Last Day of Mid-Term School Holidays 2011

Well, as much as it pains me to say this, but today is the last day of the Mid-Term School Holidays.
Which means school will officially re-open tomorrow! No, the horror!
Ugh, I'll have to wake up at 6am in the morning, reluctantly tolerating the irritating ringing sound of my alarm clock, abruptly interrupting me from my beauty sleep!

[ sigh ] Oh well... That's how it has to be, I guess...
Anyway, ever since TRAAM 2011 last Saturday, I've been dying of boredom!
There were practically 2 things that were keeping me alive all this while: Computer games and Gym work-outs!
I'va already finished all of my homework, so every day when I woke up, I didn't really have anything to look forward to, except laze around the house like a zombie...

Ahh, for me, computer games are a great source of entertainment, a remedy for alleviating boredom. PC games allow me to delve into another world, nay, another reality, giving me a sense of freedom as compared to the limited boundaries of the real world. I can literally conquer the world, fight infinite legions of Stormtroopers, and even change the course of history itself! All of that is made possible by PC games. Geez, I should stop talking about computer games now, shouldn't I? Even I'm a little creeped out with myself! [ smiles ]
But of course, I would like to pay tribute to my beloved PC games that have kept me occupied during the course of the last uneventful, boring week! Without them, I most certainly would have gone crazy or something!

And of course, there's the gym.
I've been hitting the gym quite frequently during the holidays.
School holidays are the perfect opportunity for me to exercise and work-out at the gym. During normal school days, my schedule is so hectic and jam-packed that I barely have the time to go to the gymnasium.
Plus, my parents just got me specialised half-gloves. The gloves protect the skin on my palm while I'm lifting weights. Yeah, terrible things can happen to my hand if I'm not careful. In fact, the skin on my palm has already started to peel off because I've been lifting weights without protection. So that's technically what the half-gloves are for...
Hehe, now I can freely lift weights without constantly having to worry about my palm anymore! [ smiles ] But my mother warned me that if I become too muscular, I might actually appear short, stubby, and even fat! I'm tall, but not THAT tall! Well, not tall enough to have Arnold-Schwarzenegger-type muscles anyway! So I guess my new plan of action is to maintain my current build, that's all. In my opinion, my muscles are already well-developed, and my body looks good enough right now as it is... ( PS: I'm not showing off or whatever, alright?! I just don't know how to say it any other way! Haha! )

Well, I've received many complaints that my blog posts are intimidatingly long...
So, I've gotta cut it short! I actually got a little "carried away" about the PC game and gym thingy... Hehe, a thousand apologies?
Alright, let's put it this way. I'm just gonna blabber out everything else that I've got to say, okay? I'm not gonna elaborate too much... It's gonna be as simplistic as possible!

I went to my mother's new kindergarten center ( Bright Kids ) this afternoon. She's now working as a teacher there, and today's actually the official opening. There was a funny clown. I ate a lot of food. I spilled some "cendol" on my trousers. There was a performance involving a group of little girls dancing to the song "Nobody But You - Wonder Girls". It rained.
I went for my haircut. The usual barber was missing. I had difficulty explaining my custom hairstyle to the replacement barber. My final haircut didn't turn as good as I expected it to be. It sucks. However, my brother and father thinks it's "okay"...
I watched a lot of movies that I never got to watch before. For instance, "Gulliver's Travels", "I Am Number Four", and "127 Hours". The best one I've watched during the holidays is "Shutter Island". It's seriously an awesome movie full of intrigue and suspense. I loved it. However, I'm rather disappointed with the fact that I didn't manage to watch "Kung Fu Panda 2". Oh well...

Whew, that was harder than I thought! The urge to add elaborations and expansions to the points above was unbearable! Fortunately, I managed to resist that urge, and et voila, you've got the simple, down-sized version of my usually long posts!
Now imagine if I had actually blogged about my mum's kindergarten, the haircut, and the movies in the long version! Haha!

Well, I guess that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Taylor's Race Across America ( TRAAM 2011 )

Well, I participated in Taylor's Race Across America 2011 ( TRAAM ) which was held yesterday at Taylor's University, Lakeside Campus.

We were required to form a team of five Form 5 students. My team consisted of me and four of my friends ( Lee King, Hari, Sehran and Kuok Fung ).

Guess what our team name and slogan is?

Our team name is "Super Nerds"! Haha! And our slogan is"we may be nerds, but we're super nerds!"

It's catchy, right? At first, it was just a funny joke during our team discussion on Facebook. But after that, no one even bothered to give any new suggestions for our team name. So, on the day of the race itself, we all decided to use the team name "Super Nerds"!

Oh, and we decided that our team colour would be red... It would turn out to be a good colour choice, because we would coincidentally be the only team who wore red shirts during the race! So, it kind of makes our team stand out from the others! Haha! [ smiles ]

Right, let's get started, shall we?

I arrived at the Taylor's University Lakeside Campus first. Sehran and Lee King came a few minutes later. The three of us went to register ourselves first. We were exploring the campus when Hari called. We met up with him and Kuok Fung at the Main Entrance later and brought them to the registration counter.

Then, we discussed about our team name and "cheer". Like I mentioned before, we willingly decided on the name "Super Nerds", and as for the cheer, it's so ridiculous that I don't even want to explain about it here! Seriously, it's pathetic! Luckily, we only needed to do the cheer once throughout the whole event...

During registration, the lady at the counter told us to go to Lecture Hall 9 at 8.30am for briefing. So, we took this time to discuss about some stuff and explore the campus a bit.

I managed to snap some pictures while we were walking around the campus.

Part of the Taylor's University, Lakeside Campus...

Team "Super Nerds"! Haha!

At 8.30am, we made our way to Lecture Hall 9 for the TRAAM briefing. We were given a short introduction about the Race, plus a little bit about the American Degree Transfer Program ( ADP ). Then, we were instructed to proceed to an open area outside the Lecture Hall for a warm-up session. After the warm-up, each team ( If I'm not mistaken, there are a total of 18 teams ) had to present their own "cheer".

After that, we went back into Lecture Hall 9. Here's some of the rules and regulations that I can recall regarding the race in general:

1. Teams will be given a special booklet, also known as a "passport". Teams must bring their passports to each checkpoint ( CP ).

2. After completing the challenge at each CP, teams must let the ADP students in charge of the CP "verify" the passport by imprinting an official chop on the passport. They must also jot down the marks that the team has achieved at that particular CP in the passport.

3. Teams must proceed to each CP in a specific sequence as written in the passport. Teams are not allowed to skip to the next CP without completing the previous CP before it.

Each CP is named after a US State, for instance Utah, Maine, et cetera. The CPs are scattered all over the campus, and teams are required to locate them. Furthermore, the race is not about who finishes first, but is based on a point-accumulation system...

Right, the race was scheduled to start at 9am and end at 1pm, so teams are given a timeframe of 4 hours to complete all 15 checkpoints in their passports.

At 9am, all the teams in Lecture Hall 9 were shown a video clip about Taylor's American Degree Transfer Program. After watching the video, teams must answer 10 questions about ADP correctly in order to receive their passports. Luckily, my team was one of the first to finish the questionnaire, so we got a headstart! [ smiles ]

Okay, here's where the fun part begins.

Now this is a really, really long race! And we needed to do a LOT of running around in order to get to each CP!

I'm gonna explain about all 15 CPs and their respective challenges in point form, for your convenience of course! I know you guys just hate reading long-winded essays, so I'll have to break it all down into a simpler form...

Oh, and I can't recall all the particular names of the CPs ( Remember, I mentioned that each CP is named after a certain US State... ). I only remember some of them, so I hope you guys don't mind, yeah?

Right, here goes.

1. CP 1 ( Florida ): Mastermind - One of us ( in this case, Lee King ) was selected and given a piece of paper. There were four colours written on the paper. He is not allowed to show us the paper or tell us the names of the colours on the paper. Then, the ADP students gave us another piece of paper with five colours written on it. And so, our task was to guess the colours written on Lee King's paper. There are three important things to consider:

- The "types" of colours guessed must be correct.

- The specific "sequence" of the colours must be correct.

- Colours CAN repeat themselves.

If you don't understand, I don't blame you. This particular game is kind of hard to explain here. We had to let the ADP students at the CP repeat the rules twice before we finally understood what to do. What I can tell you is this game tests our ability to analyse and try out different possibilities. In the end, we managed to guess the colours on Lee King's paper correctly, and we did it pretty quick too! Even the ADP students were stunned that we finished so quickly! It's either we're plain good, or we just had a lucky guess! [ Points: Maximum ]

2. CP 2: Name the Movie - This one was a nasty one. We were shown short video clips of several movies, and we had to name the movies that the clips were from. There were 11 clips in total. And there's a catch: we could only name the movies AFTER the video clip sequence was finished. So this game tested our memory as well! Unfortunately, my team only managed to name a mere 4 movies ( The Dark Knight, Toy Story, Inception, Titanic ). The other 7 movies were "old", classic movies! We couldn't even guess what the names of the old movies were! So we had to go through a one-minute time penalty... [ Points: Decent amount ]

3. CP 3: Calculation - Yay! I love Maths! And this CP was all about Maths! A little bit of Add Maths and a little bit of Modern Maths here and there. We managed to get through this CP with little trouble. We are the "Super Nerds", after all! Haha! However, we didn't have enough time to finish the "Kakuro" puzzle, but we still got a substantial amount of points for that. [ Points: Almost maximum ]

4. CP 4 ( Maine ): US quiz / US MAP Puzzle - Okay, here, teams had to answer as many questions as they could regarding the US before time runs out. Then, teams had to assemble a jigsaw puzzle of the USA, with the US States as the jigsaw pieces. Here's where I thought to myself, "Yes! Thank goodness I actually memorised all the US States AND their locations in the USA!". I practically had the US puzzle in the bag!

But, we were stuck here for quite a long time. Almost half an hour! Wanna know why? Because there were 2 teams that were already there when we arrived, and they were taking their own sweet time trying to finish the jigsaw puzzle of the USA! So, we did the US quiz first ( we got 7 correct answers, which was tolerable ), and after that, we still had to wait for the other teams to finish completing the US jigsaw puzzle!

They were allowed to peek at a map of the US if they didn't know how to arrange the US states in the puzzle. It was pure torture waiting for them to finish that US puzzle! When it was FINALLY my team's turn to do the jigsaw puzzle, I unleashed my fury by completing the puzzle in record time. I didn't even have to refer to the map they provided! The ADP students were awe-struck! At least my efforts of knowing the names and locations of the US States by heart finally paid off! [ Points: Almost maximum ]

5. CP 5 ( Utah ): Fill the Cup - Teams had to fill a cup with water using only their hands. The worst part was that the pail of water was 15 meters away from the cup! Only one team member could transport water from the pail to the cup at any one time. And halfway while you're running with the water, the ADP students will ask you questions regarding the state of Utah! If you answered correctly, you could proceed and deposit the water you were carrying into the cup. If the answer was wrong, you had to drop the water you're holding and start all over again!

I tell you, this CP was frustrating! In the end, we miraculously managed to fill up almost 75% of the cup. And we got extra credit from the ADP students because we sang and danced for them too! Haha! So we got like 10 extra points for that! [ Points awarded: Almost maximum ]

6. CP 6 ( Nevada ): Fear Factor - Well, our team got to do Fear Factor. There's actually 3 different challenges in this CP: Worms, Fear Factor and Fashion Catwalk. We had to role a dice to determine which one we would be doing. So we got Fear Factor. There were 4 boxes, each containing unknown "substances" inside them. Each box was for one team member, and each team member had to guess what was inside the box. The so-called "substances" were actually salt, tomato, cincau ( black jelly ), and egg. I was unlucky, because my box was the one with the egg! Ugh! And it doesn't end there. The team then had to finish drinking a cup of revolting bittergourd and banana juice! For some reason, Sehran volunteered to finish it all by himself. After he gulped it all down, he seriously looked like he was about to throw up! But then, he surprised everyone by grabbing another cup of bittergourd+banana juice and finishing that one, too! The whole room literally burst with laughter! Though I'm not sure if my team got extra credit for Sehran's heroic act! [ Points awarded: Almost maximum ]

7. CP 7: American Idol - Yup, as the name suggests, this challenge is all about American Idol. But we didn't know about it until AFTER the challenge was complete. When we first got to the CP, two of our team members were selected, Hari and Sehran. Both of them were brought into a room. Kuok Fung, Lee King, and I had to wait outside. When the three of us asked what the challenge was about, the ADP student in charge outside the room said that he couldn't tell! We only knew what the challenge was when Hari and Sehran finally emerged from the room. The two of them had to match American Idol contestants with their respective seasons. Apparently, it was easier said than done, and unfortunately, Hari and Sehran didn't manage to score any points for our team in this particular challenge. It was a real let-down, but oh well... This setback actually made us more determined and drove us to do better in the following challenges. [ Points: No points awarded ]

8. CP 8 ( Hawaii ): Sumo-wrestling - Well, I'd say this one was the most fun. Three of us had to put on a sumo costume and try to wrestle with the ADP students. We had to do it one-by-one. And man, I seriously underestimated the opponents! They were huge, and I'm guessing quite buff, too! We had to push them down on to the mat in order to score points. No punching, kicking, shirt-tugging, and tripping was allowed. Fortunately, our team managed to get the highest score among all the other teams in this challenge! Hari's match was legendary! He literally lifted the guy up and slammed him to the ground! Pure awesomeness! [ Points: Almost maximum ]

9. CP 9 ( Illnois ): Balloon Game - This CP was handled by a group of Korean ADP students. We had to blow as many balloons as we could within the time limit. The balloons had to be big enough, otherwise they don't count. Oh, and for every five balloons blown, we get to answer a bonus question for bonus points. Overall, our team managed to blow a decent amount of balloons, and we managed to get some bonus points for answering the bonus questions, so the points we got were quite okay... [ Points: Decent amount ]

10. CP 10: Jeopardy - Ah okay, we had to run all the way upstairs for this one! It was seriously exhausting! Right, Jeopardy is a gameshow which is remarkably similar to "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader". But there are a few differences, of course. There are 25 questions ( 5 categories with 5 questions each ). Each question in each category is worth a certain amount of points ( 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 points ). The higher the points, the harder the question. The categories are US History, US Presidents, US Authors, US States, and US Singers.

If you answer a question correctly, you get the points that the question is worth. Example, you answer a 40-point question correctly, your team gets 40 points. However, if you answer the question wrongly OR you don't provide an answer within a 20 second time limit, points will be deducted from the team's total points. Which means it IS possible to get a negative score! Luckily, teams have the option to drop out of the game at any time if they are comfortable with their current score. Many teams left the gameshow with zero points, but thankfully, my team managed to get a decent score of 40 points.

At first, our score lingered around zero, because everytime we answered correctly, we would then answer wrongly on the next turn! But luckily, we made a breakthrough: Lee King answered a US Singer question correctly ( Beyonce Knowles ), Sehran, Kuok Fung and Hari, answered something regarding Elvis Presley, and I managed to give the correct answer regarding the US State Massachusetts. My team decided we were comfortable with 40 points, so we decided to drop out with this score... [ Points: Decent amount ]

11. CP 11: American Football - Well, we actually got to play American Football! Well, not the full game anyway, just part of it. We learned how to "pass" and "punt" the ball. Of course, they let us practice for a while. The challenge was to complete 5 passes, and successfully punt ( kick the ball ) 5 times. Points would be awarded for every successful attempt. Our team did quite okay in this challenge, considering the fact that it was quite windy, and we had to adjust to the football's trajectory. There was even a time where Hari kicked the ball so high that it actually went all the way over the fence! Haha! [ Points: Decent amount ]

12. CP 12: Spell-It-Right - Here, we were given a bunch of cards with different letters written on each of them. We had to spell out the names of US cities using the cards provided. For instance, if the ADP student told us to spell "Syracuse", we had to find the correct cards and arrange them in the correct order. This challenge was rather easy, since I was quite familiar with the names of the US cities that he told us to spell, such as Milwaukee, Honolulu, Minneapolis, and several others... [ Points: Maximum ]

13. CP 13: US States - Alright, this was my time to shine! In this challenge, there's a map of the USA on a table. Each of the states was covered with a flap, so you can't see the names of the states. We were given a map of the US, then they gave us some time to memorise the states on the map, especially their locations. Of course, I didn't have to do that, since I already know the US States like the back of my hand! When the time was up, an ADP student would read aloud the name of a state, and we had to open up the correct flap on the US map on the table.

I was practically doing this challenge myself! I got each and every single state correct! Everyone was astonished! Someone even asked me "Are you a robot or something?". Haha! This particular challenge was a breeze, and I actually enjoyed it. I managed to get a perfect score for this challenge, and my team was awarded maximum points! Hehe, I feel so proud of myself! [ Points: Maximum ]

14. CP 14 ( New York ): Snakes & Ladders - Well not exactly "Snakes & Ladders", per se. Okay, this game involves 1 Jumper, 1 Dice-roller, 1 Runner, and 2 people to answer questions. The jumper has to hop across the "game-track" on only one foot. The dice-roller, uhhh, rolls the dice. The Runner has to collect slips paper containing questions from the ADP students everytime the dice is rolled. Then he has to pass it to the 2 people who are tasked to answer the questions.

In this case, Sehran's the Jumper, Hari's the Dice-roller, Kuok Fung's the Runner, and Lee King and I had to answer the questions. The questions are regarding mostly about the US Economy. Points would be awarded for each correct answer. Overall, we managed to score a tolerable amount of points in this challenge. [ Points: Decent amount ]

Alas, we never managed to complete the challenge at the 15th CP ( Oklahoma ). By the time we finished the 14th, it was already 1pm, so we had to make our way back to Lecture Hall 9. This is partly due to the fact that we were delayed at the 4th CP ( Maine ), which is the one with the US quiz and jigsaw puzzle. Too many teams were bottle-necked there, and teams had to go "one-by-one", so it was agonisingly slow, and we lost a lot of time there. But even if we did get to the 15th CP, some people say that it has something to do with dancing...

At 1pm, all the teams returned to Lecture Hall 9. We were debriefed and rested there for a while before we were allowed to go for our lunch at the campus' cafeteria.

Here are some pictures I took...

Behold, Lecture Hall 9...

The organisers...

It's Sehran!

Guess who?

Seriously, this wantan mee was delicious! The best part was that it's free!

Part of the Taylor's University, Lakeside Campus...

Team "Super Nerds"!

After lunch, we went back to Lecture Hall 9 once again for the closing speech and prize-giving ceremony. Dr Reinier Bouwmeester, the Dean of the American Degree Transfer Program, gave the closing speech. Then, the prize-giving ceremony commenced.

Only 6 positions were available. 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place, and 3 consolation prizes for the 4th, 5th, and 6th Places.

My team managed to get 5th Place! [ smiles ]

Well, we did do rather well, getting nearly maximum marks for most of the CPs. I guess the challenge that really dragged us down was that American Idol challenge. Oh well...

Dr Reinier Bouwmeester during his speech...

Way to go, "Super Nerds"! Haha!

After the prize-giving ceremony, there was a brief picture-taking session. Then, we were allowed to leave the lecture hall and go home.

My team and I lingered around at Starbucks for a while, chit-chatting and talking about the Race. Then, Lee King's sister sent us back to Bukit Jelutong. I waited at Hari's house for a while, and finally, at around 4.45 pm, my parents came to pick me up...

Well, conclusively, it was a really exhausting, but fun-filled and interesting day! I had so much fun and I managed to learn a lot of stuff about America. TRAAM was a really interesting experience and I enjoyed it very much...

And of course, I would like to thank my friends ( Lee King, Hari, Sehran, and Kuok Fung ).

Great work, guys! We made a great team!

Thank you so much, yeah?

Woah, this is an extremely long post!

Yeah, yeah, I know I promised to keep it simple! Haha! Sorry, yeah?

Well, I guess that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Lazy To Blog, But I Blogged Anyway!

Right, to be absolutely honest, I really wasn't in the mood to update my blog when I woke up this morning...
The reason? Uhhh, I guess I'm just lazy!
After I woke up and had my breakfast, I went to my computer ( which was already turned on since early in the morning, thanks to my "light sleeper" of a brother. How convenient... ) Of course, the first thing I did was check on my Facebook page, hoping for something interesting. After staring blankly at the Homepage on Facebook, I signed in to Blogger, and finally, here I am!

Well, I do have several things I want to blog about...
Firstly, a few of my friends and I have participated in "Taylor's Race Across America" ( TRAAM ). Uhhh, I think it's organised by Taylor's American Degree Transfer Program. Anyway, it's going to be held at Taylor's University, Lakeside Campus this Saturday from 8am until 4pm.
And as the name suggets, it's all about America, of course! We were advised to brush up on our general knowledge of America. So, I actually memorised all 50 US States, and I roughly know each of their locations on the map of the USA. I've been reading about US history, including the 13 Colonies, the Civil War, the War of 1812 ( War of Independence ), America's Independence ( 4th July 1776 ), et cetera. I'm gonna read more about USA history later. Seriously, it's interesting! Haha!

Well, I can't wait for this Saturday! Regardless of whether we win or lose, it's gonna be a really fun and interesting experience! [ smiles ]

Besides that, I'm going to Sunway Pyramid next Tuesday to celebrate one of my friend's birthday.
Seriously, I consider Sunway Pyramid as somewhat of a mecca for teenagers! Everytime I go to Sunway Pyramid, without a doubt, the majority of the crowd there will consist of teenagers and adolescents.
And, either coincidentally or purposely, all the outings I've been together with my friends were all at Sunway Pyramid, nowhere else! What could make this place so attractive to teenagers? Is it because of the Egyptian themed decor? Or is it because it is located in the heart of a major population area? I wonder...
Oh well...

Well, at least I have some interesting stuff to do during the holidays! Otherwise, my life would be so dull and boring, trapped at home, with nothing but homework and my beloved computer to sustain and prevent me from dying of sheer boredom...
Speaking of homework, I've already completed most of it, and I'm glad to say that I am on track to meet the deadline that I've set for myself.
I should be able to finish up all the homework by the end of this week, period.

Well, I think my post is rather long already, so I should probably stop here...

May the Force be with you...

Mid-Term Examination 2011 Is Over!

Finally! Mid-Term Examination 2011 has finally come to an end!
It's finally over! Ah, I feel like flying!
Time for some much needed rest and relaxation!!! [ smiles ]

And the best part is that tomorrow marks the first day of the Mid-Term School Holidays that's gonna last two whole weeks! Oh yeah!
But of course, there's a hiccup. Our beloved teachers have graciously supplied us with a massive pile of homework to keep us occupied during the school holidays...
Well, it's not exactly referred to as "homework", it's more like "Program Terancang Cuti Sekolah"...
Ugh...

Seriously, there's work for almost every subject! As much as it pains me to do so, I'll list them all down here for your reading pleasure:
1. Bahasa Melayu - Two essays ( Bahagian A: 200-250 words, Bahagian B: >350 words ).
2. English - Five "journal entries".
3. Modern Mathematics - SPM 2009 Maths Paper 2.
4. Sejarah - Two sets of P1 History questions.
5. Additional Mathematics - Model Test, corrections for Mid-Term Add Maths Paper 1.
6. Chemistry - Question Paper regarding vulcanisation of rubber and Electrochemistry ( Voltaic Cell )
7. Biology - Question Paper regarding Mitosis and Meiosis.
8. Physics - Skills Practice Activity ( Heat, Specific Heat Capacity )
9. Pendidikan Sivik - [ Yup, that's right! There's even h/w for PSK! ] Folio about "Jenis Kerjaya, Usaha, & Impian Dalam Kerjaya Yang Dipilih". And guess what? This assignment accounts for a whopping 50% of my Mid-Term PSK Examination!

Well, it will definitely take a substantial amount of time to complete all that work!

Anyway, about Mid-Term Examinations...
The first and second weeks of the exam were actually quite okay.
First week: BM 1, BM 2, English 1, English 2, Physics 1. Still tolerable...
Second week: Add Maths 1, Add Maths 2, Modern Maths 1, Modern Maths 2, Pendidikan Moral. [ Oh, Teacher's Day was on Monday, and Tuesday was Wesak Day. Sorry guys, I'm too lazy to blog about Teacher's Day! Haha! ]

Now, the third week is the "killer" week! All the so-called heavyweight subjects were crammed into this week!
Third week: Sejarah 2, Chemistry 1, PJK, Biology 2, Biology 1, Sejarah 1, Chemistry 2, Chemistry 3, Physics 2, Physics 3, Biology 3, PSK.
Notice the difference between the 3rd week and the first two weeks?!?! Ugh... For some people, including me, getting through the 3rd week seemed like an eternity! Time really passes slowly during examination periods...

Well, about today ( the last day of Mid-Term Examination ), there were only two papers left, Biology 3 and PSK.
When the bell rang at 10.25am, signifying the end of the PSK Paper and the Mid-Term Examination, the thunderous cheer of all the students echoed througout the school. It was awe-inspiring. Truly glorious.
And you know what? Some people were even surprised that I was still carrying out my Prefect's duty ( guarding Staircase D ) even though the Exam just finished! They were saying things to me like "Wei, apasal ko ni masih tugas lagi? Exam dah habis la wei!". Seriously, it was damn annoying...

I was really looking forward to finally playing Chess today... Alas, I never managed to play a single game! Well, I DID manage to play a few moves, but then Theeban suddenly said that there was a Prefect's Meeting in the Prefect's Room.
Oh well, maybe next time...

Well, I guess that's it...
I gotta go enjoy myself "while I still can", if you get what I mean! [ smiles ]
I'll start working on that gigantic pile of homework very soon. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it all by the end of next week. Then, I'll have another week to enjoy before school re-opens...

Happy holidays!

May the Force be with you...

250th Post...

Alright, my Mid-Term Examination is coming up soon, so this will probably be my last post until after the Exam is over.
The Mid-Term Exam will last for about 3 weeks...
[ sigh ] I sure do miss the good old times when examinations were merely 3-5 days long!

Anyway, I'm gonna blog about school...
Today was, uhhh, rather interesting...
But unfortunately, I don't really have the time to give lengthy explanations. I need to go and do some Physics revision. So, I'm just gonna summarise everything up, alright?
Okay, here goes...

1. I gave a speech about Chess to the non-Muslim students - The Muslim students were required to be at my school's weekly "bacaan surah yasin" session at the assembly area. The non-Muslims gathered at the school canteen instead. Pn Goh Soh Lian told me to give a speech to the non-Muslims at the canteen, so I talked about the "Benefits of Playing Chess"! [ smiles ] Too bad Hazwan and Sehran weren't there to listen to my speech. I'm sure they would have been "proud"! Haha!

2. Chemistry Lesson - Alright, I'll split what happened during Chemistry into two parts:
i) Helped Tian Hui with her presentation regarding the vulcanisation process of natural rubber.
ii) Conducted an experiment to determine the differences between an alkane ( CnH2n+2 ) and an alkene ( CnH2n ). It was quite interesting.

3. English - Jannah's group gave their presentation about Chapter 6 of the Literature novel: Step by Wicked Step ( C6: Pixie's Story - The Pains In My Life ). The acting didn't really make much sense, but at least it was hilarious!

4. History - En Din didn't come into class. A replacement teacher came in instead and told us to do our own work. Hazwan and Sehran trotted off to play Chess without a moment's hesitation, of course! I decided to try and complete some of the immense amount of Literature homework that Pn Thamilselvi had graciously provided us! Then, I helped Alison with some Add Maths homework before heading to Staircase D to carry out my Prefect's Duty...

5. Recess - Carrying out guard duty at the staircase, as usual. Then, Jit San came along, and we started talking about all sorts of random stuff. At 10.45, I made my way to the canteen, and something truly "remarkable" happened! I couldn't believe my eyes! ( It's hard to explain exactly what happened, coz' it's a Prefect thing! Haha! )
Some students were busy spectating someone's car being towed away outside the school. After ordering them to go back to class, I went back upstairs for PJK class.

6. PJK Lesson - Uhhh, we discussed about "Seks Abnormal" and it's consequences... Yeah, it's in the textbook and it's part of the syllabus. We talked about homosexuals, bisexuals, HIV/AIDS, incest, et cetera. Yeah, that's PJK...

7. Modern Mathematics - Ahhh, Maths with Pn Goh Ah Choun! Today, it was all about Transformations. However, I had not completed the work papers that Pn Goh provided us previously ( Wednesday, if I'm not mistaken... ). Luckily, I managed to finish it all without teacher actually noticing! How? Doing it under my desk, of course! Hehe! Thank goodness I have no problems with Transformations, otherwise I would have been in real trouble!

Well, that's basically it...
Now, I gotta go start revising!

Wish me luck for my Mid-Term Examination!

May the Force be with you...

A Little Spare Time...

Okay, since I have a bit of free time, I might as well take the opportunity to update my blog, right?
I managed to finish my Chemistry homework AND still have the time to go to the gym! Ahhh, I haven't been to the gym in ages! It feels so good to finally be able to work-out again! [ smiles ]

Anyway, after revising Chemistry for almost 4 hours, I actually started to enjoy doing Carbon Compound exercises! I particularly enjoyed esterification ( process of forming esters via reaction between an alcohol and a carboxylic acid.
Eg: ethanol + propanoic acid → ethyl propanoate + water, C2H5OH + C3H7COOH → C3H7COOC2H5 + H2O )
It's quite fun actually, once you get the hang of it...

Right, if your speakers are on, and they're NOT muted, you should probably be able to hear some music playing.
That's the sound of my Mixpod music player that I've just added to my Blogger page...
The reason: I was on YouTube, recording "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith, when I stumbled upon a Daughtry song, "Over You". Of course, I decided to check it out, because frankly, I like listening to Daughtry songs!
I listened for a while, and it turned out that "Over You" was quite an awesome song! It's a wonder how I never came across it before...

So now, my music playlist has two songs ( Two should be enough, don't you think? ) :
1. Over You - Daughtry
2. Life After You - Daughtry
I really wanted to include David Cook's new song, "The Last Goodbye" into my playlist as well. I DID manage to find it on YouTube, but strangely, it doesn't appear in the Mixpod search list... Oh well...

Okay, I don't intend to make this post a long one.
Besides, I don't really have anything else to blog about!
Well, as a final note, I really DO need to get a haircut! [ smiles ]

May the Force be with you...

Finally Back...

Woah, I haven't updated this blog for quite a while now!

It's been more than a month now!

Well, I didn't have a choice, you know! It's not that I didn't want to blog ( I'm not lazy! ), it's just that, due to certain unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to update my blog!

I hope you guys are not mad or anything...

[ smiles ]

Well, I will tell you this: There's a WHOLE lot of stuff that I should have blogged about during my 1 month absence from Blogger... But sadly, I didn't!

Oh well, what's done is done...

Notice the picture of Kakashi Hatake I posted.

Don't jump to conclusions! I am NOT a Naruto fan! It's a long, complicated story that I don't really feel like telling now...

Anyway, I'm just gonna blog about what happened today...

In the morning, we had an official assembly. It was really, really long, due to the fact that our school participated in a lot of tournaments and events recently, and that equates to a lot of prize-giving!

And the worst part was that I was sweating like MAD, I tell you! My blazer was swelteringly hot! Talk about being uncomfortable!

After assembly, nothing much happened...

Add Maths just breezed past. Teacher provided some homework. End of story.

We learned about neurones during Biology.

PSK was technically a free double period. We were "supposed" to practice singing the school song, but somehow, we didn't in the end...

Nothing much happened during Moral, either. Teacher just provided some information regarding the Kerja Kursus Pendidikan Moral folio. That's it...

Ummm, after school, Hari, Hazwan, Jas, Ashman and I went to Domino's Pizza for lunch. I actually brought my own lunch ( fried noodles ), but regardlessly, they insisted that I had to follow them to Domino's anyway...

We ordered 2 pizzas ( I managed to eat a slice! ). After we finished eating, we started to talk about various types of vegetables! I don't really know how the vegetable conversation started, but I have a hunch that it has something to do with green peas...

After that, we went to check out some shop selling "soft" ice-cream.

Then, we started walking back to school. We arrived at around 2.40, I think.

We made our way to 5 Epsilon...

Played uhhh, "consultation" chess... Discussed about Chess... Talked about Chess... Chess... Chess... Chess... yada yada yada... And before we knew it, it was already 4.15pm. And guess what? We only played ONE Chess game!

Hazwan and Jas went back...

Then Ashman, Hari and I played THE most hilarious Chess game ever! Seriously, it was hysterical!

We laughed until we cried! And our stomachs hurt so bad because we were laughing too hard! I tell you, even as I'm typing this sentence, I still can't help but crack a smile as I remind myself of that particular Chess game!

Haha! Oh man, Ashman and Hari, you've made my day!

Well, I guess that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Trip to China!

Alright, I'm gonna make this one a "quickie", alright?
I'm honestly not in the mood for typing long posts now...
My family went for a trip to China for 5 days ( 10th - 14th March ).

The four main places that we visited were Nanjing, Suzhou, Shanghai, and Hangzhou...

We also had a host: My mum's good friend, Aunt Jennifer. She was our guide during our visits to Nanjing and Suzhou. She was very friendly and we really appreciate her hospitality...
Right, firstly, our flight ( AirAsia X ) touched-down at Xiaoshan International Airport, Hangzhou. There, a driver, Mr Xia, was waiting for us. We had a brief lunch at McDonalds before he sent us to Nanjing.

At Nanjing, we met Aunt Jennifer at her house. She took us out for dinner, and later she brought us to Confucius Square...
After a bit of sight-seeing, she brought us back home and we hit the sack...

Okay, I'm just gonna roughly blog about the itinerary for each location of the China trip in point form...
Yes, it's gonna be quick and simple! I already I told you I'm not in the mood for writing long essays! [ smiles ]

NANJING

1. Went to Mount Xijin ( Purple Mountain ) and headed to the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum.
2. Lunch at Wanda Plaza.
3. Visited the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.
4. Went to Zhonghua Gate and walked along the top of the City Wall of Nanjing.
5. Went back to Confucius Square for some more sightseeing.

SUZHOU

1. Our trip to Suzhou was centered mainly around our visit to a historic Chinese "Water Village". The scenery was very authentic and peaceful and the waterways in the village were absolutely beautiful...
We strolled around before taking a high-speed bullet train to Shanghai.

SHANGHAI

1. Arrived in Shanghai Zhabei district and had lunch.
2. Made our way to Holiday Inn Express hotel and settled in.
3. Took Shanghai MRT and visited Yuyuan Garden.
4. Made our way to the Huangpu river and walked along the Shanghai Bund.
5. Headed to Nanjing Road for dinner.

6. Took MRT back to hotel.

HANGZHOU

1. Took high-speed bullet train from Shanghai Hongqiao to Hangzhou railway station.

2. Took a taxi to Crystal Orange Hotel.

3. Strolled along the scenic West Lake.

4. Had dinner at the famous Zhiweiguan restaurant at Renhe Road.

5. Went back to West Lake to see the "Musical Fountain" performance.

6. Walked along West Lake back to Crystal Orange Hotel.

Did I forget to mention that it was unbelievably COLD in China?!
It was actually spring time. Actually, it's like the period of transition from winter to spring, so the temperature was still quite low...
Well, it's okay in the afternoon, but it's really cold in the morning and at night!
Hmmm, for example, at Zhabei District, Shanghai, it was so cold in the morning that when you breathe out from your mouth, the water vapour condenses right in front of you, so you can actually see the vapour cloud in front of your face! It's quite fun to do that, to be frank! Haha!

Uhhh, at the Shanghai Bund, there was a relatively strong wind blowing, so the "wind-chill" factor kicked in! ( The wind actually "blows" away the natural blanket of warm air surrounding your body, making you feel much, much colder! )

Okay, moving on...
On the last day, we had a morning stroll along the West Lake. Then we had breakfast at a roadside noodle shop. We met a guy in the noodle shop who was willing to bring us on a tour around the perimeter of West Lake, AND bring us to the Xiaoshan International Airport later. For a price, of course!
Well, that meant we didn't have to go through the trouble of hailing a taxi!

He brought us to many iconic places, including the Tomb of General Yue Fei, a Dragon Tea plantation, and the "Broken Bridge". We even got to get close-up with an old Chinese Type-62 Battle Tank!

After that, he took us to the Xiaoshan International Airport, so we could catch our flight back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After we boarded the plane, the captain announced that the flight was delayed for another half an hour... And during the flight, we experienced turbulence and some bad weather!
Luckily something "terrible" didn't happen...

At around 8pm, we were finally back on Malaysian soil. I've got to admit, KL looks awesome from the plane at night! The intricate network of lights criss-crossing one another was truly a sight to behold!

I took many pictures during the trip to China. I uploaded them on Facebook. You can check them out at this link:

Pictures of trip to China

Oh, and the earthquake that hit of the coast of Japan was horrible! I was shocked when I heard the news! A magnitude of 8.9 on the Richter scale?! That's insane!
And the ensuing tsunami seriously wreaked a lot of havoc and destruction. I feel sorry towards the people of Japan and I honestly hope their recovery from this unprecedented disaster will be okay.

And then there's the damaged nuclear reactor thingy...
Apparently, a leakage has occured at one of Japan's nuclear reactors, and according to forecasts and predictions, South East Asian countries are in serious danger from the nuclear debris...
Well, I just wanna tell everyone to be careful and stay safe!

I guess that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Career Planning Seminar at TAR College, Setapak, KL

Right, here I am once again...

I hope you guys don't mind the "Assassin's Creed 2" picture on your left! Yes, I know I'm deviating from my ummm, tradition of only using Star Wars pictures for each of my posts.

But hey, shouldn't I have the freedom to post whatever I want?!

Hence, I won't be using Star Wars pictures all the time, yeah? I'm gonna be using various types of pictures from now on, just to keep my options flexible...

Anyway, moving on to more important things...

This morning, several Form 5 classes, including my class, went for a seminar about "Career Planning" at Tunku Abdul Rahman ( TAR ) College, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur.

Well, to be absolutely frank, I'm quite lazy to blog about EVERY single detail!

So, I'll just keep it short and sweet, alright? No long descriptive essays. I promise!

Right, let's get started...

There were three buses. My class boarded one, but since there was extra space, we had to share the bus with another class.

Uhhh, along the way, there were traffic jams occurring around two tolls: The first one is right after the Bukit Jelutong toll. And as for the second jam, well, I don't really know what that place is called!

Here are some pictures I took while on the bus, using my trusted 3.2 MP handphone...

Right, after what seemed like an endless journey, we finally arrived at the TAR College campus.
A lady took us on a tour around the TAR College campus, showing us many of the important facilities, such as the swimming pool, library, gymnasium, dormitories, et cetera...

Again, more pictures:

After the tour, we headed to a hall, where the "Career Planning" seminar commenced. We were given a talk on how to choose careers that best suited our own respective personalities. It was rather interesting...

Then, representatives from the different "schools", such as the School of Business Studies and the School of Social Science and Humanities, to name a few, each gave presentations regarding their respective Schools of Studies...

After that, we were provided with "refreshments", in other words food and drink, of course!

After a final group picture, we boarded the buses once again, and before we knew it, we were heading back to Bukit Jelutong.

Some pictures during the bus ride back to school:

Well, that's all I've got about the trip to Tunku Abdul Rahman ( TAR ) College.

And, of course, I kept my word! No long, boring essays in sight! Haha! [ smiles ]

May the Force be with you...

"Another" New Profile Picture!

Well, for me, it's been one heck of a tiring weekend!

Seriously, it was exhausting! The "Kem Kepimpinan Exco 2011" at the Dusun Eco-Resort, Bentong, Pahang was really tiring! But it was fun, and I got a lot of sweet and memorable experiences that I will never forget...

To all my friends who accompanied me during the Exco Camp last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, thank you guys so much! It was by far the best camp I've ever been through! [ smiles ]

Maybe when I am free next time, I will try and blog about the Exco Camp. But right now, I kinda have my hands full. So, stay tuned, yeah?

Anyway, while I was at the Camp, my father and brother bought a new family camera.

I was personally impressed, because it was 16.1MP camera, and was capable of taking 720p HD videos!!!

I took the opportunity to make a new profile picture...

Yeah, be skeptical if you want! But honestly, I swear, my arms are REAL! Obviously the result of hours at the gym, or possibly genetics ( or both! )

But I assure you, they're not fake! Come and see me personally if you still don't believe me! Haha!

PS: I am NOT showing off or whatever! I'm still as humble and modest as I'll ever be! [ smiles ]

Anyway, besides the awesome resolution, I made some new adjustments to my lightsaber blade.

1. I've increased the glow radius, to cope with the higher resolution.

2. I adjusted the red colour of the blade ( just a bit of tinkering ever since my last colour template )

3. I added a small lens flare at the starting point of the blade, near the hilt.

Well, that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...