Explorace Ramblings...

I've had a peeve with the first season of Explorace ever since I saw the first episode, it never caught my attention and in my opinion, the whole first season sucked like hell. As an ardent The Amazing Race supporter, I expected for an adrenaline-pumping race (at least) across Malaysia and not some pissy one-on-one challenges.

Okay, I'll be clearer this time. I have watched every episode of the fifth season of the race made by CBS, and later when I saw the reruns of Explorace on 8TV, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was so disappointed with the show that I actually muttered out "what the fuck?" at one point while watching it. There were so many things wrong with the show that I seriously doubted the viewership ratings that were as claimed by TV3. Among the horridly screwed up parts were:

1. Wrong host. Daphne, if you're reading this, no offence but you're totally not suited to be the host of a reality game show, you talk too much and you lack the air of a reality show host. Find someone else. Please. Deduct 5 marks for incompatibility.

2. Speeding up the clips. No we don't enjoy seeing people move like lighting in a race. It defeats the purpose of watching a race. If it were in real time, everyone's feet would burn up and the whole damn show would be over in less than 5 minutes. Deduct 10 marks for screwing it up.

3. Voice issues. We don't need narration for every single incident that happened in the race. Just show the race as it is and leave the talking to the team members! No editing or voice-overs please I beg for the mercy of God! Deduct 10 marks for stupidity.

4. All talk and no action. Despite what the show is targeting (or preaching), the first 30 minutes of the show is all talk on how they're gonna kick the other team's arse, the next 30 minutes featured Speedy Gonzales-type videos of the team members in action. For heaven's sakes, just shut up and move your arses! Deduct 15 marks for rubbish and time-wasting.

5. There is no race. You heard me right. The currently format of the race means that there is no real race to begin with. You start of with teams going "head-to-head" with half of the teams eliminated by the end of the first round. And you call this a race? Deduct 15 marks for deceiving people that it's actually a "race".

6. Advertising issues. You can take all of your advertising and product-placement and go shove it where the sun don't shine. Holding team members accounted for damages of cars was a stupid idea in the first place. If you don't want the cars to be damaged, then don't let the team members near it within a 10km radius. Deduct 10 marks for stupidity and ugly advertising.

7. Race tasks are lame and agonising to watch. I mean, if you see the tasks that the producers thought up with, it is totally lame. The tasks are all jumbled up and you need to collect keys (seriously, what the fuck?) to win the race? Deduct 10 marks for mismanagement of race tasks.

8. No excitement. Watching this race is as fun as watching both grass grow and paint dry at the same time. Deduct 10 marks for torturing the viewers.

The Amazing Race = 98%
Explorace = 15%

I DON'T CARE IF EXPLORACE HAS TO COPY FROM THE AMAZING RACE, JUST MAKE SURE THAT IT DOES NOT SUCK LIKE HELL!

Some suggestions:

1. Get a better host, preferebly a guy like Phil Keogan.

2. Leave the clips as it is.

3. Leave the audio sections as it as and the host should speak less. The essence of reality lies within the actions and words of the team members themselves.

4. Trash talk - 3 minutes, full adrenaline action - 57 minutes.

5. Take the same 12 teams and make it truely into a race, give us realisation on which team's ahead of the other. Throw in stops in the race and some interesting twists in between.

6. Cut the shit. Enough said.

7. The Amazing Race did a fabulous job on this part, Explorace failed miserably. The Amazing Race managed to incorporate part of the lives of the locals into the tasks and pull them off remarkably.

8. Alongside the "don't touch it" suggestions that I've already mentioned, take the cameraman and walk with the team members if they're on foot, ride with them if they're driving/taking a taxi. The cameraman also represents the 3rd team member and should give the viewers a view on what's like it to participate in the race. Either that or the cameraman should be treating the race the same way as the cameras would while covering a Formula 1 race. Keep track of who's leading and let the suspense build up until the ending.

If you'd compare Malaysia's editions of usual reality shows with Ameriaca's ones, as in Malaysian Idol and American Idol, the Malaysian version is on par with its American counterpart. Explorace was unfortunately a cheap pirated copy of The Amazring Race.

December 26, 2004

It was Boxing Day, the day after Christmas and it was supposed to be one of the most joyous days in the year. Personally that particular date was etched long ago into my memory because it once marked an important period of my life. But then the killer earthquake and tsunamis came on that very morning, tens of thousands of peoples' lives were extinguished in that very moment, and millions of others' lives were totally wrecked from it.

Calvin first informed me of the incident in the afternoon when I saw him online. From the moment there was a sign that something major had gone wrong, I went to search for some information regarding the event and right after I saw the first death toll, with each passing hour, the casualties continued to rise and rise and rise and rise into unimaginable figures. I was totally numb from the unrealness of the situation until I switched off the computer last night. A copy of The Star was beside me and as I looked into the devastation in the photos, it was only then that the reality started to sink it. And now, I couldn't bring myself to read the updated articles at Wikipedia, BBC and MSNBC, knowing that everytime I read through it I felt number than ever at the situation. I've given up reading it.

It was hard too typing this post out, my mind is in a confused and undescrible state, on accepting the extense of the calamity that had befell on the coastal residents. I felt terribly sad for the victims of the tragedy, lives that once housed emotions, thoughts, hopes, dreams and desire were wiped out in the glimpse of an eye. But the closeness of the disaster wasn't really enough to snap me out of it, I mean, I could not truely comprehend the sadness, agony and hopelessness of the family of the victims. I sort of felt it before, but this was not the same as I've experienced.

The numbers were numbing, but the photos from the disaster site were exactly opposite. The numbing numbers, both in terms of human life, monetary cost and relief aid were now mere statistics but the barrage of photos available everywhere evoked the most emotion and probably response from the people who were looking at it. It's true that there still are things which couldn't be able to be described by people, but sometimes a single image is enough to convey the message to everyone who saw it.

I think I've blabbered enough already. I don't even know what I'm saying now.

It's 3:43 am...

It's 3:43 am, 5 tabs are still open in Firefox for the past 10 hours, the radio is turned on and the TV's reflection is sorta eerie at the moment... Okay, now how do I tackle the problem with the tabs? Err... maybe I should do this in the morning...

Notes to self:
1. Don't bother thinking about getting a RM300 webcam, stick with a cheap RM100 one and take that pic before that hair of yours gets its death sentence!
2. There's still quite a lot of things that still haven't been blogged yet, get that blogging butt moving soon!
3. What the heck, school starts in 2 weeks time and you're not prepared yet??? Yeah... the textbooks have been bought but that about the rest?

Got 'em!

Mom was definitely complaining when she saw me forking out to pay for 3 DVD disks at Prangin Mall yesterday. To tell you the truth, it's been roughly a year since I had bought any computer games, mostly because the financial situation was qquite bad and that my computer wasn't really able to handle these games anymore. Thank heavens for the lucky break, I appreciate it. =)

She nagged even more when she saw that I was playing a First-Person Shooter game, Call of Duty, saying that she doesn't agree with violent games like that. Actually, I don't think she knows that I disagree with the idea of senseless killing. I subscribe to the idea that I only shoot if there's someone aiming his gun in between my two eyes. And if this game wasn't about World War II, frankly I wouldn't give two hoots about it. But it's still a pretty good game with plenty of excitement and nice gameplay. =)

And she also nagged that I'll eventually fall sick from playing violent games like that. It's not that the game is bad, it seems that I really am not suitable for playing those games in long periods without rest. It happened before with other similar games, felt very awful for the rest of the day... ehehehe... Well I played the game for 3 hours today before feeling the first signs of motion sickness, or rather simulator sickness, as the sickness doesn't really comes from motion.

And the other 2 disks were the Homeworld series and Command & Conquer series. Homeworld 2's graphics was spectacular but man, does C&C: Generals sucks or what? Big thanks again for the news about the announcement of the newest game in the Red Alert universe! =) Searched for Battlefield 1942 but (thankfully?) they're not available. That also reminds me: save up some money and get myself at least an original copy of any game! (Yes I've been brainwashed... xD)

"Sorry... but you asked for it, buddy."

*Aims scoped Springfield/Kar98k/Mosin-Nagant at head*

*Evil grin*

Keo Satellite - Be back in 50,000 years...

What if there was a way to contact with people from the future?

What if there was a way to leave a message for your future descendants?

What if this was actually a reality?


At the end of 2006, the Keo satellite will be launched into Earth's orbit carrying millions of messages from the citizens of Earth to Earthlings 50,000 years in the future. Enclosed in several layers of titanium, thermal and anti-shock layers, the sphere-shaped satellite coupled with shape memory alloys will orbit Earth for the next 50,000 years, raising when it touches the sun's rays and folding when it enters the shadows.

The satellite will be brought into space by the Ariane 5 rocket, which is built and designed by the European Space Agency. The agency, along with UNESCO and various organisations and institutions has given its support for the project and it has received a large amount of coverage in France and India.

Messages to Keo can be sent through the website or by postal mail, which is available on the website. Keo's organisers requests that all groups of the human race be represented in the project, the rich, the poor, the blind and everyone else is welcomed to participate in its project.

The deadline for the messages is December 31, 2004 (2 weeks left as of time of posting). So I'll cut short my post now to concentrate on writing my message. You can check out the satellite's website or the article on Wikipedia for a brief and simple introduction. =)

I. Am. Officially. Relieved.

*Points to the title*

Methink my flowerhorn fish has been completely recovered from his illness, as he started to eat his pellets today, Before that, he had starved himself for roughly 2 weeks, and his body had shriveled up. I was most worried that he'd die. T_T

When it rains, it pours? A goldfish of mine had come down with ick, a sort of fungus disease. He's also recovering now. =) Be before any kind of treatment was done, I made a short trip to the aquarium shop and on my way back, there was a large and dead goldfish on the road. If it wasn't for the lone fly sitting on the fish, I might've thought it was a toy, seeing it's unnatural look and it wasn't there when I was walking to the shop. One think for sure, I took that as an bad omen and will be preparing myself if it ever comes up true. Hope not. >_< black one if you're wondering. =)

Anyway, got what I wanted (and prayed) for, it's as good as a Christmas present from someone above, life and/or fate. Thank you. =)

Crane accident...

(Click to see the larger pic =))

Photos taken from a thread at GoogleCommunity.com and this site, which also explained a bit about the accident. =)

Malaysia in semi-finals!

(Hoping to break the blogger's block by typing about something on my mind... =))

I was keeping an eye on Malaysia's matches in the 2004 Tiger Cup, and they have surprised us all with an unexpected 2 - 1 victory over the defending champion, Thailand!

The tinge of hope left in the team that inspired the article on the back of yesterday's copy of The Star sure had stamped its mark in proving that Thailand is not invincible, and Malaysia is no more the team which used to play badly and lose horribly, and even frequently looked down by some people. Congratulations to the national team for proving the critics wrong and good luck for your upcoming matches!

Btw, I've started and now maintaining the 2004 Tiger Cup article at Wikipedia! =)

Streamyx speed...

Check with this website and found that my average speed is usually over 400Kbps! Hurray! =D

Guessed the folks at Telekom really did upgraded the connection! =)

Finally...

I now have a computer to use again! Yay!

The darn thing crashed on the last day of NaNoWriMo but I was lucky to pass the 10K mark before the crash. After it restarted by itself, the hard drive couldn't boot Windows XP and was totally useless. Something about having system files corrupted and needs the original Windows XP Home CD to fix it, but since this is an OEM version (meaning end user isn't supposed to own a copy of the CD), that's where the headache starts.

Brought it to a computer shop on the next day to see what it could be done, it seemed easy enough but it turns out that they don't have a copy of the WinXP Home edition CD, original or not. So, after reformatting, the hard drive seemed to lock out any other operating systems - Win98, Win2000, Longhorn - all useless. =\ The repairman and his two apprentices spent the rest of the day messing with the operating systems. He said that the hard drive from HP may have been secured, and it was almost good as a paperweight.

Components changed: Old Phillips CD writer + old Sony CD-ROM reader (both unusable) -> New TDK CD-RW/DVD combo drive

Day number 3 involved testing using a brand new hard disk. It was ruined after that. The fog dissipated and everything was crystal clear. The fault lies in the darn motherboard! Eh, they tested the old hard disk from another computer and it was working, strange.

Components changed:
1. Old and dusty motherboard with no brand -> New Abit SG-17 motherboard
2. Old original HP pavilion casing -> New iCute casing, it had three fans and the design was pretty nice
3. Old floppy disk drive -> New Sony floppy disk drive
4. Two sticks of 128MB SDRAM, one original HP Infeneon, the other Kingston -> 256MB Kingston DDR RAM (trade in)

Components retained:
1. Pentium 4 1.5Ghz processor
2. 40GB Maxtor hard disk
3. Nvidia Geforce2 graphics card
4. 56Kbps internal modem

All assembled and packed at the end of day three but it was scheduled to be sent at day four.

Received phone call that he's busy at 7pm on day four, postponing it for the next day.

Arrived at 10pm on day five, everything was set up but had a slight problem with Streamyx. Can't connect. *Bangs head* Made a phone call to Telekom but I eventually realised that I typed the username wrong. *Bangs head again*

Good side was that I found my computer was now running Windows XP Professional edition. o_O At least it was a free upgrade. The whole ordeal costed RM615 and the internet cafe there must be rich now...

Mentioned in The Star!

It's an article about Nanowrimo and I got mentioned and also quoted!

(Click pic to enlarge)



WHEEEEEEE

Big thanks to Leah and congrats to everyone who participated!!!

WordPress is awesome...

After some agonising hours trying to set up MovableType, I've now switched to WordPress for another site. Although the default skin was a bit familiar (hehehe), but I've got some impressive styles from Alex King's website. The template and interface was very neat and non-confusing, the basic installation of WordPress and its different styles was quick and easy (reminds me of phpBB) and there's even an option for enabling/disabling plugins!

If you're thinking of moving away from Blogger, WordPress is the way to go...

Upgrade successful!

Went to Prangin Mall and bought a Kingston 128MB PC133 SDRAM chip for only RM160. Checked with another Malaysian website and sure, it said that they're selling it for RM179, at least I knew that that wasn't a ripoff. Fixed the darn thing in after 30 minutes of agonising over why couldn't it fit in properly and now Age of Mythology is running without any lags at all, yay!

Next target: DVD-ROM drive and webcam.

Thinking of selling my USB joystick for RM50-60, funds will go to the upgration of my computer. Considered with eBay.com.my but it's for 18+ only, Lelong.com.my's registration was very troublesome, my best bet would be the Velocity Media forums. Will post it tomorrow.

Alrighty, I just realised that I don't really dislike my nephew, the little brat. He wasn't that bad after all. After a bit of pondering, everyone told me that he was slowly turning into a carbon-copy of me, sans the nuclear-powered energy! That's really unbelievable. Niece has some noticable issues with her teacher at school. She has some talent to be a BDSM mistress sometime in the future.

Summary for today...

Headed out to lunch with Mom, sis, her 2 kids and maid at 3pm and went to Tesco's Penang outlet through Jelutong. Once you pass the post office, numerous banners hanging from the street lamps could be seen pointing the directions to Tesco. Followed, followed, followed and the banners now had several signboards to accompany it. =|

Parked near the entrence of the car park and walked a bit to the shops. Trollies were placed near the automatic sliding door with a request to take trollies at the second floor. Walked aimlessly through some of the shops. Blah blah blah blah blah and Popular book store was in sight. No words could describe my feelings at encountering a shop with very little reading material. Seriously, this was sad.

Proceeded to the hypermart and nephew slipped into the shopping trolly. Bad idea. Walked and ran along some aisles before he decided to stand up to grab some ice from the fruit juices. Bad idea. I turned the trolley at that exact same moment and he tumbled down. -__- Eh, bumped his back and head but he was strong enough not to cry out loud. Although he said he didn't felt pain anymore, he just became a quiet person after that. I rubbed the back of his head and held him close to me. His mom never saw it though, but I had to spill the beans. Maid was being nosey.

Alrighty then, everything went fine until we had to return. Damn, where was the exit road? We were at a junction where a signboard said Gelugor was to the right, since we weren't going there common sense says that the correct way would be to turn left. Wrong. We ended up in dark allies and dead ends along with 2 other confused drivers at the government Marine apartments. Tried asking other people along the road but it turns out that they were foreign workers. o_O To cut a long story short, we found out that the way to Gelugor was the only way out. Talk about a long way back...

Of course I felt guilty when I accidentally injured him. Now if he were to be perpetually non-bursting with energy and occasional violent randomness, I'd actually like him.

Tesco Penang

Just returned from the new Tesco outlet in Penang, and I thought that there are some issues with it that I needed to mention (aka my two cents).

Here are the up-sides:
1. Very easy to get directions to Tesco, just look at the numerous banners pointing to Tesco within a 1km radius.
2. Free parking.
3. Nice selection of shops available, e.g. Watsons, Popular.
4. Quite a lot of shops that sell food there, not including the food court.
5. Tesco hypermart itself reminded me of the Giant outlet in Plentong, Johor Bahru.
- Ah... Nostalgia.
6. Significant number of computers and accessories were sold there.
7. Conveyor belts! XD

Here are the down-sides:
1. Very hard to get directions out from Tesco, just look at the lack of signboards which said "Pusat Bandar", which was none. After getting lost for a while along with several other cars, the only way out was through Gelugor, which we never intended to go.
2. Isn't very accessible from the main road. Ups, downs and confusing curves are needed. Reminds me of some of the PLUS stops.
3. Despite its illusion of massiveness, there's almost nothing fun there.
4. Ground floor and first floor almost filled with only carpark.
5. Shops were only located in a crowded thin strip around the conveyor belts / escalators.
6. The number of items available in Watsons and Popular was very pitiful (from the lack of space).
- Guess the staff in Popular there will have a field day in arranging the little books that they have. I'd fall asleep from the boringness if I ever worked there. But for the Watsons outlet, it was less cluttered and very neatly arranged compared to the other stores. That was the up-side in the down-side.

Despite having 7 pros againsts 6 cons, the fact that it had 6 cons automagically deserves a thumbs down. Wasn't very nice, I'm not thinking of going there again. Prangin Mall or Gurney Plaza please.

Getting tired of this...

Sleepover. Again. Four nights. Family gathering in two days.

Expect me to be completely insane by the end of the week.

Patronising

This was the first non-spam, non-double post thread I had to lock. Ever.

Yay, another item to add to my extremely short list of pet-peeves. Currently it's:

- Backstabbers
- Patronisers
- Stereotypes
- Misconceptions

Enough ramblings, getting back to my novel. =)

Btw, congrats to GC for reaching the magical 50K mark!

More like...

It's more like 5K in three days... -__-

I'm starting to hang out more at the "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" section of the forums...


Unrelated note: Building caretaker informed us that they're sending someone tomorrow to drill the kitchen floor to fix the leaking on the ceiling of the apartment unit below... WTF? o_O?

Trying out NaNoWriMo

Yeah, I got coaxed into joining it by a particular friend today... *Glares at GC* XD

For starters I was already 13 days behind when I joined NaNoWriMo due to darn exams. Anyhow, don't say I didn't warn you, but the writing might not be good at all (aka prepare to cringe). The novel in progress is located here... I've just churned out a total of 2,138 words for today... I haven't even figured out a title for it yet! Scared not likely to finish it on time... T_T


Notes to self:
i) 5K or more for tomorrow!
ii) Open PC casing and check CD-ROM drive, it isn't working properly.
iii) Slow computers and fast connection does not make good partners. Firefox lags a tiny bit (that's the annoying part). Buy memory module sometime.

I hate fungus...

Water + cardboard + paper + 4 months = Fungus

Just cleared out my Reader's Digest hardcover books and noticed that traces of fungus had grown at the bottom. Shit. At first it looked like black sand but once I encountered green, yellow and white spots, that ain't sand anymore. Almost half of my hardcover and magazine collection had grown a bit of fungus after the spot where it was kept leaked water. T_T Damn the lousy piping, why don't they make good pipes anymore? Oh well, cleaned them up with a dry cloth, only a tiny spot remains. Now where's the bottle of dettol???

I am so never going to stuff anything in a box again.

Results...

(News from Wednesday)

Modern maths was incredibly easy and so was the second Malay paper... But then the same maths paper had a printing error on some exam papers which incredibly turned the question from a plus into a minus and in doing so, altered the answer found from (A) to (D)... Wanted to inform this to the teacher but she wasn't there, but then again where are all of the teachers??? Having year-end exams at the end of the year sure sucks though...

The results for history, accountings and additional maths were released during the exam season and I personally met with the moral studies and science teacher to ask about my results... Turns out that all of the results that I know of has improved significantly! ^_^

Talk about a great way to end the Form 4 school year.... =D

Firefox 1.0 released | MSN joins the blog bandwagon!

Alongside Google and Yahoo, the MSN Search team now have their own blog!

On another note, Firefox version 1.0 was recently launched! Click here to visit the browser website and download the latest version... =)

Books...

Righto, here's a list of books that friends' have requested but not sent yet...

1. Contact by Carl Sagan - Vivian (RABCK)
2. Forrest Gump by Winston Groom - Squall (RABCK)
3. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett - Soe Chin (Trade)
4. Death Cults: Murder, Mayhem and Mind Control (True Crime Series) - ann-718my (Trade)

Sending all at once tomorrow... Can't believe I forgot it's Deepavali yesterday... o_O

Whole lotta snoozing...

Tiredness makes you appreciate sleep more than ever, that's definately true... Masamania from Japan photo-posts some businessmen squeezing every drop of time available for some rest and temporarily escaping from their hectic life... They're raising the bar for the term "overworking"...

Knew about this Japanese blog at the SPI forums and I can say, this is Japan's version of Maddox! Both are equally badasses but Masamania introduces us to his world through his photoblog and witty Engrish commentary. A must read!

[Note: Site in general is not safe for work (or school), viewer discretion is advised.]

Desktop screenshot

It's rare that mom doesn't stop and make a comment about my wallpaper whenever she notices that it's changed... Usual comments would be regarding whether the wallpaper would conflict with the surroundings (computer is in living room) or whether the wallpaper has any auspicious symbols on it... Feng Shui geek, you see... =/
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Tried my best for the 2 accountings papers today, found out that I was only roughly 3 quarters correct for the 40 objective questions but I doubt that it'd help for the overall marks. Journals, documents, ledgers and those stuff were hard as hell in paper 2. At least the toughest ones are already over. Should be easy sailing for the last 5 papers...

False Start

NTV7's shift in the scheduling of the third season of The Amazing Race to Wednesday (last) night made me thought that the sixth season had started already! Checked with CBS.com and it's premiering in America on November 16 and NTV7 has confirmed through the forums that they're going to air it!

Rant soon to come: Explorace sucks.

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Took Chinese and General Science yesterday, Moral Studies and Additional Maths today. Everything went fine but I'm good as D-E-D dead for Add Maths.

Today's papers...

Today's papers:

English - okay, wasn't too hard...
History - just okay again, scored 28 out of 40 in objective section if compared to my friend's answers... Now my fate is in the hands of the structure and essay questions... Hoping (again) that I won't screw up that...

Ran AdAware, Spybot S&D, edited Msconfig for startup loading, deleted tons of files and defragmented my hard disk yesterday, everything went smoothly, except for the defragmention... 6 hours and it's only 40% done? Oh dear... =|

Now running it and it's 65% done... Much better... =) Using Diskeeper 9.0 (trial edition) at the moment...

No upgrade for 384Kbps users?

Just got word from the Velocity Media forums that TM Net did not mention the upgrade for the packages at 384Kbps at their updated promotion page! Are they going back on their word?

TM Net has also bought a full-page ad in today's edition of The Star, which funnily enough had an error in the sentence.

Eh...

Even after almost half a year, I feel like I'd be bluffing if I said that I don't feel sad about him. I'm still missing him badly.

I've barely managed to salvage the newspaper articles and scanned them together with other things. I don't think I need to put it up on my blog yet (but if you're curious, it's hosted on the same site as the photos below).

Even thr google search brings up no information at all. Links to news articles on the internet have become expired or by one reason or another, not available. He has now faded into yesterday's news and easily forgotten by others. I know nothing at all of the trial involving the bastards. I wish to contact someone to ask about it, but I don't know who to turn to. Anyway, hope they rot in hell.

Rocket - The Ten Tenors (lyrics)

Rocket - The Ten Tenors

Remove the covers of the morning
And I don't see the new day dawning
Just can't cope

Cold shadows hide me as I go through the day
No one at all seeming to say
The feelings they long to convey
But could it be I am the one
who has lost my way?

Why can't I see my future clearly?
Is there a chance that I can break free?
Please help me

This maze has complicated day into night
Repetitive hours I see
My spirit is ready to flee
Then suddenly you come to me
and everything's alright

You've given me reason to live
You've given me reason to try
You've given me reason to stand
Don't let life pass me by
Whenever I feel hopelessness
Whenever I feel I could cry
You rocket me up to the sky
Give me wings and then I can fly

Together soaring to the sunrise
I feel the passion comes from your eyes.
And I know
Strength cast away the fear and
Faith made the soul sing clear and
Love is the music we can all hear

You've given me reason to live
You've given me reason to try
You've given me reason to stand
Don't let life pass me by
Whenever I feel hopelessness
Whenever I feel I could cry
You rocket me up to the sky
Give me wings and then I can fly

Whoa I can fly
Whoa fly away with you forever
Fly away 'til end of never
We'll fly away

You've given me reason to live
You've given me reason to try
You've given me reason to stand

Don't let life pass me by
Whenever I feel hopelessness
Whenever I feel I could cry
You Rocket me up to the sky
Give me wings and then I can fly

A very wonderful and uplifting song... Glad I only listen to the radio, Light & Easy to be precise... =P

Photos and papers...

Yep, the photos were developed and I received them yesterday, then scanned it with my ageing scanner and uploaded it to the internet... =) Click to see the larger version of the photos.



Teachers from left to right: Ms. Tan Swee Chin (Economics Basics), Mr. Lee Mok On (Science), Mrs. Anne Tan (History). Yours truly is placed in the front row, second from left. =) Don't mind the unusually tall fella, he just propped up himself on the base of Father Julian's statue.




Teachers from left to right: Mr. Harry Thombas (Physical Education), Mrs. Tay Lee Eng (English), Ms. Tock Pek Ngoh (Accountings), Ms. Fung Chui Jing (Malay), Mrs. Nor Aini Mamat (Moral Studies). You might not notice it, but it was actually raining outside, so the photo was taken in the foyer. I'm standing at the last row, second from left. My classmate tried to tickle my ear when the second time the photo was taken. I hadn't even saw that one yet! XP




This one wasn't taken recently, start of the year to be precise, but I decided to scan it anyway. This photo was used for the school's annual yearbook and 36 students were in it (with one absentee) while only 26 students were willing to be shot (7 absentees for class). The dorky one in front of Father Julian's statue would be me, I've now abandoned wearing glasses when taking pictures.

Teachers who didn't want to be photographs would be Mrs. Ooi Beng Hua (Chinese) and Ms. Tan Lee Cheng (damn Additional Maths) and Ms. Khoo Sin Dee couldn't make it due to classes.

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Writing 2 essays in Malay wasn't very hard in Malay, I just hope I didn't screw it up... =| Ran out of time for the second essay and finished the ending quickly (due to a rewrite)... The topic on the first essay was regarding the effects of video games towards children and teenagers while I chose to describe a snatch-theft incident which happened right in front of me...

Economics Basics wasn't tough either, I avoided answering the 2 questions that involve drawing graphs and explaining what you've just drawn and chose the other 3 essay questions that are available... The last question involves roughly 8 structure questions... Took pot shots at one or two 8/9 marks questions but managed to answer all questions in time... Thankfully I didn't feel drowsy or anything of those sorts during the exam... I credit the adrenaline and caffeine for that!

Smile!

Benny, the class monitor invited all of the teachers who taught the class for a group shot sometime after recess. Out of the 11 teachers who were responsible in one way or another in teaching this class, only 9 agreed to do the shot! I'm also happy that the bitch didn't want to take part, Benny shared the same sentiments but he just asked her for fairness sakes.

Will scan the photos once I get it!

Other things that happened today:
1. Had a nasty bruise on the left leg after it was struck by a flying bench. I blame Wei Chuan for moving it in a hurry... It's okay now though... =)
2. Tried out arm-wrestling with the same person for the first time since a long time, the last time I was involved in one was when I was in primary school! So it was a surprise that I could beat him using my left arm! Right arm weaker, even though I'm a right-hander... o_O (Won and draw once using left arms, lost both using right arms)

First Malay paper starts at 7:35 am... Signing off now!

Dream...

For the first time in my life, I had experienced an exam-related dream. Not particularly scary or anything, but it was enough to horrify me for one whole morning.

Think sitting at a table, a paper barely half-done and only 10 minutes remaining, to make matters worse, my mind was a total blank as I can't concentrate at all!

The most horrifying part was that I was taking the English paper.

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Streamyx connection reactivated!

I made a phone call to Telekom on Monday evening (as I'm studying in the afternoon) and I got my Streamyx connection back within 5 minutes of the call! To be frankly speaking, I wasn't expecting anyone to answer the phone. Heh, seems you need to do it out yourself for it to work.

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Two days of school left until the exams arrive. So far this school year seemed to pass by quicker than any other year. I've got a wonderful bunch of classmates to help me breeze through it. Luckily half of the class are almost certain to be together again as there are only 2 Maths classes for Form 4 and 5 students.

Anyway, taking half of the Malay paper and half of the Economics Basics paper on Friday. (Why in the world does each and every exam starts with a Malay paper?) Either way, I'm hoping for the best!

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Eh, changed my mind, taking a break from blogging seems redundant. Will continue to post regularly. =)

Notes to self:
1. Catch The Terminal and Taxi in the cinemas once exams are over. Both movies have caught my eye...
2. Trying to sleep early to prepare for taking exams in the morning. There won't be any excuses if I falter this time!

Sigh....

House invasion again... Privacy goes out of the window... Who asked me not to place the computer in the living room....

On another note, Streamyx bills paid but line isn't activated yet.

Getting priorities wrong...

That's right, I'm getting my priorities wrong and mismanaged my time. There's nothing that can be totally and utterly done unless there's a whole day on my hands. I've come close to letting this blog collect dust, but I'm not going to let that happen. I'm not doing much to this blog (except for blogging) at the moment since the exams are around the corner.

Form 4 life for me is coming to a close within a few weeks, number of schooling days left - 4, number of days before exams - 7. Except for 2 subjects, I am feeling so unprepared for this exams more than ever. The daunting questions, numbers and papers at the moment would seemed almost easy as pie once you hit the next level in Form 5. I've skipped mentioning the previous exams in my blog as it wasn't something that make kids proud if they showed the same report card to their parents.

Eh, time mismanagement. The simple answer to all of the problems that I've encountered this year. There aren't enough hours in a day, I'm living on a 48 hour schedule in a 24 hour day. Even the days without internet has left me puzzled on sorting and executing priorities. I desperately need to get that some order in my life.

I want to spend the whole day reading, reading whatever is on the internet, reading whatever books that I have, but yet I can't get myself interested in reading school-related books.

There's no excuse for this kind of behaviour, bitching about it here doesn't justify it either. I'm officially taking a break from blogging and I will be back after the exams are over.

Wish me luck!


Notes to self: (Yes, I've been reading JalanRiong for quite some time now... ;))
1. Stay off the Wikipedia website, it's addictive, just plain addictive.
2. Stay away from forums and news sites.
3. Limit online time to just checking e-mail.
4. Stay focused on target and keep it in place.

Random motivational thought: "The computer does not own you!"

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It's been a rollercoaster ride through hell trying to get that darned bill paid. Since there wasn't a copy of the bill available, we had to make a trip down to the Kedai Telekom to request a copy of it but it turns out that we can't pay bills after 4:15pm even though the sign outside says payment services ends at 4:30pm. How misleading.

Originally intended to make another trip to the same place today but thankfully, I had somehow thought to find old copies of the bill just in case of computer/database troubles but somehow it turns out that we did in fact have the bill right in our hands! Scrapped long trip to Kedai Telekom and detour to the much nearer Pos Malaysia mini-post office. Everything went smoothly, until we got there. The aunty behind the counter said that the computer wasn't able to accept TM Net codes on the bill. Tough luck.

Tomorrow (or rather today, as it's already early morning) is the last day for the bill. I shudder at the thought of being permanently disconnected from Streamyx. All of the trouble could be saved if it wasn't for my mom's distrust of internet-banking. She's somehow concerned that the bank staff would swipe everything in her band account. But this coming from a non-internet savvy person, it's understandable.

Back back BACK!

Yes I'm back and ready to go! The phone line was reconnected sometime today and I'm getting online through a dial-up connection... Well it's better than nothing I say... =P Broadband bills still haven't paid yet, deadline on Friday 22... Looking forward to the free Streamyx upgrade to 512 Kbps on November 1... =)

Fared quite okay during the period without an internet connection, which was roughly 4 days and thankfully, there ware no signs of addiction withdrawal syndromes... XD Finally figured what was wrong with accessing Yahoo! Mail through WAP, I had set my cookies to expire (at the maximum) 24 hours since I last logged in and accessing the messenger feature somehow screwed it up by not letting me sign out properly when I exited it, therefore leaving me perpetually logged out and unable to sign in. Being able to check your e-mail once every 24 hours, now that's called torture...

Okay, started reading on Jung Chang's Wild Swans, prepped up for the book by reading a bit about communist China through Encarta... Things are placed in proper perspective once you get to know more about it...

Today almost kena rotan (got caned) by the disciplinary teacher for arriving in class late, turns out that I wasn't the only one who were singled out by the bitchy teacher, who reported us to him... She even exaggerated the time of entering class by at least a whole 10 minutes! This won't make her any more likeable throughout the school, that I'm sure... =) Bad news personally brought by the butt-kissing Form 2 monitor during science class, which was a lesson before recess... He's always bad news for me... Anyway, got out of the situation after recess by explaining clearly that I'd forgotten to prepare food for recess at the last minute, putting my bet on "can't concentrate on a hungry stomach"... After that I actually lost appetite during recess knowing that you're at the receiving end of 3 strokes...

No worries about it actually, the police station is just a stone's throw away from the school... Nice knowing that there were actually cases where students reported canings by teachers to the police, read about one such incident in The Star sometime ago... It happened in Malacca, the punishment was less severe that what was usually happening right here in this school but regardless he was reported... I'm taking a page out of this fella... =) I'm also sure that the disciplinary teacher knows that we, the Form 4 students tend to be more aware of our rights, including the ability to (a) lodge police reports and (b) request parent to punch said teacher... (Well, actually it's an ability, not a right exactly... The latter incident happened 2 years ago, too bad he punched the wrong teacher... He turned up in class with a black eye and lacking glasses...)

I'm going vegetarian for 9 days straight for the festival... Already in day 2 and staying strong... It ends exactly next week... Not particularly excited about the thought of eating meat after this through, I've found several places that make excellent mock fish and meat, believe it or not! Refreshing change...

Finally finished playing Homeworld, it's been almost 3 years since I first played that game... Extremely eager to get my hands on Homeworld 2... =) Btw, am considering on buying a webcam this weekend, TGIF baby! XD

Censorship sucks... As with the case of censors personnel at the censorship board, I'd advise them to step back a couple of feet and admire at their horrible masterpieces consisting of storyline stripping and the inability to swallow jokes... Examples would be Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx and David Letterman's show... I really admire Singapore's open-mindedness on issues such as discussions on sex, here the censorship board even censors out the word "sex"... This is just unbelievable... -__-

Received tri-weekly dose of propaganda in Moral Studies class, it's right up to the point of glurgy when you read a textbook that keeps praising your own country on its "freedom of speech" and "freedom of religion" and heck, even on the ISA... The whole book is laden with POVs and propaganda... Enuff said... I'm all for scrapping Moral Studies if the Education Ministry ever decides to do so...

I think that's enough ranting now, I think the absence of blogging for 4 days really unleashed a torrent of thoughts and rants... =P Wrapping up now...

The first thing my Moral Studies teacher said when she entered the class was "hari ini saya berpuasa, tak makan apa-apa, nanti saya hendak makan orang..." That drew some chuckes from the class... That reminds me...

Selamat Berbuka Puasa to those who are fasting in the month of Ramadan!

Am now blogging...

Am now blogging from another internet cafe at Prangin Mall...

Trainee teacher treated about 10 student of my class to a steamboat meal... Damn stuffed...

Just got back from watching Korean horror flick , Face at the cinema in Gurney Plaza, together with the teacher and 4 other classmates... It was a surprisingly good movie actually... =) Stuffed myself again with popcorn and soft drink... It was already at least 7 or 8 years since I stepped into a cinema, so that was another first for me... XD Yeah yeah, I don't get around much, I know...

Played Homeworld to entertain my internet-less self last night... Never realised that it was so fun, partly because it didn't make my computer lag too... XD

Will be going soon... My 1 hour is almost up...

Broadband disconnected...

Shit.

Tried to log onto the internet last night but found that the username and/or password may have become invalid. Now blogging from an internet cafe near my school. Braved the cold rain and strong winds just to check my e-mails and post messages... Heh... Could've used my handphone to do the same thing but somehow either the GPRS wouldn't work or the browser cookie wasn't functioning, adding the agony to the pain...

I'm expecting hoping praying that I'll be able to get onto the intenet at home once the bills have been paid... Erk... paying bills... @_@ Things will get better soon, I believe... A bit of staying away from the internet couldn't really bother me much, could it? [Said from a person who has gotten online every single day since he got broadband roughly 11 months ago, barring any unexpected circumstances like going for a holiday or the monitor getting busted....]

Started reading several novels which had gathered dust for the past months year... More time available for me since there's no connection.... = Strangely I found that my CR-ROM drive had busted... again... Everything seems to go wrong recently... Maybe it's a sign that says I should cut down on the internet time... Hope I won't suffer from addiction withdrawl like the previous time 2 years ago... XD

Anyway, off to Pranging Mall and Tanjung Bungah with my classmates tomorrow to visit a friend... Will be scrambling to squeeze every minute available to get onto the internet... XD

Btw, think this is my 100th post on this blog... Hurray! =)

Trouble brewing...

Didn't really knew that the neighbourhood isn't that a nice of a place. Glad I'm living on an apartment, far far away from where the action is going on...

Those pubs shouldn't be that close to the apartment block... Sometime around 1am just now, there were signs of an arguement outside of the pub but it soon spilled out of control for a moment there... Roughly a dozen people in cars and motorcycles were argueing intensely in the small lane right outside the balcony... They were yelling and cussing until 2 people emerged from the other direction wielding parangs, just like in those Hong Kong gang fights as seen on TV, and prompted to hack at the windshield of a Kelisa... The car then swerved and tried to run down the attacker but he was pulled back by another person... It was over... Just like that... That seemed so unreal though... Never expected to see something like that happen right in front of my eyes... o_O

Nothing much happened outside the pub though... Same yelling and cursing involving a dozen people but with another dozen watching...

Off to bed now... Signing off! =)

Just watched the news...

Just watched the news just now... NTV7 reported that Red the lurcher has been wreaking havoc for quite some time at the Battersea Dogs Home by releasing himself and a couple of his friends from their cages in search for a nightly meal...

BBC, the Independent and the Telegraph has already covered it, pics of the great escape can be found here... =)

I am...

I am currently grining ear to ear... =)

Just received hosting from iFreeBee after 50 posts and there's no school for tomorrow... They said they lacked classrooms for the PMR exams and so the Form 1 students got a day off on Tuesday, Form 2 students today and us Form 4 students tomorrow! =)

For once, the Form 4 students was greeted by an almost empty canteen/cafeteria at recess. We got the whole place to ourselves! XD

Made plans to make another trip to Tanjung Bungah on Sunday, trainee teacher (who taught her last lesson today) wanted to give us a treat at Prangin Mall, will then proceed to the beach later and visit a classmate's house near there. Hopefully it won't turn out to be like the previous trip.

Snapped photos with classmates and trainee teacher in class, I took about 6-7 shots on her camera. Hope to scan and paste 'em here on this blog once the film gets developed.

Walked half way to class when I realised that I left my bottle of water at the stationary shop outside the school. -_- Luckily this was before school had started and there were no prifects guarding the main gate... Oh right... No school for Form 2 students today... -_-

Random thought: It's pretty hard to focus in class when your brain keeps getting stuck in the gutter. Damn hormones. I haven't even whined about the zits (which popped out recently) yet....

Anyway, off to dinner... =)

Angry

Last night was sort of a realisation for me, I no longer felt disappointed by the group for dumping me after 4 years. Now I'm angry, angry at those who didn't speak out, angry at those who didn't ask, angry at those who didn't bother at all, angry at those who pretended that nothing had happened.

What? Since I'm no longer a member of the committee anymore, why should I spare my time selecting players when I'm just an ordinary member! If I were still important to you guys I wouldn't have been dropped from the list completely! Fuck you for asking such a question.

What? You're now the new chairman of the group! If you had treated me as a friend, and valued my participation in the group for 4 whole years, you should've mentioned something to the previous chairman about the committee list! You now have the power! Instead of using it, you kept your mouth shut. Fuck you for doing so.

What? I promoted you up to the committee through my honest suggestions, the same way another committee member promoted me through his suggestions when I was young. Now that my wings have been clipped, you pretend that nothing has happened and kept quiet. Fuck you, unless you've already had your mouth sewn shut.

It's not as if both of you knew me for just a week or so, this was 4 whole years! So don't give me the "I don't know how to say this" crap explanation and passing the buck. Both of you were in it. You knew that this wasn't the correct thing to do, and yet you still did it.

Fuck you for having your head in your arse, just because I don't know how to kiss your butt leaves in a precarious position. I'm glad that I tore up the photo of you I took last year and threw it into the garbage bin.

From an assistant secretary about to be promoted to assistant chairman, this was even posted on the notice board at the start of the year, it's July and without any hints or clues, you've left me without a post, not even the lowest one for the Form 2 members, left me in shock, and then proceed to bash me on my performance in guarding the batch of afternoon class members. If this isn't a clear signal on how much I'm welcomed there, I don't know what is.

I've been shocked, surprised and hurt deeply by what you all have done. I've never back-stabbed anyone, I've never hurt anyone, I've never stolen anyone's money. What did I deserve to get this?

I'm washing off my hands on all 5 of you. Don't ever approach me asking for assistance again. It's clear that I'm unwanted here. Don't expect me to represent the school in next year's tournament. If I do so, don't expect me to sit down and have a friendly chat with the team members about strategy and tactics. Expect me to play my game and leave the venue immediately once it ends.

You all never noticed that this is becoming more and more like an elitist group. Members playing just for leisure are being set aside as the "power-hungry" committee members wield their iron fist at them, and you ignored it.

The whole group is about to collapse, you all just hadn't realise it yet. Yearly membership has dropped from 236 members in 2002 to 163 in 2003. Playing chess isn't that carefree anymore, why in the world is there a disciplinary division for the group in the first place? This never existed back then!

The future certainly looks bleak. I'm sure of that.

It's pretty ironic that I was handed a post from another group on my first day there 2 months after I got booted by this group. Although it's smaller than the group which dumped me, they have shown that they are a friendly bunch and in need of each other to keep the group alive. I'm glad that I'm appreciated, I appreciate them for what they are. I'm just glad that I found them, I just am glad.

[Added on October 6]:
P.S. I won't pull a long (or black) face if I'm talking to a person who is completely unrelated to the source of the anger problem.

P.P.S. And if I do, I won't do it for the whole day.

P.P.P.S. The internet is one of the ways for me to get relaxed, so if you see me online, be assured that I won't keep the same pisssy face... ;)

P.P.P.P.S. I'm happy at feeling anger, it doesn't help to go around moping and feeling depressed. Sadness shouldn't be used unless you're missing someone, imho. Anyway, no more Mr. Nice Guy ever again! Hahaha!

Being chained...

It's like being chained with a metal chain to a ball, for fear of losing your website...

That's what I feel about those "post to host" forums out there on the internet. Not only they'd want 50 good posts before you get your website, they also want you to actively participate in the forums for the months after that. I'm already participating in one just because their package seemed the most tempting and 15 posts per month is just okay with me. The problem is that everyone seems insincere in posting. This is understandable however, and I'm beginning to feel like I'm following the herd. Merd mentality. I'm feeling bad about it though... The place isn't that exciting... I just can't see why posting to host is a good idea... =|

Anyways, signed up with 100webspace hosting already, if you're thinking on suggesting other hosts... I'm looking for those with domain hosting only...

Summary

Nothing much, just a summary of today (starting from last night), I think I've run out of things to write... Really? Naw...

Watched Survivor, The Amazing Race and Beautiful Connection (a Singapoream TV serial) last night that made me stay up until 2:30 am... Hm... Mom's also interested in watching the serial, it's been a long time since we watched a Singaporean one...

Woke up at 7:30 am, Computer Club at 8 am, learned a bit of Microsoft Visual Basic.

Breakfast at 10 am, Civil Defence Cadets at 10:30 am, marched for 1 and a half hours before Kelvin Ang teached a bit about the Civil Defence organisation and the group's plans for the cadets for 30 minutes. Glad that he's back teaching us now... =)

Archery Club at 12:30 pm, the guys there held a farewell party for the seniors and they ordered from McDonalds and Pizza Hut... Brought back 2 more small pizzas since there were extras... Seafood pizza... =9

Got back to find the 2 books that were part of a trade with Gianne arrive at my house... Thanks Gianne! =)

Rested, blah blah bladdy blah, got online, computer torturing me when it took 15 minutes to shut down, got frustrated and switched it off before it could shut down itself. Planned to snooze a bit at 8 pm, woke up at 12 am (darn alarm clock), typing this at 1:30 am...

Won't be going to bed that early tonight... ;)

AdSense - Terminated

To say that I was making a fortune with AdSense was a massive overstatement. You'd be surprised at the number of clicks I got throughout the whole time, which was only one. So, it wasn't a big deal when they found out that I was under-18 and closed my account.

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 10:07:48 -0700
From: "Google AdSense" <>
To: [deleted] @yahoo.com
Subject: [#14314633] Google AdSense - Program Policies

Hello,

Our Terms and Conditions require that publishers be at least 18 years of age in order to participate in the Google AdSense program. For this reason, your account has now been permanently closed. In order to comply with AdSense policy, an adult must be responsible for the site. Your parent or guardian may submit a new application at http://www.google.com/adsense. Please note that, should the new application be approved, all payments will be made to the adult responsible for the site.

For a complete list of AdSense criteria, please visit:
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies
https://www.google.com/adsense/terms

We will pay out your disabled account according to the payment schedule outlined in the AdSense Terms and Conditions (https://www.google.com/adsense/terms). Accounts with a final balance of US $100 or more will be paid during the next payment cycle, while accounts with a balance of less than US $100 will be paid within approximately
30 days of the end of the year.

Thank you for your understanding. Feel free to reply to this email if you have additional questions or concerns. For technical support, please email adsense-tech@google.com.

Sincerely,

Vickie
The Google Team

I'd be happier without ads on this blog anyway. =)

Tomorrow...

Datuk Father Arthur Julien
(1917-2004)

Since my parent's aren't letting me participate in Father Julien's funeral procession, I'll have to contend with paying him my last respects as the procession passes by the school tomorrow.

It's due to pass by at 11:45am, Hamilton Road will be closed to traffic from 11:30am to 12:30pm. All 3 schools are flying the school flag at half mast and there would be no classes for the primary school.

Today's edition of The Star had ran another article about Father Julien for the second day in a row. It was only today that the article appeared on The Star Online.

Belgian who gave his all to the poor
BY NG SU-ANN

PENANG: He sailed to Malaysia 52 years ago and dedicated a great part of his life to education and helping the poor.

By the time he passed away on Saturday, at the Little Sisters of the Poor home, Datuk Father Arthur Julien had touched many hearts – from students to labourers and fishermen.

The 87-year-old Belgian missionary, who spoke fluent Mandarin and Hokkien, had founded three Chinese schools – the Heng Ee Primary School in 1952, its secondary school in 1967 and pre-school in 1969.

Father Julien was known to fork out money from his own pockets to give to the poor and was a familiar face to many low-income families in Air Itam and George Town whom he would visit regularly decades ago.

He had even donated his inheritance of RM60,000 from his father to construct the SM Heng Ee’s building at Hamilton Road.

SM Heng Ee acting principal Goh Boon Poh said:

“He would not spend donations from well wishers on himself.

“Instead, he used the money to give away to poor students who otherwise could not afford to buy school books and food,” he said.

The flags at all three schools were flown at half-mast.

On Saturday, upon learning of his death due to old age, droves of people, some from as far as Singapore, came to pay their last respects.

International Young Christian Students Movement (YCS) Asian region co-ordinator Teh Ah See said: “He was a friend to the poor as he would often visit poor residents in Rifle Range, Presgrave Street and Noordin Street Ghaut.

Research officer Loh Yen Siew, 25, was among six YCS members who flew in from Singapore.

“We wouldn’t be what we are if it had not been for him.

“He showed us courage and persistence through his sharing and deeds.”

A special mass will be held at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Island Park at 10am tomorrow while the funeral procession will start from there at 11.45am and end at SM Heng Ee.

Later, his coffin will be laid to rest at the Catholic Cemetery at Jalan Kelawei.

Btw, nice to see my former classmate's face in The Star.



That's Zhong Yong on the left side of the pic, blowing his trumpet. =)

Behind him is a statue of Father Julien, which had been built last year in his honour. Flowers, wreaths and other stuff have been placed at or beside the statue today. Hope he's in somewhere better now.

EDIT: Posted my comment at Jeffooi.com

You'll always be in our hearts, Father Julien.

Caution

I should have a lable pasted somewhere on my body that says "caution, won't perform well under pressure!"

Haven't known what pressure is until it hit me.

Isn't performing well now.

Being pressured as I'm typing this post.

Exam results are slipping.

Homework is piling up.

Amazed at the number of reprieves I got, better not let it slip away.

A day should have more than 24 hours.

Need self-restraint.

Need self-imposed curfew.

Feeling bit frustrated.

Still doing well on the internet, just need to get offline now. =)

Heng Ee Founder Passed Away

Taken from The Star, page 8 (Nation section), September 12, 2004.

Heng Ee founder dies
By Ng Su-Ann

PENANG: He sailed to the then Malaya 52 years ago and dedicated a great part of his life to education and helping the poor.

When he passed away yesterday at the Little Sisters of the Poor, Datuk Father Arthur Julien had touched many hearts from students to labourers and fishermen.

The 87-year-old Belgium missionary, who spoke fluent Mandarin and Hokkien, had founded three Chinese schools - the Heng Ee Primary School in 1952, its secondary school in 1967, and preschool in 1969.

He was fondly likened to a "gardener" who had pruned and planted love in those who knew him.

Yesterday, upon learning of Father Julien's death due to old age, droves of people, some from as far as Singapore, came to pay their last respects.

International Young Christian Students Movement (YCS) Asian region coordinator Teh Ah See said: "In the old days, Catholic fishermen in Teluk Bahang found it difficult to attend church masses as transportation was a problem.

"So Father Julien, who headed the Church of Seven Sorrows, would instead journey to their village to hold masses.

"He was a friend to the poor as he would often visit poor residents in Rifle Range, Presgrave Street and Noordin Street Ghaut.

"He also loved taking photos of people and used them as slideshows for his sharing sessions with us," she said, adding that he had founded the YCS movement.

Research officer Loh Yen Siew, 25, was among six YCS members who flew in from Singapore.

"Even in his 60s, Father Julien would organise camping trips to foster leadership values in youths. We won't be what we are if it was not for him. He showed us courage and persistence through his sharing and deed."

The group then sang Father Julien's favourite hymn The Lord is Our Shepard. The priest had always voiced his wish that the song be sung upon his death.

"He had sung this song to a group of new converts in Gui Zhou Province before he left for Malaya in 1952. HE had wanted them to be strong although he had to leave them.

"The song is about the brave seagulls which fly in the sky even during stormy days," she said in tears.

A special mass will be held at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Island Park at 9:30am on Monday while the funeral procession will start from there at 11:45am.

Heng Ee's board of directors vice-president Seow Teng Heang said nearly 2,000 students from SM Heng Ee's uniformed societies would represent the schools at the funeral, adding that the school band would also perform then.

"An advocate of Chinese education, the priest told people to consider him as Chinese. He was the country's only missionary priest to start a Chinese school from preschool to secondary level," he said.

Rest in peace, Father Julien.

Flyers

(GC, you said you wanted an interesting post, eh? You got it! XD)

I am so not going to take a flyer from a distributor again. Ever. Bad experiences.

As the escalator slowly went up during a trip to Prangin Mall, I noticed that someone was distributing them flyers at the top of the escalator. When I got to the top, I naturally stuck out my hand, expecting for a piece of paper to be stuffed in my palm. They're promoting their business, I know that. Perhaps I might stop by their shop and buy something. I don't mind having one. What I hadn't expected was to be greeted with a snub and a faraway gaze towards another direction. What the heck?

One time incident, nothing big.

When the terror twins came to visit recently, the whole family went to Gurney Plaza for shopping. Naturally, I didn't want to stick around with them but before I could make my way towards the MPH bookstore, the boy said he wanted to pee. I led him to the toilet reluctantly.

On the way there, there was a group of older teenagers comprising of mostly boys and a girl or two walking towards me from the opposite direction. I noticed that he had a flyer in his hand and it was sticking out, intending to give me one. Like you guessed, I naturally took it and continued walking. Sensing that there was something wrong with the situation, as who would distribute in a group and have only one flyer in his hand, I turned around to see them laughing hilariously. Got tricked. =/

Another lesson learned from life. Flyers aren't worth taking. Snub them before they snub or trick you.

Anwar Free, Hm...

Well, the Malaysian blogosphere has been a hive of discussion after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's conviction was overturned by the Federal Court, resulting in him now being a free man. With all of the praises and cheers being showered on the former deputy Prime Minister, I however echo Cstan7 and Lucia's views towards this. He's free, so what?

[Added on Sept. 7]: Not "so what?" as in a "I don't know and I don't care" sense, but in a sense that things are still quite early to cheer about. If he decides to quit politics and be a family man, I'll be happy for him. If he however plans to continue planning his Reformasi, I won't be supporting him. Lets just be glad that he's free. Period.

To quote Cstan7:

"Come to think of it, what did Anwar do to make him a hero? Did he somehow improve the nation's economy? Did he make any Malaysian individual's life better? Or at least create a better education system while he was the minister of education? Not really. Then everyone was like saying how Mahathir controlled the nation with his iron fist for like about 20 years, but throughout these 20 years, things did get better for Malaysians. We all know the sodomy case is a scam, we are not stupid, but between one who mixed up religion and politics, and the other who is corrupted (is he?) but had proven the ability to bring improvements to the country, I would gladly cast my vote for the latter."

Although in my opinion he did deserve the term for corruption, he was framed for sodomy. Whether he actually did commit the offence or not, only he himself and God knows. I do not wish to ponder over it now. Since he's now a free man I'll also be heaving a sigh of relief because imho I believe it's better to let ten guilty men go free than to send an innocent man to prison. He had suffered enough from the corruption charge.

I also believe it was fate that led to his imprisonment and also the same fate that led to his release. I'm not entirely sure but I think he will be a different person once he gets back on his feet. He's now at the crossroads. It's now his turn to decide which road to take.

Free .info domains!

According to this press release on September 2, DomainSite is offering 25 free .info domains for a year per person with no strings attatched...

Why is Today the Best Day Ever to Get a Free Domain Name? .Info Domain Names are Free Through Sept. 9


Domainsite.com announces free domain name registration for .info domain names

Denver, CO (PRWEB) September 2, 2004 -- Domainsite.com, a leading ICANN accredited registrar, announced today that it will offer free domain name registration for .info domain names. This promotion is good from September 2nd through the 9th. “We believe this promotion is just a fantastic opportunity to show our customers how much we appreciate them,” Said Bill Mushkin, CEO of the web address company. Each registrant can register up to 25 domain names for free during this promotion. There are no strings attached. Clients desiring to register more than 25 .info names will be charged $3.99 per year per domain above the 25 name limit.

Some other sites are following suit with DomainSite's promotion. These includes NameSecure and Afilias. With this promotion, the value of .info domains are expected hit rock bottom soon.

Happy Birthday Malaysia!

It's now 47 years since independence from British colonial rule, Happy Birthday Malaysia!

[Will add more tomorrow, not feeling very bloggy at the moment...]

Blog AdSensed!

Definately excited about it! After waiting for some while I finally got my application for Google's AdSense approved! There's now a square box just below the TagBoard. Please click it if something you see interests you... ;)

Empty Decorations

Empty Decorations by Indecisive
Soundtrack for the Malaysian comedy series, Kopitiam.

I wake in the dark
Showers of light
Moments of emptiness around
Floating away
No rays of hope
Reality brings me to the ground

What can I do?
What can I say?
I need a place to hide away
Just for a while, just for a smile
Just for the life I used to know

For every song was filled with words of love and not of anger
What if they go?
What if they leave me far behind?

'Cause I don't wanna be alone.. (uh oh)
Living life for on my own (uh oh)
I don't want to live my life in isolation
Filled with empty decorations
'Cause I wanna be with people that I know
Who would do the things I do (uh oh)
Making all my dreams come true (uh oh)
I don't recognize the shadows at my door
Though I've seen them all before
Because the only thing I really want..
Is to be with you....

I look at the sky,
That looks back at me
I'm getting a silent melody
I know that I'm here
And I am lost
Alone and confusion by the breeze
Hiding my face, crying alone
I need to find my way back home
Back to the place
The wonderful days
Livin' the life I used to know

For every smile was born out of the love and our sincerity
And every tear from all the glowing joy

[chorus]x2
'Cause I don't wanna be alone.. (uh oh)
Living life for on my own (uh oh)
I don't want to live my life in isolation
Filled with empty decorations
'Cause I wanna be with people that I know
Who would do the things I do (uh oh)
Making all my dreams come true (uh oh)
I don't recognize the shadows at my door
Though I've seen them all before
Because the only thing I really want..
Is to be with you....

Is to be with you
Living life for on my own (uh oh)
I don't wanna live my life in isolation
Filled with empty decorations
'Cause I wanna be with people that I know
Who would do the things I do (uh oh)
Making all my dreams come true (uh oh)
I don't recognize the shadows at my door
Though I've seen them all before
Because the only thing I really want..
Is to be with you....

Wonderful song for a wonderful comedy series. =) Lyrics taken from moKHa Cafe.

Gone, thankfully...

"They hate you, Bob. They hate from the bottom of your hooves to the top of your pitchfork. They hate you. By God, they hate you good."

-- Dr. Cox from Scrubs (Taken from IMDB)

"We dug up the founder of the company and wrapped him in copper wire. Then we replaced his tombstone with a huge magnet. With any luck, our business practices will make him spin in his grave and generate electricity."

-- Dilbert

^ My favourate quotes at the moment. =)


Thank God that they're gone, I don't think I would've last another night with them. They've already spent 2 nights here. Actually I think that it's a blessing in disguise that my nephew would be so attatched to the the computer. For example, if he were to misbehave outside, I'd threathen to cut off access to his precious games. That worked somehow. I'm also a bit pleased that I'm able to scream at them. (Slapping would be a last resort.)

About my niece, she looks adorable from afar but horrifying once you get to know her. Since she has no attatchments to the computer, I guess that makes her carefree and hard to control. She'd climb onto my lap and bounce non-stop or hit me wildly for no reason. One annoying thing she does is to tear or scrumple up whatever you're reading if you're doing it in front of her.

Strangely they're strict about their eating habits but none whatsoever on discipline. I just can't get it why their mom doesn't see how rowdy both of her kids are.

Honestly if I had kids like that, I'd beat them into a bloody pulp. (Figuratively, in case you were thinking I'd do it literaly.)

Holy shit, this is bad....

Just received a phone call from my sis that she, her kids and maid are planning for a sleepover in me and my mom's house. Sleepovers over here during the holidays are usual but I just don't enjoy their company, particularly the kids, with my nephew (aged 8 years old) hogging the computer playing Age of Mythology for almost the whole day. Did I mention that they bang on the doors of the room loudly once they wake up? Terror twins. It's bad enough that they come over once in a while and since this week is a holiday, it's gonna be hell for me.

Oh well, I'm off to finish the other important things. My holidays had been cut short abruptly...

The Beach

It wasn't until the recent event that I understood what walking along a beach meant. Namely, the event was a picnic-cum-project assignment held at the Tanjung Bungah beach on August the 1st and Benny, the class monitor was the organiser of the event. All in all, everything went smoothly except for the weather and myself, who was ill-prepared for it.

As I arrived at the meeting place, which was Prangin Mall at 8:05am. Any later and I'd be slapped with a "free ice-cream for everybody" punishment. Looking at my classmates, I realised what ill-prepared meant was in this case, I was wearing a pair of long pants with sports shoes, I didn't brought along an extra pair of T-shirt and I didn't brought along my backpack. Shit.

I tried to take note of the directions and important buildings in order to inform my parents of the location to fetch me when this event ends. =\ I was a bit worried if bacteria had grown on the food, I'm paranoid about these things you know! Blame it on a bad experience with contaminated food. We got off at the bus station opposite the Paradise Hotel / Crown Jewel Hotel and passed by the houses of some wealthy families, one of them being my classmate's house.

Reaching a spot under a large tree, they placed their stuff on a stone table and set off on doing the assignment first. I noticed that some people had brought along their dogs for the trip to the beach, a foreigner was petting a black dog which I presumed to be his, but it turns out that there were some stray dogs on the beach. Well, at least they were friendly to people. I reached out and petted one or two of the dogs after the foreigner left.

As the rest of them rushed towards the coastline, I was a bit hesitant in walking along the beach barefooted. Nontheless, I took off my socks and shoes and braced for the sensation. Although there was a bit of stinging from the rough sand, it gradually felt finer and softer as I walked towards the sea. I spotted a ice-cream dessert (made out of sand of course) and a heart-shaped sand island created near to the table. The whole group then walked about 500 metres (I think) to another part of the beach to take the photos for the assignment. For the first time in my life, I got to walk along the beach barefooted, it's a special experience for me feeling the soft sand under my feet with the warm sea water rushing against it. I loved it. Too bad my pants got soaked. =P

And when we got there, the whole thing was like: pick up trash - *snap*, pick up leaves - *snap*, group-shot - *snap*. Done. Picnic time! Some of my classmates had prepared fried noodles, some brought snacks and some brought soft drinks. Sheak Peng went up to the ice-van and bought a bag of ice for the drinks. Warm Pepsi ruins everything, doesn't it? XD

I think I might've overreacted when I fell into shallow water, as a result of being pushed into the water, and screamed loudly before I even hit the water. As you can see, I ain't no swimmer. In fact, I would've sank to the bottom of the sea if you threw me overboard a ship. Anyway, I was blinded a bit, I couldn't feel where was up and the sand kept moving, adding to my confusion. I struggled to get up and managed to do it with my friends' help, luckily. I then kept spinning in circles until I hit a female classmate. XD

So now that my life was saved, the only problem was that my clothes were completely soaked and I hadn't brought an extra pair. Solution: take it off. Crap, I have to note that my body isn't one of the most aesthetically pleasing ones around. (I'll be joining the school gym next year, btw.) Well, I left for it to dry and walked around topless, this provoked some of my classmates to make an obvious comment (I'm not explaining about it further) so I just shrugged it off. I never felt cold from the air after my body dried up, but Benny said he was shivering when he wore his wet T-shirt. Some of the others took out their badminton rackets to play badminton (duh) and some played a bit of beach football. Most of the boys stood in the shallow part of the sea and wrestled each other in the water. Seemed pretty fun, wish I could swim.

When my parents came to fetch me back, I noticed that Chyi Shen's foot had cramped up and Benny was massaging his foot to ease the pain. It reminded me of the time dad used the same technique to ease my night-cramps. Moments later it started raining and turned into a huge downpour. Everyone took shelter while I dashed back to my parent's car (which was loaned by my sis, btw). On the way back, to my dismay I realised that I had forgotten to bring back several of my items, namely my socks (and bottle of water). Well since it was still a new pair, I said "what the heck, let's go back" and retrieved it. Put on wet shirt and brought it back. Took off the shirt. Went out again without shirt to retrieve handkerchief which had fallen out during first retrieval, gaaaah.

A couple of hours later, I got a phone call from Chyi Shen, turns out that I left my wallet in his bag and he said he'll return it to me tomorrow. I also got to knew that the group were now at Prangin Mall (with clean, dry clothes I presume?).

I'm so absent-minded. -_-

No medals yet...

I'm now blogging just after watching Josiah Ng falter in his bid to win a medal for Malaysia. In the Kierin event, he staged a late fightback but accidentally tripped Mickael Bourgain of France and Josiah finished 5th. In my opinion, he did well in the race but the trip had affected him.

Now the only athelete left is Elaine Teo (taekwondo). Good luck! =)

Meanwhile, one thing I noticed from an article on the internet is that a Malaysian judge was involved with the dispute that led to the crowd booing out a 10-minute disruption of an gymnastics event. Strangely, The Star had chosen to publish an article from Reuters that never mentioned the judges' nationality.

Josiah Ng wanted to ride for the United States?

Now this is a shocker, I'm speechless. As for the stupid feud with the 2 coaches on the back page of The Star, it's plain stupid.

Feedback to Blogger...

From: Blogger Support
To: "Andy Lim (2872279, )" <----------------->
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 11:57:39 -0000
Subject: Re: [#81746] Exempting receiving e-mails for comments posted by self

Hi there,

Thanks for submitting your Wish List item. We greatly value feedback from our users and review every submission.

-Blogger Support

Almost a week later...

From: Blogger Support
To: "Andy Lim (2872279, )" <----------------->
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 10:42:47 -0700
Subject: Re: Exempting receiving e-mails for comments posted by self

Hi there,

Thank you for your suggestions regarding our commenting system. As this is a new feature for us, we are very interested in getting input from users so we know how to improve the service. We will certainly take into account the issues you raised.

Thanks for using Blogger!

Best regards,
Blogger Support

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
From: "Andy Lim (2872279, )" <----------------->
Subject: Exempting receiving e-mails for comments posted by self
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 04:58:06 -0700 (PDT)

First of all, I appreciate what blogger has to offer to bloggers, so a big THANK YOU to blogger is needed... =)

Okay, after a couple of comments were posted in my blog, I find that some of them included those comments written by myself in response to the other comments. It's a bit of a hassle seeing what I wrote being sent to my e-mail account, so could I suggest that there's a tick box for exempting receiving e-mails for comments posted by self?

Thanks again and regards,
Andy Lim

I have a copy of the 25+ comments posted by myself sent to my inbox... It's been a month already... =|

Feeling crappy...

Knew I shouldn't have gone out today...

Having a throbbing headache, alternating hot and cold chills, stomach discomfort because of wind (o_O) and nausea. Nausea partly due to a horrible stench outside my house that smelt like rotten fried rice with meat, but I still feel like vomitting even though the door is closed and the smell isn't in the house. It could be the rubbish bag outside the house but I can't be sure. Strangely, only mom and I smelt it, dad couldn't. The moment he opened the door, I felt like I needed to rush to the toilet.

I can't sit on the computer for long times at the moment. I feel like crap. Going to bed now...

Firefox desktop! =) 

Blog Tweaked

As you can see, I've spent the past few agonising hours tweaking the comments and sidebar section of this blog. =) Tweaking the previously thought impossible task to fit both Blogger Comments and Haloscan together was a success! I'll observe for another week if both could be used. I'm interested in adding the "peek-a-boo" comments but I think I'll leave it for tomorrow.

The sidebar was a headache though, as the sidebar appeared normal on the front page but it slided below the bottom of the comments in the posts section. I compared the original template and managed to hunt down the offending tags, fixed (for the nice tags) and erased it from cyberspace (for the nasty ones). XD

It's certainly a big relief from the exams, also feeling jittery about the results but I think I'll avoid thinking about it until the next school semester starts.

Update: Yes, the "peek-a-boo" comments have been enabled! Click on "Blogger Comments" to see comments in the same page and click again to hide the comments... =) The archives have also been collapsed into a drop-down list.

Asmaradana lyrics

Asmaradana (soundtrack of the movie Puteri Gunung Ledang)
--by Tiara Jacquelina

Cinta adalah suci
lahir dari jiwa
Menikam sanubari
hati dalam lara

Cinta mistik
abadi kekal selamanya
Musim berganti tapi
Wajah tak kan lupa

Mimpi berlari kemuncak
desitinasi murni
Asmaradana
Asmaradana


Kemuncak cinta
Asmaradana
Asmaradana

Cinta suci tak kenal
harta atau rupa
Mereka jatuh dari
Raja hingga hamba

Biar api membara
jadi penghalangnya
Ia tetap kagumi
keagungan cinta
Bersama berdua
kemuncak syurga di dunia

--END--

Lyrics blatently ripped off from Yellow Cab... ;)

I know...

I know that there's so many things to do, so many novels to read, so many games to play, so many things to blog, so many blogs to read and so many forums to participate. The internet is an abyss full of interesting and entertainting writing. Problem is that there's not enough time in a day. And to make things worse, my school's exams start in exactly a week and I'm feel that I'm not that prepared enough for it. Sigh...

Blogging and almost everything else takes a back seat until the exams end and as you can see...

Lastly, I'll leave you with this pic, which screams out what I'm thinking at the moment... XD


(Copyright: Bill Watterson and Universal Press Syndicate)

Malaysian Idol Ad 2...

Did a bit of googling this morning and found a copy of the Malaysian Idol - Visitor Pass ad from this thread at the MyPDACafe forums. =)

And to avoid stealing their bandwidth, I've also saved a copy of the clip (in WMV format) and uploaded it onto my website! So without further ado, here's the clip!

Interesting News Articles...

According to the Oddly Enough section at Yahoo! News...

* More and more Finnish conscripts are being dismissed from the armed forces due to internet addiction! It states that they're not fit for duty because they can't adjust to army routine.

Are they just plain weak or is internet addiction a big problem? I'd prefer to go with the latter, as I've been there before and gotten back. Internet addiction did really screw up my life at that time.

Makes me wonder if I could use that as an excuse for putting off national service in 3 years time... =P

* I never thought there would be another case of postmen slacking, but it did happen again! Another postman working for Pos Malaysia had kept 21,000 letters, which also included magazines, bills, bank statements in his room with some being kept as long for 4 years!

Guinness World Records, anyone?

* The owners of an Amazon orange-winged parrot have booked themselves into a clinic to quit smoking after their vet told them that it was the only way to save him...

That's so noble of them... Awww... =)

Btw, been busy lately, exams coming, blogging infrequently. =(

Check LJ tomorrow for more yakking... XD

31.25 %

My weblog owns 31.25 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?

Got it from Lucia's blog!