A New Year, A New Resolution?

Mmm, it's that time of the year again... the time where old father 2008 grabs his cane and waves it wildly about trying to ward off people dethroning him and hopefully the cane connects with the infantile 2009 so he gets to stay. But we all know how that story ends don't we?

Another year passes, another year older and wiser etc etc... Well I don't buy all that baloney. You can choose to stay as young as you want... in the mind and heart of course. Your body will protest in ways you cannot even begin to fathom: a creak here, a tear there, some pulled muscles and perhaps an arthritic limb or two and you'll eventually join the masses of old neglected people with toothless grins sitting alone, absent-mindedly stroking their cats. It's sad really. But that's life for you.

I kinda like the more realistic approach to the new year. Instead of being oblivious to the fact that you're slowly ageing, most ignorant people tend to choose to end the year with a bang, a countdown, a party. Sure folks, party into your grave. Don't you know it's the new in? I find that with the approach of the new year, it's time for more contemplation and recollection of the past year and what you've missed out. Perhaps also to find ways to redeem your miserable existence you call life.

I'm being slightly pessimistic aren't I? Nah, I'm alright. If you don't expect so much, you won't be so disappointed :P Better not to aim too high, in case you should happen to fall (and yes, everyone falls sooner or later) the impact won't kill you. Yes, I think being optimistic is the way to go here. Definitely.

P.S. After all that drivel about people being idiotic when they go celebrate the coming new year, I'm actually going to participate in one too. After 23 years. Odd. I must be slowly going round the bend. Wish me luck.

Reassessment of my life?

You know, it's odd how sometimes when you think you've gone on for long stretches of time without anything interesting happening to your life and you expect it to continue for some time, suddenly BAM! Things just change 180 degrees. And just when you think your life has finally assumed a form that slightly resembles the word F-U-N or even interesting, life decides to be cruel to you and takes it all away and yup, back to the age of mellow and slow moving things. Like watching ants crawl along on their little trail, looking for crumbs of food. Or watching snails slowly inch forward. And perhaps even watching tortoises crawl. Yeah that.

My life was boring, mundane, and just when I thought that things will never change it did. For a brief time at least. Sort of like how you expect how your childhood will stay static when you're still young, but you suddenly find yourself all grown up, with responsibilities and problems you never even thought you'd encounter. All through my life in IMU I wouldn't say anything interesting has ever happened in my life. Well sure there's the occasional event that might make you arch your eyebrows slightly. But nothing that makes you go WOW!

I'm being longwinded I know. And yes, something rather big did happen. In fact on several levels. First, I went and volunteered for caroling in IOI mall. Well it was a church event, but it's actually organised by a non-profitable charity organisation. And it's a HUGE thing for me since I don't do singing in public. I just don't do it. It's strange. But I guess it's not that bad when you've got others singing with you. The first time we did it it was embarassing, singing was a bit off and we were way too fast. Fast Noel Noel simply doesn't cut it. Things got much better the second time though. We were still singing faster than usual, but it has a merry feel to it. Yeah merry Holy Nights. Can't get any better. It was still fun, albeit tiring.

Secondly. The most unexpected thing happened. The batch decided to vote me as president for the Malaysian Studies project. Totally not what I wanted, and after we went to all that trouble to get someone else to be president. Someone definitely more responsible and hardworking and more suitable for the job. But there you go. Nothing I can do about it you know, unless you want me to bitch and moan like a girl. I do admit I want to do that sometimes, but you can't win em all. So just do this one thing for the next month or so and I can finally slip back into the veil of unfamiliarity, just like how it was supposed to be. Irrespective of whether I want to or not.

Also christmas shopping is making me penniless. I really need to watch my spending for the next few millenium after this. I did get a nice little cookbook for myself though :)

In the end, why am I thinking so much about this? I should just go with the flow and see where the tide takes me. Perhaps to a lovely Hawaiian tropical island. But the more probable thing is being washed up to some muddy marsh surrounded by mangroves and crocs. Yes. Sometimes I love my positive thinking. It's just so me.

The mind boggles

I often wonder what goes on in people’s minds to motivate them to do something. Why is studying so much more different than say, playing games, sleeping, reading novels or perhaps listening to music? I don’t think I can vouch for everyone but I certainly have trouble bringing myself to study. My concentration falters only after a while but I could go on and on and on if I was doing any of the latter things I talked about. I mean, the human mind is so strange. We feel ‘tired’ only after a few hours of sitting for a lecture or a dull experiment. Why then do we feel nothing of sitting in front of the PC for hours on end chatting up friends, surfing the web, gaming or even watching movies? Or are we actually tired, but we tell ourselves that we’re not? Or perhaps we ignore the signals given off by our body that we’re actually tired? Case in point, I went through just 3(?) hours of lecture and by the end of it I was ready to for lunch, tired etc etc… then when I got back to my apartment I went online and watched a movie, then surfed the web, definitely more than those measly hours I felt I was trapped, tired and wanted to just switch off. And the worst part is, I do know how important studying is. I do know how it’s going to affect my future. And yet… I still don’t have the motivation to persevere.

So the thing is… when we claim that we’re tired and in need of rest, do we really? Or do we simply tell ourselves that because the particular activity we’re doing are things we don’t enjoy doing? It’s definitely food for thought, although everyone knows why. At least to a certain degree. We all know deep down inside why this happens, but it’s not easy to explain why. It just is.

And yes, experiment today was pretty dull to be quite honest. Then again, the ‘experiment’ we had yesterday wasn’t any better so no surprise there. However, the pace for Semester 3 is much faster, and if I don’t start soon, I’ll never catch up. And then I’ll seriously have trouble later. So like it or not, bored and tired or not, I’ll have to do it somehow. Study I mean. Many rounds of repetitive poring over the same content ought to help me remember, though I have a very poor memory. At least I hope so.

What a long, strange trip it's been

Yup. Sem 3 has started and suddenly it's like everyone has gotten enlightenment or something. The lectures have been quiet, which is really odd... considering how the batch was really noisy in the past. Does it have something to do with the fact that people have started realising how hard the sem is going to be and it's only going to get harder? Or everyone just suddenly got an epiphany and wanted to improve themselves? I don't know, but personally I wanted to do better after that crazy stint with Sem 2 which nearly made me fail it. Never again, I hope.

I went and celebrated Khong Hern's birthday last night. I didn't go for the second part though, only the dinner at... Chicken Hot Pot I think. Dang, the food was awfully spicy, but it's pretty good. Except when you keep burping spicy stuff :P Anywho, updates later... when I have PRIVACY

UPDATE:
So... updates updates...

Hmm, well to be quite honest I ran out of inspiration for writing these past few days. I'm not exactly sure why that is. Perhaps I'm just getting dumber and dumber. Apparently E-jinq cooked twice this week! Which is a feat in and of itself, considering how rare his cookouts seem to be. Then again there were quite a lot of people who came for dinner everytime so I guess it's not a surprise. And the food is a welcome change from the same fare from the outside stalls everyday.

I ended up being one of the nominees for the post of emcee. And believe me, I do not want to be emcee. Not that I don't like it or anything but I think that I'm not cut out to be one, especially for an event as important as the P109 orientation. I just hope I don't get chosen and someone else who is more suited for the task to get it.

Sem 3! Are YOU ready?

Oh gosh, it's been an obscene long time since I last updated the blog wasn't it? Truth is, I really don't have the inclination to update blogs in Kuching for some reason. Probably something to do with the same routine I'm subjected to every day back there.

Surprise, surprise. There wasn't an emotional turmoil this time. Or rather there was the beginning of one, but I found out that just keeping one's mouth shut all the time helps. A lot. I just try not to reply my parents' retorts about my academic life and my uselessness and what have you. And they didn't pursue. That's how I'm probably going to handle it from now on I think.

Another pleasant surprise was finding out I passed Sem 2 after all. Was quite happy in fact. I really expected to resit the physio paper. Now we'll just have to see how bad Sem 3 is in comparison :P Oh and we're going to be seniors. Finally. I look forward to tormenting the juniors during Orientation hehe >:)

Not much update to be honest. The cats have become much larger now. And they're still filthy everytime we go visit them. Ugh!

Perhaps when the Sem starts I'll have more updates. But at the moment this is all I have to say. Pretty short for a month long hiatus huh? Oh well.

Homeward bound, again?

I'm going home again today... I think it's odd and strange that they've arranged it this way: to have to come back only to sit for one paper and then back to hols for the next 4 weeks or so. I guess it's good in a way, being able to go home and not to think too much about food. Enjoy it while I can.

This whole week has been rather unproductive. I didn't do much, if anything at all. Got bored the day after physio exam, so I went to Midvalley and walked around a bit. I didn't know Brisingr was out though, so you can imagine my surprise when I happen to stumble upon it in MPH. A VERY nice surprise for a change ^^. Pricey book though, it was RM85 or so. Only reasons I bought it was a) I'm bored shitless and b) I was been waiting for quite some time for the third installment of the Inheritance trilogy. However, I found out that there's going to be a fourth book, unlike what the author said earlier! He said it was because it was simply too long, and now it's no longer a trilogy but rather a cycle. More waiting then :( I just hope it'll be all the sweeter when it comes out.

Got to pack now, going off in a few. See you on the other side bishes! ^^

The mists of space and time retreat from my mind...

Perhaps the flow of time isn’t so hard to grasp after all. I go to the university to study, come back and do something else to pass my time, and then worry about assignments and upcoming exams. Sure procrastination is bad, but who hasn’t procrastinated before? Certainly not me.

It’s been some time since I last wrote because I thought that well, there wasn’t much to report on. I go home for the study break, study a bit here and there, enjoy myself while I can (although it’s not easy to define enjoying oneself when you’re under the watchful eyes of both your parents) and generally goof off the rest of the time. In time I came to understand that I was procrastinating, not unlike the many times I’ve been doing during the many holidays I was given right before an exam.

I’m not sure why I do it, to be quite honest. I attribute it to the strong desire to complete the first part of my miserable life; that is, to study. I’ve realised some time ago that I simply dislike the act of studying for an exam. If for some reason I can treat it not as a chore (as in, not studying) then I can put my fullest attention towards it. I guess I’m not exactly a model student then huh? :P

Alright, updates inbound. I didn’t really do much at home. I stayed upstairs most of the time since I needed to get some private space to study but it’s amazingly hot back in Kuching. Strange, you’d think that KL would be hotter but no… it’s not really, when I came back to KL it rained and rained and it was cool ALL THE WAY. Anywho. Apart from the insane heat, I tried to get some studying done, although as I said earlier not much was accomplished. And per the tradition of going home for the hols, there will definitely be a moment when my parents brought the issue of my being lazy, wanting things spoonfed, yadda yadda yadda up and yes, the usual Liverpool, the how-am-I-going-to-face-my-colleagues rant and stuff. And as usual, I cried. And cried. And wondered why I have to be subjected to this again… After that, back to normal. It’s like it never even happened. That’s how my long hols are always like. There’s this barrier between my parents and I that stopped us from completely understanding one another. That’s probably why I’m not keen on going home for the holidays, but then again what about the filial son thing? Sigh, life isn’t easy, never was roses, daisies and chocolates, never is and probably never will be. Don’t get me wrong, I love Kuching, although there really isn’t much to do there. It’s my hometown, I absolutely think Kuching food is the best bar none. But there’s always this dread whenever I go home, wondering when will the emotional floodgates open and if I can go through it again.

Coming back here to KL made life at least a little more… um, breathable. No judging people here trying to scrutinise every single little thing I do. Judging me for who I am. But the prospect of the physio exam loomed ahead like a huge tombstone. And I wasn’t prepared. Oh no I wasn’t prepared. Regardless, I went through it. Although it stung like the most vicious wasp when I looked at the questions in despair, racking my brains, trying to find a single iota of information which could possibly help me in that horrible predicament I held my head up high throughout the whole agonising process. If it comes to retaking the exam, so be it. Parents or not, I have to go through this eventually don’t I? It’s not like I haven’t gone through it before. Another scar to add to the already numerous marks from the never ending battle that is Life. No biggie. I think. God.

Next week's madness!

Understand that next week may very well be a bit out of hand since there are a few assignments to hand up. Odd huh? All I talk about is assignments, assignments and more assignments. I mean, there must be more than this in IMU right? Strangely, apart from handing up assignments, everything else seems like a blur to me. I flit into uni, float from lecture to lecture and then float back to my apartment, all the time in a daze and not soaking anything in. That's just me I guess. Studying isn't priority number 1 although it really should be.

Anywho, it has been a rather long and uneventful week. Apart from someone giving me a very nice shirt. You know who you are, so thank you very much! I really like it, and you can bet your epaulets I'm going to wear it. Loads of assignments and Foundation Pharmacy draft to hand up, so got to pick up the pace!

What would YOU have done if you can turn back time?

I've always wondered how things would have been had things been simpler. What would have happened if the thread I have now taken had never existed? What if I was not meant to come to IMU? Would everything have been different then? Would I be happier? Would my worries be less burdensome than it is now? Sometimes I wish I had the power to turn back time and restart, rewind, knowing what would have happened in the future and perhaps changing ways to prevent these things from happening.

Then I think about my current life versus what could have been. Sure, I would have been in fourth year by now, studying medicine instead of moping about second semester in pharmacy. But would I have been satisfied with my life? Perhaps I would. I did love Liverpool after all. But my social life had been almost nonexistent there. Only a small circle of friends. And small means like 1 or 2. Which means that just perhaps I ended up more complete back here in Malaysia. However, I simply don't like the weather and the political situation here. Sigh, dilemmas.

I don't want to think too much about it, but I do feel sad sometimes. A bit disconnected from the rest of the batch no matter how nice I was being treated and everything. It's simply not right, it's simply not where I'm SUPPOSED to be. I'm 23, I'm not 21 or 20, 19 or even 18. The age gap is there, and you can't change nor hide it. At least not for long. Perhaps the question I should ask myself now is... am I fulfilled here? Do I feel more satisfied here compared to Liverpool? It's a hard question to answer, and I don't think I can answer it anytime soon. This requires some pondering over, and I'm just too tired to care. The question will always be at the back of my mind though, so I guess it'll haunt me till the day I die.

Well, emo things aside, the week was rather tiring. I had to go to and fro from uni to Sunway on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so I could accompany my family and shop at the same time. I didn't exactly buy a lot of stuff, just a pair of three quarter pants, a pair of jeans, a T-shirt(shirt?) and a pair of Reebok shoes. I did have nice meals though, was quite a change from the usual mamak fare, Indian food as well as the cafeteria food (though I haven't had cafeteria food for some time). Everything went well enough, I'm not sure when we can have another family outing like this. I don't think it'll be easy to do in the future. So enjoy while we can :)

I also had an unexpected call to go for the debate training on Thursday! I tried to forget to go on Wednesday, thinking I'd pulled it off when no one called or anything. Little did I know they changed it to Thursday. And as usual, I got the last minute notice, saying that I should go for the greater glory yadda yadda... As reluctant as I feel I have to do my duty, so off I went. The motion was weird to say the least: The house would like to ban all websites that glorify eating disorders. And we get to be the opening government. Nothing worse than that really. It was hard to set the scene, so we decided Japan, although we realised much later that that was a bad idea, very bad idea. Oh well, my first time at being opening government, so n00bs are n00bs. We were placed 3rd so it wasn't TOO bad.

I also went for Bak Kut Teh after LG tonight. It was quite good, although they ran out of the kueh. One thing though, it was rather pricey for the amount given. In fact, I wasn't half full when I got out of there. Just goes to show the ripple effect of the increasing petrol price I guess. Everything and everyone suffers. Consumers the most especially. Hopefully the price drops soon. I really can't stand the price of things these days. Makes me want to hurt someone. Bad.

The storm has passed, or has it?

Well, the mini storm has subsided somewhat, but who's to say it won't come back fiercer than ever? The point is, Bioscience class test has ended, and although I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch I do want to say that I'm cautiously confident of being able to pass it, and that means less worrying about EoS. Then again, I did specifically say 'cautiously'.

In short, I had no idea anyone can possibly make a simple genetics subject into a paper so difficult 1 hour for 40 questions wasn't quite enough to figure things out. And it was all MCQs! Was a nightmare tbqh, and I didn't go prepared. Well, the luxury only extends so far as to this semester. Next I'll have to work harder or I'm screwed.

Main event coming up soon. I'm going to meet my parents in Sunway later. But it'll have to be later since I have classes till 5. Time to eat nice foods and go shopping (hopefully!) so yeah, it'll be nice :) And plus I get to skip the debate thing so it's definitely a win-win situation.

Wish me luck now! :D

Wedding ceremonies are the shiz?

Bees knees people! And I mean it. It's been an awfully long time since I last updated. Yes, I know it's my fault for being lazy and all, but I was simply too weary these past few days. Not that that statement meant much since I don't really have much to do, but I just feel tired. Perhaps it has something to do with rushing assignments, bringing myself to go for the debate practice and the upcoming Bioscience class test (which I have hardly prepared for and I don't know how in God's name am I going to be able to pass, let alone do well). But that's neither here nor there. All in a day's work really. You get a bit bipolar and manic but try to seek inner peace and calm later. Might work or you might just be wasting your time trying to meditate. Hey, whatever works man.

But back to the main topic. Apparently Fauzi and Izyan are doing the whole formal wedding ceremony thing down in (of all places) Sri Petaling! There is absolutely NO reason for missing this out. So I didn't of course. Strange since they already did the nikah and everything last year. Oh well, I didn't get a chance to go then and now I did yay! I went with Dilin though. She contacted me and everything so I have company. I might otherwise be a bit freaked out to go alone, not knowing what to do. Pleasant surprise when I saw a few of my classmates there too! :D And my IRP group members, how nice. Nida was there, as was Hannah, Aliaa, Goh, Zulaikha et al. I got to say congrats to the happy couple too hehe.

Oh yeah back to grinding for Bioscience now, not much time to chit chat. Pics will have to come later when I can upload from school (connex at vista is shit and you know it!)

Vigilance is key people!

You know, today's been rather... um, free. Apart from the Foundation Pharmacy thing in the morning there's nothing till later on. And yup you guessed it, it's the wonderful BM. The ATM wasn't working and I'm getting broke... great things come in twos and threes I suppose.

Still, nothing out of the ordinary. I had Starbucks last night. The usual Grande Chocolate Cream Chip Frap. I ended up spilling quite a lot of things about my family to Kah Yee. That wasn't very nice actually. Perhaps I should just keep quiet. Anyway. That's all in the past now.

I have to finish my Malay assignment now. Perhaps I'll write a longer thing later. Oh yes, and vigilance IS key. Sleepless vigils too.

Dazed and Angsty

Gosh, so many negative titles I've made in the course of this whole blog. Nevertheless, you can't run away from all these problems, they simply happen. And you have to face it headon sometimes. Even if it's a huge train with an enormous gaping maw about to swallow you up, you have to plant your two puny feet down on the gravelly tracks and brandish that small pocket knife out and have faith.

Last night I debated for the first time in my life. It was just a training of sorts, and the title was Allowing Gay Couples to Adopt Children. I so happen to be on the closing opposition side and I was entrusted with the task of being the whip. It all sounds fine and dandy, with one exception: I have NEVER debated before. So it simply doesn't help that I have no idea what to say, it also makes things worse when I stand in front of everyone and I get this stagefright thing (hence the train analogy earlier). But I did it. I talked for 7 minutes somehow, although I'm pretty sure I didn't understand what I was blabbing my mouth off about. And judging by the looks of the rest of the members, I didn't think they knew what I was talking about either. It's only natural for them to cheer newbies on though, so they said something along the lines of "It was good for a first try and all that" but anyone with half a brain knows that means "Gosh, that sucked. But since you're a n00b, you get to get away with it... for now". So yeah. Next time I'm pretty sure things won't be so pretty.

Oh and things got better and better. I developed this mother of a headache. Plus it didn't wear off the next morning so I couldn't get out of bed and go for English class. I didn't have much of a choice except to skip it I guess. Things did get slightly better with more rest, but there was still this slight dull throbbing pain, which made me slightly dizzy and I've practically been going around with a dazed look on my face. [Watch out, oops! Sorry, didn't mean to do that]

Also we're rushing with the Statistical CAL Assignment. Don't do things at the last minute people! It never pays off. We slaved away in the ELAB 1 for hours with blank faces, trying our best to squeeze any form of idea into our meagre heads. But honestly, how much can you squeeze out of a brain the size of a chickpea? So the next logical step is to put everything we've learnt into some form of coherent data, as long as there's loads of words and numbers it'll do. Relevance and practicality can fly out the window for all I care. In the end we did it though. I really couldn't care two pence what I got as long as I've submitted the idiotic thing.

Tomorrow we're going to be doing the Physio Experiment. I really do hope everything goes well or I'll go nuts. Peanuts shelled by fat monkeys. With chickpeas for brains. And featuring Barbara Streisand with leopardskin hotpants. I think I'd best stop writing for a while. Rambling off without any meaning means that I need rest. Badly.

Stress levels skyrocketing!

Stress? What's that? Something edible? Honestly, I don't even know why I get so stressed out so easily. But I do. Today is the start of a string of busy days. Happy days ahead indeed! Not only do I have to worry about handing up the stats project on Friday, I have to think about the debate thing later. And for the record, I never wanted to join debate. I don't like how it's all bound by all sorts of rules and regulations. In short, there's not much room to voice your opinions out based on someone else's thoughts. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. I also have to worry about my upcoming physio project which is supposed to be done on Friday too. Ooh, and the creme de la creme, the bioscience class test which is going to be in about a week's time.

Really. I'm going to just go back and rest for a while before all the mayhem occurs. Yes, I know I don't tend to take things by the roots and deal with it then and there, and I procrastinate... but I digress. Stress is good for you... breathe in and out...

Passion Kuala Lumpur!

That's right folks! I can officially say with absolute certainty that I have went for the most awesome and happening event I have ever been to. And that is none other than the Passion World Tour. For those of you who don't really know what it's all about, it's actually a Christian event where you get to worship God and listening to a really prominent pastor, Louie Giglio. The best thing is because it's designed for those 18-25, it means that we can all connect to it. One way or the other.

In order to get the best seats, we have to go there early. And we did. Reached Sunway Pyramid at about 11-ish. Did a bit of shopping and went for Japanese food. It was actually rather good. I had Ebi Don Buri, it's basically shrimp tempura on rice. And I finally got to taste Gyoza. It's dumpling with chicken and some green vegetables as filling. Oh and I got myself a pair of shoes. It's not exactly for sports, but it's suitable when I want to go out (no more sandals!). Plus it's a steal at RM85 since there was a 50% discount and it's Puma. Oh and per a certain person's request to be named for her great contribution (choosing the actual shoes) I want to thank her. Here's to Zh Xing, without whom I will still be walking about with some sandals :P

Anyway. Back to the main event. We had to start lining up at 3-ish. They only allow us to go up to the convention centre at around 5 or so. So you can imagine the amount of time spent waiting. There were already LOADS of people :D When we did finally get through and go up the escalator, we had to queue up again in front of the hall doors. The waiting was tiring but spirits were high and everyone was excited. When they finally let us in, we all rushed like mad people for the best seats. I got seats somewhere in the middle, in the centre of the hall. So it's pretty good. Loads of photo taking prior to the event ^^ I'll include some pics later.

When it started, it was exhilarating to say the least. Loads of worshipping by singing at the start. I could feel my voice become hoarse almost instantly. But I enjoyed it greatly. Chris Tomlin and Charlie Hall sang and we basically just followed them. After that, Louie made an appearance and started intro and stuff. He also encouraged us to pray in groups of 3 for Jesus's presence in the Passion event. More singing soon followed XD After that we had Louie reappear for his short sermon. He talked about Grace, about how we are free from sin due to Jesus and that we gained His righteousness in God. He also said that we may sometimes be a little zany due to being awestruck by the Cross :D And that if we're not crazy sometimes we're not really experiencing the true experience... so a little craziness is good for each and every one of us sometimes, but obviously it's good to be sober most of the time hehe. He also shared a very touching story about Ashley, a wild party girl who was living with her atheistic father. She finally found salvation through Christ with the help and love of her housemate, Christa (I hope that's how it's spelled o.O) Although the story had a tragic ending when she died from a car accident 3 months after accepting Christ, what really mattered was that she was saved. So it goes to show that God still accepts and loves us for who we are, even if we deem ourselves falling too far from His grace to return. He will always be there, waiting for us to come back to Him. And it's actually a joyful moment when we do, no matter what we did in the past. We are reborn in His presence. So anyone can be saved. Anyone can still go back to Him. His love does not require us to do anything other than to accept Him as our personal saviour. God is great. He really is. And most importantly, HE IS REAL! He is the only one who rose from the dead, who conquered Death and lives an eternal life. Isn't that cause for CELEBRATION?!

We had more worshipping after that and as much as I didn't want this night to end, it did finally come to a conclusion. But that was the most memorable and touching event I have ever had. And should they come again next year I WILL definitely go again! Their next stop is Jakarta. Time to pray for them :)

Dear Father Lord in heaven,

Thank You for making Passion KL the most amazing event to hit us university Christian students. Thank You for allowing us to come to know You more, to let Your words be known to us through Louie, and for watching over us and making sure that the event went smoothly. Thank You for letting Your only Son die on the cross for us, so that we can be free from the chains of sin, so that we can be reborn in Your mighty presence, so that we can enter Your kingdom through Christ the saviour. Thank you for loving me, even in the midst of all my faults and screw ups, even as I am imperfect in every way compared to Your Grace.

Dear Lord, I would like to pray for Passion Jakarta. I pray that the event goes on without any hitch, that Your message will be delivered and heard by all of the university students, and that they will have their eyes and minds touched and opened by Your presence. I pray that hearts will be soften, barricades will be torn down. I pray that more people will be saved, that they will come to know You, that they will come to realise that You are our saviour, that there is none like You. And I pray that the Indonesians will have a blast just like we did here in KL! I pray that everyone will worship You with a clarity of mind, that they will be able to unburden. Even if it's for a while, it's the first step towards freedom from chains and bonds.

And Dear Father, I would also like to extend my prayer to the students who have yet to come to know You and who were there with us. I pray that you will open their hearts so that they will come to know You, and come to love You. I pray for their salvation, for them to accept Christ as their personal saviour.

Finally, I pray for us, Your sons and daughters, that we may be able to use this event as a stepping stone to further glorify Your name. I pray that we were able to be free from all the weights and burdens of the world. I pray that we will further exalt you Lord. I pray for those who have lost their way, so that they will be able to return to Your arms. I pray for us to have the courage to extend Your kingdom. Thank You for being our God. Thank you for caring for us. Thank you for being our saviour, our redeemer. Thank you Lord.

In the mighty name of Jesus Christ,

AMEN

Isa 26:8 Yes, Lord. Walking in the way of Your truth, we wait eagerly for you. For Your name and Your renown are the desires of our souls

Baskin' in the Sun with the Robins!

You know what I'm talking about don't you? It's finally the long awaited moment... time to indulge in some nice ice-cream mmm. Okay perhaps it's not the best thing since wheels or sliced bread but you can't say no to an ice-cream every now and then. Baskin Robbins. Not my favourite ice-cream brand, but it's actually quite decent. And yeah it would be more decent if they actually have all 31 flavours for you to choose from at all times. But whatever. Ice-cream is ice-cream. It's pricey though. I try to justify my crazy spending habits by saying I do this particular one thing once in a blue moon, but then I'm only trying to comfort myself, since I spend on others. But food especially. I spend way way too much on food and for what? I'm not 1 pound heavier than when I first came here. In fact, I may have lost some. I do envy people who can gain weight more easily, it's awful being scrawny and thin.

I tried the new tomyam yee mee today in the cafeteria. Although it's not as good as I would expect it to be (I like my tomyam to be more watery and sour), it's actually quite decent. But due to the burning hot soup, my tongue is slightly burnt now, and I was 'not early' for Mr David Chong's lecture. Plus he said "No lateness folks!". Geez was I embarrassed. I'll live though. He mostly said things which weren't too interesting... something about professionalism and the duties of a pharmacist and yadda yadda.

Came back after lecture to sleep, but here I am typing. Gosh, I really should get the intimate sessions with my bed starting soon. My eyelids are heavy...

Update: The flavours I chose were Jamoca and Olympecan. Sweet, yummy and loads of nuts... just the way I like it. I bought a quart for good measure, though it costs like RM 32 or something.

Elab 1, lab reports and the frustration over printers!

Last night, in order to complete the bioscience lab report I stayed up till 4 am. Mind you, it's not exactly routine, but I do occassionally do the night owl thing. It's nice to sit by yourself at night, with all the peace and quiet from the hectic sounds of the day and it's also cooler. In short, I much prefer the night over the day. I get more energetic when it's night time ^^. I suppose it didn't help that I procrastinated as usual, by going for supper instead of completing my lab report earlier. But still.

Today classes were rather laidback. Apart from one lecture from Tan Eng Lai about some genetic disorder and stuff which I wasn't really tuning in to (yes yes, I should be more attentive etc etc), there really wasn't anything else. But we're going to end really late tonight, around 6.15 pm due to Malay (this is what I think about Malay in general t(-_-t)). But there was a scare when I wanted to print the lab report today. The printers were all like... out or order! IMU, whose coffers are practically overflowing with huge chunks of greenbacks are actually too poor to fix the printers (or was it laziness?). In fact, one of the printers was out of order for some time. Typical Malaysian behaviour to be honest. Lots of paperwork for something so menial, and then it takes forever to get someone to get round to actually doing it. Oh well. I did finally get my lab report printed in the library. But someone has better do something about the printers in elab 1 or heads will roll. Literally.

31st is coming soon. I hope I get to go out for a rare Baskin Robbins treat hehe. But we'll have to see about the cash left. I'm not exactly loaded and I'm actually quite deep in debt.

And now for the weekly news in Bash WoW! with Gabe. Gabe?

Thanks Ecch, Mages seem to get the end of the shaft so far for Wotlk. Not only do they have a super lousy 51 pt fire talent called Living Bomb (yes, I know you'd expect something bombastic from this awesome name, but in fact it hits weaker than my 6 month old toddler tyring to punch a pillow), their 51 pt frost talent also Blows. Anchovies. Out of the drain the size of a pipe. 5 seconds stun might seem decent, but not when it requires the person to be frozen (defeats the purpose) and the AWESOME 1.5 seconds cast time. It doesn't help that Burnout is bad bad bad either (25% extra crit damage at the cost of 1% extra mana bar cost per crit? Hell, warlocks get a better skill at 100% crit damage with no penalties. Oh and it's 5/5 points versus 1/1. Sweet). Granted the arcane tree seems decent, and the gimmicky Frostfire bolt for the elementalist build seems fun in a way if you like spamming one bolt over and over, but at the cost of both the fire and frost tree I don't think it's worth it. At all.

And now for the priesty. Priests aren't too far behind in terms of uselessness in terms of healing. Holy is now practically pointless. Guardian spirit doesn't do justice at all, considering its cooldown. Penance is a JOKE (who in their right minds would want to channel a 5 second holy spell which everyone is going to CS/spell lock/shocked/kicked and make you unable to heal for that period of time?) Plus it's in the Discipline tree, which is supposedly the PvP tree. All the better. Dispersion seems okay-ish... until you get cycloned that is and don't get the full 36% health/mana back. Plus, being able to do nothing except run around like a headless chicken for 6 seconds isn't exactly helping either. In short, holy priests will still not be wanted in raids over say, shamans for raid healing, paladins for single target healing and druids for insane hots and the ability to ress during combat.

And don't get me started on druids. This is their moment. Not only do they have a new 1.5 second cast fast heal which heals MORE than the priest's (considering they're not supposed to be this flexible since they have awesome hots), it also costs LESS mana than the priest's Flash Heal. Oh and it gains MORE benefits from talents, whee! And they finally get an out of combat ress. They are also able to give mana back to the group, and a group heal not on a cooldown (albeit a hot, but an extremely potent one). Looks like I'm going to get a druid up and running for healing come Wotlk folks! And you should too, judging by the direction in which Blizzard is going with the druid class.

Oh look at the time! Back to you Ecch.

Thanks Gabe. Don't forget to tune in to the next episode in Bash WoW! where we are going to discuss the current OP class, the rogues as well as the warlock and the hunter. Until next time, cya folks!

Freshie Party!

Today was a bit hectic since there was going to be the freshie party we're setting up for the new batch people. Basically it was some sort of potluck so I decided to do salad (can't go wrong with salad) and did shopping for 2 days to get the ingredients. Apart from all the crazy panicking around Zh Xing's kitchen at 6.30 pm (people coming at approximately 7 pm) I rushed out with Kah Yee to get some ice for the drinks from the nearby 7-11. Insane stuff really, I was horribly stressed out and everything, perhaps I should have chilled... Anywho, it ended up really well actually. We didn't really expect SOOO many people to turn up... the house turned a bit small and stuffy but there was enough food to go round ^^ so it was all good. I like the mutton "fried" rice, yummy! Oh and naturally my salad was good, since it was made by ME. But I think I made a tad too much, there were leftovers. Good cause, though.

Oh before all that. I volunteered to be part of the group of MQ students to have lunch and be interviewed by a panel of people from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Basically our BOSS. They just wanted to know how we were coping with the course and everything else related with it. It was quite intimidating, but wasn't too bad afterwards, after a few questions that is. I didn't feel too bad, except as usual I stammered a bit when I talked, but talk I did hehe.

After that long day, it was the usual mamak in Sri Petaling with Choon Wee, Wai Hou, JS, Eugene and Kelvin. And a good bath... mmm I like a nice warm shower. And bed of course. Screw stats CAL. That can wait.

Rest day

Today is what I would officially call a rest day after a crazy fortnight. It's actually wonderful when you have nothing to do except stay in your room and maybe go online. It's not to say I'm not procrastinating, but ignorance truly is bliss sometimes. Screw foundation pharm, or english, or heck even tomorrow's lab. It's resting day and it's NOW.

Nothing out of the ordinary today, except that JC, Melissa, Syafiq and I went to Sri Petaling to find a couple of pharmacies to ask about the English assignment. The first pharmacy wasn't very accomodating but that's fine since he's not free or anything. On the other hand, the other pharmacy was really nice, they entertained all our stupid questions and were attentive and everything. That's how pharmacists should be like, really.

Alright, I said all those things about trying to rest and all right? Fact is, I have to do the outline tonight or I'm screwed so it's gonna be another sleepless vigil yay! Can't be that hard to do some one page thingie right? Just say a few random bits and pieces about peptic ulcer. Maybe something to do with PPIs and H2 receptor antagonists. Damn...

I still believe there'll be a silver lining somewhere eventually. Cross fingers and hope to die.

Tables and chairs

I went out to 1 utama with Yun Peng and Khong Hern today :D I'm really grateful to Yun Peng for willing to come all the way to vista and fetching us, and then later sending us back home. Thanks a lot, really :)

Anyhow, it's fun. That was the first time I went to The Curve. We went to Uncle Lim's (is that right?) for 'lunch'. It was not bad, but wasn't really filling. I had Uncle Lim's Laksa. Basically it's a combination of curry mee and asam laksa. Strangely salty, but pretty decent. The price is quite steep for something so mundane though, RM 8.30. What mattered was we ate I guess :P

Walked around a bit and looked at Levi's and Nike shoes, but too poor to actually buy anything ^^. Tempting though, I might consider buying a pair of shoes next time. For the moment the more important thing is getting a desk and a chair, so off to IKEA we went. Gosh, IKEA is pretty big and their furniture and stuff looks nice, but were they pricey! The cheapest desk I could find cost 50+ and it's only like a slab of wood on some four legs. And not to mention how tiny it was! That's when I decided not to bother buying in IKEA. What's the next best place? 1 Utama of course!

The parking in 1 Utama is literally a nightmare! We spent at least 20+ mins just going in circles hoping for someone to leave so we could get the space. Even when we got down to the lower basement floors there were like no space. There was a close one when we saw some car coming out of the parking space but out of nowhere another car came flying round and went into the lot before we could even utter 'what the...' So anyway, another car came out just after that so we were kind of lucky. But that ordeal was tiring.

Not much time before SNL to I had to shop fast. We didn't do much in 1 Utama except hunting for desks and chairs in Jusco. Freaking long walk, but I managed to get a RM 93 desk with inbuilt shelf after much consideration. There was no way I was getting the chair though. Not only were there very few choices for chairs, the cheapest plastic chair cost RM 29! So it's gonna be dining chair while I get a decent chair, maybe in Carrefour tomorrow.

Sleepy now so I'm off to bed... cross fingers for a chair tomorrow :)

The week of torment is finally over!

The has got to be the single worst week in this course so far. Not only are there loads of assignments to hand in (stats, english, lab reports), we somehow foolishly agreed to volunteer for the BPharm new batch's orientation. And that was a disappointment to say the least. If the majority of them showed even a smidgen of interest in the activities, then it's all fine and dandy and I might find it interesting to play with them. But the moment you complain and shy away from the 'rewards', cursing, swearing... then that's that.

But enough of that, boring batches do not an interesting post make. More importantly, it's the end of the week and that means going out! Finally! I'm going to go to Midvalley (again!) with Khong Hern and Chris afterwards :D Cross fingers for the resistance to temptation of buying stuff whenever I go out. But I do need a new pair of sneakers, a nice pair of pants, some body wash... GAH, got to stop! XD

I also had a very nice chat with David yesterday. Haven't spoken to him in absolutely ages. Missed him terribly to be honest. All those Subway's and tea sessions while doing the hospital rotations, I'll never forget those. Yum, Italian BMT is the best, of course you need loads of BBQ sauce and everything fresh on top! Anywho, he's doing his final week of his electives in Hong Kong. They let him dissect stuff in HK, that's much better than Liverpool... all we get to do is pick parts of the body which were preserved and have a look, no dissection. How do they expect for us to learn without dissecting? Heck, even my brother has dissected. Yeah, he finally tasted proper Laksa in a restaurant in HK, not those Laksa sauce which comes from jars. He said it's not spicy enough though O.O Perhaps he didn't have it properly in Malaysia, considering how HK people generally don't like spicy food as much as sweet stuff. Well he said we can go to HK one day and he'll get me cheap accomodation, so I'm hoping to go there one day :D At least, I can dream right?

p.s. I got the pictures of the kitties, finally! Anyway, will upload them here.

New batch of people incoming!

That's right folks! Apparently there are new students coming in for July/August intake. It's not our Mpharm batch, but it's still fun in a way. JS and I went to bring a couple of students to their rooms in the hostels, and answered questions and everything. Meh, could have spent my time more productively, but it's an interesting way to learn how to be a tour guide of sorts hehe :P

I haven't updated the blog in a while, so I guess I should make a report about the more recent events apart from the new batch. It was Zh Xing's birthday yesterday :D Kah Yee bought her a VERY nice chocolate cake. Seriously, the cake was yummy, and take it from me, if I say something is yummy it means it's good, since I don't dole out praises easily. We also went to Chilli's for dinner after LG. It's kinda pricey tbqh, but it's good and the portions are quite large too. I had fish and chips and the tartar sauce was surprisingly good. I don't usually like tartar sauce because they have a funny smell of preserved stuff, like pickled vegetables and well... let's not talk more about the subject ^^. Oh yeah, Chilli's will give a free brownie if it's your birthday, and a few of their staff actually come out singing Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs haha. I like their brownie, it's piping hot, but the ice cream on top is cold, which makes it a nice combination.

Two days ago, my bro came back bringing two Persian kittens. They're really cute, and I'll update with their pics as soon as the lazy bum sends pics of them. But the trouble, time and money I had to go through to pass the kitty carrier to him drove me nuts. In the end, I was late and had to forgo the LRT for taxi since it was about 1 am when I reached Tasik Selatan station. Gah XD! They're really cute and I like cats so it's a win-win situation.

Tired

It's been a while since I've done an all-nighter. Wait, I haven't really done one. Hence the zombified expression I guess. The thing is, once you decide to do it, you have to go all the way or you'll feel dead during the day. Which is what I'm feeling right now. Never mind, it's all for a good cause. Mmm, trying to justify not sleeping by being online isn't exactly well... a justification now is it?

But I've seriously been a bit exhausted these days. I thought it's chronic fatigue syndrome but Pris thinks it's sleep apnoea. Who knows? Perhaps I'm just bushed coz I didn't get enough sleep at night. I can be a real night owl sometimes. But I like night time. It's when everything gets real quiet and nice and you get a relaxed atmosphere.

I'm gonna go buy a cage for the kitties later. So much money spent on those dumb cats. Plus it's not like I'm gonna be keeping them anyway. My short trip to KLIA will cost me dearly. It's for a good cause right? (I really have to snap out of it, I'm justifying myself for everything). But Chris will come along so it won't be that boring I guess =)

Food Galore!

Today it's food day. Oddly enough I only had instant noodles for dinner last night. It was a complete disaster preparing it. I have since learnt my lesson of not putting eggs in a microwave. Here's a breakdown of ZE BIG MISTAKES:

Mistake 1: Putting a pyrex bowl in a microwave with water, noodle cake and a cracked egg.

Mistake 2: Transferring everything after the "wonderful" event to a stove and refilling water level only to fill it a mite full.

Basically what happened was that while waiting I heard a huge BANG! Ran to the microwave half expecting that it blew up. Well I wasn't completely wrong though. The bowl was overturned, noodles were everywhere and lots of water of course.

Must salvage the situation right? And that's what I did, or rather what I thought I was doing. Only it went horribly wrong. I transferred what I could gather to the stove and refilled the water. Only problem was that I filled it quite full and forgot about the egg still in the bowl. Note: If there's egg, DO NOT put too much water when boiling. Mini natural disaster and the stove went out. But the noodles WERE DONE! Worst effort put in a noodle cooking session ever.

Oops, I forgot to explain why it's food day today! Well, I went out with Wai Hou, Choon Wee and Kelvin for lunch at OUG. It's Nando's, yum! I like Nando's, but pricing-wise well... let's just say I can't do this all the time. After that we looked around a bit in Parkson's. We ended up going to Sweet Bean's for MOAR food! I had noodles and some sort of mango ice kacang. Man, was I full!

That's not the end of it though! We're going for dinner-cum-supper later. Yay for mamak food!

REMEMBER FOLKS! WE LIVE TO EAT, NOT EAT TO LIVE.

p.s. Oh yeah, I'm also looking forward to this supper thing coz someone is going to "chia", yay!

Non Non Non!

Technically my 2nd blog, the 1st one disappeared without me knowing, but that was my own fault I suppose for not accessing it for ages. There's no lecturer in IT class today, typical. I'm still trying to cope with my odd hairstyle. It's not everyday that I dye my hair and wax it, but then again I've never done anything quite so rash.



Got my Internet connection finally set up yesterday, and I must say that it's a far cry from the wonderful one I've envisioned. Oh well, sucky means sucky, and that means that my home connection is better (the horror! \o/). Worst part is it cost me more than 550 bucks. Nice. Real nice. Now I'm poorer than mice living in churches. Literally. Must... resist... temptation... to... go... out... this... Saturday!



We're going to meet Im Chim Lady later in the day. I wonder what new concerns she'll have for our project. It can't be good, anyhow. Still, brave it and do what she wants. Be a good student and... and... oh what the hell, screw it if you ask me.

Oh and IT'S THE WEEKENDS! Or rather, it's coming real soon. So it's time for um, salsa, going out and wild ****. Oh crap, I forgot I'm penniless. Oh well.