Change or not change?

I'm currently operating Compaq Presario C700 notebook which is relatively old considering the fact that my father had been using it installed with Windows XP for years ago before passing it to me. Now it appears to be terminally ill. The fan is constantly giving out irritating noise as if it is overworking although the cooling effect is fairly dissatisfying. I suspect the easily accumulated heat is one of the factors contributing to the occasional system lagging. However there are credits I can still give. I particularly enjoy the sensation of typing on its keypad. As a gamer, despite the graphic limitations that allow its user to run only gaming applications with low graphic requirements, I love the widescreen too.

My Sony Ericsson K618i has been following me for more than three years, it is gradually exposing its glitches too. The main faulty aspect that annoys me is the "instant auto-shutdown" of my phone. Whenever I insert it into my pocket and walk for some distance, it would automatically shut down, causing inconvenience as people can't reach my phone to give me a call. The phone needs only a small knock from sideways to slump into unconsciousness. I guess it must be the battery being unable to hinge to the terminal in an appropriate and functional way. To type instant messages in Chinese has caused me a hardship too. It takes a long time to fully read the pinyin (the standard system of Roman spelling in Chinese). Therefore it is considerably slow and insensitive. Furthermore, the metal plates which are responsible for adapting the charger are severely corroded. Whenever I want to charge my phone, I have to give it a "comfortable position" so there is current passing through the loosely connected junction, not to mention it might break and cut the circuit if slightly disturbed.

Actually I don't mind using old products as long as they are still capable of performing routine tasks in a satisfying way to users. However if I'm given the chance, I would certainly change both of them, or at least one of them. My parents are generous enough to sponsor whatever I want without further consideration, but I don't really want to spend too much of their money on my needs without further consideration too. I thought of smartphones, especially iPhone that has dominated the recent market with its cool-looking features. I thought of laptops my roommate recommended to me by introducing a lot of terminology which is not layman-friendly such as those modeling codes of hardware. I'm clear that I have to be clear to my requirements before choosing any product from the vast available options I can simply grab.

I do hope to accept any suggestions you might be able to share with me.

Is it that hard to compromise?

Having only healthy vegetarian food in my college hasn't been as convenient as what I think it could potentially be. There are only two cafeterias inside the college compound, one is Mamak cafeteria providing mainly Indian orientated food and one is Malay cafeteria which is just situated one floor below my apartment unit. There are two other ways to get your stomach filled - from the food stalls at the roadside opposite KTT, or from the food catering aunty whom we call her Aunty Mira.

Under normal circumstances I have no problem at getting nutritious vegetarian food at a reasonable price for every breakfast and lunch. Mamak cafeteria provides trays of mixed vegetables in buffet style. By paying only RM2.50, it is quite a considerable saving for a happy meal. It would be a little expensive to cater my lunch by filling up my own container at the stall prepared by an old woman who has her secret recipe attracting a great number of loyal customers every afternoon. To my personal liking, I would rather pay RM3.50 for delicious bean-based vegetables and potatoes.

After having my dinner just now, I had a conversation with the senior person in charge at the counter, and I felt a little offended when I was trying to compromise the flawed way in charging the food price. To order vegetarian food without frying, I have only limited options, that is to order foods separately. It is very unreasonable to get charged RM5.00 for a plate of white rice with an egg and a plate of mixed vegetable considering the fact I could have eaten a plate of fried rice with almost equal or even greater quantity of mixed vegetable and rice by paying only RM3.00. When I asked if it is possible to charge less since it is imbalanced in comparison with other options in the menu, I was fairly surprised that at first he replied which price I prefer in a harsh way, and grumbled something like you shouldn't order if you don't like to, instead of have considerations compromised whereby it is easy to set a fixed reasonable price to the combination above, at least for vegetarian food.

I can be a picky eater when it comes to healthy food, or choosy in catering food. I haven't been taking any fried chicken in KTT since months ago. Besides, I would really feel guilty whenever I use a polystyrene box or plastic bag. I don't mind washing extra containers by myself and I think it is time for everyone to show some concern towards the current main global issue especially those who are highly selective like me, but in a different way - rather to dine in his own apartment which would in turn result in a used polystyrene box for each meal taken. I couldn't say it is indifference shown, but it is another ironical scene to look at because well educated people would have reflected on what they should do before getting it done, however in this case, it is clearly seen that because of the long term habit practiced so they don't feel like holding any obligation.

Untitled (You may suggest one.)

Perhaps I shouldn't have concerned too much. Perhaps I should respond to all unpleasant sight by just a smile, and stay happy because it actually favors us. No criticism, no so called "harsh comments" or "inappropriate action". Perhaps I shouldn't have placed my perspective of views in equal to those, which in turn would easily spark some misunderstandings. Perhaps I should be one of those saying: "Aiya, like that one la, why care so much?" Or perhaps I should just remain silent, be your obedient students and get focused in term of academic attention, score a string of As in examination, or try to secure the top in the world award to appease them before flying to India, then leave here and be happy ever after.

But I don't. To refrain myself from the urges to share something neglecting its fact as either positive or negative has been something more difficult than to keep my mouth shut. Some people don't understand the fascinating and intriguing part we could indulge ourselves in during arguing against a statement or topic by contributing constructive thoughts, and have a great assimilation of others' thoughts, so that things can eventually end up obtaining a valuable outcome. Curiosity and sense of accomplishment are playing a main role. People tend to lost the interest concerned in the sense that he doesn't prefer to share his very personal piece of two cents could be a result of flawed environment he was being brought up. For example, the repeating cliche during constructing an essay without really trying to inject some fresh ideas whenever possible, could curb his sharing ability.

When something has been done with a large margin of improvement, I speak. When I saw something flawed or wrong, I speak. Before I speak, I do something which most of the people don't, that is I reflect on whether I'm trying to contribute to, or encourage the flawed or to the wrong. At the same time, we can't dispute the fact if we don't stay in the flawed, we are the ones who face disadvantages. It can be a hard time to balance everything during this stage, but this is what prepares us to have equipped all of the traits needed in order to push ourselves to a further level of aptitude in the future.

We can choose to show indifference towards the flawed, because of "it is none of my business, as long as I happy, it doesn't matter." or "I can't do much to change that, don't let myself to get into trouble, so just let it be." Here is a question to think: Are we entitled to do so? And here comes a good lesson to learn - to be able to achieve the goal with minimum arousal of less significant circumstances which might in turn lead to a complication that may defeat the purpose of the initial intention. Expect the unexpected and accept the unacceptable. Which one do you choose?

What's wrong? Can't you sense it?

Here is the previous post of the similar topic.

Forwarded emails urge me to voice out my opinion here again. Can we call the reaction of someone saying "Oh, that's cruel, we shouldn't do that!" while reading emails spreading news about killing of animals on the verge to extinct as human conscience? I have been trying to get involved in arguments such as humans have no right to deprive animals of their life regardless of their status or species. Whenever I read the typical comments cursing those inhumane sin done by either illegal butcher or hunter, especially on Facebook, I couldn't help myself to have my two cents pointed out in order to further scrutinize, review and try to bring an ironical sense into this issue.

For example, there was a documentary video showing seals' misfortune, suffering from the peeling of their skin by human in order to meet the high demand of raw material in leather industry. As expected, all the response towards this revealed sin could be generalised as rantings, condemnation and criticism accompanied by some cursing, or some of them might not even have the courage to continue watching because it was just too evil. For a greater understanding, I tried to make a simple comparison with the killing of poultry so that we could equate the cruelty of human act. Actually when we are taking meat from chicken and beef, we do contribute in this too.

Then, people started to refute my argument, stating that there is an obvious difference due to the reason torture and killing are not the same, and the sin of killing is definitely lower than the sin of torturing. They solidified their arguments Humans were created by god to be a "caliphate" on this earth and permitted to take advantage of all the natural resources there, but not to torture fellow creatures.

I have to admit the idea I advocate to is greatly influenced by teaching in Dharma talk. If you are not familiar with that, I would like to tell you that killing is prohibited, even killing an ant. And here comes the contact between religious views.

I do agree they are different above the surface, and I am trying to find an alternative perspective from the identity they share. I don't have the intention to defy any of the religious views but it is just intriguing for me to have a deeper insight towards this. Since both of them are sins and people don't wish to conduct any sinful practice, and logically and rationally people would say: "No, I don't want it to be like this." or "It is so wrong, we shouldn't do these." We would have criticized sinful people using different extent of phrases based on ascending "degree of sin". But for me, it brings contradiction when people would actually consider these as antonym, humane and inhumane.

If you read carefully, my point is very simple, that is "do not feel sorry or guilty for the animals when you are reading similar email or whatsoever, if you are dining in meat, such as KFC, perhaps?

There is another fascinating fact I would like to share. Whenever we flipped through the newspapers, bad news such as murdering and kidnapping would not fail to meet our eyes. Have you ever noticed that we have our own scale on judging the degree of sin conducted by those criminals? Sometime the scale would go imbalanced. For instance, when a little adorable girl was kidnapped, the newspapers would have some argh-she-is-so-cute photos gazetted to draw the attention of the public. Same analogy, people would look at the photo and say "where the hell do those kidnappers grow their conscience? How can you be so harsh to such a cute little girl?" How if miserably the victim doesn't have an attractive look? There is no an one hundred and eighty degree of change by public response, of course, but you can actually notice the great difference.

Things are artificial, and fake as well.

FESKOTT

Finally the sports festival that lasted for a week in my college has ended. Here comes the time to review and analyze the event namely Festival Sukan Kolej Teknologi Timur (FESKOTT).

FESKOTT includes many games, for instance football, netball, volleyball, futsal and track events such as short distance sprinting. This festival didn't only confine its participants to A-Level students but also lecturers and students taking other diploma course. We were categorized into four main contingents having more than two hundreds of members each. Basketball match was introduced to meet our demand, but the organizer shouldn't have ignored some events, which could be carried out in a stadium, in this case, the stadium located 3km from my college. It was not a great deal to apply for the access of using those facilities in order to provide us the opportunity to take part in events other than sprinting. Personally I feel it was quite disappointing and a little unfair. Not all of us are sprinters, and those having strong arms and excellence hopping ability couldn't have their potentials utilized.

I took part in volleyball, the game that I have been deeply indulged in since my first exposure towards this teamwork requiring sport. With great skills we had made our way into the final but stumbled, and ended up getting my first silver trophy of volleyball competition. Apart from that, as one of those who urged the organizing of basketball competition, I grouped a team of five players and won the champion with perspiration and luck, and I was quite surprised to be awarded the best player.

During the closing ceremony.

Despite some unpleasant sight or inconvenience, FESKOTT can still be considered a memorable and joyful event. It greatly depends on how you treat it. Effort would normally and eventually pay off. It is also time to keep my pace on the "academic track" for that pre AS Level examination is just around the corner.

I'm officially 19 years old =)

Notifications of Facebook and text messages started to pile up within my laptop and handphone to the extent that although my fingers were working frantically, I couldn't manage to reply the all birthday wishes on time, all of these happened when it was near 12am of 22nd March.

I remember whenever it was my birthday, my family wouldn't fail to celebrate it, either inviting my friends to my birthday party or having a special dinner together. But this time it is fairly different.

I felt so warm, mainly because of that I was greatly surprised by my family. I sensed something fishy at 9pm yesterday as my sister suddenly asked me the song I like the most. Out of my expectation, they made a four-minute-video including the compilation of photos since my childhood moment running in slide show mode, to wish me a happy birthday which had been previously done for 18 consecutive years in my own house. Thank you Papa Mama, Jin Sheng, Jin Yao, Mei Mei and Ngen Ngen =) It is the best present I have ever received!

Lovely written cards from my friends.

At the same time I received a handmade birthday card from her! =) It was agonizing to have the envelope in my hands but I had to wait for 4 days until I was valid to open the envelope. Those words in the card tug deeply at my heartstrings, but I would like to apologize for not revealing them for the-reason-you-should-know =)


A mixture of old friends, relatives as well as my teacher and even my favourite lecturer left their wishes on the wall of my Facebook profile. I appreciate that very much =)

Things turned crazier when my friends planned to trick me in a cafe outside my college.

Ouch >.<"

I finally know how a face bumps into a cake feels. I know whose idea this is!

Here is the second vanilla cake. I like vanilla so much!

Thank you for enlightening my birthday =)

Birthday, in another perspective which is often emphasized by saints, is actually exactly what we can call it as a "disastrous day" of our mother. So instead of just having a blast with friends, we should actually spend some time on that day to reflect on how those days passed by when we were being ignorance but gradually raised and educated by our parents with great care and love after giving birth to us. 19 years has just gone in just a glimpse, what is left is what has remained in my memory, and I shall cherish every moment I had, which I only had.

No, I don't prefer this one.

This question can be interesting, how does your seat in your current college or university look like? Do you feel comfortable with the designated lecture hall or classroom you enter every weekday and spend hours of time dealing with the new syllabus or enduring the sleep-inducing tone by your lecturers? I guess everyone of you have no problem recognising the "tuition chair" ( I couldn't find any suitable word to name it. ) with the small flipping board. Yes, it is small, and brings a lot of unpleasant moment whenever I am to sit on it, which in turn urges me to voice out my personal opinion regarding this popular facility provided throughout the Malaysia.

Honestly, when I was a primary school kid, I was sick of sticking myself on the old wooden table with drawer and chair whole day long. At the same time, I used to have a funny thought that sitting on the tuition chair must be very comfortable, cool-looking or any adjective that describes something good.

Now I realise the chair doesn't bring as much joy as I expected. The main aspect that fails to withdraw my affinity towards the chair is the small flipping board, or perhaps I should call it the small pad. All of us bring our pencil box during lesson, and thanks to the small area that cannot even accommodate a normal textbook, our pencil box would always end up laying on the floor beneath the chair.

It drives me mad whenever I'm trying to solve any question with the aid of a calculator. There is no sufficient space to get calculator a good spot, but to place it above the paper. I come out with a good solution to avoid the calculator blocking the text in paper, that is to place it on my thighs. And at this time you can pay attention using your ears. Trust me, occasionally there will be sound of calculator hitting the ground as a result of falling down, and after that I know how strong our calculator is to withstand the impact and remain intact after collision, nice quality control, Casio.

Actually every invention would come in handful in particular aspect. The tuition chair can serve better, but not in KTT. I prefer sitting on an ordinary chair, having ample space to have my work done comfortably on an ordinary table. Hah, just a personal rambling, do tell me if you have the same feeling :p

Flawed?

It has been more than 8 months since 6th July of year 2009 when I registered myself as one of the students in Kolej Teknologi Timur to enroll on Cambridge A-Level program under the scholarship awarded by JPA. Here is the schedule of the 18 months (1.5 years) I would like to share.

The A-Level program comprises two main examinations we have to go through. The syllabus is divided into half, which in short namely AS and A2. Both of them account for 50% of the total marks that would in turn determine the grade (A, B and so on) each. Theoretically I could have 9 months to deal with AS syllabus and another identical duration for A2. However I have to wait until the May and June to take AS papers, and there starts the A2 syllabus before the examination. When is the A2 examination? 4 months after AS examination.

So, I am wondering why the schedule is fixed in this way. I do not have any intention to bring about my own dissatisfaction towards the imbalanced schedule, as I would have decided to take STPM that includes all the syllabus in only one final examination, if my SPM result failed to attract any scholarship. Moreover, some friends of mine here are actually enduring a tough stage - they have no other choice but are forced to complete the same syllabus within one year, not to mention the entrance exam to pass as one of the prerequisites to grab a seat in any prestigious universities abroad. While some of them might be proud of that only Malaysia can provide the insanely shortened duration of A-Level program in this way, it seems that none of us are actually aware of the improper management to plan the foundation course provided to scholarship holders based on the dates of intakes stated by particular universities.

In my opinion, A-Level is not as tough as STPM in term of the academic coverage, but it does take time to fully prepare ourselves before stepping in the examination hall to apply what we have learned. This is just my little concern as a Malaysian blogger, who welcomes anyone to clarify anything I might have missed or pointed out wrongly, or justify the need to change, for a positive outcome.