Nonetheless, this time I went with a whole different company of friends — Natalius and Ms. Chong planned a day trip as soon as the Saturday of the week of our last paper itself. Six of us went in two cars that morning.

Kayaks on Beach

Despite spending retreats to permai every semester break of my life, I’ve never driven there myself. There’s always someone else to be the driver. Not this time though.

The road to Damai is pretty straightforward, but there’s one patch I never seem to remember — the roundabouts in Petra Jaya. I get them mixed up all the time and I wasn’t spared a wrong turn this time either. And I had to make wrong turns both going and returning. I’m not usually bad with directions but I somehow managed to proved so during this trip, heh.

Rocky Beach Bokeh

Siong Huo was jokingly skeptical if I was on the right road all the way but I proved him dead wrong when we reached the sandy shores of the Damai beach.

Waterball

We wasted no time jumping into the water with our newly-purchased ball. But because the sun was so blazingly hot and we didn’t want to get baked on the nicely-heated sand, we jumped into a stream in cool tree shade instead.

Natalius’s mighty kick failed to launch the ball

Kicking around in the tiny stream bored us pretty quickly. It was only a matter of time before we charged towards the wide open sea, hot or no hot.

We soon found out though, that it was rather tricky to actually launch a stationary ball on water into the air. Further observation would show that the density of water dampens our swing towards the ball. If that wasn’t enough, the displaced water effectively pushes the floating ball forward, causing us to miss the ball completely more often than not.

Ball Flip Fail

But when it comes to having fun, the rules of Physics doesn’t apply anymore. Hell, screw Physics anyway — the finals are long history already. =P

So we kicked and splashed around like we’ve never been to a beach with a ball.

Ninja Beach Kick

Then suddenly Heng Hong surprised us with a mighty ninja-kick sending the ball flying towards Singaporean shores. Okay it barely made it over Siong Huo’s head but it was the kick of the day.

Natalius flips the ball

Natalius wasn’t so happy with Heng Hong’s sudden fame so he sabotaged the ball and headed to drier sand and started to show some skillz. Suddenly he felt like an 80 million British-pound player.

Anyway, we were soon bored with the ball and decided to conquer the rocks instead.

Siong Huo and Natalius heading for the rocks

We dared ourselves to scale the largest monolith we could find in the area.

The brave Mt. Rock Permai three

So we camwhored a bit and savored the sea breeze from atop the rock. Chee Min and Heng Hong joined us later but we soon scrambled down the rock as it got too baking-hot for us to sit on.

Sea of Bokeh

Because we fried our butts while sitting on the rock, we retired to sea to get wet again — this time we tried kayaking. We were supposed to head out in three two-person kayaks but only one was available for another hour. So Heng Hong and Chee Min went out first while we helped them out.

Push

While both of them were out paddling around the Damai bay, we waited for the other kayaks to return so we could head out together and have a kayak-flipping war. But the Permai beach management suddenly decided to halt the kayaking rental service before we had any chance to hop on.

Out to the sea

Long story short, we couldn’t join them. But with the kayak rental service hut left unmanned and thus, no one to supervise the returning of kayaks, we swam out and as Chee Min and Heng Hong paddled near us, we flipped them off their kayak and sabotaged it for ourselves.

Chee Min and Heng Hong were tired of paddling around anyway so Siong Huo and I took over captainship of the kayak — free of charge. =D

The Bokeh Monster

The last time I paddled a kayak was during NS, way back in 2007. What mattered back then was speed in order to win the water games. But now we spent every ounce of energy left on a slow paddle along the coast when we passed another beachfront of the Permai camp where a few couples were embracing in the water.

That sight led to Siong Huo and I talking about relationships and stuff while we drifted back to the beach.

By then, we were all tired, exhausted and hungry. We unanimously decided to have a late lunch at Hartz Chicken Buffet back in Kuching. In no time we were invading the doors of Hartz like hungry zombies smelling like the beach. Luckily we had to whole outlet to ourselves or else we could’ve scared everyone else off. =D

Hermit crab digs

I was so occupied in gobbling down chicken wings and mashed potatoes I didn’t take any pictures when we were in Hartz. Go figure. But yeah, we called it day after lunch, all stuffed, drained and wearing a layer of tan that is still peeling off as I type this, but nonetheless we had great fun.

So it’s the semester break again. I’ll certainly miss the company of friends back in campus as boring as semester breaks can get. I’ll be flying off to KL tomorrow with my family to send off my sister furthering her studies to the West, but that’s a post for another day.

Until then, Happy Holidays everyone.

I remember fearing that my neighbours would think that we missed out on paying our electricity bills when I persuaded my family to make that flick last year — which true enough, resulted in a lone dark house in the whole neighbourhood. A year later, I find myself fearing my neighbours would think we’re a bunch of insensitive jerks that doesn’t give a damn about global warming if we don’t go dark by 8.30pm, 28th of March.

Although of course, it wasn’t the kiasuness that drove me to participate in Earth Hour ’09.

It was my photographer’s instinct.

Okay not really, but I spent my Earth Hour at the Kuching Waterfront for the photo opportunity, joining Siong Huo, Chee Min and his friend whose name I can’t remember (sorry!). Nonetheless, it was a disappointment seeing as there wasn’t much difference to the Kuching skyline when the clock struck 8.30pm.

Kuching’s feeble attempt at going dark on Earth Hour 2009. Spot the difference!

Our Swinburne campus though, took us by surprise. There was talk on the campus forums that the student council failed to get the University to participate, but when we passed by the area on our way to the city, we saw Swinburne Sarawak standing in almost complete darkness.

Lights off at Swinburne Sarawak

It was so dark you could walk into the open lab and grab an LCD monitor or two and stroll out through the main entrance right past guard post unnoticed. Seriously.

My camera couldn’t focus on anything. The second shot above was exposed for a full 30 seconds with my dSLR sitting atop the car roof, making the buildings on the left in the photo above appear rather bright when in reality they were actually illuminated by the bright Simpang Tiga traffic interchange right beside the campus.

Support and publicity in Malaysia for Earth Hour this year around was phenomenal. From a little-known, let alone participated event last year, Earth Hour ’09 was blown into a full-scale publicity event complete with television, radio and print ads, online social media groups and whatnot. Because unlike last year, Malaysia was officially a participant of Earth Hour ’09.

There were even SMS rumors that SESCO will be cutting the power grid for Earth Hour (I know!). Earth Hour pleas appeared on my University’s online announcment board, top KL landmarks pledging to go dark, heck even the 80 NS camps nationwide flicked their lights off. In short, Earth Hour was everywhere.

Sad light switch by Declancolohan @ Flickr

But there was a negative side to this increased publicity and coverage of Earth Hour this year — the critics rose proportionally too, as with every other phenomenon humankind has ever experienced. When it was cool to participate in Earth Hour before, it is now apparently cooler to critic or boycott it.

People started thinking twice about the movement, citing reasons such as an hour of darkness wouldn’t leave any impact on our energy footprint, some saying Earth Hour is becoming a fad and that teenagers are participating just because of the cool factor and just to have fun. Others label Earth Hour of being a huge and pointless marketing gimmick that promises nothing concrete but a simple flick of the switch.

Seriously, have a look around.

People are missing the point. Forget the science, physics, statistics and numbers. It’s not about the gigawatts of power we’ll save, nor how much tonnes of CO2 we’ll be releasing as a result of candlelight parties. It’s about the underlying message Earth Hour organisers are trying to get out to the World — that our planet Earth is in peril because of the cancer of humans that are plaguing it, exploiting all of its resources with no end in sight. And as such, something must be done.

The thousands, even millions of people who participated in — or were even aware of -  Earth Hour last night, regardless of if they switched their lights off or not, be it individuals, municipal councils, cities, towns, corporations or orgranizations, made that first step. Earth Hour has made its impact, it has served its purpose. It’s the participation, the hype, the sense of unity knowing all mankind is in something together that engraves this initiative into the masses. It is now up us to continue from there. I’ll save you explaining what should we do, because everyone ought to know by now.

At the end of the day, I implore you to ponder upon this: What if the Earth Hour initiative didn’t exist? 28th of March, 2009 would just come and go, like every other Saturday night as planet Earth spins around its axis for yet another day as it has been doing for the past 4.5 billion years. While humankind buzz on their ignorant and wasteful ways enjoying the weekend. No pledges made, no first steps taken.

Of course, it will be hard to gauge any positive impact Earth Hour might have made in the long term — so we won’t know for sure. But as far as initiatives go, Earth Hour existed for generating awareness and driving the masses to tackle our ever-deteriorating planet Earth. You can’t deny it hasn’t started making waves of change — albeit small — across the globe in view of addressing global warming.

If you’d ask me, Earth Hour is about hope.

“See that shiny little speck down there?”

I asked my sister, pointing at an arbitrary point in an endless mass of tree canopies as we looked out into Southwest Kalimantan.

Kalimantan Border Lookout — View from 3,281 feet

“That little speck is gonna grow bigger,” I made a soft whizzing sound as my fingers portray a rapidly approaching metallic object, “Whizzzz.. Arrrgg!” I poke myself in the neck, tongue out, in great pain — imitating getting hit by an arrow.

“As I fall thud on the ground,” I continued “You’ll hear drums from afar. ‘Dum… dum.. dum.. dum..’ and the wailing of celebrative tribesmen.”

I glanced over expecting to see a very terrified sister, only to be greeted by a set of eyes rolling almost out of their sockets. “Yeah, right!”

The Southwest Kalimantan Border Lookout point was by far the best view I’ve seen all my life (photos won’t do any justice) and the best part of our 3-day Borneo Highlands trip.

Garden in the Sky — 3-exposure HDR

When it was apparent that the rain wouldn’t stop three days into the Chinese New Year, we thought it’d be a good idea to flee to the mountains before all of Kuching gets submerged under ten feet of water. The nearest highlands we could reach were the Borneo Highlands, sitting more than 1,000 feet atop the Penrissen Range, an hour and a half’s drive away where no flood could reach us. Safe.

The Path

Okay, that was obviously a joke. We pre-booked our room but seriously it was raining so hard it made the trip up in steep, wet roads rather scary.

A lot of friends were rather skeptical of our trip up though, warnings of the lack of things to do since ‘there’s nothing up there but flowers’, and ‘you’ll only find yourself chasing butterflies’ were in abundance. The fact that so many people had so much to say of that place also meant one thing — everyone’s been up there except us.

Warning: Large post laden with tonnes of amazing imagery ahead.

Jungle Cabins

We didn’t think it would rain that hard when it rained for a good two out of the three days we spent there, forcing us to stay indoors. Fortunately the Jungle Cabin where we stayed had a large shaded balcony that allowed us to still savour the surroundings despite the rain.

So we spent time watching TV, movies on the laptop (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, anyone? Bloody good movie!), take naps, and meals. Stuff we wouldn’t have done as a family back home. And when our chirpy little neighbourhood friend decides to make a visit, Dad and I would rush out, camera in hand and snap away. I’ve never had a problem with my kit lens until I realised I couldn’t zoom in enough to shoot a freaking bird!

But I’m not really into bird spotting anyway so a telephoto could wait.

Birdie Visits — Cropped photo

The sky proved it still had mercy when it stopped raining on the evening of the second day — not until there was only a few hours of daylight left though. We headed out immediately for a walk to a plateau nearby.

One Step at a Time

The air had a fresh after-rain scent, and was cool a la Cameron Highlands or Kundasang Valley if you’ve been to either one. The clearing mist surrounding the landscape around us added to that mystique feel. There’s nothing like nature I’d say.

Long exposure shot of a waterfall

Two rivers run down along the two sides of the plateau, complete with waterfalls and hanging bridges, all in their after-rain full of gushing water glory. I took the chance to try out long-exposure shots of water — kind of like those smooth feathery-like photos of rivers and waterfalls you see in poster calendars.

Smoothing water over time.

Although those that I took were far from ending up anywhere near posters. It is one tick off my list of dSLR photography technique’s to-do list though.

Pines Up Close

Anyway, on the morning of the 3rd day, we signed up for the Kalimantan Border Viewpoint tour for which you have to pay an extra of 40 bucks per head. The weather was good — it had to be — so Dad thought why not? We were taken to the border viewpoint first, which was where the first photo above was taken.

Mom and Sis at the Nursery. That’s a Semi-pro Canon dSLR hanging off that guy’s shoulder. XP

The second stop was the Resort nursery which had this huge collection of annual plants.

At the Nursery

After quite some time at the nursery where Dad bought a few plants, we were dropped at the final stop — a garden right above the plateau we explored to a day earlier.

Sis with hanging flowers

I know my sis is poor in her poses, no need to tell me that. xP

White.

I found out that there aren’t just flowers in Borneo Highlands, contrary to what everyone’s been saying. It’s so much more. I mean, there’s the breathtaking Kalimantan Border Viewpoint with a view to die for; some flowers, yes; a heavenly garden right above a well-landscaped plateau with flowers — lots of ‘em; a huge nursery of uh, flowers; swan lakes; flowers; waterfalls; flowers; a golf course and many more flowers. And did I mention there were flowers up there?

I had a flashback of a scene from the Bee Movie when I took this shot.

Seriously though, what else did you expect? =P

It was definitely more than a giant flower exhibition in the clouds. For those of you who haven’t made a trip up yet I’d definitely recommend you to.

As for me, I spent a really great time up there with my family. Not to mention three days in a photographer’s heaven! =D The photos shown here are really a small fraction of a those I took within 3 days — some 3.4GBs worth. Don’t worry, I’ll try to get some of them up on Flickr or Facebook.

Whew! Finally managed to get myself to complete this long-overdue mammoth of a post. More than enough to show how big of a procrastinator I am.

The coconut tree.

Just when you thought the fear of an imminent recession is plaguing the region, the Chinese New Year Eve countdown in Kuching makes you believe otherwise.

For about an hour before and after the clock struck midnight, the wealthiest in the city paraded their monetary status in the most exhaustive fireworks display of the year. Here in Kuching, Men show off the size of their balls wallets by how long your fireworks display is. And generally, if you opposite neighbour has an endless supply of these aesthetically beautiful explosives, you’ll know he’s doing really well.

The Kuching Neighbours’ Fireworks Competition

The not-so-wealthy ones well, arm themselves with a tripod and camera trained at the sky snapping away non-stop. =)

Earlier on CNY eve we had a simple steamboat reunion dinner among the family.

The selection.

Nothing beats an awesome steamboat dinner prepared by my Mom and Sis.

Dad salivating at a fresh batch of steamboat.

The first day of CNY year saw an open house for my Dad’s colleagues. Towards the end of the allocated time for the open house, our long family friend, Ms. Tee came over with her children — long childhood friends of ours. One thing you experience about growing up is that childhood friends drift apart. I’m not sure why, it just happens. When before this we’d go over to play every weekend, we now only meet on CNY visitings.

Later, we followed Ms. Tee and children to Mr. Foo’s place. Another old family friend of ours who’s moving back to West Malaysia soon. It was a brief reunion of old family friends. It suddenly dawned upon me how everyone had grown up, moved on to college, etc. No longer were we playing board games or cops and robbers while the adults chat in the living room.

Now we find ourselves part of the adults’ discussions.

Well, that’s what that makes CNY a time like no other.

Happy Chinese New Year, folks and have an ox-picious new year ahead!

While the Boulevard shopping mall was blasting away with a short countdown fireworks display on the 31st of December, I was shooting from a distance away. Safe from the traffic and crowd. As I clicked away, clocks around Kuching ticked their way into a whole new year.

Moments ago, I was blowing out the candles on my birthday cake as my family briefly celebrated my turning into 19 years old. In a few hours, it’ll be 2009. That’s how long I get to be 19-years old in 2008 — a mere 24 hours. It’s a fact people seem to dawn upon upon knowing my birthdate, while I look on for that sure chuckle that would follow.

Although, this — uh I meant — last year, I get to spend my birthday a single second longer than usual. They say every second counts, don’t they? =P

Thing is, the highlight of that day wasn’t that minute second that was added to it. Rather, it was the fact that I got my first dSLR! Contrary to popular belief, I was still dSLR-less when I wrote my previous post. =P

Thank you so much, Dad for agreeing to sponsor half the price of this beauty! I’ve been wanting a dSLR all my life. That urge only got stronger when I got to experience my uncle’s Canon EOS 40D in early December, which is that dSLR I was playing with in the photo in my previous post.

When it was clear that all that pestering and hinting of getting a dSLR wouldn’t budge my parents, I resorted to working for it. But being a student with no full-time job, there is no way I could afford a dSLR all by myself. It was then when I realised I could only actually cover half of it.

Upon getting a green light from Dad, I grew excited and started to scour for the cheapest entry-level dSLRs available in the market today and ended up with two choices — the Sony Alpha A300 and the Canon EOS 1000D. Initially, I leaned heavily toward the A300 as it was a much better deal both in terms of features and pricing.

The A300 had a better Live View system that wasn’t as clunky and slow as the one on the 1000D. The A300 has in-body Image Stabilisation (IS) which works regardless of what lens you’ll use. The 1000D on the other hand, doesn’t have IS built-in but comes with a IS-enabled kit lens. The A300 also has a tempting 2.7′ titlable LCD compared to the 1000D’s 2.5′ fixed LCD. Then there is a factor of lens and accessories for which Canon has the upper hand, having been in the dSLR market for a longer time. Sony dSLRs were rather new, and as such, accessories are a tad bit harder to find. I was virtually torn between the two.

Trips to camera shops revealed that both models are selling for the same price in Kuching. Double dilemma.

The shop’s tauke recommended I go for the Canon EOS 1000D. My Dad, an ex-amatuer photographer from those old days of film-based SLRs with his Canon EOS 888, was also in favour of Canon. The 1000D felt comfortable both in my hands, and it’s interface, for I’ve been using a Canon IXUS 75 point & shoot camera for more than a year now. So, in a way, I felt more at ease with Canon.

And so, after much consideration, on the 31st of December I decided on the 1000D and jumped on the dSLR bandwagon, just in time to usher in the new year.

The next day, my family headed to a good family friend’s house situated pretty far out from the city for lunch. I tagged along hoping I could make use of the rural setting to snap away with my new toy. The results are the select few photos you see scattered above. They’re not perfect, mind you. I still have a lot to learn.

That dog above is their dog, Brandon, an 11-year-old which is equivalent to about 60 human-years old. He sure looks full of wisdom, doesn’t he? =)

I’m still struggling with the manual mode, trying to get used to balancing the shutter and aperture values for that perfect shot. It is definitely not as easy as my previous point & shoot, but that is what dSLRs are for right? To allow a photographer greater control over how your camera take a photo.

Now if you’d excuse me, your’s truly, the photographer-wannabe has a dSLR to master!

P/S: Thanks also to Cedric, Fahriee and Teddy for those invaluable advice and tips you’ve poured when I was torn in the decision making for my first dSLR. I owe you guys one!

Apparently, in Malaysia, you’re screwed big time if you report a thief. You get accused, slammed, and grinded for publishing a story telling of what a thief does as thief.. stealing things. For what’s worth, in the end, you get detained without trial as a mere reporter.

And the thief.

Oh boy did he got away.

He got a little slamming and grinding. He also got an easy three-year house arrest. He gets to keep the things he stole. He was caught stealing again.

But wait, where’s the arrest?

Just who, is wrong here?

Wow.

It’s time we cherish the moment, put aside all our differences, our insufficiencies, our beliefs, and celebrate what we all have in common — being proud citizens of Malaysia.

This year, tehCpeng.net would be paying tribute to Mohamad Hamzah, an architect, who 61 years ago, designed Malaysia’s national flag. I guess nobody would be more proud to have his own design paraded all over the country 24/7 for 51 whole years.

It’s every designer’s wet dream I tell you.

Like this humongous one erected only once a year every Merdeka month atop the Sultan Iskandar Building.

To commemorate his achievement, I tried to replicate how would his sketch look like as he made a proposal for a flag design competition held in 1947. Okay — he might not have used English in his sketches, and the Jalur Gemilang isn’t known as the Jalur Gemilang until 1997.

Also, Mohamad Hamzah first designed his flag to have a five-pointed star instead of the 14-pointed one on the flags we see flying today.

So for today’s sake, let’s just assume he did all that on his sketches.

Happy 51st Birthday Malaysia!

Raindrops smear the windows of the shuttle bus as I looked out into the chilly morning weather. As the bus battles the traffic trying to get on the Simpang Tiga intersection, I felt somewhat alienated from the city around me. A city I’ve spent 9 years living in.

Yet something felt different. Perhaps it was sitting in the bus, the feeling of insecurity of being deprived of driving a car. Perhaps it was the chilly weather. Perhaps it was the fact that it was the campus’s big day.

As the bus whizzed past flyovers and high-rises, the towering blocks of Swinburne University of Technology’s extended campus came into view. It was almost majestic. It certainly didn’t feel like it was the campus I see and study in everyday.

It was then when I wondered if, just if, this is how international students in Swinburne first experience Kuching.

It was after all, the Grand Opening Ceremony for Swinburne’s new extended campus. Due to the event, the multi-storey carpark was restricted to invited guests while we students had to park at the off-campus carpark in Kenyalang with shuttle services to and fro campus thoughout the day.

You see, I had volunteered to be part of the Student Press team for SwinTalk, Swinburne’s spanking-new community blog to cover the event. I would like to thank Saad for the oppurtunity!

The campus had been literally draped with gorgeous yellow and black cloth ahead of the event.

By 1pm, the VIPs, invited guests and dignitaries such as this one from China started pouring in. So did the sky, which haven’t yet decided to hold back on the down-pour (pun not intended). =P

Inside the Multi Purpose Hall, the guests were seated while the hall waits for the VVIP. I’d like to thank Woonyien for bringing me in! If not for her, I’d be standing out there without the slightest clue. =\

Sorry, panorama removed due to old and broken code used to display it. If you still want to view the image (and you really should), click here.

The hall was easily filled with professionals from all over. Not to mention being littered with scores of photographers and TV cameramen from the media.

At around 2pm, following an announcement by the MC, the VVIP arrives — none other than the Chief Minister of Sarawak. So here’s a measly shot of him looking away. Lol.

A cultural dance courtesy of the Sarawak Cultrual Village performed at the VVIP’s arrival.

After the speeches by both Bill Scales, Chancellor of SUTS and the Chief Minister, they both proceeded up the stage for the symbolic lighting up of the torch to signify the official opening of the extended campus.

The torch was well..fake. Something happened during the torch lighting though. Halfway through the torch-lighting, everyone suddenly heard a muffled tumbling. Turns out one of the photographers who bravely invaded the stage tripped over that yellow fence you see at the backdrop and fell smack on the floor, DSLR and all. LOL.

That was when all the other photographers below the stage where I was broke into laughter. Luckily the CM didn’t seem to notice anything.

A campus tour was due for the CM right after that. So here’s another measly shot of him exiting the hall.

My camera doesn’t like our Lord White Hair at all. =\

After the campus tour, the VVIP and the VIPs were treated to refreshments with a view of student performances at the open air area between block B and E.

The African performers were noteworthy though, with their freestyle raps and hiphop songs. Here’s a photo of my fellow coursemate from Nigeria, Abdullahi doing his thing yo. I didn’t catch the title of their song but the lyrics were really catchy. It didn’t take long before everyone was singing and cheering along.

Damn I never knew he could pull off a performance like that!

After a few performances, I got tired of standing and went around the campus for more photographic opportunities. When I spotted this:

Forget Terengganu’s recent Mercedes buying spree. Check out Sarawak’s line up! Here we have the Chief Minister’s Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, a Jaguar XJ believed to be the House Minister’s and an unknown E-Class Benz in the distance. Wowzers.

There were even more BMWs (Alfred Jabu’s sleek 7-Series), Mercs, Accords and so on paraded right behind these three vehicles belonging to the state’s big shots.

Anyway, the CM left at around 5pm shortly after the student performances ended.

Check out SwinTalk for a review of the campus! As of writing, its not up yet though.

All I can say is that the new campus is awesome. Swinburne feels much more like a University now, as opposed to that single block we had before this. There are of course, insufficiencies for being new.. but I’ll keep the pros and cons for another day.

As for now, congratulations Swinburnites!

The recent events are becoming more and more like the fights I used to have (and still do) with my sister. Only this time, its between two big-time VIPs and hence their every move scrutinised, analysed, criticised and talked upon by 25 million Malaysians.

–

Just a month ago, the world witnessed the end of the long and gruelling US Democratic primaries in which Senator Barack Obama emerged as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic party, going head-to-head with Republican nominee John McCain.

The presidential primaries alone took five bloody months and that was only the first step in the long and winding path to the white house not limited to more conventions, speeches, debates, campaigning and a myriad of terms and processes an average joe wouldn’t have heard of.

The race to the White House: US style.

But if you ask me, the US presidential race sucks. Its downright boring.

All the campaigning, all the speeches, conventions, rallies, debates. Meh.

Let me introduce:

The race to Putrajaya: Malaysian style.

The drama, the shock and awe, the political explosions, the allegations, the missing PI, the statutory declaration with a 24-hour lifespan, the conspiracy, the ploys, the accusations, the homo, the Mongolian girl, the Turkish embassy, the UMNO general elections, the September 16 deadline, the unanswered questions, the suspense! Ooooh.

Malaysian politics is so much more entertaining.

—–

I can’t believe I pulled through last week. More so on the fact that I left my blog unattended for half-a-month. Half-a-godforsaken-month! By the blogosphere’s standards, fifteen days is an eternity.

But in the week before, eternity was seven days.

I did the impossible. I redesigned and coded a website in three days, complete with a presentation and reports on the fourth day. I had four bloody tests that week alone. I had to cover a nine mind-boggling chapters of Physics in two days, just so I wouldn’t fail all that badly. All that, with my parents overseas for the week.

The screenshot I posted before (in the previous post) of the IT website project I was working on, was how it looked like in its earlier stages. I took a very conservative approach in the design, with an all-too-typical two column layout coded with simple html and css. No flash, no Ajaxy stuff, no nothing. Plain, barebones. When Ms. Marlene looked through it for the first time with her lips pursed, it was clear she was anything but satisfied.

Her soaring expectations for our group required me to return to the drawing board for real and cook up something new. The deadline was just three days away.

With the help of iced coffee and lots of patience, I redesigned and recoded everything from scratch. Leaving no room for any pursed lips.

Luckily for me and my sanity, the redesign appealed to her.

I did plan to upload the website for you folks to play around with, but I hadn’t got the time to optimize the load times and do some serious bug-squashing. For believe me when I say the rushed work is plagued with bugs. But its amazing what you can achieve in three days.

Physics though, makes you realise how much can’t you achieve in a day. Covering 9 chapters in two days for a Physics test is a definite no-no. I had learn that the hard way. =(

Welp. If there’s anything good that came out of the week before, it would be Coldplay’s new album.

Viva la Vida just sounds so epic! I swear my laptop would shut on me if I ever double-click on that track again. Not to mention Strawberry Swing, a rather joyous take on the usual melancholic nature of Coldplay’s works. I swear I thought the instrument used in the intro of Strawberry Swing was the sape

With the finals coming up next week, it seems that time is and always has been, against us.

Oh well, Coldplay is here to cast me into oblivion.

Cue African guitar beats ala Strawberry Swing,

“It’s suuu-ch… It’s su-ch a perfect day.”