what is it that makes it so hard to talk to each other?

what is it that makes it so hard to talk to each other? and how to break the emotional wall?

Difference in opinion probably is the main reason that makes it so hard to talk to each other. Whenever we have similar thoughts, opinions and view on an issue, it is easier for us to talk to each other because we find that the other party agree with us, they have the same idea that we have. Hence, we will feel that this other person understand us well and we feel more comfortable talking with them. On the other hand, if the other person disagree with us, we might feel offended, or uncomfortable to communicate with him or her. Moreover, we don't know how they will interpret our opinion. Some might accept it, but some might not. In 'Thousand Years of Good Prayers', Mr Shi and his daughter rarely talk to each other, simply because they do not share same opinion.

Besides opinion, one factor contributing to communication failure is maybe because one is not comfortable to talk to another party. They rather not talk about it at all or else, they will end up feeling awkward to the other person. For instance, in the story, Mr Shi tried to help her daughter overcome her sadness, he wanted to know what went wrong with his daughters' marriage but his daughter refused to talk about it as she did not feel comfortable talking to his father regarding her broken marriage. Also in the story, Mr Shi said that, "talking is telling people how you feel about them, and inviting them to tell you how they feel about you", perhaps Mr Shi's daughter find the idea of sharing her feelings with his own father is not a suitable approach to fix their father-daughter relationship. Maybe she finds it's useless to talk about her feelings now as they never talk about it all this while.

A person's background and upbringing may also be one of the factor that makes it so hard to talk to each other. In the story, Mr Shi's daughter was brought up in a language that she never used to express her feelings. She also claimed that her parents never talked even when they were having problem. Thus, she was influenced by her parents' quietness and she too ended up being quiet. Moreover, to some people, they are afraid to share their feelings as others might misinterpret it.

To break the emotional wall, one must put efforts to get to know the other person. As for Mr Shi's case, preferably he should try to talk to his daughter more frequently. However, he shouldn't force her too much as this will only lead to an argument. Besides if he wants to break the wall, he too must open up to his daughter, which means he also need to share his feelings with his daughter. By doing this, his daughter may finds it easier to open up as well, and thus, she will talk too. When both of them are comfortable to share their feelings, then only they can break the wall which separate them all this while. It is important too that they need to understand each other well to avoid any miscommunication. When we know a person well enough then only we know their response and hence, we're able to converse comfortably.

i love them all

College was pretty good, however, for some of us, it was not. Everyone has their ups and downs. It's right in the middle of July, which means this is only the starting of our second semester of Ausmat but, I'm already exhausting. Like the making of esters, a process named esterification, I see myself as the molecule of alcohol, (I prefer being an ethanol, simplest structure), its molecular structure being broken and its bond are then connected to molecules of carboxylic acid, ethanoic acid. Workload such as homework, assignments, lab reports and tests represents some components of the ethanoic acid. Not enough with that, a little of concentrated sulfuric acid was added. I prefer to think this acid as the stress that keeps on pushing me to work harder. It acts as a catalyst, of course like how sulfuric acid play its role in the process of esterification. Enough about organic chemistry, I'm starting to compare my study life here with the formation of ester. Lab class was quite interesting recently with all those alcohols and esters and their odour, just enough to kill your receptors.

Besides the odour which tried to kill my receptors, there's other things trying to kill my brain cells and neurons too. Test and more test. We sat for applicable maths test on Monday. Probability is not my favourite, I must say, but it does challenge me. Like solving a riddle or playing some IQ games, I'm quite like the challenge of it but of course, not in test. I need to think a lot, like every possible ways of arranging whatever thingy they gave us in question. Not to forget, the complicated tree diagram. Friday was another test, Physics. Another major headache for me. I should feel glad my brain did not explode on that wonderful Friday morning. I still can't face the fact that I'm unable to get the orbital radius, R for the last question. I messed up the last part. Time's up. Chances gone. Move on people. We're going to sit another test next week, Economics and I pray for the best. Hopefully government policies and regulations are not as complicated as the probabilty of getting blue marble. Besides, I hope that calculating the income tax for middle income earner is not as hard as calculating the orbital radius. I'm not being prejudice to these subjects and I believe there's no such thing as being prejudice towards studies. I love blue marbles as much as I love red marbles and I love gravity and satellites and Neptune too. Most of all, I still love English :D

7th

This whole week was all about university applications. I didn't realise before how hard it is to choose the best university. Apparently I can't really define the 'best' university. How do I know whether it's the best for me? There are too many things that we need to consider..the place itself, the environment, the people there, living cost, the ranking for the universities, and the approval from JPA. I've been spending the whole last two weeks thinking about this matter. And it's like being in a dilemma. Asking my parent's opinion regarding this matter didn't help much. They just looked at those university brochers and said "it's for your own future, you decide yourself, you know what you want". Yes, I do know what I want but I still can't make up my mind!

Now that we're already in the second semester, the pressure is increasing significantly. Everyone's trying their hard to study. We have less than 5 months to go. Ausmat is damn short and tough. With my midterm results, I guess it's enough to remind me that I should put in more efforts and my marks for the internal assessments need to be more consistent. Well, that's what all the lecturers said during the parent-teacher meeting. The special meeting was held last saturday and as usual, I've prepared myself for those instant-and-endless lectures from my beloved parent. The meeting went well, and finally my parent got to see my results for the first semester. My dad commented that I should have done better for my economics and english. He always emphasizes on those two subjects, because those two were his favourite and best subjects he scored back then and so he expects me to be good at it too. My mum concerned more on my attitudes, as for every lecturer she'll be asking whether I was noisy or did I sleep in class..huh..she still think of my attitude in school before. I was a bit loud, and I hate to sit at one place, I love to migrate in class and in between classes as well...skipping class was my favourite especially for bio.Talkative as I was before, my mum always got this comment from my school teacher. However, I think I'm 'good' now..haha.so mum shouldn't be worried I guess. I never skip class here.

she

She

She was a little girl

With big dreams and hopes

She was a little girl

Who believes in fairytales

And her credence upon fairytales was intense

She had no worries

All she kept were sweet memories

Her sweet smile

Her melodious voice

Her laughter and joy

Her warm eyes

Those never lies

But oh dear

Life isn't always wonderful

She was fooled

She was hurt

Her dreams were shattered

Her heart filled with hatred

Under the dark sky

She cried

She stood still

As rain washed away her sorrow

She swooned

And fell to the ground

As I held her cold hand

She asked, "how do I stand?"

Like a burning flame

Her anger and frustration

Are to be blame

Like raindrops

Her tears never stop

But her faith remain unshaken

To prove her spirit to the very core

Her resilience and endurance

Though none go with her

She has no more fear

Voices echoed in her mind

To purge these abiding memories

To efface these acrimonious memories

To keep holding on...

mid-term

5 subjects,

5 days,

and 5 papers.

Mid-term examination

Overall, all the paper was very challenging. Not only the questions but, we also need to manage our time properly during the examination.

Even though it's 3-hours paper, the time given was only enough for us to answer all questions. There's no time to check the answers and surely, there's no "turning-back".

English paper was tough. The comprehension text took much of my time. I read the text almost 3 times to understand it. Then I took some more time to answer the questions. While I'm answering the questions then suddenly I realized the essay that we need to write based on the text given. I got panicked and I didn't know which part of the questions I need to proceed first. After that, I decided to write the essay first but, still, it's hard to synthesize the content of the text and paraphrase it using my own words. The reconstruction of the sentences really gave me major headache. I can't even remember what I wrote. Then came the last part...another essay and I've chosen the one on media. I didn't do well for this essay as my conclusion were messed up and of course, due to time limit.

Applicable Maths and Physics both are tough in terms of time management. We need to be fast, there was no time to even think. As for Physics, this is my first time encountering Physics paper which has 2 pages of essay on Ancient Greek History. It's totally a new thing for me. I know it clearly this was the format, but still, it's a challenging part because we need to apply the concepts learnt into the questions.

Chemistry was pretty tough and difficult as well. Objective questions were hard as those in part B and C. There was one part of calculation I couldn't finish and I was really frustrated. For part B also, I did not manage to put all the chemicals into their groups. I only realised that part when we were told time's up. As for Economics, it was the subject that I neglected the most. Since it requires reading and memorizing, I tend to put it aside first. I know it's bad habit of studying and truth to be told, I only read the 2nd chapter on the night before exam. Time given for econs paper was also 3 hours but it's more than enough since almost all of us finish the paper earlier.

Unfortunately, during the whole week of examination, I was not feeling very well. High fever and a continuous headache and flu really irritates me. I failed to give full concentration to the exam papers and I was really upset and frustrated. Anyway, I did my best for this exam, thus I shouldn't feel so sad or depressed. Let's just hope and pray I get good results. And the exam's already past, so I shouldn't crack my head thinking about it. I'm having good rest this holiday and hopefully, starting this new semester, I'll do my best and give my full concentration on my studies and perhaps study harder.

big war

Big war is coming and we have 2 more weeks to prepare for this upcoming battle. Honestly, I'm not fully prepared. The constant internal assesments for every subjects has made me numb. I don't even know what kind of feelings should I feel now? And whether or not I can choose what to feel now? nervous? scared? stressed up? or just maybe try to relax?

With all these unfinished assignments, presentation and whatsoever homework which are still lining up on the table waiting for me to take them. I have no idea where to start and I ended up updating my blog. Never mind, at least I'm writing academic blog, so I considered it as doing homework as well. I'm reading up on euthanasia too and it's really cracked my head because I keep thinking how people can choose to die and how they make their decisions? All these questions keep running in my head since last week when I started to read up about it and now, somehow, I felt a bit disturbed since all I keep thinking is only DEATH.

Ok enough about the death. ( i'm scared now )

Fighting with myself is what I'm currently doing at this moment. Laziness is killing me but I must disagree with that. I'm not as lazy as I used to be when I was in high school. And I'm pretty sure I've improved in terms of my hardwork when I entered college. Therefore, I assume that as I have worked harder, the outcomes supposedly should be better. Truth to be told, my marks are not that good and why? As clearly stated up there, I'm feeling numb. Perhaps I'm just too tired studying and trying hard to achieve good results. But who would not want that right. Economics presentation on Monday followed by Physics test on Tuesday, Economics test on Wednesday and persuasive speech on Thursday. Life's great. Let's get started.

HAPPY STUDYING to all ausmat students.
May we obtain great results in mid-term examination =D

vacation!

Vacation, finally!!



Though I think it's not really a 'vacation', but at least all of us could get away from Bandar Utama and forget about our never-ending studies. 3days-and-2 night stay were full of adventures, experiences and fun. I totally forgot about our studies and of course had fun playing around and enjoyed the activities.


Besides that, the camp was the only opportunity we had to bond with each other. At the camp, we were divided into groups in which we got to know other students as well, especially those of different classes. There were many activities organised by the committee members. But what made me excited the most were jungle trekking and flying fox. Not only this time, in a few previous camp that I went, these two activities were my favourite too. This time around I must admit that the jungle-trekking was extremely great! We went up the 'virgin' jungle and spent almost 3 hours trekking! Being close to nature make me feel calm and I could relax myself, though it's a bit tiring when climbing up the hill. I enjoyed listening to singing birds, walking through tiny path of the jungle, with the smell of the soil and seeing the beauty of green floras. And at that moment..I said to myself "oh how wonderful life is, why can't I feel all these in BU?" Of course you won't hear anything such that in BU. The only thing you hear in BU was the honking of neighbours' cars, and the annoying sound from the construction sites nearby our house.

Then there's also a long bridge that we've crossed. Although I'm afraid of height, I managed to cross the bridge twice. It was pretty scary though. At first, I tried not to look down and walk as usual, but as I reached the middle of the bridge, I was very scared that I can't hardly balance myself. The rope on which I stand on was shaking and at that time, I thought I was going to fall down ( drama queen again! ) and my hand can't even grip the side rope tightly. I walked slower than before so as to balance myself.

Flying fox was another thing that I was looking forward to since we arrived there. I was with Natto when we were 'flying'. All we need to do is just scream and shout out loud, it's almost the same as riding a roller coaster, but this only last or about 5 to 6 seconds. Unfortunately, I did not bring along my camera to take video of us 'flying'.

I wish I could go back there. The place was very peaceful and calm. There's no rush and everything seems pretty wonderful. Fresh, cool air in the morning, and the water was very cool. It felt like a beautiful dream and how I wish I do not have to wake up. Overall, the camp was like a 'break' for us to release stress and give a rest to ourselves.

don't let me fall

Things are getting harder these days. I'm not complaining, of course. It's what I have to deal with right now, focusing on my studies. Not only me, I think all of us feels the same way now. Struggling to perform our best, to achieve what we want, flying high. I never thought that I could ever make it to this stage, being here with bunch of brilliant students surrounding me.

In short, my life has changed a lot.
I used to be a carefree person who did not worry about my marks so much as I did now, I didn't really care about the subjects I'm weak at, I neglected it instead. I only study when I feel I wanted to and I choose only a certain subjects to study depending on my mood. I used to fail my exam papers and felt really sad but then, I soon helped myself and move on to make things better. Most of all, my studies are inconsistent. And the worst part of it, I didn't care much! LIfe's pretty good and wonderful.

And as of now, I thought I'm improving myself, but yet the outcomes is not as good as I expected it to be. I must admit that recently, I've been studying a bit hard (as compared to before), I went to college in the morning since I can't study at home ( blame the bed, it's so attractive..can't resist it ). I spent more time studying subjects that I'm weak at hoping that I can improve it. Honestly, I'm a bit frustrated with myself. Not exactly myself, I don't really know who should I blame. Is it myself who's not working hard enough? Maybe it's not enough I guess. Sometimes I feel really tired and exhausted. It seems as if I didn't put any efforts on improving myself. And I do realised that no one can help me except myself. It's even more stressful when I keep comparing myself to other people and how I wish I could be as brilliant as them. I wish I could absorb all the knowledge faster. People keep saying that we shouldn't compare ourselves to others as our abilities are different.

I always keep saying to myself not to give up and keep on trying. I know that if we never give up and always put efforts, we'll succeed. I'll always remember my mum's advice, she said that the most important thing is effort, and of course, pray so God will help us.

Sorry Mr Derick, my blog this time sounds depressing and not so academic. But I guess I just need to let out my feelings. Besides, I don't have any more any ideas what to write this week.

cookies and poverty

One of the thing that I love the most is choc chip cookies. When I said I love it, I really mean it. I can go to the extend that I can finish up the whole box of cookies in just about an hour..all by myself. Cookies makes me hyper due to the sugar rush obviously. and I can be very hyper by just eating those cookies(that's what my parents worried of). Besides chocolate, cookies are my true friend when I'm sad or feeling down. They make me happy =D and fat too!! Choc chip cookies are never enough for me.

Then, one day mum called me and asked me what I had for my dinner. Simply i just told her that I only ate choc chip cookies. Well, guess what happens next? I received almost an hour lecture reminding me that I need to eat carbo and protein..and...the balanced diet..went on and on and not those 'sweet things'. In the end, I was not allowed to eat anymore choc chip cookies and mum said that she's not going to supply me anymore choc chip cookies. She did what she said..when she came to my student house last weekend, she bought me this cheese crackers instead of choc chip cookies. To be honest, I felt like crying when I noticed there was no choc chip cookies in the bag. "It's my favourite, mum. I can't live without it!!"

To begin with, last Wednesday, I read this one magazine in library and came across one article about poverty in Afghanistan. The article mainly is about how poverty affects the lifestyle of people there. Also, pictures are included in the article to show how the real situation of povert. But what captured my attention was a picture which showed a little boy eating cookies which he picked up from the garbage disposal. Then I realized how lucky I am to live in such a comfortable environment, yet I still feel that I never had enough cookies..how ungrateful is that? I try to imagine myself living in such condition where I hardly eat a meal in a day and only had meal from trash!! Their life's miserable.

Now I realised that I must be grateful of what I have now. I musn't complaint about not having enough cookies and I should not be choosy and picky about food or any other necessities because there's other people out there trying hard to survive in their life. While we're eating variety of delicious food here, the kids there are starving to death. This really saddens me because I can do nothing to help them. All I can is only sympathize but I know that's nothing as compared to what they are going through. I wish I could help. Maybe I can pray to God to help them, to make their life better.

movie time

It's talent time!!



I'm pretty sure most of us have heard about this movie.
Directed by Yasmin Ahmad, it is simply a story of love. But it's not just a plain love between two lovers like those romeo and juliet. Yasmin Ahmad had succeeded in exploring and potray the meaning of love in a deeper and wider prespective.


What I like the most about this movie is the reality element it has. Usually if we watch any TV drama, mostly it potrays only the good side of our life like for example rich families with perfect life, big houses and big cars and smart children..etc. It's like everything is almost perfect. Of course some of this are true but it does not reflect exactly our real life situation.


However in this movie, I can see clearly that most of the scenes can also be seen in our everyday life. Life in school, relationships and the bond between family members, and the catfight between sisters as well. I remembered how me and my sisters would fight like Melur and her sisters just because we borrowed each other make-up stuff without permission and how we throw pillows to each other and saying bad words when we fight. And how they behave when their grandmother was at their place, made me think of my siblings as well. Everytime my grandmother come over to our house we would all be warned by Mum to behave well so as to not make grandma unhappy.


Also, this movie has proved how blind love can be. Certainly we always heard of the statement when people keep saying that love is blind and whatsoever. Well, in this movie i think it's so true. Religion, races and ethnicity are not obstacles for people to fall in love. Love is so blind that we can fall in love with anyone despite our different background. But of course in the end our family will object the idea.


Besides that, the story of Hafiz and his mum really touched me and believe it or not, I cried( of course since i'm the drama queen, who always gets emo..hahah ) Well, in this story I think Hafiz represent the type of good boy whose life is not that good but he is grateful enough to have his mother. And he'll do anything to make his mum happy and always keeps his promises.

Overall, this movie is great. It's not just the story that makes it interesting, I think every single aspect of this movie are done in a very artistic way. It is not a typical movie where there's conflicts and in the end they live happily ever after. 'Talent Time' provoked the viewer's thoughts and perspectives on issues that the director try to raise in the movie.
=D

i'm annoyed-sorry~~

I felt like a thousand-tonnes of burden just lifted from my shoulder.
We've done our documentary and as well as the presentation.
Besides, Economics assignment was also submitted and we already did the presentation this week. There's also no upcoming test within these two weeks.

But needless to say, after one assignment was over, then came another assignments.
This week we got TWO assignments.
PHYSICS and APPLICABLE MATHS.
We were given approximately three to four weeks time to finish up the assignment this time around. So, I think we have much more time to complete the work and also to ensure that we'll do the assignment appropriately.


Plus, we were also being informed that next week, we'll be having the impromptu speech. GOD!!! Another speech presentation.!! Honestly, I'm a bit sick of presentation. I know it is wrong to make such statement especially when you're already studying in a college and university. But I can't help myself. Mr Derick said that we need to read more and more to gain more general knowledge, to prepare ourselves for the speech and as well as the examination soon. Again, the issue of lack of reading rises. As for me, I must admit that recently, I've become easily bored and sometimes I don't enjoy reading as much as I did before. Maybe because now we are forced and asked to read and read and read!! we are forced to and we have no choice!!
I enjoy reading when I have the desire and intention to read and yeah for the purpose of gaining more knowledge. However now, I feel like I need to read for the sake of EALD marks. It's pathetic and ridiculous. And it really annoys me. Reading is my hobby but somehow I don't feel the joy much now and I don't know why is that. Maybe because I'm stress now and my brain is not functioning well. All I can think of now is only sleeping and shopping. Sorry.

it's holiday baby

ITALY

Travelling is one thing that I enjoy the most. Besides having the opportunity to see different culture and enjoy beautiful and breath-taking sceneries, we also get to release our stress and have some relaxation. Whether the travelling destination is in the country or outside, the experiences gained are almost the same. The joy we feel and the time we spent travelling is worthwhile. In my view, I find that travelling is also some kind of a therapy for ourselves.



Anyway, since we are all stress up here, studying, I feel like I really need a holiday. A vacation. And this is not just a typical weekend holiday. I mean a serious long-journey destination where I can get away from all these studying-time, and assignments and tests. I seriously need a break.



So, it came up to my mind that I would suggest to my parent to go for a holiday, but, it was very frustrating because when I checked my calendar, I couldn't find any available weeks for the so-great-idea-of-holiday. The AUSMAT time table is all packed with tests and assignments. Our time for long break is only in the middle of June, which is 2 months away. So this means, I need to wait for another two more months for the holiday.



And to make the whole situation more dramatic, I called one of my close friend the other day and of course had all these 'girls-talk' thing. We were both in same situation, busy studying and are stressed. Then I told her that I wish I could go somewhere far to release my tension and rejuvenate myself ( a holiday ). And guess what?? Here comes the most 'interesting' news for me. She said that she was really looking forward to the upcoming week because she already planned a vacation. And the destination is a place of every lover's dream...ITALY!! I.T.A.L.Y

And also, she's going there with her boyfriend too! What can I say?... Have fun yeah!

As for me, hopefully, one day I can go there too. Maybe for honeymoon..haha (it's okay to dream it right)

After all, it's not the destination of a holiday that matters, but it's the fun and joy we have that counts. :D

figurative language

friday morning

I was awakened by the singing sound of the rain.

I opened my eyes though they refused to.

Outside, the grey cloud was crying.

Sadness rushed over me.

The rain washed away dirt sticking on the face of the earth, I thought.

I walked through the silent street.

Alone.

I thought maybe I could feel the sadness of the cloud.

Rivulets of rain ran down my face.

I cried.

Feeling of emptiness emerged from the gloom and darkness.

The silence was broken by the whispering of the running wind.

p/s: sorry Mr Derick, I'm not that creative in writing. But I did tried :D

sick and speech

Fever, headache

and short-term memory lost??

I felt very terrible this week due to the bad condition of my health. The fever has really made my life miserable. Firstly, because whenever I fall sick, the whole 'system' will break down. And I'm pretty sure this also happen to everyone who fall sick.


Whenever I fall sick, one thing that affect me the most is my memory. I tend to forget things faster than any other time. I can't even remember the simplest thing like my student ID.

SHORT-TERM memory lost! And as it so happened, this week we're asked to present the oral review for the documentary. Well, I did some research on the Internet and also watched Bowling for Columbine several times to prepare for the speech presentation. Unfortunately, on the night before the day for the presentation, I fell sick. And guess what happened?

I forgot almost all points for my speech. So, then, to fix the problem, on the day itself, I went to college early in the morning to memorise all my points again and practise my speech.



Sadly, during the presentation, I was quite blurr and everything was in mess!!
Even my pace was slow. When Mr Derick showed sign that time was up, I felt like crying because I have not stated my strongest point of view. My speech was not convincing enough since I did not get to point out my strongest point. I never experienced such a worst presentation! I must said it was the worst speech presentation in my whole life! I'm pretty sure I did not get high marks for this presentation but, of course, the past is past and I cannot do anything to change it. Let's just hope that for any presentation that we'll be going to do soon, I will be in a very good state of health so that I won't forget my speech.




Another thing that I realised now is my state of health. Since I fall sick this week, I only realized that I did not take good care of my health and I'm putting my health at risk now.
With excessive intake of caffeine and lack of nutrients, I think my balanced diet is no more in balance. Besides, I have not jogged in a long time. I've been really busy lately and my time was not really well-organized.

study hard..play harder

test?

assignments??

study?

homework??

what else?

the flow of study....

It seems like everyone are super-stress right now. (If we refer this to the economic cycle, now is the time of boom where the level of stress is at its highest peak.)

With exams and tests all happening these two weeks, there are so much things to do and yet, so little time.

Well, usually when I'm stress, the place that I go is the shopping complex!!

Buying a pair of new heels or a new top is like an antibiotic or panadol to me because it really cure my tension

Unfortunately, since now is the recession phase of the economic period, I'm going through a really depression phase of my life.

Not having enough money to shop!!

URGHH!!

It's more than enough that I'm stressed about the tests and my studies and now the absence of shop-till-you-drop time is killing me!!!

Back to main business, I think I really need to manage my time table at this moment. It seems like my life has been turning upside down. Everything is in mess. Probably because my mind is already tangled up with those important events happening within these two weeks. We already had two tests last week. This week there's two more tests and for English, we have to do our oral review for the documentary as well. Besides, this week also me and my group members are going to edit the videos for the documentary. We hope that we are able to complete the documentary project on time.



While reading the paper given by Mr Derick, and after having the discussion on Bowling for Columbine, I realised that my general knowledge on current issues are lacking. It's not that I didn't read the news or anything. I did read newspaper and have some ideas of what's happening all around the world but maybe, perhaps I should read more about the issues, from different point of views and think about it more in details. Like Mr Derick says, we should peel it off, make our own opinions and views regarding a certain issues and interpret it. Observations and interpretation is very crucial in analysing issues. Since we all need to do a review on the documentary, I think I'm in a very desperate need of reading and searching for information. Well ,I think that's my problem I need to solve right now. READ...READ... and READ and oh yeah...do some research too.


Studying in college now is totally different from what I've been through in high school for the past five years. In school, we've been "spoonfeeding" by our teachers and everything seems pretty easy and simple. The only thing matters to us back in school was the mid-year exam and the finals. Well this is from my point of view, ( some people may look at this differently ) Even that, some of us were not that concern about it. But now, everything is important!! tests, assignments and also some do-on-your-own extra research. Eventhough our class hours are not as much as those in schools, I still find that my time table is packed! That includes the study time as well. Now, proudly I must admit that I study more often than I did when I was in high school. It's a positive change for me and hopefully I will not be as lazy as I was during school time. And I have to always remind myself that life in college or university is not as easy as in school. They are totally different, indeed!!

so, friends, classmates and all ausmat students...

study hard

play harder

:D

WEEK 2

Typical Saturday.

Sunshine in the morning.

Documentary.

One Utama.

Romantic atmosphere.

As we all know, last Saturday, was a V DAY. Yeah, v day!! Huh? So, what's the big deal if you're single. Enjoy the day! Therefore, I had my usual typical Saturday with my friends and enjoyed myself. We started the day off with our project, that is the documentary.

Saturday
14.02.2009

09.15 : woke up, had my daily drugs(nescafe) with some cookies, shower.
10.05 : went to Jynn Jyh's house
10.10 : went to Mr Lee's house ( primary character for our documentary )
10.10-11.15 : interviewing the primary character, did some filming.
11.30 : went back home
12.45 : had lunch
14.00 : went to One Utama
14.30 : bought movie tickets ( Bride Wars )
15.30 : had tea-time with Nad at Secret Recipe-oreo cheesecake
17.40 : went to GSC
19.00 : went back home ;p

Making a good documentary requires various skills. We need to analyze, observed, interpret and conclude the information we obtained regarding the specific issue.
When we were doing our trailer, I discovered that we need to observed every single reactions and response from the interview that we've done. Besides, after observing it, we also should be able to interpret and analyze those responses as well. I believe that's the purpose of doing the documantary right? To enable us to see or view things on a wider range. It may sound simple and easy, but, in fact, it's simply complicated. I'm pretty sure after this, the making of the documentary will be much tougher.



Love is in the air. Do not get frustrated when you did not get anything especially free Walls' ice-cream. So, to conclude, while other people woke up happily on Valentine's day, I woke up happily too to find out that I was not late for the documentary project.
Also, while me and Nad was buying the movie ticket, other couples had already booked their tickets ( early preparation, people!! ). While I was window-shopping with Nad, we also had romantic views surrounding us. Couples everywhere, wearing same T-shirts, with lovey-doopey wordings, flowers in the girl's hand and love is in the air. There was one couple wearing this "love" shirt. The guy's shirt wrote "LO" while the girl's shirt wrote "VE" and they walked together side by side so as to show the LOVE~~ ;p
What's frustrated me the most was when Walls' ice-cream put up an ice-cream stall at the new wing first floor. They were giving out free ice-creams but only for couples!! it was very much frustrating since i'm an ice-cream lover.
Then I decided to have a slice of Secret Recipe cake with NAD!!
Oreo cheese cake was marvellous!! Love you, Nad!!

Since love is all around this month, so does the movie!! The movie revolved around love in friendship. Well, let me just tell a bit about the movie I've just watched, BRIDE WARS. Starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson, the two best friends shares the same dreams and hopes since their chilhood time. Growing up together, they shared almost everything and went through most of their time together. One most important dream that they shared, is the WEDDING.
They always dreamed of great and perfect wedding at the Plaza Hotel in June.
Unfortunately, their wedding was accidently set on the same day!!
So, guess what happens next? The war started and it affect their lifelong friendship.
Moral of the story?
Don't get married on the same day with your best friend! ;p
Overall, the movie was good.

hectic pace of my life

Exciting experience or dangerous??


Safety precautions in Chemistry lab??
Have you ever heard of it?
Definitely yes! ( even if you're not a science student! )
But we rarely give much attention to it. ( this probably due to ignorance of students nowadays )
This week, we had a Chemistry practical class where we had to carry out an experiment. This was our first Chemistry experiment this year.
The aim of the experiment was to show conductivity in both ionic and covalent compound.
However, the most important thing that I discover from this experiment is the need to obey the rules and regulations in a lab!
Well, based from experience in school's lab, students do not bother much about the rules and they even tend to break the rules. Besides, by having lab assistants who always assist the students in conducting the experiments, students are irresponsible and do not care much about the consequences they may face as results of their actions!
The experiment.
We were divided into our own groups consisting of three students in a group.
Practical manual were given to each of the students and we were supposed to follow the procedure given.
I was clueless at first, even after I have read the manual! Maybe because I have not carried out any experiments in a long time. haha.

Well, basically these are some reminders for all students. Perhaps we should read back the rules in lab and try to follow it to avoid and prevent any accidents or any form of injuries. I find this very crucial after several "fire performances" in the lab.

Rules and Regulations In Lab ( my own version )

• do not wear high heels, sandals, flip flops! ( first important thing you should remember )
• wear lab coat even though it is very hot. You will need it as to protect your beloved t-shirts or colourful blouse from those corrosive chemicals. Also, to protect your skin!
• make sure you know how to use the bunsen burner. Or otherwise, you'll end up burning and killing yourself and your group members!
• use tongs when handling the crucible and lid
• make sure you know how to connect the ammeter ( which ever kind of ammeter ) or otherwise, more time will be spend on exploring the connection of ammeter instead of the real experiment.

Overall, me and my group members( Ainin and Firdaus ) were able to finish the experiments and luckily, no accidents or any form of injuries. Good job. Also, this week, we had Physics experiment as well. Standing wave and harmonics. Finally I understood the concept of those fundemental frequencies, standing waves and resonance clearly.

English Lesson

In English class on Tuesday, we had a book review presentations. Each group has to present their book review in the form of collage. Since, we all are future architecture students, I can say that our work has some elements of arts in it. "Creative", was one comment from our physics lecturer when she saw our presentation at the back of classroom. Even though our work was impressive, still, we had a lot of things to correct.. the content, spelling error, grammar mistakes..etc.

Documentary

Last weekend, my group members and I went to One Utama Shopping Complex to shoot for our documentary project. It was a tiring yet a whole new experience for all of us. Before doing the interviewing process and such, I never thought of the difficulties of interviewing people. However during the interviewing process, I realised how tough was it to become a journalist and interviewing people everywhere! We were rejected several times and most of the time, people ran away from us when we told them thet we are going to record the interview. I must say we were a bit frustrated at first. Eventually, we managed to interview few people that day. We also did the trailer for the documentary. It was a quite challenging task to compress all your ideas in a 30-seconds video clip. Even though it was just a 30-seconds trailer, we spent almost 4 hours doing it. And proudly, we named our production team as WHATEVER productions. Hopefully, we are able to continue our work for the documentary smoothly. :D

Major Issues In Life..

We always heard that girls and women are very concerned about their weight. This is one major issue they faced in everyday life.
And yeah, as a normal teenage girl, I do take GREAT CARE of my weight too ( i guess so..but not that serious as those supermodels ).


You must be thinking that the need to take care of weight and perfect figures are a must for girls and to achieve this, girls will have some stupid crash diets that they believe will make their body look more curvy and attractive. The truth is, most of the times girls follow the WRONG diet!! and they didn't even realized it. This is the MAIN reasons of the increasing rates of bulimia and anorexia (only among girls and not boys!) Here, let me just share some information regarding the issues. ( this is based from my observation )

why do you think girls care much about their body figures and weight??!

• to wear those latest designed clothing ( skirts, dresses, baby-Ts, skinny-leg jeans, hotpants..etc. you name it )
• to wear those trendy clothing and look perfectly fit in them
• to make sure their body look attractive enough and is similar to supermodels
• so that people won't criticize their body shape ( as a girl, we care what people's thought of our body figures )

( so girls, choose the best reasons for yourself!! :P )

stupid crash diets that most girls follow and end up being in hospitals!!

• zero carbohydrates ( no rice, bread, pasta..etc..)
• zero protein ( no meat, egg...etc..)
• zero fats and oils
• zero sweets foods and junk food ( say NO to chocolates,cakes, icecream, lollipops, chips,..etc..)
• zero to caffeine ( say NO to starbucks' choc chip frappucino with extra whipped cream on top..haha )
• only eat Jacob's crackers and non-fat milk
• lots of diet pills and those so-called-organic drinks which will burns 'all' the fats!!

in conclusion, i don't really know what they eat after all but one thing for sure, they ended up in nearby hospitals when they fainted due to lack of food!

what do I think the best diet for girls?

• take carbohydrate in moderate amount ( you can eat rice once a day, it's no harm..and students you need sufficient energy )
• take the right amount of protein
• eat a lot of vegetables and fruits ( it contains a lot of vitamins..duh !! )
• it's OKAY to eat chocolates and cakes and ice-cream as long as you don't take it too much. Chocolates does not make you fat!! it's the laziness to exercise that did! Don't hesitate to eat those marvelous sweet stuff once in a while!
• drink lots and lots of water. Good for your body and health. also, it prevents from dehydration and constipation :P

Well, the diet will of course depend on the individual itself. One must know their state of health so that the diet won't affect their current state of health badly.

As for me, I do not a have a specific diet that I follow, but, I do eat healthily. And I'm too a big fan of chocolates and cakes..( yummy!!)it's one of my favourite. But, I'll make sure I exercise at least once a week. Therefore, I won't get fat or even gain more weight. We need food for our body to function effectively.I also must admit, I take care of my weight due to the optimum standard weight that we all must achieve. Or otherwise we are considered either underweight and overweight and I'm not going to jeorpadise my health for the sake of my body figures. Health is much more important.

So girls out there, be careful!!!

Do not kill youself for the sake of a perfect body shape. The important thing is that you need to take care of you health first.

It's okay to have a slice of cheese cake from the Secret Recipe and a single cone of Baskin Robbins. They are INCREDIBLE!! love them a lot :D

Bye!! :D

a week at home

It's holiday!!
and it's going to be over soon :( ( huh..so fast eh?? )
Well hopefully everyone enjoy the holiday especially to those chinese students who were celebrating Chinese New Year. I'm sure all of you had a good time spending your time with your beloved family and friends.


During this CNY holiday, my family and I did not have the opportunity to go anywhere to spend our holiday like we usually did. It was a dull holiday for me since I love to travel around. My parents were busy working and my sisters were busy with their tuition classes. So, most of the time I was left at home with my little brother, doing my Physics homework on my comfy bed!!
And don't worry Mr Derick, I did your English homework as well.


Since I did not go anywhere, I just stayed at home, watching TV, surf the net, chatting, sleep, eat, sleep again n playing around with my brother. I tried my best not to go out shopping and spend my money. So, to avoid myself from any shopping trip, I just stayed at home and spend time with my brother. To be honest, I think spending time with my siblings was great! I think it's mainly because I do not have much time to spend with them like we used to have before. In fact, my siblings and I are very close and since I'm staying at the student's house now, holiday is the only time to hang around with them.


Regarding the documentary that we're supposed to do, I'm glad that we have decided the topic that we're going to do and we had actually discussed the issues before the holiday. I've did some research on the topic we've chose and I searched for some videos too. We even had our group meeting online. ( Jinn Jyh..you're one great group leader! ) And I really hope everything that we have planned for this documentary will go on smoothly.

That's all for now.
See you next week :)

holiday...homework... and....shopping??

Firstly I would like to tell about the most interesting event happened last week; poetry performance. All of us JPA students were told about this performance during the first week. At first I was not interested but after I've thought about it, ("why should I not give it a try?" it sounds interesting!) so, I decided to go. The performance took place at Pasar Seni. The three-hour performance was unbelievebly fantastic and amazing. It was unexpectedly great performance and I must say I misjudged every single thing about poetry before this. From my point of view poetry is such a beautiful form of arts of expressing our views, ideas, thoughts and feelings. More than that, it is one way of telling ordinary stories in a very different and unique way. Overall, I think the performance was really good especially the Polar Bear performance.



This week in English class, we were asked to perform a play based on the novel that we are studying, BOY. To be honest, I was excited when Nich announced that we need to do the role play. This is due to my major interest in live performance. Though I may not be really good in acting or any live performances, I do enjoy myself whenever I have the opportunity to be involve in any stage performance. When I was in lower secondary school, I was once a director for a play and also as a minor character in the same play. I worked with the other team members well and they were great. Finally, we won the play competition and I was really proud. It was my first time directing such performance and since then, I knew that stage performance is one of the things that I enjoy the most and I was involved in a few performances.


Back to the story, my group members and I discussed about the play and we chose the 'drive-in-a motor car' scene to be performed. I was chosen to be Roald Dahl ( BOY ), the main character. to tell you the truth, though I was involved in this kind of performance before, I never get a role as main character. In this scene as we all knew it well, boy's nose was cut clean off his face! We used fake nose for this scene and thanks to Nad for the prop. The fake nose was much bigger than mine. Haha!! It was great though! my team members had played their part pretty well. I must say it was not that well and perfect, because some of us are not used to this kind of performance. But we should try new things right? get involve, participate and have the experience! even if you don't really like it. To my group members, good job! we did have fun after all. Perhaps we have to perform a play for other novels too?? hurmm?? The End!! haha!!

Besides that, let me just announced proudly that this week all students received numerous "gifts" from lecturers for our so-called long holiday. Our Chinese New Year break will be full of homeworks and assignments. I'm not complaining. Don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to stress the point that we all have a lot of homework to do this holiday. Thus, I'm not going to consider this holiday as a holiday. And actually I would like to thank all the lecturers for giving me lots of work ( honestly! ) because if I did not have any homework or any form of stress that will urge me to study, I definitely will spend everyday of my holiday going to One Utama, The Curve and Pavillion too! Surely all these place will suck up all my money and I'll end up feeling guilty of spending my money and even get frustrated when I don't have sufficient amount of money to buy brand-new shoes and bags. So, lecturers, thank you so much..Homeworks prevent me from my dangerous habit, shopping! I'll try my very best to manage my time so that I can do both, finishing homework and shopping too!!( without feeling guilty)


Enough about homework. This week we've been learning about constructing our essays. Like Mr Derick has taught us, an essay is like a family and paragraphs are the family members. and each paragraph is a body, complete from head to toe and don't forget the neck and the heart too! If all of these are completed, then we'll have a complete and perfect paragraph. I hope I have the clear picture of the idea in constucting my essays after this. That's all for this week.

p/s: happy chinese new year
and happy holiday to everyone!!

My Love

This time I would like to write about my family and my interests.
I was grew up in a family of six. My father is a director in an IT company. My mother is a teacher in secondary school. I'm the first child in the family and I have two sisters and a little brother.

My father is a responsible man. His name is Shaiful Anwar Salleh. He's loving and funny too. But when he is serious, no one ever dare to mess up with him. He is a good father, I must say. He taught me a lot. And I always respect him because he is a succesful man. He's a really hard-working man and a very determined person. He never objected my decisions in life as long as he knows what's the best for me and he always support me whenever I need him.
My mother, Norkayati Robani is a great mum. I love her! She's one great woman. She is my role model. Besides being a responsible mother, she's also a successful career woman. She's a loving mother and we share one common interest, shopping. My mother and I always go shopping together. She also loves to hang out and spend time with her children. We watched movies together too. She's an understanding person too since I tell almost all my problems to her.

Now I'm going to tell about my siblings. The second child of my family is Farhana, 17-year-old girl and she's going to sit for her SPM examination this year.She loves photography. She's a very understanding sister and I always turn on to her whenever I need someone to talk to. Though she's my younger sister, everyone thought that she's the eldest one because she looks more matured and she's taller than me. This is the main reason why I wear high heels. (I'm jealous of her actually.haha!!)
My other sister, Nur Liana is 12 years old. She's funny and loving too. She has great interest in arts and she's very talented.
Last but not least, a little super hero in my family, my younger brother, Muhammad Amar. He's 7 years old. Being only a boy in the family, he always want attention and is very naughty. He loves football and video games. I always fight with him but I love him so much as he is my only brother.

About my interest, I am a major shopaholic!! I love to shop and it is very painful when I run out of cash. Though some people might find shopping boring and has no benefits, for me, shopping is my way to release my tension. Besides, it is a good exercise too. I can walk all through One Utama from old wing to new wing with my high heels!!. I feel very happy even by just looking at those beautiful and trendy shoes, clothes and bags. Other than shopping, I enjoy reading too, which is beneficial. I like to read novels and magazines. I also like to travel around, go to new and interesting places and I always dream to travel around the world. I have a great interest in arts too. I'm not so talented in arts but I do love to paint and I have my own collection of paintings.

That is all about myself. I cannot write much but hopefully this will be enough for anyone to get to know me better. I'm a simple girl with dreams and hopes and I'll always pray that one day all my dreams will come true. I know this may sound like a fairytales with a happily-ever-after ending but of course, who does not want a happy life. I want a happily-ever-after ending.

Bye!

First of all...

I am sitting for AUSMAT this year and i know it is going to be a really tough year of my study life. All of the students have been warned and advised by the lecturers not to take things easy this year. Therefore, I have set long terms goals for myself. I hope I can get very good marks in every examinations, tests, assignments and presentations since all of these will help me a lot for the final score and thus enable to continue my studies in Australia. Most important thing of all, I really hope that I will study hard and be a good student.

I usually read and study in my room at home. However, if I find this place is not conducive, I will study in a library. Besides having all the reference books I needed, library also provides a conducive environment where I can study without any distarction. The best time for me to read is in the morning and in the late afternoon.

When I was in secondary school, I did not really obey my study time table, thus, I got panicked during the examinations and could not perform well. Since then, I learnt from my mistake and tried my very best to improve myself. I did not set a hectic time table for my studies but I did manage and plan my time well. Normally, I can study for about two hours without a break. During my study time, the type of distraction bother me the most is noises. I think it is very annoying to study in a vey noisy environment especially when the lecturer is teaching a subject that I'm weak at. I need a really condusive condition to study properly. This will also enable me to concentrate fully on the subject and understand what the lecturer is teaching.

I am not quite sure how many assignments I'm able to fininsh in one evening since I did not have much assignments before. This too will depend on types of assignments I will get from different lecturers. Maybe I can do two assignments in one evening provided that I have prepared myself well with the materials needed for the assignments. I will also need more time to do the assignments since I do not want take things easy especially that I know some assignments this year carry more marks than the examinations. Rewards that might work for me would be varied, depends on what type of work I'm required to do. For this year, in AUSMAT, I think the rewards that definitely work for me is marks for my final score.

As for the first week of our semester, I got to know all of the lecturers that will teach us this year. All of them have given the time table as well as the course outline to all of us. There will be lots of assignments, exams and tests. For English this week, we have learnt about the language style such as personafication, allegory, allusion hyperbole and onomatopoeia. Some of them I have heard and learnt before, but some are a few new literary terms that I just learned during the lesson.