Behind corrective lenses

Things I did in 2011

2012-01-13T08:32:00.001+08:00

January

Maxis Om Nom Nom Race

Rode an ATV and went fishing for the first time! (didn’t catch anything boo ) Thank you Mr. & Mrs Jalleh also played on a giant trampoline, been forever! haven’t been on one since my gymnastic days.

February

Khai Sim and Jess Min’s Open House

Hiked up Bukit Gasing with Evana, Su and Sheng

2011 Bangkok Hat

Ran the Reebok Zigtech Challenge with Khai Sim

March

Went for Jessie’s 21st, lol funny night

Played at the INTI Ultimate Open with Carebears, placing 4th out of 16 teams =\

picture credits: Uncle Johnny Wong

celebrated Ali’s 21st! Big Man!

April

Cracked my scaphoid bone in my wrist and tore a whole in my chin after faceplanting onto my porch. Fell whilst trying to climb in

Got my Maxis Scholarship

Caught Bruno Mars live in concert!! he was pitch-perfect brilliant!

With jess min, melly and titi damn you acne!

DIED at my first half marathon – the Energizer Night Race 2011

Surprised Raymond for his belated 21st at his house:-

May!

Joined the Monash Amazing Race 2011 – Placed 12th out of 50 teams, it was terribly organized, but i expected it because students did it! with Sharon, Pei Fun, Mun Khea and Edwin

Finally bought my first camera, the Sony A33. First “event” i shot was Wei Lin’s surprise:

Weekend after I shot the 2011 MUO, didn’t play because my wrist was still hurting

Ran the SunMed 5km with Khai Sim, Sharon and Edwin - in a time of 27/28 minutes i think.

June

Ran the Adidas All 24 with Meng Leong, Khai Sim, Murphy, Kaartig and Michelle, placed 9th/35 teams, covering 37 laps of 1.4km loops in 4 hours – most of the teams that beat us were wakil this wakil that ._. ugh lol.

Went to Singapore for 2 days to catch the bestfriend before I went to Australia!

Ran the KL Marathon 2011 – Half Marathon Men’s Open Category at an official time of 2:53:02. Beating 1000 others

Got published – my article for What’s After SPM has finally been published in a book – available at MPH bookstores nationwide

Caught up with numerous friends before I left / we parted ways

July

Organized my first ever tournament – the Monash Hat 2011 with Yi Ping and Weng Howe. Its a shitload of work. No wonder Kuan charges so highly for doing MUO every year – that’s on an even larger scale. Doubt I’d do it again unless I charge higher next time!

Arrived in Melbourne for my semester of exchange at Monash Clayton

Saw snow and went skiing for the first time at Mt. Buller

August

First footy game with Kat, then again with Janice and Ken during the so called “Heart of Melbourne Tour” run by students of Monash. Unfortunately, they only brought me to places I’ve been to before lol:

Went for a supposed aboriginal walk with my class at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens:

Played in my first Australian ultimate frisbee tournament, the Victoria State Mixed Championships with a pick-up team, didn’t fare too well lol. Was seeded 8th out of 10 teams, and managed to maintain that seed with some luck.

September

Celebrated Hari Raya at Azza’s and with Ashikin and friends

Went on the Great Ocean Road with Ken, Janice and Amanda

Played the finals of Division 3 at Albert Park against Victoria University and lost by 2 points with Moist MUF.

Watched the last round of games in the AFL with Chloe and Elroy – Collingwood vs. Geelong – which also happen to be the teams to be in the Grand finals, with Geelong catching up and thrashing Collingwood after the third quarter.

Shot Janice’s graduation

Celebrated Kat’s 20th Birthday at Guhng

Went to Sydney with Angie and stayed with Yi Ping

Travelled two hours one way to the Tesselaar Tulip Festival and had some wonderful shots

October

Ran the 2011 Melbourne Half Marathon in a time of 2:11:39

Attended the MUMSU Ball at Crown.. i only properly knew like 2 people. lol. waste of time and money!

Had fun at the Royal Melbourne show and wasted lots of money buying showbags lol. With Chloe, May Jin, Grace, Joon Fai and KP

Mucked my palms up again falling off a snakeboard going down a hill. I know.

November

Went looking for the Bogan Burger in Fitzroy with Kat

Mount Dandenong with Amanda!

Steamboat with the exchange folk before everyone went home

Rocked up New Zealand! Bungy, whitewater rafting, glacier hiking for the first time.

Celebrated Yi Ping’s 21st

December

Helped May Jin and Chloe move out/go home and ate around Melbourne

Had Lunch with Rui Yi and Eunice before they left for KL

Played the Melbourne Hat 2012 with yet another pink team!

Flew to Sydney to spend Christmas and New Year’s with Yew Eng and his family

Learnt to surf! Was fantastic. Wish I had more time and practice!

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I think 2011 was pretty good. In 2012, I’m gonna graduate and start work. I guess its time for a new chapter to begin.

Shots: Sydney, Tesselaar Tulip Festival, Royal Melbourne Show

2011-10-21T21:33:00.001+08:00

The 2011 Melbourne Marathon

2011-10-10T19:35:00.001+08:00

So my semester here at Monash is finally coming to an end. Next week I have two major psych assignments due, and an in-class examination on Monday that I’m really not prepared for. What’s new?

In less than a year’s time I’ll be done with university (hopefully) and be out in the ‘open’ world. But I digress! I ran the Melbourne Marathon yesterday morning… without any training as I always do. Was running once a week with the running club for a bit, but even that was irregular, skipped quite a number of times due to the weather/being tired. And with another hand injury just like the other two that I ran in this year. Sorta ripped my palms up falling down off my casterboard that I bought at the Royal Melbourne Show whilst going down a hill last week. I hope this doesn’t become a trend, I’m quite sick of getting my hands injured already!

With next to no-training and extremely high hopes of hitting the 2:30 mark (I ran the other 2 in 3 hours), the morning didn’t look too promising. Living up to its name for insane weather, it was ice cold that morning despite it being spring. Approaching the iconic MCG, I was greeted by a sea of runners in their shortest (or longest) running gear. Personally, I was head to toe in tights as you’ll see in the pictures later on. I really don’t like running in the cold! Someone once told me you run more efficiently in the cold though.

It was a familiar sight.

Tim was nice enough to pick me up and we hopped a cab from the Hawksburn train station to get to the starting line. Dropped our bags off and found Jared on the way, and walked over to the start. Should have went to the toilet with him – this was the first race I actually stopped to use the loo cost me a good 5 minutes, that did!

Throughout the run the cold actually did help me – it meant that I was sweating a lot less, and didn’t need to stop at some of the waterpoints because I was still okay. It started drizzling midway through Albert Park, just a few kilometers before the 10km mark. Thank goodness it didn’t rain!

As we were passing Flinder’s Street, I asked someone what the time was and he told me 10 to, which would be 9:50am, didn’t think it was true because I was about 5 or 6 km from the finish line.. asked someone else later on what the time was and he said 10 past, and later saw one of the pacers, so I was quite sure my time would be pretty good! Misleading signs and noone to keep pace with, however, meant that I actually stopped to walk at certain points towards the end. My knees were killing me too, but not as bad as it usually did. Probably because of the New Balance shoes ^^ quite a good investment I must say.

At the finish line my time was 2:15, with official results putting me at 2:11:39!!! Was ecstatic!

Never thought I’d smash my 3 hour mark, and if I didn’t stop for the toilet, I would have had 5 minutes off this time too! But I was extremely happy nonetheless.

I placed 1812 in my gender category and 1345 of 2278 participants in my category. Not too shabby! Here are the shots they got of me: terribly low res like the last batch because I’m not gonna pay 70AUD to download these!! lol.

You can see my left hand bandaged in the picture sigh. No more adventures until New Zealand! My weeks and weekends are now henceforth only gonna be filled with nerding and assignments.

Selected shots from the Great Ocean Road and Hari Raya Weekend/ Kat’s Birthday at Guhng

2011-09-22T20:31:00.001+08:00

My semester break is finally here. I have a lot of studying to do and a couple of assignments to rush through when I get back, but I can’t wait for Sydney and a bit of fresh air!

The food at Guhng was really, nothing to shout about at all. Have had much better Korean barbeque in KL! And also in Korea of course the last picture was of the Strawberry Panna Cotta – probably one of the best desserts i’ve ever had. I hope I get some good shots in Sydney

How bad do you want it?

2011-08-31T13:32:00.004+08:00

How Bad Do You Want It from Greyskale Multimedia on Vimeo.

a video I should watch daily before I get out of bed.

Selected shots !

2011-08-13T19:49:00.001+08:00

here are some shots that I took on Friday when we went on our fieldtrip to the botanical gardens! Was such a cloudy day, and the nicer ones are from the ANZAC memorial – my second time there. Lightroom made the pictures a bit more vibrant – they’d be so dull otherwise!

Only the final shot was taken at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens where the fieldtrip was held.. the others weren’t too pretty! I’m currently slightly sick sigh. Hope I get better soon. The cold weather isn’t doing me much good either.

I Will Let You Go

2011-08-05T19:42:00.000+08:00

heard this in No Strings Attached

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

2011-07-17T19:19:00.001+08:00

Despite the abysmal movie ticket prices here in Melbourne – $15.50 for a student – yes even with a bloody student card it costs a bomb!, I just had to watch the final instalment of the Harry Potter series. This weekend I’ve surprised many people through things they did not expect me to do or like.

Just for the record: having a mohawk and a stoned face half the time (stonefish as my buddy Shaf calls it) – does not make me a hardcore clubber. lol. I also like Harry Potter alot and I watch Glee. These were apparently some of the things that surprised people this weekend.

Harry Potter has long been a part of my childhood, having read all the books over the years as well as catching all the movies time and time again. Although movies will rarely live up to the book itself (I think the Lord of the Rings did a very good job actually) – I enjoyed each and every Harry Potter movie despite its numerous shortcomings. Probably because I needed some actual moving pictures to form the mental imagery that arises when reading the book.

Walking into the theater and sitting down in my seat made me realize that this is the end of a great series. The books ended long ago, but this is probably the last big piece of media the Harry Potter franchise will ever have. Having said that, lets go on to the movie shall we?

Picking up where the initial movie left off, this instalment illustrated the numerous events leading to the eventual dual between Harry and Voldemort, and as always, a happy ending to it all. I thought the movie was very strange in its progression: rushing through the exciting, plot heavy scenes, but taking its time through the boring, self-reflection, emotional crap. Its been a while since I’ve reviewed any movies, and this one, in all its glory, will not be.

Why? Simply because I went into this movie just because a part of me needed to watch it, to see how it all plays out even though I’ve read the final book numerous times. It was a closing chapter to an ongoing part of my imagination for all these years. The thoughts of being a wizard, standing on platform 9 3/4, boarding the crimson Howgwarts Express every year, and studying subjects such as the Defense Against the Dark Arts – all wonderfully detailed and crafted by Rowling, and subliminally implanted into all those who have fallen in love with the saga over the years.

If you were to ask me whether Transformers 3 or Harry Potter was more entertaining, I’d actually say Transformers, because that would be the truth. But if you’re a Harry Potter fanboy(or girl) like me, you’d know which one to catch (assuming you haven’t) at the theaters this weekend.

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Longggggggg photo. Melbourne Central Shopping Mall and Victoria State Library (below):

Hello Melbourne!

2011-07-11T20:30:00.001+08:00

So I’m finally in Melbourne! Although I really wanted to go to Penn State for a year of exchange, I ended up here instead, the Americans are more inefficient than us Malaysians ._. Well maybe they just don’t grasp the idea of e-mail.

Whatever it is that idea and chance was flushed down the toilet months ago. My orientation is tomorrow morning, and the past couple of days were spent opening a bank account, buying a phone and sim card, and of course, finding a place to stay. Quite glad I found this place because the first 2 we looked at were utterly terrible. In any case, it isn’t really that cheap, and I really didn’t have time to explore any other alternatives – i wouldn’t pay for something I haven’t yet seen. We’ve also been sight seeing around Melbourne thanks to a cousin of mine who’s working here.

Dad’s friend was driving us around looking at these places to rent so we didn’t want to trouble him so much either i suppose. My room is a 15 minute walk from campus, which is good because I don’t have to pay for buses or anything, not unless i want to go to the city. Melbourne is pretty small! I think a marathon through it would be nice, but the inclines would be a bit harsh. I actually wanted to join Run Melbourne, coming up this weekend, but its $60! The exchange rate is very painful on our lousy currency.

Living alone will take some getting used to, I have to do my laundry tomorrow! Mehhhh. Chores. Here are some pictures. The panoramic ones can only be seen here, they can’t fit on Facebook!

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2011

2011-06-28T10:17:00.001+08:00

Ran the KL Marathon 2011 – Half Marathon Men’s Open Category at an official time of 2:53:02 on Sunday! Quite okay lah considering i didn’t do any training for it and have been out of proper, regular exercise for the past 3 1/2 months. lol. my flat-footedness was what killed me in the long run more than anything else if i kept my pace – as shown at the first split, i believe that was likely at 10km, i would’ve finished in 2:30! Legs and knees were killing me after 13. meh. according to the other stats, i beat 1000 other runners! that’s what drives me anyway: competition.

Some pictures:

With Jane, who took Sandra’s place! Kinda knew she’d ffk last minute…. But bonding time with Jane! haha

here are some of the official photographer’s photos: so tiny because I’d have to purchase them otherwise. 50SGD for 4 digital downloads?! NO I THINK NOT lool.

Be flying to Melbourne in about a week’s time! I have a huuuuuuuuge to-do list that I have barely touched. sigh. this is baddddd. procrastination at its finest.

Kudos to Standard Chartered for a fabulous race! Thought it was superbly handled – for such a large, international event! Plenty of water stops along the way, marked route although we did go through some not so picturesque places with funky smells lol. But fantastic overall!

Every Tear is a Waterfall

2011-06-09T19:41:00.001+08:00

Energizer Night Race Full Refund + Goodies

2011-05-25T22:08:00.001+08:00

A few weeks ago I posted about how badly the Energizer Night Race 2011 was organized, and along with thousands of others, I vented my frustrations online as the organizers of the event – not Energizer, but a crappy event managing company called Expose Media aka Pixal Media, headed by this nasty lady called Josie Huang Wan Ling,. Not only did she refuse responsibility of the poor event, she went as far as blaming the runners for the whole fiasco! I have to admit though, some runners were truly unruly, but all it came down to was poor crowd control, poor planning and just plain pure organizing.

Received my full refund via a cheque in the mail last week, and finally received my goodie bag today. A very hearty thank you to Mike Foong, who headed the crisis management team and expedited deliveries of all goodie bags and cheques. I am happy to say that I will definitely join the race again next year, provided Josie Huang and Expose Media are nowhere near the organizing committee.

my first half marathon finisher medal.. pity i didn’t run 21km =,- i will clinch my first real one this June 26th.

Sitting is Killing You!

2011-05-19T19:37:00.002+08:00

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

a public service announcement brought to you by islapyou

Ayam veree strazzed

2011-05-19T10:43:00.001+08:00

#1 noob bokeh shot with Sandra’s bokeh cutoutmajiggy

#2 moon rainbow that i saw when i reached home that night at 2.30am

I can’t wait for this semester to be over. I’m imploding already and I haven’t even started studying yet >( Oh yes, shots were taken with my new Sony A33. Still learning, haven’t had much time with it. Hope i find some success shooting the Malaysian Open this weekend

Osama is dead, so what?

2011-05-02T14:11:00.001+08:00

Again I find myself in a situation where I have a ton of work pressing but am allowing myself to be distracted by various things in and around my environment. It can’t be helped really. Tried and tested attempts of pursuing some productivity at home is days of wasted time never to be regained. I work best when I am at my library, yet it is a long drive away and it is after all, a public holiday. Having experienced the closure of the library due to this, I have saved my petrol (somewhat) by instead plopping myself down at a nearby Starbucks. Petrol was wasted though, when I realized that I have brought myself here without a source of juice for my power-hungry laptop.

Once I have settled a second time, however, I realize I have forgotten my earphones instead. No matter, it is not worth the trip. The sounds of drinks being blended and little kids trying to cut their way through a ceramic plate with a knife and fork will be my companions. That, and the constant announcement of the drinks being prepared in a fake, almost-American sounding accent that our local baristas are famed for. At least here, I actually manage to get some work done despite the constant flurry of distractions and people passing through, picking up their fix of caffeine for the day.

Just hours ago, news of Osama’s death finally being confirmed by the White House went viral across the internet, and as people rejoice across the world, this disdained author wonders why the masses are happy at the passing of a soul. It is a sick, worrying world when men and women celebrate the death of another. This single man, it seems, has been grossly highlighted as the source of terror that has been plaguing the world (mainly the Americans, actually). CNN has a good piece on the history of the man here.

Biased, undoubtedly, but when is mainstream media not? As the financer of much of the Al-Qaeda’s reign of terror across the world, Osama did, indeed, play a large role in striking fear into the hearts of Americans and the general public. I think putting a face on the enemy eased the hearts of troops being marched in to hunt him, delivering a false sense of relief that everything will be over once he is caught or killed.

But I digress, I should really be writing about cross-cultural reliability and validity in psychological testing and assessment. Off I go.

Daisies

2011-05-01T00:11:00.002+08:00

My Prettiest Friend

2011-04-26T08:19:00.002+08:00

this is a pretty old song apparently, but i've never heard it til this morning. :) Mraz spazz

Energizer Night Race 2011– One of the most horribly planned events I’ve ever been to

2011-04-17T15:40:00.001+08:00

The thing with outdoor activities and/or strenuous physical events like the Eco Challenge I did last year and the race last night is that – people are paying money to put themselves through this torture, and are expecting some decent care to be taken when organizing the race. I had my fair share of complaints during the Perhentian Island Challenge 2010 last year as well as the Eco Challenge, but I think this takes the cake for being one of the WORST events I’ve even taken part in.

So Meng Leong, Khai Sim, Hoong Yeap and I arrived at about 630pm, and managed to find a free parking beside the VIP parking, I heard the paid parking was RM10 wtf. 1: there were no signs whatsoever on where we were supposed to park and the police officer we asked was just as clueless as we were! Walked towards the track – again, 2: no signs to where we were supposed to collect our headlamps. Asked some people who pointed us in the right direction. Walked over and it was 3: havoc =.= boxes of the headlamps were placed in a completely dark room and people were scrambling to snatch up the limited lamps. No sense of organization whatsoever. What’s worse was that 4: noone knew we had to remove a plastic tab from the lamp for it to work, so everyone was ripping open boxes and throwing away lamp after lamp because we thought none of them worked! This also led to typical Malaysian behavior – taking more than one eventhough you only paid for one =.=

We waited for quite a bit before they full marathoners were flagged off, some of them even missed this because the announcement for their flagoff couldn’t be heard =,= I had to tell Meng Leong to go with them or else I think he would have missed it too. I was running the half with the other two, and our flag off was fine. We had one giant loop around the outside of the whole track to run and two smaller loops on the track itself. They didn’t shut off traffic for the first half of the outer loop meaning 5: we had to inhale tons of crappy carbon exhaust from the cars and heavy vehicles driving past us. Once that was done with we entered a small dingy road into a plantation before finally entering the track. Collected a hairtie =.= for proof that we ran through that part.

As we entered the track, we had to run past where we were before we started, and there were multiple entrances on to the track, and 6: no markers on where the 21km runners should be running.. followed the crowd once again, at this point of time I wasn’t sure whether I ran on the part of the track with the mats that marked your first lap – I did on my 2nd lap. – 7: many didn’t know we had to during either laps! So I expect a lot of DNF when the results come out. At this point we were supposed to receive another hairtie, 8: they ran out and they didn’t bother telling anyone. Ran one lap on the 5.5km track: many people cheated by running on the grass when they could (unfortunately I gave in to the temptation and pain and did this too ) which meant that they ran a shorter distance and had better timing that most – 9: there were NO marshalls at ANY POINT of the track to stop this, also, what if someone collapsed on the track? There wouldn’t be anyone around!

Along the way there were 2 water stations. 10: The first one ran out of water by the time I got there =.= idiots. at the second one, they were allowing runners to take the 1.5ml bottles, many of which were just 11: wasted because noone drinks that much water at one go during a race =.= so tons of water was wasted. shouldn’t have allowed that! As I finished my first lap, I had no idea that I had to run another one because again, 12: there was NO information on this: no markers, no announcers, no nothing. I saw that the time was only at 2 hours and I knew there was no way I could have completed it, so I heard people saying we had another one to go so I did. Along the way I could hear the commotion going on – the insane crowd of thousands of runners went crazy trying to take their free goodie bags – apparently tons of them even went as taking our 21km bags which had finisher medals and stuff, even though they didn’t even run in our category! 13: this was terribly handled and in the end they shut it off completely and told everyone that they’d mail it to us. YEAH RIGHT I find that damn hard to believe. I later heard that one 11km runner took THREE 21km finisher bags. Good job, Malaysians. Also after her first lap, Michelle was told by some random guy that the half marathoners were done and she didn’t have to run anymore – he only did this so his girlfriend could get ahead =.= she later saw this and kept running, thankfully. In the end she wasn’t even sure whether she ran the right route lol.

I died during the second lap – I had already started cramping at the 13/14km mark. Finally finished it at 2:57 or so – which was inaccurate because we were flagged off later than the full marathoners. They had to run 5 outer loops and one inner one. Doing the math, the half marathoners were 14: SHORT OF 2KM WTF. So after all that torture, I find out that I didn’t even complete my 21km?! At the end of the race, 15: there was NO WATER IN SIGHT WTF. Luckily for me I took a bottle right before I ended, I saw this coming –.- SIGH. Also while we were talking, someone collapsed and it took several minutes before anyone arrived, he was having seizures the idiot auxiliary RELA staff all came to look at him and couldn’t do shit until an ambulance finally came along. It’s the freaking finishing line! 16: that’s where people freaking collapse =.=

the event was organized by the idiots at www.expose.com.my according to the website. IDIOTS.

OKAY I think I’m done ranting. Here are some pictures from Khai Sim:

Shit my cast is going to be damn smelly when it comes off ._.

also this means I have to put myself through this torture again cuz I didn’t actually finish my 21km ._.

I ain’t gonna comb my hair, cuz I ain’t goin anywhere

2011-04-09T20:51:00.001+08:00

Its 8pm on a Saturday night, and here I am, again, at home, blogging, because I am still a bit groggy from the lack of sleep last night despite getting some this afternoon. That and also because of my lack of motivation to get my work done ! In my defence, I did a fair amount of work last night… comparative to how much I usually do when I’m at home (nothing at all). This is why I’m in uni all the time! A week ago, for the uninformed, I carelessly fell after scaling my wall to get into my house (something I do so regularly that I guess I got complacent)! It was such a good day, even ending with a hilarious karaoke session with Kat, Molly and Vivian. Heck, we even met a perv on a motorbike blowing kisses at the girls! Ok la that’s quite scary actually

Back to my fall: I think I blacked out for a couple of seconds from the pain, although my head never did hit anything. I basically faceplanted onto my front porch with my left knee, right hand and chin taking most of the force. I shakily got up, barely able to stand because of the large bruise now forming on my leg, blood dripping from my chin in large red blots all over my clothes and my right hand feeling as if a hammer had been pounding on it all morning. Sat myself down at one of the pillars outside my house because walking 2 meters were already excruciating.

Eventually opened the door, got in and limped up the stairs to wash it and tape it up. Bandaged my wrist in case there were any broken bones (I’m actually very glad I did this, the doctor said if the bone was displaced I’d have to go for a surgery). Head was spinning from the massive blood loss and the pain kept me awake for quite a bit. So I YouTubed (yes i thought everything would be alright in the morning =,=) a bit before realizing blood was still leaking out of my taped chin. Ugh.

Peeled off the tape, and as it was coming off, it showed a 2 inch hole in my chin ._. no wonder there was so much blood! Eventually got some help from my sister who swabbed it with some alcohol from the tiny medkit I got from my movie premiere the other day (glad it came in handy, actually) and then later put on a giant plaster before taping up the 4 sides so that no more blood leaked out. Falling asleep was terrible!

Anyway, the next morning I went to the hospital and got myself fixed up. The damage: 3 stitches on my chin, some anti-inflammatory medication for my knee and a cast on my right hand. Out of action for: 6 weeks. No Ultimate, no climbing, heck I can’t even play Starcraft2 because I can’t hold the sodding mouse! in other words, I’m gonna gain so much weight from my lack of exercise in this one and a half months I will put Peter Griffin to shame.

On the plus side, I guess this means I have nothing else to do but my assignments –,- Unfortunately, my motivation comes and goes as regularly as a girl has her moodswings. Eyahhhh.

I’m still gonna run my 21km next weekend, although I highly doubt I will meet the qualifying time of 3 hours ! sigh. what to do? At least I have Bruno Mars to look forward to tomorrow

Another reason I abhor our Malaysian government

2011-03-24T21:28:00.000+08:00

so I tried paying a summon via money order at my local post office - the one in Ikano. It's an MPPJ parking summon so it differs from paying a traffic summon at any police booth or whatever.

so the 'kind' lady at the post office, let's call her Stupid-Cow-Who-Doesn't-Know What-She's-Talking-About, or CowDung for short, told me to buy a money order of RM100, and write it to the Mayor of MPPJ, like a cheque. Now, I was in too much of a hurry to realize how ridiculously stupid this is - who writes a cheque to the mayor of a local council to pay a cheque? Another question this leads to if I was indeed doing the right thing, is the money going into the Mayor's bank account?! Are all summons money part of his "side income"?!

So I did as CowDung said, and thought nothing of it.

3 weeks later (yes our local council takes 3 weeks just to go through their damn mail), they send it back to me, citing this:

"BAYARAN ATAS NAMA DATUK BANDAR MBPJ. TIDAK BOLEH TANDATANGAN & MENGISI NO. KAD PENGENALAN"

now, i know my BM has deteriorated past the extent of using it in a sentence (ask the Maxis Scholarship interviewers - they had to finish my sentences for me!), but this sentence does not make sense! it basically says = payment in the name of the mayor, no signature and ic number.

so.. am i at fault for putting the mayor's name?
or putting my ic number and signature?

if it's the latter then why didn't CowDung tell me not to do that? Stupid CowDung! in any case, i don't really know what to do.

yours sincerely,

owner-of-a-worthless-RM100-money-order-from-the-post-office

(I think what everyone says about just ignoring MPPJ summons should be about right)

INTI Ultimate Open 2011

2011-03-20T18:57:00.002+08:00

Don’t think I’ve blogged about a tournament in a really long time! Some pictures are up, from Uncle Johnny of course, hoping for more, but not too optimistic about it aha. First tournament of the Carebears 2011 season. 16 teams and 1/2 hour games = ridiculously short play times. Not to mention tiny fields during the first round of games. Other questionable tournament rules include: game to 7 without hard cap, which could eventually screw up the schedule, a pointless half time side switch and a ridiculous system where losing your first game automatically puts you into the loser pool. I also recently fractured my finger, the official name for it is mallet finger

This means that I’m currently wearing a makeshift finger splint on my ring finger, and playing with it was a very annoying experience, couldn’t grip my backhand properly, causing some really important plays to mess up =\ It was held in Nilai, at one of the local municipal fields I believe. Was glad that they eventually made the fields larger after a couple of games, although the team’s fitness is currently at an all time low, been working on mine myself, not to much success: I only went for 2 Bootcamp sessions this month out of 12 – can’t go for the remaining 3 this week because I can’t afford to get the splint dirty. so very annoying! Gonna work the eliptical machine in the uni gym a lot more these couple of weeks.

Held throughout the whole of yesterday, we enjoyed good weather – cloudy most of the day and wet and rainy towards the end, which sorta messed up our 3rd/4th placing against AUR, not that we took that game very seriously to begin with! Won our first two games against Catholic High School and SATE, not very comfortable games, and had a long break before our semi finals against the Singaporean ACJC team. They threw a wall on us, with a rabbit and a three woman cup right behind it. Many early mistakes let them take the lead 3-0, and eventually they won the game 5-3. Was truly a disappointing game, because it’s getting a bit annoying to always play “good games” that we deserve to be proud of, yet never winning any of these games!

didn’t play too seriously in our 3rd/4th game against AUR – the only game that mattered to me was the ACJC game!

I made my fair share of mistakes in this game, but at least I’m feeling the drive to play Ultimate properly again. Some pictures of me from Uncle Johnny’s camera:

with Darren, ex team mate!

scoring against CHS

off the field haha. hair’s a mess cuz I ran out of wax

throwing with Sheng on the sidelines

getting burnt by Titi hahaha

during the SATE game, missed this disc cuz I jumped a bit too early, that or I took off from too far away. Was playing right wing in our zone.

Good step into the right direction to get me going again. Can’t wait for Notts and MUO!

Monash Staff sets Terrible Example

2011-03-14T09:12:00.002+08:00

I study at Monash Sunway, and although there are many things that I disagree with in this uni, such as cancelling the previously allocated travel grants to Australia, not informing students in my course that we can no longer transfer to and graduate in Australia after it is too late, the tiny cafeteria in which it is always too crowded and smells too strongly of oil all the time and of course the lack of sporting facilities, something this morning really, really irked me!

For those who do not study here, Monash has it’s own carpark at the back of the uni, and it is connected to the grounds via a small bridge over a very large storm drain. This drain is an eyesore, but that’s not something that can be corrected, I suppose. It is often polluted with bags of rubbish, human generated waste and generally things that make us shy to be caretakers of the planet! Personally, I think I’m a very green person, and I try my best to be as green as I can, when I can. As such, it is with great annoyance that I discover that an elderly Monash staff, quite possibly a lecturer, toss his trash into the storm drain – a large bag of trash which I first presumed was food when I saw him from afar. Even if he wasn’t an academic staff – he probably is since he walked into the Business building, he was well dressed and looked the part of at least an admin staff.

I would presume this man is highly educated, with his bachelor’s degree, honors and masters and what not. And with the constant bombardment of advertisements on saving and preserving the environment over the years, not to mention global warming and environmental sustainability, it is highly unlikely that he is unaware of the outcome of his actions. As the few students who heard the splash of the trash hitting the drain water turned around, the man went looked away casually, and began a short conversation in Tamil with the cleaner who was sweeping leaves on the bridge. It seemed like something so normal to him, so much so that he ignored the glares he received.

Although I enjoy watching actors pull off feats of vigilante justice, it would not be advisable to toss this man into the drain as well! I should have just gotten his name and reported it to the the relevant management figures. But considering how understaffed this university is, I doubt anything would be done. Japan’s recent earthquake and tsunami should serve a firm reminder to all those who do not appreciate the world we live in – it can be taken away from us in the blink of an eye.

A Hawaiian Legend

2011-03-05T22:35:00.002+08:00

I love this song. It's so soothing. I wonder how things would be like if I just... kept that thought to myself. Things would probably be a lot easier, and I already knew the outcome, so why did I even bother?

What a hopeless romantic

The Reebok Zigtech Challenge

2011-02-27T17:58:00.001+08:00

So about an hour ago, I ran the Reebok Zigtech Treadmill Challenge in One Utama with Khai Sim. Didn't know how I'd fare, but basically the participant who burns the most calories in one hour (ie runs the most in one hour), will win the grand prize - the Zigtech Shoe as well as other Fitness Concept sponsored goodies.

small boy hat placement

Throughout the run, we were made to wear the Zigtech Shoes. Honestly, I have a very flat foot, so the first 15 minutes were spent running through the pain of having a high arch in the shoe. A lot of pain. Overall I thought the shoes would've been okay for me if it was suited to flat-footed people. I ran very slowly for the first 10-20 minutes, at 8 i think, gradually increasing the pace, 8.5,9,10, until about 55 minutes, then I walked for 4 minutes at 7 before running the last minute at 12. In conclusion, I burned 837 calories; the current leader burned 1200++ or something along those lines.

That's insane! Means he had to be running at speeds of 12-14 the entire time T.T lol. I wanted to hit at least 1000, :( :(. But it's okay, at least I know that I'm not that out of shape after all. Probably covered about 8-9km in that one hour, so not too bad I suppose. I've got about 1 1/2 months to my Energizer Night Race: 21KM half marathon and about 2 and a half months to MUO 2011, so I really gotta pick up the pace!

I've got Bootcamp throughout March - 12 sessions in total, alongside Wednesday trainings, Saturday pickups and gym sessions at Monash - staying after class because class ends at 6 ._. zomg. gonna wait out the jam. Let's just hope I don't burn out :S Not really looking forward to the academics :(

the 11th Annual Bangkok Hat 2011

2011-02-24T12:26:00.001+08:00

February has been a pretty bittersweet month, had my finals at the start of it, was in Bangkok for the tournament a couple of days later, worked my last weekend away in order to hasten contributions to my camera fund. Other not so heart-friendly matters have also happened, and my new semester starts in about a week’s time. With triple 4-6pm classes, it will definitely not be a pleasant semester

Before Bangkok, I was feeling very worn out from frisbee; I was considering quitting cold turkey and getting back on the climbing wall, blisters, pumped arms and all. I’ve also been feeling very supercilious, thinking to myself that I have lost the challenge of playing Ultimate. I have always wanted to get back into climbing, its just that I never had enough time for it and probably one of the limiting factors was the cost. Saturday pickups have been cancelled, and I haven’t had as much fun with Ultimate as I used to. Is that even grammatically correct? Sounds wrong in my head, probably due to the fact that I haven’t been writing in a really long time! But I digress, my main point was that I needed to find my motivation, my drive to keep playing the sport that’s been such a big part of my life for the past few years.

Perhaps it is very parochial of me to think that playing Ultimate in KL is never going to achieve a very high level. It would seem the optimistic way to think about our ultimate is to train with the team I’m on to be on par with the international teams that we meet during the Malaysian and Singapore Opens every year. Heck, if we could just match up to the Sing teams who beat us every year, that should be sufficient enough to encourage the other local teams to train harder as well!

Once again, I was the only KL player on my team, the other Malaysian was from Sabah: Reena. We were the neon pink Highlighters (aptly named due to our fluorescent color). Captained by Matt Flynn, who really reminds me of a younger Matthew Broderick, my teammates consisted mostly of Americans staying in Bangkok:

Coincidentally, Quyen was also on my team last year. There were considerably less Singaporeans this year, just one on my team: Will aka Wei Liang haha he had to name himself will because otherwise the angmohs will just forget his name. Let’s see if I can remember everyone’s names: Top Row: Dave, Will, Myself, Tamulah, Julie (I think), Matt, Patrick, Roy and the 2 Danny’s. Bottom row: Dianne, err shit I can’t remember#1 haha she talks damn a lot though, and she missed the first day of the tournament cuz her flight got snowed in, Quyen, Donna, Can’t Remember #2 and Reena. Of the 4 games we played on Saturday, we only won one, losing the last game at universe point , which meant that we had an 8am game the very next day! The party this year had significantly more booze, and although we didn’t have Jimmy to entertain us, we had Joshua instead, who is a very good dancer haha.

This is the only picture of me playing, I think:

Actually, I might’ve dropped this disc. I dropped so many discs this tournament it’s not even funny. T.T I think the guy who’s defending me is from Belgium, he stayed in Suk11 with us My teammates were great players, each and every one of them, even Roy, who is considerably fresh. We won the first game against the team that won every game on the first day (how about that!) but lost the second game to another Pink team, Mart’s. I think we went on to play one more game, walked over another because the other team didn’t want to play, and played our last game against the team we lost to at universe on the first day.

Found my confidence in the last game (what timing ._.), assisted two points including the winning universal point haha yes we also won at universe! We eventually placed 5th out of 20 teams, also winning a bottle of rum which we finished in about 5 minutes hahahaha for having the Best Spirit! Thank you, Bangkok, for providing the motivation I needed to continue training and improve my game. The next couple of days were spent doing the touristy things: Lots of shopping, eating and getting a massage.

From now on, I think I’ll only do my shopping in Platinum Mall. Everything else on the road is so generic and boring T.T

picture credits: Zrs Gamboa

unfortunately, all i can do is to

2011-02-17T10:58:00.000+08:00

everyone's looking for someone to sing this to

2011-02-10T21:45:00.005+08:00

Abuse

2011-01-28T08:51:00.002+08:00

It is currently 8am on a damp and cold Friday morning. Why am I up so early? Do I have somewhere to go, like uni? Yes. I was supposed to hand in my exchange application today as well as get a bunch of studying done. But I can’t go because well, I don’t have the car again. A text woke me up about half an hour ago, and has since ruined my morning. It will not ruin my day, I will not give it that satisfaction. Instead, I’ll probably go out later when the shops have opened and try and get some studying done outside.

The soundtrack of the morning is the Across the Universe OST, because it reminds me of someone who I know is having happier times. A few days ago, I heard first-hand from a young person, let’s call this person A, who decided to tell me, a complete stranger, about how he was being abused in his own home. Now, I’ve heard and read about abuse at home all the time, but actually knowing someone who’s getting physically, verbally and emotionally abused on a weekly basis is something else.

The toughest part about hearing about something like this is knowing that you can’t really do anything for the person, who refuses to go to the authorities for the sake of his younger siblings; he doesn’t want the family broken up over something that’s just happening to him. I’m here to say that abuse is not something that should be tolerated. Not something that should be taken lightly no matter who it is.

I think, in traditional Asian families where parents are used to being dictator-like and authoritarians, they do not see the implications of beating and cussing at their very young children. They do not see the effects of showing obvious favoritism, of excessive beating and demanding perfection in everything that their children takes up. What the children think is obviously irrelevant; they are perceived to be too young to think for themselves, and have been silenced by the cane. Peppering thoughts like, “We’ve taken care and fed you all these years.” “There are so many people out there who have it worse than you, stop complaining.” into their minds persuades the children to accept such torment, to stop them from feeling like ingrates in their own eyes.

Know the signs, know when enough is enough.

Sometimes..

2011-01-25T20:58:00.000+08:00

127 Hours: Movie Review, amongst other things

2011-01-16T22:35:00.001+08:00

It’s been soooo long since I’ve properly reviewed a movie, or even properly blogged for that matter.

I watched Great Day in the cinema today, a local production with a cast of people I’ve never seen before! And I had low expectations for the movie. As I’d like to think, the higher your expectations, the more disappointment you’d feel when it doesn’t live up to your perceived standards. But I would say it was pretty good. Had very strong family values, decent acting, and pretty good chemistry between the actors. I think the director was trying to cram too much into the movie though, seemed as if there were a bit too many elements. But it did its job of driving the family values into the viewers. The movie was mostly in Cantonese, with some Hokkien here and there? Could be Hakka, I know, I am a disappointing Chinese

In other news, if you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you probably saw the flurry of restaurant and food endorsements that popped up yesterday. Was in a food race thing in hopes of winning a new HTC phone. Unfortunately, we didn’t win, and the disappointment we felt was as brutal as how Mike, Yew Eng and I felt when we didn’t win at the Kakii’s Night Out a couple of years ago – a blogger friend whom we later met did – Nigel! He has a better gift at winning things than I do haha. We were highly confident, and I guess it really stung when we didn’t win. We went home dejected! But I’ve always felt that it’s very silly to dwell on why we failed; there’s nothing that can be done anymore, just pick up what could be learnt and move on, I suppose. That’s some positivity for you right there.

Last Friday, I had an interview at the Maxis Tower beside KLCC. Personally, I thought it went okay, but I wasn’t sure of what the interviewer thought of me. Seemed as if I was babbling on and on without really catching her interest. Don’t know haha. Whilst waiting for my turn, another lady came out and asked what position I was interviewing for. I really do look pretty old when I’m in formal clothes I suppose. Meh. I really hope I’ll the callback for the second interview and make it past that too! Will blog about the positive news should it arise in March. Seems so far away..

Onwards to my review!

this poster looks amazing

So 127 hours hasn’t actually come out in Malaysia, but it’s been out overseas for quite a while now, and ever since I read about it a few weeks ago, I knew it was a movie I had to watch. The trailer is also pretty good! Check it out:

There is no force on earth stronger than the will to live.

Directed by Danny Boyle, who of course, rose to meteoric fame after his hit, Slumdog Millionaire, the movie stars James Franco (last saw him in Eat,Pray,Love – absolutely hated the movie, thought it was boring and draggy as HELL. But thought he did alright in the Spiderman franchise) as Aron Ralston, and the movie tells his tale – an American mountain climber who gets trapped by a boulder in the Blue John Canyons of Utah, and is forced to amputate his lower right arm to escape the canyon and survive.

And that’s basically the story right there. I’ve always been a fan of complex, mind-boggling story lines, but I also love simple ones which are done well (take Forrest Gump, for example, one of my favorite movies of all time). The movie also stars Kate Mara (Shooter) as Cristi and Amber Tamblyn as Megan (above), who played very minor roles. Ralston is described as an adrenaline junkie: he goes off cycling into the wilderness all by himself, not telling anyone where he was going or how long he’d be gone; the people who he knew were used to him being completely missing for days on end. He lives and breathes the canyons and deserts of Utah. I hope I can mountaineer like him one day! Have the time and resources for it too.

This is the first leading role I’ve seen Franco undertake, and he was brilliant. He portrayed every aspect of Ralston’s helplessness, despair and near-insanity perfectly (not sure how much of the movie is fictional). From his early rationality about rationing his water and food the best he could, to his depression about a girl he still loves, to how sorry he felt about not being there enough for his parents, to his desperation in deciding to amputate his arm, Franco did it all flawlessly.

The music was also aweeeeesomeeeeeeee ! Boyle relived his ties with A.R. Rahman and brought back some hauntingly good guitar stuff. Other contributors included Bill Withers, Esther Philips and Vladimir Ashkenazy – classical music and SIGUR ROS! Sigur Ros always does wonderful music scores.

Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 93%! I give it a 5/5 stars.

emos

2011-01-15T20:22:00.001+08:00

we no win no phones :(

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race–Location#5 Dancing Fish

2011-01-15T17:17:00.001+08:00

Tis’ has been an enticing journey around Klang Valley and Kuala Lumpur. Reached our final location for the Maxis Om Nom Nom race: Dancing Fish- Malay-Indo Cuisine! WE ALL LOVE THIS PLACE, although it may be a lil secluded to be located at the third floor of BSC. But, this place is a gem!

To be honest, our taste buds have been pampered so much for the day. Being at this last location kinda makes us feel sad for not having more time at each location to savor each of the dishes gao gao! Meh. Anyway, enough with the emo-ness…

This is how the outer part looks like! Pretty, no?

And the interior:

Classy much! So romantic, ain’t it?

Well, as usual, we are extremely easily to be distracted with food. Started to dig in when the food is served. Om Nom Nom!

For starters, we were served emping with sambal terasi. Made from nuts, it is balanced nicely with the spiciness of the sambal.

We were also served some barley and lime to quench our thirsts after racing around PJ/Kepong/Bangsar and KL ALL DAY!

And here comes our beautiful mains:

The Ayam Panggang – yummy and tender spring chicken, charcoal-grilled to perfection after going through some serious marination with their famous homemade BBQ sauce. It is served with ulam, which seemed as if some mango juice was dripped all over it, adding a tinge of sweetness and asam chili sauce to help accentuate the flavors of the chicken. We personally enjoyed this greatly, as the combination of the wonderful tastes made us feel proudly Asian!

And their house favorite, as their restaurant is aptly called, the Dancing Fish! As the manager explained, the fish is fresh from the tank deep fried until golden brown, whilst ensuring that the juiciness is kept. He goes on to say that it is prepared in the image of a traditional Indonesian Baron Dancer, as you can see by the unique cut and placement of the fish. It is served with their homemade sambal terasi. Heck, it was fried until the bones were edible! The sauces helped balance out the hard and dry exterior of the fish, and we ate as much of it as we could!

They also served us some gelato for dessert!

It is truly a pleasant place to dine in, with decent price too. I give this place a 4.5/5 and do recommend this place as a decent eatery destination. More information? Check the deets below!

Details:

Address: Dancing Fish, Lot T120, T121, T122, Third Floor, Bangsar Shopping Center (right above Tutti Frutti)

Contact Number: 03 2095 6663

Business hours: 11.30am - 3pm and 6pm - 10pm daily. However, on public holidays and weekends, they are available from 11.30am straight till 10pm! Nice!

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race–Station #4–Thai Base Restaurant, Kepong

2011-01-15T16:07:00.001+08:00

4^th location at Restoran Thaibase Sdn Bhd with the Foodologists for the Maxis Om om Nom race. More good food to savour! Woo hoo! Located the place right in the heart of Sri Damansara. As we heard, this place mainly does catering. Food here tasted awesome as well.

This is how the outside look like, recognise this well for future visits, peeps

And the interesting interior design with plenty of aquariums with pretty fishies swimming in it as displays. Look look:

Well, the main outline here is the FOOD! Wheeeeeeeeeee~~~ With a reasonable and affordable pricing, this place is not bad for a good family dinner. Check out what we had:

Yum yum? Even out little Yi Ching still has space in her tummy for more of these food! Haha.

Salivating yet? Tee hee. Now, if you are interested...

Details:

Opening Hours: Daily from 12 noon to 10.30 night. Closes on public holidays and Sundays though =S

Address: Restoran Thaibase Sdn Bhd. No. 7-1, Jalan Tanjung SD 13/2 Bandar Sri Damansara, 52200 Selangor.

Contact Number: 03-6275 2284

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race - Location # 3 : Sate Kajang HJ Samuri

2011-01-15T15:46:00.001+08:00

Chicken, Rabbit, Mutton and Venison Sate

Succulent, tender meat. This sate meats are grilled to perfection and taste absolutely amazing. Sate Kajang serves a wide range of meat to choose from such as beef, chicken, mutton, venison and even rabbit meat. It definitely is a must try for those who have never tasted any rabbit meat before in their life.

The sauce that accompanies the sate sticks taste really good as well. It’s like most typical sate gravies which have a very nutty flavour to it but what makes this special is that it isn’t that sweet and the peanut aroma isn’t overwhelming. Even our teammate, Yi Ching who hates peanut didn’t mind it all that much.

As usual, there are side dishes accompanying the sate sticks such as cucumbers and ketupat. The vegetables and ketupat go very well together with the peanut sauce and we all love it. It tastes good and I’m pretty sure that everyone regardless of age will love it just as much.

Besides that, they serve other Malay food as well.

This Damansara outlet has ample amount of dining seats (2 storeys). It is decorated with simple elements of wood that resembles traditional Malay architecture.
Check out the collection of antique clocks they have.

Details:

Address – Damansara Utama, Uptown (Same row as Village Park Nasi Lemak)

Tel – 03-77105318

Business hours : 11am – 12am (perfect for snack, lunch, tea time, dinner and even supper!)

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race–Station #2: Tarbush, Sunway Pyramid

2011-01-15T13:46:00.001+08:00

We have now reached our second destination, Tarbush in Sunway Pyramid! We’re pretty pumped that we’ve kept our lead :)

History: Tarbush is the leading Middle Eastern Restaurant in Malaysia. Since its humble beginnings as a small sandwich bar in Ampang in 1998, Tarbush has 3 other branches: Jalan Bukit Bintang, Starhill Gallery, and Batu Feringghi, Penang. The next branch will be opening in Wisma Atria in Singapore so our friends across the sea will also enjoy wonderful Middle Eastern cuisine that we Malaysians have come to adore. Besides these branches, there is also an Al Halabi Lounge in Marriot Hotel on Jalan Bukit Bintang.

With Ms. Shereen, BossLady of the establishment!

Drinks Ice Lemon Tea (RM9.00) and Lemon Na ‘Na’ (RM11)

Arayes Chicken (RM20.00)

Crunchy, pan fried Lebanese bread wrapped around flavorful minced chicken with greens and a lemon to squeeze on the side. We personally enjoyed this the most among all the wonderful dishes served to us at Tarbush. It’s basically a savoury grilled sandwich Middle Eastern Style!

Biryani Lamb (RM24.00)

Louis was the only one amongst us to have tried Biryani Lamb before, just once, in KL, and this was totally incomparable! It was an explosion of flavors and tastes in all our mouths. The generous portions of Lamb were amazing to eat; juicy, tender and well-done! The accompanying chili sauce and curry also went very well with the Biryani rice. The aroma of the parsley also brought out the best of the Biryani.

Appetizer: Humus Tahinah (RM10.00) and Dessert: Mahalabia (RM10.00)

A mildly tasting milk cream pudding garnished with chopped pistachio! We thought it was a pleasant way to end our meal after all the strong tastes and herbs we’ve been having!

Décor:

The restaurant is well lit and had wonderfully comfortable chairs! 2 wonderful fountains placed in the middle of the restaurant. Cushioned seats and beautiful Middle Eastern pottery and paintings adorned the inside.

We also learned that they serve shisha for those of you who enjoy it after 3pm daily!

Details:

Opening Hours: Daily from 10am-1am, perfect for chilling after a late night movie!

Address: Tarbush Restaurant, Sunway Pyramid, LG Floor. It’s in the Marrakesh area of the pyramid, near FootMaster Spa & YinYang clothing.

Contact Number: 03-5633 9222

Fax: 03-5635 5922

Branches: Bukit Bintang – 03-21428558, Starhill – 03-21446393, Penang – 04-8852558, Tarbush Express (Pyramid) – 03-56353830

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race–Station #1: Strawberry Fields Cafe, OldTown Petaling Jaya

2011-01-15T11:53:00.001+08:00

SO ! Our team, the Foodologists consisting of Khai Sim, Meng Leong, Yi Ching and I have just arrived at the first location, the Strawberry Fields in OldTown Petaling Jaya in first place! Let’s hope we get to keep our lead at the remaining 4 restaurants!

Conveniently located in front of the MPPJ Building, The Strawberry Fields Café serves a variety of local dishes such as Asam Laksa (RM6.95), Tomyam Soup Meehoon (RM6.95) and even seafood like the Butter Cream Prawn Rice (RM9.20).

We were served three dishes to sample in total, the first:

Strawberry Fields Fried Mee RM 8.10

The springy thin noodles are a perfect expression of our local flavors, with ingredients such as fresh prawns, carrots and onions. It tastes like home cooked food which is something that most of us love. The flavors in the dish go together very well and the ingredients complement one another just as well.

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice RM8.20

The Thai Pineapple Fried Rice is as we expected: tangy, full of fresh seafood and comes served in a pineapple as it’s name clearly suggests! It does taste a lot like most Thai dishes I have had in Thailand before which is a very good thing. However, it isn’t very spicy. Probably the dish was tweaked a little to suit the tastebuds of us Malaysians.

Both Main Dishes were served in hearty portions and were appropriately priced. Presentation wise, they were both served in a very eye-catching manner. For example, the Thai Pineapple Fried rice was served in a makeshift pineapple ‘bowl’ made out of an actual pineapple. As for the Strawberry Fields Fried Mee, it was served with vegetables that added colour to the otherwise plain looking dish.

Sagu Gula Melaka RM4.00

After tasting 2 main meals, time for desert! For desert lovers out there, you just got to come and try this. Just sit around chilling and indulge in the Sagu Gula Melaka. It’s sweet with good authentic gula melaka taste.

Decoration:

The Strawberry Fields Cafe is decorated with various tokens of the owner’s past, from Elvis,

to a small picture of the Beatles in the Kitchen:

Overall, we certainly enjoyed the local fare and decor. We would definitely recommend it to our friends and families.

Details:

Address: Ground Floor, Jalan Tengah, 46200, Petaling Jaya.

Opening Hours: Monday – Thursday (11.30am -2am) and Friday t0 Sunday (11.30am to 3am) – perfect for late night lepak/football match watching!

Phone Number: 03-7960 1268

The Strawberry Fields Café also has a branch in Taipan, Subang: 26, Ground Floor, Jalan USJ10/1B, Taipan Business Center, 47620, Subang Jaya.

One Step Closer to the Maxis Om Nom Nom Race

2011-01-06T20:41:00.002+08:00

It’s been a quiet new year as of late, and I’ve been wondering when Nuffnang would organize another kickass event! Having joined both the Samsung Color Me Corby event + the Digi Pimp My Day one last year, I am dead certain that I’ll have just as much fun (if not more), if we were to join the Maxis Om Nom Nom Race! There’s also been quite a severe drought of not winning anything for a while now :p

Nuffnang will be picking 60 bloggers to join the Om Nom Nom Race, one filled with tyres screeching, furious fingers and huge, content bellies!

Details!

Date: 15 January 2011 (Saturday)
Venue: Modesto’s, Ground Floor, Capital Square, 7 Persiaran CapSquare 50100, Kuala Lumpur
Time: 8am-7pm – an 11 hour race?! Hot damn!
Dress code: customized “The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race” T-shirts will be provided (Medium Please!)

Modesto’s will serve as the starting and finishing point of the race, and all 15 teams of 4 will be equipped with brilliant hardware, all available through Maxis: the latest iPhone4 with the Finder 301 app, a Maxis Broadband modem and a laptop! Our task: to solve riddles and puzzles to figure out which restaurant we should head to next. Once there, FOOOODDDDD! Once we’ve had some, we’ll have to quickly review the restaurant (points for creativity and originality, and of course good grammar!)

I wonder if we get to keep the iPhone… :p

http://www.maxis.com.my/personal/broadband/wireless_allplans.asp

http://itunes.apple.com/my/app/maxis-finder301/id375530216?mt=8#

Points will be awarded based on Time, Quality of Blog Reviews, Tweets and Facebook Statuses. check out.. the PRIZES.

Grand Prize: A 3day2night trip to Hong Kong with 5 star accommodations + A HTC DESIRE Z FOR EACH TEAM MEMBER! I want a new phone ._.

2nd Prize: 4x HTC 7 Mozart

Also, all 60 participants will be rewarded with Maxis goodie bags ^^ Khai Sim also took the liberty of hand picking our fine team:

me of course om nom nom: a fat, lazy slob!

Khai Sim, with whom I’ve join numerous races with – lets hope she gets well enough to race on the day!

Meng Leong, badass marathon runner! Check out the 6 packs

and the last teammate, Yi Ching aka MissRei, whom I’m sure many know of in the blogging world.

Here’s to making the final cut, and coming off as winners! :)

If I Were The Green Hornet

2011-01-05T22:21:00.001+08:00

If I were the Green Hornet and I had to stop crime, I would firstly: pimp up my ride. It’s gotta be a Hummer

so that I can drive into firefights and not worry about getting shot at through my windows and doors. I think it’d be better than the car they drive :p its also gotta have fake number plates, fully tinted windows, automatic machine guns, rocket launchers and it can also be driven remotely! like the BatMobile in the Dark Knight. Just more badass.

Then I’ll go for a crash course in close quarters combat when guns are too messy or things have to be done quietly. Hire some ex-SWAT, ex-Mossad guys to teach me some.

I’ll also have my own arsenal of guns of course, from M-16s to sniper rifles and grenades to take out large masses of criminals. Now…. if only I had the money for it. :p

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Hope I get those tickets! =B

Things I did in 2010

2010-12-31T14:22:00.001+08:00

1) Joined and won 2nd place in Eco Challenge 2010 – kayaked, river trekked, and climbed outdoors for the first time too!

2) Played in more frisbee tournaments: INTEC 2010, UKM 2010, Notts Open 2010, MUO2010, Kings and Queens 2010, Single Gender Singapore 2010, Taylor’s Open 2010, Bangkok Hat 2010, Singapore Open 2010 (Pool C Runner Ups but nothing to be proud of lol) and Penang Hat 2010 – the first tournament I’ve actually won. :)

3) Hiked to and camped at Pantai Kerachut in Penang !

4) Sang with a band on stage (very terribly haha) – Fragments and Fictions, who are doing very well!

5) Won more stuff (usual movie premieres, CD’s, 1TB hard drive, a new phone: Samsung Corby)

6) Travelled to Bandung / Jakarta and Korea with the family

on the peak of one of the mountains in Korea where the wind was so strong I’m sure a kid would be blown off

7) Finished my first year of university

8) Went to the MTV World Stage 2010 and watched the Wondergirls, Tokio Hotel, but I missed Katy Perry :(:(:(

9) participated in and completed the Perhentian Island Challenge 2010, placing 46th out of 112 participants in the Novice Category (due to 4 simultaneous cramps). 13km trail run!

10) hiked up Bukit Tabur and Broga Hill

11) ran my first 10KM marathon properly, the #NikeKL10 at 1:00:42.

12) worked part time at YouthAsia as a telemarketer (sorta, my job involved getting people’s contacts after explaining to them what Groupsmore was all about) =,= not something I’d do again, but the people were great :)

13) Kept in touch with my old HELP mates whenever I could

14) Got closer to my Monash mates, well the few that I hang out with.

14) And as usual, caroled with my church’s choir again

its new year’s eve. i have no plans. lifeless much? :(

Letter from Tahoe

2010-12-25T02:01:00.001+08:00

Another Christmas ends as the new year approaches. Christmas mass, was as always, a pleasant one. I guess this will be my wrap-up post for the year, the next one will probably just contain lots of pictures that sorta documented what I did this year. It certainly has been a positive year, with many new experiences – nearly all great and life changing eye-openers. What inspired me to blog at this strange hour (it seems all my wordy, thought-invoking posts come to me at twilight. okay not twilight, it seems Google has made it clear that twilight is the time right after sunset :p. okay fine late after midnight!), or rather inspired me to pen out some thoughts this fine Christmas morning (1.30am on Christmas day), is Az Samad’s wonderful music.

Who is Az Samad you ask? Letter from Tahoe was one of the songs he played for us. Couldn’t get it on YouTube! Before today, I’ve only known him as the guy who I’ve seen comment on Cheryl’s statuses (yes, I need to seriously get off Facebook). Google him, however and you will find his website. When I first saw him at her house this evening, never did it occur to me that this long-haired, dark-skinned individual had the fingers of a guitar pro.

This was one of the songs he played for us tonight, I believe. Eyes closed, legs restlessly tapping away, he smiled warmly and swayed to his own music. I love watching people who are thoroughly enjoy performing – which is quite hypocritical, sad to say, since I know I look terrible when I carol ! oh dear. And it’s been forever since I’ve watched a performance that put everyone in the room under a spell, an enchantment that kept their eyes glued on his ever-moving fingers. Watching him served as a keen reminder of what I’d really want to feel when I grow up: happy and content doing what I do to make a living.

It has been a comparatively good year! Here’s to another wonderful one ahead :). Merry Christmas everyone!

Perhentian Island Challenge 2010 | Korea | Penang Hat 2010 bumper post

2010-12-12T21:47:00.001+08:00

Perhentian

Reproduced below is the feedback form which I submitted for the Perhentian Island Challenge which I took part in a couple of months ago (I know, I know, this post is months overdue).

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Please help us evaluate our event by completing this short questionnaire. Indicate your level of satisfaction in each category with an ‘X’. Your feedback will help us improve our event in the future.

	Very Satisfied	Satisfied	Unsatisfied	Very Unsatisfied
Overall experience		X
Organization of the event		X
Online Registration		X
Race Kit Collection Counter				X
Race Course		X
Bus Transfer		X
Boat Transfer		X
Food and Beverage			X
Tent Accommodation			X
Facilities			X
Materials and Handouts		X
Service		X

Comments and Recommendations:

How did you hear about this event?

Previous friends who have participated in the event, this is my first year as a participant.

Which parts were the least useful or enjoyable?

Firstly, during the registration, I failed to understand why there were so many people handling the registration of participants for their specific buses, and only 2 people handling the collection of race bibs and receipts. Because registering for the bus took such a short period of time, the second line was very long and unorganized. Just saying, you know.

I think the routes lacked enough water stops – despite many reassurances from the race director that there would be sufficient, I thought there weren’t enough. I understood that there was supposed to be one at the checkpoint at the top of the banana plantation, heard that it was hard to transport the water there – if this was the case, why even decide to have it there in the first place? And even if it was difficult, the problem should’ve been corrected on an ad-hoc basis – ie. Placing another water stop at another checkpoint. At the checkpoint at the windmills I was also told that there would be water right before the finishing line, there wasn’t any.

This leads us to the next issue: Marshalls at every checkpoint should be briefed regarding the issues that might be brought up by participants: such as, distance to the next water / check point. When you ask how far away is the next water point (because of the lack of it), you don’t want to hear that it’s the next checkpoint, you’d rather have a quantifiable amount: distance. How many kilometers. Just a psychological thing I would say. But the again, you might argue that the race is meant to push your limits and I’m just being whiney by complaining about it. Also, the least you could have at a checkpoint (even if not water, I understand this is a grueling physical race), would be a first aid kit. I saw tons of them at the campsite, but almost none of the marshals at the checkpoints had one on them. Or at least some form of muscle relaxants for participants with cramps!

The campsite was overall satisfactory, the biggest drawback being the lack of water pressure for the showers. But at least the water supply was constant. I think the biggest complaint that my friends in the elite category had was not being allowed to finish the race, with relations to the cutoff time of 230pm. The cutoff time was unrealistic; there was plenty of time for the elite racers to finish the race before dark. And why was there a cutoff time for elite participants and not novice ones? Probably could avoid having to rescue 12 people.

What did you find most useful or enjoyable?

Good job marking the route this year, I only got lost because I was following people who were also lost.

What were the highlights of the event for you?

Finishing the race

How would you describe your overall experience in Perhentian Island Challenge 2010?

Satisfactory

Would you consider participating in Perhentian Island Challenge 2011?

Yes

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It was my first time in Perhentian, and it truly is a beautiful place. Such a pity I don’t have a diving license (been meaning to get one for the longest time :( ) Because I’ve heard that diving there rates amongst the top spots in the world. But I wouldn’t know since I’ve never dived =\ meh. Was an extremely long bus trip to and from Kuala Besut, Terengganu. On the way back, our bus was a lot more comfortable though! I must say, however, that the price of the entire thing was truly unbeatable: RM230 for entrance fees, transport and accommodation.

But for a price like that, there’s bound to be many complaints – as highlighted above. What I didn’t mention was that we slept in tents by the beach where there were tons of fireants and there was even a snake resting under one of the tents. Not to mention the food… lol. But that’s roughing it out right?

Was there with Felix, Yew Eng’s dad and Uncle. We pretty much spent the time not racing walking down the beach and drinking at one of the nearby beach resorts (well Felix and I anyway). We also managed to get a bit of kayaking in. IT’S SO MUCH EASIER IN THE SEA THAN IN A LAKE WHERE THE WATER IS STILL. I’m serious about that =,= The current nearly brought us into some rocks though.

To those with a little bit more cash to spare, do just book a room for the 2 nights you’re going to be there! There are plenty of resorts to choose from. The race itself?

Nowhere as tough as the Eco Challenge I did months ago, but very physically demanding as well. I think I was overconfident from the Nike 10KM I did a week prior to this. I forgot how tough trail running would be =\Started off in the kampung area, into a paved pathway with slight inclines and declines along the perimeter of the island. That was about 2 kilometers, the remaining 11 kilometers consisted of running along the beach in the insane heat, insane inclines in a banana plantation, lots and lots of trail running and hills all over the place – the biggest crux was probably the 570 stairs that we had to descend and ascend again at the Windmill.

In comparison, Batu Caves only has 272 stairs.

About 5 /6km into the race, we reached a checkpoint and I found out that Felix and I were 15th/16th out of 150 novice participants. So I thought we were doing really well! After another 2 kilometers I think, I started cramping up, but held my position and powered through as hard as I could push my body. And then it hit me:

4 simultaneous cramps.

Double calve and double thigh cramps! I was screaming my lungs out. This was at the top of the biggest dirt hill of the route lol. Thanks, Felix, for not ditching me. lol. This was right before the 570 stairs. :| sprayed some deep heat and grunted my way through, descending from the Windmill after getting through all.. those… stairs. :p walked slowly down the last dirt hill, and muscled through towards the finish line. what a huge feeling of satisfaction to finish the race!

Unfortunately, we didn’t bring a camera so we have no pictures of ourselves. :( they took a couple of us but I can’t seem to find them anywhere! We spent that night at the prize giving ceremony – they told us to be at the race island at 8 i think? Yet nothing was set up when we arrived and we were a bit confused about what was going on. Everything was only up and running at about 915, and some intermittent power failures didn’t help the ceremony at all – basically giving away the prizes to the winners, and giving away free stuff to the island locals.

All the participants were exhausted and this meant that the dikir barat fell on deaf ears (personally, I have no appreciation for it =\) The ride home was comfortable at least, cuz we got on one of the more comfortable double decker buses back to KL!

I’d do it again :)

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Korea

I haven’t had the writing mojo in the longest time now, hence the lack of details I’ll be writing about Korea. Just pictures that my sister posted on FB. When we arrived it was nearing winter, so temperatures were between 5 and 10 degrees if I’m not mistaken. Colder than China when we were there, but still no snow :(

With my dad @ Incheon Airport

We were in a tour group, which consisted mostly of adults and little children. Meaning.. lotsa eating and lotsa crying. First stop:

Outside the Korean Blue House, where the South Korean head of state resides.. I think. Went to this shopping place in the city after that. Prices aren’t really very cheap to be honest, so I didn’t buy much during the entire trip. We then went to Everland – haha basically Korea’s Disneyland? or Universal Studios? Nice place! Huge theme park!

Lol with santarinas under a giant tree decorated with christmas lights

Spent most of our time there walking around and looking at animals though. Cool safari thingamajig in the middle of the park. We only got to ride one ride – the T Express! 2nd Tallest Wooden Rollercoaster in the world! Was told it was the tallest but I googled it and now that title is held by a rollercoaster in Ohio.

I think we then went to this giant place with factory outlets. Can’t remember what it was called, but I bought a pair of red Vans :) Most of our meals were standard – Korean barbeque! I think we had this at nearly every meal except two exceptions – ginseng chicken / noodles on the last day.

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The next day we drove pretty far up north, our first stop was a preserved warship and submarine by the western coast.

The submarine was a North Korean one that they captured and preserved. Pretty cool stuff, my first time walking through either one.

We then drove to this National Park I believe, beautiful views and insane winds. Hopped on a cablecar to the top of the mountain.

Profile picture worthy eh. lol.

Last stop for the day was Fisherman’s Wharf – didn’t do much here, just a place where Fisherman came to sell their strange and exotic catches for the day. Day three we went to this cultural village place where they basically showed the tribes of Korea and their homes. Since my Mandarin is terrible, I didn’t get much of what the tourguide was saying. We went to another part of the city after that, didn’t shop or anything, was lazy. Had lunch there and some Cold Stone ice cream! mmmm. Never had it before. I had Ben and Jerry’s in Singapore during SUO 2010 :).

We also went to another museum that showed more Korean culture. hmmm. well the pictures ran out so I can barely remember what else we did during the trip. Oh yes. We did touristy stuff like find Korean BB cream, make kimchi, buy Korean ginseng and buying seaweed.

In summation: almost everywhere we went, the tourist operators spoke fluent Mandarin! Very smart to tap into the Chinese market. Pork is cheap there because we had it at nearly every meal. Kimchi is their rice although I don’t have a liking for it. ummmm. We drove for long hours on end to arrive at anywhere we wanted to go on the first couple of days. Things to buy: cosmetics.

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Penang Hat 2010!

I was very excited for the tournament because it felt as if it had been ages since I played in a tournament, had to skip the INTEC Open on account of exams :( We drove there in King’s Persona – King, Ping, Alex and I, arrived there at about 1030 cuz we had to wait til Alex got off work. Had food at Tanjung Bungah – overrated ! Honestly, the entire trip, the only good Penang food we had was the Cendol & Coconut that Raymond brought us to eat on the last day :(

We stayed at GoodHope Inn – not the Kelawei one – the lesser known one nearer to Tanjung Bungah. We were pretty pissed off when we arrived because despite repeated calls prior to our arrival to confirm that there’d be enough space for the four of us, there wasn’t.

We thought we would be given 2 rooms – instead we had one. With 2 single beds and four pillows. That’s just bollocks! Giving 4 pillows does not mean that you can fit 4 people in the room! Stupid place. We vented our anger at the management who insisted it wasn’t their fault, and ended up paying an additional RM30/night for an additional mattress to be added into the room (which wasn’t comfortable at all – I slept on it). We had to pay the extra despite it being an error on THEIR END.

So if you opt to stay here, make sure there’s really enough space for the lot of you.

The next day, we got up early and drove to Padang Polo, where the tournament was to be held. Steve helped us register, so we trooped off to McD’s for some food before it started.

144 players signed up although im pretty sure there were a couple of no shows. very big difference between the KL and Penang players/players from other states in terms of skill. Quite refreshing to see so many new faces, glad that it’s growing outside of KL.

12 teams in total, captains were chosen if they were captains of their own teams/seniors. my team captain was Donnie (AUR). 6 fields in total, definitely big enough to accommodate the fields. although fields were a bit irregular in terms of size - width/length, but generally playable. pretty good fields too.. 6 games in total, 4 before, 2 after lunch.

We lost the first game to darren's team by a couple of points, still getting our footing and flow going. next game was against carroll & bob’s team if i'm not mistaken. they kept hucking and I picked off most of them so we took that game pretty okay.

next game was against kam hing's i think, won that too also cuz they were lacking players or something. also they seemed to have much internal conflict going on. 4th game was against alex/wai onn's team - won by one point, probably most challenging prelim game.

The organizer’s rules were a bit strange though. Hard Cap at half time - point is immediately stopped (not played out) and team that pulled initially will pull AGAIN after the half - although there were variations of this rule in the end.

raining like mad during lunch, we thought the fields would be in a terrible condition when we got back but they were okay! so good for us.

3-1 meant we were in Pool A (winner's pool), played Darren's team again who was 4-0 in the semis. We won by one point also. They weren't playing WFDF rules - so their hard cap at full time was - when the siren was blown, all play ceases and the team that leads by 1 wins the game.

instead of needing to lead by 2 if leading by 1 at a hard cap according to WFDF right. so their rules helped us win that game lol. but we definitely played hard. could barely run because we had just come back from lunch :|

Finals was against Max's. thought we would lose terribly, they looked pretty solid with safwan, max, nicky, sherng from sunway etc etc.. a lot more experience than our team lah. we were point for point up til 3-3 until most of them started cramping!

Every guy on my team pancit before and during the finals including donnie who completely stopped playing midway through the finals. meaning i had to handle alone zomg ._. and pull through with the rest of my players.

i didn't sub out through out the entire semifinals and finals ._. super exhausted when we finally finished the game. was a bit heated between max and i - i think I was following him a bit too closely so nudged him a little. zzz. but we're okay.

on the whole, a very well-done tournament. only issue was balancing the teams la, quite imbalanced if the point difference between the teams was so high. Also, I felt that they should’ve provided lunch on the field – was quite a hassle to drive off and find lunch on our own. Not to mention how dirty we were! had to get into the cars in all our gross-ness. =\

Hope they make it an annual thing :)

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On another note, I started working part time/interning at YouthAsia last week. Work’s not really what I expected it to be, but thought I’d stick through it since it’s only going to be a month.

Stop Child Abuse

2010-11-26T21:27:00.001+08:00

If you’ve known me long enough, you’d know that I love kids – actually babies lol or 1/2 year olds who can barely walk and can only mouth out repeated syllables like mama. And everytime I hear about child abuse cases, be it locally or internationally, I just can’t help but feel terrible about what these kids go through. From beatings to prostitution to being child soldiers and taking lives, there’s just nothing right about letting children be a part of these things.

It’s been around for a while now, but the case that shocked the nation and made parents more aware was probably the murder of Nurin Jazlin, who was 8 at the time of her death. As far as I know, her case has yet to be solved, and our police (as usual) seem to have no new leads or any way of closing the case. The act that I’d never want to see again would be the kidnapping and murder of children.

Think about what the parents go through - the countless nights spent worrying, driving around distributing flyers and asking strangers have-you-seen-this-girl?, to staying strong and hoping for the best and if the worst happens, losing it and realizing that their precious child will never come back. Also think about what the child goes through – how would you feel if that happened to you when you were 10? if it happened to your brother, or sister, or your own children when the time comes?

I say this to you:

Get on board with unicef and STOP CHILD ABUSE!

Case of the Stolen Keys to Tron: Legacy by TGV

2010-11-23T13:21:00.002+08:00

So TGV Cinemas is having this contest where you’re supposed to play detective and solve a crime:

Interesting stuff, and check out the prizes zomg!: A Private Screening Hall for any movie + a Panasonic 50” 3DTV and many other attractive prizes to the ones who manage to solve the case! You can find more clues at their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TGVCinemas!

Been waiting to watch Tron for a realllyyy long time now. But don’t think I have the mental capacity to be solving any crimes :p haha. although that new laptop looks realllyyyy attractive (don’t have space for a 50 inch tv in my room :D should try and start snooping around and see whether i stand a chance to win or not.. hmmmm.

although i may not be as cool/good looking as these two gentleman:

hmmmmmmm. TRON!

The Only Thing I Know

2010-11-11T22:40:00.000+08:00

sent before the eve of my last paper this semester

Nike 10KM

2010-10-10T22:57:00.002+08:00

So this morning I ran my first proper marathon with King, Ping, Khai Sim and her friend Chun Tat. Proper in the sense that I actually jogged/varied in speed the entire way and didn’t stop to walk. Was also taking it seriously ie I was trying to hit my target time of 1 hour. But unfortunately, as the screen shot above shows – I didn’t manage to :( 1:00:42.

42 seconds too long. But I figure it’s okay, since I didn’t train for the marathon at all! It’s a bit insane to know that the winners won at half my time :| 30 minutes ie 3 minutes per kilometer. Good prep for my Perhentian Island Challenge this Saturday. Can barely wait – first, to get through this week. Sorry king haha for leading us to find food where it did not exist –,- well we were in the right place, on Jalan Ipoh, just not the right part of it. here’s proof that Mee Bon exists!

Gonna sleep now. Been a long weekend. Night all!

Lee Kuan Yew's Eulogy

2010-10-08T16:34:00.003+08:00

Ancient peoples developed and ritualised mourning practices to express the shared grief of family and friends, and together show not fear or distaste for death, but respect for the dead one; and to give comfort to the living who will miss the deceased.

I recall the ritual mourning when my maternal grandmother died some 75 years ago. For five nights the family would gather to sing her praises and wail and mourn at her departure, led by a practiced professional mourner.

Such rituals are no longer observed. My family’s sorrow is to be expressed in personal tributes to the matriarch of our family.

In October 2003 when she had her first stroke, we had a strong intimation of our mortality.

My wife and I have been together since 1947 for more than three quarters of our lives. My grief at her passing cannot be expressed in words. But today, when recounting our lives together, I would like to celebrate her life.

In our quiet moments, we would revisit our lives and times together. We had been most fortunate. At critical turning points in our lives, fortune favoured us.

As a young man with an interrupted education at Raffles College, and no steady job or profession, her parents did not look upon me as a desirable son-in-law. But she had faith in me.

We had committed ourselves to each other. I decided to leave for England in September 1946 to read law, leaving her to return to Raffles College to try to win one of the two Queen’s Scholarships awarded yearly. We knew that only one Singaporean would be awarded. I had the resources, and sailed for England, and hoped that she would join me after winning the Queen’s Scholarship.

If she did not win it, she would have to wait for me for three years.

In June the next year, 1947, she did win it. But the British colonial office could not get her a place in Cambridge.

Through Chief Clerk of Fitzwilliam, I discovered that my Censor at Fitzwilliam, W S Thatcher, was a good friend of the Mistress of Girton, Miss Butler.

He gave me a letter of introduction to the Mistress. She received me and I assured her that Choo would most likely take a “First”, because she was the better student when we both were at Raffles College.

I had come up late by one

term to Cambridge, yet passed my first year qualifying examination with a class 1. She studied Choo’s academic record and decided to admit her in October that same year, 1947.

We have kept each other company ever since. We married privately in December 1947 at Stratford-upon-Avon. At Cambridge, we both put in our best efforts. She took a first in two years in Law Tripos II. I took a double first, and a starred first for the finals, but in three years.

We did not disappoint our tutors. Our Cambridge Firsts gave us a good start in life. Returning to Singapore, we both were taken on as legal assistants in Laycock & Ong, a

thriving law firm in Malacca Street. Then we married officially a second time that September 1950 to please our parents and friends. She practised conveyancing and draftsmanship, I did litigation.

In February 1952, our first son Hsien Loong was born. She took maternity leave for a year.

That February, I was asked by John Laycock, the Senior Partner, to take up the case of the Postal and Telecommunications Uniformed Staff Union, the postmen’s union.

They were negotiating with the government for better terms and conditions of service. Negotiations were deadlocked and they decided to go on strike. It was a battle for public support. I was able to put across the reasonableness of their case through the press and radio. After a fortnight, they won concessions from the government. Choo, who was at home on maternity leave, pencilled through my draft statements, making them simple and clear.

Over the years, she influenced my writing style. Now I write in short sentences, in the active voice. We gradually influenced each other’s ways and habits as we adjusted and accommodated each other.

We knew that we could not stay starry-eyed lovers all our lives; that life was an on-going challenge with new problems to resolve and manage.

We had two more children, Wei Ling in 1955 and Hsien Yang in 1957. She brought them up to be well-behaved, polite, considerate and never to throw their weight as the prime minister’s children.

As a lawyer, she earned enough, to free me from worries about the future of our children.

She saw the price I paid for not having mastered Mandarin when I was young. We decided to send all three children to Chinese kindergarten and schools.

She made sure they learned English and Malay well at home. Her nurturing has equipped them for life in a multi-lingual region.

We never argued over the upbringing of our children, nor over financial matters. Our earnings and assets were jointly held. We were each other’s confidant.

She had simple pleasures. We would walk around the Istana gardens in the evening, and I hit golf balls to relax.

Later, when we had grandchildren, she would take them to feed the fish and the swans in the Istana ponds. Then we would swim. She was interested in her surroundings, for instance, that many bird varieties were pushed out by mynahs and crows eating

up the insects and vegetation.

She discovered the curator of the gardens had cleared wild grasses and swing fogged for mosquitoes, killing off insects they fed on. She stopped this and the bird varieties returned. She surrounded the swimming pool with free flowering scented flowers and derived great pleasure smelling them as she swam.

She knew each flower by its popular and botanical names. She had an enormous capacity for words.

She had majored in English literature at Raffles College and was a voracious reader, from Jane Austen to JRR Tolkien, from Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian Wars to Virgil’s Aeneid, to The Oxford Companion to Food, and Seafood of Southeast Asia, to Roadside Trees of Malaya, and Birds of Singapore.

She helped me draft the Constitution of the PAP. For the inaugural meeting at Victoria Memorial Hall on 4 November 1954, she gathered the wives of the founder members to sew rosettes for those who were going on stage.

In my first election for Tanjong Pagar, our home in Oxley Road, became the HQ to assign cars provided by my supporters to ferry voters to the polling booth.

She warned me that I could not trust my new found associates, the leftwing trade unionists led by Lim Chin Siong. She was furious that he never sent their high school student helpers to canvass for me in Tanjong Pagar, yet demanded the use of cars provided by my supporters to ferry my Tanjong Pagar voters.

She had an uncanny ability to read the character of a person. She would sometimes warn me to be careful of certain persons; often, she turned out to be right.

When we were about to join Malaysia, she told me that we would not succeed because the UMNO Malay leaders had such different lifestyles and because their politics were communally-based, on race and religion.

I replied that we had to make it work as there was no better choice. But she was right.

We were asked to leave Malaysia before two years.

When separation was imminent, Eddie Barker, as Law Minister, drew up the draft legislation for the separation. But he did not include an undertaking by the Federation Government to guarantee the observance of the two water agreements between the PUB and the Johor state government. I asked Choo to include this. She drafted the undertaking as part of the constitutional amendment of the Federation of Malaysia Constitution itself.

She was precise and meticulous in her choice of words. The amendment statute was annexed to the Separation Agreement, which we then registered with the United Nations.

The then Commonwealth Secretary Arthur Bottomley said that if other federations were to separate, he hoped they would do it as professionally as Singapore and Malaysia.

It was a compliment to Eddie’s and Choo’s professional skills. Each time Malaysian Malay leaders threatened to cut off our water supply, I was reassured that this clear and solemn international undertaking by the Malaysian government in its Constitution will get us a ruling by the UNSC (United Nations Security Council).

After her first stroke, she lost her left field of vision. This slowed down her reading. She learned to cope, reading with the help of a ruler. She swam every evening and kept fit. She continued to travel with me, and stayed active despite the stroke. She stayed in touch with her family and old friends.

She listened to her collection of CDs, mostly classical, plus some golden oldies. She jocularly divided her life into “before stroke” and “after stroke”, like BC and AD.

She was friendly and considerate to all associated with her. She would banter with her WSOs (woman security officers) and correct their English grammar and pronunciation in a friendly and cheerful way. Her former WSOs visited her when she was at NNI. I thank them all.

Her second stroke on 12 May 2008 was more disabling. I encouraged and cheered her on, helped by a magnificent team of doctors, surgeons, therapists and nurses.

Her nurses, WSOs and maids all grew fond of her because she was warm and considerate. When she coughed, she would take her small pillow to cover her mouth because she worried for them and did not want to infect them.

Her mind remained clear but her voice became weaker. When I kissed her on her cheek, she told me not to come too close to her in case I caught her pneumonia.

I assured her that the doctors did not think that was likely because I was active.

When given some peaches in hospital, she asked the maid to take one home for my lunch. I was at the centre of her life.

On 24 June 2008, a CT scan revealed another bleed again on the right side of her brain. There was not much more that medicine or surgery could do except to keep her comfortable.

I brought her home on 3 July 2008. The doctors expected her to last a few weeks. She lived till 2nd October, 2 years and 3 months.

She remained lucid. They gave time for me and my children to come to terms with the inevitable. In the final few months, her faculties declined. She could not speak but her cognition remained.

She looked forward to have me talk to her every evening.

Her last wish she shared with me was to enjoin our children to have our ashes placed together, as we were in life.

The last two years of her life were the most difficult. She was bedridden after small successive strokes; she could not speak but she was still cognisant.

Every night she would wait for me to sit by her to tell her of my day’s activities and to read her favourite poems. Then she would sleep.

I have precious memories of our 63 years together. Without her, I would be a different man, with a different life. She devoted herself to me and our children.

She was always there when I needed her. She has lived a life full of warmth and meaning.

I should find solace at her 89 years of her life well lived. But at this moment of the final parting, my heart is heavy with sorrow and grief.

-----

i think the hardest thing to do after reading this is finding someone you would write something like this for.

Someone Else’s Summer

2010-10-07T10:25:00.003+08:00

For the past couple of weeks, some people were back for their summer holidays – Jas, Sen, Sheng, Vana, Nick etc etc. point of the post are the photos! that Jas and Sheng took :) here they are:

at Bukit Tabur.

which we climbed up and down in three and a half hours. It's a pretty daunting climb, pure uphill for the bigger part of the climb til you hit your first peak. It's also not a pure hike - there are parts where you're climbing on sharp rock surfaces, so be careful! We were silly not to do our research so we kept going even after the first peak, thinking that we "weren't there yet". haha. We eventually stopped after a couple, and when we were on the way back we saw chinese words saying turn back now or die or something along those lines lolol. nice views of the Klang Gates dam and the surrounding suburbs.

pretty dangerous if you're not in a group/not careful. also if you're scared of heights, some of the roped parts can really get under your skin. anyway. It's a ridge, so there are peaks along the whole stretch. So go for a couple, but stop when you're getting tired. Bring lots of water! and sunblock if you're planning on climbing anytime past 10am. wear sensible shoes and clothing that you can comfortably move in / don't mind getting dirty. you can find most of the directions online, your biggest landmark should be zoo negara.

at jas’s place for lunch – mmmm nasi padang? hahah.

At Broga, which was a simpler hike altogether. It's near Nottingham Uni in Semenyih - if you can get there, its about 5 minutes away. We took a couple of hours. was very slow haha we kept stopping on account of Sen, was hilarious lol. But was a more picturesque climb nonetheless, a lot of photo opportunities along the way and gorgeous views of the country around you. You start in a palm oil plantation and work your way up, long steep climbs for the first part of it, but pretty manageable if you're fit enough. sorta like doing perpetual lunges all the way.

read jas' take on it all here :)

the Singapore Ultimate Open 2010

2010-10-06T15:52:00.002+08:00

so i’ve pretty much squandered away my day doing next to nothing, think I should get in some productivity – even if its not academic in any way urgh FML. Let’s just get right to it, shall we? my 500th post also -

like every other ultimate tournament, it was held over the weekend, and since it was in another country, it was only natural that I’d arrive there a day before. Atten

ded two of my tutorials on that faithful Friday, had to skip a management lecture, but that’s okay since I don’t particularly learn much in the lectures anyway, more from my own readings actually.

got dropped off at One Utama, where I took the (

RM15) shuttle bus to LCCT – its pretty convenient since it’s just a stone’s throw away, the only drawback is that it doesn’t have late night buses, so you’re only covered if you’re flight’s in the middle of the day. Got to LCCT with a couple of hours to spare. Bought a newspaper and plunked myself down at Old Town whilst waiting for Felix and Shannon to arrive. Flight was at 630, checked in, bumped into Ida and David who were also on our flight, and of course took off. We took Tiger airways, Felix booked it a month before (RM150) for the return flight.

-----

Arrived safely, got past immigration and cabbed to our hostel, the

Prince of Wales in Little India, which was recommended by Yew Eng. We paid (20SGD)/night/person, which was cheaper than last year, got bunk beds – which are normal for backpacker’s hostels. The place was staffed mostly by Australians, who provided a warm welcome. It has a bar with live music downstairs – which proved to be annoying on Friday night since the music only stopped blasting at about 2am. Coupled with Kam Hing’s snoring, I didn’t get much sleep that night.

3 communal showers and toilets with a shoddy complimentary internet access via a desktop in our shared room. We thought we were getting a room for the 5 of us – turned out it was a huge room with partitions to separate the smaller “rooms”. Okay la, complimentary breakfast on both mornings, which we couldn’t have, since it only started serving at 9am – we had to be early on the fields on both days. Also caught a glimpse of the dog in their logo, haha their mascot I think.

-----

Dropped our stuff then walked to the Little India train station (rou

ghly 5-7 minutes away) to the registration party, which was at Clarke Quay. Beautiful place for night life! Just overly crowded, like everywhere in Singapore, actually. The venue was Beer Market – the prices of the beers supposedly fluctuated according to su

pply and demand every night, ie the beer with less demand had lower prices and so on. Didn’t get to actually see this taking place :S got the registration issues ironed out with Mondster, collected our goodie bags and greeted some long lost singaporean friends :). Had a drink, but left soon after to find dinner with Mike and Shannon.

walked a great deal before we found a coffeeshop, had our fill and took the train back to Little India for the night.

-----

Got up early the next morning, cranky and pretty tired from the lac

k of sleep. Met one of the female players from Big Brother, the Hong Kong team – a few of them were staying in the “room” beside us it seems. Exchanged pleasantries but didn’t manage to get her name.. haha. Again to the train station, and took the train to Farmway via Sengkang station.

Our fields were located right beside the station, near the Anchorvale Community Center. I was the first of my team to arrive –,- the Lions did, soon after, before King and the KBU boys – who were late due to food poisoning!? They arrived 15 minutes before our first game aiyo. We always lose our first game because we never seem to properly warm up/drill. >,<

-----

Aiyoh. First game was against Lagi Shiok. And, as mentioned above, we lost the game 10-6. We were down 5-0 before the first half ended, but managed to make a comeback with 4 consecutive points 5-4, proving that we were at least on par with them. Was a disappointing loss due to this fact ugh. :(

I think this was our only team picture the entire tournament wtf. =.=

Had a two hour break before our second game against Masala Chai, a fairly new team from India. Very nice folks with good spirit and speed! They had good high releases and breaks, which made us worry for a bit. But won it alright in the end. Got my first layout assist after a super low disc from Jieja.

during the huddle – Arjun, 33 year old with crazy legs!

Next game was against Chuckies A. Clearly underestimated them because they’re definitely

not the team we met at MUO ‘09 and GenderMah ‘10. Definitely a better team, I was charged with marking their angmoh captain everytime he was on. Technically I had to mark the tallest player on the opponent’s line everytime I played ._. FML. Safe hands and good play let them take the win. Another disappointing game!

He kept skying the Lions on our team because he’s so tall ._. nearly got a layout-d on him, but he moved well – he played handler every time I marked him though – he played deep on other points =.= height advantage much! eventually blocked on of the dumps headed his way for some much deserved satiscation lol.

We had lunch at some point of time during the day, with our last game being played against ZD, the team with which we had much dispute during MUO 2010. Our team agreed to put that behind us before we started playing them. But of course, they didn’t, and began their antics. With nonsensical fouls being called – eg. their player misreads the disc in the endzone, with one of our defender in front of him who had no contact with him. he calls the foul and it gets sent back. what? you misread the disc and then say its a foul so you get another chance?

not sure if this was taken during their game, probably not haha. filler picture since the only ones available from that game are of the scuffle that nearly broke out.

right i’d do that everytime I missed the disc then. Or how if i was putting a forehand fo

rce on you and you wanted to break me with a backhand, any contact would be my fault eventhough I took the position first? Wonderful. We lost the game, I acknowledge they are good. But if you’re gonna have no spirit, then you’re not gonna get any team’s respect regardless of how good you are.

i led the cheering the entire tournament =,= i think we should come up with more creative ones though, than the regular hiphip hurahhhh.

I’ve always loved frisbee for the fact that Spirit of the Game should rule

above all rules. But if it comes to a point where fouls are being called to win the game or showing off how well you play just because you’re good, then I would just stop playing with you. And that’s pretty much how we all felt during that game. It’s not that the entire team is like that, no. Just that few.

-----

Got cleaned up a bit, took the train back to our hostel to shower, half dead undoubtedly and very fatigued from the day’s games. Travelled down the tracks down to Orchard for dinner, before Ethan, David, Ida and I trooped off by ourselves to find Ben and Jerry’s, we don’t get it in KL save for tubs that we find in Cold Storage. The rest of Felix’s team went to the tournament party instead. Sorry shaf! But I wasn’t in much of a mood to party. Was completely drained.

Eyes closed and entered my deep slumber almost instantaneously once we caught a cab back to POW. Woke up the next day, rested and ready. Was cramping a bit on the first day but it didn’t happen on the second so I was okay. Got to the fields early as usual, with over an hour to kill since our first game was only at 1030, against Chakraa, the more senior Indian team. We met a couple of their players at ISKL, very nice folks! Melly played with them also.

This is Manu, haha funny guy.

They put up a very good fight, they had players who read well and hucked well, Obi especially! Crazy man. We persevered and came out with the win by a couple of points.

Next game was against FEAR, the Australian team. A pretty decent team, with the spirit to match. Looked like they had a couple of new players, but had some solid handlers as well. We were trailing point for point all the way til half time. Eventually got our footing and confidence right and pulled away for the win.

skying! haha. I had a nicer one earlier on but that wasn’t on camera :(

Had lunch, and next thing we knew, we were in Pool C finals! We lost. Terribly. Embarrassingly. 13-1?!!!!

game was against SMU who were in blue. Apparently I stick my tongue out a lot lol.

They threw a zone on us, Lions didn’t really know how to break it which killed their play. The rest of the team? Well, most were injured, some were just too fatigued to play. A very depressing game zomg. lol. Had some short disagreements but they were a pretty well spirited team, so it was okay.

Took off the cleats and the sweaty clothes except my shorts of course lol. Grabbed a beer and sat down with Shaf to watch the finals between Freakshow and Mixed Nuts, the Pilipino-Singaporean team. Was a good game, with massive layout-ds, points and hucks all over the place. As someone on my team pointed out – even at such a high standard of play, their spirit was

unwavering. ZD should pull up a chair and take some notes.

Highlights and pictures by Voxsports, who were kind enough to send me pictures that I requested in full high res! But nowhere as heart-wrenching and suspense-inducing as last year’s finals! Mochi and Pilipinas I think.

Had to leave midgame to take my shower – else I wouldn’t shower til I was back on dinky Malaysian soil. After the game, we cabbed to the airport right away. The only plus side of the fields being so far from the city was that it was that much closer to the airport! Had a crappy dinner at the only non-fastfood restaurant at the budget terminal, killed time til our flight back at 940! Thanks Shaf for coming to send us off :))

Was very lucky that I had a ride home from the airport – thanks Michael!

photocredits: VoxSports, Ethan Soh, Teng

to end, I took shots with Ethan's camera, this is the best Ultimate shot I've taken:

-----

Personally, I thought the tournament went well for me. There’s much to improve, and I definitely want myself and the team to actually be prepared when the next tournament rolls in. Am also hoping for a smaller squad size as well. Didn’t get enough play time and felt bad for players who paid but played so little. Was how I felt at SUO last year.

Come to think about it, our MUO fields are in prime condition compared to the past 2 SUOs and GenderMah that I played in. I think our ultimate community should reach out to the teams that play in SUO to give MUO a chance, instead of having 9 Singaporean teams on the roster again ._.

DiGi iPhone 4 Life

2010-10-01T11:22:00.001+08:00

don’t think I stand much of a chance but i thought i’d finish the lot :(

Ignorance is Bliss

2010-09-30T23:40:00.004+08:00

so i started writing my SUO2010 post but I haven't gotten around to finishing it yet. in my spark of wanting to do work I started writing it rather enthusiastically, but I had to go out for the Nike 7km training run. which went pretty well I suppose. the longest distance I've done without actually stopping at all! personally knew I could do it, just needed a pacer, ie. someone to keep pace - a constant speed all the way.

today was a day with much mental reflection, probably due to the fact that I pretty much squandered the hours away until 4. got up at close to 11, got dressed, went out for brunch by my lonesome and a newspaper in hand. sometimes eating alone is interesting, you get to observe things you normally wouldn't see. like that day, i saw a mom tell her son to politely go ask the next table whether he could have some tissue, and so he obediently did, to much appraisal later on.

I think I tend to notice many things that others don't. Which goes both ways i suppose. there's much to see and understand about so many things that go on around us each day, it's just whether you take the time to do so. But some things are just hard on the soul. Some things are best left undiscovered, untouched in their natural setting. However, now already knowing these things you'd wish you saw them sooner, whilst hoping that you didn't realize the issues would send you on a guilt trip. This presents a paradox.

A problem that will send you rolling down a hill of slippery slopes. What if I didn't realize it sooner? Would it have gotten worse? I would be sad if I knew I could've stopped it.

So I found out, now what? What can I do? What if I screw up and it gets worse? Should I try anyway?

hence the coinage of the term, ignorance is bliss.

DiGi iPhone 4 Real

2010-09-28T21:41:00.001+08:00

Source

In my first post, I put this screenshot there because I was already appreciative of the DiGi plans, and it so happens the third post is about it :) good intuition aha :D Click above for the site – there’s only one thing to be said about the 58 plan.

That it is the CHEAPEST plan in Malaysia right now – the only other iPhone carrier currently is Maxis, whose plan starts at RM100/month. Like I said before, this is nearly half of what Maxis is offering! Not to mention the unlimited data and no restrictions regarding the free sms. On the next page, you’ll see that you’ll be buying the phone for RM2090, and that the promotion is for a 24month period, which is fine for people who are gonna be staying around :)

There’s also an installment plan here:

Which is pretty cool because you get to pay in installments which include your monthly fee, and its available across those banks highlighted above.

iPhone4!

DiGi iPhone 4 Play

2010-09-26T15:18:00.002+08:00

Part Two of my attempt in winning the iPhone 4 from DiGi! I’m supposed to write about which app is my favorite and why!

Undoubtedly, the apps that people favor are games! And I am not different in that sense. It was a hard choice between Plants vs Zombies,

and Angry Birds!

However, due to the fact that I’ve actually completed Plants vs Zombies on the PC countless times, Angry Birds takes the prize hands down :) The objective of the game: to dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the birds’ eggs:

As the player, you control catapults which launch these birds at buildings in which the nasty pigs are hiding in. Birds fly as you figure out which part of the building to hit first, and bring a domino-effect of destruction on to the lowly pigs. At 99cents, this game is almost practically free, and is worth every penny as you’d spend hours upon hours launching the angry birds!

The game has certainly taken the world by storm, with over 6.5 million copies sold worldwide, up to the point that many, if not all iPhone owners that you cross paths with will have it on their dock. Even Wired reviewed it, giving positive comments and two thumbs up :)

Day 2: done!

DiGi iPhone 4 Me

2010-09-24T14:02:00.003+08:00

Since I first started having a cellphone, I don’t think there’s been one that I’ve really liked, starting off with my first E398, (which was really crap) except maybe my Sony Ericsson C702, and its brilliant camera – probably the best thing about it, it started turning off on its own and I couldn’t hear calls towards the end of its life (after servicing, it is now serving my mom, but still has recurring issues). I’m currently using the Samsung Corby, which I won at a Nuffnang-held event. Glad I was convinced not to sell it, it’s a pretty hardy phone and is serving its purpose well as a phone.

But with no wi-fi, a less than ideal touch screen and an extremely pixelated 2megapixel camera, it is nothing to brag about. Ever since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, its always been touted as THE phone to have for anyone, from businessmen to the tech-savvy social network enthusiasts to the gamer in everyone. Let’s face it, Apple has revolutionized the media device industry in ways only their competitors can try and imitate.

and why exactly do I want an iPhone from DiGi?

Let’s start with the features.

Engineered Glass! Many of the prior iPhones that I encountered had scratches even with screen protectors, and many opted for rubber and leather cases for extra security. Assuming I win and I get an iPhone, I’ll probably get a case as well, but the engineered glass, coupled with the stainless steel band, which Apple boasts to be 5 times stronger than standard steel, just adds a layer of security.

Got to see how clear the retina display was on Mike’s iPad recently, and was pleasantly surprised! Probably the best display I’ve seen on a handheld device. The A4 chip also means multitasking will be a breeze, and will maximize battery life.

Now, a 5megapixecal camera might not be much to boast about considering there are phones with 12 megapixel ones out there, but somehow I’ve always found the Apple iPhone cameras to be just a little clearer. Bundled with HD Video Recording and Editing is what distinguishes it from the competition. iMovie on the iPhone means editing on the go.

What I’m really looking forward to is Facetime! Although it might be a while before I have many friends / opportunities to use it, I thought it was awesome when I saw the video. It also helps that its also available on the new iPod touch, which I’d really want assuming I don’t win :( Am also digging the games, the new iOS and iPod Genius features that I don’t get on my iPod classic :(

More than enough reasons I think (beginning to sound like a fanboy already). But why do I want it from DiGi? Assuming they’re not throwing in the 24month postpaid package, it is undoubtedly the cheapest package in Malaysia -

At RM58/month! That’s nearly HALF of what Maxis is offering. Not to mention the free SMS to ANY network, cheaper call rates, and the biggest thing probably – no extra charge after hitting your monthly data quota. Which is why I’d rather get the DiGi plan as soon as I win the phone :p

Task1: complete!

The One That Got Away

2010-08-31T16:58:00.000+08:00

been listening to Katy Perry's new album, it's pretty okay! I think I like this song the best.. and Peacock cuz its funny :p

as posted on my fb/twitter: time to get my shit together.

DC

2010-08-29T01:51:00.001+08:00

Been disconnected. Have you ever seen the rain?

Repo Men: Movie Review

2010-08-18T11:54:00.001+08:00

Haven’t reviewed any movies in a while now, nothing since Inception I think. Hasn’t been a ground-breaking year for movies, quite disappointing. Not that I’ve been making much of an effort to be winning tickets or going out to catch movies for that matter.

Got tickets for Repo Men off UIP via Kel Li (mucho thanks (:p )

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, a pretty foreign movie director to me, and starring Jude Law, whom I last saw in Sherlock Holmes, and the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (a truly strange movie, trust me), Forest Whittaker (saw him in Last King Of Scotland, Vantage Point),Alice Braga (Predator, the female lead in I am Legend – one of my favorites) and Liev Schreiber, (Salt, Sabre Tooth in X Men:Origins).

As the name crudely suggests, Law and Whittaker play the pair of ruthless best friends, Remy and Jake, repo (repossession) men for the Union ie the government. They do not handle reacquiring houses and property however, instead specializing in retrieving organs from people who do not meet their installments on time. And no, the people they do it to rarely survives. Remy eventually becomes one of these people, having an electronic heart put into him when an accident occurs. And like the others, begins falling behind on payments. He runs, and meets Beth (Braga), and together try to beat the system.

A fairly easy to follow plot. Liked the music selection in some of the scenes. Law and Whittaker play very convincing best friends, but age is evidently beginning to catch up with Law. Was slightly draggy in some parts of the movie, and the fighting and guns are nothing to brag about (if you want to watch nothing but guns, bullets and stuff blowing up, catch the Expendables). Law had a nice knife-wielding fight scene though, leaving a corridor full of other repo men dead.

There’s also a nice underlying message surrounding the movie: loving your job, and how what you do really defines you. “A job’s a job, right?” There’s even a bit of Inception thrown in, which would leave most moviegoers a bit annoyed at the end of the movie. (probably shouldn’t have said that, it’s like a little spoiler alerady) But the movie’s out tomorrow anyway, so do get around to watching it!

My rating: 3 / 5 stars

Tetris = Life

2010-08-15T21:33:00.001+08:00

it sometimes amazes me how things tend to come at the most unexpected times. Just posted yesterday on how I have been having writer’s block for the past couple of weeks hence the lack of posts. there have also been many revelations and tribulations that have been popping up in many unexpected places.

dwindling readership yet again. I’m still getting hits from Google Images though, only thing that’s delivering the daily statistics. as you can see, I had to change the template – don’t know what went wrong with the old one, things weren’t fitting right all of a sudden and everything was wonky.

just recently I’ve been thinking about how mundane things have been going. The year has been good I suppose. Things have been smooth, and that has definitely contributed to why it seems time has been flying by. It’s already freaking August! Three quarters into the year already. Now, don’t get me wrong. I like it when things are smooth. It’s just been, well, boring.

I’ve been doing the same things over and over again this year that I’ve been looking forward to all the other things that I do besides Monash, assignments, exams and frisbee. Like the time we went to Penang, or the time we competed in the Eco Challenge, or the time I impulsively decided to drive down to Singapore with King and eventually play in GenderMah 2010.

As of late, frisbee has been anything but challenging. It has been repetitive, leaving me with no drive to improve, and I certainly don’t have the discipline to do it on my own. Tend to always need someone to be running training, until I can’t feel my thighs from all the squats, eyes blacking out from all the running and arms aching from all the throwing. (come to think of it, arm hasn’t ached from frisbee since the last time we did that hucking drill). In dire need of some training that will knock me off my feet every Wednesday. I know I’m certainly not getting any better so, yeah :(

Just minutes ago I was playing Sporktris (which is actually Tetris, this was the desktop version my sister introduced to me). And as silly as it sounds, I saw how I was living life.

I saw my life as an analogy of a never-ending game of Tetris. Um, wtf?

How so? As indicated above, things have been on repeat. Everything! The pieces are always the same – it’s just what you do with them.

And every time I make a line, life goes on. The pieces repeat, but you use them to do the best you can, until you can make another line connect somewhere, until you find another one that allows you to go on. You can never lose, because when you make a mistake you can make up for it, and you learn from it. As such, never-ending.

But I guess for the more morbid souls out there, you can take losing the game as dying. The outliers are the things that I do that aren’t a part of everyday life: Travelling, Tournaments, Competitions, Concerts (I’ve only been to one this year :(:(:( ) and the sort.

I guess, well, the only reason why the outliers mean so much more is due to the fact that things are usually normal, and hence, the abnormal occurrences stand out the way that they do. They make life interesting, and as such I keep looking forward to the next one.

There must be some cosmic balance though, I cannot keep waiting for these things to happen and squander away my daily, normal life waiting for the next big bang. All the hoo-ha about living in the moment should apply I suppose.

…okay train of thought has derailed.

Live in the moment:

even if you’re in mid air :)

writer's block

2010-08-14T20:38:00.003+08:00

or rather just plain lazy. sorry for the lack of posts everyone!

ps. The Last Airbender stinks (the movie, IDIOT SHYAMALAN!), but the Expendables was funny, filled with blood, people and things blowing up and lots of guns. :)

Paradise City

2010-08-06T19:54:00.001+08:00

sometimes

2010-08-05T00:12:00.000+08:00

filler

2010-08-02T08:51:00.003+08:00

It's been a while since I've vented on this space. It's been a while since things have been bad I suppose. And for that I am thankful. Thankful that 7 months has flown by with relative smoothness. It seems as the year flew by, and I will be midway through university by the time I'm done with this semester.

This morning was a particularly rough one. The past couple of days at home has been bad for me. Why? As usual, parental issues. Just one in particular. Probably why I choose and try my very best not to be at home as much as I can.

I had no transport to uni this morning, and was eventually dropped here after much reluctance. Safe to say, I have to take public transport home later. Didn't bring my iPod, so it's going to be a 2 hour journey with my thoughts. That's going to be rough I figure. For once, I apologized today. I told her how I felt. Even though it was over sms. I don't ever do this. Why? Because I have tried on numerous occasions to try and get her to understand. But to no avail.

Her anger and emotions often drown my logic out. I used to be extremely stubborn and closed minded. But I have changed, and it's probably why I sent that text.

Aren't adults supposed to be the more mature ones? The one who take time to listen before passing judgement?

I might be wrong.

Taylor’s Ultimate Open 2010

2010-07-20T15:51:00.001+08:00

Was a really sketchy tournament with hick-ups right from the beginning. Having initially announced the tournament date as the 10th of July, they later changed it to a week later. This made things complicated for certain people who had to move plans here and there to accommodate the initial date, as well as the new one, eg Alex who moved his Bangkok trip to the 17th but later couldn’t move it back when the date was changed, as well as the ACJC team from Singapore, most of which didn’t come this weekend due to the date change.

There were no details about the tournament up to 2 days before the actual day, leaving many captains and teams wondering who was going to play the first game, as well as whether it was pool play, knock-outs and the length of the games.

SWAT 7D, Felix’s Team, featuring Kok and Uri :)

This was eventually how the 16 teams were grouped, with the team I played for, Carebears 2 being seeded first. I hate being seeded first, such high expectations. The only Singaporean team, Xiao Long Bao was seeded second, Lions third and Felix’s Snow White 4th – the next team would be Oops, then Ninos, and so on, you can figure out how the teams are seeded from there.

Our first game was against Sate, which we won pretty comfortably, and took it as our first proper warm up. Both lines had their fair amount of drops and screw-ups.

Sate in Orange, SaTe stands for Shah Alam Ultimate.

Oops! Also in Blue

We had a break after that, than we went out to play the Nottingham Oops! team. Won that pretty comfortably also, held a clean sheet throughout the game.

i think we were watching one of the games. We ended our round robin games against Cempaka, my juniors, which we took 9-1.

Had to step up our game to make sure we didn’t warm down! Another break before the quarter finals game against the Ninos.

Ninos in Blue, this was taken after I defended the disc. My ass hurt! But I think William faceplanted. That must’ve been worse!

I marked deep the entire game, picking off hucks all over the place. Exhausting! Wilson was doing the same when his line went on. We all played hard, and won the game by two or three points if I’m not mistaken.

Another break, where most of us had lunch, which was pretty bad considering we paid RM25, didn’t get any discs or shirts, and all we had was water. The field was probably sponsored, and so was the PA system. Where did the money go?

Lions in Red

Then we played the Lions in the semis! We knew how they played since we’ve played with and alongside them before numerous times at pickup and @ the UKM tournament and the Malaysian Open.

They played a better game, and we screwed up our fair share as well, I know I certainly did :(. They took the game by a couple of points, pushing them into the finals against the Singaporean Xiao Long Bao.

Had a break, then we played Satu Lagi Naans for the 3rd/4th placing. Good game, we won by 2 or three points, not too sure.

The Lions matched up to XLB pretty well throughout the finals, maintaining the draw all the way until they led by 8-7. Well executed plays, as well as strong handlers allowed the Lions to maintain possession and break the zone with ease. There were some poor spirited moments throughout the game though, for both teams I must say. However, this photo sure illustrates that Spirit of The Game should triumph it all in the end:

XLB eventually stepped up their game, and played hard for the win.

Final standings: 1st: XLB, 2nd: Lions, 3rd: Carebears 2, 4th: Satu Lagi Naan

Okay so the tournament didn’t really wear me out completely with the uber short half an hour games. My fitness and throwing have been down in the dumps since MUO though, so I’m not complaining as much. It wasn’t as satisfying though, waking up the next morning, with nothing aching at all!

But it was certainly a good time, playing the first proper KBU/Carebears line :) Was also good seeing melly again!

picture credits: Uncle Johnny Wong and Melly !

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Meanwhile, I have started class again, third semester at Monash. Since my grades were terrible in the first year, my last semester’s results certainly pulled them up. Gotta work hard again this semester to further bring my disastrous average up though ! Hello again, lifeless Louis.

Inception: Movie Review

2010-07-15T23:26:00.002+08:00

First off, thank you God! For my pleasant results this semester :) Got the tickets off Nuffnang for one of my previous posts below about how I was a gymnast haha.

When I first saw the trailer, I was already hooked on to the cinematics, the dark music and definitely because it’s directed by Christopher Nolan – Dark Knight! and starring Leonardo DiCaprio (who I last saw in Shutter Island, which was good too!)

With an all-star cast:

Not in order: DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt (500 Days of Summer), Ellen Page (Juno, X-Men), Tom Hardy (Black Hawk Down), Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai), Dileep Rao (Avatar), Cilian Murphy (Batman Begins, 28 Days Later), Marion Cotillard (Nine, haven’t watched this :() and Michael Caine (Dark Knight)

and probably the most talked about director in 2008 for the Dark Knight, I was looking forward to this movie with great expectations.

They were all met, and exceeded. Christopher Nolan, you have done it again, and since you wrote it, that makes you even more brilliant!

To avoid spoiling the movie for those who have not watched it, I’m going to sum it up as briefly as I can without giving away too many details.

Cobb (DiCaprio) is a man with a specific skill set: invading the dreams of a person, stealing the secrets that he keeps there, and selling them. Unable to return to his children as he is wanted for a crime he did not commit, he is now on his last big job, with the hopes that this returns him to them.

Easy to understand, no? Yes. But with Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead, nothing is as it seems. The man is on a roll, he has been delivering believable characters with deeply rooted emotions and mental anguish over the past few movies he has been cast in. He pulls off the “crazy guy” thing very well.

One of the things I liked most about the movie was that it throws you right into the middle of the plot, with little scenes here and there that sorta explain what’s going on, and they help you understand the movie and draw your own conclusions. There was no nonsense scenes (to see a movie that is filled with those, watch Eclipse. Or rather don’t. I wasted my money again FML.) with random talking and crap like that.

It keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire movie, forcing you to never take your eyes off the screen for fear of missing something that might cause you to not understand the movie. Brilliantly shot places with Hans Zimmer music translates into beautiful scenes that makes you wonder whether you are dreaming or not (pun intended!)

There is no shortage of action, with gunfights, car chases, and explosions aplenty. Every actor played their part very well, am glad to see Page donning a more serious role with ease, Watanabe as serious and dark as expected, Cotillard playing the insane, OCD wife with ease and albeit a small role, Caine does it well. The movie moves on very quickly, despite it being a 2 hour 15 minute movie. There is no dilly-dallying, no messing around.

But believe me, it is so well written that you will understand it all the way until the end of the movie. Or at least so you think. The last few seconds of the movie will, excuse my language, mindfuck you in all the right ways. It will leave you wondering what the hell just happened? Was everything you believed you just saw wrong from the very start? Was it all a dream?

I guess you’ll have to watch it to find out.

My rating: 5/5 stars.

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Lazy to write about Despicable Me! But it is indeed a cute movie with little laughs, definitely one for the kids.

Eco Challenge Photos

2010-07-11T12:32:00.001+08:00

So Snap-Attack, the company who photographed the race recently released the pictures. There weren’t many of us since we were in the student category >( Low-res of course, to encourage people to buy them.

Justttttt got out of the jungle. EXHAUSTED. But oh so happy to be alive :)

Wished there were more pictures but ya !

Undiscovered: She’s Out of My League: Movie Review

2010-07-11T10:47:00.000+08:00

“You’re a 10, and I’m like a 5.” Was just out watching She’s Out of My League with Sherwin, Kok and Felix. Been a while since I’ve laughed so hard :) Starring Jay Baruchel and Alice Eve – who is a major hottie woot. As the movie title suggests, the movie is about Kirk, an airport security guard who shares the same story with probably many guys out there – average, under the radar, just hoping to get by life. A very nice guy, although just purely hidden under the impression that he’s not good enough for the fairer sex.

And of course, the hottie – Molly. Successful, all round gorgeous and yes, a perfect 10. You know, how guys tend to rate girls. As predictable as every romantic comedy gets, Molly falls for Kirk, who mucks things up with his self confidence issues. However, Molly has issues of her own as well – only dating Kirk to play safe, so that she won’t get hurt like how she did with her ex, Cam. The two eventually resolve their issues, and of course, get back together as the credits roll.

I liked the movie! I thought it was fun, definitely hilarious, appropriately rated 18 for the crude jokes and lewd remarks, not to mention the amount of profanities being thrown around the screen. Although predictable, I guess it had a positive message. Baruchel played Kirk’s unconfident, shy and awkward self very well, whilst Molly did the whole hot chick with deeply rooted insecurities nicely as well. They had good on-screen chemistry!

The writers never did show whether Molly told her parents about her career change, but I’m glad they showed that Kirk got his piloting license (even though it wasn’t a commercial plane or anything). Thanks R.age for the tickets :)

My rating: 3 / 5 stars!

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A little while ago, I wrote this post, and in summation, it was about how typical girls fell for jerks. Now, I’m not going to enter that topic anymore, since I’ve probably voiced my feelings enough with that post. But I guess this movie also got me thinking about nice guys who were never given a chance because of how they looked. Slightly related, I suppose. I do know of a couple who fits the bill of the characters above, albeit the male half might be dorkier in another fashion.

Doubt they’d read this, but with the amount of unexpected readers I’ve encountered over the years, from parents – that’s the scariest one yet, siblings, friends, unexpected friends from college and high school, it’s best I keep them as anonymous as I can. Don’t want to strike any unnecessary nerves, life’s far too short for all the drama that ensues.

Now, if only movies were like real life.. :)

written 22 June, posted 11 July lol. left it in my drafts for too long. Thanks R.age for the tickets.

Eco Challenge 2010

2010-07-07T15:11:00.002+08:00

Tuesday: 2 days after our team (darren, yi ping, king and I) completed the Eco X Challenge organized by Nomad Adventures Malaysia. First heard of the race from Khai Sim (who's obviously mad because I didn't join the race with her, although she should be glad after she reads what we had to do during the entire race), and found a team. Didn't think much of it, thought we'd just have our fun and possibly win.

Darren and I attended the race clinic organized a week before the actual race. The climbing section didn't actually help much - they insisted we learned how to belay but on the race day noone had to. Had a first taste of kayaking though, which was good since I've never done it before. Safe to say, I suck at it. Big time.

But climbing outdoors was fun I suppose, probably just 5c routes that we did that day. On Saturday, the day before the race we had to attend a race test to prove proficiency and to show that we had all necessary gear, including: 2liter bottles, torchlights, first aid stuff (which we didn't even use) –,- and proper shoes. The test was over within 2 hours -,- since we were just the challenge category they didn't worry much about us I suppose.

The other categories had to abseil and cycle some insane routes. They finally briefed us on the race route at 5, giving us the map and what we were expected to do. We spent quite a while trying to figure out the route as best as we could - which proved pointless, since the road part of the race had marshalls pointing us towards the right way the entire time. Eventually left the Batu Caves area at about 7 or 8, had dinner in Sunway before we moved on to Sunway University.

I was to performed with Fragments and Frictions, Sherwin's band that night. Did pretty badly - my throat was killing me, still is, I can barely talk today. The crowd was there to watch the World Cup match going on that night, and since we were the very last performance, the only ones who were left watching us were the organizers –,- lol. Doubt I'd be performing with the band again :) but that's okay I suppose, I don't do well performing alone -,-, not saying that I do well performing in groups either hehe. My team mates had to endure my terrible performance, haha, thanks guys. Did our final prep at King's house before we slept - packing and distributing weight. We decided to only bring 2 bags, which worked out okay I suppose, may have slowed down the team, but I don't know.

Woke up at 6 on Sunday morning, had roti canai for breakfast at the mamak nearby and sped off towards Batu Dam, the base camp of the race - also the place we had our race test at. They flagged off the cyclists, escapade people and the sprinters first - ie the Adults hehe. Once that was done, we started - well false start haha.

Since we were in the Eco X Challenge, our competitors consisted of only students, which was good! Means that we actually had a chance of winning :) Mostly Malaysians, although I think there were at least 4 or 5 Singaporean teams of the 18 teams that took part. Back to the race - all teams jogged towards the other side of the lake where two trucks ferried us to our real starting point, and the first part of the race - the river.

Marshall flagged us off and we sprinted down towards the freezing river. Initially didn't want to get wet, thought it'd be possible to stay dry the entire way, completely impossible lol. So anyway,a lot of teams went upstream, including King - don't know why lol. Logically, and geographically, the next checkpoint of the race was the lake, and since we drove away from the lake, and rivers flow towards lakes, we should be following the flow of the river right?

So anyway, the Singaporean team who eventually won our category led the way the entire time, with King and I closely behind them. We passed two checkpoints and got our race passports signed. Continued on downstream, King fell back to motivate and encourage the other two in our team. We all fell several times in the river, it was very slippery! No doubt unavoidable falls, that was the first part of the danger lol. Yi Ping fell and hit her head as well as scraped her elbow, which bled.

We reached the next checkpoint, the second part of the race - the lake, in second place, right at the heels of the Singaporean team, got our passports signed together and took off in the kayaks at the same time. This was where they pulled away from us, as we didn't kayak too well. To Yi Ping and Darren, sorry I lost my temper numerous times! Competition tends to bring out the worst in me. Yi Ping and I initially left first, but we had much trouble, and that was when she and Darren switched places - Yi Ping and King in one kayak, Darren and I in the other.

We were on the look out for supposedly Yellow buoys, with it's paint peeling off so they were supposed to be white - total nonsense, the two buoys which bore the words we needed were in RED. Our kayak reached the first buoy first, which bore the words, Satu Destinasi, Satu Impian. KingPing eventually fared better than we did, and were far ahead of us by at least 15 minutes. Man, my kayaking stinks. Need to practice more for next year! They found the second buoy, and left the lake. We pulled in about 10 minutes after them, maybe more. Got rehydrated, ate a powerbar when we were still on the lake so I was still okay. Arms were dead!
We were third coming out of the lake, and had to complete a mystery test. I held up two flags at various positions, spelling out the phrase that we were given - "Spank Me Now", and Yi Ping deciphered them. Did okay I suppose, got the passport signed again, and jogged 3.5km to the next checkpoint, the first cave. The MMU team was close behind us, but we beat them to the cave. Climbed through the cave with the help of some old ropes and left it for the first part of our jungle trek.

This was the third part of the race, the jungle, and it started out okay, we were moving fine throughout the jungle, and held our lead for quite a while. Strong winds and darkening skies made me believe it was going to start raining really soon. This was where hell began. It wasn't insane rain, but bad enough to mess up the whole trail. We were trekking for a good hour or so through extremely thick mud and very sharp, jagged stones. I had at least 4 or 5 nearly fatal close calls. And no, this is no exaggeration.

Now, moving through the jungle when its dry and when it's wet is a completely different matter. My close calls occured because: 1) I was too confident 2) Losing my footing at the wrong timing and 3)grabbing onto trees or roots that were uprooted, hence providing no support whatsoever.

They mostly happened because I jumped to the next tree - which was usually too far away, and due to my weight, I slipped more easily. I was holding on to trees for dear life at these times, with my legs just dangling over the edge of slopes. Since we were up in the mountains, our entire route had long declines in elevation on either side depending on which part of the mountain we were at - this meant that slipping off the route would have you sliding down at least 40 or 50m into the jungle.

On one occasion, I slipped and fell face first on to a pile of rocks in between two large boulders, my hands broke most of the fall's impact, but I hit my face pretty hard. Spat out some blood and continued on. The more memorable one is when - again, through large sharp rocks, I lost my balance and began sliding down pretty fast when out of instinct, my right hand reached upwards and grabbed part of the boulder that was beside me, thank god it was a jug, although a very sharp one. I held on pretty hard until i got my footing again, but that certainly freaked the hell out of me.

Everyone on our team had our close calls, with King's whole body cramping up midway descending through a very large slope and getting tangled in some roots at the same time. All gungho, at a very large slope he also nearly slipped into...nowhere, he caught hold of something before he did. This was also the place where Yi Ping followed right behind him and headed crotch first into a tree stump - this is akin to a guy being kicked in the nuts by Ronaldo or something. At least she's a girl right ! But she cried a bit, and it must've hurt somehow. Eventually helped her out of it.

Probably the most heartstopping part of the route was when Yi Ping lost her balance and grabbed a tree with her legs dangling down a large slope! She began getting tired, and King and I held on to her until she got back up. Scary stuffzzz.

Enough horror stories! We found the second cave, the next checkpoint, and climbed through it looking for a word in complete darkness - Ultra. After the second cave was the harder part of the trek, where most of our accidents happened. Hiked for another good hour or so until we finally left the jungle, and arrived at our final checkpoint, and the fourth and final part of the race, climbing.

Got cleaned up the best we could, and King and I completed the two routes. I was already super fatigued, downed a powerbar and water before doing my route. Fell midway through because I was out of strength, but finished it within three minutes - the person who did it the fastest was like a minute 45 seconds or something. Meh.

We also soon discovered that we were in 8th place - which didn't make sense, since we held our third/fourth placing all the way until the climbing part. A lot of teams never made it to the second cave apparently. We kept wondering what would happen. :S Anyway, after about an hour of waiting at the walls, a truck ferried the lot of us back to base camp, where we got cleaned the best we could, and ate the food they provided.

Surprise, surprise! The Singaporeans claimed first place as expected, and we came in second, winning medals, RM50 Nestle voucher, RM150 Swiss Victorinox Army Knife, RM140 Camelback Flashflo and a RM100 Corezone voucher - the place I bought my drypack. The MMU team came in third. Congrats to all winners eh.

Now - the complaints. There were not enough marshalls throughout the entire route – even though there were over 100 marshalls apparently - we heard that some teams were faced with falling boulders the size of giant exercise balls, there was a girl screaming for help for quite some time, and a racer even literally fell off a cliff, with someone grabbing his hand at the very last second, like in the movies. The ones we did encounter on our trail barely knew where we were supposed to be headed, and some didn't even know what was expected of our category.

Our passports shouldn't have been tiny slips of paper - we are going out into the jungle, facing lakes and stuff like that, and you give us bad quality paper? At least make it laminated and have marshalls with permanent markers at each checkpoint, that way they would all be legible at the end of the race. Each marshall should also have laminated checklists at the checkpoints to mark out who actually arrived and who didn't.

Thirdly, there was no/barely enough clean water for the racers to wash up after the race - I washed up in the lake -,-. Credits to Yuen Li for handling all the trouble though, her subordinates didn't look like they were very efficient at anything they were doing - very evident during the prize giving ceremony. That was just embarrassing.

okay so they might not look so bad but my hands were stinging all day after the race :(

Anyway, I have multiple scratches all over my hands, shins and knees and every single muscle on my torso is hurting. I've never had both my biceps and triceps hurt like this before. My wings and lower back muscles are also screaming. I had to cancel on going to Klang to see Sharon and eat super bak kut teh today because of that :(:(:( sigh. Otherwise - I truly enjoyed the race despite all the danger. Self proclaimed adrenaline junkie. All the nearly fatal moments also made me appreciate life so much more. Appreciate being alive and the people around me. It's a little spiritual I would say.

The damage:

and the stuff we won:

The race was hands down, the hardest (and most dangerous) thing I have EVER done in my life, (so far. :) as Homer Simpson would say). Winning prizes worth RM450 was good, but being one of only a few teams that passed all checkpoints and finished the race within the cutoff time of 6 hours, and coming out of that insane jungle ALIVE, was priceless. Truly priceless.

I am definitely joining again next year! :)

probably the longest post I have ever written! also, read Yi Ping's account.

i am freeeeeeeeee: Toy Story 3: Movie Review

2010-06-26T21:36:00.001+08:00

for a month at least. My finals just ended this morning and I’m pretty glad that they finally are. I haven’t had much field time or exercise in the past couple of weeks. Haven’t made plans in a long time and really, just haven’t had a life!

monash, oh monash how you torture us students so. It probably would’ve helped if I was a good student throughout the semester, but it’s kinda hard considering how many assignments we have and any time spent in uni not in class is usually spent in the library working on those thousand word papers or eating. it’s also been ages since I’ve properly blogged – was recently contacted by a friend’s friend about covering a Coca Cola CSR event in Sabah in a couple of months time.

Probably won’t get it since its during my semester and I told her I can only make it if it was during the weekend. But it would’ve been cool eh, to be on a fully sponsored trip as media. It’s up and coming as one of the new advertisement tools. Much cheaper than conventional ones, a lot faster to put up and definitely a new tool for the PR companies and general advertisers. Don’t think my blog has enough readers or daily unique hits to qualify though.

I just caught Toy Story 3 with my sister at the Curve after my last paper – Economics. I think I did okay, and I’d be really disappointed if I flunked anything this semester after how hard I’ve worked. Touch wood!

or Woody :). It took 11 years for Toy Story 3 to come out. 11 years since Sarah McLachlan’s When Somebody Loved Me played when Jessy found out her owner didn’t want to play with her anymore, over a decade since the song made grown men cry!

I read an article about why it took so long. The original creators didn’t actually even want to create any sequels for the movie, and I guess when they decided they wanted to make this one, technology has already moved too far for them to use their original files. Apparently, they had to redesign and recreate all the characters.

Their analogy was – imagine putting a floppy disc into a dvd player. It just doesn’t work! Buzz also had a major facelift, with his parts given a lot more detail. Scuffmarks being added here and there to show that he’s no longer a new toy.

The movie meets the toys at a point of life where Andy no longer plays with them any more. He’s off to college pretty soon, leaving the bunch wondering what was going to happen to them. They begin to believe that Andy doesn’t want them anymore (the opposite is true), and get themselves donated to a nursery. All seemed well, until they discover that the nursery was run by evil toys, and the toys go on an adventure to return back to Andy. How does the movie end? You’d have to catch it yourself!

Toy Story 3 is definitely one for the Disney fans and followers of the Toy Story movies. It was a well written sequel, breathing life into characters we knew all too well. All the original actors who voiced the toys returned as well, such as Tom Hanks as Woody and Woody Allen as Buzz Lightyear! Woody is, as always, a diehard believer of Andy’s love for them, and insists on the toys going back to him when they got to the nursery. Buzz on the other hand, had given up on Andy, but eventually plays his big role in getting all of them home. Jessie – she feels and shows that she knows she’s being abandoned again, a feeling one shouldn’t go through again and again :( Rex, Hamm, the Potato Heads and Slinky Dog all also return to the story. Bo Peep however, doesn’t. Poor woody.

The new toys were pretty much the protagonists of the story – all under the reign of Lotso (Ned Beatty), a supposedly lovable pink bear that smells of strawberries, the only toy who remains evil throughout the movie. Ken, Barbie’s new beau of course and the rest of the toys at the nursery who didn’t really have much of a role in the movie.

It was an emotional rollercoaster! Happy, sad, angry, scared all in one movie? Yes! I loved it. My rating: 4 / 5 stars.

ps. I was pretty disappointed there wasn’t a new song :( – Toy Story 1 – You Got a Friend, Toy Story 2 – When Somebody Loved Me

Started: 17th June, written and published: 26 June

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Today I also had the chance to climb outdoors for the first time. Did three top rope routes at Damai wall at Batu Caves. Pretty easy stuff, probably 5cs! Such a rush finishing the routes. Loved it ;) Also tried kayaking for the first time today at Batu Dam, which was nearby. The lake and its surroundings were GORGEOUS! Hard to believe that I was still in KL. Not much to do there though. All in preparation for the Eco Challenge I will be joining with some friends next weekend. Can’t wait! Was so excited today when I began thinking about it.

Didn’t take any pictures :( Have a good weekend all.

Camping @ Pantai Kerachut, Penang

2010-06-25T21:13:00.002+08:00

Our trip to Penang was one that was barely planned, random at best, last minute at worst. I had to have a large head start on my two assignments due the Wednesday after. Since the invite only came a few days before the weekend, I had to put my butt into gear, and in retrospect, it was a good thing I did. Wondered how people who started the day before it was due got their work done. Kok and I stayed over at Yew Eng’s on Friday night, and we left in Felix’s car on Saturday morning at about 10 or so. The drive was started off pretty slowly, as the Honda we were in braved the rain out of KL, it was eventually a smooth one, and we were lucky that there were only four of us in the car.

We stopped for lunch at Ipoh, and we lost our bearing for abit. Had lunch at Lou Wong Chicken Rice, apparently one of the famous taugeh chicken rice stores in Ipoh. I had it the last time I was there also. Truth be told, it didn’t live up to any of my expectations! There was a whole chicken between the four of us. It was tiny, the meat was slightly overcooked and the taugeh was raw at best.

The cendol we had by the roadside certainly made up for it though. An uncle, probably in his early 50’s manning the tiny roadside stall with just two small tables cleared the table for us as we placed our orders. It’s pretty easy to spot in the Ipoh Old Town, on the main road beside the Salt Baked Chicken stall where we bought our grub for the night. He also had a banner up saying “Ipoh Famous Soya Bean, Tau Fu Far, Ais Kacang (ABC) and Cendol”, so it’s pretty easy to spot.

Left Ipoh at about 3, and it was about two hours to the Penang bridge.

The island was the same as I always remembered it to be – old, jammed all over the place with dozens of old buildings and wonderfully preserved churches in and around town. Got lost for a bit before we eventually reached the place we were headed:

The Entrance of the Penang National Park. Parked the car, loaded our packs with supplies for the last time and headed in once we got the pass from the office.

had some humour from the people handling the park hehe.

Had a nice little paved pathway for us for the first 10 minutes of the journey. I think we carried about 50kg of gear between us –,- Tents, Water, Food and Clothes of course.

After the pathway however, the real trek soon began. We faced a lot of inclines and declines, with parts of the path falling apart here and there, making moving a little hard. I haven’t actually been hiking proper since I was a scout in primary school. I mean, there was that thing at HELP’s leadership camp where we hiked with tons of people and were left a couple of meters apart from each other in pitch darkness. But that was barely a hike compared to this haha.

But it was very serene despite our aching backs. The fresh jungle air was a warm welcome from the smog-ridden pollution we face on a daily basis in KL.

We took this picture with the help of the self timer on Felix’s camera once we reached the beach, which was behind us :). The hike was about an hour, and we didn’t stop for fear of not reaching our campgrounds before dark. Certainly got me out of breath, but it was enjoyable and just long enough to make reaching the beach a nice reward for the work put into getting there.

The beach was also a turtle landing site, there will be pictures of 10 hatchlings we got to see at the nursery later on. hehe.

But it was pretty okay! Not the sand I usually like – there’s much nicer sand at the Bagan Lalang beach in Sepang that I went to recently with them as well, just without Yew Eng who’s still busy with exams. There’s more gravel or small rocks in the sand at Penang, making running a little harder (and more painful) to do.

Here’s another view of the beach from the boat we took when we left the next day. Pretty okay huh! We soon set up camp. Felix and Kok in one and Yew Eng and I in the other – ours was more of a makeshift one though.

But at night, we eventually left our tent and went and slept in the big hall thing nearer to the beach haha. The mosquitoes were driving us insane. Dinner was maggi and chicken we brought from Ipoh. Spent the night just laughing and drinking and being jolly haha. Was also witness to some highly projectile vomit. :p

We sat on the jetty because the patrollers said we couldn’t sit on the beach since the turtles might come or something. Or the tide will sweep our half awake selves into the ocean. ;) Didn’t get much sleep though. Woke up and played a short friendly game with our new friends from Penang:

Wing Yern, Jennifer, Eric and Alvin – who were nice enough to bring us to get lunch after we left the beach. Nice people! We didn’t play for long, was a bit too hot, and we were pretty tired I’d say. Got back to the car, repacked our stuff into the car and went off to Genting cafe? I think? The coffeeshop that is apparently very famous for Penang food – I also went there the last time I was in Penang.

had our fair share of Penang grub, bid our farewells and started on our long drive back to KL. Kok and I pretty much konked out in the car, fell asleep for about an hour or two. Was awoken due to the rising temperature haha – apparently they switched off the ac because we were running out of petrol, and was risking being miles away from the next gas station. Thankfully, we found one in time, and got back to KL in one piece. Had dinner at Murni’s, before ending the superb weekend with our usual round of zombie killing. lol. We have evolved into dota players though (more like devolved).

Picture credits: Felix and Kok

My Mind is the Scene of the Crime

2010-06-20T22:33:00.001+08:00

Has anyone seen the trailer of this movie? It looks epic. super epic. Can’t embed it! Anyway, it seems i’m supposed to blog about my most valuable secret in my mind.

Hmmmmmm. I’m not sure. There are a lot of skeletons in my closet. How about…….. I used to be a gymnast? :O

Yes, I used to wear leotards on a weekly basis. And I always used to get people teasing me about how gay it was haha. (i personally don’t think so, because I know how hard it actually is – it’s like Ultimate Frisbee – it’s not a dog’s game, no, and it certainly is NOT easy. easy to learn, takes some time to get good at)

Unfortunately, I did not look as good as this guy over here:

Not that I have anything against gymnasts! Heck, I regretted quitting because I think I would’ve been a lot fitter now, albeit a lot shorter since I hear that gymnastics tends to stunt guys. If I remember correctly, and I’m sure I do, I stopped because I couldn’t do a front flip. Stupiddddddd reason. You know why?

Because I can do one now. ._. I’m serious. Years after I stopped, I can actually do one now. It’s ridiculous. If you catch me in the right attire (stuff I can move in comfortably without tearing any seams, you can probably convince me to do one haha.)

Okay I hope that was a good secret.

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My exams are over! I need to stop procrastinating and finish my Penang post soon. My stupid UniFi' has been out just a couple of weeks after installation. Screw you! And the guy who’s supposed to come fix it hasn’t been here despite calling and giving him pieces of my dad’s already busy mind (Happy Father’s Day btw! to all Dads out there.)

Here’s a hilarious Vuvuzela inspired LOTR parody.

Sony Music Malaysia

2010-06-17T18:51:00.002+08:00

Very recently, Sony Music Malaysia set up both their Twitter account and Facebook page, another example of how the corporate world is embracing the social media initiative with open arms. You can follow their twitter here and their facebook page here

If you know me well enough, I LOVE to win stuff. It is usually not as hard as people think it is – usually requires just a little effort, perseverance, and sometimes just pure dumb luck I suppose. Since it’s inception, Sony Music Malaysia has been giving out free stuff and running contests on both their Facebook page and Twitter. The Twitter account also posts regular updates about the international artists that they handle.

Now, this has probably got to be the easiest contest they’ve posted so far – blog about their facebook page and receive two free cd’s from them! Of your choice from any of the artists that Sony handles, my personal favorite being John Mayer (whose cd I actually won from them!) :D hehehe.

other artists you might recognize include: John Legend – who was absolutely brilliant during the World Cup opening ceremony I must say, Incubus, Boys Like Girls, and even Pitbull, for all you hardcore party animals out there.

time to start blogging and get those free cd’s guys!

Camp5 Video

2010-06-09T17:00:00.002+08:00

Okay so I'm not actually pimping Camp5, more like this nice video I saw. Sucks that I couldn't make it to watch Enduro the whole weekend :(:( sigh! and that I have only been posting videos these days due to the time constraint (ie final exams FML).

Canon 550D Camp 5 Rock Climbing from Lesly Leon Lee on Vimeo.

Enjoy

2010-06-09T08:11:00.001+08:00

it's time

Carleton vs Florida 2010

2010-06-06T20:47:00.002+08:00

Carleton vs Florida - 2010 USAU College Finals from luke johnson on Vimeo.

Finals Match between Carleton and Florida at the recent USA College National Finals.

*edit: if you didn't catch it when i posted it on the 6th, sorry! it was taken down the very next day.

comments:

Florida made tons of bad calls and fouls. Had bad decisions to huck despite Carleton players marking deep pretty well. Put on a zone after half time to good effect. One of the players in the zone looked as if he deliberately tripped the opposing handler, almost broke out into a fight.

Carleton players wasted many chances and throws, or it might have been a universe point finals match. Good patience, safe, clean passes. Should've trusted the throws down the sideline more.

The Secret Powers of Time

2010-06-05T01:03:00.001+08:00

I loved this video. Psych is the only thing I don't mind being nerdy about. WATCH IT! Eye opening.

Philip Zimbardo is also the guy who ran the Stanford Prison Experiment.

ps. nerding + exams on the way, so sorry for the dead blog!!

Characters I want to See in Toy Story 3 3D

2010-05-25T21:23:00.001+08:00

So again I’m trying to win tickets off Nuffnang for Toy Story 3!! I am just really hoping that the screening is after my last paper *gulps* note the stressed self that has been in uni til 8pm daily.

First off I’d really like to see peas-in-a-pod! Because I’d expect the Three Peas to either all have different personalities and constantly disagree with each other, or for them to be like, well, peas in a pod! Close brothers finishing each other’s sentences ! :)

Trixie here, looks like she’s going to be Rex’s girlfriend! hahaha. That would be pretty funny considering how much of a wimp Rex is. She might turn out to be the guy in the relationship :)

And finally, Twitch.

Probably the only superhero-looking toy in the Toy Story franchise! Also seems that Mrs Potato Head is attracted to him haha poor mr potato head! I hope Twitch turns out to have some badass superhero personality!

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Things to blog about: MUO2010 and Trip to Penang

also have to say that Caught in the Middle IV that i watched with Julian last week was HILARIOUS! Kudos to PJLA and the actors for putting on a good show! Slightly draggy in some parts, but i absolutely LOVED the who Wants to Be A Politician Scene! Catch it if you’re into Malaysian news and politics, although you’re sure to understand it even if you’re just a regular Malaysian! Thanks again Nuffnang for the tickets :):):)

Befuddled

2010-05-17T19:27:00.000+08:00

My mind and my legs

Introducing Ultimate Frisbee

2010-05-13T10:36:00.002+08:00

Can see me getting a huck somewhere and walking around without my shirt on hahaha.

The Invention of Lying: Movie Review

2010-05-08T23:25:00.002+08:00

Although many people are currently reviewing Iron Man 2 and Ip Man 2 (well at least in Malaysia anyway), and don’t get me wrong I loved both - specially Ip Man 2, such epic fight scene. Better than James Bond any day!

But tonight I will be writing about the Invention of Lying, because I just watched it although it was a movie that came out last year.

Written, directed and starring Ricky Gervais as Mark Bellison– now how often do you hear that? and starring Jennifer Garner whom I really like as an actress, the movie title generally sums up the whole movie! Still don’t get it? It’s sorta a Yes Man (reading this post made me miss Razlan, meh, whose birthday happens to be on the tomorrow, so happy birthday) concept, but instead of Jim Carrey only being able to say Yes to everything, in this world, everyone can only tell the truth. And that’s just the way things are, it’s not that that they want to tell the truth all the time, it’s just that everyone does it and their brains have been programmed to do so as well after years of conditioning.

Something about the movie struck deep I guess. To do with Choices, the factors that affect them, one’s physical appearances, to doing something out of spontaneity, to realizing mistakes and doing something about them!

It was funny, the story was easy to follow and had appropriate bits of music here and there. My rating: 3 1/2/5 stars

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MUO is hereee!

A Day in The Life of John Mayer

2010-05-08T00:55:00.002+08:00

"A Life In The Day" from John Mayer on Vimeo.

I want to be a worldwide famous musician too

Drama Llama

2010-05-06T21:01:00.002+08:00

I wish there were more hours in a day, more time for me to do work, more time for me to play frisbee, definitely more time for me to sleep. I am tired, and my mind and body isn’t responding the way they usually do. I nearly blacked out yesterday during training despite just running 3 rounds around the huge field at Amcorp mall and 2 sets of suicides. It’s strange because I usually do fine, but yesterday after I stopped, I had black flashes, probably an omen of what was to come. We didn’t play very well in the friendly against SaTe either. Made a lot of silly mistakes =S probably lost our cool or something.

It made me tired all day today! But at least I went to uni and got some work done. Staying home on tuesday to try to do work was a terrible idea –,- i had ONE productive hour all day – at Starbucks Ikano =,=aiyoh. I have two assignments due in the next couple of days, and two huge ones to start working on. strezz. where got time to study?? zomggg. STRESS.

sorry, i know reading my ranting has wasted your life. ps. move on. I haven’t written about GenderMah yet – my third overseas tournament, a single gender one where there were (obviously) all boys and all girls teams. There aren’t very many pictures of me playing, only one actually – taken by Darren:

defending one of the DK handlers… whom I later burnt on the field, and when he called the switch as the disc was 5 meters away from me, two of his teammates had already caught up, and one managed to d it right before i caught it in the endzone :(:(

sigh! It was a very, very impromptu trip, as I initially decided against going – was worried about my assignments, which I finished up on time before the trip, so I was safe. Went with Darren and Yi-I-am-a-Man-Ping and King in his Impreza. Burn petrol wei that car. serious. haha. Stayed with Mae Yan’s aunt, so nice of her to have us.

also saw bestprennn shaf!:

haha i surprised her because i told her i wasnt coming. even on friday night when i was already in singapore i was convincing her i was jealous i couldn’t make it ! :D naize. priceless expression when she saw me (: learnt a little bit from the tournament, but I can’t say I played very well, because I certainly didn’t. hmm. But it was a great weekend nonetheless, a well-deserved break from the self-repeating weeks that have been going by.

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Also went for the Adidas Street Party in Bukit Bintang Plaza that day, where I bumped into Ewen. Went with Juju, and met Joey there as well, had dinner with her and her work colleagues after the event on Jalan Alor, such nice people. Had very good band performances, but I’m not a big fan of Melissa Indot, and her British accent – which apparently is real because she apparently grew up in the UK. But I liked Altimet, Bittersweet and Shawn Lee – the beatboxer on the rise to stardom. First saw him at the H-Factor workshop I went to during my foundation days. Ze! (Zebrapink) performed later on, she’s like a local M.I.A. mix Lady Gaga. Kinda cool to think that she’s malaysian. Lapsap was pretty gooooood. first time I’ve heard them Live! Awesomezzx. Had free flow beer the entire night, didn’t drink much though. The fashion show was pretty cool, really liked some of the Adidas Originals! Thanks very much for the invites, Klue! For pictures check out http://blog.supclothing.com/2010/05/05/adidas-originals-street-party-kl-recapped/

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Last Saturday we went for Darren’s 21st at Hard Rock Cafe, KL! First time eating there haha, pricey place, but awesome atmosphere I’d say. A lot of old people lol. old guailos!

Carebears for life ? hehehe. The live band was pretty good! They played several covers of recent hits. I was also designated driver for the night!:

Because like they can’t drink. hahaha. see person in the backseat. Picture credits: Mae Yan. ok back to work!

Shutter Island: Movie Review

2010-04-26T22:29:00.001+08:00

I am exhausted! Just been through a grueling day of statistics and economics and my mind is completely drained. I am, actually, still in the uni library, with many others who are working on assignments as well. Monash Malaysia is torturous. It probably is the same in Australia since we're doing esentially the same thing they are doing. We have the same assignments after all.

Anyhow, when I saw the trailer for Shutter Island, I knew that I HAD to see it! Very well shot, leading viewers really wondering what the movie was about. Thanks Kel Li for the free passes to the movie, a night well spent it was.

Directed by Martin Scorsese (The Departed, The Aviator - also starring De Caprio), and starring Leonardo Decaprio (Titanic, Blood Diamond) alongside Mark Rufalo (last saw him in Just Like Heaven), Jackie Haley (Rorschach in Watchmen) and Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, the Love Guru), the movie was set in the early 1950's, after the World Wars were over.

Marshal Teddy Daniels (Decaprio) and his partner Chuck (Rufalo) are assigned to Ashcliffe Hospital on Shutter Island, a treatment facility for the criminally insane, to investigate the mysterious escape of a female patient. Despite the refusal of the psychologists in charge and the wardens, Daniels, hellbent on solving the case begins exploring the island and questioning its inhabitants in order to find out the truth.

The story, however, is not as simple as it seems, as it finally unravels towards the end, leaving you wondering why this why that? and then thinking back about what you just watched and realizing the answers, making your own conclusions. Personally, I didn't try to guess what was going on simply because I was enjoying every bit of the movie, I wasn't second guessing, although I certainly kept wondering what was going on.

Very beautifully crafted shots of the island (not the LOST way, but the creepy-guantanamo-bay-way) and the hospital. Acting was pretty good, DeCaprio showing off his years of experience on the silver screen.

Certainly one for the thinkers.

4/5 stars!

*only published 26 April 2010 due to technical difficulties

need to update about gendermah soon! aiyooooooooo. monash. frisbee. sleep. eat. repeat.

Behind corrective lenses

Things I did in 2011

Shots: Sydney, Tesselaar Tulip Festival, Royal Melbourne Show

The 2011 Melbourne Marathon

Selected shots from the Great Ocean Road and Hari Raya Weekend/ Kat’s Birthday at Guhng

How bad do you want it?

Selected shots !

I Will Let You Go

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Hello Melbourne!

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2011

Every Tear is a Waterfall

Energizer Night Race Full Refund + Goodies

Sitting is Killing You!

Ayam veree strazzed

Osama is dead, so what?

Daisies

My Prettiest Friend

Energizer Night Race 2011– One of the most horribly planned events I’ve ever been to

I ain’t gonna comb my hair, cuz I ain’t goin anywhere

Another reason I abhor our Malaysian government

INTI Ultimate Open 2011

Monash Staff sets Terrible Example

A Hawaiian Legend

The Reebok Zigtech Challenge

the 11th Annual Bangkok Hat 2011

unfortunately, all i can do is to

everyone's looking for someone to sing this to

Abuse

Sometimes..

127 Hours: Movie Review, amongst other things

emos

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race–Location#5 Dancing Fish

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race–Station #4–Thai Base Restaurant, Kepong

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race - Location # 3 : Sate Kajang HJ Samuri

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race–Station #2: Tarbush, Sunway Pyramid

The Maxis Om Nom Nom Race–Station #1: Strawberry Fields Cafe, OldTown Petaling Jaya

One Step Closer to the Maxis Om Nom Nom Race

If I Were The Green Hornet

Things I did in 2010

Letter from Tahoe

Perhentian Island Challenge 2010 | Korea | Penang Hat 2010 bumper post

Stop Child Abuse

Case of the Stolen Keys to Tron: Legacy by TGV

The Only Thing I Know

More nice text to read

Nike 10KM

Lee Kuan Yew's Eulogy

Someone Else’s Summer

the Singapore Ultimate Open 2010

DiGi iPhone 4 Life

Ignorance is Bliss

DiGi iPhone 4 Real

DiGi iPhone 4 Play

DiGi iPhone 4 Me

The One That Got Away

DC

Repo Men: Movie Review

Tetris = Life

writer's block

Paradise City

sometimes

filler

Taylor’s Ultimate Open 2010

Inception: Movie Review

Eco Challenge Photos

Undiscovered: She’s Out of My League: Movie Review

Eco Challenge 2010

i am freeeeeeeeee: Toy Story 3: Movie Review

Camping @ Pantai Kerachut, Penang

My Mind is the Scene of the Crime

Sony Music Malaysia

Camp5 Video

Carleton vs Florida 2010

The Secret Powers of Time

Characters I want to See in Toy Story 3 3D

Befuddled

Introducing Ultimate Frisbee

The Invention of Lying: Movie Review

A Day in The Life of John Mayer