Another day, another choice

Another day in the life of a struggling master student. Actually all of us are struggling in one way or another and we make a choice each day. Continue or quit. Its a choice we make everyday when we wake up to the lab

I went to see a proposal presentation today. Its basically just a seminar where students will present their proposal in front of a panel and their peers. It prepares us for the frightening Viva Voce that we need to do so that our thesis will be finish.

Not many students watched these things because everybody is preoccupied with their own research.

I jotted down a few tips that is very crucial when participating and presenting in these seminars.

1. Prepare
2. Interact with the panel and public, do not read
3. Practice, ask lecturers how to properly pronounced each word
4. Pray the the panel is very nice, or had a nice day. Nothing worse than a panel that is hungry and in a bad mood, They will eat you up alive.
5. Thank god when its over and pray again when you have to present your finished thesis.
   

I had to go to the main library to find some old journals for my research. This is a bit too old, 1957 the same day Malaysia got independence. I saw some journals hailing from the 1913 in a special room. Somehow that room had an eerie feeling because everything is just so old.

Found it, need it, want it, and reading it. This is the journal I am looking for

We need to buy these prepaid photostat cards in order to photostat documents or journals.

I need to photostat the journal since we cannot borrow it. Beside would I want to drag around at 3kg book.

If you are bored, there is a flat panel TV for you to watch, but the channel is set to Discovery channel only. Ok today was a busy day but I am glad I got everything done. Tomorrow is another busy day, doing genetic research. Jom, lets learn how make recombinant protein tomorrow.

Laris

Today I finally had a chance to go back to one of my favourite restaurants . This La Rizz, its located at Sg Merap, on the way to Putrajaya using the trunk roads, instead of turning left at the traffic light, just go straight to the second traffic light and the restaurant will be to your right (its a bad explanation but I am terrible at direction, I only knew KLCC and Bukit Bintang is a stone throw away from each other last year :p)

This the restaurant, its specialty is the "bakar" stuff, or grilled lamb, squid and fish. I came here mainly for the lamb. I was already at Golf when my friend said they were going here. I got off my butt and joined them here. We carpooled to this place and we talked politics all the way here and all the way back to UPM.

See the prices of the food is reasonable, so it won't break the budget.

See the lamb being grilled oh so nicely :D. When I think of lamb, I kept thinking abg Bear lamb dishes.. (yummm)

Served with two different dips, I loved it and there is no lambish smell to the meat.

Crash test

I ran out of ideas of what to post since my life got really boring today, so I decided to post some pictures that many Malaysians love to look at. Accidents of course, but do not worry, there is not bloody bodies or severed head like you see at PDRM booth for accident awareness. Just test result from EURP NCAP that crashes vehicles to test their worthiness,

This Daihatsu Sirion or here in Malaysia its sister the Perodua Myvi, they share the same body structure so theoretically they should perform similar. Our Myvi does not have the side airbags this Sirion has. This car got 4 out of 5 stars which is not bad.

This is the Waja, yes the real one, exact same one from Malaysia. The car does poorly even back then Proton kept saying Waja was created to pass NCAP. Yah it passed with only 3 stars out of 5.
This is the Kia Carnival or its clone in Malaysia, the Naza Ria. This MPV did poorly in offset test which is the car hittng a barrier at an angle. This will cause the crash to load on one side of the front end. This kind of test the body structure of the car, and this car only got 2 stars out of 5. However in the US crash test this car received 5 stars because the US crash test, test the whole front end of the car so the load is spreaded evenly. Offset test the structure of the car while full frontal test, will measure the effectiveness of the airbag and seatbelts.

This are only a test to emulate real word accidents but its not 100% accurate, so just wear your seat belt, drive safely and if you can get the car with all the the safety equipments such as airbags and ABS.

Ever After

I loved this song and I love this movie. This is Ever Ever After by Carrie Underwood, a soundtrack from the movie Enchanted. I loved the movie so much I watched it twice. I actually like chick flicks like this, you know romantic comedies. I know its a girl thing, but I just love it the romance, the humour between two individuals in a relationship. Its a trait my older sister dragged me in, and I am not complaining. I first listened to this song before the movie was shown. I liked it at first and loved it till now. For some the lyrics maybe quite cheesy and may cause nausea to some people, but I love the message it gave to us

"Sometimes you reach what's realist by making believe "

I agree how can you achieve anything in life if you believe it can be true. If negative thoughts is all you have, then it may just come true. Sceptics beware, having a little faith does not kill you.

"You even might wind up being glad to be you"

Sometimes we feel our life sucks so bad, but then it mean you have not opened you own eyes and see what other people had to go through. Be thankful.

"Each happy ending's a brand new beginning "

I like this particular part, just because you reached the goal that you set for yourself, it does not mean it stops there. You will have to keep on going into something better.

"Forever could even start today"

Well no one lives forever, but memories will live as long as you choose to remember it. Good memories should be kept and pass to other people.

"Maybe it's just one wish away"

A wish can also be a prayer, if you don't ask, how can you get it. If you don't asked people, how can they know what you want.

For all the sceptics out there, if you think what I just wrote down in this post is a bunch of crap, then so be it. If you prefer living not trusting another soul, believing everything is for the worse, and thinking everyone is just waiting to cheat you, you might as well dig a hole and just stay in it forever. I mean life is too short to for us to think like that. Enjoy life while you can, because it could end anytime soon...

Coffee and medicine

You probably wondering what the hell this is. This conconction is actually two bags of Old Town 3 in one hazelnut white coffee with a scoop of Paddle Pop Ice cream. It look nasty but taste not bad lah, behind all that color, Paddlepop is just toffee flavoured ice cream, so I got a bit of tofee and ice cream in my cofee.
That plus a night time cold medicine the doctor gave me. This is actually the first generation cold medicine or anti histamines. Its a bit drowsy so its perfect for nightime use. With enough spirulina, Vit C, Cod liver oil and cold medicine, my cold should be gone soon. I went jogging with a friend at Tasik Permaisuri. This will be our weekly activity to jog around the lake, actually now its just power walking, sometimes he goes faster and sometimes I go faster so we pushed each other to our limits. Its nice way to exercise, running on the threadmill at home is boring, but I try to do it so that I can increase my stamina.

Baking: The foolproof way...............well almost

Yup baking is easy if you have the Instant baking mix with you. We had this baking mix for a couple of months already. It seem I am the only one diligent enough to actually make it, so out of boredom I decided to make it yesterday. My younger sister was gleaming with excitement.

My sister have the affinity to this brand of cake mix, Pillbury Walnut brownies made with real Walnuts.

Then we need an oven, we got this oven last year during puasa because our old oven broke down. Quite cheap, just under RM 100.

Then a suitable baking tin, actually this was the only one I could find because my mom likes to hide it.

Asides from the cake mix, we will need an egg, 1/4 cup of oil, and 3 tablespoon of water.

Throw it all inside this ancient Pyrex bowl which has been in my family since I remembered I was a human being. Mix well.

Greased up the baking tin and pour the mix inside it.

Bake it in pre heated oven at around 200 celcius for about 20 minutes or until you poked the cake with a toothpick at it comes out clean. ( see the various holes :p)

Voila, walnut Brownies in less than an hour. Ok next project, muffins... :D

House of the Damn

Hmm suspicious title eh... sajer je letak. Actually my house is very nice. Ok its not mine, its my parents house. They bought 8 years ago and did many renovations to it. Before it was just your ordinary 4 bedrooms 3 bath rooms double story terrace (or is it linked, I get confused with the housing terms, it tooks me 15 years to find out that Semi detached house or Semi D is the same as Rumah berkembar :p) now its a 7 bedroom 4 bath room house, with 3 living rooms, 2 kitchen and if properly parked, you can fit 3 cars and a MPV in the driveway. We don't have the maid and my mother does the cleaning. Still she has time walking on the threadmill everyday and has pocho poncho (line dancing I think) on Fridays. I just can't imagine a bunch of mothers, some who are Hajah, and some has grandchildren, shaking their hips at a parking in the morning :p. Oh wait we are out of topic hehe, . I think my mother had the hardest time living during the constructing because she liked everything to be nice and clean. There were days where there was a wall missing and they covered it up with plastic only, or a day where everybody had to sleep in the same room because the other rooms had no roof. Seriously all that suffering was worth it because the house we live in now is very very very nice. I mean its going to be hard to make my own house as nice as my parents, but then my parents were in theri 40s when the did this house, so I think I can managed just fine too :).

This is the kitchen, pushed way back to the end of the house, my mom changed the windows from wood frame to aluminium frames so that they would last longer.

Sad looking right.... This when they breakdown the front wall of the house so that we could have another living room, all the furniture placed just anywhere, and the dust that clings to everything.

Everything got pushed backed to the wall so the people can move in and out of the house.

My room was one of the 3 rooms that were added to the house and was one the last ones to be finished.

My parents bedroom had a nice little space added to it, now this area is my parents praying place.

Two of the brand new bathrooms being added, both have a toilet and shower, so there can be no more reason that everyone cannot get ready since we have so many toilets. However in my mom's kampung sometimes there will be 30 people sharing the same bathroom. Still with carefull planning everyone got to take their bath on time.

There is one room in the house which was walled off to add another room. So my parents added a window inside the house so there would be proper circulation in the room.

Basically we damned for living there 8 months of the construction, but it turned out rather well and my mum really liked it. No more moving, this is our house and this is now my kampung. I actually planned to buy a house near here. There is still plenty of vacant land that just started to developed, I plan to lay my hands on one the house at least by 2011, earlier would be better. I think my parents would only let me out of the house if I bought my own home. Alas that is only a plan.. we will see in 201o if that dreams does come through :)

Latent pictures

This are just some of the photos I met to put online but never got time to share it with.

Where am I?

I am at the bridge that links my faculty to Serdang hospital. This bridge links the lecturers building with the hospital.

This the view from the bridge. Gayat sikit lah :p

Its time for a haircut

Much better right.

It was also my monthly dye job. I have straight grey hair which does not match my curly black hair. This color says blackcurrants which is dark violet brown. According to the number which is 42, it means that it will lift my hair colour 4 levels while giving it a number 2 tones. Each company has each own numbering system. So from my understanding, this dye will lift my black hair, which level 1 to level 4 which is brown while giving it a 2 tone which is violet,

Beside this dye gives free stuff often, because of that I usually buy this brand. This time we got an eyeliner. My younger sister loves it.

See the dye penetrating my hair shaft and masking the gray

My mum had a kenduri kawin to go to, arranged by her Haji tour guide group. Now this is a real wedding. Great food.

There people giving out stuff, in this case calendars and CD of the trip plus pretty girls handing out bunga telur.

There were no seperated seating for male or female

Live music was there too, and it was good, I thought they used a CD :D

After eating my mother mingled with her Hajah friends, all the makcik all glam up for the wedding with tudungs from Egypt, Chritian Dior bags, and Italian leather shoes with semi precious stones pins. All bought from their trip to the Holy place of muslims.

Budlee the red nosed scientist

Yah its been a while in my standard that I have updated my blog but so many things happened along with sheer laziness has caused it to be delayed, even though there is so much to write about. Anyways it was a stressfull week for me. I had a major riff with my prof who is also my supervisor for my thesis. The rift was so severe in addition with an assignment that suddenly was given a dateline along with a relatively mild cold has lead to a severe flu like symptom. So I skipped lab on Wendesday and slept half the day. People who met me noticed that when I breath I will make these whistling noises. Asthmatic people are usually those that noticed this condition with this because its one of the asthmatic symptom, which is the sound of blocked breathing. What happened is I had a cold more than a month ago, what I do usually is take some anti histamines, double up on my multivitamins and blow my nose until it gets dried and red. This is because the virus that causes most cold likes to stay in the nose. So that is why we will get green mucus and other stuff coming out from out noses because that is the body reaction to the foreign substance. A fever is also the body natural ways to kill the virus because the virus cannot live above normal body temperature. My main mistakes was that I did not blow my nose hard or frequent enough to remove all of that nasty infected mucus. I just let my stuff nose become a stuffy nose and let it stayed that way for more than a month. Now I plan to get rid of it, so you will see me with lots of tissue in my pocket, a red sore nose and vaseline. Vaseline??? that is for my nose to moisturized it because it felt dried and irritated from all that nose blowing.

Boy that a mouthfull, I hope I get most of the facts right because two doctors are actually reading my blog (gulp...this feels more like an essay in my clinical microbiology class during my degree.

Tagged by Awie and Chen

Yer tau dah lama kena tag, tapi malas nak buat, takpe lah, so busy these days, nak update selalu pun susah. Takpe lah, might as well do this 8 random facts about myself, so you can be better

8 Random facts about myself

1. I moved a total of 9 times in my life time. We moved every 3 years since we follow wherever my dad project takes him. We lived in Ampang, Paka, Ulu Klang, Calgary, Ulu Klang, Segamat, Norman, Keramat and Kajang. We have been living in Kajang for the past 8 years. Whenever people say "Asal mana"/ "Where are you from?" I just reply KL, far much easier

2. I speak English and Malay with an American accent. Its the result of living in Norman Oklahoma USA when my dad was doing his bachelors degree. Its not being a snob or pompous, its part of who I am, usually its beyond my control, its how I normally speak. However its not thick, its just how I pronouced the word "R" in sentences that shows the accent. Most of the new people I meet will point this out, some teased, some think I am a snob, but in the end my friends accepts it.

3. I know a lot about skincare and haircare. Why you may ask? I don't know, it's just fascinating to me. No I don't use makeup, I just remember to cleanse, tone, moistuirized, scrub, and mask.

4. I can't cook, but I like to bake. I like making biskut raya, cake and my favourite, apple crumble.

5. I am a left hander, but only when writing. The rest I do with my right hand.

6. I can drive a huge MPV, I can drive a left hand drive car, I can drive a small car, I can ride a motorcycle, but I will struggle driving a manual car or a clutch motorcycle.

7. I love origami, I can still remember the things I made 10 years ago.

8. I am afraid of heights.

Jakun dgn Jco

HeHe see this grin, this is the grin of a boy who is getting taste of the latest food fad, okay lar not so latest but I am trying it out for the first time :)

Tada !.. Its Jco donut and line are still long as usual.

They got really good sounding drinks. Chocalate Mint Ice blended.. hell yeah, I am going to try it soon :)

The donat was good and this half dozen were sponsored by a friend. REZEKi.. syukur :)

All finished.. YUM!!!!

After that I went to see a movie with Shah, Beruang and their friends. The movie was jumper, the review can be read at Shah''s blog. I did not think the show was really special, I prefer Transformers anyday

.

See KLCC hiding behings the building :) Over all the event was good and I would enjoy going out again :)