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I've really been neglecting my blog. Even my journal is starting to become neglected. :/ Anyway, the Rugby World Cup has come and gone. It was a whirlwind tournament!! New Zealand went all the way to the finals undefeated AND won!!! Their first win since the World Cup's inception in 1985. O_O. Talk about a well-earned win. My finals are next week. -Gulp-. Akid has finished his UPSR examinations so he's busy playing the PS3 night and day. Hehe. On top of that, he got straight A's too! Congrats lil bro!!! So we've gotten 4 new games. 2 of them came with more than one game. We got Batman: Arkham City, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection -- which consists of MGS3: Snake Eater, MGS2: Sons of Liberty, and MGS: Peace Walker. The games have been updated graphically as well as achievement-wise for the PS3. from the PS2 and PSP systems, respectively. The next game we got was Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Awesome awesome game. I love Uncharted!!! The latest ga...

My blog is really really slowing down isn't it? :/ Not good. The worst part is that it's not just my blog. I've virtually stopped writing. Hmm. I suppose now that I'm in college, I should have more things to blog about. Well, I do, but I haven't been dilligent. Did I blog about getting into the ADTP Committee? What about the 4th of July Pool Party we organized? I can't remember. The blogger app I'm using doesn't allow me to check a number of things, including past posts & tags. Well, the IRB Rugby World Cup is coming soon. 8D. Quite excited. Yaay! I'll be rooting for a number of teams; namely the All Blacks (New Zealand), Wallabies (Australia), Eagles (USA), Tonga, Fiji, Japan, & Springboks (South Africa). Phew. Hehe! Speaking of rugby, I'll be joining my college's rugby club this coming semester. I hope I'll make it to the team... Hmm. I'll need new boots. The cost of the parts needed to revive my F50i TUNiT will set m...

Today is the 4th of July!!! The American Independence Day. In conjunction with this, the Sunway ADTP Student Committee is orgainizing a summer pool party called "An American Summer" this evening, from 6-10. It's going to be a blast!! Hehe! Anyway, the weekend was busy for me. I went to my mom's Family Day in Taman Rimba Kiara, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, KL. Quite a nice place. Apparently, there's also some trails there so definitely worth a look. I used my student ID to get a discount for the first time on Saturday!! Woohoo!! Hehe!! On Sunday, I went to Bukit Bandaraya, Shah Alam for the 3rd leg of the Token Bikezooka MTB Series. The turn up was a bit less this time around. The track was a blast!! Phew. At the beginning, they give us this massive climb. 80. Everybody was cursing on their way up. I was humming. Hehe! A trick I learned from my mom. After the climb, there's a quick descent then some tarmac where you can regain your breath. Then more cli...

Today was full of ups & downs. The morning started innocently enough; I woke up on time, by 8:15 I was seated in class, waiting for the Precalculus class to start at 8:30. Graphs of Sine & Cosine was quite fun! Hehe! Then, Ms. Tan gave us the results for our Mid-Terms; I got 15/15! Booyah! Then we helped her rearrange the tables for her Calculus I class. At Sunway Pyramid, Ajit & I browsed through the Focus Point promotion/exhibition thingy. Some nice glasses. It'll be cool to get some. Hehe! After some browsing, with Ajit enquiring about some of the prices, we headed for our cars. Before I climbed in, I took out my Season Parking Pass card. In the car, I noticed that it was gone! Huhu! I looked high & low for it before I spent the next 2 hours either running back & forth between Sunway Campus & Pyramid getting things sorted out or waiting around. -sigh-. Bummer. I ended up praying at the mosque in front of Sunway Pyramid, across NPE. Go...

Recently, there has been some commotion regarding the refugee exchange deal between Australia & Malaysia. After reading up about it, hearing talks about it, I have noted the reasons this deal is opposed. The entire act of the exchange is in breach of something called the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention in which a government has no right to forcibly deport asylum seekers. Note, asylum here does not mean the loony bin. Australia being the instigator of the deal is technically merely transferring their international obligation & responsibilities to another country, especially since they are a signatory of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees . They have tried a similar move with East Timor and are currently in discussion with Papua New Guinea for a similar deal. Why is this a cause for disagreement? All 3 countries -- Malaysia, East Timor & Papua New Guinea -- are not signatories like Australia. This has something to do with international...

Wow. If blogs could be dusty, mine would be covered in a considerably thick layer of it. Hehe! I'm sorry I haven't been blogging in a while -- I noticed that a lot of people are writing that. College life has begun for me. So far, so good. My primary worry? It isn't the heaping amount of homework that we don't have to hand in -- yaay! --, it isn't the onslaught of weekly quizzes & everything being practically rushed because it is a short semester, no. It is the fact that I got locked out of my student e-mail... -_-" Somehow, the servers were reset and so were our passwords. I didn't know that so I just kept trying and trying until I was locked out. Had to make 2 trips to the IT Helpdesk. Hopefully this one will work out. Otherwise, I'm quite good. Hehe! Tomorrow is going to be another long day, but at least it'll be spent learning, not waiting like today. The Sunway Campus is quite nice. I don't think I'll be doing any extr...

Finally the weekend is over. Time for me to recover and recuperate. On Friday, I had my Bronze Medal examinations. I passed so now I'm a qualified life guard! Hehe! It was actually a lot of fun! There were only 2 timed events. The first was to swim 50m (any stroke), rescue the victim and tow him back 50m with the assistance of an aid (a short rope). The time to beat was 00:03:00 minutes. I clocked in 00:02:48. Hehe! The other timed event was the rope toss. You have to gather the rope, roll it so that you can toss it well to the victim who is about 10-20m out in 'open' water. Time to beat; 00:01:00. My time: 00:0043. Muahahaha! I also did very good for the other events. My 'victim' -- a fellow exam taker -- said that my chin tow was very comfortable. Muahahaha! Luckily for me, the guy was a floater, despite being on the heavier side. Me? I sink. Heh heh. Sorry. He had a bit of trouble with me. Hehe! Saturday was my SAT. Huh. Go figure, the ...

Went out w/ my dad to go to the MCOBA (Malay College Old Boys' Association) building but we got lost & traffic was hell so we turned back. I took this picture from Federal Highway approaching Lingkaran Syed Putra (Mid Valley area). Just felt like sharing... :) Plus, it's my first post from my phone. 8D Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Recently, there's been some commotion from the States about the whole pat-down thing being performed by TSA (Transport Security Administration) staff. Many people feel that this move is very violating as the person being searched is groped and touched in very private areas. Man, this is actually quite hard to write about. I'm trying to be as objective as I can and I don't want to sound like some tabloid reporter. Yuck. Back to the story, a family travelling back home from a vacation in New Orleans was selected from the line to go through the screening process. Now, there are 2 steps, you get scanned, then you get physically searched. Though it appears to be fairly random as to why you get searched. Selection from the crowd is also random, I think. I'm not following to closely. Anyway, this family was chosen and after everyone was scanned, their 6-year old daughter was chosen for the physical search. Imagine, you've been telling your daughter that it is wro...

Does the name 'Bunsen' sound familiar? No it's not the F1 driver. That one is J ensen B utton . Ah, the good old days in the high school science lab where we have to heat something up or set something on fire -- remember that peanut during Bio? The one where we measure the calories? Those were the good days. And we were able to do all that thanks to our school syllabus, our school funds and a guy named Robert Bunsen, the inventor of the Bunsen burner. 8D. One of the most fun things to play with in the lab. Oh, I remember all those burnt pencil tips & ends, the lighted mechanical pencil leads, the pieces of paper, the occasional fireball from leaving the gas on for too long -- speaking of which, one such fireball almost took out a friend of mine, Faris Iylia & myself. Some of the girls left it on too long, finally got the electric lighter and while they were pointing it away from themselves -- and accidentally at us -- out of fear of it going BOOM in their f...

Good thing this blog is digital... Otherwise I think my previous posts would've rotted away by now. Hehe! It's been quite a while since I last posted something here. Um, just a random, pointless update... Wait, it's not pointless, then since it's an update... -_-" I want to do triathlons someday. OK, now at least it's still random. 8D But seriously, I want to be able to do triathlons someday.

SPM results tomorrow... 0_0

Yesterday, I participated in the Token Bikezooka Series. It was the first of 4 races & was a XC Mass Start event. XC stands for Cross Country, just so you know. The race was 24km spread over 4 laps, meaning 6km/lap. I've ridden 24km on road before & let me assure you, 24km on road is NOTHING like 24km riding a mtb. A lot of climbs. Oh, before I talk about the race, the track, etc; the event was held in RRI or Rubber Research Institute. A lot of fun. Thankfully, the mosquitoes weren't so active. RRI is famous for it's mosquitoes... -_- Anyway, the track was fun, and quite challenging. I rode my dad's Specialized Hardrock Pro instead of my Polygon Collossus AX1.0. My dad's bike is a hardtail -- only front suspension -- XC bike. My bike on the other hand is a full-suspenson all-mountain bike & heavy as hell. If you feel like it, feel free to revisit my old post where I explain the different forms of mountain biking. The route took us to the p...

I've said it before; once I'm bored, I start doing lists. So for today, I decided to make a list of cool things I found that would be neat to own. Hehe! GoPro HD Hero. It's a camera for action sports. With an assortment of mounts, you can mount it anywhere to get that awesome footage. The HD Hero model shoots in 1080p videos and 5mp pictures. Impressive considering it's just this small little thing. P/S; the camera is mounted on the helmet. You don't get a free helmet (nor goggles) with the purchase of the camera. Hehe! A cyclocross bike. Cyclocross is sometimes written/typed as CX. They look identical to road bikes with the drops bars and all but they're actually built to go off-road. Pretty neat concept. Hehe. If you notice the bike in the picture below has drop bars and rather thin tires, reminiscent of a road bike. Some ring I found on this website called Novica and it looks like a Jaguar. The animal, not the car. It's a really nifty loo...

Looking back, mountain biking, particularly XC, is sadism at it's finest. During the race you feel your spirit breaking, you want to cry and give up yet you keep motivating yourself, "I want to finish this, I want to finish this," and you do. You don't win, but you did finish where many others pulled out. You're body is aching, and you feel like collapsing. At the same time, once you cross that finish line, you're like, "I actually did it," and you look at the expressions of those who didn't finish it and you feel a mix of joy and pain. Days after that, after you've recovered and gotten back in the saddle, you think, "I can't wait for the next race." It's borderline stupid but it's addictive. That feeling when you're atop the hill and you know you pedalled and struggled your way up. You didn't take some big 4x4 and wreck the environment to get the view. You broke a sweat, you swore, you struggled, and whe...

Some of you may have read on Facebook that I participated in a race this past Sunday on February 20th, 2011. It was an all-day event consisting of one mountain bike event -- called the Jamboree --, and 3 road bike events -- called Criterium races. The Jamboree was the first event of the day and was scheduled to start and 10. Riders were to be at the starting grid by 9:45 a.m. Alright, before you go on, I'm going to rant about the flaws of the event before the good part. So if you want to skip the bad, go to paragraph 7 (not counting this paragraph & the one above). By 9:30, there were still around 30 people who hadn't received their race number and transponders. No, it's not that so many people showed up, overwhelming the organizers. It was the sheer inefficiency of the organizer's themselves. In short, the registration was an absolute mess. The counters weren't properly labelled, the chain of command was all over the place, there was hardly anyone in cha...

I would have done this one my 250th post but I didn't notice that it was the 250th. Heh heh. My bad. Anyway, I recently bought a book. Finally, a book. Hehe. I'm an avid reader & as I was browsing through MPH Subang Parade last weekend, I realized it's been a while since I read a book that I wanted to. The latter part of last year many of us had our noses buried in reference books, text books, notes we took down during class, etc, gearing up for SPM. Now it was time I got something I wanted to read. I've always been intrigued by mystery novels; the Hardy Boys, Famous Five, etc. So I got one. Want to guess what book I got? I'll give you a hint. Look familiar? I'm sure it pretty is. Yep, I got myself a copy of 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Somehow, despite being a fan of mystery books, I had never read any of Sherlock Holmes' Adventures. Sure, I've heard of some of his stories but never actually re...

Today is Jules Verne's birthday! Well, he was born on February 8th 1828 which means that if he was alive, he would be 183 years old. Whew. Who is Jules Verne? Probably, his most renowned work would be 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A good book. Considering that at the time, submarines didn't exist, quite visionary. He is one of 3 people to be dubbed 'The Father of Science Fiction'. The other two authors are H.G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback. But, why am I writing about this? Well, it's because Google came up with a really neat header for their search engine. They often do this in conjunction with important events & dates. I snipped it & here is the header; Pretty nifty, no? Hehe. Anyway, yesterday, my brother & I shot a video at the abandoned quarry near our house. The last time we did was a very short one, and it was only one clip. This time around, we took several videos & pictures & I made a short clip out of it. It's my first video, and I'...

Flawless!! Random? Not quite. Bear with me here for a while. Today, we went to Alamanda, Putrajaya and got a Lowepro camera bag for Akid. It was a Flipside200. Awesome bag. Compact and sturdy. Not to mention perfect for cycling because it's a backpack. After buying a few supplies at Cold Storage, including chips, pita bread, canned tuna, and mayonnaise -- among others -- we had lunch at Taman Warisan nearby. Awesome local food. They have a Satay Kajang Haji Samuri outlet there so we ate there. We had some daging (beef), ayam (chicken), arnab (rabbit), perut (stomach, which only my parents ate), and rusa (venison). Hehe! The venison was a bit tougher than beef and I couldn't really tell the rabbit apart from the chicken. Heh. I'm a horrible food critic. Putrajaya Challenge Park was next on the agenda after lunch. 8D. At PCP, we changed into our shorts and jerseys, unloaded the bikes, put on our helmets and sunglasses, and started the warm up climb to the trail ...

This morning, we wanted to go for a bike ride along the GCE -- Guthrie Corridor Expressway. Unfortunately, it started raining and it hasn't stopped since. So now I'm stuck at home, bored, with no idea what to do. I just had a yummy lunch my mom cooked. Hehe. Hmm. If the weather doesn't let up, I might try and convince Mama & Abah to take me for a haircut. I need it badly. I don't like having long hair. I tried. Heh heh. I also need to confirm with Mama whether I can go to Mid Valley with Liyana & Sofea tomorrow... Hmm. Suddenly there are things to do. Sort of. I think I'll curl up for a nap. Au revoir.

Over the months and years, I have made lists and lists of all kind of things. I like to do lists, for some reason. Places to visit, things to do, things I want, etc. Well, 3 things I can cross of the list of "Things I Want" is a road bike, a DSLR and a pair of Converse/Puma/whateverelselookslikethat. Last year, I got a road bike Well, 2 actually -- each at half price. So for the price of one full bike, I got 2. A miracle, really that one. Finding even one road bike with 50% discount is a rarity. Let alone, 2. In the same store. If that fact alone wasn't enough, let's go over some details, shall we? They were technically still the latest -- the 2011 versions were just about to roll out and they were 2010 models. They were brand new -- as in not second hand. And the cherry on the icing -- or rather, the final nail in the coffin -- is that they were both top end models. Even as we were making the payment, people were still ogling it. Hehe. I got them duri...

I passed my Computerized Test in one go! I'm glad I was able to. But you know what was weird? My score. Before I elaborate, the test is split into 2 'papers' with the first being a vision test and the 2nd the actual Law or Undang test. The 2nd part is split into 3 sections; the first 15 questions -- Part I --, the next 25 -- Part II --, and the final 10 -- Part III. The parts difficulty transition from easy, hard to medium. I scored 15/15 for Part I, 25/25 for Part II but 5/10 for Part III. Heh. Go figure, eh? Well, I was still able to get the passing mark so I'm happy. I got 45/50 which is 90%. Woohoo!! After that, I decided to go straight for the 3-hour Theory course. Unfortunately, the classes were full for the 3-hour Practical course so I'm taking that one next week. A week after that, I'll get my 'L' license or Learning Driver's License -- LDL. Hmm. What to do in that week before I get my LDL? Hehe. Hopefully I can hit PCP by mys...

As the title says, this post is going to be about mountain biking. Yes, I'm bored. So just to introduce my fellow readers to the realm of mountain biking. I'll do my best to include photos so you kind of get the idea of the different bikes and objectives of each form. Before I start, let me introduce very briefly on what categories I will be elaborating on about below. First of all is Cross Country, the very roots of mountain biking. Afterwards I will explain on All-Mountain/ Enduro . Following that will be Downhill. My personal favorite. Following up on that part will be Freeride / Slopestyle . And last but not least, Fourcross . This is the most popular form; Cross Country or XC in short. XC mountain biking was one of the first forms of mountain biking. It was pioneered by a group of friends in the early to mid-80's. I could go into a long-winding talk about that alone but I think what I've written suffices. If you want to know more, just look it up. The inte...

Lue has left back for Canada. :( This past Saturday, we went to watch Gulliver's Travels. It was a fun movie. Jack Black really likes his rock and roll. Hehehe! Of course, I'm not complaining, the guy can actually sing. Before the movie, Akid was kind of hunting around for a camera. We had bought a Sony Cybershot TX-9 sometime back but about two weeks ago, it got stolen. :(. I won't delve into the details. Quite disheartened by that incident. So he was seriously considering a DSLR which is kind of unfair because I've always wanted one but I never pushed for it because it cost so much. I guess I can be a bit more careful with money than my little brother. We woke up early the next day because we needed to send Lue to the airport. :(. It was fun having her around. Everyone was sad at the airport. Heh. We had so much fun and 3 weeks went by so quickly. Huhu. After she left, we had breakfast at McDonald's then we went hunting for cameras around KLIA bec...

That's the name of the performance that I attended at the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) yesterday. I know it's spelled Inpendencia and apparently, that's not a typo. It was a lot of fun. The entire performance was awesome. The whole reason behind it was because many South American countries had just celebrated their 200th year of independence. According to the maestro for the evening, those countries are Mexico, Argentina and Columbia. I think that's all. Although there were some music from Cuba and he apologized for that. I didn't mind. They were all very good. It was the first "happy hour" session meaning it wasn't too formal though you still had to dress smartly. Akid and I were very excited for several reasons. Firstly, it would be our first time attending any of the MPO's performances, it would also be the first time we would get to go to take the public transport by ourselves and as it turned out, the first time just the t...

I have been so busy!! I haven't had time to post anything for the new year. This has happened to me, what 2 years in a row? Huh. Go figure. Well, a lot has come and passed in 2010. Debates, public speaking, having fun with friends -- QM, Lina, Alliya, Sharanya, Divya, and Letticia who make up the debate team! --, lots of laughter, lots of heartache -- Add Math, I'm looking at you --, did my first downhill mountain biking run, did my SPM/O-Levels, just to name a few. Looking back, many of my friends were kinda sad on the last day(s) of SPM but somehow I wasn't too bothered. Yeah, I knew I was going to miss all of them but I didn't feel sad. Call me a heartless creep but yeah, kinda. Huh. Anyway, I certainly hope that everyone keeps in touch! Another year, another new year's resolution. Before that, however, I want to look back at this year's resolution and see what I've accomplished As I've said in the post Custom Order New Year's Resolutio...