Yee ‘O Lost Souls

Today was…pretty different. Yet, much less the same. I just submitted the marketing group assignment. Don’t ask why I waited till the last day. Old habits die hard.

What did I do today eh? Nope, no studying again. There was some gaming. To be honest, that game is starting to bore me. But I’m a relentless gamer so I’ll keep playing till I really beat it. Because honestly, the final boss is dead! But after you finish the game and the credits rolled, a new enemy appear on the shores. And guess what? Some black mist is causing the monsters to get stronger! This doesn’t really change the story plot-wise. It’s more like a continuation. It has individual character chapters that you play through one by one. But damn. The monsters are strong! Even those annoying world map encounters are strong. This is just an excuse to get gamers to keep playing the game. It’s like ‘keep it challenging. Gamers like challenge’. It’s not a bad mindset. After all, a true gamer will not rest until all the monsters in the game can easily be squashed like the vermin they are!

…Seems like I got carried away.

Anyway, I also took zackry a few pages today. Right now it’s still just a first draft. (It will always be a first draft) And I haven’t divided it into chapters yet. Yep, right now it just kept going longer and longer. As opposed to my angel story, which I had divided into chapters earlier on. This way I could choose to do which chapter I want instead of just letting it flow uncontrollably. But it’s being put on hold at the moment, obviously. Oh and on that note, both stories have yet to have a proper title.

Ohh yeah, while browsing through gamefaqs.com, I found this very interesting game! The Legend of Heroes: A Tear Of Vermillion and The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch. Both for the PSP. Damn. Too bad I don’t have that console. Well I’m not a big fan of handheld anyway. But you know, it’s such a cool game. The anime characters are pretty cool too. Oh and the game is in 2D. That’s so retro! I mean, Suikoden 2 was in 2D and it was awesome. The sprites are sooo cute! If I have a PSP I’ll definitely get it! But right now, the only game-related gadget I want to buy is a PS2 carrier. I ‘prophecied’ a lot of moving around for Kujong in the future.

Tomorrow…gym, definitely. I don’t like going there in the peak hours around 5-7 pm. Too many people. It gets stuffy.

I watched Whose Line Is It Anyway just now and it was fun, fun, fun!! It’s been so long! I love that show…*sniff*

Ta’ra!

p/s oh and check this out! Extreme hilarity!

I skipped maths! Haha! Because I was feeling ‘uncomfortable’. Currently contemplating of skipping tomorrow’s final class too. But either way I’ll still be in Swinburne tomorrow. Hehehe.

So instead of studying, I spent the whole day doing up my zackry story and in the process found out my space bar is a little dodgy. But no worries! I’ll be saying good bye to this keyboard soon anyway! Mwahaha!

Nevertheless I’m so happy because my story is going very nicely! I think this will easily go past the 72 page mark. Right now it is at page 53 and still haven’t reach the climax. Mwahah!

Just now I saw this mosquito just merrily flying past my mirror. So I caught it. With one hand! (Aren’t I great??) then, when I opened my palm, the mozzie wanted to flutter away, so I quickly slapped it with my other hand. It went limp and as I was dropping into the plastic bag of rubbish, it jumped off the highest rubbish and fell to the floor! Grrr! So I looked for it on the floor and saw it jumping around meekly. without taking any chances, I slapped it! And it was gone for good. Mwahah!

Ohh!! I just killed another one. And with one swipe of my hand too! Mwahah! I’m on a streak!

Okay, time for bed. Or something. Mwahah!

Ta’ra!

Man I’m tired. I’m also hungry. But it’s midnight so it’s only expected.

Today’s test was a total disaster. The last time I encountered something like this was in high school! And I hated it! But, what’s past is past. There’s still the finals next week.

I was watching the F1 Canada GP in Monaco or something. There was Montoya, Mike, Alonso and Raikkonen. You know, all the big names. I don’t know what I was fascinated by it. Perhaps Im just admiring all the stamina these people have. Having to drive for 70 continuous laps under that heat is admirbale you know. Besides, they look so cool in that patched suit and helmet. I mean, even their pit crew wore helmets. But for what? Anybody know?

Right now Nightline is interrupting my F1 pleasure. Damn it. I might not stay up long enough to see who won so screw that. I wanna sleeep.

Just now I went back to continuing my ‘zackry’ story after a long sabbatical. I went a little ways into it. Not much though. Just a little. I just got some fresh ideas about. You wouldn’t want to know where I got it from. You’ll just fall off your chair laughing. Or smirk in amusement. So I won’t say.

Ohhh!!! F1 is back up!

Ta’ra!

p/s Lamers can make your life miserable, yes.

p/s/s I want Mike to win.

I’ve always known that I am not the studious type. So why bother, right?

Okay, I gave up studying because tomorrow morning’s class is math. So what’s the point? Besides, the test is after that class. Get what I mean?

Today I spent a couple of hours or so at the library. Initially I went there to study math, but since I brought my friend along to help her with her English, I ended up doing editing for her work and teaching her English instead. But it was kinda fun. I felt sorry for her. Before this she couldn’t see why her marks were so low even though she tried her best. Poor girl :|.

Sneaky, sneaky me, I gave some of my writing exercises that I only did halfway. Don’t blame me. They were all too easy, boring and repetitive. And besides, I’m already exempted from the class :P. I probably just went there to sign my attendance and for the pleasure of showing my back to the others as I left the class. Hahaha!

I get excited whenever a task requires writing and sentence structuring. I like the challenge. But when it comes to numbers, I go dumb. The only number I want to know, is how much profit I made. Can’t help it I guess. I’m a linguist, not a mathematician.

Today in writing class was quite interesting. We were discussing ‘Chinese English’. How people who are used to speaking Chinese will write in English is a direct translation of how a certain sentence is spoken in Chinese. But I guess the Chinese language is not the only one to blame. It’s just how Asians in general speak. One friend once told me that. He said in Asian languages, most sentences end with a ‘tail’. That’s where you get all the lah, la, ma, ka, ar, lor, loh and the list goes on…

So when they speak English, you end up with stuff like ‘you watch TV, is it?’, ‘that’s your book is it?’, ‘You are so clever one’, ‘later i go play one’. Geddit? I really hate that ‘is it’ abuse. In fact, I’m annoyed by it. It actually took me a while to differentiate Manglish (Malaysian English) and true English. I mean, I had very little contact with other races in high school and throughout most of my school years. The only real contact with Chinese (other races) I made was during a four nights PBSM camp. I noticed that, although these people speak English, their English was different from mine. The meaning was the same, but it was how they said it.

For example, I say ‘Are you going to dinner?’, they’d say ‘dinner time is it?’ See? ‘is it’ abuse again. But fortunately, I managed to retain my own standard of English. Being in Swinburne helps due to the people I met. I saw how real Americans *coughs* speak and some people I met, although Chinese, speak differently. I was in dilemma too, that time. I didn’t want to sound pompous, so tried at a certain level of immitating this ‘Manglish’. But then I realized I didn’t have to lower myself to their level. Like I said, being around people who’s English is their first language, helps. A lot.

Another reason as to why my English was untarnished by Manglish when I left high school was also because I had little contact with other races. My school was 99% Malay and Malays are generally reluctant to speak English among themselves (I’m only speaking the truth here). I should know, because I practically grew up in that environment. I spoke English candidly with my close friends and it became a habit. So I started speaking English with most people in school. Some people wonder why I could speak English so casually and my friends would reply in Malay or English. I didn’t know it was actually a weird thing to do to speak English to your friends outside an English class. Surprisingly, my close friends thought the same thing. It wasn’t until someone pointed it out to us that we realized.

So anyway, I guess in terms of usage and practicality, more Chinese speak English. But when it comes to using correct terms and style, it’s the Malays (I’m referring to those from my school mostly). But you know, if you want to know if they are using correct terms and style, you must first force them to speak it. Like I said, most Malays are reluctant to speak English. They think it’s snobbish to do so. Now it all leads back to the jobless graduates issue. *sighs*

However, being able to write and pronounce things correctly are still as important.

Now, before you people have me tarred and feathered, I must say that I am not a racist. I’m just stating the truth of my observation. If you want a racist, check out the lamer. Lamers hang out with racists and racists should die. Along with all their loser friends. They are one big happy loser family.

Oh yeah, one might wonder why I kept on picking on this lamer business. It’s normal for one to shred their enemies into tiny bits and stomp on them because it’s the fun thing to do. And human nature dictates that you should not stop doing fun things. I will stop once I get bored.

I are off to bed.

Ta’ra.

Look at this comment from this blog.

"I think the problem with graduates not getting jobs is mainly because the education system sucks! (I can say a whole lot about this topic, but maybe I’ll do it when I get myself a blog)

This is what happened when I went for an interview with an accounting firm. (Now you know why I don’t have a blog!) We were asked to give a presentation to describe an animal or a mixture of animals which best represents our strengths and weaknesses. Most of us would describe ourselves as bees/ ants(hardworking), bear (strong and powerful), dolphins (intelligent) etc. But to my horror, there were some local grads which came up with really ridiculous answers! You guys just gotta read this.

One guy say that if he was given the choice to chose an animal which best represents him, it would be Mickey Mouse. *…..silence in the room…..* (I swear the interviewer almost chocked on her on saliva after hearing that.) When asked on his reasoning, he replied that it was because he likes to be popular and is quite popular in his Uni. (Now since when does being popular makes you a prime candidate to being chosen for a job?! Hello? We’re talking about working as auditors, you don’t have any life!)

He further commented that Mickey Mouse is a mouse which is similar to the "mouse" we use for our computing work. Which, implies that he is a very tech savvy person. (Either our friend here has an overly creative mind or is just plain stupid!)

One girl even said "hamsters best represent me because they are cute, just like me!" (I knew I definitely had the job at that point!)

Another girl wrote down all she needed to say on a piece of paper and started reading from it. The only time she looked at the interviewer or the rest of us was when she said "hi" and "thank you". To make things worse, she forgotten which sentence she was reading and started all over again.

Needless to say, I never did see any of them after that.

Just put yourself in an employer’s shoe, would you want these people working for you? That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of unemployed local grads increases if nothing is done to improve our education system."

Heh the guy got that right! Unless you’re in the system, you don’t see its flaws. I’m not in the mainstream system so I was spared by the worst of it. But still, even at the level I am now, I can tell who will get ahead and who will become part of the statistics if they don’t get their act together soon. What I’m trying to say is this: I’ve met a lot of smart people who get really good marks in the exams. BUT when it comes to applying what they learned, like in doing assignments, these people wouldn’t have a clue what to do first.

These people need to realize, in the real world, it doesn’t matter how high the marks you get in your exams. If you can’t apply them to real life, what’s the point? You may get the degree and the certificate, but you didn’t get educated. Employers these days are smarter. They see how well grads can communicate rather than how high their paper qualifications are. Good for them, of course. Too bad for the grads.

So to all you ’smart’ people out there who think scoring in exams are all that matter, think again. Employers don’t like the product of the current education system.

Well, not that I plan to become an employee myself, of course. I have higher reasons to achieve.

Anyway, it just sucks when you are working with people and they turn out to be below par. At this stage of education, such things are unacceptable.

Multi-Level Marketings are scary things. I had a traumatizing day because of it. Let me start from the top.

It all started yesterday when my uncle messaged me if I wanted to join a business seminar. In some strange ways, it got around in the family that I was a sucker for seminars. And besides, this is not an uncle I’m close with and we never contact each other through anything other than when we meet face to face. Okay, fine, I went because my cousin was also talked into going. I really had no idea what it was really about since the topic was ‘Success Stories and Motivation’. But who’s success story and motivation for what?

When we got there, everyone just gave us this look when we said we were students. It wasn’t until we were settled down in the function room that we realised…this was a seminar about Amway. After that we sat down an agonizing two hours of Amway preaching and weird pep rallies.

By the end of the two hours I was pissed, hungry and tired. But noooo, they wouldn’t let us go without personally talking to us. Grrrr. They asked me how do I find the seminar I said it was fine and the business model seems interesting. They said it would be a shame if we just left without looking and understanding their business model.

Me and my big mouth. I should just said the whole thing bored me to death and that I hated MLM.

…So there was another agonizing hour of pep talk.

But too bad for them, one of the women (there were two, and both are my uncle’s colleagues), rubbed me the wrong way. I fumed silently the rest of the time and needless to say, didn’t care what she was talking about. No wonder they gave us that look when we said we’re students. These people like young bloods!

They thought they were convincing enough to make us join and were pretty pleased with themselves. Well I just thought they were middle class suckers for easy money. But both me and my cousin were just putting up an intelligent face to make them feel good. My cousin was like ‘whatever, let’s just look professional. Least we could do’ but I just put up a cold front. The message was clear: ‘I am a customer you will not hope to get’.

They can say a thousand and one wonderful things about Amway but I will never join it. They say you get ahead in Amway by having a lot of strong pipelines below you. I’ll say, since Amway has been around for 70 years, it means that you are just another rat in someone else’s pipeline, right? So it doesn’t matter how many or how strong your pipelines are, you are still a rat yourself.

And I, don’t want to be a rat.

I don’t care how easy it is to get passive income. If you don’t enjoy the journey, what’s the point? It seems too easy to get money from the rats in your pipeline. All you have to do was make sure the rats do their work of maintaining their pipelines. No thanks, that’s not for me.

I will stick with Options. Besides, what’s more impressive? working on a pipeline or the ability to read charts?

I was right to be skeptical when it’s neither Mr. Foong nor Gao Lao Shi giving a talk. The Chin Kuan guy bored me to death.

Therefore, it was a complete waste of afternoon. I shall hide myself away from my uncle too from now own. The thing with MLM is, they have a way of telling you that ‘you can run, but you can’t hide’. Like I said, scary stuff. O_O

Don’t look for me…

*poof*

Haaa~ after a big dinner of Chinese food and a tiny slice of Oreo cheesecake later, I’m stuffed to the max and feeling sooo much better! Cheers for comfort food! Hahahaha!

My dad was great. He listened to my problems. He didn’t really give me advices or pushed me into a plan of action. He just…listened. Sometimes that is all a person wants. Somebody to listen. Not give you answers or advices. Eventually you’ll figure out the right answer. And besides, he knows better that I can handle this myself.

I might wrap up the night with some Tales of Legendia :D.

Ta’ra!

Man oh man. I wanna cry. Two presentations two days in a row down the drain! And I got my research report back and the marks…also went down the drain. And that lamer totally ruined our project! Not only did the lamer redid everything, (if the redo ones were better it would be fine) but it wasn’t even fucking online! Furthermore we had to present through the fucking lappy screen! If we get bad marks for this, I know where to point my guns at. And the lamer’s idea of ‘presenting’ was talking to the screen while giving the audience her back. Smart. Very smart.

If you ask me, this thing was just a disaster waiting to happen since the beginning. The ‘leader’ was pretentious and defective, in addition to leaving the lifeblood of the group in the hands of a corrupt lamer. She just let everything crash and burn. But anyway, the lamer is a perfect example of those people I don’t care about. People who don’t matter to me that I could freely trample under my feet like some lowly weed.

This is why I’m starting to dislike group projects. But on the other hand, I learned a lot too. Lamers, by the way, don’t learn anything. It just sucks when you give it everything you’ve got while everyone else ruins it.

My monitor is back now. But not without some heartache…(deep breaths…) at least it’s working fine. For now. Reminds me not to let those office people touch my pc again. They make me crazy each time.

But despite all the bad evaluations I will receive due to some other people’s stupidity, I realize I still have a fighting chance. Seeing someone else’s marks just below passing has that effect on you. Anyway, I still have Oreo cheesecake to drown my sorrows into later on.

Ta’ra.

Whooo!!! After one hundred and eighty-seven posts later, my blog is now one year old! Hahahah! It’s a friggin’ baby!

Time for a celebration!! Confetti, confettiiii!!! I want cake too!!

Check out my first post. Man it was also on June 19th!

Oh I’m so proud. Hehehehe.

Thanks for reminding me Omarizer!

Wheee!

Hmm Mr. Rodney is right (has he ever been wrong even). I’ve been thinking a lot about the benefits of blogging and how it is changing the way people do business. Maybe I should be one of those paid bloggers you know. I could do spontaneous reviews about games (like I did down below hehehe) and get paid! Of course, I’d need my own webspace. Can’t use free service like Friendster here.  Apart from being crappy, it also places ads. Which are annoying.

After this morning’s class I was suddenly interested again in doing my online business! I used to be obsessed by it at one point in time, but it just mellowed out after a while. I remember those sleepless nights where my online PS2 reselling business idea kept me awake. Someone even suggested that I buy a minivan to lug all those PS2 hehehe. But Malaysia is not yet a nation that likes to go shopping online. Soon though…soon.

Just hoping it is sooner than soon.

Man I really should be doing my assignment now.

Ta’ra!

p/s I don’t mean to be rude or bragging or putting anyone down, but when I looked through the pieces my group members done, one thing is obvious: They don’t know what they are talking about. Like I said, life is as we know it. *sighs*