Passport Renewal

I went to renew my passport today, at 9.45am. Upon reaching the place, I saw a queue of people outside the main entrance. No choice, no turning back at that point. Queing up itself took about 45 minutes. What I saw (those people queing outside) was just one third of the queue! Queue up for what? Just to take the number for my turn. Yeap, whole 45 minutes of standing behind a guy who seems like he didn't know the existence of soap, or rather did not know there's something call shower. Upon taking the number, the guy at the counter told me this:

Guy : datang pukul dua.
Me : pukul wh- what?! 2?!
Guy : ya. Dua.

After queing up for 45 minutes I am supposed to come back at 2pm?! What the hell?! It was 10.30am at that point, and waiting there for 3 and 1/2 hours is pointless. Therefore, waste petrol and parking money, I end up at home. What nonsense!!

Went back there at 2pm sharp, only to know I was made to wait another hour or more. I met a friend of mine, whose number was about 50 more than mine. Both of us was made to wait till cobwebs start building around us. To add salt to the wound, the centralize air conditioning system was down, making the area stuffy and hot. Imagine more than 250 people cramming into an enclosed area no larger than a football pitch, only having one main entrance without any windows, and only using fan for air circulation!! The body odour everyone is emitting has no mercy!!

Finally it was my turn, and I was assigned to this counter where the person behind it should be a trainee, or maybe someone new. I asked if there was discount for student, he said yes and I gave him all the required documents, except my old passport which was under a paper, prompting me to forget about it. Luckily I came to my senses and produced the expired passport in time, if not I would not know what will happen. He then showed another senior lady further behind the counter my university offer letter. Both of them stared at the letter and tried to look as if they understand what was written on it. Heck! It is written in english for god's sake! Yet it took them ages to see that it is an offer letter. I doubt if they even understand one tenth of the letter, and my doubt was answered when the guy asked where is Drake University located in the States. Right below the letter, there was the word Iowa. What a shame to themselves, ain't it?

It took me another half an hour for my turn to make payment, and I still can't get the passport. I was asked to return on Thursday evening!! (Tuesday and Wednesday are public holiday) Can't they get it done by Thursday morning?!

And here the government proudly proclaimed that passport can be made in two hours. Say what??

A new bag for myself

On a lighter note, I've got myself a new backpack. I actually bought it on Thursday, but was so freaking lazy to on my computer to show you all some pictures about it. After some procrastination, I finally did it. Lolz

Ain't it nice? Yeah, I know it is nice. Thanks. =p My first ever Nike bag, and this is what I love most about it:

It's so cool!! =p

This will be the bag I am using to carry my notebook around in the States!! =p

That's all folks. Adioz

Advertisments

I was watching Dr. Dolittle 2 yesterday night, on TV3, a local tv station. See Eddie Murphy?

Guess what? At this time, the advertisement began.

The annoying advertisments:

Then, the show started back 5 minutes later!! Yeap!! Whole 5 minutes for some bloody repeating advertisements. So damn annoying!!

After all those stupid advertisements, they only air the show for another 2 or three minutes, just for this:

The time those credits was showing is:

I mean, what the hell?! Can't they just cut the advertisements and finish off the show? And if they want to air advertisements so frequently, can't they at least make it more interesting and not so repetitive? It's so damn annoying!! They even had the cheek to air their midnight news before finishing off the show. And that darn news is a whole half an hour!! Can't they just bring forward the show for half an hour?? Brainless freaks...

Command & Conquer 3 : Tiberium Wars

I got myself the latest Command & Conquer series: Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. I got it before I finish my finals actually, and I started playing then. After playing for a number of times, I think it's worth mentioning here.

For those who doesn't know anything about C&C, it's the kind of game where you build your base and then destroy enemy's base by building up troops. This is the third edition of C&C, and it's a continuation of C&C Tiberian sun.

The original faction, or race, of Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod are joined with a whole new faction, the Scrin. The storyline of this game is the same as its prequel --- tiberium crystals, a crystal that grows infinitely with a rich source of energy, happen to land on Earth and the human race are divided to two, the GDI and Nod. One wants to protect tiberium from being misused; the other wants to exploit the energy that can be harnessed from tiberium and share it with the world. Unfortunately, this conflict of interest attracted aliens as well, causing Scrin to land on Earth. Therefore, you come up with a three way battle to control the tiberium.

Almost all C&C games have mission which are virtually impossible to complete, and this edition does not let down here as well. When I reached that particular mission, I aborted it after a few tries and resort to playing skirmish. But, don't be let down just yet. Skirmish in this game is being introduce differently. You can choose to battle with a balanced AI, or an AI who plays rush tactics, or turtle tactics, or even steamrolling tactics. Well, the name practically tell the tale, and it's up to you to find out how devastating and different each tactics are.

The most anticipated area of interest in this game is definitely what kind of superweapon each faction possess.

GDI stick to their usual Ion Cannon. Instead of just a single big fat laser beam shot from satellite, the Ion Cannon looks much more impressive this time around. Once activated, six finer laser beams starts converging into a single beam in the middle of the circle. After pumping in all the energy to the ground, the ground simply just explodes from the bottom up, causing the kind of damage superweapon are thought to have.

Nod's superweapon are none other than the famous Nuclear warhead. Launch from the Temple of Nod, this warhead is capable of striking anywhere on the map (so does all superweapons), dealing devastating damage. Graphics of the destruction?? Well, how far can you go with nuclear warhead?? Of course, the oh-so-famous mushroom cloud with massive destruction in the radius, that's all.

Scin's superweapon is somewhat appealing to me, maybe because it's something to do with the outer space. Outer space do intrigue us humans, don't they? Anyway, Scrin's superweapon is called the Rift, generated from the Rift Generator (DUH!!). It's something like a black hole, sucking everything into in within it's radius. Can't get the image? Imagine this: something that disintegrates easily when wind is blowed through it being sucked by a powerful vacuum cleaner. Lolz! That image just came to mind when I am thinking of the Rift!! Haha. But I would say the Rift is my favourite superweapon of all three factions.

Human's limits are shown in this game as well. Their most advance weaponry ranges from laser to sonic beams. Flame throwers are counted as past weaponry, aren't they? Alien's technology are somehow similiar to human yet more advance. Scrin possess the ability to use lightning as their defense system, and they are also able to use ion storms, tiberium and laser. Nod do use tiberium as weapon, but it's not in their basic units like Scrin.

For those who does not know, ion storm is a lightning storm minus the rain. Still can't get the idea? Imagine this: A storm is outside now. A great powerful storm I mean. Minus off all the rain falling down, multiply all the lightning strikes by 10, and each lightning strike hits the ground and deals devastating damage. Yeap, that's ion storm in the game. Any unlucky units who got in the way of an ion storm don't stand much of a chance for survival!!

Well, there are tonnes of other things to write about this game. But I shall not bore you with details. If you want to know more about this game, look for me and I'll pass you the DVD to install. Of course, I would want the DVD back. This is a game to die for, and it's one of those rare games where anyone can spend the whole day playing it.

One spoiler though, Scrin's ability to create ion stroms eases the role of steamrolling pass enemy's base if you use the unit which has this ability to create ion storm. Which unit is it will be your discretion to find out. Enjoy!! =)

Over Over Over. What next?

It's over it's over!! What's over?? My finals of course!! Yeah, even though it was just two subjects, it's still a relieve to finish the finals and also the semester. I think I did okay for both papers. But then, what's done is done. I can't change anything for the papers even if I realise any mistake, right? So, might as well let it go for two weeks and enjoy myself throughly before starting another hectic semester.

As part of the post finals celebration, I did none other than foos. Yeah, my life man. Whackin' ballz in and hearing the crashing sound of marble ball hitting metal plate, and witnessing the shock and awe of the opponent, man, it really rocks!! There is a foosball tourney coming up, I think I have mentioned it previously. Yeap, I found a partner to play doubles. Now, I need to train for a few days to brush up my skills and live up to expectations. =p Yes, I am aiming high as well. Hopefully I can do it!! Gambate!! XD

Grace coming back soon. So are Wern How and Chang. Yeah man, gonna make a hell of noise!! Hahaha... Rock till there's no tomorrow for the last few months here and start anew over in the States. =p *Wonder what will happen when I get the kind of freedom I have always wished for when I set foot over in Drake University. Wonder if there's foos over in Drake!! =p*

I think I am only able to take one subject next semester!! The other subject I wanted to take clashed with History 251!! WTF?! Sigh... Well, maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Maybe by taking only one subject I can study for my professional paper and take it over in the States. Yeah, that's the plan now. Hopefully it will work out as I thought. If not, I don't know what will happen. =\

Anyway, that's all for now. I am just realeasing some post-traumatic-stress here. Hahahaa... Ciaoz!!

Magnificent 7

Magnificent 7!! Manchester United vs AS Roma. The result? Man Utd 7, AS Roma 1!! Yes, I am talking about football. The European Champions League quarter finals. How often you see football's score line as 7-1? This is just absolutely amazing. Just let the football do the silencing to critics. Remember this day, all football fans. 10th April, 2007. AS Roma Football Club was delibrately and suprisingly bombarded by Manchester United Football Club. It's arguably the best ever performance for any football club in the European Champions League. As a treat, here are all the goals scored on the night. I must say AS Roma's goal was great, but the prospect of 7 goals scored by Man Utd just over-shadowed that piece of play. Viva Man Utd!! XD

The first goal, by Michael Carrick.



The second goal, by Alan Smith. Great passing, perfect movements from Man Utd.



The third goal, by Wayne Rooney. Rooney!! Rooney!!



The fourth goal, by Christiano Ronaldo. Magnificent!!



The fifth goal, by Christiano Ronaldo. Once more!!



The sixth goal, by Michael Carrick. Encore!! Encore!!



AS Roma's goal, by Daniele De Rossi. It's a nice strike, don't you think? Not looking at the goal mouth and hitting the target, catching everyone off guard. But then again, with the score line 6-0 at this point, scoring one merely means consolation, ain't it? Celebrations were almost absent for this goal.



The seventh goal, by Patrice Evra. Complete the Magnificent 7, shall we?



Don't you think that was just simply magnificent? Enjoy watching!! =)

Thank you to chethans, pakitis, nazvanian, and shabba7861234, who cut and post the videos.

DYP DYP DYP

As the title suggest, this post is about me involving in yet another Foosball Draw Your Partner (DYP). If I am not mistaken, this is my fourth time joining DYP.



The result?



I got fourth!! =p



Even though I didn't won it, I would say I am quite satisfied with the result. I am not that good that I can win any tournament on my debut, see? Therefore, getting fourth is good enough for me so far. And I am aiming higher next time around. =)



Well, I must say my partner, Syed, brought me to this impressive result. Although I didn't just stone and fill up the gap there, I must still give credits to his performance, consistency etc etc. I did managed to score a few shots, made a few nice passes, made one or two fluke shots, and made one or two fluke passes. I am not a perfect player and mistakes did happen. I lose the ball to opponent's striker, miss the shot, let in a few shots and stuffs like that. But the best of all, I managed to block quite a high percentage of shots coming at me. Too bad the last shot was sort of like a rebound shot, but then again I was feeling slightly tired and my opponent was too good. All in all, a good outing this time.



I paid RM 5 for registration, and won RM 10 for getting fourth. Not too bad for a start, ain't it? Even though it wasn't enough to cover all that I have spent, it still did minimize the damage done on my pocket, didn't it? Ish, what kind of mentality is this?? No no, RM 10 is a good start for me. Bask in the glory of the best performance for foos this far!! =p

Anyway, finals is next week. Therefore, I don't think I will be joining Monday's After Lunch DYP, if there's any. FCM Players' Challenge is coming up. I am looking for a partner to play doubles with me. Hopefully I can find one. Anyone interested? =p

OK, that's all for now I guess. Enjoying my best result in foosball so far. Enjoy enjoy!! XD Ciaoz.

The truth

Here's a video which I think is quite nice. It's happening in reality here, even though you may claim that the language used is a little vulgar and the content is a little racist or rude. But then again, who can deny the truth? The more language you know, the better it is for your understanding of this video.



I got to know of this video at www.foosball.com.my. I guess somehow I must give credit to them, right? =p Anyway, foosball rocks!! =p

Adioz...

Uber cool

I was reading the newspaper today and came across something super duper cool. A female DJ who has the looks!! Don't you think that's so so cool?? Yes, I must admit that I would like a DJ wife/girlfriend. Haha!!

Imagine this:

People : Hey man, wassup?? My my, who's this pretty lady here?
You : Yo dawg. She? Oh, my wife/girlfriend, a professional DJ.

Don't you think that's so cool?? =p

Damn... I must start to go clubbing and pick up some HOT DJ chicks!! *the devil side of me* XD

- Due to technical difficulties, I can't upload any pictures. If you want to check out the picture of the girl who sparked this thought of mine, check out www.joycemercedes.com. Bloody streamyx!!! Grr...-

Malaysia Malaysia

My cousin sister, Kit Ying (if you noticed my previous entry, you will know who is she), applied to be a teacher here in Malaysia. She just graduated from high school and with her public examinations results, she started applying for this and that. I went through that as well, but mine was more easy as I have actually fixed my mind on Actuarial Science. She have not made up her mind, therefore applying here and there and see what's the best possible outcome.

After applying to be admitted to be a teacher, the government body replied her. In the reply, they sort of ask applicants to pick the subject(s) they are interested to teach. They even set groupings for the subjects.

My cousin wanted to teach Mandarin and Mathematics. These two subjects are her strongest amongst all. But, the groupings require those interested in teaching Mandarin to have music background, or at least capable of teaching music lessons. Besides that, teaching Maths will need to be able to teach Malay.

The problem is, those who are interested in teaching Mandarin normally come from Ipoh. In Ipoh, music classes are not as common as in Kuala Lumpur or Subang Jaya (where I live). Therefore, people with music background are uncommon.

Ipoh also tends to be more 'Chinese', if you get what I mean. Most Chinese despise Malays, so do the Indians despise them Malays. Therefore, they normally avoid studying that subject, as the language used in schools are more of English and Mandarin. Malay is just another core subject like Maths.

With these two problems, Ipoh people who are interested in teaching Mandarin will eventually lose interest. Yes, you may blame them for being racist, if that's what you call them, but then again, who else in Malaysia are willing to teach Mandarin? I would say, almost 70% of teachers teaching Mandarin come from Ipoh. Ipoh's population consist mainly of Chinese, therefore interest in teaching Mandarin will be generally higher, don't you think so?

Don't you think the government should harness these invaluable resources? The job of being a teacher isn't very appealing nowadays, am I not right? With all these factors, don't you think that the government should cater to these people's needs?

I think that the government should abolish this 'grouping thing' in the education system if they want to improve the education system. To add salt to wound, the government recently complain why so few people want to teach Mandarin.

Irony? Or worst, dumb?

Besides that, how often do you see a Malay excel in Mathematics? Not that I want to be racist, but it is the TRUTH. If the government continue to be like that, the future for education in Malaysia will end up... KINDERGARDEN LEVEL!!

Okay, I am exaggerating, but you get the idea.

Sigh, why is my country like that?

Malacca Food

If you ever get to Malacca, here are some food I would recommend you to try.

First of all, something for breakfast. How about a steaming hot plate of nasi lemak?



What is so special about this? Well, they steam the rice instead of boiling it, together with coconut milk, the aroma is so salivating and the rice never gets smashed up. You can see all the rice in their shape without damage.

At the same place they sell mee goreng. It's kind of plain mee goreng, just with extra spicy chilli. I think that's what keeps people coming back for the mee goreng. But beware, after effects for those who has a weak stomach may end up spending more time in the toilet to get rid of the excessive oil in it!

After breakfast, lunch. Chicken rice anyone? Not any normal chicken rice, but it's this:




Yes, that's the rice. It's moulded into rice balls, with ginger, garlic, and of course, rice in it. It taste good itself and it's possible just to have the rice without chicken meat. =p But then again, what's chicken rice without the chicken meat, isn't it? And so here comes the chicken meat...

Too bad today is just a one day trip to Malacca. Therefore I can't post something up for dinner to complete a day's meals. There are loads of other food you can get in Malacca, and, trust me, they taste great!!

Anyone care to drive me down to Malacca? I can repay you by introducing nice food to satisfy your passion for food!! Of course, go Dutch. =p But I don't mind if you care to pay for me...

Cheng Beng in Malacca

I went to Malacca today for a one day trip. Well, the main purpose is because it's Cheng Beng. Basically it's a day where relatives gather to clean their deceased's grave yard. My grandmother and grandfather was cremated and their ashes were placed in a temple near my third uncle's house. It's really interesting to see so many chinese, or rather Buddhist, converge in several spots to give offerings to their deceased. And my oh my, the offerings are not a joke!! So many different kinds of foods offered by different people, ranging from chicken to rice and also chinese tea and many more. If you feel hungry, it's not a good place to be in as you will start to salivate!! XD I wanted to take pictures while waiting in the temple. But since its a holy place, it's better not to take pictures as to respect the deads and the gods. I saw someone who seems familiar to me as well. Yeah yeah, it's a SHE. Lolz. She's quite pretty, and will be even more pretty when her braces come off. If I am not mistaken, she's my junior from my high school SMK Seafield.

Anyway, Buddhist have created a unique and interesting way of asking the dead questions like "Have you finished eating the meal?" or "Do you know we are here?". This sort of "yes" or "no" question are answered by throwing two cresent shaped wood, one side flat and the other side curved. If different sides are shown means the answer is "yes" and if not means "no". Therefore, we spent about an hour waiting for my grandmother and grandfather to finish "eating" their meal. After burning some kam si chi, or joss paper used as money in the other world, we left the temple to get some fresh air instead of constantly inhaling smoke from burning joss sticks.

It is somehow interesting that so many people come together on a single day just to clean up their deceased's grave. Anyhow, I don't think I will be able to experience this again next year as I would be in the States.

Adioz...

Muar Chinese

Not too bad for a beginner rapper I would say. Never mind the slight vulgarity and make sure you at least know how to read chinese characters, though knowing what that guy is rapping about in 'Muar's Chinese' will be better. Enjoy! =)