Look. Listen. Feel. Act.

[shifting]

2006-05-16T12:13:00.000+08:00

I've got a new blog site up at jeremy.blogsentral.com! It's still kinda rough around the edges, but give me some time and I'll port the various stuff I have here over there.

Check it out now! :)

[random]

2006-05-11T13:21:00.000+08:00

I've noticed that at times when I do not blog for a period of time, it's usually because there are things happening in my life which may be a little too personal to write on. Pretty ironic huh, considering a blog is supposed to be an outlet for expressing your feelings and thoughts. And it's funny, how the idea of people you might know reading your blog excites you and scares you at the same time. I wonder what kind of impression people get when they read this blog of mine? Hmm...

Anyways, some random bits of news is in order. The past few days spent with Michelle have been wonderful. She's been pretty busy catching up with all the good food she's missed while she's away, and I've been gorging on the good stuff she's brought back from the States (Chex Mix Honey Nut FTW! =D ). Oh, and the other day while hanging out at the shopping mall, I came across this super cute SD Force Impulse Gundam and suggested that maybe we could built one together. She agreed, and we had loads of fun asssembling the kit - me cutting out the pieces and cleaning the stubs while she draws the panel lines. I'll try to put up the pictures of the already completed kit soon. XD

On the side, it's time for a little bit of geek-talk. If you're a Metal Gear Solid fan, you absolutely HAVE to check out the awesome new 15-minute trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4. I tell you, I had multiple mind orgasms watching it. No really, it's THAT good. D: Try getting it here if the server has not imploded from the crazy traffic yet (it's about 100MB in size), or easier still get your hands on the torrent.

Finally, the more keen eyed would've already noticed that there's a new addition to the side bar of the blog: sketches! I admit I'm no artist, but I thought it would be cool to inject a little more personality into the blog in the form of lousy art drawn by me lol. If you have a blog of your own, get your own Sketchplanet panel here! =)

[reunited]

2006-05-06T20:22:00.000+08:00

[finally!]

2006-05-04T13:48:00.000+08:00

Michelle's en route back to malaysia even as I'm typing this. I cant express enough how excited I am, and how much I wish tomorrow will come now, and that from then on time would stop forever. There are so many things to do, so many places to go, so much to catch up on...argh the anticipation is killing me! :)

Michelle'll be back for more than 3 months, but sadly I only have till middle of June to spend with her. :( The company that I'm going to be joining has asked that I commence working in the middle of June, even that after much negotiations (they had initially asked for me to start at the beginning of June itself, while I asked to start in July). In the end we both compromised, but I'll still miss Michelle's GRE test date, since I had promised to go with her at first to support her. Sigh.

Job wise, I'm fairly certain that I'll be posted as a chemist although I've been to told to expect "the possibility of inter-departmental transfer". Frankly I dont really care, as long as I'm not doing sales. Who knows, maybe a managerial position is waiting for me someday. XD Oh, and the company in question is Mewah Oleo, a Singapore-based palm oil refinery that has not one, not two, but FOUR refineries in Malaysia alone: one in Johor, two in Selangor and one in East Malaysia. Not to mention overseas branches in Australia as well. If I give it my best, who knows...maybe I'll be top man in any one of these places in the future. >:D

But meh, work can come later. Right now the wait for tomorrow is killing me!! :(

[jobGET!]

2006-05-01T09:26:00.000+08:00

I landed the job.

Now I dont know whether to be sad or happy. I should be happy because finally I've found a job that relates to what I've studied, but sad at the fact that I may start working in June and miss spending time with Michelle (who's due back this Friday yay!). I know the drill, work should come first right? But really now, I haven't seen Michelle in 2 years, and 3 months together with her isn't a lot to ask for right? :(

So how did the interview go? It went rather well actually, in spite of me not really giving it my best (for the obvious reason stated above). Dont get me wrong, it's not that I didn't take it seriously, but I was in it more for the experience of going through a proper interview. The interview was scheduled at 2.30pm last Friday, but me being the Johor n00b that I am, I decided that it was best to go by cab rather than with my dad's car. And if I wasn't convinced yet that Johor was an expensive place to live in, I was after finding out that the ride there cost me RM30. >_>

Oh, and while we're on the subject of Johor being an expensive place to live in, the food is mad costly too. It's definitely something to consider when thinking about whether to accept the job or not. I'll have to give my answer tomorrow.

Hey, it wasn't me!

[johor bound]

2006-04-27T09:32:00.000+08:00

I'll be away in Johor Bahru from today till Saturday at least, so there will be no major updates on the blog till then. I have an interview to attend for the post of a chemist at Mewah Oleo Industries, so wish me luck!

See you all when I get back. :)

[eating out: wkcct]

2006-04-26T18:24:00.000+08:00

One of the better perks of working in my present company is that every three months, we get the opportunity to be treated to a makan session in a place of our own choosing. This time around me and my colleagues decided to head to a hongkie cuisine restaurant called Wong Kok Char Chan Teng in IOI Mall in Puchong (I've been going to Puchong alot these days =_='' ), and after meeting up at the office, we got on our way and arrived there at about 2pm.

Personally I've never been to this restaurant, but I hear from my colleagues that it's a splendid place with nice food, and that's always a good thing to hear. Apparently they also have branches in 1Utama and SS2. Menu-wise, if you've ever been to a Hong Kong type eatery, you'd know what to expect, but it was cool to note that they have some fusion dishes as well.

The interior of the restaurant was cosy enough, and it gave off the impression of a high class kopitiam. I've been told that the place does get pretty hectic during peak hours, but when we were there there wasn't many people around, most probably due to the time. It took awhile for me to order the food because everything sounded really good, but after awhile I decided on cheese baked rice with beef. Everyone else practically ordered something different from the others, and we called for quite a number of side dishes as well.

How was the food you ask? I'll let the pictures do the talking. XD

Some of the funky looking drinks we ordered.

Delicious Cheese Baked Rice you must eat! XD

Mmmm...fishballs...

Are you hungry yet? Heh.

XO Silvergold Rolls - minced pork and pork floss wrapped in chee cheong fun and scrabled eggs fried in XO sauce (yes, it tastes as good as it sounds!).

Not forgetting desert. Heh.

Good food, great environment, I'd rate this place a 7/10 overall. For more pictures, check out my Flickr sidebar. :)

7 happy campers after a good meal.

Too bad we had to go to work soon after that. T_T

[cut short]

2006-04-24T19:38:00.000+08:00

Right, so towards the end of my previous post I talked about how I bumped into a gig over at Starbucks in Taipan USJ after dinner at a fancy steamboat restaurant. Apparently, it was some sort of fundraiser for the SPCA, organised by a bunch of students from Taylors College. The featured band for the night was Altered Frequency, and I realised I knew at least one of them from a few years back.

When I first arrived at the scene, Altered Frequency hadn't taken the floor yet. Instead some other band (I assume they students from Taylors College) was playing, and they pretty much set the tone for the night with their rocking tunes. It looks like I was there just at the right time, because soon after that Altered Frequency came on, muct to the delight of the crowd that had gathered.

Daniel, the frontman of the band made the crowd comfortable with a few jokes while other band members were preparing themselves, and soon after that the show got underway. Everyone (including me) had a blast listening to them belt out song after song (including a rocking version of Phil Collins' "Another Day in Paradise"). However, after the 5th song, this happened (you might wanna turn down the volume knob for this video):

Yup, that's a local council enforcement officer appearing towards the end of the video. He came walking in, stood in front of the band and started waving his Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya (MPSJ) identification card. It took awhile to register, but the band stopped playing almost immediately and people started wondering what the heck's going on. Apparently, the organisers had no permit to hold live entertainment as part of their event, and as a result the enforcement guys started carting away the equipment of the band. O_O

Most of the crowd dispersed, but I stayed behind to check out the fuss. It was quite a scene, with the organisers trying to plead with the MPSJ folks not to take away the equipment and all that. I think they even resorted to trying to "negotiate" a deal (if you catch my drift), but I didn't stick around long enough to see what happened in the end. When I left the scene, an MPSJ lorry had just arrived, ready to be loaded with the confiscated amps, speakers, drum sets, mic, etc. I felt a little sorry for the sound people who were hired to supply the equipment, cause I overheard that they had another event to cater for the next day.

Another video of the scene.

[of steamboats and a gig...almost]

2006-04-23T01:38:00.000+08:00

When I was told by my former colleagues yesterday that there was to be a dinner meetup at a Taiwanese steamboat restaurant in Puchong, I signed up thinking that it would be great fun to catch up on the latest gossip and news. Instead, I found more than just that - I found an excellent new place to eat! The venue was to be a certain Mizi Shabu-shabu Steamboat Restaurant in Puchong, and boy was I impressed! A three-storey building filled to the brim with patrons, I was shocked to see people lining up outside waiting for empty seats, and thought that the food must be something special for them to be that desperate for a place inside.

Good thing for our group though, we booked our tables in advance, and while we still had to wait for a few minutes, we still managed to get our seats without having to wait for too long. After being led to our table on the second floor, it was interesting to find that our table had six "holes". I soon found out that these was where your steamboat goes into, and that instead of the usual one big steamboat shared by everyone, this restaurant offers one steamboat per person. Cool!

There was one thing bugging me though - I couldn't find any gas tanks, or even built-in stoves in (or under) the table. How were we supposed to heat up the steamboat? I then noticed this electronic panel under the table, and soon figured out that this was the controls for the electronic heater - electricity is used instead of gas! With a press of the appropriate button, the heater turns on, and you can preset it to cook at low, medium or high temperature, or simply just preset it to "keep warm". One of the things I didn't like about eating steamboats was when you were trying to turn the fire down, and you accidentally switch the gas off. With this nifty electronic panel, that won't happen! XD

The menu consists of individual "set meals" that you can order to suit your palette. I personally ordered the Fish Slice set, and it came with about six generous helpings of fish slices and a plate of the usual steamboat goodies: tauhu, mushrooms, fishballs, "sui kao"s, prawns, "fu pei", loads of vegetables, etc. Other sets available are the Pork Slice set, Vegetarian set, Seafood set, to name a few. The price isn't too bad either. My set cost me RM16.90, other sets ranged from RM15 to about RM20 at most. You could also order side helpings of stuff like extra fishballs, other varieties of vegetables, fishcake, etc., for a price.

Also served together with your set dish is a special sauce which tasted to me like the sweet sauce used in Chee Chung Fun, but with added condiments like fried onions, sesame oil, sesame seeds, peanuts, spring onions, soya sauce and cili padi. I thought the sauce tasted a little too sweet for my liking, but nevertheless it's not something to really complain about. The food itself was rather good though. The soup tasted well, with just the right touch of pepper, and the seafood and fishballs were fresh enough. I would definitely come back here again, most likely when Michelle comes home in about two weeks' time. Anyone care to join me? Heh.

Gochizosamadeshita! *burp* XD

After dinner, we decided to head out to Taipan USJ for some coffee. When we arrived, I noticed that there was an unusually large crowd of people outside Starbucks, and a whole lot of noise. Upon closer inspection, I found out that an event was taking place - some sorta fundraiser for the SPCA in the form of a live gig by Altered Frequency. You'll have to tune in tomorrow to find out how this:

...turned into this:

It's quite the drama! Stay tuned! XD

[minor facelift]

2006-04-21T04:52:00.000+08:00

Ok well not exactly a facelift, but I've decided to add a spiffy looking image header to replace the old text-only name of my blog. Hopefully in the coming days I'll finally get around to changing more of the way the site currently looks like.

For starters, comments on the new header would be nice. :)

[on probation]

2006-04-20T02:45:00.001+08:00

So earlier today I went online to get my daily fix from the lowyat.net forums, and I found that there was something not quite right with my interface. There I was, in my newly found favourite Gundam thread, when I noticed this:
My first reaction was that of horror - somehow my account has been HAXXOR'd!! Or worse, something's gone terribly wrong with the forums.

But then I decided to look around and find out what's really happening, and headed over to the Announcements section of the forum. There, I found this:
ZOMG a probationary moderator! O_O

It was indeed a pleasant suprise, to be deemed worthy of such a responsibility. I'll have to do my best from now on. :)

Oh, and while I was in the office today, I found this awesome piece of papercraft, so I had to make one for myself. LOL it's teh funnay:
In case you wanna make one for yourself, here's the template: click me!

XD

[what's below the surface]

2006-04-18T22:35:00.000+08:00

Desiring to please other people is fine, but not at the expense of being robbed of the ability to think for yourself. There is no such thing as pleasing everyone. At least, not all the time. And while it may be noble to "obey in order to please", sometimes it's best to take one step back and think for a moment what is it that you are obeying. If someone orders you to jump from a high rise building, would you do so blindly? Granted, that is an exaggerated scenario, but the essence is the same: if the wishes of another is ridiculous, why give in? Just because they are older? Just because you are blood related? It would be wise to remember that even adults make mistakes, and their judgements sometimes flawed.

It annoys me because while on the surface it might seem like just "another order", it really is much more than that when you look deeper. It's about pride, and the silly habit of being concerned about what other people may think. Why is that people who practise these things always assume that others are like them? Does it not occur to them that most people would not care? Why is it that when narrow minded people behave in such manner, it is alright, but they decry anyone else who would do the same? That is, if other people would do the same. Not only that, it hurts to think that after many years of showing how faithful you can be, people would still doubt you, or think that you are capable of hurting a person you have loved for so long. For them to feel that way, while all the time they're smiling when they're in front of you, do they take me for a fool?

Don't get me wrong. People who are older than you, or people who are your family should be respected. But respecting does not mean always obeying blindly. I always believe that people who be allowed to think for themselves, to decide what's right and what's wrong. Granted, you would need advise from time to time by more experienced and mature individuals, but at the end of the day you should be the one to make the decision, not others. Otherwise when would it end? When you're 25? 35? 50? If, when given time to be independent and away from home for a period of time, and you have proven yourself to be obedient, knowing what's good and bad, why is it that when you return you are suddenly treated as if you've sinned greatly and therefore need to be controlled? And you are no longer even a child, but an adult.

And while it may sound like I'm for the notion for rebelling against your elders, dont get me wrong, I'm not. But if you let yourself be controlled forever, you will never be free of whoever it is that's controlling you. It would be wise to look at things in perspective, and think about what's to come in the future. Without long term vision, you will find that in due time, things will become irreparably changed, be it for good or for worse, because as much as people may have patience and try their best to understand, it will run out. My mother made that mistake, of thinking that things will become better in due time. It took her close to 20 years of patience and silent suffering, only in the end, it never did.

And I will not repeat her mistake.

[run]

2006-04-17T18:14:00.000+08:00

Why is it that when good things happen, they do occasionally. But when shit happens, they come one after another?

I'm tired. I want to run away from it all.

[He is risen!]

2006-04-16T17:30:00.000+08:00

It's easter again, a special day held to celebrate a special and momentous occasion in the history of the human race. And while the guys in church are taking part in a mini choir, I had to give it a miss due to work. The picture was taken yesterday evening during the Easter service, with another one to be held this evening.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " Then they remembered his words. - Luke 24:1-8.

Blessed Easter to all. :)

[blog plug: infested_ysy]

2006-04-15T18:48:00.000+08:00

Back when I had a little fun with my Gundam, it was actually in response to one of infested_ysy's (a member of the lowyat forums that I frequent) post. I didn't want to post his pictures up at first since it wasn't mine to begin with, but after he gave me the go-ahead, here they are - the pictures that inspired mine lol:

...

......

O_O'''

I have zah ~~power~~ loli!

You can head over to his blog to check out more pictures. He's got quite a nice collection of assorted figures, gundam kits, etc. And if he's not being a pain in the butt on the forums, he even does stuff like origami cats. =_= Either way, check it out for yourself. :)

Oh, by the way, lookie what I recently got myself:
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE.

[red frame - the making 3]

2006-04-13T18:15:00.000+08:00

After getting the top half of the Astray Red Frame done up, last Tuesday saw me putting in another 4 or so hours into the lower half of the kit. I had originally wanted to spread out the assembly over another 2 days, but since I couldn't get people to go catch a movie with I had to settle for the afternoon at home. Poor Andrew and me went all the way to church (they were having some Sunday School sports event) only to come back rejected by most people we asked join us for a show. Instead, the replies we got were "Oh, I cant. I've got homework to finish up".

What's with kids these days? Doing homework at home... on a holiday? Absurb! The very thought of it should be made punishable by law. >_> But try as we may, we simply could not get the youth to see things our way. Pooh.

So anyway, back to the Gundam kit. Now let me say first of all that the legs of the Red Frame are more detailed than most models in the Gundam's CE timeline. And while it may not be obvious if you look at the picture on your right, take a look at these shots of the side and back of the leg and you'll see what I mean. Or simply take a look at the legs on the Destiny kit at the background and you'll find that they look much more plain.

I mentioned before that the larger 1/100 scale kits are generally more detailed and poseable, and boy was I suprised at how much the legs of the Red Frame can bend and turn! I mean, just look at that! It's no wonder they say that once you've built a 1/100 scale, you'd never want to go back to the 1/144 scales again. So anyway, at the end of about 4 hours (yes, each leg took me about 2 hours because of the insane panel lining involved) I got the bottom half done. Each leg is attached to the central pelvic piece, which in turn will be attached to the main torso.

And there you have it! After roughly 8-9 hours to work put into the kit, my Astray Red Frame is finally complete! :) I'll have better pictures up later. Somehow the Sony Cybershot T3 that I used didn't really cut it for me in terms of picture quality, no matter how much I tried to tweak the settings. In the meantime though, just enjoy these few pictures I managed to snap of the kit in "action". XD

The standard prerequisite "I've got you in my sight now" pose. XD

If there's one complain I have about this kit, it's the fact that the Gerbera Straight (the mean looking katana) pieces doesnt come pre-set in their original colors. Instead it's mostly white, and with me being the noob that I am in anything remotely artsy (i.e. I suck at painting), I pretty much cant do anything about it. :( Oh, and while we're on the subject of me sucking at painting, I have no idea what to do with the figure of Lowe Guele (Astray's pilot) that was included with the kit. O_o

Check out the poseability! This kit can scratch itself in the back if it ever develops a back itch (or in this case, reach out for its beam saber). XD A more detailed close-up picture can be seen here.

The actual size comparison between the 1/144 and 1/100 kits. Look how Destiny's being dwarfed. O_O

[graduate application: update]

2006-04-13T00:55:00.000+08:00

An email sent to me earlier today, from the Chemistry department of UNL where I've applied for entry into their graduate program:

Hello Jeremy,

We currently have you on a wait list. We have made the bulk of our offers, but still may have one or two additional Fall semester openings before the end of the term.

I will contact you again in approximately two weeks to update you on the status of your application.

In the meantime, thank you for your continued interest in graduate studies at UNL.

DeAnna Larson
Secretary Chemistry Graduate Recruiting and Admissions
516 Hamilton Hall
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0304
(402) 472-2977
Email: dlarson2@unl.edu

The way I see it, I dont think I got in, seeing as how the only forseeable way in would be if someone else pulls out. I doubt that'll happen, but hey, another 2 weeks of waiting is in order. I dont think I'll just sit still though. I'll just go ahead with my job hunt, regardless of how this whole application thing'll turn out. Enough time has been wasted waiting already.

[red frame - the making 2]

2006-04-11T14:09:00.000+08:00

Last night saw another 2 hours (you have no idea how time flies while you're having fun lol) of work going into the assembly of the arms of the Red Frame. Ok well technically an hour and a half, cause I was pretty much pooped to carry on after that so I finished it up in the morning after I woke up. Now some of you might be asking, how do you know where to color/ink? Well, the instruction booklet almost always comes with a handy color guide for the mecha, so just by referring to it, you'll know where panel lines are supposed to be drawn, what color to use, etc.

Now I promised yesterday to explain what panel lines are, but before that let's take a look at the tools of the trade. The picture you see here on the right is the GM01 black Gundam Marker pen used to ink the panel lines on most if not all Gundam model kits. If you look real close, you'll actually see that the tip of the pen (it's more of a pen than a marker really) is really quite fine.

Getting the panel lines drawn is simple enough. You just ink over the grooves and voila, you've got panel lines. A word of caution though, sometimes you'd get really thick panel lines cause the grooves may be too small, so what I do is after I ink the lines, I'll either use my fingers or a wet cloth to wipe off any excess ink before it dries up. If you dont wanna dirty your fingers too much or dont have any loose cloth lying around, then using a plain eraser will just just as well.

It really is amazing what difference panel lining can do to the appearance of your model kit. Just look at this picture of the left arm without any panel lines, and this one of the right arm with panel lines. A whole lot of difference huh! I think panel lines add greater depth to the kit, and makes it look more authentic and mecha-like. The picture you see on the right shows how your kit will look like with and without panel lined limbs (the red frame's left arm isn't panel lined).

All in all, it was a good 2 hours plus spent, and after roughly 4-5 hours, the top half of my Red Frame is complete. Work on the bottom half starts tonight! :)

[red frame - the making 1]

2006-04-10T19:11:00.000+08:00

Yesterday after church service in the morning, I headed up to Subang to collect my 1/100 Astray Red Frame. I had purchased it from a fellow lowyat.net forummer who goes to Japan on a regular basis, and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting more kits from him in the near future. :)

After collecting the kit, I headed back down to Port Klang to join up with the rest of the guys in church, who were out tracting for next week's Easter meeting. Some of us decided to head out for lunch, so by the time I got back home there was just enough time to open up the kit to see what's inside before I had to get ready for work.

I was sooo itching to start assembling this gorgeous kit, so you'll probably be right if you guessed that I couldn't concentrate on my work in the office lol. And yes, it is sad that I have to work on Sundays while everyone else is having fun elsewhere, but being the weekends the office isn't as packed, and so I basically have more time to catch up on my anime on YouTube. XD

Yes yes, I'm half otaku. I know that already. =_=

The fun began as soon as I got home from work and after I was out of the showers. While the booklet was printed in Japanese, the assembly pictures are straight-forward enough to be understood even by non-Japanese speaking folks. All individual parts are numbered accordingly, so it's only a matter of finder the correct runner (the frame to which the parts are attached to is called the runner) and then cutting out the parts needed.

The picture above shows the torso after assembly was complete, and that alone took me about 2 hours to finish. O_o This being a 1/100 scale, it has significantly more parts if compared to the smaller HG 1/144 kits. Hmm, I think I'll probably take a picture comparing the size of this kit with the 1/144 Destiny that I already have. That should give a better sense of how bigger this kit is. :)

The slightly more demanding assembly requirements aside, the up side to a larger scale model is that you get much more detail and accurate colors (although some minor paint job is still required if you want the kit to look 100% like it's anime/manga counterpart). The head here on the left took me another hour to complete, and after that I was pretty much sleep-deprived. And even if I wanted to continue, my forefinger was already kinda sore from constantly holding the pieces together firmly while trimming the excesses from the runners, panel lining, etc.

I'll take pictures of before and after shots when I work on the limbs tonight, to illustrate what panel lines are and why they make a whole lot of difference to how a Gundam model looks like in the end. Of course, I wish I had the crazy painting skills of some of the better modellers out there, cause some of the kits I've seen on the Internet literally blew me away. D:

And there you have it! After starting at roughly 2.20am and finishing at about 5.45am, this is what I have for show. Stay tuned tomorrow for the next update! XD

[it's here!]

2006-04-09T14:36:00.000+08:00

It's hereeeeeeeeee!

I'll start work on it tonight, hopefully with updates on my progress on the blog on a regular basis. :)

Meanwhile, have some laughs looking at these funny poses I came up with using the Destiny Gundam and some anime figures I was having around.

LOLI, get! XD

Skirt fetish?! O_o'''

Gaah, incoming! >.<

[eagerly awaiting]

2006-04-06T00:35:00.000+08:00

Another week or so, and it'll arrive. My very own 1/100 scale model of the immensely popular Astray Red Frame mobile suit.

I cant wait! XD

[error 440: funny not found]

2006-04-01T01:26:00.000+08:00

April Fool's Day or not, whoever thought up this stinking idea deserves to be shot. Over, and over, and over, again. I mean, pulling off a prank is fine. Having all your clicks returned to this damned page...ISN'T.

And here I am in the middle of conducting trades with possible meet-ups with potential buyers tomorrow.

To think that the mods of a community forum of over 400,000 members would know better. *%(*&!@#^!($%!($

Edit: Okay, as of 2:48am local time, the site is back up again. Thank goodness it didn't last for long.

Edit edit: Only for it to go down again at 2:54am. >_>

Edit edit edit: There we go, business as usual at approximately 3am.

[fish out of water]

2006-03-30T21:09:00.000+08:00

With the latest postponement of the status of my graduate admission, I'm left wondering about what's ahead of me in the months to come. I've done all I can up to this point: contacting lecturers, reading about their research work, even stopping short of begging them to admit me, etc., but as much as I like to remain hopeful of securing a place at the last minute, I have to face the scenario of having no choice but to dive headfirst into the rat race.

But therein lies the dilemma, and the disappointment. As much as the Malaysian government goes on and on rambling about wanting to turn the country into a hub of biotechnology and biodiversity, nothing concrete has been done to steer us in that direction. In contrast, countries who started later than us have leapfrogged ahead of us by miles (our closest neighbour Singapore, being a prime example). If you're not convinced, try going to websites like jobstreet.com and try running a search with the word "biotechnology" for jobs in Malaysia and Singapore. If ever there are jobs available, chances are they're for positions in marketing and sales.

Now don't get me wrong. I have nothing against people who work in marketing and sales. But someone like me will feel like a fish out of water if I head in that direction. I feel most at home in a laboratory, with test tubes in my hands, or when I'm setting agarose gels for electrophoresis. And it's depressing because unlike someone who's into IT and has access to a computer, I dont have access to those unless I obtain work in a laboratory. I dont know, maybe I miss donning my labcoat, being in a lab, and doing stuff like asking questions about how agarose concentrations will affect the rates of migration of DNA fragments, etc. Above all, I suppose it depresses me to think that I may not be able to do what I love.

Life is hardly fair, that much is for certain. And if the theory of evolution has any hint of truth to it, then pretty soon this fish'll just have to grow legs and start learning to walk on land or risk facing extinction.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Lord, if it is in Your will to grant me the desire of my heart, then send me there God. If not, then grant me the wisdom to accept that You know what's best for me.

Amen.

[destiny gundam, part deux]

2006-03-29T22:49:00.000+08:00

For lack of better stuff to post, here are more pictures of my 1/144 HG Destiny Gundam kit. These pictures were taken with an Olympus C-740 with macro mode on. I'm no professional when it comes to photography, but I must say I'm happy with the way the pictures turned out. :)

Ok, I'm gonna get a little geeky now, so if you're not a fan of Gundam or mecha in general, it would be best to just enjoy the pictures (click on them for a larger image) and skip what I'm about to say. XD

The ZGMF-X42S Destiny is one of the more popular mechas in the Gundam Seed Destiny series. Its armaments include the standard beam rifle, arm mounted shield, and head mounted CIWS, although it also carries with it a humongous anti-ship sword and beam rifle on its back. Other unique weaponry include shoulder mounted boomerang sabers, palm mounted beam cannons, and wrist mounted beam shields. The second picture above shows the back of the mobile suit, with its beam rifle, anti-ship sword (the one in blue, back right) and beam cannon (the one in green, back left) tucked away.

But perhaps the most prominent feature of Destiny is its "Wings of Light" propulsion system, which to the casual observer, looks like well, uh...wings. XD The picture to the left here, shows the boomerang sabers after they have been deployed from the shoulder.

The one to the right here shows the beam cannon being deployed, and if you look closely you can also make out the beam cannon on the palm of the mobile suit. Mounted on the left arm is the shield, which is also prominent. One thing I have to admit though, the poseability of the newer kits are amazing, and I really had a good time coming up with all the poses. In the days of old (read: when I was younger lah), the 1/144 scale model kits were pretty stiff, and you couldn't really pose them alot. Also, they didnt give you the display stands too back then. >_>

Last picture of the day, and this one shows the beam shield being deployed on the left wrist. This is one of my favourite poses for its sheer dramaticism lol. If it's one thing I regret though, it's the fact that I'm not able to get the red streak below the eyes done cause I dont have a good red colored marker. I'll have that fixed one of these days when I finally get around to buying it though. :D

For more pictures of the Destiny, including pictures of its "wings" deployed and the anti-ship sword being wielded, check out my previous post here.

[so you want to learn jap pt. 4]

2006-03-28T18:09:00.000+08:00

Yes yes, I know, it's long overdue. But heck better late than never right? XD

O-shigoto wa nan desu ka = What is your occupation?
Introduction
In this lesson, a common sentence pattern is introduced – a 'person/item' is 'something'. For example:
- An-san wa Igirisujin desu = Anne is English.
- Kore wa tokei desu = This is a watch.

The pattern in Japanese is: noun wa noun desu.

Vocabulary list
Occupations
shigoto = work
sensei = teacher
kaisha-in = company worker/employee
gakusei = student
seito = pupil
shufu = housewife
isha = doctor
haisha = dentist
ten'in = shop assistant
hisho = secretary

Kazoku Own family
haha = mother
chichi = father
ani = older brother
ototo = younger brother

Interests
shumi = hobby
supotsu = sports
sakka = football (soccer)
suki = ski
gorufu = golf
dokusho = reading
suiei = swimming
dansu = dancing

Counting people
nan-nin = how many people?
hitori = one person, alone
futari = two people
san-nin = three people
yo-nin = four people
nan (sometimes nani) = what?

Useful phrases
moichido itte kudasai = please say it again
yukkuri itte kudasai = please say it more slowly

Sample conversation
Anne and her fellow classmates have brought in photos of their homestay families and real families to show to the class. Anne is talking about the Yamaguchi family.
Anne: Kore wa Yamaguchi Masaki-san desu. Yamaguchi san wa kaisha-in desu. Shumi wa suki to gorufu desu.
Tani: (pointing photo) Kore wa donata desu ka.
Anne: Ano, Takeshi-kun desu. Takeshi wa seito desu. Shumi wa suiei desu.
Heidi: Go-kazoku wa zembu de nan-nin desu ka.
Anne: Zembu de yo-nin desu.
Scott: Sumimasen, moichido itte kudasai. Nan-nin desu ka.
Anne: Yo-nin desu.

Next Tani passes round photos of her own family and holds up one to discuss.
Tani: Kono hito wa haha desu. Haha wa isha desu. Shumi wa dokusho desu. Kono hito wa Henri desu. Henri wa ani desu. Shumi wa sakka desu.
Han: (points to another photo) Kore mo Henri-san desu ka.
Tani: (blushing) Iie, Henri ja arimasen. Watashi no boifurendo desu.
Scott: Nani...? Yukkuri itte kudasai.

Extras
to = and
donata = who
go-kazoku = someone else's family
zembu de = altogether
kono hito = this person
mo = also, too
ja arimasen = is not
boifurendo = boyfriend

Explanations
1. Takeshi wa seito desu Takesi is a (school) pupil.
This is an example of the pattern that was introduced in the beginning of this lesson. In the conversation, more ways of using this pattern is encountered i.e. talking about jobs and hobbies. For example:
- Kono hito wa haha desu = This (person) is my mother
- Haha wa isha desu = My mother is a doctor
- Shumi wa dokusho desu = (Her) hobby is reading

From part 3, we learnt that wa is used to highlight the word that is the subject. It can sometimes be translated as "as for". For example:
- Shumi wa dokusho desu = As for her hobby, it is reading
- Shigoto wa isha desu = As for her job, she is a doctor

2. Kore wa donata desu ka Who is this?
Donata means who and is a more polite version of the question word dare which also means who. Donata would be used on more formal occasions. In English this phrase might be translated as: Might I ask who this is? Tani is asking about a photo but if the person is present you use kochira instead of kore for this.

3. Kore mo Henri-san desu ka Is this also Henri? (Is this Henri as well?)
Mo means also and is used as follows:
- Tani: Watasi wa gakusei desu (I am a student)
Anne: Watashi mo gakusei desu (I am also a student)

- Sato-sensei wa Nihonjin desu (Mrs Satō is Japanese)
Takeshi-kun mo Nihonjin desu (Takeshi is Japanese as well)

- Ani wa kaisha-in desu (My older brother is a company worker)
Ototo mo kaisha-in desu (My younger brother is a company worker as well)

You can also use mo this way:
- An-san mo Tani-san mo gakusei desu = Both Anne and Tani are students
- Takeshi-kun mo Sato-sensei mo Nihonjin desu = Both Takeshi and Mrs Sato are Japanese.

4. Kono hito wa haha desu This person is my mother.
Japanese people show respect for other people outside their family by using polite words and phrases. For example, in previous lessons you learnt how san was attached to a name when you are addressing someone else, or how o is attached to certain words when talking to other people (o-namae - your name).

In contrast, Japanese people use words which are more 'humble' (or modest) when talking about themselves or members of their own family. Therefore Tani doesnt say kochira wa ... (this person) when talking about her own mother. Instead she says kono hito which is a more everyday word for this person. She could also use kore wa (this).

5. Iie, Henri ja arimasen No, he's not Henri.
To say is not, am not, are not, etc., in Japanese, you use ja arimasen or the more polite version, dewa arimasen. For example:
- Tokei ja arimasen = It is not a watch
- Ichigatsu ja arimasen. Nigatsu desu = It is not January. It's February.

To say was or were (in other words, past tense) in Japanese, you change desu to deshita. For example:
- Chichi wa haisha deshita = My father was a dentist
- Sensei wa Furansujin deshita = My teacher was French

And to say wasn't or weren't you use ja arimasen deshita (or dewa arimasen deshita).

6. Haha mo chichi mo isha desu Both my mother and father are doctors.
There is an important difference between Japanese and English. In English we say one doctor and two doctors, in other words we have a singular and a plural. But generally in Japanese there is no difference between one or more than one of something, and as you saw in Explanation 5 above, desu covers all the different words we use in English (is, are, am).

7. Nan-nin desu ka. Yo-nin desu How many people are there? There are four people.
When counting people, you add the numbers ichi, ni, san, etc. to the word nin. Nin means person/people, therefore san-nin would mean three people.

However, when saying one person you use hitori, and for two people you use futari. Also, the word four (yon) is shortened to yo.

To ask how many people? you say nan-nin desu ka. Nan means what but better translates to how many in this case.

8. Moichido itte kudasai Please say it again.
If you didnt catch what was said to you, this phrase is a polite way of asking the person to repeat what was said. You could also use yukkuri itte kudasai to get the speaker to speak a little slower. Also, you could add sumimasen to the beginning of the sentence to be even more polite. For example:
- Sumimasen, moichido itte kudasai = Excuse me but would you mind saying that again please?

[youth barbeque@pkgh]

2006-03-26T18:39:00.000+08:00

Yesterday evening the youth of Port Klang Gospel Hall came together for a simple barbeque gathering. After a long week of work and generally feeling ~~emo~~ lousy, it was nice to be able to kick back a little and have a little bit of fun. The barbeque was scheduled to begin at 7pm, but some of us went earlier (about 4.30pm) to play a few rounds of floorball.

I forgot my camera, so I'll have to thank Andrew for the pictures, taken from his trusty K750i. XD

We got the fire started at about 7pm using Arnold's free (being free, it was small lol) barbeque pit, and soon after that the food started cooking. We had plenty to choose from that evening, from the prerequisite chicken wings, to fried rice, to coleslaw, fruits, etc. The Ramly burger patties were a hit as well, judging by how fast they came and went.

After a while, Arnold went and brought another barbeque pit, which helped to get more food cooked faster, judging by how many we could handle with the small puny one above lol.

Back inside the hall, some of us also had fun playing Dance Dance Revolution on the PS2 I brought along. It was quite hillarious to see everyone try their best to get the steps right. XD

Of course, Andrew refused to play yet again. >_>

Everybody had a good time just chilling out and munching away, but I didnt eat much though. I felt a little full from lunch, so all I had was chinese tea and watermelon. I think I may have overdid it a little though, cause this morning I woke up with a sprained back (from floorball), strained arms (from fanning the flames for ages trying to get the fire going), and sore feet (from the dancing game). But hey, it didn't matter cause it was all good fun. :)

[shrug]

2006-03-24T22:04:00.000+08:00

"Humanity is amazing, that they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up,and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future.That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived."

Wise words by Confucius, and mostly true, although if I were given the choice of being able to change some things, I'd say humanity is stupid instead of amazing.

*Shrug*

[crestfallen]

2006-03-23T21:50:00.000+08:00

It's been two weeks now since the last correspondence from UNL with regards to my graduate school application. I know I shouldn't be feeling down since I've not officially been told the outcome of my application, but the longer this drags on, the more I feel that it simply wasn't meant to be.

One sight I wont be seeing in a while

And if that's the case - that I dont get in, somehow, this time it hurts more than it did last year. I dont know, maybe it's because I really felt that I had a chance. Maybe it's because I've waited a whole year. Or because I've been thinking about Nebraska alot the past few days, and how I've missed the place. Or simply because I really wanted a better life ahead of me out of this stinkhole of a country. At any rate, the cards have been dealt, and I'll just have to make do with what I have in hand. Life doesn't always go the way you want it to, not all the time anyway.

Time to look for a proper job, and start helping to pay some bills.

Carpe diem.

Update: As of 10:50pm today, I have received an email reply from the Biochemistry department telling me that I have not been chosen for admission.

[jaded]

2006-03-22T18:29:00.000+08:00

If you're just like any regular Joe Malaysian, you'd probably go about your daily lives oblivious to the fact that there is something seriously wrong with our country. Quite frankly, the general public can't be blamed, since practically all of our media is government controlled, hence you dont really find anything in the press decrying them. But dig deeper, "seek the truth", if you want to call it that, and you'll find that nothing is what it seems.

If there's something that I really dislike about Malaysians, I'd say it has to be the "tidak apa" mentality. I dont know, maybe we've become so accustomed to being taught to "respect our elders" that we think anyone with higher authority than us knows better. Or maybe we've been spoonfed so much in the course of growing up that it's difficult for us to step out of our comfort zones and think for ourselves. The reality of it is this, that as long as we continue to remain like this - brainless Lemmings, we will forever be taken advantaged of. And while we moan and groan without lifting a finger to do anything, the poor will get poorer, and the richer well, richer.

Last week I watched V for Vendetta, and I particularly liked the phrase when the main protagonist exclaims "The people shouldn't be afraid of their governments, the government should be afraid of their people. Because at the end of the day, we - the people, put them there. Sadly, the way things stand at the moment, seems like we're still far off from anarchy judging from the way the people still think there's nothing wrong with our country.

Do your part! Wake up! Take a walk in the park and smell the roses, because they certainly dont smell right! For starters, you can check out Jeff Ooi's blog (link at the right side of this blog), or pay a visit to (if not take part in) some serious online discussions like the ones you find here. Having said that though, it's always best to take everything in with a pinch of salt.

Hopefully, you wont end up as jaded as I am over the sad state of affairs in our country.

[in the eyes of others]

2006-03-20T19:01:00.000+08:00

This should be a nice way of killing time, while I get to know how I fare in the eyes of many. O_o

Go anonymous if you want.

[verily, vividly vexed]

2006-03-19T17:47:00.000+08:00

I cannot stress enough how everyone should watch the latest masterpiece by the Wachowski brothers, V for Vendetta. Instead of telling you how awesome it is, I'll leave you with actual lines spoken by the main protagonist, played masterfully by none other than "Agent Smith" Hugo Weaving himself:

"This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is its vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

Now GO. WATCH. THIS. MOVIE.

NOW!

If you need more persuasion, watch the trailer below (2 mins 28sec):

On a slightly relevant sidenote, alliterations FTW!

[furry camwhores]

2006-03-10T14:18:00.000+08:00

I was feeling kinda bored earlier this afternoon, so I decided to take some pictures of the furkids at Michelle's place. Not all of you may know this, but shortly after I moved in to temporarily stay over at Michelle's place (while waiting for my new home to be ready), I took Ginger in with me. And while it was kind of hard at first because Pepper and Nappoleon (Michelle's pets) were upset by that, over time they've come to accept Ginger.

Ok stop staring at my sexy boxer shorts lol. Meet Nappoleon, or Nappy for short. A Golden Retriever, Nappy's the charming one, and I'll say the most manja one of the lot. Nappy's the one who'll come over to you when you call for him, and when he does, more often than not he'll immediately lie down next to you (I mean, look at the picture!). He's sweet, often letting you pat him endlessly, and he likes it alot when you rub the underside of his belly. :)

About the only thing that gets to Nappy is loud noises, like thunderstorms or firecrackers going off. I think Nappy gets scared easy by those, and he'll often run and hide under the cars, getting dirty with oil in the process. Because of this sometimes we'll let him into the house during thunderstorms or whenever there are loud noises outside.

And then we have Pepper, the boisterous one. Pepper's a Miniature Schnauzer, and unlike Nappy, she'll be the one to get awfully excited (not to mention loud) when there are firecrackers going off outside. I think it's due to the fact that Mini Schnauzers were bred to hunt, so the way I see it, it's a natural response. Heh. Pepper can be highly territorial and protective of her masters as well, because when my furkid first came in, Pepper was very hostile whenever Michelle's mom tried to play with Ginger.

Fast forward to now, and Pepper's the one constantly on the run. Haha. Apparently Ginger's found this weird fetish (O_o) of licking Pepper all over - something that Pepper obviously finds annoying. The picture above shows Pepper hiding underneath the seat while Ginger waits patiently for her to come out. XD

And here we have the fetishist. >_> Ginger's a mixed breed terrier of some sort, but she's lovely nonetheless. I've had her for close to 7 years now, and she never fails to bring a smile to me everytime I look at her. Now that I think about it, she's always had that habit of licking people. Haha. Whenever you return home, Ginger will leap onto you and start licking away, often at your face. :)

However, whenever you call her, she has this nasty habit of walking towards you, and then stopping just short of you, and then plonking herself down on the floor. She then just lies there and waits for you to approach her instead. >_> That's how I got these two shots of her, cause I had to approach her while she lay on the floor with that "Meh" look on her face. =_='''

Just as I was about to upload the pictures onto the PC, Pepper came up to me, followed closely by...*jengjengjeng* Ginger (!), who then proceeded to harass Pepper again. I just had to take pictures. XD

Gaah help! *gulp*

No please...no more I beg of you! =_=

*licklicklicklick*

*licklicklicklicklicklicklicklicklick* =_='''

ZOMG harassment caught on video! XD

Last but not least, this has to be one of the best pictures of Pepper and Ginger that I've taken so far. So cute! :D

[obligatory update]

2006-03-09T18:04:00.000+08:00

Yes, I know. I havent been updating in a while. Okay, maybe in a long while. But really now, there hasn't been much to say actually. Life still drones on, mundane and filled with ennui. Nothing more, same ol' same ol'. I guess that's a good thing, seeing as how messed up everything was a few months back.

Work still sucks. And it'll be at least a month before I know if I'm going to stay on or move on to one more relevant to my degree, reason being I'm still waiting for the results of my graduate application. This morning, I received an email from the Chemistry Department of UNL, telling me that as of today no decision has been made yet on a place for me, and that it'll be another 2 weeks before they contact me again. Apparently the admissions committee meets on every 1st and 15th of the month to go over potential students, and they continue to do so until April. I quote part of the email sent to me:

...At the last meeting no decision was reached on your application; it will be reviewed again at the next committee meeting. There is no need for concern at this stage; it is quite normal that a final decision on very highly qualified applicants is deferred for several meetings while the committee determines whether positions in your area of interest and financial support are available...

Now I dont know if they said that to make me feel better, but I guess I have no choice but to take their word for it. So here's to another 2 weeks of waiting. D:

Anyhow, the plan now is to remain at my current job (though I dread the thought of going to work everyday), and should I get accepted, I'll just stay on until I have to leave for the States. If however I dont get admitted, then I'll just seek out a biotech-related job and live out my life in mediocrity here. :( So keep those fingers crossed for me and pray that I get in!

Oh, I've been watching Gundam Seed recently (yes, yes, I know, I'm slow) so I finally know who pilots what and who Kira is and who Lacus is and what not. You know, I think anime influences me in more ways than one, and the damning thing is that it makes me spend money. Look at what I've been busy with over the past few days, heh:

ZOMG my very own 1/144 Destiny Gundam!!11one XD

It took me upwards of 8 hours to complete this thing, but dang it was good fun. I used to enjoy assembling Gundam kits when I was younger, but after seeing the horror of having two of my kits literally taken apart by my then-young-but-incredibly-destructive cousins, I gave up. I guess it must've been about 8 years now since I last laid my hands on good plastic like this. :D

I kinda like the fact that some of the newer kits provide you with a display stand, which you can use to pose your model. That's the thing you see in the pictures violating the nether regions of the models. XD Oh, and since it's only a HG (High Grade) 1/144 kit - meaning it's the smallest scale (about as tall as a small mineral water bottle, maybe shorter), I didnt want it to be too plain, so I got myself the Gundam marker pen to draw the panel lines. You'll see it as black lines, and it's obvious on the legs, and the sword weapon in the first picture above. Frankly, it looks a whole lot better with the lines, so I'm glad I bought the marker. :)

I actually had more pictures taken, but I'm too lazy to post them all up. Plus, the sword weapon you see in the picture is only one of the various weaponry available for this mech. I'll probably do up different poses when I've got the time with those other armaments, but they'll have to wait for now. :)

[dont mind me]

2006-02-15T21:08:00.000+08:00

i've just been incredibly lazy as of late.

sigh.

[friday night fun]

2006-02-03T23:51:00.000+08:00

i was just thinking, should i start using proper capitalisation when i post entries instead of just using lower case letters? what say you, my readers?

anyways, that's totally besides the point. what i meant to post about is that every friday evenings, me and the gang from my church's youth group would meet up to play music together and generally hang out. today was a little different though, in that there were marker pens lying around in the hall.

and we all know what happens when you have marker pens lying around with empty whiteboards hanging on the walls... desecration time! XD

among the stupid stuff we came up with, this was particularly funny, though it would take a science geek to really understand what it means:

of course, i contributed as well, with my depiction of the infamous "orly" internet meme:

the original, here:

yah lah, not very nice, but boleh-lah! lol.

too bad i didnt take a picture of the whole desecrated whiteboard. andrew, send over can? XD

[anime review: blood+]

2006-02-02T18:00:00.000+08:00

p/s: you can place your mouse over the images to get a short description.

way back in 2000, anime fans were treated to blood: the last vampire, a 48-minute long flick about a dark and brooding female protagonist named saya and her mission to rid the american naval base in okinawa, japan of grotesque vampire-like monsters called chiropterans. the movie itself was flashy and violent, though a little lacking in story and substance, but it left a lasting impression on fans so much so that cosplays of saya were a regular occurence in anime conventions both in japan and elsewhere.

fast forward to the year 2005 (the anime was released late last year), and production i.g (the studio behind the original blood: the last vampire) decides to release blood+ (pronounced blood plus), much to the delight of anime aficionados. now i must admit i've never watched the original movie, but after being exposed to the hype surrounding the eventual release of the first episode, i couldn't wait to see what the fuss was all about.

the series starts off by introducing saya otonashi, a seemingly normal high-school student who lives with her stepfather joji - a vietnam war veteran, and two stepsiblings, kai and riku. all seems fine and dandy, except for one disturbing fact - saya has no memories of her past, and her perfect life is drastically altered when she meets haji, a handsome and mysterious man who plays the cello and is almost always seen in a black suit. when saya is chased into her school compound one fateful night by a grostesque monster, haji appears out of nowhere and hands saya a sword - a sword he says belongs to her. from that moment on, the world as saya knew would be forever altered. saya would be thrust into a world of secret experiments, vampires, deceit, death and sadness.

the anime itself is already in its 16th episode so far, although there is no news yet as to how many episodes there will be in total. frankly, i dont really mind if it goes on for many more, because i like what i see in this series. also, there is no indication if this series has any ties with the original year 2000 movie, so it's safe to assume that it's probably a story on its own. the animation is top-notch, and the animators have spared no change in making sure the emotions are captured well. this is important, seeing as how emotions play a big part in this anime - from saya who's trying her best to come to grips with her haunting past, to kai who's being at a loss for not being able to do much to help her sister face her demons, to the red shield agent david, whose cold and distant outlook serves him well as leader of a secret organization.

the other thing i like about this series is that it does not rely too much on ecchi (or fanservice to the uninitiated) to garner interest. there are no pantyshots, or females with ginormous bodily proportions, etc - the sort of stuff which seems to plague every other anime there is out there today. on the contrary, every episode up till now carries with it an air of seriousness and can be a little gloomy and dark. i cannot help but feel that something really bad will happen in the future, something that will forever change saya.

in conclusion, if you like your anime with a good mix of action and storyline, give blood+ a go. a word of caution though, this series does have a fair share of blood and gore, so you might wanna keep the kiddies away from this one. overall, i'd rate this one a 8/10.

below is the opening theme from the anime, as subbed by shinsen-subs. it shouldn't take long to load, since it's only about a minute or so in length. press play to watch.

earlier anime reviews:
kimi ga nozumo eien - here

[cny06]

2006-01-29T22:42:00.000+08:00

for the first time in many years, i actually looked forward to the chinese new year festivities. i dunno, maybe it's because i missed out on the fun last year when i was away in the states. or perhaps it dawned on me that this year might be the last chinese new year i'll celebrate with my family in a long while, assuming i get accepted to go further my studies. either way, yesterday during the reunion dinner, the food was great, meeting up with my relatives again was great, and tasting my granny's once-a-year dishes was awesome. not forgetting of course, the ang paus i've already collected. honestly, if the thought of receiving cold hard cash in ang paus aint reason enough for you to put off marriage till you're older, i dont know what is! XD

so this morning i woke up, and my car wouldn't start. apparently something's wrong with my door, and when i close it the sensor still flashes...and i guess having the sensor light on for the whole night would do wonders to your battery. >_>

but heck, not even a flat battery could've prevented me from setting out on a crusade to find the best ba kua and collect as many ang paus as i can...behold: andrew's car kicking my battery to life via mark's jumpstart cable yay!

so anyways, it was cool visiting the homes of many friends, though i came close to stuffing myself silly with food. i'm kinda hoping that i'll be able to visit a few more houses tomorrow before evening sets in, cause by then i'll have to head to work. *groan*

happy chinese new year to you guys out there, and have a blessed and prosperous year ahead! :)

[note to self]

2006-01-26T15:11:00.000+08:00

expect nothing. it'll be better that way.

[what happened yesterday]

2006-01-25T23:37:00.000+08:00

so i was fetching michelle's kid brother (jo) back from school. i drove past a traffic light, and stopped behind a van.

i turned to ask jo how his day was, and wham i got hit in the back by a perdana who ran the red light. as a result, my car was pushed forward, and i hit the can in front of me. all this just after i got my car back from the workshop 3 days ago, complete with new paintjob and all.

>_>

as a result, i had to take the day off work, spent time in the police station making a report, went to the workshop to submit the proper insurance claim forms (i'm claiming from the moron who whacked into me, since he wanted to make the report in the first place), and got a whole lot of "omg are you serious?" replies from my mom, michelle's mom, and generally every person who got to know about the incident.

yippee kay yay. <_<

oh, and at night, when i told kelvin (one of my colleagues at work) about the incident after he asked me how my day was online, approximately 3 other people messaged me within 3 minutes and asked me if i was fine. i was like, "whoa, did i appear in the news or something?!" when it dawned on me... tsk tsk tsk...kelvin!

so anyway, i'm fine, the car's still mobile (thankfully), but the repairs will only come after chinese new year (which sucks). so come chinese new year, i'll be driving a car with a dangly front bumper.

sweet.

...not.

[&%&(!*@#%!@]

2006-01-24T17:56:00.000+08:00

of all the *)*!@&#)(!&# luck!!!!!

argh!!

more details tomorrow. too pissed right now to blog

[venus vs. mars pt. 4]

2006-01-19T22:50:00.000+08:00

disclaimer: these are excerpts from the book "men are from mars, women are from venus" by john gray. by no means is this complete, since i've intentionally left out quite a number of solutions offered by the author. if you like it, then buy it! :)

-------------------------------------------

Chapter 5: Speaking Different Languages

Introduction
Martians and Venusian languages had the same words, but they way they were used gave different meanings. Their expressions were similar, but they had different emotional emphasis or connotations. Misinterpreting each other was very easy.

Expressing feelings versus expressing information
Men and women seldom mean the same things even when they use the same words. For example, when a woman says "I feel like you never listen," she does not expect the word never to be taken literally. Using the word never is just a way of expressing the frustration she's feeling at that moment. It is not to be taken as factual information.

To fully express their feelings, women assume poetic license and use various superlatives, metaphors and generalizations. Men mistakenly take these expressions literally. Because they misunderstand the intended meaning, they commonly react in an unsupportive manner. Other examples of complaints easily misinterpreted are like the following:

Women say: "No one listens to me anymore."
Men respond: "But I'm listening to you right now."

Women say: "You dont love me anymore."
Men respond: "Of course I do. That's why I'm here."

Women say: "We never go out."
Men respond: "That's not true. We went out last week."

The "literal" translation of a woman's words can easily mislead a man who is used to using speech as a means of conveying only facts and information. In turn, a man's misguided response might also lead to an argument. When men and women are on the verge of arguing, they are generally misunderstanding each other. At such times, it is important to rethink or translate what they have heard.

Summary: To fully express their feelings, women assume poetic license and use various superlatives, metaphors and generalizations. Men commonly take these expressions literally by mistake.

-------------------------------------------

The Venusian/Martian Phrase Dictionary
The following section contains various excerpts from the lost Venusian/Martian Phrase Dictionary.

"No one listens to me anymore" translated into Martian means "I'm afraid I am boring you. I am afraid you are no longer interested in me. I seem to be very sensitive today. Would you give me some special attention? I would love it. I've had a hard day and feel as though no one wants to hear what I have to say. Would you listen to me and continue to ask me supportive questions such as: 'What happened today? How did you feel? What did you want? How else do you feel?' Also support me by saying caring, acknowledging and reassuring statements such as 'Tell me more' or 'That's right' or 'I understand.' Or just listen, and occasionally when I pause make one of those reassuring sounds: 'oh', 'uh-huh', or 'hmmm'. (Note: Martians had never heard of these sounds before arriving on Venus.)

Without this translation, men may hear "I give you my attention but you dont listen to me. You used to. You have become a very boring person to be with. I want someone exciting and interesting and you are definitely not that person. You have disappointed me. You are selfish, uncaring, and bad."

"You dont love me anymore" translated into Martian means "Today I am feeling as though you dont love me. I'm afraid I have pushed you away. I know you really do love me, you do so much for me. Today I am just feeling a little insecure. Would you reassure me of your love and tell me those three magic words, I love you. When you do that it feels so good.

Without this translation, men may hear "I have given you the best years of my life, and you have given me nothing. You used me. You are selfish and cold. You do not care about everybody. Iwas a fool for loving you. Now I have nothing."

"We never go out" translated into Martian means "I feel like going out and doing something together. We always have such a fun time, and I love being with you. What do you think? Would you take me out to dinner? It's been a few days since we went out." Without this translation a man may hear "You are not doing your job. What a disappointment you turned out to be. We never do anything together anymore because you are lazy, unromantic and just boring."

-------------------------------------------

When Men Dont Talk
One of the biggest challenges for men is to correctly interpret and support a woman when she is talking about her feelings. In contrast, the biggest challenge for women is to correctly interpret and support a man when he isnt talking. Silence is most easily misinterpreted by women. Quite often a man will suddenly stop communicating and become silent. This was unheard of on venus. At first a woman thinks the man is deaf. She thinks that maybe he doesnt hear what's being said and that is why he is not responding.

Men and women think and process information very differently. Women think out loud, sharing their process of inner discovery with an interested listener. This process of just letting thoughts flow freely and expressins them out loud helps her to tap into her intuition. But men process information very differently. Before they talk or respond, they first silently "mull over" or think about what they have heard or experienced. Internally and silently they figure out the most correct or useful response. This process could take from minutes to hours, and to make matters worse, he may not even answer at all if he does not have enough information to process an answer.

Women need to understand that when he is silent, he is saying "I dont know what to say yet, but I am thinking about it." Instead they hear is "I am not responding to you because I dont care about you and I am going to ignore you. What you have said to me is not important and therefore I am not responding."

How She Reacts To His Silence
Women easily misinterpret silence because depending on how she is feeling on that day, she might begin to imagine the very worst - "He hates me, he doesnt love me, he is leaving me forever." This may then trigger her biggest fear, which is "I am afraid that if he rejects me then I will never be loved. I dont deserve to be loved."

Women do this because the only times a woman would ever be silent are when what she had to say would be hurtful or when she didnt want to talk to a person because she didnt trust him anymore and wanted to have nothing to do with him. Without reassuring responses when women are talking, a man's silence can be very threatening. Women must know how to handle a man when he goes into his cave.

Getting Burned By The Dragon
It is important for women to understand not to get a man to talk before he is ready. Women should not take it personally when men withdraw to their caves. Most importantly, women should not follow the men into their caves. If she did then she would get burned by the dragon who protected the cave.

Much unnecessary conflict has resulted from a woman following a man into his cave. Women just havent understood that men really do need to be alone or silent when they are upset. At such times, she naturally tries to get him to talk. She asks "Is there something wrong?" He says "No." But she can feel that he is upset. Instead of letting him work it out inside his cave she unknowinly interrupts his internal process. She asks again "I know something is bothering you. What is it?" He says "It's nothing." She asks "It's not nothing. Something is bothering you. What are you feeling?" He says "Look, I'm fine. Now leave me alone!" She says "How can you treat me like this? You never talk to me anymore. How am I supposed to know what you're feeling? You dont love me. I feel so rejected by you."

At this point he loses control and says things that he'll regret later. His dragon comes out and burns her.

Summary: The biggest challenge for women is to correctly interpret and support a man when he isnt talking. When a man is silent it is easy for women to assume the worst. Never go into a man's cave or you'll be burned by the dragon!

-------------------------------------------

When Martians Do Talk
Women get burned not only when they unknowingly invade a man's cave but also when they misinterpret his expressions, which are generally warnings that they are about to enter the cave or that they are already in the cave. When asked "What's the matter?" a Martian will say something brief like "It's nothing" or "I'm OK." These brief signals are generally the only way a Venusian knows to give him space to work out his feelings alone. Instead of saying "I'm upset and I need some time alone," men just become quiet.

When a man makes one of those brief comments, he generally wants silent acceptance or space. Women need to know that when a man says "I am OK" it is an abbreviated version of what he really means, which is "I am OK because I can deal with this alone. I do not need any help. Please support me by not worrying about me. Trust that I can deal with it all by myself."

Without this translation, women may think that he is denying his feelings or problems. She then attempts to help him by asking questions or talking about what she thinks the problem is. She does not know that he is speaking an abbreviated language.

Summary: When a man makes one of those brief comments, he generally wants silent acceptance or space.

[lucky 13]

2006-01-14T18:07:00.000+08:00

yesterday evening saw the staff of gameflier sdn bhd gathering together for its annual dinner over at the rather posh west lake garden restaurant, sunway resort hotel. and in true malaysian fashion, the first dish was served more than 45 minutes after the scheduled start. not only did they make us wait for the food, we had to put up with crappy speeches, like the one given by that mca parliment dude (whose name i didn't even bother remembering) who went on and on about a whole lot of NOTHING. >_>

and if that wasnt bad enough, the cosplay competition came next. now dont get me wrong, i'm an avid fan of good cosplay (having been to comic fiesta just last month), but the way some of the people were dressed up yesterday almost gave me brain seizures. from a guy in a horrendous batman (more like fatman lol) outfit to a pork seller (like, what the heck?!), i was suprised everyone still had their appetite once the eating got underway.

the food in itself aint nothing to shout about. we had the standard chinese 9 course dinner (2 of which is desert), with the usual fish, and chicken, and shark's fin. pretty below-average stuff, but oh!! let me tell you about the prawns!! they were horrible! here's a tip: you do not cook prawns with beaten egg yolk!! =_=;;; then there was the usual performances by various members of the staff, some of which were decent...others, not so. half the time i didnt understood what was said though, the performances being in mandarin and cantonese most of the time.

in between performances were the times that everyone was really paying any attention, cause the lucky draws were going on then. and yesterday being friday the 13th and all, it was pretty funny, how everyone was hoping they didnt get their hands on another microwave, dvd player, or various other useless (read: cheap) stuff like thumbdrives or computer speakers or bluetooth headsets. lol.

as for myself...well, let's just say it's a rare reversal of fortune. i've never won anything in my life before, so i thought it'd be the same case again. but lookie what i got!

friday the 13th. prize number 13th. jinxed? i think not! au contraire, a brand spanking new w550i baybeh!!! XDXD

the big winners of the night from the cs department (me standing back row, second from the right)! XD and yes, your eyes deceive you not. the guy in the middle is holding 5000 ringgit cash in his hands. biggest winner of the night, the bugger. >_>

[company booty]

2006-01-12T20:10:00.000+08:00

the company just released the list of prizes to be given out during the lucky draw. among them:

- a brand spanking new dell laptop (!)
- the highly fashionable motorola razr mobile phone (!!)
- a home theatre system (!!!)
- a psp (!!!!)
- a sony ericsson W800i (!!!!!)
- dvd players
- microwaves (lol)
- cash

and much much more.

HOLY CRAP!!! I WANT THEM ALL! XD

[short shots]

2006-01-11T22:08:00.000+08:00

got shoved into the evening shift again. with working hours like 5pm till 1am, it's no wonder that my social mingling with my pals have nosedived to a near zero. >.> however, not all is doom and gloom though. my company's holding its annual dinner this friday, and there'll be a prize for everyone in the lucky draw (it's only a matter of whether you get the good prizes or the sucky ones lol). i could use a prize that i can sell....for money lol.

oh, and it seems that my new house isnt gonna be ready till maybe late february or early march, which means i'll be over at michelle's for longer than i anticipated. not that that's a bad thing, but i feel bad troubling michelle's family for so long. plus, i sorely miss ginger. :(

in other news, i've finally secured an interview with pathlab (in klang even!) this coming friday. so if you'll excuse me, i need to read up on the stuff i used to do in the labs back when i was attached to sri kota medical center. XD

[crazy]

2006-01-05T21:59:00.000+08:00

i was never into emo punk rock, but the lyrics of this song really got to me. kinda sums up the kind of world we live in today, huh?

crazy - simple plan
tell me what's wrong with society
when everywhere I look I see
young girls dying to be on TV
they won't stop 'til they've reached their dreams
diet pills, surgery
photoshopped pictures in magazines
telling them how they should be
it doesn't make sense to me

i guess things are not how they used to be
there's no more normal families
parents act like enemies
making kids feel like it's world war 3
no one cares, no one's there
i guess we're all just too damn busy
and money's our first priority
it doesn't make sense to me

tell me what's wrong with society
when everywhere I look I see
rich guys driving big SUVs
while kids are starving in the streets
no one cares, no one likes to share
i guess life's unfair

is everybody going crazy?
can anybody tell me what's going on
tell me what's going on
if you open your eyes
you'll see that something is wrong

[happy new year]

2006-01-01T17:32:00.000+08:00

so how was your new year? mine got off to the best start ever.

let's see, excessive vomiting (9 times, the last time i counted), diarrhea, stomach discomfort, and generally feeling like crap.

=(

[ennui]

2005-12-29T15:49:00.000+08:00

christmas has come and gone. in two days, we will kiss 2005 goodbye and hope that 2006 wont be half as shitty as it was this year. but what have we learnt from the year that was? honestly speaking, this year has been a complete and utter waste for me. had i aced the gre earlier and applied for fall 2005 intake, i would probably be spending the later half of this year with michelle instead of still being stuck here without a proper job.

but no, it is not the time to review the year just yet. maybe, just maybe Someone still has something good in store for me, so i'll reserve all comments till 2006 rolls on in. for now, let me dwell a little on christmas. it's not like i'll have alot to say anyway.

sigh.

to be frank, christmas has lost much of its appeal to me as a day of celebration ever since 3 years ago. i remember that back when i was younger we used to put up the christmas tree whenever christmas came round the corner. we would lay presents below the tree, and on christmas morning everyone would be eager to open up their present to find what's inside. i still remember the laughter and smiles on the faces of me and my brother and sister, and it was all good and fun. even dad was around, and our home still had a faint semblance of a family...

...but that was 8 years ago.

fast forward to the year 2005, and i'm spending christmas apart from my family. and let's not even mention the christmas tree - heck i dont even have a home until next month, probably. i havent seen my dad in God knows how long, and michelle is half the world away from me. oh, and did i mention that i got into another (yes, *another*) accident... on freakin' christmas eve that left me with a sprained shoulder, and a bruised right knee and side. yippee.

and no, i dont want to talk about the accident. suffice to say it isnt completely my fault. i cant help it if the other person decides to take a cruise with his girlfriend at freakin' 3am without the headlights on. >_>

so yeah, christmas without a car, without a family, and without michelle. yippee kay yay...not.

i shouldn't be complaining though, i've always been reminded by my mum that i still have it good compared to many others. and in many ways it's true - i have a car of my own, i am decently self-sufficient, i have plenty of friends who still care, and i've got michelle. speaking about michelle, this is the first time in our 4 year relationship that we're not spending christmas and our anniversary together, and that sucked. :(

hmm, looking back, i realised that this entire didnt really made a whole lot of sense. but then again, life pretty much doesnt make sense sometimes anyway, so there.

hope your christmas wasnt as awful as mine, and here's to a brand spanking new year ahead for us to screw up. cheers!

[4 years]

2005-12-22T11:09:00.000+08:00

i know it hasn't been all smooth sailing. we've had our ups and downs, our fair share of disapointments and heartache. we've screamed at each other, we've shed tears. we hit the lowest depths in our relationship.

but dont let all that make us forget the joy we've shared, the laughter we've had, the deep connection we've established that distance cannot sever, the love that runs deep, the visions of the future we'll spend together, nor the wondrous heights we've come to experience together.

happy 4th anniversary michelle.

i truly, dearly love you.

now let's look forward to the 5th ya! =)

[weary]

2005-12-21T13:22:00.000+08:00

only a few days to go (one day from today, in fact) to mark yet another year, and sometimes i still dont think you fully understand me. am i that hard to please? am i that hard to understand?

you go on for days without calling. and even if you do, it's when you're free, or about to call it a night, whenever it's convenient for you. have you no regard for me? when i am in my room at night, winding down from a long day, why dont you call me then? when i am not working and have the whole day to myself, why dont you call me then? you claim i dont talk much, but how can i? when i'm at the office being watched by my supervisor...how can i? when i'm busy during the day running errands...how can i? i try so hard to accomodate you when i call. i try so hard to contact you when i think you'd be free to talk. why cant i receive that kind of effort from you? why cant you make me feel that you're at least thinking about my needs sometimes?

what happened to all the sms-es you use to send me? what happened to the short but sweet calls you use to make for fun just to tell me how you felt about me? what happened to the little suprises here and there? i'm tired of giving my all, only to receive what appears to me like remainders of the day from you. tired of always wishing for more and hoping you'd realise it. tired, drained, weary. am i to believe that i will never get what i want out of this? i've tried being patient, to understand you, but would you understand me too?

so this is what it truly means to be taken for granted. to be taught of as someone that will still be there tomorrow, so it doesnt matter what you do today.

if only you could see my silent tears and feel my aching heart.

[so you want to learn jap pt. 3]

2005-12-21T10:58:00.000+08:00

Mareshia-jin desu = I'm Malaysian

Vocabulary list
Countries
mareshia = malaysia
igirisu = england
amerika = america
nihon = japan
chugoku = china

Languages
marei-go = malay
eigo = english
nihon-go = japanese
chugoku-go = chinese

Nationalities
mareshia-jin = malaysian
igirisu-jin = british
amerika-jin = american
nihon-jin = japanese
chugoku-jin = chinese

Useful items
tokei = watch or clock
hon = book
empits(u) = pencil
pen = pen
kompyuta = computer
terebi = television

Useful phrases
... wa nihon-go de nan des(u) ka = what is ... in japanese?
nan des(u) ka = what is it?
o-namae wa? = what's your name?
shitsurei shimas(u) = pardon me for interrupting
-----------------------------------------------

Sample conversation
Anne has settled into her new life with the Yamaguchi family, and today is her first day at a Japanese language school. Her teacher, Sato-sensei, is getting all the students to introduce themselves.

Sato-sensei: Mina-san, ohayo gozaimasu.
Class: Sensei, ohayo gozaimasu.
Sato-sensei: Hajimemashite, Sato desu. Watashi wa Nihon-jin desu. Dozo yoroshiku. (She points to Anne) Hai, dozo.
Anne: An desu. Watashi wa Igirisu-jin desu. Dozo yoroshiku.
Next student: Tani desu. Furansu-jin desu. Dozo yoroshiku.
Student 2: Ano... Haidi desu. Doitsu (Germany) kara desu. Dozo yoroshiku.
Student 3: Sukotto desu. E to, e to ... America wa nihon-go de nan desu ka.
Sato-sensei: America wa nihon-go de A-me-ri-ka desu.
Scott: (amidst laughter) Aa! so desu ka. Ja, Amerika kara desu. Dozo yoroshiku.

A new student arrives late...
New student: Shitsurei shimasu. (he bows)
Scott: O-namae wa?
New student: Han desu. Chugoku-jin desu.
Anne: (looks puzzled) Chugoku wa eigo de nan desu ka.
Han: China desu.

Sato-sensei now proceeds to check how many everyday objects the students know.
Sato-sensei: (points to her watch) Kore wa nihon-go de nan desu ka.
Han: Tokei desu.
Scott: (looking at watch) Nihon no tokei desu.
Sato-sensei: So desu. (picks up Anne's coat) Kore wa nan desu ka.
Tani: Koto desu.
Scott: (showing off a bit) Igirisu no koto desu.
Anne: Iie, sukottorando (Scotland) no koto desu yo.

Extras
mina-san = everybody
watashi wa = i
hai, dozo = go ahead; there you are
kara = from
e to = another hesitation word (er, erm)
kore wa = this
yo = i tell you, actually
-----------------------------------------------

Explanations
1. Watashi wa Nihon-jin desu I'm Japanese.
Watashi means I and anata means you. There are other words for he/she/we/etc., but the Japanese tend not to use them unless it needs to be made clear who is being talked about. Boku is often used by males instead of watashi. In contrast, atashi is the form often used by females (both of these are more casual forms). Ore is least polite, and can be used by both males or females.

When addressing other people it is more polite to use their names instead of anata, and unless you need to emphasize I, there is no need to say watashi/boku.

Wa is used after a word to show that that word is the 'topic' (subject) of whatever is being talked about. It can sometimes be translated as as for in English:
- Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu = I (subject) am American. (As for me, I am American)
- Haidi-san wa Doitsu kara desu = Heidi (subject) is from Germany (As for Heidi, she comes from Germany)

2. O-namae wa? What's your name?
In point 1 it is already mentioned that it is more polite to use people's names when addressing them istead of using anata (you). The japanese language has other ways of avoiding the use of anata. One of these is the use of "o" in front of certain words to make them sound more polite or formal when addressing other people. However, you dont use it to talk about yourself or your family members. Here are some examples:
- o-namae = your name
- namae = (my) name
- o-shigoto = your job
- shigoto = (my) job

3. Doitsu kara desu I'm from Germany.
Kara means from and follows the word, unlike English where we say from first. For example:
- Tokyo kara = from Tokyo
- Furansu kara = from France
- (watashi wa) Igirisu kara desu = i'm from England
- kono uisuki wa Sukottorando kara desu = this whisky is from Scotland

4. Nihon no tokei desu It's a Japanese watch
The word no, when inserted between two words works something like 's in English:
- An-san no koto = Anne's coat
- sensei no tepu = the teacher's tape

It also gives meaning of my, your, etc. For example:
- watashi no tokei = my watch
- anata no hon = your book

It connects an item with its owner, origin or language:
- Igirisu no koto = an English coat (a coat of/from England)
- Doitsu-go no hon = a German (language) book

5. Nihon-go de nan desu ka What is it in Japanese?
A very useful phrase to learn when wanting to improve your Japanese vocabulary. Also, if you dont understand much Japanese you can always say:
- Eigo de nan desu ka = What is it in English?

If you want to specify an object, place it in front of the sentence followed by wa. For example:
- Book wa nihon-go de nan desu ka = What is book in Japanese? (As for book, what is it in Japanese)
- Tokei wa eigo de nan desu ka = What is tokei in English?

[christmas wishlist]

2005-12-16T11:57:00.000+08:00

i dont need any expensive gadgets.

nope, i dont.

i dont need any fancy dinners.

nope, i dont.

i dont need an awesome holiday.

nope, i dont.

i dont need new clothes to wear.

nope, i dont.

...

all i need for christmas is...

to be with you.

=(

[so you wanna learn jap pt. 2]

2005-12-12T13:19:00.000+08:00

because blogger is messed up and wouldn't allow me to key in vowels with the macron (-) sign above it, i'm going to use underlined vowels instead. whenever you see one such vowel, it means that it is a long syllable, as explained in part 1 of this series. you can refer to it by clicking on the appropriate link on the right column of this blog. :)

alright, on to the lesson! XD

Hajimemashite = How do you do?

Vocabulary list
Greetings
ohayo gozaimas(u) = good morning
konnichiwa = hello; good afternoon (late morning onwards)
konbanwa = good evening
oyasumi = good night
sayonara = goodbye (a formal expression)
bai bai = goodbye (informal)
ja mata ne! = see you!
mata ash(i)ta = see you tomorrow

Introductions
hajimemash(i)te = how do you do?
dozo yorosh(i)ku = pleased to meet you
kochira wa ...san = this person is ...mr/mrs/miss/ms (addressing someone else)
domo arigato (gozaimas(u)) = thank you (very much)
arigato = thanks
sumimasen = excuse me; sorry
hai = yes
iie = no
desu = am, is, are

-----------------------------------------------

Sample conversation
Reiko Yamaguchi and her son Takeshi are meeting Anne Jenkins at Narita International Airport. Reiko sees an English girl standing on her own...

Reiko: Ano... An Jenkinsu-san desu ka.
Girl: Iie...
Reiko: (embarassed) A! Sumimasen.
Takeshi: (also embarassed) Okasan!

Anne is waiting nearby and sees Reiko's sign with her name on it.
Anne: Sumimasen, Yamaguchi-san desu ka.
Reiko: Hai, so desu!
Anne: Hajimemashite. An Jenkinsu desu. Dozo yoroshiku (she bows).
Reiko: (bowing) Hajimemashite. Yamaguchi Reiko desu. Dozo yoroshiku.

Reiko then introduces her son to Anne.
Reiko: Kore wa Takeshi desu. Musuko desu.
Takeshi: (bowing) Dozo yoroshiku.
Anne: (bowing) Dozo yoroshiku.

On the way home by train, Takeshi bumps into his friend, Jun. He introduces Anne to Jun.
Takeshi: Konnichiwa!
Jun: Konnichiwa!
Takeshi: Kochira wa An Jenkinsu-san desu.
Jun: Hajimemashite. Suzuki Jun desu. Dozo yoroshiku (bows).

After they've reached their destination...
Takeshi: Ja mata ne!
Jun: Mata ashita!

Extras
ano = a hesitation word, like erm, er.
ka = indicates a question
okasan = mother
so des(u) = that's right
mus(u)ko = (my) son

-----------------------------------------------

Explanations
1. An Jenkinsu-san desu ka Are you Miss Anne Jenkins?
The Japanese use san when they address other people. It is attached to the end of the name and can be used with either the surname or first name, although Japanese generally use surnames unless they know the person really well. It is very important to use san when addressing Japanese people, otherwise it would be considered impolite. There are more polite and casual forms of san:
- sama is used when addressing letters and in more formal situations;
- kun is used for young boys and by men who know each other well;
- chan may be used between children or by adults when they adress children;
- teachers and professors have sensei attached to their names.

2. Hajimemashite, Yamaguchi Reiko desu How do you do? I'm Reiko Yamaguchi.
A second point to remember about san is that it is never used when addressing yourself or your own family. Read the conversation to see examples of this e.g. Hajimemashite. Suzuki Jun desu, or Kore wa Takeshi desu.

3. Hajimemashite. An Jenkinsu desu. Dozo yoroshiku How do you do. I am Anne Jenkins. Pleased to meet you.
When you first meet someone you use the formal phrases hajimemashite and dozo yoroshiku. After you say your name you use desu (I am). The same word is used for you/we/they are and it/she/he is. Also, desu comes at the end of the sentence.

4. Yamaguchi-san desu ka Are you Mrs Yamaguchi
To make a question in Japanese you say ka at the end of the sentence. Think of it as a spoken question mark. When ka is written at the end of a sentence, there is no need to write a question mark as well. For example:
- Yamaguchi-san desu ka = Are you Mrs Yamaguchi?
- Tokyo desu ka = Is it Tokyo?

5. Kochira wa An Jenkinsu-san desu This is Miss Anne Jenkins
To introduce someone else in person you use the phrase kochira wa. For example:
- kochira wa An Jenkinsu-san desu = This is Miss Anne Jenkins.
- kochira wa Yamaguchi Takeshi-san desu = This is Takeshi Yamaguchi.

However, you dont use kochira when introducing members of your own family. Instead, you can use the informal phrase kore (this is) as Reiko does:
- kore wa Takeshi desu = This is Takeshi.

[&$%*#!@#]

2005-12-09T19:02:00.000+08:00

on a routine visit to my mom's apartment, i went to the pc to use it...

only to find that my profile is gone, together with all my important documents, pictures, and God knows what else.

i KNEW i couldnt trust my brother with the computer. I KNEW IT!

you guys have NO idea how much i feel like swearing now.

DAMN ITT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mars vs. venus pt. 3]

2005-12-06T13:28:00.000+08:00

[feelin' good]

2005-12-03T00:38:00.000+08:00

last week, something interesting happened. i found an email in my inbox, sent by someone by the name of terese janovec from (gasp guess where!) unl!

(click to see larger image)

apparently they got a hold of my name from the gre's search service list and decided that i fit their bill for a potential graduate student! XD and since i was rather busy these past few days with clearing out my house and what not, i've not been able to follow up with this email, until just now.

i dont know, it's something that i cant really explain, but i'm feeling rather good about this offer. first of all, it's the chemistry department, and by looking at their program, i found out that they have a structure mapped out for the research area of biotechnology (yay!). plus, michelle told me yesterday that her teaching assistant (a masters student from the same chemistry department) told her that i am almost guaranteed a place if i apply in response to this email (double yay!).

one of the biggest problems i faced when applying for the biochemistry department earlier this year was getting financial certification documents, because i'll admit that my family isnt all that well to do. although i'm fairly certain that i would've gotten assistantships had i been accepted, there wasnt really any black and white that i could take comfort in. fast forward to now, and i'm so happy with what i saw at unl's chemistry department's website:

(click to see larger image)

can anyone say holy freaking crap?! it's there, in black and white!! guaranteed!! XD plus, i took a look at their financial resource form which i'll have to fill up, and i saw this:

(click to see larger image)

basically i'll just need to fill up my details, tick "yes", and voila! assistantships upon admission! triple freakin' yay man!

i just got off the phone with terese prior to typing out this entry, and honestly, i feel good about this one, unlike the biochemistry one where i felt a little insecure. i'll still need to get back to her to sort out a few minor details like toefl, but i'm rather pleased with this opportunity. now all i have to do is get my necessary documents prepared and get the application underway. deadline's in april of 2006, so i've got plenty of time before that. :)

maybe it was God's will that i did not get accepted for the biochemistry department's program. honestly, if it wasnt for this email, i would have never known or thought of applying to the chemistry department. God works in mysterious but ultimately wonderful ways! :)

oh, and one more thing,

XD

link to unl's chemistry department: here

[beginning of the end]

2005-12-02T11:43:00.000+08:00

where has the year gone?! i cant believe it's 4 weeks to go before the year comes to an end!

and i wasnt exactly having all that much fun, either. >_>

[so you wanna learn jap pt.1]

2005-11-30T11:40:00.000+08:00

i've always wanted to learn japanese, and recently i've begun self-studying by getting books and referring to online resources. now we all know that part of learning a particular language is of course speaking it, but since i've got no japanese speaking friends, i thought maybe it'd be a good idea to chronicle my lessons here so that hey, if any of you guys ever manage to be proficient in it, speak to me!! haha.

i'm working on a "3 times a week" schedule to pick japanese up, and as usual, before we start there's always the basics to take note of. and while i already can recognise hiragana (one of three forms of japanese writing), it would be insanely dificult at this point to type out text in japanese. therefore i'll be using romanji, or romanised japanese for ease of reading. but hey, if anyone out there can lend me a hand by commenting in japanese, by all means do so so that i'll learn as well!

ok, off to the basics!

pronounciation guide
the japanese alphabet is made up of sounds created by mixing the 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) with a consonant (letters which are not vowels). while it is quite easy to pronounce most words, sometimes special care is taken when dealing with certain words. these are a)long syllables, b)the letter n, c)double consonants, d)silent vowels and e)pronounciation of non-japanese words. i will cover each of these in order.

a) long syllables
whenever the ~ symbol is written above a particular vowel, it indicates that the sound is a long sound. an example of this is the word tõkyõ, which when spoken sounds like to-o-kyo-o. in other words, you hold the sound for twice the normal length.

b) the letter "n"
in the japanese language, the letter "n" is a syllable by itself. for example, konnichiwa (hello) is spoken as ko-n-ni-chi-wa and not ko-ni-chi-wa or kon-ni-chi-wa. also, when n is followed by p, b or m, its sound softens to a "m" sound. for example, ganbatte (good luck) is spoken as gambatte, and sanpaku (three nights) is spoken as sampaku.

where n is followed by a vowel, an apostrophe (') is used to distinguish the sound "n" from the sounds na, ni, nu, ne and no. for example, ten'in (shopkeeper) is pronounced as te-n-i-n and not te-ni-n.

c) double consonants
a double consonant indicates that you should pause slightly before saying it, as you would in the english words headdress (pause after the hea- not head dress) and bookcase (pause after boo). in japanese, these are the double consonants that are usually encountered: -kk, ss, tt, tc, pp. for example, the words gambatte (good luck), hokkaido (north island of japan), massugu (straight on).

d) silent vowels
sometimes, the vowels i and u are silent and almost unvoiced. this will be indicated as brackets around the vowel. for example, des(u) (it is) is almost always pronounced as des, s(u)ki as s-ki, and ikimas(u) as ikimas.

e) pronounciation of non-japanese words
foreign words often have to be adapted to the japanese sound system. for example: sukotto - scott, furansu - france, satchã - thatcher, etc. there is no th sound in japanese, so s is used instead (just as b is used to replace v e.g. ba-ra-ri-i for valerie.

[andalas]

2005-11-26T20:20:00.000+08:00

when i went to sleep yesterday, little did i know that it would be the last time i'll ever lay on my bed. when the fact that i will no longer stay in my taman sri andalas home dawned on me, i regretted not committing to memory how my bed felt like, how the mattress smelt (oh come now, you do it too!)... you get the picture. it's funny, i've been in this home for the past 17 or so years, and while i may not have always liked what happens at home, i was always sure i had a place to come home to. you never know what you got till it's gone...how true.

sorting through and packing up my stuff was equally melancholic. it was like reliving your whole life up to this point, albeit through trinkets and mementos. i found myself laughing, saddened, smiling, etc, all of it - laughing when i found an autograph book i've kept since primary school (remember how we used to go around asking our classmates to write in them? with funny acronyms like f.r.a.n.c.e. - friends remain and never can end? haha), saddened when i stumbled on pictures of old (former) friends and my once "perfect" family, smiling at the notes and letters you've received from various people...gosh!

most of my stuff's been moved to a temporary home my mum and brother is staying at. i've got all my essentials with me though - clothes, ps2(important!!), etc and i'm gonna be staying over at michelle's place till my new home's ready. and while we're on the topic of staying over there, it's really freaky when i realise that her parents can now see for themselves how i'm like at home. this is either gonna be a good thing, or a really bad thing in the end. O_o" the only thing i'm sad about is that i wont be able to see ginger everyday. :( oh, and i'll need to go shop for more shorts soon. you see, i'm used to wearing boxers at home, but uh, i cant be walking around in boxers over at michelle's place now can i? haha. O_o"

155, jalan sri siantan 43,
taman sri andalas,
41200 klang, selangor

man, i'm gonna miss this place. :(

[omega]

2005-11-25T14:28:00.000+08:00

i am the last person you talk to, not the first. i disappear when friends are around. i am an afterthought, something to be bothered with only when it's convenient.

i am only that much. at least, i feel that way.

[mars vs venus pt. 2]

2005-11-24T11:18:00.000+08:00

something which is long overdue, but hey, better late than never right?

disclaimer: these are excerpts from the book "men are from mars, women are from venus" by john gray. by no means is this complete, since i've intentionally left out quite a number of solutions offered by the author. if you like it, then buy it! :)

oh, and to prevent confusion, martians refer to men, and venusians refer to women. with that said, on to chapter 3!

Chapter 3: Men Go to Their Caves and Women Talk
Introduction
One of the biggest differences between men and women is how they cope with stress. Men become increasingly focused and withdrawn while women become increasingly overwhelmed and emotionally involved. At these times, a man's needs for feeling good are different from a woman's. He feels better by solving problems while she feels better by talking about problems.

Finding Relief in the Cave
When a man is stressed he will withdraw into the cave of his mind and focus on solving a problem. He generally picks the most urgent problem or the most difficult. He becomes so focused on solving this one problem that he temporarily loses awareness of everything else. Other problems and responsibilities fade into the background.

His full awareness is not present because he is mulling over his problems, hoping to find a solution. The more stressed he is, the more gripped by the problem he will be. At such times he may be incapable of giving a woman the attention and feeling that she normally receives.

Summary : To feel better, Martians go to their caves to solve problems alone. As for Venusians, they get together and openly talk about their problems.

--------------------------------------------------------

How Women React to the Cave
When a man is stuck in his cave, he can be powerless to give his partner the quality attention she deserves. It is hard for her to be accepting of him at these times because she doesn't know how stressed he is. Women generally do not understand how man cope with stress. They expect them to open up and talk about all their problems the way women do.

On the other side, men generally have little awareness of how distant they become when they are in the cave. As a man recognizes how withdrawing into his cave may affect women, he can be compassionate when she feels neglected and unimportant.

To increase cooperation, both men and women need to understand each other better. When a man begins to ignore his wife, she often takes it personally. Knowing that he is coping with stress in his own way is extremely helpful but does not always help her alleviate the pain. At such times she may feel the need to talk about these feelings. This is when it is important for the man to validate her feelings. He needs to understand that she has a right to talk about her feelings of being ignored and unsupported just as he has a right to withdraw into his cave and not talk.

Summary: When a man is stuck in his cave, he can be powerless to give his partner the quality attention she deserves.

--------------------------------------------------------

Finding Relief Through Talking
A woman under stress is not immediately concerned with finding solutions to her problems but rather seeks relief by expressing herself and being understood. To forget her own painful feelings a woman may become emotionally involved in the problems of others. Just as a man is fulfilled through working out the intricate details of solving a problem, a woman is fulfilled through talking about the details of her problems.

When women talk about problems, men usually resist. A man assumes she is talking with him about her problems because she is holding him responsible. The more problems she talks about, the more he feels blamed. He does not realise that talking makes her feel better. A man doesnt know that she will appreciate it if he just listens. Men generally talk for two reasons: to blame and to seek advice. If a woman is upset he'll think she's blaming him. If she's less upset he'll think she wants advice. If he assumes she's asking for advice, he'll put on his Mr Fix-It cap. If he assumes she's blaming him, he'll draw his sword to protect himself.

Summary: A woman under stress is not immediately concerned with finding solutions to her problems but rather seeks relief by expressing herself and being understood. To forget her own painful feelings a woman may become emotionally involved in the problems of others.

--------------------------------------------------------

How the Martians and Venusians Found Peace
The Martians learned to respect that Venusians needed to talk to feel better. Even if he didn't have much to say, he learned that by listening he could be very supportive. When men learn to listen without feeling blamed or responsible, listening becomes much easier. As a man gets good at lestening, he realizes that listening can be an excellent way to forget the problems of this day as well as bring a lot of fulfillment to his partner.

The Venusians learned to respect that Martians needed to withdraw to cope with stress. They discovered that by askng for the Martians' attention in a relaxed and accepting manner the Martians were happy to redirect their attention. When the Martians were completely preoccupied and in their caves, the Venusians also did not take it personally. They learned that this was not the time to have intimate conversations but a time to talk about problems with their friends or have fun and go shopping. When Martians felt loved and accepted, the Venusians discovered that the they would more quickly come out of their caves.

Summary: When men learn to listen without feeling blamed or responsible, listening becomes much easier. Women should not take it personally when men are completely preoccupied with their problems.

--------------------------------------------------------

those interested in the previous chapter can read here :)

[minor bloglift]

2005-11-15T11:19:00.000+08:00

added some changes to how the blog works. besides an all-in-one feed (to which you can subscribe to, yes you!), i've also added a nifty little feature where you can now hear my blog entries. yep, ideal for all you lazy buggers out there who are too er, lazy to read my entries. heh.

why not give it a go? click on "listen" at the end of the post you're interested in and voila, you're good to go!

oh, and if you wanna make me rich, click on the google ads. XD

[i am the guy]

2005-11-14T12:30:00.000+08:00

i am the guy who decided 7 years ago to attend a youth camp.

i am the guy who came to saw what an incredible person you were and started to fancy you at that said camp.

i am the guy who was hurt when it was discovered you had a crush on one of my friends.

i am the guy who cautiously approached you after the camp and got to know you a whole lot better.

i am the guy who jumped for joy inside when you agreed to come on a date with me.

i am the guy who still remembers our first date together till this very day.

i am the guy who wished the world would stop moving when you held my hands while watching titanic.

i am the guy who wanted to take it to the next step, and called you up one day to confess my feelings.

i am the guy who wept after you turned me down, saying we were still young and should concentrate on studies.

i am the guy who was glad we remained friends, but never really talked to you since then.

i am the guy who still thought you were incredible even then.

i am the guy who kept all the bookmarks and cards you sent me.

i am the guy who tried seeing other girls, but could never forget you completely no matter how hard he tried.

i am the guy who felt a stinging pain in his heart when news of you having a boyfriend surfaced.

i am the guy who wished for all the best for you, but hated the guy who finally got you.

i am the guy who found out later that the relationship didnt last, but wasnt sure whether to feel happy or sad.

i am the guy who attended that fateful camp at the end of 2001, but never thought anything of it then.

i am the guy who was suprised when during one of the meetings, you asked that i sat next to you.

i am the guy who sat next to you on the beach staring at the stars that night after supper.

i am the guy who found out that you still had feelings for me after many conversations over the phone.

i am the guy who found the courage to confess to you again.

i am the guy who screamed for joy when you said yes.

i am the guy who has never looked back and regretted ever since.

i am the guy who thinks you're incredible today.

i am the guy who will still think you're incredible tomorrow.

i am the guy who loves you.

[awesome]

2005-11-07T02:20:00.000+08:00

just as they did before when they ended arsenal's unbeaten run,
manchester united have done it again (in awesome, breathtaking fashion to boot).

full-time at old trafford: manchester united 1 - chelsea 0

yesssssssssssssssssssssssss!

now if only i woke up sooner. dang it i only caught the final 20 minutes. :(

[cinema boo-boo]

2005-11-06T18:33:00.000+08:00

"dude, down that chicken man! pronto! we're late, the movie's gonna be starting."

glancing at my handphone to check the time, both of us got up and started to make our way to the cinema. just 20 minutes before, he had just got the tickets to the show. great, i needed this. it's been too long since i last watched a movie. too long.

"so uh, ticket's are with you right? which cinema are we in?"

"hmm, number 7 dude, seat H5 and 6."

"sweet," i thought as we placed our butts in our seats, but only because they havent started yet. the adverts were still playing. i glanced at my handphone again. yep, it's 10 minutes past. damn advertisements.

you know how before the movie plays, they show the ratings? well, in my case, it showed 18SG, which meant that we would be expecting violence and stuff. but uh, for this movie? immediately something didnt felt right, but if i thought that maybe the cinema staff screwed up on the rating display, it was dispelled when the movie started and the narrator went on to say something along the lines of:

"the year is 2056, and mankind has colonised mars...yadda yadda yadda"

"dude, what the...you sure you got the right tickets man?"

"wait let me check. i told the lady at the counter 'two tickets for goal' man. hold on...oh my gawd she gave me doom!"

"oh crap, our show must have started somewhere, let's go find it! dammit we must've missed the first 15 minutes already!"

and so we did hunt for it, and yeah, we did miss the first few minutes of the show, but damn what a good show it was. well, a little unrealistic maybe (lol first team after a month in training? gimme a break), but a good watch nonetheless.

and damn, them fine looking brits have such sexay accents. XD

[woof!]

2005-10-19T13:15:00.000+08:00

forget friendster, here's something better: dogster!

oh, that's my pet, ginger btw. :D

[the box]

2005-10-18T09:24:00.000+08:00

it's true. money is the root of all evil. in my case, the latest "evil" is the purchase of an xbox. ahh, my dreams of console heaven is one step further to being realised. ho ho ho. XD

think of it as retail therapy for failing to nab an admission to unl.

dont get me wrong of course, graduate school is still very much in my mind. but for the next one year till i get the next reply, i've got a new toy to play with. yay.

oh, and hunting for a biotechnology-related job is a b***h.

[technically]

2005-10-12T16:04:00.000+08:00

well, most of you guessed it right if you thought that my last post was regarding my graduate application. yeah, i didnt get it. i woke up yesterday morning to find 3 missed calls from michelle. figuring that it could only mean she's called the department and that she already knows about my application status, i called her back to find out. michelle was sweet enough to try to break the news to me gently, but from the sound of her voice i knew what the outcome was (darling, i know you so well, you cant hide it from me, hehe. thanks for thinking about me though, love you!).

well apparently unl doesnt have the funds needed to take in many students. from what michelle told me, only one student was accepted. however, they did say that they'll keep my application for the fall intake, which is around september. well, i suppose it's nothing to be suprised at, since most new students enter during fall anyways, so i guess the money should be allocated by then. so technically, i'm just delayed, not rejected outright.

either that, or the university is just being nice.

anyhoo, my next course of action would be to get a job which is more related to what i studied. that way, at least i'll earn some experience which could be useful should i get accepted for the fall intake. in the meantime, i'll just stick on with my present job till i can switch.

my reactions to the outcome of my application? well, i'd be lying if i told you i'm not unhappy. but more than being sad over my not being picked, i'm even more upset at the fact that it'll be a longer time before i can see michelle again. hey i wont deny it, one of the reasons why i applied to unl is because i'll get to be with her, and now that's not gonna happen. sigh, well such is life. you just gotta move on i guess.

on the brighter side of things, this will mean i'll get a taste of living in my new place (i'm shifting, in case you havent known), and i'll get the opportunity to apply to more departments. plus, now that i'm not going over, i'll try to get michelle to come back for holidays during her summer break next year (brought this up with michelle's mum, and she seems up for it). all in all, i'm still ok.

i'd like to believe God still wants me here for a reason.

[seems...]

2005-10-11T08:12:00.000+08:00

...it wasnt meant to be.

for now.

:(

[pwned]

2005-10-09T09:30:00.000+08:00

so yesterday i was heading out, when i noticed a letter in the mailbox. upon grabbing it, my heart skipped a beat when i saw that the letter bore the crest of unl (the university that i applied to) and my name. i remembered that michelle told me that i would know my fate next week, so i feared what was inside the letter. somemore, the letter very thin only, it had to contain only one piece of paper.

wah...dont tell me they rejected me ah! T_T

anyways, i steeled myself and tried to slow my now pounding heart, and proceeded to open the letter. i read, and then breathed a sigh of relief: the letter only mentioned that they have received my application and that they were in the process of processing it. better still, the letter was dated 22nd september. >_>

man i got pwned by super quick postal service.

[venus vs mars pt.1]

2005-09-26T09:33:00.000+08:00

sometime back i did a chapter by chapter summary of john gray's bestselling book "men are from mars, women are from venus" for lowyat.net's forum boards. and since i went through all that trouble, i figured hey, why not share it here as well, since it'd probably do others a whole lot of good.

if you dont already know, the book deals with the subtle differences between males and females, and it helps people learn to communicate their needs in such a way that conflict doesn't arise. when reading the summaries, keep in mind that whenever martians or venusians are mentioned, they simply refer to men (martians) and women (venusians). also, while the book offers suggestions on how to improve relationships, my summaries dont cover that. i think the book is good enough to warrant a purchase if you like what you read. :)

oh, and it can be a pretty long read, so bear with me. :)

Mr. Fix-It and the Home-Improvement Committee
Introduction
The most frequently expressed complaint women have about men is that they dont listen. Either a man completely ignores her when she speaks to him, or he listens for awhile and then proudly puts on his Mr Fix-It cap and offers her a solution. Men dont understand that women dont want solutions, they want empathy.

On the other hand, the most frequently expressed complaint men have about women is that women are always trying to change them. When a woman loves a man, she feels responsible to assist him in growing and tries to help him improve the way he does things. She thinks she's nurturing him, while he feels he's being controlled. Instead, he wants her acceptance.

Summary: Men offer solutions, while women seek to improve.

--------------------------------------------------------

Life on Mars
Men value power, competency, efficiency and achievement. Their sense of self is defined by their ability to achieve results, and they experience fulfilment primarily through success and accomplishment. And for him to feel good about himself, he must achieve these goals by himself. Someone else cant achieve them for him. Understanding this characteristic can help women to understand why men resist so much being corrected or being told what to do. To offer a man unsolicited advice is to presume that he doesnt know what to do or that he cannot do it on his own.

Everything on Mars is a reflection of these values. Even their dress is designed to reflect their skills and competence. Policemen, soldiers, businessmen, scientists, etc all wear uniforms or at least hats to show abilty and power. They dont read self-help magazines or romance novels. They are interested in outdoor activities, like hunting, fishing, or racing cars. They are more interested in "objects" and "things", because they feel that it can be a reflection or indication of their success or ability.

Because men handle their problems on their own, they rarely talk about them. The reason: "Why involve someone else when I can do it by myself?". However, if he truly needs help, he will ask someone he respects, often times another man. Men feel honored by giving out advice, and they automatically put on their Mr Fix-It cap, listen for awhile, and then offer jewels of advice.

This custom is one of the reasons men instinctively offer solutions when women talk about problems. When a woman complains about her day, or innocently shares upset feelings, the men mistakenly think that they want expert advice. He puts on his Mr Fix-It cap, and starts giving advice - this is his way of showing love and trying to help.

He wants to help her feel better, to be useful to her, and feels that he is can be valued and thus worthy of her love if his abilities are used to solve her problems. But when the woman gets upset it becomes increasingly difficult for the man to listen, because his solutions are being rejected and he feels increasingly useless. He has no idea that just listening with empathy and interest is good enough. He does not know that when women talk about problems it is not an invitation to offer a solution.

Summary: A man's sense of self is defined primarily through his ability to achieve results. To offer a man unsolicited advice is to presume that he doesnt know or that he cannot do it on his own.

--------------------------------------------------------

Life on Venus
Women value love, communication, beauty and relationships. They spend alot of time supporting, helping and nurturing one another. Their sense of self is defined through their feelings and the quality of their relationships. They experience fulfilment through sharing and relating to others.

Everything on Venus reflects these values. Rather than building highways and tall buildings, Venusians are concerned with living together in harmony, communicating and loving cooperation. They do not wear uniforms like the Martians. On the contrary, they enjoy wearing different outfits each day, according to their feelings. Personal expression, especially of their feelings, is very important. They may even change outfits several times a day as their mood changes.

To share their personal feelings is much more important than achieving goals and success. Instead of being goal-oriented, women are relationship-oriented. They are very involved in personal growth, spirituality, and everything that can nurture life, healing and growth. They are very intuitive, because they have developed this ability through centuries of anticipating the needs of others. They pride themselves on being considerate of the needs and feelings of others. A sign of great love is to offer help and assistance to another Venusian without being asked.

Because it's not as important to prove one's competence, offering help is not offensive, and needing help is not a sign of weakness to Venusians. It is a sign of caring to give advice and suggestions. Women firmly believe that when something is working it can always work better. Their nature is to want to improve things. When they care about someone, they freely point out what can be improved and suggest how to do it. Offering advice and constructive criticism is an act of love.

Men are more solution oriented. If something is working, their motto is "Dont fix it unless it's broken". When a woman tries to improve a man, he feels she is trying to fix him. He thinks he's "broken". She doesnt realise that her caring attempts to help him may humiliate him, and mistakenly thinks she is just helping him to grow.

Summary: A woman's sense of self is defined through their feelings and the quality of their relationships.

stay tuned for the next chapter, probably tomorrow. discussions, anyone?

[caught in the middle]

2005-09-24T10:07:00.000+08:00

when you're faced with the dilemma of :

a) allowing someone to have the freedom to do what they want,

and

b) wishing that they'd consider your feelings when doing something,

what should you do? who's supposed to give, and who's supposed to take?

sigh.

[unbelievable]

2005-09-23T18:44:00.000+08:00

always said i would know where to find love
always thought i'd be ready and strong enough
but some times i just feel i could give up
but you came and changed my whole world now
i'm somewhere i've never been before
now i see, what love means

it's so unbelievable
and i don't want to let it go
something so beautiful
flowing down like a waterfall
i feel like you've always been
forever a part of me
and it's so unbelievable to finally be in love
somewhere i'd never thought i'd be

in my heart, in my head, it's so clear now
hold my hand you've got nothing to fear now
i was lost and you've rescued me some how
i'm alive, i'm in love, you complete me
and i've never been here before
now i see, what love means

when i think of what i have, and this chance i nearly lost
i cant help but break down, and cry
oh yeah, break down and cry

now I see, what love means

unbelievable - craig david, the story goes

[snag]

2005-09-20T10:24:00.000+08:00

i just found out that my application to graduate school has not been accepted. remember when i said that i left out a transcript, and that i had to spend rm81 to send that one piece of paper over? well, seems that the graduate office didn't pass the transcript to the biochemistry department, so my application's in limbo. i've already contacted them again, and hopefully i'll be able to sort out this mess asap.

i really want to go over in spring 2006! arrgghhhh!!

[finally!]

2005-09-18T02:17:00.000+08:00

yay!

more pictures will be posted as soon as i get them all sorted out. those out there having any more pictures, send them over to me at jumperz[at]yahoo.com okay? :)

[edit] ok i've managed to get my pictures up on flickr. look them up at the right bar of this blog. i realised i've only got so few pictures lah! :( so to the rest of you, please send those pictures, like right now! xD

[15.09.05]

2005-09-15T10:28:00.000+08:00

it's michelle's birthday today! happy birthday baby!

love you lots!

and lots!!

and lots!!!

and lots!!!!

=)

[ro-ers say the darnest things]

2005-09-14T10:01:00.000+08:00

i think i've mentioned in my previous posts how some of the players i've encountered while working in gameflier are verbally and linguistically challenged. now while at times it's pretty annoying to receive messages that you'd have to decipher before coming to understand what the player is trying to say, there are times when the messages are simply too funny you'd be crazy not to burst out laughing.

and being the nice*cough* guy that i am, here are some of the more hillarious quotes that i remember:

note: gm refers to game master.

this one, you'll probably get like a million times everyday - players complaining of lag in the game...
player: hi
me: how can i help you?
player: gm so lag
me: ...

another situation where players complain of lag
me: i have checked our servers, we are not having any problems. please check with your isp.
player: wat is isp arh?
me: isp stands for internet service provider, thank you.
player: oh, me using streamyx.
me: in that case, please call tm net for assistance, thank you.
player: but me using streamyx!
me: *cant resist being sarcastic*, tm net = streamyx
player: owh, thx u gm! *muaks* hehe bai!
me: *feels unclean*

sometimes, players have their account hacked (due to their own stupidity no doubt), and in situations where they'd want to trace their items, they actually need to go to the police office to make a "hacked account" report before lodging another report with us...
me: you will need to make a police report before we can further assist you.
player: wah so difikult 1 arh?
me: this is our procedure, thank you.
player: aiyo, ok lorh. eh, real police or what?
me: *falls off chair laughing*

i'll post more if i remember any later. you know, i realise now why i suddenly have the urge to read more books (i've finished da vinci code, starting on "the rule of four" now) - i think it's my body subconsciously telling me that i need to safeguard my english from deteriorating to engrish. haha.

[wHy]

2005-09-10T15:33:00.000+08:00

oNe oF thE tHiNgs i HaTe oN tHE iNTerNeT iS hOw sOMe pEopLE tYpE LiKe tHis eVeRyTiMe theY waNt tO pOSt sOmEtHinG. wHY dAmmIT?! wHy?!?! iT sUrE aS HeLL dOes nOT mAkE uP fOr aNy iNaDequAciEs yOu sO oBVioUsLy aLreaDy hAvE, aNd iT fReaKinG aNnOys tHe heLL oUt oF tHe rEadEr.

ugh, that last paragraph was a pain to even type! geez, why is it that people have so much time on their hands to type capital letters in every other letter but cant come up with something witty to say to save their own lives?

if you fall in the same category as people indulging in such travesty, here's my advice:

[my rm80 boo boo]

2005-09-07T15:38:00.000+08:00

i found out yesterday that i missed out one transcript when sending my supporting documents to unl's graduate admissions office. because of that, i had to fork out a whopping rm81.81 just to send one piece of paper with my stinky a-level grades on it by courier.

:(

[heartbreaking]

2005-09-05T14:01:00.000+08:00

"The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home, and every day she called him and said, `Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?' And he said, `And yeah, Momma, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday' — and she drowned Friday night. She drowned on Friday night."

"Nobody's coming to get her, nobody's coming to get her. The secretary's promise, everybody's promise. They've had press conferences — I'm sick of the press conferences. For God's sakes, shut up and send us somebody."

- Aaron Broussard, President of Jefferson Parish, speaking on NBC's "Meet The Press" about some of the hard times faced by the people of New Orleans.

[hasighha]

2005-09-04T11:48:00.000+08:00

lately in the office i've been the brunt of "xyz likes jeremy" jokes. now while it gives me an ego boost and makes my testicles enlarge somewhat, it's starting to get painfully boring to hear another crude joke made about me with some random female collegue. besides, i can only oblige and play along for only so long, and it makes me feel somewhat uncomfortable seeing as how i'm currently in a relationship with michelle. >_>

oh, and i've been transferred to the morning shift from this month onwards, so yays for the return of normalcy and a social life. XD but funny though, how work in the morning shift differs a little from the afternoon one, even though the job scope remains the same. things seem to be more relaxed in the afternoon shifts, since most people would have already called it a day and be gone even as the 5pm shift kicks in. by 8-10pm, most of us would have already secretly logged into msn - something that i dare not risk in the morning shift. haha. oh well, you get some, you lose some i suppose. in the end it's all good.

[parcel en route]

2005-08-30T14:16:00.000+08:00

finally, all my supporting documents have been sent out via courier post to the university. barring any delays, my parcel should arrive by friday, where the graduate admissions board will finally be able to process my application. hopefully i'll be hearing good news from them sometime soon. God knows how eager i am to pursue my higher education. *keeps fingers crossed*

besides reading dan brown's da vinci code (i cant put this book down! it's so engrossing!), nothing much's been happening lately. come september, my work shift will start from 8.30am and end at 5.30pm. feels good to finally be able to lead a somewhat normal life again, since i'll be able to hang out with friends at night on a more regular basis.

kthxbye.

[gushing over gashas #2]

2005-08-26T13:31:00.000+08:00

from my humble beginnings, my gasha collections have slowly but surely expanded. i've since run out of space on top of my puny 14' television set, and my gashas take taken over the cabinets next to my bed. >_>

behold, my collection thus far. :)

and yes, your eyes deceive you not. that is the giant microbe plushie i was talking about here. michelle got it for me some time back and suprised me with it. :) indulge that science geek in you and head on over here to see what other cute supersized microbes are available.

[talk@google]

2005-08-25T03:23:00.000+08:00

it's the new fad in town: google's new internet messaging service. go get yourselves the client (it's less than 1mb in size!) and add me. like, right now! visit talk.google.com today!

oh and btw, it's jeremyhuang[at]gmail.com

:)

[my life: an update]

2005-08-24T18:47:00.000+08:00

i've been running around in circles lately, trying to get my graduate school application in order. after about 3 weeks of waiting, my gre results finally arrived in the mail. if you'd think that after paying almost rm600 for the darned exam, that you would get some sorta glossy paper with your name emblazoned in shiny golden fonts, you're dead wrong.

all i got was a stupid letter with my scores on it. >_>

oh well, at least i scored good on the test. i got a 5.5 for my analytical writting, which suprised even me, since i had expected to score roughly a 4. for the sake of context, the analytical writting is marked on a 0 - 6 scale, in 0.5 point increments, which means that my score of 5.5 is near perfect. XD

i had some problems with my financial statements though, because my mum had difficulty sourcing for funds. however, i think she's already gotten it settled, and i cant tell you how grateful i am that she did that. i've still got two more letters to collect: one from monash to exempt me from toefl, and another from taylors with the transcript of my a-level results. God permitting, i should be able to send out my full application by the end of this weekend.

and hopefully, in about 2 months' time, i'll get a favorable reply from the university. *keeps fingers crossed...tightly*.

[state of emergency]

2005-08-11T17:41:00.000+08:00

i think i'd better shut up the next time i feel like complaining of having nothing to blog about.

the prime minister has announced a state of emergency in kuala selangor and port klang as API readings have surpassed the 500 mark. everyone is to remain indoors, and all workplaces and outlets except necessary ones as well as schools have been instructed to close down indefinitely.

it cannot possibly be any worse a time for my grandfather, who has just been readmitted to the hospital. from the looks of it, and going by experience, i dont think he'll last much longer. i just got off the phone with my dad about 15 minutes ago, and he's on the way home right now. feelings of deja vu are resurfacing all over again.

prayers are appreciated.

-----------------------------------------------

[update] barely an hour after this post, i received a call from my cousin at about 6.35pm saying that my grandfather had passed away. funeral arrangements are being made and i should be taking a few days off from work starting tomorrow. thanks for the people who have called with their condolences. i'm fine really. i'm not that close to my paternal grandfather, but the loss is still felt though. nevertheless, i'm doing ok.

[blogger's block]

2005-08-10T19:09:00.000+08:00

somebody give me something to blog about! ask me something! anything!

[daily cycle]

2005-08-05T19:59:00.000+08:00

wake up. bathe. work. dinner. work. drive home. bathe. sleep.

wash. rinse. repeat.

-___-

[gushing over gashas]

2005-07-29T18:48:00.000+08:00

when i was younger, i've always had this immense liking for japanese plastic models. you know, the famous gundam kits, tamiya cars and what not? back then, the only thing keeping me from having truckloads of these stuff was the fact that i had limited funds. in retrospect, i guess that's a good thing, cause most if not all of my toys are now misplaced/broke/maimed.

but now that i'm working and earning money, i find myself pumping more and more money into getting my hands on toy figures, specifically anime figures. i'm starting small though, and going only for gashapons.

gasha-what?? yeah, i was just gonna get to that. >_>

gashapons, or "capsule toys" in english, are generally small figures (8-15cm) that the lucky geeks in japan get to purchase from vending machines. as the name implies, the figures are usually packed in capsules, and some measure of assembly is required to put the figure together. it's not that hard to imagine-lah, you know those tikam machines where if you place a coin into the slot and turn the handle, you'll get a ball with some cheap toy inside? those type of machines-lah.

these figures usually come in a set, where you probably have roughly 4 or 5 different characters. of course, purchasing them in sets means you dont have to go and tikam and hope you get a figure that you already dont have. in the span of 3 weeks, i've spent close to rm250 on 4 sets (18 figures) but i'm sure there will be more to come. behold, the sets for your viewing pleasure. XD

my first purchase: ichigo 100% (the first 6 figures on the left) and girls bravo gashas (the next 4).

my second purchase, the now rare bleach gashapon set 1. XD

just got these tenjou tenge gashapons yesterday. yep, there's absolutely nothing wrong with your eyes. these bust figures are certainly well-endowed. and it's not all for show, because...uhm, they...er, bounce. yep, that's right, those boobies bounce (thanks to a built in spring)! >_>

[csi: hogwarts]

2005-07-27T19:02:00.000+08:00

warning: the following website is meant only for those who have read harry potter and the half-blood prince. if you do want the story spoilt for you, do not click on the link! for that matter, dont even run your mouse pointer over the link, cause the url's abit of a giveaway. >_>

you have been warned!

intruiging insights into the events at the end of book 6.

[edit] wah lau eh, i realised that every other blog i visit speaks about this website. so many potter fanboys/girls around ah? that's one thing you gotta give j.k. rowling credit for...she made reading cool again. :)

[gre - over and done with]

2005-07-26T23:53:00.000+08:00

finally got round to sitting for the darned paper today, and i must say... it's a relief! it's as if a whole tonne of weight just lifted off my shoulders! so how'd it go, you might ask. well, honestly i dunno. here, let me fill you in on a little backstory. way back at the end of last year, i got myself a letter from unl's biochemistry department with all the information needed to apply for graduate school. the following is an excerpt from the letter:

"...applicants are required to take the graduate records examination (gre); most successful applicants receive scores of greater than 60% in the verbal, quantitative and analytical portions of the examination..."

with a total of 800 points coming from the verbal section and another 800 from the quantitative sections, 60% would mean that a score of 480 is sufficient. but (and this is a big "but" here), when i had the opportunity to speak to one of the professors in charge of grad admissions into the biochem department, i was told that a minimum of 600 points is required. do the math, and you'll find that there's a 120 point discrepancy there, which is a whole lot of difference.

now, i dont think i'll do badly for the analytical (essay) portion, since it'll take 2-3 weeks before i know my results. however, what i do know is my verbal and math (quantitative) scores, what with the paper being computer based and all. okay, here's where it gets interesting. i have good news, and i've got not so good news (i aint gonna jinx it by calling it bad news!). good news is, i got a 700 for the math section, which even by my own standards is omg so high wah lau eh!. honestly, it was a pleasant suprise to find out i scored so high, and all thanks and glory to God from whom my strength comes from! :)

the not so good news though, is that i got a 570 for my verbal. sigh. i wont make excuses ~~and say things like half the words are completely alien to me and that it'll take a walking dictionary to figure out the meanings of the words they threw at me~~. i honestly can say i've tried my best.

so as it is, my results should be good enough to apply for grad school. my only hope is that the people looking over my application will see the awesomeness of my math section scores and ignore my "slightly below 600" score in the verbal section. after all, pfffftt, who needs good vocab in a science laboratory, eh? :)

[omg]

2005-07-25T01:22:00.000+08:00

omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg
omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg
omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg
omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg
omgomgomgomgomgomgomgGREomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg
omgomgomgomgomgomgotomorrowomgomgomgomgomgomgomgo
omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg
omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg
omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg

gasp!!

[short update]

2005-07-23T00:14:00.000+08:00

sorry for the lack of updates. with three days left before the gre paper, stress levels are almost at its maximum. i'm still not entirely sure if i'm 100% ready for it, but i can at least say i know roughly what to expect.

but the stress isnt the one taking its toll on me though. i havent spoken to michelle since she left for her euro trip with her brother, and i'd give anything right now to be able to hear from her. dont get me wrong, i told her not to contact me, since it would cost her a bomb. but hey, i got a letter in the post today, written by her just before she left for her trip, so i guess it'll do for now. it's little things like these that really make your day.

:)

[one week]

2005-07-20T02:08:00.000+08:00

i have one week left. one week before i take the test. the test which, not only will determine whether i'll be going to the states next year, but one which will most likely alter the whole outcome of my future.

yep folks, that's how much weight is placed on the gre.

it's driving me nuts!

[gulp]

2005-07-16T20:30:00.000+08:00

yesterday i attempted a sample exam for the gre paper that i'm scheduled to take this coming 26th. to be able to enter unl, i need 1200 out of the maximum 1600 points.

i scored 1220 points.

should i be afraid? >_<

[bon voyage]

2005-07-12T00:39:00.000+08:00

even as i'm typing this, michelle is sitting in the waiting area of lincoln airport, awaiting her flight to chicago. there, she will be boarding her connecting flight to london, where she will meet up with her brother jack and go on a whirlwind holiday tour around europe.

hopefully i'll still be able to keep in touch with her, cause a month (that's how long she'll be away) without any communication is going to be tough.

take care michelle, and have fun! love you darling!

[grandpa, an update]

2005-07-09T23:16:00.000+08:00

it took some time, but i finally convinced my father and his relatives to take my grandfather to the hospital. all this while, they were relying on traditional medicine and a whole lot of good faith. i cant exactly say that i blame them, since all the education on western medicinal practises they had were obtained mostly from over-the-top tv shows and movies. they were so scared of non-existant side effects they figured plenty of rest and a whole lot of herbs ought to do the trick just as well as modern medicine.

now dont get me wrong, i have nothing against traditional medicine, but i believe it should complement modern practises, not be an alternative in itself. it is because of this that I cannot stress this enough, please educate your parents/relatives/whoever on proper things to do if faced with a persistant health issue! proper thing meaning getting a check-up if something is not right for a prolonged period of time!

fact: more than 50% of cancer-related fatilites are caused by late detection of the tumors/cancer cells!

once at the hospital, it was revealed to us that the cancer had spread to the lungs, and that most if not the entire esophagus is obstructed by the growth. not only does my grandfather have difficulty eating, now he has difficulty breathing. i look into the eyes of my cousins, and i see myself in their eyes - myself when my maternal grandfather was also suffering from the dreaded disease. eyes that speak of sadness, of not knowing where to go, or what to do, or what to say. eyes that speak of diminishing hope and increasing anguish and fear.

it's only a matter of time now, but somewhere, somehow i'd like to think that some good will come out of this. it's sad that sometimes families come together only when faced with dire circumstances like these, but hey that's life for you.

[wake up]

2005-07-04T23:32:00.000+08:00

seriously people, if you havent given a damn about politics and how the people we elect are running our country, you better start now. and if you're just like me and you're sick of reading biased news in government-controlled (surely you knew that?) media, head on over to jeff ooi's blog for a broader and unbiased perspective of the issues facing our nation today.

give yourselves a wake up call. start thinking about a better future for the next generation of malaysians.

[batman begins - a review, sorta]

2005-07-03T20:08:00.000+08:00

it was a couple of years ago, when a friend and fellow blogger jack introduced the movie memento (must watch if you havent already!) to me, that i was exposed to the genius that is christopher nolan. and after finding out that the batman prequel was going to be helmed by him, i told myself that i would be watching it for sure. okay, so i was a little late, but heck with a work schedule like mine you dont get many chances to watch a movie.

so anyways, here comes the important question: what did i think of the show? ah well, i was about to type a review, but when i headed over to jay vee's blog, i couldnt help but agree with her review of the show. and so, being the lazy bum that i am, i'm gonna plug her so you can go ahead and read her review of batman begins, amongst others. coming up with an entry, and plugging another person...wow i'm like, killing two birds with one uhm...click! XD

but oh, there was this gaping plothole that nobody seems to have noticed (except another friend of mine, meng jin who was one of those watching the show with me). warning, spoilers ahead, so stop reading if you've yet to watch the show!!

...

...

...

...

...

you have been warned!

plothole: if that microwave emmitter thingamagoo is capable of vaporising water, why wont it affect humans then? last time i checked, humans are roughly 72% water. -___-

[rant]

2005-07-02T00:03:00.000+08:00

yikes! warning, stupendously long post! >_>

every once in a while, i find myself asking myself "why did i go into the sciences and not pursue business/marketing/etc", like most toms, dicks and harrys out there are doing. and sometimes, i do find myself wondering if i did the right thing, but then something happens and i'm reassured that i have...

...i meet idiots.

and not just your average idiots too. i'm talking about pure moronic imbeciles. just like what's happening in the company i'm in right now.

i'm talking about idiots who are craven enough not to come and talk to me face to face, but go through my superiors who clearly know better how i work and what i'm capable of. morons who try to restrict me just because they cant stand to see me enjoying myself at work (probably).

recently, a new regulation came to effect which prohibits the listening of music via the pc speakers. their excuse? we would be guilty of "broadcasting" music to the public under the malaysian copyright act 1987. incidentally, this very act defines the term "broadcast" as:

...transmitting, by wire or wireless means, of visual images, sounds or other information which a) is capable of being lawfully received by members of the public; or b) is transmitted for presentation to members of the public...

now let me ask you, dear (and obviously english-illiterate) company, which part of the office is "public"? how in the heck is our office space "public" if all workers require a special tag to access the magnetically locked doors? now they did try to redeem themselves by later announcing that one can listen to music via earphones (but only one ear, please!), but today i was told that i'm not to bring my ipod to work because i could potentially steal company data.

omg i lol'ed.

i mean, the heck? an ipod, which requires drivers to be installed for it to be recognised by windows, can be used to steal data! if that's not outrageous, i dont know what is. why the heck is my pda allowed (which is a bigger treat, i feel) but my ipod isnt? i'm gonna try to place all my mp3's into my pda and see what they'll have to say about that, since they've verbally claimed that pdas are allowed. heh. boy, i'm so gonna piss somebody off.

now dont get me wrong, if this were the only issue, i would have gladly given in. they had the audacity to claim that i never did my work too (well they didnt lah, but you dont have to be thick to get the hint) because i was allegedly too distracted. i believe my performance exams proved otherwise. in the 2 months that i've been here, i've aced every damn exam (be it oral or written) that they threw at me, and i've passed it all with flying colors (we're talking about near 100/100s here).

oh well, cant say i blame them totally. if you were a player of the game they manage, you'd get a pretty good idea of how well they manage their game anyway. extrapolate that to how they'd treat their employees, and you'll get a decent idea of what i'm trying to get at. no wonder the staff turnover is high here. and guess what...another turnover's coming. i just got an offer for a job nearer to my place (and it's english-speaking too thank God!), so i'll be out of here in a month, max. sigh, i kinda feel sorry for the rest of my workmates. they're nice people, it's a shame what a prick the person slightly higher than us is.

sigh, i'll take my test tubes and reagents and laboratory anytime, anyday. God i cant stand idiots.

[sigh]

2005-06-30T18:56:00.000+08:00

when you get more than 3 people telling you that you've gained weight, you cant ignore it anymore.

sigh.

i need to lose weight...again.

dammit i hate people who can gorge on food but still look stick thin. me? i pop in an m&m, and suddenly i'm michelin man. :(

sigh.