SwitchPoint Visionaries

Cheating on Her...

2010-04-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

CPU Prom Night's not far away. 13th of June's the night.

Everyone's gonna have fun.

Dancing.

Eating.

Drinking. (No alcohol though...)

And of course, chilling out with friends after the finals.

Here's the catch...

It's a Sunday night.

Sunday's never a good night to hold a party.

Although for CPU students, it doesn't matter. It's the holidays after that.

No classes anymore.

For a month, at least.

The problem is for CALs and SAMs, or others from Lakeside.

And CPU students whose significant others are from said courses.

I tried to get Her to prom, without selfishly realizing that it's a Sunday and She might be busy with work.

So She rejected. It's okay.

I gave up the idea of going to prom because I don't wanna go alone.

It's stupid, for I'll be standing on the side, watching others dance. Either that or sitting down and just downing drinks after drinks after drinks.

Like the uncool dude in every party.

My friend, Adrianna Jane, didn't have a date too.

Tried to ask for other guys too, but didn't go so well.

Either that or they didn't suit her. (She has quite a taste...)

I was rather close to her at that, so I thought maybe we could go together.

Just as casual dates.

So she agreed.

But it doesn't feel right.

Although I know, it's just a casual thing...

I can't help but feeling that I'm cheating on Her.

So today... I decided, I'll just go alone.

It's just my guilty conscience...

So, I'm sorry Adrianna. I can't "cheat" on Her... Even though it may not even seem like I am.

Killing Babies to Save Lives

2010-02-22T22:44:00.001-08:00

Societal Values vs. The Law

I can has cheezburger?

2010-02-20T05:09:00.000-08:00

Here's what I learned in my law class. Pretty good analogy.

Cultural Relativism vs. Moral Absolutism

2010-01-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

So, this is basically what I wrote for the above topic.

I dunno, you be the judge too. I would like to know what YOU think.

Definition (according to sources):

Cultural relativism - Judging culture on their own terms: the principle that people should not judge the behavior of others using the standard of their own culture, and that each culture must be analyzed on its own terms. (Source: http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861688676/cultural_relativism.html)

Moral absolutism - Moral absolutism is the belief that there are absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged, and that certain actions are right or wrong, devoid of the context of the act. (Source: http://dictionary.babylon.com/Moral%20absolutism)

Definition (in my own opinion):

Cultural relativism - A view on the world where no culture is superior to the other and people should be judged accordingly.

Moral absolutism - A view on the world where everyone is judged under one absolute opinion.

A debate on cultural relativism vs. moral absolutism has been raging for a long time. Neither are absolutely correct or wrong in their own sense. There are advantages and disadvantages for both of the relativist and absolutist points of views. In a law sense, cultural relativism would mean to judge a person by their own culture. Being that, if we’re of another culture, we could not judge them for their wrongdoing, because in their sense, it could be right, but in ours, it isn’t. The advantage to this point of view is that it’s a fairer way to judge people. If we judge other people by our own cultures, then it would be ethnocentric, which is viewed by the general population as unjust. The relativist view is to judge people by their own culture, their own law, instead of our own perspective.

To those advantages, there are of course disadvantages of a relativist’s point of view. First and foremost, there is the fact that people can misuse this concept to their own liking. For example, one could simply create their own culture, consider it legal and not be judged by another. Killing, a worst kind of crime ever to be committed to another person. It takes away the victim’s right to life, one of our most important rights as humans. But we couldn’t prosecute the killers. It’s their culture. Who are we to judge another person’s culture, right? We are considered ethnocentric to judge them, aren’t we? Exactly. Secondly, there is the issue of injustice. Although it seems like a very pleasant idea thinking, “Oh, that’s very fair. It’s acceptable if he does that because his culture approves of it,” but somewhere, another would think, “That’s nonsense. It’s wrong no matter who does it! It shouldn’t be allowed!” People wouldn’t like the fact that others are allowed to do something generally considered illegal but to them it isn’t. It’s just unfair. And this would raise a lot of issues. Recent issues over a certain word that’s only allowed to be used by a certain cultural mass has caused arson attacks over certain religious structures, for example. To justify this, the absolutists have a different point of view.

Absolutists will think that everyone should be judged the same way others are judged. Why should anyone be treated specially just because they come from a different background? We are all still human, so we should follow a fixed code of conduct. The advantages to this perspective are that everyone is treated the same, no one above the law, no actions above the code. Fair. Killing, raping, robbing, assaulting, wrong in anywhere in the world. Cultures will not interfere with the law that has been set. This way, the whole world would have a fixed code of conduct to abide by. Everyone would have to agree on that certain set of law. So why is this not the most ideal way to look at our world?

In a sense, moral absolutism is also a form of injustice. Take a company regulation for example. A company requires all employees to have short hairs and trimmed beards. A Singh man decides to join this company for work, but his culture does not allow him to have hair of any part of his body to be cut. Is that fair towards the Singh man? Does he not deserve the same rights to work in the same company as well, just because his culture is like that? Some would even consider moral absolutism to be ridiculously stern. Too stern. Because every culture has their own moral norms. We should be respecting other cultures. Then the debate would revolve around the issue of respect. Absolutists are considered ethnocentric, thinking their way of law is correct, and somethings just have to be wrong, no matter what the circumstances.

I side neither of these two point of perspectives. I believe that a certain set of laws and code of conduct should be fixed and not be changed. Every person on earth should abide by them. Who would decide the law? Us. The general population. If everyone agrees to it, if everyone can get to that point of compromisation, then there would not be anymore conflicts, since nobody objects. That would be fair. We set the law relative to certain cultural conducts but generally, some rules have to be universal. Some actions have to be wrong. That would be the ideal point of view on our legal system. My point of view, the view of the Relative Absolutist.

A New Life

2010-01-24T06:53:00.000-08:00

"How's it been?"

"How are you, man?"

"Dude, are you in college already?"

"Why go so fast?"

Well, I'm fine, good, basically.

I'm in Taylor's University College (Subang Campus), if that's not obvious enough already.

I wanted to come here fast because...

Well, life at home just kinda suck when you're sitting around the whole day watching Family Guy and doing nothing else, doesn't it?

On a side note, for all NS goers, happy surviving your 3rd week in NS.

So, what am I doing here? A Levels? SAM?

No.

I'm taking what I believe is the most effective course of studies available in Taylor's.

Like I said, what I believe, no offence intended.

I'm taking CPU (Canadian Pre-U) -previously known as ICPU (Internation Canadian Pre-U) but they decided to cancel out the I, not sure why though-

General grading goes by 70% course work and 30% exams.

Now you may think, "Oh hell, 70% course work, so you get to slack off and not study at all, huh?"

I would correct you and say, no, it's not as slack-y as you think.

70% course work doesn't strike you as "Oh my gosh, does that mean I have to work the whole year!?" huh?

You slack, you die in CPU.

Why do I find this course to be most effective?

Well, you research for your facts, you write your reports, essays, theses, project works, et cetera and they get stuck in your head. That way, you actually apply what you learn. What you've researched and worked for.

Have you ever wondered what all your PEKAs you did last time were for? All your homework you did for class? What did they add up for? All your hard work didn't count for nuts in SPM.

Not even a single mark. Sure, it would affect what the teacher would think of you, what he would write in your testimonial. So, you use your home works to kiss up to the teachers, what benefit do you gain? A little practice for your actual examination? I would think what you've done in your homework is more or less very different than what you actually do in SPM.

So in my course, your work is valued, your research, your writings, all add up to your totals. In a sense, it's like PEKA, but it's included in your marks. I'm just saying, I find it best.

Coolest part, all my lecturers now are Canadian. Therefore, the greater exposure of community.

The people here are great too. Not so stuck up (no offense intended).

So I took the January intake for CPU. That would mean I have 2 semesters. One for each half of the year. I took 6 courses. They are:-

-World History

-Canadian and International Law

-English 4U

-World Issues

-Challenge and Change

-Data Management

In this first sem, I will take the first 3 courses only. The remaining 3 for the next.

"OMGWTFBBQ!! HE'S TAKING HISTORY!!! AGAIN!!! FREAKING BORING, noob."

On the contrary, it isn't. To clarify, "WORLD History", it's about the world. What we learn in World History is more of a modern day history. Around the time after the medieval ages. 16th century stuff. Like the Renaissance, Reformation, etc.

And no, what we learn is not all based on fact after fact after fact like in high school. We analyze the event, why it happened, how it happened, what would happen if that didn't happen, etc. My recent project requires me to write a sort of essay regarding Renaissance artworks. Like the Mona Lisa, what does it mean, why is it different than olden artworks, etc. It's more alive than what we learn for SPM, a lot livelier. So we don't always worship the teacher. "Worship"

Law, well, I find it the most interesting because... Well, tons of controversies. Tons. We talk about a lot of stuff regarding the government. We keep an open mind. So, lots of stuff to talk about. Gotta join the class to understand.

English 4U is basically literature studies. We're doing Life of Pi and Hamlet. So far, I feel like English 4U has been a psychology class rather than learning English. We did learn some literary tools and stuff. It's pretty interesting.

As for the remaining 3, well, I'll find out more about them in the next semester.

So, that's a basic rundown for what I've been doing so far. It's pretty awesome.

Now... I just need to find people to hang out with.

PAGING FOR PEOPLE TO HANG OUT WITH.

Anyways, I'll post an essay I did for Law class. In a jiffy. Like, right after this one.

Cheerio.

And yeah, no photos. Didn't take any. Yet.

Re: Prefectorial Board 2009 Camp Commandments

2009-12-30T00:17:00.001-08:00

Watch and see for yourself. :)

The Return

2009-12-24T10:32:00.001-08:00

Wow. Return from the underworld much. It's been how long since I've even touched this blog. Very dusty indeed. Well, got nothing much to update on. Except that, I'm back and I have nothing much to say.

Perhaps I should just post a photo. Like they say, a picture's worth a thousand bucks... words...

Yes, feast your eyes... The MacBook Pro... :P

And me doing the Blog on it. :)

I Couldn't Resist...

2009-08-15T10:09:00.001-07:00

...

Confirmation

2009-08-15T03:14:00.000-07:00

The test results for the influenza A strain came in today.

It is, undoubtedly, positive that I have been infected with H1N1.

95% was kinda hard to doubt anyways...

Now I may still be a carrier to this virus. If I ever sneeze or cough, please don't come near me.

Unless you want to get infected, by all means do come sit beside me. Be my guest. =)

But really, swine flu isn't something we should worry about. It's just another strain of flu, in fact less dangerous. Normal flu killed tons of people. Swine flu's the same. It just spreads faster... Lots faster.

If anyone reading this post gets infected by swine flu, I congratulate you and wish you all the best trying to fight the disease. Once you're cured, you're immune to it already. So, no worries, ya?

(I think SPM killed more than swine flu... D:)

My Autopsy

2009-08-14T00:40:00.000-07:00

I hereby give my sincerest apologies to all those whom I've told about me going to school today.

I didn't expect this mishap to happen out of the blue, at all... But it did.

I have an ulcer on the wall of my duodenum caused by continuous erosion due to hyperacidity.

Cause for hyperacidity though is still unknown.

Luckily, the ulcer isn't as severe as it seems, so no surgery is required to treat it.

Furthermore, I'm diagnosed with a colic spasm. This may be of multiple causes, but it is suspected that this is an aftershock of the H1N1 infection.

The pain's unbearable, really... It's still ongoing right now as I blog about it.

Again, I apologize specifically to Andrew Low, whom I've promised to catch a movie with, but failed to do so, and Joel Chua, whom I've promised to attend class to settle the class T-Shirts payment.

How I Got InfectED...

2009-08-11T10:17:00.000-07:00

I am sick. Sick of people thinking I'm still sick. Because I'm jolly well not!

Here's the story behind my infection...

My brother came home one day with a cough. It didn't really matter much to us, because it's really common. A few days later, his cough got worse and he had developed a fever. Tough luck. We took him to a doctor (No, my dad can't diagnose him on his own... He's not compatible.) and did a test. Turned out, ironically, it was bacterial infection (Or so they say...). We didn't bother then. Took him home and went through our daily routines. His fever went off eventually so we assume what the doctor had diagnosed to be accurate. Who knew, three days later, his fever pumped up to about 38.8 degrees. At the moment, my dad's super worried as he read about the symptoms of swine flu which is what my brother is currently experiencing at that time.

We're still not really bothered by the fact that he MIGHT have caught the H1N1 virus, so we continued our life as usual. In fact, I was right in front of him when he coughed into my face. =( Not nice...

On a certain day, me and my buddies Jonah and Kenny decided to skip school and go for our practical driving course. Of course, my dad got pissed at me for skipping school, but hey, it's worth it. Jonah came by my house in the morning and took a ride in my car with my mom driving. After the course, when I went home, my dad told me that my mom is diagnosed with positive influenza A. The doctor that did the diagnosis assumed that 95% are the chances of the flu to be H1N1. Then the panic began... Jonah, I have no idea how you got so lucky...

My dad declared self-quarantine. We're not allowed to see anyone or go anywhere... Forced to deplete our food stocks. D: With no way of getting new stock, we had to live off Maggi, which SUCKED! Soon, my maid was infected. It's spreading fast. We decided to split. Infected in one house, not infected in another. When that decision was made, I felt the burn around my neck. I started coughing like hell and my nose ran...... :| No choice, I decided to stay over at the infected's.

My brother and mother were on medication, something called Tamiflu. My father warned me that if I stayed close to them while they're on this medication, I'm under a far larger threat. Because the virus that are released from their cough droplets or mucus are Tamiflu resistant.

[Tamiflu is basically an enzyme that stops the ability of the virus to detach from the host cell, preventing it from further spreading]

I was a hard head and stayed on, and what do you know... I really got infected! D: But luckily, it's not a resistant. Because of that, I had to lock myself away in my room most of the day...

Here's basically a log of what I did at home during the self-quarantine period...

Wake up -> Have lunch (Yes, lunch...) -> Sit in room (Read, chat, surf) -> Sleep

Pretty interesting...

But, days have gone by, and I'm cured. *cough* *blows nose* I'm perfectly fine. I don't know why you people are so damn paranoid... I have no mood to sleep tonight... No idea why. Studied history the whole night. HOLY CRAP, YES! I studied history! :D

So, today I got kicked outta school back home because I told this story to the administrators... Apparently, no one in the office wants the school to be closed down. We're that badass! But seriously, there's no point. So, just for the sake of not instilling fear in the young minds of the Franciscans, I shall not return to school until this Friday. I hope you all are happy. =(

Well, that's all that matters to me at 5:10 AM in the morning of Wednesday, 12th of August 2009.

SP, signing off.

I heart MacBook Pro!

2009-08-08T00:42:00.001-07:00

I haven't been on this blog for about few months or so now...

And I know in internet timing, that's a year, practically...

I just haven't gotten anything interesting to write about...

Well, since I'm infected with the all-feared SWINE FLU!

(eehn eehn eehn)

Well, not exactly. But chances are that 95% cause of my symptoms now is due to H1N1.

But I'll survive. No biggy.

As of now, I'm bound to a one week quarantine. I dunno if I should be happy or depressed.

I feel kinda down now. I can't see anyone. And I've missed Mr. Yew's tuition!

I MUST NOT MISS HIS TUITIONS!!!

Ah well...

Enough about that.

I've recently fallen in love with something very beautiful... (No Sok Pen, it's a THING, not a person. =D)

It is the MacBook Pro!

It is now my greatest obsession, besides getting laid. I'm just saying...

I mean, no one can deny that this beautiful thing here is... Is just beautiful!

This is actually a new gen of MacBook Pros. The old ones are not as shiny as these.

This is the new MacBook Pro family. Comes in 13", 15" and 17". Each with individual specs.

Now everyone knows a Mac is godly expensive, but hey, you pay for what you get.

Let's take a look at some more shots.

Look at that baby. It's just so sleek in design. It's made of one solid piece of aluminum.

So, it's very thin, light, beautifully streamlined and durable.

Throw it at the dog, see if it laughs from the pain...

Here you can see the screen. Nicely glossed. Very pretty.

The display is an LED-backlit display combined with an NVIDIA graphics card to give you a stunning viewing experience.

Very nice!

Now we take a look on the side.

Now, this is actually the 15" model of the MacBook Pro family.

Note that the audio input and output both have separate ports.

But for the 13" model, both the jacks are combined into one, so it's a bit of a complaint at that point.

Moving on, you'll have the standard USB ports, Firewire 800, ethernet and etc. Standard stuff.

As you can see, all the ports are nicely arranged. Unlike some laptops where you have a USB port at the back, some at the sides, all over the place, which gets pretty annoying. To me, at least.

Alright, you are not being fooled. It is NOT an optical illusion.

What you see is true. The trackpad, or more widely known as "the-thing-you-put-your-finger-on-and-move-it-around-to-move-the-cursor-on-the-screen pad" has NO buttons.

Yes. No buttons.

Well, actually the whole thing is one BIG button itself.

"One button? So how do I right-click?"

Simple. Put two fingers on it and click. That's how you do it.

Yes, it's a multi-touch trackpad, able to sense up to four fingers.

See, Apple is (I think) a big fan of multi-touch technology.

Like the iPhone and stuff.

The whole thing is huge... It's bigger than an iPhone itself. HUGE!

It's made of glass, very smooth feel to it.

Go YouTube the multi-touch trackpad for a video demo of it. It's neat, trust me.

When you've used the trackpad, there's no using a mouse again. It's just fun.

This is the battery indicator. It's on the side of the laptop.

This is a very useful function because you don't have to actually pop the laptop open to check the battery life.

About the battery, the new MacBook Pro family's battery life last up to 7 hours (8 hours for the 17" model) in one charge on average use. I know some laptops only last half an hour in one charge... Sadly...

I won't really show you the specs of all 3 models because they differ from one another. There are up to 6 different specs. But they are very customizable.

Now here's the thing that really gotten me interested in this baby.

It is the world's greenest laptop. I know it's just a name, but it is, in fact, the most environmental friendly laptop being sold in the world right now.

Why?

1. Energy efficient

Apple creates both the hardware and software for all their products. Because of this, it is made to work together. Like a perfect couple. And one MacBook Pro consumes only one-third the power of a single lightbulb.

2. Many harmful toxins eliminated

Apple has removed many of the toxins that are a common part of notebook manufacturing. E.g. The mercury used in CCFL backlights and the arsenic in the glass of LCD displays. They also removed brominated flame retardants. Pretty clean laptops, if you ask me.

3. Highly recyclable

As said above, it's built from one single piece of solid aluminum, replacing tons of parts and screws. Display is also made of recyclable glass, so once you're done with the MacBook (I'm sure no one will ever be...), you just throw it for recycling. Hopefully you sell it off instead...

4. Long-lasting battery life

7 or 8 hours of battery life in one charge and up to 1000 charges until the efficiency drops to 80%. With that, less batteries in the dump, less pollution caused by batteries. Standard laptops have batteries built to last only a year or two. They need to be changed. That's why some laptops only last half an hour... Sad sad laptop...

5. Reduced packaging

A lot of people may not bother about this, but Apple makes the best packaging in the world. The way they box everything is like art. The previous MacBook Pro packaging is huge. It's rather monstrous. Now, the packaging size reduced to up to 41% of it's original size. And smaller boxes are better for the planet. Because you can fit more boxes on one shipping pallet. Which means more products fit on each plane and boat. Which means fewer boats and planes used, resulting in fewer carbon dioxide emission. Seems small, but it has a major impact on the environment.

Those are the top 5 reasons and facts about the new Apple MacBook Pro.

For the pricing of this laptop, it's gay, it's big, and it's rather scary.

It starts at RM4,099. I'm not gonna continue. It can hit up to RM10,000 if you pump up the specs.

But like I said, you pay for what you get. It's reliable and durable. This one thing can keep you going for more than 5 years. Worth the investment if you ask me.

So I recommend whoever that's planning to get a laptop for college or work and can afford this thing, get it. The MacBook Pro is DEFINITELY worth your investment.

I'm just doing a quick review of this wonderful product.

For a lot MORE information, visit Apple's webpage HERE.

Oh, and I'll try... tryyyyyyyyy to keep this blog updated. Not sure I can. SPM's around the block. Dang. But I'll try.

TTFN!

1.9 Million Ringgit Project

2009-06-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

I was out of commission for the past month.

Didn't really know what to blog about.

But recently, well, today that is, I found out that a new water fountain show has been operating since I-don't-know when. It's around Bunga Raya by the river. The smelly, skunky Melaka River, no prize for guessing who's responsible.

Rough mapping of the location. Find it yourselves.

It looked okay. But I don't think it was worth the price. 1.9 million Ringgit. RM1,900,000. OUR hard-earned money used to build something we didn't even agree on.

It's said to be a musical fountain display kinda thing. The water pumps were terrific, I admit, but it had no rhythm or tempo to the music that was playing at the time. The music played were kinda racist? It had some classical tunes, some Malay songs, Chinese "hill songs", but no Indian music. (Maybe there was, I didn't stay long enough to find out.)

So here are some photos.

The Melaka River at night.

Simple vertical shots.

Arc shots.

Super tall shot.

Franciscan Scientists At Work

2009-04-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

Ah Mr. Chong, everybody loves him.

The way he speaks, the way he portrays himself.

It's just hysterical, really...

One of the reasons I love his classes so much.

Either that, or I just love Chemistry.

Mr. Chong decided to do a little experiment, or a few little experiments.

One of which he will carry out and demonstrate it himself, that is the coagulation of latex.

After lots of explanations and stuff, we get to the fun part.

Coincidentally, I brought my camera, and ironically, he gave me permission to snap him. JACKPOT!

Mr. Chong flattening a piece of coagulated rattax. Notice how the students watch with excitement!

"Now we'll hang some uhh, weights to see the elasktiksity of the two latex."

"So you see the uhh, thin rattax is very durable and very elastic. So it can be used as a good condom."

Sometimes, he really crack up some of the silliest jokes ever.

"If you want to get uhh, the perfect condom, you put your pen-is inside the rattax, and then Mr. Chong will uhh add some acid, then we'll mix it, and you take it out later, you can use."

And after he showed us all the mumbo-jumbo of chemistry, we are asked to do our own experiments. I took the Ester one. And here we have our junior scientists, preparing for the experiment...

Look at the determination of the young genius.

Watch for the bubbles!

Hoo, bubbles!!

And after 20 minutes of heating, we have our ester. Look closely, we have two layers.

And some got thirsty and drank 'em all, resulting in......

The Voca People

2009-04-29T07:59:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of the term "a capella" before?

It's a form of music that is only produced vocally.

That means, no instruments are used at any point of time of the performance or the piece.

And these bunch of guys, man, they're good. Really good!

They may look a little weird and creepy.

These guys are The Voca People. Not only it's plain vocals (singing or humming), but they also combine with modern style beat boxing.

Their group arrangement is fantastic. Consisting of 8 musicians, 3 females and 5 males.

The 3 female vocalists are specialised individually with their own voice, namely alto, mezzo and soprano.

Then we have 3 male vocalists with their voices of bass, baritone and tenor.

Two additional members are professional beat boxers who are considered the best in their field.

They provide the almost-real effect of drums.

Well, I can't say much for them, until you've heard from them personally. Check it out.

Click here to download the video

Moved

2009-04-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

I've moved the "What's Your Opinion" blog to another.

Click here to visit the site.

Harap dimaklum. =)

Crysis / Crysis Warhead

2009-04-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most supreme, graphically advanced games I've ever played...

Crysis and Crysis Warhead are one of the games you should definitely check out if your computer is up for it.

One of the reasons you should buy it already is because of the cover itself.

Check it out.

Crysis

Crysis Warhead

The storyline is pretty short and all. But gameplay wise, it's good. Very good.

You'll get a boner by watching it's graphics. Really. (No, not really...)

In Crysis, multiplayer gameplay wasn't much emphasized. Many complained.

So for hardcore fans, Crytek updated the multiplayed interface in Warhead. It is awesome.

My rating for the Crysis series on a scale of 10 is as follows:

Story - 7.0 (Not bad. But could do with some more intense plotting. Pretty straightforward)

Gameplay - 9.0 (If you played on Delta(hard mode), there ain't no way you're gonna survive)

Graphics - 9.8 (There were some graphical glitches and unreal-ism)

Sound - 8.5 (Pretty realistic gunsounds. Explosions could've been more impactful)

Overall - 9.0 (Very good game. Should check it out for yourself to feel it.)

Minimum System Requirements

OS - Windows XP or Windows Vista
Processor - 2.8 GHz or faster (XP) or 3.2 GHz or faster* (Vista)
Memory - 1.0 GB RAM (XP) or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
Video Card -256 MB**
Hard Drive - 12GB
Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c compatible

Recommended System Requirements

OS - Windows XP / Vista
Processor - Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Memory - 2.0 GB RAM
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar

English Language Week 2009 - Day 5

2009-04-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

Master Malaysia

And finally, we've come to our last day of the week...

I never thought anyone would join this game, but on the contrary, 80 people did. There were even more, but we had to limit them, 'cause we only had 20 boards.

Basically, Master Malaysia is like Monopoly. Instead of having the most money at the end of the game, you have to have the most points. How to get points? By answering questions.

What questions...?

What's P. Ramlee's full name?

What's the royal capital of Negeri Sembilan?

All questions are related to geographical or historical infos of Malaysia. Some are supremely godlike...

This is how the box cover looks like.

Master Malaysia

And inside the box, we have our game board.

Consists of 5 categories of questions. Land, People, Heritage, Culture and General.

Let's take a look at some of our contestants.

Here we have Jason Yeo, studying his way to victory while an unsuspected cameraman captures the creature at work.

Tan Wee Jin, full of concentration in his face. Whether or not the answer is in his head, that's another story.

Eugene Wong, eyes everyone on the battlefield before the game starts.

Specimens being tested on their knowledge of our country. It boggles their mind. Pity them.

Would you take the risk?

That ain't no damn face...!

And it ended with a blood bath of 55 people.

And this event concludes the English Language Week of 2009. Master Malaysia was the most participated event. Probably because people wanna get out of their class and not listen to some boring teacher's ranting.

"I SLAP YOU!!!"

English Language Week 2009 - Day 4

2009-04-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

Debate

One of the most anticipated events -for me, that is- this week. But sadly, 5P did not come prepared. It would've been a spectacular scene. But still, they put on quite a show. For someone unprepared, they seem quite good. Especially Noel. If he did come prepared, the government would've been trashed. The motion for today was:

"This house believes that the media is slowly eroding our traditional values."

So here we have our supporting team.

From the left - Joel Yip, Joshua Ng and Leroy Yeow. Government.

And we have... Our opposing team.

From the left - Lim Shimri, Noel Martin Smith and Yong Eu Lee. Opposition.

Compare the facial expressions of the government and the opposition. Spot the difference. =P

The government has debating experience, so it's not a surprise to see them talking in such a formal but fake tone. I found Joshua quite the speaker because it seems as though his true emotions are being brought out. I felt his anger. Pretty nice.

And we have our opposing speakers. Behold.

"TV doesn't erode traditional values! In fact, they support them!"

"C'mon...... I mean, pfft, I could talk better than him!"

It was quite a battle. The crowd was continuously laughing with the opposition. They were in fact, the true clowns of politics. First of all, they had NO IDEA -in the beginning- when and how to use a POI (Point of Information). They also talked a lot of crap. Some were actually sensible crap, which is actually quite true. Like how National Geographic Channel actually goes around, continent to continent to search for other cultures and the way other people lived. In fact, I saw once on Discovery, I think, something about Malaysia. The traditional Malay culture. It was about their customs and what not. Pretty interesting, if you asked me.

At the end of the battle, I think it was quite a relief for the two teams to finally chillax. The judges had quite a rough time deciding who would win. During the judging interval, the audience was given a chance to voice out any personal opinions.

And of all people...

"You don't surf the internet meh? You don't have a TV at home meh?", said Stephen Raj.

Funny... How some people really don't think before they talk.

And so the results were out. The winning team, obviously, was the government. Best Speaker Award goes to Joshua Ng. 5P, you guys should've won. All you had to do, was just prepare!!! Oh well, I guess there's always next time.

The Voice of SFI, Season 2

Yes, the standard and traditional event of SFI for every English Week, the singing competition. Why "Season 2" you may ask? Because the name "Voice of SFI" only started out last year. It's also a title now. Last year's title went to Francisco Edwin Overee. Joshua Ng, formerly the champion of each year's singing competition has lost last year. Sadly.

This year, there was a change in the events timetable. All of the events for the week have been pushed to before recess hours only. After recess, PnP (Pelajaran dan Pembelajaran) will continue as usual. So, we had only ONE week to finish all these events. Obviously, there wasn't enough time. So the singing competition was pushed to AFTER school.

Many were pissed. Obviously. Fees this year was RM5 for soloists and RM10 for groups. I think the price for last year's was RM3 for solo and RM5 for group. Price probably raised due to economic crisis. Hah.

One more issue is that there was no audition for this year's competition. The bad, worse and worst were ALL there... Painful experience, I tell ya. There were also quite a small number of participants. Former Voice, Francisco Overee, wasn't there, not even Joshua Ng. Too bad.

So it all began with our first singer...

Bok Chek Wai

Jack Lim (Jack's blog - http://jackdoesblog.blogspot.com)

Andrew Lim Kai Xuen ♫It's a love story, baby just say yes♫

Norman Cho

Benjamin Tan Chun Shen - One of the worst...

Azharrudin Jaslyn

Praboo

Jonathan Cornelius Matthew - Left

Aaron Yeoh

Joel Lance - Sings with lyrics? Powerful but unstable voice

Adam Alcantra - No sense of tempo

Jared Nicholas - No explanation needed

Yeo Jo Ray - "You sing it best, when you sing nothing at all"

Response to Jo Ray's singing

Nigel Nonis

And our last soloist, Eugene Wong

After the soloists, obviously, we come to the group performances

Starting with...

fgh

James Francis Fernandis, Tan Wi Ju & Muhd. Haziq

Aaron Yeoh & Norman Cho

Joel Yong & Shaun Ee

Bok Chek Wai and Jack Lim

Glenn Jude & Tan Woh Weng

Jonathan Aaron & Joel Lance

Nehemiah Nilan & Nigel Nonis

Basically, the competition was one big mess. They hired a DJ or TV host or something to be one of our judges. The other was Brother Michael himself. He shook his head most of the time. He looked depressed in a way. Hah.

So to all those who changed our schedule for this year's events, SCREW YOU!

English Language Week 2009 - Day 3

2009-04-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

Drama/Sketch Competition

Luckily the drama competition had to be based on a literature short story from Form 4's lit. book, or else, the play is gonna suck sooooooooo bad. No offense, but I think the Form 4 did a very bad job at portraying the characters in "Looking For A Rain God". Frankly speaking, the worst performance ever seen. But there's always something outstanding. Their costumes were magnificent. 3 classes took part, namely 4H, 4P and 4K. 4P and 4K's performances were quite messy. First of all, there were too many people talking on stage at once. And they tend to shout. A lot. Not in a dramatic way, but in a pathetic, loud and annoying way. It's unbearable. So, like I said, the props and costumes were rather fantastic. Take a look.

The devil... In the flesh. Literally.

I had no idea who the heck in the right mind would dress up like that. But anyways...

This is 4K's play. One BIG mess. Destroyed 2 toy guns... Too much shouting.

The ugly mask was the only thing I liked about 4K's play.

That is NOT a woman. But some people would think otherwise. =X

"No, please!!! I need the money!!! Don't leave!!! No-ho-ho-ho!", cried Mathilde.

I... Do not need an explanation for this...

Turns out, the results will be announced on Monday, probably. The reenactment of the play will be on Teachers' Day. Hopefully the teachers do not "vomit blood and die" due to the obscenity. =X

English Language Week 2009 - Day 2

2009-04-21T09:02:00.001-07:00

Spelling Bee Competition

It was rather stressful for me to prepare words which we are capable of pronouncing and are capable of being spelled by Form 2 kids. But I think we've underestimated some of their abilities. They are superb spellers, some of them. Words like "Ebb", "Firth" or "Gnat" are presumed by us to be confusing and impossible for the Form 2's to spell. We were wrong.

We were especially astonished by the performance of Micah See, brother of Jonah See.

(Jonah's blog - http://theincompletename.blogspot.com/)

The preliminary round was thought to be rather extreme. But Micah, oh did he surprise us.

10 outta 10!

Quite a number of the Form 2's had quite high scores too. Ranging from 7 to 9.

Heck, I'd even say they're smarter than us seniors. By a lot.

So we picked the top 21 scorers. The extra one was a tie between two students. Had no choice.

We arranged the chairs for them as though they're about to take an exam.

Look at them... See how tortured they looked?

So the semi-finals began. Word after word, they participants grow anxious. 'Cause the words just keep getting better and better. And by better, I mean harder. But heck...

And so they were again short-listed. The last FIVE participants. The finalists.

The "survivors"

The battle then began. Choosing from a list of 35 heart-stopping words at random, they start to spell. Thinking wisely and making as minimal an error as possible. You should've seen their faces when they got it wrong. The face of disappointment. I like that. It shows that they actually want to win. They don't take this event as a sit-and-watch. They give their full support. Truly respectable, unlike some... Poor Micah, getting all the hard words while the others got rather simpler ones. Must be hard for him.

At the end, we had 4 of them having the same score. So we thought of the simplest way to resolve this matter. Give a word. Fastest to respond and spell, wins.

And so, we have our winners:

1. Ong Choon Siong

2. Kenneth Low

3. Micah See

Great job, guys. You were really great spellers.

Spot The Spot Contest

Initially, the name for this event was "Treasure Hunt". But then we thought, they're not exactly treasures, first of all, they don't worth much, and they're immobile.

The participants for this event are Form 3 guys. They'll be given a riddled clue which relates to a certain spot in the school's compound.

Here are some of them:

When arriving school, look no further.

Managed by La Salle Brothers

I'm another word for a donkey,

born with an M in front of me.

(My bad for covering the M)

Like a rack, made of wood.

Stored with zinc, and more wood.

We thought that some of the riddles (not mentioned here) are too hard for them to understand let alone figuring them out. But to our surprise, the first team that finished all the riddles are only at less than 15 minutes. I was just getting some nice shots of them running around, when they came to me and said that they're done. Damn...

So the winners for this event is Team 1 consisting of Benedict Shii and uhh... His friends. =D

English Language Week 2009 - Day 1

2009-04-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

Story Telling Competition

It's interesting how Form 1 kids tell stories. Some look so cute, especially John Ng, Joshua Ng's little brother. He's just adorable. When he recited the poem -Life's Brief Candle- on stage, the whole crowd was practically giggling at how cute he was. He's tiny, no offense intended, so the podium was basically covering his body up to his forehead. The mic was tall, so he had to tip-toe to reach it and recite. He's a pretty good story teller too. May have forgotten a few parts of the story, but hey! Nobody's perfect.

I had an issue with 3 of the Form 1 kids, I think. They told the same story -King Midas and His Golden Touch- but with individual variations. The first time we heard it, we thought it was terrific. Then comes the second teller, telling the same story. After a poem recital, the third one comes. And with the SAME story!!! The timings are 5 minutes, 3 minutes and 1 minutes respectively for each story tellers' variation. Good, bad, worst.

Clarification to the event's name. STORY TELLING COMPETITION.

Guys, if any of you are going for it, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RECITE A POEM!

Learn to differentiate, people!

But overall, I'm quite impressed by their performance. For Form 1's, some of them are really talented. If properly developed, they'd even become future philosophers!

First Post

2009-04-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

This is basically the first blog post I've ever posted in a blog posting site like this. Post.

Interestingly, I had no motivation for posting blogs. Never knew what to write about.

Sometimes, I would think of blogging as a way of seeking attention.

I'm not really the type though... It's taboo for me to seek attention.

So you'd probably think, "Why blog anyway if you hate being noticed so much?"

Well, I guess I don't know. I just had a feeling.

I'll try to keep the blog updated. It's not everyday I get to touch the computer.

So, cheerio!