Choreographed Martial Arts Fight!

Yeah, I am definitely aware that I am not blogging as frequently as before.

But hey, I only blog when something important or interesting pops up! I don't really blog about stuff like my feelings, random topics that just so happen to pop into my head, or whatever. That's not my "style"! [ smiles ]

Well, I did go to school yesterday for a Prefect's meeting ( it's about "top secret and confidential stuff"! Can't be revealed here! Hehe! )

One thing I did notice was that some areas of the school had been renovated over the holidays. The stairwells and the Open Hall, to name a few. Furthermore, many of the doors have been repainted, and construction of a shelter just outside the school compound is underway...

Anyway, my brother and I had been planning to choreograph a martial arts video for quite some time now. Yup, that's right, "martial arts"...

No more lightsabers for the time being!

And so, we managed to make our very first choreographed martial arts video!

Last Saturday, we practiced on our hand-to-hand fighting skills. We only knew a few techniques from several different martial arts styles. We learned about them mainly from the Internet...

Uhhh, if I'm not mistaken, the fighting style in the video is mainly just a mixture of moves from several distinct martial arts styles.

Neither Alvyn or I utilise just one fighting style throughout the video. We just jumbled everything up and linked several techniques together to form combinations...

Right, I'm sure you wanna see the video for yourself now, right?

Well, you've got 2 main options:

1. You could go to YouTube itself to watch the video. Just click the link I've so kindly provided for you below,

Choreographed Martial Arts Fight

2. Or you could watch it here!

[ FYI: We used a 5.0 MegaPixel handphone camera to shoot the whole thing. Although the framerate is quite smooth, the video is still a little blurry! My apologies! ]

Well, there you have it.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking: "It could have been better!"

But this IS my first martial arts video, and obviously, there will always be more room for improvement...

So yeah, that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Family Trip to Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam Agricultural Park

Okay, guys, I'm updating my blog again!

For the past several days which I haven't been blogging, I actually had the unspeakable notion of abandoning my blog and letting it rot for good!

Then it dawned upon me - My laziness was getting the better of me!

I pulled myself together. And so, here I am! [ smiles ]

And it's a good thing that I snapped out of my lazy state when I did, because I finally have something interesting to blog about.

Just yesterday, I went on an outing with my family to Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam Agricultural Park, Shah Alam.

The weird part is that the location of Bukit Cahaya is actually not far from where I live ( Setia Eco-Park ). It's so near, I honestly believe that it's possible to cycle there from my house!

But because there is no route that exists to connect the two areas, we had to travel along the NKVE, head to Bukit Jelutong, and then make our way around Shah Alam in order to reach the Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam Agricultural Park!

Yeah, I know, it's unbelievable! But it's true! After exiting Bukit Cahaya, if you make a right at the road fork after the main gate and keep driving along the road, you'll come across a housing estate which is just adjacent to the area where I live! Ugh!

Instead, we were forced to go the LONG way round, through Shah Alam and the NKVE highway! Talk about being so close, and yet so far!

Anyway, my family and I had loads of fun at Bukit Cahaya.

Unfortunately, I simply don't have the time to blog about it all in detail...

But I did take some pictures during the trip. I guess I'll let them do the story-telling, yeah?

As the old proverb goes: "A picture paints a thousand words..."

[ I originally intended to simply upload the pictures on Facebook, and then provide a link to that album in this post. But I've decided to directly upload the pictures here anyway, whether you like it or not! No need to thank me! Haha! ]

Alvyn and I at the "Four Seasons Temperate Garden" simulation facility. It was winter season, and it sure was cold!

Snow?! In Malaysia?! No... That's... That's impossible!!!

Brrr! The worst part was that I was wearing a simple light T-Shirt with no sort of insulation whatsoever!

Errr, peace out?

Ummm, if I'm not mistaken, this is part of the Garden of Ornamental Plants...

"Annoying photographers..." thought Alvyn. "Don't they have anything else better to do?!"

Yup, it's a random picture of a tree...

Another random shot taken by yours truly...

Uhhh, I took this shot from an observation tower, if I recall correctly...

My newly adopted "gang sign"! Haha!

Ummm, those clouds look interesting...

Alert! Random shot!

Well, there you have it...

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I wanted to blog about this yesterday, but when I came back from the trip, I was utterly exhausted and literally drained of energy! I couldn't bring myself to even touch the computer!

The only thing I was able to do was trundle to the fridge, grab a bottle of cold water, collapse myself on the couch in the living room, turn on the TV, and watch "The Amazing Race Asia - Season 4" on AXN...

It's too bad the team from Malaysia ( Ethan and Khairie ) got eliminated... They were my favourites...

But oh well, I'm okay with the two Richards winning the Race as well! [ smiles ]

Besides that, I watched two new movies recently: "The Karate Kid ( 2010 )" and "The Chronicles Of Narnia - The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader".

Both movies are very good, and for those who have not watched these movies, I personally recommend that you should go and watch them if you can. They're awesome!

Movies that I'm gonna watch soon:

1. The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

2. Legend Of The Fist - Return Of Chen Zhen

3. The Social Network

Well, that's it for now, I guess...

May the Force be with you...

End-Of-Year Examination Results 2010

Well, I went to school with my mother today to collect my Final Examination result slip.

To be honest, I was actually quite nervous!

We left the house at around 9.30am, I think...

When I reached the school, the guard told us to head to the School Office to collect my results.

On the way, I met Farhan and Firdaus. They were there earlier and they've already collected their own result slips. I greeted them. Apparently, the two of them were the first to arrive, according to the security guards record book. Their names were at the very top of the list.

Then, Farhan told us that I actually got the No.1 position in class!

Frankly, I couldn't believe my ears! He reassured his statement and insisted there was no mistake. He said that when he was collecting his result slip, he caught a glimpse of my position in class.

I couldn't believe it! The "No.1" position in class!

My mum and I made our way to the office. I told Pn Zanariah that I was from 4 Beta. Then someone handed me my result slip and told me to sign another piece of paper ( I think it's my co-curricular marks ).

After signing the paper, I looked at my result slip... I was rooted to the spot, staring at the paper in bewilderment as my mother queried the man at the desk about my position in the whole of Form 4.

Yeah, I'm real sorry if you can't see the wordings on the paper clearly. I haven't really got used to my scanner! [ smiles ]

Alternatively, you could...

1. Just click the picture of the result slip above and when the designated web page pops out, just zoom in.

2. Actually download the picture, and use whatever picture-viewing software on your PC to zoom in on the picture.

Well, there you have it - My results for the End-Of-Year Examination 2010...

However, there is one slight hiccup. In the result slip, my marks for English is recorded as 94, when in reality, I actually scored 97 for English!

On the way back, my mum told me that something should be done about this. Apparently, this setback could actually affect my chances of receiving the "Terbaik dalam Matapelajaran Bahasa Inggeris" award!

Honestly, I'm not sure if anything CAN be done...

Oh well...

Well, that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Outing at Sunway Pyramid, again!

Well, I went on an outing to Sunway Pyramid ( Yes, again! ) with my dear friends yesterday...

And, well, to make a long story short, it was fun! [ smiles ]

Uhhh, I originally intended to just explain everything about the outing in point form, but since I'm not in a lazy mood today, I guess I'll just type out everything in detail...

Right, let's get started...

My friends had left for Sunway earlier that morning, so they were already there before me. Ashman called me while I was on the way, and I kindly asked him to book a ticket for me. I wanted to watch "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1", due to the fact that I'm an ardent Harry Potter fan!

I finally reached Sunway at around 10.30am. Once there, I made my way to the rendezvous point at TGV Cinema. But before I got there, I met up with Hazwan. After we greeted each other ( he pretended to say "hi" to someone behind me! ), we both made our way to TGV Cinema, where my other friends were waiting.

A few moments after I arrived, most of them went off to watch movies other than "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1", such as "Rapunzel: A Tangled Tale" and "Unstoppable"...

Hmmm, how was Harry Potter 7 Part 1?

Well, it's kind of nice, I guess...

The visuals were brilliant, and the actors were superb.

It's a shame they had to split the 7th part of the series into two parts... After Voldemort stole Dumbledore's wand and cast some sort of spell into the sky, the movie ended in a "cliff-hanger". And I personally don't like cliff-hangers... And yes, that includes Star Wars as well...

Hey, but don't get me wrong! I still like both Harry Potter and Star Wars very much!

After the movie ended, we stretched our limbs for a moment, then we went for lunch.

Many of us opted for TGI Friday. But Hazwan, Jas, Ashman, Jannah and I decided to have lunch somewhere else. I don't know about the others, but I personally thought that the price of the food in TGI Friday was way too expensive! All the meals were RM20+, and that's before you add in the 5% tax!

So, Hazwan, Jannah, Jas, Ashman, and I went to a place called "PappaRich".

Personally, I don't know much about this place, but according to my other friends, it's a highly recommended place to eat. ( Go and Google it if you want to know more... )

At least the pricing was better. Most of the meals at PappaRich were only priced at more or less RM10. And the portion was quite decent as well...

Here are a few pictures I snapped during lunch. Once again, I used my trusty Nokia 6303 Classic handphone camera.

Oh, and keep in mind, my handphone is incapable of taking clear pictures in low-light conditions, as proven by the pictures I took during the annual Prefect's Dinner this year...

Right, after lunch, we made our way to Sunway Pyramid's bowling alley ( aka the "Pyramid Mega Lanes" ). On the way, I took a random picture of the ice-skating rink...

All of us met up at the Bowling Alley a while later, and we went to rent our bowling shoes ( you can't go bowling without them! ).

This actually represents my very first time bowling. And I have to admit, I wasn't very good. My score was embarrassingly low compared to my other friends' scores!

But I DID manage to get one lucky strike. [ smiles ] But after that, my ball regularly ended up in the gutter...

I clearly remember Sehran mentioning to me after one of my failed attempts: "No more beginner's luck!" [ smiles ]

Here are some pictures I took during the bowling session...

After that, we exited the bowling alley and made our way to Baskin Robbins. But we split up on the way. Lee King, Kuok Fung and Ee Lynn went somewhere else ( I don't know where! ); and Evo and Jannah had to get something from a hardware store.

Some of us, including myself, went to MPH Bookstore. Hazwan and Sehran were making quite a ruckus by jokingly laughing ( rather loudly! ) at books with silly titles! Ashman and I, on the other hand, were frantically searching for books regarding, yup, you've guessed it: Chess!

Soon after, all of us rendezvoused at Baskin Robbins. I didn't really intend to spend my money on Baskin Robbins ice cream ( I personally think that RM6+ for one blob of ice cream in a cup is utterly ridiculous... ).

Then, Hazwan told me and Sehran that he always wanted to try the fries from "Ireland's Potato". Apparently, they specialise in making fries...

Hazwan and I made our way to the TGV Cinema ( The Ireland's Potato outlet is located near the cinema... )

I didn't expect one serving fries to cost RM8.80! Expensive, in my opinion. But we bought a cup of fries with sour cream topping anyway... Hazwan, Sehran and I, out of the goodness of our hearts, agreed to pay for the fries, only to watch it being gobbled up by the others! Haha! That's how generous we are! [ smiles ]

Here are more pictures I snapped...

At around 5.30, it was time to head for home. So we made our way to the Main Entrance of Sunway Pyramid, where we had to wait for our respective transports home. Some of us, including me, had to follow Hazwan's mother back home, whereas for the others, well, I'm honestly not completely sure about them...

Here's a picture of the gang at the Main Entrance...

Well, that's it about the outing to Sunway Pyramid...

May the Force be with you...

First Mandarin Lesson...

Right, I'm only here to let you guys know that I just went for my first official Mandarin language class just now...

The lesson begins at 11am and ends at 1pm.

I was actually the first to arrive at the ICLS ( Inter-Cultural Language School ). I think I reached there at around 10.45am.

A few moments later, other students began to arrive.

And finally, at around 11am, our teacher arrived.

She's not as I expected, especially due to the fact that she's actually a Malay.

But despite that, she CAN speak Mandarin fluently. In fact, I think she can speak Mandarin better than Bahasa Melayu!

Well, we learned about Pin Yin consonants, vowels, intonation, and several complimentary words...

Then we moved on to basic phrases concerning introduction, greeting, and asking about names.

Later, we had to do some pair work. I teamed up with a guy named Hafiz Ramli ( He's 20 years old, if I'm not mistaken ). We had to practice with each other using the provided dialogue text. It was, well, kinda fun, I guess...

This is just the beginning of my endeavour to learn Mandarin.

There are still many more lessons to come. And in the meantime, I also have to learn the language from other sources, such as television shows, dramas, movies, et cetera.

But I've yet to actually communicate efficiently in Mandarin. Not yet, anyway... Soon...

I'm only familiar with a few words in Mandarin. I've still got literally hundreds of words to learn!

Well, that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Finally, a PlayStation 2!

Well, my father bought a PlayStation 2 yesterday night...

It's a Slimline model , to be specific...

Honestly, I wasn't really expecting him to buy it so soon!

Anyway, I helped to install the PS2. I have to say, I am rather disappointed with the "complementary" games that came with the PS2.

Thank goodness they provided "God Of War"! In my opinion, that's the only awesome game among all the complementary games!

My brother was all smiles. He got to try out "God Of War" on the PS2 first.

Frankly, I was thoroughly impressed with the astonishing graphics and fluid performance.

I mean, I never dreamed of owning that level of graphics on any of my PCs!

As for my brother, like I said in my previous post, it was a dream come true for him!

Take a look for yourself!

Well, Alvyn already scouted around on the Internet, and he came up with this list of awesome PS2 games:

1. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith - The Video Game.

2. Star Wars The Force Unleashed

3. Star Wars The Clone Wars - Republic Heroes

4. Star Wars Battlefront 2

5. The Matrix Path Of Neo.

Well, that's the list so far...

Oh, he's planning to borrow "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith - The Video Game" from his dear friend, Hadri this Friday.

It's supposed to be one of the best Star Wars games available for the PlayStation 2, due to its superb animation quality and intuitive gameplay / lightsaber combat system.

Well, I only managed to play the PS2 for like 15 minutes ( while my brother went to get a shower )...

Honestly, I have yet to truly master the skill of balancing on a wooden beam using the analogue stick in "God Of War"!

I think I died around 5-7 times before finally making across the ravine!

Okay, that's it for now...

May the Force be with you...

Year End Break 2010 has begun...

Today's actually the last day of school!

Yay!

The one-and-a-half month long, Year End school break has finally begun!

Well, officially, the Year End Break is supposed to start on the 20th of November, which is actually this Saturday. But school is closed on Tuesday in order to prepare the SPM Examination Hall, whereas there's Hari Raya Aidiladha on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

So technically, the Year End Break has started almost a whole week in advance!

Okay, let me recall about school today...

Ummm, I carried out my Prefect duty at the school gate, as usual. After that, I went upstairs to class...

Basically, I spent most of my time chatting with my friends, particularly Lee King and Sabrina.

I talked to Lee King about the PlayStations 2 and 3, the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360, computer graphics, console video games, et cetera. You know, "guy's stuff"...

After that, I read a bit of "Reader's Digest" before chatting with Sabrina. We chatted about all sorts of interesting stuff. My gosh, we talked about so many different topics that I actually forgot about almost all the stuff we talked about! Well, it's good to have someone to chat with when you've got literally nothing much to do...

I chatted with Sabrina until recess, if I'm not mistaken.

During recess, I was the ONLY Prefect who was carrying out "filter food" duty.

The other Prefects who were supposed to be assisting me with "filter food" duty were Kim Yen, Hari, Farhan, Sakthy, and Acap, but the 5 of them were nowhere to be seen. So I was alone...

However, because of that, I got praised by Theeban during the Prefect's Meeting afterwards.

Honestly, I didn't expect Theeban to praise me out of the blue!

But anyway, thanks Theeban! Your praise really motivates me to carry out my responsibilities as a School Prefect better in the future...

Well, that's it about school.

Okay, let's move on to Chess, shall we?

I'm trying to adopt the French Defense into my repertoire of openings for Black.

The French Defense is characterised by the moves 1. e4 e6.

This opening is renowned for its solidity and resilience. The solid defense achieved is stable, extremely difficult to break down, and is not easily compromised. The idea is to create an impregnable defense, particularly concerning the normally vulnerable f7 square, weather the ensuing White assault, and finally counterattack the enemy position.

Yeah, I am aware that I have a reputation of being an aggressive, attacking player.

However, I'm actually becoming more and more interested in the idea of "hypermodern" openings and the fundamentals of defensive and counterattacking gameplay.

For instance, I've started using my once favourite White opening, the Benko Opening ( 1. g3 ), and utilised it to great effect in many of my recent games.

Of course, I won't totally abandon my roots in classical Chess gameplay.

I don't intend on completely ignoring my central, Classical openings, such as the good-old King's Pawn Opening ( 1. e4 ), or the venerable Sicilian Defense ( 1. ...c5 ).

The reason why I'm delving into the concept of defense and counterattack is to merely "broaden my perspective" in Chess. In other words, I can't just stick to only one playing style and cling on to that for the rest of my Chess-playing career, can I?

Point being, my interest in the hypermodern fundamentals serves to ensure that my repertoire of openings remains flexible, as well as improve my performance in all aspects of the game as a whole...

Okay enough about Chess...

Besides that, since my brother achieved 5As in the recent UPSR Examination, he might be receiving a PlayStation 2.

Well, good for him, I guess! It's kind of like his dream to actually own a gaming console!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed ( Because I also want to play that PS2! )

Haha!

Well, that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Uneventful Day...

Okay, I'm here...

Yeah, I know, I haven't updated this blog for nearly a week now...

But that's because there really is nothing much to blog about nowadays!

No trips, no interesting stuff, no exciting happenings, nothing!

Well, I'll still try and update whenever possible. I won't just let this blog die.

Andrew Ho is NOT a quitter! [ smiles ]

Anyway, school today was kinda boring. A lot of people went to the badminton tournament at Dewan Adang...

Very few prefects were present at school today. In fact, Hari and I were the only two Prefects who were on duty during the assembly!

And during recess, only Hari, Jas, Hazwan, and I were on duty!

I was unbelievably bored in 4 Epsilon ( 4 Beta was technically abandoned! Except for Iqbal... He slept in there, I think... ).

So, I played Chess with Ashman, Aizat, and Hazwan...

That's basically it actually...

After two games with Hazwan, I went to get my Biology paper from Pn Hamirizan. Then me, Evo, and a few other students listened to Pn Hamirizan's comments and tips regarding the Biology papers, especially Paper 2 ( Subjective and Essay Questions )...

At 1pm, we all went back home...

See? Nothing exciting or interesting, right?

Oh, I forgot to mention that my body was literally "aching" throughout the whole day...

It could be because of the intense and strenuous exercises I had to go through on Tuesday morning. It's "olahraga" training, and it's NOT as easy as it seems!!!

Well, I only went to try out just for the fun of it and see how it's like! I'm not actually intending to qualify for anything!

Oh, and for the Primary Six students who are going to receive their UPSR results soon,

Good luck, you guys! I hope you all get excellent results!

Well, that's it...

May the Force be with you...

An Exhausting Morning...

Okay, truth be told, I'm utterly exhausted!
This morning, my school organised the Form 5 Graduation Ceremony at the Dewan Bukit Jelutong.
We Prefects, as usual, had to carry out our duties to make sure the whole ceremony goes on smoothly...

All of us had our own respective duties to carry out.
I was part of a group of Prefects ( consisting of Aleef, Syazwan, Vivek, Yusof, Aiman, and myself ). We were personally hand-picked by Theeban and tasked to manage the main stage in the Dewan BJ, especially concerning the VIP's seats, amplifiers, et cetera...
We also had to help out with the other Prefect's duties wherever applicable...

Throughout the morning, we just hung around backstage, waiting for the VIPs to finish their speeches, and maybe completing a few miscellaneous tasks in and around the facility...
When the VIPs had cleared the stage and proceeded to the special seats in the audience, the six of us had to remove the speech podium, chairs, tables, and flowers on the stage in order to make space on the stage for the students' performances.

After the traditional dancers' performances were over, I had to help Mukhzin with his amplifier.
Man, it was heavy!
I had to carry it on to the stage and set it up so that Mukhzin could carry out his musical guitar performance.

Soon after, the ceremony was officially over, and the photography session had started.
We had to help Cikgu Azman stack up the chairs in the main audience area.
We also helped to clear the stage, pack up the many bags of graduation gowns, and load the lorry with school property for transport back to school...

Overall, it was a tiring and exhausting morning, but I think we all did a great job!
The Graduation ceremony went on smoothly, and I'm personally proud to have done my part[ smiles ].

Well, that's it for now.

I'm rather tired and I think I'm gonna go and get some R&R...

May the Force be with you...

Final Exam 2010 is Over!

My End-Of-Year Examinations are finally over!
At long last!
2 months of non-stop studying has come to an end!!!

Anyway, in my opinion, the Final Exam wasn't as tormenting or stressing as I originally thought it would be...
Maybe it's because of the harsh experiences I had to go through during the Mid-Year Examination ( which FYI, represents the first time I ever sat for an SPM-standard examination ).
So, I guess I now know exactly what to expect in an SPM-standard examination...
[ sigh ] No more 180-word essays...
No more fully objective History papers...

Yep, it's an SPM-orientated exam style from now on...
[ gulp ]
Now I realise how EASY the UPSR and PMR Examinations really were! [ smiles ]

Okay, enough of my ranting...
Let's cut to the chase, shall we?

Uhhh, let me see, I'm planning to learn how to speak Chinese, particularly Mandarin, maybe around a week from now.
Hey, I mean, Chinese IS my mother-tongue, right?
Anyway, I've got around a month or two ahead of me. Why not use the time to pick up the language that I'm actually supposed to be able to speak?
Well, hopefully, come 2011, I'll finally be able to speak Chinese...

The new Headmistress for my school has finally arrived.

Her name's Datin Aisyah, if I'm not mistaken...
Anyway, this morning, we had an official assembly to welcome her arrival to SMK Bukit Jelutong.
And guess what? When everyone stood up to sing the National Anthem, there was a malfunction regarding the PA system, so the music was barely audible!
Talk about bad first-impressions!

Lastly, I have to follow my family back to my hometown of Malacca at the end of this week, if I'm not mistaken.
So, yeah, I'm just informing you guys about it, that's all...

Alright, that's about it for now...

May the Force be with you...