Normally I'd prefer not to talk bout these matters on this blog, to prevent troubles. But somehow I feel that Malaysian Muslims are heading the wrong way in my opinion if they are thinking that, "you shouldn't wear anything with a Cross or Devil on the shirt".
To me, religion is a faith you believe in. They teach you how to be a better human. Teach you what to avoid and all.
As a human being, we're not the most intellectual, however, I believe humans are intelligent enough to think and fend for ourselves. That's how we differentiate the right and the wrong. Although the image of Devil on the shirt is a debatable matter, however, I do not believe that they teaches the Devil's doing to their followers. Come on, you must have some sense to tell u, its just a mascot. Mascot can be anything, even a bug can be a mascot for a team...if you like it.
Malaysia is a very multicultural and multi religion country. Back then, if I'm not mistaken, History text books from secondary school states that this country is special because of that, and it is achieved by respecting other religions. Hey come on, how is this respecting the other religion? Its like relating Christianity's Holy Cross with the Devil? Unwearable? Gosh...its just a cross. Have faith in your people. Do not think they are mindless souls who will be easily moved. Are you lacking faith in your own religion?
Woo hoo!!! Exam's over!!! Its bit late to celebrate (it's over bout 1.5 weeks ago...), but damn, I just have to announce to the world. Hahahaha.
Went for a brief but exciting/funny/nice/frustrating trip to Paris! I have to say, I love Paris! I went there for 4 days. Finally visited the world famous Eiffel Tower. That is the first destination in Paris we went too right after we dropped off our luggage at our hostel.
We were already snapping away when we were far away from that tower (overly excited). Then, we went to queue up under the tower, where we can buy the tickets to the higher floors. In summer, it is usually OK if the queue is long. I'm not sure about other seasons...so...there we are...waiting like good boy and girls in the line.
The queue
Finally, we got the ticket! We went to the 2nd floor, and later on proceeded to the top floor of the steel tower. The view from the top floor is excellent. Being the only building that exceeds the 7 story limit imposed on Paris, you can see the layout of Paris. And Paris is one of the cities that have long straight roads.
The view from the top floor straight down
Next destination for the first day, also another famed monument of Paris, the Arc de Triomphe. This arch serves as a monument to honour those who fought for France in the Napoleonic War. Also, underneath the arch, is a tomb of an unknown soldier from World War 1. To me, the amazing thing is that, several roads radiates from this arch that stretches several kilometres long.
Next, we had a walk at the nearby prestigious street, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées , where everything pricey to luxury is displayed. Chanel, LV, Gucci, Prada, Mercedez Benz, Massimo Dutti...any of the big brands of the world, you can find here. Seeing we're unable to purchase anything, we just have a look from the outside of the shops.
From there, we headed on to another famous destination. Lourve Museum. I think lady luck went to sleep...because, the ticketing counters closed when we went in, rendering us stuck on the entrance hall, not the exhibition halls. So we just proceeded to take some pictures of the inverted glass pyramid in the museum, which I like very much.
Last destination, is the Notre Dame. Famous for? I don't know. All I know is, the Disney's movie, Notre Dame is based on this cathedral. We didn't go in because, every cathedral looks the same in Europe, no matter how famous it is. So we decided that, we will skip this one. But at least we took a picture of it on the outside =)
After a whole day of walking around, we were tired beyond measure. So we turned in early, skipping the night views of Paris city, and headed towards our beloved hostel, and most of all, the soft comfy bed.
Then...there's the next day...which, is even more exciting...on the next post...
14th May 2010, Michael Buble is having a concert in Birmingham, UK to promote his latest album, Crazy Love! I was so excited hearing this, so my friend and I, bought tickets to watch him perform!
The tickets is worth 90GBP, and I thought, it was quite worth it, as I love his voice (quite a fan honestly). And then misfortune seems to love me lately. First its the volcano, where I spent an extra amount just to get back in time.
And now...the ticketing company we bought our tickets from, IS GONE!!!! @#$@%@$@
Feeling very restless today, unable to do any work anymore, I've decided to come tell the story of my adventure in Cambridge.
Cambridge, famous for the University for being one of the top in the world, in my opinion, almost on par with Oxford and Harvard University. It is also the place where football is first played, back in 1800s by the students of the University.
Having visited so many different places in the UK, I was coming to the conclusion that, most places, be it town or city in UK, is about the same. Same architecture, same house designs, same same same. That however, cannot be said to Cambridge. It is by far, the most traditional English place I've seen to date. Even the houses along the road looks very, different. They had a lovely, relaxing sort of look from them. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of them, due to time constraint.
In Cambridge, there's nothing much to do, except for a few must-do's. First, is to go punting, a traditional boat, named a punt, thus the verb punting, on the canal. It isn't the best adventure out there, but I think its worth going into the punt, and travel along the canal and have a look at the beautiful lush greens, with the ancient fascinating architecture of the century old colleges of Cambridge University.
I personally went before to grand places where, in my opinion, photography always fail to capture the grandness of the place itself, because, it simply isn't photogenic. However, in Cambridge, I feel each and every colleges look so grand, and yet so ancient, and when a photo is taken, it still feels very grand inside it. Amazing. Some examples of the colleges are Trinity, St John, King's and Queen's Colleges.
St John's College
King's College Church/Cathedral
Cambridge, is also a little town with many bridges. Mainly, it connects the parts in within the colleges. One of the more famous one is the Bridge of Sighs. This is the bridge where students have to walk to their examinations hall, thus the name. And then there's the Mathematical Bridge. Legend/History has it that, the Cambridge students from the past once calculated precise mathematics so that the bridge is upheld without any nails or pegs. Once, another group of student took it down to look at it, however, they found themselves unable to put it together anymore, therefore, resulting in the use of nails and pegs to hold the newly constructed bridge.
The Bridge of Sigh
Cambridge also gives me a feel of a world where the modern society meets the ancient architecture. You can have anything in Cambridge (except Asian stores, its rare!) ranging from bakeries, patisseries, Gourmet Burger Kitchen (the best burger restaurant in UK!), McDonald's, but then, all of them are inside the olden days buildings. Even the famous UK pharmacy change their usual pendarflour lit blue signage to a stone carving signage. Amazing!
There shouldn't be any problem eating around here, however, the one place I will recommend personally, because I tried it, is the Eagle Pub, where I had my lunch. Yes, its a pub. However, their food is the best I've ever eaten in UK. I ordered a traditional UK Fish and Chips. It taste excellent!!! I dare say its better than Loch Fyne's! And it is way cheaper than Loch's, costing only 7 GBP if I'm not mistaken (don't convert to RM). The environment is good too, old looking, clean, cosy and quiet when I was there. This pub also has a great history, this is where Watson & Crick enjoys beer while discussing theories on DNA, when they were researching about it.
Gotta love their furniture
In the end, I think Cambridge is worth visiting. A place full of history, beautiful architecture, big lush greens, lovely canal, and plenty of bridges, each, with their very own history.
4 tiring, fun, awesome, amazing months, and Malaysian Night 2010 is finally over. If only I could turn back time, I would do it now, back to 4 months ago, where I first started working with the whole team for this amazing night. And when I reach this date, I will turn it back again. It is seriously my best 4 months. I've never worked so emotionally into one project before.
Everyone that is with us until the end, is now like a family member to me. Like my mother, my sister, my brothers. It might not be the best Malaysian Night Nottingham University have ever seen, but to me, the crew and cast of Malaysian Night 2010 were the best people I've known.
Not much people know, backstage, we lacked man power, we lacked resources, we lacked volunteers. It is through friends, that we managed all the lacks. So here, I would like to salute all my friends who willingly or unwillingly volunteered, helped and stayed with me till the very end of the Night. YOU GUYS OWN THE NIGHT!
I was glad that we managed to sell 290 tickets for the night. I was pretty worried we might not make the target of 250. To some, it might seem little, but to me, as part of the committee and the cast, I am very thankful for the audience, they also made the night possible.
Unfortunately for us, the play experienced certain technical misfortune, and this lead to certain someone writing a lovely review for us. All I can say about this review is, it is harsh. Probably damn lot more harsh than Simon Cowell on American Idol. Its like, this review, is written without thoughts of us working so hard to make this night even possible, and possibly even hating the whole play, the whole process. Unfortunately for that guy, I won't be sad or upset over this review. I'll just take it as a chance to improve our mistakes. Thanks for your pointers.
Overall, I think the play is quite alright. The actors and actresses did all their part greatly. I would like to thank all the extras who sacrificed their study times to help us out. They were truly amazing, appearing in more scenes than me, the main villain. Without them, this play would be so meaningless too. So to Kan Fong Wen, Darren Leom, Yap Tsi Ngar, Nicholas Tie, Alimin, Cha, Akmal, and someone else (can't remember the name) here's a salute to you guys. THANK YOU!!!
In the end, the play might not be perfect, but unbelievable strong bonds have been forged out of the play between the cast and crew. And I'm still very glad I've joined Malaysian Night 2010. My very very very best experience in Nottingham University, UK. I love you guys, and I will miss you guys a lot. I always hoped it never ends, but unfortunately, we live in a real world.
This Saturday, will definitely be one of the most memorable Saturdays of all my life. This Saturday, is our Nottingham's very own Malaysian Night.
I still remember the day I was nominated into the committee. It started all as a prank. I knew my friend and housemate schemed to nominate me in, so before they could do so, I nominated one of them in, but he also nominated me in at the same time, and that is how both of us ended up being a part of the committee.
There were around 10 of us up there. We all have a chance of becoming the top 6 of the committee. Up there, its just a norm for everyone to give their "influential" speech, trying to brainwash everyone there into voting for them. I did mine rather quickly, and without much content. Just the usual I'll-do-my-best bullshit.
Back then, I used to think, is it my luck I have so many friends in Nottingham University, I got voted into the top 6 committee? I knew the whole Engineering Faculty was behind my back, plus my friends from Pharmacy, I think that's almost half of those that attended the event. I was cursing my luck then, because I know this will require a lot of work, and I will need to do well for my 2nd year, which means extra hard work!
But now, after going through ups and downs with these friends I've known from Malaysian Night event, I find myself dreading the day when this whole event will be over. I've never been this committed to anything I've done so far. I'm part of the committee, also part of the cast, and also part of a performance by the committee. I really get to know some really great crazy friends here. I also enjoy being around them.
Eventhough my everyday is filled with rehearsals for the big play, I find myself liking these rehearsals more and more by the day, because its like a place for me to enjoy myself, both in acting, and in talking trash with these new friends of mine.
Everyday, the walk back home at 9.30pm is the saddest walk I've walked here. That is because, I know, that is the walk back to reality, back to homeworks, courseworks and studies.
Malaysian Night 2010, I will remember you forever for many reasons, one of them, is because of you, my new friends, who made my life worth more than it was before this =) And to you, my old friends, thanks for voting me in then =)
Ok, for those of you who know me well, you should know, I'm not the super duper hardworking type. I don't do studies in the day, I don't do my homework, I don't do anything but play.
Look at that, good hardworking boy XD
Check out the time!!! XD
But recently I discover, I can study/do work well after midnight!!! What a miracle. So today I did my work (what a miracle!!!) around 12am, and am still working and cracking my brain over an engine. Hahahaha!!! This is such a special day and time I just can't resist myself blogging about it.
Sine rule, cosine rule...aaarrrggghhh...triangles make me go crazy
LOL...I know...wtf right?
On another note, today I had another fighting scene rehearsal for Nottingham Malaysian Night, phew...boy was it tiring. My body is beat now. My knees are hurting from kneeling, my thumb is slightly sprained, knuckles a bit bruised and all my muscles are sore now.
I'm kinda anticipating the Malaysian Night now, and I can't believe I'm putting so much effort into it. Training non stop, I think I must've fell in love with the whole committee. Hahaha. Time to sleep now. Its almost 3am...wooooo!!!
Today, my friend Joey and I were sitting in the class. We should be listening to the lecturer, but, no, we failed. We were discussing, or more like I'm telling him some of my philosophies. Basically here's what we came up with.
First, I deem children, all children are products. Expensive products. WHY???
If you make love without using contraceptive, in example, condoms, you will produce babies. They eventually become children and to adult. Again, why are children expensive??? There are just countless things to spend on when it comes to children. You need to feed them, unless you have 3-4 wives with endless supply of milk, milk powder is the way. They aren't cheap nowadays with all those DHA, Omega3, EPL, BPL etc etc. The companies know how to maximize profits with just a few cows. That is just an example, you still have school fees, PIBG fees, books, bags, uniforms, shoes, food, college/universities fees, allowance money, insurance fees and so on. Its endless.
From there, I can say, there is a relationship between number of products and products life quality. Products life quality, Pq is indirectly proportional to number of products, Pn. This means, the more products you make, intentionally or not, will affect the life quality of the products, because you simply have to split your earnings among them equally to ensure the right upbringing. This only applies if and only if you only earn a constant moderate value of money per annum.
Also, you might be making a loss if you produce 4 products in a short time, in example, 4-6 years. This is due to the uncertainty of the future of the products. They might not sell good (in example, can't secure a good job), therefore resulting in bad net profit. This will in the end affect your net profit of your lifetime, in other words, your (total salary + bonuses)-(all your spendings on products). There is always the risk factor there that will cause this probability, set at 0.5, which means "Yes, they fail to return profit" or "No, they returned the profit well".
However, there is no need to be so calculative with the ones you love. You "made" your children, you should be proud of them and yourselves (you and your wife). Always treat them equally. There shall not be bias. Love your children, eventhough they're just a product =)
A whole new semester has started. After busying having fun for the first week, its time to get serious, and attend to all the work that has been set for me so far.
First up, is not studying, but to continue with my work of recruiting kambing korban people as volunteers to help out with all the chores for the day. This task has been set aside for more than a month now due to exams and holiday. Now, its time to return. That means more meetings after school time all the way up to 9pm, and then the arduous task of walking back from the school grounds to my house, which is about 30 minutes away. So far, this recruiting job is not going very well, proven by the statistics itself. I need 80 volunteers, only 21 applied so far. I STILL NEED 3 QUARTER MORE!!!!
Then, there's the next work, start studying all the year long modules. There are just so many to read, I don't know where to start, and when to start. But I think, in order to be successful, I should start soon. However...this is hindered by the coming Malaysian Night by our Nottingham Malaysian Society. Not to say I'm not enjoying it, I am enjoying being part of it, especially I am part of the main committee, and part of the cast for the drama. OMG!!! Double work. Rehearsals at almost daily basis from now until the event day. Holy Crap! Study to be rescheduled to one month later...hahaha.
I saw the review of an excellent car in my opinion on UK BBC Top Gear. Its the Lexus LFA supercar. I know Lexus had before this made all those luxurious car, in example, the famous RX350 in Malaysia. But to come up with a supercar, and this is not your ordinary supercar.
What made it even more appealing to me, is its ultimate engineering. Carbon fibre takes up 65% of the body's weight. That means, its light! It has 552hp at 8700rpm, carbon ceramic disc brakes and so on. The sound of the engine, if you're sitting inside racing, I think you'll feel like you're racing in a F1 car. Just listen to it! And this car project took Lexus 9 or 10 years to complete to this final beauty.
Now, the one thing the review mentioned is, the rev meter is made of digital display. Why?? Because the analogue (that means the old, needle thing) rpm gauge can't match up with the speed of the rpm. How cool is that? Even the wing mirror is made so that the aerodynamics is optimized!!!
A car, made out for sheer engineering excitement, the LFA.
The only bad point? Its limited production of 500 cars, and with selective customers by Lexus, as well as a price tag of 340 000 GBP (pounds), which is like...RM1.87 million, without tax. T.T
Life these few weeks is like entering a battle zone. A mega battle that occurs every half a year. Non stop sharpening of my weapon, the memory and skills in fighting with the Subjects of Evil. Holding my pen and upholding my never ceasing fighting spirit to overcome this battle, to kill the Subjects, to win this war.
Each time I won one Chapter, the subordinate of the Subject, a new chapter reels in, with their new technology, always one step ahead. To win, we have to learn new techniques on Youtube, WebCT, notes and so on.
Everyday, there will be a new casualty on Facebook, someone would proclaim the horrible effect of the enemy on us, I myself have been injured 2-3 times in total. This is bad. The 4 final battles with the main boss is coming on the 15th, 19th, 21st and 23rd. It is near, I can smell the enemy as though he is just right in my nose.
They smell bad, never taste good. None have gave us a good time so far. Tomorrow, there will be some of my colleagues entering the frontline to take the enemy head on. All the best my friends.
This is gruelling...exams...the War of Students...but we will win, once again.
*Life with too much study can make you go cuckoo. *
So how did you celebrate your countdown to the new year? Every year it seems we have to go to some overly crowded places, see some fireworks, or at least someone's home to gather for some dinner and countdown together.
This year, its a totally different story. Owing to the fact most of us were in UK, we're all in different parts of the world, we're unable to do so.
HOWEVER...
A solution came at last!!! And it is simple, we'll still do countdown together, only this time, there's no dinner, no overly crowded places. We did it in our own house, in our own room. We were connected via Skype! And so this year, we counted down with the comfort of our own homes, and for those more fortunate ones, some fireworks outside their houses.
And so, this is my countdown with my dearest friends. One UK fella is missing however, due to the fact that he does not install Skype on his computer for some unknown reason.
