Just a Random Update

ULTIMATE LAG!!!

This post is more for the sake of my friends at Animepaper, although I doubt if anyone from there reads my blog except for Misao-chan and Bo-chan, lol.

Anyway, upon logging in to AP, the first thing I noticed was that my last wallpaper was 6 months and 2 weeks ago ^_^" Actually, I still have a whole folder of WIPs (wallpapers in progress) which I work on...occasionally.

Then, I went to the main page and saw that my AP friends uploaded a load of awesome wallpapers, and also some of which scans are the same as those in my WIP folder. To be exact, my most recent 'Thumbelina' wallpaper was the only one I've made since I was promoted to the senior member status on AP...I should be demoted to community waller =.=" Of course, I tried to set deadlines and wanted to make wallpapers for Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day and the Chinese Valentine Day, which failed miserably xDD

To tell the truth, my life is not that busy to the extent that I don't have time to make wallpapers. Rather, I fill my free time doing other stuff now than sitting in front of my laptop with my tablet xD My newly found favorite activity is badminton, and when I'm in college, I usually go to the court on weekdays from 5pm, and 'lepak' there until around 8pm. After that, with a shower and dinner, it would already be around 9.30 pm. Sometimes, MUSICA has drum, guitar or piano classes at night from 9-10pm, and there goes another hour of my time. As for weekends, I'm usually busy trying to complete assignments at the last minute, so there you go. If not, I usually sleep and wake up late, either lurking around the Net or playing games on my laptop~


Anyway, this is one of my most recent WIPs which I managed to gather the energy to 'try to complete' this holidays. Everything is painted except for the girl who is vectored, and I will edit some parts of the ocean to make it look, well, more like an ocean. I will try to submit this in time for a friend's birthday on AP ^^

Any comments, anyone? And any ideas on how to motivate myself in completing more wallpapers from that junk of a folder I named WIP?

=p

What is a Blog?

It's just something random that popped up in my mind.

Some people use their blogs as a place to rant, rave and express all their negative emotions (i.e. ke-tidakpuashati-an)...

Some people use their blogs as a diary, making known to the virtual world what they've done in the past few days.

Some people use their blogs to write about interesting stuff they have come across, and usually these posts are peppered with a lot of photos (either self-taken or copied from another website)

Also, there are 'otakus' (the term here is non-derogatory, in fact it's more of an admiring tone) who post reviews of anime, songs, movies, games and more so that people can read them and decide whether to get the CD/DVD they have been eyeing for some time~

Well, I don't have a tracking device that counts how many visitors who have visited my blog, nor do I know where my readers come from ^_^ The only way I can find out is when they leave a comment on my post or shout in my chatbox. Still, I try to keep my blog as non-offensive as possible, and I also try to make sure that it can be understood by people from all around the world --> it means using standardised English or providing translation for local slang we commonly use.

And if anyone has noticed one of my status updates in Facebook, it says:

It's 'DO you agree', not 'ARE you agree'. And it's 'MU might LOSE the match tonight ', not 'MU might LOOSE the match tonight'. 'YOU'RE sexy', not 'YOUR sexy'. =.="

Those are just some of the common errors in English that bug me ^^ That, and spelling errors too.

P.S: I'm currently reading 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown. It's an addictive read, and I can't help but be fascinated by all the symbols, myths and legends contained in the story. For one, it proves that the writer respects his readers and makes the effort to research deep and seriously into what he's writing =)

P.S. 2: My blog would be a combination of those mentioned above, no?

Logo Making, Card Design and other Graphic Design Service Available

As the title suggests, I'm currently offering my services for graphic design - if you need someone to create logos, wallpapers, photo frames, name cards, invitation cards, posters and such, you might wanna get in touch with me =) *actually, I'm just bored and don't know what to do with my spare time*

Some examples of my work:

Logos

PISMP Cohort 3 Logo Sample 1 (Done on request)

PISMP Cohort 3 Logo Sample 2 (This was chosen as the majority favourite)

PISMP Cohort 3 Logo Sample 3 (My personal favourite, but it's too complicated)

IPBA Futsal Club logo (Done on request, incorporated into name cards)

The 3 Missed Calls band logo (incorporated into name cards too)

Bookmarks

Bookmark for C2C3's The Merchant of Venice play fund raising

Bookmark for C2C3's The Merchant of Venice play fund raising

Couple bookmarks - can be separated or kept as one whole piece =)

Couple bookmarks - can be separated or kept as one whole piece

Simple floral-themed bookmark

Name Cards

MUSICA's official name card

IPBA FC name card

3 Missed Calls name card (Just for fun)

Photo frames and calendars

2010 Calendar (pocket size)

2010 Calendar (4R size)

Photo frame *integrated into photo* (just a random photo snapped after our performance)

The above are not all of my works yet. If you are interested, get into contact with me and I will show you the rest of my completed works or incomplete projects ^_^

By the way, if you are interested in my anime/manga graphic works (which uses images from copyrighted anime/manga - visit my Animepaper account at http://yukina-rei.animepaper.net

Stupidity and Childishness

I felt remorse when I accidentally stepped on a caterpillar on my way back from Ali Cafe; but I won't feel any guilt if the moron committed suicide in front of me. Yes, that's how despicable the lecturer is.

MUSICA's launching on 4th March had been a great success despite the many obstacles we faced, including lack of equipment, time constraints and stuff. The time constraint is understandable, since the launching is combined with the Watikah Pelantikan MPP and the launching of the Citra Guru project. However, the lack of equipment should not happen.

First, the performances held by MUSICA consists of two songs from the choir 'Voices of MUSICA' and another song combining the choir and the band 3 Missed Calls. To put up a good show, we need a piano, decent amplifiers and a drum set. Well, we have small amplifiers and a drum set, so to give and take, we just requested for the Clavinova from the Tuan Syed a.k.a. the music lecturer holding the keys to the music room in the Administration Block. However, he was full with moronic, idiotic excuses.

Stupid excuse #1: You are not holding a concert - why should I lend you the instruments?
We are holding a concert dummy. It's held in the main hall, and we are performing. Though I doubt that even if we are holding a real concert you would lend us the instruments anyway.

Stupid excuse #2: You have your own piano, why should I lend you mine?
The one Musica has is called a KEYBOARD, not a PIANO. For choir, we are supposed to accompany the singing with a piano. And you call yourself a music lecturer.

Stupid excuse #3: I'm not the advisor for Musica, so go and ask Mdm Khalijah for the instruments.
We actually invited you to be the advisor for Musica, but you declined. Then, you fully well know that you are hogging the music room and won't let any other lecturers touch the instruments. Well, maybe young, pretty, female lecturers can, but not your rival music lecturer who is more popular with the students.

Having no choice, in the end we addressed a letter to Dr Sofi (the director of IPG KBA) himself, officially requesting to borrow the instruments from Tn Syed. It was nice to know that Dr Sofi approved the request straight away - at least it shows that he supports Musica. However, you wanna know what the idiot did?

He disappeared for the whole morning until the event was over. Since the idiot had no mobile phone, he was virtually unreachable, and even though the lecturers were searching for him all over the college, they couldn't find him. Coward.

In the end, we settled for the smaller and softer Yamaha keyboard, but at least it's better than the Casio keyboard with no touch volume function ^_^ And everyone praised the Musica performance too~

Let me end this with two rhetorical questions...

1.If we could achieve this level with substandard equipment, imagine what we can do with proper equipments?

2.Why does he monopolise the room when he doesn't own anything in it, and what right does he have to deny us the instruments when we already have approval from the director himself?

少年不识愁滋味，为赋新词强说愁...

The title, literally translated, would be 'young people who don't know the real meaning of sorrow and pain, but they force themselves to be sorrowful and melancholy for the sake of creating new poetry'. In simpler words, it's phrase aimed to mock people, especially young ones who like to act sorrowful and depressed just because they think it's cool.

Being the normally happy-go-lucky person I am, sometimes with a serious 'I-don't-give-a-flying-****' attitude, I really can't bring myself to act depressed, melancholic and sad when I am not. No, not even if I want to create lyrics for a song.

For one, I believe that there are countless people who are suffering out there, with or without our knowledge. Think of people who are living in war-ridden areas, who don't know when they are going to die in cross-fire. Think of people who are so poor that they don't know when they are going to get their next bowl of rice. Think of children with no parents to care for them, or the elderly left lonely and abandoned in an old folks' home. Think of people who have lost their loved ones to natural disasters, diseases and other reasons.

Then, think of yourself. If you are young, healthy and alive, with a roof over your head and your friends and family are around you, what gives you the right to act as though tomorrow's the day you are dying. Even for optimistic people, if they know that they will die the next day, they will spend today doing everything they want to instead of moping around like a sick person.

What if you lost your mobile phone? What if you caught your boyfriend cheating on you? What if you can't afford the dress you have eyed for three months, and somebody else bought it? What if today, you confessed to your crush and got rejected? Things like these are just minor losses or disappointments in your life compared to what other people in this world might have to suffer. So, stop feeding yourself and other people that nonsense that you want to commit suicide just because you broke up with your girlfriend/boyfriend, or because he did not message you for three days, or something equally ridiculous.

People who do that either have a serious mental problem, or they are pure attention-seekers. Anyhow, they are useless morons.

Instead of whining and complaining and getting on the nerves of people around you, do something more beneficial with your time. Or, if you are really desperate to have someone listen to your 'sad stories', write it in lyrics and put it in a song, like Simple Plan, Greenday and a whole load of artists out there. A word of warning though - if it's not meaningful enough, people won't want to listen.

Happy Valentine's Day~~

What We Are Capable Of...

Sometimes, it's in the face of obstacles, duties and adversity that you can see people's different capabilities. And when these different capabilities are utilised to their maximum, the outcome is just brilliant.

Yes, I'm talking about the monthly assembly/Madam Satinah's farewell ceremony in IPG KBA, hosted by B.Ed TESL Foundation Year 2, Cohort 2, Cycle 3.

Now, I won't kid everyone that the 52 members of C2C3 can get along or work together seamlessly all the time, but at least we took on jobs that we specialise in, like alip and I and our music, the fluent speakers (Ajesz and Alicia) for the poetry, another three speakers (Aliaa, Banu and Jia Ni) as the emcees, computer expert (Khalid) for the slide shows and multimedia, the techies (Hazwan) for the lights and more~

The best thing was, all of us were only notified last Thursday that we had to combine our assembly with a farewell ceremony for Madam Satinah, who is going to leave IPG KBA for her new position at the Ministry of Education as the Private Education Director. Then, we had to change all our preconceived plans to suit the occasion. So, somehow I was given the task to handle part of the performance.

At first, they wanted me to be the accompaniment to the poetry recital, which I denied straight because I've already done it in my first semester. Furthermore, Ustaz Zaradi had already told me to dedicate a song specially to Madam Satinah on the violin, and since that sounds more fun, I went for the latter =p

Oh yea, and there were some rude words and gestures exchanged on Saturday, when the lecturers insisted on repeating the rehearsal over and over just because they want everything to be perfect, not thinking that that's kinda impossible as we only had two days until then.

But today, it was really touching to see such a big crowd in the hall, both lecturers and students (although there were quite a number who did not attend), and that served to add to my nervousness. Indeed, I was rarely nervous when performing in IPG KBA, partly because this is not a music college, and even if I play mediocre, people usually pat me on the back and congratulate me. Maybe it's because I had to combine with the choir and Alif, not doing a solo performance that added to my worries? Still, I'm not saying that having a group performance is not good - if executed well, it is very awesome (borrowed trademark from Khalid)

The most satisfying part of the whole thing (and no, I'm not a sadist) was when Madam Satinah actually dropped a few tears when we went into the first few lines of 'You Raise Me Up'. I wonder if it was Alif's deep, serious voice or my violin that moved her to tears though.

And when the song 'You Raise Me Up' ended, the star of the day actually stood up and applauded us. As a performer, I feel that that is already the greatest appreciation I've ever had, not just because of her actions, but also the expression on her face, and later after the ceremony, she came over to the emcee and musician side and did the cheek-to-cheek thing...what's it called again? And also she said that the music was just so beautiful, and she loved it so much.

If you guys wanna see what we've achieved in 4 days of preparation (at least for my section of the performance), take a look at this video =)

Of Taxi Drivers...

Ever heard of a saying that 'you can learn anything from anyone'. I believe that there's a Chinese proverb which has a slightly similar meaning to it - 三人行必有我师 which if loosely translated, means that in a group of three people, you will surely learn something from one of them.

Back to the topic on taxi drivers - when I travel on the routes of Penang-KL-Penang during long weekends, I usually will take the taxi to the bus station near the old KTM station. Normally, the taxi drivers on Fridays do not talk much, they are too occupied with traffic jams and stuff to pay attention to anything else. However, the same cannot be said for the journey from the bus station back to IPBA. Somehow, the taxi drivers are more communicative and share a lot of what they know, or it might be simply because they like to talk.

Among the conversations I still keep in mind:

Sometime last year...
Taxi driver 1: Awak nak jadi cikgu ke? Mana boleh...awak pandai senyum macam tu, nanti murid-murid semua tak takut pada you...(Are you going to become a teacher? How can you become one...you smile too much - the students will not be afraid of you.)
Me: Aiya, tak apa ma...I keluar nanti ajar sekolah menengah, bukan sekolah rendah...(Aiya, it's okay. I will teach in a secondary school when I come out, not a primary school)
TD 1: Aa..bukan macam tu. Tengok, even anak saya kecil, tahun satu saja, da tahu buli cikgu. Lagi tua lagi teruk budak-budak zaman ini. Nanti you masuk sekolah, senyum senyum lagi, mesti kena buli mia...(Aa...it's not like that. See, even my standard one kid already knows how to bully a teacher *LOL* the older they get, the worse they are. If you go smiling in schools, you will surely be bullied by your students...
Me:...

Maybe I should tape my facial muscles in the future when I'm teaching in schools...just to keep from smiling? =x

Sometime last year too...
Me: Saya nak pergi Stadium Hoki UM. (I want to go to the UM Hockey Stadium *the landmark for IPBA's hostel location)
TD2: Mana you nak pergi? (Where do you want to go?)
Me: Stadium Hoki UM...
TD2: (Impatiently) Nak pergi UM ke maktab? (Do you want to go to UM or the teachers training institute?)
Me: (intimidated) Maktab... >_<>(Next time, just say that 'I want to go to the Lembah Pantai Teachers Training Institute)
Me: Tapi selalu I cakap macam tu, taxi driver tak tahu kat mana...(But everytime I say that, the taxi drivers do not know where to go)
TD2: Diorang saja kot, tak nak ambil, cakaplah tak tahu kat mana...
Me: Owh...ye ke?
TD2: You nak jadi cikgu kan? Kalau orang tak tahu, you tak bagi tahu, macam mana orang nak tahu kelak? Kalau you cakap terus, Maktab Perguruan Lembah Pantai ini dekat dengan UM...macam salesman nak promote produk, pun kena bagi tahu orang lain, kebaikan produk ini, kena buat advertise semua itu kan? (he started talking about promoting and advertising...though I can't really see the connection)
Me: *Nods*
TD2: Satu lagi. Jadi cikgu ini, tak boleh cakap bohong...nanti anak-anak murid semua ikut. Betul tak? (One more thing, if you are going to become a teacher, you cannot tell lies, if not your students might follow your example. Am I right?)
Me: *Nods again, speechless* (What did I do???)

The conversation continued in this vein for the rest of the journey. Turns out that he's just giving a lecture, feeling that it's his duty as a citizen to talk some sense into future teachers. According to him, one of his best friends is also a teacher, and that's where he learned all these lecturing stuff xD

Earlier this year, I met a Sikh taxi driver that tried to persuade me to go to church =.="

Just now, I met another Indian taxi driver, who says that he's a vegetarian, and has to take care of his thinking, words and actions as a result. He commented on other taxi drivers that will not hesitate to charge exorbitant fees to get you to your destination, just because the economy is not faring so well currently. According to him, they are too selfish, as everyone has their own financial problems, and forcing someone else to share your burden is just...o_O

Ah, and he says that the world will become a better place if everyone is a vegetarian - 'we are supposed to protect the animals, not kill them for food.' At this rate, the world will end in ten years...

What happened to 2012?

Badminton LOLness

Well, I began to play badminton more actively this semester, usually starting around 5-6pm at the gym. There's always a lot of people there when I go, and they play doubles in court (I'm not sure what the term is, but they use the net and follow the rules and everything). Being a beginner, I just play at the sides, helping the players to warm-up by hitting the shuttle to and fro. (By the way, does my use of the word 'shuttle' instead of 'ball' indicate anything? :D)

One fine day, after I finished playing 'hit the shuttle', I sat down and watched a doubles match between Dr Lawrence (a lecturer in IPG KBA) paired with a staff member, and Akmal (one of my seniors) paired with another staff member. Theirs was an intense match, but Dr Lawrence and his partner won in the end. ==Sometimes I wonder how a man of his age can still play so fervently and enthusiastically.

Anyway, after that, I thought I was going to walk back to the hostel, and it was already quite dark. Suddenly, Dr Lawrence saw me sitting at the sides, and his passion for badminton got the better of him despite reason. (Well, just look at me and you will know --I can't play singles well, so keep doubles out of the question ._.) I hesitated for a moment, and Dr Law pushed again. "Well, come on. You just stay in front and return the shuttle when needed. I will take care of the back."

Sounds easy? Wait till you read on xD By the way, that was the first time in my life I played as a double in badminton ... *inserts wow herself here* ...

Apparently, there are many rules in badminton that I don't know about. First, if another person was serving to your partner, you should not hit the shuttle out of kindness or reflex action or something else. Instead, even if the shuttle lands an inch apart from your racket, you move away and let your partner smack the damn thing.

..I lost a few points because I couldn't resist hitting the lovely shuttle in place of Dr Law...

Next, there's this thing about right and left, even and odd that I still can't understand. Apparently, when the score is even, the right serves to right and vice versa. However, the right won't always be right and vice versa again. And I can't seem to get my brains to keep count of the score anyway, especially not when I'm playing in the court and focussing on not to hit the shuttle when it's not served to me, how to hit the shuttle when I'm supposed to hit it, how to make sure the shuttle doesn't land outside the lines...and a number of other things.

Dr Lawrence and I played two sets against the two staff members, and we won both. --Of course, it's because of Dr Law, not me xD

P.S: I played badminton again today, for a short while. It involved hitting the shuttle to and fro (again) with Akmal the senior, and guess what? My racket strings broke. LOL.

Musica is Up and Running!

Last year, a few of us petitioned for the establishment of a music society in my college, IPG KBA, to gather all music lovers together in a society where knowledge, enthusiasm and ideas can be shared and put to good use.

Hence, MUSICA was born, initially with 16 committee members forming the backbone of this society. Then, registration was carried out on the 4th of November 2009, where we received 53 new members in only two hours. Currently, we have about 70 members in the society.

On the 7th of January 2010, a meeting with all the members was held, where we discussed the plans for this semester. Not wanting to make things too complicated, we settled on an opening concert for Musica first, tentatively planned in February, where all Musica members will take part, either in choir, band, solo/group singing and maybe dancing.

That's it - this is just a short update on Musica - the first ever music society in IPG KBA where everybody, regardless of their musical background and knowledge, can join~