Mamula Moon? Negaraku?

a week or two ago, LK was surfing the net on my laptop and his friend passed him this song called mamula moon... and at first we thought "what's this? why does it sound like some dean martin song... from that era or before that..." then it sounded so familiar... it was exactly like NEGARAKU!!! or should i say that negaraku sounds exactly like it? since it sounds like it came from a time even before our independence was achieved... its being talked about alot these days... i guess the conclusion of it all will be out one day and the truth will be revealed?

Burst bubbles

i was feeling swell today till... i read something so short but gave me a stab... perhaps i'm over-reacting... yes, that is the best way to put it... i will not divulge any explicit info about the message but for the record, i'll type my defence here...

we were given about a week to come up with designs (when there was no particular theme to measure ourselves against) and so we did... quite alot of weird designs were thought up... i think an accumulation of about 20... and that is not including the phantom member (which none of us have ever met or seen before and only god knows whether he did a single thing for our department or not) and another always absent member (but at least she does stuff...)... and after our meeting, the background colour was decidedly violet... personally, i think that's not such a good idea because it's hard to match and well, what about the guys? but that was that and we were supposed to make do with that... so we did... and as the 3 remaining of us were all photoshop-illiterates and had to produce a soft copy of the designs in a weeks time and there wasn't anywhere to turn to for help or constructive advice... so we just did our job (btw, to set the record straight, the designs weren't hand-picked by us) and sent it in... and i guess they weren't good enough! well, whatever... i have exams to study for... maybe next time we should put the designs under anonymous as that wouldn't be so humiliating...

well, this is part of life's experience... it's part and parcel of taking up a position with a responsibility... well that's all to it then... just needed a place to let go and be merry again!!! 'My Sharona" by the knacks really lifts a persons' spirit! at least it does now...

Finally a printer!

so, after so much lamentation about not having a printer, we finally got one... not a high end one of course, just something that would last us for the next 2 years (that's my prediction of its lifespan...)... it's a canon bubblejet printer...

on sunday when we got it, i printed out my 46-page geology assignment on global warming and climate change... such a relief... finishing this assignment was like lifting a heavy burden off my back... procrastination and getting sick are really a bad combination for doing a project... now i have slightly blood shot eyes... it's been getting better since sunday... i thought staring at the lcd screen of my laptop wouldn't be so taxing on my eyes... i guess i was grossly mistaken! on the brighter side, i'm so proud of my project... it looks so neat... can't really judge on the quality of its content though... i hope it covers all the important areas and have interesting snipets here and there...

another thing that i've been working on the past week is the aiesec t-shirt design for nlds... i'm afraid mine looks kind of crappy... it has lots of different eyes (some edited from pictures and the others, hand-drawn using the tablet and also with the help of photoshop...) and at the back is just a pair of eyes (hopefully it appears intense to other people...) with the question " Do you want to be just another face in the crowd?" and at the bottom, the aiesec tagline "It's up to you!". i think it's really ugly... but i don't think i want to spend more time on the design as i know i suck at these kind of things... i'd rather do page layouts for magazine, brochure etc. something with abit of text and pictures... like the SEATRU scrapbook i've been working on (for so long!!!) i helped yen chyng to put the pompom picture (which was so difficult to get because... well it's a long story... about inefficiency, procrastination and me waiting around, etc. ... shall not dwell on it...) on her design... it's quite nice too... colourful!!!

ok, i've lost interest in blogging at the moment... so this is it...

Pop! into my mind

to keep myself from over-elaborating stuff, i'll now just write whatever idea that comes into my mind in a paragraph... this is going to be one *#%% of a disjointed post!

today mum and i had a sumptious lunch at Italianni's! as usual we ordered a calamari ceaser's salad and classic carbonara... i know it sounds really rich and fattening but... it was just lovely, although the portion was abit too much, but simply lovely! the bill was REALLY LOVELY too!!! anyway, i just love the white and brown (i think it has rosemary in it) bread with their crisp crust and soft inside... dabbed in olive oil with dark vinegar!!! yum-my!!!

i single-handedly set up the streamyx connection on my laptop! it was super easy... and LK was saying it was pretty complicated! in fact that was one of our worries about our desktop because recently it was yearning for a dose of reformatting... in case i haven't mentioned this before but our desktop was infected with the hacktool.rootkit worm and we just beared with it till there were beeping sounds coming from the cpu... my friend said that it was a sign that the comp was going to die soon... but on friday, everything was fine... no sounds and not so many webpage-hijacking... maybe the worm went away... hahaha... like that's going to happen!!!

life without tv and internet can be quite vacant... i don't get to see tv in college because the tv sets are usually monopolized by soap opera addicts... no offence to anyone... i used to be one too but decided not to start on anymore series because then, i'd be tied down to it... speaking about internet, i'm not whether my wifi is working... i couldn't log on in science faculty on friday... was so pissed!!!

last night, i re-explored adobe photoshop... the last time i used it was on the mac g4 and it was super slow... kept hanging... to much stuff on the memory, i think. slept at 3+ am after designing the aiesec t-shirt using a tablet... it's quite handy...

What a day...

i'm starting to develop this problem of unconciously switching off my alarms in the morning... today was one close encounter... as usual i set my alarms for 6.30a.m. but somehow, i ended up sleeping till 7.15a.m.!!! i had to rush getting ready for lecture and gobbled down a couple of biscuits... and sometimes i amaze myself at how fast i can get ready to go out!

i wasn't late for my biostatistics lecture. in fact i met li sum and we walked together. i really don't get what ANOVA is... there's so many steps to memorize... i need to start using my zar book.

after class, we (mei lin, emily, junie, li sum and i) went swimming. we went to the uni's pool but it was closed... just our luck (like what adrian mole says...)... mind you, we were all syked up for a swim and had literally no money on us and just our matrics card for identification... but anyway, we went to the kelana jaya pool... rm3 per person... and luckily there weren't anyone there and it was ladies day... i didn't dare venture to the deep end because the pool didn't have the step at the sides like the shah alam club pool... so i tried teaching li su to swim and we lingered around the shallow end. i have very low stamina... maybe i should swim more often in the uni 's pool when they open...

then we went back to UM to change and take our money so we could go to midvalley to eat 'ikan bakar'... defeating the purpose of exercising? hehehe... anyway we ate at the oasis food court and the 'ikan bakar' was really good!!! and oily... hehehe... and i gulped down quite alot of 100plus... felt so bloated after that... and to top it all, we went to the california fitness club (because li sum wanted to sign up...) and we had a tour of the place... and well, it looked quite fine... although i must say that the way they conduct their business is pretty sleek and well... seems like you've walked into one of those american tv-shopping commercials... well-planned marketing strategy... anyway, all of us had our bmi tested... and i'm just in the acceptable category (25-30%)... i have 25% fat!!!... just need to reduce a couple of kg to be in the fitness level... but what the heck, i'm happy with where i am now and honestly, i just don't have the drive and determination to go to a fitness club 3 times a week to workout... plus it's so darn expensive... i do respect for some people, it is worth it... but for me, i'd rather spend that money on a couple of good books... i guess this all depends on individual preferences.

all of us came out vowing not to eat 'ikan bakar' and 'paandi's' anymore... but i can guarantee that i'll break that vow quicker than you can say "quick"... the sky looked very dark and moody the whole evening... i had to withdraw some money to buy a pendrive (from dataran prima) but turns out that they don't have stock... so they asked me to come back on monday after they contacted me...

ooh, yesterday we went to honey bee in ss2... their shop layout was quite different... they had a yellow vw in the middle and we sat at the reclining area... i ordered a 'roti bakar' (which was so small... and not as good as uncle lim's) and a grape-ice-blended-with-pop-pop-sprinkles-in-a-ala-"milk bottle"-glass (i can't remember its name...). it was quite fun because the pop pop was exploding in my mouth and eventually in my head! hahahaha... a bit pricey though...

Xcapade 2005!!! Long awaited update...

3rd September 2005

woke up early. Dad had to drop me back at college to pickup my converse shoes (which I had forgotten to bring home yesterday!) then he sent me, yen chyng and li sum to the kps carpark. We were right on time but as usual, by Malaysian timing, we were early…

bus came at about past 8a.m. I sat with yen chyng and we didn’t get a wink of sleep (unlike most of the others) throughout our journey… which was about maybe 2 hrs, give and take… we passed upm, sime hydroponics farm(which was interesting…) and lots of ‘has-been’ palm oil estates being mowed down for future development… it was pretty sad actually… seeing the barren slopes which somewhat resembles waste lands… ok, I got abit carried away there…

when we reached Marist Brothers Champagnat Youth Centre, Port Dickson we were “told” that the caretaker wasn’t in, so we had to wait outside… then ‘suddenly’ the hall doors flew open and the OCs, EBs, and facis who were hiding inside unbeknownst to us, shouted out their roll call to us… and we reciprocated with a roll call we learnt on the bus. Then we went to our quarters; girls’ dorm was a medium sized room packed with double decker beds to accommodate 20 or more girls… btw, we could see the sea from our place but a barbed-wire fence separated us from the sea… sad case… see no touch!

back in the hall, we had a brief opening ceremony of Xcapade 2005… rules and regulations laid down… and sticking up our “sugar cubes” – which consist of our individually decorated white envelopes which would serve as our mailbox for the next few days… lunch…

square-dancing… couldn’t follow the steps… but most of us were clueless too… hahaha. After tea, we split into our ‘countries’… mine was svalbard… but it was wrongly spelt on our name tags… szalvard… my group consist of me, goay imm, Gloria, poh yee, zaa, jan, mao, wai kwan and faci: shi lin and chung heng. we were given mahjong paper and a few pieces of newspaper and were supposed to use those things to demonstrate 1 of the 6 aiesec values… my group was activating leadeship. We drew the earth and pasted people pics all over the globe… writing stuff like ‘gender isn’t an issue in leadership’ etc.

we had a water crisis… there wasn’t enough water to go around for us to take a satisfactory bath… so we ended up soapily “tapping” the tap heads and waiting for the water to trickle out… we had dinner after that and then there was a really serious session where each newbie had to go up in front of everyone and say something with enough eloquence so that our self-confidence would shine through… and if the seniors didn’t clap, we’d have to try again until they were convinced that we were confident… as usual, scaredy-cat me was freaked out of my mind about this kind of stuff (public speaking)… and since there wasn’t any feasible way out of it, I said a little prayer and literally threw everything to the winds… stepped out and said “I believe all things are possible” and I meant it from the bottom of my cowardly heart… and they clapped! I was so……. relieved and tired after all the adrenaline rush… btw, I got that phrase from the praise and worship song “all things are possible”… when I’m weak You make me strong, when I’m poor I know I’m rich, for in the power of Your love, All thing are possible (4x)… so true!!!

When we were done, we got back into our countries and the next activity was impromptu speaking for 2 minutes… we could speak on any subject so I chose dogs… I had planned to touch on 3 topics : dogs in my life, dogs as the latest “must-have” fad and the bleak future of dogs in shah alam. However when it was my turn, I could only remember the 1st 2 topics… and when I reached my last 30 seconds, I was struggling to recall the last topic but it just wouldn’t come… so I repeated myself and didn’t have a proper ending… the comments I received was that they could see that my thoughts were coming too fast for me to grasp them… and that I tried finding my thoughts up there somewhere… in the ceiling? Hahaha… the others talked about summer in japan (mao), how to cook instant noodles (Gloria), pet cat (zaa), passion for French language (wai kwan), public speaking (jan), music (goay imm) and the beach (poh yee). After that we had a round up of the day’s activities and then we went to the land of Nod.

4th September 2005

wakey wakey at 7a.m. did some exercise and jogged to the gate and back again… those who were late had to do weird punishments… i.e. pushups in an explicit manner, walk butt-to-butt in pairs with hands clasped between knees… then we had breakfast and then we had a simulation session of setting up an exchange…making an appointment with HR manager via phone… and then meeting with HR manager… goay imm and I paired up and we chose sony corporation. Goay imm was the 1st to secure the appointment via “phone”… secretary: thency. We were the last pair to meet the “HR manager” in our group… HR manager: Alvin… and I totally screwed it up!!! I froze and well, there’s not much to say after that… I DO NOT want to relive those devastating moments!!! *having a dramatic fit* … hehehe… NO, it wasn’t that bad, but we got grilled by the nicest HR manager of the 4 “companies”… so go figure…

after that we had to feed lunch to a new friend… I chose wai kwan… I learnt that she’s actually a 3rd year student majoring in French and that she’s local (i.e. from klang valley). I guess the objective of this session was a success but (no offence to anyone… it’s just my paranoia taking over…) I almost puked when I was nearly done with lunch… my imagination was running wild; hence egging on my “saliva-phobic” paranoia… in fact, many a time I was on the verge of puking because of the cups used… gosh, I’ve got to stop thinking too much about tiny little matters…

later we had to create a language (at least for “hello”, “goodbye”, “I love you”), a religion, a national dance and a tribal chant for our respective countries. Then there’d be an “exchange” where one member of each country would be sent to another country… btw our “hello” was flapping both palms opened and raised to our ears; “goodbye” was one hand waving positioned at our butts; “I love you” was 2 slaps across the face; we worshiped the chair and would do a parade clockwise and anticlockwise around the chair; our dance was taking a deep breathe and while people were anticipating something spectacular, we’ start rolling on the ground one way then the other (this really got people’s attention…); and out tribal chant was sitting in a somewhat kneeling position with index fingers pointing to our temples while chanting rapidly and non-stop “money, money, money…” Interesting? I think we looked like total buffoons… anyway, lesson learned was that we’ll meet with different cultures and exchange is for us to learn other country’s culture and in turn educate our own people about it…

we were then given time to ruminate on our thoughts with the aid of biscuits… in other words, we had tea. Period. (the above is an example of me complicating simple matters…) a couple of alumni had came over to PD so we bullied them to do a roll call for us…

we changed into our lousy clothes to go play on the beach… our 1st game was @ “fear factor” where we would group into 4’s and we had to get a specific item out of buckets filled with ‘icky’ stuff in a given time frame… my group almost succeeded… well, truth be told, most of the groups nearly succeeded too… hehehe… 2nd game was like that nickelodeon game where you’d have to answer a question correctly or else you’d get dose of icky goo… for us, we’d get goo treatment if no one answered the question… conclusion is… I got goo-ed, as well as everyone in my round, because we didn’t know the answer to the question: ‘what is a village without a church called?’… answer turned out to be ‘hamlet’… 3rd game was water balloon war… the driest group at the end of the game was the winner… at first, we used our water balloons to bombard other countries but after our ammo finished, we split up and tried to stay as dry as possible… but alas, our endeavours were thwarted when one by one, all of us got ambushed by people with buckets of polluted sea water… I’m proud to say that I was one of the last to get wet…and it was just my left side… but then some seniors ambushed me, grabbing and carrying me (whilst I assumed a cooked prawn position), and then throwing me into the shallow end of the sea… that was when I really had a pain in the a**… and I mean it literally… pelvic bone was aching devilishly till the next day… oh yea, strangely… when I was in the process of being hurled into the sea, I caught someone shouting something to the effect of “ eh, her cap… take off first…”. Well anyway… that was sand and sea water for me… a couple of others (inc. li sum) experienced the same treatment too… and at the end of it all… nobody was dry…

when we got back, everyone clamoured to the toilets to have a “so-called-bath”. And then it was dinner time… surprise, we had to eat dinner blindfolded… it was to make us realize what the blind experienced everyday of their lives… ooh, my “devil” (whose “name” is ‘illusion’) gave me a can of zapple… and also previously a tube of grape mentos… we started corresponding late evening of the 1st day…

we were then shooed out of the hall and all the lights were turned off… candles were lit and we were ushered back into the hall. We were asked to sit in a large circle and told to close our eyes while listening to celtic and instrumental music which were very melancholic sounding. Then thency started speaking… the activity turned out to be similar to the sessions we used to have in smks9 with those “ulama”-looking people… about appreciating the people we love in our life (parents, family…) I think everyone was touched… but somehow, I wasn’t… maybe I’m just a hard person…I remember the first time I went through this in raja muda… my friends and I (goh, cindy, nisha…) were like… so “pantang” la these people, telling us “bayangkan kamu pulang dari sekolah dan nampak ada dua keranda di ruang tamu… dan di dalam keranda-keranda itu adalah ibu bapa kamu… apakah kamu akan rasa…” but somehow these sessions seem to work everytime it was conducted… ok, I think I am wasting too much time reminiscing.

after that session (last breath), we were given an hour break because almost everyone was overwhelmed… so we started our next activity quite late… around 10 something… in our itenary, it was listed as nightstalk… we were asked to take out our flashlights… again, we had to vacate the hall, all the lights were switched off and candles were the only sources of light… we were playing a live-version cluedo… then wei hoong came out and told us she was madam lau and she has been trying to solve this mystery for some time… then there were a couple of scenes (in which all the faci/OC/EB acted out the scenes) where we could only watch from the doorway of the hall… the story was about an Indian girl marrying a Chinese guy and his parents didn’t like it… then the bride gets murdered during the wedding dinner… so we were supposed to find out who the murderer was… snooping around the compound and finding clues… but there were many “extras” who acted as wandering ghosts… and they would ‘kacau’ us… soon we figured if we don’t bother with them they’d go away. The seniors really looked like psychotic ppl… one even stood so close to me and blew down my neck… but I ignored him and he went away… then suddenly he screamed shrilly right at the back of me… and I was momentarily deaf… at the end of it all, all the groups guessed wrongly… the murderer was the husband who found a suspicious note from his father to his wife and she in turn had also found a note from his gay best friend to him and her own lesbian best friend was in love with her and her cunning sister was trying to seduce her husband after her death… talk about complicated storyline!!! It is obvious that these people have been watching too many dramas…btw they also prepared a short drama movie for us… and from the background, I know they filmed in 1u…haha

stayed up late playing games…one was a drinking game… n at first it was cordial drinks but when that ran out, they started using milo… I could feel my stomach churning just looking at them guzzle down the milo as fast as they can… then we were allowed to retire for the night… but our bunch decided to stay and play some more games… which when it turned ‘dirty’, we excused ourselves… lots of misleading photos taken…

5th September 2005

woke up later because we stayed up late… had breakfast… then had a trust fall thing… where we were supposed to fall backwards off the table top into a human net of arms… and if we didn’t trust our friends below, their arms would hurt… and as usual… I got picked on because I looked “light”… and well, I did it… but I think I hurt the people who caught me… hehehe… at least I kept my arms from flailing and smacking someone in the face! Then they said there wasn’t enough time for everyone and so we went in to the hall and had a round-up session… get ready to go… and also we found out who our devil was… I really had no idea who it was because I didn’t know we had to try finding out their identity… so I took a wild guess… amy… and turns out that wild guess was actually true… was really surprised at the coincidence… we exchanged gifts… I gave her a box of ferrero rocher…

then we had to ‘gotong-royong’ clean the place… wash the drains, floors etc. after that we boarded our bus and headed back to um… and that was the end of the camp…