Welcome to the jungle!!

2006-03-17T12:39:00.001+08:00

So many crappy things happened this week. If you want to know what big news took place on the 15th of March 2006, go to my other site. If you don't know what my other site address is, too bad.
Anyways, there was this really cool-looking babe who walked in to the office just now and she was, like, saying, "Why's my name, like, on the notice-board?"
Then I, like, instantly knew her full name and all, and told her that she needed to fill up the form and all for some reason to help facilitate the mailing of letters to her home.
Then this so-called cool-looking babe was, like, snorting and sniggering and making all kinds of crappy comments as to why her name was on the notice-board and was, like, "Why are there Chinese characters on this form? Might as well put it in 'my mother tongue' as well..."
"That's only to help the China students who might be weaker in their command of the English language, you see..." I mumbled (boredom instantly set in looking at the cool-looking babe trying to act cool and all).
Then, one of her other cool-looking friends walked in to the office and started snorting and sniggering and all at the counter and started being cool and macho and so-totally-aarrgghhh.
Then the cool-looking babe who first walked into the office was, like, suddenly so annoyed and, like, saying, "I never received any letters from the college".
I was, like, "Whaaaattt? Are you, like, blonde?? That's why you're here today so that we can help you, like, duh..." (Didn't say this out loud, though. I mean, I'm, like, slightly more normal, though not necessarily so. Hence, I know when not to make extraordinarily mind-blowing comments or some crap like that).
Not a good week this week, going in and out from the hospital and just sitting there for the whole night and day, you know. Makes your mind go more haywire than usual and end up writing this entry.

2006-03-07T17:10:00.000+08:00

"Speak English" campaign news:

http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2006/3/5/education/13530073

2006-03-03T10:14:00.000+08:00

With reference to the notice below, kindly get out from this jungle this weekend:

The OBU Business Schools results have finally been announced this week. 3 modules under the 3+0 programme are marked NA (results NOT AVAILABLE)- currently under moderation, still.
Resit Examination :-
OBUCOMP (3+0 and 2+1) - together with the April finals
OBUBus (3+0 and 2+1) - a week before the April finals

Have a GREAT weekend, everyone...

2006-03-02T01:11:00.000+08:00

It's Thursday the 2nd of March 2006, and it's now 1.00 a.m.
Nothing special today, actually, save for the fact that I'm fast recovering from calamitous contaminated-comestible-consumption (most of you would know why and how), and a group of girls a few floors above are busy singing a "happy birthday" song to one of their college-mates. It used to be tradition that eggs and flour were used to thrash the birthday guy/girl- things have probably changed recently, I hope.
Anyway, this site had been started as part of my own assignment- keywords: Internet strategies, content providers, blogs, the works. Responses garnered, public and otherwise, have found to be in correlation with certain theories taught. My thanks to the people involved, whether you knew it or not (and whether you liked it or not...).
This site will continue to be updated, but only when deemed necessary.
Experiment over and out.

Link 1
Link 2

2006-03-01T22:31:00.000+08:00

Someone asked me recently as to why I don't publish my personal thoughts about matters pertaining to my life on my blog.
I didn't know how I should come up with my own answer until one famous Malaysian finally summed it all up nicely in her own words:
"hey babe... just a friendly advice to you. xanga may be quite a dangerous place for you to post up really personal stuff. as you already know i'm quite open-minded in alot of ways and have decided to put my blog to a halt in certain ways pertaining my privacy. i'd like to protect your interest so i must warn you about displaying personal information online. you'll seriously be surprised when you find out people who have been reading your blog. in my case, i have people knowing my whereabouts because they recognise my face and that also i didn't display any information on where i go etc. so really.. you must be careful. maybe it's not happening now but this might affect you later on... coz it already did to me. hope you don't mind me saying that to you. just an advice because i've been blogging for a few years now and have reached my peak.. so i better go hiding. continue blogging the way you do but perhaps cut out really personal stuff? you wouldn't want stalkers to go knocking on your house door."

Besides, we all have our own reason(s) for starting up with our own website(s). And there's this thing is this world called "stylistics". Go figure.

2006-03-01T17:46:00.000+08:00

Interesting website here. Check it out:
http://newyorkhack.blogspot.com/

2006-03-01T14:22:00.000+08:00

Guess who made it to the news recently:
Valentine's Dinner

2006-02-28T18:36:00.000+08:00

There's going to be this dialogue session thing on the 2nd of March 2006 at R201 at, 5.00 p.m., I think.
Someone please bring up this issue of canteen food hygiene during this dialogue thingie. The food gave me a whole load of internal complications last night- till now. I don't know, maybe it's just me experiencing this problem.

2006-02-27T18:45:00.000+08:00

Mr Michael Yei, click here to retrieve the picture I took today.
Ms Aileen, Mr Michael would be delighted to have that picture published in the college newsletter...

2006-02-27T17:00:00.000+08:00

Click here to check out the "Interblock Block Games" photos that I took recently.

Pardon the weird language used last week. It’s my concoction of Japanese, Hindi and French all in one entry. Not proper for me to use fowl language here, hence the sudden shift from one language to another.
Gosh, how long does it take to get one student from the college to the clinic in the middle of the night? With the proper SOP drawn out, it’d probably only take lesser than 10 minutes to have the transportation ready and going, without the presence of much tantrum-throwing from yours truly after being insulted by another highly intelligent being in the process.

Spoken to Dr. Yap today. She was very pleased with the "Singing Competition" event that she attended last week. I wasn't able to make it to the event to play "Little Ms. Nosy" as I had to be somewhere else.

2006-02-24T17:58:00.000+08:00

Today is a dame desu day. I hope ashita will be a kekko desu day.
Early this morning when it was all dark, cool and supposedly quiet, all kinds of amazing things happened in the college.
I was around and about going "tu pagal hai kya, tu pagal hai kya, etc, etc," all the way.
Taihen desu ne.
You don't know what I'm talking about? That's okay. You don't have to. Nothing as dramatic as compared to what's going on in various other wartorn countries as present.
The Australian Degree Programme registration for the March 2006 semester starts next week, 27th February till 3rd March 2006. All cheques are to be addressed to "PK Education Sdn Bhd".
Salut.

2006-02-23T07:18:00.000+08:00

OAR Encounters

Student A: I want to renew my visa, when can I collect the visa letter?
OAR Staff: Tomorrow, 3 o’clock.
Student A: OK.
Student A thinks awhile and then asks: Morning or afternoon?
OAR Staff: Ah, afternoon.
Why morning? WHY???

Student B: I got an accident. How do I get the insurance?
OAR Staff: When did you meet with the accident?
Student B: Tomorrow.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT???!!!

In the midst of a certain conversation,
OAR Staff: You need to go to the Reception area in order to have this matter sorted out.
New Student C: Where’s the Reception?
OAR Staff: It’s the place where you usually go to when you first reach any particular area, at the Administration Block, in front there, there… (while pointing to the direction)
I had no idea how I should explain this to a student who’s been studying here for the past 76, 320 minutes (1 month and 22 days), and had probably been through some form of college tour and received the college Student Handbook, somehow or other. I know the Japanese call it "uketsuke", but translating the word wouldn’t have helped. So anyway, I hope they’ve found their way out by now because I don't think they understood my turkey language.
Just imagine what eleven years of schooling has produced- people like you, them and me.

There's going to be a singing competition at the President Hall tonight at 7.30 p.m.- organized by the English Language Society. One of my team-members from the "Interblock Games", Tracy, will be emceeing the event this evening.
By the way, the "Speak English" banners have mysteriously disappeared from the college walkway recently. Kleptomania is an irreversible malady. All of us tend to have that disorder within us, but in various levels of severity.

2006-02-22T07:14:00.000+08:00

The "Interblock Block Games" organized by the English Language Society yesterday evening was hilarious and exciting.
The girls from HC (they called themselves the "Hot Chicks"), HG (I think it's Hot Gypsies, I can't remember. Crap, I'm ageing fast these days) and HH (Hip Hop, and Hip Hooray- 2 teams) did well in most of the events.
There were 3 games involved, with 3 hampers given out to each category- Word Puzzle (group and individual), Taboo and Spelling Bee.
The girls grabbed all the prizes except for the "Spelling Bee" category won by the HF (Hot Flames) guys.
In the end, HC came in first with 34 points, followed by HG (30 points) and HH (22 points for my group)- girl power, hehe.

Serene, what's with the Spelling Bee part??? Our group lost a whole chunk of points (10 points!) there for nothing. Prithee elucidate in layman's terms as to what the rules and regulations were supposed to be in the first place. I knew you've given a clear explanation on what should be done, but you know what a blur person I am in real life. I couldn't get what you mean yesterday about the "top five words, choose the top word, and then the word is something or other..." (from what I understood lah) . This is devastating news to a former high school spelling bee champ- the agony, the anguish, traumatism, drama, sigh...

Sathiish and Sadeque! Click here to check out the "Talent Night" pictures I took.

2006-02-21T15:50:00.000+08:00

Nilai in the news:
http://www.thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2006/2/19/education/13397358

2006-02-21T08:01:00.000+08:00

The English Language Society will be organizing an "Interblock Block Games" event at the President Hall at 5.30 p.m. today.
Ten people from each hostel block (blocks A to H) will be participating in today's event. I miraculously got two teams to participate in today's event- Tracy, CH, Catherine, GH, Teng Teng, Janice, Vivian, PL, YJ, Eli; Jeannie, Samantha, Ganeshwary, Rajeswari, Asha, Asotha, Premarani, Rina, Revathy, Thilakawathi. Thank you, girls.

To read about the "Speak English" forum held last Friday, click here (entry 19th February 2006).

2006-02-20T07:10:00.000+08:00

The Australian Degree Programme exams start today and will end on this 24th. Registration for the March 2006 semester starts from 27th February onwards till the 28th of February 2006.
Regular classes will begin on 1st March 2006 and the last day of registration without penalty charges would be on the 3rd of March 2006.
Add/Drop without penalty charges would commence between 6th till 10th March 2006, and the last day to add/drop (with credit) would be on 10th March 2006.

Just putting up this notice because I have nothing else to put up today.

POSTPONEMENT: OBU Business results will only be released in early March 2006, not end of February 2006 as previously informed.

2006-02-17T14:58:00.000+08:00

2006-02-16T11:33:00.000+08:00

As part of the "Speak English" campaign, free newspapers will be given out to everyone at the Resource Centre for the next few days. So stop tearing down the campaign posters already, you little monkeys!!

2006-02-16T07:28:00.000+08:00

15.2.2006, Wednesday: Students from the English Language Society (ELS) putting up notices for the "Speak English" campaign in college. These people actually went all over the college to put up notices for the campaign.
The lecturers, Shanti and Zadza, among others, were involved in the campaign as well. Great effort put in.
What happened not too long after that failed to surprise me...

2006-02-16T07:26:00.000+08:00

The pictures here speak for themselves...

2006-02-16T07:25:00.000+08:00

The morning after...

You know what should be done? Put up monkey traps just like what was done at the hostels previously... (I think).

I see grim signs of frustration all over the place, expressed through vandalism. I wonder why...

2006-02-15T20:11:00.000+08:00

I took this picture yesterday evening after work at one of the college walkways. Two people very much in love, taking a romantic stroll down one of the college walkways. And I'm not telling you who these two nice people are. It's one of my favourite pictures taken yesterday.
It suddenly occurred to me that Valentine's Day is the kind of day for me to observe the happenings around, and not be observed. So, I decided to go on a shooting rampage yesterday, armed with a camera ...

2006-02-15T20:09:00.000+08:00

The deafening silence within the college after working and studying hours left me walking out of the office feeling slightly queasy yesterday evening. Things just didn't feel and look normal. It was totally quiet and freaky.

"It's Valentine's Day today. Where in the world is everyone else?" I asked myself.

I kept on walking and started to recollect the day's happenings while planning out my itinerary for the evening...

2006-02-15T20:05:00.000+08:00

KB & HY at the Resource Centre on a Valentine's Day after one of their classes.

The British Degree Programme students at their booth. These students busied themselves with flower and candy deliveries all around the college yesterday. There were Sadeque, Katherine and a few others who helped out in this society project. Great students, aren't they? They make college life so much more interesting here.

Resource Centre: Few of the most happening people in Nilai- Elizabeth, Megat and Mubah. The hands at the left corner belong to Reuben. I just didn't want him to be in the picture (shh, don't tell him I told you so).

"O Juliet, wherefore art thou..." ponders Romeo. (Malaysian version: "Oi, Juliet, mana lu pigi?" ???)

2006-02-15T20:03:00.000+08:00

The restaurant captain and a few other Hospitality students preparing for the night's event at the La Trobe Restaurant.

The college band havin' a jammin' session before the commencement of the candlelight dinner event at the La Trobe Restaurant.

"Love is all around me..." - and it really shows.

2006-02-15T20:01:00.000+08:00

The décor at the entrance of the La Trobe Restaurant instantly created the ambience required for the night's event.

The band from the SK Academy, performing for the night.

The fragrant smell of the burning scented candles permeated my senses the moment I walked into the building.

Champagne!!!

The table, all set up for the night.

Flowers, music, champagne, candlelight- no wonder Justin and a few other students felt so left out yesterday. Don't worry, Justin. Be thankful that you've managed to survive in your studies so well thus far.

2006-02-15T20:00:00.000+08:00

Before leaving the restaurant, I took a picture of PY and her date. PY is one of the committee members of the English Language Society (more about the ELS later).

The college seemed strangely quiet all over the place. By then, it was already night-time. I decided to hunt for the existence of any possible life-form in places other than the La Trobe Restaurant. Ending up at the library, I saw Victor. He was busy surfing the Net when I found him. Looking slightly perturbed by my sudden appearance, he decided to give me one of his best smiles for the picture. Nice picture, isn't it? You rarely see students smile the moment they enter the office.

I walked away from where Victor was sitting and found the most handsome guy in Nilai International College standing behind a whole shelf of books in the library. My goodness, it's Ali! Why is he still in the library? It's Valentine's Day, for goodness sake! Actually, I should be asking myself that same question too, haha. Anyway, I've told you just now that 14.2.2006 is a good day to go around observing people.

With the Australian Degree Programme (AUDP) finals coming up soon (on the 20th!), a few AUDP students could be seen studying away in the library. Grace was one of the people I found last night- always friendly, always cheerful.

So Justin, you are definitely NOT the only lonely person feeling all lonesome on 14.2.2006. It's just that kind of feeling that you get when various marketing personnels from everywhere start messing up with your hierarchy of needs (see Maslow's theory) and make you feel as though you're losing something in your life. Don't believe me? Fine, whatever.

2006-02-15T19:58:00.000+08:00

I suddenly remembered something and left the library. I went to the La Trobe Restaurant once again to take a picture of, uh, a bear and a candle. Why? Seriously, I have no idea why...

After that, I entered the office again to take a picture of the flowers that Chaoren and David gave to me. The word "President Hall" suddenly occurred to me. I proceeded to my next destination.

Few of the college's most macho guys could still be seen hangin' around at the gym on a Valentine's Day night.

Andy and his friends having a fast-paced game of table tennis at the President Hall foyer. You know what? They'd probably make great participants for the upcoming PK Group Games.

Not too far from the President Hall, I saw many students playing cricket at the car-park. Didn't take a picture of them, though. Lazy to walk on lah... So, I then decided to go somewhere else...

Student counsellors observing their juniors practising for this Thursday's Talent Night. They were all sitting at the Lecture Hall walkway.
By the way, Talent Night is on the 16th of February, at 7.45 p.m. (President Hall). Go support your friends there if you've got friends (??).

Overall, I had a great time on Valentine's Day, shooting rampage and all. Good evening, everyone.

2006-02-14T16:07:00.000+08:00

Rumble in the Library

S Club 7 (almost)

The mysterious new manager of an obscure department

"Da lion is in da house"

The cheeky lion cubs

Next up: Valentine's Day events in college.

Thank you for the roses, David Ten and Er Chaoren.

2006-02-14T16:04:00.000+08:00

My apologies for the informally-phrased notice above. We've been regurgitating the same sentences over and over again to many people today, so it's getting kinda tiring.

2006-02-14T10:59:00.000+08:00

The lion, sneaking a peek at final exam questions on Ms Haw's desk (kidding ler...)

Little Soh Wan and little Simba, hehe...

Meow...

"Hey, lion- watzup?"

OAR- everybody's favourite department (yeah, right- as if!!!)

Happy Valentine's Day, people.
The Australian Degree Programme exam dockets are out! Go grab 'em now.

2006-02-14T07:49:00.000+08:00

" Call 911!"

The real Starbaker-Monster.

Androclus and the lion (read about the legend of Androclus)

"Aiyoh, aiyoh, old friend, how are you... haha....."

Beauty and the Beast

2006-02-13T17:14:00.000+08:00

"Aiyoyo, got lion in my shop, ahahaha..."

Fearless: Once upon a time in China...

Rose among thorns (no, I'm not referring to Reuben)

"I finally got meself me Grammy!"

The lion hobnobs with the rich & famous

After a hard day's work

2006-02-13T11:29:00.000+08:00

2006-02-11T17:34:00.000+08:00

The day seemed quiet and gloomy. I don't know- maybe it's just me.
Not too far from the hostel, the occasional shouts of joy from students cheering for their favourite football team playing on ASTRO tore through the lacklustre curtain of events shrouding the lives of the students currently locked up in their hostel rooms. Lacklustre, students, hostel rooms- I wonder if these three words, when strung together, aptly describe the students here. I shall not further elaborate on this.
While I was unlocking my door just about ten minutes ago, I suddenly heard mysterious sounds of objects crunching together, and plastic wrappers scrunching up.
Upon turning around to investigate the source of the sound, I was suddenly welcomed by a rain of junkfood, papers and plastic wrappers coming from someone's window above.
"What in the world..." I muttered, wondering as to which mentally incapacitated being would actually carry out such a dastardly act.
I then realized that the person involved in this situation was not as irrational as she's thought to be- because that wasn't no person throwing junk out from her window.
What I saw after that left me scurrying into my room for dear life...

For a long time since many years ago, monkeys have always been an unwelcome sight within the college vicinity. Try as we might to eradicate these intelligent beasts from the college, they're still bound to emerge unscathed from the various tactics deployed to eliminate them from this land of wilderness that has recently been encroached by us, humans.

Should you wake up tomorrow morning to see rubbish strewn everywhere outside the hostel, bear in mind that what you're seeing is no work of man, but that of man's supposedly closest relative in the gene pool of life.

2006-02-10T18:32:00.000+08:00

The Jungle Lion

Chinese New Year is still not over with just yet. To the uninitiated, Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days and it's only the 13th day today.
On the 15th day (we call it "Chap Goh Meh"), girls throw oranges into the river in hopes of getting good husbands whereas the guys throw apples (I throw rubbish).
The Lion Dance troupe of Nilai International College trooped its way into almost every room in the college this afternoon. No crevice and crevasse were left untouched, and no rock left unturned by the commanding presence of the mighty lion (with two young boys hiding inside).
The lion is traditionally regarded as a guardian creature in Chinese culture. The lion dance is supposed to bring good luck and fortune to the business and the dancers receive the money as reward.
I suppose things must've gone really well for this troupe today. These guys were also lucky enough to get to visit all of the offices that are currently inaccessible to most students.
The mighty lion (with two young boys hiding inside, don't forget) first roared its way around in the Resource Centre, starting with the Department of Sports & Recreation, but of course. The dance is traditionally accompanied by gongs, drums and firecrackers, representing the descent of good luck. Today, there was the big drum, with cymbals, but minus the firecrackers.
The consistently loud drumbeats and clanging of cymbals, however, left a couple of students inside the Office of Admissions temporarily stunned as they were in the midst of discussing totally serious matters with us at that time. The expressions on their faces were like, "Eww, what's with the funny animal out there?"
Looks like the lion dance guys have been working very hard today. The itinerary distributed to us today looked something like this:
1.15pm - Resource Centre
1.30pm - Canteen
1.50pm - Reception
2.00pm - Admin Block, Level 3, from the President's Room to the Exam Unit
2.45pm - Admin Block, Level 2, from A209 to the Academic Vice-President's Room
3.30pm- Admin Block, Level 1, from A101 (International Marketing) to A113
4.15pm- Hospitality Block
4.30pm- La Trobe Restaurant

Most of the staffs were surprised to notice that the drummer from the lion dance troupe was none other than Faizal Ismail (not to be confused with the TV3 newsreader, Faisal Ismail). Faizal won the Best Dressed Male category during last year's Oscar Night at the Pan Pacific Hotel, and was featured in the backpage of the October-December 2005 issue of the "Explorer".
If you want to know how Faizal looks like, then go to Midvalley tomorrow to see the troupe performing.
I wish I could recall the names of the other troupe members, but my memory seems to be failing me recently.

2006-02-09T18:30:00.000+08:00

So if you're planning to throw a surprise birthday party for any of your friends on this 18th, I suggest that you all go play somewhere else within those 2 hours.
I'm a bit more concerned about those girls who love to cook their meals for lunch right after waking up at 1.00 p.m. on a quiet Saturday (shouldn't that be breakfast?). My former house-mates, Ai Yung and Chriftina, love cooking their lunches during the weekends. Go order a pizza or something on that day if you don't want to end up temporarily fasting, especially if you're the type who loves to wake up in the afternoon and, er, cook.
Whatever it is, go get a life somewhere else from 1.00 p.m. till 3.00 p.m. this coming Saturday the 18th, a'ight.

2006-02-09T10:52:00.000+08:00

Good morning, ye so totally observant inhabitants of Nilai Jungle. Kindly refer to the notice below for your own good. Don't go hopping mad if you end up bringing the wrong cheque to the Payment Counters the next time 'round. That's when all the dramatic verbal wrestling matches would take place right in the office due to various forms of misunderstandings coming from you, me and everyone else in the whole wide world.

2006-02-08T14:24:00.000+08:00

Today's announcements

2006-02-08T13:46:00.000+08:00

My first online blog entry for the world to read, criticize and backstab- hooray. We're all born to be mean to one another, aren't we?
Just another freaky day of dealing with all kinds of people, paperwork, people and more people. Lunch-time arrived unnannounced- time goes by really fast much to your great oblivion when you really don't know where you're heading with the various workload in hand. It's like trying to read a book while sitting inside a tornado, if you know what I mean (probably too extreme an example).
Just had lunch about 5 minutes ago. I was in the washroom at the Resource Centre just now when this nice girl taking the Diploma in Hospitality Management programme, Siew King, came up to me and asked me one delighful question when she coincidentally walked into the washroom.
It all began with "Can I ask you a question?"
Her question piqued my curiosity. I turned to look at her, wondering what her next question would be.
The next question was even better: "Are you free for lunch tomorrow?"
I was all happy and joyful inside, as though I had already won some kind of lottery. I thought she was gonna ask me out for lunch and then pay for it, hehe.
I returned her question with my so-called bright smile and confirmed that I'll be free tomorrow.
"Would you like to buy a ticket for our La Trobe lunch tomorrow?" the next question came along.
I suddenly became afraid, as in the oft heard warning coming from one show I used to watch (can't remember the name, though), "Be afraid, be VERY afraid!"
I've been trying my best to cut down on my spending after the recent Chinese New Year festivities. All the shopping and treats for the kids (my nephew and niece) at home have left me poorer in many ways.
I couldn't directly say "No" to Siew King because she's always been such a nice girl to me. When a person is nice to you, especially since day one of meeting you, that first impression would be indelibly marked into your mind and you would come to remember that person for the most part of your life (including the crazy ones). No choice, I had to agree to get a ticket from her- provided if there's fish on the menu, which they currently don't have.
I've been a student in the Nilai jungle before. It's really not easy to get people to buy whatever tickets that you've got to sell to make money for the society, restaurant, club, whatever. It ain't easy. It's probably easier to go read a book inside a tornado, hey.
Anyways, back to work. So much for my first post today. Siew King, you're welcome to sell me that ticket anytime- if there's fish, haha! Oyasuminasai.