Perfectly Distorted Reality

The End..

2006-01-24T01:07:00.000+11:00

I'm not going to blog anymore.

Through my eyes the world was burning..

2006-01-20T00:45:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Rob Thomas - Ever the Same
The weather is now: Chilly Cold 15.2c

I attended my first golf session today at a driving range somewhere in the Inner South area of Canberra. My mentor Johnny, gave me my first lesson and generously lent me his mother's golf clubs as he has been a lefty since he was a kid and his clubs would not suit me.

The weather was great with some chilly winds blowing through the empty balcony as I stood there wondering what I have got myself into, feeling hopeless even just as I was practising my ever crooked swing. As the both of us looked extremely gay with him standing behind me holding my waist as I give my swing another few hopeful tries, I finally managed to hit a drive that was uhm, about 70 metres far. Perfect. Even Michelle Wee from Hawaii hits a better drive than I do.

After much disappointment from my poor performance, I decided that maybe golf wasn't for me after all. Just as I was about to give up, my drives were getting better and soon I was hitting an average of 5 out of 10 balls into the net which was just a metre next to me as compared to 9 out of 10 when I first started.

100 golf balls soon finished without realisation and I was whinging about how Johnny actually hit 70 balls while I struggled with 30, which means I paid much more than he did for the same price.

Wish I have some pictures to share but after considering the fact that the two of us would look extremely gay practising golf in an empty driving range, I shook off that thought and promised myself that I'll only take some pictures when my game improves.

Feeling pretty satisfied, I am determined to try this again sometime over the weekend.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

2006-01-10T14:47:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Bob Marley - Don't Worry Be Happy
The weather is now: Freaking Hot! 34.2c

A couple of weeks ago I was in search of the ending music from Donald Trump's The Apprentice but it was to no avail. I could not even find the name to the music as it would most likely be produced by the producers and they did not intend to make it available to the public. I stumbled upon this forum called Primetime TV and posted a request to anyone who has any idea where I might be able to get my hands on the music. A nice lady by the name of Rhett replied and asked me to email her for further details if I still want to the music, and I did. To my surprise, she offered to record an episode of the show and is willing to rip it onto her computer and burn it into a CD before posting it to me at no cost. I am utterly surprise and delighted to know that someone from halfway across the globe is willing to do such a favour for a stranger. I just received the mail yesterday and she even posted me a Christmas + New Year card, which I thought was really, really sweet. I ought to send a thank you card back and make sure we'd be friends. =)

So thank you and I really appreciate what you did. Good people do exist in this world after all.

Look at those nice lil' stamps on the envelope

The card!

That's the CD, and a happy holidays greeting

At times I dread my now and envy where I've been..

2006-01-09T12:58:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Tammin Sursok - Whatever Will Be
The weather is now: Warm Sunshine 26.6c

First off, this song Whatever Will Be by Tammin Sursok is really good. Secondly, I've got nothing else to say. Life is a routine now that gives me nothing but a sense of emptiness. I need more, much more, at least in this life. Perhaps things would be more interesting when classes starts, maybe it will be worse. The thought about doing something that I had no prior intention or interests in doing is dreadful. Telling myself that this may be the start of something interesting and that I am able to put to good use is all I can do to anaesthetise myself.

Maybe I need to getaway from this place. No, I need to get away from this place. At least for a while. I don't know. I might never return. Runaway from the world perhaps? What a bold statement. I need a change in my life, I need the feeling of taking charge, I need the sense of control over my life.

My heart feels like the death of a star, slowly self-consuming and self-absorbing, before it all collapses, turning into a black hole, pulling everything around it into an eternal darkness.

Oh look, and I said I've got nothing to say earlier. What a bragger.

Get Rich or Die Tryin'

2006-01-05T02:17:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Brroke Fraser - Arithmetic
The weather is now: Cold 15.1c

I think due to some recent events and life situations, I am becoming more and more desperate to be rich. Desperate may sound a little on the extreme side but it's either you do it, or you don't at all. A stroll down the bookstore after failing to open a new bank account made me end up with this:

I've finished more than half of the book by now, just by reading it on the bus and while sitting on a bench waiting for a friend during lunch. An interesting read, packed with a few good laughs I must say, if you know how the Trump man speaks sometimes. Great insight, big dreams, even bigger guts. Doesn't exactly make me a billionaire in heart, but certainly makes me want to become one even more.

One of the few quotes that I really like from the book:

"Alot of money can cause misery. That is true. But I rather be in misery with the money than to be in misery because I don't have it."

New Year

2006-01-01T03:23:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Pussycat Dolls - Stickwitu
The weather is now: Cooling 18.8c

Image taken from News.com.au

Nice fireworks. Ruin the air, destroy the ozone, pollute the world, kill the environment and clog the streets.

Great celebration. What celebration anyway. Celebrate a new year? What's a new year? Celebrate new day? Celebrate the same day, everyday?

I don't like celebrations. But Happy New Year to those who do.

Falling in Time..

2005-12-28T16:32:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Howie Day - Collide
The weather is now: Sunny Hot 33.6c

Yep, so birthday's gone and I am 21 now. It's just a number anyway, I reckon I gotta be older than that, at least that's what my stress level says. So I did some post-Christmas shopping and here are some random pictures:

I did not buy this. It's my Birthday present from Sister and Foong. A Clinique Happy perfume for men and a $50 dollars iTunes Music Card which was immediately put to good use. Does the perfume make me happy?

My Birthday cake which my Sister forgot to collect before Christmas and I had to collect it on my own today, after my Birthday. Wee!

A music video I purchase from the iTunes Music Store. U2's Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own. A great song with great lyrics. Highly recommended.

That's a list of songs that were automatically added into a 'Purchased' playlist whenever I purchase a song from the ITMS. Looks like turning legal age is slowly turning my song choices to legal as well. Oh and the Live version of Damien Rice's Delicate and James Blunt's Goodbye my Lover is excellent!!!

That's a towel I bought from Myer yesterday, along with 2 Pringles for my private indulgence and the original DVD of Closer! My first original DVD title at just $19.90!.

The End is not as Fun as the Start..

2005-12-27T10:57:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: U2 - Original of the Species
The weather is now: Cloudy Gloomy 22.2c

Birthdays are meant to be happy, joyous, and full of celebration; At least that's what it's supposed to be for most others. As if the weather today was trying to match the mood I have for my 'supposedly' big day, my 21st year in this world, with the sun trying to force its way to shine through a sky filled with thick and heavy clouds.

Mind you, I do not mean that I am actually feeling especially upset and withdrawn due to the fact that I am having my birthday today, at least that's what I really do not wish to admit even if it is true. In other words, you can say that I am not upset, but I am most definitely not happy as well.

Birthday is just another day. Why the celebrations? Why the happiness? Happiness only existed with your parents on the day you were born, it doesn't remind you of anything. As I said in an earlier entry, we were all crying when we came into this world. Mind me for the depressing stuff. Maybe I don't want to be happy after all. Because if I'm happy, I can't be depress anymore, and I want to stay depress, therefore I don't want to be happy, and I'm trying to make everyone else around me unhappy as well. Go figure.

What's so good about growing up anyway? What's so good about knowing that you're getting older and older by the year? When you are 7 you want to be in year 6 to be the big bully in school, but fail to remember that you have a major exam that draws closer as you grow; When you are 11 you want to be 12 so you can finally make your first identification card, which makes it so much easier for the law to catch up with you; When you are 16 you want to be 18 so that you can finally drive, drink, have sex and leave home if you're heavily westernised, which also means you are at legal age, which can get you executed, jailed, deported, etc. Driving makes your life raises the probability of you getting killed on the streets by at least 15%. Sex gives you the risk of over a thousand different types of infections and it may ruin your entire life as well should you not be careful, which in fact, may bring a new life into this world, so would you be smiling or crying the day the baby is born, knowing that your life may be on a different course should it not be because of the responsibility over the birth of a child?

Then when you are finally 18 you want to be 21, so that you can get into casinos (in Malaysia), so that you can be classified as a 'matured' adult, so that you can get your 'golden key' etc. But you will fail to notice that when you are 21, you will also have an entire life ahead of you to take over. The responsibility of taking care of your own welfare, and very soon the welfare of others. The hardship of going out into the real world, (mind you, most things you see before you're even out in the world are just lies, fantasies, comfort zone that you and people around you built to shelter from the harsh reality.

When you are 25, you want to get married, have kids and start a family. Don't even get me started on that. When you're 50 you want to retire, you want your kids to graduate, have their own partners and kids, and then going on to spend all your Super/EPF on their education, which in return they may just send you to a home for the better half of the remaining days in your life. When you're 60, you want grandchildren, you want to know that whatever that has made you you in this world, will be passed on to the next generation and that the legacy of your birthname will be carried on. When you're 80, you might probably just wish that you're dead to end the suffering and pain you are experiencing due to old age and the fact that the body is dying. When you die, people cry, people grief, they bury you under 2 tons of mud in a confined space of 2 x 2 metre wooden box that's highly glamourised. Or, they might just burn the shit out of you and drown your ashes down into the sea of sorrow.

Now, what's so good about life again? Or at least, what's left with life, and us? All we will ever have is memories, if we can even have that after everything that is.

Happy Birthday to meself.

Random pictures, random pictures.

The tribal council area on top of the lake that was near Kevin and Justine's house in Greenway.

The lake. Whatever it is called.

'Birthday' afternoon.

Felling all happy and jolly! You can just read it all from my face can you?

Nothing to win, and nothing left to lose..

2005-12-24T14:37:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Daniel Powter - Bad Day
The weather is now: Sunny Windy 24.8c

Hello there. Was it Friday just moments ago when I was still awake? Oh wait, it was Saturday when I started work, but it was Friday when I was going to work? Now that I have woken up after work, it is still Saturday? Or is it Sunday? It can't be Friday definitely.

Apologies. I'm just trying to dramatise the fact that I've been working for two days in a row from 12am till 6/8am in the morning, and still have to get back in to work at 4. Just about another hour later.

The lengths one would go in a materialoney world. materialoney:A word I created to describe the world today which is both materialistic and money driven.

Graduation..

2005-12-22T01:11:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: U2 - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
The weather is now: Hot 22.2c

Well, the day has come and it is finally time to graduate after four long years of torment and struggle in this particular education phase. Not that I wasn't able to cope with the study load, nor was it because i sucked at what I was studying all along, but for someone who isn't exactly a big believer in education, coming this far is something. I hold nothing against education, and I think that with education comes rationality, followed by a whole bunch or scholarly crap as well, of course.

Graduation day was filled with people who are pumped with excitement, joy, and the sense of achievement. Not to mention another whole bunch of family members who were twice as excited as their children who would be graduating and being proud of the length that their children has reached today. Of course, that is partly because the graduation ceremony was held at the parliamentary building in the heart of Canberra. I guess I might be the only person who didn't feel a thing at all except the feeling of the heavy gown over my shoulder and the weird hat on my head that makes me redefine the word 'shit'. It was, however, a great feeling to see some friends again, and it was sad that some are already leaving back home as soon as the ceremony finishes and that I will probably not see them again if chance would not have it to happen.

Me standing in front of the parliamentary building

Me and Winnie, a good friend who has never stopped 'mengada-ing' ever since she set foot in Canberra.

Me and Ezrin. Another great friend who will be studying a Business course with me next year.

And here are some pics of the papers that cost my dad a fortune. Would also like to take this opportunity to thank him, considering that he will be visiting this blog sometime soon. Hah! Here it goes (I know it may sound corny but, hey, it's what I can do for now). Well, thank you dad for all the support, financially and emotionally, that you have given to me without any hesitation and doubts at all. Thank you for the second chance you have given me when noone else would have believe the person I can be today. Thank you for not giving up on me in the first place when all I ever did was to disappoint you. Thank you, most of all, for being such a great dad. Oh no! I have to thank my sis as well for all the continuos support and constant whinging + nagging that helped me get to where I am. Thank you for paying off tons of my expenses here as well and prevented me from getting deported!

See that 'Graduation Teddy Bear my sister got me? I'll just add that to the cost of the two other papers taken in the picture.

That's the 100k paper!

Last, but not least..

Can you finally understand what I mean when I said the word 'shit' is redefined? Argh!

Well, here's to the end of a phase of my life, and of my education life, at least. There's another year more to go. This time, something different, something irrelevant, something that needs to be achieved just so that another phase of my life can begin here. Goodbye and hello.

*I will have more pictures to upload, as soon as I get them from my Sister's camera.

Parcel from home!

2005-12-20T11:14:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: M2M - Don't Mess With My Love
The weather is now: Sunny Sunshine 23.0c

Received a note from the Australian post yesterday informing me that there's a 'signed document' awaiting to be picked up by me. Woke up early this morning and headed out to the O'Connor shops to collect the item. Somehow I decided that I will just carry a pouch with me this time and did not bring the backpack with me as I headed out with my housemate's bicycle.

Reached the post office and gave my note to the lady at the counter and she told me that I will have to collect the item from the main post office, which is located in the city. Bummer. Now I have to ride all the way into Civic for the first time. It was a huge post office and the man at the counter brought out a parcel the size of my sub-woofer . Bummer twice. How am I supposed to carry the thing back with me on the bike? A closer look at the parcel and it was from Wei Cheng! Hey wait, I thought she was supposed to just send me a birthday card and not an entire parcel like this?

The parcel was actually in a pretty bad condition. Another flip on the parcel showed this:

What? Did they think it was a bomb or something? At least try not to damage the god damn box.

I was really eager to see what's inside and another look at the sender's form revealed this:

Clothes and Maggie Mee Noodles.. YUMMY!!! At least dear chengs really did get me Maggie Mee as requested when she asked me what I want for my birthday.

Right at this moment, another thought shot through my head. How am I supposed to cycle back with this parcel??? Great. The quick-witted me immediately rang my sister and asked her if she wanted to have lunch *EVIL GRIN*. She said she had to check her meeting schedules first but asked where I was at the time and I told her of my situation. Being the nice sissie she has always been, she offered to come pick me up with the bike and send me home. How niceeeee! Awww..

After a series of pushing and nudging, the bike finally made its way into the car and off we were heading back to my house. I couldn't wait to open the parcel and therefore I ripped it apart before I could take a picture of the entire thing. These are the contents in the parcel: 3 packets of Asam Laksa, 4 packets of Curry, 2 packets of Myojo mee (YUM!), 3 t-shirts and a card! How sweet! =)

Thank you dear dear! You're the best.

Go Aussie Go?

2005-12-12T11:48:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Photograph - Nickelback
The weather is now: Sunny Bright 22.1c

An article copied from News.com.au:

"MORE than 20 people have been injured and 16 arrested as race-fuelled violence spread through Sydney's beachside suburbs overnight.

A series of apparent revenge attacks - including two stabbings - happened after yesterday's unrest at Cronulla where more than 5000 people had massed.
New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma today said police were in control of the situation, after officers and an ambulance crew were earlier assaulted during the peak of racial tension.

The violence has drawn condemnation from Mr Iemma, police and community groups.

Some involved in the trouble have been identified as being associated with neo-Nazi groups and seen distributing extremist literature (full story).

Drunken mobs within the crowd at Cronulla yelled racist chants, chased down and bashed people of Middle Eastern appearance in an extended show of violence.

As the unrest spread overnight, a total of 25 people - including two ambulance officers - had been injured, about 40 cars vandalised and an Australian flag burned.
Police said 16 people were arrested across Sydney and charged with 42 offences.

Mr Iemma today described the behaviour as "stomach turning" and said it would not be tolerated.

"I saw yesterday people trying to hide behind the Australian flag, well they are cowards whose behaviour will not be tolerated," Mr Iemma said.

"That was the most disgraceful, disgusting behaviour that I've ever seen."

Later, a second 23-year-old man was stabbed in the back by a group of males, described as being of Middle Eastern appearance, at a golf club at Woolooware, in Sydney's south."

First, you get a crowd of people fuelled with the pride of being Australian, which is not a difficult task at all. Most of them are pretty patriotic and does not hold back when displaying their affection towards Australia. Then, give them something else that being an Australian is proud of doing: Booze.

What do you get?

A bunch of lunatics that may not even be able to spell out the word Australia.

So what if I paraded down the beach where tons of middle eastern men were targeted and attacked, with my passport held up high, letting everyone see that I'm a 'Malay-sian'? Does it make me a target as well? Or what if I'm a true Aussie that was born and lived the most part of my life in Australia, but somehow grew to be slightly darker and sports a bearded face? I'll get stabbed and mobbed.

A video clip shown from the news website even had a girl saying something like, "We want to be able to come to Cronulla with our family, and not be scared anymore. And not be scared, that's it!" Here's a picture of the stupid, stupid little immature piece of crap.

Let me get this straight. If you're afraid of being attacked by terrorists on an unknown beach even though it's located in Sydney, you might as well buy a lottery ticket and the chances are higher.

Then, you want to be able to go to Cronulla safely with your family? Good. Stay away from the booze and keep your head clear while driving, because the probability of you and your family getting killed in a traffic accident by your silly attitude is at least 1000x times higher that the probability of you getting attacked by terrorist in Cronulla beach.

If you're so afraid of freaking terrorists (not that I'm not afraid, but this is just total nonsense), you might as well start worrying about the food you eat everyday, the water you drink, the way you drive, or even better, just fortify you and your lovely family in your house or start building a nuclear bunker right now and never come back out of that shit hole. Then you may have something lesser to worry about.

Tomorrow's Gonna Come Too Soon..

2005-12-10T08:26:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Jay Chou - Keep Heading North
The weather is now: Lovely Sunny 21.1c

Tell me what is there better to do when you sleep at 4.30am and wake up at 7.30am?

Nope, the answer's not going back to sleep. It's not getting yourself a great big nice breakie. No way it's going to be relieving yourself in the toilet when all other housemates are asleep. And no you don't go out and do some exercise.

You go online and read about your local taxation policies and write about it in a blog entry. That's what you do.. Well at least that was what I did.

The result of my findings were indeed in vain. Not only I realised some hurtful truth towards my current income, I was also able to discover the reason why are most Aus+ralians (it has to be done like this or I might get arrested by the newly passed terrorism laws that allow enforcement officials to arrest anyone they THINK might be a terrorist, an accomplice in a terrorism act, or even those who make fun of the government) are mediocre and average while the government is extremely wealthy and strong.

After all, thousands of international students like me who are struggling Keyword: Struggling to get proper education here already contributes to a minimum of AUD$15,000 a year is still charged with a hefty amount of income tax here, even when the overall outcome is supposed to be beneficial to the economy and government of this land. A simple equation like this provides clear evidence to my statement above:

International Students = $$$ --> Government & Economy
International Students who work = $$$ (Goes back into..) --> Government & Economy

And yet, we as students who are only allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours during school term are taxed at an enormous percentage of AUD$0.29 for EVERY dollar we earn. That is..

29%!!!

While all other residents and citizens are able to claim back a portion of their taxed income by the end of the financial year (I will not go into how they are able to do so), we as international students just have to suck our thumbs and sulk at one corner while almost 30% of our hardly earned blood and sweat money are ripped off us.

Bloody suckers.

_______________________________________________________

However, in a totally unrelated news, I've finally got back my old sim card yesterday and in addition, a new phone to replace my lost Sony Ericsson k700i as it was insured. Thanks to my sis for paying an additional AUD$150 access fee, the insurance company compensated us with a new Sony Ericsson k750i instead of the older model of k700i as they did not have the stock in hand. (Now at least there's something good to talk about in this money sucking, gold driven land)

Just some pictures to share with you the quality of a 2MP (Megapixel) camera phone. Nothing too impressive, yet acceptable. By the way, I was also given a free table stand and AUD$170 dollars worth of free picture printing from Kodak. Excellante.

Looking out at the garden from my room window.

This is the table stand that I was talking about.

Err.. my iBook

Question..

2005-12-09T00:24:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Dice - Finley Quaye & William Orbit
The weather is now: Chilly 13.2c

Just got a simple question if anyone even bothers.

Does the Internet brings people closer together or puts them further away from each other?

May seem like a simple question and I dare say many of you would already have a clear answer without much thinking but it certainly is a paradox to me.

What the..?

2005-11-28T02:12:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Sarah Blasko - Don't Dream It's Over
The weather is now: COLD 8.2c

1) Yes, I'm bored.
2) Yes, there's nothing much better to do.
3) Yes, I'm pretty much an O.C. geek.
4) No, I don't surf for nude pictures of Seth Cohen (You'll get what I mean).

But then..

Yep, that must be a mistake there. How can that be true.. Hahahahahaha.. No no.. Can't be true can it?

What the f**k?

I'm just a Kid..

2005-11-23T03:10:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Kate DeAraugo - Maybe Tonight
The weather is now: Chilly 13.3c

Call this a tribute, call this an attack, call this a RIIE (Randomly Irrelevant Impulsive Entry). I'm still going to do it. I don't usually posses the interest in writing about someone else's blog in mine, so consider this a special presentation.

Sometime ago, I was shown a blog entry that was filled with pure insulting (yes, there's a difference between pure and intellectual insults) comments towards a friend of mine who was working as a ticket seller in a local cinema. Comments such as "Selling tickets are low." and "If you need extra allowance, just get it from your parents." were all over that particular entry (you see where I'm getting at?) and he tried hard to make the entire entry sound articulate as he was composing a damaging entry (at least to my friend). While my friend was deeply angered and shocked by his truly RIIE, he removed the entry and went to complain to his mum, who then apparently told him that his friend that he insulted just moments ago is just a mediocre and that he shouldn't be hanging out with her as much. Not to mention, the mum of the kid is actually a friend of the girl's mum. (So much for family friends) :end:

Fast forward a couple of weeks later

The same kid is trying to hold a birthday party, and is desperate into getting everything in place, which include:

1) Getting girls to the party, but only managed to invite 11 guys to the party (Isn't it obvious why).
2) Begging his friends to request him for live online feed during the so called birthday bash.
3) Getting the mummy's help into asking her friend to attend in order to get the girls she labelled mediocre to attend (He shouldn't be hanging out with them!). So now there are at least 2 girls. Good on ya. =)
4) Acting as the cool kid in school and town by getting some 'band' to perform in his party but was again obviously rejected abruptly.
5) Using Google! Earth to locate his house and use it as a map and put it up for attendees to get the directions. (Eggs, anyone?)
6) Putting up some extremely annoying music that plays uninterruptedly in the background, which you cannot stop.
7) Attending language school to increase his language efficiency in order to insult people intellectually (Perhaps?).

After a sincere and non-vulgarity comment left on his blog, he changed his nickname to "You can insult me, you can insult my dog, but insult my family, and you're dead meat." (I was really tempted to try on his mum, but heck, I wanna look intellectual. Hah!) Not too happy with the comment I suppose? But hey, heard of cause and effect?

Yeah I know, he's only 15 and I should probably give him a break. So I guess I should just let him be and allow him to grow up at the pace that suits his mentality and probably endanger the future of society's morality? He needs a reality check and yeah, you guessed it.

Reality hurts. The truth is going to hurt more. Denial hurts much more later. How much hurt are you willing to take?

www.xanga.com/sk8er_rapper_jynjyn

Moving..

2005-11-20T19:19:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Sometimes - Nine Days
The weather is now: Sunny Cool 23.9c

It's the end of the residential term today and as most of you who know, I will not be returning anytime soon, which is why I have found a room off campus to rent and stay in for the rest of the year till the middle of next year. Packing everything from my old room is just crazy and it makes one wonder how can so many things actually fit into one small room like that..

The packing menace..

That is just a fraction of the items that I have actually packed, excluding the unbelievable amount in the kitchen and others.

Now, I have settled in well and am liking every bit of this cosy and spacious room that is 10x better than my previous one. Not to mention the non-existent of dirty, noisy and untidy housemates..

*note* The books on the shelf is not mine. As studious as I want myself to be, it's not mine. =)

The beautiful garden view right infront of my eyes as I am writing this..

Picture perfect wall.. =)

Missing

2005-11-19T16:43:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt
The weather is now: Sunny Wet 23C

I thought Australia is supposed to be a country where honesty and moral values are highly regarded. Well apparently that wasn't the case when my Sony Ericsson k700i went missing yesterday. I was at the post office yesterday filling in a mail redirecting mail in order to get my mails redirected to my new address, when I realised that I didn't have the new address with me, which prompted me to get onto the Internet at the resource centre to retrieve the number of my landlady so that I can ask her for the address.

And so I inputted the address into my mobile and went back downstairs to the post office. Filled in the form, and went back to my room before I realised that it was missing 30 minutes later. Called my mobile but it was switched off. *Note* Just forget about your mobile next time when it is switched off after you realised that it has gone missing because obviously, the person who took the phone would not want you to contact him. Went back to the resource centre and post office, asked the people that worked there but noone turned the phone up. This is it. It's gone.

Thank god for insurance that I'll be able to claim for a new phone when my sister comes back from Malaysia.

I guess I don't exactly blame the person who took it. It's human nature after all. For all I know it probably wasn't even an Aussie that took the phone.

So long, farewell my phone.

The Sound of Silence

2005-11-16T08:36:00.000+11:00

The Sound of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.

Fools said I, You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said, The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.

Google AdSense

2005-11-06T16:23:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Billie Myer - Kiss the Rain
The weather is now: Sunny Hot 22.0c

Well I don't know how effective it will be or how it can really earn me anything but please do help by clicking on those nice little banner and links you see on top and on the right side bar. I promise that I'll buy you people nice ice-creams (because I'm feeling like an egg that's been cracked on top of a car in the middle of the afternoon). Don't worry about telling me that you've already did because I know who you are. =)

Cheers

Temptations..

2005-10-13T09:43:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: U2 - City of Blinding Lights

Apple today announced the birth of the new generation of iPods. The iPod video. Featuring an all-new video playback feature, the iPod video is integrated with the best music (and video) jukebox in the world, iTunes 6 to provide users with an array of unbelievable selection of songs and videos to choose from and download, which can then be sync with the iPod video in a matter of seconds. Buy it, watch it, and bring it on your iPod video. It is the new revolution of the iPods. Additional features include a 2.5" inches LCD screen for maximum viewing pleasure (no tilting 90 degrees that messes with the usability) and an improve battery life of up to 20 hours of music playback, an impressive increase of over 5 hours as compared to its predecessors.

Apart from the introduction of the new iPod video and iTunes 6, Apple has got another surprise up its sleeve and I personally think this particular innovation would prove to be much more revolutionary if compared to the iPod video:

The new iMac G5 with Front Row.

Following the launch of the original iMac G5 in the year 2004, Apple had successfully proved that its name is synonymous to creative design and technology, by creating a full-featured desktop computer that is packed inside a 2 inch box. And they have done it once again this time, by not just making the already thinnest desktop computer in the world thinner, but integrated into it one of the industry's most reliable web cam, the iSight.

In the race of becoming the first in the market to provide a fully integrated digital media hub for future homes, Apple has no doubt wasted its competitors in the dust with the newly created software called the Front Row that comes with a portable remote control. Front Row gives users a simple, intuitive and powerful way to play their music, enjoy their photo slideshows, and watch their DVDs and iMovies, as well as popular movie trailers from apple.com and music videos and television shows purchased from the iTunes Music Store, on their iMac from up to 30 feet away using the new bundled Apple Remote that sports the innovative bluetooth technology.

The future? Having the ability to now purchase and download a variety of digital media content that includes up-to-date TV shows, music videos and video casts, Apple is set to bring the future of digital media home a step closer. Soon, with the ability to stream live video and audio feed directly into digital TVs and monitors through Airport Express AV, it will not be soon till the future becomes a reality.

I for one certainly can't wait any longer.

Floriade

2005-10-02T16:31:00.000+10:00

Some new pictures that I took yesterday during Floriade, Canberra's annual flower festival. Enjoy..

Apple Australia

2005-09-13T00:05:00.000+10:00

One Step Closer..

2005-08-22T11:50:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Bee Gees - Massachusetts
The weather is now: Sunny Bright 11.6c

Sorry for the absence of posts for the past 2 months. All I need now is a miracle..

Somewhere in the Sky..

2005-07-05T00:38:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Air Supply - Goodbye
The weather is now: Freezing 2.1c

I'm just kind of speechless for these couple of days.. A new low for me..

The guy who loves you..

2005-07-02T21:42:00.000+10:00

Taken from Juan's blog..

The guy who loves you,
can't tell you the reason why he loves you. He only knows that in his eyes, you are the only one.

The guy who loves you,
always makes you mad, not knowing what he did, no matter how stupid it can be, as everything he does, it is for your own good.

The guy who loves you,
seldom praises you , but in his heart, you are the best, only he knows it.

The guy who loves you,
will scold or complaint if you ddin't reply his message but others, because he cares.

The guy who loves you,
only sheds his tears in front of you, when you try wiping them, you are touching his heart, the heart which beats for you.

The guy who loves you,
will remember every word you said , even it's not on purpose and he will use the word always at the nick of time.

The guy who loves you,
will not give any promise that easily, because he doesn't want to break the promise, he want you to believe him and to give you the happiest and safest life ever after.

The guy who loves you,
always tell you not to think too much, because they already plan it for you, he want to give u the best life in the future, he want to give you a suprise, believe him that he can do it.

The guy who loves you,
maybe can't remember special occasions like anniversaries, but he knows that every second he lives, he's loving you, no matter what day is.

The guy who loves you,
will be willing to fetch you from the airport. He won't carry a bunch a rose and call you darling like what you expect but he will carry your ludgage and ask, "why are you that thin within two days?" with his sincere heart.

The guy who loves you,
will listen to you quietly when you are mad, and when you finished, he will say, "You still got class tomorrow, sleep earlier with smile."

The guy who loves you,
doesn't know that whether he should call you when you are angry, but he will sent a message to you after few hours, if you ask him why he call that late, he will say, "When you are angry, my explanations are all rubbish. But when you calm down, my explanations will make sense."

The guy who loves you,
always call you little girl, but everytime he needs to make a big decision, he will first want to hear your advice.

The guy who loves you,
don't like little toys like teddy bear, but he will always put the bear you gift him at his bed.

The guy who loves you,
while quarelling, he will apologize uncontrollably, althought you are the one who's wrong, and later, he will sent a message to you with, "baby, actually you know its your fault, you know it urself".

The guy who loves you,
when he really miss you, will want to buy a bunch of rose and wait you stupidly under your apartment but he doesn't know what he bought is daisies. To him, it doesn't matter, because in his heart, that's roses.

The guy who loves you,
if he can't always see you, he will try to make himself busy, not having any time to think of you because he knows, he will keep on missing you and there's nothing he can do about it but feel miserable.

What about the guy who loves you.. then..?

Please..

2005-07-02T02:18:00.000+10:00

Thank you..

Yeah Yeah..

2005-07-01T14:44:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Mai Kuraki - Secret of my Heart
The weather is now: Wet and cold 10.2c

God : Hello. Did you call me?

Me : Called you? No ... who is this?

God : This is GOD. I heard your prayers. So I thought I will
chat.

Me : I do pray. Just makes me feel good. I am actually busy
now. I am in the midst of something ...

God : What are you busy at? Ants are busy too.

(Busy at repairing the damn world you created.)

Me : Don't know. But I can't find free time. Life has become
hectic. It's rush hour all the time.

God : Sure. Activity gets you busy. But productivity gets you
results. Activity consumes time. Productivity frees it.

(Yeah how does productivity frees time?)

Me : I understand. But I still can't figure out. By the way, I
was not expecting YOU to buzz me on instant messaging chat.

God : Well, I wanted to resolve your fight for time, by giving
you some clarity. In this net era, I wanted to reach you
through the medium you are comfortable with.

Me : Tell me, why has life become complicated now?

(Reality check: Life has always been complicated and hasn't 'just' gotten complicated.)

God : Stop analyzing life. Just live it. Analysis is what
makes it complicated.

Me : Why are we then constantly unhappy?

God : Your today is the tomorrow that you worried about
yesterday. You are worrying because you are analyzing.
Worrying has become your habit. That's why you are not happy.

Me : But how can we not worry when there is so much
uncertainty?

(Indeed..)

God : Uncertainty is inevitable, but worrying is optional.

Me : But then, there is so much pain due to uncertainty ...

(Too much..)

God : Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

Me : If suffering is optional, why do good people always
suffer?

God : Diamond cannot be polished without friction. Gold cannot
be purified without fire. Good people go through trials, but
don't suffer. With that experience their life become better
not bitter.

Me : You mean to say such experience is useful?

God : Yes. In every terms, Experience is a hard teacher. She
gives the test first and the lessons afterwards.

Me : But still, why should we go through such tests? Why can't
we be free from problems?

God : Problems are Purposeful Roadblocks Offering Beneficial
Lessons to Enhance Mental Strength. Inner strength comes from
struggle and endurance, not when you are free from problems.

Me : Frankly, in the midst of so many problems, we don't know
where we are heading.

God : If you look outside you will not know where you are
heading. Look inside. Looking outside, you dream. Looking
inside, you awaken. Eyes provide sight. Heart provides
insight.

Me : Sometimes not succeeding fast seems to hurt more than
moving in the right direction. What should I do?

(I should put this sentence in BIG CAPS.)

God : Success is a measure as decided by others. Satisfaction
is a measure as decided by you. Knowing the road ahead is more
satisfying than knowing you rode ahead. You work with the
compass. Let others work with the clock.

(I don't agree with this..)

Me : In tough times, how do you stay motivated?

God : Always look at how far you have come rather than how far
you have to go. Always count your blessing, not what you are
missing.

Me : What surprises you about people?

God : When they suffer they ask, "Why me?" When they prosper,
they never ask "Why me". Everyone wishes to have truth on
their side, but few want to be on the side of the truth.

Me : Sometimes I ask, Who am I, Why am I here. I can't get the
answer.

God : Seek not to find who you are, but to determine who you
want to be. Stop looking for a purpose as to why you are here.
Create it. Life is not a process of discovery but a process of
creation.

(Nice twist of words here..)

Me : How can I get the best out of life?

God : Face your past without regret. Handle your present with
confidence. Prepare for the future without fear.

(True enough..)

Me : One last question. Sometimes I feel my prayers are not
answered.

(What prayers..?)

The comments I made were not intended to insult or badly criticise the above article. It is no doubt a wonderful conversation but I just find it very ironic and can't help but put my thoughts into the entire thing.

Go on crumbling. Cheers.

I am..

2005-07-01T12:27:00.000+10:00

I am dejected..

Is life unfair, or am I treating myself unfairly..?

My Wishlist..

2005-06-28T02:08:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Backstreet Boys - Incomplete
The weather is now: Cold 6.2c

I know it's early for my birthday, it's early for Christmas but it's never too early to just list down the things I want and hope that I'll get them realllll soon. =) I've thought about it and I guess I have 2 different wishlist and I'll just put down the more realistic one. (you wouldn't want to know anything about the other one. hehe)

1) Mini Cooper Type-S Chili - $41,800AUD

2) A Marketing job in Apple Computer Inc, Australia

3) An iMac G5 20" - $2,800AUD

4) The Cult of Mac (My Mac bible!) - $72.95AUD

5) Powerbook 15" Superdrive - $3,649AUD

6) Nike Free 5.0 iD

7) Palm T5 with WiFi Card - $649.00AUD

That's all for now.. I'll be back for more..

The Show..

2005-06-21T15:05:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Ryan Adams - Wonderwall
The weather is now: Gloomy Wet 8.9c

The show of life had a bad cast

Played life with a shabby past

What lies ahead the next phase

A weary heart not shown upon the face

The roads ahead are winding

Lights are all blinding

As it plays it tumbled

Again and again it fumbled

None knew where it was heading

None knew what was waiting

None did understand

They just could not withstand

A show that was played

Was not how they wanted it portrayed

The show of life was just a show

A show that I wanted it to glow..

An Introverted Dreamer..

2005-06-20T00:55:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Engelbert Humperdinck - Release Me
The weather is now: Wet 8.2c

So, I'm an introvert..

The quiet achiever, a highly intelligent person with lots to give. May come across as shy and sweet but under the surface, there's a fire burning on. You may not have as many pals as extroverts do, but you know yours better. Being loyal, honest and trustworthy among friends, you're the one most go for when it comes to advises.

You should practice those speeches, because with humility and an ability to see all sides, you are a good leader. You sure like good parties, but a night at home with DVDs and red wine is better than anything else. Time to think is highly appreciated by you. You're completely devoted and loving in relationships. While you get hurt easily, you won't show it.

You tend to sleep on your tummy and hug the pillow while you are asleep. Stop internalising your high amount of stress. Remember to speak up because your ideas are great.

And then.. seems like I'm equally a dreamer too!

You see things others don't and are a great judge of characters. Not many out there are dreamers so be appreciative of your gift. You tend to pore over the food menu five times and still be undecided. You'll just make a choice for the sake of making it, or let your partner do it when the waitress comes around.

Get two dreamers together and you'll talk for hours about the meaning of life and think five minutes has gone by. You have great creativity and don't ever give up on them. Office jobs is certainly not the type for you, and a creative outlet is where you can soar. It's hard to find the job that suits your freedom, so try some career counselling.

Lastly, take a break from fairy land and know that there are immensed amount of bills to pay down, alright?

So which one do you think I'm more of? Or am I equally both?

Saturday Morning (Again)..

2005-06-18T08:47:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Ryan Adams - Wonderwall
The weather is now: Sunny Freeze 0.8c

What else can one person better do on early Saturday morning than blog about a great movie he has seen the night before? I realised that I've been watching more movies here than I think I would. Can't help it, what else can an almost-going-to-be insane person do in Canberra?

Nevertheless, Batman Begins came to me as quite a big shock as to how the whole story unfolded and successfully brought out Christopher Nolan's character Bruce Wayne. It portrayed the pain and fear he endured before becoming who he is destined to be and superheroes can't be anymore 'human' than this. They do have some dialogues that I find inspiring and meaningful, which made the entire movie much more enjoyable to me. I like wise movies (Considering that I am. Yes, I am not afraid of admitting that). No point for me to brag it here though, just call 77922929 and book your tickets. Wow, I can actually type out Tanjung Golden Village's number from the back of my head. Interesting..

My Inspiration.. Part Two..

2005-06-16T05:08:00.000+10:00

It's 5:08 in the morning now and exam is just less than 4 hours away. I haven't exactly been working hard enough, when I decided to sleep at 4.30 but I guess I failed miserably. Too much noises in my head. So I woke up, and checked my daily dose of Mac news at MacDailyNews. I came upon an article that had an excerpt from a speech given by Steve Jobs in Standford Universitty recently. The speech touched my heart, and filled my eyes with tears. Don't ask me why. It's long, it's personal and it's hard for anyone to understand..

Just take a few minutes of your time, and fill your mind with this:

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Transcipt courtesy of Stanford University's News Service

Out of My Head..

2005-06-14T10:32:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Avril Lavigne - He Wasn't
The weather is now: Sunny Cold: 10.4c

Advertising Strategy exam is on Thursday and Language, Culture & Society would be on the next Thursday. Horrible, horrible subjects I'm telling you. Imagine the probability to obtain a Distinction for the 1st two exams and a higher probability to fail the last one. Ironic. Imagine looking at my LCS notes and all I see is the all-so-bored-history-in-the-making lecturer's voice and face all over the page:

Just meant to be for humour's sake..

Basically, I'm just torn between..

What a bummer.

The Sky Is Grey..

2005-06-11T13:47:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing : The Beatles - Yesterday
The weather is now: Showering 12.0c

You don't get to see Canberra like this often. We have been suffering from a major drought recently and dams are draining dry. Looks like this rain will bring much joy to the people here. Unfortunately, not me.

Gloomy Saturday morning and I just hate rainy days. This reminds me, I should be playing Carpenters - Rainy Days and Mondays:

Talking to myself and feeling old, sometimes I'd like to quit, nothing ever seems to fit. Hanging around, nothing to do but frown. What I've got they used to call the blues, nothing is really wrong, feeling like I don't belong, walkin around, some kind of lonely clown..

Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.

Rain rain, wash my sorrows away,
Find me a better way,
Before I drown in this blue,
I need a hint or clue,
On how to erase my fear,
Oh please make it clear,
My heart weighs like a ton,
With my spirit almost gone..

Looks like my gloomy distortion field is having its effects on people around me. I would suggest those who are always jolly happy should start refraining from visitng my blog before they get affected. Just a word of caution. =)

I broke me and my sister's favourite giant mug yesterday. She bought 2 for each of us, almost 4-6 years back when we were all in M'sia. She got herself a Mickey and I had a Donald Duck. She was kind enough to lend me hers when I complained about not having a big enough mug for my drinks and how I regret not bringing mine over here. And here it is, at a slip of the hand, it was shattered right in front of me. I don't even feel like throwing it away even at this state.. That's me..

Friday Morning..

2005-06-10T06:22:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Nat King Cole - When I Fall In Love
The weather is now: Chilling Cold 2.1c

It's almost 6.30 in the morning and why the hell am I even here? Something is terribly wrong with me, physically and psychologically. Perhaps I might need some counselling. Sounds scary. I was awfully tired the night before and decided to sleep early, but not knowing that sleeping early meant nightmares and waking up this early.

Yep. Dreamt of some people dying again. But I'm not the one killing this time. I was somehow caught in a gun fire battle in the middle of the streets between some crooks with a shotgun and a bunch of police. The bastard basically blasted the hell out of everyone around me while I was hiding like a wimp behind an advertising board. When everything stopped, I walk out and the crook was basically blasted into 2 pieces and there was a big hole on his upper torso. Weird.. yeah, that's how you describe me.

Despair..

2005-06-08T01:50:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Gavin DeGraw - Just Friends
The weather is now: Cold 1.7c

I am sorry if this goes out offending those who had recently celebrated birthdays etc. Just another depressing thought I have in my mind. Can't help it, I'm already putting on aroma therapy in my room every now and then, enjoying the nice scents from the oils and candles. In fact, I'm even using Palmolive's Anti-Stress body shampoo. Doesn't seem to work I reckon.

Birthdays should not be celebrated and funerals should not be mourned. In fact, it should be the other way round. Why? Tell me why do new born babies cry the very first moment they wake up into this world? Why do they keep crying and crying, until the moment they learn how to speak? Why can't babies be laughing when they are brought into this world, when birthdays meant happiness and celebrations.

Don't you think it feels as though they are crying in vain, for the fact that they couldn't believe that they are brought into this world that is full of sadness and despair? They couldn't protest, they couldn't resist, but only to cry on the fact that they will face a good 60 - 80 years of torment in this world we live in. What is left in this world that is worth celebrating?

In fact, if only people can still make noises when they die, I'm pretty sure you can hear most of them laughing in their coffin during their funerals. Coming to this world is like living for their past sins and leaving it means they have served their sentences.

Emotions..

2005-06-01T16:19:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Matchbox 20 - Time After Time (Acoustic)

I have some questions that I would like you guys to answer. It's just something general. I would really appreciate some positive amount of feedback on this one so please don't disappoint me please? It's something I have in mind right now and I thought of putting it in works. This is merely at the stage of a thought process so I'm crossing my fingers on what happens next. Please give me as many comments possible, preferably on the comments section that I reactivated for this purpose. Thanks alot. Here we go:

1) Do you think emotions can be sold?
2) Do you think objects, surroundings and people play a big role in affecting one's emotions?
3) Do you think it's easy to express your inner emotions to people (general people) around you?

Cheers.

The Patriot..

2005-06-01T15:59:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Metal Gear Solid 3 Main Theme
The weather is now: Sunny Cold 15.4c

I have to say, Hideo Kojima is probably one of the best action game creator ever. I just completed one of his newest release, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater yesterday night and it seriously ended with a 'boom'. The story line, the gameplay, the twist and excitement is overwhelming. When Snake Eater was first released, I was skeptical of it as I thought nothing could be anyhow better than its previous release, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. I was reluctant to put my hands on it until a couple of days ago. When I did, I couldn't stop. It just glues you on it and hooks you so tightly like a fish that's caught in a bait. They should even consider making this triology into a movie.

Musical Baton

2005-05-29T22:57:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Vertical Horizon - You're A God
The weather is now: Freezing Cold 1.5c

CHiQ told me that I got tagged by the Musical Baton moments ago. I guess this is the new thing that's circulating blogs these days. Might as well just play along.

Total volume of music files on my computer
8.59GB and increasing rapidly..

The last CD I bought
I bought 4 of them at once in a cheap sale.

Daft Punk - Discovery
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Soundtrack
The Corrs - Talk on Corners
Linkin Park - Reanimation

Songs Playing Right Now
U2 - With or without you

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that means a lot to me
Sarah McLachlan - Fallen
Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah
Keane - Everybody's Changing
Aqualung - Strange and Beautiful
Keane - Sunshine

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton
Darren, Jase, CK, Brenda & Daniel

Me..

2005-05-27T13:10:00.000+10:00

Revived Keira's Singing: Aqualung - Strange and Beautiful
The weather is now: Cloudy Bright 12.2c

Yesterday was a 2 way trip to hell. It made me question so many things that has happened in my life. I was rushing home from seeing my lecturer at approximately 1.20PM yesterday and I wanted to have something to eat before my tutorial at 2. So I rushed home, went into my room, reached out for a packet of instant noodles that was placed on the shelf ontop my table. I did not realise what was sitting in front of my iBook before I accidentally knocked it over while reaching for what I wanted and that was when my world was turned upside down.

That's the glass in front of my iBook, and the noodles are at the top right corner of the picture

3 quarters of the water in the glass was poured all over my iBook and everything happened so quickly. I threw the noodles away and pulled as many tissue as I could to wipe the water away. It was futile. There were so much water everywhere and my battery was basically sunk in the puddle of water. Worst of all, my iBook was switched on when it happened. I plugged out all the cords that were attached to my iBook and brought it over to my bed and I took out the battery immediately.

iSkin that probably saved my iBook in the end

I removed the iSkin that was covering my keyboard and prayed that it has prevented the water from flowing in but to my horror, it did not. Water could be seen on my Airport Extreme card upon removing the keyboard, and the water managed to sip in to the trackpad as well. I tried draining all the water I could with tissues until I made sure not a single droplet of water is seen, at least till what my eyes can see from the outside..

Dead iBook

Called my Sister, told her what happened, called the Apple Centre, told them what happened and I brought my iBook in for them to diagnose. I swicthed my iBook on for one last attempt before letting others decide it's fate. This time, it made it all the way to the log in sccreen and everything loaded as it should be after that. Before I could do anything with it, *puff* and it went off. In the bag it goes and straight down to the Apple Centre we went.

The guy from the Apple Centre took my iBook in and told me that it will take them around 2 weeks before they can get back to me with a quote. And that process alone will cost me $99AUD. I had no choice. I couldn't think straight. I didn't know what else could I do. I signed the form and left my iBook there. When I got back, I started to think about everything that has happened and asked myself, "Why me? What have I done to deserve this?"

All this while, I've been doing my best to take care of the one 'material' thing that's most important to me, not allowing it to even endure a scratch, and it just have to happen at the moment when I am supposed to be really happy and content with myself, after getting what I deserved from all the hardwork and stress that I've been through for the past 2-3 weeks. It just had to happen when everything was at its peak for me and roll me down the mountain that I tried so hard climbing. It's not just about the fact that I lost my iBook, or losing something that I loved. It's about the things that just have to happen to me, throughout my life, where good things just never last on me. Ever since time was known to me. Is this what my life would be?

Even though my iBook is back now, with everything working fine and well. Things are just not the same anymore. Having it back brings relief, but not my happiness. Whatever that has just happened, succeeded in altering my perspective and state of mind. For those of you who think that I am now happy again. I'm not. Nevertheless, I am grateful that I trusted my gut feelings since yesterday, that it was probably a bad decision to have it sent in right away. I was too devastated to think of anything at that moment. Should they had already start operating my iBook, the consequences might be worse. Repair and diagnosing fees, data lost etc.. At least I made a right decision.

Revived iBook

Funny how such an incident can turn into something so twisted, and my only intention from the beginning of this post was just to commenmorate whatever that has happened to my iBook, not to whine about myself.

Oh and by the way, I don't love myself, neither do I know myself and I can't love myself before I know myself..

My Inspiration..

2005-05-25T12:50:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Sixpence Non The Richer - Don't Dream It's Over
The weather is now: Windy 17.8c

I've decided to name my iPod U2 to their recent single - Vertigo. PoddiE is just too white iPod.

Just looking at some past Time issues and searched for covers with Steve Jobs. They're interesting.

Think Different..

2005-05-23T13:36:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All
The weather is now: Sunny 17.6c

Here's to the crazy ones.

The misfits.. The rebels.. The troublemakers.. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
But the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genious.

Because the peoploe who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Happy Anniversary!

2005-05-22T13:00:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Mandy Moore - Have A Little Faith In Me
The weather is now: Sunny Clear 17.1c

It's the 2nd year anniversary for me and my lovely girlfriend, ch3ngz, today. I love you so much sweetheart.

Just wanted everyone to know. =)

The Fear..

2005-05-21T01:16:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Brian McKnight - Back At One
The weather's now: Freezing cold 2.5c

Just watched Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. As Yoda said, "The fear of losing the things you love, will lead one to the dark side." Why do I feel like I'm Anakin Skywalker? Take note of the conversation during his confrontation with Obi Wan to see what I mean.

*HOHHHHH.. HOHHHHHH...* I am your father. *HOHHHHH.. HOHHHHH...*

Just Like Me..

2005-05-19T00:37:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Avril Lavinge - My World
The weather is now: Clear Cold 7.4c

A crumpled piece of tissue paper. Another Self-Representation art of mine.. Watch out for more.

Deprivation

2005-05-18T07:51:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Utada Hikaru - First Love
The weather is now: Sunny Bright 9.9c

Terrible week, terrible stress, terrible sleep, terrible me..

It's only freaking 7.51AM and I am sitting here.

SIlent Statement..

2005-05-17T18:38:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: John Mayer - Why Georgia
The weather is now: Light Shower 11.2c

Nothing to say..

Sis Birthday @ Foong's

2005-05-16T14:30:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Avril Lavinge - Nobody's Fool
The weather is now: Clear 15.8c

Pictures taken at Foong's place. Was my sister's birthday.

Gamblers United: For Honour and Dignity..

Then the cake cutting..

iPod Socks..

2005-05-15T11:40:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Mario - Let Me Love You
The weather is now: Sunny 16.7c

I have decided to stop writing. Instead, I will utilise this blog to post up just pictures. No words, no comments, no reasons..

iPod Socks I bought for my Sis for her burfday today..

Right Back Where We Started From..

2005-05-09T11:59:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
The weather is now: Sunny Bright 18.5c

It just hit me moments ago on how much life I am missing back home. For more than 3 months that I've been here, it seems as though I've already forgotten where I came from. The life that I left behind seems to be moving quicker than I thought it would be. The life that I have always been a part of, everywhere. My family, my girlfriend, my friends.. Everything that I have been a part of is now moving with and without me. They are moving with a part of me that's left behind, but without the other part that's sitting here typing this.

Is this about the life that I am leading here, or is it about the life that they are leading back home without me?

Thinking about it, am I even a part of them as we move on with our lives?

Somehow this post ended up being pointless again..

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek..!

2005-05-09T11:11:00.000+10:00

Keira'a Playing: Phantom Planet - California
The weather is now: Sunny Bright 14.3c

Are Americans generally loud speakers? *Girl Screams* Jeez, I wonder, when you are in a room that's 2 x 5 meters, do you even have to speak louder than how you would speak while in a concert? Gods, some housemates have total disrespect for other people, even when the walls are less than 2 inches thick.

JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP. I don't want to hear you and your girlfriends doing your girly talk about someone's grandmother who had a heart-attack.

Americans, what else you do that you wish only the whole world to know?

Closing Time..

2005-05-03T18:17:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Keane - Everybody's Changing
The weather is now: Clear 14.4C

I was reluctant to accept the fact that going to Sydney over the weekend would be a good idea. Not when you have assignments due soon enough to cause you some sleepless nights. Not when you are already in a state of mind where motivation is just something that is negative. Not when your internal drive is blinking at a dangerously low level. Not when mood can only be associated with the word bad, and certainly not when what you see tomorrow is just an endless blurry horizon that streches across the entire world.

The trip started with me sitting right behind the bus alone, listening to my iPod, looking out to the sky that is so beautifully painted on a Saturday morning, but doesn't seem to brighten the gloomy heart of mine. Sleeping was inevitable, especially when you are on a 6.45AM bus ride up to Sydney. Especially when it is a trip where you don't want to have. I laid my hand over the bag where my iBook is comfortably sleeping on, visualising myself sitting in the hotel room, alone, working on my assignment.

It was nightmare when we first touched down in Sydney. I was standing in one of the world's busiest city and there were tons of people moving around, all too busy to bother about any other thing, pre-occupied with their own activities. Great. Just what I need. Makes me wonder where did I develop the fear of being in crowded places like clubs, concerts etc.. Being in a city like this gives me exactly the same creepy feeling.

But hey, guess what? As soon as we checked into our designated hotel, things doesn't seem to look as bad as it is. From meeting a great new friend, to enjoying the beauty that Sydney has to offer at night, and the great food that makes your tummy go singing lullaby.. Hey! Sydney is just not only about the crowds!

The beautiful Sydney bridge lit up in a beautiful night..

Just speechless eh?

It's not super imposed..

Darling Harbor the next morning..

That's me!

Underneath the Sydney Bridge during the harbor cruise

Another one..

Opera House..

Getting closer..

Hope you enjoyed them..

I Lost Myself..

2005-04-28T19:07:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Koda Kumi - 1000 Words
The weather is now: Clear 17.8C

Canberra is supposed to be a place where studying is the best thing to do. But it's just weird how I get so stressed up recently. I haven't really been doing my work, I've been lazing around wasting time and watch 2 weeks of mid-term break fly by and still, can't find the motivation to something. Is there something wrong with me?

Assignment deadlines are drawing up and I still can't see myself putting in the effort to do something worthy. I know this is how things used to work back in college, where everything is supposed to be done 2 days before the deadline and yet, everything will be fine. It seems like that theory doesn't fit in too well here. I know it. Is it because of the fact that everything here is so relaxed? And that makes me feel relaxed about my duties? If yes, then how can I be feeling stressed up at the same time? Or am I just simply stressed up with myself, the fact that I know I gotta do something and yet I can't put myself into doing it? I think that's it. I'm stressed up with myself. What am I supposed to do?

Something is terribly missing in me. I need to find it back before it's too late. My motivation, my drive, my belief and my source.

And these are some of the pictures I took by the lake on Anzac Day. I just can't have enough of this lake.

Dum Dee Dum..

2005-04-26T13:24:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It
The weather is now: Sunny 25.5c

Just a little something I made for my baby girl 2 days ago. I just don't know what to do with my life.

Tell me what you think.

The Perfect Holidays..

2005-04-15T14:29:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Maroon 5 - Sunday Morning
The weather is now: Cloudy 16.8c

Holiday season is finally here with 2 weeks of class free period! Woo hoo! And half of it is wasted and flew away in just a blink of an eye.

I had a perfect plan for my holidays initially, to at least get half of my assignments done and make everything easier when classes are back again. Now I don't think I can even remember what was the plan anymore.

I never was a big fan of TV series, especially when the Australian local TV stations are normally way behind everyone else in the world. Then they invented this thing called the Uni Network, where everyone can share any files they desire and anyone can download them for free. That technology brought the TV series, The O.C. into my life. Two words: I'm hooked, now. I watched 24 episodes in approximately 2 days and I can't seem to get my head off it now.

All the season 2 episodes are sitting on my desktop now and I'm just 2 clicks away from ruining another 2 days of my holidays. Someone please give me the determination to start working on my priorities head down, and not the other way round.

I Try..

2005-04-07T21:19:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For?
The weather now is: Clear 13.1c

Some people said Uni was easy. They said it was nothing. They said that we are much smarter than what they have here. They were wrong and they were right.

Others said Uni was difficult. They said it was hard to cope. They said we are no where in their league. They were right and they were wrong.

I just got my essay back from my tutor yesterday for the subject Language, Culture & Society. A pass was all I got for an essay that's worth 20 marks. Not to mention that one and a half-page of comments he wrote to me was the most heart-wrenching words I have ever read in my 3 years of college. Looks like life ain't going to be easy on me after all.

I made my calculations, and figured that it is still quite impossible for someone to fail a subject and I was not worried at all on that. To excel, however, is a different story.

Maybe it was due to the fact that it was my first task in University and I'm still trying hard to adapt to their writing style and study environment. Also, language and literature stuff is nothing close to what suits me. Don't ask me why I took the subject, it was a mistake.

Still, my reasons are not justifiable for the comments received from my Professor this afternoon on my group presentation. True enough, it was a group project and there is a big mix of different individuals in the group and everyone thought we did a great job after our clown show in front of the class. The comments later shattered what we thought was real.

Not that other groups received any good comments either and the Professor stressed that he just wanted to tell us everything wrong about our presentation and hope that we will learn from it. I am still not nearly satisfied with just that. It was terrible, terrible I must say, to be thinking that we did a great great job and get cussed all over our face for what we thought was great.

Looks like I desperately need to rethink on what I need to do before it is too late. To graduate, to pass and to obtain a degree is certainly not difficult. Just do your part, attend tutorials, hand in assignments, scribble a few words during examination and passing is not an issue. Would I settle for that? Good question.

Stab it once, Stab it twice..

2005-04-02T07:56:00.000+10:00

PoddiE's Singing: Usher - Burn
The weather is now: Sunny 10.3C

Loud noises, laughters, doors slamming..

Turned over, checked the time; 6.49am

Blurred images, knocking sound, someone's at the door..

Opened the door, with a knife, saw my friend, stabbed him once..

Friend turned around, beer on hand, kept quiet..

Friend came back, asked me why, stabbed him twice..

Went out of the room, blood everywhere, drag him in the stairway door..

Sense of fear and confuse, overwhelming, eyes opened..

What a horrible nightmare. Time check: 7.42am

Yet another murder case to solve from my dreams. Twice on a night, that is.. This isn't the only one..

This Is Me..

2005-03-27T02:58:00.000+10:00

Keira's Singing: David Usher - My Way Out
The weather now is: Clear 10.6c

I'm such a sucker for emotions. Can someone please show me some emotions please. I don't know how am I supposed to feel. I'm deflated like a balloon without air. Tried hard flying but fell harder in the end with nothing inside.

They say disappointment is like calling an engaged phone; Just try a couple more times and someone will answer.

My effort paid of..

With an answering machine.

I wish I am god but I am only human.. I have feelings too..

Bannings, Isolations.. What..?

2005-03-24T15:35:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Eurythmics - I Saved The World Today
The weather is now: Sunny 20.0c

Just came back from class, and was browsing through MacDailyNews when I came upon this article.

Quoted from misanthrope @ MacDailyNews: "Look who's talking about isolation."

I just can't stop laughing..

Coincidently a student was doing a presentation on iPod mini in the class.

Nuff said.

Just Another Fine Example..

2005-03-22T14:28:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: M.L.T.R. - The Actor
The weather is now: Cloudy 13.2C

It never seizes to amaze me how ignorant can humans be sometimes.

As an international student here in the University of Canberra, I've tried my best to be responsible as a student. Getting early to lectures and tutorials, does my revision, writes my essays and homework, and putting in effort to learn about their culture and keep up with the pace if their English. One thing that I cannot do is, however, catching up with the past.

I received my brief to write an observational report of 2000-3000 words on a service industry campaign that was on during the period of 2003/2004 for my Advertising Strategy unit. Sure enough, the brief was given to us early in the semester and given that point, we were supposed to have 6 weeks before the due is up. Apart from this report, we have our weekly readings, tutorial work and worst of all, a theory essay for a linguistic subject. Now, don't ask me why am I in that particular subject as I am still dazed after what I have gotten myself into. Well, back to the report, it was due on the 5th week, which is this week. For something that I am totally alien to, and which was obviously harder than an observational report, I, and practically all the others shifted all our foucs into the completion of this report and ignored the observational report. Which means, we only have a little more than week before it is due. Not to forget that we have other works as well.

Over the past weekend, I have read a little on what was required for the observational report and thought of the corporation that I would like to write the report on: Transact/ActewAGL, considering that it is the biggest private corporation in Canberra providing all different types of services from sewerage to telecommunications. Given the fact that my Sister is an employee, it wouldn't be hard for me to grab materials and information regarding their past campaigns. Sure enough, it wasn't. All the Manager required was for me to get a letter from my lecturer stating that I am a current student and in the letter, state a confidentiality clause to protect private information regarding the corporation.

According to my sister, Richard Buddle, my Advertising Strategy lecturer, should be aware of requests like this as it would be common for students to approach corporations for materials in order to help them write a better report. Which, *note* is not wrong. So I wrote an email to Richard, attaching the agreement mail from the Manager, requesting for that letter. I called him the next day and mentioned about the letter, but all he told me was that he does not encourage students to approach corporations for materials and information as he is afraid that the report will be biased and carry more of the corporation's perspective and comment on their campaign, not the students'.

Fair enough, I told him that the materials that I am collecting are merely medias used by them in their campaign, and not comments or opinions. I will not even talk to any of the officers in the corporation! I just need to collect all the materials i.e. Commercials, radio ads, print ads etc from my sister! I also told him that *note* there are many international students enrolled in this unit and may of us were not here during the period of 2003/2004. A month of exposure and experience does not give us enough resourse and knowledge to write a report on a campaign that was on when we weren't even here!!! Look, WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE SERVICE INDUSTRY HERE AND WHATSOEVER CAMPAIGN THAT'S LINKED WITH THEM IN THE PAST!!!

He mentioned later in the conversation that he will try and prepare the letter for me before the day ends or on Monday.

At least give us the privilege and exception to write the report on something more recent. Come on, I seriously think it is so unfair and biased to make us write a report on something that can obviously be better written by the locals. I'm trying hard not to sense a hint of discrimination or biasness here. As much as the University states how much they value international students, it is hard to believe any further from this point onwards.

What I'm even more furious about happened earlier. I had a lecture for Richard's unit in the morning, and I approached him after the session ended in hopes of collecting the letter. Well well guess what? Of course the letter isn't ready yet, in fact, I think he totally forgot about it. He told me, "Do you still need the letter? I can only draft it for you during consultation hours." Then as we're exiting the building, he showed signs of discouragement towards this idea of collecting materials from them, and said this to me instead with a 'just go away look' on his face, "Well actually, I am not in power to write you a confidentiality letter as the materials are given to you, and not me. If you want, I can only write you a letter stating that you're a student." Well HELLO!? If all I need is a letter stating that I'm a bloody student, I can just bloody use my enrollment letter!? Forget it, this guy is not sincere. I walked off.

So what happens now? What happens is that here goes another victimized student. I will have to write my report based on another corporation, probably a non-profit organization as they may be easier on handling materials over to students, or not. I will not get better grades than others, not because of the fact that I'm not good enough, but that I wasn't here early enough to experience past campaigns and write about them from my own experience.

I still don't understand why is it not an option for us to write a report based on a recent campaign??? This really puzzles me..

Oh and, please don't tell me that the internet is a good way for me to locate past campaigns and grab information from them. I don't even want to start.

Just another fine example of what I've written yesterday..

Noone..

2005-03-21T17:05:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: The Corrs - Don't Say You Love Me

no one understands
the thoughts in my head
no one tries
to understand why
no one gives
a second to think
no one cries
the inner tear

no one wonders
what is happening
no one sees
what is in front
no one bothers
what is left behind
no one cares
about anything else

no one fights
for what is right
no one feels
like how a soul should
no one asks
the question why
no one knows
just what to do

The Scream.. Human Misery

2005-03-17T16:49:00.000+11:00

Keira's Playing: Jay Chou - Jie Kou

I came across this familiar picture/art/abstract yesterday night while watching a police documentary about how this piece of art was stolen from a gallery. Somehow it struck me on how my current inner emotions and feelings were so closely related to this masterpiece. The scream was an art that pratically depicts what human fear, agony and pain is all about. It plainly shows how one man's world is turned into an infinite painful state that facial expressions alone can't describe its true meaning. Personally, it represents something so deep inside an individual that it's impossible to be seen. Something so horrible, so terrifying that the world around just isn't what it seems to be to that particular individual anymore..

Terrible state to be in, isn't it..?

Taken from a random website:
The painting perfectly sums up all the horrors that mankind has visited upon himself all throughout our checkered history.

Fallen..

2005-03-14T10:47:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Sarah McLachlan - Fallen

Heaven bent to take my hand
And lead me through the fire
Be the long awaited answer
To a long and painful fight

Truth be told I've tried my best
But somewhere along the way
I got caught up in all there was to offer
And the cost was so much more than I could bear

Though I've tried, I've fallen...
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
Better I should know
So don't come round here
And tell me I told you so...

We all begin with good intent
Love was raw and young
We believed that we could change ourselves
The past could be undone
But we carry on our backs the burden
Time always reveals
The lonely light of morning
The wound that would not heal
It's the bitter taste of losing everything
That I have held so dear.

I've fallen...
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
Better I should know
So don't come round here
And tell me I told you so...

Heaven bent to take my hand
Nowhere left to turn
I'm lost to those I thought were friends
To everyone I know
Oh they turned their heads embarassed
Pretend that they don't see
But it's one missed step
You'll slip before you know it
And there doesn't seem a way to be redeemed

Though I've tried, I've fallen...
I have sunk so low
I have messed up
Better I should know
So don't come round here
And tell me I told you so...

Knock on the head..

2005-03-09T15:08:00.000+11:00

Keira's Playing: Lifehouse - Hanging By A Moment

Oh my god, how can I not remember to post up pictures that were taken in the airport before I left for Australia? Dumb dumb me..

Anyway, I'll be heading to Melbourne tomorrow for a short weekend trip. Will be meeting Brenda and James (Virgo) there. Yippie! Really excited about it. My first trip away from Canberra ever since I got here. Will be taking a coach from the city, which takes approximately 8 hours before arriving in the heart of Melbourne. Yeap, I know, people has been asking me, "Why don't you just take a damn flight that only takes an hour and it's much cheaper than the coach?"

1) To get flight tickets that's actually cheaper than the coach tickets, book 3 months in advance.

2) I gotta be there at Friday and return on Monday, it's difficult to get cheap flights for the weekends as alot of people will be travelling in and out.

3) What's wrong with sitting in the coach enjoying my music while checking out the outbacks of Australia?

4) If I can survive an 8 hour bus ride from KL to Langkawi, or 4 hours from Cherating back to KL on Karak Highway, I'm pretty sure I can survive through any other public transports in the world. Besides, the public transports here are really efficient and drivers are friendly. They greet you as you board on the buses and never hesitates in answering your questions. Back in KL.. "Bang,tolong tanya bus ni ada pigi kat Low Yat Plaza tak?" and you'll get, "HOI budak! Mau masuk masuk la! Tak mau masuk belah la! Kejar masa ni!"

I think I've justified my choice of going to Melbourne with the coach more than enough. Well and since we're talking about public transport here, another thing I realized about the buses here in Canberra is that you'll hardly board on one that's full. I used to hate public transports so much back in KL that if there's somewhere that I have to get there by any means of public transport, I will rather not go. Imagine boarding a bus that's so packed that sometimes, you're forced to stand right at the entrance and there will be people squashing you from all sides. Not to mention that the bus drivers in KL are trained in the bull pit, which makes the journey an even more torturing experience. To add on to it, the roads are filled with poth holes. That explains it. Spice everything up with a man that bears an unimaginable stench caused by the humid weather and the crammed bus, with his arm lifted up to hold the bar standing next to you, then I'm pretty sure that will be your last ride on a public transport.

There's just so much to talk about when it comes to public transports back in KL in contrast to those they have in foreign places. Big, big contrast.

After all those crap, it's time for pictures! Hurray!

Family Portrait #1

Family Portrait #2

Baby dear and friends #1

Baby dear and friends #2

Disappear..

2005-03-01T23:58:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Default - Wasting My Time

Initiating updates..

Badminton is evil. It gave me a strained muscle on my back. Never had such a problem before. It's aching now. Ouch.

Had 2 extremely boring lectures today and Elizabeth Patz from Language, Culture & Society is really good at speaking the sleeping spell everytime.

First tutorial for Advertising Strategy was alright. All different tutorials have different tutors and I was fortunate enough to get my lecturer as my tutor. I was one of the only 3 guys in my class and I dislike 1 of them. Great. Some other girls were already showing signs of dominance and was trying to hard to impress Mr. Richard Buddle. Whatever.

Dinner was good though. Cooked mee hoon in wanton soup. I used chicken stocks, fried garlic and sesame oil for the soup. Fried some anchovies to be put in after the mee hoon is cooked. Tasted great. Should've took pictures of my wanton. Thanks to sis for making them for me.

Got my bluetooth dongle for me iBook on Saturday. It was great but I don't know how to use it to sync the entire phonebook. It kept saying bad import after sending the whole thing over. Anyone can help me out with this?

Ah, I'm tired and I don't have any mood now. That's all the updates for now.

First of the new chapter..

2005-02-20T19:36:00.000+11:00

PoddiE's Singing: Rufus Wainwright - Across the Universe

Loads of pictures right after you finish reading. =) Or after you're done with scrolling..

Wow, can’t believe it took me this long to write my first entry ever since I arrived in Canberra. I apologize for the recent inactiveness, I’ve always thought that I’ll have plenty time or more to write entries when I’m here, which I do in fact. But it’s just that getting used to this place took more out of me than I could imagine, and writing entries at this time just isn’t exactly how I would like to express myself.

At this point, I really don’t know how can I even begin talking about everything that has happened since I’m here. Canberra’s a lovely place, with decent weather and lovely breeze blowing through the night. The people here are friendlier than I could imagine, public services are 10 times as effective compared to where I came from. The air here is unbelievable. Minimum pollution, even my sinus is gone ever since I came here. No traffic, no congestions, no busses arriving 30 minutes later than scheduled. A place like this really makes me wonder how can one live back in the city center back home and actually be stress-free and happy? It’s still unbelievable.

No matter, deep inside me, there’s this anticipation for some racism or discrimination remarks to appear soon enough. But come to think about it, what’s the big deal of it after all? Sure enough, I’ve heard stories, read papers and experienced it at a certain amount. But what’s there to complain about other people voicing out what they have against you inside? Think about it, haven’t we being Chinese Malaysians experienced all these discrimination and racism ever since we were born into this world on the soil of Malaysia? We are already numb towards this. I’m pretty sure. The only thing that we cannot accept at this point is not the racism and discrimination remarks, but the ability accept what was voiced out from people’s mind.

True enough, there’s a price to pay for everything. The sudden lack of family and a home, friends and love ones can really cause some pain in the middle of the night, when I lay on my bed trying hard to sleep without having a drink down the local ‘mamak’ till 1am. No more maids who will be willingly cleaning up your room and your dishes right after you are done with utilizing them. No more daddy or mummy who will offer you money even when you don’t need them just yet. No more friends who will stand by you whenever a problem arises and never gives up on you. No more love ones who will give me the hugs and kisses whenever I need them. The comfort, the security, the love is no longer there for the taking when I need it.

I supposed this is one phase of anyone’s life that it is inevitable to go through or experience, one way or the other. It is not a test, but a lesson in general. A lesson that is learnt regardless of whether we failed or passed the test in the end. A lesson that teaches me more than what I can learn. I realized that it is no longer time to ask questions about why, but to find out how and then tell why. If we can’t run, we can walk. When there’s no one here that you can completely rely on, we have only ourselves to depend on.

The most difficult thing that I find hard to cope with is the feeling of loneliness. The feeling of loneliness always seems to kick in with depression. For whatsoever reasons, I do not know. Maybe I still lack a true purpose. Maybe I still lack a true goal. Aimless as I could be, this is only the beginning of an incredible journey. Choose to run past everything that’s ahead, or walk to learn and overcome all the obstacles ahead, it’s a choice.

Here are the pictures!!!

Firstly, some pictures I took on the plane to Canberra..

Now, pictures of my house. All the blocks are seperated from each other and my house is one of the smaller ones with less rooms.

This is the door of my room. Notice the Apple sticker above the door knob? Also the gorgeous Evanessence poster which I bought the other day. Lovely..

First glance after opening the door..

My Mac corner on the wall! Weeeee~

Rest of the room. Not too big for a person but not too small. Just lovely..

5 - 10 minutes of walk from my house and here is the Lake Cinnidera. It's a beautiful lake with some great scenaries. Nice track for jogging too!

The rest are some pictures that I took when I visited the War Memorial last Saturday. The landscape work was excellent and the view is unbelivable.

I took this picture off the memorial board where names of soldiers who have died in the war are carved here with lovely flowers on em. Love this picture..

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Too all of you who have read my post above, thanks. I'll update this blog as often as I can from now on. Miss you guys back home!

Heartaches..

2004-12-25T05:07:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Disagree - Crumbs

I should sound asleep by now but I couldn't. I was flipping around and decided to come on and just upload some pictures that I took earlier. Also to apologize to my baby girl for upsetting her earlier. Here I am, apologizing to you publicly for the silly things that I did and did not do and say. It was supposed to be a night filled with Christmas celebration but I guess it was no where near enjoyable. Maybe for a little while it did, before I screw things up that is.. Hope you're not too upset with me. Promise that I'll make it up to you. Right now, sleep well and sweet dreams.

Here are some Christmas pictures of us. Sorry that I've been posting up tons of my own pictures lately, just couldn't find anything else to post. So please bear with the horrible sight of me.

Opening the French wine before the countdown. It was a horrible choice though..

Cheers! Isn't she lovely with that cute hat?

Giggles

2004-12-19T22:17:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Jason Mraz - The Remedy

Just a few pictures that I took with my baby yesterday.. Or is it the day before yesterday? Just realised that I haven't been posting pictures of us.. =)

Tell me which one looks good, wanna send them for printing before I go overseas. You can also tell me that none of them looks good because of the fact that I'm in them. Haha.

Cheers.

Sunshine~

2004-12-04T13:43:00.000+11:00

Keira's Singing: Norah Jones - Don't Know Why

Woo hooo~ Exams are over and it's time for joy! I no longer have to study or do any assignments in Malaysia anymore!!! Woo hoo~ And what's better than getting the new U2 iPod a day after the exams!? Dang it feels good to be finally free! Anyway here are some photos of my new U2 iPod~ I'm still thinking of a name for it.

Any suggestions?

There are much more that I wanna write about. But I'm currently working.. I'm just eager to post these pics up. Hehe.

I Would Cross The Endless Sea..

2004-11-28T16:33:00.000+11:00

Soundsticks Singing: Wallflowers - One Headlight

Oh well. No more Poddie now.. Sold me Poddie to a fellow member of the MyMUG forum for RM900. And I am embracing the U2 iPod with both arms and legs wide open. I really can't find the right words to describe it. How often can you see the real products looking better than the published pictures themselves? If you had read my post on the U2 iPod earlier. Those pictures are no where near the real quality of the product itself. The U2 iPods came in 2 days ago. We had 10 units in MacAsia and there's only 4 left now. Wow! When we opened the box for customers who bought it, everyone gasp and hold their hands to their mouths just to stop themselves from drooling all over the table. Beg me to show you mine when I get it. =)

Anyway, my dearie chEngz left for Shanghai, China earlier in the morning. Guess I'll miss her rantings real soon. Oh well. It's only 6-7 days anyway. Enjoy your trip and have a safe flight!

The 'iBetter Exchange' Chokes

2004-11-24T01:44:00.000+11:00

Sometime ago, I read a thread in the MyMUG Forum talking about an event that Creative *chokes* in Singapore is organizing, called the 'iBetter Exchange" *chokes*. This is what it's all about:

Bring in any of your iPods and exchange it for a brand new Creative Zen Micro *chokes* without paying a single cent. Older generations and faulty iPods are all accepted. That includes the iPod mini as well.

So I read it and thought that it isn't any big 'hoo hah' so I just posted a comment saying how ugly that damn thing is.

Few days later, I came across the Singapore Mac User Group's forum and saw a long long thread about the event and this time, it caught all my attention and ignited a fury in me that had long being burning low. The event drew much attention, or more like Creative created much attention on their event and there were a number of people who dropped by to exchange their iPods for the Creative Zen Micro *chokes*.

These are some of the pictures posted up in the forum that got me jumping up and down cursing the hell outta Creative:

First of all, look at the DAMN thing. It is a complete RIP OFF of the iPod. The colors, headphones and the remotes are clons of the ORIGINAL iPod. My goodness, even the holes are at the same position. And they can call themselve Creative? Bunch of MOFOS to me. Jeez, I so wanted to have this entire entry written in CAPS but I guess I woulda offend alot of readers by doing so. But the anger in me is just unexplainable.

Then, they had this BIG banner set up on site with pictures of people endorsing the Zen Micro *chokes* and there were fine prints stating how much better is the Zen Micro compared to the iPod and how satisfied they are with it compared to the iPods. Notice the guy right in front? He's the judge from Singapore idol, Dick Lee. Yeah, Dickhead.. Guess Mr. Sim really shove his thing hard up your ass to make you do this with a BIG BIG smile on your face huh fucktard?

And the picture that got me sworn to boycott Creative's product forever..

I better keep quiet before someone reports me for extreme vulgarity..

iPods treated like beheaded rebels.. Notice the iPod mini there? It's an one-week old iPod mini that belongs to a poor kid. The 13 year-old kid was interviewed immediately by the press, magazine journalists and Creative themselves when he turned up, asking him why he wanted to exchange his new iPod mini for the Micro Zen *chokes*. I think the poor boy didn't even know what happened and this is my conclusion of this particular case:

1) Either the boy was tricked into bringing in the new iPod mini, which was provided by Creative, of course, with the promise that he'll get the Creative Zen Micro for free if he were to be a good boy and not expose Creative's bad marketing ethics.

2) The boy doesn't even know what's Creative and what's Apple. Bring him over to the U.S. and trust me, he'll lose all his friends had they found out about this embarrassing action.

Lastly, the person who produces Creative's Zen Micro *chokes* through his anal, Mr. Sim holding his own piece of shit.

These words were from his own filthy mouth, published in Singapore's newspaper:

Mr sim wong never gets tired of pitching his company against Apple compoter. Athe the press conference held to launch the zen micro earlier this week, the chief exceutive officer of creative technology declared to everyone that his new 5gb product was better than Apple's 4GB iPod Mini.

"prettier than the Prettiest ... mini-er than the Mini." he boasted." IT'S FUCKEN THICKER THAN THE MINI YOU MOFO

Later, I asked him why, when other MP3 player companies do not pitch themselves aggresively against the market leader, does he persist in doing so.

Mr sim replied: "others do not dare to compare, but i dare to"
"Apple came and stole the market away from us "WHAT THE FUCK!? .. i see the (MP3 player) market category as a winning category. No matter what, someone is going to win and i want it to be me." YOU JUST WON THE OFFICIAL MOFO-EST AWARD YOU SCUMBAG
Then he joked in hokkien: "The only thing i'm worried about is that nobody know about us"

Just let me shoot this guy.. Please?

I know that it's stupid for me to bash Creative in the way that I did, but trust me, this is just something so mild that I think children under the age of 5 should read it so they will never ever get near another Creative product. Call me blind, call me stupid and call me irrational. I don't care. I don't give a damn about thinking rational and be a nice person, accpeting such horrendous actions anymore. Ask the Mr.Sim *chokes* to bring this event into the U.S. and trust me, he might get assasinated. What an ass hole from hell.

He wants war? I'll start it in my own front yard..

Come Away With Me..

2004-11-16T20:29:00.000+11:00

Poddie's Singing: Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

Went to Izal's house on Sunday for his Raya open house. He just shifted to his new home not long ago, located in Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam. Yeap, it sounds horribly far, but going there on a Raya Sunday noon somehow made the journey seems shorter than what it should be like. Besides, there weren't any traffic at all. Only approximately 15 minutes to reach his house from Summit USJ, at an average speed of 90km/h.

Eyes were all on the verge of popping out upon seeing the houses there. Compared to those that one can see the common areas of Petaling Jaya, those houses in Kota Kemuning were like castles. Only a few bangalows stood up at each section, and there's a guard house for each of these section, which made security and tranquility number one. According to Izal, there are some areas where the bangalows are situated in front of lakes. Cool as it sounds, I wonder how those families deal with mosquitos as night falls. However, being able to stay in houses worth an average of RM1.3 million means that it will be 99% air-conditioned.

Sad that I totally forgot about taking some pictures outside the house to show you the sizes, no matter how much I reminded myself to do so. Anyway, there were quite an amount of people in the house, already chomping away the all-so-tempting foods on the table. His house was decorated in a simple style, which looks great and cosy. Oh and did I actually mention that his car porch is able to fill a total of 6 cars!? Incredible..

Here are some pictures that I took on that day:

This is the only shot I took that shows part of his car porch and some other houses over there. You gotta be there to see how big they really are.

From the left, that's CK, Barbara, Darren, Izal and Pam.

That's Izal in his all-so-messy room.

CK and Darren caught to be having some good time.

That's Izal's dad, 2nd from the right. Wonder how a cool dad like that produced an offspring like Izal. Haha..

Black Balloon

2004-11-15T21:38:00.000+11:00

Poddie's Singing: Jets - Look What You've Done

Feels like I haven't been blogging for a lifetime. The past 2 weeks had just been like work, sleep, work, sleep, work and sleep.. It's really unbelivable. Now that 2 major assignments had been completed, I can feel a little weight lifted off my shoulders, but that only means that I have to put all my focus and concentration into my Multimedia assignment. The supposed deadline of 17th November was extended to 22nd, which means more time. While this is actually a good news, as most groups are struglling over the deadline, some may be unaware that my first exam paper will be on the 24th. Which means that I will only have a day to study for that paper. I do not want that to happen. My group's pushing to complete the entire thing by Friday, so that I will have the weekend to indulge in my notes and books.

While other groups are almost done with their production by now, we're still not anywhere yet. Mind you, this is an extremely bizzare assignment. I personally think that my group has been putting too much emphasis on small little things, things that takes up alot of our time and kept us behind schedule and our lecturer seems to be playing a big role in that. Mr. Low, my Multimedia lecturer, is constantly pushing us for more and more things to be added and what's different between ours and others is that we had to design and draw everything from scratch, while others are able to use pictures and modify them. Okay, I'm not complaining that other groups did shit, but just that my group has been spending too much time doing things that beautify certain areas of the presentation, and not to the completion of it. I don't want an 'A' for this anymore. I just want to pass it with a C- if that's what it takes. I can't afford to fail any subject on my last semester, or else everyhting that I've been building all this while will be vanished. Can't even bear to think about it. Besides, an 'A' and a 'C' means nothing anymore at this point.

I think I'll stop bragging at this point.

iPod Photo is HERE!!!

Yeap, the new iPod Photo is finally here, and I think it's the one and only one available in Malaysia right now, in MacAsia. Sad that we do not have a display unit. Just one, which is in the box. 40GB is going for RM2399 and the 60GB model is going for RM2899. I'm still waiting for the U2 iPod! Which will be in about a week's time! Woo hoo! Oh and, the price tag for that will be RM1699. Will post again with pictures when it comes in. The box is gorgeous!

Vote for Azul!

2004-11-06T16:12:00.000+11:00

Alright peeps, even though I'm not exactly in a good mood right now, I'll still ask all of you for a favor.

A fellow friend of mine, Azul, who's a member of Malaysia Mac User Group, joined a reality TV show called LG's Home Challenge by NTV7. Azul and his wife is selected for this challenge and will be in the show this Sunday, 7th November 8.30PM.

He needs YOUR VOTES to win! So please, if you have a spare 50cents to spare on your credit, SMS at LGAZUL and send it to 36677! Thanks alot for your generosity. Will post some pictures of him in the show later when I'm free.

Here we go again..

2004-11-02T05:37:00.000+11:00

I'm feeling fatigue right now. Not that I've been exersicing alot lately. Not that I've been doing alot of heavy duty work as well. But I guess staring at my LCD screen for a minimum of 15-18 hours a day does indeed have its effects one me. Or maybe I'm just mentally fatigued. Well it seems like the last semester.. or more like last month of the last semester for the whole 3 years of college doesn't spell 'fun' after all. And everyone thought internship was hell. Yeah, hell no.

The pressure's enormous. Both emotionally and physically. I feel like sleeping now but yet I don't want to do so and I'm hungry at the same time. Doesn't really affect me that much as I'm still sitting here trying to get myself back to work again, well at least after this post. Considering the time that I've spent sitting in front of my laptop, I should be having no worries towards my assignments and everything should run smoothly. Guess not. Maybe it's just that I'm spending too little 'solid' time focusing on my work. Ideas don't come easily. This is what I hate about creative work. A 60 seconds animation should be like frying an egg for anyone out there. Well at least verbally. Right now, a 60 seconds intro took me approximately 2 weeks to complete it, till the 20th second that is. So what's up for the next 40 seconds? Blank screen.

Earlier, before I started the intro, a storyboard was roughly sketched out by me and everything looked bright. Till I start putting those ideas in 'digitally'. Nothing worked out the way it should and ideas had to be scrapped. The first 20 seconds that I've miraculously completed was out of point blank. Nothing was sketched, nothing was planned. It was all spontaneous. You see, that's what I hate about creativity. So what if we go to classes learning about computer skills and knowledge? It doesn't matter at all because at the end of the day, it's how you integrate creativity and skills that matters. So where does creativity come from?

Next week marks the deadline of 2 of my major assignments. Corporate Plannning and International Marketing. Then the following week would be Multimedia's deadline. 2 weeks later? Exams. Great! Oh and, I gotta prepare 2 design samples for the Malaysia's Mac User Group website by Saturday as well. It's a committment that I've given and I gotta live up to it. It's voluntary and I can't whine about that. At least not here for everyone to see that is. Not to forget, Fridays and Saturdays are occupied with the part-time job at MacAsia. Perfect life isn't it? Next thing you know, my boss who contracts freelance work to me might call me up tomorrow, not to collect my payment, but to work out some designs for her ASAP. That's their favourite footnote; ASAP.

These things really spell out the words 'Perrrrrrfect... suicidal plan'

Time of your life..

2004-10-31T16:02:00.000+11:00

Poddie's Singing Time Of Your Life by Green Day

Somehow I'm just so hooked on to this song. Fifth time in a row now. *gasp*

Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road.

Time grabs you by the wrist;
directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test
and don't ask why.

It's not a question
but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs
and still frames in your mind.

Hang it on a shelf
In good health and good time.

Tattoos of memories
and dead skin on trial.

For what it's worth,
it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

A Special Edition Post, On a Special Edition Product

2004-10-28T12:55:00.000+10:00

PoddiE's Singing - Vertigo by U2

The new iPods are finally out yesterday. I wanted to post this but I was unable to enter the damn blogger site for unknown reasons. 2 new iPods, were announced and launched by Steve Jobs, Bono and The Edge at California Theatre in San Jose. You can watch the amazing video on demand here. Before I move on, let's look at the amazing pictures of U2's Special Edition iPod.

Isn't it just.. so mesmerizing looking at the beauty? Damn I'm drooling for the 10th time over this thing..

With a color combination that ultimately speaks for itself, the back of the U2's iPod is stunningly engraved with all four U2 member's signature and name, with the word U2 and special edition below. Okay.. 11th time.

Before announcing this special edition iPod, Steve Jobs also launched the new range of iPods, the iPod Photo. The iPod Photo comes with a stunningly crisp clear 65k color LCD screen, 40 and 60GB hard drive space, and is able to store up to 25,000 photos and play them as a slide show after being jacked into a TV. It is an amazing device as well and the design had not changed from the 4th Generation's iPod.

Somehow, funnily, this iPod does not appeal as much to me. Even with the extra features, and the extra space, I think it is just unecessary for me to have an iPod with a color screen to see pictures. My close friends will know that I ultimately dislike having a device that does everything. An iPod is forever a music device, as Steve Jobs had said yesterday. It will forever be one to me.

I've read, and heard about people complaining, showing dissastisfaction that Apple did not chunk in video playback as a feature in the new iPod. They were also complaining that the iPod Photo was too heavy and stuff. But ultimately, it was the lack of video playback capability that upsets them. If they were to have watched the video that I linked above, Steve Jobs had explained very clearly why an iPod that plays video is VERY unpractical. At least for now. For one, a machine that plays video will be inevitably big, just in order to include a screen size that's reasonably big in order to view the videos, and it will be very heavy as well. Just take a look at the Archos Media Center or whatever you call it, I feel sick even to put the link here for you. And also the Creative Zen i or something like that. When Steve Jobs said about unpraticality (excuse my vocab), he really meant it. Having a video playback featured device might be cool, and it would be even cooler when you get hit by a truck while crossing the road as you were trying too hard to watch Britney Spear's My Perrogative video. Also, think about how freaking hard you'll shake the damn thing when you're walking.

Then, let's put ourselves on top of Malaysia and see how many people out there actually do have a library of videos? Don't think that many do eh? Besides, videos that people own these days are either very bad in resolution/quality, or it's acquired illegally. It's hard to find and download legal music videos. Some of you might say, who cares about legal issues, noone does. Yeap, that's what any typical Malaysian will say. I'll have alot more to talk about us being Malaysians and I'm just not quite ready for that blast yet. An iPod that plays video is not impossible, and it is just a matter of time before Apple adopts it into their iPods. But now is just not the right time yet. Let's just allow the Mighty One to decide when's the appropriate time. After all, for those of you who are unaware, he did change the world three times now, quoted from BusinessWeek: Steve Jobs changed the world three times - with the Apple II, Pixar, and the iPod.

Lastly, the U2 iPod. Again, those of you who are unaware, this is just another cool marketing plan by Apple. first of all, they launched the new 40 and 60GB color screen iPods, and it's priced at a premium price that not many people can afford. Then, at the same tiime, they released the U2's Special Edition iPod, in order to boost the sales of their lower end iPods now. Should the iPod Photo be a success, the U2 iPods can definitely help pull sales and to clear off 20GB hard drive iPods. Should the iPod Photo be a failure, once again, the U2 iPod will be able to cover it. This is the ultimate reason, why a 20GB monochrome iPod is being used as the Special Edition iPod. It helps satisfy both sides of consumers as well.

The U2 iPod is like the ultimate iPod to me. I just can't wait to actually look at the real thing. I will buy it, even with the marked up price of USD349, compared to the USD299 for the normal 4G 20GB iPod. The price difference is USD50. Which is reasonable and justified. First, the outlook's different, much bolder and stands out among other iPods. Then, it has got the signature engravement of all the members of U2, one of the greatest band of all time. Also, it comes with a poster, with a personal message from Bono, and lastly, an iTunes gift certificate worth USD50. So the extra features are actually free come to think about it. But I'm wondering right now, if this piece of beauty actually comes into Malaysia. If it does, how would Apple compensate to buyers from countries that does not have the iTunes service? I wonder. The estimated price, based on my own judgement, the Special Edition iPod would be RM1799. 40GB iPod Photo would be RM2499 and the 60GB sold at RM2999. You make the choice. PhotoPod's definitely not something I want right now.

I was feeling great yesterday, with the launch of these great products, and 10 new iTunes stores in total. But it was not for long till I felt different. Bah, forget it. Noone shares the same feeling, noone shares the same vision. Right?

Bad time? or Bad thinking?

2004-10-26T04:50:00.000+10:00

Should I blame it all on time? Is it all about time that I need? Is my life trapped in this bleedy schedule all because of insufficient time? Or is it because I really thought I was bigger than my body? Maybe I shouldn't think that I was so capable right from the beginning, then maybe I wouldn't take on as many things like I did now. Maybe I should've started my assignments off earlier and I would be able to shift my focus on other issues. I hate time managing. I can never manage my time the way I want it to be. I can never do something without getting distracted. There are too many things that I want to complain about but yet I am using more of my time writing this piece complaining about how I think time is running me down right now. Contradicting isn't it?

I've been redoing the damn intro for my final multimedia project for the 3rd time now. A bloody long 60 seconds intro and I did it over again for the 3rd time now. 3rd time for the 1st quarter of the intro that is. I don't understand why I couldn't make the animations look smoother and sleek. Maybe it is me again now. Not skillful enough? Definitely. Not bright enough? Definitely. Not creative enough? Absolutely. I am not bigger than my body. Thought maybe it would be easier for me to use Apple as my subject for this, but it turned out to be worse than ever. Why? Maybe because my class is no where near creating something like this for them, therefore I made it look sooo sucky. I'm pretty sure something like this would look good on Microsoft's presentation. Especially when it comes to some 60 seconds intro on a launch for this new anti-virus program made by Microsoft to induce people into buying, just so that they could install it to fight off some of the 200+ viruses among 20000 in their computers. What's more, Microsoft has got 60000 more in their warehouses, preparing to be launched into the cyberspace and infect another few millions, once the so called 'new' antivirus program had expired.

Now now, why the hell did I stray off the topic for?

*Smacks head on iBook*

Yeah right, never in 10 years.

I'm an Evangelist!

2004-10-23T21:53:00.000+10:00

Woo hoo, yesterday was the 1st day of my job as an official Mac Evangelist.. (ceh wah, nice name.. kononya evangelist..) Sales man la.. part-time, for Mac Asia in One Utama and I wasn't supposed to work yesterday. Got called in 20 minutes before 6 to work for 4 hours. Well it was great! The feeling is indescribable and when you're actually working not for the money, it actually feels 10x better. Best part is.. I'm actually writing this as I'm working! haha! (Better not let Val sees this).

*Customer walks in*
Later!

Bright Lights

2004-10-22T15:27:00.000+10:00

Wheew! I've finally completed my Corporate Planning assignment and I'm right now at Shakeys One Utama with free WiFi. Funny how people say that the free WiFi here sucks when I think it is already better than anything you can find, for free..

Will get back later.. Gotta pay the bill now..

Dive into the blues..

2004-10-19T21:36:00.000+10:00

Well, it's my grandma's birthday today and I've not wish her yet. Not planning to anyway. We're currently not on talking terms. Her attitude is just to unbearable to me. I don't care if people are going to tell me that I'll be like her one day when I'm old, I don't care because I won't be. Call me and correct me 50 years later if you're right.

Dinner time.. to be continued..

Alright, I think eating vegetarian food at some 'branded' restaurants is a total waste of money. Not only that there aren't any meat to be eaten (yes I'm a carnivor if that's how you spell it), the price is actually more expensive than normal food in normal restaurants. I don't have anything against vegetarians, but what's the purpose of eating vegetarian when the fact is that you're actually eating some fried flour shaped in a drumstick, fish or whatsover. They even put toothpicks inthe damn fish to be seen as bones! My goodness..

Commas and fullstops in life.

2004-10-19T02:11:00.000+10:00

Saturday was great. Sunday was fine. Monday was reality.

Anyway I forgot to post up the 'Mighty-O-Pin' that I got from Azul on Saturday. It was a limited edition Apple pin that's made in the U.S. and it's up for sale in eBay for $3 if I'm not mistaken. Here it is:

Just got another job today from a new client whom I was recommended to by my lecturer. Dang, really gotta bring her out for a drink sometime later for all these jobs. Okay, reality check! My life's too full now and it shows.. I'm having hiccups. I made a list of all the things currently occupying the time that I have in my life and am pondering how to organize them. It's in a total mess now without any proper timetable/schedule to completion.

1) 1 major Multimedia assignment due on the 16th of November. (Work has to be kept up to date in order to get approval)
2) 2 final group assignments for International Marketing and Corporate Planning, each dues respectively on the 10th and 15th of November.
3) Some freelance jobs that's left hanging at the moment but might be called up to update them.
4) Possibility of working part-time in MacAsia One Utama as Sales Assistant.
5) Protem committee for the setting up of MyMUG (Malaysia's Mac User Group)
6) Possibility of joining the web team on the development of MyMUG's website.
7) 1 Multimedia presentation for my new client that's due next Tuesday.
8) My life.

Any guides, recommendations, opinions on what I should be doing 1st or whatsoever are more than welcomed. Right now, I have no ideas for my multimedia assignment and I am often distracted by the wonders of technologies in life. I need to focus. Writing this blog takes approximately 15 minutes of my time and that's gone forever as I am typing this.

Over and out.

What goes up must come down.. Eventually..

2004-10-17T12:45:00.000+10:00

What could be better than to start your day with an early morning up and breakfast with your dad and his gf after such a long, long time?

Then, a phone call from your college's councillor telling you that you've been awarded the partial scholarship which you applied for?

I guess the Apple vision I had really did influence the interviewers huh? :-)

Followed up with your dad giving you money, partly due to the good news above, to purchase the bag you wanted so much?

And winning 4 out of 5 snooker matches with Daniel?

Coupled with a great MyMUG gathering in Starbucks? (Although I was experiencing severe headache)

Yeah, that was about it.. At the end of the day? Chelsea failed me once again by losing to Man. City. Well, I guess 1 bad thing compared to quite a number of good things is indeed a blessing, isn't it?

Anyway, here are some pictures I took during the MUGfest:

From L to R, yapliren, niel, songsong, MacDude and wei

Token Stranger, Niel and qwerty figuring out how to actiuvate the ancient Mac

MacDude, wei, petepix, Axzel and CHiQ

The ancient Mac that's running on OS 8.5 Cooooool..

And here are some pictures of my new precious..

Bet Your Life..

2004-10-15T18:54:00.000+10:00

Poddie's Currently Singing: Greenday - American Idiot

Ahh, watched 2 movies today. Ladder 49 and Bet Your Life on AXN. Well, Ladder 49 was alright only I would say. Typical American Hero movie. One really sad ending, just like Armageddon. Ooops, did I just spoil the movie for some of you?

Anyway, had pizza and watched Bet Your Life on AXN from 3-5. For those of you who don't know, Bet Your Life stars the 2 new winners of the reality show called Next Action Star. This show, along with other big titles like The Matrix, is produced by Joel Silver and those 2 winners from the reality show gets to be the main actor and actress. I don't think the movie's good, just that the hype around it was kinda big and just wanna see what's it like.

What I see is what I want to get..

2004-10-15T11:31:00.000+10:00

Poddie's Currently Singing: Jet - Look What You've Done

Okay, someone please tell me why can't I insert goodies into my sidebar? Say if I wanna add a tag-board, where do I insert the damn codes? Sigh, I guess I'm really getting too old for this kinda thing huh? Also please let me know what sort of add-ons I should include..

I really gotta get that bag soon. Before it gets out of stock.. Isn't it nice? Saw it yesterday and it was perfect for me. Fits my iBook nicely, together with my iPod, some CDs, my mouse and also a couple of documents. It was within budget as well, RM159. But I guess I can get it for a little cheaper *winks*. The damn thing is, I'm freaking tight financially now and I don't wanna get my dad to buy it for me! Damn..

Now tell me what am I supposed to do..

La La La

2004-10-14T21:02:00.000+10:00

Haha, here I am again, using up Blogger's web space, opening a new acocunt, starting a new blog site. Well I hope this will be regular now.. *roll eyes*