How I spent my days (before and during my birthday)..

Song of the day:
Kanye West featuring T-Pain
"Good Life"

Don't get excited!

The way I spent my time this weekend is never gonna be interesting enough to make anyone feel excited.

BUT...

I think it is worth mentioning them on my own blog.

After all, it's my blog and I can do whatever I want on my blog, right? Haha..

So, on Friday (17th October 2008), after having OT (initials of the phrase overtime), I headed back home, had my dinner and then sit on my bed while watching TV and surfing online. 

Then, predictably, I fell asleep without even switching ma TV off.

I know I know, energy wastage, I know, stop reminding me!

I slept from 9 pm Friday night to 3 am Saturday (18th October 2008) morning, when I saw my TV showing an old drama during the 3 to 4 am slot (which I usually watch anyway due to my early sleeping time during weekdays) but this time, I couldn't be bothered to wake up and watch the show since the show wasn't as interesting as the previous one.

I continued to sleep until I woke up at roughly 11.45 am Saturday morning.

Once I woke up, I started chatting with Eng Xiang and Aifen (if I am not wrong) online.

Saturdays have always been boring for me and till now it's the same old thing.

I chatted the whole afternoon while watching an old traditional Chinese costume drama on NTV7.

And also, I took a bath and then went out to have my ocassional car ride at roughly 5.30 pm.

This time around, I took my car to Tmn Universiti, a place which I've not been visiting for quite some time due to my job commitments which usually leads me to town more than to my old varsity.

I also have other reasons for car riding around the Tmn Universiti area, which of course cannot be announced here.

Usually, I have my car ride with my MP3 player in full blast while listening to various songs, ranging from hip-hop to my favourite alternative rock.

While listening, I twisted and turned to look for the stuff I wanted to look for, but of course to no avail due to the number of houses in that area.

Well, after feeling satisfied, I headed back home to meet my parents for dinner.

After dinner, I started to facebook and found that Kin Lik was the first fella to send me a birthday wish. Thanks to him!

While doing that, WeeJie and me had a huge discussion about Arsenal.

Well, I was moaning throughout the discussion about Arsenal and he almost got fed up with me and changed our topic to something else.

Then, he sent me an interesting quiz/questionnaire thingy which is basically a personality test.

Click here to go to the personality test page.

And this was my result:

Paranoid: Very High
Schizoid: High
Schizotypal: Moderate
Antisocial: Moderate
Borderline: Moderate
Histrionic: Low
Narcissistic: High
Avoidant: High
Dependent: High
Obsessive-Compulsive: Moderate

Try it and understand what these terms mean and you'll be amazed.

Then came the big game after the un-anticipated international break, Arsenal vs Everton.

I didn't watch the game at the beginning but I livescore it.

As I've predicted, Arsenal went down 1-0 as usual, only after 9 minutes ffs!

I was damn angry but I was joking about it with WeeJie.

But at the beginning of the 2nd half, we equalised and I walked to my living room and switched on the TV to watch it.

van Persie scored the leading goal and then my beloved Walcott (I'm straight okay) scored the 3rd, which basically made my day.

"Such a simple goal which would have solved our problems earlier," I kept saying that.

After the game, my dad was the first family member to wish me happy birthday.

My other family members were either busy with their own stuff or sleeping.

I headed back to my computer and found that Eng Xiang sent a birthday message too. Thanks to him!

Midnight followed after that.

25 minutes after midnight, I received my first sms greeting.

Guess who was it from???

It was.... AMIRA! Haha...

I was soooooo happy that she was the first one to sms me.

Amira, thanks a lot for the sms greetings. Really really appreciate it. 

SMS birthday greetings have been one of the most important birthday greetings for me nowadays. 

Nothing beats SMS birthday greetings, especially those early ones when they reach you just minutes after midnight (of your birthday). 

In the past few years, I would receive quite a number of early SMS greetings during midnight but I anticipated now that they would be much fewer and that actually happened.

Nevertheless, I felt really happy to receive Amira's birthday greeting so early.

We exchanged a few SMSes before I shoo-ed her to go to bed.

I slept at 4 am and then woke up at roughly 11.30 am.

And to my surprise, I received 4 SMSes, each from Serena (Siangling), Tong, YiXian and Chek Ru.

If you can't remember who they were, Serena (Siangling) used to be my MSN buddy from KL, who's now studying in USM, Penang; Tong and YiXian were my godsisiters, whom I think are more like my friends (than godsisters) now; and Chek Ru used to be one of my old pals' girlfriend, who's still keeping in touch with me.

Also, as I usually leave my computer on overnight, I received a message from an old pal who's currently in Sabah.

Well, I wanna take this chance to talk about old pals and my views/opinions about them.

My definition of old pals would usually involve those who are very close to me, i.e. those who have studied with me in the same class or conducted activities during my Interact Club and Sea Scout days.

Nowadays, I don't really give much attention to any of my old pals due to several factors.

One is that they won't really give a damn about me since they've their own lives now.

Secondly, most of my so-called old pals are "supposed" to be better than me and thus they think I'm redundant.

I'm not saying all are like that but the feeling they gave me are like that.

Thirdly, they always give me that "can't be bothered about Kelvin" kinda attitude, especially when I try hard to keep the friendship going and stuff.

This attitude annoys me to the max and makes me think that the "friends forever" thing is actually crap to be honest.

Therefore, if any of my old pals are reading this, please, don't blame me for not joining any gathering because to be honest, some of you are very ignorant about stuff.

Moving on, I spent the rest of my afternoon chatting with Eng Xiang and Aifen again while ocassionally received SMSes from different people, i.e. my unit trust agent new friend, Yuki or Charis. Thanks to you too, Yuki!

I also received a lot of facebook birthday greetings, from people like Chee Wei, WeeJie, Gigi (an Arsenal fan friend from Hong Kong), Kugan, Zhe Yuan, Lih Kang and somemore la who I can't remember.

But nobody beats one friend who actually made a sacrifice for me during the afternoon.

She called me from Melbourne, Australia just to talk to me on the phone because of my birthday.

She's none other than.....*drumrolls pleaseeeeeeeee*

AIFEN!

Hehe. Just to refresh your memory, Aifen is a friend whom I got to know during a Golden Key UTM event known as Appraisal Night 2006.

We kept in touch after that night and chatted online numerous times even after she graduated shortly after the event.

We sometimes exchanged SMSes and also we chatted online whenever we have the chance to.

Common interests kept us together as friends and now even when she's in Australia, I'm glad that she doesn't forget about me la.

That's what I call true friends la.

No matter how far the distance is, communication shouldn't be a problem, but many of my old pals basically just give up on my friendship with them when distance comes into the fray.

Special thanks should be given to Aifen for the sacrifice, which also became the highlight of my day.

After all the excitements in the afternoon, came the traditional Lye family celebration.

It always starts off with a dinner thingy, where my cousin would usually be invited to join the dinner together with all our family members.

After dinner, we'll always have a "cake-cutting" ceremony. A short and simple one, and the main character would usually be the type of cake, not the birthday boy or girl. Haha.

Anyway, it has been a pretty simple 24th birthday but it wasn't a bad one.

However, I still haven't had my special birthday till now, the dream birthday that I've wished to have.

I'll blog on that one day la.

Till now, tata. (:

Now we know why...

Song of the day:

Melee

"Imitation"

I was thinking a few days back about the chaos the world has been facing lately.

The USA financial crisis, the milk and melanin incident, and in football, the various unresolved problems like racial abuse etc.

I've been searching for a phrase to explain why all these have been happening and are still left unresolved.

Today, a super quote from my idol, Arsene Wenger, came up with the best quote I've ever seen in my entire life.

"Arsene Wenger: Stupidity IS contagious, from Setanta Sports", as shown on Newsnow.

Ya, Monsieur Wenger was referring to the racial abuse Sol Campbell has faced at Fratton Park in last weekend's game against Tottenham "I'm a top 4 team" Hotspur.

I mean, the Frenchman is correct about this.

From the beginning of the human race, it has been bragged that humans, Homo Sapiens, are the most intelligent spesies in the world.

Well, I don't admit it but nor would I deny it.

However, let's fast forward to today's world. Will you still see humans as the most intelligent?

Let's see.

Financial crisis? Do animals really have such problems?

Note that the current financial crisis is all man-made disaster.

The entire financial system are made by the so-called "intelligent" humans.

And they play with the system to earn profit, gain personal benefit etc.

So the "who cares about the future" attitude is always there, ever present.

Once the consequences of such attitude come in, we then have a man-made crisis, i.e. this financial crisis.

A lot of these crisis actually happen due to human's stupidity.

I don't know how to describe it but stupidity can be very contagious.

Another thing I wanna talk about is the mentality of "what the majority do is correct".

This one is stupidity at the highest level.

Take the average Malaysian society for example.

A lot of Malaysians are very inconsiderate when it comes to car-parking.

They resort to all sorts of parking methods, be it legal or illegal.

Some even don't care about their vehicles blocking other people's way or endangering other people's lives.

And the worst thing of all is that people do it because others do it.

Isn't it stupid for them to say that? 

What the society always does IS NOT ALWAYS CORRECT!

I mean, this is the consequence of a democratic society. Looking at what the majority do. So the minority follows the majority.

If I continue with this, I'll end up slamming democracy because I'm not really a big fan of this system.

Don't get me wrong. This system is good but it requires an extremely ideal environment and people to implement this system.

Well, like I've said, when people put the blame on society when they do something wrong by saying others do it too, these people have already contracted what I call stupidity.

Think about it.

The power of rock!

Song of the day:
Foo Fighters"Best Of You"

This is an example of rock music transforming a rap song.

Firstly:

 

Eminem - "Lose Yourself"

Then, we have:

The Script - "Lose Yourself"

Which one sounds better? 

You be the judge. (:

Waiting for a...

Song of the day:
Yellowcard
"Gift and Curses"

I've a very simple wish.

Out of so many wishes, I think this is the simplest wish.

Of all these years, I've been waiting for just one thing.

Of all these years, I've been giving out this one thing that a lot of people might have received every year from friends.

Of all these years, I am still waiting.

Of all these years, I've not given up hope of waiting for it.

So, what is that simple thing that I wish for?

People always wish for more money, more this and that especially stuff that they like, during their greatest day which they always celebrate.

I tried to fulfill theirs by giving them a surprise, and an item of surprise.

I love their surprised expression when they get them.

I love their "thanks" when they get them.

However...

I don't love the time when it is my turn to receive "it" from friends when my great day arrives.

I waited for... seconds... minutes... hours... then days... years.

Despite that, of all these years, I've not given up hope of waiting for it.

I wonder, "is it so hard to wait for this only one simple wish, just from friends?".

I wonder, "when will it be my turn?".

I wonder, "am I being to desperate?".

My ponders might be overboard.

Just a simple wish, and what is it?

Just a simple birthday gift from a true friend, that's all.

Can't Get Over It... - The Last 12 Months

Song of the day:
Within Temptation
"Angel"

Part 1: Labbies

Next was industrial attachment/training but honestly, nothing interesting ever happened during the entire duration.

However, I managed to gain knowledge on a commercial micro-controller known as PIC micro-controller.

I did blog about my industrial attachment under the title “Programming Nightmare! / A little bit of this and that...” so just read about my rants in that blog entry. Hehe.

4th year was the final year of my entire course.

It started off with a busy laboratory session, where problem based learning, or simply PBL, laboratory.

This PBL lab is first of its kind in my faculty but not in UTM as other faculties had been implementing this for a while already.

So, students were put into groups of 5 and throughout the semester, groups had to go through 3 different laboratories.

In each laboratory, groups have to follow a 4 week schedule, where

1. 1st week: Collecting Information
2. 2nd week: Designing experiment procedures/preparing necessary equipments
3. 3rd week: Implementation of experiment
   
4. 4th week: Presentation and demonstration

Not only that, we had to do group meetings at least 3 times (but mostly 2 times for my group as 3 times might be too many times for us).

So with such a busy schedule, adding to the other subjects, I was pretty busy during 4th year.

Not forgetting the first part of my final year project, final year students also had to meet with their respective supervisor for at least 7 times a semester, chose their final year project topics and also did presentation at the end of the semester.

It was a hell of a time for us but I did enjoy the whole process as I’d learnt sooooooo much from doing presentations all semester long and working with my group mates.

*****************************

Part 2: F.Y.P.

Then came the 2nd semester of 4th year, which would probably be a hell of a time for some final year students, depending on their projects.

It never get any easier when one has to deal with software and hardware side of an electrical engineering project which I’ve endured.

Adding to the fact that I’m pretty lazy sometimes, things got even harder and worse.

Earlier on, I planned to start assembling the components in my project during the one month holiday in between 1st and 2nd semester of 4th year.

Well I did do that but I didn’t really take much time to research on the hardware specs of the micro-controller that I would be using though.

So problems started to pile up even at the beginning of 2nd semester when I realised that there were too many obvious differences between the micro-controller I’ve used to meddle with (PIC16F876A) and the one I intended to use in my project (PIC18XXXX, i can’t remember the code).

Therefore, I was forced (by circumstances) to change my core micro-controller to PIC16F876A.

Well, I mentioned that the problems started to pile up, right? Next was the programming (software) part.

You know, looking for the relevant computer program (with the C language linker) was a tough job unless you have $kaching$ (money).

So it took me the first few weeks to get hold of the required programs before proceeding with my program writing process.

I was at first shell-shocked by the difficulty of interfacing the program I’ve written with the actual micro-controller. Note that the program would be “inserted” into the micro-controller so that it would function accordingly.

However, PIC micro-controllers were such a hassle to deal with. And those chores took me another few weeks, which eventually reduced my available working weeks to nearly half of 15 weeks.

While dealing with my own problems, I still had the chance to look at my friends’ problems.

Chanuri was probably my only friend who was super duper troubled by her final year project.

Well, not that my other friends weren’t facing problems, but Chanuri’s was indeed a true hassle.

Her supervisor was already a huge question mark as he was known to be bias and discriminated females (as she’s the only female under him).

Note that my best-est friend, Dy, was also under him so it wasn’t only one side of the story.

Then, she didn’t get the help which was very much needed from her supervisor too. Therefore, she had to do all the things on her own.

And eventually, during the final week of the project, she somehow managed to obtain some result, which was only to be rejected by her supervisor who also humiliated her in her face by saying “throw your project away.”

Oh my gawd! Ridiculous, right? I mean, the title given to her was not even suitable for our level and yet he was being so mean to Chanuri!?

Well, a real lesson was learnt. Please choose the correct lecturer as your final year project supervisor before you even regret it.

So, throughout the 2nd semester, 4th year students also needed to meet their supervisors at least 7 times. BUT, I met mine less than 7 times. Muahaha..

At the end of the semester, all final year students would do a final presentation and demonstration in front of a panel of evaluators.

I was scheduled for Wednesday morning (16th April 2008) and was supposed to be the 2nd fella to present in Group 2 in the same laboratory (Power Electronics Lab).

But I was pushed forward instead as the first fella did not print out the latest evaluation form so I headed Group 2 to be the first to present.

To me, it was a fun experience doing presentation as the panel consisted of a few lecturers who knew me.

The worst part would always be the question and answer session for every final year student, depending on the panel of course.

Fortunately enough, my panel weren’t full of inquiries.

Group 1 was different. The panel included my supervisor, who was an associate professor and so it was understandable that he would ask a lot till you drop.

Well, the demonstration was conducted at the end of the whole Group 1 presentation session. One by one, we did a demo on our project and explained whatever the panel asked.

Fun is the only word I’ll use la. Hehe.

FYP ended well for me luckily, as I got an A for it. My initial expectation was to get a pass so obviously it exceeded my expectations. 

********************************

Part 3: Unexpected Events

To be honest, I really didn’t expect some things to happen.

I did mention in “2nd and 3rd Year Tales” that I didn’t have the chance to know people from other courses.

Firstly, I got to know some faculty mates better through the use of technology. What I’m talking about here is MSN of course.

And also, there were lotsa shocking developments in terms of gossips, you know those “A is together with B” or “C breaks up with D”.

SEE gang had our last gathering at Tebrau City, watching Iron Man and also had dinner at a local Chinese restaurant before the movie date.

Well, I would also like to thank Eng Xiang, Lyeyong and Jia Hwang for the last yumcha session I had (with UTM people before the end of my whole UTM experience) as it marked the ending of my 4 year experience.

Adios to all and may all of you have a great career ahead of ya!

Can't Get Over It... - The Joy of Extra Curricular Activities

Song of the day:
Jimmy Eat World
"Work"

In my varsity, 2 credit hours of our bachelor degree life were dedicated to extracurricular activities. 

Therefore, I’ve to take 2 activities in separate semesters and choose from a list given to students.

In the application form, students were required to fill in their top 5 activities but there was no guarantee of getting your most favourite one as the places were always limited.

I remembered taking my first one during the second semester. As there was a fixed date to obtain form and register, I was a bit late for the registration and had to be contented to queue up at the back of a super massive line.

It was the first nightmare I faced in UTM. I’m talking about the super massive crowd and queue of course.

In the end, I managed to get into swimming, which wasn’t my top 2 choice anyway. Ang and his room mate from SEL, Jia Hwang also joined swimming.

Swimming was fun under a lecturer from FKM (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering) who’s also a swimming instructor during leisure hours, but was also strict as his marking scheme was not easy at all.

All the swimmers had to learn the 10 skills listed by our swimming instructor and then take the tests after mastering them.

So in the beginning, we learnt the basics and then tried mastering the 10 skills required. I only managed to master 8 of the skills and was able to obtain a B minus at the end of the whole course but I was pretty contented that I didn’t fail the whole course.

The other credit hour for extracurricular activity was SCUBA diving. I purposely applied for it as

I was super duper interested in water activities.

So, I attended the indoor lessons but I still wasn’t ready for the full license lesson (which requires students to take 2 extra lessons with higher fees of course and extra outdoor lesson and test) so I took the incomplete course.

After 3 indoor lessons, we were put into groups based on the schedule for the outdoor lesson, which is sort of like a practical lesson to learn how to deal with the SCUBA equipments and applying diving skills.

My scuba group

I was grouped with different people from different faculties and altogether there were 8 of them including myself.

The practical lesson started with our instructor explained the uses and procedures to handle the equipments. Next we followed the procedures and learnt to use the equipments.

Next, we were guided to make ourselves comfortable in the water and then learn how to dive underwater using the equipments as well.

The whole lesson was broken into 2 sessions; morning and afternoon sessions. Morning session ended at roughly 12 while the whole lesson ended at roughly 3 pm.

Scuba meeting! Attention! Scuba meeting!

This is an alien fixing his goggles... I'm the alien! Muahahaha...


Me and my scuba buddy... Part 1...


Me and my scuba buddy... Part 2...

I still have the pictures with me but I forgot to blog about it. Hehe. Enjoy the pictures though.

*Note that the pictures of me were taken before 2008 as I was fat then.

Can't Get Over It... - GKUTM and Me

Song of the day:
Dido
"Life For Rent"

Golden Key became part of my life after I was elected into the committee and was appointed the historian of the club.

Golden Key International Honour Society Logo

It all started after the members’ induction ceremony which I mentioned earlier when the then committee called for new members to come for new committee interview.

Amy and I were very interested in the positions on show and thus both of us went for the interview, which was held on a Wednesday.

Both me and Amy were interviewed. I remember filling the form and rank my choices of position as follow:

1. Historian
2. Vice Secretary
3. Community Service

Maybe the 2nd and 3rd choice weren’t exactly what I wrote but historian was my top choice nevertheless.

I got interviewed by the president, Jason and the vice president, Karen. 

Then I received an sms from Kee Yew, one of the directors during their session for a meeting. Amy also received the sms and we went together to attend the meeting at KTDI (another residential college within the campus).

The meeting gathered several people who also attended the interview previously. Then, Kee Yew informed us about his purpose of the meeting and then distributed the tasks.

The meeting was actually to gather all potential committee members to organize an event known as “Homecoming 2006”.

In this event, an obstacle race would be the main event where contestants had to go through a series of different games/obstacles in order to read the ending point.

So, the preparation of this event were started by setting up a booth at my varsity’s library, PSZ (Perpustakaan Sultanah Zanariah) and conducted for 3 days.

I remembered that the number of contestant were very very low and therefore different solutions were gathered, including opening the event to non-members and also contacting our close friends to obtain more contestants.

Of course, I called my bunch of fun loving course mates and they both were super interested. Till today, I really thanked them for that.

Before the day of the event, I think we managed to find more than 60 contestants which was roughly our target.

The committee members also went to the site, which is an army training site to observe the area and plan what we could do with the site.

Finally, the day arrived and everything went smoothly, albeit some expected hiccups which normally happened during such event. 

It was still a good one to remember as everybody was pretty happy with the event and had lotsa joy. Even though I did not join and raced through the obstacles, I did enjoy working to make the event a success.

“Homecoming 2006” sort of marked the beginning of my GK life. 

Note that during “Homecoming 2006”, the committee members for this event was not official committee of GKUTM yet as we still had to go through another programme to train up the members. I skipped the programme due to some undisclosed reason though.

Prior to the training programme, the potential GK committee had to also organize another GK event known as “Appraisal Night 2006”, where it is an event to commemorate the achievements of the out-going committee members.

I took part in a singing performance together with Johan (vice president to be) and Amira (Academic Programme Director to be). Honestly, Johan and Amira were picked to perform as both of them play the guitar.

Originally, we planned to perform 3 songs with me singing all three, while Johan playing 2 songs on guitar and Amira playing the last song on guitar.

The songs were 

1. “More Than Words” (a super popular song by Extreme and covered by Frankie J),
2. “Kau Ilhamku” (a song by Malay artist Manbai)
3. “Wake Me Up When September Ends” (by Green Day)
   

We practised on numerous occasions but I just couldn’t master the Malay song as I just couldn’t remember the lyrics. 

However, in the actual event, I only performed “More Than Words” with Johan on guitar as I missed the last few rehearsals due to family matters.

(Me and Johan, performing "More Than Words")

The “Appraisal Night 2006” was a pretty fun event held in Chimosa Restaurant along Jalan Kolam Ayer. Those who know where the famous Kolam Ayer Laksa is, will be able to find the exact location of the place. 

Me and Aifen during Appraisal Night 2006

And also this was the event that I knew Aifen, who’s currently furthering her studies in University New South Wales, Australia. 

After I was officially appointed the historian through the official office bearer installation ceremony (which I was absent due to personal problems), there were 3 more GK events providing the best memories in my varsity life.

I remember that the committee of GKUTM planned to organize a community service project (which I was an “expert” while I was the Community Service Director for my old club Interact Club during my secondary school days).

They ended choosing Rumah Seri Kenangan in Kempas as the visiting location. I guess some Interactors of SSI, JB would still remember where it is.

As I was caught up with other commitments during that period of time, I only helped out in the preparation of the event.

However, I volunteered to be the “chauffeur” for GK regional director Mr. Jimmy Teo as he came down to JB from Penang on the actual event. But I couldn’t follow through the entire event as I had to travel to KL at around noon time so after reaching the location, I stayed for a while and took a look around the area.

Rumah Seri Kenangan is actually an old folk’s home for old people with different backgrounds.

Some were homeless, some were ex-convicts, some were basically widows. 

But rest assured that they are given the best treatment as a Chinese old man talked to me about his life in the area. He was a pretty approachable old man and a few of the participants were also listening to his words attentively while the old man talked about his past.

You know usually during such events, there would be opening speeches. The speeches were then followed by a special musical performance by the old folks using different musical instruments.

After that, came a dance session when I got pulled onto the stage and dance. I couldn’t believe that I actually DANCED! I did the “agogo” and danced with the Chinese old man with joy and absolute fun.

Too bad I did not take a photo with him but I still remember the scene to date. It was truly a memorable one.

During my GK times, I also had the chance to become the Emcee (master of ceremony) of 2 events; one was the New GK Member Reception Night (July 2006) and the other was the New Members Induction Ceremony (Jan 2007).

It was a pretty exciting and nervous experience as I had a little bit of a stage fright to be honest but these experience did help me to overcome this fear and making me more confident while making my presentations in front of a crowd.

Well, a lot have been written on GK events. I eventually faded off after January 2007 due to my lack of participation. Yet, the memories remained in my heart.

*Note that the pictures of me were taken before 2008 as I was fat then.

**Also note that I'll post my blog entry regarding my convocation very soon.

Can't Get Over It... - 2nd and 3rd Year Tales..

Song of the day:Ultra
"Human After All"

Re and Mi After Do (Do Re Mi)

In the first three years of my studies, my social circle wasn’t that big but occasionally I was here and there trying to know more people. 

And those were the times that I began to know more SEL and SEM fellas, boys and girls. 

I realised that there were more chicks in other courses than in my course. And what the f**k.

Lol.

No offence intended though.

In my 2nd year, I also recalled that I joined Golden Key International Honour Society Chapter UTM (GKUTM), a society which only recruits members with a CPGA of 3.5 and above.

I was baffled by the CPGA condition for the member participation thingy at first but soon I still joined the society and attended the member induction ceremony.

In the ceremony, I clearly remembered that Amy, Me and Amira attended the event. 

The VIPs of GKUTM encouraged members to be active and to ask questions at the end of the session.

It was obvious that there was a Q&A session at the end of the ceremony but nobody dared to ask questions.

So, Amira stood up, walked to the front (stage) and grabbed the microphone. 

The Advisor of GKUTM, Prof. Tajuddin called for applause for her initiative to ask questions. I can’t remember what she asked already but I thought that she was very brave at the time.

Then I joined in the “fun” and asked my own question, which was related to the connection between GKUTM and Rotary Club/Interact Club as I was pretty interested to know that.

It was still very fresh in my memory now, a very unforgettable scene.

Then occasionally too, I would join some of the SEE and/or SEL gang’s parties (usually birthday parties) and had fun with them, even though most of the time they were having fun while I was simply chatting with some of them.

One of the gatherings I joined was a birthday party for Lyeyong if I wasn’t mistaken. (I assume it was a party for her as she was the centre of attention that night). 

Another party I attended was for Eng Xiang, as it was held in KFC Taman Universiti. It ended a mess as there were some “cake-throwing” action during the celebration process but of course the KFC premise wasn’t owned by us so we had to help clean up the place.

I too had my one and only birthday gathering but was only attended by my course mates. It was held at Singgah Selalu restaurant near Danga Bay. 

I remembered after my usual celebration with my family, I headed to the place alone and waited for them for quite some time and I couldn’t imagine that I’ve to wait for them!

Nevertheless, they arrived and brought a cake. They sang birthday song and ordered food to eat. All of us talked crap as usual and enjoyed the event as fun as possible. It was still a joyful one though. 

I found it pretty tough to chat with the people (of SEL and other courses) during the parties as it was probably my own problem.

But nevertheless, I got to know who they were, where they were from and most important what their names were.

For me, it was good enough at the moment of time since I haven’t got any chance to work with them or chat much with them.

And also, as laboratory sessions became more important and more imminent in my 2nd and 3rd year, it was inevitable that lab partners/group members played an important role.

I remembered clearly that my first lab partners were 2 Khairuls; one was Khairul and the other one was Khairul Anwar. Pretty confusing for me but we managed to go through the tasks successfully.

Then throughout 3rd year, my lab partners changed and joining me were Jazrul and Hazriq. Three of us became very united and cooperative as we always divided our jobs automatically.

Usually I would collect information for pre-lab purposes, Jazrul would make important decisions during lab sessions and Hazriq would do the writing and touch-up for the short reports at the end of every lab session as his writing was always clear and nice enough. 

So my lab sessions went by very very smoothly and I was very grateful to them.

Lecture Memories – 2nd and 3rd Year Recalls

One compulsory subject in the first three years of every course in my faculty was Electromagnet Theorem or simply EMT and it ended up the toughest subject before taking our core subjects in our own fields.

And this subject introduced me to Dr. Norazan, whom I always regard as the best lecturer I’ve ever seen (in my faculty of course).

His lecture style was simply exhilarating. I might be exaggerating but I just felt that way so just bear with my exaggeration. The way he talks also made his lessons interesting.

Weirdly though, I think he’s probably the only lecturer who wears slippers to lectures. Haha.

Yet, he’s a very good lecturer all in all. I think I was very fortunate to be taught the subject as he went pretty in-depth into the subject, helping me and my fellow friends to understand the subject better.

When I talked about him, I couldn’t forget to talk about one of the memories I had.

I remembered that Dr. Norazan assigned each and everyone in the class a question and do a short report comprising introduction, solution to the question, background of the problem/topic, and the application of such topic.

And he also created a time-table for an “interview” session where he would ask questions regarding student’s assignment and also the topic related to the assignment.

I did mine, and I was scheduled to meet him on the last day of the interview schedule (it was a Friday), before 5 pm (originally I was scheduled for the 2nd day but he postponed it to the last day).

As I reached his office, there were still a lot of guys before me while I waited for my turn to be “interviewed”. 

I waited and waited of course (no choice at all) and one by one they went in and came out feeling relieved. 

At roughly 4.30 pm, there were still 3 or 4 guys ahead of me. So he came out of the office, and said, “Kelvin, I think you don’t need to come in for interview. Your assignment is already very complete.”

I was very happy to hear that as I was the only guy who was exempted from interview! Off I went then after thanking him.

Well, it was a very small incident but I think such small matters do deserve a place in my memory.

Another lecturer whom I still recall is Dr. Norazman, who taught me the subject “Advanced English for Communication”. Basically this subject was all about doing research and producing a research report.

Dr. Norazman was a gigantic fella. I mean gigantic as in very big size fella. He was 1.5 times my size (remember I was pretty big size during that time).

At first, I thought he was a very scary lecturer as he looked very fierce and stern.

But after a few lectures, I found that he was actually very kind and used a relaxed approach during lectures. 

And only in his lectures I saw people raising their hands to ask questions in the middle of the lesson. 

It was a very refreshing scene at that time as we know Asian students in Asian universities seldom do that in lessons.

Under his guidance, my group (me, Ang, Foo, Dydientha and Gaffar) learnt a lot of stuff. We did questionnaires and distributing them and collecting them back. 

We also did information collection and also held numerous meetings to make the research proposal a reality. 

I too learnt to tolerate my members’ antics and behaviour as they caused me a lot of problems and I ended cleaning up their mess.

But at the end of the day, the final product was out there in time and I was very glad with the final product too. (:

Define dancing...

Song of the day:
Five
"Let's Dance"

Define dancing:

Dancing - a series of movements involving two partners, where speed and rhythm match harmoniously with music.

Just go and watch Wall-E!

Sweet couple of Wall-E and EVEEEEEEE (or Eva to Wall-E). :D

Can't Get Over It... - The Beginning and Heading Towards 1st Year

Song of the day:
Jack Black
"School of Rock"

Starting from this entry, I'll post a series of entries regarding my memories in UTM.

It'll be a 4 parter series which will be posted daily I suppose.

Each chapter will consist of one or more chapters which is divided by bold wordings.

****************************************************

The Beginning

2 nights ago, at around 5 sth in the morning, I was lying on the bed, getting ready to sleep.

I realise that I was still thinking of my old friends in UTM, especially those I’ve yumcha with the last before everyone basically went on separate ways to work in different places.

Then I reminisce the old days in UTM, when I first stepped in UTM together with my dad, who drove me to the varsity for the first day of orientation.

And I would always repeat the same old stuff over and over again about the first person I got to know in UTM.

Sei Hwa is the fella. Haha.

I think he will be pretty proud to be mentioned by me so many times. (I received his sms on Sunday, with the message content similar to the caption I’ve placed below the Convocation picture taken together with him).

Then after the UTM registration session ended in KTC (Kolej Tuanku Canselor, which is a residential college), I collected the keys to my room and of course headed to my room to place my stuff.

And there was where I knew the first fella who was in the same course (SEE) as I was, Kinlik.

Basically we mixed around quite ok and were helping each other almost all the time. 

My room mate was a Sabahan named Christo. He was a bit of a talkative fella and I remembered that he chatted with his friend/family (as I surely couldn’t know who he was chatting with at the time) in the middle of the night, causing me to suffer from insomnia for the rest of the orientation.

Well, then after the registration of course at my faculty, I got to know who my course mates were and they were; Foo, Ang, Soo, Yong, Wong, Amy, and later, Chanuri.

Something I couldn’t forget was that during the course registration at my faculty, there was one girl who caught my attention.

She looked like a Chinese due to her super fair skin tone but she wore baju kurung during that time. In the end, when her name was called upon, I got to know that she’s a Malay girl.

Of course, for SEE fellas, you should’ve known that the girl is Amira. Hehe.

****************************************************

Heading Towards the 1st Year

After the orientation, my official hostel room was relocated to the new block in the same residential college but was in a more rural area of the college, block S44/45/46 (I couldn’t remember the exact number but those blocks were in the same area).

I liked the location as it was pretty quiet and green, pretty conducive for studying and living.

As few of my course mates were staying at the top level of the block, I usually headed towards their rooms to collect senior’s notes and do some electronic stuff. 

And from there, I knew some fellas from other course such as Electronics (SEL), Mechatronics (SEM) and others.

I got to know some of them by their names, i.e. Eng Xiang, Chun Vui, Aaron, Alex, Kevin, Ing Hui (whom they always nicknamed as “God”. Don’t ask me why though. Maybe he’s super duper good. Hehe.)

At the same time, I also got to know a senior named Yap who was a JB fella. He studied in SDJ during form 6 and sometimes I did chat with him about JB and our past during secondary school.

Too bad we didn’t keep in touch but I assumed that he must be living quite well at the moment. (:

Turning to the females, after a few weeks of lectures, I got to know more about Amy and Chanuri through constant gathering during lesson breaks and lunch time.

I still remember that some of the SEE guys were trying to woo Amy after attending a talk session by the Buddhist Society of UTM (or something like that) on romance or something like that. (Do correct me if I’m wrong).

It was a big laugh for me when I heard about it because I felt that they were pretty desperate for relationships.

But to be honest, kinda recall, most of the SEE fellas were from other states and it’s inevitable that they might want a partner to go through the challenges of life.

Well, the first year was not going to be easy for a lot of young adults but nevertheless most of us pulled through and managed to obtain good results.

Then 2nd year and 3rd came.

Ultra - Where are they now?

Song of the day:
Ultra
"Blind To The Groove"

In the year 1998, I started listening to English music after Deric introduced me to them.

So I also began listening to English radio stations and gained knowledge about the English music scene.

Bands from UK and US were very very popular during that time.

Rock and pop music pretty much made up a big percentage of the English music scene during that time too, with rap and hip-hop playing a supporting role only.

I was more into pop music at the moment as I was still very new to English music.

It was very understandable for me, especially in the "Boyband" era when'N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Five were super duper popular within the years 1995 to 1999.

However, I was pretty impressed with a new idea (which wasn't really that new to be honest) of a genre known as pop rock.

It all started to strike me when a new pop rock band known as Ultra started breaking into the UK pop music scene.

They first released their debut single known as "Say You Do".

To me, it was a refreshing song by a refreshing combination of "boyband" and rock music, and thus attracting my attention.

The beats, the rhythm, the lyrics. Just nice for me.

In 1998, Ultra actually consist of 

1. James Hearn (lead vocalist)
2. Michael Harwood (guitar)
3. Jon O'Mahony (drums)
4. Nick Keynes (bass)

Soon after, they released their debut album, also known as "Ultra".

Ultra's self-titled album

I bought a cassette tape version of this album in 1998 and I was attracted to it.

The songs were pretty nice, giving you the pop rock kinda feeling.

I would say The Click Five and Jonas Brothers would be the closest to describe Ultra, but of course since they are British, the accent is a little different.

Yet, the album consists of different musical styles, i.e. slow rock ballads, midtempo tracks, and a little bit of the choir type.

Later on, they released "Say It Once" as their second single, which was then followed by "The Right Time" and lastly their best single to date, "Rescue Me".

"Rescue Me" was the only Ultra single which managed to peak in the Top 10 of the UK Charts.

A ballad with a little more pop rock (due to the beats) feel than pop music feel to it in my opinion.

Since that single, Ultra did not produce their second album and seemed to vanish from the music scene for quite a while.

As you know I don't live in UK, I usually have no update on the band.

However, based on what is written on Ultra's Wikipedia page, the band split for quite a few years but reunited with addition of new members.

Now, Ultra survive and they've recently released their new album known as "The Sun Shines Brighter".

Well, it's pretty hard for a band to stay on for decades unless you've very good success in the music scene.

Take Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bon Jovi for example.

They've been doing those stuff for like decades and their fame don't seem to fade away.

But time does different things to different people.

Ultra might not be able to withstand the "commercial" pressure every band and music artists have to faced, but their music lives on in my life.

Till now, my favourite Ultra song would always be "Blind To The Groove".

It's a pretty interesting song which involves good back-up vocalists and a very exciting blend of pop rock music and a little gospel music in it.

I don't know how to categorise the song but to me, it will always remain as one of the songs in my "most favourite songs" album (if I ever compile one).

Try out Ultra. Maybe you'll like it. (:

Well, that's part of my musical memories that I would probably never forget.

I'm still alive! / A new beginning (notebook version)...

Song of the day:
Stan Bush
"Dare"

Wow. 

Just realised that I haven't blogging for months since I graduated from UTM.

Hmm...

Just to update, I

1. am still jobless/unemployed
2. am still a lazy rascal. Refer to 1

I know some of you are like "what the f**k? Get up and get a f**king job!!!" or something like that.

At the moment, I'm still taking my time to find a suitable job.

I've interviews coming up but I'm not very desperate for jobs.

Anyway, certain things have changed in the past two months.

Basically, my mindset has changed a lot in various subjects, i.e. friendship, jobs, life.

I've also taken time out to reminisce about past memories, good and not so good ones, memorable and not so memorable ones.

In this pacy era, it's difficult to even stop for a moment and admire the things around us.

That's probably the reason why I wanna take all the time in the world to rest, realise and learn things around me, and also discover what I could really do with my life.

All the while, I haven't been really making decisions on my own.

I want to have a say in my life, and I don't have the chance to do that in my life, especially regarding my future.

Now I've stepped out of university, graduating as a First Class graduate from Electrical Engineering.

And it's also about time for me to put aside what I don't really enjoy doing in the past few years, and look forward to something outside the Electrical Engineering field.

Hence, I'm taking my own sweet time. Cheers!

I know a lot of people will "look down upon" me. I understand that.

But I "look down upon" them too as they're just slaves for money.

I don't want to be a slave for money. I want to enjoy what I do and obtain the reward/salary that I feel is compatible with what I achieve within my scope of work.

That's my view though.

Oh ya, just only last week that I damaged my Presario V1000 by accident. 

It was a nightmare when I accidentally kicked my Presario.

It died a horrible death as it fell to the ground from the top of my small little side table which I placed my notebook all the time.

The motherboard struggled to inhale her last breath. 

And within seconds of trying to revive her, she died. :(

My Presario V1000 has been a loyal servant to me for the past 4 years since the year 2004.

Unfortunately, she suffered various kinds of illnesses annually and nearly died after 2 years of usage.

The motherboard was changed and luckily she was determined to continue living.

She went on strong for the next two years until last week when the accident happened.

Well, I've bought a new babe just only yesterday.

It came out of a surprise that I bought my baby as I was looking for a suitable baby with several brands considered, including Acer, Dell, HP and others.

And most people knew that last weekend was PC Fair weekends in several major cities in Malaysia, including Johor Bahru.

I wasn't satisfied with most of the model sold in the fair at Persada as the specifications were just not good enough for the budget that I've set for my future baby.

The budget? Roughly 2k to 2.7k bucks. 

After loiterring around Persada on the first day of the fair in JB, I went back empty handed.

As I was a Lowyat Forum member, I searched through the "Mobile Computing" thread and discovered a new Acer notebook model which was being hotly discussed.

It was weird as there was no sign of the notebook during the fair at Persada.

As I continue reading the forum, I realise that the notebook has the following specs:

1. Processor: AMD Athlon (Turion) 64 X2 RM-70 / 2 GHz ( Dual-Core )
2. Cache Memory: 1 MB, L2 cache
3. RAM: 1 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max), DDR II SDRAM, 667 MHz ( 2 x 1 GB )
4. Card Reader: 5 in 1
5. Hard Drive: 160 GB
6. Optical Storage: DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM, integrated
7. Display: 14.1" TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ), 24-bit (16.7 million colors), CrystalBrite
8. Graphics Controller: NVIDIA GeForce 9100M G
9. Networking: Network adapter, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b,IEEE 802.11g 

And also, the price of this babe was approximately 2k bucks!!!

This babe is the Acer Aspire 4530. Picture is as follow:

(Taken from Expertester@Wordpress.com)

For such a price, the specs were more than satisfying.

Of course, my mom has hinted me of getting Acer as she knew an Acer dealer with excellent customer service.

Before I got any info on the Acer Aspire 4530, I thought of having Dell Inspiron 1420 which is priced at roughly 3k bucks, but even its specs were just a wee bit off the Acer Aspire 4530.

(Taken from notebookreview.com)

1. Bios A09 version
2. Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7300 
3. Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic*
4. 2GHz, 4MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB
5. 14.1” WXGA Truelife Display with Integrated 2.0 mega pixel web cam
6. 160GB* Hard Drive
7. DVD Burner*
8. NVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 8400M GS with 128MB DDR3 dedicated graphic memory
   
9. Up to 384mb video memory share
10. Dell™ Wireless 1395 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini-card

My first question was: AMD or Intel?

AMD Turion 64 x2 and Intel Centrino 2 Duo were reviewed by several well-known computer sites as on par. 

Of course, the Turion has its strength and weaknesses. The same applies to the Centrino 2. 

But what I was curious about was that AMD could offer almost the same performance as Intel (in the Dual Core processor thingy) at a cheaper price.

Supporter of AMD might point towards the company's slogan, which is "The Smarter Choice".

So, one thing came to my mind: Are people prepared to support AMD in order to break the dominance of Intel?

Surely some of them were sceptical when I asked them to choose between AMD Turion 64 X2 and Intel Centrino 2 Duo Core.

Majority of them say the Centrino.

To me, it's like supporting Arsenal, not that f**king club from Manchester (not referring to Man City of course so you know which club I'm referring to) which had been a dominant force but not for long in my opinion.

Second question was always gonna be the budget.

But with the Aspire 4530 priced at 2k which is cheaper than Dell Inspiron 1420 by 1k bucks, it's easy to choose from.

Of course, prices can differ from one location to another, and possibly from one shop to another.

So I headed towards an Acer dealer (City Wise at Landmark) whom my bro got his Acer Aspire 5583 from.

I got all the necessary details and assurances from the branch manager. He promised to offer me PC Fair price too!

I left Landmark with absolute satisfaction after informing that fella I'll be returning within the next few days to purchase that babe. (Sounds like prostitution :( )

Back to the story. After all the considerations and tinkering, I decided to go for the Acer Aspire 4530, which received rave reviews from fellow Lowyat Forum members (even though most of them voted for Acer to be the worst brand of laptop).

Final price: 2199 inclusive of 3 Year International warranty, upgrade to 2GB RAM and a host of free gifts (mouse, headphones etc.)

Now, I'm updating my blog using my baby via the Windows Vista Home Basic. 

I'm still very new to this OS but honestly, the layout hasn't really been THAT different.

Still a lot to explore on Vista though :p

That's all for today guys! I'll be back to update my blog consistently.

See ya!

Say my name...

Song of the day:
Within Temptation
"Say My Name"

Say my name
So I will know you're back you're here again
For a while
Oh let us share
The memories that only we can share
Together

Tell me about
The days before I was born
How we were as children

You touch my hand
These colors come alive
In your heart and in your mind
I cross the borders of time
Leaving today behind to be with you again

We breath the air
Do you remember how you used to touch my hair?
You're not aware
Your hands keep still
You just don't know that I am here

It hurts too much
I pray now that soon you're released
To where you belong

You touch my hand
These colors come alive
In your heart and in your mind
I cross the borders of time
Leaving today behind to be with you again

Please say my name
Remember who i am
You will find me in the world of yesterday
You drift away again
Too far from where I am
When you ask me who I am

Say my name
These colors come alive
In your heart and in your mind
I cross the borders of time
Leaving today behind to be with you again

Say my name




(P.S.:

I'm so enticed by the arrangement of the whole song!

Not forgetting the superb voice by the lead vocalist, the song is almost complete.

It's almost the song of the entire century.

I never thought that Gothic rock can be sooooooo beautiful.

Awwwwww...)

Is it me or what?

Song of the day:

David Cook
"Eleanor Rigby"

Sometimes I wonder..

Is it me? is it anybody else?

What I'm talking about is the "me against the world" kind of situation.

When does this situation occur?

Arguments.

Discussions.

Quarrels.

Anything that involves more than 1 people discussing about stuff or do things together.

Have you ever faced with a situation whereby everybody's against you and you're the lone ranger in certain issues?

I guess you've.

I'm facing such situation all the time!

I'm always alone to defend my own stand.

Any issue in the world: Arsenal, religion, fear, Malaysia etc.

I'm always the lone ranger.

Even in my family, my siblings and parents are always against me.

I get to the point when I even feel depressed and have pretty low self-esteem.

This can happen to anyone when such things continuously happen in one's life.

I can hear voices which say, "You're making an issue out of nothing."

NO WAY!

Maybe I'm more sensitive than others and thus it IS an issue to me.

I feel pretty powerless everytime people bombard me with their views.

And I hate that feeling!

But I will accept other people's opinions if what they say make sense.

Yet, sometimes I think I prefer to do it my own way.

And this is probably why I sometimes feel that it's "me against the world".

Even if that's the case, it doesn't give other people the license to "kill" me.

I won't allow that.

I accept what is acceptable and I oppose what is not acceptable.

It's as simple as that.

But as I've mentioned earlier, it's always "me against the world".

I just come out with a simple statement and everybody wants to oppose me.

Is it because other people are jealous of me?

Or is it because other people look down upon me?

I've only expressed my dissatisfaction about this matter to the only friend who would listen to my problems, Jamie "Sexay" Sanderson.

Nobody else could understand how I feel to be honest.

Family members, friends. All the same.

Sigh.

What's next then? I don't know.

Even more of the situation?

Very likely.

Regrets...

Song of the day:
David Cook
"Always Be My Baby"

Regrets...

Everyone has regrets, I'm pretty sure of it.

I've tonnes of regrets.

But in this blog entry, I would like to highlight my greatest regrets throughout my life in my "beloved" university.

The first in line is always my choice of studying electrical engineering.

I know this has been repeated time and time again.

BUT...

I've learnt to accept it now. Fine.

Earlier today I had a great chat with one of my old pals from secondary school in a shopping complex.

Basically we chatted about almost everything, ranging from career to STPM.

It is always inevitable to include one topic in every chatting session I've this time around.

Romance.

This is only one thing that has not appeared in my life since I was born.

Why?

I don't even know why.

I used to have an explanation for that.

Fat.

I was fat before 2008.

Fat is the key to every girl's worst dream.

Just ask any girl on the road. Do they want a fat guy as a boyfriend?

I don't have the statistics here but I think that probably 90% would say no.

Their opinions and comments on that?

"Yuck!", "Eeewwww", "Disgusting.." etc.

Okay I'll stop that.

Now, in 2008, I've changed to become slimmer and skinnier.

But I feel that it's a bit late for me to make changes to my body.

Basically every girl that I at least have a crush on, has a boyfriend.

"Better late than never"? Oh my god.

Today's chatting session was one example.

I wouldn't wanna say anything but the girl involved was one of the girls I'd a crush on.

And I did not make the first move till I got beaten by a more superior guy.

Hands down. I conceded defeat.

But one thing did get to my mind and the golden words would always be "what if?".

What if I moved earlier?

What if I slim down earlier?

What if I bla bla bla...?

Thinking of these makes me feel inferior and regretful.

I still regret about what I've missed in large chunk of my life.

I thought I could impress people with my diligence and hardwork till I've got someone else to remind me that it wasn't meant to be like that.

People can be smarter than you and eventually beat you in the academic world.

And that "someone" (who reminded me) was none other than my father.

I was given a reality check in Form 5 and I was given more reality checks when I failed miserably throughout my so-called "love quest".

"I was fat", the lamest but most realistic reason before 2008.

Did I say that earlier? OH yes I did.

I'm pretty sure that I failed earlier because of my looks.

My score has been reduced to less than half even before I start showing my character.

With my low self-esteem due to my outlook, I can't even get girls to chat with me, let alone look at me.

C'mon ffs.

This world is very realistic and I've come to know that right in front of my face.

I know the cruel reality of life and I'm sick of it.

Girls can do the most cruel action to me before I even know it.

I've so many evidences to back my claims. But of course what's the point of showing all here?

It's history and "ffs wake up Kelvin Lye!".

I admit, to be given a reality check is cruel but honest.

That's why I don't wanna get fat again.

However, the large chunk of life wasted due to "fat"ness cannot be recovered forever.

I've basically had 24 years of life wasted due to people's opinion on my size.

I'm SLIM! SKINNY! Note that for goodness sake.

And I want to be loved.

I know love cannot be demanded but I want to be given a chance.

Short term romance. Long term romance. A short term fling.

Anything that can leave me with sweet memories.

You can say that I'm desperate but I just want to enjoy the process, even though it doesn't lead to marriage.

Enough of regrets.

I just wish for chances now, my Lord.

What's next?

Song of the day:

蔡淳佳 - "Yesterday"

Finally...

It's almost the end of my four years at the so-called "Premier university for science and technology in Malaysia".

I felt ashamed of what the university authority call themselves.

Anyway, I've finished my final exams.

I've finished my final year project presentation.

I've finished my thesis.

All in all, I'm a free man now!..

Well sort of. UTM has been a so-called "prison" to me.

It doesn't have high four walls of course but I've tonnes of things to complain about UTM.

I'll leave that to another day then.

WooHoo!

What a relaxing moment.

I've been anticipating this day for ages.

Well, I've been slacking for quite a number of days; one week to be exact.

At the same time, it's also time for me to make probably the biggest decision in my life.

What's next?

What's next for this fella?

Yup, the title of this blog entry.

Ever since I entered UTM, I don't have a particular direction that I'll be heading towards after graduation.

Thus, I've been lingering around in the past few months, basically hanging around, looking around and listening around.

Career fairs, career talks, university peers' opinions (while lunching or yumcha with them), lecturers' advice...

All sources have been explored.

I hate to talk about making decisions in my life but I can't help it!

Currently, I see myself in the following directions:

1. Post-graduate studies
2. Education field (teaching etc.)
3. Anything other than engineering

It's easy right?

Those three are not yet ranked.

Currently also, I'm going to apply for scholarship to study masters or PhD in anywhere possible in the world.

But I prefer to be nearer to home this time around unless I couldn't get the offer from Singapore.

Then I might head to UK and meet up with Jamie "Sexay" Sanderson, who's my Arsenal buddy on MSN and a cool character in my life.

Teaching is a more probable job option for me if compared to engineering.

So now it's pretty much an uncertain period for me but hey, hopefully I can sort this out really soon.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

By the way, if you really notice my blog, I've changed the banner of my blog.

Pretty cool eh??

I've always wanted to change the banner but because of my laziness and busy-ness of 4th year life, I'm so wasted and couldn't even get a decent and better looking banner.

I thought this new banner is pretty cool eh.

As I become "slimmer" (according to majority of the people around me saying so), my looks definitely changes too.



So don't be surprised to see me being slim.

After all, who doesn't want kevlinefm to be slim eh?

Probably you of course. Muahaha...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I realise that lately I've been pretty obsessed with 蔡淳佳 (or Joi) and her songs.

I couldn't get her songs out of my head.

Surprisingly, I bought her album in Harris (under Popular Book Store) in Aeon City, J.J. while having gathering with my coursemates.

Since then, everyday has been a new day for me as I keep loving different songs of hers.

First it was 依恋.

Then on past Monday, it was 慶幸有你愛我.

On Wednesday, it was Yesterday.

Then slowly today, it's 女人们的咖啡.

Damn man. I admit Joi is very pretty for a decent Singapore girl.

Big eyed Joi

My heart melts when I listen to Yesterday in the past few days.

Sorry for being a moron.

I've to admit that she looks like my friend's girlfriend :(

She's SOOO cute.

She's so my type I really gotta say this.

"STOP the crapping Kelvin!"

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

No vacation period for me as my coursemates are done with their stuff and are more interested in enjoying concrete fun rather than nature fun.

So much from development huh.

I would rather enjoy nature than playing those crappy concrete games like rollercoaster.

Till then, to those who are enjoying holidays now,

ENJOY LIFE!

as Kanye and T-Pain would sing about "Good Life".

I'm in love with Billie Jean!!!

Song of the day:

Of course it's
"Billie Jean"
Michael Jackson
featuring Kanye West

As the title says...

I'M IN LOVE WITH BILLIE JEAN!!!

end of :p

2008 versions on show...

David Cook's version on American Idol 7 (25th March 2008)



Kanye West's 2008 remix (one of the MJ songs remix album)

ENJOY!

Dance-ay...

Song of the day:
Flo Rida featuring T-Pain
"Low"

I've soft spot for dance related movies.

This is my latest confession to date. :p

Just only today I text Jin Chong to yumcha while having my weekend car ride.

And he suggested that we watch movie instead.

So instead of further polluting the air with exhaust gas, I headed to his place for further discussion and to have an eye-opener on a new technology.

The Nintendo Wii that Eric Cartman has wanted a lot even before the official release date.

(Watch South Park for more info on that. :D)

So, fast forward, me and Jin Chong (Ok I'll use J.C. from now on) went to watch this "Street Dance/Hip-hop" movie.

I just have to say it's super good.

Maybe it's the fact that I've not been watching any movie this year (the last was since X'mas).

It's a refreshing one to open my 2008 movie "account".

The cast of the movie is what the British might call "absolutely fantastic" or what the Mexicans might say "fantastico".

The music is just so fitting that I've to give it a 1000 marks out of 100.

T-Pain (you just gotta love him), Missy Elliott, Cassie (she's in the movie too), Akon etc. have added the superb sound effect to the movie.

There are a few things you might find pretty impressive.

One of the characters named as Moose or Alexander The Great Third is no ordinary youngster as depicted in the movie.

He's a superb dancer so don't judge his looks for what he should be.

The dancers are beautiful and handsome (well almost all of them).

Another thing is that they have a concept known as "The Prank", where each crew (a group of street dancers) would do a dance video clip with a prank setting.

It's hard to explain the concept but just watch the film and you'll understand.

The dance is jaw dropping.

Even J.C. sounded super impressed as he "wah"-ed for so many times.

Basically this movie has what I usually go for.

Cast? Tick

Sound? Tick

Storyline? Maybe half tick but who cares when the dancing and music are awesome.

Music? Double tick

Dancing? Double tick.

Enjoy the groove and funkiness.

You'll love the movie. :)

Just in case you love the songs so much, try going to this blogsite for downloads of the soundtrack.

Step Up 2: The Streets Soundtrack

Visit this webpage to view some awesome dancing scenes.

Step Up 2: The Streets Dancing Scenes

Sickening....

Song of the day:
Sum 41
"Pieces"

I'm pissed off.

A major sickening incident has occurred in my life.

Life is unfair, especially to the people who deserve the good things in life.

Ask Eduardo da Silva, an important player in the Arsenal FC squad.

Look at the following picture of him.

Sickening :(

Eduardo is a man who doesn't do anything bad on the football pitch since his arrival at Arsenal FC this summer.

If you have a heart, please sign this petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mataylor/petition.html

Life is unfair :(

I don't even know what's fair anymore.

(P.S.: He's still undergoing operation at the time when this blog entry is produced. Updates will follow.)

CNY Celebration: Satay Feast!!

Song of the day:
Nightwish
"Amaranth"

Hey guys!

Finally I'm back after a dreadful week of revision and studying for tests.

Ya, T.E.S.T. is just so unbelievably time wasting.

CNY celebrations haven't really ended yet as we, me the Chinese celebrate it for 15 days.

It's already the 18th of February 2008 and 3 more days we'll have day 15th.

We call the 15th day:

元宵节 (Yuánxiāo jié)

And my mom just told me that we (my family) will be having a dinner on Wednesday to celebrate day 15th (even though Wednesday is supposed to be day 14th).

As the title of this blog entry suggests, I'll head towards my last part of the CNY trip.

******

Just as you thought that 2nd day Malacca trip was fun...

Introducing

MING SATE HUT

Who's the owner?

Ans: My dad's cousin sister and her husband

What's so special about the food?

1. Price: not very cheap but not expensive at all.

Variety of "meat" stick


My favourite fried BBQ intestines sate (salivating :p)

2. Yummy-licious, irresistible, unbelivably tasty sate



3. Sweet+Sour+Not Spicy chili gravy with bootylicious
rice cubes (ketupat) and cooling, refreshing cucumba!



4. Refillable chili gravay for the gravy lovers :D



5. Thirst-quenching, satisfying carrot milk juice
(of course there are other choices of beverages :p)

What more can you ask for? *Surprised*

So how's the "damage" like for each visit to Ming Sate Hut?

Bowls and bowls that have to be washed

Dozens of "empty" sate sticks on show

*Note: Left 15 sticks (Me Kelvay :p); Middle 22 sticks (Lanvin my bro); Right 20 (Alvin my bro)

And of course $$ka-ching$$.

Well, the meal was satisfying and it certainly marked "the end" of my Malacca journey.

It was short I know, but fulfilling and meaningful enough for me to produce 2 blog entries about it.

Anyway, since the end of CNY celebrations is near, I take this opportunity to thank all my friends who've at least made the effort to visit me house and family.

Truly thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Guys, have a great year ahead and all the best!