Monday again

In Biology, we learn that lightning aids the production of nitrogen compounds that fertilizes the soil. One flash produces so much heat that some reaction happen in the sky and comes down together with rain. In short, lightning should be something lovely...or at least useful. Not until last Friday.

As I had mentioned in a few posts before this, the weather had been strange, as if it has mood swings. It was sunny before noon and it started to shower lightly a few times. At late noon, it rained again. Therefore, I quickly got out of the house to collect the clothes on the lines. The moment I stepped out of the door, lightning came and I saw a bright blinding spark in the house. Immediately, all electrical appliances stopped working......until this morning.

I wasn't at home when the Telekom technician came. Thank God, line is up now, business as usual.

Anyway, my former room mate surprised me by bringing his hometown confectionery for me. Going to be fat again, i think.

Nothing-much-to-do day

It's still Diwali holiday mood now. I believe everyone has gone back home. While they were enjoying the comfort of their houses or having lots of fun in their trips, some of us who are taking Chemistry this semester chose to attend a three-hour lecture today. Well, not all of us, but probably just 30% of the whole class.

We logged into a website hosted by the publisher of the Chemistry reference book we bought earlier. Our lecturer had prepared some questions for us on that website. Therefore, what we did was only to practice the 14 question online.

Other than that, I practically didn't do anything except to sleep. Zzzzzzz.....

Yea. Should have been more active, right?

Hot springs!

Today marks the day of Diwali. While the Hindus are celebrating this festival of lights, we took the opportunity to have a day out.

40 of us from church went to Sungkai today. It's a place of hot springs and a mini water park. We were there early and started off with singspirations and some games. Then we had fun in the water park and the hot springs.

Some of the springs were so hot that I could barely put my feet in for more than 5 seconds. However, at the same time, I see some older people dipping their legs in the springs for minutes without breaking a sweat.

It's a day filled with fun and laughter. I loved the fellowship.

And it's a tiring day.

A Day of Mental and Physical Torment (However you like to name it)

I don't feel like blogging today. Had a tiresome day bring some juniors to visit KL and led some friends from another EC group to Angkasapuri for their interview session with a staff. I was back in my hometown, but I didn't bother to go back home.

I'm mentally tired. And it manifested through my physical body.

Ghost university

We've heard of ghost town. But what on earth is a ghost university？ Yea, you could sort of guess it.

Today’s the eve of our long Diwali break. In the morning Chemistry class, about 20% of the students were missing. Later in the late afternoon, about the same percentage of students we're missing as well. In general, the campus had turned into a quieter place.

I, as well as many others who are still around, strongly believe that these missing faces had all went back to their hometown. Now, the question is, are they celebrating Diwali? I still saw some Indians (presumably Hindus) in the campus. They were not rushing home. But why the non-Hindus?

This reminds me of my working days in Sunway Pyramid. It was Aidilfitri. The Chinese bosses were taking a week-long leave, while the Malay staffs had to celebrate the first day of Syawal in their department. Wasn't that ironic? I knew about this because I was working during that time for extra money.

C'est la vie, non?

Cheh!

After church, I had a little time. Since the room had been having lots of uninvited visitors that occasionally found dead on the bed, I'd decided to clean the room.

I stared off by laying the mattresses outside the room. I started sweeping and mopping the floor after that. One of my room mates came back. While I stopped mopping for a while and replying the Facebook messages, he took the mop and started mopping vigourously. It looked to me like I'm not doing a good job and he's smarter in doing it, so he is in control. And I suck. I'm stupid. He's right and I'm wrong. Fine. FINE.

You could say that I was thinking a little too much. But hello... I was just trying to contribute to the cleanliness of the room.

Hot and Cold

The weather is still crazy.

In the morning, the Sun was blazing. Coincidentally, my friends who takes Taekwondo had to have their session in the field. Worse still, their two-hour session was lengthen into three. This was to replace the holiday credit hours. Poor things. All of them came back with red, tanned faces.

On the other hand, it was the opposite for Fire Brigade. We were supposed to have an hour of lecture in the room, and another hour of drill. Somehow, the lecture was too long that the drill was cancelled, just like last week. Was it good? No. Not at all. I was hoping to go out for some drills when some Sun rays hit the surrounding outside our windows. It's too COLD in the room.

Had some stupid argument with my friend. It's really stupid and insignificant. Shouldn't have happened. I suck. I wish not to explain what happened prior to this. I'll just apologize tomorrow. It's my fault anyway.

Karoshi

Karoshi basically means overwork to death in Japanese.

For the past two weeks, most of the nights I didn't have a good sleep. Not enough.

Today, I had only 2 hours of class in the morning. Sounds light and easy? Not at all. I woke up at 5 a.m. to complete my lab report. Some reports were tormenting me because of the weird questions. Because of that, I cannot focus in class. The first hour was a quiz on some chemical geometry. In the second hour, the lecturer taught us something new.

My mind was like switched off. Can't learn anything. All I thought about was my unfinished report and I wanted to sleep. The lack of sleep totally ruined my day.

Later in the evening, my friends invited me to Secret Recipe. I thought, not again... I was there yesterday and burned a hole in my wallet. And I wanted to sleep. Well, it was to celebrate a junior's birthday, which was yesterday. I don't understand. Didn't he just celebrated with his friends yesterday? So why we seniors had to celebrate with him again on another day?

So between him and my nap? I chose the latter. Didn't want to be a zombie later.

Sometimes I feel great to say 'NO'. At least I can tell myself that I don't have to depend on friends to lift up my mood. Friends can forsake us. Better treat yourself properly. It's fine to put yourself first sometimes.

Am I that bad?

Today is D-day. Everyone has to present their selected journals on teaching and learning English. Just before class started, everyone was busy memorizing their points and practicing repeatedly, hoping to earn as many marks as possible.

When my group presented, I was told to present first. With much confidence, I spoke. However, I started noticing people are laughing. Even the lecturer was giggling. I didn't know why. Suddenly, she cut my speech. I pleaded to finished it but she rejected without mercy. I DIDN'T LIKE THAT. Anyway, I didn't care. I made sure I read the quote. But somehow, it became meaningless.

Later, while the lecturer gave us some feedback, she said I was good, but something's missing. The FLAIR. She also said I could have gotten the audiences' attention by using intonations. Well, if only my speech were not cut abruptly, and if only the class chose to listen attentively, I believe I would have done that. I would.

Or perhaps she's right. I always thought that I spoke with intonation, but what people hear, was different. All they could hear was a speech with flat tone. AM I THAT BAD? Then I recalled my roommate who was just 'crowned' as the best speaker in the Monday class. I was like... how the h*ll did he do it? He has bad grammar. I know that very well. But then, I think it boiled down to the intonation factor. It's not a foreign thing to him. He's a music student.

Just now we had dinner together at Secret Recipe. Before that, downpours and drizzles came alternatively. He's trapped in his faculty without an umbrella. Poor thing. Since I asked him out for dinner, I went to his faculty to meet him and to pass him an umbrella. I didn't cycle because the rain was just too heavy and I can't carry umbrellas with one hand and steer my bicycle with only another hand. And so we went to that infamous cafe-by foot.

Anyway, I wished we could talk more. He's rushing back for a class, so he quickly finished his meal and left. Me and myself, alone in the cafe. But it's okay. At least we spent some time together. Better than having a meal alone.

On Gifts

When someone gives a friend a gift, who should feel happier? The former or the latter? Some say the giver. Some say the recipient.

Perhaps you had encountered this before. You painstakingly chose a gift for a friend, searching high and low for the suitable one. Then you pass it to the friend and that friend briefly said a 'thank you'. Fine. After that, you, by accident, saw the gift you gave to that friend, still nicely wrapped and chucked at a corner. Obviously he has no intentions to use it. And guess what's next? Bingo! That gift is given to the friend of his.

How would you feel? I wouldn't be too happy as my gift wasn't appreciated. Or in other words, my gift sucks. It's useless. And the thought didn't count.

Why do we have such insensitive people around? Are they born to hurt people's feeling? Still, who am I to judge them? But I'm entitled to have my own feelings and thoughts. It's not a crime to have such thoughts, is it? And I wonder what would he say and how would I react upon hearing the answer. I think I shall keep my anger.

Life is bleak. C'est la vie!

Wrong info?

A friend posted a picture on Facebook. It was the comparison of two chickens. One was white, meaty and looked nice while the other one was scrawny, brownish and just pure ugly. The caption talked about the beauty of having a hijab. It seems that the white feathers of the former represents hijab and the latter, nakedness revealed.

Now, the question comes. Why did the creator of the picture compared girls to chicken? Wasn't that a form of insult? How would girls who saw that picture think? For me, it's just so sexist. Discriminating girls!

I posted that picture in another group and asked for the opinion of some Muslim girls. They said the picture was meant to illustrate the beauty of wearing hijab, not really about comparing girls with the poultry.

Later, the friend who posted the picture and replied my comment by telling me not to be too specific because that picture was meant for guys as well. Well, Muslim guys have to cover their aurat too. I understand that. But hello? Hijab? For guys? That's ridiculous!

Anyway, I would give them the benefit of doubt for not being able to see the fine print which read "With Hijab" and "Without Hijab".

Idle Sunday

I wouldn't say it's a productive Sunday today.

At 2 p.m., I was supposed to meet my EC group to complete the assignment given to us. It's on the presentation of journals that we've selected.

After church service, my friends text me and said they were preparing for a test tomorrow. Therefore, we will have to postpone the assignment to a later date. And so, I took a very long nap. Now, how productive am I?

Just now, my roommate and I were watching Lost series together. He's an avid fan of TV series. It was thrilling. Not because they were stranded, but the skeletons were revealed one by one from their closet. If I were to rate the show, at this point, I'll give 8 out of 10.

I enjoyed our time together watching it. Besides being entertained (by the bloody scenes), I also explained some terms or slang the Americans used. I guess I was exposed to more of the American environment than him via movies. So it's not purely leisure, but we've learnt to improve our command in English as well.

A Saturday noon ruined

A wonderful weekend, ruined by extra lecture.

You know, today my course mates and I had to attend a 3 hour chemistry class of pure presentation by ourselves. Each group were given only 10 minutes to present the topic of their choice.

Some groups were good, but many didn't have a good command in English, not even the Master of Ceremony appointed. I wonder how were they graded since the lecturer already told us that the best mark will be awarded if a group speaks good English while presenting. My group tried our best to speak well. I think we did quite well.

Anyway, a group of girls spoke sooooooooooooooooooo long that we had to stay longer. If it wasn't for them, we would have left the lecture hall on time and proceed with our activities.

Oh! Did I mention that we are doing the same thing on the next Saturday? C'est la vie.

To The Library Again

I had no class today. Inorganic Chemistry was cancelled. But I wasn't very free actually. I had appointments and went to the library with my group.

It's the continuation of hunting for journals on English Language Teaching related topics. We took about an hour plus to find what we wanted.

Then, we proceeded to the printing room to make a copy of the journals. My friends didn't know what to do with the machine. Thank God I worked as an admin clerk before at Sunway Pyramid. Photocopier functions are at my fingertips. And so I helped all of them to photostat a copy of their selected journals.

My good friend named Sinus is back. Have to sleep now so that it won't get the better of me tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a long, tiring day.

With a straw, I SUCKED

Today is definitely neither a happy nor a productive day in campus. My schedule was rather packed with Inorganic Chemistry tutorial, EC and Students' Learning and Development. At night, which was just now, I together with a TESL student met 3 TESL juniors in KHAR for debate training. Why was it unfruitful?

Let me start with EC. It was in DKM. Unfortunately, the air-conditioner didn't like us and failed to operate. The room was not that warm, just a little warmer than usual, but it's definitely cooler than outside. It's very sunny today, fyi. The lecturer came. After a little while, she said she will dismiss the class soon. She gave us some briefing on our assignment and off we went to the library to hunt for journals. I didn't really like this because we were not even in class for an hour. Public speaking was off. No teaching was done. I don't like to sound like a miser, but I paid my fees. Shouldn't I deserve more than this? Air-condition breakdown should never be an excuse for any educators to shorten the lecture time. I felt I'm being shortchanged.

During Students' Learning and Development, I couldn't focus. I was just to drained out of the moving about and the errands. And the weather is really draining every drop of energy from me. I nearly dozed off a few times until a classmate offered me a mint breath fresher. And I was not the only one dozing off.

The debate training session was horrible for me. Only three juniors turned up, and I guess my trip to KHAR was of little use. Instead of sharing my experience with them, I ended up surfing the internet. I just wanted to do it. I was frustrated for such a bad day. Unanswered SMSes. Dinner invitations without reply. Nah... life sucks!

Wrong investments

I kind of believe that I often make wrong investments, or rather, wrong predictions, choices, decisions, whatever you may want to name it.

Sometimes, I bring my notebook computer to campus. It's heavy, but it will become handy if I need to use it. But then, many times I ended up not using it and I had to carry it everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE! You can't possibly leave that at any corner. That's inviting disaster. Sometimes I thought I may not want to use it, but somehow I will need it. That became so inconvenient.

I face this dilemma when I do my laundry too. Like I've mentioned in the previous posts, the weather seemed to turn against me. It has been no rain for the past 2-3 days. I had a tight schedule so I didn't wash my clothes earlier. I just only did my laundry and hung them a moment ago. I just hope that tomorrow will be a day of clear blue sky.

Still wondering how lucky could my friend be, for washing clothes on days the weather seemed to favour him. He just collected his dry ... DRY.. clothes. Didn't rain today. I hate that! That lucky a**!

Just why am I not as lucky as him? Or, why are my investments always turn out to be a bad one, no matter where I place my stakes?

Zzzzz....

I took a lot of naps today.

First, I had Chemistry lab session this morning. After that, I took brunch and decided to cycle back home to do my assignments. However, the internet connection was down. What a joke! I slept.

Later, it was Biology class. After the class ended, I cycled back home again after having an early dinner with a friend because the gap between Biology and Tamil class was four hours. I slept, again.

Was I too lazy? I just felt like escaping from reality and sleep as much as I like. Much could be done if I were to sacrifice some of the time I used to nap. But still, I chose to sleep. Shall I go to bed now?

Mind-blowing day

You probably can't imagine a lecturer who doesn't even teach you, gives you a lunch treat, can you? Well, this mind-blowing incident happened to me today.

I'm the class monitor for my Students' Learning and Development group. Prior to this, I had to help my class to settle the book money with Dr Suppiah, the course coordinator. Thank God, I managed to complete the transaction about a week or two ago, and he said one of these days we should go out for lunch together. I thought he was kidding!

Today, I went for his class just to put myself into my friends' shoes. They had been complaining that he didn't do a good job and only talked nonsense.

To my surprise, he welcomed me like a special guest in his class. I really felt honoured among my friends. He even said the class will end earlier so that he could eat with me. At the end of the lecture, he really brought me to Restoran Abuya for lunch. And lunch was on him.

To some people, it might sound strange. Not that I did him a favour. I just had some conversations with him whenever I met him regarding the text books. But this incident makes me rethink the purpose of education. It is not to impart knowledge only, but to have a relationship with the students, because we are not just teachers. We are EDUCATORS.

To Shah Alam

Very early in the morning, I woke up and got myself prepared and cycled to KHAR. Dr Napisah, three TESLians and I were expecting the university van to ferry us to UiTM Shah Alam campus for a British Parliamentary style debate adjudication workshop. It's organised by the Malaysian Institute for Debate and Public Speaking (MIDP).

As usual, UPSI students are the earliest in any occasions like this. So we went for breakfast and it was on Dr Napisah. Felt touched by her hospitality and commitment for us debaters.

Actually today was really a long day. Little did we expect that we will be tested. Until yesterday, all we thought was that it's nothing more than a workshop, a seminar. The first part was on the general rules on adjudication, BP style. It was objective, but we could write some comments after the answer we chose.

Second part was to hear a full length debate on video and give our oral adjudication one by one. Not as easy as I thought. And I wonder why it took so long. We were supposed to leave at 5.30pm. But the organizers came in to the meeting hall again at almost 5.30pm and announced the next slot. Many participants were unhappy and wanted to leave. It wasn't our fault that the programme started late. It was clearly the organizers fault!

After leaving our emails, which they promised to email us the link to the debate that has to be adjudicated, we left for Tanjung Malim. Thank God that we arrived before dark.

Bad day

Daniel Powter sang Bad Day. It's one of my favourite songs until it really happened to me today.

I had to do my laundry as the bucket is almost full. After class, I saw that the sky is cloudy. I predicted that it will rain very soon. But just a moment later, the weather turned sunny. Immediately, I loaded my clothes into the washing machine.

Funny how things will turn against you, huh? There's this timer knob where you'll just turn and the machine will run automatically, while telling you which stage the washing is currently. The whole run is expected to be 20-30 minutes.

Unfortunately, this machine decided to play a prank on me. The process stopped without draining the water out. Probably it will take some time. So I continued my daily chores, hoping that by the time I come back home again, everything will be done. Too bad, it isn't. So I literally spent the whole day just to wash one batch of clothes. Worse still, it rained. So there's no chance I'm going to have dry, fluffy clothes tomorrow.

And I wonder why my friend is always so lucky to wash his clothes and dry them on sunny days while the weather is always against me. Whether or not it's sunny, whenever I dry my clothes, it will surely rain. C'est la vie!

What happens when you stand behind a car?

You'll be exhausted. Yea, this is just another lame joke I had been sharing with people. Today is really exhausting.

First, I had Inorganic Chemistry lab session at 8 am. It was a rather easy experiment where we dissolve a crystal compound to remove the impurities. I was the youngest in the class as others were from the 2008 intake. Still trying to mingle with the 'abang-abang' and 'kakak-kakak'.

Then I had EC 2 class. Little or no writing we done. We just practiced speaking in English. It's not an encouraging scene to behold as some of my friends are not speaking well. In fact, the comments given to them were that they did not speak English at all.

After lunch, it was Students' Learning and Development. I yawned for once and accidentally knocked my book down from the desk. The thump was so loud and my classmates were laughing at me. It was so so so embarrassing!

Debate training came after. We, the seniors, had to train the juniors. After not debating for more than four months, I found myself not doing well at it. Time to improve. Also, not to forget that we celebrated a senior's birthday at KFC after the training.

Result? I'm EXHAUSTED. And now I have to complete another assignment. C'est la vie!

All about the languages

Today, my Organic Chemistry class has been cancelled. It's almost like a jackpot! 2 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab was cancelled! That gave me the passport to do some printing at a shop and to collect my newly bought printer.

The only lectures I had today are Japanese Language and Tamil Language. I had a great time during Japanese. The lecturer, Nooru sensei made us sing a childish song for 5 times! It was undoubtedly funny and.... silly, but her intentions were good. She said this method is one of the best ways to learn a language. A mundane way will not produce good results.

After dinner, it's time for Tamil. This time, Madam Manon taught us the human body parts in Tamil. It was a little difficult. Nevertheless, I had fun learning them.

Seems like learning a new language is a brilliant way for me to de-stress. People choose sports, games, hobbies or shopping for that purpose. But for me, to be able to say bonjour, konnichiwa and vanakkam just make me feel good. Why do I even major in science? Should have taken some language related course, shouldn't I?

Study blues

Can you imagine doing an experiment following the procedures religiously, but there's no result at all? It's frustrating, isn't it? This happened today!

It was a chemistry experiment this morning. There were three sub experiments to do. Initially, they looked easy, I thought. But as the saying goes, easier said than done. As my partner and I carried out the experiments, we found out that the concoctions we prepared did not show any visible results for more than 15 minutes.

At the end of the class, we consulted the lecturer, who in turn discussed this matter with the lab assistant to change the amount of the chemicals in future. Well, looks like we were treated like lab mice, aren't we? Using the trial-and-error method, we were suppose to test whether the experiment works? Fantastic! C'est la vie!

Biology lecture was much later. We had a quiz today on cell division. The first part was rather easy, asking for the significance of the types of division rather than the process. However, the second part was crazy. We were told to draw the cell cycle, which is still not too hard, but we were also told to explain how the two proteins listed play their roles in cell division. All I could ask was, "What the hell are they?". That part remained blank. Never have I came across those names.

Got to study harder...

Mood was... not as high as the past few days. Skepticism and loneliness kind of got the better of me today. The more I try to mix in a conversation, the more I felt stupid. Fine. Will keep my mouth shut.

Eat, Shop, Learn

Today, I woke up early for the 8am Chemistry class. I had not had my breakfast and I thought I could eat something at 10, after the class ends. I was wrong.

When the class was going on, my stomach growled a little and I cannot pay my full attention to the lesson. Worse still, the lecturer herself did not speak audibly and we were not clear with what she was trying to deliver. Should I ask, or shouldn't I, I thought. But I'd decided not to, since I won't understand her explanation anyway. And that will worsen my hunger pangs.

Later in the afternoon, I had my first Biology lab session. We were required to prepare some onion root cell slides and to observe some other slides on cell division. I didn't have a good time as the onion cells were not healthy. They didn't seem to want to undergo division. Our lecturer said forget about seeing the things we expected to see. Then the other slides which were readily prepared did not give me a good moment either. They were so hard to observe, and lecturer said she expected us to draw the chromosomes (a.k.a genes) in a certain way. Unfortunately, what I saw under the microscopic lenses are just not the same as what she drew on the whiteboard. No way I'm going to forge the observations!

Ordered a printer today. Felt happy. I love transactions. No. I think I love shopping.
I wonder which female gene for shopping dominated that male part of me. Haha.

To Port Klang

Today is the third meeting of the Fire Brigade. I supposed the instructors didn't prepare the lesson, that is why they made us drill for the entire two hours. Haiz... C'est la vie!

Fortunately, the drill session was not at all fruitless. Besides sharpening our skills, we learnt new moves as well, like marching and 45 degrees turn. When we had a 5 minute break, I took the opportunity to consult one of the instructor on giving commands to a squad as I don't have a loud voice. It's either too soft or something like shrieking that hurts my throat. He told me that one of the ways to practice my voice is to practise the commands with my head facing a basin. I don't know how it works, but I guess it is a good method.

After the drill, my friends and I went to Port Klang together to visit Logos Hope which had stopped at Pulau Indah since two days ago and will be open for visitation for the next three weeks. We hired two cars for 13 of us.

When we were about to go on board, we saw the Starcruise Virgo stopped not far away from Logos. Logos seemed much, much more smaller compared to the luxurious ship, but with her aim to bring hope and knowledge to the world, people flocked to her rather than Virgo.

The book exhibit was obviously packed. We could barely inch ourselves forward. It's a good sign, I thought. The books were priced in units rather than currency. 100 units is equivalent to RM 8. There were lots of good deals around and I bought four books which totaled up to RM 60. My friends, too, bought lots of titles.

Before we departed from the ship, we had some refreshments at the International Cafe. We get to interact with some international staffs. They are really great people. Imagine working with 400 staffs from 40 nationalities and diverse backgrounds. And they are doing a great job bringing hope and knowledge and help to the world!