The Intouchables

It's been some time since I last saw a good movie, so good that I am excited to share with my friends and family - "The Intouchables (無法觸碰 / 觸不可及) "

Kaya Butter Crackers

I still remember the times San Yi (3rd maternal aunt) prepared those delicious crackers when we were young. She would first spread a layer of Planta's sinful margerine butter on the crackers, then bring those crackers to Grandpa's grocery shop, take a pinch of sugar and sprinkle on the buttered surface. Within seconds, we would each run off with a piece and happily nibble away. All those joy cost almost nothing but a few Malaysian cents.

Fast forward to today, four pieces of kaya butter crackers cost a staggering S$1.60 (~RM3.90)!

This my friend, is a simple lesson to Inflation :p

Life

Was in JB this noon after I hastily attached the scanned article and summarized the gist and hit the “Send” button. The train glided smoothly along the track and I was lucky to secure a seat despite a weekday. It isn’t until 3 more weeks before the national day, but you could already smell the gaiety in the air with banners and posters and flags tiling the HDB flats like the Merlion’s scales.

A trip from City Square to Johor Jaya cost me a hefty RM16. And I heard there will be a 30% hike for public transport fare this coming month. Isn’t it irony when you see the neighboring country cutting down fares to ease the people’s burden, while our tanahair conveniently adopted the opposite practice at these trying times? The entire trip cruising in our elegantly spacious national cab – Proton Iswara (Saga) – was a wonderful experience, which makes me feel that a private ride is imminent.

The cabbie, a Chinese in his 30s, looked nondescript in his uniform. His skin is tanned, probably a result of lining up outside the malls in his cab, waiting for passengers under the tropical sun. His demeanour was calm and quiet at first, but once he recognized my Malaysian accent, he morphed into an ebullient character, sharing his everyday life along the way while trying a couple of times to keep away from other people’s rear bumper. Despite the adversities, he told me that life has to go on and he has to move on no matter what. I wondered if he is unperturbed by the bitter conditions due to his tenacity or he has relent to fate that any extra effort would be futile.

I drifted back to those times, when the skies were starry black at night. Except for the restless chorus of the cicadas, the surrounding was silent. And here in the garden city, the night sky is always pinkish, and you know why.

Change

When you have too much time, you can't focus. When you are out of time and need the last minute focus, suddenly there are abundant of events to distract you. Wonder what is the outcome from a 2-day revision. Hm...people from academia suck in management, not all, but I happen to come across many. It's time to teach them a lesson! ~evil grin

Time of uncertainties and the market outlook is bleak. End of the year and the fund managers are either closing their accounts or heading somewhere on earth for vacation, seeking temporary solace from the recent financial hullaballoo. And so the 1Q09 result briefing ended without any questions from the floor. Grrr...

And when I thought that there's no scene bigger than what I had experienced throughout this semester, yesterday night I was at the S.League Awards Night 2008 mingling with team managers from Dalian Shide Siwu, Geylang United, SAF FC...etc. Received a trophy from the Parliamentary Secretary of MCYS and CM remarked that the guy looks so young and handsome.

Tomorrow after the internet communication testing is over, I will vanish into thin air...

Mad Lab

After weeks of intensive effort, finally submitted the results and documentation. Rest? Not yet, finals is creeping near. Two more weeks of mugging before I am released from the invisible prison:p After that? No no no, you can't take a breather during this financial crisis. It's a golden opportunity to me. Now is the time to do homework, research, data-mining, get all the rudimentary details...

Gonna shed the lacklustre attitude, time is short. Nonetheless, I still appreciate every single day, every moment. Because of all the people I cherish and love, passion for the things I adore, the possibility of my potentials, my dream...no matter how minute it is, I will strive. I am empowered to strive. And triumph.

Soft skill can power one a long way...up the mountain higher than anyone else. But first, you need to know which peak to conquer, so that you will know which mountain foot to commence your climb. Of course you do not go unequipped. There is no short cut. It's just sweats and pains. No crosscut, buddy. Focus. Otherwise, the dream will only become an unrequited crush in the end.

Before I fathom, it's time to make decisions, again.

Cactus Blossom (2nd Time)

The first time it had its virgin efflorescence was the night when I was on the night bus heading to Penang. This time it blossomed while CM went home... Good omen:)

Wondered why no living things would flourish under my care:p

The Last Lecture

If you knew that you will be gone for good within months, what would you be doing today? This professor from CMU truly inspires me...

Read more:
http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch

Snippets

Finally, i am able to rummage through a great deal of complex maths equations and come up with something for my next experiment. i thought i had lost it all, the derivation, integration, Diophantine identity, Taylor's expansion...etcetera.

Glad that i still have it due to my strong foundation back in my pre-uni days. This, i have to thank my dad. My dad instilled the importance of maths to my siblings and i since young. But back in those days when i was in primary, all that i thought of was to have fun in school (and after school) and i sucked in maths terribly. Since he was a maths teacher in secondary school, Dad would be furious if we did bad in the tests. I remembered that once i got 38 marks for my maths in Primary 4 and was so worried that my dad would freak out when he reviewed the paper. So, i only showed him the paper early in the morning when he wasn't fully awake,

"Dad, this is my maths paper. Erm, can you sign here...fast? I have to hurry, the bus is here." i used my left thumb to conceal part of the number "3" so that it looked like i scored "88" instead of "38" and pointed to the space for signature with my right index finger.

"What's your score?"

"Erm...88%" I lied.

"Good, here you go."

Sorry Dad, that I lied. Probably you knew that I was lying then, but you just let me off. I am grateful that you rescued me from the abyss with the intensive yet fun maths tuition classes from Sec 1 to Sec 3.

~*~

This new girl from China in my lab told me the other day that my spoken english is quite good. That very same day, my Singaporean friend from another lab told me that my "England is very powderful*." Thanks to my mum, for forcing me and my siblings to converse in English since young. And yes, my mum was a English teacher in secondary school. I remembered the entire Ladybird's Peter & Jane series my mum bought for us, the Enid Blyton's, Delight Magazines, The Star and New Straits Times, Reader's Digest...etcetera. Vividly, I could still recall the times when my mum made me sit on the kitchen floor and read the novel aloud, passage by passage while she cooked, stopping occasionally only to correct my pronunciation.

Now I understand how well you have prepared me for this world. Although i may not be the best, but I am far better off than most. Thanks for the head start, mum.

~*~

When you start to develop man-breast, it's either you are filthy rich and old, or you are not working out hard enough... I am not rich, so now, instead of playing badminton on Thursday and squash on Friday, i think i am going to start jogging in the morning before i go to school. But first thing first, need to buy a pair of sneakers.

~*~

Java

Made two cups of Nescafe the other night, only to realise that you have left that very morning...

The little room seemed so empty without your presence, and the tranquility of the night turned into forlorn solitude...

I downed the javas and endeavored to turn in early. Instead, I lay with my eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling while the incessant roaring of hustling vehicles along the expressway violated my ear drums. It must be the caffeine...