Poetic Tomb II

The Shortcut Life

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:55:16 GMT

Redirect yourselves.

Poetic Tomb's 'sister' blog...(no longer a mirror blog)...

What's In A May: The Shortcut Life

This blog will still be maintained though.

Can emails disappear into thin air?

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:32:53 GMT

Can e-mails disappear into thin air? I don't know, someone please tell me.

I e-mailed an important report to a number of people last month, when I was still in KL doing other business. And I used my student account for that, because it's some sort of policy that we contact each other using student accounts...and I did not check my student account for a few weeks after that.

Fast forward few weeks later and it's January 2009, and I heard things about the same people looking for me....and looking for the report. Problem is, I've emailed it to them last month. And yes I may be forgetful, but I'm not forgetful enough to forget to click the 'Send' button when e-mailing people.

I think it may have ended in their Junk folder, because I usually use another email to contact the said people. But I'm just crossing my fingers hoping that their accounts have not deleted the junk mail yet so that they can check it (I e-mailed everyone asking for clarification on whether or not they have received said email). I can't clarify anything else on my side, because all emails were erased when the student accounts were upgraded recently.

I wonder what would a professional do in this situation?

Day 22

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:51:03 GMT

It is now Day 22 of my Journey. I started jogging (serious) a lot recently, doing it around 5 times a week until now, except for the 1 week++ where I was recovering from asthma (which started around the same time the rainy days got worse here in Sarawak). I only started running again today, managed to kill off my 1.5 km within 20 minutes. Quite a slow start, but better than nothing, I'm not willing to send myself into overdrive while I'm still recovering. I'm doing the 1.5 km in 600m intervals now, so it is 600m for 1st round, 600m for 2nd round, and 300m final round. Planning to increase to 2 km by end of this week, if my health allows me to.

I know this Journey will take a loooong time, so I'm ready to accept whatever along the way. About time I improved my fitness though; I used to be able to run (not jog) 500m+ without stopping to pant. I want a much much stronger stamina and fitness more than I want to lose weight.

My running playlist:

1.Venus - Bananarama
2.Walking On Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves
3.Footloose - Kenny Loggins
4.Wake Me Up Before You Go-go - Wham!
5.Say Say Say - Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson
6.Weapon Of Choice - Fatboy Slim
7.Believe - Cher
8.I Want You - Savage Garden
9.She Works Hard For The Money - Donna Summer
10.Sweet Dreams(are made of this) - Eurhythmics
11.Only In My Dreams - Debbie Gibson
12.Better The Devil You Know - Kylie Minogue
13.When The Going Gets Tough - Billy Ocean
14.Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor
15.Mickey - Toni Basil
16.Thriller - Michael Jackson
17.Highway To The Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
18.Take On Me - A-ha

Yeah, a majority of the songs are from the 80's. I find songs from the 80's to have a more 'uplifting' mood, more motivating, especially 'Walking On Sunshine'. They're on shuffle mode, so at least I don't get tired of the arrangement (and I don't have to be reminded of the order in which the songs are played).

Unhealthy

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:46:45 GMT

Whee. (nervous laughter). My health is going astray again. This is not fun.

When I was a kid, I had frequent bouts of asthma attacks, though not as bad as my brother had. The asthma was, well, gone for a number of years (to the point I was able to NOT worry about it any more). And now it's starting to resurface. I had an attack last week, before I was supposed to leave for the OBS program. Got declared unfit. Too bad, coz I really wanna try out kayaking (part of the program). I've never gone kayaking before.

And I'm back to my insomniac past now. The last time I had severe insomnia was when I was trying to adjust myself back to Malaysian time zone, after a few years of living in another country. Took me almost a year to get back to my Malaysian biological clock, I finally fit into a more stable sleeping pattern by the time I started 1st-year of Degree. But somehow, now, I actually sleep at 4 a.m. and wake up around 8 a.m. . Only four hours of sleep, darn it. I need more sleep.

And there's that problem with my hands...never mind...

Worst of all is my memory loss. This is bad, real bad. Its not good having a brain that only remembers so little, I have the feeling that some people are starting (or already have) to distrust me every time I say 'I forgot' or 'I don't remember' (Well, at least I told the truth when I said that). Not only that, I can't remember things in class. I think I better start taking supplements (ugh) again.

All these and it's only the holidays, I haven't even started classes yet. I started writing this post at 1:46 a.m., GMT+8, and it's now 2:03 a.m., which means 2 hours to go until my eyes become sleepy.

Joshua (2007)

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:06:19 GMT

Joshua (2007)
Directed by: George Ratliff
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Vera Famiga, Jacob Kogan

Was watching this movie titled 'Joshua', about a bad seed with the same name. Joshua happens to be an intelligent psycho kid whose family is rather well-off (the father's a stockbroker or something), and the movie started with the couple bringing back their newborn baby Lily. It's a case of sibling jealousy. From there onwards, you can see the pattern of weird stuff happening - Joshua scaring the baby at night and videotaping it and also killing his grandma during a visit to a museum - and the parents only realized much later. Joshua's equally-psycho mum is forever psycho-ing in that movie, and his dad is often away. Psycho mum + Oft-away Dad equals to Psycho Kid? It's obvious that the family was well, psycho, from the start. There's this scene where Joshua watches an old videotape of himself as an infant, recorded by his dad. Mum was (from the looks of it) suffering from postpartum depression and keeps nagging Dad to stop filming, but Dad won't stop, resulting in having something thrown at him.

I got bored before the first 30 minutes of the movie passed, but had to stick to watching it because everyone else was doing so (was supposed to be watching 'Dirty Jobs' on Discovery Channel, one of my favorite shows). Thumbs down for being too predictable, but I found one interesting thing: Most of the evil doings were not done explicitly (as in...you think you know Joshua did it, but you're not satisfied because you can't confirm this on the dot, because evidence either surfaces much later or is forever hidden), unlike in movies of the similar genre. Based on my experience of watching horror/thriller movies, I won't include this movie in my "Movies To Watch When There's Nothing Else Left To Watch" list.

I end this post by quoting a reviewer:

"Watch this movie on a night when you don't think you need birth control."
- Dan Lybarger, eFilmCritic.com

Goodness...

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:36:00 GMT

Muslim family taken off US flight after talking about where was safest to sit

A Muslim family were taken off an internal flight in the US after they were overheard having a conversation about the safest place to sit, it emerged today.

Federal authorities kicked off all eight members of the extended family and their friend after other passengers raised the alarm.

Even after they had all been cleared by the FBI of any wrongdoing, the airline - AirTran - refused to let them rebook on another flight, according to CNN. (read more by clicking here)

I had no idea that talking about the safest place to sit in a plane is enough to make you a terrorist suspect.

For goodness' sake. The family probably watched a few episodes of 'Seconds From Disaster' a few days back, and were just hoping they can sit in the areas with the best rates of survival (in case the plane crashed). I think it's more to how they look like compared to what they were talking about. Bad timing though. I'm assuming it's because the family were probably dressed as Muslims typically do (veiled, etc.) and they just happen to have the conversation inside the plane...and what with the impression most Americans have on Muslims these days, especially after the 9/11 incident.

For goodness' sake, the only thing the family mentioned was about 'the safest areas to sit in a plane' and they wanted to go on a VACATION!!

Darn, I'd be pissed off if that incident happened to my family. So, let's say if I happen to be talking to another passenger on a plane about how to decide when to overtake cars on a road, I should be arrested on suspicion of violating traffic laws and have my driving license barred.

So much for globalization. Seems that the amount of xenophobes have increased along with globalization.

Volunteerism?

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:18:42 GMT

Err...I'm stuck in a hotel room in KL...first day of an almost never-ending journey basically. Will be flying off to KK in a few more days, and then off to my grandparents' place and my aunt's wedding. And then I'll be back in KL next month and off to another West Malaysian state (forgot which one) for some sort of program which I can't disclose for privacy reasons =p. Educational though.

2008 is coming to an end...this has been quite a weird journey ever since the start of the year. Compared to previous years, I've been away from home a lot more this year...this includes workshops, trainings, and volunteering activities...my favorite event of the year is the Miri International Jazz Fest, coz we were part of the volunteers in that event. And we even got the chance to take photos with the 'crazy' pianist from Oma Sound (somehow and unfortunately I've forgotten his name), I have to admit he's one of my favorite pianists.

Earlier this year, I was part of a group of volunteers who painted the Kenyalang Mental Association new building (Raymond was the OC, 'Charity of Paint'), and also helped Angeline with the Tabung Dapur Untuk Darfur (literally 'kitchen funds for Darfur'). Come to think of it, I had a different perspective of volunteerism a couple of years ago.

Like most Malaysians, I was part of a 'pasukan beruniform' in primary school(uniformed team?), which means being a part of the Scouts, St. John's Ambulance, Red Crescent, Girl Guides, etc.(I switched to Taekwondo in primary school). Whenever there was any sort of event that required donations or any sort of help, I went just because I was part of a student team and all my friends were going, and I thought it would be fun. Sure, we had fun, but I never put any deeper thought into what volunteerism was at that time.

I entered a Malaysian secondary school (my schoolmates were Asfan, Michelle P, and Azie, and ironically I knew them in university instead) and enrolled in the Firefighter Cadets team. Learnt about where the fire extinguishers were stationed in every building of the school, and even went through marching lessons, probably as part of discipline. Yup, it was fun, no deeper thoughts. All those eight years in school and I was stuck with the perspective that volunteerism is about being part of a uniform student group and helping out just because...just because. Sure, we had teachers in school telling us that it's important to help people in need and all that, but that was that. That's all we knew.

It was a dramatic, life-changing 3 years of living in an impoverished North African country that turned my perspective around. It sounds cliche but being there to experience and witness something in person is truly different. What you see on CNN or BBC is nothing compared to what I saw. Whenever cars stopped at traffic lights or road intersections, crippled beggars would tap (or knock loudly, depending on how desperate he/she is) on the car windows to ask for money. Planes with the United Nations logo would fly in from time to time, partly to send rations and also as part of a peaceful mission...never in my whole life in Malaysia have I seen a UN cargo plane fly within our airspace. What with civil wars and genocides raging throughout the country, it doesn't sound like a very safe place to live in. Soldiers everywhere, guarding this and that, and once upon a time we were not even allowed to snap pictures at the main airport. I can remember a gruff, sullen soldier shaking his finger at a few of us, saying 'No camera' with a thick Arab accent.

Not to sound insulting or what, but the occasional reports on TV3 about poor Malaysians are mild compared to what I've seen. The rich are really really really really really rich, and the poor are really really really really poor. The poorest people had to make do with a makeshift hut made of old boxes, newspapers, and the like. It was a really saddening sight, to see a couple of shoddy huts being built right next to the mighty fortress-like walls of the super-rich (I say, some of the houses are way larger than the mansions you see in Miri's own Ocean Park). One advantage the poor people had in using those materials is that it rarely rains in that country. But if rain pours, there goes their only home. They'll have to rebuild it. There's no place to stay for the night. Or nights, depending on whether they managed to get materials.

I really admire the volunteers who go here and there to help improve and save lives in various relief situations, especially those who go to the point of actually stepping into war zones to help victims of war. Now I'm not saying that I'm encouraging everyone to just fly to a war-torn country and just venture blindly into enemy territory with the risk of getting shot. But these volunteers have sacrificed A LOT just to be there to help those in need. Quite a number of them have, unfortunately, been killed just because they were in the right place at the wrong time. May God bless their souls and may they rest in peace.

Logging off for now.

Exams

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:07:12 GMT

Yay. Final exams are here again.

Alamak.

Gonna be dead from the 11th to 13th of November 2008.

Will be stuck in an alternate dimension where exams rule.

All the best everyone.

The final two weeks before exams are NEVER the best weeks to be on campus full-day, every day. People you thought you knew have sunk into severe depression caused by diseases such as 'finalproject-itis' and the Last Minute Fever, and yes, it's not really a good sight. And yeah, looking from the way everyone is acting, I've been avoiding staying on campus for too long for the past three weeks (partly because I want to finish my stuff in a place AWAY from depressing faces). But somehow I managed to catch the disease at home and not on campus. Sigh sigh sigh...

All symptoms will be alleviated once the clock strikes twelve, midnight of 22nd October 2008.

Sudoku!

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:26:19 GMT

John Curtin Weekend Longhouse Visit - Tatau, Day 1

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:40:09 GMT

It's Week 9 now, and I've just returned from the JCW (John Curtin Weekend) longhouse visit. Last week, 6 groups (with approximately 15-20 students in each one) visited longhouses located throughout Miri to do community service...my group went to Rumah Clement in Tatau district, five hours' journey from Miri. We were one of the 'far' groups...the other group was Aileen's which went to Long Bedian. Our group was also the only one that visited a longhouse located outside of Miri Division (Tatau is under Bintulu Division)The event took place from the 3rd to 5th of October, 2008...Friday - Sunday...

DAY 1 - 3rd October 2008

Welcome to Rumah Clement, Tatau district. To tell the truth, I took this picture on the second day, and then it rained.

Welcoming speech by Mr. Clement, the Tuai Rumah (closest translation: longhouse chief) and our OC Ian standing nearby.

The longhouse kids. They happened to be having their school holidays last week, so there were a lot of them running around. Not all kids are in this picture though.

Janis stirring the paint before we started work on painting the fence.

And so our work commenced on Day 1 after lunch...painted the fence with white paint.

Curious kids sitting in the shade and watching us paint their longhouse's fences.

The girls resting after a whole afternoon of painting.

Session with 'Cikgu' Anso and 'Cikgu' Ian, hahah!

Playing 'Simon Says', except that this time, we were playing in Malay, so Ian (who conducted the game) said 'Abang Kata' (Big Bro Says).

Game in progress...

And this is the end of Day 1 at Rumah Clement. Will be back to blog about Day 2...logging off for now...lalalalala...