Insight into ZhaoMing

A WANNABE STAR

2008-07-25T17:42:00.005+08:00

Just found out that a friend and also schoolmate of mine is one of the ASTRO Star Quest top 5 finalists. It's a real achievement, you know, and we, Terengganurians, feel proud of you. I guess he has a dream and the dream comes true after some serious hard work. I don't know whether Danny Koo or also known as Kar Lin will be able to view this post or not, but I sincerely wish him all the best for tomorrow's competition at Bukit Jalil.

To vote for Danny, view HERE to find out how. He was and is a wonderful singer and if I am not mistaken, his favourite artist is no other than Jay Chou. Kar Lin, don't stop to unleash your potential in singing. I am sure you will be someone, someday.

(he is the one wearing white shirt : the furthest left from your view)

Alright, you all see this coming, don't you? HAHA! When the time comes, my wish is to get a free original music album with your signature on it. Yeepi! So, gambateh for it ya. By the way, I have viewed your Music Video on Astro and it is simply fantastic. Hope that this post can help you to win more votes. And, for sure, I will be voting for you.

p/s : For more pictures, click here.

Tagged by Jayvian

2008-07-20T21:30:00.003+08:00

Jayvian, your timing can never be better than this. Now's holiday which means there's lots of time for me to waste.

7 facts about me :

Can forgo 2 subsequent nights of sleeping, but need to compensate for the hours after that.
Hate bad pretenders. (You must act well to look good. If not, don't try him.)
Prefer to sleep upside-down and without pillow if he finds difficulties in sleeping.
Do not have bitter gourd and ladies finger in his menu.
Will not be friendly to a stranger. That's why Sun Quan said that I am very 'cheng4'. Haha. You too lah, say me.
Very vulnerable to the effects of caffeine in coffee and tea with milk. (Sadly, this leads to POINT 3.)
Think that happiness is the most important element in life.

7 things that scare me :

Things or incidents, which he dreams of, good or bad, come true. (Yeah, that's real freaky.)
PMS girls.
Bitter gourd and ladies finger.
Crowd.
Crying girls.
Boring lecturer, who is teaching a boring topic, in a boring class.
Not intentionally causing harm to others, physically or mentally.

7 songs playing in my head lately :

Nocturne in F Op 15 no 1 by F. Chopin.
Fantasy impromptu in C minor Op 66 by F. Chopin.
Etude in C minor Revolutionary Op 10 no 12 by F. Chopin.
Fantasie for piano, chorus & orchestra Op. 80 Choral Fantasy by Beethoven.
Sonata for Violin and Piano by Mozart.
最长的电影 by 周杰伦
落叶归根 by 王力宏 (these songs are a few of my favourites, and yes, they have been playing in my head lately)

7 valuable things / people in my life :

His family.
His friends.
His memory of the past.
His iPod.
His soul.
His music.
His "angel". (Running out of ideas. Pinjam one from you ye.)

7 'First time' in my life :

Drank Irish Coffee (2007)
Had a roommate (2006)
Mountain-hiking (2002)
Sang K (2005)
Proper date (2005)
Dedicated a song on the radio... it's MixFM I guess (2004)
Cycled to Merang in the midst of a monsoon downpour - and no, he wasn't crazy. It's for the K. Scout qualification exam. (2004)

7 words or things that I use to say / do :

炸...(after 2 beats)...到!!!
傻掉
pek chek ar!
人，最重要是要开心。
开心就好。
Shitty baby...
Stare blankly if he has nothing to do.

7 people I tag :

Joanne Tiong
Eu Jeen
Chai Ei
Si Han
Peng Seng
Johnson Neo
Gloria (Johnson and you previously tagged me. I still remember huh! Lolz!!!)

Equivalent Trade

2008-07-19T11:57:00.004+08:00

I have always wanted to scribble some words for this topic ever since a very long time ago. No... it has nothing to do with the Japanese anime, Full Metal Alchemist. In fact, it can well be classified as one of the principles in life.

"Nothing gained is without sacrificing something of equal value."

Is this the law of conservation? Many people believe solely in equivalent trade. So, they strive very hard for excellence in life, only ending up in the wrong direction. And, as a result, they lose their faith in it. The long studying hours you spend on your desk will be translated into stupidity if you screw up your grades. There're actually more things and various factors in life than just equivalent trade which people fail to see.

Let me quote a fictional example. In the twin paradox experiment, a space shuttle which can travel at the speed of light is invented (this is not possible as Albert Einstein clearly states that the fastest movement of things or elements on earth will never match the speed of light). A pair of twins take part in the what so-called as an experiment which will lead to the breakthrough of human in science. So, the younger brother enters the space shuttle and begins his journey to space. He travels until the date on his watch shows that he has traveled for one year. Then, he changes his course back to earth. The whole to-and-fro journey will take only 2 years to him. However, to the people outside the space shuttle, it's already 2 light years. Imagine what will he see if he returns to earth. If the experiment fails, he would be able to see his elder brother again. But, what if the experiment succeeds? His brother might have turned into ashes or fossilised, a fact which will definitely traumatise him. At the end of the day, he will ask himself whether all this is worth the effort and sacrifice. Is this really "equivalent" trade? Or the trade has taken much more than what it can offer to the poor twins?

The equivalent trade system can be thought of as a balancing machine. Balance or 'yin' and 'yang' is the essence of life. No, you can't just simply brush me off and say this whole balance thingamabob is a total bullshit. Here, I would like to stress that it is what we call as ancient wisdom and there's certainly some truth in it. It's a known fact that feng shui can affect one's career, business and life, directly or indirectly. And as a matter of fact, this art is based on the 'yin' and 'yang' theory. So, no matter what you do, never overdo it.

The world is originally not equal and fair on it own. Some people are born rich; some people are born as paupers. The poor has done nothing wrong, whereas the rich has done nothing right. So, what leads to the significant difference between them? In my opinion, there's no equivalent trade before and at the point when one is born, but it will govern one's life till death. Hence, it's what you have done and who you are when you are put into the coffin or burnt into ashes that matters. A simple question, who do you want to die as?

Goodbye Wei Ming, Hui Xin, Jia Huey and Chai Ei

2008-07-18T16:33:00.003+08:00

It's customary for me to blog about my friends in KT who are leaving or had already left for their respective universities overseas. Chai Ei, I know it seems odd to include you in this post as well. But, I gave my words that I will publish a proper post for you once I am free. And well, I am free now.

I have no idea how long or short this post will be as I will write this, in an unplanned manner, naturally. Words and thoughts, which slip across my mind, will be draining into my writings with no restriction at all. So, pardon me if this post seems a little unorganised.

Let me begin with Chai Ei first. Well, I have known him since primary school, which is exactly the page in my life journal where I can hardly recall what happened and who I had come across back then. He's born short. Actually, it's not the "dwarf" which you think. He is just slightly shorter than the mean height of male students in class. One nice thing which I had learned from Einstein's theory of relativity is that adjectives such as short, tall, rich or poor are actually only valid if they are compared relatively to another subject. Adjectives are in actual fact subjective. If you compare freedom in Malaysia and China, you will say that Malaysia is indeed a "free" land. However, if you wish to compare it with the United States of America, we, Malaysians, are actually living a 'caged' life.

But, we should always look at the bigger picture. Height isn't the only characteristic worth elaborating when we talk about Chai Ei. He's an understanding and considerate lad. You will always feel comfortable at his presence. Oh... not to forget this guy has also an astounding stamina level and I was honoured to share glory with him when I was the runners-up, whereas he was the champion for the intra-school Jog-A-Thon competition during Form 5. Anyway, Chai Ei, we should feel proud as it's a rare occasion for two runners from 5sc1 to clinch titles in that yearly event.

We had had many wonderful moments. The Gunung Tebu hike would never be forgotten. It's a torment to reach the peak of the mountain, but once we were there, everything seemed worth the effort. By the way, when are you going to conquer Mount Fuji oo excursionista (or better known as haika in Japanese).

BELOW IS MY PRESENT FOR YOU. IT'S A REAL BEAUTY, ISN'T IT?

Besides that, it's a known fact that our "Sejarah" teacher loved to sit on your table. Haha... You must have been feeling rather nervous during our every "Sejarah" lessons. Remember the tone... "LAI-CHAI-Eiiii"? It's definitely in F#.

There're tonnes of stories more to be shared and memories to be cherished, but I think it's best for me to summarise everything in point form.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CHAI EI:

He has had many nicknames. Among them, chalet, akia etc. But, I would rather call him Chai Ei.
He enjoys hiking. Yeah, at least he used to love it.
He sat on my left-hand-side in class during form 5.
He had been associated with many girls. The names will not be disclosed. Hmm... Playboy huh?
He always prepared himself decently before each "Sejarah" lesson. Well, pity him... He was the teacher's favourite target.
He plays football and badminton well.
He never takes things personally. Cool.
...and much more to be discovered by you.

If you want to know Chai Ei more, you have to befriend him. That's the golden rule. Anyway, all the best in your future undertakings ya Chai Ei. Wish you "shiawase" in Japan. Forgive me for my crappy Japanese intonation. ^^ Maybe you can correct me since you are the expert here. =)

Now, we move on to "4 Sekawan". Lolz.... "4 Sekawan" actually consisted of Jia Huey, Wei Ming, Hui Xin and Gim Hui. Opss... No, plus the twins, there're 6 of them. It's kind of complicated. Arithmetic isn't easy when it comes to explaining, you know? One lame example is the proving of 1+1=2.

Haha... Okay, things are getting out of hand. SO, I will briefly introduce you to Wei Ming, Hui Xin and Jia Huey. (Sorry Gim Hui... You must cut down your waist measurement first only will I blog about you.) :P JKJK... Next time only blog about you as I had said earlier, I will only publish post about those who are going to overseas as a tribute or something like that lah. However, rest assured that I will certainly include Han Loong as one of the "kelefeh's" in it.

I am getting tired of typing already, so I will talk about these 3 girls very briefly. They have formed a clan or something like that since high school. ^^ "4 Sekawan", that's what we used to call the organisation. And three of them manage to obtain the PSD scholarship for dentistry. They had completed their Cambridge A-Levels at Kolej Teknologi Timur and are going to India soon enough.

What You Should ~~Not~~ Know About Wei Ming :

She's quiet.
Always keeps to herself.
Is owned and not available. So, forget about it lah guys. (It's for your sake) :P
Prefers to keep a low profile.
Is closely-associated with books.
I really don't know what to say already. (Hitting my head against the wall) Any idea, Wei Ming? *sigh*

What You Should Know About Jia Huey :

Refer to Wei Ming (above).
But exclude the third point as I don't know about her current status.
Multiply the first point with a factor of 1,000,000.
Okay okay... I admit. This is as far as I can go. "Phew~!" Having severe migraine now. Seriously, I need some rest to clarify my memory.

What You Should Know About Hui Xin :

Hates Kanana language or whatever you call it.
Plays Maple ??? zzzzZZ
My dad friend's daughter.
Related to Xin Yan in certain ways. She's your cousin, right?
Played badminton with her last week.
White in colour.

The process of bleaching can be summarised in the following set of chemical reaction:

Cl₂(aq) + H₂O(l) H⁺(aq) + Cl^-(aq) + HClO(aq)

The H⁺ ion of the hypochlorous acid then dissolves into solution, and so the final result is effectively:

Cl₂(aq) + H₂O(l) 2H⁺(aq) + Cl^-(aq) + ClO^-(aq)

If you fail to see what I have written for Wei Ming, Jia Huey and Hui Xin, that means I have been blackmailed by the influential "4 Sekawan" gang. Don't! Don't inform the cops as you will jeopardise my life. The only thing you can do now is leaving a comment here for this post. :P

GOOD LUCK TO YOU, GUY AND GIRLS! May you have smooth-sailing academic years.

Scheiße! Scheiße! Scheiße!

2008-07-13T09:36:00.003+08:00

Woke up "7 early 8 early" with high spirit... 'Yeah, today I am going to do my medical check-up at Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah.'

Fetched mum, dad and sis to their respective schools.
Went to the hospital at 7 something. Woah, many parking lots. *grin*

Went to "Kaunter Pertanyaan" and asked where should I register for med check-up?
Both women at the counter replied, "Oh... Masih awal lagi. Pukul 9 baru kaunter check-up buka. Pergi minum minum dululah."

Okay, so I sat down at one corner and took out my Sun Tzu's "The Art Of War" to read.
Pondered upon an interesting part :

"I have heard that in war
Haste can be
Folly;
But have never seen
Delay that was
Wise."

Around 8.45am, people were already queuing up at the check-up counter and I followed suit.

9.00am>>> A lady appeared at the counter and said, "Ada buat temujanji ke? Hanya mereka yang buat temujanji sahaja yang boleh buat check-up."

What the...........&*^$#%@^&!!! Okay, that's fine then. I would just make an appointment. I opened the book and just as I wanted to write my name and IC number on it, I was startled... The date on the page was 26/8/2008!!! What the...........&%$&^&^#^#^*%^$^!!! The next appointment will be more than one month from now.

Lucky me... I went to find a neighbour of mine who was working there. She knew people in the hospital and helped me to arrange for an appointment. Guess when will that appointment be? Tomorrow. =) Woohoo...!

Now... I would really love to do my med check-up anywhere, but at the government hospital. However, in the letter from PSD, they clearly stated this : "Untuk makluman, saudara/i dikehendaki untuk menjalani pemeriksaan kesihatan di hospital kerajaan atau hospital swasta (klinik swasta tidak dibenarkan)..." And I have no idea whether private hospital exists in Kuala Terengganu.

Anyway, when I received the letter, it's already way past the deadline for submission of med report. And, they printed out my home address wrongly. They (PSD) totally screwed up this, big time.

I am going to hospital again tomorrow. *sigh* Wish me luck so that I don't have to wait long for my turn. This morning was really "Scheiße! Scheiße! Scheiße!".

Thanks for reading.

Of $$$ in Malaysia

2008-07-03T17:21:00.002+08:00

Malaysia is a rich country actually. It's just that certain mismanagements by the authority had caused us much misfortune.

If all ministers were to be issued an official order to use public transport only, I am sure the current public transport is to be improved significantly. *grin* However, this is Malaysia and with the current government, it is not possible. We are far from being dynamic. Our economy is stagnant, if not degrading, and our reactions to global issues are slow. Where's the biodiesel which was promised? Malaysia will be bloody rich if one day there is a way to move the engine with palm oil. And if one day, when the biodiesel is to be implemented in Malaysia, care should be taken that such wealth will not fall into the hands of other nations like what it seems is a tradition.

By the way, "Vision 2020", is it just a dream? =) If yes is the answer, then I would like to dream on. You know why? Because this is what typical Malaysians do and I am a Malaysian with "Kewarganegaraan : Malaysia" on my all-glorious-but-serve-no-function-blue-coloured MyKad.

George Best... Best Goal Ever

2008-06-30T17:47:00.001+08:00

An Unwelcomed Message from INTEC

2008-06-25T11:54:00.002+08:00

Just when I wanted to start enjoying my life, there came a spoiler message from my fellow former class representative, Helmy :
"Sorry for disturbing. Puan Rita inform me that we have to take the JPA's Medical Checkup form from her. This may cause some trouble to some of you, but I can't afford to help. Try your best ya. Even me, myself, is asking Azam to mail it to me. Nite."

When I received this message, my head was spinning wild and I was darn pissed off. Really pissed off! Why can't they inform us earlier? It is not like the place I am living is a walking distance from INTEC. Now... I have to figure something out of this. Would rather do C4 questions than thinking how to complete my medical checkup before the deadline. Darn... Malaysia Boleh! Malaysia Pasti Boleh!!!

Dearest Apology

2008-06-24T16:11:00.003+08:00

Greetings...
and my sincerest apology to all readers.
The last few months were my busiest since I got myself enrolled into INTEC. First, there is that tricky interview. It then followed by the nerve-breaking A-Levels exam. But, life still went on and I received a conditional offer from International Medical University (IMU). Right now, I just hope that I didn't attempt any paper so badly that I screwed up my entire subject.

Sure, the one-and-a-half month long exam had taken its toll on me. However, I had plenty of time to prepare for it unlike the trials which had grabbed away part of my Chinese New Year celebration time. Hngh... Screw you, trials!

The IMU interview was smooth-sailing for me and I seriously thank God for it if you take into consideration of others who failed their interview or those who were grilled severely by the interviewers. Fair enough, I would consider myself lucky. Both my interviewers were kind and friendly. However, occasionally, I needed to watch my tongue and make fine sure that I didn't say anything which would have backfired on me. They were definitely good in psychology, making you feel good for one minute so that you would let your guards down and bombarding you with all sorts of "you-know" questions the next. The interviewers were also well-trained at finding loopholes in the interviewees' answers. So, if you ask me whether the interview was easy, 'yes' and 'no' will be my answer. But if you ask me whether the interview was tricky, it is a definite 'yes'.

As there were too many gaps in my A-Levels exam, Andrew, Si Han and I decided to go to the Popular Book Fair at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) during the school break. The book fair was impressively gigantic and the books were at discounted prices. I bought myself two books and a 4gb "Silicon Power" thumbdrive which had cost me around RM48. Not to forget, I met Geok Teng at the book fair. She worked as a volunteer at the counter. And you know what...? She had already finished her first year medicine in Universiti Sains Malaysia. Darn... I had only just finished my A-Levels exam thanks to JPA. What a shame... Ish......!

Hmm... About the exam. I had already forgotten much about it. Haha! Erased all subject-related memory on the last day of exam. To be honest, after Biology 4 & 5, I was already in holiday mood. Who cares about synoptic... =) Consequently, I have a really bad feeling that I had screwed up the remaining papers. On the last day of exam, which was last Thursday, Si Han, Sun Quan, Johnson and I went to Subang Jaya to play and celebrate. We spent some time in Sunway Pyramid and watched "The Happenings" directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Though the storyline was a bit crappy, the scientific idea about neurotransmitter in the brain and hormones from plants was good. In overall, I personally felt that it was a good scary movie. After that, I had a few DOTA sessions in Si Han cousin's house and watched the EURO Cup quarterfinal match between Portugal and Germany. Germany deserved their win and Portugal should feel bad as they failed to finish despite having numerous chances and statistical data backing up for them. The losing side had ignorantly put all their hopes on the all time Oscar winning actor, Christiano Ronaldo. He, the playmaker? I think with his selfishness, he would do fine as a target man instead. Portugal coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari must have felt both happy and sad when his Chelsea's favourite Michael Ballack scored and ended the Portuguese's dream to win the EURO Cup. However, I think I saw a glimpse of pride in his eye when Ballack scored that goal. Yeah, Roman Abramovich certainly pays him more than the national squad.

That night, Si Han and I didn't sleep a wink and with swollen eyes and dizzy head, we headed to the graduation ceremony in INTEC. To be exact, I didn't sleep for 26 hours which was comparable to the Bintang Walk trip at the end of Semester 2.

Enough said about myself. Here, I would like to bid farewell to my fellow 2-years roommate, Sun Quan, who is going to Manipal, India for medicine and also Andrew, who is going to the University of Cardiff, UK to do his M-Pharm. Ahh.. and I had already viewed the apartment at IMU which was recommended by Johnson. It is good and has a golf-course view. So, most probably, I will be staying in Vista C.

For now, Happy Holidays to all ALMers and ALGers... Oh, and also the ALEd's.

Friends in KT... C'mon let's go yam char and play! ^_^

Goodbye Chai Ei

2008-03-15T19:47:00.005+08:00

From left : Jia Haur, Chai Ei, Ping Keat and Zhao Ming

Hey Chai Ei... Maybe I will publish a proper post as a tribute for you in a few weeks to come, after you have gone to Japan. Haha... Now, I am just damn lazy or rather lack of motivation...
Anyway, good luck in everything and enjoy your time there in Japan yah! :P
(And stay away from kites in Japan. Duh...)

-what we wrote at The Talk Cafe (TTC)-

Palatable Icebergs

2008-03-13T22:40:00.003+08:00

What's Terengganu to you?

2008-03-13T21:55:00.003+08:00

This morning, Jia Haur fetched Chai Ei and me to eat "Nasi Dagang" at Batu Buruk. Guess what time was that...

8.00am!!!

And I slept at 3am++ the previous night. Bravo Zhao Ming. You actually woke up at 8 to take your breakfast.
We thought that going back to home immediately after breakfast would be a waste of our effort for waking up in the wee hours of the morning and make us looking like a total idiot.
We decided to go to Terengganu Equestrian Resort (TER) for a karaoke session.

Bad idea really.

We went there, strolled around the area and waited for 30 minutes just to find out that the K-Box would only be open at 11am++.

Next, Jia Haur had some problem with his rectum and eagerly searched for a toilet. It appeared that the washroom quality in TER just failed to match his criteria for a nice place to carry out the defecation process, so he decided to do it in Park Royal Primula Hotel instead.

We spent our next hour in the hotel, eagerly looking for something interesting, if not exciting, to do. At that point, our mission failed.

However, these threesome were not giving up that easily. We went to the beach. ^^

We talked, talked and talked until our conversation was interrupted by an idea from Zhao Ming.
(A stupid idea)

"It's quite windy. Let's go and play kites."

Jia Haur spotted a few kites on sale not very far away and said, "Eh... Not a bad idea. Let's go Chai Ei!"

"Okay..."

Then, as we were walking to the car, every step became heavier and heavier.
Our brains were calculating the sensibility percentage of this idea.

Playing kites is okay. But, three guys play kites together??? Ya, I mean three guys.
It would be quite an embarrassing moment if someone, whom we know, spotted us playing kites together.

It's too late.

Once Jia Haur had set his mind, he would never let it go that easily.

So, poor Chai Ei and Zhao Ming got to accompany Jia Haur to buy a kite and play with him. Oh my, we were so, so embarrassed.

that's the proof of Jia Haur playing a kite (left)
Chai Ei was watching (right)

This would be my first and last time playing kites with guys.

I will never ever try it again! :P
Never should you.

Red Box +

2008-03-10T20:03:00.002+08:00

Went to the Red Box + at Pavillion last Thursday immediately after my trials...

For the first time ever, I was outnumbered by the girls. T_T Now, where's Jien when you need him...??? A-Level Medicine is certainly lack of males. Dudes out there, do not stop producing more sperms with "Y" chromosome.

Here's a snapshot of me with a glass of soda.

Am I...

2008-03-10T19:52:00.001+08:00

...imagining things or Time is really flying fast?

Sweet Verse

2008-03-10T11:03:00.001+08:00

underneath

the stars

"I'll wait for you"

they told me I was crazy

I dreamt the sky radiated blue

but the doctors had cleared me and

said it was just a case of too much missing you.

taken from,

ShirleY

Alas...

2008-03-09T12:40:00.003+08:00

At last it's over. Trials are gone.... Time to play before the real thing comes.

Here's my belated Chinese New Year wish to everyone.
Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

^^

A Brand New Semester Ahead

2008-01-06T16:08:00.000+08:00

6 hours from now, I will be heading to Shah Alam. This fourth semester will be my last... And it is obvious that Semester 4 will be the most stressful, if not hectic with examination. I leave with a heavy heart... a sad feeling eats me from the inside. Whatever it is... this is a whole new year and I should be ever prepared to resiliently face the various challenges ahead.

IT IS TIME TO SEARCH FOR THE LONG-LOST FIRE......!

A-Levels... It's time to put a wonderful touch at the end of it.

But Still......

2008-01-01T15:32:00.000+08:00

I would like to wrap 2007 with this wonderful song. In fact, this song was composed after the dark era of the dreadful SARS invasion on various countries. It's English title is "Hand in Hand" or also known as the Anti-SARS song.

It's nothing but a fabulous blend of tunes from many renowned singers. Enjoy it while you look back the journey through year 2007.

Composed by : David Tao and Alexander Wang Lee Hom

A Hopeful New Year

2008-01-01T14:40:00.000+08:00

And so it ends... Everything, which has a start, has an end. It's a cycle that never ends... They say that at the end of every year, there are always major disasters such as tsunami. And for 2007, it's the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who is the last bloodline of the Bhutto's family. My condolence to the people of Pakistan. Much to the irony, this day, which is the beginning of year 2008, I can simply feel the heat of a forthcoming disaster. The heat is so immense that I just cannot simply ignore it. Here I explain why...

This new year is going to be a tough year... At least for me, it's a year of transition from INTEC to IMU... (from A-Levels to Degree).
Wonder if I will ever get adapted to the new learning style and environment in IMU...
Wonder if I can ever pass my A-Levels with 15 points (or at least 12)...
Wonder if I can always be me...
Wonder if I can resolve till the end of 2008...
Wonder if I can be someone with greater purpose...
I wonder......I ponder.

Can anyone answer my doubts? Can anyone reaffirm me?

... most importantly, can I???

My New Celebrity Look-Alike :P

2007-12-28T23:31:00.000+08:00

When narcissism struck...

-ZhaoMing-

Words from the Past...

2007-12-27T11:26:00.001+08:00

When SPM examination (supposedly equivalent to O-Level though I have miserable doubts about it) was over, I had realised that I would most likely further my studies elsewhere other than my own hometown. It turned out to be true. I resolved and believed that what I was going to learn after that point were not merely knowledge from the lifeless book, but about life. Till now, I still hold true to that belief.

Life is simple, but it ain't easy. There's still so much more to learn.

Something Really Odd

2007-12-22T23:23:00.000+08:00

A few days ago, I received a letter from INTEC regarding the re-registration for the new semester.
Well, it did not contain my End-of-Semester results, but just some usual "Pekeliling" and details.
Then, there's a section which demands every student to pay RM85.00 to Bendahari UiTM via Bank Islam. The bill could be printed from INTEC's web portal after 17 Disember according to the letter.
But, I was just too free that I would not mind to take a look at my bill before 17. I was kind of startled to find that I had bill amounting to RM7960.00. Luckily, PSD is paying that. That's certainly a huge figure for one semester of A-Levels......
....in one regular plus inextraordinary public institution of higher learning.
You may argue that INTEC is special in terms of its students who consists of scholars, but it's still an IPTA alright. And IPTA usually charges that amount of money for Degree programmes. It is also worth noting that INTI and various other colleges provide free A-Levels studies for those who obtain 10 A's and above in SPM. Therefore, if one deserves to be in INTEC, what probably is the need for PSD to foot the students' astronomical A-Levels bill when we can get it free elsewhere. Perhaps it is a mean to regulate our economy... but I see it as a non-sensible one. It's just so cruel of INTEC to "rob" PSD of that amount of money on a yearly basis. If one day all our institutions of higher learning were to fail and be at the threshold of bankruptcy, INTEC will certainly be the last man standing due to the generous yearly funding by the government.

That's not the end of my grudge...

After 17 Disember which is a couple of days ago, I happily printed out the bill and went to Bank Islam to pay my re-registration fee of RM85.00. It's just so tedious and troublesome... I had to fill in a form and waited for more than one hour before I was served by the officer. I dug out exactly RM85 from my pocket just to find out that an additional commission fee of RM1 had to be charged. I just couldn't believe my ears when the officer told me so.... In fact, I was rather taken aback by that. As far as I am concerned, all IPTA students have to pay their registration fee via Bank Islam at an extra cost of RM1 as well. Imagine this.... The bank earns RM1 per head. And there are supposedly thousands and thousands of IPTA students. To make it simple, Bank Islam earns quite a fortune by basically doing nothing. Easy money...yeah, that's what they used to call it... Now, there's this new subtle term of "regulating the country's economy".
We never learn to improve, don't we?
Malaysians as a whole have a nasty habit of finding the easier way out in almost everything.
Forgive me for this harsh statement of generalisation. No one is victimised in this matter but everyone does hold a sure responsibility.

Jei's Back!!!

2007-12-17T01:19:00.000+08:00

With the return of Jei to KT, it only means more outings... Had spent an evening playing badminton and indulged myself in football matches at D' Village. Took some beer, but not to the extent of drunken as I was the driver. Yeah... I'm back. After several days of 'meditation' in DOTA sessions, I'm finally back. Come to think of it.. It's just a couple of weeks before I have to resume my final semester (Semester 4) in INTEC.

Oh gross... :S

Anyway, I am going to play golf tomorrow evening and my night schedule is confirmed full. Envious of me..? You should. Haha. It seems that I forgot to take my "post-exam-syndrome" medication again.

Till then, ciaozzz......

Exhausted!

2007-12-05T18:37:00.000+08:00

Hitting the sack at practically 3.ooam everyday has definitely taken its toll on me... Tonight, I will go to bed early. :S

Many friends are back....... Good news. Will not have trouble of finding people to hang around with for the remaining holidays. :)

Haven't touched my books at all since the last End of Semester examination. @_@

Lost track of time and just realised that 3 weeks of holidays have passed. T_T

And the List Grows

2007-12-01T20:18:00.000+08:00

Have just finished watching
X-Men 1
X-Men 2
X-Men 3
Species 1

Have watched Bleach till episode 50, Heroes 2nd Season till episode 7. Oh my, oh my...

Feng Shui master believes that a harmonic balance between "ying" and "yang" is extremely essential. I am a strong believer of it too. Therefore, I am reading "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows". Just started yesterday... To date, I have only reached Chapter Four due to numerous distractions. A few philosophical books are on the to-read list as well.

*sigh* I am thrashing myself very much during this break. Hope that my mind will be quite in the readiness to resolve and accept the upcoming challenges in my last semester. What I am doing right now certainly do not seem to bode well with my EDEXCEL external examination. All these madness will come to an end soon enough... erm... most probably in 3-week time if everything is going on smoothly according to schedule. ^_^!!!

Bittersweet

2007-12-01T20:15:00.000+08:00

“You know, that old Christmas story about the man who wanted to buy a present for his wife, and he sold the only thing of value he owned – his father’s pocket watch – to buy her a hair clip for her long beautiful hair. Meanwhile, the wife cut her hair and sold it in order to earn enough money to buy gold chain for the man’s watch.”

“It’s beautiful and so romantic in a bittersweet sort of way,” Hermione said, smiling sadly.

-Adapted from “Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows”- [the fake one :P]

A Timeless Piece of Message

2007-11-30T12:50:00.000+08:00

You will never "find" time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.

-Charles Buxton, English Author (1823-1871)-

Oh No...!

2007-11-29T18:34:00.000+08:00

It had happened again...
This morning when I woke up.

The same spot, same time, same person, same eye...

What is happening to me???
No, you are wrong... I am far away from being psychotic.
I suspect it's some evil work of "déjà vu"...
Will keep a close eye on it.

Well anyway, with that swollen eye, I can hardly open it either.

Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

2007-11-28T20:14:00.000+08:00

As a small kid, I was constantly in a state of high spirit... Wanting to gain everything in my sight, I learned calligraphy for a few years and arts for numerous months. Both masters or 'sifus' in their respective fields are utmost talented and I would have had quite an achievement in both if I were not that inconsistent and insouciant.

I had jumped from one thing to another with little achievement in anything at all. Guess my maths was bad back then (and probably now as well). How on earth could I gain "profit" if I kept on changing my "products"?

Guess I was and am a lousy writer. How an excellent piece of "composition" can be written if the "theme" is constantly on a shift? I was being naive back then. There's no doubt about it.

Regrets... Looking back, my sorrows can only be founded on it.

Similar to a rolling stone, that was me. Now, that stone has no where to fall anymore. It lays at the hillside... static and silent.

Dear moss,
Worry not...;
Please do grow gracefully on the stone;
For he has made the choice of his life;
To lie here for as long as he can;
With perseverance;
And a little sense of dignity;
So that life can once again exist on it.

-ZhaoMing-

Do you Know that...

2007-11-28T11:45:00.000+08:00

WAL-MART's YEARLY IMPORT FROM CHINA IS ABOUT 10 PER CENT OF USA's.
WAL-MART's ECONOMY OR BUYING POWER IS EQUIVALENT TO MALAYSIA's.
FOR YEARS, THE GOVERNMENT HAD TRIED TO STOP THIS GIANT COMPANY FROM ENTERING MALAYSIA's MARKET, BUT WE CAN'T HOLD IT FOR LONG.
WAL-MART IS COMING SOON... I WONDER CAN DOING-WELL MARTS, SUCH AS MYDIN, JUSCO OR GIANT, COPE WITH THIS CALLOUS TORRENT.
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Most importantly, can we not just grumble but learn the way Wal-Mart climbed the ladder of success... the way it fully utilises technology... and the way it handles business.
This should serve as an awakening call for all local businessmen. It's time for a change.

Holiday Movies Berserk

2007-11-26T22:15:00.000+08:00

Had watched....
Alien 1
Alien 2
Alien 3
Alien 4
Heroes Season 2
Wild Hogs
Ghost Rider
End of Days
Constantine
Bleach 1-...... AND THE LIST GOES ON.
Everyone, please wish me GAMBATE and all the best ya.

Well, that's post-exam syndrome obviously... Geez.. :-)

Students Under Stress?

2007-11-26T21:45:00.000+08:00

A 12-year-old student died after the recent Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah results.
Not too long ago, a student of a university took her own life for a similar reason, but after a while, the attention faded.
What's going on with the Asians? Since when do we learn the Japanese suicidal style...? Is the way of reducing stress really constructed on the correct basis, rightfully and lawfully? Or it is just a game of mere ill mental health among students...?
Certainly, now is not the time to point fingers at anyone. However, if the blame game did start, the first one to be hit should well be the education system itself.
Our education system has become too examination-orientated. I can understand how stressful it is because one's future depends on how well one performs during the examination though I personally doubt both are closely related. Should one fall sick, one may not perform well even though one may have had ample preparation.
Should we use examination results as the sole yardstick to measure a student's success in life? Why are we so wedded or disillusioned to the idea that everyone has to achieve something to be someone?
Every child is special in his or her own way. He or she may not be the smartest student in his school or the most talented sportsman,but if the child has an excellent character, that is by itself worth much more than any number of distinctions. There is no need to compare or compete.
There just needs to be a change in perspective in the way we view success and failure.
As the saying goes, "the difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone is the way we view it".
More importantly, we need to realise that it is the process, not the result, that matters most. How much a child learns and grows from his educational experiences is far more important than what he gets in examinations.

Move to make sure all doctors have required skills

2007-11-23T09:29:00.000+08:00

By AUDREY EDWARDS

PUTRAJAYA: Newly-qualified doctors will have to undergo two years' compulsory housemanship from next year.

Currently, they only have to do a year of housemanship.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, who announced the Cabinet decision yesterday, said the move was considered important to increase the knowledge, skills and experience of graduate medical officers.

“This will improve the quality of services and healthcare standards,” he said.

A rotation system of four months in six departments will be implemented. With the newest inclusion being the accident and emergency department, the rest are medical, paediatric, general surgery, orthopaedic, obstetrics and gynaecology.

“We have observed that in the past few years, about three to five per cent of graduate medical officers do not get full registration because they have weaknesses in knowledge or skills,” he told reporters before chairing his ministry’s post-Cabinet meeting.

“We cannot let this continue. We hope the move is seen as a positive one by future graduates and we are confident the rakyat (people) will support us.”

After the two-year housemanship, the doctors would have to serve their three years' compulsory service with the Government or its agencies, he said.

Dr Chua said the ministry would apply to the Government to place them under the U43 grade upon completing the two years' housemanship compared to the current U41. The U43 pay scale is RM500 more than U41.

He said the doctors would be able to pursue their specialist courses or Master’s after serving two years' compulsory service compared to the current situation whereby they can only apply to further their studies after three years.

About 1,200 local medical students graduate annually.

Dr Chua also announced the Cabinet’s decision to disallow the future setting up of private cord blood banks because while it was a new service with huge potential to treat specific diseases, there were still ethical issues to be scrutinised.

He said the existing centres would have to apply for a licence from the ministry within the next two months and would be registered under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998.

Hospital Attachment (Day 4)

2007-11-22T13:15:00.000+08:00

This is the last day of my attachment. No hard feelings or anything... Just mere enlightenment into the career as a medical practitioner.

went to a lecture on diabetic retinopathy in the auditorium
the lecture was attended by most of the MO's and specialists
learned that laser treatment can never improve one's vision, but it serves to retard the deterioration of the eye due to this disease. (in some cases, the patient's vision deteriorated after undergoing treatment with laser - [50/50 chances of successful treatment])
got an introduction to the wireless monitoring system which has just been implemented in the hospital. It will ease the work of the hospital staffs whereby they do not have to go bed-to-bed to collect the patients' data. There is a centralised wireless system in every ward. Guess the people have begun to make good use of technology. A good sign....
spent the whole morning in the A&E (Accident and Emergency) ward
learnt from one of the MO's about certain medical terms.... such as ORTHOPNOEA ( Thanks 'anonymous' for that piece of info. Appreciate it very much. :-) ) which is a term used to describe a patient having difficulties to sleep while lying flat. For instance, this term is applied when the patient complains that he or she can only sleep with 3 or more pillows
the MO also told us that in history taking, we will record what a patient says in a layman-style of writing, such as shortness of breath or its abbreviation, "SOB". However, in the examination report, we should use the medical term to discribe this symptom... The medical term starts with a "T"... (haha, should anyone know what the real term is, please do tell me yah.. Couldn't catch properly what the doc had said) - [Now, I have the answer thanks to Joo Ken. It is tachypnoea.]
feeling tired after doing some work is termed as decreased in effort tolerance
I also learned how to stitch up a wound. It's easy really... just three knots will do, but we need to make sure the wound is really clean first to avoid possible infections and to have good stitching skills, sufficient practice is a must
something struck me real deep today... When I was standing at the entrance of the hospital, an old man suddenly approached me and asked me why was I so relaxed... Shouldn't I be working? I replied that I was going back. Then, I noticed that my white cloak was in my hand... It was the cloak which deceived the man's eyes. And again, the man asked what time am I going to start working tomorrow. Haha, my white lab cloak is certainly a perfect deception... Do I really look so much like a doc? There had been patients who approached and asked me questions... Come on lah... I really don't have any decent knowledge in the medical field. My look can really con people, but it is really a good thing that people tend to think that I am a qualified and registered MO :P

Hospital Attachment (Day 3)

2007-11-22T13:08:00.000+08:00

A boring day....
Went to Ward 8
Practically, it caters for aged women.. So, not much of learning could be made, but the need for patience was dire.

Hospital Attachment (Day 2)

2007-11-20T17:57:00.000+08:00

met Christine Tan at the Terengganu airport... Didn't see her around since graduating from high school. She is currently studying in SEDAYA college, majoring in piano and minoring in guitar. A musician she will be. :-)
went to the pharmacy department beside the pathology sector
visited the various satellites at different floors
learnt that generally, the med from the internal store can last for 9 months, whilst med from external store can last for 6 months only although the separate pure products can last for years before mixing
that is the main place where private clinics shop for certain drugs
they are short of pharmacists to prepare and mix the drugs
we were told that the pharmacists' usual field of job consists of monitoring the drug in the patients' blood (using centrifugation technique), preparing specific cancer drugs (using precise aseptic techniques under the laminar flow) and aiding the nutritionists in preparing food for the premature infants which are short of certain nutrients
had a casual talk with the Head of Department of Pharmacy on several issues... The recognition of higher institution of learnings in Japan, Taiwan, Russia and India by Lembaga Akreditasi Negara and Lembaga Farmasi and also the approval of certain drugs, which are still not in the Health Ministry list, by Dato' Dr. Ismail Merican, the Director-General of Malaysian Medical Council, were some of the important topics mentioned by her
she said that drugs which are not in the list usually need 1 month for approval by the Ministry of Health
there was a instance where a Terengganu girl was prescribed a drug containing the ingredients of Viagra by IJN (Institut Jantung Negara) as a pharmacological treatment for heart
the girl subsequently tried to ask for supply from the Terengganu hospital, but they did not have it as it is not in the drug list approved by the Ministry. The hospital requested approval from the Ministry, but was turned down as according to the authority, the drug was not specified for treating heart diseases. Fortunately, there was an undisclosed source of med for the poor girl, who was in dire need for the drug. The hospital management then told the girl to inform IJN to supply the drug to her directly in the future. Again, unnecessary red tape or bureaucracy had almost caused a life. This phenomenon is certainly all too common nowadays
met many International Medical University (IMU) seniors
learn about the "Grading System" in government sectors. According to the officers, MO's nowadays will start off with the grade of UD41, whilst pharmacists start off with U41
a lecturer (Dr. Lua) from Universiti Darul Iman, who was formerly teaching in UiTM, came to promote postgraduate studies for pharmacists. The catch? The university is just across the road...just a walking distance from the hospital. In front of your door it is, according to Dr. Lua. Thus, it will be of very much convenience for the pharmacists to further their postgraduate studies
attended the "Erectile Dysfunction" and "Smoking Cessation" presentation by two of the housemen. The "ED" thingie was not as interesting as expected due to the lack of a good command of English and presenting skills by the housemen. Honestly, Joash or anyone from INTEC with a sound command of English can do a whole lot better than them
however, the presentation did catch my attention during a heated question-bombarding sessions from 3 fellow Chinese pharmacists. Well, they certainly asked good questions and criticised cleverly with some ingredients of sarcasm
learnt about Prostaglandin E (ALPROSTADIL) inhibitor and recalled back on phosphodiesterase and cytochrome
"Penile Implant", which is still a new treatment for ED, is not available in Malaysia yet due to its astronomical cost and the lack of surgeons with necessary surgery skills to implant the device
it is also worth noting that one of the pharmacists asked the presenter why Viagra (sildenafil), Levitra (vardenafil) and Cialis (tadalafil) should not be used with alpha blockers
all in all, I had a better insight into the career as pharmacists and the way they work behind the stage though it has little relation with my future occupation

-ZhaoMing-

Hospital Attachment (Day 1)

2007-11-20T16:50:00.001+08:00

My 4-day hospital attachment (or rather exposure programme) started yesterday...
The location : Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah [HSNZ]

1st day

went to the admin department
waited for one hour plus before the officer from Unit Latihan posted us to our respective wards
found out that the officer-in-charge is my former maths teacher's husband
also found out that he is related to Zulfadli, a coursemate of mine in INTEC
this is such a small world :-)
basically, we had spent our entire morning at the paediatric ward and eventually called it a day
lessons learnt :

medical officers (MO) are not rich as informed and reminded by Dr. Rahsdan [that was the first thing he told us when we first met :P]
preclinical years are both stressful and hectic
the ward is like a chess board. MO's and nurses are the chess pieces; the specialists are the players who move the chess pieces on the board to their likings
MO's work hard around the clock....going from one bed to another of the entire ward, asking the patients questions, referring to their medical history and diagnosing them with possible illnesses
and guess what? The diagnosis is a premature one. They will then have to follow the specialist for another round around the ward, explaining to the specialist about the patients' various conditions
the specialist listened briefly to the MO's, asked a few questions to the patients. And there and then, the MO's stand to be either harshly corrected or given a comforting nod by the specialist
TADA...!And the job of a specialist is officially done after that. The specialist reached for her handbag, gave us a quick glance and said, "My job is done here. But the MO's still have obligations to fulfill. They need to complete their report, do an overall review and carry out every single thing which was instructed by me." OMG, doc slavery will be an issue in decades to come... yeah...considering my personal opinion that the newer generations of docs might be pampered to an even greater extent
Dr. Rahsdan told us to learn to categorise things in our medical studies later.... for instance, pharmocological and non-pharmacological. This can be applied too in answering the questions later. According to him, techniques of answering questions are utmost important
though tired of his job, Dr. Rahsdan, a medical graduate from University of Malaya (UM),still put great efforts in cracking cold jokes (really cold) and convincing us to continue pursuing our far-reached dream to become a doctor... The evil reason behind his encouragement? We can help to lessen his workload. *swt* zzzZ...
to a certain degree, I think MO's need to have durable legs and strong backs if we consider the hours spent beside the patients' beds. FIY, I had almost broken mine. Thanks god my femurs and backbone are still intact
oh yeah, and another thing... one of the housemen, who seemed very anxious, revealed to us that what she learned in Russia is totally different from what is required in the local hospital and that she needs to really struggle now
wonder whether Malaysian Medical Council had looked into this issue thoroughly... Really pity the houseman for this. Imagine studying overseas for years and come back with nothing, but the must to start everything for all over again
paediatric ward is different from other wards in terms of the time spent on attending to the youngr patients. Blood-taking, for instance, is much easier with adults than children. And, the questioning is directed towards the parents, which sometimes becomes extremely troublesome as they might be unsure of their own child's conditions

Okay... Guess that's all for the 1st day. FYI, we are stationed in the pharmacy department on the 2nd day, medical on the 3rd and emergency on the 4th.

-ZhaoMing-

Home Finally

2007-11-18T23:20:00.000+08:00

The horrendous one-week-plus End of Semester examination had come to an end at last, and so was the gala feasting trip in Melaka. But, the days at home has just started... And it did start off well.
:-)

Don't Misunderstand, It's but a Misinterpretation

2007-10-18T14:35:00.000+08:00

TALKING about interpretations, I am reminded of the interesting case of the housewife in Chukai, Terengganu, who told police she went to bed about 5am on Oct 11 after making preparations for Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Her husband had gone to work.

About an hour after she went to bed, she felt the warmth of a man beside her and they made love. Later, when her husband walked in and asked her about the man who had walked out of their room, she said it was a case of mistaken identity. She lodged a report that she had been raped and police picked up a colleague of the husband who had been staying with them.

She had thought the man who had shared the bed with her was her husband. She had, it seems, interpretated it wrongly.

The police are working on their own interpretation of the events that transpired.

Then there is the case of the 14-year-old from Mersing who spent the night at her boyfriend's house on Oct 10.

After returning from a stroll with a girlfriend, they went to her boyfriend's house at 11 pm. The boyfriend's family allowed the girls to sleep in the hall.

When everyone had gone to sleep, the boyfriend invited her into his room. The girl, it appears, misinterpreted his intentions and went in. The next morning, she lodged a rape report against him.

Another classic case of interpretation is when leaders cry. Now, in Malaysia, it has become the fashion, especially for men, to cry in public.

When a leader of a country cries while delivering a speech, some see it as a sign of weakness but others see it as an indication that beneath that tough exterior there is a soft heart.

A policeman being offered a RM50 note by a driver whom he had stopped on the road may feel he should not insult the driver by refusing this kind gesture. The ACA will have a different interpretation, of course.

Words and intentions can often be misinterpretated. For instance, if I were to see someone floating on cloud nine, I could say : "Look, he's gay". But within the space of a second, people will send various interpretations of the word "gay" into orbit.

I could call someone who behaves like a child "childish" or "childlike". One is an insult, the other can be a term of endearment. Again, interpretation. Which is why, I guess, we should be careful about what we say and do.

Understanding, Anyone?

2007-10-18T13:57:00.000+08:00

It's both rather amazing and annoying that such few words of mine can cause what an extreme turmoil and havoc in people's mind. Yeah, you have succeeded. My emotion is totally stirred at the moment, but not for long. Should I feel proud that people really do take account of every word which I had written or spoken of? Or should misery overcome me? My apology to all (if there is any) who feel they were insulted or rather victimised by what I had written here. Well, I can't please everyone, can I? If I can't win a game, I won't participate in it. The same applies here... If I can't make every single man happy, I will not be bothered to do so.

Ultimately, we are responsible for the way we interpret people's words and intentions and events.

Of Ying and Yang

2007-10-18T13:33:00.000+08:00

Fritjof Capra (1982)

"Our progress, then, has been largely a rational and intellectual affair, and this one-sided evolution has now rached a highly alaraming stage, a situation so paradoxical that it borders insanity. We can control the soft landings of space craft on distant planets, but we are unable to control the polluting fumes emanating from our cars and factories. We propose Utopian communities in gigantic space colonies, results of overemphasizing our 'yang', or masculine side - rational knowledge, analysis, expansion - and neglecting our 'ying' or feminine side - intuitive, wisdom, synthesis and ecological awareness."

Busy, Busy, Busy....

2007-10-16T00:39:00.000+08:00

It is usual that I blog when I am hardworking. And, yes, today I am pretty hardworking.

Despite waking up at 11 o' clock in the morning and sleeping from 12.30pm to 3pm, I am hardwoking. I actually took the trouble to open my Malaysian University English Test (MUET) module to complete my long-pending essay assignments. I actually checked my mail inbox for chemistry notes from Puan Zuraida. I actually set up a what-to-do list for my holidays. (There are more than 10 items though... Now, I feel that I am rather ambitious.)

Next week, I will have my MUET speaking test, chemistry 6A lab practical and ethics test. Guess what am I doing now? You are right.... Sitting on the sofa with my faithful laptop, blogging on some meretricious issues after an arduous DOTA session. Will this sum up to something? Ahha, you are right again! I am going to endure a terrible migraine when I crawl out from my bed tomorrow.

"I am halfway through my holidays, yet not much have been done. Well, I am not going to live in this kind of emptiness anymore. Tomorrow will certainly be a better day!"
I have had this monologue going on in me since the first day of holiday. Feel very glad that at long last, I have the opportunity to shout this real loud in my blog. To all my friends out there... don't freak out as I am really very busy. Yeah, busy with my food and laptop.

Really, I am serious... (Trying very hard to make a frowning expression, but to no avail), I will rise and complete my mountain of assignments. So, stop pressuring me ya o' Ming Zhao.

"The river is long, the river is wide;
as the days go by, I have wasted my life."
-ZhaoMing-

A Tribute to Eu Jeen and Shwu Jing

2007-08-25T10:32:00.000+08:00

To Eu Jeen,
So long old friend... We have known each other since kindergarden. There are so many stories to tell....too many to squeeze into one post. Perhaps I will blog about it from time to time. Good luck for your future undertakings in the University of Michigan (UMICH). Well, I am still stucked here in INTEC. Haha.... But I guess there are pros and cons. When's your next holiday, dude? I think you prefer staying in the States during the holidays. lolz... as the cost of flight ticket is rather astronomical. Simple economic sense I would say... Oh no, I am sounding like Shou Lee. Lolz..... Well, old friend.... You have proven yourself a good challenger and competitor in all possible terms. That's the spirit of students from Sekolah Menengah Chung Hwa Wei Sin (SMCHWS), right? You had carried well your duties as the Vice Captain of the school, Drum Major of Pancaragam Swadaya 2004/2005 and most importantly, as a friend. I don't think the juniors can do any better. Sorry for not being able to be at the airport that day as I was having my IELTS trial exam.

To Shwu Jing,
You have silently carved a name in the our heart. And, in the same way, you had silently left us for Canada. Good luck to you too, o' our favourite class monitor. Without realising it, you had carried the heavy burden as a class monitor for such long years. No complaints uttered by you though sometimes, we could be very demanding and rebellious. I can still vividly remember the day you were elected as our class monitor...and since then, the position is specially reserved for you. hahaha......! Felt so glad to have you as our class monitor. You will always be our favourite class monitor yeah.... In my memories, there's no days spent with other class monitor but you which is worth cherishing for a very, very long time to come.

I do not wish to sound nostalgic here as I am leaving KT for Shah Alam in 11-hour time. Haiz...... Will miss KT awfully lot.

Anyhow, bon voyage to these two good friends of mine......

-ZhaoMing-

Endless Love

2007-08-25T10:27:00.000+08:00

To all souls, L-O-V-E is everywhere around you...
You just need to look for it in the right place.

Time Flies.......

2007-08-24T21:40:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday to all bloggers, young and old, as today is Blogger's eight birthday...! It is such a remarkable day to celebrate as many have been achieved by the avid bloggers over these past eight years. Much tears were shed, laughters cracked, critics bombarded, praises forwarded, opinions raised and news circulated in their blogs. Well, it seems to me that blogging will survive the tides of modernisation for a long time to come.

Enough written about Bloggers.

Yeah, time really flies... That's what intrigues me very much. :-) Unrealisingly, I have already become the one of the seniors in A-Level Medicine. Surviving in International Education Centre (INTEC) for one year is not easy... Haha, maybe I sound too dramatic, but there's some truth in it. Really. Even Sun Quan agrees with me about this.

Now, I am having my Mid-Semester III holidays. Will be back to INTEC the day after tomorrow. Kind of worried here... Haven't touched my books for my entire one-week long holiday. *sigh* But, one good thing is that I have mastered the skills to do everything at the eleventh hour. Hehe..... That's the way it is....... When we are desperate and the exams are drawing near, we tend to unleash our own unique, superb inner ability to study intensively. At least this is what I believe and hold true for my two semesters. Anyway, I have a strange feeling that Semester III will be a totally different ball game. Whatever awaits me, I will persevere till the end.

Before the start of my holiday, I had sit for Biology, Chemistry, Statistics and IELTS Trial tests.... No idea of what the result will turn out to be. Good or bad, I am prepared to face it. Have been feasting on numerous sumptuous meals these few days. Hope I will be able to suit myself to the not-so-nice food in Seksyen 18.

Well, I have also spent lots of time with my family and beloved.... hehe.... as predicted by Yea Kee. Will surely appreciate the time spent with my other half oo, right or not Dear??? Haha.... DENISE TOH WANN JUNN, if you are reading this.... a thousand thanks to your grandma ya for the drink. Kaka..... You see, I did mention your name. And pronounced it loudly too.... See the colour and size of the character?

Hehe... Signing off..... I am waiting for Dear to set up your own blog ya..., so that I can keep in touch with all your daily activities, that is if you are so hardworking enough to update your blog everyday. :P I guess you would rather sleep than wasting your time in front of the computer screen blogging. :P!

-ZhaoMing, your dearest pig....!-

One of the Greatest Shocks in My A-Level Life...!!!

2007-08-18T20:20:00.000+08:00

!!!
I actually got all five A's for my Semester II (Jan - Jun 2007).....
Getting an "A" for my PAL201 a.k.a. English is indeed miraculous. (if you take into account of the hassle and stress every student went through in the End of Semester II examination for English)
The letter just arrived at my house today...., the first day of my Mid Semester III holidays... Well, that's certainly another miracle whish is worth cherishing. In fact, I was taken aback when I first viewed my results.
Now, I am practically hunting for a decent camera or rather scanner to show you all my result slip.
If the results are indeed true and not some meretricious tricks which mind can play on one, then I would like to extend my humblest 'thank you' and appreciation to my previous English lecturer for it and give myself a pat on my shoulder. It had really made my day.
However, if the results are some sort of mistakes which are caused by the fragile standardised online system implemented in INTEC, namely the CMS system which is still in its infant stage, then surely, I curse it though it does not agitate me as much as what is experienced by Mrs. Yap.
Anyway, just hope that my future, real IELTS band will turn out to be a good one.
Will post the result slip soon.... But if it is a confirmed fake result, then I shall just keep it in my shelf for years to come....well..., as a reminiscence. :-)

Pesta Pantai at Batu Buruk

2007-07-08T16:09:00.000+08:00

3 more hours to go before I leave Kuala Terengganu and embark on my Semester 3 journey in INTEC... I am having a mixed feelings of sadness and happiness... Sadness and happiness. They are two contradicting emotions. However, amazingly, they can blend with each other pretty well.

So much for my feelings... As promised, I will blog about the very exciting and enjoyable Pesta Pantai which I went with Shwu Jing, Pei Yi and Gim Hui...

29/06/2007 that was...

It was Friday, the night before Gim Hui left for UKM and a week before I am going to INTEC.

We really had had a good time there. We played the freakiest game there.... The one that spins 360 degrees in the air about 50 metres above ground!!! Actually, that was Shwu Jing's idea. Hehe.... And while waiting Gim Hui to come, we bought the tokens and had a usual, empty chat. (That SK2=Gim Hui bought her new Sony Ericsson hp that night) Wonder why we called her SK2??? Well, that's because she is extremely W-H-I-T-E!!! In her life, she has had a minimum exposure to the sunlight. ^_^"

Okay..., the main point here is the freaky game we played. The machine was a gigantic one.... And when we were queuing up to play, we noticed that there were always sharp screams coming out compared to other games. Alright..., Shwu Jing's theory was not wrong. That was the scariest game and it was not for the faint-hearted. Upon hearing the screams, Gim Hui's face turned pale....

"Can I not play this???" she asked.

"No way we will let you out of this...!" we replied together.

Our moment came. Shwu Jing frantically climbed into the seat and I took the one behind her. Gim Hui sat beside me, whereas Pei Yi took the seat beside Shwu Jing. One of the workers lowered the safety cushion thingie across our shoulder. It held us very tightly. Gim Hui immediately complained about the tightness she felt and I nodded in agreement. (Stupid me... I should have disagreed. Once we were swinged upwards to the air, I suddenly felt grateful to have that fragile cushion holding me.)

After everyone was seated, the game began. Up we go ferociously. The machine had indeed very aggressive movements. And as predicted, Shwu Jing, Pei Yi and Gim Hui screamed like mad. But, Gim Hui was the loudest and sharpest. It's quite impressive to think how could such a small size girl give out such a wild scream... I didn't scream and later I will tell you why.

The machine swinged up and down... 10 seconds, 11 seconds, 12 seconds...then everyone's screaming stopped. The machine had taken its toll. Gim Hui just lowered down her head and for a moment I thought she had been scared to death...had a heart attack..had no more energy left to scream or something like that. But, regretfully, I could not help her at that time as I was busy helping myself!!! The machine flew upward until it had reached the highest point and stopped. I held my safety cushion tightly, feeling very insecured at such position. Just like my prediction, the machine suddenly jerk downwards towards the ground. I could clearly hear the wild whisper of the wind at my ears... My sandals had almost dropped and I was very worried about my handphone. Looking down, I saw the people there were actually very much more relaxed than us. And when the machine jetted upwards, all of us were in an inverse position. Imagine sitting on a chair, which is embeded onto the ceiling. AND the ceiling is 50 METRES from the ground!!! My hand automatically held the safety cushion as tightly as I could because at that point, it acted as my lifeline. I desperately tried to push myself close to my seat, against the force of gravity. I was actually hanging in the air with the safety cushion only as my support.

No, I didn't see any tunnel with a bright light at the end of it. Instead, I saw the crowd watching us in the air as though we were performing for them.

"Wait... I could see them clearly. That means.... Oh no!!! This machine doesn't have a closed cover on the top! Once you fall from your seat, you will be falling 50 metres down to the hard ground!!!" A monologue was taking place in me.

I swear.... everytime the machine lowered down, I had the very urge to jump out of my seat to the safe, stable ground. But as the time passed by, I knew that everything was not under my control anymore and I should enjoy my time up there as I had paid RM6.00 for it. I closed my eyes and realised how fragile our life is. And then, that thing spinned 360 degrees for three revolutions. It was indeed very breathtaking if breathtaking is the word to describe the split second when someone is short of breath!!!

Wanting to know whether Gim Hui was stil alive or dead, I called her... It was no easy job though. The thing was spinning here and there, making me super dizzy, and my hands were always firm on the safety cushion in case anything were to turn bad. Again, I called out her name.

After a short pause, she replied softly, "Ha..?"

"Are you okay???"

"I want to go down now la... Don't want to play already." She said this when the thing was still spinning wildly.

"Haha...How to stop wor?"

Hey Gim Hui, if you are reading this,....... zzzzZZZZ.... You thought I am superman meh? Can stop this 'fierce' machine on my own.

Next, she told me that she could not breath.

It was followed by a threat to vomit.

"I want to vomit arr!!!" she said and there was a deep silent.

All the while, our conversation was taking place with her head lowered and eyes shut.

So, I patted her shoulder and asked if she was okay... And I was gentleman enough to take one of my hands of the safety cushion and grab her's. Walao eh.... Damn cold man!!!

"Hehe....!"she laughed to me and said,"I cannot feel anything leh. My hands are numb already."

Afraid that she might lose her consciousness, I kept on beating her until she finally responded with a faked ignorant smile... Siao one...

At last, the ride, which felt like what was for eternity, came to an end. Everyone got out of their seats very quickly. Pei Yi was sweating like she just ran a marathon and Gim Hui complained about stomache aches. zzzzzZZZ a weird girl... But, Shwu Jing really proved that she has the qualities of being our class monitor for 5 consecutive years. She was indeed very brave. :P

After that, everyone, with their pale faces, went to A&W to have a drink. And Pei Yi was still recuperating from her shock + tiredness.

Then, the one million dollar question came, all of them asked me why didn't I scream? Well, actually, I also don't understand why were they screaming in the first place? Because they are scared??? I had no extra energy to scream as I was really very busy trying to keep myself from falling down. Haha!!! No time for screaming or whatsoever... Life is more important than a few minutes of releasing emotions. That's all I guess. Hope to go for another outing like this. :-)

Had taken a few photos in A&W

Shwu Jing and Pei Yi

Group Photo

Gim Hui and Me

Me and Shwu Jing

Haha... The A&W worker was bad at photographing

The Pale Faces @_@

The day before yesterday was a Friday too. And actually, on that day, I had planned to attend Daniel Lee's concert, which was held in my younger sister's school. However, a twist of mood forced me to change my mind. I decided to be a home-stayer and enjoy the final few days with my family before going to Shah Alam. Besides that, what's the fun when most of my friends had gone back to KL to continue their studies. Lolzz... If I were to go to that concert, I believe right now, I will have another interesting material to write about.. :S

p/s : Gim Hui... I broke the promise. Hehe... But I do not consider numbness in hand, tenderness to vomit and stomache ache as embarrassments. :P

A "Photogenic" Semester 2 in INTEC

2007-07-08T13:50:00.000+08:00

Sunset in Cendana Hostel ^_^... I will surely miss you!!!

Me and Enthusiastic Classmates

AND SO IT BEGAN....

Ethics Studies @_@

Darn Boring.....zzzZZZ

THE END OF BORING ETHICS... kekeke...

Let me Introduce you.... Johnson's Study Table!

And this is Johnson...! Haha. Sorry dude, don't want to waste any pics... Probably next time I will do a 'before' and 'after' ya. Then, we help the cosmetic company to promote their product. :-)

In the Study Room

Huh.... What the heck!!! Study means study? No toilet???

I wonder if this aircond was made in the North pole... I was freezing duh..

Messy Mess......

Ever Heard of CHICKEN FRENZY???

bet you don't....

I don't understand what it is about either... Just know this "unholy" and unhygienic frenzy involves processing and cooking of chicken....erm... beside the drain!

I REPEAT.... It was done beside the D-R-A-I-N !!!

This RM2000++ proposal was suprisingly approved by INTEC

HAHA... And it was held in Cendana!

Ewh.... There's no other place to do the washing and processing???!

The rest is left to all readers to imagine and elaborate. I didn't even dare to take one piece of chicken that day although I had paid for it.

^_^"

Review of Semester 2 in INTEC

2007-07-01T23:59:00.000+08:00

My second semester seemed to be quite a swift one due to numerous festive holidays. Guess I will not be that fortunate in the coming third semester (Joo Ken said that semester 3 is slightly more hectic than semester 2), but I still keep my fingers crossed. Though semester 2 was very short, there were many unforgettable experience, unlike semester 1. Semester 2 was a real good one as it enabled me to identify friends and foes plus all the current backstabbers and potential backstabbers. This is of dire importance because I will certainly know when there is a need to watch out my back from these masked assassins. Just like the culture of “defensive medicine” which is hotly debated, most of the time, I believe that it is better to be ‘safe than sorry’. Johnson, for instance, had experienced a sharp, piercing pain from the words of a backstabber who is supposedly to be his friend. Well, there is nothing for sure in this world and this is a life-long journey of learning.

The classes, which were taught by Puan Mimi, got involved in a fantastic biology presentation, namely “MSS presentation”. :P It was indeed memorable to see future doctors and pharmacists debating. And not to mention, Charles who shot out schematic questions to Johnson which did not fail to stun almost everyone in the hall. Imagine having to answer questions such as “Can you give me four reasons why …….” in a bio presentation? Four reasons translate to four marks. This seemed crystal clear to me. Fuyoh…! Once a scholar, always a scholar I would say. At this point, it’s the time to reveal something about my roles in the presentation. I was in-charged of explaining the methods of male contraceptive method and above all, free condom samples were given out to the badge of excited students in the hall. zzzzZZZZZ… Alright, I know that was unorthodox, but I strongly believed that it would bring better understanding about sex to the audience…. (Well, at least Suhaila did believe so. It was her idea after all.) This yearly presentation was successfully ended with Kien Seng’s melodious vocal armed with his loyal guitar. Opps…. Yah.., Johnson and Charles did sing too. Hehz…. And it followed by a wonderful birthday song for our all-favourite Puan Mimi! I would like also to thank Puan Mimi for her cute Patrick (Spongbob’s best friend) doll… haha… or rather her children. Puan Mimi, I will definitely remember "Structure and Function" in my future medicine studies. Copyright reserved to Puan Mimi!

I was down with fever for almost a week. The doctor diagnosed me with suspected dengue. I had missed many important lessons due to that. Luckily, my blood report turned out to be dengue negative. No significant drop in platelet counts… Ya, the number of platelets is one of the solid indicator for dengue. However, that doctor in Subang charged me RM112.00 for that. Erhem…. Quite reasonable la… That’s the money to earn for someone who has studied laboriously for five long years plus years of housemanship. In addition to another hole in my pocket, I broke my iPod charger wire and it was not warranted. It costed me another RM100++. :S

The first part of the Engliah Speaking Test was fabulous. I talked about the Seven Wonders of the World. But the second was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. I was still having fever when I was interviewed by the lecturer. At first, it turned out to be fine. She just asked simple questions which made me feel very at ease. Then, out of a sudden, a tough and complicated question, which required serious thinking, was bombarded to me. My mind spinned 360° at the speed of 360km/h. Time was ticking fast and there was a deep silence. Not wanting her to wait any longer, I managed to provide a simple answer in that kind of desperate situation. As simple as it was, it saved my neck. However, I was definitely penalized for the inevitable pause. Listening test was wonderful as the radio was positioned right on my desk… Could perfectly grasp every word in the conversation. :-) Just got one wrong.

In INTEC, I was very much attracted to a plastic plate with the printed saying of “Procrastination is the thief of time.” Attracted to this wise saying is one thing….adhering to it is another. That’s the problem with me. I realised that I was in deep trouble when the study leave week started. Seven days to go, yet there were tonnes of notes to cover. In addition to my misery, my flight back to Kuala Terengganu was cancelled due to an unforeseen blackout at the KT airport. Duh…. That was the first time the situation put me in such excruciating despair. I had never experienced something as absurd as that before. Well, as the attendants at the counter were not sure whether there would be any available flight back early next morning, I decided that enough risk had been taken and therefore, bought a bus ticket back to my hometown. And guess what….. It was the last ticket!!! I should consider myself lucky in such misfortune condition huh.. There gone one day of my study leave.

Back at home, I became almost insane with my books. I was in total indulgence (drowned!!!) with the river of knowledge flowing from Biology to Chemistry. No time for Mathematics and Statistics lah.. Haha… But manage to cover those during my exam period. The End of Semester 2 exam was D-I-S-A-S-T-R-O-U-S!!! Imagine having six solid papers in one day. It was certainly fast and furious. I don’t know why, but the exam this time seemed extremely packed. Last time, in their second semester exam, our seniors had the privilege to sit the papers for a duration of two-week time. However, much to our animosity, we had to complete all those papers, with an addition of a topic about kidney, in four days time. “FULAMAK!” said Melven. “What the hell?!” said Zhao Ming. “真的是太赶了啦(Zhen De Shi Tai Gan Le La),” said Sun Quan. “神经了(Shen Jing Liao),” said Jane. “我要疯了(Wo Yao Feng Le)!!!” Johnson gave an abnormal grin. “Must control myself already. No more DOTA for one week,” said Andrew. As predicted, hahaha… these were some of the scholars’ expression.

I felt that Semester 2 was my most take-for-granted sem. The common topic tests, especially for Biology, was much taken for granted. Vow not to repeat this in my third and fourth semester. In Sem 2, all my Bio papers were marked by Puan Rita, our A-Level Medicine Core Person. My papers in that semester were certainly destined to be marked by Puan Rita. Hope she would have mercy on my End of Sem papers, Unit 5 particularly, because I knew I did rather badly for that unit. Erhem!!! My excuse, this time, is having not enough time to be fully prepared. :P Sad to say, through historical data (previous papers marked by her) and conversation with her students did not seem promising for me to secure an ‘A’ for my Bio. How ever it is going to be, wish there’s still a fragile ‘A’ for my Core Mathematics and Statistics. Approximately three weeks ago, Yan Ning a.k.a Johnson texted me, saying that my Bio marks was the same as his. He also said that Radzi got perfect score for his Biology Unit 1. (the questions were totally adapted from EDEXCEL Biology January Paper 2007 punya pasal lah… :-( Huhuhu, should have got hold of the papers). An ‘A’ for Biology seems not quite right.. I really did screw up the papers, didn’t I? Anyway, I am still looking forward to seeing my result slip with my bare eyes before I were to believe it. I think I did quite well for my ethics though had a last minute study and studies were hampered by idiotic tasks. This would not have happened if I were a little bit more of a bad guy. I think I have had enough of disappointment. So, in the near future, Zhao Ming will not be the uttermost kind soul who is willing to do all things for his buddy. Heard I got an ‘A’ for Chemistry too, but a not-too-extraordinary ‘B’ for my English. Lucky me that English was not counted for the scoring system of 15. So, basically, if nothing goes wrong, I got a perfect score of 15 for my Semester 2, hopefully.

Semester 2 was also not poor with numerous achievements, though not academically. Hehe.. Managed to win dota matches with Andrew. This brilliant guy had indeed turned into a dota fanatic. Kudos to Andrew! I went shopping in Midvalley, Sunway Pyramid and Pusat Kompleks Negeri Selangor (PKNS) as usual. Jane, Jeremy and I met a taxi driver, who is a hardcore “Bah Kut Teh” lover like us, and he eventually becomes our private driver. Hehz….. Erm.. Sun Quan found his true love.. Oppss… Sorry, this should be my own review. Hehe. Stayed in Petaling Jaya (PJ) for my Wesak holidays.. (Special thanks to Uncle Bee Kuan and his family who were kind enough to put me up in their house for a few days :-) ) I did learn new things from Uncle Bee Kuan, such as the so-called “salesman talk” and the history of PJ.

O yea…, before I forget, on the last day of examination, I were so stressed out that I decided to go to Bintang Walk with my friends (Zhi Hui, PC, Hooi Li, Johnson, Jing How and Charles). Yeah, I was totally wrecked and had really forgotten about Jayvian and Gim Hui's birthday and their presents. Sorry ya Gim Hui! Sorry ya Jayvian! We spent the whole night there, experiencing the night life in Bukit Bintang. I didn’t sleep for 30 hours because I slept at 12am at the previous night. However, it was worth it as I took my first Irish coffee that night. Its taste was simply fabulous. Pure-blended coffee with an irresistible taste of alcohol. :P Don’t be jealous ya.. We watched Spiderman 3 at the cinema that night. Hooi Li and Zhi Hui were so darn enthusiastic to go clubbing. Haha…. Well, along Sem 2, I watched “The Three Hundred”, “Spirits of the Victims” and “Spiderman 3” in cinema. They were all worth a watch. Besides that, I watched “SAW”, “Borat”, “Jackass”, “Lord of the Rings”, “Curse of the Ring”, “I know what you did last summer”, “I still know what you did last summer”, “I always know what u did last summer” and the all freakingly disgusting “Hostel”! Mark my words,“Hostel” was certainly inhumane and bizarre. I hadn’t seen anything like it.

That’s all I think for Semester 2. A wonderful post on Pesta Pantai coming soon.. Be patient ya. Miss you all.

How Much Is Enough?

2007-07-01T01:24:00.000+08:00

"He who knows enough is enough will always
have enough."

~Lao Tse~

Of A Happy Man

2007-07-01T01:19:00.000+08:00

'If you want to make a man happy, add not to his riches but take away his desires.'

-Epicurus, a Greek philosopher-

What Money Can Buy

2007-07-01T01:07:00.000+08:00

A bed but not sleep

Books but not knowledge

Food but not appetite

Finery but not beauty

A house but not a home

Medicine but not health

Luxuries but not comfort

Pleasures but not happiness

Religion but not salvation.

Say not this is yours and that is mine,

Just say, this came to you and to me;

So we may not regret the fading shine,

Of all the glorious things which ceased to be.

Author : Unknown

To Parents

2007-06-28T22:53:00.000+08:00

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of life's
longing for itself
'They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet the
belong not to you.
You may give them your love
but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You mat strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.'

-Khalil Gibran-

Of Friends and Foes

2007-06-28T22:45:00.000+08:00

'Lord, save me from my friends. I know how to defend myself against my enemies.'

~Voltaire~

The Basic Law of the Mind

2007-06-28T22:41:00.000+08:00

As you See - so you Feel
As you Feel - so you Think
As you Think - so you Will
As you Will - so you Act

Of Work and Dream

2007-06-28T22:38:00.000+08:00

'We live and work and dream,

Each has his little scheme,

Sometimes we laugh,

Sometimes we cry,

And thus the days go by.'

Life and Death

2007-06-28T22:36:00.000+08:00

'Life is uncertain,' says the Buddha, 'but death is certain.'

Impermanence

2007-06-28T22:26:00.000+08:00

Worlds on worlds are rolling ever

From creation to decay

Like the bubbles on a river

Sparkling, bursting borne away.

~Shelley~

The Greatest and Most Cunning Mathematician of Antiquity

2007-06-24T13:06:00.000+08:00

13th century text hides words of Archimedes

The pages of a medieval prayer text also contain words of ancient Greek engineer Archimedes. It takes high-tech imaging to read between the lines.

By Jia-Rui Chong, Times Staff Writer

December 26, 2006

Eureka!

Not easy reading...

THE book cost $2 million at auction, but large sections are unreadable.

Some of its 348 pages are torn or missing and others are covered with sprawling purple patches of mildew. Sooty edges and water stains indicate a close escape from a fire.

"This manuscript is, by far, the worst of any manuscript I've ever seen," said William Noel, curator of manuscripts for the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, where it now resides. "It's a book that is on its last legs."

The sheepskin parchment originally contained a 10th century Greek text, which was erased by a 13th century scribe who replaced it with prayers. Seven hundred years later, a forger painted gilded pictures of the Evangelists on top of the faded words.

Underneath it all, however, is an exceptional treasure — the oldest surviving copy of works by the ancient Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes of Syracuse, who lived in the 3rd century BC.

About 80% of the text had been transcribed and translated in the 1910s after it was rediscovered in an Istanbul monastery, but since then much of it became unreadable again because of deterioration.

Fully deciphering its mysteries has had to wait for advanced technologies, some of which had never been applied to ancient manuscripts.

The unusual cast of detectives includes not only the imaging specialists who helped photograph the Dead Sea Scrolls, but also a Stanford University physicist who studies trace metals in spinach with a particle accelerator.

Together, they have been carrying out one of the most remarkable "salvage jobs" in the history of codicology, the study of ancient manuscripts.

Archimedes, it turns out, is only one secret of the text.

AMONG the mathematicians of antiquity, Archimedes was one of the greatest and most cunning.

He was one of the earliest to devise ways to calculate the area beneath curves and was the first to prove that a circle's circumference and diameter are related by the constant pi. He developed the Archimedes Screw to lift water and invented deadly devices, such as the Claw of Archimedes, which was designed to grapple enemy warships.

Archimedes died in 212 BC, when Syracuse was sacked by the Romans. Legend holds that he was drawing figures in the sand. "Don't disturb my circles," he supposedly told the soldier who killed him.

Knowledge of Archimedes' work is derived from three books.

Codex A, transcribed around the 9th century, contained seven major treatises in Greek. Codex B, created around the same time, had at least one additional work by Archimedes and survived only in Latin translation.

Codex C has been an enigma.

It was originally copied down in 10th century Constantinople, now known as Istanbul. Three centuries later, the manuscript was in Palestine. By then, it was no longer a precious vestige of ancient learning but an obscure text that could be put to better use as a prayer book.

A scribe began by unbinding the pages. He washed them with citrus juice or milk and sanded them with a pumice stone. He cut the sheets in half, turned them 90 degrees and stitched the new book down the middle.

The scribe wrote prayers over the blank pages. Codex C had become a "palimpsest" — a recycled book.

The book eventually was brought back to Constantinople, where it sat until the 1890s, when a Greek scholar wrote down a fragment of erased text that he was able to read.

That fragment was brought to the attention of Danish philologist Johan Ludvig Heiberg in 1906, then the foremost authority on Archimedes. Armed with a magnifying glass, he translated everything he could read, publishing his work in 1910.

The palimpsest disappeared amid the chaos of World War I, only resurfacing in 1998, when a French family named Guersan offered it for auction at Christie's in New York. An anonymous book collector paid $2 million and deposited it at the Walters Art Museum for conservation.

Mold had attacked much of the manuscript, and four forged paintings of the Evangelists made in the 20th century covered some of its most important pages.

"That was our worst nightmare," said Abigail Quandt, senior conservator of rare books and manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum.

ROGER L. Easton Jr., a 56-year-old imaging specialist at the Rochester Institute of Technology, had just come off his success revealing hidden text in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Christie's had commissioned him to make ultraviolet images of the palimpsest for the auction catalog, and now he offered his help to the museum.

Easton and his colleagues began their work in 2000. They tinkered with different methods for capturing the image with the ultraviolet light, which makes the parchment glow more whitish.

They then merged those images with another set taken under a tungsten light, which enhanced the reddish hue of the Archimedes text. The resulting "pseudocolor" image made it easier to distinguish the black prayer book writing from the burnt sienna words of Archimedes.

Using this painstaking method, Easton and his team took two years to uncover another 15% of the text.

They were stymied in penetrating the rest.

Two more years passed before Stanford physicist Uwe Bergmann, 43, read a magazine article about the Archimedes palimpsest that mentioned it had originally been written with iron gall ink.

One of Bergmann's projects at Stanford was investigating the process of photosynthesis in plants by using the synchrotron X-rays to image small clusters of manganese atoms in spinach.

"Why not find traces of iron in an ancient book?" he asked.

Bergmann sent an e-mail to the Walters Art Museum, and the museum agreed to a test.

Bergmann set up the palimpsest experiment at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. Spread over an area the size of a football field, the synchrotron is part of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, a Department of Energy facility set in the foothills of Menlo Park.

The synchrotron hurls electrons at near light speed, forcing them to give off X-rays as they veer around bends. That X-ray beam is channeled away into the laboratories.

Bergmann figured the powerful and precise beam could be used to make iron molecules fluoresce, thus allowing him with a sensitive-enough detector to pick up even the faintest traces of ink.

Bergmann first had to determine the exposure time. Too much time and the powerful synchrotron X-ray could damage the parchment. Then, they adjusted the intensity of the beam, which could be so strong that it blinded the detectors that picked up the glow from the iron gall ink.

After two years of refining their technique, Bergmann and his colleagues began the laborious process of imaging the palimpsest this summer.

Each side of a page, mounted in frame that moved in front of the beam, took 12 hours to record. The machines processed the pages continuously for two weeks.

Beneath a moldy, torn painting of St. John emerged two layers of writing.

On the edge of the first page, they saw a signature dated April 14, 1229: "By the hand of presbyter Ioannes Myronas."

It was the name of the priest who had erased Archimedes.

IN an office near Memorial Church at Stanford, Reviel Netz flicked off the lights. Netz, a slight 38-year-old with dark hair, leaned close to the screen of his laptop.

Bergmann's X-ray work had produced a black-and-white picture of a page from "The Method of Mechanical Theorems," a text found only in the palimpsest.

One phrase — "let them be arranged so they balance on point theta" — had already been translated by Heiberg, although he had had to guess about the word "on," which was unreadable.

Netz, a professor of classics, looked at the X-ray image and nodded. He smiled.

The actual word was "around."

"That's not trivial," he said, explaining that the change altered the meaning of Archimedes' calculations involving an object's center of gravity.

The X-ray image also revealed a section of "The Method" that had been hidden from Heiberg in the fold between pages. It contained part of a discussion on how to calculate the area inside a parabola using a new way of thinking about infinity, Netz said. It appeared to be an early attempt at calculus — nearly 2,000 years before Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invented the field.

The discoveries may seem small, but they are significant in the understanding of ancient mathematics, Netz said.

One passage he studied several years ago involved the innumerable slices and lines that could be made from a triangular prism similar to a wedge of cheese. Netz said the passage, which was unreadable to Heiberg, showed that Archimedes was grappling with the concept of infinity long before other mathematicians.

For Netz, a specialist in ancient mathematics and cognitive history, the chance to decipher the palimpsest "is the fulfillment of an incredible dream," he said.

One of his biggest breakthroughs involves a quirky part of the palimpsest called the "Stomachion," which literally means "Belly-Teaser."

Stomachions were children's games in which 14 geometrical shapes were rearranged to create new shapes. Heiberg translated fragments of the manuscript but paid little attention to it, thinking it was just a game.

Netz saw a deeper significance. Archimedes asked a more restricted question in his "Stomachion": How many different ways could you combine the 14 triangles to make a square?

Netz believes the fragments address an area of mathematics known as combinatorics that scholars have only recently believed interested the Greeks.

For all the high-tech efforts, there are still gaps remaining in the Archimedes text, perhaps 2%, Netz guessed.

AMONG the jumbled fragments are clues that perhaps the deepest secrets are yet to be found.

A century ago, Heiberg copied down two lines that he couldn't identify. They began: "The youngest had been abroad for so long that the sisters wouldn't even know who was who."

The passage was not Archimedes.

In 2002, scholars were able to cross-reference the quote. It came from "Against Timandros," written by a 4th century BC Athenian orator named Hyperides.

Although Hyperides is little-known now, contemporaries frequently compared him to Demosthenes, an acknowledged master of oratory.

No complete versions exist of "Against Timandros," which Hyperides had written as part of a lawsuit over an inheritance, said Judson Herrman, a classicist at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.

Further study determined there were 20 pages of Hyperides in the palimpsest, including a previously unknown text called "Against Diondas."

The palimpsest, it turns out, took parchment from seven texts, including what are believed to be a commentary on Aristotle's "On the Soul" and a group of biographies of the saints, plus two still unidentified texts.

The works are even more difficult to discern than the Archimedes because the ink is different and the pages more thoroughly scrubbed.

"I have been cursing all morning," Herrman said of his work on a few lines of Hyperides.

The scientists aren't giving up.

Easton's team recently began experimenting with precisely tuned light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, to illuminate the text. The team also is using angled light to detect the outlines of letters etched in the parchment by the acid in the ink.

The team made progress on a few pages, but it may take decades — or longer — before technologies are developed that can unveil all the texts.

"We'll probably leave something for future scientists to work on," Netz said.

The writer can be contacted at jia-rui.chong@latimes.com

Taken from http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-archimedes26dec26,1,4486745,full.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

Pearl of the Orient - this name comes with a price

2007-06-23T23:46:00.000+08:00

-Saturday June 23, 2007-
Penang malls sold for over RM1bil

By DAVID TAN

PENANG: Three upmarket shopping malls in Penang – Gurney Plaza, Queensbay Mall and Island Plaza – have recently been sold for over RM1bil.

Sources told StarBiz that Gurney Plaza and Island Plaza had been sold to a US insurance group based in Singapore.

“Gurney Plaza has been sold for about RM700mil,” a source said. It is not known how much Island Plaza went for.

“As for Queensbay Mall, it was sold to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for about RM400mil,” the source said.

Gurney Plaza was owned by Etika Cekap, while Queensbay Mall and Island Plaza were owned respectively by CP Land and the Belleview Group.

Queensbay Mall which was sold for about RM400mil

Gurney Plaza, which opened in 2001, has over 70,000 sq m of floor space, while Queensbay Mall, which began operations last year, has a built-up area of about 232,257 sq m.

Buyers usually use yield calculation to determine the price of shopping malls.

“This method looks at the yield that can be generated yearly from rentals,” the source said. “Based on rentals, upmarket shopping malls on the island can generate yields of about 8% a year.”

Current market rentals for ground-floor retail lots range from RM15 to RM25 per sq ft, depending on the size and location of the units.

Local and overseas investors, such as those from the United States, Australia and China, started taking an interest in commercial properties in Kuala Lumpur about two years ago.

“In the past two years, real estate investment trust companies have bought several shopping malls in the Klang Valley.

“They are now turning their attention to Penang, as the island has new, trendy and upmarket shopping malls and affordably priced commercial centres,” the source said.

He said that in Singapore, a prime commercial property could easily fetch RM5,000 per sq ft or more.

“A similar property in Kuala Lumpur or Penang is priced between RM600 and RM1,000 per sq ft,” the source said.

Taken from http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/23/business/18100855&sec=business

My celebrity look-alikes

2007-06-09T22:09:00.000+08:00

When Men Become Ungrateful...

2007-06-01T23:26:00.000+08:00

When men become ungrateful, they are never poorer;

When men become ungrateful, they tend to be greedy;

When men become greedy, they are hard to be pleased, constantly thinking that they are more superior than others despite the fact that they are heading the wrong path of life;

When men become ungrateful, they are fast to judge a good advice as jealous criticism;

When men become ungrateful, they will achieve their goals by all means, mercilessly removing their closest friends who obstruct their way;

When men become ungrateful, they will feel lonely, yet defending their egoism and instead seek for God’s company;

When men become ungrateful, the God will reluctantly answer their every call for their prayers are full of hatred and they pray with a subtle mind;

When men become ungrateful, there is no one in this world who can help them other than Mister Humble;

When men become ungrateful, they try to become Niccollo Machiavelli, but turn out to be a pathetic imitation of this legendary opportunist;

When men become ungrateful, they lose their humanity;

When men become ungrateful, they are selfish;

When men become ungrateful, they will mechanically point fingers to others whenever a problem crops up;

When men become ungrateful, they try their very best to defend their dignity, yet denying others of their rights;

When men become ungrateful, they are just a bunch of sarcastic hooligans, seeking support and agreement from innocent beings;

When men become ungrateful, that’s when they lose sense of the meaning of life, trust, friends, dignity and self-conscience;

When men become ungrateful, their hearts are as hard as diamond;

When men become ungrateful, they try to be clever and smart, but others with true sight ridicule them as cunning foxes who are too retarded to understand the definition of ethical and moderation;

When men become ungrateful, they have more friends than foes, not knowing that their so-called friends will pawn on them at their most vulnerable time;

When men become ungrateful, the surrounding people cannot help but give out a sigh of disappointment;

When men become ungrateful, it is indeed very scary.

So, friends out there…… Be grateful of what you have. All of us have goals to be achieved and fulfilled in life, but please do have a wise approach, or else at the end of the day, you will lose much more than what you can gain.

Cheers... -ZhaoMing-

Pathetic Cendana Bus Service

2007-05-01T22:23:00.000+08:00

-26 Jan 2006-

Cendana Bus Drivers, Are They Underpaid?

Yeah… It is more than what you can imagine. Bus drivers on strike… How ludicrous that was… The pictures explain everything… Students were waiting for the buses at the bus stop which is 300 metres away from the hostel. The bus was obviously no where to be seen. The pictures will do the talk.

See the crowd of impatient students???

.............................speechless

Let us just hope that it will not happen again... Best wishes to soon-to-be juniors who will be living in Cendana hostel!!! :-P

ARE BLOGS PARASITIC?

2007-04-29T14:56:00.000+08:00

Do bloggers feed off the work of newspapers and magazines? That’s the question of the day in the navel-gazing world of the blogoshpere.

The editor of the Online Journalism Review, Robert Niles, recently decried what he sees as a tendency by journalist to characterize blogs as “a ‘parasitic’ medium” that feeds off the work of traditional newspapers and magazines (http://tinyurl.com/yv67v).

He calls the charge “a poorly informed insult of many hardworking web publishers who are doing fresh, informative and original work.”

Maybe so, but Niles’ protestations notwithstanding, blogs are largely parasitic.

Yes, a handful of bloggers do original reporting, usually on highly specialized topics, but most simply react to news of the day.

The blogosphere, as others have pointed out, act as a kind of global echo chamber. An idea gets swatted around like a ping-pong ball for a few hours until a fresh one takes its place.

But is that really bad? I used to think of blogging’s reactive nature as a flaw in the medium.

I’ve changed my mind, though, I’ve come to believe that being a literary parasite is no bad thing. I’d argue, in fact, hat parasitism is blogging’s most distinctive and probably its most valuable feature.

Online diaries

Bloggers blog for a host of reasons, but what sets blogging apart as a literary form is that it offers a write an easy way to document his or her responses to their day-to-day reading.

The constant flow of text through the eye and mind is a characteristic of many people’s lives, but it has never been possible before to capture the experience so thoroughly and with such immediately as it can be through blogging.

Diaries come closest, but they’re private, and I’d argue that they place more distance between the act of reading and the act of writing about reading.

Te reactive, or parasitical, quality of blogging defined the form from the start. Blogs, after all, began as logs, chronological catalogues of what web surfers discovered in their daily perambulations around the Internet.

Many of the most accomplished and venerable bloggers continue to write in this form.

The least interesting blogs are the ones that simply replicate existing journalistic forms such as news articles, company profiles or product reviews. They can be very useful, and they can certainly be very popular, but they’re blogs in a technical sense only.

In his new book, The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson describes how London’s teeming underclass economy in the mid-19th century was built almost entirely on scavenging.

The poor were parasites who sustained themselves by collecting the leavings of other Londoners – rags, bones, bits of coal and wood, faeces – and, with remarkable enterprise, transforming them into cash.

Our natural instinct, Johnson writes, is “to fulminate against a system that allowed so many thousands to eke out a living by foraging through human waste.”

But our courage, he suggests, should “be accompanied by a measure of wonder and respect.”

After all, “this itinerant underclass managed to conjure up an entire system for processing and sorting the waste generated by two million people.”

Without them, London would have been swallowed up in its own filth.

Recycling information

Johnson goes on to draw an analogy between these human waste-recyclers and their microscopic counterparts, bacteria.

“Without the bacteria-driven processes of decomposition, the Earth would have been overrun by offal and carcasses eons ago,” he reminds us.

“If the bacteria disappeared overnight, all life on the planet would be extinguished within a matter of years.”

Bloggers do similarly useful work. In fact, the blogosphere may best be thought of as a vast digestive tract, breaking down the news of the day into ever-finer particles of meaning (and even more concentrated toxins).

It’s worth remembering that, in a literary context, another word for “parasitic” is critical.” Blogging is, at its essence, a critical form, a means of recycling other writings to ensure that every molecule of sense, whether real or imagined, is distilled and consumed.

So, if someone wants to call my blog parasitic, or even bacterial, that’s fine with me. I’ll consider it not an insult, but a compliment. – NICHOLAS CARR
(Guardian Newspaper Ltd)

GLORIA AND JOHNSON TAGGED ME!!!

2007-04-15T17:56:00.000+08:00

Months ago, Gloria and Johnson tagged me...

The rule sounded like this :

"Each player of this game starts off by giving 6 weird things about themselves.
People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as
well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be
tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment
letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog."

Weird things about me? Really don't have the brainpower to think as I am down with high fever and suspected for dengue.. Now, I can hardly stand firmly with my weak legs.. Never felt as weak as now before. *curse those callous mosquitoes at Cendana hostel* However, Johnson said that he can help me to write more than 6 weird things leh... Haha...

1. I can survive with 5 hours of sleep during weekdays which my roommates find it impressive. Well, I think it is a habit that I picked up during my King Scout's assessment camps. At that time, I did not sleep a wink for 5 days 4 nights due to the taxing midnight activities. We were required to finish our bamboo gadgets in 2 nights... And my interview with 6 interviewers was held at 2.00 a.m. I can still remember there were so many tests going on, day and night, to the extent that I could only take my meal once a day. Survival skills and alone in the jungle without help certainly tested my independent way of living. Much sweat, time, energy and blood were sacrificed, but thank God... I manage to pass all the assessments. Perhaps I should blog about King Scout and the gruelling process of becoming one in my next post... :-)

2. When I am sick, usually I will wait until it becomes extremely serious only will I take my medication. (Want to train my body immune system ma... :P) And in most of the case, a good and decent sleep can heal almost every illness which I had experienced.

3. Most of the time, I prefer to sleep at the inverse position on the bed. Meaning to say, my legs are on the pillow and head at the other end of the bed.

4. Back at my hometown (KT), I eat Indian pancakes (roti canai) without or with little gravy. Maybe because the pancake tastes so good that you can even eat it on its own. However, so far I am the only guy in KT doing so. Hehe...

5. According to Joanne, I am the "slow-to-hot" kind of person. Yeah, I admit this... Ask Sun Quan if you don't believe me. Once I become very familiar with a person, I can talk and talk and talk craps with him or her until it reaches a certain degree that it seems irritating and crazy. Lolz... That's me alright.

6. Until today, I can still clearly remember the days when I was 3 years old or so which I find it astonishing.

I TAG:
Shou Lee
Si Han
Joash
Catherine
Eu Jeen
Joo Ken

Before Returning to KT for CNY Celebration

2007-02-19T12:33:00.000+08:00

Things to bring back

KL at 4.30am

Uncle's Diving Fin

Special FERRERO ROCHER

Woah... Waking up at 4.30am to avoid heavy traffic.

Yeah, you are right... I woke up at 4.30am and planned to take a good sleep in the car on the way back to kt. However, my plan was a mere fiasco. Along the journey, despite his sleepiness, my uncle drove a consistent speed of 150km/h... Hey....How could I sleep in a car with that kind of freaky speed. Every cornering at a slightly slower speed of 120km/h seemed deadly to me.... I was constantly wondering why my uncle wouldn't be a F1 racer instead of working in EXTIVA... The car was shaking like hell and the engine roared like a strong, fierce lion. But, I have to admit that my uncle is indeed a skillful driver. Every turning and overtaking were precise and so smooth that you could barely imagine. It was nothing but state of the art style of driving. We started our journey at 5.30am and reached Kuantan at 7.30am... And we reached Kemaman at 8 something. :-) Alas, we safely reached KT around ten something... KT people's defensive driving really helped to slow us down. But, we were definitely still in time for the very significant reunion dinner. Kekeke!!!

Valentine's Day

2007-02-19T12:17:00.000+08:00

My valentine's day was kind of pathetic... I was in Shah Alam, whereas the other part of me was in KT... Two hearts separated by space and time...
Even though there were no chocolates or roses, I did do something on this very special day for this very special person.

Necklace...A sign of faith in love.

I wish every couple in this world a happy valentine's day.

Happy Valentine's Day, Dear... ! :P

5, 4, 3, 2, 1…… HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2007-02-19T12:00:00.000+08:00

Year 2007, A Brand New Year with New Hopes and Achievements
(also in collaboration with the Chinese New Year “2-in-1” post :P)

According to the Chinese horoscope, year 2007, the year of pig, is a good and prosperous year for those who were born in the year of dragon. Hehe… This year is definitely going to be my year. Till today, I can still vividly remember the heat of the dragon’s breath…

It was a dream I had when I was a child. If you think I am conning you, then there is no such need for you to read further. Honestly, I just can’t tell you whether it was a blessed dream or nightmare, but it did give me a special feeling. I was in this really peaceful place… A piece of green land with slopes, wonderful grass and fresh air. The sky was like a beautiful sepia-coloured veil with no horizons. There I was…. standing alone in the middle of the really fairy-tale like place. Yes, it was sheer peacefulness… something I treasure the most. Then… I realised that I wasn’t actually alone. There is a fierce blue dragon roaming the sky, giving out hot flames… Fearing it, I try to hide away from its sight. I laid down on the grass, praying hard that it would eventually go off. However, my prayer was hardly answered. I closed my eyes and a few moments later, I found myself lying on my cosy bed with sweats all over my forehead. I don’t know what is the significance of this dream, but it really had had a rather deep impact on me. That’s why the image of the dream remains very clear in my mind.

Lolz…. Enough of story-telling. Surely, I don’t want to kill my blog readers with a boring story of mine. Here’s my new year resolutions :
1. Not to do last-minute studies
2. Eating three proper meals everyday
3. Having balanced time for everything
4. Getting as many points as possible for my A Level Medicine (ALM) final exam
5. Keeping my daily activities well-organised
6. Being prudent in my expenditure

Hmm… I guess that’s all for my new resolutions. I am currently not in the mood of using my brain to think…… Haha… So, basically, my new year resolutions are mere craps… Come on man, what kind of resolutions are this? It is too common to be Zhao Ming’s resolution for this year…

Anyway, I wish every blog reader a happy and prosperous year. May all your dreams come true. Gong Xi Fa Chai!!!

Happy New Year Countdown In KT

2007-01-17T14:00:00.000+08:00

Men have always generalized things based on what had happened in the past. This is indeed very true. Modern human beings are rather rational most of the time. One of the methods to find the probability that one thing will happen is through historical data. No offence… I learned this in my Statistics class. I am not kidding, man…. I "had always" paid full attention during my Stats lecture no matter how bad I am against it…. Well, most of the time lah… Hehe.

Contrastingly, my recent New Year celebration disobeyed this probability law. It is not that I dislike Terengganu for its “peacefulness”, but it really pushed my tolerance right to the end of the cliff when I could not even find a decent Cyber Café at 12.00am of Christmas day. The sole Cyber Café (JustCom) was full of hardcore gamers… And there were, too, some crazy ones queuing up for their turns. Therefore, my friends (Jin Sern, Eu Jeen, Han Loong, Chun Liang, Sin Jei, Jia Haur) and I had no choice but to head home and sleep. Haiz… *sigh* :(

However, I was proved very wrong to stigmatise KT as a place of no joy. Maybe no entertainment, but still, it has the joy of its own. The joy of celebrating New Year Eve with friends and loved ones brings about a unique feeling… It was sheer happiness. Before that, I think I have the responsibility to extend my humble apologies to Debbie because I did not attend her countdown party at Michelle’s house. I certainly could not be at two places at the same time. But, I am sure you all would have also had a gala time without my presence. You may wonder where Zhao Ming will be if not at that party… Time to reveal the truth… Haha… I was celebrating New Year Eve with my fellow friends… But before that, I went to fetch my Sweetie from her house.

It was kind of funny… My dear called me to ring Zheng Wei up to find out where would they be “countdowning” New Year and perhaps we would join them. I thought that maybe this wasn’t a bad idea after all. So, I phoned Zheng Wei’s mobile…. And the one at the receiving end was definitely Chai Ei’s voice. He said, “ Where are you? Alright… Wait in front of my house.” Okay, no problem… (but it turned out to be a huge problem…) 7 minutes, 10 minutes…. 15 minutes…. Time was ticking fast, but still, Zheng Wei’s Proton Waja was no where to be seen. It seemed not so right, huh..?

After that, there came a million-dollar call…
“Hello.. Where are you now?”
“I am waiting in front of Chai Ei’s house loh… Where are you guys?”
“Hahaha…. Just now you not phone to Zheng Wei’s hp meh?”
“Yala…. But the one telling me to go to his house is Chai Ei ma…”
“Har..? You can recognize Chai Ei’s voice meh?”
“&*%*€$*€$^*^&&$...... You think I am so stupid de meh...????! Lolz.... My own friend’s voice takkan I can forget....???????”
“Haha! Okay, you wait there for 5 minutes… We are heading there.”

Dear couldn’t stop laughing when I told her what had happened.

At last… At long last… After some small misunderstandings, Zheng Wei, Chun Liang and Chai Ei arrived shortly in a car. I think they were shocked when they saw her in my car… (Later, days after that Zheng Wei gave me a piece of his mind for not telling him the presence of my little Sweetie.) As Dear wanted to meet Gim Hui, I asked Zheng Wei to invite the gracious princess from her cozy Wisma Tenang. They had tried all the ways and tricks they have under their sleeves to coax her out, but Gim Hui seemed to be firm on her stand. For your information, we waited for almost an hour just to be informed they had failed in their mission. Without Gim Hui, the party must still go on. We had some drinks at Mumbai, Park Royal. Later, Chen Han and Shou Lee joined us. Shou Lee was blasted right on his face with critics from Zheng Wei about his blog. Lol…. If you want to read something on economics and feel that the Business section in newspaper does not provide enough “out-of-the-box” opinions, try clicking on the link Wong Shou Lee at the right-hand side of this page. You will either be amazed or killed by boredom on the spot. As for me, I think it is a state of the art economics web log I have ever come across. However, I feel that it is only suitable for those who are involved in economics studies… A fantastic blog with lots of constructive opinions and ideas, really.

Half an hour later, Dear and I bade farewell to my friends and we headed to other place to celebrate our Happy New Year. Hehe… But I will not reveal where we went. Kiak Kiak… Let it be a mystery to you and secret to me. All Homo sapiens do need privacy, right? It is our human right. :-P At 12am sharp, there were loads and loads of fireworks… Then….Haha… It was kind of a romantic and memorable night. Guess who was the first person I see in year 2007… I think no further details are needed to be added… :-)

After that, I fetched Dear back as it was rather late and her Dad was quite worried. What to do..? The only daughter in the family.. On the way back, I unexpectedly saw a car which was full of Form 5 juniors (Debbie was in the car too. They were going back after the countdown party at Ibai). The intriguing part is that they were stopped by the police… My first guess was that they were busted for being overloaded. However, I later found out that the driver was actually fined RM50.00 for knocking down the roadblock cone set up by the police. RM50.00 seemed not logical to me. Perhaps it was the bribe for the policemen. Bribery, bribery, bribery… Sound like a typical Malaysia syndrome. I wonder when can we totally erase bribery from the enforcement agencies in our country? Haha… I admit I am not truly a patriotic person who is willing to devote everything to the country but bribery can really wreck a country as shown in the history of many other countries.

I am already writing out of topic. Alright… It is the time to stop and continue to study my Biology. There will a Bio quiz next week… First quiz for this year. Oh shit… It is already 4pm.. Happy New Year… Anyeong Haseyo!

Overall Review of My First Semester Long Holidays

2007-01-03T14:20:00.000+08:00

“Time and tide waits for no man”. I can’t help but to agree with this statement. No, I am certainly not trying to sound poetic… It is just that I have only 3 days left in Kuala Terengganu (KT), my peaceful hometown, before I begin my Semester 2 studies. I do not know why, but time does not seem to be enough to me. Actually, my End of Semester holiday is as long as two months….and my now-rusty brain is a clear evidence that eight weeks of staying at home can really wreck one’s mind and reduce his or her intelligence and alertness level. It is no joking matter….I feel so “numb” now.

Alright, here’s the overall review of my first semester long holidays… Before returning to KT, I had had a wonderful time in KL….particularly at Starhill (Bukit Bintang) and Midvalley. It was quite a totally different experience when I followed my uncle to work and take part in his social life. And how many of us can really sit on a comfortable chair at the working desk in YTL Holdings? Haha… I am not kidding. My uncle works for EXTIVA, one of the branch companies of YTL Holdings, which is in-charged of providing networking services. Maxis, JVC and Celcom are some of their major clients… Alright, enough business secrets being unfolded. And the best part is I had the golden opportunity to take my dinner with one of EXTIVA’s biggest client. Well, I should say that it is my uncle’s client… Uncle told me that guy provides at least RM100,000 to his department monthly. Therefore, taking dinner with him should not be something cheap. When dinner was over, my uncle paid the RM200 bill. Luckily, my uncle has entertainment allowance that enables him to claim the RM200 back from the company. Money, money, money…… We are living in a money-money world.

Working at EXTIVA office :-)

One Day in YTL, LOT 10

Yeah... That's ZMLee

Although the time I had spent in KL for my holiday is kind of short, I do not gain nothing. After a long three months waiting, my laptop had at last arrived. Here’s the catch…latest Acer model with 20% off. Haha!!! The 20% discount is nearly half of my iPod price. That’s why my uncle had always called me to wait first…wait until the Aspire 5580 notebook with integrated webcam and microphone plus Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5600 arrived at EXTIVA office. That’s right…! Where else can you find such a good offer? After that, my uncle accompanied me to the Automated Teller Machine to withdraw RM1000++ (real amount is not disclosed due to some privacy purposes) to pay for my iPod which he had helped me to buy earlier. I really had butterflies in my stomach as I was carrying such a huge amount of money in my pocket… fear of being robbed haunted me along my way, but I braved myself and promised to myself that I would give a good bash to anyone who had a bad intention on me, be it male or female. Wait…maybe female can well be exempted. I surely don’t want to be labeled as a guy who likes to bully girl or act violently towards the latter. (for you information, Starhill is a grey zone area.) I know I sound pretty dramatic… but the young, hot blood in me always outmatches my rationality. Perhaps in certain situations, it is wiser sometimes to act as a Terminator rather than a Karpal Singh or a Confucius.

Not many things worth to be mentioned after that… My uncle gave his girlfriend and me a treat at the Marche restaurant… And I almost missed my plane due to the massive traffic jam along the way to Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). I think I owed my uncle much as he was the one fetching me here and there plus giving me treats occasionally. Then, a few hours later, I am back to my peaceful and boring hometown. Opps… I nearly miss this interesting part. First hug, first kiss…that I know… But, first time trapped in the elevator??? Haha… My uncle and I both have our first’s together. Lolz…Uncle’s girlfriend don’t angry ya…? This was also not what we wanted. Anyway, it was really a close one.
"I can feel myself floating in the air,
looking back at my freezing body and struggling to kick off the bright light at
the end of a dark tunnel."

Sorry, just added some thingamabobs to spice things up. “Hot-N-Spicy”… Wah, my favourite leh… Anyway, it was rather funny. My uncle and I entered the lift. He pressed the button. The lift door closed in front of us… Then, there was nothing but stillness. My uncle immediately pressed the bell button and phoned to alarm his colleagues that we were trapped in the lift. Here’s the funny Cantonese conversation :

Uncle : Wei… Ei.. Ngo Dei Zhong Suo Ju Zoi Lift Ni Dou ar… Fai Di Wan
maintenance worker Lei Bong Ngo Dei Da Hoi la..
(Hello.. Ei.. We are trapped in the lift ar. Quickly find maintenance
worker to help us to open the lift door la.)

After 6 minutes, the elevator is operational again. My uncle made a second phone call.

Uncle : Meng Sai la... Lift Huo Yi Yok Jor.. Dang Dou Hoi Dei Lei, Wo Dou Sei
Jor la
(No need already. The lift can move already. Wait until they all come, I am also dead already.)

[A thousand apologies if my Cantonese pronunciation is not that accurate. I am trained to speak Hokkien only…but now is currently picking up Cantonese in order to survive in KL. My uncle was also like me… But now, he already has the flair in this language]

(I will never ponteng again... Huhuhu...)

Actually, that day he left the company earlier as there was not much more for him to do… He was rather free, so he planned to take me go shopping. Haha... Naughty, naughty…

Back in KT… I can just summarise myself rotting at home in 9 phases :
PHASE 1 : EAT ALL THE TIME
PHASE 2 : PLAY ALL THE TIME
PHASE 3 : WATCH MOVIE ALL THE TIME
PHASE 4 : SLEEP AT 3.00AM ALMOST EVERYDAY
PHASE 5 : GO OUT MOST OF THE TIME
PHASE 6 : OUT OF TOUCH WITH ACADEMIC BOOKS
PHASE 7 : LOST MY SENSES, FORGOTTEN ALL THE SYLLABI
PHASE 8 : STARTED TO WORRY ABOUT SEMESTER 2 ON 2/1/2007
PHASE 9 : DISCOVERED THAT BLOGGING IS NOT THAT BAD AS
WHAT I HAD THOUGHT OF EARLIER

Well, but then I think it is not a total waste… Rather meaningful… Had the opportunity to spend quality time with loved ones, strengthen my relationship with gf, meet with old friends and so on....

I heard Semester 2 studies are not easy cakes. And for the End of Semester 2 Exam, I will have no choice but to repeat all my Semester 1 syllabi. Guess that’s the price we will have to pay to become a respectful doctor. Haha... That's all for now. Next will be my new year countdown session in Kuala Terengganu. So, stay tuned ya dear friends.... :P

-ZHAOMING-

International Education Centre's PIC (Semester 1)

2007-01-02T23:48:00.000+08:00

oopss... This shouldn't appear here.

hehe.. :P

My Study Table

The Amazing Race (Yucks....!!!)

Me and My Study Table

Leon in Library

Last Day in INTEC

Hi Johnson...!

Zhao Ming in Lab Coat

Charles at the Amazing Race

"Meaningful" Ko-PLN
(You see how much concentration is poured out by the girls? A salute from ZhaoMing!)
Where is ZhaoMing? Well, he is apparently sleeping somewhere in the class. Kiak kiak... :P

At Bio Laboratory... Urgh...Freezing Cold

Enjoying Ourselves at Alam Central
(from left: Jeremy, me, Sun Quan and Kah Jien)

Mr. Andrew Lim with his radiant smile... Behind there is Sun Quan in his favourite pink shirt. You rocks bro!

~THE EXPOSURE (Part 2)~ Harvard Medical School

2007-01-02T11:52:00.000+08:00

First of all, I would like to apologise to all my faithful blog readers (if there is any) for this rather late posting. Five months of painful waiting is indeed intolerable. However, I have my very own reason for this shortcoming. Ahha! Excuses... Excuses... Excuses again! Alright, I admit that I am rather lazy and impatient when it comes to sitting in front of my laptop, spitting out words when my mind is totally blank and the sense of linguistic is vague. Well, it seems that I am not as enthusiastic in blog authoring as my friend, Johnson Neo Yan Ning, does. "Don't be too happy huh Yan Ning as you are not the only hardcore blogger in Malaysia." Haha... Anyway, who would want to waste their time and energy in this kind of thingamajig? :P

But, I think I am not an absolute lame blog author as I do own my readers' attention. Mr. Ang is rather interested in my previous post and he demands more info about Harvard Medical School. (Hey, I am not making this up ya... I did receive an email from him and at that moment, I was really flabbergasted as it was my first post.) Hehe, and I think I had also promised to reveal the endeavours of Johnson and me at Sunway Convention Centre.

Now, where should I begin? Right... Let's continue our story about Harvard University. On that day, there was an Aunty who seemed to be very much interested towards this university. She asked many brainstorming questions and as an addition, she had a pen and notebook to jot things down just in case that she missed any information provided by the volunteer at the booth, which I think could not be possible for someone with an inquistic mind. Don't get this wrong, okay? It is obvious that she was taking notes for her offsprings, not for herself. Anyway, this is just a mere guess. Lolz... Nothing is impossible. If what I have guessed is wrong, I will not know where to hide my face... How shameful it is to lose to a forty-year-old Aunty in terms of academic achievement.

After an eye-opening session at the Harvard booth, both of us marched towards the University of Princeton booth, I think. (sorry... can't really recall which booth it is) However, we two had had a rather embarrassing experience there. The volunteer in-charged is totally s*cks... If I were to give a feedback of her friendliness from the scale of 1 to 10, I do not think she deserve a 0.1. We queued up for almost 30 minutes just to be told by her that she did not know anything about the postgraduate courses offered. I am not trying to condemn her... But the pathetic scenario of crowd leaving her booth with a gloomy face was a solid proof of her failure to enthral the people's attention. As an addition to our humiliation, I foolishly pointed out a girl's phone number and Canada address which were on a piece of paper to Johnson and made remark about her weird name. Johnson just giggled. All of a sudden, a girl beside me said," Excuse me. That girl is me." Johnson and me had no choice but to act cool and force a 'hi' plus an 'innocent smile' to her. Haha, that's not all... Seconds after that, her friend sounded," The guys back there have waited quite long. We should give way to them first."

At this point, a point of no return I would say, I could sense that something was terribly wrong. To make things worse, Johnson 'pandai-pandai' turned his face towards the girl whom we had offended earlier. They both had a romantic face-to-face meet. And then.... "CRASH!!!"

"Not the two guys la... It is the other two guys at the back."

Oh My God!!! We really did not know where to hide our face anymore. Even Johnson, who is well-known for his 'non-paisehness', turned tomato red. 5, 4, 3,...1 Phuh... Off we fled the harzardous zone. Sighs of relief were given out once we were sure that no one noticed us anymore. Then, braving ourselves again, we went on to venture other booths suggested by Leen, a Bank Negara Malaysia scholar. Apparently, our desire to visit all the Ivy League Universities booths is not put off by the embarrassing incident earlier on.

I think Chien Chou, the founder of RECOM (REBORN COMMUNITY. A forum site that provides useful information about anything ranging from education to economy http://www.recom.org ) was also present there as a volunteer. He told us there is a package which is a combination of obtaining a Masters from Harvard Medical School and PHD from MIT. This package is indeed very amusing. However, we learnt that the cost of this package is astronomical and at least 5 years of research is needed in order to gain admission to these two universities... And then... 'TADA!' achievement which is beyond godlike is in your hands. Haha, I made it sound so easy... But in actual fact, there is only a few geniuses in Malaysia who is capable of achieving it.

Next, we follow Jei, Shwu Jing, Eu Jeen, Han Loong and his friend, Jonathan, to eat at somewhere near there. I feasted on Sarawak's Laksa, but still I think Penang's Laksa is the best. We tried to look for some entertainment at Sunway. However, due to the lack of luck and exercising prudence in balancing expenditure against Public Service Department (PSD) allowance, at the end of the day, we ended up at Xin Yan's condominium chit-chatting. Xin Yan is also a PSD scholar, but she is ten times more fortunate than us to get a condo, with elevators, tennis courts and a wonderful swimming pool, instead of a 'prison' at the Cendana hostel. In my next life, I will certainly try to apply for Canadian programme and might probably have a memorable and comfortable learning experience at Taylor's college. Hehe... I wonder if Taylor's college and PSD scholarship still exist in my next life......

My neck is aching badly now, indicating that enough rubbish has been written for my blog today. I will be going back to INTEC soon to meet my fellow buddies and embark on my Semester 2 journey without Computer Science class. Yeah!!! Hmm... Just got my Semester 1 results. Although I scored 15 points full (A A A ) for my three core subjects (Biology, Chemistry and Core Maths and Statistics), but I got 2 B's for both Computer Science and English. Huhuhu... Anyway, these two subjects were beyond my control as it depended on my lecturers whether to award me an A or not. These two lecturers of mine are really very good and knowledgeable, but I reckoned they were very strict in awarding marks. Students from other classes could obtain an A so easily while we had to slave ourselves in order to get a B or C. This is not a personal opinion, I just summarise what my friends think, especially Cheng Ing. Lolz...no offence ya Cheng Ing. However, I am rather surprised that I got an A for my Theology and Philosophy. Haha... As far as I know, Sun Quan and Johnson scored all A's... Congrates buddies!!! Well done!

Words for Thoughts ~Ve Ri Tas~

2007-01-02T11:41:00.001+08:00

~THE EXPOSURE (Part 1)~ Harvard Medical School - "Ve Ri Tas" (TRUTH)

USA Education Exhibition in Sunway Convention Centre [SUNDAY 16/7/2006]
~PART ONE~

" Oh, I got 2200 points for my SAT and I am heading to Harvard University
for my Economics in September. And, well, I just managed to obtain 8A's in
my SPM"

This was what a Harvard-student-to-be said at the Harvard University booth. I think she was trying to convey the message that a good command of English is of dire importance in university applications. Well, I am an International Medical University (IMU) bound student and Harvard University is obviuosly not in its Partner Medical School (PMS) list. I will tell more about myself, or rather my history, later. For now, let's just stress on the university with the motto "Ve Ri Tas".

"Ve Ri Tas" means truth. Nothing but the truth. One of the many good things about this prestigious higher learning of institution is that it does not have any quotas for universities, races or countries. It practises a fair and square system with the 50% male and 50% female policy. "Most students here score perfect score in their examinations, but don't get too obsessed of scoring perfect marks", this is what I saw on one of their banners. Harvard students are mostly perfectionists and all-rounders. Therefore, the education system in Harvard University should well be implemented in other universities in order to give life to a "brainy-brainy" world. However, intelligence and knowledge should be managed ethically by human. Ethical attitudes are what Homo sapiens lack of nowadays and will be a great hinder to the development of a "brainy" world. A simple example is the humorous "Pinky and the Brain" cartoon. Brain power without moral constraint is simply unimaginable. Newspaper headline, "Secondary School Students Launched A Mass Nuclear Strike in Pakistan". Scenarios like this will be common and they will cost mankind more than what we can lose.

Alright, that's all for now. My Computer Science lecturer is giving a lecture, but I burrow my head in the computer monitor, typing my very first posting. Very not ethical, right? Really sorry for this contrasting action of mine and the long-winded posting which explains the importance of ethics. In the next postings, I will include my life in primary school, secondary school, International Education Centre (INTEC), future ambitions and the endeavours of Johnson Neo Yan Ning and me in Sunway Convention Centre.

For now, "Ve Ri Tas" once more!

-ZhaoMing- (p/s : please kindly leave your comment although this posting is still incomplete) :P