view from the ivory tower

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -William Butler Yeats

2008-08-18T20:08:00.011+08:00

Edit (1.08pm, 19th August): Hey, Malaysia is finally on the Olympics medals list! :DDD See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/medals_table/default.stm

My youngest cousin on my mum's side turned five yesterday. :)

The food was particularly delicious!

Ah... what it must feel like to be five!

No peer pressure, no politics, no exams, no assignments ...

I think the TV adverts got it right in suggesting people should age backwards instead! :)

The party was hosted at:

While the weekend was fun, it was over too soon. :(

I have too many assignments due and too much homework to do for time to pass so quickly!!! Aaaaaaaaaah. And yet, I can't help looking forward for the Merdeka weekend, which is when I will (hopefully) get to watch a play in Malaysia for the 1st time! :)

Although I did manage to get back from the party in time on Sunday to catch the much-talked-about Lee Chong Wei versus Lin Dan badminton Olympics finals! :D

LCW rules the roost most other places, but Lin Dan defeated him last night. :(

It's okay, Chong Wei! We're still super proud of you! :D

Just wish the M'sian government would have given you the RM1 million anyway.
Went to uni today... and nobody cared about the badminton match. :/

But everyone cared about wearing pink and white. :)

This is outside our FTV1010 (Contemporary Television Studies) tutorial room today. On my left is Jenny Kek, and on my right is Anusha. :)

In class today, we had a screening of 2 episodes of the 1980's youth television show called "DeGrassi Junior High". My friends and I liked it, but a lot of people didn't. Hehe. It was like a revolutionary, subversive 1980's teased-hair, blue-eyeshadow version of Lizzie McGuire - it was enjoyable to watch! :)

Have a good week, all!

"Language is the means of getting an idea from my brain into yours without surgery." -Mark Amidon

2008-08-16T18:06:00.004+08:00

Schoolwork is, inevitably, piling up ...

But all work and no play makes ... a lousy cliche.

Hahahahaha.

Leila came over today for a much-needed de-stresser. Her exams are on the 28th August and 2nd September... which is, like, less than 2 weeks away ... I know you can do it, Leila!! :)

I also wanted to show her the Magical World of Atria. Hahaha.

And she wants to learn a new language - French! :)

Lol. Maybe I'll join the classes too.

Bonjour! Merci! Escargot!

Pardon my French. Hahaha.

Lunch at Nando's... where everybody knows your name... :)

We had coupons so we saved like 10 bucks. Use your ASTRO coupons, people! :D

And a new store has opened in Atria, called "WHY PAY MORE?"
It's actually "Why pay more, when you can pay less?"

:D :D :D

In this day and age of price hikes and inflation, this shop is a godsend.
Everything is just SO much cheaper than in most other places.

I also introduced her to Big Bookstore Warehouse. Another godsend.

:) Don't you just love thrift-shopping? (:

Merdeka Day fever is just around the corner, and there's a play I want to go and watch at KLPAC. And one of my ickle wickle cousins is having a birthday tomorrow!

Which means I have to go offline and do my homework now. :/

Have a good weekend, all! :)

"The heights of great men reached and kept/Were not obtained by sudden flight/But they,while their companions slept/Were toiling upward in the night."

2008-08-14T15:15:00.009+08:00

Quote attributed to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I think the first poems I ever read as a child were his. :) He was my first favourite poet - and, come to think of it, still is

It's Thursday afternoon, classes are over for the week, and "The Weekend" has arrived!

So, what's new with you?

I think the "hot news" these past few days is probably the Beijing Olympics lip-synching scandal. I think it's just an example of Western media blowing it totally out of proportion, trying to antagonise the Chinese. Especially CNN and BBC, which is only understandable, as they probably want to make this Olympics look as flawed as they can - to make it easier for London 2012's Olympics to top this one. For more, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7556058.stm.

[Left: Lin Miaoke - Right: Yang Peiyi]

The other headliner is the Russian attack on Georgia - which is definitely far more important, but hasn't been sensationalised as much as the Yang Peiyi vs. Lin Miaoke fiasco.

Far removed from world news, however, my lectures and tutorials have seen a downward spike in attendance this past week. And nobody needs to ask why - because there are 3 assignment deadlines this week (Wednesday - Intro to Communication, Thursday - Contemporary Worlds 2, Friday - Contemporary Television Studies).

My journalism tutorial this week was as "blogworthy" as usual. Hahaha. Today, we pitched our detailed ideas and rough outlines for our second assignment: writing a feature story. It was a pretty interesting class - an opportunity to discuss your own idea with the tutor (Chin Huat) and tutorial classmates, and a chance to listen to other people's ideas. One of my friends even cried today in the middle of her story pitch - she's planning to write about cancer (and cancer survivors), and the matter is a little close to heart. And Chin Huat was really, really nice about it to her - he knelt down and talked to her for a few minutes until she stopped crying. :) That was kind, wasn't it?

In Communication tutorial today, the most interesting part was where we compared how Malaysian teenagers use cellphones compared to Canadian teenagers (the article by Letizia Caronia was about Canadian teens' use of cellphone). Here's a question for you to ponder: would you say that a person who receives a lot of calls and smses on his/her cellphone is more "popular" than his friend who only receives, say, 1 call a day? Would you say that someone without a cellphone would be labelled "outdated" and an "outcast"? Would you say that how frequently you use your cellphone defines how important you are to your network of family and friends?

In Contemporary Television Studies tutorial this week, we were divided into groups to answer one question per group (like last week). This week, we learnt about "Quality" TV. We watched one episode of The Sopranos and one of Hill Street Blues. Although my friends and I were some of the few remaining students who survived the 2-hour screening of both shows (that means we didn't grab our bag and leave the lecture theatre), I didn't enjoy this week's shows as much as previous weeks'. They were much too long, the storylines were too dark and disturbing, and I guess I'm just not cut out for appreciation of so-called "Quality" television. When the two cops got shot in Hill Street Blues (in the pilot episode somemore), I nearly cried! So ... outside academic hours, I'll stick to my sitcoms, thank you very much. :D

And in Contemporary Worlds 2 tutorial this week, we got our topics for the 20%-weightage group presentation. My group is doing "Migration" in Week 8, which means our presentation is on the 4th of September. It's about how globalisation is turning this world into a "mobile world" - we'll examine issues of immigration, refugees, and domestic politics. And after a brief group presentation briefing, Ujval (our tutor who is also an actor! COOL eh?) went on to lead our tutorial discussion on Global Governance. The topic is like a vacuum-packet compression of everything I learned in International Law, but with a very different emphasis. In International Law, the emphasis was on, well, the law (haha) but in International Studies, the emphasis is on the great big picture, the problems, the solutions. But it draws on the same terms: UN and the failure of a predecessor that was the League of Nations, ICC, ICJ, AU, Darfur, reciprocity, collective action, sovereignty (oh SO MUCH on sovereignty), territory ...

Only, there was no Article 38(1) of VCLT or Montevideo Convention on something something. No Shaw, Oppenheim, Brownlie or Dixon. Not much - if anything - on whether international law is in fact law, which is a fundamental question underpinning much of International Law as a subject.

But there was a lot on America, a lot on how they're trying to dine on "international law a la carte" - picking and choosing which bits they like, drawing up bilateral agreements with signatories of the Rome Statute so that American citizens (especially soldiers) don't get prosecuted in the International Criminal Court. A lot on America as "New Sovereigntists", arguing they shouldn't be subject to all this "international legal order" stuff because they gotta protect their own sovereignty.

While I've forgotten nearly everything I learnt in International Law classes, I guess I'm still pretty lucky because a lot of these terms aren't completely alien to me - it would be a lot worse if I hadn't taken the subject and had never heard of those things before! ;)

Allright, that's all for now.

Have a good weekend, everyone! :)

PS: I don't trust Monash lifts anymore. A few weeks ago, two of my friends and I got trapped in an elevator for the longest two minutes of my life! 0_0 Well, actually, it gave a nice story - so okay, I forgive Monash for its faulty facilities. :D

"A great thought begins by seeing something differently, with a shift of the mind's eye." -Albert Einstein

2008-08-11T19:46:00.004+08:00

Well, if Einstein said it, then it must be true. ;P

My schoolwork (i.e. the multitude of readings assigned for weekly topics) is making me look at a lot of things differently - especially things I've never before given a second thought.

"Feature Writing" - okay, so I'm somewhat behind on readings here, but what I have read has, for instance, granted me insight into the minds and journeys of Pulitzer Prize winners - not to mention set out (in a very systematic way) the basic building blocks of journalism. For example, my new journalist idol (besides Neil Strauss, of course) is Elizabeth Cochrane (a.k.a. Nellie Bly), who is just this incredible woman. Not only did she go undercover as a mental health patient to expose the true goings-on inside a mental institute - she also travelled the world in 72 days, proving the science fiction story "Around The World in 80 Days" wrong!

[Pic: Michele dancing near the anatomy rooms. ooo.]

I won't say much about Introduction to Communication Studies because we've only learnt about cultural literacy, concepts of "audience", telecommunications, "space" and "place, and print media and the "digital revolution" ... and it's all pretty much theoretical. The kind of stuff I need to read twice to understand. :( And I have about five readings to catch up on for this subject, so ... better make this post a short one! Haha!

Contemporary Worlds 2 - love it to bits. Okay, so I'm not a big "current affairs" fan, but this is, like, my only chance in my entire academic career to have the luxury of learning about globalisation for one whole semester. The thing I love most about taking this subject is that at the end of the unit, I'm going to know a lot more about globalisation (i.e. I get to talk and write about it more intelligently than I would if I didn't take the subject). :D I'm also looking forward to next semester's International Studies subject, it's called "Contemporary Worlds 1" and it's about world history. Oooh. Hahaha.

Contemporary Television Studies - now, above and beyond all the others, this is the one that's changing the way I look at things! Goodness knows, I'm a huge fan of the idiot box (and the colourful moving pictures that appear on the screen ;P), and I've just never thought "critically" about the shows I watch on telly! But with this unit, wow, suddenly I'm starting to question things, starting to think about the big picture and where it all fits in, in the great big scheme of things - where the television industry is going with all this, what does it mean.... not to mention issues of gender, sexuality (and boy, is there a LOT about sexuality in our topics and tutorials!), ethnicity (apparently we're not allowed to say "race" in Film & TV Studies classes), class ...

[Pic: Me and Ili in Tuesday (12th August) Contemporary Worlds 2 lecture. Before the lecture started, of course. :P]

But I think it's unavoidable to be influenced by subjects like these ... I mean, I just spent the weekend writing a 1,200-word paper on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for crying out loud. I don't even like the show! Hahaha. The assignment was, however, to write a critical review about 2 journal articles academic scholars have written about Buffy, so it was actually quite an interesting paper to do. :) I picked 2 articles from http://www.slayageonline.com/ (an entire online journal dedicated to Buffy Studies! Oh, my! Hehe) - the first was in our set reading, about how people look down on television studies and how they shouldn't. The second one, I got to pick myself, so I picked one about gender identities in Buffy. :D It was rrreally insightful. :) There were, like, three pages just dedicated to analysing a sex scene between Xander and Faith.

While we're on the subject of gender and sexuality ... is Lindsay Lohan really gay??

[Pic: Lindsay Lohan & Samantha Ronson]

People keep telling me that, but it's pretty hard to believe that my favourite actress & Hollywood idol has decided to come out of the closet - or that she was even in the closet to begin with! Not that I have a problem with homosexuality ...

But I feel like I'm caught in a deja vu, like when Jon first told me that Elton John was (is!) gay.

Hahaha.

"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you." - Lao-Tzu

2008-08-09T23:40:00.004+08:00

Let me just say this:

You wouldn't expect it, but ...

Lecturers can be so darn COOL.

The guy in the picture with the moustache and no headscarf is my Contemporary Worlds 2 lecturer, Dr Julian Lee. This has something to do with his research! :)

That aside, we got our Monash T-shirts at last! They're so frustratingly dull, though, and the Monash website address on the back makes me feel like an advertising billboard. :(

[Pic: Nushie-wants-a-sushie and yours truly.]

What they should have put on the shirt is "Ancora Imparo", the university motto.

It's Latin for "I am still learning". :)

And now, as compensation to my dear, sweet friends who I haven't seen for sooo many days now because of my morbidly high pile of schoolwork and assignments - here are some glimpses into my university life at Monash! :D

This is Lee Jung Ai, from South Korea. :D She's one of my journalism class buddies - super duper funny and nice. I can't believe I crashed her lunch table the other day, but I got to befriend another South Korean girl, a 2nd-year student named Sun. :) We were talking about Namdaemun and Dongdaemun and how skinny Korean girls are. Hahahahaa.

[Pic: Ai on the left and Wong Si-min on the right. She's Malaysian. But she studied for a long time in S'pore. She's my closest friend on Thursdays! :D We're in the same journalism and communications tutorials.]

And these here are pictures of parking at Monash! :D

Anusha (a.k.a. Nushie-wants-a-sushie) and I both drive a Myvi (except hers is silver - like my best friend, Tse Mun!), and sometimes we park really close to each other, so it's really cute. Hahahaha. Well, I think it is! ;)

[Pic: Nushie's car! This was the day we parked 1 car apart.]

[Pic: The green Myvi is mine. Michele Kuah (who sometimes hitch-hikes in my car, haha) and I were laughing about how my car looks like it's in the middle of the road! Haha. It's not, ok! It just looks like it! Haha.]

Surprising even myself, it turns out I'm not so bad in parking, after all. Hahaha.

BUT I did spend 10 minutes the other day trying to do a side parking into a tiny little cramped space that I was half-sure would fit my car... but after a fruitless attempt at reversing, moving forward, turning, reversing, etc - I decided not to push my luck, and parked at another (further) spot! Haha.

This is what Denise would have looked like if she had seen me sweating it out behind the wheel, trying to do the side-parking:

[Pic: That's Rachel and Denise Teo at Lotus Mamak the other day. :D]

And now... for more random pictures! :)

This was a few weeks ago, at the "Surviving Monash" workshop which my friends and I went to for about 10 minutes, before grabbing our bags and running out through the back door at the first opportunity! Hahahahahhaa.

[Pic: Joshua Liew in red, Kaireen in grey, Esther standing up in black]

We felt very bad after. Yes we did!

And this is what the Library & Learning Commons looks like from the other side of the glass. :P I think Monash doesn't provide enough computers in the library. All right, so they do have like 3 floors with some computers on each floor, and computer labs for everyone to use when classes are not on, but Taylor's had "The Web", which was just a big room full of computers. Oh, well! You get some, you lose some. Haha.

[Pic: Lau in blue-and-white-stripes. Anusha laughing at the camera.]

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." - Oprah Winfrey

2008-08-03T11:41:00.003+08:00

A couple of pictures from Theodore Pung's Full Moon celebration! :)

Chinese families celebrate "moon yit" (translated as Full Moon) when a newborn baby turns one month old - usually with a family gathering for dinner, and always with red-coloured eggs. Of course, in this instance, the colour of the eggs didn't really turn out red, so we had pink eggs instead. :D

Welcome to the family, Theo. :)

"There would be no passion in this world if we never had to fight for what we love." -Susie Switzer

2008-07-31T15:16:00.008+08:00

Week 3 of the 13-week teaching semester is officially over (since I have Fridays off), which means ...

THE WEEKEND HAS ARRIVED!!!

All hail The Weekend. With a capital "W".

Some of my friends at Monash have even shorter weeks: Mondays to Wednesdays only. But to fashion such a timetable, you would have to cram several classes into one school day! I don't think I could be very productive like that lor... so my timetable is a carefully designed one (haha *rolls eyes*) that puts me in 2 classes each day for 4 days in a week.

But it's not like Week 3 was an unbearably long one. Week 2 felt much longer, because of the 6-hour Course Transition Workshop all freshmen were *obligated* to attend last Friday. It was really fun, though! :D We played lots of games and wound up being as sweaty and giggly as a bunch of seven-year-olds at someone's birthday party.

And I learned a cool party trick thanks to Dr Julian - which I will save for parties and get-togethers! :) So, no spoilers here.

Besides that, the handful of us who actually bothered going for the workshop got to get to know our lecturers a wee bit better. The lecturers teaching me this semester are:

Feature Writing: Mr Wong Chin-Huat

Contemporary Worlds 2: Dr Julian Lee

Introduction to Communication Studies: Mr Kumar

Contemporary Television Studies: Mr Benjamin McKay

And it's inspiring how research-oriented the teaching staff at Monash are. Every teacher seems to have a whole detailed field of research interest that they work on: so not only do they have to teach, they do their own research, some are pursuing their PhD, and they even have the privilege of marking our papers. Hahaha! But anyway - to care so much about an academic area of study that you actually spend years and years researching and learning more about it, that's pretty incredible, isn't it? I can only hope that one day I will find a subject that I care so much about! :)

But this week, my perceptions have changed, and I do care about something I never cared about in the past - thanks to the NGO Fair held at Monash on Tuesday and Wednesday. This time last year, I wasn't keen on working for/in/with NGO's at all - I guess, like many other apathetic young people in Malaysia - I just didn't care enough.

That's all changed now. :D

I spent my two-hour break on Tuesday booth-hopping - NOT just collecting free brochures, flyers, and name cards - but to actually learn about what the organisation was all about, and what I could do to help. In the beginning, I was really shy (I know, me - shy!) because there were so few people at the booths, and some booth attendees weren't looking so welcoming. And I had also never heard of most of the organisations, so at first, I only visited the "popular" ones, like Malaysiakini. Unfortunately, I don't think I learnt anything at all about Malaysiakini from the fair, except that they are starting a "youth" version of it called Voize.com or something.

"Aliran" publications were there too, but the guy didn't offer its booth visitors much conversation - he just said that if you want to intern, contact them. "How do I contact you?" I heard one girl ask. And the man replied, "Take the free magazine and look at the back."

Hmm.

So you can understand that I was starting to feel disappointed with the fair. But then ...

I changed my tack, and started working my way from the smaller, less "popular" booths! :) The second-best decision I made all day (if you actually read on to the end, you'll find out what the best decision was). There was a consumer non-profit organisation affiliated with FOMCA - I was pretty enthusiastic about getting the experience working with a consumer organisation. I think it's really great what they do, educate people about their consumer rights and not let them get exploited by greedy businessmen.

Then there was Pink Triangle (PT Foundation). I had heard about this from Cheryl, so I already had in mind what I wanted to talk to them about. They talked about how they run 5 programs, and if you want to help with any of them, you can just go to their headquarters and speak with them. For those of you who don't know what Pink Triangle is about - I, for one, had no idea who they were until Cheryl told me! - it's partly about helping homosexuals and transsexuals, encouraging people not to discriminate them, promoting AIDS awareness (for example, PT Foundation provides FREE AIDS tests), and it's also about helping drug addicts rehabilitate themselves.

And let's not forget the infamous Women's Aid Organisation (WAO). I'm not planning to intern here, but volunteering sounds like a fruitful thing to do. :) I'll definitely blog about my experience there if and when I do follow-up on this.

There was also the booth set up by the Freedom Film Festival folks. I loved their short film about a story of a real-life "Mak Nyah". I think it's so liberating how there is a growing community of Malaysians who are finally accepting transsexuals and homosexuals. I understand that there are still a lot of you out there who think it is wrong, disgusting, etc - but while I won't impose my own opinions on you (my opinion is that they are just normal people like you and I, and they are just exercising their choice on how they want to live their lives - there is nothing wrong or bad about them), I will try to appeal to your better nature, and ask you not to be unnecessarily rude or harsh. There is only one way to say this: They. Are. Just. People. Too.

There was also a "Befrienders" booth - with nobody manning it. Hahahahaha. There were free brochures-lah. So people just took those. I called "Befrienders" about a year ago and asked about volunteering, but they told me to call back when I turn 21. Haha. I have another ... err... 16 months until 30 November 2009. Speaking of "Befrienders", let us have a moment of silence for the Monash University student who committed suicide two Sundays ago. That was the second Monashian suicide this year. :(

Please, if anyone out there is contemplating suicide (thinking of killing yourself), please think again. And if you've thought it through and are still determined on calling it quits on the world, please call the "Befrienders" hotline: 03-7956 8144 or 03-7956 8145.

On a final note, this is the NGO that I want to intern with next year: Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) (click: http://www.arrow.org.my/). I befriended their Website Officer, she's really interesting and nice! :) I could really relate to her, and she's super helpful. :D Again, I will most certainly update my future endeavours with ARROW right here on this blog! The best decision I made on Tuesday was to drop by their booth before I went home. :D :D :D

I'm not planning on doing any internships this year because I'm taking Psychology 1A in the summer semester (December 2008 to Feburary 2009). Why am I sacrificing one glorious summer holiday? Because if I take 1 unit this summer, that means in a later semester (maybe one of my 3rd year semesters), I only need to take 3 units instead of 4! It's so worth it. Hahaha.

Okayyy on a really, really final note - I love my Feature Writing tutorials! It's so different from all my other tutorials (which are usually group discussions, talking, maybe mini-lectures). Feature Writing, on the other hand, is very, very hands-on. We actually apply what we learn in lectures and from readings! :D

Last week, for our first tutorial, Chin-Huat (previously known on this blog as Mr Wong) divided us into random pairs (really random, every one had to take a number, then count 29 minus that number, and the answer is the number of your "partner" - eg: My number was 15. 29 minus 15 = 14). Then, each pair was given 1 minute to sit in silence and "observe" each other. It may be a good time now to tell you that the topic we learnt that week was "Journalistic Observation and Selection of Details". Then, we were given 15 minutes to "interview" each other on an outstanding physical aspect, and then 30 minutes to write a 200-word feature story on it.

:D SO FUN yeah!

He even "graded" our essays with marks over ten. Hahaha!

And this week, we put our "Research" skills to use. We were divided into groups of 4 to 5 students, and given the topic "Inflation". We had to choose a theme, decide what our focus was going to be, and research and write a 500-word feature story -- all in the 2-hour tutorial! :) It was also really fun, and I made a new friend: a South Korean girl named Ai! She's so funny, she laughs at everything.

Our "feature story" turned out to be a bit of a joke, though, with not that much research put in at all - for one thing, it was soooo difficult to use the MAC computers (note-to-self: NEVER buy a Mac computer, so not worth the money!! for example the webpage kept closing on me! And there is NO WORD COUNT FUNCTION. And no tabs! I definitely prefer my average-looking, average-priced laptop any-day!) but at least we finished it in class. :D Of course, as mentioned earlier, we were late for our next class - but at least we don't have extra homework! Haha. Those groups which chose to complete the task at home now have to complete the task at home. :P

I think these "class exercises" (they're actually called that) are really, really fun and insightful - as long as you don't take yourself too seriously when you're doing them. I mean, sure, Chin-Huat will grade them - but it's about what you learn from the task and enjoy it that matters more than having a lousy time and producing a stellar story. :)

That's all for now - that's like 1000 words up there already. Hahaha. Here's to a good August! :)

And to leave you smiling:

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step" - Lao Tzu

2008-07-21T20:42:00.004+08:00

So. My three-year university experience at Monash has begun. :) Today marks the commencement of Week 2, actually.

And I have so much reading and so many assignments to do (not that I can actually start yet), but my class only ended at, like, 5pm today so I reckon I deserve a break. ;P And that's already an early end - it's really only scheduled to end at 5.30pm every Monday. Haha. There's no-one to blame for it but me - 'cause at Monash, you get to choose your own timetables - *gasp!* Hahahaha.

But my Contemporary Television Studies lecturer was feeling under the weather today, so a tutor took over. So were really lucky, because the Asian Music and Popular Culture students had their class cancelled last week. A girl I met from the School of Science was telling me how she drove all the way from Klang for that one class, only to find out that it was cancelled at the last minute. -_-

The units I am taking this semester - Monash has a different terminology than the usual, subjects are called "units" - are... *drumroll* ... Contemporary Television Studies, Feature Writing, Introduction to Communication Studies, and Contemporary Worlds 2. Those are some of the basic units for Film Studies, Journalism, Communication, and International Studies.

And I've finally decided on what I'm going to double-major in: Journalism and Communication! :D So happy, heheee.

This is a collage of some of my new friends at uni. :)

All riiight, until next time - and take care! :)

"The essence of Buddhism is if you can, help others. If not, then at least refrain from hurting others." -Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama Quotes

2008-07-02T20:31:00.006+08:00

"Why is there a movie called RUN ... RUN?" -An Nie

2008-06-30T22:17:00.013+08:00

Somebody came along and single-handedly tossed my no-going-out plan. :P

And she brought reinforcement in the form of TWO other med students. ;P

Joel, her new best friend at IMU ...

And her cousin and my ex-schoolmate Mayshi, who studies medicine in Russia. :D

I figured, it can only be good to be in the company of three future doctors ... ;D

And what did we do to occupy our Monday afternoon?

It was SUCH a funny movie. Hahahahahahaha.

It was about a man, Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg), who is so terrified of commitment, that he leaves his pregnant fiancee, Libby (Thandie Newton) at the altar when he's supposed to be getting married to her. Five years later, Libby gets a boyfriend named Whit (Hank Azaria) and Dennis realises how much Libby and their son, Jake. To prove how committed he is, and how he's a changed man (all to win Libby back - it's a romantic comedy, after all!), Dennis decides to take part in the big Nike Marathon. It's a heartwarming, uplifting, and inspiring story - not to mention downright funny, especially with characters like Dennis' best friend, Gordon (Dylan Moran) and his landlord, Mr Goshdashtidar (Harish Patel).

I loved Simon Pegg in "Hot Fuzz" (also starring David Schwimmer), and thought it was really interesting to note that David Schwimmer directed "Run, Fat Boy, Run"!

Brilliant work, Ross Geller! :]

Then the med students tapao-ed their sugary snacks at a sugary kingdom called "Big Apple"...

Then we went to a local (air-conditioned) Kopitiam called "Old Town White Coffee".

Aaaaand ... some other highlight of the day! ;D

And how was your day? :)

Hope it was good - and that you weren't too tired from staying up for footie (if you did)! :D

Surprising even myself, I stayed up to watch the finals of EURO 2008 last night/this morning! I was supporting Germany, but a while into the game, there was a Spanish player named Fernando Torres who I thought was really likeable! He even scored the first goal at the 23rd minute into the 1st half (which later turned out to be the ONLY goal in the whole game)... So I supported Germany to win but rooted for Torres to shine. :D

But nonetheless, I was really disappointed that Germany didn't get a single goal in. :( Could feel the heat from the television screen when the German players were getting pretty darn frustrated that the game was ending and they still couldn't get an "equalizer". :/

I thought some players on both teams were really impressive, though - like Torres, Ballack, Senna, the platinum-blonde dude with the very German name - Schweinsteiger, was it? ... :] Football was surprisingly interesting to watch - the 2-3 hours passed by very quickly! :D

Not that I'm going to turn into an overnight "kaki bola", though, haha ... the last time I watched football (before the finals last night) was the FIFA World Cup in 2002. :P So I'll just wait 'til that one comes along again, then I'll slap on my South Korea tattoos and yell "Dae-han-min-guk!" to nobody in particular! Hahaha.

Unless, of course, I figure out the country of my great-grandmother's origin by then, and if they have a football team in the World Cup, of course I'll support that one! Hahaha. It's like a Cluedo game, I swear - and I only have 2 clues: she had blue eyes (natural ones, not my fake coloured contact lenses! ;P) and supposedly looked like a "guai po". That means white person - a Caucasian.

WHICH MEANS NOTHING LIKE ME. :S Hahahaha. But despite the extremely diluted bloodline, I insist on figuring out - in some miraculous way or other, maybe interviewing people in the old village - which race exactly she was of! This is why people should keep records of every family member's race and family history. So that if some curious little bugger down the road just wants to know, they can! :]

So, during half-time, I looked at the big atlas on my room wall, and noted which countries border China. Unfortunately, some of those countries weren't even formed yet during Great Grandma's time - everything was probably part of Russia at some point! - so I'm only throwing wild guesses out for Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan. :/ Furthermore, people moved around A LOT in her day.

I noticed that Iran (previously known as Persia) was a little further away from China, so that drastically reduces the odds that I am somehow related to Leila. :P Heeheehee. Aww.

But apparently, there are Chinese-mixed people in Kazakhstan! :) When I think of Kazakhstan, I think of Borat, so this would be a really, really hilarious thing if it were true! Hahaha. Not giving up on identifying the 12.5% of my bloodline yet! :D

Have a good week, everyone! :)

Maybe you can go and map out your family trees too. :D

"Fish, to taste right, must swim three times - in water, in butter, and in wine." -Polish proverb

2008-06-26T20:36:00.009+08:00

Today I had my last "outing" on my LET'S-GO-OUT-BEFORE-MY-SCHOOL-STARTS high! Hahaha. I'm also so frigging tired from mall-crawling (as opposed to pub-crawling), so many blisters have attacked my feet that I think it is now possible I am immune to them, and going out (eating out, shopping, transportation) is like pissing money away. Haha.

And I think I've had enough of going out to last me for a very, very, very long time. *happy smile*

Anyway - here are the highlights of today - starring also:

Shaun came the latest - poor fella, wanting to save money on petrol, he decided to opt fo public transportation of driving. So he took the KTM from Klang to KL Sentral to take the LRT to Kelana Jaya, ONLY to find that KL Sentral is closed because of a bomb scare. (It later transpires that it was a bomb simulation practice, not an actual bomb.) So he had to fork out RM30 to take a taxi from KL Sentral to The Curve. His frustrating experience makes me worry about relying too much on public transportation. :(

Oh haha and because he only arrived at The Curve after Rachel and I were already there for nearly an hour, we had already gotten into the rhythm of trying on clothes. :D So while Rachel decided to go with the pink-white or the white-pink shirt, I decided to help Shaun remember the day with the helpfulness of a camera. :D :D :D

Then we were all hungry as hell, so we put shopping on hold and trotted off in search of food.
Rachel and Shaun decided on Dragon-I, so I agreed. Haha it was so predictable anyway. But seeing as I've never been there before, I figured, it's an experience, eh! These 2 fellas took soooo long deciding what to order (I only took 2 minutes, tops, to decide on my RM15 pork chop and rice :D. It was almost guaranteed to taste good, and was the cheapest thing on the menu. Clever picker, me :D Daddy would be proud) so I entertained myself with the camera while waiting for them.

Rachel super-strongly recommended we try the dumplings (pictured below), so we ordered 1 dish and shared it. :) It was pretty good! RM9 for 4. It was in the Dim Sum category, so I guess the price is a bit high.

After the too-filling meal (problem with Dragon-I may be that their portions are too big - rice and noodles are pretty filling stuff, after all.. eurgg..) we went a-walking again. :)

All riiight. So that was the last outing! :) I planned to not spend any money on anything other than the necessary-for-survival food, but plans are never set in stone. :P Hang Ten was having a m-a-s-s-i-v-e clearance sale, so Rachel and I invaded the cramped store for almost an hour (Rachel more than me, I never take that long to decide if I want something or not, haha). My dear friend even had to go to the ATM machines at one point during the day. Hahaha.

Rachel: How come I never usually find nice clothes, but when I'm with you, I suddenly find so many nice clothes?

Me: Hahaha... Err, because I'm willing to try everything?

Oooo and An, I finally managed to find that "S" necklace I was looking for! :) It was thanks to the lovely Rachel - we had already said our goodbyes and parted when she called me 30 seconds later and half-shouted: "HEY! I FOUND THE "S" NECKLACE!" :D :D :D She found it at a stall outside Borders. RM10, such a better price than the RM23 ones at IKANO. :D

SO HAPPY :D

Get(ting) Smart

2008-06-26T00:10:00.011+08:00

Yesterday (25th) was a pretty lousy day. I'm glad it's OVER. Today is a new day. Thank god!

But seeing as "every cloud has a silver lining", "there's a bright side to everything", all that jazz - I accompanied An on her after-exams outing on the 25th. :] She finished her last paper at 12.30pm, and was in front of my house (driven by her cousin, "Louis Koo") by, like, 1pm. Waa. Haha.

We watched "Get Smart"! It was hilarious, very enjoyable!! Hehehe. Even funnier than "Kung Fu Panda" and "40-year-old Virgin".

Oh, and we had to kill some time while waiting for the movie to start, so we managed to figure out a few 'productive' ways to do just that.

Equipment Needed:

1 Digital Camera/Cellphone Camera

Minimum 1 person(s)

1 Thick Face

1) Take photos with all available props for movies.

2) Take photos of / with all available company

3) Pretend to be characters from movies

4) Go to the loo. You don't want to miss bits of the movie by going out to take a leak in the middle of it! You may also take photographs in the loo. If caught or reprimanded by toilet authorities, do one of two things: (a) pretend you do not speak English/Malay/whichever language you are being reprimanded in - then walk away, pretending to be irritated, OR (b) apologise profusely and claim you were not aware at all about laws regulating use of cameras in washrooms. If push comes to shove, start bawling.

After the movie, we went to a few stores to look for some things An Nie wanted, and I just browsed through whatever looked interesting.

Here are some things I learnt by carefully studying 1-Utama for a blistering total of 7 hours:

1) On clothes: The conclusion I have arrived at is that the prices of clothes in 1-Utama can be ridiculously high! For example, just because something is branded with a big fashion name, it can be tagged at over RM300. That's just f-ing ridiculous. Almost nothing, and I repeat, nothing can be found for RM20 and below. Only a handful of stores even sell clothes that cost RM15-30. I feel sad to say that 99.9999% of clothes now in 1U stores (excluding Jusco and similar stores) cost well over RM50.

All one can do in times of high prices is to wear whatever you want - in the fitting rooms only. :D

At one of the moderately priced stores (this is the 1U average), I tried on a super outrageous muti-coloured ensemble that I thought my grandmother in Serdang wears (left picture) and a really nice-looking brown blouse (right picture). Guess how much they cost? (I didn't buy anything)

Go on, guess!

The answers: around RM30 for the left, and RM90 for the right.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I think FOS and JUSCO may be the only 2 places I personally deem economical enough to buy clothes in, in 1-Utama. :/ Maybe 1u rental is too high, and turnover in clothing stores too low. Maybe, maybe.

Poor businesspeople, poor consumers... kesian everybody, but what can we do?

2) On books: I think we've long known that Malaysia has a big issue with pricing books. Books in Malaysia are very expensive. The government says it wants to encourage reading, but there are not enough public libraries around and books are nearly always sold for a high price. MPH and Kinokuniya are classic examples of the squeezing numbers - Big Bookshop's Warehouse is an example of the de-squeezing. I wonder why?

But hey, MPH was giving free 3D glasses for that Hannah Montana show on ASTRO's Disney Channel. But I think it was on the 21st of June (it says ONE NIGHT ONLY hahaha), which has, as we all know, passed! Haha. 3D glasses were cool though. MPH deserves a picture mention for our new paper toys.

I think both of us are falling ill from the poor choices of food we made all day. First off, for the movie I managed to smuggle in An Nie's KFC popcorn chicken in my bag for her, I bought caramel popcorn, An bought the cinema hotdog. We were not sick yet then...

After the movie, we dropped by A&W to get root beers. I got a teeny packet of curly fries to go.

Then, feeling floooozy already (An more than me), we walked and walked and walked until it was time to eat dinner before leaving for home. We went to Itallianies for their calamari ...

But it didn't taste as good as the last time we went there. :( It's probably in our minds though.

I think An Nie was sick thanks to her eating durian in excess (a very Malaysian reason to fall sick, haha) and a serious lack of water (the girl doesn't drink water, you have to practically force it on her! ;S) ... and I dunno why I didn't have my appetite, I think that's what junk food does to you. :(

But spending the day with a lethargic, sick-thanks-to-herself friend does take its toll on your own mood also. It's surprisingly hard to be upbeat when your best friend is dragging her feet, yawning hugely, and suddenly losing her "LET'S GO EAT CHILLIS, THEN NANDOS, THEN ITALLIANNIES - OKAY? OKAY?" appetite.

Thanksalot An Nie. Hahahaha. Just joking la, don't worry.

But while we're on the subject, now that An's dehydration has gotten me thinking ... A lousy mood, like the flu, is infectious. This is a lesson for me: to somehow make myself impervious to what is not good. You know that saying, that says if one happy fella walks into a group of sad, whining fellas, then the happy fella very quickly becomes a sad fella also. But when a sad fella walks into a group of happy fellas, the whole group very quickly becomes a sad group also!

Hmmm.

OHHHH BUT WAIT!! Entries in this blog will always strive to end on a positive note, because goodness gracious the world needs more positivity!

At 11.05am on the 25th of June 2008, my cousin, Theodore Pung, was BORN! :D
Welcome to the family, Teddy!!!!!!! :D

The Groove is Back in 1-Utama: On Sushi!

2008-06-23T21:37:00.016+08:00

As a post-exam celebration for Carmen, we went to 1-Utama and decided to eat something "adventurous". Now, now, before you start thinking of Fear Factor-ish live cockroaches and bull's testicles or something, bear in mind that we are suburban youths who do not leave the house after dark.

Ha, ha, ha.

Kidding lah. But anyway, we went to that fairly new restaurant called "Sushi Groove". And I gotta say, it's such a cool place! It's like a newer concept than the usual conveyor-belt sushi plates, which frankly I'm not such a fan of, 'coz everything's so expensive and before you know it, you've picked all the prettiest sushi and simultaneously burned a hole in your wallet. :(

But here, you order things off a menu and 98% of the dishes are below RM10. There were also a couple of "communal tables" in the restaurant, so if you want, you can sit with total strangers and chat with them. Hahahaha.

Suffice to say those tables were all empty.

But I have to commend them on their new ideas, yeah! :) I've heard about those communal-type restaurants overseas before, usually in Western countries, where you can have dinner with total strangers and make new friends, but here - maybe Malaysians are not so used to that idea yet. :P Give us time, give us time!

Sushi Groove had something else to offer, besides refreshing new ideas:

M O C K T A I L S !

They also serve cocktails, wine, beer, soft drinks, the works... but mocktails are the best! :) Non-alcoholic cocktails. Hahaha. Besides, the actual cocktails were, like, more than RM15. Our moctails probably only added up to RM15.

And F O O D , G L O R I O U S F O O D !

Heheee. Delicious! :) We had the Flying Geisha, Takoyaki Croquette, Golden Gate and Mayonnaise Dream Rolls.

My favourite. :)

This was described in the menu as octopus and beef filling, but we only tasted flour and yam/potatoes. Haha. Kids will like this, but not the best dish to order.

Raw fish sushi: salmon and tuna. Delicious! :) And this is a lot coming from me, because I've never eaten raw fish before. There are also other types of sushi in the menu, like cod fish sushi, which I didn't order - but you could try it. Let me know how it goes! :P

Verrrry nice. Very dreamy. Hahaha. The topping was warm, so the whole thing just melts in a savoury swirl in your mouth. Makes my mouth water just remembering it, haha.

Moral of the story: Sushi Groove is a restaurant I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a fresh Japanese experience. :)

Besides eating (always an activity for outings such as this, haha), we went shopping! Well, actually, we went window-shopping - but it was fun to try on clothes (we bought a couple - although, unfortunately, the JUSCO sale has ended and all the prices are jacked up again so we explored the other sales in other stores).

Then, before going home, we decided to conduct a social experiment to count how many people will stare if you take out your camera and start taking photos of yourself in a public place:

Haha, only joking. We really just wanted to take photos to kill time.

Ooh, and we bumped into Nirumala! She's an old friend of mine from primary and secondary school, and Carmen's classmate in upper secondary. :)

And the last thing I wanted to blog about (this will sound really stupid to anyone other than me, so you can just stop reading here - but I guess now that I've said that, you'll feel even more curious and want to read on): I finally found a cap that was within my budget in The Reject Shop! :D

I'm not sure if it's called "Reject Shop" or "The Reject Shop" or just "Reject", but you know which place I mean. All the other caps I see around are ridiculously pricey, between RM50 - RM100, and that's like - why, why, why on earth would anyone spend that much on a cap? But obviously, people do, and that's why those things sell like hot cakes.

But those are hot cakes that I refuse to afford, haha. So this, this I got for RM19.90 -- which is already pushing it! But I like it. :)

This is what it looks like:

Unluckily, the real world is not a snowflake fantasy land, so here's a dose of a classic bubble-burster:

I returned home all pleased with my "moneysaver" purchase, only to have Mum remark that it looks like a Chinaman's cap. :( Apparently the top is flat and not round, or something like that. It's torridly frustrating when I have no idea why something is bad. I wonder if anyone else understands what I mean.

And An Nie goes on to say it makes my head look big. But at least, to that, I have a ready answer: "My head is PROPORTIONATE to my body size".

Don't you just hate it when people don't tell you what you want to hear? Ha, ha, ha.

But now that I've received every possible criticism about the cap - "you look like a construction worker, etc" - I am now more or less immune to disses re my precious new acquisition.

But if you see me wearing it and you insist on making a negative comment ...

I will still be able to take it off my head and smack you with it! :(

Ho-hum. I really shouldn't let it bother me that my family and friends think the cap is shitty. I mean, I only need to wear it when I'm forced to be in the sun! And when you're in the sun, everybody's eyes will be all squinty to keep the sun out of their eyes, so nobody can see my cap clearly anymore.

So, really, I could have gotten a cap with green flamingoes on it and nobody would notice. I just wanted to get a cap (I've never bought a cap before, so I'm allowed to buy ONE, right?) because I'm tired of the company-logo caps around the house, although I still might wear the "Rock Hard Cafe" one. :) And hey, it turns out there really is such a restaurant in Phomn Penh! The "Rock Hard Cafe". It's supposedly really famous, too!

That's all for now. Good luck to those of you having exams, like Vanessa and An Nie! :)

PS: If you'd like to try Takoyaki (octopus, etc), there's a shop in 1-Utama that sells 3 balls for RM4.30 - cheaper than at Sushi Groove. I didn't try it, but Carmen loves it. My mum says it's just okay. So anyway, if you want to give it a try: it's this shop called "Tako" at the JUSCO supermarket place, where all the food is. :)

"One ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."

2008-06-22T01:11:00.008+08:00

So were the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He was a German writer, and George Eliot even called him "Germany's greatest man of letters".

In tribute to that profound quote, I made this:

It's amazing how refreshing it is to ask yourself, can you put in certain elements that make you, you - into a collage of pictures? I mean, those really are some of my favourite things (and people - wanted to put in photos of Denise and Carmen also, but couldn't find their pictures on my notebook - will redo this collage another time, hehe). Those pictures more or less give you an illustration of the person I am today.

There are the usual material things - a favourite restaurant, a blog, a car, my automatic eyeliner sticks in various colours, my favourite hotel room in the world, my all-time favourite food outside home ... And then there are the more abstract things, like Happiness and Imagination (which I feel are the 2 most important "abstract" elements to me) ... And then there's the people who make me smile, laugh, want to be a better person but also feel good the way I am ...

Those pictures in that collage, those are just some of the reasons why I love this life. :)

That, and the huge array of tools Photoshop has to offer. ;P

I'm not a trained psychologist, but I couldn't recommend it more highly as a therapeutic project - make a collage of the things that make you smile when you remember them. Make that collage, and you'll be surprised how at peace you feel, knowing you have all those things that you are grateful for. :)

On other updates in my bubble-wrapped world, I've discovered the humour of Pon & Zi cartoons (thanks to Shern Ren). :D

And now I'm excited to start school again in July. :) I literally am looking forward to it - nervous, excited, happy, curious, the whole works. It really is a second chance, and I'm lucky enough to be able to have a second chance.

Only glitch now is to work out how to explain to people what I'm studying. Especially in languages other than English. Currently, this is how the standard conversation goes:

KPC: So, what are you studying now?

Me: Arts.

KPC: What? Like drawing, arts?

Me: No, not at all. Err - like post-World War ideologies, and newsroom theories, and journalism, and public relations, and contemporary film and television studies, and contemporary fiction, postcolonial and diasporic literature, maybe even contemporary feminist theories ....

KPC: What? Not drawing, arts?

-----*END*----

Not to worry, it'll be okay eventually. :) You know that saying "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end"? I really like that one.