Exam Rants

As you all may notice my 'lack of updating', although it's not really known to 'my' culture.

I will keep on stressing this till i leave my formal academic education phase of my life, exams are meant to make your life miserable. May or may not apply to private or overseas' examination, but as general assumption to Malaysia's way of exam, it is THAT bad.

Anyhow, this is not meant to be an angry post, just some of my twisted and bored thoughts. Ever sat down in the examination hall, looking at the clock and thoughts kept on flowing in? Yeah, especially during times where you have no clue what to answer for those forsaken questions. These are the times where your day dreaming and thoughts flow in faster than ever.

Probably these are some of the things that usually go thru my mind:
1. I'll just take a nice bath and lie down on the bed once i get home (I'm pretty sure everyone lined up their itinerary for the next 2 hours after gettin out from that hall)
2. Which pathway will I take to get to the toilet later?
3. Should I finish my paper and exit the hall earlier before the time is up?
4. How much do they(the assistants for the examination) get paid to just collect and give out question and answer sheets?
5. Oh look, someone actually finished his/her paper way earlier! I wonder if he/she is really that good or just gave up?
6. Once again, should i leave earlier? (Peer pressure kicking in)
7. How nice if this is the very final paper for this semester.
8. The chick who is leaving is kinda cute (Totally subjective, don't take it so serious)
9. It will be kinda of a bummer if suddenly i ran out of ink or battery for my calculator.
10. Crap, I still need to finish this question(s)...but look at the time, still an hour left??

Okay, too much information there.

I'm pretty sure everyone did essay exams before and there came the instruction where it says:
"JAWAB HANYA 3 SOALAN"

Immediately you feel like there's a brink of hope, knowing that you have the 'choice' of avoiding tough questions. The hope lasted till the point where you start flipping and discover that there's only 4 questions looking right at ya. And just to add in to your frustration, you only have the confidence and ability to answer 2 of it.

At this point I realised that they should have just instructed:
"PILIH SATU SOALAN YANG ANDA TIDAK INGIN MENJAWAB"
At least that will give me a different perspective and mental preparation.

The 2nd thing that bothers me was, why aren't we allowed to leave 15 minutes before examination ends? Sure, I understand bout the first 30 minutes or so. To make sure you at least make some effort to write down your name/ID correctly and seemed like you are takin the exam seriously.

But why the 15 minutes before ending? Afraid of causing some irregularities or congestion? It seems fine to me as long everyone stops writing and hand it in when the time stops.
Usually I'm already done when they announced the 15 minutes 'confinement'. I wouldnt wanna give myself the adrenaline boost. Since there's is nothin more exciting than knowing you are running out of time.

Talking bout adrenaline rush, nothing is worst than the time is up while you're still writing down your answers. Answers which are really gonna earn you some points! Nothing will shake more than your hand holding that pen.

2nd top exam adrenaline rush...when you're done writing your 'overtime' answers and discovered that you still have to tie the answer sheets/booklets together with that small, tiny piece of thread. I call it a thread, since its not long enough to be a string. Just to add to the rush, you are one of the last few who have stand up from your seat...and there comes the invigilators/assistants standing beside you to make sure you tie those booklets faster with your huge hands.

Anyway good luck for those who still will be taking exams. I know msot of us from the public uni will finish by next week. Have fun!

P/s: I always wish my mates have fun instead of good luck. It makes more sense as well. Since basically you either know the answer...or not. No lady luck gonna help you with that. So if you have no idea what to do, just enjoy the ride ;)

Rest In Peace

My friend from primary school has passed away earlier this week due to a shocking accident from the Adidas King Of The Road 09 at Shah Alam stadium.
I would not elaborate further with the details as everything seemed very vague, even from the press itself.

Gary Leon Robert was a nice, friendly and joyful guy. Great with sports, great with studies and great with people. Like others said, he was an all-rounder with a bright future ahead.

It was a shocking news and event for me for the entire week. Even till now, the event itself flashes thru my head every once and then.

My condolences to his family. He will be missed dearly and always be in our memories.

Goodbye my friend

Happy Birthday To Me!

As I mentioned in some other posts, Its been one of my busiest time period of the semester. No cakes, no parties, no celebration. Just 5 tutorials and an assignment in hand and due by that week itself.

But I really appreciate all the wishes that came in even since from midnite itself or earlier :)

THANKS EVERYONE!
You all made me remind myself that it's still my birthday on tht very day XD

And here's the list of everyone who have wished me either thru SMS, phone call, MSN, Facebook, Friendster or just shouting it to my face. haha. Its in no particular oder. Good luck in finding your name below :D I'm sorry if i left anyone out. it is quite a list after all. Or probably you're not very good at finding your own name eh? Don't worry, i'll buy u a 'Where's Wally?' book for your birthday.

KELENE SIN YEE WAI KIT JASMINE CHEIN YEE ADELYN PEI CHEN SUE WEI SOOK KUAN CELESTE PEARLY SAM COON MEI MIKI KOK GUAN SZE SZE CHUN HWA POH LEE EZA SOON TECK VON LI YEE BIN ESTHER KHOR GARY LEON ROBERT SUK KIANG XIAO FANG YING HUEY YI QIAN JAMIE LIEW MAY YEE NICOLE YONG HUI KIM FEI HAZEL LIM JOO LING KOK HOE ALAN MEI KAY KAH MEI SIN YEE KAREN LIEW KOK HONG LIE HUNG KING SERN MELISSA TAN GAN FONG KIAN SHEK LI XIN YI PANG FIONA HARTINI SIEW YAN E-VON EVE-LYN ABG CHAN AIMEE-BA MAY-HUEN TAMMY QUI ZHENG EVON SILAS LEE WEN KER PING MIKI OOI JESSIE TANG JOSEPHINE ZHI XIN WEI KANG NICOLE TAN SHIU CHENG KIT YENG YI VERN WEI CHUN LEE SAN DANNY CHAN ENG TANG DELWYN DIYANA CHUN HOR NICKLAUS POH LEE WILLIAM CHENG SHU YI JEZAMINE AMANDA TEOH SZETOO JASTIN FONG DEBRA SU-YEN ANAND SWEET YEE CHOON JIN YOKE YAN LAWRENCE LIEW LISAN STEPHANIE HENG SAMMY PONG LOSHINI ALVIN CHAI LI PING SHEILA OH POH YIEN WEN CHING HERCULRIC LAWRENCE TAN SI MIIN WONG PUI SAN MEI CHIN AQEL JOY SAGA ALEXANDER PON CHRISTINA SOH HWA MING SU YEN MICHELLE TAM VENEON SIEW JEREMY LEONG SNG MING SHEENA JOANNE CHANG RAJAH KANA MICHAEL LIM EMILY CHIN XIAO PUI LING MELISSA KONG ANN LI ALVIN CHOONG HAZEL MAY EILEEN LEE ALINA DOMINIC PEI-SHYEN FAMILY MEMBERS


And special thanks to these people who gave me presents!!

The sweater and white card - Fiona Kong
The glow-in-the-dark keychain - Pei Chen
The cartoon card and blue teddy keychain - Chein Yee
The bedsheet - That's what i sleep on for the past 7 years

I love the presents! :)

And now for the awards time!!!

Most Consistent Wisher
Sin Yeeeeeeeeee - She wished me before, during and after 12.00am of 16th of February

Insisted The Wish Came In Earlier ( But It's Not)
Siew Yan - Wished me at 12.20am and claimed to be the first one on time XD

Using Company's Resources To Wish
Sook Kuan - Called me using her company's phone. And I was wondering who is it calling with a private number

Best Present To all my lecturers - At least 1 tutorial/assignment for each subject

Early Birds
You know who u are :) ... (i mixed up my list actually)

People Who Shares The Same Birth Day As Me
Dominic Hua - My secondary school prefect senior and best head prefect to date
Pn Julie - My wacky form math 6 teacher
Christina Soh - Brats junior from the 2008 Ipoh/Taiping workshop
Siu Li - UKM Econs coursemate
John McEnroe, Lau Ching Wan, China Emperor YingZong - Not that many famous people born on this date, dang!

I'm Gonna Splurge!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Sorry, it has been some delay in that. Anyone I appreciated the gifts I got :) Thanks yo!

Just to sum up my holiday, it has been one of the most mundane 1 ever. Very unfortunate bout that. In no particular order of events:

• Work (both at office and programme)
• At home (online, sleep, 'nurturing' my soul...yeah rite, lol)
• Photo outing (notice its singular and not plural)
• Probably like 3 movie outings
• Yi Vern's birthday dinner
• Michelle's choir performance
• Online (I did it so often, it deserved to be mentioned twice)
• Office xmas party (its sure a fun 1 :) )
• BRATs Alternative (we old farts just love torturing the kids at brats camps)
  

What I failed to do:

• Going to Bukit Tinggi (oh gawd, please don't mention this place ever again to me, failed too many times)
• Trip to Bangkok
• To Putrajaya Botanical Park/Garden for photoshoot
• Celebrating Xmas countdown and Xmas (due to a few unforeseen stuffs)
• Gettin a tattoo (I'm just kiddin on this one)
• Have a less 'exciting' exam results
• Another trip to somewhere (potentially would be Bukit Larut, Malacca, PD or Penang)

As hard as I'm trying to relate back to the title of this post, I'm gonna splurge because I have worked for quite some time and I do have a very expensive hobby *hint* You do know where am I going with my pay chequeS right? ;) Since I've considered to save quite a sum by not going for any holiday trips.

*drums rollling*

...


..


.

1. Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6 VR lens
2. Nikon SB-600 Speedlight
3. Lowepro Off Trail (camera not included)
4. Miscellaneous (Optional and pending)

a) Batteries with charger for the flashgun (It's not this type as this will cost a bomb)
b) Diffuser for the flash unit
c.) SD card, 4GB or 8GB (I have the tendency to shoot everything in RAW format and in huge quantity)

P/s: Should have just taken up planting or stamps collecting as a hobby

The day my favourite childhood cartoon got killed

The Unforeseen

It was dinner time when I reached home, after being away for 3 days programme to Pangkor for work.
No doubt I was tired; physically drained out and probably mentally as well...with all the constant sms' regarding of uni assignments.

My mum came out and I noticed my dad hanging this average sized piece of red cloth over the top of our main gate upon the entrance to the living room. I thought it was for decorative or religious purposes.

She told me that grandma passed away.

It is for religious purpose after all, as my family came back from the 2 days of funeral process and that red-cloth-hanging was necessary.
It happened the very same day I left for Pangkor. Probably my family was like 2 hours late for saying goodbye as they were already on the way there. No one could really tell when time's up.
I didn't know bout it as mum didn't want me to get worried or distracted while I'm working.

To be honest, I couldn't feel the sadness...due to the scarce relationship bond we had with grandma. Being in town, Chinese New Year was the only occasion which brought us back together and redefine the meaning of 'family' again.

I felt more for my dad as he was more emotionally affected.

As one of the many grandsons, I received a gold ring as well. Probably it's a tradition and she already prepared it years and years ago when she was able.

I'm sorry for not being able to say goodbye to you even after you're gone.
But I'm certainly glad that you went off peacefully without much pain and suffering. 99 years of age is certainly something you should be proud of.

All this while, I believe the age cycle will just reverse as people are getting older. Like little kids, all that remain in our older folks will be just memories...without any worries. They might not remember our names,who we are, or even themselves, but all that matters is that they are living in a carefree world and hold on to the sweet memories to the final moment.

The very least I could do is to dedicate this photo to you. It's one of my best piece and it's probably taken around the same time you took off.



Goodbye grandma, we'll miss you and Chinese New Year will never be the same again without you. Have a great journey k?