Orang Asli Youth Camp 2012

Getting involved in this camp for the 3rd time already. This time it was on 15-17 December and it was in INTI again. This year only 40 participants attended and most of them are new. Even the organising team consist of new people. However, it was more religious compared to the previous years which is good. Overall it was a success and the orang asli managed to impress me. Every year, I got to learn something from this camp. It is still not perfect yet and still needs to be improved. Hope next year I will be free to get involve in it again.

This year's crew :)

All Aboard!

I went for a cruise trip with Uncle Manfred's family last Thursday till Sunday. This was my second cruise trip. My first was on Star Cruise SuperStar Gemini many years ago. This is SuperStar Virgo, the largest of the Star Cruise ships. Gemini was quite small. Board the ship from Port Klang, reach Singapore the next day and stop for 6 hours and then leave Singapore to cruise around international waters and back to Singapore on Sunday. That was also my first time entering a casino as their minimum age is 18 compared to 21 in Malaysia. I could say that this was one of the best vacation for me. It was fun, exciting and relaxing. Being on a cruise allows me to be disconnected from the world. No internet and cellular network. It is actually a very good feeling. 

THANK YOU Uncle Manfred for taking me to the cruise. Really appreciate it. Hope one day I will be able to go on it again.

With my cousin

a question to answer

This is gonna be a short update. Last Wednesday, I went for business leadership series (BLS) talk. BLS is an event by INTI where they invite big shot from the corporate world to give a talk about their company, how to be successful, etc...

Last week the talk was given by Joel Neoh, CEO of Groupon Malaysia. The talk was at INTI Subang therefore, I have to watch the live streaming here in Nilai. He was talking about the journey through his life and all the things he did until how he became successful today. Basically, it is his biography. How he actually became what he is today according to him is his passion on what he loves to do. He said, do something that makes you happy. "What makes you happy?". That is actually a really good question. I really need to reflect on it as me myself do not know what makes me happy. Well, I hope one day I will be able to answer that question and maybe focus my future into doing that thing.

What makes me happy? _______________

Hope one day I will be able to edit this post to fill in the blank. May God guides me to fill it in. I am now on a pursuit to happiness.

Degree year 2

My semester break just finished and now I am back in INTI. First sem for my year 2! 4 more study sems left. Had a 4 weeks sem break and I think it was one of the best.
Here are basically what I did during the break:

• ICF committee retreat to Ipoh
• Trip to Perhentian
• Paintball
• Read 3 books (The Son of Neptune, HP and the Philosopher's Stone, HP and the Chamber of Secrets)

A lot of new experience during the holidays. First time snorkeling, paintball (which I only got shot twice :P), seeing a live baby turtle and reading 3 books in 3 weeks. Really enjoyed the holidays. Why must it ends so fast? 

Paintball with friends. Didn't know paintball could be so tiring. Respect the Muslims that are fasting and still can play.

By the way, I am taking 4 subjects thing sem and one of it is Advance Java. Very worry about that subject. I am weak in the object oriented part. My java grade itself wasn't good. Hope I can cope and do better this time. 

East Coast Island

Went to Perhentian Island on 1-3 August with 10 other friends from INTI Christian Fellowship. Can be considered a farewell outing for Jonathan, Enthel and Reuben too. This is my first time going to an island on the east coast. Heard a lot about the beautiful beaches and the clear water on the east coast. Finally got to experience it.

It was an 8 hours bus ride to the jetty and another 30 minutes boat ride to the island. Took a night bus there. The bus was classy and comfortable but did not managed to have a good sleep. The journey back took 9 hours (different bus company). Regreted taking a different bus back. Consequences of being cheap xD

Check out the super long bus tickets

I was hoping to see turtle lay eggs in Perhentian but did not have the chance to see it. Anyway, still managed to see baby turtles. The guy was keeping it until they grow up only release them. We also saw a giant turtle at the sea bed while snorkeling.

so cuteee!

It was also my first time snorkeling, great experience. Saw a lot of marine creatures. I was quite disappointed with the corals though, was expecting to see more colourful corals.

The corals look so dry

and dull. Not sure is it effect of global warming.

Overall, it was a great trip and I had a good time. Thank You Enthel for organising this. I am going to miss those people leaving. Enthel, the imba girl, Jonathan, one of my first friend from ICF and Reuben, troll king and FIFA kaki. :'(

Group photo!

Arsenal Asia Tour 2012

Arsenal came to Malaysia for the second time in a row. Went with my sisters this time. My father managed to get us 3 RM68 tickets. The best seats in the stadium is still RM108, the one I sat at last year. RM68 is too high. Good place to observe the game but not a good place if you want to look at players. Malaysia performed a lot better compared to last year. A lot more shots on target. Arsenal was only average. I think this is due to the lack of first team players. Last year almost the whole team is from the starting 11 squad and first team squad. This year, about half of them are from reserves. Even the stadium is only half full this time. Can see the difference in quality. Nevertheless, it was a great match. Final score was Malaysia 1 - Arsenal 2 in which Arsenal scored in the last 5 minutes while Malaysia's goal was a fantastic long range shot before half time. I am still waiting for the day where I can see them play at the Emirates. Last year's post can be found here.

rush rush rush

I had not been blogging for more than a month. Must be because nothing interesting happened to me lately. So here is a short update on what is currently going on.

This is my first short semester. I only have classes for 7 weeks. Despite the free timetable, I don't like short sem. Too rushing and too short to do anything. Assignments and tests are all back-to-back. When one assignment is completed, I gotta start another one. No time to take a break in between :( This is week 6 already. Next week is the last week of classes then finals then year 2! Didn't I just started year 1?

Went to Genting last month for a committee retreat with some previous term committee and Reuben (the ex ex committee). First time playing the theme park with 11 other friends. It was fun! Almost every ride we dominated it :P

I am miss Jon and Alvin. Less football kaki already. Not sure who to find now when the new EPL season starts...

LOL moment

Went for Russell Peter's show yesterday with 2 friends from uni. It was AWESOME & HILARIOUS! The expensive ticket was totally worth it. I was only disappointed with one thing, I was hoping for more Malaysian jokes, he only made two which is enough to make the stadium go WILD! Well, it was a great experience though. Besides, first time driving to somewhere I am not familiar with alone. Thank God my Nokia GPS works well =D

Did not managed to capture or record anything during the show. They were very strict about this.

April's Quickie

Oh no, it is almost the end of April and I have not blog about anything yet this month. Even the blogger interface had changed! Ok, I am going to do a quick one. Currently studying for my finals. Last paper tomorrow (Y). Only have 2 papers this sem =D
Here are the list of what happened during April (from what i remember):

• Got chosen to be a Treasurer for INTI Christian Fellowship start next semester. God's calling. Not fully prepared for it but will do my best. Time to serve Him =)

• Got tickets for Russell Peters' second show (which technically is the first since it is a day before his original sold out show which i failed to get). Not easy to get. Cheapest tickets got sold out in less than 2 hours.

• Got really interested about hacking since attending the ethical hacking seminar and workshop conducted by EC-Council. Don't mind working as an ethical hacker next time.

Erm... that is all i guess. 3 weeks sem break coming up!

2nd Decade

I am officially 20 years old now! Ahh... getting older but wiser :P

Celebrated by 20th birthday with my family and Uncle Nick's family. It was just a simple celebration and I am satisfy about it. My sis was complaining about it being boring. So what? Who says birthday are suppose to be fun, grand or fancy?

Celebrated it at Las Vacas, Mont Kiara. It is a steak shop and I have always wanted to go there since I saw it on TV. The steaks are quite expensive (maybe it is because of the quality) but the burgers are not bad and quite reasonable (Chilli's/TGIF price).

My almost RM70 Angus Rib Eye

If i am given the chance, I won't mind returning there but this time I will only eat the burger. xD

One more year before I am officially an adult. Need to enjoy my last year of teenage.

Broga Hill

I had been hearing about people hiking up Broga Hill and finally I had the chance to do it myself! The Broga Hill hike was part of the Leadership Training Camp organised by the INTI Student Council.

We woke up at 5.00am and after warming up we begin our journey towards the hill from the campsite (which was located a few km from the foot of the hill). Reached the foot at around 6.00am. We were told the hill has 4 peaks but due to lack of time, we were only able hike to the first peak which is the lowest. =(

Hiking up the hill can be considered easy but coming down is a bit tricky. I almost fell a few meters when coming down. The rope i was grabbing on snap! Nevertheless, anyone who is fit enough will be able to hike up without any problem. I even saw children hiking up. With constant speed and no resting, you could reach peak 1 in about 30 minutes.

The chronological order of sunrise view on the first peak:

I am the king of the hill! xD

The 1st peak view from the campsite

If you want to avoid the crowd, do not go there on weekends. Another advice, make sure both of your hands are free. It is difficult climbing up with only one free hand (i was holding a bottle on my other hand) and almost impossible to come down with one hand.

Broga Hill, I will be back to reach the final peak!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

I am a person who seldom read books. Therefore, this is the second series of book which I actually completed (title above). The first series was Harry Potter. I am going to give my opinion on this Percy Jackson series for those of you who wants to know more about it.

1. Genre: fantasy, Greek mythology, adventure
2. Author: Rick Riordan
3. Number of book in this series: 5
4. What is it about?: A teenage boy who is a demigod (a child of a god and mortal) trying to save Olympus from being destroy by the evil titan Kronos. Every book talks about his quest with his group of demigod and mythical creature friends on a quest while trying to prevent Kronos from reviving. Some how this book has it resemblance with Harry Potter. The resemblance are as below:

   Harry Potter	Aspect	Percy Jackson and the Olympians
   Hogwarts	Place where this special group of people train	Camp Half Blood
   Voldermort	Villian who is trying to revive	Kronos
   Hogwarts gang vs Death Eaters	Good vs Evil	Olympians + Half bloods vs Kronos' monsters

   
   
5. Why I find it interesting?: The author manage to combine Greek mythology with our current era in the story. Learn a lot about Greek mythology from it and it has comedy element in it.
6. What I dislike about it?: The ending is a bit too happy. As some of you may know, I don't really like totally happy ending. There are some sad parts in it but it is too minor to affect the readers' emotion. I prefer a story with a mix of sad + happy ending which can actually affect the readers. Harry Potter shows an epitome of a good ending where there are death of major characters. Since when is life so perfect?

Rick Riordan is currently working on the sequel to this Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It is another 5 books pentalogy called Hero of Olympus. Currently, 2 books of the series had been released and I am planning to buy it too. I hope it will be as good as Percy Jackson.

2011 flashback

2011 was a year of ups and downs... I am sure it is the same for everyone. Nevertheless, there are no regrets.

Here is the lists of what I did / experience for the first time in 2011 (from what i remember):

• Spectate Malaysia vs Arsenal live at Bukit Jalil. Final score 0-4. Scored by Ramsey, Walcott, Vela and Rosicky.

• Being a student helper for INTI in an education fair. Post about it can be read here.
• Holding the position of Organising Chairperson for a camp. It wasn't an easy job but it was a great experience.
• Both the whole 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' series (5 books). Thanks to the RM200 voucher given by INTI.
• Learned my first programming language, C++.
• Started my degree in Network and Mobile Computing.
• A best friend of mine and also another close friend went to USA to continue their studies. Miss them so much =(

By the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!!!