5 hours in a noisy bus and a mind-boggling japanese class!

we left singapore at 11.30a.m. on thursday and had a 5-hour bus ride with a whole bunch of noisy "american" indians!!! luckily i had my headphones with me, and since its really ear buds it served as a pair of effective ear plugs for me... so i wasn't really bothered about the nooise. however, it was such a relieve to realise we were getting closer to home. i'd watch out for the sign boards and seeing kuala lumpur 86km (not sure if the numbers are right) in white big letters on a green board made me happy! although i must say that the difference between singapore and malaysia is big... especially when we crossed the international border, the toilets in johor were horrible! i can't imagine what the tourists would think... but then again that was johor (and some outskirt-ish place)... i'm pretty sure the toilets in kuala lumpur are much more acceptable. anyway, it's so nice to be back here where you don't need to think twice or mentally convert into RM whatever you wish to purchase.

when we reached our destination, it was 4.30p.m. sharp! i really am impressed with the punctuality of the bus (since it's a well known fact that malaysians are ALWAYS late!!!). anyway, ah yee's driver was there waiting for us and i had barely placed our bags down after collecting it from under the bus when he swiped them up! i was actually in a daze... and slightly confused!!! hahaha... jakun!

mum came at about 5.20p.m. and we rushed off for my japanese class... and since BY was planning to change classes today, i followed her to the jskl av room... and also ended up changing class to class A. this class had tables but no piano and they learnt at a fast pace... i'm still quite blur about the things we learnt. we learnt numbers and days of the week and some simple conversations. and also played a game where we would pass the baton to another person while saying the days in japanese. this class is quite fun because the people are more noisy/energetic and probably also because they were mostly working people. although the other class had very cute (as in character) instructers but the participants of the class was mainly made out of housewives and students (who i think are younger than us).

i hope i'll learn more in this new class and most importantly be able to follow what's going on in class!!!

Last night in the lion city

today we went on a cruise and landed on kusu island. took some photos. getting to harbour front was abit tricky at first. but we managed to reach there just in time. the cruise was ok

went for our last shopping in orchard road... bought a guess bag for mum, some wasabi nuts for papa but couldn't find the dvd LK wanted (rush 30th anniversary). we went to borders and that cd shop but couldn't find it... and it was already 10p.m. something.

i really wanted to see books kinokuniya but unfortunately i didn't get to enter that shop! speaking about that, i don't know what happened to the japanese book details that i keyed into my phone for papa... i think i accidentally erased it! so dumb of me!

ok i think i had better sleep now... i need to wake up early for the preparation to go home!

this here is a nice lantern fish in front of a vietnamese restaurant in wisma atria (nice looking place!)

Post from Singapore

i'm here in singapore! staying at relc international hotel on orange grove road. the room's a good bargain although it's not the conventional hotel. why? because it's actually a language centre and also houses a church and other companies/ngo. there were ielts exams going on on our floor when we arrived. there's a tour trolley bus which acts as a complimentary one way shuttle service... very ancient but efficient! hahaha

we've walked much of orchard road... the atria, far east plaza, lucky plaza, tangs, takashimaya(ngee ann city), paragon, wheelock place... and also marina square, suntec city mall (i like this place best), citylink mall. so far i've bought a white pvc bag, an mng shirt and a pair of lavender adidas sneakers.

we walk to and from orchard road, which takes about 7 minutes one way. and now, my legs are killing me after a whole day of walking and standing around. we got abit lost in suntec city mall today. but can't really blame us because the shops in all the malls are about the same although the malls might be next to each other!

ok i think that's all for now. i'm using the free wireless service now but it's getting late and i have to sleep. i will try to post more after the trip!

Addiction!

oh no! i've just found the joy of youtube.com! yes, i know i'm a little behind in the latest trends and stuff... but i didn't want to try it out before this because i thought there were some unappropriate stuff there and i'd get addicted... well, now i'm addicted, but to korean dramas! some people actually uploaded the full episodes of the dramas... but not all the episodes though...

i just printed out some singapore maps... and got electrocuted (mildly) by the usb cable... because the power was still on although the printer was switched off... still can feel the tinggly sensation at my finger tips! this is the second time i've been electrocuted while using the printer! the first time, i think one of the printer cables was not grounded properly and the metal casing of my laptop conducted the electricity... as a result when i touched my laptop, i got electrocuted! i don't know whether this is a normal thing or something that is actually dangerous...

anyway, i'm waiting for the 1st episode of snow white (K-drama) to load... watched the first 3 episodes of another drama called 1% of something. i hope i'll be able to watch the rest someday... coz the other episodes are not on youtube. ok, that's all for now... hope i'll be able to post from singapore...

I'll be in Singapore in 2 days time!

ah yee and i are going to singapore for 4 days 3 nights. we're leaving at 7.30a.m. on monday and leaving singapore on thursday at 11.30a.m. i had to find a hotel for us... and honestly, now that i've reevaluated my choice, i think i made a mistake... but it's too late to make ammends because the booking has been done and ah yee's credit card is in stake... so i guess we'll just have to carry on with the idea. the reason i think it's a mistake is because the hotel is quite far from orchard road... but the consolation is that it looks quite ok from the pictures and had recently been renovated... and also it has wireless internet access in the room. so i think i will bring my laptop there... if my parents think it's a good idea.

i still haven't converted my currency... somehow, nowadays packing and preparing don't seem to be a worry for me anymore... it's the people around me that get into such a fuss over it! funny! but it's because they care... and that's a good thing!

i just finished watching the korean drama Goong that ML lent me... it's nice! although episode 23 is missing!!! that's the 2nd last episode and it's kind of frustrating to not know the connection between the climax and the ending! but for now, imagination will have to suffice... i think i'll get a copy of this drama and try to find the 23rd episode somehow... i noticed i'm kind of obsessive when it comes to completing/collecting things. bad habit! it's been so with collecting books by roald dahl, l.m.montgomery, jane austen (movie versions too), cynthia voigt and also collecting stationaries and how can i forget the mcdonald's sesame street plushies! and in a way, i was a little obsessive about the sony ericsson w800i when it came out and the next thing i knew, i had won it!!! weird! got to shed that!!! that was abit freaky!

oh anyway, now i'm addicted to listening to i've got you by mcfly and jack johnson songs and also the theme song for sue thomas: F.B.Eye which is That's Who I Am by jessica andrews and it's all for you by sister hazel. i don't know why but some songs just stick in my head... and other people don't think much about these songs! i think it's some magic chord sequence that just clicks with some part of my brain that's connected with affinity!

i've been trying to learn how to write hiragana and after about 2 days of practising (not continuously of course) i can say that i can remember quite well the characters from a i u e o till ta chi tsu te to and the rest of the characters i only can remember when there's some sort of prompting... what can i say? i'm a slow learner when it comes to language... i think that's the case for me when it involves studying using a book. i feel that i learn better when the learning process involves working with my hands and room for trial and error... for example art and crafts, fixing mechanical stuff, fixing broken links on (other people's) websites, figuring out how an object is made by looking at it... which reminds me that my goal to learn flash on my own has totally gone down the drain... i think i should just uninstall that on my laptop and free up space for other stuff... or maybe i should try to get a book first... that doesn't seem promising though! hahaha

hmm... seem to be in a good mood today... :-)

Major: Biochem; Registration: Successful

as the header says... thank the Lord!!! i got biochem!!! i thought my results was goin to get me into trouble... but looks like it wasn't as bad as i thought it was!!! taking the pengantar falsafah alam sekitar course was a bad idea (got a C+ for that 3 credit hour paper!!! imagine the effect it had on my cgpa!!!) and although i thought my geology finals was a scorer, turns out my continuous assessment tests pulled me down badly (got a B+ in the finals as the effect of neutralising the previous B- and C- attained in the countinuous assessment tests)... so my cgpa was barely 3.5, a very dangerous position to be in, as you're not safe and also not a gone case... somewhat like sitting on the fence. but thank God everything turned out ok!

i just finished registering my courses online (at about 9.20a.m.)... as usual, it was so hectic! tried to wake up at 7.30a.m. but could only crawl out of bed at 8a.m. (no help from zack who was muzzling me to sayang him... manja dog to the maximum!) after taking a bath and all, i waited (while chatting) online for about half an hour to enter the registration website at 9.00a.m. sharp! at first the loading was so slow... but it got better later on... too many people on the server i guess... PRAISE THE LORD again as i was able to register for everything i planned for and also that my streamyx did not play me out!!! i half expected to fail to register for some subjects... because it's a horrible system the science faculty has... everyone registers online at the same time and it's more like playing a game than registering for courses that would determine our future! and again i had to help my friend register... however, she asked me a little late and some of the courses was already full!! and that was at about 9.30a.m.!!!

anyway, i feel very satisfied now!!! let me try to recap my feelings from the last 2 semesters.
semester 1: at first, i felt satisfied, then when i found out i missed out a course i was abit sad...
semester 2: again i was satisfied at first because i managed to get the important bio subjects and the right timing but i wasn't so happy about not getting a 3 credit hour "luar jabatan course"
semester 3: i feel satisfied because i got what i planned... maxed up my 19 credit hours... biochem subjects, elective course and a "luar jabatan" course... now i'll just have to worry whether i can handle all this!!!

The many names of zack the dog

1. zack (of course)
2. baby
3. boy
4. ah boy
5. ahmad zakaria
6. wong ahn jing
7. asssss hole
8. crazy nut ass
9. zacko
10. jacko
11. jack
12. ugly mutt ass
13. the shadow
14. blackie boy
15. dobieman pinscher
16. smelly boy
17. chicken
18. greedy fart
19. chocolate
20. balls
21. chicken rice
22. ignorant dog
23. pat kua
24. uncle
25. ah mutt
26. pig
27. sausage on toothpicks
28. naughty dog
29. miouchess
30. miow miow
31. mau mau
32. muttchy
33. mutt-en
34. mutton pie
35. mechanical dog

with all this name-calling... no wonder he's so confused!!! hahaha

Forwarded e-mail... amusing!

The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the Universityof Copenhagen.

"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer."

One student replied: "You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, then lower thebarometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of thestring plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of thebuilding."

This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student wasfailed. The student appealed on the grounds that his answer was indisputably correct, and the university appointed an independent arbiter to decide thecase. The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed correct, but did theproblem it was decided to call the student in and allow him six minutes inwhich to provide a verbal answer which showed at least a minimal familiaritywith the basic principles of physics.

For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought.The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the studentreplied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make uphis mind which to use. On being advised to hurry up the student replied as follows:

"Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper,drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground.The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H = 0.5gx t squared. But bad luck on the barometer."

"Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer,then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measurethe length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matterof proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the skyscraper."

"But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a shortpiece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first atground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is workedout by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T = 2 pi sqroot(l / g)."

"Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be easierto walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometerlengths, then add them up."

"If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, youcould use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of theskyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars intofeet to give the height of the building."

"But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of mindand apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to knock onthe janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nice new barometer, Iwill give you this one if you tell me the height of this skyscraper'."

The student was Niels Bohr, the only person from Denmark to win the Nobel prize for Physics.

Which are YOU?

i read this in a christian daily digest email:

"There are two kinds of people on earth today;
Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.

Not the sinner and saint, for it's well understood,
That the good are half-bad and the bad half-good.

Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man's wealth,
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.

Not the humble and proud, for in life's little span,
Who puts on vain airs, is not counted a man.

Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years
Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.

No, the two kinds of people on earth I mean,
Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.

Wherever you go, you will find the earth's masses,
Are always divided in just these two classes.

And oddly enough, you will find too, I ween,
There's only one lifter to twenty who lean.


In which class are you? Are you easing the load,
Of overtaxed lifters, who toil down the road?
Or are you a leaner, who lets others share
Your portion of labor, and worry and care?"

so which are you? which am i? i think i'm a lifter but not a leader... in other words, i think i'm the backstage person in most situations... i just can't understand some people (the leaners)... i've met many of this species in my past few projects... saddening... but well, that's life... the lifters and the leaners... like yin and yang? the element that makes us Man... imperfection!

It's really laziness!

so many things to post here but never seem to get down to typing a post... really, it plain laziness!!! i'm practically picking grapes (menganggur) now and still... can't find the time to type a short post... maybe i should develop that habit of typing short posts every 2 hours or so... the kinds that many people do... instead of the really long draggy posts that i've come accustomed to compose... anyway, this whole paragraph is a common idea in most of my posts (as anyone who actually reads this blog will know...)

random thought... (inspired by channel surfing for 1/2 second)... i really don't know what's the hype with james blunt... some of my acquaintances practically worships him and cries whenever she hears one of his songs (which i forgot the title... and don't really care!)... ok, i'll give it to him that "you're beautiful" is quite a nice song... but besides that, i (note: I and not anyone else) think his voice sounds a tad weird... maybe i'm just being paranoid but he sounds like he just inhaled a small dose of helium gas! (well, that's my opinion so no offence to any fans out there...) i guess i still like guys to sound like guys...

now, to the main event that's happened to me... lcpm was from friday till sunday... we didn't have a venue for the camp and at the last resort, we gathered in a fellow aiesecer's rented house in section 17, pj. the house was ok for its age (which is probably more than 35 yrs)... about 3/5 of the management team was in attendence... and we had discussions and presentations and planning... the not so fun stuff... i really couldn't sleep in the hall... kept waking up ever so often... probably because of the hard floor, too many people around me, and people going in and out (to watch the world cup)... so i managed to wheedle my way out of attending sunday's session

one shocking encounter i had during the camp was when some of last term's management team (among others) came to visit us on saturday night... and someone grabbed me and hugged me like a long lost friend!!! while other times i'm invisible to her (it's more like she'll acknowledge me when she wants to and i don't acknowledge her at any time...)

the result of lcpm is that i'm in the same group with the people i've previously found hard to work with!!! what are the odds??? and also they separated YC, ML and me!!! i know that was probably done by the lcp... always picking on us (probably to make us open up?) well, my group is called jingle jungle... and our first task is to do external scanning on 50 companies by the 18th of june... i just finished that!!!! phew...

today (or rather yesterday..) i slept at 7.14 a.m. after working with the beat up old desktop in the store room... trying so hard to get some stuff and since i didn't know the name i had to do so much extra work and the painfully slow processing rate of the pc made it nearly impossible to work with without getting a high blood pressure!!! in the end, i ended up with quite a number of stuff and was quite satisfied... it's so difficult to speak in codes!!! i can't imagine the turmoil of ideas the reader of this post would probably be facing now... anyway, dismiss that...

oh yea... last wednesday, zack fell through the gap between the stair steps (from 1 storey high!!!)... we were watching tv and mum was upstairs so he decided to follow her... and while he was coming down the 3rd step from the highest... he somehow slipped through the gap and tried holding on the step with his front paws... but before i could rush up or rush to catch him, he fell with a solid plop!!! on to the floor... at first we thought that was it... but then he looked up and i called "come here zack..." and he limped to me... and to calm him down, i started to stroke him and tell him "it's ok... it's ok, boy... good boy..." gave him a few kisses and he actually started to cry-howl!!! i think he was shocked out of his mind!!! i tried checking whether he had anything broken... ribs, legs etc. but he didn't scream while i examined him... then after a few minutes, he started acting normally and could even jump up the chair!!! that is one lucky mutt!!! stupid fella is now running about like he never learnt a lesson from the incident!

the next day was the last activity for yv... we went to the beryl's chocolate factory in seri kembangan... lots of chocolates to sample but the tour around the factory was so short and had nothing special. BY and YC came too... so after the tour, we met up with ML's twin, KL and we went to UPM where the miracle youth camp was being held at. met SY there... and they were preparing the evening tea for the delegates. then we went to see the horses in the UPM equin centre and patted burn and black... took some pictures! they're (the horses) really huge!!! we went for lunch after that... we wanted to eat soup with rice in usj18 but the store wasn't open... so sad...

since we had a few hours before our japanese class, we went to ML's house... it was like going to genting! the road was windy and situated next to a ravine!!! her puppy was so mischevious looking (and was mischevious herself as we found our shoes strewn around the garden later on) and the older dog was like fergie (cousin's friendly dead dog)... so cute! we tried to sleep but kept waking up...

japanese class was fun and a little confusing... i need to do some self studying... that's it really...

YV06 stands for Young Visionaries 2006!!!

today was the closing ceremony for YV06... it was held in the afternoon in a&w taman jaya thanks to a generous sponsorship by one of our OC's uncle!!! at first, i thought it would have to be a very shabby event with 'half-past-six' finger food made by us OCs in a park somewhere ala picnic style... but instead we had the 'wonderful' a&w bear (who went straight to the leng lui OCs when it arrived before greeting the kids!!! naughty naughty mr. bear!!!) anyway, we had lots of leftover chicken and rootbeer which the homes took back for dinner/supper... we could see the kids were happy... lots of laughter and smiles... i really hope they enjoyed our company throughout the 2 months although the promised trainees did not turn up (instead they had us OCs and volunteer trainees from other projects... imane and pileh *spelling???*)

i was so horrible today, i came late for the party... couldn't help it though... mum, LK and i went for lunch in italiannies at the curve and finding a parking space took soooooo long... and then eating our lunch took quite long too because the chicken we ordered (which is their speciality) had some weird taste (vinegar, paprika, pickled chillies among others) and we had to force ourselves to eat it... the carbonara was yummy (as usual) and the pizza was quite good... anyway, i came 15 minutes late to the party... but luckily there wasn't much for us OCs to prepare... BY came later too... and when we were about to go back, she couldn't find her car... which turned out to be parked further up the road... one thing i must mention about the event is that some people who usually just ignore ML and my existence suddenly talked to us in a 'i've known you for ages' attitude... now doesn't that just speak for itself what kind of people they are!

ok, let's back track to last week's YV06 activity... it was the clown show i asked from allan... which, if i might mention here, i had to postpone 3 times!!! felt so bad for bothering him so many times... and as everyone knows, this kind of things (inefficiency...) won't be kept hushed but spreads all over the family... i hope i'm safe... but nevermind about that... the event was a success!!! johnny the clown was great... the kids responded wonderfully!!! and luckily i went ahead and packed the 5 goodie bags (because i volunteered to get the prizes for the games and after i'd bought all the stuff, i found out that they wanted to use some donated old soft toys for prizes... i was so pissed!!! there's a bl***y serious lack of communication among us... SERIOUSLY!!! everyone just does whatever she/he feels and then inform the rest much later...) but anyway, the clown did some fake magic show which the kids kept on chanting "tipu!!! cheating!!!" but the bottom line is they were entertained! and the clown kept on picking on me (probably because he only knows my name among the OCs or maybe he was tipped off that i hate this kind of things! allan always does that to us cousins! hahaha)... so i was mama sue may for the day... all in all, i thought it was a successful day compared with the other weekend activities we had so far...

the previous week was the arts and craft week and well, to cut to the chase, i saw red many many times during the preparation and also during that week's sessions... all i can say is that it could have gone better if only they planned the sessions out like a kindergarten's art and craft class... as a buffer, the sunday session at santa jerome was more fruitful although the materials were less fanciful than saturday at agathians... this time i (because we could see that some people had made up their minds to not help out much because their duty was due on saturday and not sunday) made sure that the kids weren't expected to run the whole show... seemed like i was the only one (besides help my ML and volunteer siew yong) cutting out shapes from coloured paper for the kids to paste on their thank you cards... i really thank God i'd worked in a kindergarten before and many years of preparing arts and craft materials for mum's classes!!! the results were much more organized and neater and less wastage... pity the girls didn't have the vibrantly coloured card sheets like the day before...

to list a few activities we had througout the duration of YV06... cooking and gardening (hahaha... decorating cupcakes were a hit, the rest... not so), salsa dancing (OCs had more fun... i had fun too... again victimized to dance with the instructor because i'm small sized... don't look so clumsy with the wrong steps ma...haha), talk on dental care and washing hands (ML was the hero for this activity!!! ML's mum amused the kids when she talked tamil to them!!! hahaha... i missed that though...)

that's about it... unless i missed something out... well, next week we'll be having our field trip to beryl's chocolate factory...

btw, i just took up a japanese class in jskl, saujana resort... i'm still blur with the 1st class...

Hajime mashite. Watashi wa Sue May desu. Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu!