Saturday 16 July 2011

Just keeping track of life . . .



4.7.11
Met Sherilyn when I wanted to know bout a movie starring Lee Hom on FB. Found it in the end on Lee Hom's wikipedia page.It's known as Love in Disguise. She told me about Priscilla being in KL (because of this I the 3 of us got close).

5.7.11
Contacted Priscilla and we met up after I was done with my class which ended at 4pm. Agreed that meet up point is Sungei Wang. Reached then she told me change to Lot 10 because the place she's staying is near. When I reached, she told me the venue changed to Lowyat (had to walk all the way back since Lowyat is just behind Lot10). Surveyed on cameras. Initially, Pris wanted a Nikon D5100 and I wanted a Canon 550D. Last shop we went, we tried the Nikon d5100 and d90. We didn't purchase anything.Went to Times Square to meet with Pris's friends. They were eating and there was no place to sit. Both of us ended up in Wendy's. There we talked and got approached by a essentric TeoChew stranger who claims to be doing team building. He's in the computer line and he told us about the benefits of doing part time. Talked to him until 10pm plus. Then we wanted to head back to Pris's hotel. Couldn't find it. Got lost and walked around Times Square one round before we got it right. Was in their room a while. Before I left, I hid RM50 under a container in their bathroom. When I reached my place, I went to 7-11 and bought 2 cups of Slurpees. Got back to my place and for the first time, I found a cockroach in my room. =.=

6.7.11
Pris went to Sunway with friends. Asked her to do price checks. She shocked me when she told me that she wants a d90 instead of a d5100 after trying it the day before. She also told me that the feeling of a 60d hands on compared to a 550d is much better. Lowyat still offer the best deals.


7.7.11
Met up with Pris, Ben and Daron. Again we did price checks and ended back at the same shop to test the cameras. Agreed completely that a 60d feels much better. Wanted a 60d instead of a 550d now. When we were done. We went to Sungei Wang to check on the cams there. Pris ended up with a d90 here at RM3.2k(kit lens + bag + tripod + filter+ 4gb memory card) although the best offer we got in Lowyat was RM2.9k  because of the tripod size. The sales person got it wrong and told us that it comes with a 8gb memory card. It turned out to be 4gb , Pris confronted the guy and she got a gift bag. After the purchase, all of us went back to their hotel room. Toyed with the cam a bit. Pris and I went out for lunch before checking out and we went separate ways at Bukit Nanas Monorail. She had a flight to catch. When I reached Dang Wangi's LRT, I got a call from Pris to check my bag, found a RM50 note there. It was raining heavily. Skyped with Pris and Sherilyn till around 5am. Found out that the girls are really close friends since primary 3.

8.7.11
Woke up a bit late. Rushed to the library to study for ME with Swen. Went to eat at Canteen 2 with Swen and JH. Met William there and he told us about Stella's birthday party. Asked him to join for the study group later. JH had to leave because he has class at 2pm. Hung Thing joined us around 4pm and we studied until 7pm. William came a bit later with Wai Yang. William suggested Swen to go back earlier since there's gonna be road blocks due to BERSIH. Swen left , William and Wai Yang went to use the computer. Hung Thing and I went to have dinner at TBR. Met with Eugene, JC, Jolyn & Jenny. Ate there and talked. Went back.

9.7.11
At home the whole day. Asked Sherilyn about dramas again. She recommended Drunken to Love You. Brought up some sensitive issues which I regretted later on.

10.7.11
Woke up sick but still wanted to meet up with uncle David at Pavillion. Couldn't make it as the LRT didn't stop at Dang Wangi or KL Sentral. Told my uncle about this when I reached Bangsar and I rode back to Wangsa Maju. Was very dizzy and I almost slept in the LRT. When I reached my place, I went to have porridge and chi cheong fan(shrimp) before heading backs to rest. Woke up around noon the next day.

11.7.11
Still sick. Went to see a doctor. Got a MC and my test got postponed to Wednesday.

12.7.11
Skyped with Pris and Sherilyn till 6am plus.



13.7.11
Sat for the test. After I was done, I got back and we Skyped somemore till 7am plus if I didn't recall wrongly. They sang on cam and I got introduced to a good song. Qi Qiu by Peggy Hsu. Sherilyn left around 3am as she has class the next day. I continued till 8am where I went to sleep while Pris had to drive her neighbor's kids. Pris haven't slept since 11.7.11 . Her nose bleed arnd 7.30am and our conversation ended there. She had to attend a badminton meeting in her uni so she didn't sleep till she was done around 2pm. She woke up about 9pm and missed the band practice. After receiving a comment on her wall, she resigned and broke down.

14.7.11
10pm plus,we Skyped again. Sherilyn joined us around 11pm. Talked and talked and talked. I left around 4am while they continued as I needed to meet up with Swen to study in the library.




15.7.11
William didn't show up and I studied with Swen till around 3.30pm. Borrowed RM10 from her as I forgot my wallet. I was allowed into the library without a student card.  Hung Thing came around 4.30pm but I was already leaving that time. At night, skyped again with Pris. Started by me adding her into my conversation with Kim Leong about cameras. He told me about how nikon's performance and I decided to go for nikon d90. We later discussed about the Sherilyn's birthday video. She broke down a few times that night. We changed the conversation around 4am and skyped call ended around 6am. She called, spent rm2 plus and used the 100 minutes talk time till it ran out. She then called me using her home phone.This is because my line was very laggy. We talked till 8am when she had to drive her neighbor to the airport.


16.7.11
Cleaned my place. Talked to Kim Leong.Went to ATM to withdraw around 11.30pm. Planned a trip to Genting on 23.7.11.




P.S : These notes are written in ink and not pencil leads.. It can't be erased and it's not time for a new chapter yet..Even if it is, I can only hope all the character remains the same..



Imperfecion

Monday 4 July 2011

No drama , just my life . . .

I finally got Whatsapp in my phone last Friday. Alice, a friend of mine , just couldn't stop insisting that I get that application.

Whatsapp


In case you haven't heard of it, here's the description from its official website.

"WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Nokia and yes, those phones can all message each other! Because WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends."

So I went to the app store and later found out that it isn't a free app. Since it's only $0.99, I pressed purchase. Then only it struck me that my account's card information hasn't been updated and so I wasn't able to make the purchase. In the end, Alice told me that she'll get the app. for me. (:

So I sent her my e-mail as requested and she told me she bought the app!

I synced my phone with iTunes and nothing happened.

Asked friends on fb and finally turned to Google for some answers :


Latest version of iTunes .. checked.

Checked e-mail .. checked.

Gave the right e-mail .. no check =___=


I gave her the wrong e-mail! She bought me an app and I gave her the wrong e-mail to send it to!

So I prayed hard that that e-mail isn't in use and lucky, it wasnt!

Created that e-mail and after refreshing the page for the 65816516984th time, I finally gave up.



Went back to Google and finally read that the gift can be resent if it hasn't been claimed.

Told my friend bout that and she resent it. 

This time I got the e-mail and downloaded the app to my iTunes. 

Then I synced and synced and synced and synced and synced and failed to get that app in my phone.. 

Frustrating indeed, it took me an hour to finally get it done. 

Where did I go wrong? I was only syncing my songs all along.

When all was done. I noticed that I now have 8 pages of apps instead of the usual 5. 

^&$###%%$#^#%@%

The apps wasn't in folders anymore =___________= 

One by one I dragged once again the app. into folders.

Halfway through, Mr. Smart Guy a.k.a me accidentally clicked the sync button again. FML.

Karma I think.. For always lying to kids bout how their toys vanish just to have half an hour more on it .


The day after this, I was at home revising for my Account's test. No activities this weekend. As usual, Facebook and Youtube accompanied me whenever I'm studying.

Here are some great kpop to checkout, though some maybe outdated :










Then I saw my friend, Eugene , checked-in @ Plaza Lowyat. Since he once told me that he's interested in cameras as well, I got him to do a price check on a Canon DSLR - Canon Eos 550D with the 18-135mm lens. 

A beauty isn't it?
It's close to 2 months now, since I've wanted a DSLR so badly. Been up late, reading , looking for reviews , checking on prices of cams , consulting friends , attend photography meet ups , all just to learn more. I've already decided that this model suits me best.

Was supposed to own this few weeks ago since an uncle of mine told my parents that his friend won this exact model, with it's 18-55mm kit lens, from a lucky draw and he's intending to sell it real cheap. Dad agreed to get it for me already but that fella just went M.I.A. 

Ah, life.

My friend finally replied and told me there's a shop having a promotion.; They are selling the Canon EOS 550D w/ the kit lens 18-135mm for about 2400 MYR! With 2400 MYR today, you can only get the cam with the 18-55mm lens.

I checked the price around a week ago and the cheapest price I could find is 2950 MYR. Most shops are selling for around 3.2k. 

I called home immediately and told parents about the great offer. Father wasn't around that time so I had mum to convey that message to him. 

Mum called that night and told me bout "The Problem" .
.
.
.
.

The problem was, the money can be transfered  in time, but I won't have enough time to withdraw before the promotion ends due to my card's limits. 

That night I asked around and was told that I can change my card's limit at the ATM. Checking my watch and noticing that it's still a Saturday, I rushed to the nearest ATM machine about 10 minutes walk at 11pm.

I was able to change my limit!






To a lower amount but not to a higher value. =.=


Useless, luck was against me.

The next day, I grew desperate.

I was desperate to the point that I was finding friends to lend me cash. I did manage to come up with about half the cash but still that wasn't going to work. Even if I got the cash in hand, I wasn't able to do much since I need to revise for a test.

The buying-time-to study for a test technique has been used on the 20th last month and tricks seldom work twice. I just had to study and sit for this test the the set date like everyone else.

I just hope there will be a better offer soon, though it's highly unlikely as a lot of friends told me that that price was crazy, as nothing can be done for the time being. 



I spent the rest of the day in front of facebook studying with Wen Xi and Johannes. Revision ended at 3am, went to our tutorials and met at the library again at noon to study before we all sat for the test at 2pm today.

All of us, just hoping for the best. Though for John he'd need serious luck to fail unlike me.











Imperfecion.




P/S:Wen Xi, I'm waiting for you to treat us steambot.


Thursday 30 June 2011

Hmmm . . .





Let's see . . .



2 days ago, half way editing my first post. I got a text from a friend of mine, asking where was I and they wanted to meet at the lrt station. We were going to Wangsa Walk. Told them to go first but heck, they just gotta insist.  Some people will just signal, " I'm at 'x' now, take your time. . " but this friend of was real straight. He called instead, "Eh, where you? We reach lrt station already, faster come." Even had to run to the meet up point.




If you happen to read this and feel guilty, have this finger mlm, you'll feel better.



If it's not clear enough, here's a magnified version o0o . There, :D .



In case you're just that blind.




= = =




Cloudy at the moment.


So yeah, took the lrt from Wangsa Maju to Sri Rampai before walking around 10 to 15 minutes to Wangsa Walk. Actually it took us a wee bit longer because 2 highness of ours can't stand the sun. Understandable, since the sun was hot but in college even when it was cloudy, they also needed the umbrella. Something I will never understand. Maybe they have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? Imagining the wildest things like how being exposed to sunlight for just a few minutes is fatal.

A product I don't understand.


Having said 2 highness was with us, guess the first shop they entered.


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Girl's heaven, Guy's hell.






Yes, girls and shoes. They are always lacking a pair. Developers, open a mall without these shops. . Please! 

Oprah trying to agree . .



Making the best while I'm there. Found something interesting . . 







One weird shoe.


= = =



After that, went to try this. I thought it was a sure-fail since it's already cold. Who knows? It turned out good!

Note to self : Take pictures of food before taking a bite!



= = =



Then, the uncles wanted to go to the supermarket. Boring spot I'd say since it's kinda the same everywhere but I did find what I was looking for. . Pickled olives. . 



Then, this.. 










Cant see clearly? 




HERE.





These 2 dudes wouldn't really mind though.

Ahh.. Childhood friends.




= = =



After all that, we went to try Popeyes. . 

Beware of that guy there, the one in green. He's GAY. 


Just not my taste.. Chicken in KL always tastes bad. If you happen to be a Kuchingite, you wouldn't disagree with me.



= = = 





Off to Yamaha!




Something's amiss. .



Finally!


Fingers were itchy all along. So shot a few pictures. If I didn't recall wrongly we were in that shop nearly an hour. Had a good time till the Manyzer came to give her speech bout how she noticed we were in the shop blah blah blah.. That lecture.



= = =



After getting kicked out, I went to the shop just beside Yamaha, I wanted to check on the DSLRs.. 


I went in and asked bout the price, specs, and recommendations for the DSLRs . . .


Before I left that shop, I found out that they also offer short photography courses @ RM50 for a 2 hour session. It's very limited however, a maximum of 10 pax. per session. He told me that for some of the courses, they'll have model hired for shooting.



For more information,   go to:        http://www.fourtwentycreative.com/






There's this one stall outside that has DSLRs and lens on the shelves but when I asked. 

I got a "Just for display".


 Lan Lan.    


This reminds me of what my friend said about kopitiams..

 They never look like a kopitiam without this sign on their wall . . 





= = =




Then we went to Secret Recipe. The girls did all the eating while guys on budget like us just drooled. 

Hmm, fishy . .








Okay, not really. We were offered the leftovers. Very considerate of them . . .










At least I got a few shots and 2 of my friends became couples in the end . .


At least that's what I assume she thought.



Congrats! 








One turned Emo however . . .














P.S. : Please let me die a quick death if you intend to kill me after reading this post . .  :D






Regards,









Imperfecion
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Transitions . . .



There comes to a point where we have to choose where to go after high school - to further studies that is.

I did my homework of course. About 3 months prior to the public exam I was sitting for that year, I already did researches. The problem was and still is, I have absolutely no idea what I want to do. I just couldn't make up my mind. 

The first one was taking up law. I was just interested back then. Maybe because I was inspired by MM Lee Kuan Yew after I read The Singapore Story : Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew? He was a law student together with his late wife, Kwa Geok Choo. They both not only graduated with first class honors but they graduated much earlier than their peers. He indeed is worth admiration.



So I looked around and eventually found this law student at a forum that has just graduated. He told me he took up that course because he's really passionate about it and his girlfriend also took law (this IMO should be the real reason). Some did it because of passion, some for money (who hates money?) ,some for authority and even some because their parents want them to be lawyers.

 - - -

You just got to agree that some parents nowadays still want their children to be either lawyers, doctors and bankers(WtfIsTis?) due to the fact that those professions make good money and it'll make them have this line to boast - "My child very successful one. The eldest and second child lawyers leh. Then hor,my youngest one now studying medic. Future doctor leh. Next time you people fall sick can come find me. Can call my gina give discount one." . They will go  "waaaseeeeeeeh!" ,then some aunties will start their gossips "Eh you know that, Aunty X ar. The children all very capable le. Must be good to her, next time kena sue or fall sick can have her to help one. My 2 daughters also not bad la "

'Soooo young but already so creative . .'

Tsk tsk tsk..Typical Malaysians. 

- - -

   So all lawyers make good money?


   Sorry to disappoint you. . "NO" .

  Lawyers can make lots of money but do bear in         mind that like any other profession, only those who are top of the field make a huge sum. The first few months after graduating from law school will be the chambering period. During this period, fresh graduates will be very busy. This friend of mine happens to work in KL during his chambering period, most of his work was just translating documents and fetching documents here and there. KL's traffic makes it even better. There are still other things to do such as doing researches for lawyers etc, . As simple as it sounds, in reality it isn't. The researches are mostly on vague subjects such as 'Can .. be the bench mark of ..' . They have to keep track of recent court cases, precedents and others of such. Not to mention the long hours they work. My friend starts around 9am and finishes around 11pm. He works 6 days weekly cause there'll surely be the leftovers to be done during the weekends. Before I forget, his pay is really low initially and don't even think of hitting 5 digits monthly until you have sufficient working experience. Then, they have their professional conduct / own rules of ethics. Do something funny or get sabotaged, get disbarred and you can really cry as hard as you can cause that degree officially turned into a piece of paper that's of no use at all.

For those not intending to work overseas, what my friend advised was, don't let your hopes too high unless you graduate from top Universities in their country.

- - -

A must read!


Lawyers guide to make a lot of money 101: 

#1 Receive starbucks (high class a bit larh) money




#2 Attend social events, get to know some rich husbands and convince them to have an affair. Then, go to their wife and blow their covers and say that you're willing to help. Then leech from the antimony if you win the case for them. If not, kill them with your high consultation fees. This combo also can be performed : antimony + high consultation fees. Or if you get lucky, you bump into a person who need legal advice. Just help them through (start timer), then pos laju your bill to them.

#3 Always remind your boss how Awesome they are (in hokkien it's called hu-lam-pah) to the point they upgrade you to brudder/sista and offers you partnership where the relationship will be quite similar Jack and Rose's from Titanic.

Things, however can go wrong sometimes.


There, as easy as 1, 2 and 3.

Do leave comments me if you have more creative ideas. (:

- - - 

So my second choice was bio-medical science. So I read online, how they are able to hatch tadpoles with 2 heads and manipulate with genes. Extract here then insert here and there. Believe it or not, some vegetables has human genes thanks to Science and Technology once again. Then again I stumbled upon their long working hours. This one is worse because like a doctor, experiments are carried out round the clock and you'd better wake up when the timer rings or else you'd have to repeat the whole thing and wait for the results (some may take up to months). By the way, I hope that they are not that picky on where they sleep cause they occasionally might have to spend the night in the lab whilst waiting for the results. Then, before you say 'Yes' I can do that and take the course. Please be reminded that post-doctoral positions are really hard to aim for and most of these fresh graduates are jobless. Most of them ended up being lecturers after getting their Masters. If you're that lucky to get the position, don't think that you'll be doing all those lab tests. You'll be kept busy cleaning and sterilizing the equipments at first until you earn your PhD. . They pay isn't that attractive I'd say. Job opportunities are available in Malaysia. I won't be giving figures here. Just ask around about their salaries and you'll understand why I didn't take this course apart from the reason I used to occasionally fail both my Biology and Chemistry. 

B for Biology and C for Chemistry .. FML ...


Next up, psychology and psychiatry. Yes, there is a difference. I didn't about the difference until later when I talked to an educational counsellor. I'd admit that a psychiatrist does have a decent salary. So I looked in a bit further. How do you qualify as a psychiatrist? There I hit the stop sign. You need to qualify as a doctor first. You'll need a minimum 6 years for that before you specialize and become a psychiatrist. A psychologist doesn't require you to go through Medic School but there's a huge gap salary difference between both professions that I couldn't accept and I'll clearly only end up being the corpse in medic school having said of my 'excellent' results for my science subjects.
  

Next, banking and finance. I've heard the tales from Wall Street of those earning millions even before they hit their 30's. Those'll be the cream of the crop. Competition is really stiff in that field and note that the market never sleeps. You'll have adjust your biological clock taking up this profession and be really resourceful, analytical and have a good 6th sense (intuition). Many would say that the degree is irrelevant and you'll end up selling financial products (which only require specific training) . Long story short, you'll even have to compete with those without degrees and they might just be better than you. Come to worst, you might be bad at this game. There's a high chance that you'll make more working in McDonald's outlet..


Then comes Actuarial Science. It's not related to science, it is however highly relevant to Probabilities, Statistics , Economics and Computing. Actuaries generally work in insurance companies. These are the people who calculate the likelihood of an occurrence of an event and design insurance plans. Hmm, what does the net have to say about this? High dropout rate, very difficult course (some says that it's harder than medic and law) but if you make it, you'll be rewarded well. How well you may ask, during internships, you can make a few thousands  £ monthly. Yes, pounds! One of the good universities to study this course will be University of Waterloo,Ontario , Canada. Microsoft in fact agreed to employ a portion of their students every year. Those that passed just about one or two professional papers out can expect to have salaries around 3k+ USD with 2 - 3 years working experience but this is still based on individual performance. I've also heard of a Qualified Actuary earning MYR 2k per hour. My biggest mistake was fantasizing about what I haven't achieved. Counting chickens before they hatch. So I read the requirements and how difficult they describe the professional exams are. STPM top achievers(we are talking bout students with CGPA4.0) dropping out and I soon found out about the ideal subjects combination, namely Further Maths. , Maths. , Economics and Physics.

Instead of enrolling into the said course, I decided to test the waters first by taking up a general pre-university programme with the said subject combination. I had to choose between STPM and Cambridge A-Levels (CAL). After much considerations, I told my parents I wanted to do CAL commencing January but they wanted me to join the March intake because I can save the trouble of boarding a flight back during CNY and could learn driving with the time. I didn't want to take up STPM because it only starts much later. All I wanted then was a head start (which in the end saved me no time) and to study. There, after much convincing, I was enrolled into CAL January Intake at KL taking up the suggested subject combination.

The first day was a breeze. From there onwards, I fully comprehend why people say that CAL is difficult (I bullshit you not about the workload) . I struggled with my studies and I decided on the 2nd week, it's time to drop Furthur Maths. . I wasn't the only one that dropped that subject (this saved my face a bit, a bit :P). There were around 5 of us if I hadn't recall wrongly. After I dropped F. Maths, I could finally catch my breath. Then I thought of my aims of getting into Waterloo. Doing well for the 3 subjects won't be that  useful if I'm planing to head to top notch universities. So because of that fact/ (So because I was 'kiasu'), I dropped Economics and took up Biology and Chemistry (that was my worst decision to date) after a week without Further Maths. This was because that universities prefer science students. Given two students,one taking science and one art, scoring A* for all their subjects in A levels, the institution is more likely to enroll the science student even if they are applying for commerce courses.

I struggled more with my new subjects combination. I never knew that it was so much harder compared to high school sciences. I struggled until April when I realized there's no point continuing after getting my test papers back. I'll just be wasting time and resources if I don't do anything about it. The only solution at that point of time for me was calling it quits. I applied for Diploma in Business Studies (Accounting) in another uni in the mean while and luckily, I got accepted!

Since I already secured a spot, I withdrew from CAL and now I'm here. Accounting is proving to be quite a challenge as it's a totally new subject for me. Still, I'm holding on..




Just hoping for the best.





Imperfecion.