Ahmad Ismail, Don't Be So Racist, It's Merdeka Day

Let's see what this muthadude said in Permatang Pauh by-election:

"Ahmad had allegedly called the Chinese pendatang (immigrants) and was also reported to have said that “as the Chinese were only immigrants it was impossible to achieve equal rights amongst races” during a ceramah in Permatang Pauh in Aug 25." [thestaronline.com.my, 2008]

And let's see what our beloved Pak Lah said as a reply:

“I will tell him not to do it again. You know in a campaign all sorts of things can come up. I don’t think he meant it. I’ll make sure to tell him not to use it again,” the Prime Minister said after chairing the Bertam Umno division meeting yesterday." [thestaronline.com.my, 2008]

Dear Encik Ahmad Ismail, I felt hurt you know. I have a policy whereby mocking my mom directly or indirectly will end in a sucker punch in the nuts followed by a penampar jepun to the face. She's Chinese, and calling her a pendatang or asking her to go back China is not funny. Try to put yourself in my shoes to understand my feelings right now, if you can. Oh and please la, no need to make racial remarks during this Merdeka month. Puasa is tomorrow some more...

Well my dear good sir, I guess you have not heard of this concept. It was told to me quite some years ago when I was a kid, and I'm gonna end the post with some quotes from the concept;

"Chinese learned from the Malays, Indians learned from the Malays, and other non-Malays learned from Malays as well. They see how Malays operate and try to take in good things and throw away the bad things. That's why you see why the non-Malays even bother to take up the challenge of learning to speak Malay to better interact and learn, but sadly very few vice versas. This is what's happening in Malaysian business context; the non-Malays are not greedy, they're opportunists. The non-Malays are not born rich, they're hardworking for many generations. The non-Malays are not oppressive overlords who want to take over the country, they're fellow Malaysian like you and me [...]" [Anonymous, n.d.]

[mca.org.my]

Stop politicizing races and religions. Stop bad-mouthing and demonizing each other. And definitely stop stereotyping a race with a religion. We're not a nation which pratices racist tribalism, that thing expired 10,000 years ago. Remember this quote from a professor from UKM commenting the Permatang Pauh by-election "Politics is a business of giving hope". Digest that quote and the concept well dear sir.

External Link:
Thestaronline.com
MCA

Malaysia 's 51st and 45th Independence Day

Today is Hari Kemerdekaan or Malaysia's Independence Day. Not to be a nationalist separatist or something, just that I find the term 51st Malaysia Independence as... misleading. And I can't really stand ignorance, bliss and misleading info. Yea, true back in the days when Malaya asked Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to join Malaysia, we were still under British colonial rule. It was Malaya who was liberated on 31st August 1957, not Malaysia. Sarawak on the other hand was officially set free from colonial rule on September 15, 1963. And only after this liberation was made official that Malaysia was actually formed when the newly freed Sarawak joined Malaysia, in 1963. So if we use simple math:

2008
-1963
-------
45

-------

So Malaysia is now mathematically proven to be 45 years old, not 51. If you don't trust the calculation go count with your fingers, or grab a calculator. If you don't have one go here from your Windows; Start>All Programs>Accessories>Calculator

Anyways just wanted to point out the calculation error, which I do hope it was a calculation error made by the officials. Besides that, we all should rejoice we're physically free from foreign rule (haha) and free to live our life (hahahaha).

HAPPY 45th INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Sayonarra, Gin-san

Today, one of my fellow ex-Curtin Villa and also h3666 clan member, Gin-san, flew off today to somewhere to continue his studies. Soon the next clan member Yogi will be flying off soon to UK as well. By the end of this semester, h3666 clan will be officially liquidated. Just Ham and Dollar will be left behind, after 2 years since the clan was first established.

The good ol' days... now only 2-3 pairs of shoes remain. Hey, life goes on right?

Would like to wish to my leaving comrades all the best, live long, prosper and may we meet again one day. Cheerios.

Scrabulous Gone

I may be slow to find this one out, but I wasn't surprised at all. After being sued by Hasbro and Mattel, the Scrabble-like Scrabulous was removed from my application list, and also from Facebook.

I noticed it was gone from my favorites some days ago, since I was an avid player challenging my lecturers in a never matches of online word scrabbling. So my first thought was that the app got some problem or maintenance due to the new Facebook layout, alas it was gone for good. With one less fun app, Facebook is going to be quite for a while. Now I have to find a new app to challenge my lecturers, just for fun. *cough* I heard banned apps make comeback with different names, like Wordscraper, click this link *cough* Bwuahaha let the games re-begin!

Rest in peace Scrabulous.

Curtin Carnival 2008

After 1 week gun-running around Kampua Town, I left for Oil Town at 11:30pm Friday and made landfall at 6:00am. Groggy and bearing slight headache (must've been wrong sleeping position in the bus), I went back to h3666, unpacked and straight away took the 7:15am bus to campus.

Looking for a colored version of this group pic :) I'm somewhere in the corner there

There I just started off the day prepping for the Curtin Carnival along with other crews as early as 8am, and kicked started the whole event at 10:30am till 7pm. And I was involved with the John Curtin Leadership Academy (JCLA) charity booth.This year's Carnival conincided with Youth Day, so it's Curtin Carnival & Youth Day 2008 (mouthful). The events ranged from club booths, musical performances, dances, some more foosic delights, ghost house (was planning to scare the ghosts with some CV! gang members), but RM5 was wee bit too much and we're out of coupons, tarot card reading, tattooing (authentic tats woo...) and lots more which I can't possibly cover in details due to my lazy weekend mood. More pics will be uploaded somewhere in Facebook soon.

Everyone, young and old, big and small, came to the Curtin Carnival. Owh that's JCLA member Chuma with one of the lecturer's daughter.

JCLA Project Care's Mission to Long Makabar booth

JCLA Fortissimo's Spread the Love Campaign board (with Samson showing off his guns). Forgot to take a snapshot of Fortissimo's Ball-4-Charity events XD

Monkey Tattoo Studio dude at the tattooing booth

Wonder if they had "I Love You Mom" tattoo

Follow the footsteps to meet your DESTINY! Debate club's tarot card reading and nail art foot signs on the carnival ground.

Owh owh owh! *cough* a mysterious CV! gang member handing over a rose to a girl *gasp*. A true shock and awe :D

It's a blast, and the reception was great despite the usual crazy hot-cold-hot-rain Miri weather. As for the JCLA charity booth we're handling, happy to say it was a success as well. Now, I've been working non-stop for the past 48 hours (all the way from Sibu), and I need a 12 hours deep sleep retreat. Cheerios.

p/s: yeah I know the pics are blurry. I gotta clean my hp camera lenses soon, too much grease and outdoor use I guess. Although the bright side is that the pics are upload-friendly, I'll improve the quality after this.

My First Fine

Shaite, after 3 years since I got my driving license and and about 6 months after I removed that big fat P sticker from my windshield, I got fined today... well for overparking. There goes my clean record after eluding the municipal council ladies checking for expired parking coupons, been evading them for 3 years now so I think they know me better XD

Remember kids, parking coupons that lasts 1/2 an hour doesn't mean you can use it for 1-3 hours. Please help the municipal ladies ease their job by playing your part in scratching and putting up the correct quantity of coupons.

Getting Updated with the Gaming World

I was browsing around Sing Kwong for some new games that might be able to sate my lust for electronic games. Instead of finding another new playmate, I ended up realizing I'm gradually getting disconnected from the gaming world. It was either my study life, a phase of growing up or just the 4th gamer-life crisis.

All these upcoming games are beyond my knowledge (except Demigod). Visiting such game shops can update one's database about the expanding gaming universe. Amongst the upcoming titles are Demigod, Grid, NFS: Undercover, Dawn of War 2, Lost Planet, Spore et. al. other titles that is beyond my comprehension and beyond laptop's specs. Soon chico, soon...

When I was walking around I realized more games have popped up since my last update, and to know I used to be amongst the first few to know and try it out a few years back. Now, I guess I'm just old... need to catch up with the gaming world soon before I succumb to the unhappy reality of work life in the next few years. Gamer 4 Life!

Metal Gear Solid 4 is in my wish list a few months ago, and is still in the list along with God of War 3 and Mercenaries 2. And just yesterday, an MGS4 was there sitting in the exclusive PS3 shelf, waiting for me to obtain it once and for all... it's calling me... must resist... my preciousss.....

Catch a Fire

Today I woke up all slow and calmed (Sibu morning breeze can do that to you), despite getting a call from Chuma at 7am I just head back to sleep and got up at 10am. "Mood must be high today" I say to myself half-asleep, "because it's Sunday :D". So do whatever what not, and then tuned into HBO and caught Catch a Fire.

This is one great based-on-a-true-story political movie. Two thumbs up from me who watched it through and postponed my shower. So anyways here's the spoiler, RUN if you want:

The story revolves around the life of Patrick Chamusso, a dude with a loving family, a great job and basically living 'the good simple life'' in Secunda, South Africa. Besides working as a foreman at a Secunda coal-to-oil refinery, Pat coaches the Secunda Lions soccer team consist of promising child players. Upon returning from a championship outside Secunda, the refinery Pat was working at blew up and he was accused of being a terrorist by the apartheid government.

With his friends, wife and even his wee key player got whupped badly by Nic Vos (some Anti-Terrorist agent in South Africa at that time), Pat decided to join the African National Congress (ANC) for some freedom-fighting training along with thousands other oppressed apartheid victims. And this, ironically, shows how the agency and the apartheid government has turned innocent Pat into the very terrorist they were trying to stop He then got involved in a terrorist plan to continue blowing up the whole refinery he is working on (yeah, the refinery is UBER BIG and the first terror attack was not so damaging) to give a liberation message to the Boers. Pat almost succeeded with the plan, but sadly Nic Vos managed to find THE bomb that was meant to blow up the refinery kingdom come. He was arrested and was sentenced to 24 years in prison in the Robben Island. Luckily a famous political figure, Nelson Mandela, a fellow anti-apartheid came to power and abolished the apartheid system for good. Pat was released after only 5 years in prison, and South Africa is liberated.

Again, great movie and I recommend it for those who are into unbiased political movie which covers the life, struggle and pain from the people's point of view that managed to make me feel attached with the characters in the story. For me, I'll say the movie ranks top in my thumbs up list along with another movie, The Pianist.

External Links:
Catch a Fire

Free Week, but Not So Free

Yay, I'm back in Kampua Town for the first free week of Semester 2 2008. Well, not gonna be free due to assignment and some charity work that's got to be done soon. For now, I'm just gonna enjoy the healing Sibu weather (yeah I'm sick on the last 2 days before I went home), miss the cool moody Kampua Town weather :)

Talking about weather, the last few days in Oil Town the weather was acting strange again. From 8-11am it's coastal sunny and hot then by 12pm it's thunder and rain till 2pm, then it's sunny and hot again till 6pm. It's really a change from 31'C to 26'C then back to 31'C again, nuts! XD

So the loco change caused my system to fooked up as well, and I came down with not one, but three flus (I blame people who don't know how to sneeze away and really like to sneeze out loud in front of my face so I can bless them). But I'm okay now, just a few sniffles and numb smelling sensors.

Back to the post title, yeah, I won't be free for the 1 week. Will be doing some assignments that's due after the free week, and have to coordinate the crew to make Curtin Carnival a success. Then I gotta conduct my part in helping a charity project in Miri here in Sibu with the help of Georgie. Haihz...

Oh well, for now I wanna sleep, watch TV (yeah really missed TV) and go hunt for some kampua's head. Happy free week!

TMNet Streamyx' Notorious Slow Speed

Today while waiting for the pages to load, I got the urge to test the line's speed to see how bad the service have deteriorated over the years. So I avoided going to TMNet's Speedometer for the test, and straight ahead went to another speed tester testmy.net which is non-TMNet to get a non-fabricated result. And not so surprisingly I got this from testmy.net:

Click image to ENLARGE (may take a while to load, you know how the speed is): Yeah 30Kbps. This was the download test result for a simple 512 file in Senadin, Oil Town. And from the comparative bar chart you can see 'me' equivalently short with dial-up. And I agree with the comment "Ouch, are you on dial-up or something?"

And then I decided to go to the Speedometer just to be unbiased, then while I waiting for the test to run I got this half-way through:

This is LOLable. "Our server is currently busy or unavailable. Please try with another FTP server or TRY AGAIN AT A LATER DATE". I guess the later date refers to me going back to Kampua Town and start tanam some sayur and sell the harvest after two months. And I'm not surprised if I'd still see this message again by then.

Shaite isn't it? Paying RM88 for a 1Mb and you only get 30Kb/1000Kb... A true daylight highway sweet talking con company. Maybe a petition to improve the service and get the line to the promised speed will do the trick, or anyone wants to form an angry mob mobbing TMNet offices?

External Links:
TMNet Speedometer
testmy.net

Food Day and Night

Seriously the reason number 1 why I gain some weight over the semesters is because of the food in Oil Town. Not to bad-mouth the town, but frankly just to point out there's just too many choices here ranging from your typical kopitiam menu, to usual Western, the Kashmir delicacies and anything beyond. And another thing to consider is that the food are available almost 24 hours in this town, and food literally don't sleep, until 3am anyways where most stall operators close shop and sleep because they're still human beings. Due to my 'what-the-hell-let's-just-try-it' attitude, almost half of Miri food joints have been raided.

As opposed to what I usually have on weekdays (stuck with campus menu) here's my average weekend diet:

Morning Breakfast, Brunch and Lunch

Tandoori, a few roti canai, and maybe some mamak style mee goreng can kick some ass to start the day with some South Asian delights.

At Taj, Lutong and yeah that's a new guy at the roti canai department

Evening Dinner
For me, nothing beats a good spicy bakso for dinner. If chicken soup heals the teenage tortured soul, then bakso heals my tired student soul. I can't believe I can't find one of these back in Kampua Town.

At Najua, Pujut. Bakso mee kuning sapi. Damn I just had to try the sapi bakso and I ended re-finding a new love (for bakso) because of the sapi balls. RM4.00. And no, the pic was not Photoshopped, the only thing I added was the K4L watermark

Late Evening Supper
Meh, I don't go out of Senadin at night so I usually hang out with colleagues at your ever friendly Senadin food stalls. The hub is usually the Lot 5593, although the menu disallows me to eat there, I just grab some Coke + 100 Plus and have some jokes with buddies till 11pm or so. And of course there are nearby halal stalls where I can dapao some King Burger and bring it over to finish off all the jokes about May. Owh there's TV here, and that means I can get some Olympics updates from time to time.

The open air food court between Curtin Villa- Curtin Village, Senadin. Of course I don't eat at this joint (hint hint, look at the menu LOL), I just dapao from the next joint and bring it over to 5593 to hang out with kamchengs. Why? "Because he's from Sibu" (Georgie, 2008)

Hitting Colombia Asia

My foster brother left for Kuching to lead the university's rugby team for a 7vs7 match on the weekends, so he asked to me help take care of his car while he is away leading the team to victory. I was paiseh when he asked me to use the car at my own leisure since I have a principle of not driving other people's car in a foreign town, you know la, anything might happen and that anything might lead to bigger sheet. But anyways I did use it to go to Lutong to meet God like what I always do every Friday, and Irwin hitchhiked with me. I did not want to bother to carpool with others since they have 2pm classes and I might slow them down.

He may not look like it, but this is the most nervous, tripped out and restless Irwin I've ever seen for the 4 semesters knowing him

And if only this was in .gif format or some video you can actually see how shaky he was waiting for his turn

After prayers I sent Irwin to Colombia Asia in townfor some medical checkup. And for a nutty dude I never seen him this nervous, because he's really tripping and all out restlessbecause of the impending checkup. Really made me wanna ROFLOL but I did not since it's another person's health we're talking about here.

Trying-not-to-be-bored look, waiting at the lobby for the boy to finish his checkup. Chubby angle XD

So anyways he went through the checkup unscathed (I think, from what I can see anyways), and he's doing fine. He did however brought a funny story:

In a diagnosis room with some doctors, some patients and a lot of nurses:
'Sick' Irwin: *panic* *restless* *panic*
Male Doctor: Relax, everything's gonna be alright
'Sick' Irwin: *panic* *restless* *panic* *sweat*
Male Doctor: Good, just relax. Alright... girls! Come over here!
'Sick' Irwin: *panic* *panic* *happy* *panic* *sweat* *:D*

For a RM34 medical checkup service, it didn't take long and yes, unfortunately the doctor was just joking. We drove straight home afterward and spent Friday like how weekend is supposed to be spent. Whatever illness he has isn't that serious and he is still able to join any LAN party anytime soon.

International Marketing: Starbucks

For the International Marketing 250 unit this semester, me and my mates decided to work on Starbucks for the cultural & social environment topic. The group, consisting of Austin (Myanmar), Aaron (Sabah) and Me (obviously, Sarawak) decided to take a later topics but alas lucky draw destined us to do the very first topic and we presented on Week 3 straight ahead.

Me and my mates looking busy preparing for our Starbucks debut on the next day

Being optimistic, we just "owh what the hell lets get this over with" and surprisingly the topic was relatively easy. Everone was busy with their own assisngments and personal life, so meeting up was kinda hard, but I'm okay with that. With 4 days of individual research contribution and only one meeting (before presentation day on 12th) we came out with a pretty impressive presentation, "Very professional" as quoted from our lecturer, Ms. Fidella.

After the presentation, posing with Mel's merchandise

So anywho, for those who is going to do Starbucks now or in the future, I have to say they are one of the most successful international coffee chain who understands the cultural and social environment overseas, thus boosting its expansion worldwide. However since it's growing too fast, things may not look nice financially and a few outlets have to be closed. Yay by yay, you guys can learn a bit from this American company who introduced coffee culture to the tea-drinking culture in the east. And thanks to Melissa, our lovely President, for the Starbucks merchandise :3

Sutaa-bahkssu!

Swan Drinking Water

Ok so here's another new product coming out from Kampua Town, trying to penetrate Oil Town market with RM1 pricing and targeting key shops and outlets.

I was getting sien-ed by the price of drinking water (even the cheap brands are now at LEAST RM1.20). And then before I decided to buy RM1.20 Derek my roomie suggested I try another newcomer that was being sold at One Stop, so I did. And hey what do you know it's a drinking water from Sibu; Swan. Nothing special, just the same Process Reverse Osmosis (um yeah, got some sentence structure error there, it's direct BM translation), and the packaging is simple and blue. So what the hey, I began buying this brand since I can drink something from hometown and save RM0.20 on my drinking water expenditure.

Sarawak Statewide Blackout

Geez, I was going out shopping at DPS for supplies after dinner with buddies. Then at One Stop upon buying a new RM1 drinking water from Sibu called Swan, I noticed the lights were slightly fading in and out, and I thought it was because of One Stop's incessant power usage for its techno music 24/7. Then after 2-3 fades, lights out at approximitely 7.23pm.

After a political remark, we went back to h3666 thinking this could be another one of those silly blackout like the one that happened on the 3rd August, except this time the whole Senadin is affected. I had already set my mind to play games today after a rough week, but with no electricity, that means we have to LAN party like how our forefathers did 20 years ago without laptops and such. So we killed the time playing with poker cards in the dark, and it was bloody hard to see the faces while playing blackjack and bluff (of course no gambling).

Imagine this face bumps into you in the night...

A few rounds of blackjack and bluff in the dark...

And presto I got 21, so was the Fool. For this round, and the next round, and the next round... dammit

After a while I called my mom if everything is okay, and she said Kampua Town was in the dark as well. So was Kuching and the whole Sarawak basically. The first thing that came into mind was that Sarawak was attacked by some terrorists (not the bearded Al-Qaeda-ish ones, the average political fanatics-ish ones) or just a neighboring country trying to invade and take over Sarawak for the timber and natural gases. I won't be surprise if there's a news saying Sarawak do need the billion dollar dams to be built in Sarawak after this incident. But alas I just couldn't careless about these, since this is Sarawak, the richest state in Malaysia and I'm just a 2nd year student.

Some people manage to put on some smiles despite the disaster. Here is our table at the refugee camp near the Senadin food stalls, along with other dozens of refugess who decided to wait the blackout out

So what after a few rounds of laughing, accusing and sh*t we went to the Senadin food stall side (this side got powered back after hours of darkness, we're waiting for our turn). There at 9.50pm, we continued playing our games and talk sh*t till the power for Senadin Phase 2 area (where h3666 is) was back online at 10.24pm. Then life continued, and we carried on with our planned LAN party till 2.20am. Then lights out.

This was a student's survival story during the blackout. I wonder what others have to tell, such as hospital medical staffs, IT shop owners, the 737 pilots etc.

Here are some newspaper article links for your reading pleasure on the Sarawak Blackout, all with the same 'cause is still unconfirmed' gimmick:

Borneo Post
Sarawak powerless for about 3 hours last night
The Star Online
Two million Sarawakians affected by blackout

Alert Me Now: Academic Awareness Program

Helped out with Academic Awareness Program today, basically feels like O-Week, helping out the first year fresh bloods to get use to the life as first year SoBs. I was part of the team along with other Marketing Club and Accounting Club members, and of course Kak Sham and her other SoB brothers and sisters like Mr. Anba, Ms. Ng et. al. Lasted from 9-4pm, it was truly :3 to give some tips and tricks to SoBs to help them survive their time here. Anyways here are the pics. Kinda rushing in doing this post, because I got a LAN Party with the boys waiting in the next few minutes:

The Program was not the only event happening that day, there were Petronas A+ thingy, St. Co. school pupils visting et. al. Here is me looking ever forward with Kelvin at the St. Co. kids (with no bad intentions)

Some reps from Marekting club who helped out for the Awareness Program

Would like to personally thank Dennis in helping me out for our Peer-2-peer session. Couldn't make it an enjoyable experience for the newbies without your help.

08.08.08

The 8th day of the 8th month of 2008. Such an auspicious date, and I was busy with normal student life on and off campus. Had a Marketing Club welcoming party on campus, had some fun seeing new faces and of course the food... the sushi was simply irresistable (sorry, no pictures of it, before I realized I need to take a snapshot of it it's gone).

So once that's done, had another JCLA group meeting in h3666 with the Fortissimo. So after the meeting, gathered the usual CV! posse and turned the table upside down again at the local friendly food stalls while enjoying the Olympics opening ceremony. Sure it was spectacular, but after a while watching hundreds of countries' athletes parading for hours can be a bit meh. But it was okay, and the laughs we had about The Standard was enough to out-loud the other tables. And that's that for the 08.08.08.

Happy 5th :)

Senadin Blackout 2008

I was having a group meeting in h3666 when suddenly *ploop* blackout at around 9:27pm. The mood and passion for the JCLA group was there and the blackout kinda killed it. So thinking it's a trip we continued in the dark, only to find out moments later a few other lots in Phase 2 were affected. It was a pure blackout wheeee....

So what we did was hanging out at the burger stall between Villa - Village with other refugees who seeked lighted areas. Surprising a lot of peeps of all factions were there, so what originally was supposed to be a meeting (continued from h3666) ended up with chats with friends and dancing Solja Boy to avoid the mosquitoes who were having the time of their lives kissing our legs (it's a hot day, or night, so most people were wearing shorts).

The Queen of Samseng and my 'son' putting up their best faces despite the hot, mozzy infested night.

Yeah it's warm and hot outside in the open. And wish you guys were here joining the rest of us donating blood.

I was decided to sleep over at a colleague's house since I didn't have high hopes the power can be restored ASAP considering it's late night and it's weekend. So I asked him to drop me at h3666 so I can make sure all my valuables are locked safe. Fortunately I was greeted by electricity, and all's fine.

Be thankful the lights and electricity are back people, and don't disrespect them again. It's already a hot steamy season, we don't want anymore hot issues to come up from all the series of strange events. Right, better get some sleep, Week 2 starts tomorrow folks.

Jack 'n Jill Hot Duo

I know it's a hot week, so you guys can call me sot if I enjoyed trying Jack 'n Jill's two new Roller Coaster potato ring flavors; Ninja Hot Plate and Samurai Curry.

I spotted these two in DPS when I was scavenging for new snacks that entered the market this months. And I was delightfully surprised by these two newcomers. The price is ok la, RM1.80 each, must be a market penetration price and tactic since I can't even Google these two (that's how new they are I guess).

Anyways here's my review on the two new hot couple (or could be more out there but I could only find these two):

Ninja Hot Plate -
Strangely enough it taste like BBQ Roller Coaster rings, except with a slight hint of sourness. So it's BBQ-ish AND sour, ninja style.

Samurai Curry -
I don't recall curry being produced by samurais in Japan, but this flavor kicked ass. I personally favor this one since it has a strong spicy (but not bakso-spicy level) potato flavor, along with a tantalizing Nippon curry smell that greets you when you tear the packet open.

Ok, the packaging design intrigued me to buying them (good work Jack 'n Jill's marketing & packaging team). Now I wonder when will they come up with Emperor's Spicy Onion or Shogun Sweet & Sour potato rings. Would really wanna see those in the market soon.

That's Hot

These past few days have been mercilessly hot. It's so hot my metabolism was reduced to 30% full capability and I was not sweating anymore, I was leaking... And the worse part was having my feet BBQed, alive. I left my slippers for a wee 15 minutes outside the mosque for Friday prayer, and when I was done I slipped my feet into the melting leather slippers only to have them roasted at 45'C as I tip-toed yelping "Hot! Hot! Hot!" all the way to my friend's car 10 meters away.

I don't recall having this kind of heatwave in Oil Town for the past 2 years I'm studying here. Now I wish I can get into the student exchange program now and transfer to Perth to enjoy the cooler winter climate.

Anyways, drink a lot of water and if you're overheating you better go home, take a shower, turn on the air-conditioner and sleep under the blanket till the heatwave is over (I hope) . And keep on turning the air-con, because the gases emitted from the cooling device will help increase the global temperature so we won't feel cold anymore.

JCLA - Borneo Rainforest

The John Curtin Leadership Academy (JCLA) is a 1 year leadership academy that one has to pass and graduate in order to come out as a great leader for the future generation. 16 students were selected amongst 3,000 student on Sarawak Campus, and I was one of them. The 16 came from various schools; school of engineering, school of mass communications and school of business.

To kickstart the academy we had a 4 days 3 nights workshops (25th-28th July 2008), training and talks at the Borneo Tropical Rainforest Resort, roughly an hour drive by bus from Senadin, Miri.

And sadly since I've been through a lot of stuff for the duration K4L was not updated (10th July - 2nd August), I roughly can't recall all the activities in order, since I've already set my minds to look ever forward at future events in my academic and JCLA calender.

But what I can say is me ant my 15 other mates had great experience throughout the camp, with the help of facilitators from Oz and Boston; Ian, Jarrad, Nathan and Linda. And not to forget our own facilitators from Sarawak Campus; Mr. Terrence, Ms. Haslina and Ms. Serina.

The next few modules in JCLA will be held at various other places after the Borneo Rainforest camp. For one it is confirm my group (will be revealed later) is going to do some events in Miri, all while attending the JCLA workshops and attending our classes as usual. This is going to be one big semester ride... >:3

And no worries, I'm one of the pioneer generation Y who is able to multitask, and I will juggle the responsibilities as a student, JCLA participant and a human being accordingly. The Dean is now looking forward and have high expectations for my studies now that I'm in this big program so a couple of 8s and 7s for this semester onwards XD Again no worries, I'll find a time slot on several nights for Lan parties for us to unwind >:D

This is BUSYYYYYYYY!!!???@#$%^

Sorry for K4L's absence of updates for the past weeks. I've been busy with various events even before the semester started. But I managed to find a time slot on Sunday (yes I'm not spared of Sundays as well) to drop by and jot a few things :3

I kicked started the semester helping out my colleagues in SOARs for the O-Week semester 2 2008 15th July 2008 training the new SOAR advisors (brave men and women who will facilitate the new students coming into the University throughout orientation week or O-Week). After the training I volunteered myself as the head coordinator of Curtin Volunteers (CV!s,) managing the free men and women who volunteered themselves fearlessly to face the 300 new students coming in to Curtin to help SOARs and Management achieve victory in the campaign. Had a smooth command and control 89.11% of the times, and I was quite happy with the volunteers' dedication and work, with an exception of a few glitches here and there.

I coordinated the CV!s from Monday till Wednesday only, because after that I was needed elsewhere outside campus. So I officially passed my command to ABC and GT, the super seniors of CV!s left from their era who have seen more sh*t than I do. With such credibility I believed CV!s will be in good hands, so I stepped down at 1600 hours, 24th July 2008.

On the evening of 24th July I attended the launching of the John Curtin Leadership Academy (JCLA) at Mariott Hotel. A quick introduction, welcoming, certificate giving and formal dinner and then I was off for the day. Because on 25th July, me and 15 others who were selected for the JCLA will be heading off to Borneo Rainforest for a 4 days 3 nights training camp. I'll civer this in another post later.