1 sem down, 9 to go.

So there it goes, sem 1 of MBBS over and done with, and possibly THE only time I could really just chill and not be worked out with anything in general, and take things easy.

Of course, I'm expecting things to change drastically come 2nd sem onwards, and into future years when any time of rest or relaxation can be counted as a luxury. Meaning 3 weeks of lazing and sleeping enough to make up for 4 months loss of sleep to come.

Well as for my PCL (patient centered learning) group, as with any early starts, started off a lil awkward in the beginning, people from various backgrounds, and even countries (had a Thai boy, a Mauritius and a..."Canadian" who's Malaysian-ised lol). But fast forward 13 weeks (or earlier perhaps) and you get one of THE most (if not undisputed) wacky and outrageous bunch of meddie students you could ever find in history.

We've got...
1) A "war" between "Korea" (a K-pop and K-drama lover in the group) and Mauritius
2) The Thai multitalented entertainer.
3) The versatile musician + fellow gamer.
4) A 'patient'
5) A squeaky constitutively activated loudspeaker who tries desperately and without success to deny her current relationship.
6) Poppy poppy. Competes with aforementioned loudspeaker for being...the loudspeaker. And our little mummy =)
7) A princess. Who is also known as Liliput. For some reason. Haz kickazz piano skillzz.
8) 2 hip gals who can dance to the beat, injecting style into the presumably boring Medical degree. Not to mention they could be models IF they wanted to.
9) The quiet petite girl in whom belies a giant's strength. (just kidding on the last part =P)
10) The random guy. Who says random things. At random times. Quite randomly obvious. And hilarious. =D
11) A woman strong in the Lord =)



12) And of course. How can all these be appreciated without observers? Thats where I fit in. LOL.




Words can't convey the meaning of those 13 weeks spent with these people. Really dispelled the notion that MBBS is all nerds and books. Shows that theres a larger-than-life entity beneath all the books and the nerding. hehe.



I'll upload a pic another time. Or just hit through my Facebook profile and just scan through the various pics others have uploaded.


I'll cherish those moments spent, and look forward to chilling out with you guys again every once in a while, even though we're in different groups in the years to come.

Cheers!

Stepping Up.

Its beeeeeennnnnn aaaa loooooonnnnnngggggggg whiiiiiiiillllleeeeeeee

I just couldn't bear to open my blogpage again...for good reasons excuses which I shall keep to myself, making it an even better excuse...

And many things have happened no doubt. I only remembered to hit on the blog again after so long, when Ann Ee told me to update my blog, to which I reflexly replied "oh you read it ah?" lol. Never thought people would open my blog, or whats left of it. But its time to talk again, as briefly as possible (but it won't be), on what transpired over the past 3 months or so.

I'll call this post...

Stepping up.

A highly condensed life story for the past..uh. 6 months?

Now its no secret (or it was?) that I was a "sleeping" Christian for a good part of my teen life, degenerating to a point when I was no different than the average crowd, I'll admit, and had a lot of underlying problems coming along with it. Despite this, God had still provided for me and delivered me through the times I needed it most, such as PMR, SPM and even AUSMAT, when I thought I'd be just a normal dude who would just get through it, do well enough, and get to some half-decent course in some decent uni. But more than that, the Lord blessed my Biology exam in a way that up till now I could never understand, elevating it to getting 91 in the final written exam, scaled to 100 after evaluating internal assessment and performance compared with others in the cohort, getting the Special Cert. of Distinction and Special Subject/Course Award in Bio, which I received in Perth back in February. That was indeed a joyous moment for me, as I was definitely one lacking in confidence (my bio lecturer would attest to that, and has tried to buck me up and I thank her immensely for being a blessing to her students) and am known to be a horribly slow learner (and still am, lol). Just to show how much God has blessed me in spite of my "low point" in life.

Now, some of you know I nearly got into Pharmacy either in Perth/Adelaide. But as wayy before my dad insisted I applied for Medicine, so I applied only Monash, partly cos' I was lazy to repeatedly travel to different parts of the world (exaggerating here) for interviews and what not. And in the end I got offered Medicine. My first response? The ever infamous 'Why Lord'? We all know Medicine is a killer from the get-go. The study workload is obscene. The expectations gargantuan. And the burden of responsibility insurmountable by most, as its lives we're handling. Pharmacy in comparison still gave me time to myself, and sufficient cash to get by. I didn't get it. But I knew that at the moment that offer came, its like God telling me "Step up to it, boy". And step up I had to, even if it meant "sacrificing my youth" (I'm about to see how true that is, eventually).

So up I went mid-late February. Later joined by my JB gang consisting of Sin Nah, Eric, Weng, Vysh. Orientation and transition camp was a great time of knowing my to-be PCL members in Group J - which I'll talk about another time. One fine day Eric just asked me to attend Acts Church 10th Anniversary on 28th Feb, which I tagged along with Weng. And that day wasn't that...impactful for me at that time yet anyway, as one - we came late. and two - I was still in the "sleeping" mode. The food was the draw at that time (admittedly, hehehe), BUT one perhaps unnoticeable but great blessing was the Acts 10 Umbrella door gift, which up till now has actually bailed me out many times - Praise the Lord for such a simple yet helpful item. But later, I had this feeling that just prompted me to go to Acts. And I did the following Sunday. Nowww I don't remember details but I enjoyed it, and kept coming back again and again.

And at one particular service by Pastor Kenneth (which again, I don't remember. Terrible memory T.T) I just felt a tugging by God, telling me to come back to the right path, as I've been gone away long enough. Which brings about again the story of the Prodigal Son, long gone, wasted his life away, but comes back broken and the Father accepted him again lovingly. Right hand shot up and then on, the fight to rededicate my life back to the way Christ wanted it, has begun. As always, stepping up ain't easy, having being on "hiatus" for what seems like many years, degenerating to near nothingness. But with the help of the few good people and friends in Acts who supported and encouraged me, like Charles, Shaun Kang, Lucas, Michelle, Alvin, Ann-Marie (sorry if I didn't mention your name, but I appreciate it nonetheless!) and so on, its been less difficult.

But its still difficult. Workload is immense. Still lagging behind. But I try to put in the quiet times and devotion any time I can. Still, the one thing that has made life so much better to live, is that I only need believe that Father, Son, Holy Spirit, are always with me. No matter what. That knowledge and believe and faith in it alone was all it needed to take me out of a generally solemn depressive state to a more accepting and optimistic outlook of life. No doubt stumbles and hits come their way, but with this renewed purpose and strength, the Lord will take me by the hand and up to my feet again.

As for the colourful words from previous posts and previous phase of life? Lets just say I've put those days behind me. The "big time colourful words" ( you know what I mean) are shelved for the most part. Smaller ones still need some work around it. But with God's grace and providence, it too will fade.

Stepping up to it has been hard, and some times what we do might not make sense, but I feel that its for better things to come.

I'll stop here for now. Gotta study now @.@

God bless!

Making up for lost time

Ausmat Evaluation Exam has ended a few days ago and I find that this sad space in the blogosphere has been left dilapidated for ages.

To catch up on very belated news.

#1
Transfer saga comes to an end.



Well, almost, but certain.


Cristiano Ronaldo finally moves to Real Madrid for 80 million pounds, a world record deal in what would seem like re-elected President Florentino Perez's next attempt to rebuild a galacticos team, having snapped up Kaka from AC Milan for 62 million pounds.

I suppose it was a matter of when, rather than if, Ronaldo will leave Man Utd, to satiate his never ending thirst for challenge and glory. In 2003 he was virtually unknown when he came to Man Utd from Sporting Lisbon, and now, he's worth 80 million pounds. Not a bad deal on a want-away star.


Lets just see how the new season shapes for Man Utd, minus Ronaldo. And likely plus a few new fresh faces...







#2
Kris won. Huh?

Yes. Its one of those hot topics that (at least at the time it occurred) basically dominated chats and conversations amongst quite a handful of my peers. Getting comments which goes something like...







"WTF?!!??!? KRIS WON?? DUMBF**K AMERICANS!!"







"AMERICA IS STUPID!!!"



Something like that.




Okay well I'll say first that both are good singers. Just that IMO Adam puts in more emotions and energy into his songs, compared to Kris, whereas Kris, to me, seems more of a ...hmm..sentimental kinda singer. But feel free to disagree.


But by talent alone, I still feel Adam should've nicked it. I don't see a problem with him being gay, as long as he keeps it to himself, and doesn't go round on a public rampage =="


And, as Daughtry has shown, you don't really need to win American Idol to be successful.




#3
How can we forget. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



Evaluation Exam. Its definitely something with which we would compare our future results to. And a slight taste of the real thing which Ausmat-ians will face in mock exams, and then the real thing itself, the Tertiary Entrance Examination (TEE).


But suffice to say, it was a really disappointing effort. From EALD, to Applicable Maths, and the Science subjects, I never really felt I gave my best. Maybe one of which I felt so-so with my efforts would be Physics.

No use crying over spilt milk, as is often said. I just wanna waste this holidays (if you can call it one)

Of sleepless nights, esprit de corps, and serums of oestrogen

7th-8th March 2009.
Leadership Camp for SMK Pei Hwa (which is in Muar, not JB) held at Sunway College JB.
I was there as one of the facilitators.
I was suppose to blog bout this last week, but too busy.
Anyway here it is.
First and foremost, apologies for the disjointed "story". It'll be too wordy if I were to add too many words. Repeated apology at end of story.
Just let the pics do (most of) the talking.

Opening speech by Ms Wong.

Krithika + Laliitha

There were like, 10 groups of participants, with the groups named with countries from A-J.

1st group activity

Joan helping out the group

Joey punching Penny. Miss Jade trying to act cute. =P

2nd group activity, which involved a lot of strings. Messing them up.
And untangling them later.

Participants setting up their tents

They put me to shame. I can't even set up a tent.

Nicholas acting cute thinks he's a referee.
Well, he was. Sort of.

Balloon bursting telematch game, which involves
racing under tables....

...and then bursting the balloons by sitting on them

Giant + shorty. Lol.

Lali + me. Believe me, the crap hair is a sign of fatigue and stress. Lol.

Emo people.

The dyslexic who overcame all odds, Lee Zhi Jie giving an inspirational talk on
the massive problems he faced in his early life, and how he overcame all those.
And for your info he scored 8A's and 2B's in the recent SPM. A gymnast who
represented Malaysia in SUKMA as well as the Youth Olympics.
a.k.a the "Happy morning" guy, as he's famously known for.

Actually, I already know him, but what the heck, another pic wouldn't hurt =P



The main feature of the night.
Dressing up Miss Sunway
p.s. Contents below are sexual in nature. Those below 18 should get parental guidance.

Oh. theres a catch.









Each groups Miss Sunway HAS to be a guy.
Teehee!

Initial planning.

Being a facilitator is fun. You get to watch guys getting tortured with make up,
glitter, foundation, lipstick and...

...boobs.

Pics below are EXTREMELY EXPLICIT. THOSE WITH LOW TOLERANCE FOR SEXUAL THEMES SHOULD LOOK AWAY like NOW.
actually, no.

C'mon man. I might not live long enough to feel those again. LOL.
Fully rubbery and synthetic. Teehee!

Now comes the Miss Sunway catwalk parade.

A near sleepless night ensues (only one hour sleep) and then dawn breaks yet again...

2nd Day.
A HAPPY morning should start with morning exercise.

And after the points were tallied up from the various activities undertaken by the 10 groups, there were 2 teams tied for runner up spot and to determine who is above the other...

the 2 teams tied for runner up spot face off with each other by dancing aerobic moves
this ain't the full one. Only student ambassadors and the few Sunway staff know the full one.
teehee.

Student ambassadors coming on stage to show em' how it's done. lol
Managed to take this before I joined them.

Survey conducted. Look at the 2 posers. Harhar.

Group pic.

SYCJB Student Ambassadors groupie pic.
In case you didn't notice, I'm holding a stopwatch.

Calven and Ian realise that they miss the kiddies too much, and wanna join them
on their way back to Muar. Awwww...

Sorry if the "story" of the 2 days seem disjointed and confusing. I'm just lazy to add details. It's been pain staking just to upload the pics and put captions on it.

slowpoke.

Pokedex entry of slowpoke in Pokemon yellow

Incredibly slow and sluggish. It is quite content to loll about without worrying about the time.

Slowpokes entry in pokemon red/blue

Incredibly slow and dopey. It takes 5 seconds for it to feel pain when under attack.

well, I'm actually pretty worry-free, too. Most of the times anyway





No, I'm not gonna be writing an exhaustive fan-boy post of slowpoke. (uh, though it's adorable, in a way.harhar ) Instead, I'm gonna break a startling revelation for everyone whom I've known, know, and about to know (thats, if anyone ever reads this at all. Which, to the best of my knowledge, carries with it a probability of 0.0534 per person...probably.)


In everything I do, I'm about as fast as that fella up there. just pretty darn slow in (almost) everything I do. From getting up, to brushing teeth, to eating, to reading, to driving (yes, I AM slow while driving, contrary to what you MAY think) to gaming (not as high on reflex, again, contrary to what you MAY think)...


when running, (I can say it this time) I'm about as fast as THAT fella. Up there.


utterly slow in forming ideas and plans, in visualising concepts and....you get the point.


snail-like in forming impromptu (and equally barbed) responses to any sudden, stinging, scathing verbal attacks/challenges on me...whatever the reason




even my various neurones are apparently high on morphine low on ATP or maybe they just go in a longer route in coils as I take longer than a split second delay to react reflexively (which may cause a few...usually avoidable mishaps. hmm) be it from pain receptors or......neurones for carrying data brought in by light (wow, light!) through the eyes and to the brain...



sadly its the same case even in understanding and absorbing the oh-so-important knowledge, be it in class. or whatever. Even my dad thinks I should have done A-levels instead of AUSMAT cos he thinks 10 months in a course is too short for this slow brain....sigh.




On a slightly brighter note, my saving grace would be...

1) I write pretty fast. Cos' if I don't, I probably wouldn't be able to complete most of the incessantly morbid essay papers in SPM (be it English, lovely Malay, History, the Sciences or...moral.) and I wouldn't be a ble to jot down notes sufficiently quick, too.

2) I type just as fast too. Maybe a bit faster. Or a lot more. Otherwise, handling more than 2-3 conversation windows on messenger isn't exactly gonna be something enjoyable. (what with all the complaints of me "neglecting" the others. Still happens when I have 5 or more to handle, though)

3) slowpokes can confuse people (via the Confusion move), so can I. (albeit in a different manner)
















...still not good enough to balance out the slowness, eh...

A year of ambition, pain, false hopes, and change, to be left behind for an uncertain future...

*longest title ever. period*


2008. We've seen many things happening. Some with a feel-good factor, some filled with sadness and agony, some exuding with hope and confidence. I won't go through the pain and boredom of digging up all of the past events, save a few notable ones. Or whatever I can currently dig up from my archives.

In March, good ol' Malaysia had its 12th general elections, where the loosely assembled Pakatan Rakyat, consisting of PAS, DAP and PKR (each with rather distinct ideologies and agendas) gave Barisan Nasional a good run for their money (quite literally, in a way) by capturing/ retaining 5 states and gave new hope despite failing to acquire enough seats to topple current federal government. However, as some recent events have shown, it looks like the up and coming coalition might be showing some really obvious chinks in its proverbial armor. And PAS' persistence in implementing Hudud laws (corporal punishment) has done nothing to ease tensions between its coalition partners.

Simple question for 2009:
How will Pakatan Rakyat hold up? Will they last to continue keeping BN on its toes? Or will it crumble into nothingness, due to massive differences in opinions and agendas?




Then on 12th May , the immensely tragic Sichuan earthquake, the 19th deadliest earthquake in history, clocked in at 7.8 on the Richter scale occurred, causing 69,227 lives to be lost, 374,643 more injured, 17,923 missing, and approximately 4 million displaced and homeless . A sad day on the calendar for the Chinese people, where the virtues of endurance, perseverance and resilience had to be exhibited by these people to carry themselves through the dark hours in their history.

Simple hope for 2009:
That the affected regions will recover from this traumatic experience, and with God's grace, these people will be able to rebuild and live normal lives again, though never forgetting this fateful incident.





On 08/08/08 at 8.00pm, the Beijing Olympics began, in the aftermath of the deadly Sichuan earthquake, and merely shown the strength and perseverance of the Chinese people to keep the show going in spite of the emotional duress endured by the Chinese people in general. A strong show by the Chinese team led them bagging the most number of Gold medals overall, although the athletes that stole the limelight were none other than Michael Phelps, bagging 8 Golds in the swimming events, 7 of them world record-breaking, and Usain Bolt, 3 Golds, all world record-breaking feats. It was a treat for fans of such events.
admittedly, I never watched a single Olympic event. *shrug*

Simple message for 2009, and the years beyond:
Even if shit gets thrown in your face, and you slip and fall due to its horrible stench, never give in, pick yourself up and move on forward to achieve your goals....thats, if you have any.



September 16. Anwar had much earlier made a bold and immensely hopeful statement of a crossover of BN MP's (members of parliament) to PR (pakatan rakyat) on the 16th of September in hopes of getting the simple majority of MP's to topple the federal government and form the NEW federal government. But, as we all found out, it appeared to be empty talk....or is it? Stay tuned indefinitely for more Anwar tunes.

Simple theory for 2009:
Anwar could be holed up in some underground fortress a.l.a Hitler, planning a totally unprecedented strike on the bastion that is the BN federal government, getting the numbers he needs and sending the whole nation into vile anarchy overnight.




More continuation on Anwar. Accusation of sodomising Saiful Bukhari thrown at Anwar. And Saiful even sweared on the Quran. Though some leaked medical reports seem to indicate otherwise...

Simple, unresolved verdict for 2009:
Guilty, or not guilty?



November 4. Probably THE election of the year. Senator Barack Obama vs. Senator John McCain. An African American versus the White American. Young charismatic hotshot versus seasoned war veteran. One surged a message of change. Another carrying the credibility of stability and experience. One wished to end the war in Iraq. The other refused to pull back after an immensely costly war effort. One showed determination and detailed plans to counteract the weakening economy, the other lacked that same initiative, and may have paid the price. After a long , bloody and costly campaign, the people of the United States of America voted for change. The American Dream was realised. An African American at the helm of the most difficult seat in the world.


Simple expectation for 2009:
Will Obama live up to the hype? Will he, bring about the change that has been the crux of his campaign and his ascension?




The vicious Mumbai attacks from the 26th to the 29th of November, striking 8 key locales, most notably the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, and the Oberoi Trident, in an apparent attempt by a Pakistan-based militant organisation, Lashkar-e-Toiba (considered a terrorist organisation by the UK, US and several other nations) to re-enact September 11 2001. 173 people died (some foreign tourists) and 308 injured from the massacre. A few fortunate souls happaned to be at Mumbai, but at some other place at the time of the attack. Bless them. And those who have lost loved ones in that (somewhat) unprecedented and vicious attack. Appears that the Indian intelligence agencies have actually detected some activity regarding a possible attack in Mumbai, and did something to shore up security...but not enough, it seemed, as they may have failed to properly gauge the possible severity or the threat posed.

Simple lesson for 2009, and the years beyond:
You get a death threat, take it seriously. Very seriously.




There are many many more events, but either I'm too lazy, or I just don't remember it at this moment. But that was 2008.








au revoir 2008, vous avez été une épine aigre-douce dans mon bout.

and now,

...hello 2009. Its a time for turning over new leaves. And a time for change.












Happy 2009 people. Hopefully it'll be a brighter year for all of you. God bless.



Source of any information or statistic above:
Wikipedia, the answer to life's questions....indeed.

The life that was

"Many people will walk in and out of your life,

but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart."

- Anon

As I thought of wrapping things up for the next few months or so, I opened up a save convo window, from one particular Grace Tan. Such flamboyant, no-hold-bars (correct me if this is wrong) conversations, random banters after another. It reminds me of a blissful time when MSN contacts were aplenty, friendships fresh, and topics even fresher.



But alas, due to her increasing number of commitments, the "joy" of Form 4 life, etc. Yes yes I know you're already happily in love with your..ahem... but the company was always welcome and you ARE one of few who could actually brighten up my day anytime. We could talk bout almost anything effortlessly.



But its not only her, other people as well have become much more busy now, and as the day passes, it feels as though the bond between a number of my friends have waned and loosened. And I have been the cause of some of those. Sad thing really, considering the fun times we (meaning me, my pals and all) once had.


I guess, life's becoming pretty autonomous and repetitive with each passing day, and with increasing seniority, comes greater burden, and much higher workload.


Other than Gracie, theres also my lil "sis", Michelle Lim. Green fanatic, wishes to dye her hair green, and blend with the grasses (says me). Small spunky girl. Enjoyed her small-ishness.

Then theres Ern Wei, the tall dude whom I met and talked only for a bit. Though continued talking through MSN and stuff. Had some random fun talks with him too. And has strong and firm views bout something, and sticks to his stand.

I've only the time to mention these few. (even then, sorry for not mentioning much bout you 2, you're worth a lot more than words can describe) These are some of the people who have imprinted footprints in my life one way or another. There are others to. But thats for another time, perhaps. IF there is, another time. For now, studies are basically all I have to keep me occupied. Such joy.





p.s. the people mentioned above are some of the people who aren't residing in the same state as I am. So to those of you who were heartbroken in being omitted, breathe a sigh of relieve. adieu for now.