Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Human decoration?

We performed in front of the ASPIRE delegates… unfortunately they were saying goodbye to each other at the same time… so practically no one actually heard us… maybe more people paid attention when we started singing the staccato section of our “Sejahtera Malaysia” arrangement. But overall it was quite crappy… oh yea, I forgot to mention that only a fraction of the choir members turned up… I think it was less than 20 people altogether… in fact most of the “important” people went back home! So you can imagine what kind of moral support we had a.k.a NONE!!!

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Choir blues

I hate coming back on Sunday nights because I’ll feel so rushed and well, a little depressed too. Unfortunately that was what I had to do yesterday… we kind of had an emergency choir meeting (orientation week choir) because we have to perform for the closing of the ASPIRE workshop… that means we have to sing in front of the foreigners!!! *the horror* ~ coz we kinda suck!?! So let me cut to the chase: we had to cancel our plan of eating seafood in that sungei way place and I had to eat takeout mcD’s in the car on the way to college… pathetic or what? Anyway, basically the meeting was about us singing 3 songs on Tuesday night (that means we have to forego our CC family plans of going to klcc to countdown the merdeka…) and that there’s going to be a 2nd audition for the festival seni choir and we are “urged” to go for a tryout… I don’t think I will because: 1) will I have time to juggle studies, assignments, aiesec and choir? 2) will I still be here next semester? (the festival is in January 2006) and 3) it’s just too scary to sing 2 songs (one in English and another in BM) alone in front of the seniors, Ledionne and Pei Chuen!

Note: I’m using my laptop with no internet connection to type this out now because I have nothing else important to do and well, just wanted to kill time and besides, my blog has been sadly neglected lately mainly because of the lack of time and mood to blog and also due to the horrible, lousy streamyx connection I have at home… (imagine we pay rm66 every month and we can only use the connection efficiently in the morning and afternoon… evening and night time are totally out of the question unless you’re asking for an aneurysm! Anyway, when I do get an internet connection (which should be able to be set up on the 5th of September onwards… wireless in um), I’ll copy and paste this and post it up. I also need to download msn messenger, winzip, adobe acrobat reader, update Norton antivirus…

So I had my 2nd Biology of Organisms test today… it was ok… much easier than I had expected… but surprise: I’ve already pinpoint a question which I’ve answered wrongly… typical me… well, what’s done is done… there’s no turning back so there’s no sense in crying over spilt milk. Anyway, Mei Lin, Junie, Li Sum and I went to Sri Paandi’s for lunch (don’t ask me which one it was though…). I can’t remember whether I’ve mentioned my 1st visit there before but their canvassing customers method was more aggressive today than the last time… one worker actually instructed us to go to the last shop (explanation: the last shop i.e. corner shop, has another lot right next to the other Paandi’s ~ the one we went to… so the shop we went to was actually sandwiched by their competitor… confusing? I don’t blame you…). Anyway both shops claim to be the original and they are pretty serious about it… calling their counterpart “cheaters”! Now, back to my story… we had banana rice and I’m so stuffed till now! I think the workers were like laughing at us (not in an insulting or offensive way though) because we were such a giggly bunch of happy people… I think we were very “lawak” (like mr jp used to say) to them… but the up part of it was they kept offering us more stuff to eat with a smiling face… anyway, my bill came up to rm9.10! the breakdown of it was: banana rice rm3.50, fried chicken rm4 and iced milo rm1.60… but when we paid, the counter guy gave us 50 sen discount! Hahaha…

I’m listening to Michael W. Smith’s worship cd… borrowed it from ah yee… I really like the songs and his singing too… but my laptop speakers are… erm… laptop speakers a.k.a lousy… I think I must invest in a pair of headphones since I don’t intend to get an mp3 player… another thing I must get is a pendrive… currently I’m using LK’s pendrive… it’s so small compared to the regular ones!!! Although slightly pricier…

Oh yea, I talked to CS yesterday afternoon for quite a long time… 99 minutes… we exchanged stories… upm has a golf course!!! And I think she’s having a great time there because there are lots of samadians there and well, she can speak mandarin (the golden key to socializing among the Chinese community in all local universities). And I think for all of us, living on campus has made us independent (if we want something done we have to do it ourselves… and most of our time is spent alone) and tv-deprived (going home means tv time!)

Saturday, August 27, 2005

chili explosion

i've been staring at my streamyx dsl modem and the 3rd darn light has been blinking all night!!! then how was i able to post this? surprise... i'm using the old trusty jaring dial-up... btw i'm getting sick again... kept sneezing right before dinner... maybe i'm allergic to the dog...

so what's new? i'll start from the most recent interesting event to whenever i feel board of typing... friday - woke up at 7.30am (should have been walking by that time...), so practically ran/brisk-walked to dk teratai (which is so far away and situated on top of a small hill...)was panting like a dog when i reached the lecture hall! after biostatistics tutorial and geology discussion session - went to return the 1st library book i borrowed... saw that bong guy from aiesec (why do ppl have to bleach their whole head of hair???) anyway, when mom came to pick me from college, it was raining horribly... mom drove "into" block d... but still, i got wet... then we went to sungei way to eat seafood... and it was raining too... lots of water for an afternoon... well, thursday after bio practical - went to 1u with mom... bought duck rice for dinner... went back to hostel and had a cat nap for 15 minutes before bugging yen chyng to go for aiesec meeting... anyway we ended up waiting for some time for irving to fetch us... went to the aiesec episode... was just in time for a little square dancing... wauter and e.j from the netherlands presented about their country and also made us play a game where we had to get signatures from the people who matched the description of 10 prepared questions... i got only 7 out of 10... one of the questions was "who is wearing pink underwear?" (?!?) anyway, after the episode, we went back to college... decided to eat my duck rice... had a chili explosion... the little chili container was like a puff ball and when i lifted its lid slightly... "Pop"... there were so much tiny bubbles at the bottom... i wonder whether it was a result of bacterial activity or the chili sauce was extra-cooked by the heat from the soup (which smelled a bit suspicious too)... wednesday - after watching fragments of A.I (i love that show... esp the aliens!) for S&T, i went back home... btw, our S&T tutor quit... so our lecturer is going to conduct our tutorials! (oh no!) .

.. divergence from topic: i watched gattaca and the devil's advocate just now... i love those two shows too... great actors/actresses and good themes! ethan hawke, jude law and uma thurman for gattaca (we should have picked this show to discuss for S&T instead of star wars III!!!) and keanu reeves, charlize theron, al pacino for the devil'e advocate!!! although i've watched these shows so many times around... but i still love them... ;Þ

bought an ftec notebook on sunday from senQ in low yat plaza... it costed us rm3999 plus another rm300++ to extend the warranty to 4 yrs. it has a 12" wide screen... supposedly 1.9kg (seems heavier to me)... pentium m 740, 512mb ram, windows xp home edition, the usual specifications plus it came with a small mouse and a bag. however when i came back home and used it for the 2nd time around midnight, i found that 1 pixel wasn't working... LK confirmed it... so mom took me back to low yat on monday to check the problem... but the pixel was fine when then turned it on... but they promised to change the set... so we hung ard sungei wang waiting for the stock to come... but it didn't come... so had to come back the next day and the boss/person-in-charge was slightly insolent to us... but they changed it for us anyway...

so ok... i'll end here... feeling lethargic and sleepy now...

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Haze Daze

this is how bad the haze is: i was waiting for the lift in my college when i tried reading a flyer on a pillar about 2 meters away and it was smokey! to top it all, my room's fan is not working and although we have made complaints, the technician hasn't come to fix it for a week now... so i've practically been living at home for this whole week... oh yea, i don't know why but many of us are having lots of tiny pimples... maybe its the water?

the haze in um has been just horrible especially for the past 2 days. and we have to walk to classes, plus most of the science faculty is open-air! but i really pity the graduates having their convocation this week... they're so happy but the weather's so crappy! imagine the pictures they take outdoors would be shrouded in smoke!!! however the good part of it is that there's like a carnival thing going on at the perdanasiswa complex... lots of food, drinks, clothes, and food... did i say food twice? yup... there's so much food! like a 'pasar malam'! and there's a fun fair near one of the colleges... with ferris wheel and all! but i didn't dare venture there because of the hazardous air... i bought a pau and some titbits-on-a-stick and had to gobble it down because we were late for the s&t tutorial.

hmm... i've lost the right mood to blog now so i'm going to have lunch now. btw i'm home for the weekends now... in fact i've been coming homw almost everyday this week... pampered??? ;Þ

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Tests!

wow i haven't been here for a long time... i had a my biology practical test today... it was a written test on cell organelles, mitosis and meiosis - lots of electronmicrographs to identify and label!!! the worse part is... i remember seeing all of them when i was preparing my report (we had to draw all of them...my report was 35 pages of biological drawings... and the lecturer wrote "very nice!" on the last page of my report!) but i just can't quite remember what i wrote/labelled the drawings!!! so i think that's a definite disaster... need to buck up on the next test this tuesday... this time it's fungi, algae and bacteria

ooh... i haven't elaborated on my lecturers (i think)... let me start with biology practical... since it's the most interesting subject... the first lecturer was dr. saharuddin... he looks really young... as in like late 20's to early 30's! anyway he's very cute because he goes around talking to the students and he tries to speak english well but somehow there's always this malay accent lingering behind... but he's lenient to us... luckily!!! the second lecturer is dr. lee... he's also quite young... about 30 plus?! (pretty puzzling to see our lecturers looking not very much older than us!)... he looks quite square and always wears checkered shirts... but he let us compile our 3 reports to hand in next thursday... giving us quite alot of time to do it... oh yea, thanks to him now i know how a zooplankton looks like! our tutor is ms. lau... she a masters student...she's very cute too n some students even talk to her about personal stuff like not settling in properly etc... my biostatistics lecturer is quite nice... she's getting her phd this tuesday during the convocation... i think she's 30 something... although she lectures slower than the other biostats lecturer but she always tells us stories... hehehe... she's also the 2nd lecturer for proses kehidupan (btw last week, the ministry has given out orders for universities to conduct science and maths lectures in english!!! hurrah!!!) my 1st proses kehidupan lecturer was very boring! i know this may sound very nasty but she was like a dead piece of driftwood! my biological organisms lecturer is prof. pang siew moi... she has a lab in the post graduate department (i think)... she reminds me of mrs. tan; but maybe a less animated version?!? it's pretty obvious that she's quite passionate about her field... she told us about mycologists interpretation of certain biblical events... like manna was actually fungi and the sea turned to blood was actually red tide... the other day, i found a microbiology book in the library which has this info... my 'pengenalan kepada kajian sains dan teknologi' lecturer is mr. ng... he's also cute in a little boy way... and i suspect he can't verbally read english well... our tutor is cik wardah... she's really outspoken and a no-nonsense person... but very likeable... my "TITAS" lecturer is also quite young... i dont know her name... she's ok... but she just reads out the power point slides or from the text book... finally my geology class - "bumi dan manusia" lecturer... hmm... prof muhamad ali hassan... he's grouchy at times but i have a feeling he's also quite passionate about his field...

have i elaborated about my new found friends? there's li sum; she's from sri petaling and previously a V.I form-sixer... she's very "chun" and stylish... we have almost identicle timetables ... only 2 different classes... so we hang out and walk together everyday... and there's mei lin from putra heights who's an ex-assuntarian and BB form-sixer... she's really funny, bubbly and giggly... all three of us usually hang around together... there's also a couple of mei lin's friends like emily, jun nee (spelling?) etc and choir friends like goay imm (my cc family member), pei chuen, angeline, yuet mei, ei ling, ain etc. and my geology group friends like yuan lim, siang ling etc. i met some people the other day at the 1st aiesec meeting but i can't remember their names or even their faces! btw, aiesec sounds really interesting but i hope i won't chicken out before anything gets started... i'm planning to go for their leadership camp xcapade... it's on the 28th of august 2005...

i went to seemom's kindergarten concert at 5 p.m. just now... it was quite good for kiddies standard... but biggest disappointment was the sound guy (who turned out to be ms. toh's bf) cut our song short (red class) and it was right at the climax!!! we've been yelling our lungs out training the blurrrrrr kids to do the letter R-E-D formation using pompoms for the past few months and that crucial part was cut out!!! we were so mad!!! i told LK "what kind of a lousy sound engineer is this?" when it happened... imagine all our effort wasted... i really don't know what to think... can you imagine we made 20 crepe pompoms just for this formation and now its gone to the dumps!!! i was so pissing mad!!! i still am!!! it's really unfair... i really thought they'd give the kids a 2nd chance... i meanit's not their fault or ours... it's the technical guy's fault; in fact the whole blame should be on him... well WHATEVER!?! looks like its just not worth it to put up a spectacular performance next year then...

i went shopping in 1u on friday night... bought alot of stuff... a pair of shoes, an umbrella, a bag and 2 shoelaces... i think i spent about rm130+... i'm broke yet again... i want a laptop... but i don't know where to get one and which one's good... plus there's the issue of finance... lots of family negotiation will be in the works... ok i think i better sleep now... going to be drowsy tomorrow...