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.

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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.

On the front lines, we have Academic Writing and Engineering Math. While Academic Writing might pose a rather easy target, analysts say, the stronghold of Engineering Math is deemed to bring a tough fight. Confidence, however, of winning the Engineering Math battle are sailing high.

“We will definitely nail Engineering Math,” pledges an optimistic student.

Forces on the other side, however, were equally motivated for victory. “They have no idea of what will they be facing,” warns an anonymous test paper who only wants to be identified as ‘Engineering Math’, adding, “They will not be prepared for what we have in store for them.”

The sound of rustling papers fills the scene here at the Ground Floor Auditorium of Swinburne’s main block, where tomorrow’s battles are expected to take place, as test papers make their final preparations.

Meanwhile, students back in their respective bases are also running through test-runs on their ultimate weapon against the test papers, the calculator, dubbed — the mother of all weapons. In this semester’s battle, two major variants of calculators are expected to be seen in the battlefield, the generic Casio Fx-570 and its elder brother, the invincible TI-84 graphical calculator, designed to penetrate the heaviest defences the test papers might have in place.

While the students cheer on, brandishing their ‘mother of all weapons’, the test papers look on over the horizon without the slightest tinge of fear. Preliminary intelligence reports indicate that the test papers might just have created their best defence system yet — known as the BCIAD (Bloody Complex Integrals and Differentials) which, some weapons experts argue, might just render the TI-84 useless.

On how these weapon systems would fare against each other, only time will tell.

All eyes of the world, however, are on Friday’s battle of Physics B. Some call it the climax of the war.

“It is suicide,” a student gravely recalls, “only a few have ever survived that dreaded battle.”

The world looks on.
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ember is a veteran battlefield reporter who is currently dispatched on-scene at Swinburne’s Ground Floor auditorium. He has previously made coverage possible in notable battlefields such as the great 2006 SPM battle and the 2004 PMR war. His vast experience in covering live reports from battlefields makes him our best war correspondent yet.

I normally let tech-related news pass but this one is just too huge.

Because Microsoft Corp, the guys behind that program we call Word and OS we call Windows, had just made an offer to buy up Yahoo! Inc for a whopping 44.6 billion US of A dollars!

Okay. Hold on, take a deep breath. Absorb this: Microsoft buys Yahoo! for $44.6 Billion.

Now you have any idea how much money $44.6 Billion is? Remember that Bill Gates, (former) Chairman of Microsoft and also, the current richest dude in the world, is worth, drumroll please.. $56 Billion.

Get the picture on just how much money Microsoft is gambling here? All that, just to remain competitive to Google.

But what will we, the end-users, be expecting if the deal goes through? Windows Live Flickr, anyone? Yahoo Mail downgrading into the infamous Hotmail? I can only imagine, but I seriously hope Flickr is to stay though. =\

People and money. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Today’s the much anticipated Grand Opening of The Spring, and we gatecrashed it — to bits. xD

Warning: Loads of pictures, highly NOT recommended for dial-up users!

We reached the Spring at around 3.15pm today and decided we could probably have a better chance to gatecrash The Spring Grand Opening Ceremony slated for 3.30pm.

There was very heavy police presence, not surprising since the Cheif Minister’s coming to officiate the ceremony. We tried to walk in casually but to no avail, the guards denied entry to anyone without a pass.

We decided that there must be a way in and went around the rather huge mall and made our way to the front entrance, where the crowd of reporters and people with formal wear gathered outside.

Starbucks and Secret Recipe outlets dominate the entrance.

Moments later we heard sirens signalling the unmistakable arrival of the VIP.

And he steps out as scores of reporters rush towards him.

He did a little talking and glancing around and finally decided to walk in.

Me and Kaihua looked at each other and sneaked in through the rather heavy security at the main entrance behind a crowd of formal wear’s. And we were greeted with the chilly air conditioning and some really, really impressive interiors I’ve ever seen. Really.

Read on if you will.

Let the picture’s talk!

ESPRIT outlet

We followed the crowd and the beatings of lion dance drums.

And arrived at a beautifully decorated stage at a corner. Way better than Boulevard’s petty one.

After lots of speeches and whatnot, the juicy part began. We went up to the 1st floor to get a better view of things.

There was really exciting music and although we couldn’t really see what was going on on the stage, we got see the sudden burst of confetti.

By that time, Lord White Hair was already up on stage doing what he’s supposed to do. =D

That was then the MC proudly announced that The Spring is now officially open. =D

Moments later, the CM walked over and launched the apparently largest Parkson store in Sarawak (or was that Borneo?). The best part of it was that the ribbons were place RIGHT under where I was standing! Hehe.

Just look at the crowd of reporters and all that serious gear! LOL

And of course, that ended the grand opening ceremony.

We took the liberty to stroll around the rather massive mall decorated with cherry blossoms. Check out the rest of the photos here.

Now don’t forget that we were actually NOT invited to the ceremony. And without a pass, amongst the crowd of adults in formal wear and a few workers with obvious passes hanging around their necks, we moved around, dodging security and policemen. We felt rather awkward at first but sorta got used to the place, especially when more people without passes started showing up, probably managed breaching the security at the entrance.

Just when we thought everything’s fine and started moving around like we owned the mall. A lady spotted us and sorta bloody shouted at us. She told us that the area we’re in is limited to VIPs and sort of hinted that we leave. LOL.

Luckily by that time we’ve already explored almost all four corners of the mall and thought, what the hell, and left.

Oh, and by the way, Kenny Sia was also spotted at the event, in formal wear, alone and snapping photos around. He didn’t look like he had a pass (gatecrashing too, perhaps? =P) but it’s Kenny Sia for crying out loud! That same lady who chased us out might have given him a pass THERE and THEN and probably even give him a tour around. Heh.

EDIT (10/1/08): My humble old blog couldn’t stand the traffic and I was so bloody stupid to actually upload 60 800x600 res photos weighing about 150Kb each. Anyway, I spent a good amount of time sharing the load between imageshack and my blog’s server and also resizing a majority of them back to the vintage 450x338 size.

If you still want the 800x600 (=larger) pics, I’ve uploaded all 60 of them to my flicker set. HERE! =D

Also, check out the pics on Catscity.com.my by Webbie (Yuan) Part 1, Part 2, and Gerald.

You betcha’, yours truly will definitely be there. There will also be quite a few swinburnites attending, among us, kiam, piaw, billy and steven. Why after all, it’s to meet fellow Kuchingnite bloggers!

Are you going? If you blog, and have a Saturday afternoon to spare, why wait?

My sister and I was so excited at the sight of it as I began snapping shots of it. I think the whole plane was looking at both of us, unaware what the hell are we excited about. After we came down the plane, I took some shots from the terminal building, which was quite a distance from the satelite building, but no worries, the A380 was big enough to be seen even from far:

I know it looks a bit blur ‘cos I couldn’t get a stable stand for the camera. Anyway, my aunt who was supposed to pick us up took the trouble to take us to the viewing gallery of the airport to see more of that bird. Isn’t it just damn nice?

So.. here I am, in KL once again, after a year. Sigh. The weather doesn’t look good at all, thunder and all that. Time to go offline.

Well, during my absence from the interweb, Google decided to release their new IM client: Google Talk. Real nice of them, but anyway, this much awaited IM from Google sure got me excited.

They say talk is cheap. Google thinks it should be free. Google Talk enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free! anytime, anywhere in the world. Google Talk offers you:

* Choice: Get in touch how and when you want to–over email, IM or a call

* Quality: Talk through your computer but hear your friends as if they were in the same room

* Convenience: Your Gmail contacts are pre-loaded into Google Talk so inviting or talking to your friends is just a click away

Google Talk is in beta and requires a Gmail username and password.

Screenie:

Download

The Day: Yellow Day, August 7, 2005
The Idea: Every deviation has something to do with the color Yellow.
The Reason: To show our support for Jark!

Well, ‘krash of deviantART came up with this brilliant idea of the ‘yellow day’ on August 7th, which is also deviantART’s 5th birthday, to remember $jark, the founder of the world’s largest art community, deviantART.

Why remember him? Well, that’s the whole question. Here’s what we know (at least from what I’ve read and got to understand):

Five years ago, Scott Jarkoff (jark) and Matt Stevens (matteo) created deviantART. About a year into it Angelo (spyed), comes along and joined the team. Jark holds 45% of the company, the rest is split between matteo and spyed and some others.

On November 2004, jark realizes he, for some reason, has lost 10% of his hold in the company and wants it back.

tries to make himself look like he started and created deviantART.

Hence, the yellow day.

And for my 2 cents for the yellow day, a, 10-minute jark-themed wallpaper for the community

We love you jark!

EDIT: browsed DA just now and saw this:

wow, just wow

That’s what im talking about: exam week. The days where you spend afternoons and nights trying to pack as much crap as possible into your bird-sized brain. You sleep at >12:00 AM everyday and get all sleepy during the exam the next day. Tons of books pile up on your study as you sip away in your cup of tea trying to make some sense out of a page of Biology text.

my basic setup: books, calculators, books, pen, books, cup of tea, more books and a PDA (just for show) :p

How nice of that cat to sleep right under my nose outside my window while I was pouring over my books. As if tempting me to dash up to my bed and take a good, long afternoon nap. Call me cruel but I couldn’t help but grab a water bottle and gave that cat a good shower. Watching it dashing madly out of the garden as I slumped back onto my chair with an evil satisfaction :p Ahh, the days of the exam.

it is at times like this you’d wish you were a cat.

But alas, the exams are over! Weee! Well, I wouldnt say I did very well this time. Bah, its already over, so forget it.

So, it seems that guys over at Redmond (Microsoft) were having their busy week too. If you hadn’t know the latest news, the next generation of Windows which was previously codenamed ‘Longhorn’, has a new name: Windows Vista. Yeah, I know the name sucks but we have to get used to it. There’s also a popular joke that says VISTA stands for Virus Infections Spyware Trojans and Adware. Ouch. And just a few days ago, Microsoft released the BETA 1 of Long-er I mean Windows Vista to their testers. Luckily, reviews across the net pointed out that the latest build looks promising, and boy, the aero GUI is damn sleek! I wouldnt go into the full details of Vista but if you do want to know more, check out Vista in Paul Thurott’s review here.

So I guess that’s it for today. Gotta go now.