Post No. 111

Yo 2012! It has been a great year so far, I’ve been terribly busy with school, co-curricular activities and so on. I’ve been going to school every single day for the past week, spending at least 10 hours in school every day. Everyone is busy preparing for the Open Day tomorrow, hoping to attract more people into their clubs. I would be performing a case for St John tomorrow at about 10.00 and I hope everything goes out fine. I can still remember the last practice for it, it was the best case I had ever done. (I think ;D) It was the only case I sweat while doing it, the ambulance came and we had to chance to transport the casualty up the ambulance and it was just so fun.

I’ve been also helping out with robotics. I”m glad I got the chance to meet so many fun people over there. I wanna thank them for giving me the chance to design some things, at the same time brushing up my photoshop skills. I’ve also helped out some clubs to draw their banners and posters. It’s really great knowing I’ve helped them in something. I’ve also been busy with my St John training as the area competition is just around the corner. It has been quite pressurizing being the leader of my team and honestly, there are times where I just wished I wasn’t the leader. My team still has to improve a great lot to win the competition and move on to the nationals. A miracle needs to happen for us to do so. Well, fingers crossed.

School has been okay for me, went into the only class I didn’t want to be in. My class is so far from the other form 3 classes and there is no way for me to borrow text books from my friends. But on the bright side, maybe it is good as I would have no where else to walk about during period brakes and I’ll have no choice but to stay in class. Some of my teachers are great while some aren’t but nothing is perfect so I’ve gotta live with it.

I’m still excited it’s Open Day tomorrow, I think it’s gonna be fun.

Post No. 110

Belated Merry Christmas! For me, Christmas used to be all about presents. But I guess I was wrong. This christmas, I realized I’m the luckiest girl in the world. I have everything I need(and perhaps want), and it was kinda hard to think what I wanted this Christmas. I’m so thankful to be born in a middle-class family, with educated parents, a super smart sister and brother. I’m using a computer I want, a phone I want, and also a camera I want. There’s no more things for me to wish for.

I’m fortunate to have such a great dad who likes technology. I guess I’ve followed his footsteps and I’m interested in technology too. He’ll buy the newest gadgets out of curiosity and of course, I get to try them out too. I’ve started using the internet since I was 5. I had my first email account when I was 5. I remember when I was younger, my family members would come to me when they had problem using their phones. Honestly, if someone asks me what I would wanna become, I would certainly like to say ‘I wanna be like my dad’. He has this different way of looking at things, he pays attention to all tiny tiny details, which just awes me.

Without my mom, I won’t be the ‘me’ today. I just can’t possibly imagine life without my mom around me. She cooks the best food in town, and I just simply love eating. A few months ago, her bread-maker spoiled and we had to buy bread from other shops. Well, none of them could match with my mom’s bread. I don’t really like eating bread (maybe because I’ve been eating for breakfast almost every day since I was born), but at least I would eat my mom’s bread. I super dislike eating the bread bought from shops right here in Alor Setar. My mom used to supervise me doing homework and studying when I was younger, and she really taught me well. All the scolding, arguing, nagging, crying was all worth it. Without a good foundation, I have no idea how I would keep up with my school work. She used to be my story telling, public speaking and poem recital coach. I dare say without her, I wouldn’t get champion in the National Chinese Speaking Competition 2 years ago. She’s also my piano teacher. If it wasn’t of her, I wouldn’t have persevered till grade 8.

I’m thankful I’ve grown up in such a good family.

 

Post No. 109

Hello from KL. =) went for Nike run on the 27th and I finished it in 1 hour and 24 minutes. Broke my personal record. =D I just came back from iCamp and it was so awesome! I still remember I almost cried on the first day and promised myself I wouldn’t go to the camp next year as I didn’t know anyone because I’m the only one from Alor Setar. I was so bored and just didn’t know what to do. There were some people like Sophia and David who were so kind and tried to talk to me so I didn’t feel left out. thanks soph and david. =)

We had cyber wellness sessions on the second and third day.  Keith was the speaker and he was really good. He knew how to get our attention and the sessions were not boring at all. He used to be a professional gamer and a video game addict. Here are some of the things he said.

Connect to disconnect.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Friends don’t walk with you through life, they carry you thought it.

We really learnt a lot from him and we really enjoyed the talks. He gave an extra talk which was more personal and told us more about his life. We did some worship after that and I cried. I just cried. I felt God’s presence there and it was just awesome. God is a good father me, and He loves me and loves you too. =)

I woke up on the second day with a sore throat. I was worried as those sore throats don’t get healed easily. I prayed and asked God to heal me and just didn’t think about it anymore. I had char keoy teow that morning for breakfast and miraculously, I got healed. Well, God is good, all the time.

We had games that afternoon and then we played in the stream. I skinned my knee but luckily it didn’t really hurt. We went Stream trotting the next afternoon and it was really fun. It was challenging but not that tiring until my leg ached or anything. I went trotting with Arielle and she was just awesome! I wanna go stream trotting again soon!

Overall, the camp was fun. Brenda, Jade, Euwyn, Nicholas and Darren came to our room and we chatted until morning. I slept at about 4.00 while some of them didn’t sleep at all. I made some new friends and I would wanna go for the camp next year! =D

Post No. 108

I came home early from St John Intersquad training today. That was my last intersquad training. I feel relieved. Like a big load of things just somehow magically disappeared into thin air. As I would be going to KL on the 25th, I’m skipping intersquad again this year. I always hoped I wouldn’t have to face it, but now, surprisingly, I feel sad I would be missing it this year. I always thought I would be the irresponsible member that wouldn’t care about any camp meet or training, but I guess I’m wrong. I told myself last year that I would never go for any camp meet this year, but well, I’m wrong again. I’ve been quite busy with intersquad training and camp meets and training and camp meets. I’ve been spending the days discussing about camping stuff, memorizing intersquad lines, marching steps etc. I’m no longer going for the intersquad, I’m missing first 3 days of camping, or maybe I wouldn’t go at all, but I think all those effort paid off. I learnt a lot of things from my seniors, gained some experience, earned some unforgettable memories.

Well, I’ve changed. I don’t grumble anymore when my seniors punish me. I don’t think getting punished to do pumping is a big deal as long as I can tolerate it. It’s actually for our own good if you look on the bright side. It’s exhausting, it’s tiring, it undeniably is. But all these punishment train you to become a stronger person too.I try my best to go for every intersquad training, every camping meeting nowadays. The problem is, not everyone views each training like I do. There are some who tries to escape each and every training, but they don’t realize how much their teammates want them to come. They don’t get that their absence would cause lots of inconvenience, they don’t realize that their leader would be upset, would get frustrated by their absence. Just by missing one training, you miss a good opportunity to learn more things.

I’d be going down to KL on the 25th for Kronos and Brooks, Nike run on the 27th(I’m joining as VIP this year! thanks to dad), iCamp from the 29th of Nov-2nd of Dec, stay there for a few more days, then follow my uncle back to Alor Setar. Going down again on the 11rh-13th for Nike. Hopefully I would not be too tired to go for my camp the next day. Some of my friends keep urging me to go. =)

Post No. 107

Time really flies. I feel like it’s just the beginning of the year, where I just walked into my form 2 life, enjoying my friendly and humorous classmates, thinking that ‘my class is just so awesome!’. Well, all of these just came to an end in a blink of an eye and I haven’t got to know all my classmates yet. My class isn’t the best class in the form, we aren’t known for being the most obedient class, the top student isn’t from my class etc… Talk about 2A8, and the teachers will think ‘the class that always plays football in class?’ and all sorts of negative thoughts. However, these are the fond memories and linger in our minds.

The results for the final year exams are finally out, I didn’t do really well, but I didn’t do too badly either so I’m quite satisfied. I missed my chance of getting an iPad this year, but I’m happy as I’ve reached the target I had set for myself. I hope to do better next year and hopefully get the iPad.

My St. John intersquad competition is coming up and we are really under prepared. There are so many things that we haven’t learnt and it’s gonna be a tough challenge for us to perform well during the competition. I don’t think we will be able to remember so many things in such a short time, so all I can do is just keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. There are quite a number of marching steps that my teammates do not know, our short case is really bad and home nursing, argh! Just forget about it.

I’d be skipping the camping this year, but I’m joining the preparation. I’m done designing the name tag and now, the HQ is telling us that they are gonna change the whole theme. Well, back to square one, nothing done. We have only 1 month to prepare this year, compared to one and a half months last year. Everything was already very rushed last year and with such short time left and the theme is not confirmed yet, I don’t dare to think of what will gonna happen during the camp. I’m kinda thankful now that I’m not going for the camp. =X

Cadet Camp 2011

Exams are finally over and I went for a cadet camp one day after the whole nightmare ended. Don’t think I did really well this exam, but I’m quite satisfied. =) The camp was held at Pendang Lake Resort which was quite a nice place. 30 people were crammed into a dormitory. The bathroom was always crowded as everyone was ‘fighting’ to use the 5 bathrooms. Hate waiting and waiting for the bathroom when all you need is just a good bath. The worst time was after we were drenched wet in the rain, we had to stand there all wet, waiting for others to finish bathing. =/

Overall, the camping was quite fun. It wasn’t just a camp to get the proficiency badges, but we also got to know people from other schools and play too. I enjoyed the games, especially the one on the first night, where we were blind folded and had to shout our lungs out to find our team members. Everyone was practically bumping into each other and I almost fell into a drain. While we had a hard time finding our members, Ken was busy trying to trick us and break our teams up. After shouting and shouting till almost all of us had no voice left, we were finally allowed to “unfold the blinds”. We walked into the hall and saw those November-born people marching blind folded in the hall, banging into each other. That was a pretty unforgettable scene.

The lectures were all quite boring as they were all theory theory theory and no practical except for fire-fighting. We went outdoors and the fire fighters set up fires and taught us how to put them out. It rained after about 10 participants got a chance to try out and it marked the end of our fire-fighting lecture. I almost slept during the other lectures but luckily I managed to stay awake. All of us were worried about how we were gonna do during the exam but there wasn’t anything we could do.

The games and team building was fun, especially the games where water was involved. My whole team got wet during the first station so we were playing with super wet clothes for the rest of them. There were stations where it was impossible to get wet, but the were helpers spraying water at us. After that we had to go for the commando course. Before we even got to start, it started to drizzle. Since we were already wet, we didn’t bother about the rain. After I managed to cross 2 obstacles, it rained heavily and one of my team members was shivering. We were asked to run back to our dorms. It was my first time being caught in such a heavy rain and it was quite fun! We had a karaoke session at night and each team had to perform something. We didn’t have any time to practice our performances so I guess some teams really did a good job.

I enjoyed myself during the camp and I look forward to joining such camps in the future! =)

p/s: Lots of thanks to Madam Jo-Anne Chuah for organizing such a fun camp.

Post No. 105

Mom and dad just came back from Australia a few days ago and I was left at home for 9 days alone. (Okay lah, I still had a maid with me but I prefer to say alone.) Well, mom cooked everything for me and my transport to school and tuition were all planned so I guess there wasn’t anything much to worry about. I’m glad my house didn’t tumble down and it is still in good shape.

Mom and dad brought back lots and lots of chocolates, nuts, etc. I’ve been eating and eating lots of chocolates since they came back. First thing I did when they came home was try out Jasmine’s santa suit she got from a charity run last Christmas. It almost swallowed half of me. Dad says Adelaide is a really nice place. They visited the beaches, Rundle Mall, a farm and so on. They even went to an Apple store in Sydney. They have lots and lots of iPhone 4S for you to try them out and there are iPads showing the features of each of the phones. In short, there is iPad2 for every iPhone 4S for trying.The apple store is 3-storey-high and the steps of the stairs is made of glass. Kinda cool huh? I can’t wait to visit an Apple Store. Too bad there isn’t any in Malaysia.

I can’t wait for my exams to be over. Gonna go for a camp as soon as the exam ends. There is still school after exams and I’m wondering what we will be doing during that time. Teachers will so-not teach anything and all I can imagine is half the class playing at home while the other half in playing in school. My holidays is almost packed, spending the end of November and beginning of December in KL. I’m excited about Nike Run. I’m joining again this year!

Post No. 104

So many things have been going on this week. I went for a 3-day 2-nights home nursing course in Kangar. It was the first time I stayed is a hostel so it was a great experience for me. We learned lots of things like simple bed making, taking patients’ pulse rate and temperature, went to the only hospital in Perlis etc. It was relaxing and fun. The best thing is, I got 100 for the test. =)

Apple finally launched iPhone 4S. Many critics criticized it and many people said it was a big let down, but for me, it is still cool! I love Siri the most, but it’s just Beta, and it’s only available in 3 languages, English(UK, US), German and Italian (i think). It’s a voice command, I know it sounds meh, I thought it was lousy too, at first, until I read what it really was. Head to Apple’s website to know more about it. =) I’m glad to hear that the camera is now 8 mega pixels, and its using dual core too. iOS 5 is cool, I can’t wait for it too launch!

Well, all good things come to an end, and Steve Jobs the ex-CEO of Apple left the world one day after iPhone 4S was released. Some people said iPhone 4S could mean iPhone ‘for’ Steve. He changed the world of computers, world of tablets and the world of communication. He made gadgets easier to use, even babies or the older generation find iPhones, iPads and iPods easy to use. Last time, computers were only made for experts and were only found in labs. Steve Jobs invented the first home computer. Here’s an old Machintosh from the 90s. My dad doesn’t want to throw it away so it’s sitting on the table in his room.Fans from the whole world have grieved at the loss of Steve Jobs. He made headlines for some of the newspapers today. Well, he really made a great impact on the technology world and is someone worth remembering. RIP Steve Jobs. =)

***

Exams are coming again! Well, I hope Steve Jobs would be an inspiration for me to study harder. He didn’t complete his university education, but he is still so successful. I’m ending this post with some of the best quotes from Steve Jobs.

‎1.“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

2.“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

3.“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

4.“You know, we don’t grow most of the food we eat. We wear clothes other people make. We speak a language that other people developed. We use a mathematics that other people evolved… I mean, we’re constantly taking things. It’s a wonderful, ecstatic feeling to create something that puts it back in the pool of human experience and knowledge.”

5. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

6. “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

7.”Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

8.“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogmatism which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

What Will You Be?

My aunty gave a talk last night and I thought it was kinda meaningful to people especially youths nowadays. So what do you want to do? What do you want to be? A rich and successful businessman? A super talented person? An international icon? Well, I believe everyone has big dreams. Everyone wants to be famous. Nobody wants to be neglected.

Meet Bernard Madoff, Tiger Woods and  Britney Spears. I’m sure you guys know Tiger Woods and Britney. Bernard Madoff is a former stockbroker, investor, businessman and was the  founder of one of the sixth largest market maker on Wall Street. He was voted as One Of the World’s Most Influential People by Times Magazine in 2009 and served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University.

Tiger Woods, on the other hand is, a professional golfer. He was the highest paid professional athlete in 2008, estimated $110 million. He was won 14 professional major golf championships and was the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. He was awarded PGA player of the year for a record of 10 times. He has also been named the “Athlete of the Decade” by the Associated Press in December in 2009.

Britney Spears is a pop icon. She is ranked as the 8th best-selling female recording artist in the U.S. – 32 million copies of her albums. Rolling Stone Magazine once said she is one of the most controversial and successful female vocalists of the 21st century. She is listed by the Guinness World Records as having the “Best-selling album by a teenage solo artist” for her debut album, Baby One More Time.

These people are pretty awesome huh? They are all famous and influential people. They hang out with those high class people too. But, there is a big but here, they’re not known for their greatness now. Bernard Madoff is now known as a fraudster. He cheated $50billion out of investors and the scheme is now called the “Bernie Madoff’s $50 Billion Ponzi Scheme”. You can find out more about it from wiki here.

Tiger Woods is now known as a womanizer, a cheater. I’m sure everybody knows he cheated on his wife. It made a great impact on his career and I’m sure he’s not known as a good golfer. Just one big mistake and he lost all his dignity.

Britney Spears is frequently in and out of drug rehabilitation centres. Her children are now under care of her dad as she abused them too. Well, people don’t credit her for being a pop icon now, as the people, the community will always talk about what bad things you did. People like to maximise the bad things you do and minimise the good things you do. This is our community so in order to keep your dignity intact, you’ll need to prevent yourself from doing to wrong things and mixing with the wrong people.

So who will you become? who will you be with? what do you wanna do? No matter what you become, a good person or a bad person outshines who you are with and what you do. You don’t have to be a famous person, hanging out with all the famous person to be great. All that matters is your inner beauty. You can be a normal person, with normal looks, hanging out with not-so-popular-friends, but if you are a kind, a good, a caring friend, you will be loved among your friends. =)

Lastly, who you gonna be? Who you gonna be with? And what you gonna do?

Post No. 102

School has started and honestly, it has been quite a happy week for me. =) I’ve got all my results, and I’m quite satisfied with what I got. I’ve finally got my first 100 in secondary school, and I’m really happy for achieving that. I think I’ll continue to study hard and hopefully get an iPad 2. My totals marks are the same as the top guy in my class so that means I’m first in the class too.

It’s a holiday today, for the Mooncake festival. There’s a lot of mooncakes in my house and nobody wants to eat them. I’ve kinda got bored of the taste of mooncakes so I’ve stopped eating them. My dad tried out Häagen-Dazs’ mooncake and I really wanna try them out too!

Time really flies and I’ve gotten into the final semester of Form 2. =( Well, I’ve gotta admit I’m gonna miss my class as there are  so many cool and awesome, not to mention humorous people in my class. I hope that I would get to now each of them before the year ends. They’re so funny and my class is one of the noisiest class in the form. I’ve also got to know some cool people this year and I’m no longer the “only-knows-people-in-my-group-of-friends” person. =D

I have finished the wood carving project and I’m quite happy with the outcome. I had also helped many friends to carve theirs. =) My geography teacher asked me, “Kenapa kamu buat begitu banyak, kamu sangat suka buat ini kah?” Well, there’s no harm doing it and yeah, I like doing it. I don’t really like to carve the whole wood because it wastes a lot of energy so I usually help my friends touch up the wood and make the carvings nicer.

It’s September and the next exam is in less than 5 weeks. Final exam on the 24th of October. Well, I’ve gotta start studying now to get good results but I guess I’m just too lazy to do so. =)