School of Mathematical Science's Interaction Night

Last night was our Interaction Night where all the undergrads from School of Mathematical Science (other uni called it Faculty, we called it School...called us unique) gathered around and talked and have fun. It was also the place where the freshmen would get their direct seniors which hopefully, could help them cope with their new lives.

The event was supposed to start at 7pm, but being Malaysian, it only began when it's almost 8pm. After some short speeches by all the VIPs, the event moved on to chit-chat session where people started to mingle around and interacted with each other. What I can notice at this session was that all the races don't really mix with each other. The Chinese have their own gangs, the Malays sat among themselves in a corner, there's barely any Indians at all. Rather sad, watching the un-unity among us. We are more in terms with our races rather than nationality. We are Malaysians!

Anyway, after that session, it's game time, which I did not have a chance to take part in as I was dragged out by someone as a punching bag. Ended up bruised and wounded. Haha. But I did get to see when KC got the whole game session in a mess and as a punishment, he was to do pole-dancing with the mic stand as a pole. Wonder if he knew what is pole dancing for what he did was more like a mix of martial art with silly dance. XD

After that, nothing much had happened except for the juniors to get their direct seniors' contacts. Met some juniors and one of them was a banana, like me, though more severe kind as in he was totally doesn't understand Mandarin and barely speak Cantonese and Hokkien. The only dielect he knew was Hainanese which is of rare commodity here. He has my sympathy here. I still remembered the time where I was in a state of culture shock with the air around me heavy with Mandarin and I was rather quiet due to my weak Mandarin but as time went by, I began to be more like my usual self and talked more and more. Screw my broken Mandarin, as long as people understand it, that's fine by me. I do hope he survived it.

Photos will be uploaded once I got hold of it. Took me ages just to upload these two. Will try again later.

Me and my coursemate and schoolmates

My coursemates...

Rest In Peace, Yasmin Ahmad

I guess, by now, the whole nation already knew and were in grief of the death of the visionary film-maker, Yasmin Ahmad who passed away last night at 11.25pm. According to report, she died from massive bleeding in the brain.

When I first heard of the news, it was through my friend's blog and later, in Facebook. It was already around 3am, almost 4 hours from the time of her death. I was with my friends in mamak stall when it happened, therefore, I was not aware of it.

I remembered there was a screening of Talentime being held in USM where she was to attend the screening. I was tempted to attend the event, but did not, in the end due to certain factors. Had I knew that she was to depart from us at the prime of her life, I would defy all odds to get a glimpse of her.

Many people associated her name with the award-winning movies such as Sepet, Gubra, Mukshin, and the latest, Talentime. But for me, it was through her touching Petronas advertisements that I most remembered her of. Her films and advertisements are often touching, real, and manage to capture the essence of racial harmony in Malaysia. A humble person, she will be missed dearly by her families, friends, and fans.

The passing of a seemingly healthy person shows that there's no guarantee in life. God can gives you all the comfort and wealth and health and God can also easily claims back His givings in an instant. Therefore, be thankful and always appreciate those around you and live life to the max. Life is nothing but a piece of glass on the edge of a table, waiting for something that shakes it off its balance and shatters into millions pieces.

Naked Boy!

Ok, just now, while I was walking towards the Dewan Kuliah foyer (lecture halls) from my dinner at McDonald's, I saw a 4/5 years old, naked Malay boy calling "Momma. Momma." There was no people around him save from me and the stall owner at the park there. He was standing near the toilet. I thought he was lost or something (which doesn't explain the lack of cloth part), so, I slowly approached him (don't want to scare him off or anything) and asked, " Dik, mana mak awak?" which translated to Lil' Bro boy, where's your mother. He pointed to the stall where I saw few Malays sitting outside the stall, doing God-knows-what. I asked what was he doing standing there naked and he replied, " Mandi." (shower). I was totally shocked. Leaving a boy standing outside the toilet alone and naked, no wonder kids nowadays vanished faster than you can say 'poof'. Bila hilang pula semua orang nangis (When the kids went missing, all hell break loose.)

My Nap Got Ruined!

Stupid! I was napping so syok when all of the sudden, the piercing sound of those Bosch electrical nailer (is that what it's called?), the thudding of hammer, and people talking outside my room along the corridor disrupted my sleep. Try as I may but those freaking sound was so loud, I can't simply went back to my dreamland. Dah lah woke up early, now they don't even let me rest for few hours.

They were installing a shoe rack of sort, i think, outside each of our room, by the way. But the thing is, I saw them doing it on the other side of same floor before 12pm and they still haven't reach my side yet before 2.30pm. How productive are they!

The so called shoe rack...dunno what the heck is it...

Bon Odori Festival

Just came back from the Bon Odori Festival held at Esplanade, Penang. What is Bon Odori, you ask? Well, at first, I thought it was a Japanese summer festival, but when I reached the destination only did I found out that it was sort of a Japanese ghost festival, a reminder that one should feel gratefulness towards one's ancestors.

There are a lots of Japanese families at the festival. I did not know that there was so many Japanese folks living in Penang. People was constantly taking photos of them as if they were some sort of exhibitions. Pui Yee even said that they were invading their privacies. There were also Malaysians dressed in kimonos and yukatas for the event.

Japanese family enjoying themselves
The public invading their privacies

There were a lot of traditional Japanese dances and performances by the Japanese Association and all. Beside that, booths were set up where all kind of stuffs were sold. Some had the Japanese games such as goldfish catching for people to play. Some sold souvenirs such as toys, etc. Some provided kimono for the public to try on and had a photo taken. Majority of the stalls sold food ranging from Japanese cuisines and local delicacies. Rather expensive though the foods that were sold.

One of the many performances
Japanese games
Souvenir...
Food stalls
Some of them dressed like this to fit the mood...


Few dances recorded on video...low qualities though...

The audiences on the floor were joining the dance

The dancers saying sayonara...

At the end of the event, there was a firework display which lasted for around 5 minutes, I think. It was a nice experience going for the Bon Odori Festival.

Firework display

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

*Was supposed to finish and publish it YESTERDAY but due to my laziness, it was delayed till now XP*

I went to watch the much-anticipated movie -at least for me-, Harry Potter & the 1/2-Blood Prince (HPHBP) this afternoon with Xin Hao and Mei Ling. Frankly speaking, I do not really remember much of the story, I just remembered the rough gist of it and the death of Dumbledore, but during watching the movie, flashes of memories came back, as if I was viewing the memories through a Pensieve. Those memories mostly revolved around those scenes in the book that were cut off or different in the movie. Before I proceed to that part of review, I must say this, Mr Harry Potter had Stupefied me! I really like the movie.


The movie began with scenes from the last movie, where the magical world knew of the truth that the Dark Lord indeeds came back from the dead. The resurrection of the Dark Lord not only affected the magical world but also the Muggles where the Death Eaters terrorised London. We then focused on Harry and Dumbledore heading to a village to recruit Professor Horace Slughorn which held a vital information in his memory regarding the Dark Lord.

When the gang went back Hogwart, hormones are clearly in the air with Hermione and Lavender both falling for Ron and Harry having his eyes set on Ginny, which was dating Dean. During these romantic moments, the tone was lighter but the director never stray far from the darkness of the book by planting Draco in these scenes, hinting of something sinister yet to come. I really like how he did it, putting Draco on these happy moments as if telling us not to get too carried away. For those who had read the book would know of the plan the Dark Lord had on Draco.


While all the hormones were kicking in, Dumbledore was telling Harry essential details about the Dark Lord, informations needed to win the battle against the Dark Lord. These sessions were cut to only two scenes in the movie. Personally, I like the time when Dumbledore and Harry were watching the collected memories on Pensieve as I felt closer and understand more about Tom Riddle aka Dark Lord but I understood that all those moments can't be included into the movie due to many factors.


The movie is clearly darker in tone. I really like the movie's cinematography 'cause it was very beautiful. The sceneries from the movie were so breath-taking that it makes me feel like going to UK to look at it. The pace was ok. The effects and actions were great and believable.

The bad thing about the movie is the omitting and the changes made from the book. I remembered that when Griffindor won the Quidditch match, Harry and Ginny snogged but in the movie, it was Ron and Lavender instead. Then, at the supposed climax, there was a battle between Dumbledore's Army with Death Eaters but it was omitted from the movie.

All in all, it was a rather entertaining movie which promised spectacular ending for the franchise with the last two movies. The ending of this movie promised so.

What I had during lunch/tea yesterday
What I had for dinner tonight...2 nights of unagi...

祝妳生日快乐。。。

我超可爱的妹妹/My cute lil sister...

今天是我的超可爱的妹妹生日。因为我不在家里跟她庆祝生日，我在这里唱首生日歌给她听。不要怪我唱得很难听因为我不是一位歌手。Girl Girl, 生日快乐！

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Today is my ultra cute little sister's birthday. Since I'm not there to celebrate with her, I post a video of mine singing 'Happy Birthday' to her. Don't blame me for the horrifying singing 'cause I ain't a professional singer. Girl Girl, Happy birthday!

Dinner

Nothing much to talk about...enjoys the food here la...it's my dinner at Manhattan Fish Market...

Baked dory with garden herbs
Grilled catch of the day

p/s I got a call from my mom today that I just won MPH vouchers from a contest I took on the Internet organised by AMBank. I forgot about it till she told me. XD

Raymond Lam in Kinta City Shopping Centre, Ipoh

*This post was supposed to be published yesterday but due to the stupid connection I had at home aka Streamyx, it had to be delayed til now*


Raymond Lam Fung (林峯) is a famous Hong Kong TVB actor who has acted in numerous top-rated TV series such as the La Femme Desperado, 女人唔易做, and the highly popular Heart of Greed, 溏心風暴, and its sequel of sort, Moonlight Resonance，家好月圆. Besides that, he has dabbed into singing with three records under his belt, the latest entitled Let's Get Wet, which is also the theme of his first ever concert in Hong Kong Coliseum last month.

This afternoon, I went for the promotion of Power Root Premium Gold Ali Cafe at JJ where Raymond was scheduled to appear at 2pm for autograph signing sessions with fans since he was the spokeperson for the coffee beverage. The court was crowded with people way before 2pm as all the Ipoh residents were vying to get a glimpse and an autographed poster of their idols. About 2.30pm, he arrived, with the strong cheers from the crowd.

Look at the crowd!

It was rather chaotic at first when he arrived as all of them pushed towards the stage for a better view of him. A fight was even erupted on my right side with the securities kicking the trouble makers out of the court. I can't really hear what were they - the emcees and Raymond - talked about what with the screamings and all. After the brief chit chat session, Raymond proceeded to signing autographs. There was a brief break during the autograph session where Raymond promoted the product he was representing before continued with the session. The whole meet-the-fans session ended about 4pm.

Raymond greeted fans from Ipoh

He looked more ying (cool) and leng zai (handsome) in person. There is no denying of his popularity with the crowd in the event. I did not have the poster for him to sign (since you need to buy 2 packs of Ali Cafe to get the poster) but a friend of mine Jacky purposely went to buy the products just to have the poster for his autograph.

What I disliked the most is the organisers of the event. While I understand that there must be order to manage the event so that the fans do not go wild, do they need to shout at us? It's so freaking annoying to have that bastard yelled at those who lined up for the autographs since I'm standing so close the them. If anything happens to my eardrums, I'm so gonna sue them.

Signing autographs...

Taking a break with Ali Cafe...

Before continuing with the autograph session

Finally, it's over.
Saying goodbye, of sort...

Those photos taken at the end of the event are of much better qualities than those at the beginning of the event due to the better standing place I had. I did record a video when he was talking with the emcees. It's an extremely low quality video and there were lots of people pushing behind me.

I Won...

I took part in the 15th Anniversary SMS & Win Contest from Haagen-Dazs few months back and I won one of the 10 weekly prizes. The grand prizes for the contest were 3 days/2 nights holidays in the Pangkor Laut Resort for two. Though I did not win the grand prize, winning the weekly one was very lucky. Can't believe my first time eating Haagen-Dazs landed me with prize worth RM 100, according to the representative who informed me.

I was hoping that I have won RM 100 gift vouchers from Haagen-Dazs. Therefore, I could have indulge in sweet delight for free of charge. Logical thinking, right, since I won the contest organised by Haagen-Dazs, surely the prizes would be Haagen-Dazs related. Right?

When my prize arrived, it was this they had sent me.


It was a body, face and home products from France (I think) for women. WTF! What can I do with these things? What had happened to my Haagen-Dazs vouchers? Anyone wants to buy it from me? Please???

APEX Or APEK? Take 1

Everyone in Malaysia knew that Universiti Sains Malaysia was granted the APEX (Accelerated Programme for Excellence) status by the Government. What's APEX status? Suffice to say, those universities that are promoted to that status will be given a LARGE amount of $$$ for the projects that the Uni seems important. APEX status also raised the profile of USM to the making of a premier university in Malaysia. What's APEK, you're wondering? Well, it's an Hokkien word for uncle/old man that sounds rather rude.

Last month or so, USM created a huge blunder in their first direct intake of undergrads, where they uploaded a list of 8k+ applicants successfully accepted into the uni only to be told on the following day that the list was wrong and only 3k+ applicants were given seats in the university. It was a huge error on the part of the university that the public wonders if USM deserved the APEX status.

OK, enough introductory. I'm gonna start my own analysis on whether USM deserved the status based on my own experiences inside USM main campus. I began a new semester just yesterday, but I came back to the campus on Sunday. With the outbreak of H1N1 flu, everyone is taking great precaution and so did USM since there were reports that there have been few cases, though how accurate it was, I had no idea. When I went to register for my hostel room, I was asked of these following questions to check if I had the flu:

• Awak ada selsema, demam, batuk atau sebarang sintom-sintom H1N1 (Do you had any flu, fever, cough, or any symptoms resembling H1N1)?
• Adakah awak pernah jumpa sesiapa dari luar negara (Did you come into contact of anyone from oversea)?
• Awak kursus apa (What course are you taking)?
• Awak dari mana (Which state are you from)?

Once I answered all these, I was given a form to fill and tick and was declared free from H1N1. That's it. No checking temperature or whatsoever. It's felt more like participating a survey. For such a 'great' precaution, I gave you APEK status.

Secondly is what I detested the most. For this semester, I had morning classes for everyday starting from 8am. Yesterday, I woke up around 7am and prepared myself for class. When I reached there, I entered the lecture hall waiting for the lecturer to arrive but that person did not come to the lecture hall. I waited until 8.20am before I leaved the hall. The class was cancelled without even bothered informing us. The same thing happened this morning for the stupid Ethnic Relationship course which we were compulsory to take. Woke up early, got myself ready, walked to the hall, class was cancelled. I'm like, COME ON. Can't they at least told us by sticking a freaking piece of paper on the door or something saying 'There's no class today. Class will commence on so and so.' Is that so hard to do? Go die la, APEK, for runing my sleep!

Back In Penang

After the long (and unproductive) sem break, I'm finally back in Penang for the new sem of the new study year. How time seems to fly without us noticing it. Anyhow, a new beginning, therefore, a new attitude towards studies. Somehow, during the start of a new sem, I would be so motivated to study but halfway towards it, my driving forces slowly dissipating into thin air, leaving me struggling when the examinations arrived. Well, I would try to break the cycle this time around (and I greatly hope so)...

This morning, my whole family was heading to Penang, I was for study, they were for shopping. Halfway during the ride, I realised I did not bring my pillows and blanket. I had packed it in my room but forgotten to put it inside the car. So, have to get a pillow when shopping. And when I entered my new hostel room (I had already shifted rooms for the last two sems), I was happy for this is the best among the three rooms. While the last room I had slept in was OK, the first room I had was simply horrendous. Too scary til will leave nightmares for little children. Therefore, I can proudly said I'm totally satisfied with it. When I thought nothing could make it any better, here comes another surprise; this room has a freaking strong Wi-Fi. Simply fantastic!

Oh, yea. My cousin sister got married last Saturday and the wedding, though it was a rather low-key, was still nice. And the best part of all was that I got to meet my baby cousin. At least I think he is my cousin. The relationship is so complicated in my mother side that I'm quite blurred.

He is so adorable. When asked what is his name, he will answered 8855 as if he was giving you 4-D numbers for you to buy. And when want to take photos of him, he will make those cute faces for you to capture it. How adorable!!!

Anyhow, I uploaded 2 1 videos of my cousin making faces for the cameras. You see yourselves just how cute he is.

Totally Random

I was packing this afternoon when I realised I got so many books that if I stacked them all up, it might be taller than me. So, I tried my best to arrange them up but they kept falling. In the end, I strengthened the foundation and tried to stack them as high as I could with all the books I had. All the books I used are purely fiction books.

Mighty high...
At least, I managed to stack it taller than my sister...