Wynn @ Real World; ChinWynn.com @ World Wide Web

Lesson to be Learnt

2011-03-04T21:24:00.001+08:00

After one whole week of studying in Taylor’s Lakeside Campus, I have learned a very valuable lesson. It has been awkward being questioned and stared throughout the week because of my return to Malaysia. What’s more was when the lecturers said something indirectly related to me, everybody gave me the look.

I admit that I felt inferior due to my return that most people perceive it as a failure of being able to adapt to the overseas environment. It is difficult going through these times when I have to face this fact and carry on with my life. Now I know what does it mean when I studied Business and Society and they said that begging is work. This is because a beggar needs to face the humiliation that the public perceives of him/her when begging for money. It is a difficult task trying to overcome that humiliation and feeling of inferiority.

I know I am exaggerating my situation. But I did learn something from here. I should not look down on those who did not do well in their studies. I admit that I may sometimes have overlooked this and have this mindset. The fact that I felt inferior because of this is evidence that I had this stereotype. If I do not have this perception, I wouldn’t have felt so inferior of studying back in Malaysia.

From now on, I have learnt my lesson and I will not look down on those who perform poorly in their studies. People should always be given second chances and me as well. I’ll show the world what I am capable of!

Life is Never Miserable When You Have A Goal

2011-01-14T17:51:00.001+08:00

To solve some of your confusion, I officially announce that I am coming back to Taylor’s to study for my final year of Bachelor of Applied Finance.

This might sound absolutely astounding, ridiculous, irrational or whatever you call it, but it is my decision and I believe that I will be better off back in Malaysia.

Yes, I am an MACC Scholarship recipient and I have a contract which binds me to study there for 2 years. But I have appealed to University of South Australia and I am very grateful, till today, that they understand my reasons and approved my appeal.

No, I did not fail my subjects nor did I do badly in my exams throughout the whole year of studies in Adelaide. In fact, I got High Distinctions for most of my courses; and that may make you wonder more why I chose to come back.

I won’t be telling my reasons so soon, and I don’t want to answer to these sort of questions in the meantime. So please don’t bother asking me! But I promise that you will know everything about it once I’m ready. That is the Goal that I’m working towards now.

This video says it all, especially the chorus:

Back From An Adelaide Dream

2010-12-11T01:24:00.001+08:00

It’s been awhile since I last blog, which was before the exams when I started thrusting all I have to reach out for the best grades. And now I did it! I am really amazed with how miracles work sometimes, and I am deeply grateful with the blessing from God.

I THANK GOD FOR REWARDING MY HARD EFFORT WITHOUT FAIL EVERY TIME!

It really is worthwhile going through all the pain when others were enjoying, as the end result is always pleasant for those who are hardworking.

Being the less than 1% of students to score in HD’s in most of the subjects I’m taking does indeed give me some sense of achievement.

Kangaroo Island
After exams, I went to KI at South Australia with my friends, namely Shu Yi, Vernon, Nai Loong, Victor, Chi Hui, Kel Li and Jennifer. It was one of the best trips I ever had because I really let go all my despair and misery throughout the 4 days 3 nights retreat over there.

Jennifer, you are really a hilarious person which awakened the cheerful personality within myself. That was the first time I actually let go everything without any control, and I did played and laughed all I wanted to without feeling embarrassed or retarded. I will always remember you so that I can look things at a more positive and cheerful perspective.

Shu Yi, I am amazed with your dual personality as you can be serious at times when handling problems, but you do also have your crazy side as well. You have all these while been a very helpful friend, and I know that is what you do best. Your kindness and potential will surely be blessed. I promise that I will meet up with you whenever we have the chance because you are as good as a sister to me. I really thanked you for accompanying me in going through all the difficult times in Adelaide.

Escort to Airport
I have to really thank all those who came along with me to the airport before I depart to Kuala Lumpur. I really appreciate Vernon, Vincent (Vernon’s younger brother), Nai Loong and Shu Yi.

Vernon, you are another guy that I will never be able to forget. A lamester is what you can be known as, alongside your younger brother, Vincent. Both of you have really many similar personalities. I really enjoyed my time spent with both of you. When there’s the V’s, there’s no such thing as “boredom” anymore. Life is awesome with you around seriously.

Nai Loong, of all people in Adelaide, you were the one who helped me the most. Most of the cooking has been done by you when we were all busy preparing for exams. You were the one who helped me packed my stuff and carried on with the things I need to leave in Adelaide. You were also the one who took me to the Royal Adelaide Hospital when I was in severe condition; you waited for that whole day till I was discharged from the hospital. You were the one who expressed loads of concern with my mood and health, though it might have become excessive in my opinion which I sometimes don’t really enjoy. I cannot deny that I do owe you due to your immense helpfulness. You will always be my close friend.

Farewell Adelaide
Memories of the people who expressed much concern and helped me will always remain in my heart. Su Ling, Jeffrey, Eric, Michelle Chin, and all my friends, thanks for being a friend to me and lightened my loneliness. We might never be able to meet again but all of you have already became part of my heart.

I dare say that Your appearance in my life is significant to me!

No More Facebook For Me!

2010-11-01T13:21:00.001+08:00

Probably this is the page that you will visit next after you find out my disappearance in Facebook.

Yes, I have deactivated my Facebook account so that I can fully concentrate on my final exams.

My discipline level is extremely low and I have poor concentration span on studies. I will need to boost it up and give in all I can to secure my ultimate goal of this semester – 2 High Distinctions and 2 Distinctions.

Though it may be difficult to achieve, I will fully utilise the time and ability I have to put a smile on my face on 11th December.

I’ll be back to Malaysia on 9th December 9pm if you would want to know.

See ya!

Exam Fever

2010-10-16T18:44:00.001+08:00

Looks like everyone is busy with their studies now, with the exception of PMR students. High school friends are having their final examination, and SPM friends are waiting impatiently for their biggest exams after their trials. In my case, I have only 27 days left before my finals commence.

Ever since I fell sick during the mid-semester break, I haven’t been able to catch up with my studies. I haven’t been so unprepared before throughout my whole tertiary studies. I will definitely need to put in ten times the effort compared to last semester due to all the tough subjects that I am taking.

However, I can’t believe that I am going down the hill as the war draws in nearer. I am becoming lazier and less discipline compared to ever before. I even left my Companies and Partnership Law assignment to be dealt completely on the due date. I rather sit down chit-chatting with friends on the night before the due date till 3am than starting my 1,500 words case analysis.

Now, I am even further tempted by the Play Station emulator that I have recently downloaded onto my laptop. I started playing back all my old games like Chocobo Racing, Digimon Rumble Arena, Digimon Card Battle, etc all on my laptop. This really delays my attempt to catch up with my studies.

Hence, now I have come to a resolution to resist all temptations. I really need to commit myself if I want to succeed. It is me and myself who should realise what is the meaning of time is drawing to an end.

I hereby wish everyone who will be having their major and end of year exams all the best, and may everyone win!

DJ Got Us Falling Sick Again

2010-09-22T21:52:00.001+08:00

Is it just me or what? Why do I always fall sick when the holidays start?

Stupid me for shouting my throat out during the karaoke session on Monday. I didn’t know 6 hours of back-to-back singing aka shouting can have such disastrous effects. I just wanted it to be worth the money. Is that too much to ask for?

5 days have passed and I have not touched a single book related to studies. I feel so unproductive, lying on the bed or staring in front of my beloved laptop from day to night. I just have no energy to do anything. I can even barely walk on the streets without my body shivering vigorously.

Just when I’m mentally strong, I become physically weak. When will I only be able to focus completely on my well left-behind studies?

Young Again

2010-09-18T20:07:00.001+08:00

Recently, I have been stressed up with the immense workload targeting me from all directions. The main thing is my studies which I have failed to cope up with ever since I had been tested with completing 4 assignments in 5 days. It was quite long ago, but I didn’t get the chance to chase all the tutorial works that I missed out till now.

And then just a week ago, I have been appointed as the Vice President of UniSA Division of Business Taylor’s Student Group (TSG) after an official procedures of submitting a resume and going for an interview by Kelvin and Vernon. The past week was full of meetings because the new committee was still under the probationary period and every department is required to organise meetings so that they can come up with their proposals. By attending those meetings, I admit that I have lost touch with plenty of my tutorials and readings.

Finally what I have been waiting for has come, the holidays! Thank God we UniSA students have 2 weeks of study break compared to the 1 week break when I was still in Taylor’s.

And most of all, I managed to release a whole load of stress by making a move in solving a personal matter which have troubled me all these while. I am really proud of myself for gathering up the courage to face this matter where an average person would find it extremely difficult to do so. Although my problem is not completely solved, I have at least let go some of my suicidal concerns.

Just a few days ago, I have been telling Su Ling and Michelle Chin Yoke Peng (my new friend who shares the same name with my 5th aunt and also the facial appearance) that I realised myself looking older by 10 years after having a stare at the mirror. It was all those stress that was causing this. But today, I see myself young again probably because of the optimism filled within me.

A big change has just happened to me, and I’m glad that it did. I promise myself to keep my spirits high and push myself beyond the current limit!

Stuck in the Toilet Cubicle

2010-09-09T23:26:00.001+08:00

After more than a month of pause from updating my blog, I finally get to write something “interesting”. For the first time in my life, I got locked up in a toilet cubicle at the University of South Australia City West Campus Hawke Building.

It started with me entering into a cubicle and realising that the door lock was not working too well. I thought to myself that it doesn’t matter because after all, I never experienced climbing out of a cubicle before like in the action movies. So I just twitched the lock and locked the door. After finishing what I needed to do, I turned back and tried to unlock the door.

As expected, it didn’t work! Oh like a dream come true. I know I was insane to celebrate locking myself in the cubicle. (I am out of my mind these days because of personal matters haunting me day and night.) Then I called my friend, Victor Lam to help me out by passing my school bag and jacket to him. After that, I started climbing by pushing myself up and jumping into the next cubicle while other people started staring at me.

Okay, story ended after I finished imitating Evelyn Salt! So much for trying to direct a movie named Smoke in relation to Salt.

The End of My Birth-Month

2010-08-01T01:47:00.001+08:00

Since the Japanese buffet till the last day I was in Malaysia, my life had never been so hectic before. And the worst thing is that it is not hectic because of work, but because of too busy enjoying fun.

From my Facebook photo album – The Inception of Wynn’s 19th Birth-Month, it is obvious that I have been maximising every single second I have in my hometown with most of my friends.

Birthday Eve Party (14/7)

The best of all was still the birthday eve party organised by Alex Loh and attended by most of my Business Foundation classmates and some of my UniSA friends. Special thanks to all who spent their precious time crazing with me at my house. I shall name out all your honourable names – Alex Loh, Shan Lung, Brian Chong, Teong Jin, Nicole Chua, Shu Wen, Wei Qi (who drove for 2 hours just to get to my party), Kar Mun, Tien Jiun, Billy Ooi, Ching Yee, Vandy Ho, Nai Loong, Jocelyn Teo, and Shao Xian.

Once again, thank you all 15 of you! You really gave me the best birthday in my life!! Sorry if I wasn’t a really good host on that day. And I wasn’t moody on that day, if that’s what some of you were thinking. I was just too busy answering phone calls and trying to help everyone as much as possible which made me over-occupied.

Actual Birthday Nightmare (15/7)

It started of with lunch at SS15 Uncle Seng together with Victor Lam. After that, I spent the afternoon with Teong Jin, Brian Chong, Shan Lung, Benjamin Michael and Alex Loh at the SS14 curry chicken rice shop and JS cyber cafe playing Left For Dead 2. Evening was well spent at Brian’s house. It was really a pleasure to go to his home, and I seriously hope he stops feeling inferior about it. At night was when nightmare began to approach me. It was still alright when I went out with Brian to SS2 night market along with Nai Loong, the non-stop talkative Vandy, and Jenn Shyang (not related to the JS cyber cafe). Brian had to leave after that, and we went on with Mong Kok for dinner and KTS for dessert nearby. It was not really all that fun as Jenn Shyang wasn’t really into himself that night and Vandy just practically made me real exhausted with all the arguing. And the worst finally came when I got back to my car parked at SS15. The bird shits all over the car was nothing new to me, but the tar that stuck on my shoe really gave me a hell as it is not removable. That really gave my beloved sport shoes a long-term scar. And I have to beg Nai Loong and Vandy to stop laughing about it.

Post-Birthday Celebration (16/7)

I went over to my high school, SMK Kota Kemuning during the morning. Surprisingly, it was the teachers who wished me happy birthday instead of my friends. I collected my 1119 certificate which was 3 years old by now. Unfortunately, I only got to see few friends there as their recess time was over when I finished my stuff. But I’m still glad to meet my old pal, Yang Siong, and introduced myself to Wen Kiat who was so excited, as well as Shine Shawne.

Friday night was when I spent time with two of my besties, Boon Kuang and Chun Yeen. To be honest, I did sense some changes within both of them. And that’s what happens commonly among teenagers who just left high school and enter college. It’s a bit pity that we had so little time to chit chat compared to the old days where we can talk forever. I admit that it is my fault for being so busy and having so little time back home. But I promised I will spend more time with you all again. So we did at least went to watch Predator which is such a predictable movie. I shall skip the awkward side-clubbing part. And then, we went for foosball at Asia Cafe till 3am plus. This just made my parents even upset after all the parties and hang-outs.

Full Day Post-Birthday Celebration with Taylorians (17/7)

So this was my first karaoke session outside home after being back from Australia. The singing gang included Billy, Yee Von and Jenn Shyang. We all made full use of all the time we had before Inception. Singing with Yee Von did bring me back a lot of memories of those times we sang when we were still in Business Foundation. An example is my high-pitch voice of singing F.I.R’s 月牙湾 (Yue Ya Wan) and funky songs like DA Mouth’s 国王皇后 (King and Queen).

Inception is the best movie I’ve ever watched so far this year! It extended my ideas of our creativity can go beyond reality. Besides them, Shao Xian, Vandy and Nai Loong also joined in for the movie.

After that, I met Sharon Tan at the toilet corridor. It really was nice seeing her again after so long. Then, we went to Bon Odori which I personally didn’t really enjoy it due to the excessively crowded place. Jocelyn joined us for that, and I did see some familiar faces around there. We then ended up in Asia Cafe for supper as most of us did not ate anything throughout the night. Billy and Yee Von were the popular ones as if the whole Asia Cafe customers are theirs friends. Since we didn’t really get to talk much throughout the day, I ended up with a long telephone conversation with Jenn Shyang which broke another record of the longest telephone conversation.

Birthday Celebration with Family/Relatives (18/7)

In the morning, I got a call from Mei San and she said that she would be staying in Subang for another day till the next morning. But sadly, I am still not able to meet up with her for this holiday due to my packed schedule of fun.

In the afternoon, I had another birthday celebration with my Kota Kemuning friends organised by Cassandra Leow. I have to thank those who came to the Pizza Hut lunch who included Cassandra, Samantha, Jonathan, Lai Yenn, Jing Yi, Pui Quan, Wen Ting, Wen Han, Amanda Leou, and my sister. The after party was even fun when we headed over to Herbaline for photo-shooting session at the dance studio in front of the big mirror and on the beautiful bed. After that, some of us managed to have some final fun by playing Elefun and Cluedo at Cassie’s house.

Night time was spent with my relatives as we had our dinner at home. I got to spent some good time with my uncle, aunts and cousins, as well as my family who I have been neglecting for quite some time.

Not Much of A Birthday at HSBC Puchong (19/7)

It’s such a nice feeling to see all my ex-colleagues again together with Teoh Jacson. Some people are not there anymore and new faces are seen. I really love that place as they all are really friendly and kind. I ended up not spending a single cent as they treated me for all the food even if it’s eating lunch twice with two gangs. I really missed all of you!

Birthday Karaoke Session (21/7)

After lunch, I took Elsa Lam and Meng Jiun over to Sunway Pyramid for karaoke! The last time with Yee Von was at Amp Square and it was good. This time was at Red Box. I met Elsa’s friend, Kelly Khoo who was so excited with singing her songs. We took well a lot of videos of each other singing. And I’m surprised that Meng Jiun has a professional DSLR camera. It’s one of the best singing sessions with all the latest Chinese songs and some English songs at the end of it. We went over to Kim Gary after that for light dinner. My friendship with these 2 would last long despite not much common topics, I’m pretty sure.

Birthday Work Around Subang Jaya (22/7)

After cutting my hair again, I went for pork noodles at SS15 with Alex, Siew Fen, Sher Li, Yang Shiuan, Billy, Jacson, Teong Jin and Lye Kuan. It felt so awesome to see all of them once again. They are well-known as the elite team in Taylor’s of my batch, and probably now among all the educational institutions around Malaysia. Who knows what they will be in the future? Well, they are fun to hang out with although I didn’t get to do it last time.

Work has to be done, and I bought my textbook at UBS Bookstore, completed the Clearance Form at Taylor’s Lakeside Campus, bought a speaker from my dad’s supplier at USJ 1, and went home before cooking started.

Final Day of Birthday Fun (23/7)

For lunch, I went over to HSBC at Damansara Heights with Jacson to meet up with our internship mentor, Norman Chuah who is now managing there. He treated us Pizza Hut and he is still as friendly as last time. I believe his potential would lead him far into the bright future.

After thanking Jacson for the ride all the way there and back to Subang, I headed over to Sunway Pyramid to meet up with Vandy and Jocelyn for one last time since they missed me so much, oops! We snapped many “SS” pictures as there wouldn’t be much chance after that anymore.

Back to Reality (24/7)

This is the day I went back to Adelaide. It is tough saying goodbye to all my friends and families once again. But not as tough as the first time I left them. Well, and this was how my birth-month ended.

Guess what, problems eventuate again after fun ended as expected. This is how I live in Adelaide. But this time, I will try to make things different!

Haunted by the Malaysian-ness

2010-07-12T01:20:00.001+08:00

Throughout the week, I got so “fortunate” to experience those things that I have been missing for the past 5 months.

The first one was getting stuck in a traffic jam surrounded by big trucks and lorries on a road under construction. The second one was getting a chewing gum stuck under my shoe, and I only realised it after I got home when there were so many stones sticking onto it. The third one wasn’t that bad, but it’s getting my head stuck with the same few songs that were repeatedly playing in every radio stations. Surprisingly, all the Malaysian-ness just loved sticking so much.

These songs are slightly out of the mind:

Travie McCoy – Billionaire featuring Bruno Mars (if you’re so desperate to be a billionaire, why don’t you just fly over to Zimbabwe and automatically you will be a billionaire, no problem at all)
Justin Bieber – Somebody to Love featuring Usher (don’t you have your parents to love, unless you are so pathetic to not have any)

This weekend was great!

Friday – spent the whole day with Vandy Ho, Jocelyn Teo and Nai Loong, and occasionally with Nicholas Yong, Brian Chong, Shin Yi, Teong Jin, Lye Kuan, Sim Ee and her new boyfriend, Ian. We continuously travelled all around our areas from Fish Head Noodles at Kuchai Lama, to Bah Kut Teh (Teluk Pulai) at Klang, Aeon Bukit Tinggi, Botanic Garden, Amanda Leou’s house, Red Bread Basket at Kota Kemuning, and Kota Permai Golf Country Club. I have never been to so many places in one day in my life before.
Saturday – spent the afternoon with Jamie Tang and Ming Soon playing Soul Caliber 3 in my house, and the night celebrating Wen Han’s surprise birthday party at his house. I’m so glad to see the gang again although it wasn’t complete with only Cassandra Leou, Samantha Leou, Jonathan Leou, Lai Yenn, Jing Yi, Kok Ming and Pui Quan. I’m also real glad to see Peik Shyuan after some time, and meet the Joshua’s in town. We really had some great fun playing iPhone games that night.
Sunday – spent the whole afternoon with my family and relatives (Wei Yan and Wei Li, and their parents) at Midori, Marriott Hotel, Putrajaya having a non-stop Japanese lunch for about 3 hours. Oh how I love the sashimi!! And I immediately put on 3 kg after that (Okay, I have been continuously putting on plenty of weight since I came back :). Finally, I get to visit Sunway Pyramid for the first time ever since I got back and managed to do a great deal of shopping to stock up my empty closet in Malaysia.

Let’s just hope I get to settle some serious stuff while enjoying my stay at Malaysia. It would be a busy week, I can say.

Home Sweet Home

2010-07-06T00:12:00.001+08:00

I can’t stress how much I loved my home, although there are many things which are different now. I finally get to sleep in my bedroom I longed for, the one where I will immediately feel sleepy once I enter it.

I also get to finally touch my beloved PS2 which I didn’t even have a chance to see it for almost half a year. I got to finish some games for the sake of accomplishment before I leave it again.

And my cute white Myvi too. I thought I would have forgotten how to drive after walking for so long in Adelaide. I only got the chance to sit in a car twice in Adelaide so far, and I wasn’t even the one driving. It’s really good to be carrying myself wherever I like to go again. I can’t believe how fast my memories just sip into my brain again, and in a few seconds, all my good and bad habits of driving came back again.

Lastly but the best of all, I get to eat some real Malaysian food. I am sure that is the thing I missed the most when I was away. Things can’t get any better with such nice food whether it’s at home or outside! I’m just glad to be back. I even put on 2kg in one day after I got back!!

On the other hand, I have to stop myself from being so greedy. I shouldn’t miss my life in Adelaide. It is obvious that I cannot be in two places at once, I got to remind myself of the meaning of opportunity cost. I have to forgo the moments I can spend with my dearest friends in Adelaide so that I can enjoy my part here. I hope it would really be worthwhile coming back over for such a short period.

Return

2010-07-04T03:23:00.001+08:00

Now I have finally returned home safe and sound. It is indeed good to be back, even if it’s just 3 weeks.

I was really looking forward to this initially, but not anymore when it comes to farewells. Sometimes, I even thought of not coming back so that I don’t need to encounter so many farewells. The feeling of missing people is so hard and painful. I wouldn’t need to experience so much of that if I don’t travel back and fro.

A world without family would make friends so much more important and valuable. And when I leave that world, my heart felt like being pierced by a thousand swords as I think about those friends every once in a while. I dare say Shu Yi, Jeffrey and Eric, I wouldn’t have been alive right now if it wasn’t for you all. Spending my memories with you all did helped to distract me from some of my problems. But now that we’re separated, I just realised I need to be more independent in facing my problems.

I have to admit that what I missed most in Adelaide is those magical moments that I spent with you three, and Su Ling. I just hope that our friendship can remain strong despite the absence of each other.

I guess I just need to force myself to keep looking at the bright side. I am back home to enjoy with my family, relatives and all my beloved friends. I will leave those emotions of missing you all till I get back to Adelaide. After all, it’s not like “you’re gonna miss me when I’m gone”.

Not Football Fever, But Exam Fever

2010-06-15T02:37:00.001+08:00

My first ever final examination in Adelaide is just 1 week away. I am trying my best to race with time and hopefully, I can win it by finish revising everything before the exams.

Long-hours studying really causes some side-effects on me. I get so emotional after that, and pessimism just sips into my fragile heart. This hasn’t been the first time, and the main cause of it is always me being “last minute”. If I hadn’t always leave a subject till the end to prepare for, I wouldn’t be so suicidal.

1st semester – Introduction to Management
2nd semester – Introduction to Law
3rd semester – Communication and Information Systems in Business

These are the subjects that made me forgo all others and I always spend the whole study break going all-out for it. Now, things just get worse when this 3rd semester subject is a combination of two textbooks – Communications & Information Systems. Usually, people study both of them separately, and now I am studying it in less than 2 weeks.

What’s more is that every time I am preparing for examinations, there would be some distractions which makes me sidetrack from revision. The first semester was the Astro Star Quest 2009 which I was so enthusiastic with, and I spent the whole revision period managing Alvin Chong Fan Club – www.alvinchong.forumotion.com. The second semester wasn’t too bad with some events by Taylor’s Accounting Club. Now the third semester just gives another blast with Kelvin Yeoh’s Taylor’s Students Support Group. I am part of the committee and here I am again creating a forum– www.tssg.infodiscussion.net.

Let’s just hope that the end result would be the same as the previous semesters. Good luck to everyone preparing for exams!

Tea Tree Plaza - Adelaide’s Shopping Heaven

2010-06-07T20:37:00.001+08:00

Yesterday, I spent the whole day at Tea Tree Plaza, a shopping mall in Adelaide, with Vernon, Shu Yi and Eric. It’s been three to four months since I’ve stepped into a shopping complex. Memories of Sunway Pyramid and Mid Valley swept by every step I took into the multi-storey indoor complex.

Another AU$15 was spent on a movie ticket. This time, it’s Prince of Persia. Luckily, it did not disappoint me. I’m satisfied with the story overall although everything seems so predictable to me.

As winter drops by officially now, I am being pressured into a treasure hunt for winter wear. What’s more is that sales are everywhere! But sales only meant that prices are reasonable in Ringgit sense. This makes shopping hard as I always find myself stuck in the centre between nice but expensive clothes and cheap but awful clothes. I have not much time left before I turn into an ice-stick. This will prove to be a difficult challenge when I now have 13 more days to exams.

Su Ling’s Birthday Celebration

2010-06-04T03:00:00.001+08:00

For the past 2 days, I have been busy preparing and celebrating my best friend’s, Su Ling’s, birthday. Her friends and I gave her a surprise party at her apartment during midnight of her actual birthday. This is not the first time we give surprise birthdays to our friends. But it certainly is fun. The feeling is certainly satisfying when I see her so happy and touched with what her friends and I prepared for her, such as inviting friends and planning for the celebration. It is indeed really rare that I have this satisfaction derived from other people’s happiness, and this is one of them.

I just went to Glenelg, a town beside the beach, to have a buffet dinner in conjunction with the celebration. Time really passed so fast during happy moments. But I don’t know why my emotions just changed to the opposite once it ended. I guess my time is up; it is a better decision to concentrate on preparing for my exams which is in 2 weeks time.

Assignment Danger

2010-06-01T23:07:00.001+08:00

I have finally finished all my assignment for this semester, with the finishing touch on Quantitative Methods in Business.

Bad things have been happening recently. The worst one is about my friends in Taylor’s who got accused for conducting plagiarism. This happened in Introduction to Law, as well as Financial Accounting 2 where we were required to prepare a full company’s annual report all on our own hands. I just wish them the best of luck so that they do not fail and repeat the same course.

Now that made me really worried about my own assignment. I have a bad feeling about my CISB assignment which I have mentioned in the last two post. I noticed that a part of my assignment which was done by my group mate is sort of a copy-and-paste version of information on a website. I obviously got no time to change everything, but only able to include a bit of in-text referencing into it to reduce my chances of being caught plagiarism. I just hope everything bodes well in the end.

Post-Vesak Day

2010-05-30T02:30:00.001+08:00

After market, I’ve went to Adelaide’s temple for prayers in conjunction with Vesak Day. I suppose this is the Australian spelling of Wesak Day. Its structure looks wonderful as you can see. It even seems like an imperial palace. The temple is located quite far and it is so inconvenient to go there. Lucky thing I had Eric and Shu Yi as companions. Everybody else seemed so tied up with their studies that they did not want to go. I almost catch a cold for travelling there as it was raining throughout the journey. I’ve never seen so heavy and long rain in Adelaide before.

I managed to Skype with my family and my relatives came over to “their” house. I’m glad that my cousin, Wei Li got the JPA scholarship to study her A-levels as well as the 6-years medicine degree in Poland. Like wow! Congrats to her!

I ended my night by watching Digimon Tamers with Jeffrey. It really brings back memories, but the beginning part of the series is a bit boring. Hope it gets more interesting soon so that it is worth my time watching it. After all, getting to spend time with him is worth the time.

My Most Productive Day in Adelaide So Far

2010-05-28T22:00:00.000+08:00

What a tiring and shocking day for rushing my Communications and Information Systems in Business 2500 words report. I managed to finish it right ON the due time of 5pm. I am pretty worried as I never get to check through one-fifth of it, and I did not do the Introduction and Conclusion of the report. I’m just glad that I successfully submitted right on time, but I’m not too sure whether it’s considered on time since I submitted at 5:00:10pm.

Jeffrey cooked half of the dinner and it’s his second time. The food was great and I really hope I can be like him soon. Night turned out fun for me as I get to play Kingdom Hearts, but it wasn’t too good for Eric and Su Ling who each wanted to be alone for that night. I hope they are okay now.

I have one last assignment to go for this semester which is Quantitative Methods report. I hope all goes well for this one, unlike the one above. After that, I can prepare for my final exam which is in 3 weeks time. Yeah, time does pass swiftly.

Roxas-Motivated Diary

2010-05-27T22:20:00.000+08:00

After playing Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, I have been inspired to change my blogging concept to a short and simple diary, like what Roxas usually do.

Today, my Communications and Information Systems in Business tutor, Ms Kathy Darzanos complemented someone in front of the whole class about being the best presenter who showed great confidence and connection with the audience. Although she didn’t mention the person’s name, I am very pleased with myself because she personally told me the same thing a week before that. I felt acknowledged by the fact that at least I’m not fully being discriminated by the locals here.

Tonight’s Aikido was one of the best as we applied the skills we learned so far and had a good practice on break-falls. After that, Vernon brought me to Pancake House along with our Aikido partner, Sam. This is the first time I’ve been here despite staying right above it for 3 months plus. I really loved the Dutch Chocolate Fudge pancake topped with vanilla ice-cream.

Immersing Deeper into South Australia

2010-04-18T01:25:00.001+08:00

As you can see, this is my second post on the tranquil city of Adelaide. But it wasn’t all that calm as there was a mild earthquake here with a magnitude of 3.2 on last Thursday night. Oh, and at this very moment is the first time I see such heavy rain here.

Well, I shall begin with my second analysis on the lifestyle here which would be slightly different from the first one, after getting to understand more in the past 2 months. Time really flies! Before I head on crapping about philosophy, just have a look at some of the things I have been through the past few weeks.

The girls (Su Ling, Sylvia Wong, Christabel Tan, Goh Zi Ling, Winnie Wu) in one of my new friend aka senior, Zi Ling’s 21st birthday party

Home-made lamb chop by my housemate, Chin Keat (eaten by him, me, Gan Soon Keat, Sylvia and Danny Tan)

Photo of me at the park along Torrence River, taken by Danny who is one of the professional photographer who came along

Crazy things I did with my friends during my 2-week mid-semester break:

One of my cycling partners, Victor Lam (we cycled for a distance of 30km to Henley Beach just for Fish N Chips)

The other cycling partner, Lim Shu Yi, who is the organiser of this insanely tiring and fun trip

One of the many horses along the cycling track by Torrence River

First thing people do when they reach the beach (now you may guess the location of the first photo of this post)

It’s me and them along the almost deserted beach

Cakes and apple strudel (the overrated must-eats) at Hahndorf, a German village in South Australia

Me with red-leaves maple trees of Hahndorf

German platter at Hahndorf Inn, the most famous dish in the most popular restaurant in village (everything was fine except for the pork leg which was so damn fattening until I felt like puking on every bite of it)

Shu Yi, Lam Yee Teng and Victor who went along the once-in-a-lifetime trip (as I will never go there again)

The whole gang of us who include Shu Yi, Khoo Sin Kuan, Cheong Wei-In, Victor, Yee Teng and me going for the trip

The 3D movie that I watched in Norwood cinema costing me AUD22, equivalent to 11 student-priced movies in Malaysia

Speaking of this movie, I really like Sam Worthington’s acting. He has the heroic attribute and his acting potential really brought him up to his success now. I found that it is fate I get to watch all his movies in cinema not knowing that he was the main actor before entering the screens. First one was Terminator Salvation where I watched with Boon Kuang. Second one was Avatar where I viewed it with Cassandra, Wen Han, Lai Yenn, Jon, Sam, Aunt Jeannette and Aunt Kay. Third one is this with my new close buddy, Vernon Foo, Chan Wai Meng, Bob Ooi and his friends. All his movies were really worth watching and had impacts which blast into my memories. Moreover, he is an Australian, and I hope I can meet him in person one day!

The best concert in town which I have missed, I guess you all should know who is she (tips: she’s an Alejandro who dances in the dark, then she telephones you to give you a bad romance, lastly she uses her teeth to eat your heart like a monster; I hope after you found out the answer, you don’t get too happy until you could die because it would just leave me speechless)

Okay, now the part for those who have the intention to come over to study:

Studying over here, specifically in Adelaide or even University of South Australia, gives you the greatest opportunity to be exposed to the widest variety of cultures. It is not only the Aussies you would be expecting to mix with, but with all other nationals. You will have to learn not only the Australian accent, but also learn how to understand every single person’s unique accent. For me, I have a Pakistani lecturer and a Nigerian tutor for Management Accountant, a Spanish lecturer for Communications and Information Systems in Business (known as BIS back in Taylor’s), and a Korean tutor for Financial Accountant 2. These were only the lecturers. How about my course mates? They do come from all places. Depending on how outgoing you are, you will be interacting with all kinds of people. It really feels like this is an international city. In my case so far, I have friends from Venezuela and Vietnam known through Aikido classes, from Turkey through random conversation in the library, from China in tutorial classes, etc. It is really a blessing to have this kind of exposure as you would not get it easily if you stay back in Malaysia. This exposure would give you an edge in your future like employment, for instance.

I think what I said in the first post would scare some of you off when I mentioned the vast difference between study life here and Malaysia. Actually, if one sticks to that mindset, that person is described as having ethnocentrism. This means that we tend to believe that our culture is always right and others are always wrong when they differ from ours. I’m sure you have learnt that from Communications, just like me. We should always be open to new cultures and adapt to their teaching style. So what if they expect us to be more of an independent undergraduate? No spoon-feeding is something we should not hesitate to learn, because it really becomes helpful when we come out to work in the near future.

Another major difference is that local students here tend to speak up often in tutorials. They don’t just sit down and let the tutor talk throughout the class, and this is what the tutors expect from their students. International students who are new here would normally freak out when they listen to how properly put the grammar and elaboration of the locals here when they voice their opinions. This is another chance for us to improve ourselves. If you can learn and follow their attitude of being daring to speak up, it will definitely boost your communication and interpersonal skills which sets you above your other competitors in workplace next time.

I’m sure most of you who are reading this are studying in an institution very near to your home, and you hadn’t get the chance to live outside your home. So coming here would seriously provide you with much learning experience about life and independence. Living independently also tests your Emotional Intelligence, being street-wise, discipline and determination in whatever you are doing. You will learn a lot about life like handling relationship problems and study problems more independently, making new friends, spending and financial controlling, time management, taking care of yourself such as cooking and buying groceries, etc. This is because living without your parents means you are out of their control and you have the freedom to do whatever you like. And then, self-control and mind consciousness play a very important role so that you don’t do anything ignorant or harmful to yourself. This would really then test whether you are easily being influenced by the friends or people or environment around you or not. It will also make you aware of the importance of time management like how much time you need to spend in studying, controlling your entertainment time, using time efficiently in doing housework, etc.

All in all, I guess studying here is a two-edged sword. You will need to be wise in what to follow and what not to follow. You need to be aware to always step out of your comfort zone if it means improving your self-development. If you can do it, life over here would obviously change you into a better person. But the opposite does happen if you fail to realise what is good and bad; fail to resist the temptation of harmful doings; or fail to step out of your comfort zone like constantly hanging out with your Malaysian friends only or just sitting down quietly in tutorials without voicing out your opinions unlike the Aussies.

I apologise for having too formal English when typing the post, now that I realised it’s no different than a Communications textbook. I hope it did not bore you or drowse you to sleep. That’s all for now. Oh, if you still do not know who is that performer in the concert, it is Lady GaGa. For those who love her, please feel free to visit http://www.safm.com.au/radio-gaga which is an online radio channel that plays only her songs 24-7.

Truth of Studying in UniSA, Adelaide

2010-03-16T23:15:00.001+08:00

This is the reality of what it’s like studying in University of South Australia at Adelaide, a story told based on my objectivity without any marketing essence. I bet some of my friends who are planning to come here to study would like to know about this, especially Poh Li Jhuin who requested it.

The moment this post is uploaded will be when I just get my internet connection at home, and you all can start popping me up with questions.

Firstly, I would like to start off with the education style here which is immensely different from Malaysia’s. Today was my first day of tutorials. Classes really didn’t work out for me and I got so disappointed that for one second, I felt like I want to go back to Taylor’s to study.

The main reason was because in Malaysia, teachers teach us to answer and score the exam questions while here, they just teach us to understand and learn on our own. In other words, the information given by Malaysian tutors are sufficient to get High Distinction, but Australian tutors will only assist us in passing the subject. The extra effort and extraordinariness in getting the High Distinction here very much depend on ourselves.

In simple terms, I need to spend more time reading and studying on my own if I want to get the HDs compared to in Malaysia. This sucks! Now I know why I could still afford to give tuition to my lovely high-school students especially Cassandra Leow, Leou Phooi Kuan and Lim Yee Lyn; have time to check the KLSE and identify investment opportunities; have enough brain juice to think of business ideas in order to improve my website; have free time to play my PS2 games such as Naruto, Persona, Final Fantasy and Dynasty Warriors series; have affordability to watch the night and weekend TVB series in Wah Lai Toi, Astro; have the capability to go online to chat and play Facebook games such as Farmville, Friends For Sale and Happy Aquarium; and yet still score straight HDs for the semester. Things are different NOW!

I can now foresee the possibilities which might happen to me in Adelaide. If I insist in obtaining the HDs, I would have to really spend a lot of time and effort in my studies. This means finding a balance between working part-time, working on my business plan, and studying would seriously put me in a hell-like circumstance.

The good thing about this kind of education style is that we would not be spoon-fed, and this is what the real working world would look like. It is probably better to start early learning how to learn independently, rather than realising and adapting to it after graduation. Well, this just means HDs here are much more valuable than in Malaysia.

People here also have different lifestyle and culture which explains why they are complacent and easily satisfied with passing grades. They are very much into drinking, clubbing and gambling. Hence, it is very common to find them ending up in pubs, clubs, bars, casinos and finally in the police station. The last location is because they tend to start fights when they are drunk and cause trouble. As foreigners, walking on streets at night especially weekends are dangerous and strongly not advisable. Many of us students would get influenced by this culture and adopt the playful attribute of the locals, but I dare say I will not!

Coming over to Adelaide means getting out of our comfort zone because we are living without our family and leaving home. This is a really different life experience as everything must be done almost independently although there might be a few friends accompanying us. Things learnt would be cooking, cleaning, where to get cheap groceries and home equipment, what to cook for every meal, etc. These are enough to keep ourselves busy besides just studying.

Another big thing that we have to prepare for is starting almost a new life. Coming over to Adelaide means leaving most of your friends and things would not be similar to the old life anymore. When you begin a new life, limited friends would mean you need to tolerate a lot despite conflicts and hatred. This would take a while until you get to expand your network and know more people. If this happens quickly, you would then only be able to know which people suits your style and who to become good buddies with.

Free tram ride within the city

Adelaide which is well-known as the 20-minutes city has a very well connected public transport system. Travelling around the city is convenient; one can take free tram and bus rides within the city which stops frequently, or walk from one place to another very safely.

Food is quite of a problem as it is expensive outside. One must be expected to cook at home as an average single person serving outside would cost easily AUD 7 – 10. Not only is the price not right, the taste of Chinese food don’t really taste right either. They are not as delicious as the Malaysian Chinese food and one would probably get better food by cooking at home.

Entertainment here is slightly different from Malaysia. If one is not into the bars and clubs, they would be seeking outdated released movies in the cinemas, or shopping at streets which are known as shopping malls here. There are no tall shopping complexes here like Sunway Pyramid, Mid Valley and 1 Utama; just pathetic un-air-conditioned streets as malls. However, the weather here is mostly nice and pleasing. That’s why they don’t need the air-conditioning and can just use the strong soothing breezes as its substitute.

Adelaide is one city which has many festivals and events. The above pictures are examples of what they have. I can’t remember what is it called but it’s just colourful artwork with light projected on buildings producing beautiful paintings on its walls. People here are so amazed with it but I find it nothing much extraordinary (lame would be too harsh). Another amazing event I went together with my housemates is the Pyrotechnics which had fireworks and fire shows in a supposed-to-be horserace stadium. This only happens once in 5 years, so just count this out if you are intending to come here soon.

Seriously, almost everything here is expensive even without converting to Ringgits. One thing I find it unreasonable is the Internet and printing service. Internet usage is not unlimited like Streamyx in Malaysia. It counts according to how much data one uploads and downloads. If exceeded the data limit of the month, one needs to upgrade to a higher data package and pay more. The worst thing is even the Wi-Fi in the UnSA and its computers have an Internet quota, just like printing services. Printing here also sucks, people say that the university is providing sufficient printing quota, but there’s no easily accessible photocopying service here. Photocopying in university is even more expensive than printing out from the computers. This means we cannot photocopy friends’ notes like what we do in Taylor’s, probably because they are very strict in copyrights issues.

Overall, we can have two viewpoints about Adelaide if you are like me. Pessimistically, coming here is like asking for trouble because we pay money to torture ourselves and put ourselves in a suffering state. Optimistically, in midst of suffering, we are actually learning how to survive independently and exposing ourselves to the international culture and the spoonfeeding-less reality.

I don’t personally encourage anybody to come to Adelaide just because I need company here, neither will I give up and go back to Malaysia because life is much easier there. Since I’m already here, I will make the best out of this place. I shall take this studying difficulty here as a challenge to test my true self capability!

The gang I began with in Adelaide

Sick Chinese New Year

2010-02-19T01:21:00.001+08:00

I am unable to blog about what I wanted to post, the one about all my friends and families. I didn’t have the time because I am sick.

It has always been a tradition that I will get sick on almost every Chinese New Year. But this year was bad since I am going to depart to Adelaide during the New Year.

Now, I decided to change plan about blogging about you all. I’ll have all the time to write when I’m in Adelaide. I will update it on my Facebook.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR :)

Something Worth Bragging About For A Second

2010-02-01T23:08:00.001+08:00

This is just a short update about myself before I start my longest ever post in this blog.

First, take a look at this: http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/147702?tid=1

This is my first time having a photograph of myself / along with my family in the newspaper. For once, I feel proud and glad of myself. This is an honourable moment for a scholarship offered by the Malaysian Australian Colombo Plan Commemoration (MACC).

These are some photos of the event at the Residence of the Australian High Commissioner:

H E Penny Williams – the Australian High Commissioner giving her speech

Receiving the award from the Aussie and Puan Sri Datin Seri Dr Susan Cheah

Scholars of the MACC Scholarship along with the Endeavour Awards

Scholars of the MACC Scholarship with the EXCO Member of Sunway Group

For a while, I thought that it was feeling great that everybody starts congratulating me once they saw the news article. But after a second, it wasn’t really something worth being overjoyed about. By receiving that RM50,000 scholarship which is only 1 out of 2 years of my tuition fees in Australia, I will need to spend another RM150,000 to RM200,000 there. Besides the once-in-a-lifetime experience that I would get over there, I am just being ignorant to accept that ungenerous offer.

To make things worse, I think I am the only one who applied for that scholarship in Taylor’s and that is why I got it. If they are only giving out one offer (original plan was to offer to the top scorer of each of the 3 courses in Taylor’s), why can’t they give me just 2 years of tuition fees waiver for my studies in University of South Australia? I don’t suppose I am too demanding for the results I worked so hard for, am I?

Anyways, my longest ever post will be published the night before I leave Malaysia. It’s going to be about you guys!

A Family Phuket Trip

2009-12-20T00:45:00.001+08:00

So this was my 4th overseas holiday trip – to Phuket Island of Thailand. I’ve went there for 4 days and 3 nights. The photo above is the calm, peaceful, serene and tranquil section of the beach. Well, that’s my first stop once I reached there since it’s just next to the hotel that I was staying.

What you are seeing down there is a tree trunk which looks like a deer. I wondered if it has been shaped by mankind or formed naturally with the amazing power of God.

View of the hotel from my room’s balcony

From the here onwards, I’ll let the photos explain the activities I did over there.

Visited one of the deserted Buddhist temple

Elephant ride, a new experience for me

I don’t really fancy this. This is because of the cruelty that they were treating against those poor elephants. They have sharp crescent-shaped blades used to hit the elephants when they did not follow their orders. How unfortunate it is if you are born as an animal controlled by mankind, don’t you think so?

Thailand’s Dancing Competition for 2010, seen at the Central Festival Shopping Mall stage (standard not as good as Astro Battleground in Malaysia, but their performances are more professional-based)

I was amused by this scene where the dancers are dressed so colourfully. It doesn’t even seem like people on first glance.

Besides these, we also visited the cashew nut and birds’ nest factory and sales units on the first full day. These two food are the local’s famous manufacturing products. It sure was surprising seeing cashew nut fruit being able to product juice for healthy drinking, besides just the edible nuts itself.

Sunday lunch at a Thai restaurant in the “jungle”

Go-kart racing on the way to Patong Beach

At Jungceylon, a huge shopping mall near the Patong Beach

The popular Patong Beach during sunset, not a single speck on the Tsunami event 5 years ago

A high-class outdoor shopping village next to my hotel

In case you are visiting Phuket, this is a list of restaurants I went which I think their food are all delicious:

Kin Dee Thai Restaurant
Khon Thai Restaurant
Siam Deli Hotel Cafeteria
Bill Bentley Western Restaurant
Khondee Chinese Seafood Restaurant

Well, it sure was difficult to find food there ‘cause they are all scattered around the map, except for those along the Patong Beach which would be similar to Petaling Street.

Finally at the Phuket International Airport

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Penetrating into the Cruel Reality

2009-12-03T19:47:00.004+08:00

I guess people who will realise how difficult and cruel is the real society when they start to look for jobs. The word “pity” does not exist in their dictionary, and you will need to sacrifice in order to secure a position no matter how talented and skilful you are.

I have finally get to experience this by seeking internship vacancies in banks lately. Now, I am able to stop wondering why some of my peers are so realistic and mature in their career prospects. It is undoubtedly difficult to find a relevant internship position especially for one who is applying so late. All I can find are those located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, which I would never sacrifice the traffic jam stress to get to there for an internship.

Furthermore, companies normally recruit on a first-come-first-serve basis with reasonable qualifications, and their preferences would very unlikely be first-year undergraduates. These factors absolutely put me at a disadvantage, all because I thought I was going to Australia next year and I won’t be able to intern now.

However, networking plays an important role here. If one is able to know the right people, it would be so much easier to secure the relevant post. Conversely, one who is unknown will have to take the long road. This is the lesson that I have learnt and I will make the world know who is Chin Wynn very soon!

The Last Will Not Last Long

2009-11-27T01:39:00.001+08:00

Exams are finally over, and this signifies the end of my first year in degree.

2012 is indeed a really great movie. It was really worth my extra RM8 for buying a couple seat just to watch it in a fully packed theatre. I can’t believe so many people were watching it even on a weekday right after my Law paper. Some of the scenes were really touching and some were so destructive that my heart stopped beating for few times.

The lesson learnt from this movie suits my title. The disaster that happened in 2012 would not last forever. It just cleans up the Earth and there would be a new world after that. So much for what I thought as the end of the world.

Similarly, the end of exams is not something we should be dwelling upon because there would still be plenty more after that.

I was also so bothered with people leaving to University of South Australia to study, or even myself. It’s as if I can’t see my friends ever again. But the last will not last long! It would just be a temporary separation and we’ll definitely meet again during holidays. So why are we lamenting about it?

And finally, I also wonder how long my study decision will last. Will I change my mind again and go to University of South Australia at Adelaide next year? Who knows?

Though I don’t believe that humans will still be able to live in Earth after the 2012 event if it really happens. The weather and environment would not be suitable for them to live anymore. Well, there would always still be hope, somewhere in this dimension. After all, the only matter that keeps us going is hope!

Teacher Chin Wynn

2009-11-12T21:40:00.001+08:00

Although it is study break which means one week of holidays before the final examination, I went to college to consult lecturers to solve my doubts. Not to my surprise, I was consulted after that. My students of the day are Nicholas Yong, Shi Hui and Su Ling for Microeconomics.

Taylor’s Lakeside Campus Car Park

You must be wondering why is this photo here. This is because I jokingly told my “students” that I will be parking my car at the teacher’s reserved area. They initially laughed at it, but started agreeing after they learned about Market Failures.

After all, I was an Additional Mathematics and Chemistry teacher. Right, Phooi Kuan, Yee Lyn, Cassandra, Jean, and Boon Kuang?

Although a day has gone just like that, but I never regret because I get to possess the latest song by Lady GaGa, which is Bad Romance.

A must-watch video:

Motivation

2009-11-09T00:37:00.001+08:00

“Where can I find my motivation to study?” This WAS the question in my head during the past few days in order to face the battle at 18th November 2009. For the past big exams, I had the right person to be my role model:

SPM – Jolene

Foundation in Business – Chye Soon

UniSA Semester 1 – Alvin

Now, I chose something more realistic to motivate me which is reward myself with a new mobile phone after I got my straight HD’s.

However, I don’t think I really need such motivation to keep me studying. Now, I really feel like crying in pain after seeing how unprepared I am for Microeconomics and Introduction to Law. At my standard now, I will definitely run out of time in the exams and not finish half the paper for Microeconomics; whereas for Law, I don’t think I can even write a word in the exams.

I hope I can really feel the pressure until the end of the exams, and stop playing my Naruto and Facebook! I already quitted MSN and it is a big step.

Let’s pray we all do well in our big examination, whether finals or SPM. Cheers!

Evolution of My Blog

2009-11-06T01:16:00.001+08:00

After all the delayed posts about past events, I decided to modify my blogging style. I will no longer be posting photos here since it will appear in my Facebook profile anyway. So by just blogging with words, I will not be so overwhelmed and I will update my blog much more frequently. Hence, be sure to check this as much as I blog.

By this evolution shown through my blog header, I have uploaded those past photos onto my Facebook profile few hours ago. They include first KTV session with Su Ling, Alex, Mei San, Jocelyn and Shi Hui; Yew Wooi and Shan Lung’s birthday bash.

PRESENT

So the important update that you will be granted by reading this post is that:

I WILL NOT BE GOING TO AUSTRALIA NEXT YEAR!

Despite this, I kept telling myself and my friends that today was the last day of college. I’m sure this was the day I would see some of my course mates for the last time. This seems sad but the good news here is I’m staying. I’m overjoyed with the decision I have made currently. Hope I don’t change it again.

For specific details:

I’m not going to UWA because after some research done, my parents found out that UniSA is more specialised in business courses and it is well recognised in Australia and Europe. On the other hand, UWA is just popular for its Go8 status and high ranking but it is more towards the engineering faculty. Furthermore, I was shocked knowing that UniSA has almost 3 times the number of students than UWA for the business faculty.

I’m going to UniSA on the final year instead of the 2nd year even though my parents want me to stay there for 2 years to have more exposure and experience towards the international culture. I convinced them by further editing my study plan to doing a double degree which means I will extend my studies there for 1 more year.

So that’s it! Good news to most of you, hopefully. ^^

How Blood Was Spilled At the ASQ Battlefield

2009-09-27T23:54:00.001+08:00

Astro Star Quest Grand Finale was held on 25th July 2009 at Bukit Jalil Putra Indoor Stadium. Everybody was so enthusiastic before the competition started. Those who sat in my car, Alex Loh, Yew Wooi, Yong Zhen and my sister knew best what I mean.

The Real Stars on the ASQ Stage

The results were disappointed from how Alvin Chong got 5th place to how Kah Fai lost to Min.

Alvin’s Fans Group Photo

The best part of all these competitions is always the photo session.

My good pals

A new star has emerged, Alvin Chong

View Full Album

Me with the Top 20’s & Song Composer Winner, Kok Hui

Last Memories of the Official Banner (hope it can be of use next time)

That’s all for the day we all worked so hard on. Special thanks to Meng Jiun, Elsa Lam and Yew Wooi for the great effort in making those banners.

Latest info: I have finally uploaded most of the state trial papers of 2009 at www.chinwynn.com. All levels of government examinations can be found here at my website, especially the PMR papers. Hope you all can practice and excel in your actual examinations. Good luck!

The Earthquake that Rocked My 18th Birth-Week

2009-08-29T01:02:00.000+08:00

A Cake-less Candle

Since this is a pathetic post without photos, I would be making this post a bit unique from the previous ones. Try browsing on names which appear in this post and see what happens.

Sunday (12th July 2009)

This year, I celebrated my birthday early with my parents. We went to Chilli’s at Mid Valley for lunch and that was what I’ve got, as shown in the photo above. Chilli’s was at least generous enough to offer a free ice-cream brownie to the birthday boy.

Monday (13th July 2009)

Next day was KTV at Neway in Subang Jaya. I was in the same room with Alex, Shan Lung, Kar Mun and Tien Jiun. Alex proved his enthusiasm on Transformers by shouting New Divide with Shan Lung. On the other hand, Tien Jiun portrayed his prowess in partially imitating Jay Chou’s rapping and adding his own rapping style into it while Kar Mun didn’t fail to disappoint him with her Jolin Tsai’s vocals. I was in Tank mode on that day because of his new songs at that time. The other VIP room was filled with the “insane” gang led by Siew Fen.

Tuesday (14th July 2009)

On my birthday eve, Boon Kuang celebrated my birthday with me. We went to Sunway Pyramid for the afternoon and caught one of the coolest movies in town which I also enjoyed most.

At night, I missed such a nice opportunity to have a Japanese Buffet Dinner with Tien Jiun, Kar Mun and her star brother, Kah Fai at Mount Kiara. This was due to the tuition which I am obligated to teach. But I am really overjoyed that Kah Fai sent me a birthday wish past midnight.

Wednesday (15th July 2009)

I spent the actual day giving tuition only. But I was touched by my student, Yee Lyn who played the birthday song on Mary’s piano just for me.

The night was the fun part for me. Shan Lung, Alex, Yew Wooi and Meng Jiun came to the Matahari clubhouse for swimming. Too bad Meng Jiun had tuition and he was forced to leave early.

After swimming, they surprised me with a string of events. We went to Subang’s Pizza Hut and had dinner over there. Then, I was taken to a night movie with and by them, Obsessed.

After the movie, their plan failed when one of the shops they intended to go was closed on that night. Subsequently, Shan Lung, the pitiful driver, had to take us to The Curve. However, the streets along those clubs were not lighted on that night, and many shops were not opened too. That’s a little unfortunate.

We also thought of watching another movie at midnight but Jeff had classes on the next day. So, we ended up supper at one of the mamak stores in Sunway.

This whole night was really great, and I am so extremely grateful to them for planning everything for me.

Before the official night ended, I received a birthday message from Alvin which gave me a flurry.

Thursday (16th July 2009)

Jamie insisted to come to my house and he did came on this day. He gave me a present which is his brother’s newly recorded album. He told me more about his family background which I didn’t know before this. I was quite impressed with his elder brother who is a rapper with codename, Jin Hackman.

Friday (17th July 2009)

Phei Hern came back from Perth during his study break. He invited me and Kevin to meet up in conjunction of our birthdays. We went to Summit for the movie that I was waiting so long. It turned out to be average only but still worth the watch.

I really hope that I can meet up with Phei Hern next year at Perth by completing my tertiary studies at UWA. I sure wish everything goes well till then, including the obliteration of A(H1N1) disease.

This is such a special year for me because I managed to celebrate my birthday throughout the whole week. Normally, my birthday always fall on my examinations and I have to delay celebration or even minimise it. This year is so different as it fell on my holidays and I get to enjoy as much as I wanted to.

Thank you to all my friends and family members. I really had a blast this year ALTHOUGH I DIDN’T HAVE A SINGLE BIRTHDAY CAKE. I’m just joking. This year I received about 90 birthday wishes in total and this already cheered me up.

A Delayed Meteor Shower which Signified an End to Semester 1

2009-08-15T23:28:00.001+08:00

29th June 2009 (Monday) was the last day of my Bachelor’s degree semester 1. While everyone celebrated their independence on the previous week’s Friday (because their last subject was Marketing Principles), we Finance students finished with Financial Management.

If it’s solely based on Last Day of Exam, there is no big deal. But Veronica celebrated her birthday with us at Sunway Pyramid on that day before going back to her hometown, Indonesia. Therefore, it really is a memorable day for us.

Happy faces after final exam (Li Jhuin, Mary and Veronica)

Being rejected by Shao Xian to the party (how sad!)

Yee Von & Li Jhuin at Blue Atrium

Brian, Benedict, J-Tsen, Benjamin, Nicholas and Ridzuan buying presents

Shan Lung, among the 14 people to attended the party (Can anybody guess what restaurant is this? Tips: At Asian Avenue)

The only 4 girls in the party

Eating the chocolate piece of the birthday cake

Veronica biting candles off her birthday cake

The answer of the location: Snowy Healthy Dessert Home

After the hi-tea (it was lunch for me since I forgotten to have lunch due to my exam), we went for movie! One of the most mind-boggling movies I have ever is, but is also Veronica’s favourite –> State of Play.

My rating: 6 over 10 because it’s dull and hard to to understand. I only derived my satisfaction because I got to understand such a sophisticated storyline.

1st time taking photos in cinema

Late dinner after movie at around 9pm at Kim Gary:

(Okay, those long hairs in the photos are scaring me)

Vandalism on Kim Gary’s table with its own pencil

And then erasing it off after that!

Arcade at 10pm

Before ending this post, let me show you how a meteor shower crushes the Earth:

Sucked by the Quicksand of Astro Star Quest 2009

2009-07-25T01:45:00.001+08:00

Lately, I have been telling everybody that I am busy with Astro Star Quest 2009, and the first thing that comes to their mind is that I’m one of the contestants. Of course not! I wouldn’t be so foolish to join it, knowing what I am now. So, my business (busy + ness) is actually because I am supporting this amazing guy:

Alvin Chong

Initially, I only know that Astro Star Quest 2009 has started by watching it for a few minutes every Saturday night before I go out for dinner. It wasn’t until an opportunity arise that I get a million steps closer to knowing these future stars. The opportunity is as such:

Thanks to Kah Fai who made it into the Top 10 of ASQ 2009, Kar Mun who is my Foundation in Business classmate, invited me to go and support her younger brother, Kah Fai. So, I was more than happy to agree with her and went for 3 Semi-Final rounds out of the 4. On the 2nd round, I got attracted to Alvin Chong’s singing style and I took a photo with him on that night.

I guess it is fated that I started to support him and then even created a forum for him, which now became Alvin Chong’s Official Fan Club. This is the link: www.alvinchong.forumotion.com.

In the end, I have sort of lowered my support slightly towards Lan Kah Fai, though I still like him very much. I guess I should apologise to both Kah Fai and Kar Mun for being such a traitor. But thanks to both of you, I get to know Alvin too.

So, I started watching ASQ live performance from Top 10 to Top 5. Below are the photos of me at the Astro studio:

Top 10

Top 9

(My parents didn’t allow me to go for the 3rd semi-final round. So, I missed seeing Justin’s and Billy’s last appearance on stage)

Top 6

Top 5

More photos of me during the trips:

3 Different Jojo Styles (Missed the golden one)

Dinner at Overseas Restaurant, thanks to Kar Mun’s Mum

With the composer contestants

Do you think the left guy on both pictures look alike??

Finally we have a group photo of Foundation in Business classmates!

With the siblings who I knew them separately (Meng Jiun & Sheen Yeen)

With Xiu Bao

With Wan Yi

Justin, the most friendly contestant who has the best vocal too among the guys

SPY, who has a very strong voice, able to compete with Jaclyn Victor’s

Chuu Chuu, found out that she’s a very good friend of Elsa Lam

Yean, who wrote a song to Nicholas Teo, named Shuo Ni Ye Yi Yang Ai Zhe Wo

Alvin Chong!! You should know who is he by now

Kah Fai, supporting him too in the finals

On 8th July 2009, the Top 5 had a Conference Session at Sungei Wang, and I was there to get their autographs and my VIP tickets to the Grand Finale tonight!

The colourful theme and the black theme of their exclusive photos

I went to Sungei Wang, Times Square and Pavilion on that day with Meng Jiun, Shan Lung, Alex Loh and Yew Wooi. Jeff Law Yew Wooi is the an Alvin's fan who I met in the forum which I created.

The 2 emcees that will appear on the Grand Finale

Top 5 singing their new singles one by one (Kah Fai, Alvin, Min, Ryan, Yoke)

The banner which Yew Wooi spent much effort doing for Alvin!

Answering question session

Autograph session (notice Alvin’s head really look like a small boy here)

Session ends

Alvin departing to China

Finally, I get to take 1 photo with Isaac!! And Justin too

After that, we went to Pavilion. These are some photos taken over there:

At the SALE display of Pavilion

This is Pavilion, which is a first time for some of us

The beautiful art creation in front of Pavilion

The Black Fours …

… including me

Final picture of the day –> The Silver Statue (It’s a man, by the way)

This is an extremely long post because I compiled all my ASQ experiences here, except for the Grand Finale which I’m going to attend later. So once again, congrats for reading this far. You are on your way to becoming a blogworm.

A Volcanic Blast of Fun at Awana, Genting

2009-07-22T01:34:00.001+08:00

This brings back memories as it was on 18th April 2009 that we students of February 2009 Intake, University of South Australia spent great time together.

It was a one day trip to the base of the mountain by 100+ students of Taylor’s for Team Building. I bet you all can imagine how fun it is to play games and activities with hundreds of people and most of those people are your friends!

It is always usual that teenagers like us become amused with that harness which has an obvious effect on the appearance of “something”. As you can see, Khai Jake and Alex Loh were trying the reliability of that harness.

My group’s first game was Flying Fox, the name where most people will mistaken it as Firefox. The first photo is Shi Chi getting ready to take off; second was Wilson enjoying his 1.5 times of playing it when everybody only had 1 chance; third was the thing that I hated because I was standing there waiting for my turn and they get to play cards just because they were before me (anyway, it’s still acceptable since they are not playing in the Genting Casino but just at the base of Genting).

After that, I had some free time. Then, we started camwhoring. First picture is Xiu Bao, Christy Tan, me and Alex who are all my group members. Second picture is me with Christy and Yee Von (look at the stairs-like heights). Third picture is the two best pals, Brian Chong and Benjamin Michael who are my classmates for Semester 1. Fourth is us with Kaylie on the top. Last one includes Shan Lung.

These are some of my Semester 1 classmates who are all very friendly. Those haven’t mentioned in my blog are Teong Jin, Mary Yap and Veronica on the right. Besides Alex and Shan Lung, they were my S1 classmates. We were waiting at the indoor car park area for our next game. What a bad place to wait, right?

In this photo, we have Veronica’s hair, Brian’s head, Nicholas Yong, me, TJ, J-Tsen, Haw Yang and a person who is under that dark spot, making it hard to be identified.

These photos are our next activity, abseiling. 1st – me, 2nd – Yee Von, 3rd - Jo Jin, 4th Alex. We waited very long for this. And so, I have to satisfy myself by trying twice – once facing backwards like the rest of the people, and second facing forward which was really scary. I tripped on the more dangerous one, and almost rolled down. But I made it down safely!

Guess it’s not too late to introduce my group, Team 4. We have an extremely friendly and fun advisor, Ms Pei Chuin who is still very young, just like us. From the top left, we have Wilson, me, Jordan, Jake, Xiu Bao, Christy, Amily, Xue Wei, Jo Jin, Shi Chi, Ms Pei Chuin and Alex. I was the partially helpful team leader, and Alex was the one who helped me with the other half of being a cheerful motivator. Everyone was good and I seriously need to thank you all for working together and being united till we can get a lucky 2nd place among all the 10 teams!

First photo – Freestyle; second – FOUR; third – formal.

Why is this here? It’s because at the changing room, I got to know that some of my college friends were about to attend that concert on 2nd May 2009 which was my sister’s birthday too. Coincidentally, Shan Lung was bringing Wei Qi to the concert, and Nicholas Yong said he would be alone at the Sony Ericsson section. Fortunately, I was also been offered a seat at that section, so we went there together. My dad accompanied my sister at the paid section.

Here, I would like to thank a very good friend of mine who was kind enough to sponsor me a ticket to the Lee Hom Music-Man Concert. His name is:

ANG WEE HONG

Without him, I would not be able to experience the best concert that I have been after Jolin Tsai’s and Jay Chou’s. Thanks, dude!

A Thunderstorm-like of Applause

2009-04-17T19:35:00.000+08:00

After all the stressful assignments are done, I finally got back my time to blog about events which happened more than a month ago. Can anybody recalled Taylor’s Academic Excellence Award 2009 which is now nothing more than a piece of history?

I just want to thank all my dear friends to participated in the standing ovation when I collected these awards:

Accounting I Book Prize
Accounting II Book Prize
Economics I Book Prize
Economics II Book Prize
Business Mathematics Book Prize
Business Statistics Book Prize
Business Computing Book Prize
Dean’s List Award
Best Student Award

I know I shouldn’t brag about this, but this is just to inform other parties such as my teachers who didn’t know about this that I did not disappoint you.

Alright, I think we should just let the photos do the talking since it was so long ago.

With Lisa Mok

With Billy Ooi

With Kevin Tan & Heng Luen

With Wei Liem

My Foundation in Business classmates

With some of 3.1s

With Nicole Chua

With some of the 3.2s

With half of the January 2008 Intake Dean’s List Recipients

However, bad news always comes along with good news. On that time, I just realised that I FAILED in getting Taylor’s World Class Scholarship once AGAIN! It sounds so ironic that the Best Student of Taylor’s very own Business Foundation course is not eligible for Taylor’s summit of reward.

But like I’d said, bad events always have their good side-effects. Since I am not obligated to stay with Taylor’s anymore which is also what they wanted in the first place, I’ve decided to credit transfer to University of Western Australia next February. So now I’m scouting for friends who have the same frequency as me and hope we can all go together in as a group. Just for your information, I’ll be doing Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in Finance and Economics) over there. Feel free to tell me by all means if you’re interested or would like to know more about my target!

Enjoying the Rareness of a Malaysian Blizzard

2009-04-14T22:30:00.000+08:00

Can anybody guess where this is?

I suppose I have scared off half of my readers with my previous lengthy, dull and lack-of-visuals posts. But not to worry, the upcoming posts will be back to normal – photo spamming again.

This post shall be about my first class outing with my University of South Australia 1.10 classmates, since I failed to attend the steamboat buffet party due to my tuition. Well, credit goes to Teong Jin for organising another great successful event for the class.

First, we started off with Dim Sum at USJ 21. This was rare as I seldom eat Dim Sum; in fact, I never eaten them with my friends before. To my surprise, he not only invited the present classmates of ours, but also other course mates and our last year’s classmates.

View Full Album

So that were just some of the photos we have taken at the restaurant. The business owner must have felt overwhelming when he saw such a big group of 30 college students roaming into his premise. The humorous thing is that he asked us have we just finished tuition at one of the nearby tuition centres. Do we really look like afternoon session high school teens,or even worse, primary school kids? Anyway, we had plenty of fun feasting with long-time-no-see friends and present classmates.

Next would be the blast when most of us went to Sunway Pyramid. And so, four cars led by the insane Haw Yang, Shan Lung the womaniser, veteran Teong Jin and the motherly car owner Sim Ee raced to the destination through several different directions, just like in the movie of Fast and Furious 4.

When we reached there, our group split into half whereby some want to watch Marley and Me, and the other half prefer to indulge themselves at Red Box. I guess you should have known me by now and I don’t think I even need to clarify which I have chosen.

Once we reached Red Box, our already-divided group has been separated into another two parts: English songs room and Chinese songs room. Guess what was my decision this time? If I you have thought that I would go into one of the rooms only, you are indeed wrong. I know I was greedy because all along, I always monopolise the microphone, just like Zheng Yang. But that was only in one room. Now, I was actually taking control of two rooms and I just shifted myself from one room to another when my songs are in turn. So basically, I synchronised all the order of the songs in my favour and sang non-stop from 1pm to 4pm. This was not even rare, because I never had a chance to sing in two rooms simultaneously before.

Thanks to Haw Yang who triggered me into yelling and shouting during Shake It, I almost lost my voice and I can’t talk loudly for a day. I do hope everybody enjoyed despite me monopolising every end of Red Box. I also want to apologise to Tien Jiun for being late an hour when you can actually finish singing all the Jay Chou songs by then. This was my first time seeing Nicholas and Benedict going out of their mind along with the rhythm of Please Don’t Stop The Music, my classic. On the other hand, Kaylie and Jo Ee were busy doing their duets in the other room. I feel really sorry for Kar Mun who fell sick on such a occasional day and was unable to join us due to that. Here are some photos of our KTV Party and lastly, a video of our final song of the day inserted for your pleasure (or more like Welcome to Hell).

View Full Album

Video recorded by Kaylie. Sorry for the sound defects because the zooming does not record sounds. Maybe you all should hope that the whole video is muted so that you don’t even need to listen to my extremely out-of-tune voice at all.

Photos snapped by Haw Yang who has a camera phobia (Shin Yi, 2009), inside and outside Sunway Pyramid’s mirror lift despite the fact that we were already late for class.

What’s even rare was that I actually skipped Marketing PASS (Peer Assisted Study Session) because of all these. Since we spent too much time calculating our individual bills for the singing, we left Sunway at 4pm (the time when our Management Block Lecture begins). By the time Haw Yang found parking right in front of Taylor’s Main Campus, it was already 4.20pm. Therefore, this became the next rare occurrence because I was only severely late for lectures once. Professor Luke Faulkner, the South Australian lecturer greeted us by saying something similar to ‘better late than never’ and ‘thanks for coming’. All thanks to KTV! This is my phrase of the day:

NO MATTER WHERE WE ARE, OUR SINGING SPIRIT SHALL NEVER DIE!

What’s worse is that the other gang was still watching Marley and Me when we arrived at the Lecture Theatre. What a long movie! Maybe we should start naming our class the Class of Tardiness. Eventually, they arrived around 10 minutes after we came and Prof Luke repeated the same words again.

I guess that’s all for my first class outing where so many first happenings occurred on that day. I really do hope our class which has only a lifespan of 4 months will be able to gather like that every once in a while, even after it dies.

Rushing into a Self-conjured Hurricane

2009-04-11T23:04:00.000+08:00

At last, my study break has arrived and finally do I have a peace of mind in writing all the posts for the events which happened throughout this hectic month of April. So prepare for a continuous range of deferred posts which I shall be blogging on.

At the beginning of this month, I was really busy with my Accounting Test and also both my Financial Management and Introduction to Management assignments. The tenseness was so immense that there was not a single sign of fooling around on April Fool’s Day. The worst thing which happened to me during that first week was completing my Management assignment. It was scary because I finished it at the last minute. The fact of doing an assignment when I’m oblivious of the deadline is sickening as my heart kept beating fast as every second elapsed. This state of oblivion was due to the confusion caused as I don’t know whether to follow the Malaysian time zone or Adelaide’s. Furthermore, the daylight savings had recently adjusted Adelaide’s time zone and I can’t even tell the the time difference between these two places. As I panicked through the failure of submitting it using Mozilla Firefox, I was enlightened and out of the blue, I decided to use Internet Explorer which I never touch it before. Thank God it succeeded and best still, I handed up an hour earlier before the deadline.

After all the rushing of assignments, I had to go through a supposedly unrelated business to me – preparing for exams on the second week of April. But I’m not the one sitting for them, why should I even care? I could have spent all my time getting ready for the Taylor’s World Class Scholarship interview and won’t have to screw it like now. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t put blame on other things when I fail something. So anyway, teaching my sister and my students are part of my responsibilities, especially during their exam week. This perfectly suits the title of this post, whereby I had been too ignorant to set up a trap for myself AND I even entered the trap voluntarily knowing the danger and risks of it.

At least I survived all of them except for the scholarship interview. But whatever! Now, I get to do my twinning programme or even a credit transfer in the near future. So the day that I have been waiting and planning for had finally arrived, which is the Friday right after all their exams and my interview were over. Fast and Furious 4 with Boon Kuang!! Because of this movie, I get to experience driving through one of the heaviest rainstorms which I ever encountered in my life, and to make things worse, I was heading to a destination (KTM, Subang Jaya) which I didn’t know the way. However, I still believe that experience was worthwhile because it led me to another first-time occurrence – a movie at the THX Theatre of Gold Screen Cinemas, Summit USJ.

Although Fast and Furious 4 was slightly below my high expectations, it’s still a good show and I give it a 7.5 over 10 rating. The best part of this film was the GPS System used when they race on the usual roadway. The computerised technology used throughout the race track spiced the movie up a bit for me, and it changed my impression on the lameness of the GPS Road Navigator which I am currently using and SELLING!

Clicking on the photo above will direct you to a range of GPS products which I am selling. They are really helpful for Klang Valley road users especially because they provide extremely detailed road directions and maps which will definitely lead users to their destinations safely. They also possess the ability to scan for roads out of their systems when users do not obey the directions provided, and they would adapt the shortcuts and pathways that users normally use out of their habits. Besides that, there are optional features such as a built-in camera connected to the back of the car to show the rear view which would assist in parking. All in all, just feel free to drop by my official website, www.chinwynn.com for more information and questions can be directed to me as well through email.

And that’s all for the first half of my April. Despite not being able to attend David Archuleta’s showcase at Sunway’s Amphitheatre which so many of my friends went whether they are my high school friends or college course mates, I dare say I’m satisfied since I was able to release all my stress through watching a movie which I have been waiting for more than a month with my best pal. Listen here, Boon Kuang. I sacrificed this show for you even though all of my classmates were about to watch it with me on the following week. Sadly, I had to reject all the invitations but I’m grateful that I watched it with you.

Taking a Break from a Tsunami Named Work

2009-03-23T23:25:00.000+08:00

It’s been a month since I updated my blog, and I dare say during these 28 days, my life really experienced a drastic change. Right after the Sports Day, I started my Bachelor of Applied Finance AND I finally got my self-owned white MyVi. I seriously can’t believe I am in university now AND i own a petrol-consuming vehicle. I guess these are the significations of me turning into an 18-year old adult.

So let’s start off with the shorter one, which is possessing a car. The day I got my car is also the day I announced my independence! It’s as if I get to go anywhere I want as long as I know the directions without the control of my parents. Before this, I had to get permission from them in order to visit my friends; and the worst thing was they had to send me there, which I don’t like it as I would feel guilty and tired of their complaints (not like I don’t get to hear them yelling at me thinking I’m still a new driver though). That’s why I wasn’t very sociable in my school days and I had few friends since I’m staying really deep inside the unreachable Bukit Rimau enclosed guardhouse area. Even my friends always complain that they had to undergo complicated and unnecessary procedures before getting into my house.

NOT ANYMORE NOW!!

Lately, I became so sociable that I drive to my friends’ houses and also take them around the lovely neighbourhood almost everyday. Because I have transport, I even offered tuition to my friends and I can’t express how much I love teaching people. So, any Form4’s who needs ADD MATHS, CHEMISTRY or ACCOUNTS tuition can feel free to register through me.

The only drawback of owning a car is about the maintenance of it. Since it’s a new car, I got to be really careful in my driving, not to knock onto anything and depreciate my car badly. And since it’s white in colour, I have to clean it often and I really spent lots of time washing and wiping it because it gets really dirty and black especially when it rains and the dust sticks after the rainwater dries up (how I hate the person for insisting to buy white since it’s the cheapest colour that Perodua can offer, and due of that I have to spend so much of my precious time washing the car).

Next would be the influence of university education on a person who takes things so seriously. That’s me, of course. Degree course is so different compared to my previous foundation. There’s no more spoon-feeding by lecturers, and the lecture notes provided are all too simplified. This means we have to go through the immensely thick text books in order to extract information for our learning. This isn’t very pleasant because I read books slowly and I have to waste so many hours just to complete a chapter.

Thanks to Marketing, I have to utilise my whole Sunday just to study for its quiz which happens every Monday. Therefore, my weekend is gone: half spent on completing homework, another half spent on studying for the quiz and washing MyVi.

Besides the overload of work given to me, I have to cope with some kind of anonymous force which constantly directs a tide of waves of people assuming I’m the know-it-all geek. It’s just my second week and supposedly, nobody knows who I am in university. However, it seems that half of my new classmates come seeking me for guidance and directions on academic purposes. Is my personality too obvious or is someone out there spreading rumours about me? I really don’t know.

IT’S NOT LIKE I DISLIKE HELPING PEOPLE, IT’S JUST THAT I NEED TO KNOW THE REAON BEHIND IT, THAT’S ALL. SO DON’T MISUNDERSTAND!

Now, I sort of understand why certain people would prefer living far away from the city or more like away from their jobs. BECAUSE experiencing a life of 24-7 answering questions through SMS and MSN about work (studies in my case) non-stop is so suffocating!

The only thing I enjoyed at Taylor’s now is the fact that Li Jhuin is always studying and this at least proved that I’m not the only nerd who studies during breaks.

THANKS FOR BEING MY COMPANION, LI JHUIN!

And so, I came up with the plan of using the advantage of my new car to overcome the disadvantage of my university life. To take a break from what I described as the Tsunami of work, my solution was to hang-out with friends who I don’t need to mention “work”. Basically, they are my juniors but I prefer to acknowledge them as my good buddies because I feel stress-free when they are around.

Last week was the best because it was school holidays. Although they weren’t mine, I still get to spend more time with them compared to when they are not having their holidays. Furthermore, action-pack movies have become part of my stress-reliever and it’s so fun watching with “non-colleagues”.

So, this was the first movie I watched since the commencement of my degree with my family – Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. My rating would be 5 out of 10 for this. This is a show rated 18PL, which means for viewers aged 18 and above with a combination of two or more elements, ie. a program with excessive sex-scenes and excessive violence. My mum was offended when she found out about this because she thought that it would be a waste of money since my sister isn’t 18 (neither am I yet). I just told her that it would be alright, and it eventually did at AEON Bukit Tinggi’s TGV Screens.

This movie is well below my expectations because I was expecting half of the scenes to be filled with fighting and in-game character skills. This was totally opposite from what had been described at the viewer’s review shown in The Sun. Unfortunately, nothing much turned out and I was severely disappointed.

I also don’t see a reason why they rate it 18PL when there are no explicit scenes. That misleading rating kept me preparing for those moments when I would feel intimidated and not know how to react whenever I sit beside my parents. So I guess my first above-18 movie experience can’t be considered as one, sadly.

The second movie I got to watch was Dragonball Evolution. It looks like I am a fanatic of game movies but I’m not actually. Just so coincidentally I decided to watch this movie when none’s at the right time. This is one of my best enjoyable moments as I get to go somewhere after class with my best pal, Calvin Soh Boon Kuang. This occurred on last Wednesday right after Accounting lecture. I was so looking forward to this when I can test my driving skills in taking a first-time trip to Sunway Pyramid and coming home safely.

My ratings for this movie is 8 out of 10, which is an A1. Speaking of this reminds me of SPM and congrats to all SPM 2008 scorers. Back to Dragonball, it consists of more amazing fighting scenes, rather than just fists and kicks. Moreover, it has a better storyline than the other movie. Most of all, watching it with Calvin and spending the whole afternoon there was the best.

Surprisingly, we met quite a number of Kota Kemuning students appearing around Sunway, such as Alex Oh and his gang, Benjamin Lim, Wei Yoong, Mary, Amanda and her cousin brother who I can’t remember his name. It’s as if Sunway Pyramid is the only hang-out venue for KK teens.

This is the exciting trailer for the movie.

This is the next movie that I watched on the next day, Wanted 2008. I know this movie is slightly outdated, but the ratings are the best as I would give 9 out of 10 for it, partially thanks to its creativity in bullet shooting and its violence. I watched this at Chee Hong’s (high school acquitance who’s actually my neighbour) house on Thursday. My original intention was to help him update his computer after all our effort of reformatting each other’s computers for weeks. But cool, he downloaded the whole High Definition video through Ares and I get to watch this stupendous movie with him. I would say this show as a must-watch for those who haven’t watch this 1 year old movie yet. Not to forget, there’s Angelina Jolie in it, and she’s really “hot and cool” there.

Here’s the trailer which shows less than 10% of the actions in this movie.

After that day, I thought I was back to my reality life of studies till their next holidays. But I was quite wrong when I get to have some fun time with my tuition students after our Add Maths class. Amanda, Mary, Elaine, my sister and I went for a drive around my Bukit Rimau neighbourhood seeing all the beautiful bungalows and we dropped by the Matahari clubhouse which is relatively small compared to Kota Permai, the one they usually go. Nevertheless, they seemed to like the swimming pool slides as it is the one and only features that Kota Permai doesn’t possess. It was really hillarious when we sang Right Now (Na, Na, Na) together in the car until I sent by sister off to Cikgu Tan’s class.

That is all for my dreams in reality, and I got to get back to work aka studies. Thanks to Alex Loh for introducing Windows Live Writer, making it much for convenient for uploading photos and videos during blogging.

Wishing everyone (school students back to school; SPM leavers into their new intakes; degree students rushing for their assignments) happy studying, including myself!!

P/S: Sorry for the lack of visual media this time! And congrats for reading this far, haha.

A Sports Day Not Related to Me

2009-02-23T18:10:00.001+08:00

The previous post was extremely long; now for a change, I decided to use something new here to shorten this one. If not, I would have overload it with an enormous number of photos which I have taken on Sports Day at Matsushita Stadium, Shah Alam.

The above photos were taken by my sister's digital camera, Samsung S760, including that long video below. Notice that out of the 18 photos, nobody was aware that they had been captured, because I was using the extra digital zoom few hundred meters away from them.

This is one of the cheapest cool digital cam you can get. Its functions are as good as the higher end ones like Canon, but its price is twice as low as theirs. Feel free to click on the cam to know more about it, OR go to my official site, ChinWynn.com to see it for yourselves. The selling price is RM399.00 at this very day, which I think is such a value buy for a 7.2MP cam.

The Marching Ceremony

Malaysian Red Crescent (my old club)

My juniors who are already seniors

From the top view

Can you spot the odd one?

Our self-created banner

Taking a rest before the real show

The Other Units of My School

Scouts of Kota Kemuning

Youthfulness of the polices

St John, a new club formed after I left school
(Joel, why are you playing hide-and-seek with me?)

Fire fighters taking the initiative in getting a good photo

SMKKK's 5 colorful Houses

Observe the difference between these 2 photos!

On the Race Track

Cool shot from the back

The 3 guys jogging together at the start of the race

Mary, Wei Le and Yean Li burst into action

Teachers playing the same table-tennis-ball-on-the-spoon game every year

Too bad I left before it ended, and missed all the chaos which arose from the Surprised and the Unsatisfied. Anyway, attending this event which is not supposed to be related to me was one thing I kept looking forward to as I am able to meet the familiar faces of my friends and teachers, as well as to prove my worthiness in driving to a place I never been to on my own. At least I wasn't disappointed by that.

My Happiest Chinese 牛 Year

2009-02-12T18:53:00.001+08:00

It's been almost 2 months since I last updated my blog. The reason is because I have been rotting at home for the past 2 months. This too had made my Chinese New Year a blast! Imagine being isolated for so long, and suddenly getting to go out every single day after that, I bet you would understand how much I enjoyed during this festive season. Lucky thing after the festival, my mood can gradually go back to normal since I have some post-CNY events coming.

Hometown - Ipoh / Malim Nawar

Thanks to my cousin brother, Kong Wai who had a really advanced camera, we managed to have some memorable photos for our family. While we were waiting for my youngest aunt and her family to arrive from Melaka to Malim Nawar, he took out his camera and started snapping pictures randomly. Here, we sort of had a group photo in front of my grandmother's house for the first time ever.

A really small portion of my relatives

One thing I always look forward to during the Lunar New Year is Karaoke!! By looking at the photos below, you can now understand why I like singing so much. It's because my family likes singing too!

Besides, I have a paternal cousin sister named Suet Li , aged 12 years old who's very talkative. We brought back the Play Station 1 for her, and she really loved the games, especially Digimon Rumble Arena (Japanese). For those who played this game long before, I'm sure you still remember how the characters pronounce their attack skills in Japanese, and it's kind of funny. The way Suet Li imitate WarGreymon's Circle Attack is so laughable. It's supposed to be a Heat Wave attack but I don't know how the character pronounced it. But my cousin sis went "Eyeball, Eyeball" and she kept repeating it while we were fighting the CPU. I can never forget that moment, 'cause she even imitate the movements like waving her hand forward. Our whole family was laughing at her cute actions.

Suet Li also like singing so much that we started singing before my other relatives arrived at the Karaoke room. I can still remember we sang JJ Lin's "Bu Chao Bu Yong Hua Qian" (his latest song). After the singing, I even keep teasing her with the first two words of the chorus, "Qing Ni!".

The resemblance between me and my family

Me and my cousins - Beng Yu, Mei Yee & Shu En

So those were some of the most memorable events which occurred at my hometown, Ipoh. My father's side was slightly lame since I don't have much common topics with my cousins, except for Suet Li (songs) and Zhi San (games). But both of them went back early as one needed to go visiting at some other places and another one was sick. Some of the unforgetable moments there were when the Astro decoder threw sparks and emitted smoke due to no reason, and wasting money eating two reunion dinners during a recession.

Oh, before I ended the Ipoh trip, I went visiting with my college friends who lives in Ipoh. On Wednesday which was the 3rd day of CNY, I went to Ipoh Parade to meet up with Kar Mun & Tien Jiun. They took me to Li Jhuin's house and then to Kar Mun's house. Their families were very welcoming and I had lots of fun even though the trip was very short. I'm so sorry for Phei Hern who I don't have time to go and visit despite the fact that he's going to Perth to study. I would like to wish him all the best there and hope he can adapt to the environment there. This is to Ern Ern as well.

Back at Kota Kemuning

The first thing I did when I came back home was to accept the challenge of organizing a gathering for my Form 5 friends, requested by Zheng Yang. I made a rush decision and started inviting everybody to my house on the Saturday. It was a wrong one because I really expected somebody else to organize it because the probability of it was really high every New Year. On the day itself, my invitation got rejected by 95% of the crowd because SOMEBODY ELSE HAD A PARTY AT KLANG!! Fortunately, Tong Yen is so kind to attend my gathering despite knowing nobody else would turn up. He even brought his friend, Danny along and picked Jamie from his house. I don't know how to express my gratitude to Tong Yen for being such a nice friend since Form 3.

THANK YOU, WONG TONG YEN!!

My Form 5 friends playing Gundam, Naruto & Soul Caliber at my house

2nd Weekend of CNY

On Friday, Boon Kuang took me to Kota Permai for swimming and sauna. That was the first time I use those services even though I been there many times for badminton, dinner and singing. It was quite fun spending time with him, and we got to know each other much more better. Moreover, I met my high school teachers there too. Ms Reetha, Ms Parvathy and Ms Thava were chit-chatting at a corner. Surprisingly, they recognized me from quite a distance away, and we talked for awhile.

Later, I rushed to another of my high school teacher, Ms Chan's house for visiting. Boon Kuang went for his BM tuition instead. So, I went there with my sister. I was so glad to meet more and more of my old pals as time passes during this new year. There, I met Ms Chan's spouse for the first time, Uncle Gary. Ewe Jin, Ewe Jon, Peik Shuang, Peik Shyuan and King Yang were also there. Time passed really fast, and within less than an hour, I had to send my sister to her BM tuition. I was so reluctant to leave her house because she's one of the most friendly teacher I ever met. This made me visit her in the first place although she didn't even teach me before.

At night after sending my sister to tuition, I followed my parents to my Mum's friend's (Jennifer Tey's) open house at Bukit Rimau near the primary school. Shockingly, Mohd Daniel, my old neighbour friend was there too. It's nice attending parties, rather than organizing them. That's what I learnt. The host must also know how to give a warm welcome and make sure the guests enjoy it. This is something really tough, but I guess the rewards are deserving too.

Saturday, I was invited by my college friend, Wei Qi for KTV at Red Box, The Curve. Unfortunately, Shan Lung can't make it and I don't have a car to drive. So in the end, I didn't attend that gathering. Really sorry Wei Qi, I understand that disappointment very well. Instead, I went to Chun Yeen's house to play the whole evening. His mother was really kind and gave lots of food to me till I can't eat anything else. This visit was really an unforgetable one as I feel very relaxed there, just like my own home. Actually, I was supposed to go back at 6pm, but I delayed it to 8pm, and then to 9pm. Finally, we have to say goodbye, but who knew we would meet again in the next two days.

Sunday afternoon, my family went to the Bukit Rimau Sales Office to witness the professional martial arts. There's this giant God of Wealth which greeted us, and soon after we arrived, the performance of martial arts began.

My family together with the God of Wealth

2 Masters demonstrating the flag art

Master standing on the knives without any difficulty

Both Masters piercing their necks with the sharp edges of the spear

The same Masters bending the iron rod with their necks

The 4 Masters playing the Chinese Drums
(Ms Lim Wei Wei's eldest son like it so much)

After that, my family and I went to my Mum's friend's (Auntie Alicia's) house at Hayat Saujana, near the Subang Airport. I can't believe I managed to drove there and back with everyone still alive. My confidence in driving really increased drastically after that. The bungalow was extremely big, but I don't really like its concept of having Wood as their main design. Among all the bungalows I went recently, the best is Auntie Evelyn's as its design is really modern, and it can match a hotel's environment.

Sunday night was my previous tuition centre's CNY gathering. The committee members and the owners of the centre really did a good job organizing and ensuring the success of that party. Despite the burnt fuse and partial power failure, they remained calm and created a really hillarious atmosphere for the guests. Even they had their fun too, I guess.

For me, this gathering was more like a reunion for me. Again, I can see the faces of my seniors. I can't believe how friendly they are when I first knew them through being a prefect looking after their class. Furthermore, this party allowed me to get to know 2 more friends better. They are Chee Hong and Resha Ng. In the first place, I wasn't sure what their names are, or more like how they looked in my memories. For Chee Hong, I quickly chatted with him once I got back home to confirm that he is the person in my memories. On the other hand, I was stunned by the act of Resha greeting me even though she wasn't sure I know her. Thanks to her initiative, I have one more good friend.

My seniors and I with Mr Lee at Alam Gemilang's CNY Party

Visiting of Teachers' Houses
(thanks Andrea for sending out the invitations)

This day is the best day in my life so far. There is nothing more fun than visiting people who I haven't seen for ages. What more, they are my teachers who have guided me to the peak of the mountain. Of course, i swear that I will reach the end of the universe in my lifetime as success is never ending.

Firstly, Boon Kuang, Chee Hong, my sister and I went to Ms Lim Wei Wei's house which is located only few roads away from my home. It's such a last minute decision that we don't even know whether she was at home or not. This was also the reason I didn't call the others for this. Fortunately, she was willing to come back from buying stuff for us! We really witnessed the activeness her kids portrayed during the surprise visit. I wonder whether was Ms Lim that energetic when she was a kid herself. But I salute her for being able to control her children properly.

Standing in front of her piano is Ms Lim's family together with us
(Thanks to her husband, we don't need to set timers like the rest of the photos during the trip)

Next was Ms Ong Lin Lin's house. Boon Kuang and I were late due to the delay of waiting for Ms Lim to get back. I didn't expect to see so many people at Ms Ong's home. Furthermore, they are my best friends in high school. I can't thank Andrea Ng enough for this! We talked about lots of stuff like the teachers we have in common and also comparing SPM with A-Levels. Those were really heated-up topics and they made us laugh a lot.

The only weird thing was that Ms Lim mentioned about Andrea and I, maybe because we were the ones organizing this event together and she didn't notice that we were friends when I was still in school. This is weird when she also talked about Harpreet and I, the same topic discussed at Ms Chan's house on Friday. It seems like everybody, whether teachers or students, were speculating that we are couples. Seriously no!! Our highest state of relation is just best friends, and nothing more than that. I really appreciate Harpreet for being my best friend, whether I'm enjoying or facing hardships. The people who struggled through SPM and all the moments of high school together with me were Harpreet and Catherine. We not only went through extra classes, academic affairs, but also helped each other a lot during our prefect duties. Thanks to both of you and those who attended this event for making my high school life a memorable one.

Group Photo at Ms Ong's house

The guys with Ms Ong

The girls with Ms Ong

When we were at Ms Ong's house, she told me that Jun Huang and Kai Xiang live opposite her house. So, we decided to go to Kai Xiang's house since most of us know him. Harpreet went back home, and the only reason she did that was because she's taking A-LEVELS, the killer course! The rest of us went to visit Kai Xiang and who knew that he's following us to Ms Leong's house after that. His mother wanted to return a bag of givings in exchange of what we brought for his family. However, we were to polite to take it, and in the end, we regretted because we don't have anymore givings left for the unexpected houses which we were about to visit.

Photo taken together at Kai Xiang's place with Alicia's Canon digital cam

Following that unexpected visit, we were almost an hour late for Ms Leong's house. She said she almost fell asleep waiting for us. I felt so guilty about it, but she should be grateful that we are so appreciative of our teachers too. Here, we discussed something very different, which is our future career. She gave feedback and opinions about the various careers that we are interested in such as electronic and civil engineer, fund manager, dentist, nutritionist, gynaecologist, child specialist, etc. We indeed gain much information and knowledge about these job prospects from her. I guess everyone would agree this was the most enjoyable one, because Ms Leong even played together with us in snapping photos in front of her mirror.

Group photo taken by my sis's Samsung digital cam which I am selling at ChinWynn.com

Idea of taking photo in front of Ms Leong's mirror triggered by Alicia

Funny post by everyone
(This is the clearest photo among those I snapped, maybe because I keep saying that the mirror is cursed)

After Ms Leong's house, Boon Kuang sent Kai Xiang back while Andrea and Kareshma went home individually. The planned activities were supposed to be over, but we were not satisfied. So, next we went to Chun Yeen's place. Alicia kept saying everything was free in his house since Chun Yeen said that his Dad is working as some kind of shopping complex owner whereby he can get free stuff from the shops. Soon, Alicia rushed us to complete our mission as she needed to go back soon. We left the house after taking a photo in front of his beautiful mirror.

The remains of our gang
(looks like we love mirrors, reminds me of Persona 3)

The 2nd last house we visited was their classmate, Joel, who they claimed that he's a genius in everything, not to mention wealthy too. Definitely, I believed whatever they said after I went to his home. He even has a robot to clean his floor, according to them. The exploration around his 3-storey house was overwhelming. The thing which amazed me the most is his elder brother's poster of getting excellent results and being the best student in the WORLD!! Wow, it's unbelievable, really!

At Joel's rooftop platform (twilight version)
[what a nice scenery, seems like Genting's environment]

At Joel's rooftop platform (daylight version)

After having a game of hide-and-never-seek at Joel's house, Alicia, Boon Kuang, Chun Yeen (ABC) and I went to the last stop which is my house. We didn't really do much here except chatting for awhile before Alicia's parents arrived to fetch her home. The worst thing was we forgot to snap a photo at my house in front of my huge mirror. But this gives those mirror-lovers an opportunity to come to my house again too, so I don't really mind. Finally, I sent Chun Yeen back home with Boon Kuang in the Toyota Unser too. What's embarrasing was when I almost reached his house, I accidentally slammed on the horn and it sounded so loud in front of a walking couple. Lucky thing they are not gangsters. If not, I would have been beaten up already, haha.

So the story about Chinese New Year has been told and my life is back to normal, dull and plain. Luckily, there are post-CNY events which gradually bring my life back to usual, such as my primary school best friend, Chen Hoong's birthday party at Red Box, Sunway Pyramid, and my college classmate, Shu Wen's birthday dinner at Ittalianies, The Curve. Thankfully, it is the existence of these events which would not make me go into depression after such an immense change of events.

Genting - My Motivation

2008-12-23T23:01:00.014+08:00

This is Genting Highlands - the place which inspired me about the importance of cash. The most basic necessity, food played a major role in this motivation process and because it is several times more expensive than those below the hills. This trip really made me realised that I must be rich in order to enjoy life and there really isn't any place for lazy and ignorant mortals in this world. So whenever I lose my motivation or desire in making money, I must go to Genting once more to boost the urge of achieving financial freedom again. And by delaying this post till now, I can remind myself about this when I'm typing.

So the photos below are some of the moments captured during the 3 days 2 nights trip - 1 night with my family at Genting Hotel and 1 night with my classmates at First World Hotel (it is called as "First World" because its services and facilities are like millenniums ago).

At the Temple

Scenery of the rocks with the temple's name on it

Pagoda taken from the observatory tower

Guan Yin standing on the higher grounds

Buddha on the mountains

Genting with Friends

Shan Lung, Parveen, Shu Wen and Nicole
(the most lively ones of the class)

Genting Hotel entrance
Floating above the fountains

Brian's modelling session

At the First World Hotel Room

Yee Von celebrating her 18th birthday at Genting
(how nice)

Certain people caught off guard while everybody WAS paying attention
(haha, just joking!)

At the Theme Park - Night & Daytime

Parveen and Shu Wen with the Genting mascots

Taylor's Charlie's Angels providing guide to the Theme Park

Some last few pictures with my lovely classmates at the deserted counter

Pirate Ride - one of the worst rides
(just to warm us up before the scary ones)
Glad that Nicole, Parveen and I achieved our 10 rides target which made every ride cost RM3.80 only

Even though the whole trip was rainy and misty, I actually had so much fun with my family and friends. This is why an atmosphere is not determined by the environment, but the people around us. Therefore, we should always mix around with the cheerful ones to stay happy. And even if we are surrounded by those who always want to spoil the fun, we must never be influenced by them because we do not want their evil plans to succeed, right?

Bolt 3D

2008-12-07T21:51:00.006+08:00

Last Friday was another fun day for me. My sister, Yuli, my primary school classmate, Wee Hong, and I went for our first 3D movie in our lives, BOLT! I missed this movie once at Mid Valley with Shan Lung, and once with Rachel, Gary and Daryl on Tuesday. Now, I can finally see the cute little doggie acting in a movie's movie, if you know what that means. These are some of the snapshots featuring Bolt with the other characters during his quest of searching for his "person".

After the movie, we decided to take some photos of the cool 3D glasses which cost about MYR150 each. The whole movie was awesome with the quite stunning images seen through the special glasses. However, I wouldn't go for a second 3D movie as it isn't very extraordinary though because 3D is actually making the scenes having few layers of backgrounds and characters BUT all the layers are still in the screen! I thought it was supposed to stand out of the screen and frighten the audiences or something. Anyway, it is still a good first-time experience.

Speaking of first-time experiences, that day was also the first time I went into Red Box twice in a day, and that made me sick of singing. Altogether, I gone to KTV for 3 times in a week. The reason why I went twice in a fay is because we only sang for 2 hours during the lunch hour, and after that we need to watch BOLT. So after the movie, we decided to sing for another 3 hours again since we did not sing enough. This was one wrong decision as I will not be singing again for weeks as I'm so bored of it. Nowadays, when I don't even feel like listening to songs which will make me have the urge of singing. But this will definitely not kill my passion for music.

One more thing is that I realised I always spend a lot of money during school holidays. Normally during school days, I would only spend about MYR5 for my lunch and nothing else, but school holidays is the time I go to shopping complexes and hang out with my friends. This would cause my expenditure to increase by 10 times, and throughout these few days i had spend like MYR50 per day. If this goes on, I'll go bankrupt for sure. It is either I reduce my expenditure by going out lesser OR increase my income through my main operating activity which is the development of ChinWynn.com or some investment activities which are unlikely to come to fruitation in a recession. So, can somebody advise us what to do in a recession like this??

Difference between Pre-Finals & Post-Finals

2008-12-02T21:31:00.018+08:00

So what do you think about the differences between these two situations? I guess majority would assume pre-finals to be hellish and post-finals as heavenly, right? This is only half true for me. What I had before my final examination was all the mountains of assignments and oceans of presentations, and all these "nature of tertiary studies" really kept my head spinning round and round. On the other hand, you are about to witness how much enjoyment I had after my projects and finals here.

However, those mentioned above were just the surface of what I'm feeling. Actually, I prefer pre-finals as in I still can see my coursemates and friends for the last few weeks. And now post-finals is like so sombre for me: I got the feeling that I won't be able to see everyone anymore and I miss all of you so much. Anyway, life still goes on and why not enjoy it like everyone else?

Pre-Finals

The first thing to do after the assignment week was over was to celebrate Wei Qi's birthday at Neway Karaoke Centre. It seems like my blog is full of these kind of Neway visits and birthday celebrations but this would be the last one for my Foundation studies. This time we had some newbies such as Rachel, Gary, Christy and Shan Lung. The party was fun as we sang all sorts of songs from old ones to the latest ones. These are just two videos when we were warming up.

Vid - Please Don't Stop the Music

Vid - Bye Bye Bye

Guess who's hiding in the dark?

The Rap Master still keeps up to his reputation

See how much fun everybody is having?
(Since when the girls are taller than Shan Lung??)

As I have said, this was just the beginning, and too bad I did not take any photos or videos during the climax like usual. You ought to join us to really experience the jubilance. This time we went crazy with the older Backstreet Boys' series. You guys really rocked my world!

Post-Finals

After seeing how much excitement we had just a week before finals, now let's observe how people react after their examinations. These photos were snapped right after the specimens went out early from the MPSJ Hall during their last paper (Moral Education).

Rachel expressing her relief to "somebody" on the phone

Wan Yi running out of the hall as fast as she can

The calm and cheerful look of Wei Qi

Li Jhuin and Yee Von still searching for the answers, I guess?

Ken, what are you pointing about?

The Happy Faces after Finals

On Saturday, my class had an outing at Mid Valley. Sadly, only 8 out of the 23 classmates turned up for the lunch and movie. Lunch - Chili's; movie - Shan Lung and I watched Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa whereas the rest gone for Twilight except for Christy and Ken who went back to Ampang together. This was the first and last movie I had watched with my foundation classmates, sort of (I just realised it while I'm typing).

Group photo taken in front of Mid Valley's Chili's
(which was a very difficult place to find due to Ken)

On the following Tuesday, my class had a last karaoke session which is held at Red Box, Sunway Pyramid. This was more fun than the previous one because there were another three newbies which included Nicole, Wan Yi, and Daryl who is Rachel's boyfriend's (Gary's) twin brother.

The right side (parti berhaluan kanan) of the room

The left side (parti berhaluan kiri) of the room

Group photo of 3.1 who attended
(nice background Red Box has)

What's left at 6pm
(those who went to BBQ Plaza for dinner, yummy!)

AT

KIDZ

ZONE

Now, what did I learn by the end of the year?

Accounting - Debit and Credit
Economics - Demand and Supply
Statistics - Population and Sample
English - I don't know as I am not qualified for a HD??

This is just a joke. To be honest, I really acquired communication and presentation skills throughout the course, and also understand the importance of teamwork here. Most of all, I am extremely glad to know this whole lot of classmates as friends. All in all, I had an enjoyable year thanks to all of you!

Temporary Post on BST Past Year Answers

2008-11-23T18:30:00.007+08:00

Now, I shall extend this post for those who need to revise for Supplementary Exams. Not to be nasty here, but it is actually to help you all. For those who are new, click on the picture and it will zoom to the actual size, where you can view every single number properly.

Ms Jaya's Question Page 1
(mistake on 1a - should be 33+3x=39 --> x=2)

Ms Jaya's Question Page 2

Ms Jaya's Question Page 3

Ms Jaya's Question Page 4

Unknown Year Set 1 Page 1

Unknown Year Set 1 Page 2

Unknown Year Set 1 Page 3

Unknown Year Set 2 Page 1

Unknown Year Set 2 Page 2

Unknown Year Set 2 Page 3

Unknown Year Set 2 Page 4

A 2-Day Visit to Ti-Ratana

2008-10-17T18:58:00.046+08:00

Haha, another long delay for this post to be created. This Ti-Ratana post is written for the sake of those who went for the visit to ease their journal writing as well as providing an avenue for photo downloading (since my pen drive isn't able to fit all the pictures and videos). Since we are supposed to write our journals, I will put in a summary of all the activities that we had done.

28 August 2008 (Thursday)

12.00pm - 1.00pm (KT1)

Ms Thama informed us about the challenge that we are going to face in this semester. We had chosen our own groups and everybody had their own ideas of place to visit: Aquaria KLCC, Rumah Charis, Zoo Negara, Ti-Ratana, SJMC child ward, etc.

4 September 2008 (Thursday)

12.00pm - 1.00pm (KT1)

Ms Thama requested our name of place of visit and their contact information. My group initially chose Rumah Charis.

3.00pm (Neway)

When we were celebrating Dian's birthday at Neway, Yee Von was busy calling Rumah Charis. And then, she started complaining about inappropriate it is for us to go there. We decided to change to Ti-Ratana.

12 September 2008 (Friday)

10.00am (TBS Ground Floor)

After Business Statistics lecture, Yee Von got her confirmation to conduct community service at Ti-Ratana orpahange home. Who knew that we ended up cleaning the old folks home too.

6 October 2008 (Monday)

10.00am - 12.00pm (KT2)

Ms Thama was concerned about our progress in our community service and she called each group out to question them. We told her that 3 groups are going to Ti-Ratana together. She was a bit shocked to hear that so many people are doing this together and secondly, we had changed our place of visit.

10 October 2008 (Friday)

1.00pm (TBS Mezzanine Floor)

We had a meeting of our plans for the next day and what to buy for them. Since the manager of Ti-Ratana, Ms Christine told Yee Von that she will be the one delegating and ordering us on that day, we didn't really have much to plan. Meanwhile, we arranged transport - Bowie, TJ and Tien Jiun are the drivers; Ken was planning to go there by himself. Yee Von printed out the map for all the drivers, including Ken.

11 October 2008 (Saturday)

8.15am

Waiting for their guys to appear at TBS

9.00am

Reached Ti-Ratana's Main Office

10.00am

Warm welcome and being brought into the dungeon

10.20am

Let the games begin!

This games is called "Blown by the Wind"

Rachel not knowing that her knee was about to be injured for playing this game

10.45am

What's happening at the Underground?
Looks like the boys like Wan Yi pretty much ^^

[Missing scene - Musical Chair conducted by us for the kids]

Being isolated by the youth!

Yee Von joining in the the fun
(For your info, I'm being enclosed by the UltraKids)

Had Wan Yi managed to shake off her magnet-like attraction to join us?

Eu Ginn making a man-made tornado with the playful boy

Posing with the camera-boy who will be snapping most of the photos after this picture

This is an example of photo taken by the camera-boy called Xiao Yuan

11.10am

Now what's happening back upstairs?
Looks like Nicole has just found her twin sister - Vivian
(But Kar Mun & Tien Jiun are both showing some weird expression)

11.20am

Group photo at Ti-Ratana new block main entrance stage

Where is the cheque given by Padini to Ti-Ratana?
(I thought we were holding it for a second?)

11.30am

Socialising session begins now
(Photo taken by Xiao Yuan)

Yee Von carrying Xiao Yuan
(contrast of expressions)

Wan Yi, Kar Mun and Li Jhuin posing with the cutie-pie

Controlling the naughty girl

It seems the playful kid doesn't know when to stop
Climbing beyond the limits (guess it suits Eu Ginn's personality)

11.45am

Everyone is enjoying at the front hall of Ti-Ratana

Nicole, Vivian and Jeffery playing with cell phones
(By the way, the children really enjoy IT)

Rachel and her new friend who looked slightly shocked

TJ and Mun Yee playing with the boy

Li Jhuin playing The Fruit Game with the girls
(Too bad all the fruits requested by her contained worms)

TJ handling the boys

Eu Ginn supervising The Fruit Game
(Mun Yee is going to be indulged into hyper fun)

12.00pm

Anybody wants free carrier service?
(This extremely short video is supposed to be a photo)

"I don't want to be rode by you!"

The mighty TJ comforting Ah Yuan who can't stop crying by spinning him in circles

What's with Bowie and the girl, I wonder?

12.30pm

After socialising for an hour, I decided to become the explorer.
This was what I discovered at their kitchen.
(I guess nobody knows this except me)
Is this sufficient for the 30 children and the few caretakers?

Pouring out rice from small packets into the huge bucket

This is done by the helpful ones

After exploring the underground, I continue socialising for another hour before we leave the orphanage of Ti-Ratana. The next day is the cleaning day which is held at the old folks home of Ti-Ratana. Well, this welfare place is really enormous and thank God we went there in 3 groups (16 people).

12 October 2008 (Sunday)

Now the boring part of this post begins. We went to the old folks home of Ti-Ratana to realise that we had to clean the filthy place. All the photos below are dull because they are just for other members to download. But I'll make it interesting by adding some comments to the photos. The last section would be the video taken by Yee Von.

9.30am

Reached Ti-Ratana and Yee Von delegate the work by dividing us into 3 sessions
Starts with me, Li Jhuin, Germaine, Wan Yi and Bowie

This is Li Jhuin sweeping the corridor of the women section

Germaine sweeping the front of the women section
Back of picture standing near the gate is a scary lady
The ladies had conflict of being bossy and tried to order us to do different things
In the end, we don't know whose orders to follow

10.00am

Ken decided to request the ladies so that we can clean the Buddha statue
Me, Ken and Bowie managed to wipe the tall statue until it becomes sparkling

10.40am

Bowie and me cleaning the windows of the rooms in the women section
Surprisingly, they can sleep on their beds next to the windows while we were wiping it
(Isn't it dusty?)

10.50am

Now is the worst room that I have ever seen in my life
It really stinks because there is shit under the bed
(I wonder it's bird shit, lizard shit or human shit?)

Wan Yi was the courageous one to do the first cleaning which is to mop it away
Next, me, Li Jhuin and Wan Yi arranged the mountain of stuff in the room
(Took us quite a while since 2 women were ordering us to do it differently)

We were given masks and gloves by one of the ladies
I have never seen so many gloves before (it's like taking tissue out of the tissue box)

By this time, reinforcements had arrived
The third team (Kar Mun, Tien Jiun, Jeff, Kaylie and Eu Ginn) had reached
They helped in our sweaty job

11.15am

Me and Li Jhuin cleaning up the toilet
(specially built to suit the handicapped people living there)

Germaine and Jeff taking photos of each other doing work
Jeff first time holding a broom in his life

11.35am

Not knowingly, the second team secretly seeped in after their long breakfast
They quickly started their work at the men section of the old folks home
These 5 are Nicole, Rachel, Yee Von, TJ and Mun Yee
They started with sweeping, moping and cleaning the toilets

Kaylie cleaning the toilet side by side with Mun Yee

Nicole giving Rachel a helping "eye"

Tien Jiun helping Nicole to do The Thing that everybody is so reluctant to do

Even Li Jhuin has to use her gloves to do The Thing
Everybody is complaining that there is no point in using gloves since it will get wet and the hands will feel uncomfortable

Same goes to Yee Von
So cheerful in every photo
Guess she like doing work very much

12.00pm

Time for some toilet fun
Everybody washing the mop in the washroom
And then TJ started playing with the gloves
See those gloves being filled with water, they're kind of floury
Yee Von was so afraid of the gloves and she kept running away from TJ

Hey, there's special treatment for this man
He's watching The Drive of Life with a DVD player while being fed by a volunteer

The PCD enjoying themselves

Now for the fan wiping session (altogether 10 fans):

Started with Eu Ginn who's the initiator of this session

Bad merging of these 2 photos
Rachel really high already!!

Wan Yi's turn to wipe with pieces of tissue

Continued by Li Jhuin with the same fan

Mun Yee cleaning the fan at the wooden part of the old folks home
At first, we thought that we finished our work
But we soon realised that we were so wrong
Because there's one more wooden block at the men's section

Kaylie wiping the wall fan
I had to adjust it back in the end

Ken and Bowie sharing the same sort of fate

12.30pm

Everybody was listening to the Karaoke set that they have here
Too bad it played those local 20s Chinese songs only

On the other hand, these 3 were busy washing the dishes after the old folks had their lunch
How helpful of them

12.40pm

We were learning how to make animal decorations from ang pau packets
A friendly lady was more than glad to teach us her secrets

1.10pm

These are the food and drinks that we bought for the orphans
Actually, they were chosen by Kar Mun, Tien Jiun and Li Jhuin at Mid Valley
While they were shopping, of course

Last one, ended with Jeff cleaning up the mess
Wonder what suddenly triggered him to do so?

Li Jhuin, Wan Yi and Kar Mun stayed back for quite some time to help out
They are the truthful ones and should deserve most of the credit

A short video cut into 4 parts:

In total, we spent 5 hours each in both days from 9.00am to 2.00pm at Ti-Ratana.

Finally, thanks to our organiser, Lim Yee Von who did all the planning and management!