Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Two Weeks In Pictures
Absolutely no brainpower required! (In reference to the days between 14th to 26th May)
That banner cost us a hundred bucks
The Top 16 of So You Think You Can Dance
I'm so glad they came to support my lil' brother. Thanks 
The Top 14; my brother survived elimination!
I have no idea where this cute little fella came from, but he keeps coming back into the house; I spot him hanging around outside my room at least once a week.
At a photoshoot for a poster/presentation thing for the YDC camp I was talking about.
At another SYTYCD show; we weren't allowed to flash this sign because "4D is not a sponsor of the show".
The Top 12; my brother got through to the next round, again!
This must be the cutest Economist cover ever.Pointless Fact of the Day:
My final exams are in 9 days time; oh joy! In the meantime, I'm performing at the 5th Young Singers Choral Festival as part of the YKLS Chamber Choir. Although the festival is 4 days long, we're only singing on the 1st of June. It's at KL Performing Arts Centre at Sentul West (off Jalan Ipoh), 8.30pm (and will last until 10pm or so)! Tickets are priced at RM12. If you can make it, come and supportme us!
My final exams are in 9 days time; oh joy! In the meantime, I'm performing at the 5th Young Singers Choral Festival as part of the YKLS Chamber Choir. Although the festival is 4 days long, we're only singing on the 1st of June. It's at KL Performing Arts Centre at Sentul West (off Jalan Ipoh), 8.30pm (and will last until 10pm or so)! Tickets are priced at RM12. If you can make it, come and support
Us!Zhen was here at 5:44 pm,
2 comment(s)
Saturday, May 19, 2007
The Pattern
Whenever exam terms loom ominously over the horizon, there comes a time when my body's fuel tank seems to be shrinking in capacity. As dates are crossed off the calendar, the hours I spend lazing around or (most especially) sleeping increases. Productivity suffers as a result.
Ever since I started college (and now, uni) my semesters have developed a discouraging pattern. The first few weeks of schooling would always involve me setting goals and study plans as well as being completely determined on finishing homework on time and attending every single class (regardless of importance or lecturer incapability). Then I get inundated with activities and assignments and, in the case of last semester, a relationship. Taking their toll on mine frail body, lethargy kicks in. You'd think that I sleep less when the workload increases, but no; because of the consequent sluggishness, I need more energy and time to get things done. I used to be able to survive with six hours of sleep a day, but now I struggle even on days when I get eight. And every day I look forward to the next time Friday night rolls around.
Sucky part is that even my weekends are normally filled with activities, but oh well.
When the aforementioned ominous exam terms actually come a-knocking, I have no choice but to step up my efforts. People begin to see Post-it notes with self-motivating phrases peppering my room, the likes of which include "Study every friggin' day!", "Don't be a fucktard" and (back when I was in Singapore) "The PRCs* study 10 times more than you do and still get Bs and Cs". Although the notes normally don't rouse the mugger in me as much as I'd like, but without them I might not have studied at all. Heck, sometimes my mom's nagging has less of an effect on my study-urge than those yellow pieces of paper.
The pattern, in easy-to-digest diagram form
I am that easily distracted. I normally dismantle my computer in preparation of exams... Before assembling the parts together again after I've sat for one or two papers. It is also during exam season that I blog obsessively; an amazing feat considering that my computer was supposed to have been put out of commission.
Losing track of my goals and targets so easily is probably my biggest character flaw (besides not learning from my repeated mistakes). That's why I normally don't make resolutions because I know I can't keep them.
However, with the dawn of each new semester, there is hope that I'll someday break free from this pattern. Hopefully, that someday falls in this semester. Hopefully, a miracle happens and I become that person I oh-so-long to be.
And that would be a scholarship holder on the way down to Australia! That would so friggin' rock.
Pointless Fact of the Day:
*When I was in Singapore, we had to differentiate between the Singaporean Chinese students and the Chinese Chinese students, so we called those from the homeland PRCs (People's Republic of China). This comparison was very important because the two shared different traits; the former were generally kiasu-as-hell and study a lot, while the latter were generally kiasu-as-hell, study a lot more and had bad hygiene (especially the males!). As for Malaysian Scholars, we were only kiasu-as-hell but refuse to admit it.
Ever since I started college (and now, uni) my semesters have developed a discouraging pattern. The first few weeks of schooling would always involve me setting goals and study plans as well as being completely determined on finishing homework on time and attending every single class (regardless of importance or lecturer incapability). Then I get inundated with activities and assignments and, in the case of last semester, a relationship. Taking their toll on mine frail body, lethargy kicks in. You'd think that I sleep less when the workload increases, but no; because of the consequent sluggishness, I need more energy and time to get things done. I used to be able to survive with six hours of sleep a day, but now I struggle even on days when I get eight. And every day I look forward to the next time Friday night rolls around.
Sucky part is that even my weekends are normally filled with activities, but oh well.
When the aforementioned ominous exam terms actually come a-knocking, I have no choice but to step up my efforts. People begin to see Post-it notes with self-motivating phrases peppering my room, the likes of which include "Study every friggin' day!", "Don't be a fucktard" and (back when I was in Singapore) "The PRCs* study 10 times more than you do and still get Bs and Cs". Although the notes normally don't rouse the mugger in me as much as I'd like, but without them I might not have studied at all. Heck, sometimes my mom's nagging has less of an effect on my study-urge than those yellow pieces of paper.
The pattern, in easy-to-digest diagram formI am that easily distracted. I normally dismantle my computer in preparation of exams... Before assembling the parts together again after I've sat for one or two papers. It is also during exam season that I blog obsessively; an amazing feat considering that my computer was supposed to have been put out of commission.
Losing track of my goals and targets so easily is probably my biggest character flaw (besides not learning from my repeated mistakes). That's why I normally don't make resolutions because I know I can't keep them.
However, with the dawn of each new semester, there is hope that I'll someday break free from this pattern. Hopefully, that someday falls in this semester. Hopefully, a miracle happens and I become that person I oh-so-long to be.
And that would be a scholarship holder on the way down to Australia! That would so friggin' rock.
Pointless Fact of the Day:
*When I was in Singapore, we had to differentiate between the Singaporean Chinese students and the Chinese Chinese students, so we called those from the homeland PRCs (People's Republic of China). This comparison was very important because the two shared different traits; the former were generally kiasu-as-hell and study a lot, while the latter were generally kiasu-as-hell, study a lot more and had bad hygiene (especially the males!). As for Malaysian Scholars, we were only kiasu-as-hell but refuse to admit it.
Zhen was here at 3:15 am,
5 comment(s)
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Weekender
I wish to thank whoever it was that created the concept of weekends, a social construct to relieve the stresses of a five-day workweek over a two-day period. If I were to have the same amount of slogging around on Saturdays and Sundays as I do for the rest of the week I'd have lost it by now. Fortunately for me, I've always had Friday nights to look forward to, when I could do almost anything I wanted without worrying too much about possible repercussions; for example, catching up on my sleep debt with a 12 hour sandman visit.
Saturdays are pretty lazy too. Typical of students, I always tell myself that I still have Sunday to finish whatever work I have left, which explains the frequency of my updates these days. But I guess weekly updates are better than none at all.
In any case, while last week had been really busy (compared to the usual 'pretty busy'), there's nothing really worth blogging about except going to Ruums on Thursday night to support my brother in So You Think You Can Dance. Here are some pictures:
Dennis Yin and his partner, Rebecca "Becky" Lee
The Top 16
Again...
L-R: A friend of my dad's, me, my cousin, my mom, my brother's girlfriend.
Holding the camera: My dad.
Thankfully, he wasn't in the bottom four again and we were able to save our mobile credit. The judges' comments were more positive than negative, too, so I guess he'll probably stay in for a few more weeks or so.
To tell you the truth, all this while I was actually learning how to dance too (thanks to seeing my brother do so well), but because I'm lanky I look weird dancing and therefore too embarrassed to upload anything online... for now. Maybe someday I'll be intoxicated enough to put up the video, but sadly for all of you I'm sober today. Then again I don't really like alcohol, so I guess there goes the possibility, heh heh.
Anyway, this weekend I have decided to be slightly more reasonable than usual, so I won't spend too much time blogging and will start on my homework on a Saturday. Too bad for you, huh?
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Pointless Fact of the Day:
Sticking to the theme of dancing, the fastest dancer in the world according to the Guinness World Records is James Devine, an Irish tap dancer who could tap a friggin' 38 taps a friggin' second. You might want to look up his videos on YouTube.
Saturdays are pretty lazy too. Typical of students, I always tell myself that I still have Sunday to finish whatever work I have left, which explains the frequency of my updates these days. But I guess weekly updates are better than none at all.
In any case, while last week had been really busy (compared to the usual 'pretty busy'), there's nothing really worth blogging about except going to Ruums on Thursday night to support my brother in So You Think You Can Dance. Here are some pictures:
Dennis Yin and his partner, Rebecca "Becky" Lee
The Top 16
Again...
L-R: A friend of my dad's, me, my cousin, my mom, my brother's girlfriend.Holding the camera: My dad.
Thankfully, he wasn't in the bottom four again and we were able to save our mobile credit. The judges' comments were more positive than negative, too, so I guess he'll probably stay in for a few more weeks or so.
To tell you the truth, all this while I was actually learning how to dance too (thanks to seeing my brother do so well), but because I'm lanky I look weird dancing and therefore too embarrassed to upload anything online... for now. Maybe someday I'll be intoxicated enough to put up the video, but sadly for all of you I'm sober today. Then again I don't really like alcohol, so I guess there goes the possibility, heh heh.
Anyway, this weekend I have decided to be slightly more reasonable than usual, so I won't spend too much time blogging and will start on my homework on a Saturday. Too bad for you, huh?
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Pointless Fact of the Day:
Sticking to the theme of dancing, the fastest dancer in the world according to the Guinness World Records is James Devine, an Irish tap dancer who could tap a friggin' 38 taps a friggin' second. You might want to look up his videos on YouTube.
Zhen was here at 11:55 am,
1 comment(s)
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Of Pachyderms and Pacesetting
You cannot imagine how relieved I am that Labour Day finally came around (and past). Finally, after so many days of irregular sleeping hours and beating my body around, a two-day break dropped by to save my life.
Hmm, that sounded so awfully familiar...
So, what's been killing me softly (again)? Lots, actually. Let it be said that I only got around four hours of sleep a night for almost two entire weeks; and I normally need a crapload of sleep to survive!
However, there were two highlights last week which I'd be doing injustice to if I decided not to mention a little something about them:
Saturday 28th April
Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary Trip:
Organised by the Nature Society (MNSM), this trip was to raise awareness about the plight of the pachyderms in Peninsula Malaysia. The participants met up in the Monash foyer early in the morning, before 8am. Of course, as is typical with Malaysians we only left at 8.45, forty-five minutes after the designated hour due to the driver breakfasting somewhere nearby.
The ride to Pahang took forever; the driver took the wrong exit from the highway and we ended up in Bentong instead, a mistake which took quite a while to rectify... Hence the passengers were forced to entertain themselves.
We didn't do terribly much there; first a documentary screening, then a short lunch break, and then messing around with the elephants. I'll let the pictures speak their thousands of words.
And we even donated around RM800 to their cause, because we're that nice.
So after the entire thing was over and we headed back home, I went back to the Business Law assignment I was referring to in the previous post. Slept for two hours from 12 to 2am, back to the assignment... until...
Sunday 29th April
Malay Mail Big Walk with Team Monash:
Yup, Monash Malaysia sent an entire team of people (about 50-strong) to participate in the Malay Mail Big Walk in return for the newspaper's sponsorship of one of MUSA's upcoming events. We even got a dude and dudette from Down Under to help us out, plus a whole bunch of Monash freebies (check out our yellow dry-fit T-shirts)!
Anyway, a continuation from the story above: I continued to work on my assignment until at 4am I decided to read up on what racewalking was really about, discovering the art of hip-swivelling and arm-pumping in the process (which actually helped somewhat during the real thing). By 5am I already had me a little breakfast of a pear and two half-boiled eggs, and decided that I was good to go.
Flash forward to two hours later, it was 7am and logistics were a nightmare. Due to a failed attempt at alleviating said nightmare, I didn't have time to warm up at all before the gun was fired and the participants already walking off. Without another second wasted at thought, I began swivelling my hips and pumping my arms like a madman to beat the crowded mass that tended to build up at the back of the pack.
Thanks to sheer grit, determination and zero training whatsoever, I surprised myself by being the third (I tied with Kim) Monashian to finish the race, with a time of 1 hour 32 minutes! Bloody hell, I was so proud of myself that my ego got inflated to ginormous proportions for a moment or two back then. The worst (and by that, I mean the best) flattery I got was from Elaine (whose face I poked en route to Kuala Gandah; see above) who asked if I used to be an athlete back in secondary school (she was a schoolmate, too).
Ahahahahahaha! Talk about ego-fellatio!
My goofy hair and me.
Kim, who does not have goofy hair. I actually beat him by about, say, five seconds? Heh.
(Most of) Team Monash. Notice that I'm not in there...
The Monash Cheerleading Club. They didn't cheer for me because I finished before they went into position. I felt really cheated that day!
I was this close to shooting myself to end the pain. The laughter further proved my insanity then; possibly another side effect of the goofy hair (besides goofiness).Well, we got goodie bags, a certificate of participation and other stuff. Later I had lunch, then headed home with aching joints, took a long shower and finally slept for a couple of hours.
I only woke up when it was time for choir practice, in the evening... after which I went immediately back to that Business Law assignment which was due the following day.
Thank goodness it's all over (assignment included); now I'm ready to do it all over again, with the MUSA Flea Market, an MPAC fundraiser plus 'street' performance, the Student-Staff Liaison Committee Meeting plus some overdue YDC-related work next week. Oh joy!
Wait a damn minute... Where does my studying fit in all these?!
Pointless Fact of the Day:
I'm still a teenager! For now.