This Is It, Jennifer's Body!

SCREW STUDY! My first paper is like on Monday and today, I've already wasted half a day in Queensbay watching these two movies, Michael Jackson's This Is It and Jennifer's Body. Piles of notes and books still remain covered in dust and I went for movies? Somebody slaps me! Figuratively! (OK, to compensate those two movies I watched, tonight will be the night I'm getting serious!)

Anyway, here's my two-cent worth of reviews for both the movies:

Michael Jackson's This Is It


To be honest, I'm not really a fan of MJ but I do love his songs and I felt that his passing was a great loss to the world. So, I thought, why not go for the movie as a tribute to his legendary career and also to see how his concert would have been if he was still alive. Furthermore, it'll be on cinema for just two weeks.

I was told that the tickets were selling like hot cakes and if you did not have any reservations or you did not buy the tickets earlier, chances are, you won't get to see it. Well, I have no idea how true is that but when I went there this morning without any reservations, I managed to get myself one and when I entered the cinema hall, it was quite empty. I think barely twenty were there and most of them, i believe, witnessed MJ growing up.

I haven't watch a concert movie before so I have no idea how a concert movie should be like but this one is great. From the start till the end, you could feel the passion of the staffs and crews, dancers and background singers, and MJ himself. The one to one interview with the dancers at the beginning of the movie were quite emotional, you could tell that they really want to be there, to be with MJ. Some even came from as far as Australia just for the audition. I really had goosebumps at that moment.

There are a lot of exclusive clips of what the concert gonna be. I especially like the Thriller section where they were recording scenes in 3-D for a clip to be aired in the concert. Michael really put a lot of times and energy to stage his comeback concert. He poured his heart and soul for it but sadly, he did not live long enough to perform it.

This movie is a must watch for the fans of Michael. It will be the only way for those who, unfortunately, won't get a chance to see him in a concert, to feel the atmosphere of his concert.

Jennifer's Body


Megan Fox's hotness has already been well established and certified with both Transformers movies and Jennifer's Body only serves to reaffirm her status as the screen siren. Other than Megan Fox, I don't really know what this movie is for and to make my point:

When my friend saw the scene above in the newspaper, he said he would died to be him, even if he was to die in the movie. I mean, as a horror movie, it simply not scary. I know it's not your standard kill-kill-slash-slash movie or the look-behind-you-there's-ghosts type of movie but still, have some blood, or more blood would be more accurate since there is blood in the movie.

So, the story. There's a band who, in order to be famous, made a deal with Satan and delivered a virgin in the form of Jennifer (Fox) as a sacrifice but instead of being dead, Jennifer was possessed by a demon who fed on people. Needy (Amanda Seyfield), Jennifer's nerdy best friend, found out about it and tried to stop it. Rather pointless, I must say. Pay attention to the dialogues 'cause there's lot of pop culture references in it and some you might laugh about it.

p/s I finally gotten myself a digital camera! With this baby, I can capture moments of my life in snapshots. DSLR is too freaking expensive so I resolve for a compact camera first. Slowly, slowly...and now I'm RM 1000 poorer!

my baby...

Study

When there's no lectures or tutorials to attend, to be here inside campus is a bore. All the time, the starting intro verse of Madonna's Hung Up keeps playing in my mind, 'Time goes by so slowly'. I mean, what do you do to pass the time? Yea, I know Queensbay is just within 5 minutes drive. Yea, there's TONS of movies and TV series still residing inside my laptop, unwatched and I DID watch an episode or two (or more) whenever I'm bored. But...it's STUDY WEEK, and one should studies during study week, right???

So, when I came back from Ipoh yesterday, as a 'good' student, I went to library once I settled everything. When I was there, I thought, why not use their lighting connection speed to download the latest episode of Gossip Girl? I would just leave it there and would go study in another section. And I did, only for like, at most 30 minutes, before my eyes get all tired-y, my attention went off to DayDreamland, and my body starts to take the 'fishing man' posture. Then, I snapped out of it, went to toilet to refresh, and went to retrieve my downloaded files.

Then, the cycle began all over again. The same thing happened today, but the study phase goes shorter and shorter until it almost becomes insignificant. Jesus, it's so freaking boring!!! Screw study!!! Tomorrow, I think I'll go Queensbay for a movie or two. There's Jennifer's Body, Phobia 2, Michael Jackson's This Is It,........

Ipoh

I'm back in Ipoh, my peaceful little hometown, for a few days during the study week. The main purpose for the trip back, beside to get some rest and to be with my family, is to scout for places to bring my fellow coursemates around during their visits this coming November. This would be my second time being a host and since some of them had been to Ipoh (and three of them were the one I brought around last month or so), I need to keep things a bit fresh.

Honestly, Ipoh is truly famous for two things and those are the tongs (caves) and foods. Really, there's plenty of tongs here in Ipoh such as the famous Sam Poh Tong Temple with Ling Sen Tong, Nam Thian Tong and Kek Long Tong all clustered around there, Perak Tong Temple, just to name a few. All these are Chinese temples built on caves by monks back in the old days. Besides that, there's a natural cave in the form of Gua Tempurung if that's what you're looking for.

Perak Tong Temple
Gua Tempurung

For the food department, there's nothing that represents Ipoh more than nga choi kai (chicken with beansprout). Whenever the name of Ipoh was mentioned, nga choi kai surely will pop out from the mouth. And there's dim sum, kai si hor fun (noodle with chicken floss), curry mee, and, most importantly, Ipoh white coffee, my personal favourite. I really do love to drink white coffee, and while typing this, I'm savouring for a cup right now!

The architectures of the building in the Old Town are also a sight to behold as it has those pre-colonial feels to the British architectures. One of the most famous building is the Ipoh Railway Station which is often referred to as the 'Taj Mahal' of Ipoh (according to a website la). The last time when I brought my friends there, we saw a couple shooting their wedding photos at the station. I guess it's a testament to its beauty.

So, here's the rough places to bring them for their 3 days, 2 nights stay at Ipoh:

13th Nov

• breakfast/lunch once they arrived (depends on the time of arrival)
• tour around old town
• lunch/tea
  
• Perak Tong
• Dinner ==> nga choi kai
  
• pasar malam

14th Nov

• breakfast at Foh San Restaurant
• Gua Tempurung
• lunch
• Kellie's castle
• Sam Poh Tong
• dinner
• supper at Tong Sui Kai
  

15th Nov

• breakfast at pasar pagi
• heading to Taiping

My duty lasts until the morning of the 15th November as we'll be going to Taiping and from there onwards, there'll be someone taking over the duty of a host.

Kellie's Castle

Looking back at the schedule above, I can't help but feel that it's rather spacious, for lack of words. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of time in between the plans and I don't really know how to fill it. I need HELP!!! Fellow Ipohans, any suggestions????

Last Day of the Semester

Just a blink of an eye and it's the last day of the lectures for the semester before we're heading to the one week of hard training to prepare ourselves for the grand battles of the semester. After almost half a year attending ever boring lectures and tutorials, it's high time for us to apply what we have gained from the spent time for the better of our futures but the problem is, WHAT indeed did I learned during the semester???

I did attend most of the lectures but most of the time, it's only my physical self was presented. That's right, just the shell was at the halls, brain-vacanted. That's how I went through most of the lectures this whole semester. Really, out of the four core subjects, only one worth paying attention to.

Whenever there are pop quizzes or mid-term tests, everyone (me included) started to rush to the nearest smartest person and copy (former) or start digesting the super thick textbooks (latter), hoping to save our asses. But it's Universities' life.

Finals are coming and I guess it's time to really fight for better results. There's two subjects I really need to work my butt off to bring up the marks after disappointing performances at both mid-terms. Wonders if the dean list's still within my grasps?

Hope won't end up as stressful as him...Aiyar, who am I kidding with?

Festival Of Nations

Just a rough update.

Festival Of Nations (FoN) was held on last Saturday, 17 October 2009, at Minden Field B, USM. It was organized by Institut Pengajian Siswazah (IPS) with collaboration from AIESEC in USM. I was part of the organizing committee from AIESEC in running the event.

A simple summary on what is FoN is about. FoN is a festival where students from all around the globe opened booths to showcase their home countries' specialties and delicacies and stuffs. There's also cultural performances by both students and the professionals such as Chinese intrumental performances, salsa dancing, and so on. It's like traveling around the world in just one afternoon.

It was a rather successful event, to say the least. Everyone presented had fun and their stomachs filled with free food 'cause there's an open house of sort at the festival in conjunction with the Deepavali celebration. Would love to take part again next time, be it as an organizing committee or not. Hopefully, there'll be another FoN next year.

Bangladesh's rice (dunno what is it though...)
A popular drink from Jordan
Some handicrafts from Somalia
Kung Fu performances by USM Kung Fu Club...Choy Fong so ying...

For more photos of the event, click here and here.

Mat Rempit

According to Wikipedia, mat rempit is a Malaysian term for 'an individual who participates in illegal street racing'. They're the one who perform those stupid and dangerous stunts with their beloved motorbikes and the source of the 'vroom vroom' noises. Usually, they often come in abundances, conquering the side roads, vroom-ing, while waiting for the right moment to just blast off on the street late at night.

Yesterday night, or more accurately, this morning, somewhere around 2 am, after our yum cha session, me and my friends were heading back to our hostels, planning to have some good night sleep. As we were heading to the RST gate at Gambir Road, the unmistakeably 'vroom vroom' sound and the huge cluster of human beings gathered at the junction signified the beginning of their night activities. We tried to cross the junction but there's a gang blocking the junction. The presence of the traffic light at the junction served no purposes as even it's green on our sides, there's still those idiotic mat rempit vroom-ing past us. In the end, we decided to U-turn back and went to crash at our friend's house around the area.

All of us were wondering the same question: Where's the heck are the police forces? We paid our taxes to the government which in turn become their salaries, so, technically, we paid their salaries. OK, so it's our parents who paid their salaries but...you get what I mean. It's ain't the first time they have such illegal racing along that road. Many times had we seen such activities, especially Saturday's nights.

Another thing I don't understand is, how can the mat rempits can be so irresponsible? They risked their lives for what, a second of thrill? Do they ever think about their families who were most probably worried sick for their safety???

While searching through Wikipedia, I came across this:

Kelantan to build track for Mat Rempit

Kosmo! reported that Mat Rempit in the state of Kelantan will be allowed to show off their skills at a special track to be built by the state government soon. The government of Kelantan Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said the track in Tanah Merah was not a waste of money. “ They (Mat Rempit) always make their mothers and wives worry. With the track they will have a proper place to express their feelings and show their bravery and heroics ”

How accurate that piece of article, I have no idea but the notions of building a circuit for this purposes is like telling them, "Hey, mat rempit, keep up with your good works and to reward you, here's your own circuit. You can now die in this track specially built for you."

Malaysia is going downhill, I have a feeling. Maybe it's time to migrate...

p/s Don't bother trying to call the polices. They just hang up your calls. This comes from experience.

Sushi, Karaoke, Movie.

Today was the last day for the Sushi King RM 2 Bonanza so me and my friends headed to Gurney Plaza for some delicious meal of sushis. It's a promotion exclusive for Sushi King members and since none of us were members, we have to borrow from someone. We really went all out, grabbing almost every plate of sushi that are on promotion. We ended up consuming about RM 72 with just the three of us. OK la, not really that much of a big deal.

After sushis, we waited for the arrival of a friend of ours before we went to karaoke session. Without him, karaoke is not the same since he's the audio for us. Rather short session compared to the previous times (just 2 and 1/2 hours only) so, utiliti belum capai optimum (not enough). After that, we went to have dinner at Gurney Drive before we went back in for the movie Pandorum.

Speaking of Pandorum, it was a rather interesting movie for me. It tells the story of a man just woke up from a hyper-sleep to find the spaceship he's in was stranded and vacant of people and without any single memory. Slowly, his memories began to come back and to get the ship's reactor started, he needed to get to the main part of the ship. While heading towards the reactor, he discovered he's not really alone...

OK, it's suck when I tried to summarize it but really, it's worth the time to watch it. The only thing I wished they had done better is the editing. Yea, and also to Malaysia's stupid censorboard, stop chopping movies!

After that, we went to Hard Rock Hotel again since it's just another 15-20 minutes drive from Gurney Plaza. We went to Hard Rock Cafe. The atmosphere was so energetic and I was so tempted to order myself some alcoholic drinks but better restraint myself. Then, we explored the hotel again (out of the four, only two of us been to the hotel...) and cam-whored here and there. When tired, we headed back hostel.

It'll be the last time for such fun night with the impending finals, financial constraint, and the upcoming long holidays. I guess it's a grand blast for a farewell. Haha.

Handphone-less

I was given a link to a post written by someone quite important in USM (who, I don't know wo...). Here's the extract of the post:

Kampus Sejahtera gets roped in for many things, many of which I have no resource to follow up - so, I say no.

This one, I think I can't squirm my way out. My wife told me yesterday that I used only about RM4-RM5 worth of calls on my mobile but pay RM30 per month for the service. "Happily" my children now get to enjoy my unused credits because "we are family". Should we be happy? Probably not, since it means my children will be getting more radiation from the handphones. Well, actually, they are not using more but we will be paying less because of the package. But that's not the point of this post. The point is : do you know enough about the hazards of handphone usage? And what should you or can you do about it?

Now, think, can you imagine not being about to get a good reception for your handphone while on campus. I can remember the good old days when these strange people will be walking aimlessly around the room, pointing their "remote-control" (handphone lah) in various directions trying to catch the signal. "Try near the window", someone will helpfully advise. Well, those days could be back soon on campus.

I can tell you that the decision has been made to eventually phase out the telco towers on campus. Is the decision final? Can you still influence and reverse that decision? Do you know enough to support or oppose the decision?

I have asked a few students, and almost all say its a stupid idea (to shutdown the telco towers). My three children (and I think wife) share similar sentiments. Others however think that if there are viable alternatives, like superfast WIFI and landlines, they can live without the handphones.

So, what's the problem with the handphones? Radiation coming directly from your handset when you are talking on the phone - right into your brain. Any proof? Well, I have asked my son to do some detective work (he's studying to be a telco engineer; maybe). Also, there's talk about lowering sperm count. If you have some concrete proof, send them to me.

The idea of getting rid of telco towers in campus is super stupid. Imagine bot being able to call and talk with your families and loved ones while inside the campus or can't received their calls when there's something bad happened in the family. Or there's an accident inside campus but you can't call 999. Troublesome thing it'll be when there's no phone connection.

The thing about upgrading the WiFi service is pure bullshit. There's a limitation in our connection. No matter how great you upgrade the WiFi, there's still the chances of not able to access it. And WiFi is not phone as not everyone owns a laptop and not everyone knows how to use Internet. My parents surely don't know how.

There's a risk in everything we do. There's the possibilities of getting in an accident when you're in a car. Does that means you're not driving? Eating might leads to food poisoning, so, you're not eating?

I don't know. Maybe I'm too used of having handphone on my pocket, ready for action when needed to. However rare I used it, I still have it by my side. I guess it's the 21th century effect. What do you think?

Just Some Update

Being a Maths student here in USM is freaking free. Flexible time, lousy lecturers (only few are exceptional) where you can just simply skip their classes and tutorials that even if you don't do it doesn't matter. Honestly, compare to all the Sciences Schools (Faculties), Maths are the most free. There's no reports to hand in or tedious lab works to complete and all. So, all in all, I feel blissful. Hehe...OK, I just speak for myself only. There are some Maths students who are really busy with their works and studies, just not me.

Anyway, last night, me and my friends went out to have supper and also celebrated his birthday before it's officially over in an hour or so (we did celebrated his birthday, albeit 2 days earlier...). Then, we started to plan our vacations during the semester break, where are we going and all. So, for sure, this coming break, I'm going south of Peninsula Malaysia, with the first stop being Johor and heading up back Melaka, Seremban and KL. There's many more places I wanna go but I don't want to jinx it by spilling it out. 'Till I secured my ride ticket, I'm keeping mum about it. One thing for sure, I'm excited (too excited to even study right now XD).

Then, we went to a nearby seaside to relax and enjoys a bottle or two of Heinekens. Feeling the breeze of sea air with friends are so much enjoyable. Stopped by at mamak stall for some drinks first before heading back hostels for rest. Thanks to the birthday boy for the treat. Very paiseh la, you treating us all.

We even fought for the last bottle...

Hiking at Bukit Jambul

This late afternoon, I went with my roommate to Bukit Jambul for hiking. It's my first time hiking even though I'm from Ipoh, a town surrounded by mountains and hills. Not a really high mountain as it just took roughly 10 to 15 minutes to reach to the top.

The view at the top of the mountain is rather nice. You can see the majestic Penang Bridge stretching along the South Channel and those high rise buildings in the mainland island. Can't take a good picture of it due to the trees shooting out everywhere and the lousy phone I called camera. In great need of a good one.

Next mountain to conquer, Bukit Bendera. Anyone wants to come with me???

There's freaking many of these kind of rich man houses...
Wild orchids (I think) are aplenty at the bottom of the hill...
The reds among the greens...
The trail I used to hike up...
At the top...
Lousy camera phone and the many tall trees unable me to capture the beautiful scenery
The trail back...

中秋节

中秋节就这样过了。。。

雨还在下到不停。。。
想和朋友一路吃月饼喝茶，一路欣赏月亮星星，但是不行。。。
跟朋友去了OXO Cafe 喝茶聊天。。。
有点想念我的家人。。。

床前明月光，
疑是地上霜，
举头望明月，
低头思故乡。

上的 sem 学的。。。
中秋节快乐！！！

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Mid-Autumn Festival just come and go in a blink of an eye. Due to the pouring rain, we can't find a spot to eat mooncake and enjoy the beauty of the moon. Hence, we went to OXO Cafe to hang out and talk.

Since it's Mid-Autumn Fetival where families reunions are important, there's a bit of homesickness but I just came back to uni barely a week ago, so I didn't go back during this Chinese festival.

The Chinese poem I learnt last semester, I had no idea how to translate, so, I'll just leave it there. Anyway, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Hard Rock Hotel

So, after my swimming lesson (which I'm an extremely SLOW learner), my friends and I went to 火锅之家 (Town Steamboat Restaurant) for dinner. Well, as usual, whenever I went to these buffet-style eateries, I tend to eat like all hell break loose. There's no stopping me until I feel that my stomach bloated and worth the money I paid. It's fun, really, crapping with friends while waiting for the food to cook.

Since all of us were too full to just go back to hostel and sleep (I swear my stomach got rounder after the meal!), we decided to go for the newly-opened Hard Rock Hotel at Batu Feringghi. Malaysia's first ever Hard Rock Hotel, it was really a beautiful and atmospheric place to stay and have some rock and roll food time, albeit small. We went inside the Hard Rock Cafe and it was blasting with fantastic musics sang by live band. People were relaxing and just having some beers and vodkas while listening to some classic and contemporary rock musics.

The iconic Hard Rock symbol...not very clear...

The large guitar before the entrance of the hotel

Inside the Hard Rock Cafe

After our brief visit into Hard Rock Cafe, we entered the hotel itself. Man, the place is awesome. Decorated with pictures and outfits wore by famous rock and roll artistes such as The Supremes, Bon Jovi, and others, it's like a mini tour through the Hall of Rock and Roll. The Beatles seems to be the main artist in the hotel as there's quite a number of portraits and grafittis gracing the hotel. And their pool. I didn't get to enter the pool but from what I can see from the moody light, it would be a breath-taking view.

At the entrance of the hotel

Trying to capture the whole logo but failed...

Their pool, though not the whole of it...

The Supremes

It's The Beatles!

The hallway in the hotel rooms...

The lounge at the fifth floor...

My friend and I were playing with the idea of having our Maths Night here at the Hard Rock Hotel. It would be expensive, I'm pretty sure, but for this atmospheric feel, it totally worth it. We could have a Rock and Roll theme (I know, I know, how creative...) at their Ball Room or we could have our Night in the form of pool party. Hmm, must suggest it to the director of the programme.

Me and my friends before we went back hostel