Twilight Rainbow

265: First Obstacle in the States!

2012-01-04T11:08:00.000+08:00

WARNING: Long post below, without any images.

This is my first obstacle faced in the US as an international student. In the first week of my arrival in the US.

I've signed up for 3 mobile phone lines from AT&T for myself and my friends because it's cheaper when we all enter the family plan. And within the next two days, another two of my friends wanted to join the plan, so we proceeded to sign up for 2 more mobile phone lines.

And then later that afternoon after I signed up for the two lines, I received a phone call requesting to verify my identity. I answered all the questions truthfully, about my email address, housing address, mobile phone number, phone account number and all that to the representative. She thanked me, and then within five minutes, I couldn't even make a call and contact my friends.

"Hello, thank you for calling AT&T for your wireless blah blah blah (i forgot). You have reached the Fraud Department. To continue in English, press 1."

"Fraud Department"? Did I hear that right?

Indeed, I heard it right. It's "Fraud Department". Fraud. F-R-A-U-D.

Now then, what sort of fraud did I just commited?

Great, now my mobile phone has been rendered useless because every call I make was redirected to the Fraud Department.

I don't like the sound of the "Fraud Department"! I don't like the name at all! It made me sound like a criminal. Which I am not. I'm just an international student demanding for a mobile phone service! What wrong have I committed?

Alright. After a few checks from my Internet Mobile Phone Account, I've discovered the reason:

Billing Email Address: ASDQW@QWEQASC.COM. (An email address with random characters.)

House Phone Number: 555-555-5555.

Alright, so that makes sense why I am treated as a Fraud when the person tried to verify my identity through the phone. My proper email address and the billing email address doesn't match, obviously.

Apparently when I signed up for the service, the sales representative mentioned that if I am an international student without a social security number, the personals from AT&T will disregard all the information because most international students do not have a house phone number within the first week of arrival. I believed him and thought everything is settled. But I didn't expect that someone would call me, "verify", and suspend my account.

Then, I travelled back to the place where I used to signed up my mobile phone lines, consulted the sales agent and he helped me to sort the problem out. He understands my situation and admits that it was his mistake to assume that the email address is not important when I'm an international student. He called AT&T for me, and spoke with them for a long time.

According to the officials from AT&T, they require two types of identification from the US, such as a US driver's license, US ID Card, etc-- which I do not possess as an international student. And they do not accept other forms of identification. What should I do? The sales agent then helped me to fax every single document I possess in hand-- Malaysian Driver's License, Malaysian ID Card, I-20 Form, US Visa, Passport, EVERYTHING and hoped that AT&T will accept two of these documents and life the suspension off my line.

I waited... and waited. A day has passed, and AT&T hasn't reactivated my phone line yet.

The next day, I called the Fraud Department again. This time they wanted a Utility Bill under my name. What the heck? I'm an international student on my first week in the US! And then, Iowa State University pays my utility bills! So how the heck do I have my utility bill?! Their response: "I need your university ID card and your Passport faxed to this number. xxx-xxx-xxxx."

So I went to photocopy my stuff and have them faxed. And it's freaking expensive to fax stuff. I've spent $10 to fax these stuff. 10 dollars! 10 USD!!! It's like 35 bucks MYR to do all this!

Alright, faxed the documents. Few hours later, the line's still not activated. I called the Fraud Department again. This time, another guy reached for the call.

"We can accept the passport with the visa, but we cannot accept your University ID Card."

What's the matter with them? One tells me to fax them ID Card, while the other says they do not accept University ID Card?!

Great, I'm pissed off. I'm really the account holder and I just needed a mobile phone to contact my friends in a foreign place. What sort of fraud would I commit?! If I do anything illegal here, I will not be able to graduate from the US at all! That's crazy!

I couldn't hold it anymore. I was desperate. I raised my voice and started fighting to convince them that I'm indeed the account holder. I asked them to throw me a bunch of security questions which will verify that I am the owner, since I possess the printed copy of the contract with all the information in it--including the ASDSDVAS@ASDASD.com email address. They didn't asked me more. Finally, after a long battle-of-words with the staff over the phone, he agreed to summon his supervisor and discussed the matter with him.

While he put me on hold for 8 minutes, I prayed that everything's gonna be alright. I do not want to have the line suspended and still billed monthly for 2 years because I have a two-year contract with them. And it involves the money of my four other friends in the family package too. I just want a peace and quiet and happy life during my study in the US.

Finally, after a discussion with the supervisor, the staff said: "We have researched onto the information that you have provided me and verified that you are indeed the account holder. We will restore all five of your lines later."

In disbelief, I confirmed with them: "So I can use my line again by tonight?"

"Yes, in fact we will restore your lines after you hang up and reboot your phone."

I asked again: "So you are going to reactivate my lines AFTER I hang up and reboot my phone?" Basically repeating what he just said.

"Yes."

Thank god.

Finally. All that trouble due to a mistyped email address by the sales agent. It has cost my sleep and made me wonder about my life in the US if the phone line is suspended without any chance of reactivation because of the lack of documentations. And it may even spawn legal issues and mess up my F visa. That's seriously gonna suck!

And now... my phone is back up. My US number is usable again. No more redirection to the Fraud Department. Thanks Buddha! I called one of my friend who is under my line too, and she said that she was really happy when she saw me appearing in her Caller ID screen--because that means her phone is working! I am also very satisfied to have accomplish something that might have turned into legal issues and handled all these things all by myself, besides with one of my friend who spent the $10 on faxing the stuff (who is also under my line).

Bottom line: Check your information when you register for a phone line, and have doubts even when the sales agent are confident about what's he's doing. That's gonna suck if someone wants to verify your account and you give them your proper information when the registered information is just a bunch of random words.

I have also learned to make calls and express my ideas effectively through this incident. One of the first things that I've learned in the US! It's only the first week!

- Kingwn.

264: Life in the US

2012-01-04T10:17:00.000+08:00

Yep. About a week ago I departed to the US from Malaysia.
It was a sad day for me that day, knowing that I had to leave my family and friends behind while I advance to America alone. And that day... my family went to send me off in the airport.

Aunt, Uncle, Dad, Me, Cousin, Bro, Mom. My sisters were here too, but they aren't in this picture.

I am very touched that my friends came to send me off. Kam Wei, Sze Hou, Kien Hor, Tzia Tshen, Mervyn, Zhe Zeng, Hui Yeng, Daryl, Kar Foong, Shen Ting, Hui Xin, and Hui Ching. You guys are so awesome that I'm almost stunned when I see some of the guys because I never expected that they would come!

The guys.

It was 45 minutes before departure and the boarding gate is about to close soon. It was the time for us to separate. I gave everyone a hug, including my family and every single friend who came for me, before going through the security check down the elevator. As I turned back and waved to everyone... it was very saddening for me, realizing that I will be treading on the steps ahead alone in a strange environment.

Not really alone, though. These two guys will be travelling with me. They're from ADP too.

So, after all the tiring transfer flights totaling nearly up to 30 hours, from Kuala Lumpur to Changi Singapore, and then to Tokyo Narita and Chicago Ohare, before boarding an internal flight from Chicago to Des Moines and finally taking the express bus from Des Moines to Ames, Iowa. Tiring journey.

In front of the Bank while setting up the Bank Account. The broad roads and neat streets with all the good sceneries are what I really like about Ames! The people there is SUPER FRIENDLY and they say "Hi" and ask you about your day whenever they pass by you. Even the cars yield to you when you cross the streets although it's green light for them.

Kwang Shiong trying to challenge to cold weather. He managed to endure for a few minutes before he had to put on his winter jackets again.

I'm starting to like the environment here as I met a lot of friendly people. And it's super peaceful over here :)

- Kingwn

263: The Final Night

2011-12-28T02:02:00.000+08:00

It's 2am in the morning now.

I am nervous. I couldn't sleep; for this is the final night for me being in my comfy room for the time being.

Room cleaned, baggages packed...

Yet my heart keeps beating wildly and prevented me from sleeping.

I woke up, took out my camera from its case, and started snapping pictures at everything in my room: the queen sized bed, the black study table that has accompanied me through many examination revisions, my toilet bowl, the rubbish bin, and even the mark on my ceiling.

And the clock shows 2.30am now... I shall sleep and prepare for the long flight tomorrow!

Hopefully everything will go smoothly without delays!

- Kingwn.

262: Some Words Before My Flight (Video)

2011-12-20T23:35:00.001+08:00

It's about a week to the day of my departure to the US. It's on December 28, next Wednesday, to be exact. I made this video to express how I feel about everyone and everything who came into my life. This video is specially dedicated to my parents, family, relatives, high school friends, ADP friends, TCS Friends, NERDS, lecturers, and Bitchie. I'll miss you guys a lot!

Here's the link to the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a0Cawgg11E

- Kingwn.

261: Christmas' coming, so is The Day

2011-12-19T00:21:00.001+08:00

Surprisingly my niece entered this world about 12 days earlier from the estimated delivery date. Initially it was going to be on the 28th of December, which is exactly the date of my departure to the US; but my niece is just sooooo awesome enough to come out this early and let me, Uncle Gwn to take a good look at her in 3D. If she was born on the night of the 28th, or even later, I'd already be on my way to the other half of the earth already.

So... what a good niece is she. Uncle Gwn is absolutely happy that he's even able to attend your 12th day ceremony based on the Chinese tradition over in the morning on the day of my flight.

Congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law! And to my parents who just recently became grandpa and grandma!

Worth mentioning: I felt really really happy when my own sibling has a child. Here-- even if the child is not mine, I just felt like I had one myself. LOL

Looks like she came out with good timing. My mom would be preoccupied with the baby and she wouldn't be alone at home when I'm studying abroad. Usually it was just me and her in the house while my dad and other siblings are working from 9-5 plus some time jamming within the busy roads of Kuala Lumpur; me doing my stuff on my lappy and she spends her day nagging me to drink water. Haha. At least she wouldn't be that "nothing-to-do" while I'm not at home in the next few days.

I'm already in a state of super duper emoness. Blended with a bit of excitement, nervousness, confusion, anticipation, and the fear of being overwhelmed by the new life overseas. Hmmm. Recently days seem to end really fast, and my friends and I are trying to spend time together for as long as possible. Especially the high school mates and NERDS. Well... I'll be talking about them in a minute.

Friendships forged in secondary school seem to last for a very long time... and basically they are very likely to be lifelong friends with friendships that extend into eternity. We've been through the process of growing up together, transitioning through the stage of adolescence into being teenagers, undergoing puberty together (lol) and experimented with lots of fun things together. The memories are so vivid that everything seems so fresh like they just happened in a few blink of the eyes ago. If I didn't appeal to change from attending SMK USJ4 to SMK Seafield, I would not have encountered such awesome friends who shared a part of my life with me. Spending time with them is indeed one of the greatest gratification in my life. I love you guys.

The special award goes to:

Yeoh "Yoyo" Jee Hong, Mervyn, and Kar Foong for never failing to come out yumcha regularly at our "Lao Di Fang", Bliss33 at least once a week. Hahaha.

Of course, people like Hui Xin, Sze Hou, Xiang Shan and Chi Kei too. It's gonna be out of space if I am to include the pictures of you that I've "stalked" into my camera here!

As for relationships that I tried to save, sorry that I ultimately failed to do so.

And for the NERDS, I just like to mention about you guys (special mention!). You people are very interesting that I really felt an extraordinary warmth being with you all, despite knowing one another for merely three months. Some people might think that a three-month period can only forge a shallow relationship, but to me, it's not as shallow as I expected too previously. That day, when we parted after we had our final gathering for the year, I couldn't help but feeling a bit of discomfort behind my eyes. (LOL, but I aint laughing now.) If I hadn't participated in helping out the Mooncake Festival event back on September, I wouldn't have known many other interesting people especially you people. Simply splendid right there... a magnificent encounter indeed.

NERDS is what we call ourselves. The Christmas tree kinda added an "emo feeling" to my perception on this picture. You see, I couldn't smile. Nice to meet you Chor Heng, Chin Yew, Hui Qi and Wei Wen.

An another weird gang of TCS members without an official group name. Nice to know you too Joyce, Yin Yi, and the other two guys that I've already introduced above.

As for the rest of the ADP friends, I'm coming for you! Wait for me while I join you aliens!

(Wow looking back at the picture while we're in DE class, a lot of us are already in the US lol. Those in RED arrows are already there since Fall 2011 and are having fun. Hahahaa.)

Edwin, Derek, Tze Wei, Jane, Zi Qin

Zi Chuen, Jay Shen, Yi Yang, Sha Lee, Wen Jun, Timothy (US?), Eng Hoe, Jordan, Crystal, and the two other gentlemen already mentioned: Derek and Edwin.

And hello Family, I'll be back soon for Sis's wedding! ;)

- Kingwn

260: Don't Put the Blame

2011-12-16T15:06:00.002+08:00

I have been out of a stable internet connection for 28 days. My internet connection usually hangs for 20 minutes before it gets disconnected and I had to reset my modem again. The Power LED is a stable, green light; while my DSL light kept blinking when the connection died.

Frustrated, I called TM to complain about my Streamyx, after 3 days since the first occurrence of such problem.

I was greeted by the TM technician, and I told him about the problem and everything about the frequent disconnection I was experiencing. Before that I have already tried bypassing the splitter (connecting the phone line directly into the wall socket), resetting the configuration for my modem-router and resetting the Streamyx account internet password. Yet the technician over the phone tells me to do the same thing like "checking the DSL light", "restarting the modem", "bypassing" etcetera etcetera. I told him that I've done every of those, and mentioned that the modem works for 30 minutes after restarting before the internet connection becomes dead again.

What did he tell me?

"For now we are experiencing a little bit of connection outage due to the LRT project in Subang Jaya."

"So why my friends who are staying in USJ 2 are able to use Streamyx without problem? I'm from USJ 5, which is merely a street away." I asked him.

"Different areas are affected by the project. For now, there will be some problem with your connection, but this problem will not last long."

Thinking that my friends are using some 1-2Mbps line unlike mine, which is a 384kbps package, I thought that the problem might be my 384kbps line because it seems that TM has stopped offering internet packages at this speed (referring to 384kbps) for new subscribers. So I thought that it is normal for me to experience some sort of internet outage due to the LRT project because they might be messing up with the cables a bit.

"So when will I be able to get a stable connection again?" I asked again.

"After November 21," he replied, "and if you are still having a problem, please call us back and report to us."

Very well, It's only 3 days until November 21. I can tolerate 3 days with a super laggy internet connection that disconnects every 20 minutes.

x x x x x x x x x x

It's November 22, and I'm still having the same problem. Thus, I called TM again.

"We're sorry Mr. Wong, your connection is still affected by the LRT project in Subang Jaya."

"I thought you said that it's gonna be ok after November 21st?! And by the way my name is Mr. Lore."

"Oh we're sorry Mr. Lore. blahblahblahblahblahblah" *and he keeps talking about the connection maintenance thingy blah blah blah without intending to offer a solution to my problem*

"We're sorry Mr Lore, but for now, you can try restarting your modem whenever this problem occurs."

I said bye to him and hung up. Now I'm on my own. Even TMNet is trying to avoid my question and kept using the LRT project as an excuse.

Fine, I'll see how it goes. For the next 20 days, I used my sister's Ipad with Maxis 3G Mobile Internet to check if there's anything I can do to fix the internet connection myself, while giving time for Streamyx to see if it turns any better after one month.

Day by day... I've finally come to a conclusion.

Modem overheating. And I realized: Not TM's fault at all.

Apparently when a modem overheats, your internet connection will be disconnected. Even if it's connected, the packet data will be stuck and the connection actually hangs even if the DSL light is steady. Awesome.

I was wrong for accusing TM and putting the blame on TM for the frequent disconnection.

But, TM is wrong too for putting the blame on the LRT project in Subang Jaya. Seriously! Imagine that. If a lot of people with connection issues start calling TM to complain about their speeds, TM would just tell them that "The LRT Project is affecting your connection" as an excuse. And they don't even offer a working solution for you. Please re-read my conversation with TM above. Or below:

"....but for now, you can try restarting your modem whenever this problem occurs."

Job well done, Mr. Technician. Very "helpful".

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

By the way, this is how I ventilate my modem now: A table fan, and some lego blocks to raise the modem up.

Works like a charm...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

- Kingwn

259: Dream - A Quick Post

2011-12-01T11:52:00.002+08:00

What you do, or think, in your daily life really affects your dream at night.

Recently, I've been dreaming about my own death twice, within three days.

In the first dream, I dreamed of myself sitting in a classroom in my secondary school but with my primary school teacher, along with my friends from all level of education-- primary, secondary, and college level. Suddenly the sky turned to darkness from an initially sunny day, then a sound, gradually increasing in loudness and eventually deafening all of us, was heard. Immediately, a white ball of light came crashing down from the ceiling, my vision fades into white, and the beating of my heart woke me up.

End of the world, perhaps?

This is the first time I've experienced this kind of dream. Apparently, it is true that if you die in your dream, you'll just wake up; unless becoming a floating spirit or ghost is a part of the "story" in the dream. Indeed, dreams are all about personal feelings-- you are the main character. If you die, everything ends.

In another dream, I dreamed of being sentenced to death due to the involvement of some "taboo" without myself knowing it. I was innocent, but yet in the dream, I have five more days to live. I tried to live the most out of this five days, thought about all my family and friends, and eventually my heart stopped beating and that, again, woke me from my dream.

It's quite scary to dream that you're dying in your dream. But to me, dreaming of death two times within three days piqued my interest. So I fired up my computer and looked through the Dream Dictionary.

"To dream that you die in your dream symbolizes inner changes, transformation, self-discovery and positive development that is happening within you or your life. You are undergoing a transitional phase and are becoming more enlightened or spiritual. Although such a dream may bring about feelings of fear and anxiety, it is no cause for alarm as it is often considered a positive symbol. Dreams of experiencing your own death usually means that big changes are ahead for you. You are moving on to new beginnings and leaving the past behind. These changes does not necessarily imply a negative turn of events. Metaphorically, dying can be seen as an end or a termination to your old ways and habits. So, dying does not always mean a physical death, but an ending of something."

*Gasp!!*

I am VERY surprised with the interpretation from this Dream Dictionary as I am departing to further my education in the United States at the end of this month. I'm anxious about it and kept wondering what will my life be when I stay in the States. No doubt, this would be a big transitional phase and really I had to leave many things behind!

Dream Dictionary, for the win. It's so... true... that it's kinda scary at the same time.

Anyway... December. My final month of holiday in Malaysia.

p/s: Just realized that 'dreamed' is US English while 'dreamt' is British English. Heehee.

Signed,

Kingwn.

258: Nyan Cat Fever :)

2011-11-23T23:11:00.000+08:00

Yes I love Nyan Cat a lot.

Proof? Videos below! ;)

First of all, thank you Nyan Cat and AVS Video Editor for providing me this opportunity to realize my dream. Making a one-man-band video was my dream since the past few years, but I just couldn't find the right song and the right software to accomplish that. Secondly, thanks to my parents for buying a piano two decades ago (yeah... I don't think I'll have a piano/keyboard in my dorm in ISU.. sad.)

And yeah. This is my final month in Malaysia before departing to the US. Most musical instruments will be left behind, so I thought to seize the opportunity to make one now that I'm quite free. Hehehe.

By the way, here is another vid: 326 pictures of Cats in one minute. Googling and saving the pictures took me like 30+ minutes. LOL.

Another update coming soon! And my stupid internet is soooooooooo slow that i couldn't access my hotmail/facebook most of the time. It's a miracle I'm able to write a new blog post now, given that my internet connection is quite pathetic nowadays following the so-called "connection upgrade" claimed by TMNet.

- Kingwn.

257: Facial Symmetry vs. Physical Attractiveness (Experiment)

2011-11-12T23:07:00.001+08:00

Which is better?

It is said that the facial symmetry of a person influences the judgement of aesthetic traits such as physical attractiveness and beauty. Based on other researches, results conclude that there is a strong correlation between facial symmetry and the level of physical attractiveness. By the way, sorry I sounded so formal in my own blog, lol.

Anyway, generally when a person is perceived as physically attractive, he or she is more likely to have a higher level of facial symmetry. But what about the other way round? Does having a symmetrical face means that the person is perceived to be more handsome or beautiful?

I've stumbled on a website: http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2011/03/20/symmetrical-faces/ where facial symmetry of a few people is accomplished artificially with the help of image-processing softwares. There are many interesting photos but the author actually mirrored one side of the face including the person's hair, which in my opinion, caused the pictures to look unnatural. In my experiment, I will try to make the facial features symmetrical but at the same time, keeping the hairstyle constant so the question is only based on the facial symmetry of my test subjects.

A very big thank you to the participants who are willing to help me in my experiment: Aaron, Chua, Kwang Shiong, Myself, Hui Ching, Zun Zen, and Yung Chien! Thanks for granting me the permission to use your pictures on my blog.

Here are the results after the image alteration. Tell me which one you think is more attractive, the original one or the edited one :) Look at the pictures of my friends below!

Aaron. I mirrored his left cheek.

Chua. I mirrored his left cheek. Do you think he looks better or worse now?

Hui Ching. I mirrored her right part of the face. There's not much difference between the edited one and the original one because her face is already highly symmetrical.

Kwang Shiong. I mirrored his left cheek.

Me. I mirrored my left cheek. Is the original one better-looking or the edited one?

Yung Chien. I mirrored her left cheek too.

Zun Zen. I mirrored her left cheek, and her smile seems more symmetrical here.

Now that the faces were made symmetrical, do you consider the ones made symmetrical as "more" or "less" attractive? Please leave me a comment to help out with this mini "experiment"! Thank you :)

BTW, I've asked my sister and she has never met all my friends before. Out of these 7 pictures shown to her, she preferred 4 of the edited ones. As for my mom, she preferred 6 of the edited ones. Seems like a success for me... hmmm.

Signed,

Kingwn.

256: How to Memorize for an Examination [Memorization Technique]

2011-11-08T01:04:00.005+08:00

As a student I am constantly required to memorize stuff for examinations. This method has accompanied me for many years since Form 4, and this was how I tackled SPM Sejarah (History) and all other stuff that requires intense memorization. It's still useful even up until my college years, especially in one of my elective subject of World Religion which required me to load a bunch of terms and definitions into my brain. ^^b

Examples of subjects in which this method is applicable (mostly subjects dealing with terms & definitions, cause and effect, characteristics of a concept):
History, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Music (esp italian/french), Geography, World Religions, Moral Studies, Philosophy etc

What you'll need:
- Ability to form a mental picture and able to integrate the keywords into the picture
- Ability to draw (Highly recommended, to ensure that what you remember is constant and never changes)
- Wild imagination. The wilder the better.
- The patience of preparing your material to aid your memorization weeks before your examination.

First of all, let me show you what I have done in the past, which I am still very proud of myself for being able to spend time producing these cards to aid my memorization. ^^b

My stack of cards created by cutting small notebook papers into four portions. Here are the cards for my World Religions course. The term to be memorized is written on the frontal face, while its definition and what I call the "memory aid" is written and drawn at the back of the card respectively. Cards like these are extremely helpful to help you memorize terms and definitions-- store them in a pouch and bring it everywhere you go. Try memorizing the definitions based on the pictures (which i will talk more about later), and then try reciting its definition while trying to recall the picture associated with that particular term. Works like a charm to me, every single time without fail.

My cards laid out on my study table. They are merely about half of the whole stack of cards.

Here you can see the back of 21 of the cards. Note that for every term to be memorized, I have drawn a picture (the "memory aid") and wrote its definitions at the back. There are arrows and words written in red which point to certain part of the pictures. These are the keywords, integrated into the drawing itself to aid memorization.

A close up view of the cards, and the stack of the cards I possess. For the largest picture, you can see that I've drawn a character that looked like Doraemon (which relates to the word "Torah": [Dora-Torah]) and a stack of 5 books at the side. In general, when I am required to recall the definition of "Torah", I will think of "Doraemon" taking out 5 books of sacred teachings from his multidimensional pocket. Automatically, I will know that the definition of a Torah is "the teachings that comprise of the first 5 books of the Bible."

Here's another picture of what I've scribbled on post-it notes and have it stick on my SPM History reference book:

These are some of the hand drawn pictures, again, with red arrows and words written in red to denote the keywords linking to the facts that I am required to remember. (Click to enlarge!)

Again, I should mention that this method is especially useful for memorizing historical facts and definitions. It doesn't work really well for other science subjects such as Chemistry and Physics which requires you to understand the concept rather than brute-force memorization. Biology, on the other hand, may work-- as you will encounter many unusual terms.

So how do we use this method for memorization?

Let's look at the case for some of the unusual words. For example, "Midrash" in the chapter of Judaism in World Religion.

Example: Memorizing definition for "Midrash"
Technique: Separating the word into two familiar words.

Firstly let's look at its definition: "Rabinnic exposition explaining the meaning of the scriptures. The root meaning is to search out."

Next, pick the keywords from the definition. "Rabinnic exposition explaining the meaning of the scriptures. The root meaning is to search out."

Now you've picked the keywords, it's time to relate the keywords by forming a picture in your mind. But, are you unfamiliar with the word "Midrash"? No fear. At least by breaking up the word into two, you'll get the words "Mid" and "Rash", which then become two familiar words to you in your daily life.

"Mid" can translate into "Middle".
"Rash", as you know, is a kind of skin disease. To me, it looks like a patch of redness on your skin.
"Rabinnic" sounds like "Rabbit". So now we picture a rabbit.

And now, we link all these words together in the form of a situation:

"When you reach out your hands to search for something, your hands are exposed to a Rabbit, a creature you are allergic to. You get some Rash in the Middle of your hand, which, to your surprise, reveals the meaning of the scriptures."

Now you have all the keywords integrated into the situation you've just imagined.

Easy isn't it? Now that you've linked every word together, it's time to draw them out so that you can review it from time to time so that you won't forget. Read the definitions again after you've drawn the picture.

TADAA!! This is the picture!

Good? Now try recalling the definition again. It would be quite easy to remember everything once you recall the picture that you have just formed.

The key is, you should utilize both hemispheres of your brain when memorizing things. You use your left brain to store text information, and you use your right brain to form creative images in your mind. Once you used them both in conjunction, you're unstoppable. And things will become much more interesting. The more interesting and wacky is the picture, the easier you'll be able to remember. Now let's move on to the next example!

Example: Memorizing definition for "Aggadah"
Technique: What does the word Aggadah sounds like? Try to relate that word to something you know.

This is another weird word from the Judaism chapter of my World Religion. Let's look at its definition first: "The nonlegal, story aspect of rabbinic literature."

Now. "Aggadah". What does it sound like? Are you familiar of "Agrabah"? No? Remember the Disney cartoon Aladdin? Yes exactly. That story took place in Agrabah. And now we are going to relate the keywords to Aladdin, which you are familiar with.

Again, "Rabinnic" sounds like "Rabbit" again. So for sure, there'll be a rabbit in the picture.

You need to do some creative thinking now. Do you remember that Iago the monkey was always by Aladdin's side? Yup. Replace the monkey with Rabbit. Now picture Aladdin walking in the city of Agrabah ("Aggadah") with a Rabbit on his shoulder. Since you changed the character, it has become a modified version of the original story and thus, it has become a nonlegal story. Aww, remember that Aladdin was a classic story back in the '90s? How wonderful if this is actually based on a written literature from the past!

Again, you've linked all the keywords together. It's time to put this on paper! Then look at the definition again.

Recall this picture, and you'll recall the definition.

Moving on to the next example. It's getting interesting.

Try making your image as vivid and weird as possible. Or try to form a story out of the keywords. That will greatly help you a lot.

Example: Memorizing definition for "Mista'peo"
Technique: Split up the word and relate it to pop culture :)

"Mista'peo". This is a term from the Ancient Civilization of the Naskapi people. The definition is "The Great Man, a soul that lives in the heart. It is the essential self of a person and reveals itself in dreams."

"Mista'peo". Split into two words! "Mista" and "Peo". Somehow, it just sounded like "Mister Potato" to me. Great. Now I have Mister Potato in my picture.

Mister Potato is a very huge, great man. He died, but his soul rested in the heart of a person, guiding every action of the person. He has become the "Self" of the person, and usually reveals himself when the person is dreaming.

You never thought Mister Potato was this great when you see him in Potato Chips commercial on TV huh? :)

Draw it out, now. Then read through the definition again. You must re-read in order to know what you are drawing and how does the drawing relate to the definitions.

Mister Potato. What a wonderful being.

Did I mention that you need wild imagination in order to help memorizing? Don't be afraid of venture into the Taboo. It will make your memorizing process much easier. For the next example, we'll explore another technique...

But first, I must apologize if the material below offended you. Seriously, no offense intended. And the content below may contain both religious and sexual elements at the same time. Since this is a World Religion course, the terms will be surely related to religion; but the presence of sexual elements are merely to aid in memorization only. Please read with discretion.

Example: Memorizing definition for "Zakat"
Technique: Venture into the Taboo.

As my country, Malaysia, is a multiracial country with Islam as the national religion, I believe that many people already understood what is meant by the term "Zakat". However, to recall the proper definition correctly and not missing out any details, I will discuss how to memorize this term by so-called "venturing into the taboo". Again, I'm sorry if I am going to offend you unintentionally.

Definition: "In Islam, the payment of a due to support the community. An act of purification through giving."

"Zakat" may sound like "Zakar" in the Malay language, which translates into p*nis (male reproductive organ) in English. Thus, we now have that particular "thing" (the p*nis) in the picture. Let's relate the keywords with the aforementioned "thing" now.

We have the words "Payment", "Support", "Purification", and that "thing".

We may imagine a person cutting and giving off his "thing" as a payment for a particular purification process. A builder is hired to construct hard pillars made out of the everyone's "thing" in order to support a house from below. In the house, you can see a community of people.

Draw it now. And read the definition again so that your keywords make a full, complete sentence.

Ok. Now try reciting the definition when you retrieve this picture from the back of your mind.

Works like a charm eh? ^^b

Enough with memorizing terms and definitions. For the next (and final) example, we will try applying this memorization technique into the subject of Microeconomics (another of my elective subject)!

Example: Memorizing the market structure of "Perfect Competition"
Technique: Filter out all the important points, and draw out a situation which depicts all of these points.

Ahh, Microeconomics. Now you need to memorize the four important aspects which defines the Perfect Competition Market Structure.

Perfect Competition:
- Characterized by many buyers and sellers
- Sells commodity i.e. standardized product
- No barriers to entry
- Buyers and sellers are fully informed (e.g. prices)

We imagine a situation where a crowd consisting many buyers and sellers are present. These buyers and sellers are holding the same, standardized objects in their hands, while conversing very fluently and loudly with one another. They know perfectly what they are talking about (Fully informed). These crowd gathered near a gate (barrier) which opens at 8am (passing through the gate is free). They are having a competition: the first person who runs past the gate when it opens, wins.

We have successfully linked these bolded phrases with the points related to Perfect Competition:

Perfect Competition:
- Characterized by many buyers and sellers
"...where a crowd consisting many buyers and sellers are present..."

- Sells commodity i.e. standardized product
"These buyers and sellers are holding the same, standardized objects in their hands..."

- No barriers to entry
"...(passing through the gate is free)..."

- Buyers and sellers are fully informed (e.g. prices)
"...They know perfectly what they are talking about..."

Here's the picture.

Summary

I have lots more pictures to share with you readers. But all of them work around the same principles: Picking out the keywords, linking them to a story or a picture, then recall a particular definition/points by retrieving the picture from your mind.

1) For terms and definitions, if you encounter an unusual word, just think of some interesting ways to make them meaningful. Pick out the keywords, link them up in the form of a picture, note down what a certain part of the picture represents using a red pen and look at the picture over and over while reading the definition out loud. By repeatedly rehearsing in your mind, you are transferring what's stored in your Short Term Memory into your Long Term Memory. Also, don't be afraid to "venture into the Taboo", by linking your picture or words with sexual references, maniacal murders and some dark humor. The more unusual the picture is, the easier you'll be able to remember what you need to remember.

2) For points about a certain concept, or the situation where you need to remember "Factors contributing to _______", you should summarize up the key points, turn them into small pictures, then piece them up to form a bigger picture. With this, you can remember more effectively. Again, remember to make your image as interesting (funny, weird, wacky, scary) as possible.

BTW, Now I can still remember that I saw a barrier, a crowd of people holding something in their hands, and chit-chatting around. xD

This is how I aced subjects that require memorization. If I can do it, you can too.

Good Luck.

Signed,
Kin Gwn.

*IMPORTANT: Reproduction of this material of any kind is forbidden without the permission of the author. All materials presented here are original works of the author and he claims full copyright on the pictures and the article. Thousands of apologies if you find the content above offensive. All offenses are absolutely unintentional.

255: Yet Another Fortnight Has Passed...

2011-11-05T01:05:00.002+08:00

Another fortnight has passed since my previous blog update.

OCTOBER IS OVER! And here is November. Two more months before I leave Malaysia. Sorry to keep mentioning this over and over but the fact is, I’ll really miss this place, and everything associated with my homeland. Family, friends, food, Bitchie, and my comfy bed in my comfy room. I feel a bit contradictory though. Despite all these negative feelings about things that are about to be left behind here, I’m kinda looking forward to the new life in the States. What’s new in there? How would my life be as a student over there? I’m going to see my first snowfall! Am I going to make good friends there? How are the people over there? All of these make me really excited as well. It’s an adventure. And that’s life!

Oh, how many people had the opportunity to venture into the opposite side of the Earth by the way?

That thought too made me grateful that I’m a really lucky son—able to pursue higher education in a place where technological advancement is rapid. Thanks dad!

Do you ever stumbled upon a drama series such as How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory only after a few years since it was first aired? Imagine a situation where you, fortunately enough, able to copy six seasons of the series into from your friend and straight into your computer for your viewing pleasure. When you’re at the first few episodes of the first season, you tend to take the remaining episodes as granted.

“Wow, I’m only at the third episode of the first season. Five more seasons ahead of me to be watched! That’s awesome!”

Well, eventually you’ll be watching the last episode of the final season. That’s when you suddenly realize that you’ve completed all six seasons without knowing that time flies. “Why does it have to end so fast? I want some more…”. And then you regret finishing the series too fast.

That’s exactly what’s happening to me right now.

Since I graduated from ADP in August, I’ll be having five months of break until the end of the year, waiting for my transfer to the US. In August, I thought that I still have five months of holiday ahead of me, so I slacked everyday… through September as well. It was October already and suddenly I felt like time passes so fast. Nothing much has been accomplished in the last two months. Great, and then I attempted to utilize the month of October in spending quality moments with my family and friends… then time sped up even more. Light speed! BAM. It’s November already! Two months left!

Without realizing it, I’ve used up three out of five months of my holiday. How I wish I could have more holidays now. Grrr.

Anyway… Here’s what’s going on recently.

A simple birthday celebration with Kar Foong. She has been organizing birthday celebrations for many of us already, and then I thought to throw her a party too. However due to certain time conflicts, that left us no choice but to “force” a simple celebration… a cake within an ordinary yumcha session. Good thing we managed to find more people to join in to make it merrier!

Kar Foong and Chi Kei

A surprise marriage proposal from my future bro-in-law to my sister in Skybar. Sis was touched and shocked at the same time. She was shocked that every close friend of hers were invited in a so called “small gathering” especially when they suddenly show up J Congratulations bro-in-law and sister!

Me with tools for the proposal.

The Twin Towers as seen from the convention center.

The In-Laws! Sister Yun Yee, Bro-in-law (BIL) Shiu Kao, Sister Yun Kei, Sister Yun B'ng, Me, Sister of BIL Mei Yan and Sister of BIL Mei Teng.

And all these are all the beloved close friends of my sister :)

Random sing-K session with Kar Foong, Hui Xin, Jee Hong and Mervyn… to make KF’s celebration a complete one. Well RedBox lost compared to Neway in terms of price and timing! Anyway we had a satisfying TBowl dinner together. Usually we wouldn’t go there for dinner. But with a special 50% discount, everything seems more reasonable… portion size, price… etc. So that’s why I said it was satisfying. Hehe.

Mervyn and JH

Hui Xin and Kar Foong

And here’s something interesting to me. Mall-hopping with three generations of women. Grandma, Mother, and Sister. My sister is the daughter to my mom, and my mom is the daughter to my grandma. It’s an random outing but kinda interesting to note that, lol.

The three generations of Daughters

Here’s Bitchie trying to figure out what’s the sound (that I’ve made) behind the glass pane!

Bitchie :D

Another random Karaoke session with my dudes. 3 person, 3 microphones and yell the heck out in the box. No one will hear us scream! Oh cool. It was actually the first time that I sang so much. I seldom sing. I suck! J And Jee Hong’s seriously very good in Singing. For one time, Mervyn’s friend entered the box and she dueted with him. Mervyn and I were enjoying to these angelic voices… hmmm.

Mervyn trying to hit the low notes

And this, again, is another random cheering session for Hui Qi in her badminton competition hosted by Astro. I went there to cheer her up along with other members of N.E.R.D.S.. NERDS is indeed a very special group I think. We actually knew each other from a TCS event back in Taylors but somehow there’s this certain bond that glued us together. Perhaps that glue is Chor Heng? Haha. Great thing our friendship still managed to last. It’s been a month-and-a-half and we’re still going out quite regularly. I’m really grateful about that J Oh worth mentioning, Hui Qi and her partner managed to win the 3^rd place (perhaps due to our cheering) and got a lucky draw prize with a combined worth of RM1600+ (and that is probably due to the presence of the NERDS’ super lucky Aura lol). Ok just kidding. NERDS is not responsible for HQ’s achievement but it’s merely her achievements alone with her partner. Haha.

The NERDS

Hui Qi with her X-pose. Looks like she's been playing two handed badminton huh...

Next, my recent photoshop products out of boredom! Featuring: “My House is on the Moon”, “I Severed My Own Head!”, and the "Pimples-Fats Equation" which popped in my head at random...

They've discovered my base on the moon!!

Halloween 2011.

That's what happening to me...sadly. Five months of holiday lah.

Oh, and since when Sudoku has become a part of Wushu? Saw this in Popular in Sunway Pyramid...

Sudoku: Next gen of Wushu!

Alright that’s all folks. Till we meet again!

I might be sharing some memorization techniques sooner. Psyched up to write one and hopefully it'll benefit students in the future. But for now I'll stop here and go to sleep. Byes!

Signed,

Kingwn.

254: A Friend

2011-10-18T21:27:00.000+08:00

So much things in my mind, but no place to pour my thoughts.

"Writing heals," they said. For four years I've been writing journals daily, jotting down every single thing I've done and every emotions associated with it.

Unfortunately, the personal diary will just remain there, 'listening' to my ramblings without giving me any responses or empathy.

A 'long lost' best friend of mine disappeared after he departed overseas to further his studies. Since then, he has deactivated his Facebook, and probably due to his hectic academic life, I seldom see him online on any other messengers. Mobile phones are obviously out of the league as I don't have his number! I figured that he and I will be out of contact, unless he has his Facebook reactivated.

This thought lasted for slightly more than a month. While checking my email inbox to retrieve certain documents on a random day, I've received an e-mail from him updating me of his current situations! I'm so delighted to hear about his well-being at the moment! How foolish am I, to forget another invention called e-mail! That's very stupid of me! I have totally forgotten about e-mailing, seriously. It's because previously I always use e-mail only to verify my registration on certain websites, instead of staying in contact with people.

It just feels so much better to share things that are bugging me in my mind with him, knowing that there's actually someone whom I trust is reading it.

Thanks for being such a good friend since the day we met, you know who you are.

- Kingwn.

253: SJK(C) Lick Hung After 7 Years!

2011-10-17T16:49:00.002+08:00

2 blog posts today! ^^

First of all I have to introduce a little update on the sidebar:

This is it! I have organized my posts into 3 sections corresponding to the stages in my life since the blog started. After I depart to the US, it'll be another new chapter for me ;)

Ok now back on main topic!

Last Saturday I went to revisit my primary school, SJK(C) Lick Hung.

Was told by my cousin that there's a carnival in Lick Hung, so I went there with my sista who is an alumni of Lick Hung too. Since it was a random decision to revisit the school, I didn't notify my friends about this, lol. Extreme nostalgia once I stepped into the school compound. It's like all the memories I had in the past flowing before my eyes again!

School canteen. It was around 12pm already so the whole event was about to end already. People are busy packing up stuff. Some stalls continued to sell their stuff.

My parents contributed to that block there! Well, most students from my batch contributed to that block in the form of donation. More like robbery though coz we MUST donate, or else, kena rotan. LOL. That's the computer lab BTW.

The row of notice boards on students' achievements. My name used to appear up there last time ;)

The empty space under the new block. With the help of their homeroom teacher, the students were busy helping to sell their stuff.

WTH an elevator! Our batch donated for the construction of this elevator too?!!

Exterior view of the administration block. Not much people left.

Look. Super duper low basketball rim. I can slam dunk without jumping, lol ^^b

Kids!

The new block with elevator...

Decorations on the exterior of the classrooms...

Oh the notice board again. I walked one round around the school compound already since the previous picture of it. And the guy with the red shirt was still around, busy taking pictures. Refer to the previous pic lol!

The hall of fame. This corridor... filled with scary memories! Last time, after an examination, all students' averages for all subjects and the final rankings are posted here for the viewing pleasure of the parents. Then the parents would start comparing their children with other parents'. Lick Hung mamas and Lick Hung papas are sooooo damn competitive ;)

Kids and people again

Those in orange are teachers. I don't recognize them. Hmmm.

Computer lab. LOL, 3 coupons for 20 minutes of computer game. I wonder what type of games they offer? Is it MARIO, or is it the bloody Left for Dead? (These are children under 18!!)

Random girl, random guy, random girl, and random lady with umbrella colored like paddle pop.

Auntie, Grandma, Kid, Auntie, Kid, Teen, Teen?

Back of the lab...

My sister.

I felt like a giant when I realized that the queue lines are so much narrower than what I remembered in mind. No doubt, I have already grown! ^^b

Primary school scouts ;)

Look! Inflation. Last time we used to buy mee at a price of RM 0.50. Now everything is above RM 1.00.

Looks like kids nowadays really like angry birds. Makes me hate Angry Birds even more. They're overrated and saturated.

Great to see the choir group of Lick Hung performed in SMK Seafield's hall! (SMK Seafield is my secondary school, awesome isn't it?)

Articles...

Slam dunk, baby!

Time flew so fast. 7 years and now I'm waiting to continue my tertiary education in the states. Makes me kinda emo now that I'm leaving Malaysia soon.

Wow....

- Kingwn

252: Are these really what girls think?

2011-10-17T16:19:00.000+08:00

Came across this random article while browsing through Facebook.
I seriously have my doubts on this, lol.

❤ Girl's Language :

If She Don't Text You :
- It's Because She's Waiting For You To Text Her

When She Walks Away From You Mad :
- Follow Her

When Shes Quiet :
- Ask Her What's Wrong

When She Ignores You :
- Give Her Your Attention

When She Pushes YOU AWAY :
- Pull Her BACK

When You See Her Crying :
- Wipe Her Tears & Ask What's Wrong

When She Says Go Away :
- Just Go Close To Her & Give Her Hug ❤

One thing to note, in my opinion, that this is only applicable under one of the two conditions:

1) The girl likes the guy, and the guy likes the girl.

2) The girl is just dreaming.

What happens if the girl doesn't like the guy? I think I've already put a few of these pointers to the test! (And unfortunately, the results were not optimistic lol.)

1. If she doesn't text you:

It's because she's waiting for you to text her.

Oh really? I tried texting her but often ended up with short answers (and sometimes no replies at all.)

2. When she walks away from you mad:

Follow her.

Then be prepared to be labelled as a stalker and your chance falls to zero.

3. When she's quiet:

Ask her what's wrong.

And wait for her to reply: "Nothing".

Then good luck trying hard to come up with another topic when the mood is dead...

4. When she ignores you:

Gives her your attention.

And she'll think you're annoying and ignores you again.

And because she ignored you, you gave her more attention.

Infinite loop. Congratulations, you are now being labelled as a desperate guy.

5. When she pushes you away:

Pull her back.

And she'll shake off herself from you.

Well done, dude...

6. When you see her crying:

Wipe her tears and ask what's wrong.

She'll probably send a signal to you implying that she can wipe the tears herself and reply with "Nothing" again.

7. When she says GO AWAY:

Just go close to her and give her a hug.

Now go protect your face because she's gonna slap you!

In conclusion I think this article shouldn't be titled as "Girl's Language", but "A language that girls hope their crush would understand". Let's get back to the two conditions I've mentioned just now:

Condition 1) The girl likes the guy, and the guy likes the girl.

All of the above will work only if the girl likes the guy, obviously. But if the guy doesn't have feelings towards the girl, he wouldn't feel the need to do things like pulling her back and giving her a hug or something. In our culture it's still a bit uncommon to do that, even if they're just friends. Also, that guy wouldn't have to expect text messages from the girl too. So it actually kinda becomes a one-way crush instead... leading to:

2) The girl is actually dreaming.

So what's written in the article above could be only a girl's fantasy, and they're merely her wishes to her crush! ==

Or because my love is unrequited that's why I wrote this post with such negativity. Hahaha.

Whoops!

Wait, perhaps this is true in the American society? Hmmm. Perhaps I should test it out again when I go to the States ;)

Written jokingly by,

- Kingwn

I'm seriously joking. Seriously! OK TIME FOR NEXT BLOG POST.

251: What's up this holiday?

2011-10-14T18:18:00.003+08:00

It's already 50% of my holiday. 2.5 more months to go before my departure to US.
75 days and counting down to the day of my flight.

I regret choosing a date which clashes with the wedding day of one of my relatives. What's more, the time of flight is around 10pm at night, so the wedding dinner is still ongoing during my departure. I believe most of my relatives will be there... my sisters, everyone; while my parents send me to the airport, skipping the wedding dinner.

What to do? I was too reliant on my friends. They already booked the ticket for me so I had no choice but to comply.

This issue aside, I've been trying to make my holiday as meaningful as possible in this five-month holiday.

Yet, I felt nothing big has been accomplished, except my one-month dedication to the Chinese Society event held on the 23rd of September. Since then, it was all drama-watching, "tea-drinking" (yumcha), and window shopping. Or hanging out with friends.

August 2011
My final examination for the ADP program ended this month. Immediately after the examination, we ADP folks organized a barbeque party at my place. Then the next day I went for the commencement ceremony and was shocked at the fact that I obtained three awards. And the rest of August is like ordinary jobless days, with me facing the monitor all the time, developing my very own simple computer game. Oh and some of the days are spent on the enrollment procedures to the US.

It's an honor to be up on stage with the US Ambassador Mr. Paul W. Jones!

September 2011
Bought a bunch of self-help books to aid personal development. Dedicated myself to contribute in the upcoming Chinese Society event which will be held on Sept 23. This was one of the most meaningful things that I have done this September! Being forced to make contact with strangers (and now I'm glad that I've done it), getting to know new friends and work with them, all of these felt really great. Basically after the event, I kept in touch with some of the TCS members, especially the four other people I got to know during the event. And including me, the five of us referred to ourselves as the NERDS.

Yes, Chor Heng, Chin Yew, Wei Wen, and Hui Qi. Plus me. NERDS!

Today is the third week we've known one another.

October 2011
Yumcha session with my secondary school mates has become a weekly routine. Our group is getting smaller as most A-level students have already departed overseas. And by next year, the group size will shrink even more... Not much happened this month too, except visiting to the bookstores to buy more books for my reading pleasure lolol. (and reunion with primary school friends!)

Also this week I went to settle some US VISA stuff too. I was soooo nervous for the interview, seriously. Fortunately all was smooth. Really smooth.

Another thing is that we siblings made a Pei Pa Koa advertisement based on the original commercial aired around 15 years ago in Malaysia. Take a look if you have time!

Oh KIN GWN!
Y U NO LIVE AN EXCITING LIFE?!?!! =_="

Ok frankly I gotta blame myself for that. I'm too comfortable staying in my own house-- it doesn't make me feel like stepping out of the house AT ALL. Hahaha.

- Kingwn.

250: Forever Alone

2011-09-30T15:00:00.000+08:00

Screw the one on Facebook! :)

I have corrected some flaws from the one uploaded on Facebook; in that version, the me in blue shirt had his leg cut off.

Just a random photo editing project I've been thinking of long time ago. Since today I really got the opportunity of being totally alone at home while everyone else's out the house, I figured it was about time to pull off that idea ;)

Am I.... forever alone? Sigh.

- Kingwn

249: Job well done

2011-09-24T15:40:00.003+08:00

Weeks of preparation, event promotion, and requesting sponsorship from companies.

There's no doubt that this was one of the big leap I took, and I really appreciate the opportunity provided by my friendly fellow-TCS members to experience what is it like to get myself involved in organizing events.

Seriously, many things I've done during this period were my first times.

While promoting for the event in the centerpoint of the campus, we had to give out promotional flyers to all passers-by. That's not a really big deal... what's more, it was actually my first time to use a microphone and promote the event to the public, even though it was based on a script. At least it was an achievement! ;) An affirmative look from my friends gave me even more courage to speak out loud despite the many eyes looking into my direction xD

Thanks guys!

A promotional "poster". Later it was decorated with more lanterns, but I forgot to take a picture of it...

Zun Zen, JT and Alice. Most of the time they don't even know I was taking a picture. (Even up until now... lol)

So after two weeks of promotion, it was the main event yesterday. And we all arrived at noon to prepare for the event which will be held later around 4.30pm. Stringing up trees with metal wires and hanging lanterns could be tiring, but not with these trusty fellow TCS helpers around!

It was reaaaaally hot in the afternoon but these girls are so dedicated with their jobs that they never mind working under the sun.

Ok, this is me cutting metal wires.

Polly briefing us like with gestures like a musical conductor.

It seems ugly for now, but at night they looked really magnificent!

Engineers at work, constructing the frame for the backdrop.

High-level committee members ;)

Annie, Eliza, Selina and Chor Heng setting up the backdrop.

Tze Voon's idea of using paper plates and bowls as backdrop. I thought it wouldn't look nice, but I was wrong. It's actually quite nice and creative when decorated along with big lanterns and baby tin-can lanterns. The final effect is entirely different, especially at night!

Chor Heng. TCS is short of MANpower to transport stuff around!

MyFM Perodua Team "creating the atmosphere" and playing games with the participants...

Hui Qi and friends working on the "baby" tin-can lanterns... A creative creation. LOL

Evelyn and Selina ;)

MyFM dude. This isn't DJ Jeff! I couldn't take Jeff's pic because I was busy...

I think Jeff's up on stage already. Oh I only had like 5 seconds to take this picture so it's a bit blurry. Haha.

Lanterns. It was around 7.30pm gua.

Later at night...

Selina, dunno-who, and Polly on duty

Some traditional dance. Very graceful.

Group pic! Image from this page! :)

We initially planned to have the event start at 4.30pm, but due to some technical issues we had to delay it until 6pm. Nevertheless the event was a success. I overheard some participants commented that they enjoyed the event very much! Really tiring though. It was my first time not to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner within a day except eating two almonds and two small pieces of mooncake. Yet strangely I didn't feel hungry. After cleaning up everything, we had our "breakfast" at McD around 12.30am in the middle of the night!

My first-times in this event:
- First time promoting stuff using a microphone to the public
- First time contacting sponsors over phone calls and approaching shop owners one-by-one to ask for sponsorship
- First time involving myself in organizing events in such a scale
- First time hosting a game booth
- First time breaking my curfew up until 1.30am!
- First time eating McD as a main meal so late at night lol

What the heck... hahahaaaaa.

I really love Taylor's Chinese Society. They're like my second home within the past month. :) Looking forward to the next event! xD

- Kingwn.

248: Resolution

2011-09-16T00:25:00.002+08:00

The Encounter

It was on that day I had a random encounter with a person who I've befriended with one year ago, but we haven't talked much since. Her sudden appearance petrified me, as I thought I wouldn't be THAT lucky to meet anyone there in a place which is supposed to be quite far away from home.

She stopped there and looked at me. It was the time when I realize that avoidance is no longer an option... because her line of sight is directly towards me and I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be a great idea to flee the scene. The fact is, back in the past, I used to pretend that I didn't see anyone whenever I run into someone unfamiliar. You know, social anxiety, that is!

I walked up and greeted her, with the usual "How are you?". My mind was blank due to the anxiety, and obviously I couldn't come up with any other fancy conversation openers.

She's an attractive girl, and I have problems dealing with attractive girls. Ouch.

After receiving an expected "I'm fine" from her, it was my turn to say something. But no man on earth will keep their brains from malfunctioning when they're very anxious or nervous. Since she gave her answers, I felt obligated to make the conversation flow, but my mind just couldn't come up with something good to say. The smile on her face, full of expectations, placed an immense pressure on me.

Before I could come up with a subject to talk about, she started asking me questions. For the rest of the conversation, she was the "questioner" who kept the conversation going, and I was the one to provide her with responses. Not a very good thing.

When it was about time, she bid goodbye to me and left. I just stood there, palms sweating.

"What a useless guy am I," I said to myself.

xxxxxx

The Resolution

This is when I realized the crisis. The root of the problem is not that I'm afraid of attractive girls, but the fact that I lack people skills. All this while, I preferred doing solitary activities, returned home from schools right after classes without joining clubs and activities, finding excuses to avoid social gatherings i.e. "yumcha" sessions, and preferred to do solo assignments rather than group projects. It's not unusual that I freeze before people due to such poor socializing abilities.

"I must stop this. It'll definitely be detrimental to my future," I thought.

Indeed, humans are social beings, and the society is formed by a large community... of humans. It is through the interaction between people that will determine whether a nation will prosper or fall. If I hold on to my previous mindset, I'll definitely end up being alone for the rest of my life, living the life of an unsuccessful nobody... exiled from the society.

What's more, I might miss out lots of fun things that could be done with other people. Now, I just want to leave the world a better place than the time I was born. I want to get the most out of my life.

With this awareness in mind, my whole perception on the solitary thing has changed. There's nothing wrong with enjoying a moment of solitude, but the avoidance behavior towards engaging in social situations needs to be changed-- for the sake of the future!

By possessing good people skills, every other thing will start to be in a better shape, and that includes work, relationships, and even health-- all contributing to happiness.

It'll be a long holiday ahead of me, until the end of the year before I further my education to the United States. This will be the time to start changing for the better.

They say "awareness is fifty-percent of the cure". With the awareness already implanted in my mind, the question left unanswered is: How to start making a change?

xxxxxx

The Change

I've never read any books outside my curriculum. Textbooks were what I used to read, and only read. However, now that it comes to the issue of self-improvement, my first step is to begin reading self-help books purchased from the bookstores. I had to have my mind completely brainwashed.

I started off with the book "How to Talk to Anyone" by Leil Lowndes. Obviously, I was bad at talking, because my conversation muscles weren't used frequently as I tend to avoid social situations. It was a very good read and I got to know some of the fundamental principles behind a good conversation. I tried to force myself to attend every social gatherings after that, and attempted to apply the techniques discussed while conversing. They didn't go as anticipated anyway. However, it had fostered some courage in me to start making contact with people.

For some reason, I still had a little difficulty talking to people. And now I know why.

I lacked a very magical thing called "self-confidence".

Without feeling confident, nothing can be accomplished. This is when I bought another book on self-confidence by Barton Goldsmith. This book is indeed a gold mine. No wonder the author's name is Goldsmith. He offers advice and insights as valuable as gold. Probably even more valuable than gold.

"Writing heals," Goldsmith mentioned this in his book,"the process of putting your thoughts down on paper can be an amazing release as well as a way of seeing your own growth." Yeah, reading this, I realized that I do keep a journal on what I have done or on what I feel everyday, since 2008. As I read through the journal entries, I see so much growth in me, and that itself is one of the best confidence builder. Realizing your own growth is really empowering.

Most of the methods discussed in the book are very easily applicable, yet most of us are unaware of their capabilities. I am grateful to have purchased this book. In fact, owning this book itself gave me a slight boost of confidence!

To stat making a change, another step I've made is to join a club activity. Before this, I always put academics first, everything else last. A crucial mistake is not realizing the effects of getting involved in such activities.

You know, when you get involved, there's a sense of self-worth. You will then feel important, and your confidence increases. As your confidence rise, you will accomplish more things. When you accomplish more things, you have more experience, and that turns you into a person rich in stories and anecdotes. Automatically, you will have lots of things to share with other people. At the end of the day, you'll have great chemistry with those people around you because all of these factors are interrelated!

I am grateful to have involved myself in Taylor's Chinese Society's preparation for an upcoming event. I have made some very nice friends there (at the same time, trying to apply what I've learnt from the books). I really enjoyed working with them.

"People are scary" is now a thing of the past. Now, having people around me reminds that I'm human, and it's my job to enjoy life along with these people.

Let's walk the path together, shall we?

p/s: At the end I might have strayed slightly from the main topic. That's all I have to say, though! ^_^b

It's not the end yet, I'm still striving to hone my people skills. Good luck to myself! :D

- chicken

247: Walking the New Path

2011-09-14T22:07:00.002+08:00

I've been reading this blog recently! The contents are very inspiring, and most of them are very empowering. By just recalling a few simple sentences whenever negativity shows up, I am able to suppress the negative thoughts... and most of all, I'm starting to see life, in life too!

Perhaps I've been too negative all this while, huh. :)

I would like to share you the aforementioned blog: The Positivity Blog!

Hopefully you guys will find it a fun read.

CONFIDENCE! HYAHHHH!!

P/s: Ever wondered who's the awesomest in the world? Visit the website link below to find out! ^^
Find out who's awesome ;)

- Chicken

246: The Final Week of Class

2011-07-29T13:44:00.003+08:00

It's the final week of class! And the week's already over- Next week will be the days when our efforts are judged in the final examinations!

It's my final week of class in ADP. After all these, I'll be having a four month holiday full time, spending time with my family and a few final rendezvous with my ex-schoolmates. It's inevitable to feel depressed, as this is the time when many of my course mates part their ways into the next chapter of life, i.e. transferring their studies to the other side of the globe... as soon as this early August.

The Week of Projects and Presentations

This week was also the week when we all have to pass up our major assignments and most students will be doing their final projects and presentations. I handed up my truss project today... a bridge made of toothpicks.

We had to construct a truss bridge out of toothpicks using glue and it must be able to support a load of 1kg in the top-center node, regardless of its design. To play safe, I just constructed an easy one-- the Warren truss. It's a small bridge, 5cm x 15cm x 5cm is the maximum allowed size of the bridge. Initially I think 1kg of load is kind of a challenge, but later on 1kg is actually very light. The bridge will be able to withstand the force as long as the joint is strong enough! Here's my take, an ugly one:

TADAAA!

And the bridge put to the test by hanging a bottle filled with 1000 mL of water. Density of water is about a g/mL so this is around 1 kg :)

It could support more load, I think, but for the sake of not ruining this project before handing it up... I am not able to run more tests with increased load.

It's not a big deal actually :( Some of the bridges my friends made were even nicer and perhaps stronger!

This is my friend Deldrie's truss bridge, the Pratt truss. Looks a lot nicer eh?

And I handed up the project. At the same time, many of the ADP classrooms were booked for World Religions presentation. The students this semester are so enthusiastic with the decorations. Compared with my WREL presentation on Hinduism last semester (April 19), I think our group's decorations weren't that outstanding!

Here's a pic on what the peeps have done to convert a classroom into a "Buddhist temple" for the presentation to take place (I came into the room as a visitor when the students were preparing for their presentation later):

A platform surrounded by lotus petals, yellow cloths hanging down the ceiling, a row of articles by the side... etc etc...

And then during the actual presentation, the presenter will be standing in front and deliver his speech in the same room.

This is Tze Wei, I've known him since Semester 1. That's why I can lepak around in this room as a visitor. Hahahaha

Kwang Shiong insisted me to take his picture with the Buddha statue near the platform.
Oh by the way, the platform right... there was this Monk sitting on top of it during the actual presentation. I saw it when I walked pass the class.

On that day, two groups will be doing their presentations. Another group will be doing on Christianity... and that group also made kind of a large investment. LOL.

Chua and Hye In. Their robes are sewn by one of the group members. Walao eh!

Preparing for presentation.

You can see fake fruits and a piece of roti canai on the plate. What's that for? The roti canai symbolizes the unleavened bread. (Or leavened bread? I forgot lah)

It's 5 minutes before the presentation, everyone was nervous.

And this is the presentation on Chinese Religions. Taoism, etc. Looks kinda scary to me though!

Some random guy that I snapped. Because he's wearing a chinese traditional costume. LOL

Actually... when you see it in pictures, WREL presentations are quite fun. But when I was taking that subject, I was so worried of the presentation lorh. You see... making a WREL presentation involves quite a lot of investment of time and money. Decorations, coordination, content and slide preparations etcetera. It's a lot of work to do... but at the same time, a fun experience. Lol.

Besides WREL, another subject I'm currently taking-- Psychology, was also having a presentation week. Psycho is different, though, no decorations are needed. But this is a bit scarier, I'll talk about it later.

Group #4 presenting. I am group #2, and my turn has already passed!

Paparazzi view again:)

Oh yeah. Back on the psycho presentation. My group did it really well, and was ranked almost the highest in my section. Everybody got almost full marks for the presentation :)

What happened during the presentation was, we successfully delivered the presentations the correct way: i.e. not reading from the slides, not holding notes in the hand and so on. And that's not all even after we're done presenting. Mr. Tarosh, our lecturer, would ask questions regarding our slides. His questions are very challenging. Most groups kind of screwed up their presentations when their asked questions that infers that their points are contradicting, vague, or doubtful. Etc.

Scary experience!

The Week of Stop Slacking, Start Studying

It's so risky trying to study only one week before the finals. Indeed, it's a fairly stupid choice, but what to do, I've slacked so much that I became addicted to slacking. It was until the past Wednesday that I start to realize that I could not slack any further but to start studying in order to maintain the CGPAs. So, as usual... my final revision mode has been activated again:

My study schedule. Yellow highlights indicate first revisions. When I've done another thorough revision, a pink highlight will be applied on the same spot, indicating that the chapter's ready for exam.

In fact, I think this method works quite well. To have things listed out as a "to-do" list, you will somehow automatically try to turn it into a "to-done" list. There's an incentive to study all the chapters at least twice, and that incentive is the reduced feeling of guilt for not studying. Even if the exam is screwed, there's a proof that you've already done what you could. I love this method. Kind of. Did it since SPM, and that helped me alot I dare to say.

Another thing about projects I missed out la. At the beginning of the semester, my chemistry lecturer told us to make eco-enzymes from fruit peels and flesh. She's a great teacher very aware of environmental issues and insisted us to make ecoenzymes during lab, even though the "lab" is really not part of the syllabus. Anyhow, she just wanted to plant the awareness in our minds for a better future lah that's why she did that. It's all for the mankind!

Orange peel ecoenzyme. I shouldn't have written "Bioenzyme" since it's a different thing =.=" 2.5 months old.

AND the study mode's on!
Here, I'll let you explore my room a bit, and how it becomes messy when the exams come.

A: My workstation. Messy, with scattered notes, and textbooks everywhere. The computer is for me to look at online references.
B: A poster of "How to Motivate Yourself" printed from the computer lab recently.
C: Two lenglui pictures to further motivate me lol. Whenever I feel tired, I gaze upon the picture, and then the tiredness is gone. *sounds creepy huh*? xD

And this is one of the leng lui picture I mentioned. Yui Aragaki :) My favorite!

The Final Week of Classes

Thursday was the last class for Chemistry 2. If I hadn't suggested to take a class photo after the class ended, I would be full of regrets coz the people are so AWESOME inside especially Ms. Ng who made the lessons so lively!

It's s shame Zi Qin is holding the camera but not in the picture!
Our class is like a happy family. The class is full of jokes. Sometimes even the cold ones, but we still laughed out loud though.

Shalee, Geak Kun the smarty, and Kiba!

Both this awesome people came back all the way from US to take Chemistry here during Summer.

Ah, Mr. Zi Qin surrounded by two awesome ladies

No once wants to hold the camera for me, so I had to use the Camwhore angle. :(

Test 1: Full marks. Test 2: Full marks. Test 3: GREAT MARKS.
That's her, this girl.

CONCLUSION: Height has no correlation with intelligence ;)

Happy couple

And then we all played ping pong for one final time. It'll be no such chance in the future... everyone's leaving.

It's been the same since the past few semesters, but it will no longer be the same within the next few months.

Generasi Celik IT playing with smartphones

So, Ryan came back to KL from Sabah to settle some stuff, and we all seized the opportunity to celebrate his farewell. He'll be going back to Sabah today, and then straight to the States this August. So, who's Ryan? Scroll up to the top of the page, look at the top-right corner in the sidebar. The one with pink hair, pink shirt, it's him! (Don't get him wrong, we were required to dress up as weirdly as possible on that day when the picture was taken [referring to the one in the sidebar])

Ryan and Chua

Carl's junior. Big burger that really fills the stomach.

Derek. He's transferring on August too.

Chua's burger no longer looks like a burger, but more like a pizza.

Messy.

And then... we bid goodbye to Ryan one last time before going back home.
The next day, which is today, is the last class for Mechanics.

I forgot to take a picture of Mr. Herol at the end of the class as he left while I'm still working on my exercise questions! :(

Engineers... lol

Zi Qin with Deldrie

There's only a four of us left in this classroom. The others went home without even saying goodbye. Sad lah.

I thought it would look cool using the whiteboard as a backdrop. But... it's so dark there. :(

So, the classes for my fifth semester ended, and my education over here in Malaysia has come to a stop, temporarily. It's not the time to study for the finals, score well in them, then enjoy then great, long holiday!

And then I'll be in the same situation as you're currently in now, Najwa Laila. Booooooo!

- Kingwn

245: It's coming! AGAIN

2011-07-25T22:46:00.004+08:00

Another day without Facebook.

I have attempted to come up with various reasons why I should leave Facebook, for a better future.

No no, I won't be discussing why I'm leaving Facebook here, as my main reason to quit is quite a bit of an embarrassment! Haha. Moving on...

This week is my final week of class. Most of my projects have already been submitted and the grades for course works have been finalized. The final examination week draws near, yet I was on a procrastination mood. Last semester, at this period of the term, I'd be already making the "revision schedule" like 2 weeks before examination. But this time... I'm still slacking off by blogging, and replacing the time for Facebooking with the time of searching for articles on "How to Motivate Yourself", "How to be Optimistic" and other stupid stuff. It's really time for me to start studying instead of searching for these non-working personal improvement articles. But I'm just soooooo lazy for the real stuff... right now.

Wait, since I'm a good procrastinator, perhaps I'll procrastinate later too? lol.

Instead of studying, I am somehow addicted to producing A Capella songs now, based on a song I composed for Tales of the Maguse (a computer game by Bit2Productions). This is what I have at the moment... a sloppy, experimental work with almost-fail vocals... =.="

There actually isn't any point to this blog post, I just felt like updating because I MUST NOT ACCESS FB. So I chose to blog lah, but thing is, dunno what to blog, so ended up with this crappy blog post. :)

- Kingwn

244: A Friday with Mixed Emotions

2011-07-23T01:15:00.002+08:00

While driving back home, I came across a bushel while I stopped by a traffic light.

Hmmm, so this is how the bandar-rayas keep their tools! This is genius, lol. They are very well hidden as seen from afar, and it proves to be a convenient spot for storing the tools... drawing them out from the bush anytime they want to put them to use! :)

Awesome

And before that, I was invited by the Form 5 CS members to attend the singing competition, as a spectator, along with Hong and Mervyn. We just walked in like a VIP in casual clothing instead of the school uniforms we used to wear; that feels sooooo "awfully awesome"-- with hundred pairs of eyes looking at us as if we're some kind of big-shots.

The singing competition wasn't bad nor wasn't that good neither. However, the efforts of how the Form 5 committee tried to gain reputation for the CS are very, very respected and appreciated! Grats to president Siew Wen and all members in her league!

As seen from behind... We're VIPs but we sat at the back

At night we all went for Mervyn and Hong's birthday celebration. Initially we planned to have dinner at BBQ plaza, but there was a long queue outside. So we switched for Pasta Zanmai instead, and all the following random shots follow...

Candid Sze Hou

Candid Mervyn: He didn't realize that I'm taking his pic at this point

20% Mervyn, 100% Kar Foong, 100% Hui Ching and 50% Hui Xin

Hong's signature pose: Looking in a direction 90 degrees away from the camera

Green Tea pouring in action

Sze Hou's SEARS shirt

Mervyn as seen from a paparazzi angle

Counter lady

Random group of customers sitting in the next table. I was just experimenting with the paparazzi angle :)

Another Mervyn from Paparazzi angle

Show-no-face!

Lighting up the cake with a... blow torch? IS THAT A BLOWTORCH?

Da Cake

Two birthdayboys cutting the cake

Sze Hou again

Oi, don't move lah.

Ok... steady... *snap*

What's with these looks?

And after all that cake-cutting and eating session... It was still early. So we proceeded to lepak in another place outside of Sunway, it was 10.30pm that time. The road was very jam because the roads were being fixed that time and many lanes were merged into a single lane. Went to Benta Kaya and reached there only around 11.25pm. Shit lah I have a curfew at 12am...

Regardless, we decided to take a group picture as a memory. This pic wasn't taken by my phone, but rather, Kar Foong's phone. I never possessed a pink mobile!

Lalala.

Whatever it is, I need to talk about something later... but right after this:

I am admitted into Iowa State University :)

Package delivered from ISU

=======================================

Despite all these good things happened, I have received a news rather shocking.

"There has been a death in the opposite house."

My neighbor just passed away in a road accident. When I heard the news, I couldn't believe what I've heard and confirmed with my dad a few times to make sure whether I've heard wrongly or not. He was such a gentle, Malay man who used to share his home-grown mangoes with us and greets us most of the time when we return home. He usually stands outside of the compound, watering plants, sweeping the yard, and chasing Bitchie back into my house when she tries to escape.

But now he has left the human world as he has been summoned by Allah. May he rest in peace.

========================================

This explains one of the reason why I couldn't really smile today.

Plus, my curfews are sweeping away everyone's excitement. As a college student, most of the time where we meet out ex-schoolmates are at night. We usually plan for outings at night, and that would easily last till midnight. One things is that... I have a curfew of 12am. A male form of Cinderella. Whatever the crap it is!

As my group of friends are usually short of drivers, often Hong and I are the ones able to provide transport to other members of the group. That makes me... guilty. Why?

Like I said just now, no matter how simple the gathering is, it can easily last for a few hours and extend till after midnight. Usually at midnight is where all the fun is, where things get comfortable and conversations heat up... but because of my 12am curfew, the friends following my car had to say a "premature" goodbye to the people who followed Hong's car. In 11.45pm I usually had to start fetching these people home and get back to my house before the clock strikes 12am.

What happens if I violate the 12am curfew? I don't know. Sometimes I will probably get a few scoldings from my mom, while my dad would probably point out that I am home late in a slightly-louder-than-usual but expressionally-neutral tone-- weirdly enough to cause a tension in the atmosphere...

I'm sorry that I ruined the fun!

- Kingwn

243: It's over again!

2011-07-21T17:54:00.000+08:00

It's always the same thing!

Before the presentation: "Presentation freaks the hell outta me."

After the presentation: "Phew. I pulled it off well!"

In fact, I scored full marks for the presentation although I was asked many "tweaked" questions by my lecturer!

^_^

It's not the only thing I'm happy about today. I also aced mechanics test with zero mistakes :)

I'm happy. But at the same time something is preventing me to feel any happier.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Iowa State University :)

This is my second-to-last week of class, and the exam week comes after that. Tomorrow is the due date to submit the clearance form, and so I went to the office and filled it up.

Filling the clearance form puts me on a state of depression immediately. You see, by filling up this form, it means that I'll be leaving ADP soon, and that will only mean that my friends and I are going to part in separate ways. All of us came from various states in Malaysia, and we are all advancing studies to different states in the States. (lol, the states and the States, notice the capitalization). What's the chance that we will meet each other again?

Fat chance? Slim chance?

In fact, both of these phrases mean the same thing: Little chance.

Another thing is, by filling up this form, it's kinda a risky road ahead for me.

Clearance = completing the academic program.

I have only applied for one university, and I haven't received any response from that university yet. By the look of my current grades, I shouldn't have any reason to worry about whether I'd be accepted or not, since my friend has also been accepted into the uni too! (Note: I wasn't applying to MIT nor Caltech!!!!) By filling in this form, I will have also accepted the invitation to the commencement ceremony, kinda like a graduation ceremony.

But... what if something screws up and I had to attend the upcoming Fall semester again?

It's absolutely weird to attend the Fall semester after I actually attended the graduation ceremony. That's not just right!

I had no choice but to hand up this clearance form, as I did not preregister for any of the courses in the next semester. I can only sit down and pray to my deity in order for my university to accept me.

Please oh, please, Iowa State University! I'm really hoping to be a part of ISU!

- Kingwn

242: Ahead of Schedule!

2011-07-20T16:39:00.002+08:00

CHOI!!! LOLOL

It just feels so awesome to be ahead of schedule... and to complete every assignment weeks before it's due!

Being not so occupied with social outings does have its advantages. Last Saturday night my friends planned a yumcha session, but it got cancelled all of a sudden. Out of boredom, I just sat in front of my computer and started doing all the assignments. Indeed, it's hard to start doing that especially when I feel absolutely lazy. But once I kick-start it, I'm on a roll, and immediately fall into the state of addiction, hoping to complete it as soon as possible. In just one sitting... I've spent five to six hours completing an assignment working through the midnight, from 8.30pm to about 3am. It's tiring, of course, but grants instant gratification because it means that there's another item checked-off the todo list :)

Now, I'm just sitting back and relaxing while seeing some my friends panicking about how to do this how to do that, one week before the assignment is due. Hahaha. Time to appreciate the looks on their faces for now xD (Yes, it's evil to behave like this! I'll only help them when they are really clueless on what to do and the due date is drawing near, lol!)

So, with all that assignments completed, there's yet another major thingy that I'm worried about-- Presentations.

Presentations are my worst enemy in academics. To be frank, I am not even afraid of the upcoming final exams, but to deliver a presentation, that really freaks me out. Especially when it's a group presentation. Even though the topics are distributed among the group members, there's always this thought that I'll fear either "me pulling down my group's grade" or "group members pulling down my grade". Judged by my character, I'll be more likely to assume the latter scenario... only if there are some sucky group members in the group! Offended peeps, don't hate me! =="

However, on the bright side, I am delighted by the fact that my group actually cooperates really well this time. After the first group delivered their presentations, we're so psyched up and motivated to do better than them. That's the spirit! And hopefully things will be awesome and smooth tomorrow, so I could focus well on my final exams revisions later on :)

Back on topic, presentations really freak me out. Whenever there's a presentation, I'll be figuring ways to memorize the scripts and stuff even though I am aware of the fact that "memorizing a presentation is the worst presentation skill". No choice. I'm taking psychology now, and have legitimate reasons to blame on operant conditioning! I memorized a few of my earlier presentations and all of it went well, so I tend to repeat this behavior again! Hahahaa!! Downside, though, it takes sooooo much time to memorize a presentation. I'll usually dedicate one whole day to prepare for the presentations without distracting myself from any other activities. I recite during bathing, I recite during driving, I recite during shitting, and I recite the presentation while I'm walking. I even recite when I'm brushing my teeth. Alright I just made the last one up... but you'll know how freaky I am when it comes to presentations.

Wish me luck for tomorrow! PRESENTATIONS HYAAAAHHHH!!!

(This could be my final presentation in ADP Malaysia. Gonna make it worthwhile!)

- Kingwn.

241: Growth

2011-07-15T00:45:00.002+08:00

Since it's the time near the exam week and projects are really piling up while I kill them one-by-one... I'm getting more and more stressed. It's apparent that the distance to exams is directly proportional to the level of stress.

One interesting thing that I find is that every time exam draws near, I would involve myself in game creation. Or probably it's correlated to the level or stress because I needed something to shift my attention away from all that workload. Haha. So today, I was reminiscing my form-one and form-two game creation experience by playing a very old game that I've made-- Realm of Monsters III. Slowly, I'm coming to the point of this blog post.

It wasn't a good game, and in fact I think it really sucked. I don't get why I felt that the game was so awesome to the extent that I was so eager to share that around to my friend back in the past. It was during form-one and form-two so... that game was infested with very much grammatical errors and, i wouldn't say "childish", but you get the idea. Despite all the flaws in the game, I enjoyed my replay experience with my own creation of six to seven years ago. Partly because of the humor and how the characters in it are "naively" developed, which all in all made it a little bit more interesting.

Can't believe I had this kind of dialog included in my games. *FACEPALM*

Shown above is a screenshot from Realm of Monters (III), created around 2005-2006. The text actually meant: "If you're not going to tell me, I'm going to hit you in the bird." And by "bird", I assume all of you know what it means!

BTW, don't know what "Facepalm" is? See below:

So, in the recent games I've made, I noticed a prominent change in it. And this change can be traced back into my own self-- the growth. I have become more ambitious lately, which made me to desire a game with a large scale with a great depth in its stories. The ambition also partly came from my experience with programming, which, of course, contributed plenty to my personal growth. Another thing I realize is that, I've just become more and more serious. This is reflected in my recent works, where the themes are getting darker, sometimes focusing on justice and betrayal, with serious characters which kinda makes the game really... "dark", in overall. This actually reflects that my mind has become more and more complicated, with the naive thoughts gradually replaced with somewhat complicated thoughts based on the current social situation in life.

It's only when I played with my old creations then I realized that my games had grown, so is my mind, without me even knowing it! It all happened simultaneously!

I missed the innocent, naive experience, and the humors that came with it. But it all only happened back in my early secondary school years. We only live once and there's no turning back, for I have already become what I am destined to be!

- Kingwn

240: Group Project Pt.2

2011-07-14T18:03:00.001+08:00

The most advanced civilization back in the past was a fruit of our ancestors' teamwork, so there must be some good in group projects as well. Contrary to my previous post, I do find positive things in doing group projects too.

Here's what I like about them:

More brains are better than one brain. More ideas, more creativity, more result.
It makes us realize the potential of other group members.
It provides opportunity to befriend a person who you seldom communicate with. In short, it gives the chance to socialize with them.
The sense of unity and bond within a successful group project is fulfilling.
Distribution of work is also a benefit, it means less workload. But the process of distributing the work could be really troublesome. Refer previous post.
It widens the horizon of knowledge because group projects mostly require students to do research.
It cultivates communication, expression, and agreeableness.

In a nutshell, group projects have both pros and cons, and it'll only produce a desirable outcome only if the group is well organized, managed, and led.

- Kingwn.

239: Group Project

2011-07-14T16:55:00.001+08:00

Group project. Sigh.

This is why I dislike group projects.

It's hard to find enthusiastic and motivated people to be your members.
It's hard to organize a meeting based on everyone's free time. Even if there's a free time on a particular day, there is a chance that a member will be late, not being able to make it, or had to leave early.
It's troublesome to distribute the topic of the project to everyone in the group.
Some members will just remain quiet, or produce sloppy work without putting sufficient effort in it. "I have other assignments to do!" This results in other group members had to follow-up on what he did.
Sometimes a group member's mistake can screw up a whole project.
Sometimes a group member put a lot of effort into the project, but he didn't get what he deserves because the grade of the group is distributed evenly among its members.
When a leader is supposed to evaluate a member's performance under the "supervision" of the members... there's a dilemma he had to face. To rate truthfully, or just rate the member a full 10/10?
Sometimes the members rely on the leader too much. If the leader does not say a word about the next meeting for the group project, none of them would have asked.

Though, it's true that if you meet the right members, everything would become really efficient, interesting and a lot funner. It's just so hard to not come across one of the situation mentioned above.

- Kingwn

238: It's this season again!

2011-07-10T21:51:00.000+08:00

It's this season again!

1) Durian Season
2) The Season Near the Final Examinations

xxxxxxxxx

I don't think I'll get the chance to taste awesome yet cheap durians now unless I go to Gurun for some big, fat durian flesh. It's almost impossible to find cheap and fleshy durians around here in Subang Area... though it's not uncommon to find the uncle selling durians everywhere. Hmmm.

Oh, and it's this season near the final examinations already! It's so fast. Without knowing it, I'm already approaching the end of the 5th semester in ADP. As I'm in the third-last week, many unfinished projects began to pile up, even though I've already settled some of them. They just kept piling up. This is also the period where the lecturers rush their syllabus and prepare tests with questions they have not covered... we're on our own. Well... summer semester's like that. There's no more slacking around this time of the semester! :(

On the right side: My Organizer hahahaha

As you can see my July is full of stuff. All the white dots represent due dates for projects, assignments, reports, presentation and tests! And since Seafield's carnival is coming up, I've gotta make some time for it while keeping enough time for work and revisions! Sigh, seriously no slacking for this coming week!

My finals are coming up in August. After all the exams... I'll be having a long holiday till December, where *if on schedule as expected (no replies from universities yet)*, I'll be transferring to the US in the same month. Between August and December it would be the time for me to enjoy the life in Malaysia before missing it for a long time. Also... It's time for me to spend as much time with my family and friends as possible.

Though it'll be awesome that I'll be free from any stress and burdens temporarily, in contrast to the hectic July, just the thoughts of leaving my home country within the next few months make me kinda depressed. :'(

And then, in August, many of my friends would be leaving for other countries too! The feeling that some of my friends staying in a place 40 minutes from here is already very depressing. Imagine the other friends staying in a place 20 to 26 hours from here!

- Kingwn

237: Jigoku Shoujo and School Days

2011-07-04T17:25:00.003+08:00

Last week I downloaded quite an amount of animes, right? Well, I have already finished two series. Jigoku Shoujo and especially...School Days. I would seriously like to share School Days with you, but it really depends on your taste. More on that later.

Alright, here: Jigoku Shoujo!

The Hell Girl is actually quite cute.

"Somewhere in the vast sea of the Internet, there's a website that can only be accessed at the stroke of midnight. Known as the Jigoku Tsushin, rumor has it that if you post a grudge there, the Jigoku Shoujo will appear and drag whoever torments you into the inferno. Very little is known about the girl - all we know for sure is that she lives with her equally enigmatic grandmother, that three magical straw dolls accompany and serve her, and that whenever a posting on the Jigoku Tsushin moves her, she becomes the Jigoku Shoujo."

- Anime News Network

After watching the first episode, I do like the show a lot. A story is told within an episode, though it is short in length (25 minutes), but it has developed enough emotional attachment between the characters and I. My heartbeat actually fluctuated according to the flow of the story, and towards the ending of the episode (the ending of the first short story), I felt kinda emo. The story is simply beautiful, the concept, the use of color, the soundtrack, the Hell Girl... everything captivated me. It also did make me ponder... is it really worth for the characters to take revenge on those who caused them harm?

I clapped at the end of the first episode. "Woah." Never before I clapped my hands after watching an anime.

The episodes are basically structured the same way for the next eight episodes, which is... quite repetitive, frankly speaking. A few of these episodes are merely okay okay to me. The impact wasn't really that great as the first time I watched Jigoku Shoujo (the first episode). Between episode 6-10 or so... there's a slight plot twist. I clapped my hands once again. I couldn't believe that I did it automatically. Beautiful.

Well those are the two favorite episodes of mine in Jigoku Shoujo. The rest of the episodes are really repetitive. As in REAAAAALLLY. I think I made a mistake by watching two to three episodes one shot because that really made the stories very repetitive. However, the actual, real story begins around episode 9 where the episodes no longer are standalone short stories, but are kinda related. Hmmm.

By the way, the soundtracks are awesome. Just a few of them, not all.

About the characters, I only like the Hell Girl's character. The rest of the characters have not really been developed enough in my opinion.

I'm not going to recommend you to watch the whole series, but I'll probably suggest you to watch only the first episode to have an idea on the concept. And remember, if you're really going to watch the whole series... watch probably an episode per two or three days.

I rate it.... 5/10. That's kind of a sad score.

Now, let's move on to School Days!

Sekai and Kotonoha in School Days

Ah, School Days! Don't be fooled by the title. You've got to be mentally prepared before watching the show. It's not something like Ouran High School where you have lots of comedies in it.

The story begins in a way that somehow makes the show looks like your ordinary romance anime:

"Makoto Ito rides the train to and from school every day. However, at the beginning of his second term, he falls in love with a beautiful girl that also rides the train. Unfortunately, she barely knows of his existence. Her name is Kotonoha Katsura, and though they attend the same school, they are not in the same class. In an attempt to catch her eye, Makoto enlists the aid of a close female friend of his: Sekai Saionji. She helps him, despite the fact that she--unbeknownst to Makoto--is in love with him. Thus the three are bound in a love triangle of life changing proportions."

- Anime News Network

But there is a buildup of tension as the story progresses. It is kind of psychological. And that made the ending very much enjoyable.

In fact, I watched the ending prior to watching the whole series. But don't do what I've done. If you're gonna watch it, watch it from the beginning. I finished the whole 12-episode anime within a single day just to appreciate the ending. Again, be warned, this anime is not for the faint-hearted as it turns out to be quite disturbing at the end.

Some facts to point out about this anime:

- There are lots of girls in this anime, but only two male characters within. Since this is kinda considered as a "harem" anime-- the male is surrounded by many girls-- I think some of you might not like it. I don't really like this genre too, but there's an advice here: If you can try to enjoy this genre, this anime is actually really good. :)

- Well... since this is an anime from the "harem" genre, please be prepared for some "fanservice", expect to see some panties and some scenes focused on female chests. I'm being really honest here.

- The ending (again) is disturbing. But I really liked it.

- *SPOILER* This is the one anime that you will actually dislike the protagonist.
- Sexual theme and violence. There is.

- When you watch the ending, be sure to watch the uncensored version for the greatest emotional impact. Watching a US-release (censored version) and a Japanese-released (uncensored version) makes a huge difference.

This anime intended to send a message across the audience. There are important lessons to learn from this anime... for both genders.

The character development is great.

The soundtrack is super awesome (yup, the ending insert song xD).

The emotional attachment to the character is quite good. I'm emotionally attached to one of the main characters.

There are downsides to this anime though, but I won't be sharing them with you!

This anime dared to venture into a region where other animes don't. This is why I think this is one of my favorite anime on the list! ^^

My rating: 8.5/10 (Highly subjective rating)

Alright... enough about anime reviews. Next post shall be some ordinary blog posts on ordinary events...heh :D

- Kingwn!

236: A report

2011-06-29T10:13:00.001+08:00

Reporting Time and Date: 10.13am, 29 June 2011
Location: Taylor's Library 4th floor

Recently I discovered a way to download animes using a software called iKu. It's a chinese software, and that's the best part. Apparently the chinese people are able to distribute videos on the internet without much trouble unlike the westerners who kept banning the videos. Even if they allow you to download a video, you must register with their website but with a fee. That's... troublesome. Luckily that I know the chinese language. For this, I can download animes with chinese subtitles from chinese websites... and enjoy my chinese life in my chinese home after all the chinese works in college! ^^

Ok I shall drop the word "chinese" now. It's getting old. Hahaha.

So... Now I'm currently in the library downloading animes like crazy right now as I typed this blogpost. About 2 series per hour. The speed is burning rubber like there's no tomorrow in the morning. Plus... some students are either having exams now or having a semester break now. So the library is freakin' empty with very few people.

See?

Yup I'm blogging right now!

It's so empty. Usually at this hour the library would be soooo full and noisy. And full of chinese people. Hahaha I said "chinese" again.

It's only 10.05 am in the morning!

This is awesome. The maximum download speed I reached was 2548 kB/s. Notice that it's a big B not a small b. kB means kilobyte and is eight times more then kilobit (kb). Oh, I think most of you already know that. Perhaps this speed is nothing out of the ordinary to you... but to me, it's superfast! 84.93 times faster than my download speed at home!! =="

Ok apparently I might have downloaded too much this morning. And then the connection started to get stucky. Maybe the administrator knew that I was hogging the line hahaha.

Anyway I just downloaded a bunch of animes:
- Jigoku Shoujo
- Jigoku Shoujo 2
- Ouran High School Host Club
- Azumanga Daioh
- 5cm per second
- Love Hina (?)

And then downloading right now is...
- School Days (A very dark anime, omg. I watched the ending without watching the front and it traumatized me)
- Special A

Most of the animes I downloaded are centered around school life, comedy, and romance. Some people think "why the heck do you watch romance... yerrrr". These words came out from some guy with a PINK laptop...gosh! xD I just love to watch romantic comedy revolving around students. It makes me feel nostalgic somehow... and well, I can have a good laugh on it to get my mind off stupid assignments!

Oh, about School Days, don't think that it's a funny anime featuring students running around the school and playing happily. I made a mistake. I thought it was supposed to be a comedy but... ohhh crap. It's not! But I'm still downloading it coz it's seems very very dramatic and serious.

Don't judge an anime by its name... hahahaha.

I'm still downloading...

Oh cool shit I have lots of stuff to watch this coming holiday xD
Bleach and How I met your Mother also xD

- Kingwn

235: The 4 Benefits of Sleeping

2011-06-25T10:15:00.001+08:00

A few days ago I took a lot of chilli in my meals. For two consecutive days chilli was present in every bite of food that I ingested. What do you expect from Thai Food and Face to Face Chilli Pan Mee? xD

Lotsa chilli going in = Lotsa chilli coming out.

Diagram A: What goes in must come out

Chilli is irresistable. Even though every bite was like hellfire to me and my belly couldn't withstand the "heat", I am still convinced that it is worth it even though the crapping session is gonna be "urrrrrrggggghhhhhh" and "splaaaaatpplaatplaaatsplattt." According to my observations for a year already, it takes around 8 hours for my stomach to process the chilli and build up the urge for expellation before I start cold-sweating and trying to hold off finding a toilet bowl to take a relief.

And the benefit of sleeping early comes into play: you sleep early, you'll be able to wake up early, and you'll be able to sit on the toilet bowl long enough in the morning before you go to college and start cold-sweating in regret later because there's no time to crap without being late if you wake late.

"Ahhhhh...." I could take my own sweet time, waiting for the waves of peristalsis to expel my chilli-fied fecal matter out of my bowel. The way I said it sounds disgusting, right? I'm already immune to talking crap. You know... I'm the crapper. Both literally and metaphorically. Hahaha.

So that brings us to Point #1: Sleeping early makes us able to wake up early and prepare for a good kick-start of the day.

Now comes all the serious pointers... Well, as a result of too much chilli passing through my throat and irritated my tonsils... well, the tonsils would start to protest against your diet and torture you with SORE THROAT. And sore throat is usually a marker to further more problems like sneezing and runny noses etcetera etcetera. To heal myself, I've had no choice but to sleep early, as in, around 10.30-11 pm everyday rather than my usual 1.30-2.30am. It worked, I felt much better every next day. Furthermore, I really couldn't stand the internal heatiness rushing out from my body when the clock hits 11pm. As the night goes deeper, my body feels hotter and it goes reallllly uncomfortable. This leads us to Point #2: Sleeping early allows our body to heal ourselves and perhaps improve our immune system. There's one hypothesis on sleeping that I learnt in psychology class too, stating that sleeping can cool down our core body temperature, implying that sleeping early when we're sick will make ourselves feel less miserable. Yep.

The white mage survives because she knows how to heal herself.
The other hard workers like the fighters are allllll dead.

On the other hand, do you ever noticed that an 8-hour sleep from 11pm to 7am and the same 8-hour sleep from 3am-11am feels very much different? For the former, we'll usually feel refreshed throughout the day. For the latter, however, we'll feel kinda tired and feels like "we've wasted half of the day" even though we still have plenty of time in possession to fool around at night. For my case... If I sleep late and wake up late, the same 8-hour sleep, I'll eventually feel like crap in the afternoon and start taking a nap, killing another 2-3 hours of my day. That's pathetic and not really productive, I think. Here comes Point #3: Sleeping early and waking up early makes us more refreshed during the day. I couldn't expand this statement more :)

Regen. Feels awesome :)

While the last one... it's kinda psychological to me. It may be redundant to the previous point I've made though. Sleeping early causes us to wake up early. And it feels absolutely awesome to hear the birds chirping outside and the somehow soothing sound of some neighbors watering the plants, early in the morning. It triggers a sense of... hmmm... a sense of "Good Day"? Whatever xD The thought of us getting a good day ahead is very empowering! Subsequently leading to a somewhat higher motivation and...productivity. You won't get the same feeling if you wake up late. You're gonna feels reallly lazy.

While my points above may not apply to you, I find that it applies to me. It affects how I feel about the day, how it affects my body, and how it prevents me from "grgrgrgrrrrgrgrgrr" while I desperately search for a toilet bowl. So I decided to share with you.... blog readers :)

p/s: Pardon my disgusting-ness in the first paragraph. xD

- Kingwn

234: I am No. 23

2011-06-13T17:01:00.003+08:00

Just kidding!
I am not number 23. It's just the week number! xD

I'm here to blog about my life again. After taking a picture of my neighborhood over the rooftop, I find that my mobile phone's camera is capable of taking great pictures with awesome colors, provided if the surrounding is well-lit with sunlight. So I felt like aiming my mobile phone around and capturing everything I come across. Najwa Laila! xD

Part 1: Camera Experimentation (with magnifying glass =D)!
This was actually quite awesome. I have a magnifying glass of 10 cm focal length. And another one at around 3cm, I think. If used in conjunction with my mobile phone camera... the effect is going to become really awesome. Here's some pics I took while I have a walk in the front yard. Ah, it was that time when I noticed that such fully bloomed flower existed in my front yard. LOL. Najwa Laila! xD

Flower of Prosperity in my Front Yard

And then i tried the camera with something a bit smaller... like a 50 cent coin. Cool. Najwa Laila! xD

50-cent coin.

The zipper on a tiny bag for my mobile phone.

Lego blocks.

Guli!

Flower of Prosperity v2

Leaves and a hose in background

Lime on a tree

Sister's ring and her bulu on finger

Bitchie's Bulu

A leaf of the plant. The plant was the one shown with the hose just now.

Bud of the flower of prosperity

Sister's graduation bear

Sister's self-stuffed dog

Caps Lock!

That was really addictive. I'm now convinced that my camera isn't a total crap. Provided if you have enough lights, and a few magnifying glass to spare! And those two are the ultimate combination to awesome DIY macro-photoshoot! Mua-ha-ha! Najwa Laila! xD

Part 2: ADP 15th Anniversary Photoshoot!
15 years is not a long period of time. Nor it is a short period of time. So much things must have happened within the 15 years since ADP was launched. So the upcoming anniversary event's gonna be quite a blast, I guess. Anyway, all students and lecturers were called upon for a supersized group photoshoot... by the lake. Hey, that's a lot of people! So I seized the opportunity and took a picture up from above when the peeps were still trying to get into position. Najwa Laila! xD

Walking to the lake

You can actually see the photographer up in the balcony. Look at the top left corner.

Whoa, too bad for those who went for a summer break instead! You guys missed this photoshoot thingy! Najwa Laila! xD

Holy crap I'm soooooooo in love with my camera.

Part 3: Another gathering with relatives!
A while ago my uncle organized a buffet dinner inviting his friends and relatives. Apparently it was for my uncle's birthday, 2 cousin's birthday, and my niece's birthday. All from the same family. As usual, we ate in our VIP spot a.k.a. the Kitchen instead of sitting outside under the tent with all the other peeps. Soon enough many of the cousins gathered in the kitchen and went hella crazy. And my sis kept teasing my cousins with their female friends' name on Facebook... their expressions were priceless trying to defend themselves lol. Najwa Laila! xD

Looking pictures and Facebooking

The non-VIP seat... wakakaa

After eating we went to conquer the park and started chatting just about anything. I had an awesome and great conversation with my cousin, @Yung Shin Tong. Without knowing, all other peoples who were in the park went somewhere else. And then a motorcycle with two men came by. My cousin and I fled the scene instantly because we're worried that they might be the acid man. LOL ROFLMAO BBQ. xD Najwa Laila! xD

Part 4: Syok Sendiri!
I'm not sure since when I started to take pictures of myself. My siblings call that as "Syok Sendiri" or "SS". Well... skip the pics if you don't like them. Just felt like posting it up coz all the pictures I took up till now lacked me in it! That's sad! I was always the cameraman. TT_TT Hahahhaaaa Najwa Laila! xD

UHHHHH

Oh, my FB profile picture at the moment.

B'ng

Kei. SKII user LOL

Obviously SSing. Sigh.

Ok enough for that! It's time for...

Part 5: Superbirthday!

This is an unusual relationship. The Lores and the Chans were neighbours long, long time ago... and now they have become a part of our family. Even though we aren't blood relatives, we all refer to the two seniors at the left side of the picture as "kuma" and "kujiong" (姑妈，姑丈: "Auntie" and "Uncle" which was supposed to mean "Dad's Sister and Dad's Sister's Husband") blahhhh sorry for trying to making it even more complicated xD Najwa Laila! xD

That was Kujiong's 80th birthday. We all gave him a surprise party because he didn't know we were already waiting in the restaurant before he arrived with his children. Najwa Laila! xD

Singing the birthday song in three languages

That's very cute xD

The Chans.

So basically that was what happened last week. Enough for now~~~ ^^ Najwa Laila! xD

- Kingwn

=====================

P/S: Najwa Laila Amir, if you think I didn't mentioned you, you're wrong =D Go ahead, press CTRL+A and review this post again! HAHAHAHAAA

-end-

233: The Roof

2011-06-07T22:24:00.000+08:00

I climbed up to the roof of my house, and took a photo of my neighbourhood.

It's quite an awesome view. And it was quite windy that day... just felt like lying on the top of the roof and sing a song... = ="

在屋顶唱着你的歌～

It was time to return, and it was when I realized that the back of my pants were colored orange-- those were the colors from the roof tiles. OH NOES

- Kingwn

232: Dream

2011-06-07T20:24:00.006+08:00

What the heck-- It's been four times within two weeks already... It's kinda creepy how frequently I dream of the same thing recently... as if the subconscious is trying to convey a message to me through my dreams.

Confused, I turned to my handy little online dream dictionary and came out with the following explanation.

"To see your _____ in your dream, represents your current infatuation with him or her. If you find yourself thinking about him during the day, then it is not surprising that his image will appear in your dream during the night. If you dream of your _____ frequently, then your dream may be telling you that it is time to let this person know how you feel, especially if you are dreaming of him or her in a good way. Only good things can happen from you telling your _____ . Even if he or she is not interested, at least you can move on and stop wasting time on him or her."

"Infatuation". I am not sure of the meaning of this word, so I checked Google.

"A foolish and usually extravagant passion or love or admiration."
Foolish. True indeed. =_=" When now I should actually be focusing on something else rather than some petty "relationship" issues. I have many other stuff to think about, yet this kind of BGR issues (check acronym if you dunno what is it) occupied by my brain for a significant portion. I'm starting to question that is it normal for people of my age to think about these kinds of troublesome stuff this frequently.

Frequent dreams. "Your dream may be telling you that it is time to let this person know how you feel, especially if you are dreaming of him or her in a good way." Maybe, but I'm afraid.

The dreams were ummm, well.. I have no idea how to describe them. Everything that happened in the dreams are what I perceive an ideal relationship would be. Spending time together, chatting about common topics with both of us in an absolutely comfortable state, doing recreational activities like a brisk walk together in the park up the hill enjoying the scene of sunset, skating together in the skating ring... lol. But it was only just a dream. Sometimes the dream even resumes for a little while longer after I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock before the alarm sets off again.

I'm going nuts.

And the reason I share this experience with you all is... if you do dream of your special someone, you'll know what it means. I'm here to promote Dream Moods. The Website. It's an interesting page. Under the dream dictionary section, just type in whatever you dreamed of, and it'll do the interpretation for you. It's fun to find out what your dreams is trying to tell you...

p/s: oooh now i know "dreamt" and "dreamed" are both the same thing.

If I dream of the same thing tonight, I'm convinced that I am too obsessed... which is in fact not a good thing.

Till then, I shall move my focus onto doing revisions for the upcoming tests....

- Kingwn

-------------

By the way, I just did a Big5 Test on Personality. I am such a person... sigh.

Big Five Test Results

Extroversion (38%) moderately low which suggests you are reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and private.
Accommodation (34%) moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly selfish, uncooperative, and difficult at the expense of the well being of others.
Orderliness (76%) high which suggests you are overly organized, neat, structured and restrained at the expense too often of flexibility, variety, spontaneity, and fun.
Emotional Stability (46%) medium which suggests you average somewhere in between being calm and resilient and being anxious and reactive.
Inquisitiveness (62%) moderately high which suggests you are intellectual, curious, imaginative but possibly not very practical.

Take Free Big Five Personality Test
Personality Test by SimilarMinds.com

So what are yours, dear blog readers?

231: To Make a Change

2011-06-04T15:04:00.000+08:00

I'm already 19 and I think my life hasn't been exciting and colorful. To date, I refer to myself as an Otaku for staying at home alone and doing much of the solitary stuff. That's the root to the mundaneness of my life. And furthermore, due to the conservativeness... I felt that I have not exposed to issues around us. It makes me really ignorant in some aspects of life. So, I decided to start making a change, to add more colors to my life so that I'll have a story to tell to my kids next time in the future!

Currently, my life itself is Sociology 101- With my friends being lecturers by lecturing me on theories/examples and social gatherings being practicals. To date, I have made many friends of mine to be examples because they inspired me alot.

The first step was taken last week. I participated in Seafield's Chinese Society one day camp as a senior with all the younger students around, with Jee Hong and Xiang Shan. Our main objective was actually to help out, but... apparently their management was sooooo organized that it didn't require an extra helping hand. So we became participants instead and started blending in...oh and the first two pictures below were the time when we went up the stage and shouted our slogan.

My group practicing the slogan and its move

Getting ready.

HORRRR!

Cute juniors! =3

We bonded with our group members quite well... and the cooperative spirits were even more obvious when we played station games. In one of the games we were pitted against another group in water balloon passing. The balloon shall be passed in a sequence between group members of 12, and the balloon should not fall on the group or we were required to start again. The objective was to see which group scored the most. Our group were so united that we scored 24 balls against the other group which only scored 2 balls. LOL. The joy did not come from the winning, but rather, the spirit. We are one! Muahahaha.

Had a lot of fun with the juniors. And met a lot of aspiring people as well as some people who yet again inspired me. Muahaha. Initially I was lazy to go for the thingy... but now that I have attended it, it made my Saturday much more meaningful.

Since then I always felt bored at home. Aside from reading online articles on my laptop and browsing through Facebook pages, there's really nothing much I could do at home. My siblings are always out, my parents have their social group as well. So staying back home is indeed not a great idea, I thought. After all, I needed to explore the world and delightful things outside... but with a cost: money. Bah who cares about that now... I just want to have some fun. Some kind of investment in health as well... to de-stress and refrain from thinking negative stuff.

So the next day after the chinese society thingy, I went out with my gang of friends again. Yumcha session with nine others: Kar Foong, Jee Hong, Mervyn, Hui Ching, Hui Yeng, Hui Xin, Chi Kei, Chia How, Xian. And then the last three names went away for cheer early, leaving the 7 of us behind resuming on our craptalk. Everyone was quite bored at home too and didn't want to go home, despite the upcoming test and quizzes. Indeed... it's quite rare to have opportunities to gather like this in the next few months... So kinda keberatan lah.

That yumcha session wasn't enough at Bliss33. So we continued on to Oldtown @ Summit. By that time... the twins had went back home already because they had stuff going on later. Once we reached there... we resumed our craptalk again and talked much of those nostalgic things. Like what happened in the years of secondary school. Oh. Time flies weih... good thing we people are still in contact. Love you guys (and girls).

My head was too big to block Kar Foong and Hui Xin.

Blah blah blah

Blah Blah Blah x100

Oh and we stopped by the mascot cosplay in Summit..

Things must end, we separated for the time being and returned to our crypts. LOL.
And actually I was more the chat-tee rather than the chatter. So I sat there and listened, observing the flow of conversations... you see, as I mentioned before, outings like this are "practicals" of my very own version of Sociology 101. Muahaha.

P/s: I was listening to Persona 3/4 soundtracks as I type this blogpost. Kinda had the Persona Social-Link feel here... lol

Weekdays passed... and it's Friday again. A day off for me. What's up on a Friday night then? Nothing. It's kinda sad that I spent Friday nights sitting in front of the monitor glancing through Facebook while all other friends had plans and made it happen. That's it. This Friday I shall make a breakthrough from the previous routines. Yumcha at night!! I don't care how many people are going for yumcha, as long as there's a friend by my side, I'd be realllly happy!

I ringed my friend Kar Foong. And she was quite free too. And Jee Hong was quite free too. And coincidentally HCHY are quite free too. What does it mean? ON! 9.40pm go yumcha is indeed the first time for me. Usually I'll be coming home on 9.40pm but not going out on 9.40pm.

Went to Station One at Taipan. Yumcha and played block stacking. I didn't know Station One has this kind of things there... see... I'm making progress since I just learned a thing now =). Ok I know it sounds pathetic la. We played blocks, the one who made the blocks tumble will be asked a series of questions truthfully. That made the game more... exciting, but sometimes it'll really just become awkward. =.="

Kar Foong blushed in one of the questions directed to her. Yeap, she tumbled the blocks.
And yes Kar Foong, I know you're reading this blogpost and I typed this out on purpose! Lalala.

What's with all the three weird expressions.

Hui Ching's turn. Oh in the next few rounds she turns out to be the one who tumbled the blocks.

We actually played until there's no move left! And HC was this unlucky person.

Station... ONE!

My watch displayed a time of 12.00am. I should be back home by now because of the 12-am curfew set by my parents. Yet, I was still there... with my friends. What should I do? I thought to remain there... and just break the curfew for once...

"Ring." my sis called. "Oi, boy, where are you? Dad said you should be back home at 12am!! Faster come back," she said.

Oh crap. It's my dad. I better get going. Was the first to leave the table after settling the bills. That really kills the fun. Friday night ba... it's not like the next day is a workday or something... Anyway, after I reached home, mom and dad were asleep. And today I haven't seen them yet, so I guess I'm still safe... for now...

But that night my mind was filled with many kinds of emotions. Somehow. Well... that night I consulted my lecturer Xin Dee on Sociology 101 again. Learned lotsa stuff from her. Thank you!

And... dear blog readers. Thanks for reading the post made by a weird person like me. Hehe.

- Kingwn.

230: That's it!

2011-06-01T19:32:00.006+08:00

Here's what happened in the ADP program office. I was asking about the application to universities in the US. As the staff checked my documents, she asked me this.

Staff: "Hey, with your current CGPA, do you want to get scholarship? 23k USD from Illinois. IIT."

Me: "Yes! Any interviews or stuff like that?"

Staff: "Yes, there is, but are you currently participating in any extra curricular activities?"

Me: "No. Must it be in Taylor's?"

Staff: "No, it can be outside Taylor's. But the best is of course in Taylor's la."

Me: "...the only koko activities are what stated here. I've been either ordinary members or some guys in low positions." *points at the school leaving cert*

Staff: *Giggles* "AJK PAPAN NOTIS??!!! HAHAHAHA"

Me: "Sigh."

Staff: "...Never mind. Have you been a volunteer in any activities before?"

Me: "....uhhhhhh... no.?"

Staff: "DID YOU WORK BEFORE?"

Me: "....I'm so embarrassed to say 'no'."

Staff: *Stares at me and shakes head* "THAT'S IT! YOU BETTER GO JOIN CLUBS NOW OR REGISTER AS A VOLUNTEER IN THE UPCOMING ADP 15TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT."

......

Moral of the Story
Koko* activities are realllly important. From the conversation above, I noticed a fact: No koko no talk. They'll fail you even before the interview. LOL

*Koko: Co-curricular activities

- Kingwn

229: Another Birthday Party

2011-05-21T13:01:00.009+08:00

"The song 'Red Dragonfly' （红蜻蜓） was playing in the background while my friends left at 1.57am, leaving behind an immense feeling of emoness inside my heart as i relate the memories we shared to the lyrics of the song. Good times will eventually end and we will be walking in separate paths. But it was a day absolutely well spent with my friends! Thank you everyone!!"

- My Facebook Status, 21/5/2011

That was another gathering... an early birthday party threw for the twins. Yeap, it was their birthday this coming Monday, but we're seizing the opportunity to do it on Friday since they would've left to Sg. Long on Monday already. Apparently... they'll be advancing their studies and staying in a place which is one hour from here. Sze Hou too, will be moving there as they are doing similar courses... So it kinda doubled as a farewell party for the most of us.

Among the 10 person who went for the outing to Sunway Pyramid, including me, 5 of us will be going to the States either this coming August or the end of the year; 1 of us is advancing studies to Germany, 3 of us moving to Sg. Long for degree studies, and 1 of us (Ms. Choon) will remain here in Subang Jaya, lolol.

So after all that movie stuff, dinner and jalan-jalan inside Japanese shops only to find some cool but weird stuff like futon beater, banana slicer shaped like a banana, stainless steel soap and stuff... we all decided to give the twins a surprise again... In my house. LOL

So all that cake-cutting thing and the feast continued in my house with karaokes and games of cards. That lasted till 1.57am when all of them left, which led me to post the aforementioned status on Facebook to express my feelings on this gathering and celebration...heh.

SO, happy be-earlied birthday Hui Ching and Hui Yeng! ^^
Bon voyage, Sze Hou! And it was an awesome night being with Mervyn, Jee Hong, Sze Hou, Xiang Shan, Daryl, Zhe Zeng and Kar Foong!

Excellent! 很好！ Baik! 好耶！ Sadhu! 잘했어요! よくやった! bien fait! أحسنت! bien hecho!!

- Kingwn. =')

Status of 19/5/11

2011-05-19T19:35:00.002+08:00

"Having classmates younger than me by a year makes me feel old. And that led me to ponder, what are my accomplishments up till now, within 19 years? Still studying, still financially dependent, still no contribution to society, environment, and still single. People from the past have already had huge achievements at this age."

- My Status on Facebook, 19/5/11

Sudden emoness. Gotta deal with it later.

- Kingwn

228: Another Update... after a long while.

2011-05-19T19:21:00.001+08:00

This is yet another update after the loooooong period of inactivity.

I've been through the past semester break without much comment, at least I still had events and outings. But most of the time, I remained at home, watching Hong Kong TVB dramas as well as animes and stuff, on my computer.

Sometimes mom stays at home, sometimes she goes out on a vacation with her friends and my dad, usually leaving me alone at home while all my other siblings are away, returning only late at night. Through these periods, I definitely could understand how my mom felt when all her children left for work while she stays at home doing all the house chores. The feeling of being alone wasn't really that great. I do prefer doing solitary activities alone, but sometimes I felt so bored and needed someone to accompany by my side, instead of letting time slip away just like that. It's this kind of feeling that makes me emphasize on the importance of being with family. Whenever all my siblings are around at home, I'd prefer to stay with them, rather than hanging out with friends watching movies and stuff.

Some days in the holiday were really boring. Facing the monitor for eight hours is definitely not a great idea. It makes life so mundane. Luckily some of my friends were having holidays too, and we managed to go out for some outings and movies while coincidentally, everyone including my parents were out. Those days passed in satisfaction. I really appreciate the company.

During the holidays I got my hands on many projects. Improvizing a tripod for my mobile phone using cassette cases, making rolling ball sculptures to fulfill my dreams (I've been wanting to make one since two years! And now my dreams has been fulfilled.), turning my old flashdrive into something more useful etcetera, etcetera. Looking back at these projects I've completed, I felt much gratification and am convinced that my holiday was well-spent, in a way.

So holidays passed just like that, not too extreme on both ends. Solitary activities were balanced with social outings. Not bad. I really enjoyed the trip with my family to the Cameron Highlands along with the family of my sis's future in-law. Getting 11 person together for a trip is a rare opportunity. I also enjoyed going out with friends for movies and karaoke even though I didn't sing. At least it's better than being home alone all the while.

Holidays ended and a new semester commenced. This time I wouldn't be seeing some of my friends in ADP anymore, as they are all preparing the transfer to the States and are taking a summer break. That's kinda depressing. This new semester is gonna be a little bit more exciting- I'm having a cute teacher for Chemistry II. Cute in a sense that there are much interesting interaction between her and we students. In another class of Psychology, I'm having many new faces to look at. There are many new students of the first year in ADP for me to interact with. Never before I see a class with that many lively faces of youth and the balanced amount between guys and girls. Indeed, all courses related to engineering didn't have that much girls as they are usually outnumbered by guys. And I kept seeing the same faces in my engineering courses. That's why, I'm gonna give it all and try to expand my circle of friends even more!

Seriously, I gotta talk about the cute teacher a bit. She is an auntie, but she talks alot. Kinda resembles my teacher who taught me accountings back in form 4. She comments on everything, in a harsh way, but often ends up in laughter of the whole class. You know, the "auntie" type of teacher. While teaching, there is a tendency to stray off topic, talking on and on about her experience while teaching in the States, her students in the past and her current husband. LOL. But among these experiences of hers, occasionally she may relate them with chemical concepts, which is why I find that being in her class is quite awesome. Well... I'm still in my first week of Semester 5, but looking at how things are going now, I hope the positive stuff goes on and promises me a fun, final semester... turning it into a memory that I will recall when I study abroad, in the other half of the globe.

Oh what the heck, enough for now =="

- Kingwn.

227: A picture speaks a thousand words

2011-04-19T17:07:00.004+08:00

What happened in the previous month:

The Duel: Who will prevail? The Dean, or the Program Director of ADP?

A Spiritual Trip: We just reached the peak of the Batu Caves to learn more about Hinduism.

The Failed Prototype: A failed attempt on making a generator. The only wire available during our shopping was this thick one.

The Successful Prototype: Successfully induces e.m.f. but failed to light an LED.

Packed Schedules: This is one busy April.

Mission Accomplished: A final presentation on Hinduism completed satisfactory.

- Kingwn

226

2011-04-06T15:08:00.005+08:00

Facebook has already been part of my life. I rely on it a lot to stay updated with what's happening with my friends, or even as primary means to contact my friends for assignments, projects, outings, and such. MSN messenger is history.

But Facebook makes me sad, you know. I sometimes encounter some news that I shouldn't have known. Yet, it is the nature of the humans to know everything out of curiosity, including me, even if it's just bad news!

Oh fecalmatter.

- Kingwn

BTW: TOEFL 109! Hehe. Speaking part is INDEED the worse!

225: Dreams

2011-04-01T08:53:00.005+08:00

Heh. No wonder I kept dreaming of my teeth falling from my mouth. Not just a few, thousands of them. So I tried to interpret my dream. Here's what I found on the DreamMoods:

Dreams of falling teeth are the most common dreams that Dream Moods receives. The typical dream scenarios include having your teeth crumble in your hands, fall out one by one with just a light tap, grow crooked or start to rot. Such dreams are not only horrifying and shocking, but they often leave you with a lasting image of the dream. So what does it mean?

One theory is that dreams about your teeth reflect your anxieties about your appearance and how others perceive you. Your teeth help to convey an image of attractiveness and play an important role in the game of flirtation, whether it is flashing those pearly white, kissing or necking. Thus, such dreams may stem from a fear of rejection, sexual impotence or the consequences of getting old. To support this notion, a dream research found that women in menopause report to have frequent dreams about teeth. This points to teeth dreams as being related to getting older and/or feeling unattractive and less feminine. Teeth are an important feature to your attractiveness and how you are presented to others. Caring about how you look is natural and healthy.

Another rationalization for these falling teeth dreams may be rooted in your fear of being embarrassed or making a fool of yourself in some situation. These dreams are an over-exaggeration of your worries and anxieties. Perhaps you feel that you are unprepared for the task at hand. However, you will find that your worries are unfounded in most cases. Sometimes what plays out in your mind is far worse than what is reality.

Teeth are used to bite, tear, chew and gnaw. In this regard, teeth symbolize power. And the loss of teeth in your dream may be from a sense of powerlessness. Are you lacking power in some current situation? Perhaps you are having difficulties expressing yourself or getting your point across. You feel frustrated when your voice is not being heard. You may be experiencing feelings of inferiority and a lack of self-confidence in some situation or relationship in your life. This dream may be an indication that you need to be more assertive and believe in the importance of what you have to say.

Traditionally, it was thought that dreaming that you did not have teeth, represent malnutrition or poor diet. This notion may still be applicable to some dreamers.

How true is that. I'm rather convinced about all the paragraphs except the last paragraph about malnutrition. Hmmm... interesting, yeah?

Also, I believe that many of us has the experience of awakened by the jerk because we dreamt of falling. Here's another copied from DreamMoods:

Falling dreams are another theme that is quite common in the world of dreams. Contrary to a popular myth, you will not actually die if you do not wake up before you hit the ground during a fall.

As with most common dream themes, falling is an indication of insecurities, instabilities, and anxieties. You are feeling overwhelmed and out of control in some situation in your waking life. This may reflect the way you feel in your relationship or in your work environment. You have lost your foothold and keep up with the hustle and bustle of daily life. When you fall, there is nothing that you can hold on to. You more or less are forced toward this downward motion without any control. This lost of control may parallel a waking situation in your life.

Falling dreams also often reflect a sense of failure or inferiority in some circumstance or situation. It may be the fear of failing in your job/school, loss of status, or failure in love. You feel shameful and a lost sense of self-esteem You are unable to keep up with the status quo and feel that you don't measure up.

According to Freudian theory, dreams of falling indicate that you are contemplating giving into a sexual urge or impulse. You are lacking indiscretion.

Falling dreams typically occur during the first stage of sleep. Dreams in this stage are often accompanied by muscle spasms of the arms, legs, and the whole body. These sudden contractions are also known as myclonic jerks. When you sometimes have these falling dreams, you may feel your whole body jerk or twitch and actually awaken from this jerk. It is thought that this jerking action is part of an arousal mechanism that allows you to wake up quickly and be on the alert to possible threats in the environment.

VERY VERY INTERESTING! =D

Just as I became gradually interested in the interpretation of dreams, I stumbled upon a website saying something about Lucid Dreaming. I've come across this word a few times already but always thought that Lucid Dreaming is scary so I never gave it a try. What if you are aware that you are dreaming, and tried to wake up, but you just couldn't wake up? Yes it is scary, according to the website, but for an experienced lucid dreamer, that will not be a problem. Instead, that could even perform cool actions such as teleportation, telekinesis and flying as they like, using their "dream body". I'm not fully convinced about such capability (they might be just boasting) but generally most website say that we usually are able to fly in dreams. Hmmm well it feels like a virtual reality game, but while sleeping. Should I give it a try?

p/s: Even wikipedia says that. The scary thing is that, when you are lucid dreaming and you do a "reality check" by looking into the mirror, your image may be distorted, frightening, blurry, or even no image. LOL

- Kingwn

224: Bunch of things to say! + TOEFL!

2011-03-26T15:14:00.011+08:00

Didn't feel like updating the blog for the past month. Been busy with doing something else, such as exploring the new techniques of movie-making and watching YouTube tutorial videos all the time. So watching those stuff increased my laziness in writing blog posts.

Anyway, it seems that I only update my blog either when my happiness is at its peak, or, the mood is down in the dumps. Bah. The reason I write today is due to the latter.

A lot has happened since the past month. Well, I'm gonna talk about them one by one :)

The Accident

It was the first time I've involved in an accident so far. I wasn't the breaker of the law: I didn't speed on highways nor overtaking other cars dangerously. Instead, some Taylor's Bus driver kissed the rear of my beloved car.

That was a rainy day. Dark clouds were all above us. The surrounding is quite dark. And the road is currently in a jammed state because of the rain.

"Bam!" I heard a loud crash from the rear of my car.

Apparently there's this careless bus driver who couldn't brake in time. Or he has a bad reflex. How on earth could he collide with a car while the cars are moving at the pace slower than a snail?

I fretted. I didn't know what to do. To pretend nothing happened or go down for a negotiation? I must choose either path. The reason that I accept to pretend nothing happened and forgive the driver is because my car is already a very very aged car, about 14 years old already. So a bit of physical damage on the exterior isn't going to do me any harm. However, I figured, I must face the facts, and try negotiating my own. This is my problem, and I gotta solve it.

I activated the hazard lights, and moved my car to the side. The bus also moved to the side and parked behind me. The driver came down the bus and looked at my car.

"Kereta kamu rosak sedikit saja, lupakan sajalah." He said. Meaning "your car's only damaged a bit, let's just forget this."

"Ini kereta saya mah, kalau ini kereta kamu dan kereta kamu kena langgar macam mana ah?" I said to him. "Ikut undang-undang, kalau kereta belakang yang langgar kereta depan, kereta belakang tu yang salah." I added. Well this is how my Malay sounds like after a year of not touching BM. LOL

I demanded compensation from him. Since I have no experience on how much the damage would cost me, so I just randomly said a figure. Not too big, not too small. I'm a P-plate after all. Didn't wanna make it big. Just wanna symbolically receive a compensation because the fact is, he's the guilty one.

He negotiated with me and called another bus driver behind his bus for help. So now it's two against one. Well I'm a guy though, I should fear nothing. But in fact I'm a little bit worried now. What are they gonna do?

Apparently this bus driver had not enough money. So he borrowed money from him. I looked at him as he gave me the money reluctantly. As I leave, both of them said "OH KAMU P-SAJA!!! P SAJA!!!" laughing sarcastically. I dunno what were they laughing but... If i report this to the police, they will be in an even bigger trouble: to crash a P on the rear. Double offense! (Well, if a P crashes the back on a car, the P will suffer even more penalty but in this case, it's the other way round) Whatever, I took the money and left.

Well though it was just a small amount of money, but I was kinda satisfied with my courage to negotiate with the drivers. I didn't chose to avoid the problem, which is what I'm glad of. Hahaha. It was a really cool experience, I guess. LOL.

The Planetarium Trip/Egg drop project

(Click to enlarge!)

Well not much, just kinda excited with the trip because it's the first time I go on a trip with the class. I mean, I've never been on class trips since my high school period. But that day I kinda had the same joy i had back in the secondary school trips. Nostalgia maybe. Hmmm. Anyway I lazy to talk about this la so I'll just upload pictures... in a collage form. LOL. Oh btw, here are pictures for the eggdrop project too:

About the egg drop project, we were required to design a device which protects the egg in order to survive the impact of falling from the fourth floor. This device must be made using only a piece of A4 cardboard and a stick of UHU glue. Apparently my device failed to take windy factors into consideration so it hit the wall and BAM, the yolks splattered mid air. That was epic. However, some devices actually worked, and were very creative.

TOEFL Examination

This is the main reason why I write a blog post today. I am seriously feeling very very emo after the test. It was only just now. I've been preparing for this test since Monday, attempted to speak English for my whole presence in school, practiced reading, listening, speaking from the CD which came with the book... just as I was delighted that I scored very well in the mock tests, the actual test was otherwise. The questions are harder, more detailed, and more... tormenting. LOLs. All the three sections were hard, except for the final one, which is my favorite: Writing.

I gathered with my friends at the test center early in the morning. Then we were briefed by the officers a bit, and we take turns to enter the examination hall. The reading part was hard. The timing system is a bit different from the one stated in the book. So I panicked. There was no time to check the answers, so I leave them up to Buddha to decide my score.

The listening part was ok, but as I started listening, there was this one candidate who already began the speaking part. She was so loud that she distracted my listening. I couldn't concentrate and as such... I couldn't answer some of the questions when it asks something very detailed.

For the speaking part... sigh. I couldn't speak impromptu. Getting over 20/30 is a problem to me. The atmosphere was so tense, unlike the environment in my quiet, cozy room... sigh. I panicked, resulting in an extremely long pause and running out of ideas and dunno-what-the-heck-i-was-talking-about as the sentence are superduper messed up. Try this:

"Some people prefer watching the news regularly while some do not. State which you prefer and explain why."

Prepare your points to speak in 15 seconds, and deliver a response 45-seconds in length.

I've got the points within the 15 seconds, but I couldn't synthesize an effective sentence in my mind. I got stuck. And because I panicked, I skipped some points. Well, once you say the next point you have no reason to elaborate on the previous point. As such, I couldn't think of what to say in the final 10 seconds. This is very pathetic.

The writing part was the easiest in my opinion. I was trained to write since primary school. And secondary school. Even my first sem in college require me to write academic papers. Since I write blog as well, writing isn't a hindrance to me.

All in all... speaking was and IS a problem to me. Sigh. Daily conversations are alright, but you want me to present a speech with only 15 seconds for preparation? No way!!!

Down down down... this shucks...
(I think i kinda cursed ["shit", for example] while I couldn't think of what to say in the last 10 seconds of the speaking section. Hopefully it didn't get recorded, what the hell)

- Kingwn

Update! 109/120 for TOEFL :)
Scored 30-23-26-30. A surprise!

223: A Smile

2011-03-02T21:19:00.002+08:00

Helping someone is great fun... if they appreciate your help!

Well this is no longer a "help without expecting a return".
I do expect a return... and something called "smile" is already sufficient :D

A few months ago I picked up a thumbdrive from the library. It was an 8 gig one. I went around Facebook searching for someone with the same name as written on the thumbdrive, and eventually I found the person. The next day we met up and I returned the drive to him. He said "Thank you" and left, not even with a smile. LOL. Well, that time I was happy that I helped someone, but the fact that he wasn't smiling made me felt like what I did wasn't really...hmmm.. I dunno how to describe it lah. Cheh, that wasn't really encouraging... I did a good deed weih... a Thank You isn't suffice la =="

And this morning as I walked to my car in the parking lot, there was a car attempting to clear a corner. I walked pass and looked at the car. Of course I helped the driver to signal whether the car is clear from banging the wall... by simply nodding to tell her that "the coast is clear". Afterwards I just looked straight and kept walking. Eventually the car went by me, and I caught a glimpse that the driver waved at me smiling as she drove by. I did such a simple task, by instinct, and I was returned with a smile. That felt really awesome and, of course, made my day. Lol.

You see the power of smiling?

I wish what I do (help) will bring happiness to the person, and make them smile. To be able to see someone smile, be it a guy girl old young, is... gratifying... lols!

- Kingwn

222: Another Birthday Gathering

2011-02-26T15:54:00.010+08:00

Happy birthday to the two Pisces, Sze Hou and Megan!
We had a birthday celebration with the high school mates in Pasta Zanmai, Sunway Pyramid. They weren't born on the same day but since their birthdays are just a few days apart so we just celebrated their birthdays together!

Look at the two birthday pairs... lol

And the paparazzis taking pictures of them.

I just couldn't believe I ordered the overall most expensive dish. But anyway, I was really happy to share the meat with everyone :) I couldn't finish 'em all anyway...

Two birthday cakes. One cheese cake and the other, Fruit Cake. The cheesecake is nice. From CakeSense.

The awesome trio!

Kok Yee & Ah Beh

Look at Ming Han leering at Daryl!

Angkat sumpah... dunno what she's sumpahing.

Finally able to take a close-up shot of her :DD

Too bad Sze Hou's sitting in the same row as mine. So I couldn't really take a closeup shot of him by myself easily... aww.

Here's the accountant in charge of calculating how much money each person has to pay. A round applause for her, Ms. Tan!

Well I'm just amazed that most of the shops in Sunway Pyramid close so early. It's only 10pm and they've already begun to turn off the lights. Since there were no where else to lepak inside the complex, 60% of the people from the group decided to go home while the 40% of us stood there to think of where to go. Finally, they decided to ambush my house again. It was 11pm at night, but I don't care la. Now I'm gonna say yes to these gatherings like there's no tomorrow... lols

Lol actually I'm really happy to be able to attend to gatherings like this. I also seized the opportunity to take as much of random & candid shots as possible... you know, the same old quote that I'm gonna say right now: "...to be brought to the US as memories." I really appreciate the efforts of Kar Foong to organize such gatherings with the high school mates, so thanks a lot, Kar Foong :)

I was reaaaaaaaaally happy last night and am still very happy today. For some reason I got so high that I talked more than usual yesterday... hmmm...

Anyways, finally...
Happy birthday Sze Hou and Megan! Again!

- Kingwn

221: Videos Update

2011-02-25T17:25:00.003+08:00

Hmmm... just realized that I haven't posted the new CNY Music Video over here. Oh and recently I've made another video featuring my siblings and friends in college. It was quite random though. Anyhow enjoy lah.

CNY Music Video 2 by the Lores

LKGRS: The Turning Heads Mix

Nowadays I just kinda seize every opportunity I can to record down what's interesting in my daily life with my phone's video camera. Including faces of my ADP friends here, ya know, we'll be going in separate ways in the future anyway. I want to capture down as many memories I can as possible from Malaysia before moving into another newer chapter of life in the United States. My thinking may sound emo to you but... yeah you're absolutely right I'm indeed starting to emo right now. Hahaha.

One year is short. Seriously. Wait, I think there'll be only about 8-9 months left before I fly. Maybe?

- Kingwn

220: Plain-text recap :)

2011-02-21T19:48:00.007+08:00

Here's a blog post I've promised earlier! ^^

A different thing is that I don't feel like uploading any pictures here because they are lots of them (at least a thousand of them since my last update) and they'll take ages to upload with my slow, pathetic, oh-my-freaking-snail-speed "broadband" connection. Hahaha! Again I shall warn that the post below is just plain text.. so, for those willing to read on, come with me and I'll lend you my shoes for you to step into =)

"I'm gonna miss the CNY in Malaysia very, very much."

Before the Chinese New Year I was already planning on how to make this year's celebration more meaningful. You know... it's quite sad to say that this would be my final CNY celebration with my family and relatives for, at least, the next four years. Advancing studies to the United States soon! Therefore... a few weeks before the CNY I planned to do something memorable, something that will remind me of the new year celebrations back in Malaysia and with my family. Thus, a video was created- an attempt on making a video resembling those commercial CNY music videos. The first product was filmed in China out of impromptu-ness, though. Well, seeing that my parents were quite delighted with the first product, my siblings and I ventured into a new type of CNY MV: to lip-sync and make a full-motion video starring ourselves. I am so grateful that my siblings cooperated with me... that was very fun.

The fact that my other four siblings and I get along so well together made me think that I'm gonna miss the CNY in Malaysia very, very much. I'm pretty sure I'll become homesick for the first few months in the US. Furthermore, I really enjoyed being with the cousins, especially the Tongs (you know who you are :D)! Gonna miss the yee-sang mixing "ceremony" while chanting a bunch of good wishes, the tasty-yet-heaty mandarin oranges, the overly-stocked CNY cookies, the bai-nian visits, the reunion dinner and stuff... ohhh. I could still go on and on and on about these. But no la later I might even cry. LOL.

Besides making music videos to be kept as memories in the future and following the usual CNY routines, I also visited some of my friend's house for gatherings. Organizing such gathering is very tough as everyone's studying in different courses now... So... it was really good that we got together during the CNY and rendezvous with some of the long-lost friends. Hehehe. This new year we all went to Sze Hou's place. I'm seriously delighted that many attended the gathering... we played, chatted, laughed, gambled... and I was so freaking sad when I had to leave for home before 12am (a "traditional" rule imposed by my parents passed from my eldest brother) when everyone else were still there. You know... once we separate, we wouldn't know when we'll all be meeting up again!

Just that, somehow this CNY didn't make me really excited about it. Probably it's the fact that I'll be leaving soon... huh? Or maybe I've already grown up. No more craving over candies and keropoks and CNY cookies and stuff! xD Hahaha... Anyway lah, I got to utilize 11 out of 15 CNY days this year. Very, very good... now that CNY has ended I don't think I've wasted any of those days =)

Alright what's next?

"But most of all, my friends are one of my best gifts in life!"

Let me recall a bit ah...

It was the February of 14th. A Monday. It was also Valentine's Day, for most couples. Well to me it's a usual Single's Day, as well as my Birthday eve. Unfortunately I'll be having a test quite soon on the same week, so I decided to date with my Differential Equations homework that night... well, even though it was a date, but physically lah, I'm all alone in my room.

Well... there's nothing much to expect on a Valentine's Night. I don't have a girlfriend to celebrate with, nor some Midnight Birthday Bash exactly like how I've been through the day in the past years. Lalalala. Well to "celebrate", I reward myself with well-conditioned air so that I could revise in a colder atmosphere =)

Then mom called me to drink soup. I was a little bit exhausted over the revision that night, so I just stayed on my bed and ignored her. She called me to drink soup again. I was a bit frustrated, but I had no choice but to respond to her "summon" lah. As I walked down I was shocked by two high-pitched female scream. For a brief moment I couldn't think of anyone in my family who could scream and sound like that. Whoah.

As I looked up, I saw two familiar figures- Hui Xin and Kar Foong. Both with large grins while looking at my pathetic shocked face. HOLY CRAP HOW DID THEY ENTER MY HOUSE?! Lols. I was still confused and was brought to the living room by them where my other friends were seated. Totally... shocked. I was literally ambushed. LOL! It was a surprise party, yeah, very surprised indeed! I was out of words... I didn't know what to say but to bring them more and more CNY cookies for them to eat and serve them with lotsa Shandy!!

So they gambled here and sang karaoke... in the middle of the night. The surprise plan was Kar Foong and Hui Xin's idea. I'm really touched, seriously, just as I thought when it was the last birthday in Malaysia until the next four years at least! Even mom and my sister were involved in this secret plan and they knew about this plan around two days prior to this. Thank you guys. You all made this year's birthday very different. And you all sing till anytime also no problem la, most importantly everyone's happy! :)

Furthermore they brought me three cakes. "Happy New Year", "Happy Valentine's Day" and "Happy Birthday". One for each. lols! Break record liao lah... hahahaha... and they all sang till 3.15am in the midnight! That was... wow. I don't feel tired, neither do they, amazing isn't it?

And the next morning, February of 15th, my "official" birthday... I was ambushed by another two friends, Ms. Yeo Mei Sheng and Ms. Keng Xin Dee. They brought me another cake. And another cake-blowing session loh. Walao... I'm grateful that they remembered about it and spent time with me in the morning too, making this birthday somewhat even more different. Lolza. In the afternoon pula outing with college mates lorh, another cake gets put on the table. Wow... that makes 5 this year. Hehehe. We also went for a Hong Kong comedy movie, this time besides KS, Ryan, Derek and Wee Loong, we have Chua and Hee Eun joining us too =) And me as the birthday boy basically worked as a translator to Hee Eun to explain some cantonese jokes during the movie... lolol. She gave me a present. My only present this year. But most of all, my friends are one of my best gifts in life! ^^

This birthday also kinda marked a turning point in a certain story. Just when I thought it ended, the story kinda got back to life again... hopefully it would last for eternity! =) hehehehe. Damn happy lah. xD

Alright what else huh...?

"The flame rekindled and burns in a gentle flame. But I don't know how to get more fuel to keep it burning!"

Uhhh well... this is a metaphor about an event. Just pretend that I'm BS-ing. =="

Hmmm wait, that's it for now... will update another post when I thought of something to write :) You may step out of my shoes now hehe.

- Kingwn

219: Updating soon

2011-02-17T22:58:00.002+08:00

Just realized that this blog has been stagnant for many days already.
Sigh just felt lazy updating blog la. But after writing this post, I promise you all that a new post will come up soon... not only one, but many posts are coming up... maybe... probably... but there WILL be new posts. xD

OHHH anyway =don't= check back often....for now.
Happy Chap Goh Mei everyone :)

- Kingwn

218: Two Video Creations xD

2011-01-22T13:16:00.007+08:00

One scary (hopefully), one happy.

Bit2Productions presents:

The Social Website - A Homemade Horror!
You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few... ummm.. "friends".

You might prefer a direct link to the Facebook Video instead of watching here:
FB Video Link to "The Social Website"

Or... if you prefer a Youtube version of the horror movie, click this linky:
Watch "The Social Website" on Youtube!

Lore's Homemade Chinese New Year Music Video 2011!
Filmed in China :)

You might prefer a direct link to the Facebook Video instead of watching here:
FB Video Link to "Lore's Homemade Chinese New Year Music Video 2011"

Enjoy!
If you like it, do "like" the video on Facebook if you have a Facebook account :)

- Kingwn

217: The Lore-s CNY MV

2011-01-17T16:15:00.008+08:00

Spent a day editing videos filmed in the China Trip into a Chinese New Year Music Video! Just one day! This has become the video completed within the shortest time in my video-making history-- the rest of the videos, such as "Suicide", "Cultural Food", "The Tomb Builder" took more than a week or so.

Anyway, we were fortunate to have the adults and seniors play along in the music video, which kind of made the MV "fun". It was fun filming such videos with the relatives in China which we "discovered"-- we didn't know about their existence just until five years ago, lol.

Here you go, video project snapshots for the CNY music video!
(Video will be available to relatives during CNY.)
(The decision to upload the video into Youtube is still under consideration.)

Some facts about this video:
- Spans over a day in the Village of Liang Xi （良溪）, Guangdong, China.
- P/S: Liang Xi is the home of the Lore-s (罗). Most residents' surname is 罗。
- Actions were impromptu and was quite unplanned. It was an on-the-spot idea.
- Filmed outside my Ancestor's house (grandfather's father used to stay in that house)
- The song used is Astro's Da Ri Zi (大日子)
- Mom was especially excited over this video. WTH~

Introduction to some of my relatives in China:

From Left:
Sister-in-law Fang (Generation #26, China)
2kuje (Generation #25, Malaysia)
Brother Hang (Generation #26, China)
Uncle Kit (Generation #25, Malaysia)

Niece Min Qing (Generation #27, China)
Me (Generation #26, Malaysia)
Yun B'ng (Generation #26, China)
Sister-in-Law Hun (Generation #26, Malaysia)

From behind, Left:
Sister-in-law Fang (Generation #26, China)
Brother Hang (Generation #26, China)
Niece Cui Wen (Generation #27, China)
Sister-in-law Hun (Generation #26, Malaysia)
Me (Generation #26, Malaysia)
Niece Min Qing (Generation #27, China)

Niece Min Qing (Generation #27, China)

Niece Cui Wen (Generation #27, China)
Niece's Husband Lam Lam (NOT A LORE [lol], China)
Gujiong (NOT A LORE [still lol], China)
Shiu Kao (NOT A LORE, Sister Yun Kei's BF)
Guma (Generation #25, China)
Sister Fen (Generation #26, China)

Niece Cui Wen (Generation #27, China)
Me (Generation #26, Malaysia)
Sister Fen (Generation #26, China)

HAHAHA LOLOL Only generation #25, #26, and #27...

- Kingwn