See you next year!

Another year has come to pass proving time waits for no one. In just a few moments we’ll be entering a new year, a new beginning for some, and just another year for others. Needless to say, even if the year 2004 is coming to an end so quickly, there were many unforgettable events during this year. In my opinion, the most unforgettable event would be the one that recently happened, the great Tsunami, which affected so many countries. In years to come, this event will still come to haunt us, especially those who were directly affected by it. Recent news had stated over 135 thousand deaths due to this one event. When I got the news, I was really overcome by grief. Even now, the death toll reported by the affected countries is rising.

The destruction caused by the tsunami was so great; buildings were leveled, everything in the tsunami’s path was swept away like rain washing away pieces of rubbish, and the worst is what the family members of the victims have to bear. I saw this in the news, an Indonesian man telling a journalist that he has lost everything, all his children were victims of the great wave, and in another footage, children crying, looking for their family. These are really heartbreaking news.

Malaysia was one of the luckier countries where we were not affected so badly compared to countries like Indonesia, India and Thailand. Nevertheless, we were still affected and there were about 50 deaths in Penang, the state affected most badly by the tsunami. This is the first time Malaysian ever experience such a natural disaster. We are lucky we do not have earthquakes, active volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or typhoons. The only natural distress we had were flash floods, caused by the monsoon, and that is not even half as bad any of the disasters stated previously. This time we were really caught off-guard. No one in Malaysia would expect anything like this to happen and we do not have the appropriate warning system.

Anyway, what had happened have to pass. Now all that we can do is to try improving the situation. Rebuild what had been destroyed and start a new beginning. The least that anyone can do in helping the victims of this tsunami disaster is by giving donations. Donations can be made to ‘The Star Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Fund’ at Menara Star in Petaling Jaya, the Penang Northern Hub office and various branch offices of The Star. No amount is too small and every bit of money donated would be useful in helping the victims.

Oh, and before I forget, to everyone, Happy New Year, may you have a great year ahead! See you next year!

Busy Holidays

Have not been very productive these two days :-( . Yesterday, went to Fitness First for a 'one day free trial'. This was because a friend of mine joined as a member and introduced me and David for a free day pass. We were allowed to bring another friend and so I brought my mom as she was interested in joining the club. We went the Fitness First situated at Uptown, at 10.30am to redeem the day pass. I thought we could start using the facilities there straight away after redeeming the pass, but, no. We had to fill in some forms providing them with some informations of ourselves, before we could start going around the gym. First, we were given a tour, by a membership consultant, showing us the facilities and programs they have there. The tour took about half an hour before we were given our locker key cards and allowed to use the equipments there. I was really excited to try out the equipments there and so I did not really pay attention during the tour. Hehe... Anyway, they have every equipment a person needs to have a good work-out. Besides the equipments, they have classes for the members for special training. I don't really know how to describe the these special training but I joined one of them which is the Body Balance class. A class conducting exercises with a combined element of tai-chi, yoga, and pilante(whatever this is ?!?). They have a very beautiful changing room with sauna and steam bath. In conclusion, that place was a great experience. If I had that amount of money to spare, I'm sure to join this place. Maybe I will, when I start earning my own salary. Then that night, I only managed to get a few journals due to tiredness.

Then today, promised a group of friends to go singing in Red Box, The Curve. Spent 3 hours there; from 12 noon to 3pm. After that, I had to follow a friend to K.L. as she wanted to get new shoes; and the fact that I don't have my own transport back home. After the trip to K.L., it was already dinner time. My friends decided that we have a steamboat buffet. Since I was bored of having steamboat, I suggested a place in Kelana Jaya, 'Restoran Talipon' (wonder why they spelt it like that?), where we can have an extra option of grilling our food on a hot-plate. Dinner took about 2 hours. We wanted to make our moneys worth (kiasu hehe). By the end of our dinner, everyone was so bloated and lazy, no one wanted to move. Despite being on the verge of exploding, we went for ice cream in McDonalds. We chatted there for about another half an hour. Finally, I reached home at 11pm. So, if my calculations were correct, I've spent nearly 12 hours doing nothing productive.

So, in conclusion, I spent two days relaxing and doing nothing productive; when I have a whole lot of lost journals to research and revision to be done. In this one week holidays, I need to use every minute I can to catch up on my work!

*Reminder to self: Your course cost you about RM170,000

Final Product

Final product of convo mag cover

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!! Went to Desa Hartamas yesterday night for the Christmas countdown. Boy, was it crowded. Nothing much happened besides the shouting and cheering. Anyway I'm really tired now, heading up to bed already. Before that, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Good night! ;-)

Bad Luck!!

Very bad luck!!! :-( .Lost my thumb drive. Only noticed it this morning when I was taking my student I.D. Usually the thumb drive hangs together with my I.D. but this morning I discovered that the thumb drive wasn't there. The last I used it was yesterday afternoon when I plugged it in to a computer in the cal-lab to show certain documents to my colleagues. I might have forgotten to unplug it. Some wise guy might have taken it since the i.t. department people, in charge of the cal-lab, I asked did not find anything of my description this morning. The funny thing is, why didn't I notice that it was gone when I hung it up the wall yesterday night? (I hang my I.D. together with the thumb drive on the wall in my room). Now, I'm unsure whether I lost it at home or in the cal-lab. If it's in the cal-lab, then *sob* *sob*, it's gone for sure. There are only few honest people left. Hai... really heart breaking. Furthermore, there are important informations stored inside the thumb drive. Just hope that it could be found.

Just in case,
The thumb drive is black in colour and it's from dell. However, the word 'DELL', which was in clear white, is now very light or hard to see due to excessive friction. If there are anyone from IMU reading this and just so happen to know where my thumb drive is, PLEASE, PLEASE... return it to me. I'm from school of pharmacy batch P1/03. Thanks!!!

After Class

Today had a two hour class from 10.30 am to 12.45 noon (15 mins break in between, my math is not that bad). Then after lunch came up to the library and started searching for the journals I need for my assignment. It was about 1.15pm when I started my search online in the library and had to pause to attend a workshop at 2.30pm. Workshop ended at about 3.45pm and I came up here; the computer lab in the library; again to continue my search. I've been searching from then until now when I decided to take a break. Journals that I require are really hard to find. If it's not outdated, the journals I need are not there there at all. There are only a small number of articles which are related to my subject. Well, studies are never easy, that's for sure! Anyway, I've faced the computer for about 2 hours and it's not going to end soon. They say long exposure to radiation is not good and facing the monitor for too long might increase the chances of getting glaucoma. If that's true, I wonder how long could I endure before going blind or mutated.

In Ipoh

Today at noon I followed ‘ah pa’ back to Ipoh. We followed his second sister who live and work in K.L. Yup, I’m writing this blog now in Ipoh, in ‘ah pa’s home. Anyway before coming back to Ipoh, I woke up at 8am this morning with the worst hangover I ever had. Well, there was no headache but I had a very upset stomach. This was due to the night before, when our batch mates held some sort of a farewell party in Thai Club. The place was not really up to expectations but we still downed quite an amount of alcohol. Today’s hangover was a bad enough experience to give me a lesson on binge drinking. I think I’ll never do in again. Now, the smell of whisky itself makes me sick.

Back to Ipoh; I followed ‘ah pa’ back to Ipoh because his eldest sister’s daughter is reaching her first full month after birth. It’s a Chinese tradition to celebrate a baby’s first full month. Some of my batch mates asked me; what have ‘ah pa’s sister’s baby daughter got to do with me? Well, I lived with ‘ah pa’s family during the semester holidays for a week. ‘Ah pa’s family treated me very well during that week and I really felt embarrass because I could do nothing to repay their kindness. So, I planned to come visit them again today in conjunction with the celebration. And yet, today, ‘ah pa’s family treated me to an expensive dinner again. Felt really bad that I’m just eating without doing anything.

Visited ‘ah pa’s eldest sister tonight and saw her baby daughter. She was really cute, chubby and lovely. The celebration will be taking place tomorrow and I planned to give a RM50 ‘ang pau’ to her as a gift. That’s the least I could do. RM 50 might seem like a small amount, even to me comparing with what his family had given me, but I’m not really earning my money now and I do not really have that much spare money to give. I will be going back to K.L. tomorrow after the feast. However, I really enjoy visiting ‘ah pa’s family. They are really fun to be with. Maybe it’s partly because I’m the only child and ‘ah pa’s family seems ideal. ; - )

Bacterial Chemotherapy

We had had our briefing on our bacterial chemotherapy assignment for the subject Drug and Disease 3. All we have to do now is to look up on the list of disease, look for the one most common infectious organism (bacteria in this case), the best antibacterial drug used to cure this infection, and a maximum of three alternative antibacteria. Sounds easy.... looks easy.... and as a matter of fact it would be easy. BUT... Dr.K wants all our information be extracted from journals; not books nor websites, but recent journals; dating from 2002-2004.

So what makes it so difficult?? After all he have reduced our sources to just one type... Haa... the trick is,.... we don't have recent journals in the library and online journals with more recent dates requires membership which cost money!! And I thought scientific informations should be shared among the public FOR FREE.

Anyway, I'm trying to search through the web for what I can, free online journals which are up to date. The massive workload from other subjects and events are not helping either. Well... just hope things WILL work out,... or at least don't go worse.

TaeGukGi

A Korean movie about two brothers who were forced to take part in the war between North and South Korea. The movie touches on the love of the older brother and what he did to protect his younger brother during the war. My mom, who don't usually watch movies about war, borrowed the movie from a friend when she got to know that the movie or the actor got some awards. I watched this during the weekend and I think it is really a movie worth watching. The story line is good and it is quite touching. Thinking of getting the dvd.

Excuses!!

Woke up at 11 today, and that’s also because Mr. Chan called me telling me he would be arriving 30 minutes later. We’ve made plans to have lunch together and to my surprise, about 10 of us were going. He told me at first he only asked 2 to 3, the normal crowd. But then, he had forgotten that these few could not part with their partners. So he told me that from now on, in order to make plans to invite our friends out, we have to multiply the number of people going by 2. I think he is quite right, now that it seems everyone in our batch in imu come in pairs.

We had ‘banana leaf’ rice in Sri Paandi, somewhere near University Malaya. This place has a good service and the prices are reasonable. Well, at least that’s what I think. After lunch I went home and had to start helping my parents paint the house. As usual, Chinese New Year is just a few months away, so it’s time to beautify the home. Painting really does consume lots of time.

Conclusion: I finally never get to do anything about my studies that I’ve planned. So it has either got to start tomorrow or AT LEAST Monday. Hope I don’t break any more of my own promises. (Can’t say that my lazy bones didn’t play a part tough ;-p)

First picture

Haha, Finally learnt how to use this hello program. Anyway this is the P1/03 butterfly. Why P1/03 butterfly? If you look at half of the image, it's actually made up of the letter P and the numbers 1,0,3. Thought of using it as the cover for our convo mag but some said it's not vibrant enough. So, I'm editing it in Adobe Photoshop. Changing colours, resizing and stuff. Hope it'll come out nice...

Getting old

Just came back from ‘yum cha’ with a few of my former secondary school mates. Three were the normal group and one, MC who I have not met for about a year, joined us. We were updating each other and we came across the topic about marriage. This was because one of our school mates, not present today, was getting married February next year. She invited me and I was still considering whether to attend or not. Then, David, my best friend asked MC when was her turn. I was surprised when she said that she planned hers to be held October next year. Now, I have a very strange feeling, like life has changed to a different stage. Feels like I should start thinking differently, start to plan ahead (not about marriage!! I mean my life). Or maybe it’s just a feeling that I’m getting old….

Cover Design

Haha, I've finally made the cover design. Anyway, some of the people I ask for opinion said that it looks somewhat dull. Hai... So, trying to modify it a bit. Now that I look at the design, it really doesn't seem good enough. Anyway, there will be other designs coming from the other members of the Art and Graphics Committee. Ahh... What the heck, I'm damn tired now. Just came out of a lecture that made me even more confused than before I went in.

Giving to charity

"Don't encourage beggars, donate to other charities"

This is one headline of a short article appeared in The Star newspaper yesterday which caught my eyes. In this short article, we, the public are asked to stop giving money to beggars to discourage them from begging. It's even believed that they are syndicates involved in transporting beggars to beg in street corners.

This really makes me think, what have this world come to? Even the kindness and good-nature of others are exploited, used as a way to making money. Are we supposed to walk away from street beggars the next time we see them? Not thinking that they may really need our help?

Shutter

Today, Ginn and her gang planned to watch 'Shutter', or was it 'The shutter' I'm not sure. Anyway it was a Thai horror movie. Usually I would not have watched a horror in cinema due to the disappointment I get from watching a few Korean, Thai and even some Japanese horror movie. Besides 'Ju Onn', I think the rest are really boring. If it wasn't because of the recommendation from a friend of mine, I don't think I'd have watched it. And so, today we; Ginn, Jas, Jers, Hui and I; caught the 5 o'clock show. Given that today is a weekday, there were quite a number of people watching this movie. Not that every seat was occupied, but at least there was at least 5 to 6 groups of people there.

The movie was not bad, with a good story line and sound effects. I got frightened at a few scenes where the ghost pop up out of nowhere; the basic requirement of a horror movie. Wonder if it was the latest trend, but recently, Asian horror movies nearly always involve the ghost crawling out of somewhere; the t.v., the ceiling, under the bed, the locker, etc,etc... In the viewing hall, I took the seat next to the aisle as Jas and Hui said they wanted to sit between people (HAHA what a laugh!!). Jas sat beside me and it would be more fun watching her than the movie. When the sound effects changes to indicate that something's going to happen, Jas would pull up her jacket she had to keep her warm up to the level below her eyes so that she could only get to peek at the screen. Then as I sat up higher to look at the rest, almost everyone of them did the same (HAHA, it really was a funny scene, just like tortoises). I wonder what would have happened if I'd shouted beside Jas ears when she was peeking so hard at the screen. Maybe she would have jumped so high she'd grabbed the ceiling. (Muahahahaha- damn evil! :~Þ)

Anyway I would have enjoyed the movie better if it wasn't for the irritant we had sitting on the row at the back of us. All through the movie three chinese, two girls and one guy, were chatting as if they were the only people watching the movie. One of the girls would close her eyes every time we come near to a horror scene and the guy would be narrating to her what's happening on the screen and trying his best to scare her. *$#!T*!! If she was just to close her eyes, then why the hell did she come to watch the movie for? It'd be better to ask the guy to watch it then tell her the story later. Then the other girl would act like a heroine by telling her girl-friend when a horror scene is coming. In my opinion, these people are either too free or have too much to spend.