Steamboat (18th March 2005)

Well, I've mentioned before that I had a steamboat party with my housemates back in March celebrating the final examinations and as a housewarming party, but I didn't have the chance to put up the photos cuz I didn't have them back then, and I got pretty occupied after that. Since now I have some time to idle with, here they are (get some tissues to wipe away your salivas):












My housemates goofing around while I prepare the cocktail, sial...
From L-R: Sharon, me, Lucky, Cheng Pei.






Pei's boyfriend specially brought these prawns (I forgot what they're called) from her hometown back in Kuala Gula, a fishing village, that evening. Yummy, fresh from the sea!
Clockwise from top: Prawn #1, Prawn #2, Prawn #3, Prawn #4, Prawn #5, Prawn #6.
This is supposed to sound stupidly funny.


This is the only group photo we got before chomping down everything in sight.


And this is the one after we chomped down everything in sight.;)
Clockwise starting from me: Me lah...duh, Yee Wen, Cheng Pei, Shwu Shya, Julie, Chang Wang, Sharon, CK, Lucky, Jun's girlfriend (damn, I kept forgetting her chinese name), Jun.

brainless knuckleheads...

Two headlines in The Star today which got my attention.

The first one: 600 summonses in one village

My advice is, shut up lah. Committed the offence and you guys still have the guts to go nationwide complaining about it?

Siva Subramaniam told reporters that he found it “a bit weird” for the police to issue 600 summonses in one village alone. “The number of summonses issued is too high; it has never happened in any one place in Malaysia before,” he said.

You're either pretending to be ignorant, or you're blind. I can close my eyes, point at any direction and still manage to tag a motorcyclist riding in my neighbourhood without a crash helmet. And I'm staying in some urban area, not village. Yes, the number of idiotic motorcyclists is that high. I'm not surprised to see 600 summonses over two years, the practice is pretty routine everywhere. I say serves them right. They think they can get away committing small offences.

Construction worker Wong Yik Loy, 49, said he received five summonses, all purportedly for failing to wear a crash helmet between October last year and February this year. “How can I defend myself on this? Two of the summonses stated that I committed the offence at night. Was the camera be able to read my number plate at 8pm and 10pm?” he asked.

If you still insist on complaining, try telling people that you did not commit the offence instead of questioning the technology. You didn't deny that you DID ride a motorcycle without crash helmet, did you? Even if you get to shirk off the 2 summonses there are still 3 waiting for you, and these times you were caught red-handed. This just shows that you have a habit of committing crimes on the road, 2 summonses lesser or not, that makes no difference.

The second one: boy beaten up for teasing classmate

The boy's father Raymond Toh Beng Thong, a company director, 42, said he was angry and astonished when the school called him about what had happened. “How can students be so violent?'' he asked furiously.

My advice is, shut up lah. Your son is an ass for provoking the boy in the first place. I admit the boy's wrong for pulling punches, but when do you see dogs wag their tails at you happily when you throw stones at them?

If I was the boy, knowing that I will get into trouble anyway for beating up that stupid ass, heck, I'll beat the crap out of each and everyone of those who humiliated him. And I won't feel sorry about it.

Two front teeth, a broken upper jaw and bleeding in the mouth are good reminders for the dumbass to act like someone who possesses a brain in the future. Functional one, that is.

10 years from now, in some pub near Orchard Road:
Hot girl: Gosh, you're so cool! Wanna dance?
Dumbass: Sure. *smiles and mouth opened slightly, revealing the 2 lost teeth*
Hot girl: Oh my, what happened? You were in a fight? Wow, that's like, so man!
Dumbass: Hehe, yeah. Old story... let's get on with the dance.
Hot girl: I bet you were fighting to save some damsel in distress. That's like, so cool... *running fingers through her hair, making flirty approaches*
Dumbass: Nah, I was beaten up back in school 10 years ago because I teased some kid about his grades.
Hot girl: Oh. Ok. Urm... oh hi, Jenny! Long time no see! Let's talk about your latest updates over supper! *Dumbass suddenly became invisible*
Dumbass: ...*mouth wide open, albeit not as wide as normal humans' since he had a jaw bone implant when he was 18*

See? That's the reason why you shouldn't act like an ass, dumbass.

on da vinci code and sepet...

I've finally read the Da Vinci Code, and watched Sepet the movie. Yeah, I know, I'm a bit not that up-to-date with the latest fads. Sue me.

I'm pretty disappointed with the Da Vinci Code. Not that Dan Brown's a bad writer, I think he rocks, but the climax never goes upwards as the story progresses. In fact, it's getting more and more anticlimax. I mean, I was hoping for some shocking end but all I got was one where everyone could predict already before reading. There goes two weeks of intense reading. Remind me to browse the ending of the next book I'm gonna read. And I won't read Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress. Once is enough, I won't be fooled twice.

And Sepet? Well, I won't say it's mind-blowing, but it IS very Malaysian. Ng Choo Seong, the guy who played Ah Loong (I will not call him Jason because that is MY name) seems a bit awkward, but Sharifah Amani is brilliant. When I was watching the part where Ah Loong tells Keong to 'meet this girl, and you'll understand why I like her so much', he really means it. She's a star-in-the-making. Linus Chung, in my opinion, should remain working behind the camera. I'm sure his film-making won't be as bad as his acting. Anyway, Sepet is the first locally made movie I've watched since forever, and I didn't regret it.

I just don't get the ending. Anyone mind telling me what it was all about?

loads of old pictures...

Went to Nic's place earlier and managed to unearth plenty of photos I never recall taking. Thanks to modern technology (the scanner, hahaha...), I've saved some to keep for memories, and I'm gonna take the remaining negatives to the photo shop and burn them into a cd.

For now, here are some for the old buddies...


True Victorians, 1996-2002. It's sad this photo never managed to be published in the school magazine. A real classic photo of students who represents the heart and soul of Victoria Institution. Once a Victorian, always a Victorian.


An attempt by the Board of Chairman (BOC) to produce the largest card in Malaysia. Not sure if we made it, but I'm so proud to be the key figure in creating and designing the artwork. This was my last high profile involvement in VI before I left the school for good.


The weird-looking girl who looks like the Qi Hei Empress would be Choy Yee. I can't remember when this photo was taken, probably during sports day. The bodyguards flanking the Empress would be Nic and I.


The admin for the Victorian Editorial Board. From L-R: Goh, Nic, me, Jasmine.


On the way up to Laban Rata, Mount Kinabalu in conjunction with the turn of the millennium. My brothers for life, from L-R: Jacky, Nic, Kam, me (wow, look how thin I was back then).


The legendary six reaching Low's Peak and captured a photo of our achievement. It was still dark as we reached the peak pretty early. I'm not sure what was the thing that caught my attention and made me look elsewhere, but this is the best one we have up there. Front, L-R: Kam, Nic, Jacky, me. Back, L-R: Ang, Ah Si. Those glorious days we had...


We managed to get some nice shots up there, but sadly the two mangkuk hayun prefects (as Jacky enjoys putting it) couldn't stand the weather and sped back down to Laban Rata. Can't really blame them, they got up real fast and waited for a long time for us to reach up there to take the group photo. Sorry for being so slow guys. ; )


And finally, look what I have here; a picture of Nic and Kam back in primary school. Hahahahaha, see how cute those little buggers are when they were still kids. Man, this is really classic.

I'll probably post up more photos of the others when I've burnt them into a cd. Can't do anything with only the negatives. Right now these are enough to bring back some pleasant memories of old times. Aaahh, how time flies...

angry post with plenty of cussing...

Today I almost killed a school kid when I was driving out for lunch. Had I been thoughtful and caring I would've killed him.

I was driving on the left lane of a road in a residential area near UPM about 12:30pm, which was about the time school was over. School children were all over the place and road drivers were sensibly extra careful and courteous (which is kinda rare). When I approached a curve and was about to turn a Harley Davidson dashed out of nowhere and almost caused me to sandwich it with a school bus moving on my right.

I stepped on the brake pedal and watched how that motorcycle luckily squeezed between the front of my car and the rear light of the bus. Lucky bastard.

To the f***tard motorcyclist (I seriously hope you are reading this),

I don't care if your father's a f***ing rich a**hole, that doesn't give you the bloody right to drive like an ass and speed along a road in a residential area. You know who you are, the idiotic Form 4 or Form 5 kid who studies in a secondary school near UPM (I know that bloody fact because you are still wearing your school pants at that time, I would've posted your plate number if I saw it). Yes, the Harley Davidson impresses me; I'm sure those underaged school girls will go 'hubba-hubba' over your hot bike, but I would be even more impressed if you end up in a road accident with a trailer with your body parts still intact. The nice guy in me hopes that you'll die a horrifying death where you get dragged by a trailer and ends up with a decapitated head and your f***ing rich father couldn't bury you whole because your head rolled off the road into the drain which leads to the main sewage where it flows to Klang River and your deformed head will be eaten up by the lurking crocodiles. The evil side in my hopes that the same thing happens, only that it's not your head which was decapitated, it's your penis instead. And you'll live until 134 years old without knowing what it's like to have sex. All the little girls will point their fingers at you laughing and this will happen every single day for the rest of your miserable life. And your gay neighbour goes around telling everyone that he lives next to the 'last eunuch in Malaysia' and the news spread like hot cakes until CNN makes a special live documentary broadcast about the story of a boy who's penisless with brains as big as an ostrich's.

To the f***ing rich a**hole father of that f***tard motorcyclist,

You're a shame to the society. If you have that much of money to spend, use it on something else, don't buy your brainless son a huge bike to show off in school. What were you even thinking? From the brief encounter I had with your f***ing son, I would say that it is sufficient for me to label you as a failure and you make a bad dad. If you have any senses you'd cut off your own penis so that you won't be able to produce another f***king dirtbag. Considering that you're so f***king rich, keep some of your money for your lawyer so that in the future he can handle your funeral when you die, I don't think your f***ing son(s) will still be alive when that happens.

p/s: Sorry for the cussing, that's not really me. But this incident really pissed me off and I can't describe it better without using profanities. Momentarily taken over by pure anger, I'll be fine in the morning.

what about my future?

Time sure flies by. Without even noticing I have only 2 and a half more working days before my holiday resumes. That, plus another 50-pages report for my industrial training which is due early next week (damn, I should've suggested a later date to my supervisor).

It has been extremely educational in the past 8 weeks, learning plenty of stuff I didn't have the chance to put my hands on back in my own uni. This also presented a new path for me to choose; whether or not to continue doing my master and phd programme after I graduated. I know it's pretty early to think about this right now, but people around me have been bombarding me with these questions I find it hard to dismiss the possibilities. Besides, it's true what some of them said, when you're already in the working world you won't want to go back studying.

In an ideal world, I'll do my master degree after half a year working as a research assistant, preferably overseas, and within a year and a half hopefully it'll be converted into phd. Then I'll come out and work as a lecturer for a few years before venturing into the business world. I have given some thoughts on it, since I don't believe I will enjoy being an employee for my entire working life, and F & B is one sector which I have really made some serious thinking of.

Dreaming a nice dream indeed.

All too soon to say, for now I'll just concentrate on my final working week here and finishing my report. I have been procrastinating a hell lot.

stop the nonsense...

Stop all the talk about the Champions' League fifth spot already, would you?

This is getting ridiculously annoying. I mean, it doesn't only portrayed utter disrespect to the team from Italy, it's gonna make us all go red in embarassment should Liverpool fail to beat AC Milan in Istanbul. Not that I hope Liverpool lose, I'm betting my head on a Liverpool victory if I'm the type of guy who bets. I just wanna stress the point that the match has yet to be played, and we're already arguing on something that's maybe or maybe not happening.

I can already imagine some of the idiotic fans of rival football clubs shouting 'What happening to your request to FA for a fifth CL spot? Oops, I forgot, you guys sucked in the final! Wahahahaha!!'

Make discussions after 25th of May, will you?

liverpool crash out from champions' league

Liverpool finally went out from the Champions' League, next season that is. Arsenal won the match 3-1 and fairly so.

On a lighter point of view, we now can calmly say that we are still competing for the UEFA Cup which is sort of some consolation. No big deal I guess. Still in Europe, and still challenging for a cup anyway.

With the Premiership all decided except for the relegation battle, there are nothing else to focus on other than the CL final in three weeks time. I hope Liverpool can manage to grab hold of their fifth European Cup, though I do not think that gives us the right to compete in next season's. It's more or less a bonus, cuz if Liverpool wins it, they get to keep the trophy and UEFA will have to mold another replica.

Besides, that's all we Liverpool fans can look forward to, right?

Congratulations, Bluenoses, you've earned the last Champions' League berth. However, being a Liverpudlian, it's pretty normal that I hope that you guys crash out in the qualifiers. No offence really.

merit or quota?

Pretty amazed by this article in The Star.

It sure is disturbing to see the enrolment of Malays in critical courses lower than it was when we practised quota system, but whose fault is it really? If the Education Ministry reviewed the current policy and find it a disadvantage to the Malays, what actions do we expect the Ministry to take? Change back to the quota system?

When they announced that we will begin practising the meritocracy policy they said it was for a fairer competition for places in local universities. That I agree. The year ended with more percentage of Malays enrolling into universities compared to any other races, and we've had no qualms about that. At least we fought for our places fair and square, nevermind the differences in STPM and matriculation.

But now knowing that the majority of the percentage went to not so 'favourable' courses, Umno Youth wanted a data to clarify whether this is a smart move in the first place.

The sad thing is I don't see the undergrads in local universities, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, complaining about these craps. The people bringing up all these controversial problems are, instead, the political figures and the Education Ministry.

It's about time to stop spoonfeeding our people and let us walk on our own. With this kind of shielding and protection, we will never lose our tag as a third world country.

meaningless debate...

Just saw this post at Koptalk, and I didn't even notice such an issue back then.

To save the trouble clicking on the link (I know you guys are a bunch of lazy asses), I'll just copy and paste it here:

Gutless FA backed London clubs
The national media are quickly catching on to how the English F.A. protected both Arsenal and Chelsea last season when it cropped up that there would not have been enough Champions League places on offer for them this season had results created a complicated and controversial situation.
You will recall that Arsenal and Chelsea met in the quarter-finals of the competition last year so a similar situation could have developed like the one we're currently facing, should we actually win the Champions League by defeating Milan.
Although the problem never actually presented itself last season, the FA made provisions for the 4th placed team to be entered into the UEFA Cup instead of the Champions League.
On March 10th last year, the FA published the following statement: "Should Arsenal or Chelsea win the Champions League, they will automatically qualify for next season's competition, but England will not gain an extra Champions League place, even if they finish outside of the top four in the Premiership. In that scenario, the fourth-placed team in the Premiership will play in next season's Uefa Cup."
Fortunately Oliver Kay of The Times has picked up on this and so too has Sam Wallace of The Independent.

I couldn't get to the webpage using the link in Koptalk, it's probably expired or taken out, whatever.

I still think that should Everton finish fourth this season, they should qualify for the Champions' League even if Liverpool wins the Cup, that if they manage to do it, but it's too early to argue about this meaningless debate which in the end may not even be of worthy mention at all.

However, I'm not impressed with the FA's stand, it's so clear how they switched sides comparing this season and last. If indeed Arsenal or Chelsea managed to win the Cup last season (which if some of you didn't already know, Arsenal got dumped by Chelsea in the quarter, and Chelsea were knocked out in the semi), Liverpool would've, ironically, been overlooked in this competition and would be challenging for the UEFA Cup instead. The fact that Liverpool got all the way to the final is just, well, ironic (I hate this word).

And Arsenal's vice-chairman's in the FA board. Hmmm...

In the end of the day, we wouldn't know what will happen. Maybe Liverpool will be thrashed by AC Milan in the final 6-1 and our arguments would be for nought. Or maybe Everton will suffer from hiccups and lose all their remaining matches and Liverpool will pip them to fouth spot, besides winning the Cup too.

Ah, daydreaming too early I guess. But I'll keep my fingers crossed.

happy mother's day

My mom fell sick today. So sick that it makes me sick.

For as long as I can remember, I've never seen my mother getting sick, let alone becoming so ill she can't even stand up without fainting. She has been complaining of a bad back for the past week, and the last few days her health's getting worse. Stomachaches, dizziness, low blood pressure, vomitting, all these showing that her health's faltering.

She has always been the pillar of strength to me, looking so able and strong in managing the home and her work for the last few years. I guess I am the only one who didn't realize age is really catching up with her. She's 53 this year, and had she been any luckier, she's retired and enjoying life now.

Times like these I wished that I have never made the decision to rent a place with my friends and stayed at home to look after my mother instead. I should've brought an umbrella for her when she was getting off the car in the middle of a heavy rain. I should've done more chores at home instead of going out with friends. I should've accompanied her for breakfasts more often. I should have, I should have... all the things I should have done but I didn't.

Thank goodness she felt all better after throwing up in the clinic just now. At least she can now walk without feeling dizzy or fainting.

And now I can finally rest, after a chaotic day with only 2 hours of sleep since yesterday morning.

Btw, it may seem a bit too early, but I guess there aren't any better moments than right now, so Mom, Happy Mother's Day and I love you. I promise I'll spend more time with you and Dad and yadda yadda yadda whoever's related to me in one way or another.

i got 17As because i use s******'s pencils!

I just saw an advertisement by a famous local stationery supplier which is really ridiculous. Apparently the SPM top scorer signed an endorsement deal or some sort of things to appear in the short ad, which was trying to imply that students can score better in exams using their product.

I find this ad totally stupid. If she (the top scorer, I don't know her name and I don't give a damn anyway) managed to obtain 17A1s because she used S****** 2B pencils to answer the questions, you'd be wondering why there aren't any other 17A1s students around. She got good results because of her hard work, not because of your stupid pencils.

The cheapskate strategies companies use to attract consumers. Bah...

putrajaya, kuala selangor, ice-skating and birthday celebrations...

The last couple of days were terribly hectic, having fun of course. On a rare occasion where my supervisor insisted that I take a leave on Saturday to visit the BioMalaysia exhibition at Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC), I fully utilised the holiday by giving myself a deserving break.

After visiting BioMalaysia's exhibition in the afternoon, I came back to PJ just in time to leave for Kuala Selangor with my housemates and a senior, since everyone took the oppoturnity to return to KL during the 3-day holiday, not gonna spoil the fun, should I? Leaving at 7pm, we arrived Kuala Selangor around 9:30pm and took a boat trip at Taman Kelip-kelip and enjoyed the beautiful scenery with fireflies all over the place. The boatmen were surprisingly nice and actually very willing (by our request) to bring us close to the fireflies until they flew all over us. Too bad we didn't capture any pictures that time.

Later after that, we had our dinner at Kuala Sungai Seafood Restaurant and enjoyed some great food there. I'm lazy to post any close-ups on the dishes (besides, I don't wanna make you guys drool all over your keyboards), so I'm posting a picture of us before the dishes arrived instead.


L-R: Yeow Huei (our graduated senior), Sharon, me, Yee Wen, CK, Shya, Lucky, Julie.

The following day we went to Sunway Pyramid for some ice-skating actions, considering a lot of us haven't tried it before, and the last time yours truly skated was like about 7-8 years ago. Thank goodness I still have some of it left from last time and managed to stay fall-free throughout the entire session. However, I guess we're a bit too old for this sport, seeing so many teenagers (with horrible fashion tastes) on the ice rink. Pretty lot of young adults with immature minds too, but I shall not elaborate on that and spoil the mood.



L-R: Shya, Sharon, See Wan, Jun, Julie, Yeow Huei, Lucky, me.



Casually posing while at rest, F-B: me, Jun, See Wan, Sharon, Yeow Huei, Julie.



Clockwise from bottom left: Jun, me, Sharon, Lucky, See Wan. Sorry for the bad quality, no professional training whatsoever...;)

We celebrated Jun's and Sharon's birthdays in advance that night because it is the last time we have a full gathering before the new sem begins. Planned a surprise celebration for them and thought of a splendid idea. Lucky was supposed to pretend to broke an arm and Yee Wen would be running upstairs to alert us and borrow my car keys, before conning them to come down and see the birthday cake which is hidden in the crowd in the living room. But instead of barging into my room where Jun and I were hanging out, Yee Wen accidentally went into Sharon's room and she went down early and spotted the birthday cake before they could hide it (which btw, asking the smallest person to cover the cake is a very bad decision). Anyway, it's the thought that counts, right? So it doesn't really matter how screwed up the act was.


Birthday kids: Jun and Sharon.



Front row, L-R: Yeow Huei (what's with the horny look?), Jun, Sharon, Lucky, Shya.
Second row, L-R: Julie, See Wan, Yee Wen, Kai Sean (another senior), Chang Wang, CK.
Back: me, who else?

Btw, today (2nd of May) is also the birthday of my old crush. So have a wonderful birthday celebration and may your life be filled with happiness and joy.

something hilarious to cheer you up

This video totally rocks. Now I know what really happened during that meeting.

Check it out. You won't regret it.

treasure hunting...

VSG's having their annual treasure hunt tonight, and I've just returned after hanging out a while with Jacky, and Nic does another traditional ffk with style. Saw some of the ex-es like Kwan Eu (the current teacher advisor), Kevin, Nash and his batch, and Rashvin's batch too. Too bad didn't get to see any of Ashaari's gang, was hoping to see how they're doing in life.

Nothing much to say about the treasure hunt, for I spent most of my time talking to fellow ex-es instead of shouting profanities at boyscouts like what some ex-es enjoyed doing back when I was treasure hunting. I still think that ex is an idiot, but I'm not naming names.

Over the years I think I'm feeling less and less interested in the troop's well being. Partly because I no longer see any familiar faces in the troop apart from a few who had been actively involved when I was still in charge. And listening to the endless problems with the school administration really tires me and made me thinking of giving up completely. Well, Ms Shanti endured for six years before she called quits. Whatever she's involved with right now, I hope she's having a great time because she gave our troop a lot during her time here.

Still, I am looking forward to this year's campfire in mid of July and rekindle old memories. To all VSGians, all the best in the future and may you guys be forever Second to None.

p/s: I can't believe Semang is still in school instead of jail. Corrupted fat bastard. Die and burn in hell!!!

what a boring week...

Life has been pretty routine for the past week I could have died of boredom. Crap, can't believe life can actually become so bland and tasteless, I can't remember another time I've spent doing the same things over and over for days. Which is why I was away from blogging for a while, you know, cuz I don't wanna bore you guys to death with my boring life.

Just some random thoughts on a couple of recent issues, though I didn't really pay much attention to them:

Reports were saying eating while driving is considered an offence and offenders will be slapped with a RM300 summon. People are complaining the fine is too high, and should lower it down to RM100. Makes me wonder, since we know it is an offence, what difference would it make if they set the fine at RM100 or RM300, or even RM1000? You shouldn't be committing the offence anyway in the first place. Probably they feel at RM100 it's worth a shot once in a while. Which makes no difference anyway, since these buggers would be the first ones to slip some 'duit kopi' to the officer. Bunch of retards.

What's up with friendster nowadays? People are quick to register their blogs but no one seems to understand what is a weblog. And we're left with unattended online journals which serve no purpose in this cyberworld. And a pathetic thing with the 'popular searches in my network' which reads sick stuffs like 'free video', 'free japan av movie', 'meraba kesedapan' (what the shit does this mean?!!) and 'free prono' (dumb sickos can't even spell correctly, I'm not sure if the person meant to type promo or porno). Go get some vcds from the pirates lah for God's sake. Oh man, the world we live in now...

Anyway, I've finally been given a project experiment to conduct on my own back where I'm working so I can submit a report at the end of this industrial training. Supposed to culture and extract some plasmids and make some transformation before cloning them. A bacterial colony called Enterococcus faecalis, which I don't have any clues what it is. Came home and searched for some relevant infos about it, and found this article, 'The Bacteria Antibiotics Can't Kill'. Oh boy, this is gonna be one great experience. Let's pray that I'll finish my training here still alive and well.

And Chelsea-Liverpool tonight. Part of me tells me to stay up and watch the match, and another half keeps reminding me that I have to work tomorrow morning. Kam, you gonna watch it tonight (or in the morning to you) or not?

liverpool sacrifices champions' league spot to ensure palace stay in the premiership

You didn't read it wrong, nor did I write incorrectly. The title says it all. Liverpool's hope of qualifying for next season's Champions' League is all but dashed with the 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace.

I watched in disbelief how awful that match was. If I am someone who has never seen Premiership football before, I'd thought Liverpool is the team fighting to avoid relegation instead of Palace. Take a look at the table, we are closer to the relegation zone than we are to Chelsea's 85 points. How on earth did we still cling on to 5th spot is a mystery.

I don't really understand Rafa Benitez. He told the players to forget about Champions' League and concentrate on the league position, but he sent out fringe players to face a team fighting to avoid relegation. That shows total disrespect and I would say we totally deserved the outcome of the match. What a display of pure rubbish. You expect to field a string of reserve players and snatch a victory? Didn't we have enough lessons from all those backlashes throughout the entire bloody season? Have we not learnt that 5-3-2 is a crap formation in the Premier League after losing to Man City, drawing with Tottenham and barely survived Portsmouth's match playing with this shit formation? And what, no Alonso, Garcia, Riise and Biscan in the starting line-up? God help me, but I think we just shot our own feet.

On the other hand, losing to Palace isn't all that bad news. At least now we don't have to wait anxiously every weekend watching agonizingly Liverpool's under-par performance, while hoping Everton make stupid mistakes like us and slip down the table. And we can safely bid Gerrard farewell for the coming summer. So much of a great player he is, he's no longer the influential captain in the squad and he's starting to show signs of being a liability to the team. Without Gerrard's ambitious goals, Benitez would have enough guts to make drastic changes to the team to his liking and ship out all uninterested players while bringing in some new faces who, hopefully, will show the rest what it means to wear the liverbird on their chest.

We can kiss our Champions' League dream goodbye, and start preparing for the UEFA Cup. While I'm still in this topic, I don't expect Liverpool to go past Chelsea anyway, so what the hell, screw it and please start to concentrate on molding a better team for next season for every Kop fans' sakes.

p/s: For those who want to drop some smarty remarks and add salt to the wound, I'd advise you not to do so because I am not in the mood and too pissed to entertain you, so I'll just delete the stupid comments. Flame all you want, it's my blog and I don't give a damn about your bloody opinions. I didn't ask for your 2 cents, so keep it to yourself and go rain on someone else's parade.

doesn't it feel great...

...when you wake up early in the morning, get all ready to work, and then realize it's a holiday and you can fall back into your bed to sleep again?

...when you are all stressed out trying to finish up the assignments on the table and your mom walks in bringing you your favourite Neslo Ice?

...when you can hang out with your close friends in a cafe in the middle of the night, talking about nothing at all?

...when you did well in the finals because you had actually 'listened' to the lecturers in class, while your brilliant coursemates screwed up memorizing notes?

...when you accompany your mom for a lengthy walk at the pasar malam, and talked about everything without being secretive or condemning, just like when you were younger?

...when a complete stranger walked up to you and tell you that you have nice hair?

...when you spend some time taking a walk in the park before dawn, and enjoy the serenity?

Doesn't it feel great to know that you are still alive at this exact moment? Life's too short to dwell on past regrets, enjoy everthing that you're doing now, cherish all things around you, and life will be just, well...great.

my computer's possessed!

Is it just me, or the computer's playing some prank on me? I was surfing for a while and wondering why the hell there aren't any updates at all in any of the websites I've visited, when I realize the bloody clock reads 11:31pm, 16th April 2005.

And it's 2:30am when I got back home.

Funny thing is, I left home around 11, right after I'm done surfing the net, so even if the bloody computer froze no way it can be at 11:30 cuz I had already turned it off by then. After I corrected the time and date, everything went back to normal and all the websites are updated to present time. I mean, my computer's clock shouldn't be affecting the websites right?

Spooky.

Okay, now let's talk about something else.

So, Liverpool drew 2-2 with Tottenham, and Stevie G missed a penalty huh? What else is new? The next thing we know Bolton and Bluenose are battling it out for the final Champions' League spot. This is fast becoming a wacky world. Just a couple of seasons ago both teams were fighting relegation battles instead.

Read an article earlier in Soccernet, some reporter was asking if it is finally the perfect time for Gerrard to go. So much of a great player he was (and still is, in my POV), he is fast losing the support from local fans. He may still be a Kop hero to many, but then again, players like Alonso and Biscan are making some big names of themselves too. And Liverpool had proved from time and time again that they can produce excellent results without the versatile captain. So now the question is, should Liverpool let Gerrard leave to another club?

Personally, I think Gerrard's a great player, and he will excel wherever he goes. Should he be staying at Liverpool, the least he can do is come out and make an effort to convince us supporters that he's staying. I remember Owen doing the same about the same time of last season, and then he's off to Real Madrid. Surely he's not missed, but at that moment I can only think that he betrayed Liverpool and led us supporters through much despair after some merry-go-rounds. That makes me mad and miserable. But now, I'm happy to see that he's doing well there, and there are no bad feelings anymore.

The same thing goes to Gerrard. If he is leaving, this time I'll be wishing the best for him, maybe it's the best for both sides after all. He is destined to win trophies, with or without Liverpool.

I'd really like to see him stay and win with us though.

That's all for tonight. I need to rest now because I'm working part time in the morning to earn some cash to cover my expenses, since I don't get any salary for my training. Sigh. 1 more month to go.

And I'll cover the computer with some cloth before I sleep, I'd hate to think that some white figure might crawl out from the monitor and scare the shit out of me. Stupid haunted PC.

hillsborough '89 (this is an extremely long post)

Bruce Grobbelaar, who was closest to the Leppings Lane terrace, quickly realised there was something terribly wrong when he went to retrieve a ball and heard fans screaming - 'They're killing us, Bruce, they're killing us.' Bruce shouted at the stewards to do something.

John Aldrige- 'I cast my eyes over to John Barnes and could see tears in his eyes. He was sitting there quietly, not wanting to be disturbed.'

John Barnes- 'People wept all the way home. All the wives were crying. I was crying. Kenny was crying. Bruce said he was considering quitting.'

Today marks the 16th year since the greatest tragedy which saw 96 Liverpool fans lose their lives.

Guess I won't be in my usual crappy mood to entertain you guys, I've been browsing through the net and read various articles and reports written by countless individuals who, in one way or another, are able to relate to the saddest day in Liverpool history. Some of them almost brought me close to my tears, for as long as I have been a Liverpool supporter, I have never been able to imagine the horrific day that struck on the 15th of April 1989.

I'll share some (a lot actually) of the recollections of those who are unfortunately stuck with this painful memory for the rest of their lives. Do read, and you'll understand why I think Liverpool Football Club is the greatest football club in the world, and why I am so proud to be a tiny fan among so many loyal Liverpudlians.

Players:
Kenny Dalglish- 'I will never, never forget 15 April, 1989. I cannot even think of the name Hillsborough, cannot even say the word, without so many distressing memories flooding back. I find it very difficult to write about Hillsborough, where terrible mistakes by the authorities, both police and football, ended with 96 of our supporters dead. The memory will remain with me for the rest of my life.'

Alan Hansen- 'Two months short of my thirty-fourth birthday, I had been out of Liverpool's first team for nine months - the result of a dislocated left knee sustained in a pre-season friendly against Atletico Madrid in Spain - and had only started playing again, for the reserves, four days before the semi-final. The Liverpool fans gave me a tremendous reception as I came on to the pitch, and I made a great start to the game. In those opening minutes, I hit three good passes - two long balls over the top of the Forest defence to Steve McMahon and the other to peter Beardsley, who hit a shot against the Forest bar. All my fears about my fitness evaporated. I felt as if I had never been away. Then, suddenly, I started to fall into the blackest period of my life.'

John Barnes- 'I went numb. I couldn't believe it. Complete silence seized the room. Every face turned towards the television screen. No one sat down. No one spoke. Forest's players were also in the lounge. What could they say? 'We're sorry your fans have been killed?' The fact that they played for Forest and we played for Liverpool was irrelevant. These were human beings who died.'

John Aldridge- 'For the two weeks following the disaster I was in a state of shock, helpless to do anything, I feel no shame in admitting Hillsborough affected me mentally for a time, a long time. I couldn't cope, It weakened me physically, emotionally and mentally. The thought of training never entered my head. I remember trying to go jogging but I couldn't run. There was a time when I wondered if I would ever muster the strength to play. I seriously considered retirement. I was learning about what was relevant in life. I didn't really see the point in football.'

John Barnes- 'Bill Shankly's comment that 'football is not a matter of life and death, it is far more important that that' sounded even falser after Hillsborough.'

John Aldridge- 'We often talk of nightmares in our lives, of disaster, of tragedies, but most of us don't really know what we're talking about. I was injured playing for Liverpool the season before Hillsborough and I called it a personal disaster. Disaster? When you know people have died in your vicinity you realise missing a football match or two through injury is irrelevant. Most things are irrelevant. The death of the innocent - the suffering, the injustice - is a real disaster. A real tragedy.'

Kenny Dalglish- 'The next day people began coming up to Anfield. They just wanted to leave tributes and flowers at the Shankly Gates. Peter Robinson got in touch with the groundsman and told him to open the ground. Liverpool Football Club didn't want supporters standing around on the street. That was a magnificent thing to do. At 6 p.m. we all went to St Andrews cathedral. Bruce Grobbelaar read from the scriptures. There was an awful sense of loss, confusion, frustation. So many emotions were felt. The players and their wives were determined to do something. We all went into Anfield the next day. The wives were brilliant. Everything just stopped and rightly so.It comforted people coming into Anfield, talking to the players, the wives, and having a cup of tea. Liverpool Football Club was the focus of so many people's lives that it was natural they should head for Anfield. It gave them somewhere to go, something to talk about.'

Steve Hunter, match commentator for the official LFC website:
I was hanging on to this rail for dear life and then the pressure of fans trying to get through took it's toll and I could hang on no longer. I was swept down the middle and I ended up on the floor and honestly thought I was going to die. How those poor fans at the front must have felt brings tears to my eyes as I'm writing this piece.

I was on the floor with bodies trampling all over the top of me. I was knocked unconscious then dazed I heard someone shout 'christ, there's a lad collapsed down here, let's get him out.' The next thing I knew I was lifted over the top of the perimeter fencing and when I regained my senses I found myself on the pitch witnessing the aftermath of your worst ever nightmare. It's not even a nightmare is it to be honest, it was pure hell and I was living it.

Anfield was a shrine and the Kop was littered with scarfs and banners all paying their respects. When football resumed it was fitting Liverpool's first game was against Dalglish's old club Celtic in a friendly and the atmosphere in Celtic was just something else, when the whole 60,000 crowd were singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' in unison.

Kenny Dalglish deserved a medal for what he did for the people after Hillsborough, and the players and backroom staff including Phil Thompson were absolutely fantastic. They went to funerals and talked to the families and survivors offering comfort and trying to help people get on with their day to day lives.

Peter Hooton, lifelong Liverpool fan:
A fan appeared on the pitch, he seemed unsteady on his feet, nobody had the faintest idea of what was happening and then more and more people spilled out onto the pitch.

Forest fans began to sing "You Scouse bastards" thinking that this was indeed a pitch invasion. It soon became obvious that something more serious was happening but still the enormity of the tragedy could not have been imagined.

I saw heroes that day and the majority were not in uniform. The real heroes that day were the ordinary Liverpool fans who seemed to take control of the operation taking casualties to the opposite end of the pitch and laying the fans in the penalty area, in front of the Hillsborough Kop.

Some people refused to give up pumping chests of complete strangers or maybe loved ones, giving the kiss of life to fellow Liverpool fans as the line of the police looked on.

That day, that night, that week, that year, that decade I was inconsolable but I was also proud to be a Liverpudlian. I had witnessed the selflessness, courage and dignity you afforded the dead and dying before they were handed over to the authorities.

Hillsborough 96
John Alfred Anderson (62)
Thomas Howard (39)
Colin Mark Ashcroft (19)
Thomas Anthony Howard (14)
James Gary Aspinall (18)
Eric George Hughes (42)
Kester Roger Marcus Ball (16)
Alan Johnston (29)
Gerard Bernard Patrick Baron (67)
Christine Anne Jones (27)
Simon Bell (17)
Gary Philip Jones (18)
Barry Sidney Bennett (26)
Richard Jones (25)
David John Benson (22)
Nicholas Peter Joynes (27)
David William Birtle (22)
Anthony Peter Kelly (29)
Tony Bland (22)
Michael David Kelly (38)
Paul David Brady (21)
Carl David Lewis (18)
Andrew Mark Brookes (26)
David William Mather (19)
Carl Brown (18)
Brian Christopher Mathews (38)
David Steven Brown (25)
Francis Joseph McAllister (27)
Henry Thomas Burke (47)
John McBrien (18)
Peter Andrew Burkett (24)
Marion Hazel McCabe (21)
Paul William Carlile (19)
Joseph Daniel McCarthy (21)
Raymond Thomas Chapman (50)
Peter McDonnell (21)
Gary Christopher Church (19)
Alan McGlone (28)
Joseph Clark (29)
Keith McGrath (17)
Paul Clark (18)
Paul Brian Murray (14)
Gary Collins (22)
Lee Nicol (14)
Stephen Paul Copoc (20)
Stephen Francis O'Neill (17)
Tracey Elizabeth Cox (23)
Jonathon Owens (18)
James Philip Delaney (19)
William Roy Pemberton (23)
Christopher Barry Devonside (18)
Carl William Rimmer (21)
Christopher Edwards (29)
David George Rimmer (38)
Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons (34)
Graham John Roberts (24)
Thomas Steven Fox (21)
Steven Joseph Robinson (17)
Jon-Paul Gilhooley (10)
Henry Charles Rogers (17)
Barry Glover (27)
Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton (23)
Ian Thomas Glover (20)
Inger Shah (38)
Derrick George Godwin (24)
Paula Ann Smith (26)
Roy Harry Hamilton (34)
Adam Edward Spearritt (14)
Philip Hammond (14)
Philip John Steele (15)
Eric Hankin (33)
David Leonard Thomas (23)
Gary Harrison (27)
Patrik John Thompson (35)
Stephen Francis Harrison (31)
Peter Reuben Thompson (30)
Peter Andrew Harrison (15)
Stuart Paul William Thompson (17)
David Hawley (39)
Peter Francis Tootle (21)
James Robert Hennessy (29)
Christopher James Traynor (26)
Paul Anthony Hewitson (26)
Martin Kevin Traynor (16)
Carl Darren Hewitt (17)
Kevin Tyrrell (15)
Nicholas Michael Hewitt (16)
Colin Wafer (19)
Sarah Louise Hicks (19)
Ian David Whelan (19)
Victoria Jane Hicks (15)
Martin Kenneth Wild (29)
Gordon Rodney Horn (20)
Kevin Daniel Williams (15)
Arthur Horrocks (41)
Graham John Wright (17)

You'll Never Walk Alone

Rest in peace

Amen.

Excerpts taken from:

HEROES OF HILLSBOROUGH

HILLSBOROUGH

HILLSBOROUGH - THE PLAYERS' STORY

96 REDS WE'LL NEVER FORGET

wallpaper

Well, pardon me for posting a lot of short and uninteresting stuffs lately, it's because I was busy on this:



It's my current wallpaper. Took me about 3 nights to finish this piece of work and the eyes strains' killing me. Probably will try to make some more of these, since I won't be this free after July. I still need those sudden 'light bulbs' to spark up my creativity though.

There aren't a lot of good photos I can manipulate here cuz I'm too lazy to go out and get some great captures. Plus, people will stare at me and whisper to their friends about the weirdo who goes around holding the digicam taking pictures. That's bad reputation.

liverpool are through!

Yess!!! Liverpool are through to Champions' League semifinal for the clash against Chelsea!

It must be the worst 90 minutes of football match I have endured, but in the end it was worth every single second of it. Liverpool didn't play that good, but they managed to cope with the pressure and forced a stalemate. Juventus' play was brilliant and were probably a bit frusfrated in the end as their players kept making unnecessary fouls. The Kop fans behaved very well, the Juventus' supporters were fantastic and ... ah well, everything seems great to me right now, huh?

It's really nice to see Liverpool securing a place in the last 4 even without Gerrard. Igor Biscan was celebrating furiously at the end of the game like some WWE wrestler, great to see him taking over Gerrard's role decently. Xabi Alonso looked completely drained seeing out the entire match, while Hyypia and Carragher were rock solid at the back. Luis Garcia was everywhere, Baros spurned a couple of chances but I guess fans can forgive him for once. And the best news of all, Cisse came on as a substitute and played the last 15 minutes without showing any signs of his injury. This is a day for celebration.

I definitely didn't regret staying up to watch this nil-nil game.

honeydew?

I can't remember what exactly was I doing in the lab this morning, pipetting some solutions I assume, when I received a call from a private number. Thinking that it might be an urgent call or something, I answered it despite my supposedly 'no contamination' experiment, only to find out that it was Pao Ko. This conversation then took place...

Me: Hello?
PK: Hey, Jason, wanna ask you something. How do you say 'honeydew' in Cantonese?
Me: 'Mat gua'.
PK: Ok. Thank you. Bye.

And with that he hanged up and left me completely dumbstruck. Bugger, I really didn't see that coming.

la pasta, mi amigo!

Didn't have anything interesting to post lately, busy trying to design some wallpapers and posters at home. So while waiting for them, I'll post a couple of pictures of my supper I just cooked earlier, which is called the La Pasta...er...urm...it has something to do with mushrooms and herbs, er... damn, whatever lah. Some edible pasta, okay? I'll think of a name for it next time.


Yummy...


Would you just look at the delicious sliced sausages and creamy cheese omelette beneath the fettucine twists? Sluuurrppp...

Come on, admit it, I'm a great chef!

me, myself and i...hey, who's the other guy then?

Hahaha...sorry but I have just too much time and too little things to do...

left, right, left, left, right, damnit!!

After all these years, I still can't seem to be able to differentiate the word 'left' and 'right' in Cantonese. Well, I don't really understand it myself. Pretty embarassing too, since I've been speaking Cantonese my entire life. I don't have this problem when speaking in English and BM though.

Not that I can't tell at all, it's just that I need a split second and say to myself 'left right' (in Cantonese) before I can confirm. It's like your mind's completely blank for an extremely short period of time.

Me: Woi, yi ka jun pin dou ah? (woi, now turn which side ah?)
Friend: Yau. (right)
Me: ...(silent for a second and says to self, 'jor yau') Right.

It's not something that bothers me a lot in my everyday chores, but sometimes it can get pretty annoying. Like for instance, people are telling you directions and you completely lost it because he uses left and right repetitively with ease. Times like these make me wonder why the hell I can't figure it out right on the spot. Damn...

something good, something bad...

I didn't know why I was unable to connect to the internet for the last couple of days, I thought it was because of the TMnet problems. But apparently, my computer was hacked by 'some people' in the house without my permission and switched some defaults which disabled my connection to the access point. Bugger.

I really don't mind if they want to use my computer, but they could have at least informed me first. The nerves they have, using my computer and making their own settings in my computer, and then tried to deny it. Irresponsible brat. I don't want to continue rambling on this, there's no point. Do that one more time and I'm start yelling.

Went out for a drink with the old gang just now, everyone's back in KL and some are starting their industrial trainings next week. Lim, Cheng, LiuPin, Lai, Kar Heng, Pao Ko and Wai Locke turned up for supper, and Nic ffked lah as usual. Lazy to explain already.

While chatting the night away, I received a live update from Janet saying that VI has won the band competition, so to inform those who aren't in Malaysia. Which rounds up a good week for VI, having thrashed SMK Petaling 13-0 in the under-19 football tournament a day earlier.

And then coming home only to see Liverpool's disappointing 1-0 defeat to Manchester City in the news. Days like these aren't good for my heart, damnit.

early sneak peek of my cgpa...

Well, the picture's probably too small to see what the content is really about. So let me summarize the big picture for you guys, okay?

I received a mail from a coursemate today stating that our CGPA 'may' be out already, although there aren't any results posted in the faculty yet. This is because the new 'extra credit hours' application form has new GPA and CGPA which are different from previous semester. Now, if you notice properly in the middle, it stated that my GPA for the semester is 3.73, which has increased my CGPA to 3.61. But this is not confirmed yet, as no one can verify the validity of the webpage.

Why am I posting this? Hell, because if this is true, this will be the first time ever I get into the Dean's List! That's why! I can finally ditch the tag on my forehead which reads 'the-only-biotech-kid-who-has-never-been-in-the-dean's-list'. Mind you, that is pretty big for me, cuz my coursemates have some pretty good time showing off their certs in front of me. For three bloody semesters. And now we're level, bwahahaha... Okay, not exactly level, I'm still way behind in the CGPA, but that's another story...*grumble grumble*

A part of me is feeling overwhelmed, but another part is hoping that the news' false, cuz I was hoping to get a higher GPA to put me back into first class. Well, what can I say, men are greedy creatures...

how to make an ordinary day at work more thrilling...

It was like any other fine day. I stepped out from the car and made my way to the lab. Upon reaching the door, I saw a figure sitting by the stairs. L gave me a blank look.

'It's locked.'

I wasn't amused.

'So what do we do then?'

She turned the other way and stared into the view outside the building, seemingly to be burdened by deep thoughts.

'I guess we'll have to wait.'

**********

15 minutes has passed. The key holder, V, has finally arrived. 'My apologies, I terribly regret this.' And with that, he opened the pathway to the lab.

Everyone began their usual routine. I took out some chemicals and began mixing the ingredients. 'I will need to autoclave this,' I thought to myself. As I take my steps towards the autoclave, located in the room beside, I stopped by the door.

'Anyone else needs autoclaving?'

L stood up and gave me an intense look.

'Is it urgent?'

I didn't know what to say, but decided to play along.

'Only if you think it is.'

She lets out a sigh. 'I'll only need a minute to prepare mine.'

**********

I refilled the autoclave with distilled water. Suddenly, something caught my attention. There was a long thick thread-like thing sticking out from one of the holes of the base plate in the autoclave. How on earth did a worm manage to make its way in? I kept calm and planned my next step. It seemed wise, at that time, to continue refill the autoclave and flood it, and see what godly creatures will come up to the surface.

The worm-like thing, as expected, disappeared into the hole. But something else came up. A triangular figure reappeared at another hole.

Grabbing my courage, though with a heavy heart, I moved closer to have a clearer look. And then it sprawled its way out from the hole, trying to jump and escape! I was shocked and taken aback, retreating myself to a safe distance. I hurried back to the next room.

**********

'A rat! A rat has somehow made its way into the autoclave!' I said, puffing as I tried to regain my breath.

There were faint gasps across the room, and everyone started to feel unease and disturbed by its presence. Tension began to boil, there was a moment of silence, and someone finally asked, 'What do we do now?'

V stood up. 'I say we autoclave the rat and let it die!'

'No! There must be another way!' E spoke out of turn.

'Then tell me, what do you suggest?'

'We have to remove it alive, or the autoclave shall be but history!'

'Fine,' V reluctantly agreed. 'Livingmonolith, let's go.'

I stood up and put on my gloves. On our way towards the autoclave, I attempted to figure out other solutions. 'Can't we let it escape through the opening at the bottom of the machine?'

'No,' V replied calmly, 'the hole is just to small for it to make its escape. We will have to unscrew it nonetheless, to remove the water first.'

As we both stand in front of the autoclave, V finally asked, 'Are you ready for this?'

I took a deep breath, and replied, 'Let's do it.'

-The End-

p/s: No animals have been harmed or endangered in any way in this story.

the versatile gerrard

I just realized Steven Gerrard played as a striker yesterday, or at least that's what I read from the news lah. So that would mean he has officially played in everyone position except the goalkeeper for Liverpool.

Man, Carragher must be gutted Gerrard has taken over his 'versatile man' tag, hahaha...

Nothing else to post, other than Alonso had won for the second successive race, and Hafiz Hashim won the Thai Open. It's a great weekend for sports, and I can't really be bothered to post anything else.

my player of the day...

I think Igor Biscan is finally establishing himself as a cult hero at Anfield. 86th minute winner and 1 point behind Everton. Can it get any better? Well, of course it can, but for right now it'll do.

For someone who has so often find himself a target of abuse by the fans, Biscan has done himself justice by proving that he can compete as well as the rest of his colleagues. With Hamann and Alonso out, he has deputised with great consistency and played steady football. Not the best he is, but at least he played with his heart, and with that he's starting to win his herds of fans aplenty. And his goal celebration showed how much he cared for Liverpool.

Biscan may not survive Benitez's summer culling, but if Liverpool does qualify for the Champions League next season, fans like us can only look back and see what contributions this man, claimed to be Houllier's worst signing, had put in for the team in red.

Igor Biscan may not be the most gifted player, but I am sure by now he has earned some loyal fans of his own. Keep up the good work, and may you still be part of the Liverpool side come next August. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

tribute to my ex-coach

Back in primary school, I was in the school's handball team. Yes, I represented my school in a sport, you don't have to make those 'astonished' looks. But to be true, I think lady luck played a big part at that time.

Handball was pretty famous in my school, partly because there wasn't any basketball teams around, and the football team kicked dirt. Most of those who aspire to get into SMSS (the secondary school I originally enrolled into) would try their best to make it into this squad.

When our coach, Ms Roslin, selected 14 players for the first squad for training I was the 13th guy to be picked. That meant I was originally not in the squad (a normal handball squad only has 12 players) but was only selected so that we can train as 2 teams. I was slightly disappointed at first, knowing that when the competition arrives I will be sitting in the stands instead.

However, that didn't stop me from training hard. I arrived early for trainings and never missed any sessions. My coach probably noticed that and paid special attention to me and had me work out on my weaknesses. Eventually, after months of training, I just barely made it into the final squad as a backup leftback, with the jersey number 10.

I continued coming early for trainings and developed more in my tactical side (as my coach would call it, since I was not that 'well-built' for this sport) of the game. Under my coach's intensive practice sessions, my tactical awareness became one of the best in the squad. I was able to anticipate crosses, make interceptions, steals and blocks with ease my teammates called me 'sixth sense'.

When the Bangsar Zone MSSWP competition arrives, I had already made my way into the first team. I started every game and we won every single match including the final, conceding only 2 goals along the way. It was also the first time in my school's history that a sports team has managed to win a zone competition and represented the Bangsar Zone. It was the proudest moment for us, and the school called for a special assembly to award us the medals.

The MSSWP competition, however, was another story. Let's just say our fairy tale ended there and then.

Anyway, from this experience I've learnt that it doesn't matter whether you have what it takes to achieve greatness or not. Talent keeps you on top, but hardwork and determination brings you a step further ahead.

And all these would be beyond my reach if it wasn't for my coach. This is long overdue, but I would like to tell Ms Roslin Sidek how much I appreciated your dedication and guidance. Thank you for bringing the best out of me and for being a great coach.

my training...

Past few days were pretty exhausting. Never ending workload in the lab is killing me (the bloody plasmids I transformed wouldn't form colonies, damn those lowlives). I haven't even started reading the reference books I borrowed from my uni's library last Sunday.

Today, I feel like blogging about what I do for my current training program (so that you guys would stop asking me what do I actually do for my industrial training).

Okay, to start off, I am currently doing my practical in a laboratory which is generally on molecular cloning. What is molecular cloning, you ask? Heck, I don't really know, but from what I see here everyone's doing DNA recombinant for bacterial cells.

Now, the DNA recombinant thing. Basically, what I'm actually learning from the phD and Masters students here are mostly on how to extract plasmid or genomic contents from a desired cell, run several tests to confirm the DNA, culture some host cells, and transform the host cells by intergrating the plasmid or genomic composition I've extracted into them. That's 'basically'. In between, I've been learning quite a few tips on handling several bioequipment and machines I've never laid my hands on before, and this is really good hands-on experience for me.

Not that it's all fun though. I need to send in a schedule of my daily activities to my supervisor every Friday, and I had to spend countless hours doing research and making notes because genetics isn't really what I do back in my uni. However, I believe it's worth it, and definitely useful when I start my final year thesis project next semester. Besides, it's only a 2-month stint. And definitely safer than some coursemates of mine who are checking HIV positive blood samples for training *gasp*.

So there you have it, my industrial training.

Oh btw, I wanna share something funny. A coursemate of mine; who is undergoing training too, is doing data entry instead (what the hell?). I laughed like mad when I hear that. I wonder what is he going to write about when passing up the training report.

the brain thing (again?)

Wanted to post about the earthquake, but realized everyone's blogging the same thing.

Wanted to post about another awkward conversation which happened during work, but lazy to translate.

Wanted to post about the controversial commercial about the LRT issue, but misplaced my newspaper with the information I need.

Too tired to think, I'll just post what everyone else are posting:

You Are 50% Left Brained, 50% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

You see, that explains why I am right-handed but left-footed.

life, and several things to ponder...

Maybe God wanted us to meet the wrong people before meeting the right ones, so that when we finally meet them, we will know how to be grateful for the gift.

Maybe when the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often time we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.

Maybe the best kind of friends is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.

Maybe it is true that we don't know what we have got until we lose it, but it is also true that we don't know what we have been missing until it arrives.

Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. Don't expect love in return, just wait for it to grow in their heart, but if it does not, be content it grew in yours.

It only takes a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

Don't go for looks; they can deceive. Don't go for wealth, even that fades away. Go for someone who can make you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find people that make your heart smile.

There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real.

Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to keep you happy.

Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person too.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear.

The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past. You can't go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying while everyone around you were smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you're the one who is smiling, and everyone around you are crying.

Randomly selected quotes

what we believe...

I don't usually talk about religions because that's quite a sensitive issue to some. I was reading random blogs when I came across one which was ridiculing another belief, incidently, one that I can relate to, thus the entry of this post (this post has nothing to do with the other blog, it's just something that came into mind all of a sudden, therefore please don't feel offended by its provocative content). Please do not read if you think you'll be offended.

As you guys have already known, I'm an atheist. I can't remember how long I've been one, but I do remember I've never believed in God since the day I can think rationally (btw, Buddhism is a teaching, not religion). This is further concreted when I took up science, and more specifically, Biology, as my field of studies.

Believing that man evolved from apes is not something stupid. Although Darwin's Theory have several loopholes, at least it offers some kind of logical explanation, if not the real deal. To me, that is quite fitting for my question as to why am I existing the way I am now.

I can tolerate jokes regarding religions, but please don't go overboard. Atheism isn't a religion, true, but there's no reason to ridicule. If you ask me, I believe I'm leading a better life as a person compared to a lot who claimed they are followers of God. I don't need a God to make myself do good deeds, I do good deeds because I want to. At least occasionally I'll be wishing that the world will no longer have wars, instead of those who go to temples and pray for their own wealth. If you say I'm gonna go to hell for not believing in Him despite all the kindness I've shown, then the hell, off to hell I am. I don't give a damn about it. If heaven is full of people like you, I would consider it a blessing to be in hell.

Secondly, please do not ridicule the possibilities of evolution. You hear it everyday, new species of animals and plants and whatever living organisms are discovered everyday. Did God send them? No, it's because of evolution. Whether you like it or not, evolution is happening. And it doesn't happen overnight. It's because of the selective breeding due to the survival of the fittest. Giraffes don't have long necks just because they want to stretch and reach for leaves on top of trees. It's because giraffes with longer necks can survive better since they can suit to the environment. So how difficult is it to accept that we share the same ancestors with apes? If anything, I find the son of God living on earth even harder to believe. Btw, I'm the second incarnation of Emperor Shih Huang Ti.

I have a question to ask. Have anyone ever met God?

You don't have to answer me though. I'm not really interested to know unless you can bring Him out for lunch with me, preferably during the weekends.

I do not blame the blogger for putting up such posts, he probably didn't think it is a big deal. Besides, it can raise a productive and healthy discussion. I'd also like to add that I think Harun Yahya is an idiot, and his scientifically-proven arguments are immature. But I guess you can find similar comments in the blogger's haloscan.

I still respect other religions. I am only asking you not to insult what I believe in. I apologize if I've offended anyone in any way. Please don't send me death threats.

i'm the shy shy type one lah...

I had a drink last night with an old friend I got to know back in my first year's orientation week. Okay, not exactly 'old friend', but I haven't met her for more than a year, so you know what I mean. She suddenly messaged me out of the blue and being a good friend, I asked her out for supper late last night after her Easter celebration.

We were practically talking non-stop since we haven't met for so long. Most topics were non-relevant; her sisters, my siblings, coffees, hairstyle, microbes, whatever that came into mind. Somewhere along we ended up discussing about blood donations and crap stuff like that, and she told me how tiring it is to donate blood 'twice' in a week. I was dumbstruck. How do you get to donate blood twice a week?

She told me she had period a few days after her blood donation.

I don't know about you guys, but that puts me in a very awkward situation. I mean, I'm generally quite conservative, and I don't discuss about menstruations, pms, or things like that with friends, more so with girls. I know lah I'm strange, but it makes me uncomfortable. It was like putting a fullstop to our talk and I didn't know how to pick up the conversation thereafter.

She went on and on about that for quite a while before I had to stop her and told her to talk about something else.

This sorta reminded me of something which happened last month, when I had just moved into my rented house with my friends. I washed my clothes and hanged them out in the sun one day, only to find them gone in the evening. I was wondering what happened to my clothes when I walked into my housemate's room and found that she was folding my clothes. Fine, that looks pretty normal at first, but she's doing the same thing with my underwear! That totally freaked me out. I know, I know, I'm weird, but I just can't accept my friends from the opposite gender helping me folding my underwear. That, to me, is even weirder. I thanked her and had to politely tell her to leave those chores to myself next time.

I'm pretty shy and conservative when it comes to private stuffs like these. What to do, I'm easily embarassed mah.

Anyway, we brought up this topic out of amusement when we were having a steamboat party last Friday, and to my horror that friend of mine can actually sort out the underwears of my other housemates. Now I know one of my roommates wears Renoma, and the other one wears Hush Puppies. Then there's another guy who wears 'S' size.

See what kind of embarassment it can get you into?

Thank goodness she didn't continue helping me out with my chores.

a conversation at the workplace

This conversation happened today back in the lab where I am currently undergoing my training:

Tutor 1: So where do you actually stay?
Me: Cheras.
Tutor 2: Oh, so you're from KL lah?
Me: Yeah...
Tutor 1: Both your parents are from KL?
Me: No, my mom's from Seremban. Why?
Tutor 1: Oh, so you're from the peninsular...
Me: Uh huh, I think I would have some recollection if I'm not born in KL...(starting to feel weird)
Tutor 2: Then your father's a Chinese?
Me: Yeah...
Tutor 2: Your mother?
Me: Chinese too.
Tutor 1: Like that you're not of mixed parentage lah?
Me: I look like one?
Tutor 2: We thought you're from Sabah or Sarawak cuz, I don't know lah, your face looks like you're from there.
Me: Oh, ok... (don't know what else to say)

Darn, must be the broken Malay slang...

how true...

You scored as atheism. You are... an atheist, though you probably already knew this. Also, you probably have several people praying daily for your soul.

Instead of simply being "nonreligious," atheists strongly believe in the lack of existence of a higher being, or God.

atheism		92%
Satanism		79%
agnosticism		79%
Buddhism		63%
Judaism		58%
Islam		54%
Paganism		54%
Christianity		38%
Hinduism		21%

Which religion is the right one for you? (new version)
created with QuizFarm.com

Didn't have time to blog, so just posting some crap here.

friends forever

Just only the first day of work, and I'm already feeling homesick.

But don't get me wrong, I'm not those mummy' boy type.

What I meant was, having gone through one day at a job which I am planning to put my foot in has brought plenty of flashbacks in my life. It makes me think, after I graduate next year (hopefully), will everything around me remain the same?

Will I hang out mamaking as often with my old buddies, driving all the way to Kajang at midnight to taste some delicious satays?

Will I be playing football with my friends as often as I do now?

What about those memorable trips I had with my old buddies and uni friends?

I regret holding back so often in the past, and missed all the fun I should be having. If I can turn back time I swear I will ditch aside the reputation and principles I hold so dearly, and make the most out of what I have.

But what has been shall remain has been. Though I can't do anything to change that, I know there's a lot I can savour from what's remaining. I now know what I want to do. After these 8 weeks of training, I'll make the best out of my final year in uni and enjoy every moment of it. And bless me, let this be the most glorious time of my life so that the beautiful memories I share with so many wonderful individuals can be carried along with me till the day I die.

'Friends forever' is such a short phrase, and often misused. Isn't it ironic how meaningful it really means when you just stare right into those two words?

You've never heard me say this before, but I love you guys.

Liverpool 2-1 Everton

I'm stupid to be awake at times like these, having to report at work at 8 in the morning, but I'll never miss a derby match like this one.

Screw the Bluenoses, Liverpool won the match, and did so with 10 men!

To be honest, Everton put up a lively performance, and Baros definitely deserved that red card (I would've asked him to leave the pitch anyway after watching him miss 2 one-on-ones with the keeper, what rotten luck), and Cahill scored a fabulous goal near the end.

That aside, Liverpool's injury jinx doesn't look to be ending anytime soon. Derby debutant Warnock had to leave 20 minutes into the game after a 50-50 challenge with Cahill, Hamann and Morientes looked to have some bad injuries and were subbed in the first half, and Garcia had to play more than half the match in pain. I mean, 15 nasty and clumsy fouls by the Blues and all they get is 4 yellow cards? Liverpool made only one crazy challenge and Milan's off to the dressing room for an early bath.

That's about all I wanna say, since we got the three points anyway. Champions' League spot, here we come!

exams out, training in

Just finished my last paper at 5pm yesterday, had a football game right after that to cure my itchy legs, a steamboat party with my housemates(photos coming up as soon as I get them), stayed up all night going out for drinks with friends from campus, watched 'Shutter' and fell asleep doing so, packed my stuff in the morning, got home around 3 something, slept through the evening, and finally here I am back to blogging.

So, what's up people?

There aren't a lot for me to blog about, since I was isolated from civilization for the past couple of weeks, so the only thing I can keep you guys updated about is my industrial training. Heck, I've only received my offer letter on Monday after 4 bloody months of waiting, and I'm off to another local uni for training. For 4 months you'd think I'd deserved to be in some big research organization or private companies but no, now I have to cover all my expenditures using my own pocket money. How sad. But still better than having to extend one semester just for these 3 pathetic credit hours. Well, you gain some, you lose some (in this case, I kinda lose quite a lot of 'some' financially).

And right after my training, I'll be moving back to PJ and start early on my thesis. Dr Lani's quite a great chap, she allowed us to get access to her labs during the holiday so I guess I can spend some of my free time mingling with my coursmates' projects, hahaha...

8 weeks of training, here I come!

p/s: Btw, I've been having difficulty posting comments on you guys' blogs, I don't know why. Just wondering if it's just me or are you guys having the same problem.

lost

Had a very horrible nightmare which startled me awake, and I couldn't fall back into sleep. So here I am, blogging again.

Let's just say I wanted to travel to this special destination. I was waiting for a suitable cab that would take me to that special place. A cab stopped and I got in. Then I saw another passenger in the cab, on his way to another destination. I got off from the cab, because I know the cab won't bring me to the place that I wanted to go. The cab already has another destination, and it wouldn't be fair to pick up another passenger along the way.

So there I was again, back waiting at the taxi stand, hoping another cab would turn up, a cab which will take me to where I wanted to go. I've waited for so long I can't remember, and when I had just made up my mind to give up, a cab turned up. This time, I made sure there wasn't any other passengers before I step into the cab. Initially, I thought this was it, my ticket to the special destination I had wanted to go to, and my heart was filled with so much happiness I can feel colourful butterflies flying inside of me.

But some things aren't meant to be when it was never meant to be. After a short distance, the cab stopped and picked up another passenger. I was devastated. It only took me a short while to decide to leave and wait for another cab. But I soon realize, that I've left my wallet in the cab. And I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. Without my wallet, how am I supposed to board another cab, anymore?

I did not ask for a lot. I only hope that the cab would turn back and return me my wallet. Or the least, give me a call to tell me you've left with my wallet and you can't return it, so that I would stop thinking about it, and work to earn enough money to buy a new one. Just don't leave me waiting here in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the same cab to come back, waiting for an explanation.

Suppose I will never come across the same cab again, then would that mean I will never board another cab anymore?

I don't know, and for now, I don't even think I care anymore.

Well, that wasn't the nightmare which kept me awake until dawn but rather, something related to it. It was just so terrible I felt like my heart was ripped out from my chest and was torn into little pieces. I never thought I will describe it in such a way, but yeah, that perfectly describes the feeling I am feeling now.

Funny how the exam blues can get me into such moody modes. Dang.

of blood and blog

Two totally different topics, sorry for the misleading title.

Anyway, came back for the weekend because my roomate's family came to town, and he needed a room to stay for the night before his mother goes for her checkup in University Hospital later in the morning today.

Speaking of hospitals, went for my routine blood donation on Friday and found out that the hospital's running low on O-type blood. Not sure if there's any readers at all here, but if there are any of you readers out there who somehow accidentally stumbled upon my blog and saw this post, I am now pleading you to show a little kindness and donate some blood to help save some lives.

Imagine the joy of a mother crying her eyes out knowing her daughter, who had been a hit and run victim, can be rescued because a kind-hearted man donated his blood.

Picture a 5-year old child sitting on the floor outside the intensive care unit waiting for his daddy, not knowing his father is in critical condition and losing huge amount of blood.

Think what miracles this world can give you, when your most beloved one is lying there motionless in the operation room needing the extremely rare O-negative blood supply, and then the nurse walked in and said a good samaritan has just provided enough blood to save the most important person in your life.

A friend once told me,

'if you can't do great things, you can do small things in a great way.'

This is the greatest small thing you can do.

----------------

Regarding the second topic, well, not really sure what's happening in the blogsphere recently, but two of the blogs I frequently visit had announced that they are considering quitting blogging, for good. I don't know the reasons behind the controversy, but I wanted to say that I will support their decisions, whatever it will be.

Blogging used to be a fun hobby.

It sure doesn't look fun anymore.