Chickety China the Chinese Chicken...

My EECS330 exam is finally out of the way. Now I can start worrying about my homework. I was quite surprised as the exam was really straightforward. I think I finished it in about 45 mins. I actually managed to go grocery shopping after the exam and came back before the allotted 2 hours. Neato!

I really don’t like having exams in the evenings. It’s great when you don’t have enough time and want to use the afternoon to do some last minute cramming. But if you’ve had the time to prepare and you’re done long before the exam, what do you do with the time in between? There are always questions of did I do enough? Should I watch some TV or will it make me forget my facts? I want to read my Time magazine, but will that cause a headache later on? That’s why I prefer having an exam in the morning, where you get up and head straight for the examination hall.

My parents are in China right now. I believe they scaled the Great Wall of China a few days ago. I’m so envious of them. I really want to go to China because of the many photographic opportunities there. I’ve seen a lot of great pictures be it of the scenery or the people. They’re all very inspiring.

I have realized that my interest in the field of macrophotography (taking pics of bugs and tiny creatures) has shifted towards more of people and culture. I’m getting my inspiration from Time, Newsweek and National Geographic. I absolutely love those really strong black and white portraits of people with those piercing and haunting eyes. I’ve done some sporting events and a rock concert. I should do more travel photography like they do in National Geographic. It has always been my dream of working with them, even being an intern would be cool.

U of M Students Appear in Utusan Malaysia Online

After getting a heads up from a friend, I learned that the group pic I took of the Malaysian students for Hari Raya got published online at Utusan Malaysia. Not all of the Malaysian students were present of course. They would appear microscopic if they showed up in full force.

Here's the link: Salam Perantauan .

Apparently its this annual thing where Utusan Malaysia publishes pictures and short messages from students studying abroad for their families back home.

Monday Thoughts...

Har har! My tripod is finally here! I got myself a sweet Bogen/Manfrotto 3221WN w/ 3030 head and it arrived today. Ever got a tripod and suddenly felt like going out to take great pictures? Sorry….just another one of my photo-euphoria outbursts.

It’s the 29th of November 2004. Two weeks from tomorrow my classes would have all ended and I’d be gearing up for my finals. Boy, does time fly. I remember scrambling to get my textbooks for this term just like it was yesterday. And now, I’m staring head on not only at a nightmare of a final exam schedule, but also a glorious winter break down south in sunny Florida! Yeeehaw!

I should spend a little more money on my car. There have been problems that I’ve noticed but I’ve just procrastinated so much. Firstly, the level of coolant in my car is almost at the minimum level. I should really do a drain & fill, but I don’t know how, and sending it to a mechanic would burn a hole worth $39.90 in my pocket. It’s strange, because I’m thinking, “Why would I need to top up on coolant when winter is approaching?” Doesn’t make sense does it? Hahha.

The second issue my car is facing now is a punctured tire. There’s a screw lodged into one of my front tires. It hasn’t caused the tire to loose too much air. I just have to pump in air about once every week. I guess I’m sticking to the rule which says “If it aint broke, don’t fix it”. But it’s a very bad motto to live by. I really should get around replacing my tire, especially since there will be snow and ice on the roads really soon. That’s going to set me back at least another $60.00.

My EECS330 exam is tomorrow evening. I just have this indifference towards the exam. I really don’t know why. I’m wondering if it’s because I’m jaded or if it’s the fact that it will only be based on one chapter’s worth of material. Anyway, once this is out of the way, I’ll be exam-free until the 20th.

Gallery Update:
I've uploaded pics from my Ohio trip HERE.

GempitaFest Post Mortem.

Ah, finally the big day has rolled over. The night where youth can live their childhood dreams of becoming a rockstar for one night. The Gempitafest has come and gone. I’m just really happy that I wont have to think about the practices, remembering the cues, worrying about the coordination and everything else.

The concert went pretty well, but our band messed up the first two songs. Fortunately we came back strong with the third song and made up for our mistakes. But the reception was really good. We had a full house. I was a little bummed that our band was the second last band to perform. By the time we got on stage, I was really tired. Imagine moving around taking photos from 4pm to 10pm, occasionally standing a few feet from the gigantic speakers which were blaring away.

I left that night totally bushed and slightly disappointed. I thought we should have performed better as our practices hinted. But considering the amount of practices we had, I guess it was justifiable.

I’m just glad that it was a new experience for me. I was looking forward to the photographic opportunity the night offered and am satisfied with the results. Gee, I should take up a job as a concert photographer. Make some mooney.

Ok, I'm off to have dinner with Adli and Afzan. So much like a married couple, those two.....

Pics of the night can be found here: GEMPITAFEST GALLERY

Spider Gary Pt. 2!!!

I finally got the second part of the Spider Gary series. Apparently the series was used during Gary's wedding dinner. It was a project that was assigned to my brother. This one's a little larger than the first....enjoy!

Spider Gary 2 (8.44MB)

Oh, and I just realized that this could be an advertisement for my brother. Haha. Contact me if you need a wedding videographer or a video presentation done. He charges a flat fee. I'm such a great lil bro!

OHIO Guzaimasta!

Talk about being spontaneous. I finally got to make a reservation for a car at 12pm on Wednesday, and by 1pm I was on my way to Columbus, Ohio. I had a lot of fun on the trip, but it was even more interesting that just last week OSU beat UofM in a football game. Guess what kind of reception I got when I walked around in my MICHIGAN t-shirt. :P

The Journey There:
I pulled out of the car rental lot at about 1.15pm and headed down south. I had a choice between getting a PT-Cruiser (butt-ugly car), a 4-door Dodge Stratus and a Dodge Stratus coupe. The choice was a no-brainer. The trip was pretty pleasant though the rain was a bit of a pain. I expected massive jams since it was the holiday season, but was pleasantly surprised to only encounter two traffic crawls total. At one point, I reached a city called Delaware…I thought I was in the state of Delaware. Interesting huh.

Day 1:
I found Yuen Hann’s place with relative ease. It’s quite tricky keeping your eyes on the road while reading a mapquest printout that requires you to make turns every 0.3 miles. I was glad that the four hour journey was over.
We went to this place called Joy’s which served Malaysian food. It was run by a Malaysian woman who married a Hongkee. Really enjoyed the home-style roasted duck and salted fish with toufu.
After dinner, we drove around to take a look at the OSU campus and Columbus City. Apparently they have a pretty large gay community and they even have a street called Gay St. Later, we went back to Hann’s place and had a little tea-drinking ceremony with his Malaysian housemate. Haha. He had this little Chinese tea set with about six little teacups.
Once I got some rest and a good shower, we went to meet some of Hann’s friends. There was this guy called J.R. (forgot his Chinese name), a girl called Ee Hui and an Indonesian guy called Leo. We went downtown to check out the nightlife and met up with a bunch of filthy rich Thais. The whole time I had to walk around folding my arms because it was just my luck that the other t-shirt that I brought was my Univeristy of Michigan NSCS one.
After a while we got bored and hungry so Hann, JR and me went to this place called HoundDogs for some pizza. It was about 2am in the morning. We hung around and had a really interesting talk about being a Malaysian in America, blah blah. We stayed until about 4am before we decided to head back home. I was knocked out like a brick.

Day 2:
I was awakened by the sound of creaking floorboards as Hann walked around the living room. We had agreed to meet up with Leo and Ee Hui for breakfast at some dim sum place. Man, it was awesome…and pricey. It came up to $14 each, but I didn’t mind too much since it had been too long since I last had good dim sum.
After that, Hann took me to take pictures around campus. Did the usual touristy stuff. I was glad to have him take me around and double up as my photographer. There wasn’t much to do after that since it was Thanksgiving Day. All the stores were close except for the Chinese places.
I had a sudden craving for tan tatt (egg tarts), so we drove to this bakery called Ichiban. Sadly they ran out of tarts, but the owner told me to come back the next morning at 9am. Not going to happen because I had to head home before then.
Hann managed to get another bunch of Malaysians to meet up with us for dinner. We went to this Chinese Seafood Buffet. Nothing really special since we do have such establishments here in Ann Arbor. But I had the privilege to meet the current and outgoing presidents of the Malaysian Students Association of OSU.
After dinner, we went to this ultra-Asian bubble tea joint called Momo. But ultra-Asian I mean this place oozed Asianism. Hello Kittys, car modding accessories, Japanese fashion magazines and karaoke rooms were all under one roof. *shudder. Things got really boring as that particular group was rather cliquish. So Hann and I decide to split.
We met up with JR once again and went for a movie, picking up Ee Hui and Leo along the way. We watched National Treasure starring Nicholas Cage. It was pretty entertaining, but quite corny as well. Hmmm…. Those Buckeyes are fortunate enough to get a student discount for cinema tickets. They only pay $6.50 with Student ID while we have to pay $9.25 here in AA. Grrrr…
The movie ended at about 3am. They were going for Black Friday shopping, where shops open at 6am and have out of this world deals. It only happens once a year, which is on the morning after Thanksgiving day. Anyway, we went back to Ee Hui and Leo’s apartment just to hang out before they went shopping. I thought about joining them but decided to head back right away. Being awake for more than 20 hours is not healthy.

The Journey Back:
I pulled out of Hann’s place at about 4.40am and headed back home. I was quite worried that I might not be able to say awake. I was really running on the Merlot I had earlier. But I plucked up enough courage, blared music from the CD player and headed into the night. The trip back was rather uneventful. Had a full moon to keep me company and later a beautiful red sunrise to welcome me back. Also present in the welcoming party was snow! AA had 2-3 inches of snowfall while I was away. Man, it wasn’t a pleasant sight.

Conclusion:
Overall it was a great trip. I love being spontaneous. Also, it’s another city to add to my list of conquered capitals! Thanks Hann for playing host to a really enjoyable trip! Come to AA when you have the time. But I seriously doubt you’ll have as much fun here as I did in Columbus. Right, Ann Arbor-ians?

Fun Buckeye Fact:
Apparently, every year before a Michigan vs. OSU game, OSU students will jump into a pond, wrestle and get wet. Note that this is BEFORE the game. Why the heck would you be having fun BEFORE the game? Not like you won or anything? If you still dont see why this is NOT a bright idea, apparently there was this one person who fell into the pond during a session and got paralyzed from the neck down. Tsk tsk....Buckeyes.


Some random arch we found on the roadside

Spider Gary!!

Hahaha...cant stop laughing at this really corny effort. I just got this file from my brother. I'm not sure if he did it himself or what, but here's a Spiderman 2 trailer rip-off starring Gary, one of my church members in Penang. You need a mpeg4 codec. Should be able to work with Quicktime.

Check it out:

Spider-Gary trailer (4.11MB)

With Thanksgiving Round the Corner...

Price of Gas (premium): $2.19
Now listening to: Neighbor's repetitive R&B through the ceiling
Happy about: Man Utd qualifying for the next round (2-1 win over Lyon)
Upset about: Professors piling on the homework despite Thanksgiving

First it was the idea of going to Indiana to visit my American family for Thanksgiving, then it was the idea of going to Ohio to visit Yuen Hann. Now, everything’s fallen apart thanks to my procrastination. All the cars at National Car Rental have been rented out. Yep, it’s the holiday season and everyone’s expected to be on the road headed home. I guess it’s a good thing not to be out driving since there’ll be massive jams.

I checked the weather forecast for this week and snow showers are forecasted for tomorrow. Man, it’s about time. Seems that snow comes down around this time of the year like clockwork. Am I looking forward to the snow? Well, yes and no. No for obvious reasons and yes, because I’m sick of it being cold and visually miserable. If it’s going to be cold, there should be some eye candy to compensate, so bring on the white flakes!

So far so good, my microwave has been performing really well for me. Been heating up cold food and it works like a charm. I was really impressed today when I defrosted a totally frozen chicken in about 20 minutes. No more leaving it out for the afternoon to thaw.

Actually I’m quite afraid of microwaves. All the horror stories about people getting blinded, their kidneys getting cooked and their brains getting burned. I think it was about 10 years back when microwaves were first introduced. I remembered that if you wanted to cook and egg, you had to attack the egg with a fork first before cooking it so that when you take it out of the microwave it wouldn’t pop in your face. Also, there was this myth that you had to wait for about 15 seconds after the microwave was done so the radiation could all dissipate. It was like having a nuclear reactor in the kitchen. But I guess the technology involved has improved and I don’t think there are such problems anymore…. Or are there?

It's Expensive being a Klutz...

I re-learned something today. I cant say I learned something new. But I got reminded that being careless can be really costly. I’ve wrecked my second wok in a span of less than three months. The first wok was a steel one. Not exactly stainless steel, so it rusted. I didn’t coat it with oil so the whole inner part turned reddish brown. So it got relegated to the cabinet under my sink. Then I got this really fantastic non-stick Peking wok.

This afternoon, while I was making soup and frying stuff at the same time, I lifted the lid off my pot and as I did, the lid slipped out of my hand and slammed into the Peking wok. Fortunately there wasn’t anything inside the wok, but there was a really deep scratch on the non-stick surface. If it were at the side I wouldn’t mind so much, but this one was in the sweet spot, right in the middle. Urgh…. So I went to get a new one. That’s a $19.99 lesson. Wasn’t really my fault, but more of an accident.

I did some grocery shopping today since I ran out of stuff to cook. While I was out I also managed to get a microwave oven. Haha… that reduces my washload because now I can reheat my food straight from the fridge! I got a pretty good deal on it. Had a $10 discount.

Oh, and about the Thanksgiving dinner last night, just to clarify things with you people who scrutinize every single word I type, Kai Kiat and I were invited to the dinner by Poh Yi, since it was her cell group that was co-organizing it. I was supposed to go with Kai Kiat, but in the end, some other Malaysians were invited too so we went as a pretty big group, kabish? The dinner was really good. As good as the one they had exactly one year ago.

Sunday oh Sunday...

Argh… my EECS group project is really going nowhere. We have this major component that’s supposed to be provided for us that isn’t working. Now we either have to change our project’s focus or build a whole new component from scratch. I spent most of our two hour meeting just looking at the other two guys scrambling to get the non-working component to show signs of life. I was really tired for no apparent reason.

Yesterday we had another band practice for the Gempitafest which is exactly one day less of a week from now. We had a little bit of improvement, considering the fact that we finally got to practice as a full band. We really just mess up at the endings. No one knows how to end the songs. It’s hard to do a “fade away” like they can do in studio recordings.

Anyway, the practice took most of my Saturday. Spent quite a bit of time waiting for the fried chicken to come in. Some nice makcik came along to watch us practice and decided to drive all the way to Canton to get halal fried chicken. Apparently there’s a Chester’s Fried Chicken that’s run by an Arab guy. So his chicken meat is halal. As usual, the trip back was hell for me. Had two guys puffing away in the backseat while I was sticking my head out the window trying desperately not to die of second hand smoke. My face was numb after that, thanks to the cold air outside. But if the choice was between that and lung cancer, I’d choose the former.

Tonight there’s going to be a Thanksgiving dinner organized by two cell groups from church. I was invited and will be going with one of the guy freshmen. So looking forward to a turkey dinner since one of them so conveniently forgot to tell me when Bursley was having their Thanksgiving dinner special. Anyway she made up for it with tonight’s invitation. Yum yum!

For the past few days, I’ve been keeping myself occupied with this neat little game called RoadBlock. I’ve finished the whole game in about three days, playing for about 30 mins per day. Quite simple. The cheats are listed below, but try to get through them without using any help. It’s really quite addictive. Check it out HERE.


Deera (lead singer) and me (drummer boy).

Game Addict.

I got introduced to this online gaming fad called Lineage. It’s some game developed by some Koreans where you go around as this character and you pick fights with some creatures. For every creature you kill you get money and “experience”. The more experience you get, the more powerful you become, and you can buy spells with the money. I don’t find it that addictive though a couple of my friends here are hooked. Ok, so what if you’re the most powerful ogre of the land? I’d rather be street racing.

Speaking of which, I just got my copy of Need For Speed: Underground 2. Yeah I mentioned about this yesterday. Apparently, the Jun that I got the game from was actually the freshman from China and not the senior from Malaysia. I forgot that there were two Juns. So weird. The whole time I was really talking to the wrong person. Fortunately I didn’t speak any BM.

So yes, I got the game last night and boy, I love it. Brings back the memories of the original Underground. But this one’s a lot better. More stuff to do, and different kinds of competitions. It’s got more story to it also. Yeah, and so I spent most of my early morning burning up virtual rubber. The clocked showed 4.30am before I hit the sheets. I did pay the price today…really.

Hmmm…why suddenly so much talk about computer games? Well, my exams are over for now. I was supposed to have an EECS330 exam next week, which was supposed to be before Thanksgiving. But the class took a vote and the silly ang mohs wanted it to be after. WHY? Don’t you want to get over it so you can enjoy your break? No sense wan. Apaler…

Running Out of Ideas for Titles.

Yay, I finally got over my exams for this week. The math exam was really easy. So straightforward like the previous midterm. So guys, if you’re looking for an upper-level math class for your sequence or something, look out for MATH371 – Numerical Methods with Matlab. And make sure you get Giovanni Russo as your lecturer. It’s a relatively pleasant class.

I made myself some mutton rendang today. I finally got around making use of the mutton that lay frozen in my freezer for almost half a week. However I made the mistake of adding too much water and was left with mutton curry instead of the dry rendang. Had it with made in Malaysia roti canai (courtesy of Jerusalem Market). Splendid…it’s dinner time and I’m still full.

I’m currently downloading Need For Speed:Underground 2 from Jun. My first attempt to get the file ended up in bitter ruins. I got the whole 1.5gigs in my comp, then came the time to unpack it. Fine, but then it asks for a password. Usually the password is the URL of which the file came from. Didn’t work. So I read the readme and it told me to log into this Spanish website, register and search for the password in the forum. FORGET IT! I actually went to take a look and half the registration form was in Spanish! I filled up what I could (all bogus) but kept getting error messages in Spanish. Thanks a lot. So thanks to Jun, now I’m getting it at a nice 100kbps rate. Fun night, fun night….

The Gaping Gap Widens....

Ah, over the second last hurdle already and now for the third and final…
The presentation went pretty well. But I really blazed through my power points. I was so nervous and sweating buckets didn’t help either. It’s been a while since I’ve gone up in front of a classroom to present something. Almost all the engineering classes don’t offer much opportunity for public speaking, so my only exposure comes from the social science or humanities classes. Now I just have to worry about my MATH371 midterm which is at 9am tomorrow…

I’m sure most of us have heard about the great divide, be it with regards to standards of living, computer literacy etc. I’ve come to realize that it applies to a lot more situations. Just watching some shows on TV (during my breaks of course), I see celebrities getting free stuff every time they become presenters on award shows. Gifts range from hip apparel to expensive jewelry. These stars can afford to buy up whole stores, so why are they still getting free stuff? Don’t forget that these people don’t even have to work anymore just living off the millions they have in the bank and the interest they’re getting. The rich just get richer.

Parallels can be drawn from the world of glitz and glam to the domain of academics. I’m talking about those geniuses, people with brains that absorb like a sponge. All they need is for the professor to give a lecture once, and they understand the material. Heck, the stuff stays in their head for the rest of the semester. As for normal people like me, I have to go for office hours, go home and re-read the material and sometimes take long breaks before I get my “moment of enlightenment”. While I’m struggling with the new concepts, our dear smarties are leisurely reading the next chapter of the textbook or getting high on the Engineering Weekly. See how it works? So the smart get even smarter, leaving the regular human beings biting dust.

Well, at least normal people like me take the time to gripe about the “others” just to feel better about ourselves. :)

Random Pandemonium

Hah, I just sold my non-working Nikon N80 camera to a Canadian. He wants to restore it and use it. A few of you probably know this already, but the camera is the same one that joined me for a dip in the Huron River during the spring semester. Yep, I was rather careful up to one point when my canoe tipped over and the rest is history. It took me that long just to get rid of it. Couldn’t justify keeping such an exquisite and expensive paperweight.

Apparently Yahoo Mail will be increasing their mailbox size to 250MB. It was supposed to up their game against their competitors such as Hotmail, but I don’t see Hotmail anywhere near Yahoo’s current 100MB quota. Ah, it’s still ¼ what Gmail’s offering. I have the luxury of having the best of all three worlds. Never use my hotmail account. I just hate the interface and man, a measly 6MB? You gotta be kidding me. News has it that the upgrades are supposed have taken effect this Monday, but still no change in my mailbox size today. I’m not complaining about my 100megs but I don’t mind 250megs either. :)

Tomorrow’s my Psych 345 presentation. My group will be presenting the topic of Aphasia. That’s some language deficiency related to a brain lesion somewhere in the left hemisphere. I’m really worried for my group because we’re really not communicating that well, and everything is done in parts so I’m worried about the flow of the presentation. Another scary thing is that the guy in charge totally forgot to mail our GSI the presentation handout at 10pm tonight. Fortunately I called him up to remind him. We were late, but better late than never.

I totally hate public speaking. Especially in front of people who have English as their primary language. So daunting especially when you’re speaking on a subject that you’ve only spent a few hours studying about. I’m just a student and I’m expected to teach a class on Aphasia? I’m so fearful of tomorrow. I need all the help I can get….urgh!

Yesterday I got Roger to splurge on a set of noise canceling headphones. These aren’t the $299 Bose ones, but $40 Sonys. They usually go for about $60 but I discovered a deal on techbargains.com which had it for $40. I really wanted to get it but I had to restrain myself. Need-to-save-money-for-winter-break! So what the heck, get Roger to buy them. He was looking for one anyway. And if it’s really good, maybe I’ll be a bad boy and get a pair. Hey, I need those…I have noisy neighbors!

I salute the worlds most consumed fowl...

Man, making chicken soup is so fascinating. Chicken bones are just fantastic. You can make soup, then when you’re done, just add water, re-boil, and you have chicken soup once again! Repeat until the soup doesn’t have any more taste no matter how long you boil it. Then it’s time to get a new bird. It’s just that simple. I’ve made like four meals already thanks to one chicken. Wunderbar!

I just got a call from my buddy Adli. He just arrived in Ann Arbor. Adli was my good friend from the ATU Petronas batch that went to Indiana in 2001. Incidentally, his girlfriend is studying here so he’s here to visit…..for 3 months! Hahaha….goodness.

I offered my place for him to stay while he’s here. Initially I thought that he would be here for like five days or something like that. No more than a week. But he’s requesting to stay with me for TWO WEEKS. Man, that’s a long time. Anyway, we’ll see how things go.

Plucky wucky

Argghh…came back from my ME211 exam. So horrid…I totally bombed! There was just not enough time. Glad to know I wasn’t the only one complaining. The professor has a reputation of setting exams that result in students griping about time constraints anyway.

I’m starting to worry about being too money minded. This obsession of selling my camera stuff to fund my winter break is starting to worry me. There was this sudden rush of ecstasy when I checked my bank account to find that the funds from a transaction came in. Well, I guess it’s a normal reaction. But man, it’s starting to look like my part time job now. I’m currently scouring the net, looking for good deals on stuff to sell and make some cash. *Kachinnggg!!

I’m quite happy that the prices of gas is slowly coming down. I just went to get a full tank of gas yesterday. Premium goes for about $2.19 per gallon now. It was $2.26 a couple of days ago. I guess since the election is over and the war on Iraq has stabilized somewhat (with the exception of Falluja).

I just got this program called Pluck ( www.pluck.com). It’s basically a news reader sort of program that runs on RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Well, there seems to be no consensus on what RSS really stands for.

So what this program does basically is just gets live “feeds” from websites like CNN and PCWorld and just presents the headlines as links so you can just click and read with ease. No need to do a visual search through the elaborate banners and ads just to look for headlines. So all you get is a list of clickable headlines. Just click and you can read your news, articles, etc.

A really cool thing is it comes integrated with an Ebay search engine that renews itself automatically. So it can tell you when new stuff gets posted online. This is one of my favorite features of this program. Yes yes, ebay addict.

So go download it. It’s FREE. And I highly recommend it.

My Sassy Girl...*shudder

After a really lame attempt at revising for my midterm exam, which is tomorrow, I decided to watch a movie. I picked “My Sassy Girl” which was sitting in my hard disk untouched for almost two months now.

My Sassy Girl is this romantic Korean movie. I wouldn’t have known it existed if it wasn’t for Joanne who highly recommended it. Another lesson why I shouldn’t listen to that woman. Haha.

Basically the story is about this loser who can’t find love. One day riding on the subway, he stumbles upon this really hot girl who’s stoned drunk. She pukes and just before she passes out, she calls him “Honey”. So everyone on the subway was lead to think that he was her boyfriend. Because of that, he had to clean up the mess and take care of her.

Before he knew it, he was caught in this spider web of a relationship with her. She becomes some sort of a stalker, but he likes it because she’s hot. Anyway, this guy’s a real tool. She climbs all over him and he just lets her. As time goes by, she falls in love with him but doesn’t show it (she sporadically punches him in the face and threatens to kill him). But the ending ties in quite dramatically, as somehow they get a sign that they were meant to be together. Not going to say how, but it was really random and highly unlikely in a real life situation. Sigh…these romantic movies.

Oh, and interestingly enough, the main actress actually looks like one of the freshmen here. No no, I know all Asians look sort of alike, but take it from a fellow asian lar. No kidding.

Anyway, I have a review session in 15 mins so I better get going. Argh…have to get by this week really soon.

Lecture Bloopers

What a crazy week ahead. I’ve got two midterm exams coming up and a Psych presentation too. Well, the worst is yet to come. Just looking ahead to my final exam schedule, I’ll be having three finals in two days, back to back. Isn’t that nuts? I’ve never had an arrangement like that before. Oh joy.

A really interesting thing happened today during my early morning lecture. The professor was teaching about antenna arrays, specifically the different types of arrays out there. He was clicking on several already open windows with pictures of antenna arrays. When the came to the last one, he clicked on the window and it maximized to reveal a picture of several beauty pageant contestants in swimsuits. Clearly embarrassed, he quickly closed the window and blamed Google for messing up. How could it? Anyway, the lecture went on, but he did try to defend himself intermittently throughout the lecture.

Tonight, there’s going to be a meeting for all the people involved in the Gempitafest. The notice was written with very heavy Malay slang, and really it’s a big turn off for people like me who don’t use BM as our primary language. I had to call the organizer and ask him personally when the meeting will be. The shocking thing was, the email said that it is going to be at 9.30, but when I called he said 9pm, then changed his mind and said 8.30pm. When I told him that the email said 9.30, he said to follow the email. Gee, what the dilly?

Anyhoo, I’m inching closer and closer to reaching my financial target to enable me to go for my vacation. The plans aren’t fixed yet so I don’t think it’s wise to say where I’ll be spending my winter break just yet. Not all of my friends have confirmed with me yet, but either way, I’m going. Even if I have to backpack on my own, my mind is set.

Three cheers for the weekend!!

Office Bricolage!!

Was browsing around and stumbled upon this cool website. Man, the things people do to kill time during their 9-5. Bosses beware!!

OFFICE BRICOLAGE!!

Two Weeks of Gastronomic Autonomy!!

Tomorrow will mark my second week of culinary independence! Yes, still alive and breathing. Hey, I should get a bathroom scale and start measuring how much weight I’ve lost/put on. That should be interesting.

So what have I learned thus far? Here’s

My Top 10 List for Lessons from Cooking:

1.Apparently there’s an unwritten rule that you can only use one side of the chopping board for meats and another side for veggies. You can’t mix the two. Frankly I don’t care…

2.Watch the heat on the pan or you’ll melt your nylon spatula.

3.Now I understand how hard it was for Mom to come home and cook after a long day at school. Thanks Mum!

4.Now I appreciate the times when Dad ordered me to help Mom in the kitchen while I was busy watching TV. Thanks Dad!

5.Don’t fry vegetables with anchovies and then add Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce. The gravy will be salty like ocean water.

6.Respect the cleaver! *ouch*

7.Before cooking, put a piece of cloth over the smoke detector for uninterrupted kitchen sessions.

8.Bananas could most possibly be the cheapest fruit available. Only $0.39 for a bunch of six “batangs”.

9.The In-sink-erator is God’s gift to the Americans. That thing swallows up almost anything. But I doubt it’ll last a week in a Malaysian kitchen.

10.There’s nothing that beats the smell of scrambled eggs frying in a pan or the scent of freshly chopped garlic.


More of My Top 10 coming soon…

Today's Exploits in Brief

Current Gas Prices (Premium): $2.15
Current Obsession: Still trying to get funding for winter break
Currently Listening to: YellowCard- Ocean Avenue
Currently Worried About: Staying awake tomorrow (class till 6pm)
Currently Thankful For: Honest sellers
Currently Not Thankful For: Having to wash dishes every day
Current Health Status: Fine, no more muscle aches, phlegm still present, pimples starting to appear (time to wash bedsheet+pillowcase)


I had my lab session today. My group is working on some FM radio transmission thingy. We’re going to transmit an audio signal through the air and receive it some distance away. It’s basically using the principles of a typical FM/AM radio. Sounds easy, yeah. Maybe the building part, but we have to explain the theory behind it all. Now that’s what will take some time. Got to dredge up my Signals and Systems course notes. Ugh.

One of my packages arrived via Fed Ex today. Unfortunately I wasn’t around to receive it so they left a note telling me to go to the station to pick it up. The drive took about 20 minutes with all the traffic jams down on Central Campus. I decided to bypass Central Campus by taking an alternate route. I ended up taking one huge round and found myself at the outskirts of Central Campus, totally defeating the purpose of my being adventurous in the first place. Rats.

Deepavali is round the corner. I think it’s on Thursday or Friday. Anyway, to all the Machans and Minachis, Happy Deepavali! The Malaysian Students Association will be having a joint event, combining the Deepavali and Hari Raya celebrations. Which reminds me that the puasa month should be ending soon. Not like I have anything to do with it. BTW, did you know that Deepavali is called "Divali" here in the US? Strange eh?

The highly anticipated (at least by me) computer game Need for Speed: Underground 2 will be coming out on the 15th of this month. However, I’m already downloading a copy thanks to Bittorrent. I really wonder if it’s wise to speak of my pirating so openly. Anyway, I’m looking forward to burning some tires soon. But at the download rate I’m suffering from right now, it’ll probably be done on the official launch date itself. Grrrr…

Random Observations

Current Gas Prices: $2.26 (premium)
Current Obsession: Raising enough money for my winter break
Currently listening to: Switchfoot- The Beautiful Letdown
Currently worried about: My ME211 homework due on Friday
Currently thankful for: Good company
Currently not thankful for: Freezing cold weather
Current health status: Fine, apart from muscle aches and phlegm in throat


I spent a small amount of my day today trying to tweak my Bittorrent program. I’ve been suffering from painfully slow downloads for the past week. I suspect that it had something to do with them upgrading the network a couple of days ago. Maybe they blocked the ports common to P2P programs.

Another thing that I can stick a finger at is the fact that I tried some download managers to make my bittorrent experience more user friendly. I downloaded BitComet and Ares to allow me to manage all my downloads in one window. The original bittorrent program forces you to open one window for each download. The other programs were supposedly able to speed up download rates. It wasn’t working for me, so I deleted all of them. Now I’m stuck with 1-4kbps download rates.

Here are some random observations I’ve made:
1) Yawning is indeed contagious. However it doesn’t work for everyone. Just yawn while you’re in a crowded bus and see how many people follow suit. Oh, make sure they’re looking.

2) If you want to give the professor a hint that his lecture is exceeding class time, give him some noise cues. The best one is the sound of rustling paper or the clunking of your pencil case. A chain reaction of sounds will soon ensue and eventually the professor will realize that people are packing up to leave. Works like a charm.

3) Spending money can lead to spending even more expenses. It’s a snowball effect. Buy a handphone and you’ll need to pay subscription once a month for the next year. Buy a car and you’ll be spending money on gas, insurance, maintenance and not forgetting the money you’ll spend exercising your privilege. Buy a discman and you’ll be buying CDs, blank CDRs and eventually batteries when your rechargables give way. Buy a pet and you’ll spend money like you’re raising a child.

Mat Rock Galore (Part 2)

Oh, I forgot about the band practice didnt I?

First, I got a message from one of our guitarists saying that the practice is on, but it could be later at night. Then, I message another guy to confirm and he said that it would be cancelled because our bassist and lead singer couldn’t make it. After dinner, I get a call saying that the practice is ON, and they’re leaving in 10 minutes. Talk about being fickle and keeping things up to the last minute.

In the end, I hopped into a van owned by the owner of the studio which was reeking of cigarette smoke. The ride to somewhere in the middle of nowhere was endured for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I was constantly sweating over the other ten for the return trip.

We got out of the mobile can of second hand smoke, and into the studio. Already there were about four other more senior Mat Rocks jamming away. Man, was it weird being the only Chinese around. Memories of my days at Indiana University flooded back. You want culture shock? You got it!

Yeah, so what was this nerdy, bespectacled chinaman doing around these “funky” Mat Rocks? “Errr….I’m just the drummer.”

So we spent about 5 hours in the studio somewhere in the middle of nowhere. And most of the time was spent tolerating the wailing, characteristic of any Mat Rock anthem. Oh, the wailing…..only rivaled by the high pitch screeching of female Hindustani singers. By the time the clock struck 1am, I was so bushed. I did a little workout at the gym earlier that day so my muscles were already twitching involuntarily. Plus, I had a really long day without an afternoon nap.

The interesting thing about that night was there was this guy called Riz (Rizal), who’s a member of a band from Milwaukee called Kickstand. He brought along a couple of samples of his albums and gave them to us. We even got them autographed. Yeah, one day when you become rich and famous, they’ll be worth something, Riz.

The trip back was a Déjà vu, and by the time I got home, I was a walking (more like stumbling) zombie. It’s a miracle that I managed to wake up for Sunday Service today.

Dying, Dying to Find a Distraction...

Strange how a slight whiff of something in the air can transport you back to your past. Indeed the sense of smells has been proven time and time again to be a whole lot stronger than the sense of sight or sound in terms of bringing up memories. So why did I bring this up? Well, I had a tough time in church today just because I caught a scent only too familiar to me.

Sometime around this time of the year, I lost a person very, very dear to my heart. That person was the closest friend I’ve ever had in my 21 years of living. The three years of knowing this dear friend could have been the best years of my life so far. We’ve learned and experienced so much together. If only things were different. If only circumstances changed. If only life were the way we wanted to be. Now all that’s left are bittersweet memories.

Even though one year has passed since that dark day, I can’t help but wonder if I have really moved on. Have I gotten over the past? What constitutes getting over someone? Is it once you’ve stopped moping around, looking all glum? Is it once you’ve kept the ashes and sack cloth in the cupboard? Or is it when you’ve buried the past and it never comes to mind ever again?

Well, if it’s not remembering the glorious years of my late teenage years, then I guess I haven’t gotten over it. The memories haunt me every single day. But I’m fine really. It’s only comes during the times when the crowd has left, and the surroundings are quiet. Or when certain icons appear around me that trigger certain emotions.

Is death forever? Or is it just a state of hibernation only to be replaced by a glorious resurrection later on? Only time will tell…..

The seven days after....

It’s been one week since I cancelled my meal plan. So far so good, I’m still alive. The thing I’ve noticed however, is that I feel really sleepy after eating my own food. Maybe it’s because I tend to overeat or maybe the cooking is taking up too much energy. I believe it’s the former, because I’m really poor at estimating how much rice I have to cook for myself. I always end up having this bit of rice left over that’s too little to keep for the next meal. So it ends up in my tummy.

Anyway, it was grocery shopping day today. Managed to spend just under $30 for the groceries this week. If I keep my expenses to $30 a week for food, I’m going to be able to save a lot. I’ve got to be really careful with my spending now, because I’m trying to save up for a trip during winter break. I’ve sold quite a bit of my camera equipment but it’s still not enough to fund the whole holiday.

I was just thinking the other day about avoiding crashing into people when you’re walking lets say in a mall. Which direction do you usually turn to, the left or the right? I have this theory that the direction for which people avoid each other depends on the traffic system of the country they’re from. Like the Americans will most naturally scoot to their right, while the rest of the world (joke) will move to their left. So just make an observation next time you’re walking head on into someone. It may not be a conscious thing but merely by instinct.

So, the weekend is here. What do I have to look forward to? Hmmm, we’re having our first band practice for the Gempitafest tomorrow. Don’t know how that’s going to turn out. See you tomorrow.

Mat Rock Galore...

It's day two, after the shock defeat of Senator Kerry in the Presidential Elections. Oh, well...it was a shock to me. Apparently, most of the East Coast is in mourning. Haha...a lot of democrats are suffering from depression and other psychologically related issues. When they said "let the healing begin" they really meant more than just America's current polarized state.

I was watching CNN this evening and there was someone who wrote in saying that she's so upset that she hasnt left her dorm room for a while now, and needs professional help. The good people of CNN actually brought over a psychologist and you know what his advice was?

"Get a BLUE candle and light it up at a small corner in you room, sit around it and meditate on the words "It's only politics"." LOLZ!

Anyway, let me talk about the GempitaFest. The wonderful Mat Rock's of Michigan have decided to host something like a mini Malaysian Woodstock here in Ann Arbor. Yup, a special event featuring the various talents of the Malaysian students currently studying here in the States.

I for one, wouldnt normally take interest in such events. Especially when the only mainstream malay song I know is Isabella by Amy Search *shudder*. Hahhaa.

Ok, so one of my friends approaches me and tells me that his band needs a drummer. Oh, great. I sort of agreed to help him out on one condition...... play any XPDC tunes and I WALK!

I didnt really bother about the date. I was under the impression that it was sometime late November, maybe after Thanksgiving. Well, it was only about a week ago when I discovered that it's smack right in the middle of my Thanksgiving Break! Noooo!! I was planning to go down to Indiana to visit my American Family, the Konstanskis for their spectacular Thanksgiving dinner. Looks like I have to shelf it. :(

Ok, so a little free publicity here (like anyone reads this site), the GempitaFest will be on the 27th of November, at the Michigan Union. The official webpage for the event is here.

SwitchFoot Rawks!!!

My gut feeling about the band Switchfoot is spot on! They are indeed a Christian band. I just downloaded their latest album, the Beautiful Letdown and boy, do they rock! Somehow, by just listening to their lyrics and their music, I got the feeling that they had some Christian influence. Maybe because a lot of their choruses sound like they were taken off Hillsong worship songs.

Anyway, Dare You To Move is the second single from their Beautiful Letdown album, and IMHO, the best song in the album. Among the other good songs in this album are Meant To Live and This is Your Life. I like them so much that now I’m waiting for my download of their complete discography (4 albums).


Dare You to Move -Switchfoot

Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next?
What happens next?

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

The Next Four Years....

The election results are out, and George “Dubya” Bush came out tops to become the Most Powerful Man in the World for a second term. I normally wouldn’t bother too much about politics, but strangely enough, this election really tickled my fancy.

There were a couple of things I learned through observing this election. One of them is that you’ve got to be sort of a “redneck” in order to win Presidential Votes. Deny Gays legal marriages, have loose gun laws, be pro-war and restrict stem cell research…. that ought to win you the southern states, and eventually enough electoral votes to win you the presidency.

Kerry, who was more of the liberal, won over most of the east and west coast, including the Midwest Region, while Bush won pretty much everywhere else. In the end, everything boiled down to Ohio, one of the Midwest states. While the other surrounding states were pretty much with the Democrats, the Buckeye State went with Bush, securing his position as the top man. At least they got it right in Florida this time.

I was a little disappointed with the results. I wanted Kerry to win. I wanted someone different. I guess the media’s ploy to expound on Bush’s weaknesses worked on me. Yes, so Michael Moore tends to sensationalize a lot, but he had hard facts. If not, he’d be swimming in a sea of lawsuits. And what happened to the Presidential Debates? Didn’t Kerry give Bush a lashing? Did it all come to nothing?

In the end, I believe it all boiled down to the moral values that these two candidates represented. Kerry might have been a Catholic, but he’s pro-choice by supporting abortion. And who could forget how he lied about his time in Vietnam? So the majority of America goes for the dear War President. Which brings me to the question of, was America ready to oust the president of a country currently at war? Were they ready to reshuffle the administration in such a time as this?

I guess not. The more pressing issue right now is uniting a country that is so obviously divided. This election really uncovered that America was pretty much split down the middle. So how does the winner win over the voters he didn’t have on his side before? Stay tuned...

Scatterbrain.....

Last night, watched this movie called Open Water. It’s supposed to be a true story about a couple that goes on this scuba diving trip and gets left behind by their boat. As a result, they were left in the open ocean and were left to fend for themselves. The show was pretty interesting in the sense that it showed how lovey dovey the couple was at first and then as things got progressively worse, everything was out the window.

There were a few tense moments here and there, like shark fins breaking the water’s surface, then getting stung by jellyfish, etc. But after a while, the shark scares got rather old. Apparently it was supposed to get scarier as they met larger and larger sharks.

Going into the movie, I assumed that this was a movie about the resilience of the human spirit. Well, get prepared for this spoiler….. it’s really NOT. In the end, both the guy and the girl succumb to the elements of nature. No happy ending. As the credits roll, the viewers get treated to the disembowelment of a small shark, revealing the couple’s half-digested underwater camera. Interesting….

Today I got to listen through an album from a guy called Gavin DeGraw. Yeah most of you probably haven’t heard of him. Well, I certainly didn’t until Deera told me about him. Apparently, our band is playing I Don’t Wanna Be for the GempitaFest. More on that later. Well, his songs sort of grew on me. I wasn’t too impressed at first, but after going through the album, Chariots, I don’t think he’s that bad at all. The kid’s got some decent tunes.

I’m currently waiting for my Switchfoot download to get completed. I’m downloading their latest album called The Beautiful Letdown. I really like their first two singles called Dare You to Move and Meant to Live.