Sunday 27 March 2011

Earth Hour 2011 | 60+ and IPGK Gaya

My 2011 Earth Hour lantern
Darkness is a good condition for light trails
Glow sticks...!

For the first time ever, IPG Kampus Gaya [or rather the Kolej-kolej Kediaman (residential colleges) of IPGK Gaya] celebrated Earth Hour 2011. Everyone from Kolej Jati, Meranti Gaya, and Selangan Kaca gathered together in the parking lot accompanied by the darkness [no stars were available that night… bummer].

To support Beyond the Hour Campaign by WWF, our IPG shut down its light [with the help from SESB, the Sabahan equivalent of Tenaga Nasional in Peninsular Malaysia] for more than two hours, from 8-10.30pm something. We were only lighted by our candles [it bugged me. We want to stop pollution, but isn’t candle light is also a source of the harmful CO? Not CO2, CO! Much more harmful.] that were provided by Ummi and Co., I guess?

We sang Hijau and Save the World [I couldn’t remember the lyrics… Haha], which later became the staple songs of the night. Why? Each class needed to present anything related to Earth Hour, be it singing, sketches, just about anything. So you can imagine how many groups sang both songs because most of them [and my class too] didn’t know about other earth-friendly songs… Haha. I think all classes would do better if they told us that there would be a Gaya-wide Earth Hour celebration at least a WEEK EARLIER. Instead, they did that the night before. So, we scrambled to think about ours…

That night, we did our feat – making a heart from 50 candles, and lit them one by one before ending it by signing ‘Happy Earth Hour to Me’, Kak Limah’s Usop-style. Our yell/cheer ‘Chu chu ei, chu chu ei, ta ta 2x. We love our earth’ meanwhile was a hybrid of a thing that we learnt in UiTM KK, and again, Usop-styled quote. While everyone did their performance quite seriously, we were very much laidback and ‘sempoi’… Haha. We even took photos in the middle of the performance.

The thing that was unexpected by all of us was that we actually… WON! Third place, but it was a great surprise! The best thing was TESLians clearly dominated the night by winning almost everything… Go TESL!

I love seeing everyone together in the dark celebrating our love towards planet earth.

I love TESL!

I love earth!

Sucker Punch and My Nerdy Fetishisms

You will have two things in your mind after you have watched Sucker Punch:

1. The fights and girls were great.

2. I don’t understand the story.

Luckily for me, I could understand it.

The movie features dragons, steampunk stuff [I love steampunk!], ruins, wars, sci-fi action scenes, Japanese stuff [and I love Japanese thingy!], and Baby Doll with her katana and seifuku-inspired costume… Nerd heaven… Haha…

The integral part of the story was the soundtracks, and they were awesomely superb. The FXs were brilliantly done and the fight scenes, great.

The plot, don’t think you’ll put that much thought on it because it seemed like many of the patrons in the hall yesterday did not understand the story much. If you want to understand the story, than dig deep… haha. A fact: lobotomy will not kill you.

Anyway, Baby Doll did look like a doll. Deadly cute!

Sunday 20 March 2011

Love songs

I like Jpop better than Kpop, but compared to Kpop, you can hardly find any albums from Japanese artists here in Malaysia, unless the artist is well-known. The only bummer of liking both of them is that you don’t understand the languages. Anyhow, I bought an album from one of my fave Jpop singers, Hamasaki Ayumi. If you never heard that name before, than you seriously have a catching up to do. She has been around for ages.

The album is entitled Love songs. The tracklist [and notice the inconsistencies of their names. Japanese sure love naming their songs weirdly]:

Love song

crossroad

MOON

sending mail

Last angel

insomnia

Like a doll

Aria

blossom

Thank U

Sweet Season

overture

do it again

November

Virgin Road

SEVEN DAYS WAR

Love song, crossroad, MOON, sending mail, blossom, November, and Last angel are my favourites. The others? They either sound like songs you get from [a Japanese] karaoke, or the usual anime OP/ED. Not forgetting, some of the songs are not ‘songs’. They are what we call as interlude – that is a piece [in Love songs’ case, three pieces] of music inserted between longer performances of music, i.e. melodies without vocals.

Well, at least the songs are okay, and the cover art looks pretty enough.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Brain freeze

Suffering from brain freeze is such a bad thing. You can’t think of what to write. Sometimes, even thinking is hard.

I’m suffering from that now, and that naturally leads to procrastination and one of the symptoms of procrastination is me writing this blog post.

My brain is now somewhere between the inner and outer core of this planet.

At least, thank God I have finished my Guidance and Counselling – one down, five more to go. Educational Psychology and Philosophy of Education are horrendous… Haha… Need to dig down, way deep. Not that I’m complaining. They’re all part of life. Maybe the way I see the questions is wrong. Nothing to ponder about, just do it.

Not to mention, we got lots of quizzes next week, and the week after – hectic life, university and IPG. Suddenly, I miss being a kid.

Oh well, perhaps I should get a haircut, and go to Gaya Street Morning Fair.

Friday 18 March 2011

Keep Calm and Do the Assignments

Later that night:

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Epic-wonderful-awesomesauce!

That is what I think of Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa! It’s the most epic and dopest movie ever made in Malaysia!

If you think a movie based roughly on Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals would be largely uninteresting, think again. Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is a movie like no other, at least if you compare it with other Malaysian movies-lah! Wait, screw that, I don’t think other Hollywood movies can be compared with this too! Cheers!

The film was set in 210AD. It tells us about a Roman prince, Marcus Caprenius who was sent to the orient, or to be more precise, the Golden Chersonese [Malay Peninsula, according to Ptolemy] to be married with a Chinese princess, Li Hua. The prince’ fleet was capsized near Goa, so to begin a new journey, he needed a new sailor. Who else was suited for the task but Merong Mahawangsa. They travelled to the new kingless place, and the prince met the princess for the first time. Unknown to them, one tribe had already devised a plan, a very bad plan. What will happen to Merong Mahawangsa, Marcus, and Li Hua?

I watched the trailer before, and it was great. I think it’s good that the movie did live up to the hype.

The characters and casts were spectacular [and very multicultural!], the cinematography was breathtaking [90% of the filming was done in… TERENGGANU! Hehey!!!], the score… it was an aural feast! I couldn’t believe that score is Malaysian-made! Go Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra! The CGI was largely good for a Malaysian movie.

The story, I don’t really know how much it followed the true Merong Mahawangsa legend, but it’s okay, because the movie is an epic feast! It’s filled with bloodywicked battle scenes, comedies [can I say that the comedic scenes in the movie were way better than most slapsticks movie that our film industry always made?], romance [one can get away from that right?], magic, some science spectacle [courtesy of Archimedes], and the language, Classic Malay is a beauty, don’t you think?

I do think that the movie just need a bit more focus on editing. The last scene needs to be more emotional too, if you know what I am saying here. No spoiler!

What’s best is that the cinema seemed to enjoy the movie too. The audience clapped, and screamed, and shouted. Haha…

[by the way, watched this movie with Zell, Rachel, and Vanessa! More 'bout them later!]

We might stumble...

We can’t control nature.

We have done so many injustices to the earth,

But it can still strike us back.

Lessons to be learnt:

We are not powerful, but we have the power to help others in need.

God is great.


Hope, Pray, Believe.

We might stumble, but we can get back up.

We can crawl, walk, or run – one step or two in a time.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

TESL Night 2011: An Avenue of Icons' First Look

TESL Night 2011: An Avenue of Icons is now confirmed! I can’t wait for it. It’s the grand night [and dinner] for all TESLians of IPGK Gaya. Can’t wait for it!

TESL NIGHT 2011: AN AVENUE OF ICONS

Venue: Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

[That’s the best place that we could find, and by saying best, I mean that it is the best of the best! No other TESL Nights were ever held here before. One thing: securing a place is a hard job.]

Date: 15th of April 2011

[Previous Nights were usually organised in March, but this time we need to stick to April since a number of issues had arisen. Securing time is even harder job]

Time: 6.30pm-11.00pm

[Guests are expected to come at 6.30pm. what more can you say about time? Oh yeah: don’t be fashionably late because nothing is fashionable about being late.]

Theme/Dress Code: An Avenue of Icons (you may portray yourselves as an icon or imitate an icon by giving the maximum decent appearance)

[Icons can mean anything. It’s up to you. For girls, it might be easier. Just look around you. The guys though… I don’t think they want to wear tux, or do they? One more: MAXIMUM. DECENT. APPEARANCE. Give your dress the best shot, and just as an emphasis, please avoid too many ogling eyes, or for that matter, the culture shock(s) of the century, by wearing something that is not too revealing, sexy, or inappropriate. In other words, decent… or bring a shawl]

Price: RM 65 per pax

[Don’t argue with the price. No pay, no paaar-tay!]

Highlights of the night: Variety of performances by different groups, lucky draws and ‘Icons of The Night’ (male and female), and some surprise activities.

[The main reason for one to go to an annual dinner [besides the feast] is or course to enjoy the performances, or to get lucky [by winning the lucky draw]. Enjoy!]

Food:

Chinese Menu Set

Three hot & cold combinations

Sweet corn and chicken soup

Stir fried chicken with chilli and cashew nuts

Sweet & Sour snapper slices

Stewed Black Mushroom with Tau Kan & Vegetables

Special fried rice

Honeydew Sago in Coconut Milk

Free flow of Chinese tea

[The food is without a doubt the main attraction of the night. It’s halal, and according to the testers [or tasters, if you prefer], AWESOME! I have been dreaming about the dessert all this while. It will be served straight to your table by waiters and waitresses. No buffet. Talk about style!]

What the Hell?!

Avril Lavigne, the Canadian Rock Princess is back with her newest album:

Goodbye Lullaby

Doesn’t sound like her, does it? Wait until you hear the songs in it. You can’t miss those cursed words… Haha. So, how does this fare with her previous album, The Best Damn Thing?

For me, I will still stick with The Best Damn Thing, because it is the best damn thing. I like her rock style more, and TBDT is loaded with that. As for Goodbye Lullaby, she clearly toned down her rock flamboyance. The songs in this album are:

1. Black Star

2. What the Hell

3. Push

4. Wish You Were Here

5. Smile

6. Stop Standing There

7. I Love You

8. Everybody Hurts

9. Not Enough

10. 4 Real

11. Darlin

12. Remember When

13. Goodbye

14. Alice

In the beginning, the songs are somewhat rock, but in the middle, they started to get… syrupy? Haha… I mean of course she did performed ballad, but in this album, it is a lot too many than the real thing she’s supposed to sing: ear-exploding rock sound!

Not to say that this album’s bad; it’s great, but I miss her old sound!

Tuesday 8 March 2011

A Fiction of WW2

The story of Nicholson McArthur

I am Nicholson McArthur, a young British lad, living my daily life in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, a British protectorate. Life in Kota Bharu was as usual, simple, no fuss, almost without a pace. It was a typical day in this protectorate, or so it seemed. Unlike most of the locals here, I was informed by an officer from Kuala Lumpur through a telegram that the Japanese forces were advancing toward us.

The world was going to face a whole new war soon, yet I was calm. I didn’t know why, maybe because I felt secure. I never thought that it would change in a blink of an eye.

It was the midnight of 8th of December, 1941. Pitch black, voiceless. The night was supposed to be like the ones before, but this time, I was awakened with the loudest sound I’ve ever heard – a bomb. Without wasting a minute, I donned my shirt and looked outside. Black clouds started to fill the night sky. Everyone was running with fear written all over their faces. It was a chaotic moment.

I ran towards the radio, knocking some pieces of antiques in that hurry. My hand turned on the knob, and the sound came out, “the Japanese army had just arrived on the shores of Kota Bharu. Let us hope that God will save Malaya, and all of us.”

My fear deepened. I heard the sound of rifles, and guns, flying planes, bombs, and one could not miss the loudest of the sounds, screams of terrors from the civilians. Now I realised the severity of the attack. I somehow figured out that even with the high numbers of British troops in Kota Bharu, the Japanese still had the opportunity to advance. The Northern Malayan Royal Air Force, as modern as they could be, the prospect of winning is second to none. Call me pessimistic, but that seemed to be the truth at that time.

I couldn’t possibly stay safe and sound in my home. The night was turning into day, but the sky continued to be filled with sounds. Sounds of battles seemed to emanate from just about everywhere. Disoriented, largely clueless civilians scampered about. The battle seemed to be far, but it was near. Earlier, the radio gave me this fact: the Japanese wanted to have Malaya’s richness, the same reason as the Brits. It is not a hidden fact that a large nation conquered small ones to have their resources. As I was listening, a bomb dropped near me. I was startled. It’s time for me to run faster, I thought to myself. I scrambled out and followed others. I was stupid to hope for one thing – I would be safe. No. The Allied troops were unable to save us.

Then, without warning, something occurred. My left leg – it felt numb, and I saw it. It was covered in red – blood oozed. I fell down, and a figure, with khaki clothes, came to me, asking me who I was, I answered “Nicholson McArthur”. He smiled, and I knew my world was about to come to an end.

The story of Hattori Takayama

I am Private Hattori Takayama and I was with the IJN Ayatosan Maru, a Japanese transport ship. She had just anchored herself near the shores of Kota Bharu, and I knew that a clash of Titans would ensue next. We were told that this fight was for the sake of my nation, Japan. I was ready.

Minutes later, other troopers and I arrived on the mainland and the goliath conflict began. The British was too proud of themselves, and that pride was going to kill them. Malayan defences were too easy; the Whites will only defend their precious little island of Singapore. That was where they got it wrong.

I heard from my comrade that my fellow brothers had just started their attack on Singapore, Pearl Harbour, and Hong Kong. No help would come from America – that was good news. Here though, my battle here was still unending. The beach was filled with troopers, land mines, pill boxes, and barbed wires. The Brits were all set for us. They were rough and tough and they fought with us with honour and dignity. We had a large number of losses, but I know the children of my motherland were strong. After this battle is over, I said to myself, we will destroy Malaya from within. Overhead, roars of Allied aircraft filled up the night sky. The first of many Japanese troops perished, but many more were advancing.

Colonel Tsuji guided us to the battlefield with enthusiasm and spirit. We will die with honour, and everyone will love us, he said. I believed in him, and I believed in myself. The combat was intense, with the use of machine guns and heavy artillery. The campaign continued until the morning. One battle calls after another. Many attempts to breach the lines were futile. I remembered that as many as 300 of my fellow comrades died, many others were injured. The Brits had not withdrawn their forces, yet.

The hours in my life never felt this long. The Allied forces finally waved their white flag. The Pacific War belonged to us. We got hold of Kota Bharu, and one regiment managed to seize an airfield loaded with fuel and ammunition. It appeared that they left it as soon as they knew that they were about to lose. Now our attack on Malaya would be much greater. Bicycle blitzkrieg would come soon. The rest of the world was to see the power of Japan soon enough.

That morning, I walked around Kota Bharu with the rest of the soldiers, relishing on the victory. It was great to see people bowing down to us. Bombs were still being blasted, by the way. Moments later, I saw a person that seemed to be – a White. He was running, but not for long. I managed to shoot his left leg. I came to him, and asked his name. “Nicholson McArthur”, he said. He was clearly unhappy. I did not know if it was because of his leg, or because of the Allied’s failure, or because of, well, me. I smiled, and my gun was pointed straight at him.

Manukan's Adventure

It was Sunday, and the best way to spend Sunday is by exploring a new place!

With my friends, we went to Manukan Island, a beautiful island – famous for its reef – that forms a part of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. Besides Manukan, other islands scattered in it are Mamutik, Sapi, Sulug, and Gaya [the largest].

To go there, tourists need to embark from Jesselton Point. For Manukan, we paid around MYR30 [including the snorkelling apparatus, boat fee and the island entrance fee]. I think it’s worth it because Manukan was amazing and you don’t go to an island all the time right?

Snorkelling was the only activity that we did, as the others [paragliding, banana boat, etc] were either 1) too expensive, or 2) were done on other islands. All the same, this does not mean that snorkelling wasn’t fun. Manukan’s marine life was spectacular. The reefs were varied in shapes and sizes and colour. The fish were swimming all around us, although I deter the fact that I was bitten by some fish countless of time. I didn’t know what they saw in me that made them did that… Haha.

[My phone was out of battery power, so couldn’t take lots of photos… *gahhhh*]

Our embarking point, Jesselton Point [formerly known as Jesselton Wharf]
P.S.: it's a cool place to hang out and eat too!
On the boat
Sailing through the sea
It was fast!
The scenery of KK from the sea
The jetty at Manukan Island
Beautiful Manukan Island

Lagi-lagi tag bah...

Tag lagi~! Jadi ape lagi jawab je la~! Huhu

Sila beritahu nama penuh kamu. Tak kisahlah sampai nama datuk moyang kamu.
Mohd Afiq Bin Mat Razai name ambo. Kenapa demo nok tau? Haha...

Kamu suka warna pink tak?
Ambo suke kot...

Kalau kamu detakdirkan bertemu dengan si pemberi taggie ni apa kamu nak cakap dengan dia?
Tahniah sebab pilih aku. Semoga anda bergembira... Haha...

Siapa paling comel Maher Zain atau kamu?
Aku... tak secomel Maher Zain... Apa punya soklan? Haha.

Mana lagi sedap? kek atau ais krim?
Dua-dua sadap dan paling manang... Ko bagi dua-dua, dua-dua aku amek... Huhu...

Bila tarikh birthday si pemberi tag ni? (kalau kamu ingat kamu memang hebat)
26 Oktober 1992. Aku hebat kan? [Ke stalk? Haha]

Ain Maisarah siapakah dia?
Mari kita saksikan soklan seterusnya

Ceritakan sejarah kamu membuat blog ikutlah sampai perenggan pun
Blog aku dicipta semenjak bulan Mac 2010. Saje je aku nak wat. Sekarang ni minat sangat blog. Huhu...

Apabila hari jadi kamu, kamu nak saya(pemberi taggie ni) beri apa pada kamu?
Tiket flight pergi-balik semenanjung tiap kali cuti pon bulih... MAS ek? Bukan AirAsia... Haha

Tag ni ada sepuluh soalan jadi wajib tag sepuloh orang ye!
Ko tag la diri ko sendiri... Haha

Saturday 5 March 2011

The Problem with Our Education

This is just a piece of my thought about our education system, based on what I saw, or experienced, or read in written media. Don’t use it in for your SS~! Haha.

One common feature of education system in Asia: getting lots of ‘A’s in exams is important, highly important.

It’s time to ponder on this thing. Is it true that getting a row of ‘A’s is that important? For many parents, and undeniably students, it shows that they are smart, and can understand what their teachers teach them. In fact, some students [or perhaps, many] take it too seriously that if they will not hesitate to jump of a building if they are denied of even an ‘A’.

The truth is getting a high number of ‘A’s in exams does not make a student an all-rounded achiever. Sometimes, it is not even adequate for tertiary education. In addition, it’s misleading for a person to say that a student from science stream is much better than those from art or accountancy streams. All students should be given the same treatments and care from the teachers, schools, and the community.

Now, these ‘A’s in the beginning of this post are starting to make me dizzy.

Parents are too judgmental with their children. It’s not a far-fetched thing to say that parents might love the child with lots of ‘A’s than the one that have skills. Sending children to tuition [and other classes, like piano, ballet, dance, or others] is the norm, especially in large cities. We don’t have cram schools in Malaysia, but if we did, parents might not think twice about sending their children there. Cram schools are all about repeat, repeat, repeat, and no critical thinking. Sometimes, it is a pity that children nowadays are losing their innocence and time to play because of parents expectations.

In Malaysia, our education system relies heavily on exam and rote learning [and subsequently the number of ‘A’s] as ways to evaluate the students’ performances. The system depends heavily on memorising ways to answer, not to think thoroughly. Teachers only teach students to answer questions according to the books. In mathematics [especially additional mathematics], students are taught to remember the formulas, and as my teacher had told me, some teachers actually gave their students a number of essays to be memorised, then when the exam questions came out, all they need to do was to write back what they had remembered. Neat? It’s cheating.

One thing: how about those students who are left behind? Can they understand the subjects? Unfortunately, many schools are not even bothered with these students. They are stamped with the word ‘failure’ on the heads. Not one person undertakes the steps to diminish this thought. What will happen to those students? Even if they don’t shine in education, this doesn’t mean that they don’t have other capabilities, but they seem to be ignored. Our sports are still behind, and I really think many of them have great sports’ talents, why don’t our government tap them to offset the dwindling numbers of able-athletes in this country?

Malaysian education should be changed for the better. Critical thinking is now being implemented in Kurikulum Standard Sekolah that replaced Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah, but its practice is yet to be seen. Our student must be able to think for themselves, but it is a problem, especially for rural students who are confined to the four squares of their interior lives. Shyness and the lack of asking questions continue to be major issues for Malaysian students. They think that asking questions shows that they don’t understand the subject. They rather choose to be quiet than be embarrassed in front of schoolmates. Students don’t have confidence, and a simple task such as talking in front of others, is big deed [I went through it, luckily it’s changing]. Teachers should search for ways to make learning creative, and fun for all levels, and as an added thing, motivate students.

PPSMI, it’s an old thing, but for me [and not because I’m a TESLian], it’s such a pity for it to be abolished when it was starting to give good effects to our children. We should really wait for a number of years and see it effectiveness first, but it didn’t happen. For those who said PPSMI was a threat to BM, think again. Most of those who told us that were being educated when our education system was still based in English, and probably British-styled structures, yet they can still speak BM fluently. Now that I think of it, it was discrimination. One Pupil One Sport programme is a good thing [not withstanding that I am NOT FOND of sports], it gives the students a chance to showcase their hidden sports abilities. Why hidden? Almost every school in this country plays football during physical education. I went through it, and it didn’t help me. Extra-curricular activities – like clubs, uniformed units, and associations – can be helpful, but are they active? If we push those urban schools aside, we can be pretty sure that most of Malaysian school are not having them on a weekly basis. Some schools even forced students to enter these groups without their consent. Students should be given chances to choose which one that they want to enter.

Tertiary education is all about critical thinking and analysis. Can these so-called ‘A’ students excel if they are in IPTA or IPTS? Are they going to be left out in the run of getting the Dean Awards? Education is not about getting straight ‘A’s during school time, but to help us live our life. Some straight ‘A’s couldn’t even hold a grasp on what are being taught by universities’ lecturers, especially those in foreign countries, where the education systems are light-years ahead of us.

I think us as future teachers [for IPGs’ students], we need to think and embark on a quest to change our education system. The high-expectations of straight ‘A’s and the lack of non-academic related things and critical thinking in schools should be addressed. We should have multitalented students in our schools.

Life is all about education, in the right ways.

Friday 4 March 2011

IPGK Gaya’s Kejohanan Olahraga Divisi ke-42

Yesterday was the day of IPGK Gaya’s Kejohanan Olahraga Divisi ke-42 [yeap. It’s that OLD!]. Penampang Stadium was our venue this year. The fact that I learnt was that each year, Sukan Divisi will be organised/handled by all trainees from the fifth semester because it’s part of the syllabus. Of course, my class will not do that because we are in UiTM by that time. Let’s say I’m a bit sad… Haha…

Just like the previous one, this year I was still a part of Waja’s perbarisan team. The unfortunate news, this year, lots of chaos and messiness happened, and we didn’t get enough practice, and not to mention, members. Nevertheless, in the end, we gave our best, but the truth is, I was a little bit disappointed that our team only managed to be in the top fourth [READ: last place!]. Last year, we were only one step closer to victory.

Another terribly gloomy thing is that, Waja Division was only 3 points away from emerging victorious. If we did, that will be our fourth time, IN A ROW~! Anyhow, WIRA [their tagline, ‘WE’ ROAR! Nice~!], you deserved it!

One thing that is the truth and the truth only, is that we truly enjoyed the games, and also the loud cheers namely, Go Waja Go song, and many others. We won the prize for best sorakan~! Wheeheee~!

So everyone, no matter from which division,

WAJA WIRA PUTRA PERDANA

You guys are the best!