) sentences ever uttered by our agent to us about this piping problem was:

“Oh… If you think you didn’t cause the blockage, but the problem happened during your tenancy wor… So, I guess you are just… err… unlucky lor…”

… meaning we’ve gotta pay for the fixing! How much? The last price quotation was more than RM3,000.

Really geng lor, these agents! UNLUCKY wor…?!!

Besides, the rental prices of townhouses around this area are rocketing sky-high – A typical RM1,200/month house will cost RM1,500/month starting next month; and RM1,600/month penthouses are going for RM2,200!

Staying in Cyberia is really going to bankrupt us before we can graduate!

**********

Update on my studies:

I’ve successfully and officially changed my academic major! I’m no longer taking Electronics Majoring in Telecommunications. Instead, it’s still Electronics, but – Majoring in Multimedia.

The official, unnecessarily long title is Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng) (Hons.), Electronics Majoring in Multimedia.

If you asked me what the heck is the difference between the two; in words that we are more familiar with, I’d say that, in my previous major, I was going to be involved with phones, the internet, satellites and radio signals; stuff from how you received text messages from your boyfriend, to how EPL football matches get broadcast live from England to your local mamak stall.

Well-known brands in Telecommunications are like Maxis, Streamyx, Nokia and Skype.

But now, with my new major, I will likely be more involved in the designing of, perhaps, your latest high-resolution digital / video recorder, a better and faster YouTube (video-streaming), the next HD plasma TV display etc.

Technically anything involving an electronic combination of two or more of the following – Graphics, Text, Sounds and Videos – that’s Multimedia!

Well-known brands in Multimedia are like Sony, Samsung, Astro and GSC/TGV Cinemas.

Wish me luck! Hehe…

**********

Update on Jon’s rabbits:

I’ve done quite a regular coverage of Jon’s ‘baby’ rabbits ever since they were born four months ago…

But this is probably the last time I can update about them, because Jon is moving out of Cyberjaya next month, and the baby rabbits are, after all, all grown up already!

Only 3 left!

The other two babies, plus their daddy, were sadly given away due to, err… cost and ’spatial’ considerations.

They are all grown-ups now! No longer babies… and we’ve got proof – one of them, according to Jon, apparently tried to hump its mother! Rabbit porn!

Anyway… They are so big now, really… I think each of them can turn into a very full, BBQ dinner meal already…

(Still) my all-time favorite rabbit – MAYA!

So big that I can no longer hold with one hand – like I used to do a couple of months ago…

Huhu… Won’t be seeing them anymore starting next month… Sad sad…

**********

Lately, there are a lot of students around Cyberia doing ‘catering’ businesses – meaning they distribute fliers advertising the foods they’re catering, you call them up, and they deliver to your doorstep – with a charge, of course.

These foods usually range between fast foods (McD, KFC etc), burgers (ayam special, daging etc), and other stuff like Chinese mixed rice and nasi lemak.

Some have even gone as far as offering to cater food from a nearby hawker center in Seri Kembangan – Wantan Mee, Chee Cheong Fun, Dim Sum… all in the name of a small profit!

I think these people really know how to ‘fit the Demand’, since food choices in Cyberjaya are so disgustingly limited!

Anyway, catering KFC or burger ayam special in Cyberia, a residential area beside MMU generally populated by student residents, is considered quite normal.

But here are the really ’smart’ guys who pioneered a drastically new kind of catering:

Beer!

Now I really have to say - except for maybe the ‘moral’ aspect, these guys are really good business-thinkers!

Cyberia is ultra-densely populated by 20-to-30-year-old students, many foreign students, and what’s more – there’s a law forbidding general stores selling beer in Cyberjaya! If I’m not mistaken, a special permit is needed for stores to sell beer around here!

Therefore, basic economics: low supply + high demand = very profiting product!

I should have thought of this!

… to my dear friends who have chatted with me on the ‘live chat’ box on the left side of the page:

There may not be a large number of these special people like you, but thank you for chatting and sharing with me your opinions, offering advices, or simply talking about something that I have written.

… I really enjoy replying you guys!

But, lately, I found that our conversations on the chat box are not permanent – when they reach the bottom end of the box, they will be deleted forever – and there is no way to get them back…

I really want your words to be here forever – they mean a lot to me.

I want it when I look back at this blog many years from now, when we are all working adults and maybe not contacting each other anymore – I still want to see and remember every single word you guys have said to me, and have encouraged me in my life this far.

Because of that,

I have transferred all of the things that you guys have written (those related to a particular story that I’ve written) into the ‘comments’ section of that entry.

That way, it is much more easier for me to reply to you, because I have more control over the ‘comments’ section, compared to using the chat box!

… And what’s more – things written in the ‘comments’ section are never deleted by the system – kept there forever!

Dear friends, this is what I wish to ask of you – if it is possible, please leave the things that you wish to say (that are related to something that I have written in an entry) in the ‘comments’ section of each entry.

For the things that are not related to any of the entries, something that you simply want to chat about – you can leave them in the chat box!

I hope you guys know this – the things that YOU say about my entries, about the things that I’ve written about my life – they are very important to me.

… one of the main reasons that I created this website (as I have written in the ‘about me‘ page) is, after all, to communicate and interact with my friends!

Let me tell you a small ’secret’ – honestly, everytime someone writes something encouraging in the ‘comments’ section of any of my blog entries, I really feel very happy and warm… And I would secretly, but sincerely, thank that person in my heart… I really do!

I promise I would reply to them – every single sentence that you wrote to me on this website. If I didn’t reply to something that you’ve written, I would personally send you a message!

That’s it… Thanks to all of you!

**********

Assignment submission later… The time now (when I’m writing this) is 6.08AM and I still haven’t slept yet… Zzz….

I’ll update tomorrow after the submission…

This is not an advertisement – Apple didn’t pay me anything for it but I am writing about it because I am damn impressed!

The quality of Apple iPods is so good, so durable, that I in fact accidentally ‘washed’ it in my washing machine (with washing liquid), went through the ‘rinse’ mode and totally violent ’spin’ mode, and was hung outside under the sun for a few hours…

… and it still works!

Haha, this is really incredible!

I really, really thought that I’d have to buy a new one… and it would be really painful to my finances because I am currently REALLY not in the condition to spend freely.

Besides, I liked my iPod very much, it am totally satisfied with its great performance, and it has never, not even once, broken down since I bought it in Hong Kong two years ago!

I thought I was going to be totally broke. I had just bought a new camera, and I needed to buy a new phone urgently (now not functioning at all); and if a new iPod was to be added to the list – I don’t think I can even survive this month!

HAHAHAHAHA… Apple Inc. saved me!!!

… or maybe they wouldn’t be too happy since I’m won’t need to buy a new iPod anymore!

If you’ve read my previous post you’d know that I left the MP3 player in my pocket, somehow bypassed my ‘pockets-checking’ procedure before I put my laundry into the washing machine, and ended up in a dripping-wet khakis!

It totally didn’t work when I first brought it back from the laundry drying rack, there were visible water marks inside the screen, tried to turn it on but it had no response. Dead.

I knew it was a bad idea to charge an electronic device that had just come out of a washing machine, but I had to try it – I plugged in the USB cable and connected it to my computer.

The screen flickered, displayed the famous Apple logo, and the entire screen faded.

I thought this was it – the Apple logo was probably my iPod’s final ‘goodbye words’. (Now I think – If they really were, then my iPod is really, very ridiculously, loyal to its company! Almost dying and still thinking of Apple Inc.)

I left it beside my bed to dry. I knew that hope was shallow for it to ‘recover’, because unlike a thumbdrive or any other electronic device that draws power from the outside – an iPod has an internal battery!

Having an internal power source means that there is a MUCH higher chance of it being short-circuited when its circuit board receives water contact.

If you don’t understand – your Pendrive (device without a battery) can probably go for a swim in your swimming pool, come up, dry itself, and store pictures for you again; but your handphone (device with a battery) would probably not stand a chance!

HAHAHAHAHA I am still so happy that I can hug Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc., and kiss him on his cute bearded face!

YAY!

Somebody control me. I think I am going crazy…

*********

I wrote this entry a couple of days ago, but didn’t publish it because I wasn’t free but wanted to include a few pictures of my newly ’saved’ iPod before I published the entry; I didn’t have time to take photos at that time.

The “washing-machine-survivable-iPod” incident was supposed to be a refreshing good news in the midst of my chain of disasters which include a lost camera, a damaged handphone and others.

BUT CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! MY BAD LUCK IS STILL NOT OVER YET!!!

THERE IS NO NEED TO TAKE ANY PICTURE OF MY WATERPROOF IPOD ANYMORE – BECAUSE IT IS NOW F****** GONE!!!

NO, I AM NOT GOING TO CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY ANYMORE! I AM NO LONGER GOING TO BLAME MYSELF FOR NEGLIGENCE AND SHIT!

SOMEONE BASTARD STOLE IT FROM ME! I WASN’T CARELESS!

I’M SORRY FOR COMPLAINING LIKE THIS… BUT YES, I AM VERY FED-UP.

**********

…

**********

Sigh… You know what?

I am very scared now… Almost all the essential electronic devices around me have had terrible things happen to them… one by one… Erm, have you heard of the movie Final Destination before?

The horror movie is about a group of friends who ‘cheated death’ because they had avoided, by pure luck (usually warned by a premonition), the situation in which they should have died.

So, ‘Death’ himself comes to claim their lives, one by one, using disgusting, cruel, freak ‘accidents’ – because they should be dead but they aren’t.

Back to reality – Mysteriously, my electronic devices did ‘cheat death’ before… Haha…

First, it was my camera -

When I first bought my previous camera almost a year ago, I wasn’t used to carrying a fourth item – after my phone, wallet, and keys – in my pocket. And, the camera was considered quite thick for my jeans, so I frequently took it out, put it on the table, and sometimes almost left without it.

Luckily, in every occasion, my friends would remind me when I left it behind. If this counts, my camera had ‘cheated death’ many times.

Second, my phone – I had once accidentally left my phone and my wallet in a pool room in Cyberjaya – almost five months ago.

It was quite bulky in my jeans pocket so I took it out and left it on the table. Yup, this time I really left the place without them. It was until I was back in my house before I realized that I had left them there, and when we drove back to the place to find them – they were gone!

After a few horrible minutes, a kind Indian guy came and said that he had seen my phone and wallet and had taken them – waiting for us to come back and retrieve them!

I was very thankful, he could have just taken them, left, and sold my phone for a cheap price in some second-hand shop. My phone had definitely ‘cheated death’.

Third, my iPod – last week, I accidentally washed it in the washing machine and by some unbelievable miracle, it survived. Electronic stuff are not supposed to survive washing machines, but mine did. My iPod, also, cheated death!

My camera, followed by my phone, then my iPod… Erm, notice something – the chronology… the order? It is the very same order in which they were recently lost/damaged…! Scary, huh?

Now I really fear for my last and most critically important electronic equipment of all…

… My laptop.

I really want to think that my laptop had not cheated death before – but… read this.

Four of my most regularly used electronic devices are boycotting – no, actually bullying me!

I am, after all, an Electronics Engineering student! I specialize in these devices! In fact, our profession created them! How can they do this to me?

The four electronic devices that I use the most everyday are:

1. Camera
2. Handphone
3. MP3 Player
4. Laptop

Let me tell you what happened to them one by one…

1) My ex-Sony T-20 Cybershot Digital Camera - LOST.

Losing my camera was probably the greatest tragedy of all. Huge impact to my memories, severe loss of precious photos, and gigantic blow to my current finances!

It was my fault to have lost it, and I was very sad, but finally got over it.

I’ve got an entire entry covering this news, I don’t think I need to elaborate.

Then, came the next bully:

2) My Nokia 6600 handphone – BROKEN.

Before this happened, I had already planned to get a new phone when I go to HK this June, but I didn’t expect it to stop functioning so soon – now!

The keypad had suddenly and completely stopped working today. So although I could switch on the power, I couldn’t even key in my PIN code!

I opened and checked everything I could. Nope, nothing can do – internal damage.

I think no matter how terrible my current finances are, I’ve got to buy a new one this week… Sob sob… My handphone is probably the most important electronic device to me! How do I live even one day without a handphone? Can’t even wake up in the morning!

As if it wasn’t bad enough, here comes number 3:

3) My Apple iPod Nano MP3 Player – WASHED!!!

OK, I don’t know what to say about this.

I, you know… accidentally, like – washed – my iPod in the washing machine.

I found it dripping wet in one of the pockets hanging outside under the sun this afternoon.

…

Yeah, go ahead, laugh.

…

I dunno how the heck that could have happened as I always check the pockets of my clothes before putting them into the washing machine…

The only conclusion – careless me.

I still don’t know how the iPod’s condition is as I’m writing this. I tried to turn it on but it had no response… Now still trying to ‘revive’ it, but – faint chance. Sigh…

Last but not least, number 4:

4) My Acer Aspire 4710 laptop – ‘ALMOST’ LOST!

Oh God, if it really happened – and I lost my laptop, you’d probably see me jumping off the 12th floor of one of the Cyberia condo blocks.

It was really a heart-stopping moment. We were all in the car when I realized that my laptop was not with me… When we went back to look for it – gone.

As I stood there planning my next move, my mind was flashing through the critically important documents and files stored in my laptop, from important agreements and letters, to precious photos and personal diaries/financial records…

Losing my camera or phone or iPod would be terrible, but they are all, at least, replaceables. Losing them is nothing compared to losing my laptop.

In the end, it turned out that one of my friends saw the laptop as he passed by, and decided to teach me a lesson. He took it, and gave me some time to panic, before returning it to me laughing at my stunned expression.

Thanks to him, I am still able to write this entry with my laptop.

**********

OK I know what you’re thinking... The gadgets are actually not bullying me, instead all that has happened were almost all my fault, nothing but my own carelessness… and I think you’re right… I admit it.

But why do they all have to happen at once? And why this period when I’m overflowing with other personal debts? Huhu…

It’s basically the 2nd generation of my previous Sony T-20! The front design is almost the same, except that the front sliding-cover is much thinner.

When I first lost my camera, I said that I would never buy a Sony again, maybe a Canon. Because I didn’t want myself to be reminded of that tragedy whenever I saw my new camera.

Ironically, now, I end up with a Sony again – with a model that looks almost identical to the previous one, only that this one is white!

Haha, I am not able to forget the old camera after all!

In addition to the design, this camera has a touch screen, meaning there are no buttons on the back side; and the famous Sony smile-shutter feature, which automatically snaps a shot when the people inside the screen are smiling!

Plus, I really like the 16:9 wide-screen!

James, don’t lose this camera again!

**********

It is Glen’s birthday TODAY!

Not just any birthday! It’s his 21st birthday!

(I dunno how I managed to make the cake look so weird in this photo. In reality, it was really pretty!)

We planned to go out that night, but before that, our small group went to Steven’s house (where Glen occasionally stays during weekdays *his own house is in Puchong*) for the birthday song and cake-cutting with Glen and his housemates!

Although we wanted to, we didn’t dare to splat his face into the cake when he blew the candle… because Steven’s housemate bought the cake and it looked really delicious.

However, Jon ended up pressing his own piece of the cake onto Glen’s face, almost literally ‘drawing’ with the cream on both sides of his face!

*I don’t understand why David (first person from the left) ’s face is always blurred in the photos taken by my camera, see this picture and the previous one!*

Glen’s face is full of creamy, chocolatey cake but he can still smile nicely…

Actually, the Jon’s throw-cake-on-face was quite artistically done, compared to this:

OK the photo might look kinda stupi-*ahem*… but don’t underestimate him! Let me reveal a secret -  Steven is the almighty beer king around, and you have no idea what he is capable of doing when he gets drunk!

Last year, I had the opportunity of witnessing him totally wasted by beer, and I don’t think he’d happily allow me to share what I heard and saw.

Anyway, we searched his room yesterday and found ‘evidence’ that he really does beat everyone when it comes to drinking.

All these – by himself!

Yet, no – he is not an alcoholic. To him, he drinks only when he wants to, and I can see that there’s definitely no addiction.

**********

Later at around 10.30PM, Jon and Agnes went home because they said they had just had two exams in a row that day, and were tired.

So the five of us went for a drink at Rainforest, Sunway Pyramid. We had originally planned to stay there until at least midnight and countdown to Glen’s 21st birth-Day).

But Steven, who had earlier said we should find a place that was to be not too noisy so that we could at least talk, started saying that the place was too boring.

It was quite true – there were very few people and we were the only few people talking against the music, taking pictures, and… nothing else!

Indeed, it was a Monday night and naturally, pubs everywhere were slightly quiet.

Finally, we paid the bill before 12am and went over to Bar Celona, where there were much more people, and more ‘movements’.

This was the first time Glen and the rest went clubbing with me. It had been both difficult and funny to imagine the always polite and timid guy, Steven, dancing and grinding with girls on the dance floor, so I had really planned to, if I could manage, take a video when he does and show it to Jon and the rest!

But my uncooperative new camera chose to run out of battery right after we took the first few photos!

Remember the blazer that contained my ex-camera when I lost the Sony T-20 in the cinema a couple of weeks ago? That blazer was lost TOO, yesterday! Argh! I think the blazer couldn’t bear parting with my ex-camera so he left me too…

Not my fault leh! David and I were the first to go out and hit the floor. I had thought that at least one person would stay back and jaga the drinks but no one did. It was not until the lights were turned on at 3am before I was sure that it was taken by someone…

I liked the blazer very much ler, bought it from Sub a few months ago… In fact, I liked it so much that I didn’t allow myself to wear it too frequently…

OK, OK… I know I totally suck in safekeeping my items. Huhu… I think I’ve learned my lesson. I will be very, very much more careful with my belongings from now on…

Anyway, went on a Monday, naturally, there was no weekend or ladies night crowd – but It was nevertheless quite enjoyable.

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Glen is officially 21 today! I think being 21 years old is really one of the greatest milestones in a person’s life. You are officially AN ADULT, not even a teenager anymore.

No more restrictions to anything, anymore – can do whatever you like. But at the same time, you lose all protection, and dependence on almost everything that you had when you were young – It’s all up to you now, whether you live happily or miserably from then on, no one’s able to help you anymore.

In a way, it’s quite scary to think of it… Hmm…

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But still, being 21 is great! Many more months before I’m 21! Haha!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GLEN!

Losing my precious camera was indeed a sad story.

Paid RM1000+ for these tickets.

It happened something like this: Went to watch Ah Long Pte. Ltd. – Camera kept in my blazer’s inner pocket – Blazer folded up in bag – Friend felt cold – took out blazer, offered to friend – [Presumably] dropped the Sony onto the floor – Didn’t notice – Movie ended, left the cinema, left the mall.

Noticed camera missing while in the car – Went back to the mall – Receptionist said she wanted to help but couldn’t let me in because another movie was screening – Cleaning workers swore they didn’t see any camera – Friendly manager said she would check out the place once the movie ended, and promised to call me with any findings.

I trusted them – But didn’t expect anything – Rationally I expected the worst – My expectations were then later, sadly, confirmed.

*End of story*

I was sad. I liked my camera very much. It was nice in every way, and most importantly, it contained many, many of my happy memories – and now it is unwillingly laying in the hands of some bastard who had no idea what my camera had gone through, and would, I think, never appreciate it as I do.

*sigh* God knows how the new guy is treating it…

My camera doesn’t deserve this. Our sudden parting was entirely due to my negligence, my own fault. I should have been more careful. I should have not trusted the cinema people. I should have waited there myself until the next movie ended in an hour and a half’s time.

Should have sat there and refused to move until I found my camera!

More than anything else, the camera contained very nice photos of our group taken with dear old friend Deborah, who had come back to Malaysia from Japan for a week’s holiday. Photos taken during our outing that day, and the BBQ dinner at Shuyi’s house that night – gone…

Those, and many other precious photos taken before I went back to Ipoh – Photos that I have not transferred to my computer yet; and now, because of my mistake, I would never have the chance to do so anymore.

The USB cable and charger – the only 2 things left…

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Anyway, I’m not sad anymore… I’ve long learned to treat misfortunes as lessons, and this is a lesson for me to take extra care of my personal belongings, before I lose something more valuable

And also to always appreciate things when they’re here, because we would never know how long they would stay there.

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There are people who actually thought that the loss of my camera was an April Fools’ joke! Walao! Really no heart 1…

Those who went with me to Redang would probably know that I could not hear properly with my right ear because, I presume – sea water went inside… and now, two weeks later, I am still partially-deaf! Really!

Doctors have recommended that I consult a specialist, and I did.

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Don’t worry, even with my camera gone, I’ll update soon!

Lost my camera…

Many precious photos gone…

…

How to continue blogging?

I’ve decided even before I went on the trip – I won’t write another entry on every single thing that happened in Redang – I had already done it for my Redang Trip last year.

And yes, the main activities were practically the same as last year – bus journey, boat ride, three snorkeling sessions, beach disco, blue sand… I think most of the resorts in Redang have exactly the same 3D2N package!

So, in this entry… I’ll write about some other things instead!

Let’s see what was different in this Redang Trip compared to the previous one.

Firstly – new key players!

Trip Director – Kean Kong.

I think he did a really good job in this trip!

A dedicated and firm person – Kean Kong was voted to replace Jon as the President of Tourism Club next year.

Next, Assistant Director – Jansen!

Jansen with long hair! Can you believe it?

Always friendly and a fun person to be with – Jansen was voted to replace me as the Vice President of Tourism Club next year.

Moving on, Tour Leader – Winston!

An excellent tour leader – Winston is one of the best we’ve got!

I dunno, Jon might be better! You decide!

This is Jon as one of the tour leaders in the Redang Trip last year.

Who do you like more? Oh Jon is going to hate my blog…

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Similar to the previous Redang Trip, we departed from MMU at 10pm, so we had a night journey. Again similar to the previous trip, I couldn’t sleep in the bus for the whole night.

Different from the previous trip, not only me, but many of us couldn’t sleep – because the TV on the bus was switched on, showing, of all movies – Rambo 4! It was an MMU bus, full of students and university officers! And at 3am in the morning!

If you haven’t watched the movie, then you might not understand; but if you have, you’ll surely know how violent and gory it is – yes, we watched the uncensored version!

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Similar to the previous trip – We rode on a boat from Kuala Terengganu to Redang Island.

The difference between the two boats was remarkable – the previous boat (last year) had been huge, comfortable, air-conditioned, had mounted TV screens on walls, spacious and even had an open-air upper deck for its passengers to get some sunlight and ocean breeze!

So comfortable that we had easily fallen asleep on the journey.

This time – the boat was small, had some strange smell, not really comfortable and poorly ventilated with sealed windows and without air-conditioning or fan.

The only breeze was coming in from a small opening in front of the passenger cabin – along with sea water splashing into the cabin, onto the faces of those unfortunate ones sitting in the front rows.

Kean Kong and a few of us sat at the opening to block the sea water from being splashed in! We were all wet well before we reached the island!

This ride was so bumpy that many people got nauseous, a couple of them even vomited in the boat!

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The things that happened next were the typical, but exciting, Redang activities…

In my opinion, this trip was as good as it could be, despite all the stuff that I complained about just now. Not being a direct organizing committee member of the trip this time, I think I can objectively give a few humble comments:

The Director and his committee members have worked really hard on this, I could really see. Honestly, there are a number of areas in this trip that, I think, turned out much better compared to the previous Redang Trip.

Of course, I’m not saying that the previous one was a failure – I think each had their own good points.

This trip was really a success, and I salute the people who worked hard for it, they deserved the success.

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About the activities… Snorkeling and stuff… Not gonna write about them again! Look at my previous Redang Trip’s entry! They’re almost the same.

In fact, I didn’t actually participate in all of them! This time, to me, it was less about the activities, but more about my own relaxation and getting to know people.

Hehe… So I’m going to end this entry abruptly… here! Why not take a look at my Photo Album? Pictures tell much more stories than words!

‘Little Ball’ is actually the name of a rabbit – one of the six adorable babies that were born in our home a few months ago. The name is a nickname given by a friend, who simply loves it to death!

Little Ball has the greatest amount of disproportionate fur on its… everywhere!

It has so much hair on its head that, I think, it can see nothing in front of it at all.

The hair on its head is so long that we can give it different magnificent hairstyles!

Let me show you some of them – The one above is the hair-down-front style – the one used by many cool Japanese male characters.

Here’s the middle-line-parting style – Super Ah Beng look!

Haha!

With the middle-line, there’s always the side-line-parting style – a very common but flexible guys’ style!

Next, for some slightly more radical styles:

Spiky style… Teenagers’ favorite! This one doesn’t even need gel or wax or anything – purely natural.

The best thing is – Little Ball doesn’t struggle, and it doesn’t try to run away. It just sits there quietly and allows us to style its hair!

Maybe it was enjoying the attention, or maybe our Little Ball knew that its personal ‘hairstyle collection’ was going to be published online!

Look! David Beckham (long time ago) style – “Cockerel hair”!

And below… What we used to call, during secondary school, ‘Aeroplane-head‘!

It was quite popular among guys back in those days… Brings back memories of our secondary school days eh?

Aww… I know it looks sad… but it is not… really! It looks sad only because a chunk of its hair is covering part of its eye – giving it the ’sad eyes’!

I can assure you that it was enjoying the new styles – look at how totally cool Little Ball looks in this style!

It really knows how to pose like a model!

Let’s enroll it in the next season of the TV show America’s Next Top Model! Yup – ‘Little Ball’ is a girl! I bet Tyra Banks’ll love it!

I think there’s not rule in the ANTM eligibility requirements stating that the model must be human! LOL!

Here’s my own favorite rabbit – Maya! The cutest of ‘em all!

I’ve got younger pictures of her in my older entries when she was a week, and a month old! If you’d look for them you’ll see that Maya is now so totally grown up!

Almost 3 months old already!

Although I used ‘she’ for Maya, we still haven’t found out if Maya is really female, since we still couldn’t find the… you know…

Jon said that he will have to give Maya away for adoption if it is found that it is a male. Jon didn’t want to risk having it mate with its own mother and is to stingy to send it for neutering.

It’ll be a sad day when Maya has to go…

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I’m going to Redang Island, again, tomorrow! Yup, this is the second time I’m going with Tourism Club – but, this time, with a very different group of friends.

Will update when I come back!

See ya soon!

Before I start…

I would NEVER do this to my car. No matter how much I support BN – if I ever do – I still wouldn’t do it.

First, it is ugly.

Second, when I remove it later the tape will stick and leave marks on my car.

Third, like… I wouldn’t even be able to see behind while driving! When I look into the rear mirror I’ll see nothing but two enormous, ghostly blue-faced leng chai, not even smiling – but staring at me!

I’d probably crash the car if I was driving at night alone on a deserted road.

Fourth, it is still very ugly.

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Last night, we stayed up until after 5am to check out the erection… I mean election results. (The ‘erection’ joke is not mine, it is one of our Minister’s. I dare not take the credit.)

Just a little recap – In the previous general election, BN had no problem securing their 2/3rd majority in parliament. In fact, they had a 90.4% majority in parliament in 2004.

The vote-counting started at 7pm. It was like a roller coaster ride!

At approximately 8pm – We read that Kelantan had fallen to PAS. (Expected!)

At approximately 9pm – Everyone was stunned when confirmation came that Penang had also fallen to the Opposition.

At approximately 10pm – We couldn’t believe our eyes when we found that Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu had actually lost his seat in parliament after more than 30 years being the Sungai Siput MP!

At approximately 11pm – None of us had actually expected to see Kedah being handed to the Opposition, but IT DID!

At approximately 12.30am – Good God, even Selangor went to the Opposition!

At approximately 2am – My own state – Perak – said goodbye to the BN goverment, and went, for the first time, again into the Opposition’s arms!

Five states – Ladies and Gentlemen – the Opposition officially claimed five states from BN… This is truly, truly unprecedented in Malaysian history!

Everyone in our house was really excited throughout the night, shouting updates from rooms and bustling around with laptops… This election was going to make history – we knew.

At approximately 3am – It was confirmed that BN had lost their long-standing 2/3rd majority in Parliament.

Some couldn’t stand the sleepiness and went to sleep, but a couple of us stayed awake. I was interested in finding out exactly how many seats the Opposition could get in Parliament – they got a mere, pathetic 9.6% in the last election!

It was like watching a super unstable company share’s price in the stock market – the percentage was rising and dropping every 15 minutes or so!

At approximately 4am – the drama of the night ended dramatically with 37% of parliamentary seats and 39% of state seats held by the Opposition!

If you have no idea what all these mean, let me tell you in simple words – Politics in Malaysia are going to be very different from now on!

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With such a staggering and never-before-happened loss to the Barisan goverment – we weren’t expecting it, but at the same time we wouldn’t be too surprised if some ‘incidents’ were to happen the next day.

Rumors and cautions of riots and other unpleasant incidents were everywhere (It happened in the 1969 election). People were urged to stay calm by political leaders and stay home – not to take to the streets. No parades, no nothing.

However, everyone was still talking about avoiding KL and other urban areas the next day – just in case.

Today, Alvin and a few friends went to Lowyat, and then around the Bukit Bintang area in downtown KL. Meanwhile, me, Jon and a couple of others went to the Curve, and around the Petaling Jaya area.

It was perfectly peaceful.

Perhaps I’ll say this – Malaysia is on its way to true Democracy and success. - On its way - but in my opinion, not quite there yet. This is a time of change for the country – for the better or for the worse, we’ll have to see.

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We went to Ikano Damansara today to witness the launching of the new Petster magazine!

There was also a pets exhibition! Jon wouldn’t have cared if there were racial riots in KL or Al-Qaeda bombing 1Utama – wherever there is stuff about pets, Jon wouldn’t miss it – not even his mid-term test on Tuesday could stop him!

The dogs were really cute and obedient! Have I mentioned before? Jon’s house has six dogs! A true doglover! I bet he was wetting his pants while watching the show! Haha….

Although mostly cats and dogs, there were some other pets as well!

Me and a ferret!

Yay! This was the first time I held a ferret!

Have you held one before?

Last Friday, we went to Redbox – The Curve to have an early celebration for his license to no longer need to stand and wait outside the casinos in Genting – This guy is now officially 21!

Of all places, I think karaoke sessions will make the best place for Khai’s birthday celebration because he really likes singing… and he really does sing very well!

Whenever he holds the microphone, anyone else that sings together will probably be spoiling his voice. Everybody even agrees that his voice sounds remarkably like the Taiwanese singer – Lee Sheng Jie’s (李圣杰)!

Also being a subject of the celebration – was my housemate, Alvin!

Alvin’s birthday is still a couple of days away – on Tuesday. But I guess we were just stingy and wanted to cramp two names into one cake.

There were seven of us. The room booking was at 11pm, but our car had to stop by Sunway to reclaim my Redbox membership card, which I left there for servicing a month ago; plus a super, incredible Friday night traffic jam – we arrived at The Curve only at around midnight!

Fortunately, another friend, Jeff, arrived on time; so he was able to get the room before we were forfeited for being late!

It was like a talent show, everyone’s singing was so good! Usually, in karaoke with a group of people, only one or two people would be recognizable ‘good singers’; but that night, it was really a coincidence that so many people who can sing so well are together!

Jeff was snapping great photos with his huge and impressive DSLR; with him taking pictures all around us and powerful flashes lighting up the room continuously – it really looked like we were all professional singers surrounded by aggressive reporters!

Later, at around 2.30am, one of the Redbox staff came in with the birthday cake, and the birthday song interrupted our 3-page song list.

The Secret Recipe cake was really nice! Too bad it only had one candle on it…

Hmm… It may not look so nice in the photo but, trust me, it was way, way more delicious than it looks! Almost one of the best birthday cakes I’ve tasted! (Typical ones are usually too creamy or too ‘thick’, if you ask me…)

The staff didn’t stay to at least sing the birthday song with us… But here’s a picture of us singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Khai and Alvin!

After that, we continued singing until 4am.

Alvin’s car had broken down when we wanted to leave, the car battery had been uncooperative with the day’s good mood and gone dry. So Alvin had to leave the car there and return to get it the next day. Richard, very kindly, escorted Vivien home and sent the rest of us back!

Before going back, we had Dim Sum at PJ SS2, near Alvin’s sister’s house.

Everyone was so sleepy already! It was past 5am in the morning.

We reached Cyberjaya at almost 7am. Tired but happy. We’re planning something else for Alvin’s birthday this coming week, we’ll see what comes up!

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Just wanted to mention this before I end this entry..

Earlier that day, I went to UPM with Melvin, Sook Ching and Frederick to conduct a survey for one of our course subjects in university.

The UPM campus was really, really huge! Students had to either drive or take shuttle buses provided by the university just to navigate among faculties!

Another thing was this – there was a huge number of foreign students in UPM! I had used to think that public universities would have the least amount of foreign students, but I had been wrong!

We spent hours driving and walking around the campus – Melvin was driving – and completed our 150 survey papers at around 4pm…

We caught most of our poor survey ‘victims’ near the library area! Hehe!

I bet that most people had thought that we were selling insurance or something when we first approached them, so we had to stress on the words ‘for our assignment‘, ‘we are students from Multimedia University‘ and stuff like that…

Very tiring and hot… But great experience nonetheless!

Jon was driving. We went to PJ to have dinner, then to Kepong and when we got back to Cyberjaya, we met this ‘great’ driver – best driver we’ve seen in our lives!

The road was on a curve, and it was one of those typical two-way roads, with one lane on each direction, and a double-white-line in the middle. Let me say that again – double white line in the middle!

The driver was driving smoothly on our lane – across the white line; and there was no car on his lane, so he wasn’t overtaking anybody!

Common sense, and sufficient marks in the undang driving test, told Jon to always turn the steering wheel and evade to the left in an emergency situation. But this driver, being exceptionally brilliant, turned right - his right, which was our left.

We collided head-on.

Fortunately, both cars were on emergency brakes, so the impact was minimal. Jon got off the car, went over, and screamed at the driver. It was understandable, this was more than just crashing a car – it was Agnes’ car, and the responsibility to protect it was his.

The rest of us exited the car too, and checked the damage. Jon’s car was in better shape – only the lights, bumper, number plate and hood was damaged. We checked the internal stuff such as the engine and everything, and nothing was visibly damaged.

The other car was less fortunate. Apart from similar damages as ours – but in a worse state; it’s also got its windshield slightly cracked, and smoke was rising from inside the hood, it smelled bad.

The driver was a foreign student – a Black guy. Probably a student from MMU or Lim Kok Wing. He was apologizing profusely, explaining that, in his country, the steering wheel was on the left, and he wasn’t familiar with our roads yet.

Great reason – I bet he didn’t even have a driving license!

Minutes later, came a guy with another car – another foreigner, probably an Arab. Apparently, the Black guy’s car was a rental car, and this other guy was the person who ran the rental business.

The scene was ludicrous – we had thought that this guy would, like, totally defend the Black guy – after all , he was his client, and that