One of which, is mine:

Introducing, the TI-84 series of graphical calculators — the world’s most overrated.

It’s fat, ugly, slow, ancient, and expensive.

You see, we were told to get ourselves a graphical calculator since the day we stepped into Swinburne. But getting one could set us back about 600 bucks. And so we persevered throughout two semesters of Math in Foundation using our faithful Casio fx-570MS from the days of SPM.

Everytime we’d find a way to solve different Math problems using the fx-570 (when it is thought that only the TI’s can solve them), we’d pride ourselves at how we manage to save 600 bucks — yet again and again. I must say I’ve discovered a lot about the abilities of the fx-570 more than I’ve ever knew in Form 5. Like I never knew it does matrices!

Of course, we all know it draws boobies rather well:

=D

Unfortunately, even the faithful fx-570 couldn’t hold up anymore in degree-level Math.

We had to get a calculator that draws what the fx-570 couldn’t draw, other than boobies — graphs.

Thanks to Kiam, we managed to get used TI-84 Silver Editions for merely 450 bucks each rather than its original sub-RM700 price. And so we reluctantly joined the rest of the class tapping away on the TI-84.

There’s a reason why I never really liked the idea of getting a graphical calculator such as the TI-83/84 series — the price just doesn’t justify what we’re paying for.

Other than its outrageous pricing, the TI-83/84 series calculators are down right dinosaurs in today’s age. They’re absolutely bulky and inferior to the say, iPhone — the real gadget of today’s age.

Get what I mean? It’s so huge it feels awkward to hold it with a single palm.

I need not remind you of what the iPhone is capable of, albeit being at a (much) smaller size. It’s a cell phone, mp3 player, internet browser, camera, video player, touch-screened, and another 1001 features with its support for Apps — including, yes, graphing.

Heck, imagine graphing apps on the iPhone!

And the TI-83/84? It’s..a.. calculator, and a uh, *fumbles through the TI-84 guidebook*.. one that draws graphs. =\

Heck, it doesn’t even draw graphs well. Thanks to its 15Mhz processor (psst, the one in the iPhone runs at 620Mhz), it draws graphs a painstaking pixel-by-pixel!

In all it’s fat glory.

I haven’t even gone into comparing the technical specs of the two gadgets which would leave you wondering just what the engineers over at Texas Instruments are doing.

Okay I’m aware of the huge price difference between the two (~RM700 for a TI-84 Silver vs. ~RM2500 for the iPhone 3G). I’m aware that it’s cruel to pitch the 2004 TI-84 against the 2007-released iPhone. I’m aware that few gadgets out there do if ever, come close to rivaling the iPhone in its features-to-size ratio.

I just wanted to point out that the TI-83/84 series calculators could either be slimmer given the limited functions it performs. Or, it could have more features given it’s humongousity.

Oh well, I guess that’s enough bashing.

If there’s one thing I like about the TI-84, it’ll be this:

Woots! Block Dude rocks! =D

Well as of writing, it’s been 3 hours and there’s still no sign of the lights. I have approximately 1.5 hours remaining off my laptop’s battery and what’s left of my Dad’s iPaq, which is what I’m using to hook up DiGi’s EDGE network.

The candlelight flame in front of me burns as still as a needle, a stark reminder (if I even need one) of just how still and stuffy the air around me is now. Mosquitoes are circling around me for that opportunity to dive and attack. The nerve!

More to come.

–

It all began at around 6.30pm when my laptop went kaput in front of my eyes. Along with the power supply of the whole neighbourhood and reportedly, major cities in Sarawak. Thinking it was just going to be a minor annoyance I decided to sleep it out, as blackouts in Kuching has happened a few times, albeit in short intervals throughout the year. I soon found out how wrong I was.

A nap proved impossible with all those mosquito bites. Distraught at the idea of spending the night at home in the dark with those bloody insects, we decided to head out for dinner. It was then when messages started streaming in from friends asking about the blackout. It didn’t took long for it to become apparent that it affected the whole of Kuching.

We headed out anyway and sought to have dinner “where the lights are” unquote Dad. Thing is, everybody had the same idea when roads everywhere became rivers of lights in the midst of the pitch-black surroundings. The usual glittery LEDs and signboards of 3rd mile were plunged into darkness, even the flashy Boulevard Mall stood gloomily in the dark.

Big bad jam off the 3rd mile flyover. Photo taken off a video frame, hence the quality.

That bright spotlight to the left you see in the photo above was the golf course at Jalan Keretapi, that area, however weird, was the only area as far as our eyes could see to have power supply. Needless to say, we ended up having our dinner at Aunty Lily’s in the vincinity of the golf course.

Thoroughout our dinner, the huge traffic jam in our view on the main road didn’t ease at all. It was clearly pitch-back just across the road and beyond.

It was approximately 8.00pm, almost 2 hours into the blackout when the lights suddenly went off at Aunty Lily’s, joining the rest of Kuching in darkness.

The traffic outside became increasingly chaotic as sirens blare through. As we counted, we heard two ambulances, two patrol cars, and a bloody firetruck rushing past that road that night alone.

It was chaotic in Aunty Lily’s too when.. well, we couldn’t bloody eat without lights right?

Hi Mum! =)

We resorted to using my camera-phone’s LED flashlight to make sure we wouldn’t gobble down a spoonful with lizard crap on it.

At around 9pm, power miraculously returned to Jalan Keretapi, allowing us to finish our dinner and head back home.

To our dismay, by the time we arrived at 4 1/2 Mile, it was apparent that my neighbourhood was still deprived of power. Boulevard was still in its pitiful pitch-black state. So was our house, when we arrived home.

10:20PM: Power in parts of Kuching are already restored as of now, but still not here where I live! =(

10:40PM: Everything in 4 1/2 Mile is still nice and dark. It should be 4 hours since we last saw the lights. I guess I’m gonna get off my laptop now and try to sleep. If the electricity comes back, I’ll update. 57 mins of juice remaining. Sigh.

By the way, it seems the whole of Sarawak is experiencing this. No idea how far has it restored though. Check out this news report from The Star: Blackout in Sarawak

10:51PM: Wooooooots! Lights are back! =D ..after 4 and a half hours.

It seems fate has it that I never get to stay on studying there every time I step in.

When I enrolled myself as a Form one student at SMKBL five years ago, little did I know that I would transfer to another school a year later.

So I left SMKBL and all my memories of my form one year behind. I’m saying so because it was a memorable year and I still regard it is as the best year of school life I’ve ever had. In fact, I spent the next few years missing the life and circle of friends I had when I was in SMKBL. I always thought I would be better off staying behind.

Who knows for sure. But there were no regrets transferring away. For Jalan Arang turned out not bad either. After all, you can’t compare a town school it’s suburban counterpart.

In all that fate has to offer, I’m leaving SMKBL again. This time after starting form six there for a mere one and a half months.

And once again I’m feeling this vague uneasiness, having the fact that I have to leave my friends behind again. Classes were fun joking and chatting around with friends. But the form 6 subjects themselves were another story. Other than that, it’s more or less like the old days. Though not really up to it.

Jackson, that lucky ass left for the teachers’ training college. Ah hog is still wondering if he is going for his Matang Polytechnic offer. Ah Soon and me on the other hand, is leaving for Swinburne.

Three other gals also went for their teachers’ training college offer. Another went off to do Accounting. And Mohd. Sobri, another lucky ass, went for his Yayasan TNB scholarship foundations at Sunway College.

Evidently, everyone’s deserting that class of ours.

Last Friday was Jackson’s last day. Today was my last. Seng siang and sie how, the only two within our gang staying back, took cameras for a shot to remember the time we had together as friends:

Oh well, imma run through the shower. Smell like education. XD

Edit: LOL. Just realised I look damn nerdy in that photo! HAHAHA! =P

So here’s to why I finally chose this path. Come on, we all know that form-6-is-all-so-good post is largely just for self-satisfaction. To convince myself by writing a bunch of good stuff about form 6, so that I won’t feel that bad in school.

So is form 6 really worthwhile?

It is undeniable that form 6 is a tougher choice. With all that hype we’ve heard about form 6 standards since those pre-SPM days, who wouldn’t know? That said, staying in form 6 and sitting for STPM would be a struggle. It is here where the question arises, are all that struggling worth it? I’m not talking about a bit of struggling, such as you might go through playing a game at the PartyPoker site or on your console, this isn’t a game. It’s your education and future on the line.

The daughter of my dad’s friend who scored an amazing 4 flat in her STPM was only offered a disappointing Education course in a local varsity. So was the case of few of her friends. Hearing such news are indeed de-motivational to form 6 students.

Why struggle your ass off going through STPM when you end up getting a course you can so easily get after form 5 — by applying into a teachers training college? And I’m talking about STPM candidates who scored a perfect 4 flat.

why struggle?

Of course, I heard you. There are lucky asses who got engineering courses despite only scoring 2A and 2B’s. There are people who got their share of the cream of the cake. But the risk of getting an unpopular course is there, no matter how hard you struggle, no matter how well you score. Period.

Quality Control.

It may be too early to talk about standards since I haven’t started classes in Swinburne yet. And even if I’ve started, there is no definitive way of gauging which course is of higher standards, because the both courses cover a totally different array of topics and subjects. It’s like comparing a bowl of laksa and mushroom cheese spaghetti.

Note here that I’m talking about the Swinburne Engineering foundation course and form 6.

mmm..spaghetti.

Talk to any Swinburne scholar and they’ll tell you loads about how tough the foundation course is. Of course, as you may think, that’s just them thinking that the grass is greener in form 6. I have a reason to think that would be a reason too, but something led me to believe otherwise.

When I went for Swinburne’s info day last Saturday, there was this talk on engineering, given by a female Russian lecturer. With a serious tone in her voice, she said something along the lines of “You now must really study hard if you are to go through studying in Swinburne. It’s no honeymoon.”

She might have scared off a few would-be Swinburne course applicants, but she just delivered the blatant truth. Perhaps it’s their marketing strategy, for at least now I’m confident that I won’t be lacking in par with my form 6 counterparts. QC passed?

How useful is form 6?

My form 6 math teacher, knowledgeable and humorous Mr Fong whom I highly respect, was explaining that other day about how form 6’s Pure Mathematics subject is of little use for engineering courses.

In the past, pure math had this topic on Mechanics, which, according to him, was really helpful in building a foundation for engineering students heading for a degree in that field. But it was later completely removed and replaced with Probability, which was pretty much useless for engineering. In the end, he said, form 6 students only got to study mechanics through a chapter in Physics, which is insufficient for the degree course.

Well, I’m not saying that form 6 doesn’t help at all, in helping engineering students in their degrees later on. I’m simply implying that form 6 is not sufficient.

It does help build a strong base in your math and physics, there’s no question to that, but it isn’t as specific as what you learn in the engineering foundation course.

So why not concentrate your brain juice and efforts onto a foundation course that actually specifically prepares you for the engineering degree from A through Z? Instead of loitering in form 6, which probably only reveals a bit of B and parts of Z.

The teaching force.

Another reason why I wouldn’t continue form 6 is — teachers, right. They say having a good teacher makes all the difference. Looking at my class as it is now, my General Paper teacher is a freshie, my MUET teacher is so so, but I could live without him.

We don’t have any Chemistry teachers as of now, our previous one was uh, well, pitiful in her command of english. Note that I didn’t use the word horrible. Which adjective implies greater emphasis on the hard truth, You decide.

Well she left, so we’re now doing math homework during chemistry lessons.

And our Physics teacher. My my. He could have been reading the Bible in his hands and we wouldn’t know it. (read: hear)

Only our math teacher, Mr Fong whom I mentioned earlier, is dependable. But he’s retiring mid next year. So what the hell.

Then again, I’m not expecting Swinburne’s lecturers to be extremely dependable. At least I won’t be following a bunch of un-dependable teachers while struggling in form 6.

I admit, this entry is starting to sound like another self-convincing post. As a matter of fact I think it is an effort of self-convincing. XD Heh, I just can’t start something without getting all mentally prepared for it can I?

Disclaimer: The above arguments should only apply if you are really sure of your interests, therefore which specific field you would want to pursue. If you’re still unsure, it’s form 6 by all means. That said, I can’t be held responsible for discouraging anyone from continuing form 6. Nor is that my intention. No animals were harmed in the process of creating this entry.

Edit: By the way, look what I’ve just found: 70% public university graduates joblesss?!. Uh, oh. Bad, bad.

Form 6 had started, and it really isn’t that bad, at least for now. I’m pretty much playing tagging-along with my science and math subjects, mind you, it’s not catch-up. In other words, it’s so far so good. Although, there are always tons of homework to complete every single day, which you would have guessed since I now rarely update this poor blog of mine.

So while I had been trying to get used to form 6 and all that. I’ve been trying to convince myself, with constant help from my parents, that form 6 would be a suitable choice.

When I just couldn’t care about paths other then form 6, my parents were constantly asking me if I would be interested in say, foundation in Nilai’s INTI College, or a degree in the U.S. or in UNITEN or through Swinburne. Just for the record, I wasn’t offered the Yayasan TNB Scholarship. Wasn’t even called for interview for the JPA Scholarship, missed matrics and also the UEM Scholarship. So I was practically left with my last resort, form 6.

They were even considering the American Degree Programme at one time (but I ruled that out because it was too costly and didn’t like the idea of being half a globe away from my family). Dad said that he wasn’t contented in seeing me going in form 6. He reckons my results deserve a scholarship instead of seeing it go to waste in form 6.

In the end, my parents settled for Swinburne. Everything weighed down on me to make the decision whether to go or not to. And that decision, is a hard one to make. Especially at a time when I am already mentally settled in form 6.

Nonetheless, we went to Swinburne’s info day this morning and met up with their staff for a counseling session. James was kind enough to show me around the campus since he was there that morning. A very impressed me left the info day with mum, dad left earlier to catch his class.

..and look what I got myself into.

bye bye form 6?

Part One: here.

Mercilessly, the second day at camp was what we have all dreaded for — the haircut. All of us were at the mercy of three barbers. Whether we liked it or not, all of us walked out of that classroom-turned-barbers’ sporting crew cut hairstyles. Agh! My head heats up like a frying pan in like, 5 seconds of exposure to sunlight! As weird as it felt at first, it does allow more ventilation through the scalp, which is a good thing, not to mention I only used up a fraction of the tub of shampoo I brought.

waiting moodily for our haircuts

That afternoon itself, the uniforms and its accessories and whatnot were given out. We were most excited though, to receive the infamous blue shade-striped camouflage combat uniforms. Or whatever that is called. Other uniforms were the class and sports uniforms. At the end of the visit to the logistics, we would be hugging large sacks of clothes back down to our dorms.

Then came the time where we had to design flags, come up with slogans and goals for our Company. It was the Kontrat Kita Janji, or more famously known as KKJ. Go figure. XD The Delta flag were designed by Harry as you can see in part one. And we came up with the slogan ‘Agi Hidup, Agi Ngelabat’ which basically means ‘fighting to the end’ in Iban. The goals, were well, those boring old stuff, you know, those derived from the objectives of NS.

Best thing since sliced bread

I really wanted to mean that one of the best parts of NS were the character building classes, under the character building module. While being ‘classroom based’ would create the notion that ‘it’s gonna be hell’, the teachers would have proved us dead wrong.

That said, if you haven’t met an NS trainee that had come skipping towards you, breathlessly telling you how the CB classes have been the best thing since, er-sliced bread, let me be the one. ‘Cos they’re so damn fun!

the classrooms

Jason, Yan Pin and I were assigned to class PK7 with about 60 others and were led by Cikgu Faridah Ani, or just Cikgu Ani. But we often just called her Cikgu Honey anyway. XD She is one cute and chubby teacher, so much in fact, that she would go leaping around when everyone were in high spirits, a sight we just couldn’t get to see enough. Don’t we all just miss her..aww.

Activities, games, quizzes, drawing, cheering, you name it. All crafted into the module, which in my opinion, had really succeeded in getting everyone in a class of 65 seventeen-year-olds to participate fully.

modules and name tags. that Charlie tag is a fake though.

There were two sub-modules, Module one was ‘Bringing the best out of yourself’ and two was ‘Bring the best out of others’. During the last day of module one, Cikgu East told us to give our gratitude to Cikgu Ani for there will be a reshuffling of teachers for the next module. A sad song was played. She gave in to tears and the girls followed suit. It was emotional. Cikgu Ani was a good teacher, she never failed to make the class cheerful. A cute and dedicated teacher. We’ll miss her a damn lot.

We argued if there was any way Cikgu Ani could be reassigned to our class. We even begged her to ask to remain in this class. Cikgu Ani said she couldn’t promise she would succeed in doing so. She told us the jurulatih CB’s will have a meeting that afternoon which would finalize the new classes they would be assigned to.

Next morning, Cikgu Ivy and Siti and Cikgu Sani were waiting for us in class. It was the first day of Modul 2. While dancing outside the classroom, we searched for Cikgu Ani and found her with PK1. We waved our hands to say goodbye. It was sad to see her in another class. So the class started and the 3 new teachers in our class introduced themselves. They managed to cheer us up despite us trying to get Cikgu Ani back.

Then they told us that they had to attend to a technical problem at the Bilik Gerakan which was just beside our class and just left us alone, all three of them. Seconds later, to our great delight, Cikgu Hani and Cikgu East came running back and entered our class while we cheered out throats off in joy to see her back.

It turned out to be a huge ploy! Everything was flawless. Cikgu Hani herself told us that she herself didn’t know about the ploy until their 3pm meeting yesterday, that would explain why she cried yesterday!

the gang + Cikgu Ani

Ah, well enough of Class CB stories.

Nation-Building

God..there are so many things to cover. I could go on writing but I’m sure you wouldn’t wanna read everything anyway. Words make a post look unattractive, in all it’s irony.

After the CB classes, the Kenegaraan classes followed. And they were dead boring. I was assigned to KN2 with the charismatic Cikgu Sani as our teacher. He is the favourite motivator among the jurulatih’s. But he wasn’t all that as he was on stage while in class. To add up to the dismay, out of a total of about 30 LDK’s (Group activities) in the Nation Building module, only one or two were actually fun. Like Jo said, it’s like making a usually boring activity like memorizing election procedures more attractive by making us cut and paste cards thus failing miserably at doing so.

The Sports

Feel the heat, people! Sports was one of the most heated events during camp life. After the Company Games commenced, there had never been a quiet evening. The games involved were Speak Takraw, Volleyball, Table tennis, and Netball. And because all these contributes to the overall company marks, winning does matter. So it was a battle between Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. And it was fierce.

There was a designated event for every evening, if nothing pops up. Everyone would gather at the respective courts and cheer as their team fought on. The spirits were always high and it’s amazing how strong the company spirit could be. All of us, regardless of race or origin, cheered on for the sake of the company as one. Pretty sensational I must say.

Delta’s sepak takraw team, who swept into the finals, winning first place.

The Competing Spirit

Other than sports, the Companies compete in every other activity in camp. There’s the obstacle course, which consists of 9 obstacles, the 6-feet wall, 10-feet wall, Monkey Rack, Tarzan Swing and so on.

the Monkey Racks

swing like tarzan without worrying about slamming into trees, but there were poles though

There were also water sports such as rafting and kayaking, held at the camp’s very own man made lake.

rafts of Alpha and Delta all set at the starting point

the timers are stopped the moment everyone disembarks the raft, so every second counts.

I represented my platoon for rafting and along with 19 others, rowed our way to second place in the wira category. Though we didn’t excel in water sports, as they aren’t exactly our major.

But mind you, we were the proud champions of the most prestigious cup of National Service, the marching competition! XD The wira Delta platoon is notorious within the camp for being the ones with the worst discipline. We took lead in practically everything involving punishments.

We led in demerit marks, draging the the Delta company down in overall marks within the first few weeks, we bore a record number of smokers, the firsts to get punished for smoking were from our platoon, the worst dorm layouts were Delta dorms, we were practically a pain-in-the-ass for the jurulatih’s and yet..we won the marching competition. Which ironically, the core aim of marching is to instill discipline and teamwork in each and every member. Go figure. XD

Nonetheless, we were ones with the biggest smiles that night of the prize giving ceremony.

uniform inspection for the winning Delta Company during marching competition

Stay tuned for part 3!

———————-
Independent Thoughts

Daily on Internet there are countless searches for the lacrosse equipment, different sports and thing related to it. A number of online sport stores are present which give the facility of purchasing basketball and the basketball equipment. The golf lovers can also find site that offer things related to it like the golf shoes. You can also buy the baseball bats at low price if you are baseball lover.

..and me? I’d be a fledging little branch, probably sprouting a leaf or two. Sometimes I wonder if I’m still part of the trunk. Which, in a way, makes sense for I’d be heading back to school. Form 6 that is.

Anyway, I’m not all that moody for form 6. They say it’s a two-year psychological stress programme. Others, a waste of time. I’ve had a lot of advice on these form 6-or-not-form 6 topics. Mind you, college dudes, form 6 has far higher standards and thus, difficulty but in the end, those who had gone through the sixth form are said to bear more quality than those get-graduated-quick programmes. And before you know it you’d be graduating form 6 with a place in a public university which has actually became easier to cope with.

No offense to those already in them though. I have no intention of making you think twice if you’re really up to paying your foundation course. If you’re sure thats the path you want to take and won’t regret it, go on by all means.

So back on topic, that’s why I prefer to call form 6 the two-year gem-making programme. XD

Form 6 really isn’t going to be that bad after all. Word has it that it starts this 15th, which is next tuesday. Gasp! And I’ll be going to school this Thursday to check the form 6 admittance list. I’ll probably be going for science stream, with the Physics option.

So, I’d better be making use of these few days to get new sets of school uniforms. Probably a new bag, and stationary. Get a haircut, shave, nails and whatnot. Sigh, strict school life.

And the books. About a month ago, my dad took me to Popular where I grabbed three form 6 books home just to start on familiarising myself with the new syllabus. Each of those books could weighed as much as a hard-covered encyclopedia. Complete with coloured glossy pages cover to cover, illustrations and such, they’re no ordinary school textbooks with kiddy illustrations and monotone pages. Perhaps that’s something for a change. But honestly, well, I haven’t been really touching them. XD

Well then, it’s back to school everybody! Can’t wait. XD

Nonetheless, the tickets were booked and here I am. That day, my aunt drove me and mum there. The venue was at the Yayasan TNB (YTN) building in UNITEN. It took an effort to find that place, poor signage around Kajang were to blame. A few wrong turns and a few trips to gas stations for directions finally got us there.

The campus was a sight. Especially the Administration building which was a large modern complex cladded in glass. We had lunch in there, by then it was 1pm. It was also there that I met Faiz, former NS camp mate who also flew in from Kuching. Ain’t the world just small? XD

At 1.30pm, all stuffed and satisfied, but with me more shaky and nervous, we made our way to the adjacent block. YTN had a whole building to themselves but their office were situated on the first floor. My aunt dropped me at the entrance. A few dudes obviously my age in formal wear, tie and all, were already making their way into the building.

A pretty grand reception counter greeted us, behind it was a wall which bore the foundations’ identity in gold. I registered myself on a list, being the 9th candidate to arrive. And to my surprise, two names above me was Nigel Sim, the year’s top student of Kuching High! Bummer. There was already quite a few formal wear dudes sitting around, I found a seat between Faiz and Nigel.

At around 1.55pm, a staff announced for all the candidates to move into their office. We were led into a small seminar room and sat in rows of six. There were about 20 males and 3 females in that room. And the silence was deafening. At five minutes pass two, a female YTN staff walked in and gave us a short briefing on the procedures of the interview. She also gave us surprising statistics of chances of being selected for the scholarship at a ratio of only 1:9. Holy smokes! That means in that room of 23 candidates, only 2 or 3 will get the scholarship.

After that, spirits undeterred, we were directed into a meeting room across the office for some verbal tests. We were given 10 minutes for each test of about 35 to 40 questions, all to be answered on a OMR paper. The first test was Verbal Comprehension, asked us questions on Physics and stuff I reckon has to do with engineering. Simple examples would be like ‘If hot is to cold so soft is to..? A. warm B. hard C. tender..’ and so on. That was of course one of the first questions, and it got very much harder after that. One really has to know those Physics terms in English to really score on that.

The second test was Verbal Reasoning. I actually had some fun completing this one. A question would give you a set of three words, two of these three are pairs that are related as synonyms or antonyms. The left out word would then be related in one way or another with one of the answers given. Sounding almost like a game, one needs to have a vast vocab to score in this, for the last page of words were like martian to me. Nonetheless, I was pretty confident I scored in the first two tests.

Next up was a profiling test. Two sections that consisted of good qualities and negative qualities required us to check one among four qualities for every question. The process is pretty complicated but after transferring the answers onto a result sheet and later onto a graph, we could clearly see how our personality tends to bend to. Of course, by that time, there would not be any more time to grab the eraser and alter the results. If I could remember correctly, my graph slanted more towards the ‘Dominant’ point, aha! Whoever dares to challenge me now?! XD

Then we were all back to the seminar room and one by one, we were called into the Room to be interviewed. Me being the 9th on the list, had the privilege of listening what the previous candidates have to say about the interview, tips and all. But it was the wait that kills, with each candidate taking 15 mins tops, I have to wait a minimum of 2 hours before it was my turn.

Nonetheless, it did came. The YTN staff called for my name as I took a deep breath and tried to calm my shaking hands. She took my portfolio and guided me into the Room. The panel consists of malay and a Caucasian. A chair was placed against the wall about 3 metres away from their desk. I greeted them in my shaky voice and they told me to have a seat.

An the interview begun by asking me to ‘say something about myself’. So I cleared my throat and babbled everything my absent mind could think of about myself. The Caucasian listened on without a twitch in his movements, while the malay guy kept on smiling.

Then they continued to ask on ‘Tell us what do you know about TNB’. Ok well, I certainly did my homework and prepared for this particular question. So, once again, I babbled everything according to what I had rehearsed again and again in the seminar room. But I was stupid. I took less than 2 minutes pouring out everything I knew and then there was silence.

The Malay guy seem fascinated at me, probably for how much I’ve prepared or maybe how much facts I’ve got wrong, I don’t know. But that wasn’t the fact with the caucasian. He continued to stare at his desk and blurted ‘is THAT all?’ He was not contented at all. He continued to shoot me with questions, asking ‘What is the market share price of TNB?’ And THAT caught me completely off guard. I blinked at his wavy blonde hair in disbelief, choking out an ’ I’m n-not sure.’

He then continued to bombard me with questions only a business analyst with a five-digit salary would know. ‘How much stake does TNB have in SESCO?’ ‘How many power plants does TNB operate?’ The Malay guy stopped smiling when I grinded out my third ‘I’m not s-sure about that, either’. That session ended with me feeling all so stupid.

They continued to ask me about my plans if I don’t get the interview, which was going for form 6. They also asked what other scholarships had I applied for. And then they told me that was all and the YTN staff returned me my portfolio. I stood up and thanked them.

And then I stepped out and exhaled two tonnes of CO2.

Anyway, I’d take it as a first experience for me and perhaps a lesson — don’t ever blurt out everything you know all at once, leave room for questions. I wouldn’t expect to get the scholarship but the experience was worth it.

That said, I’d still be bracing for form 6, the two-year psychological stress programme.

If you didn’t bother, or did not read my previous post, I’ll just give you a recap of what had happened. In brief, I was the Head of Graphics of the school magazine, Semekar. Things happened and I did not get any chance to work on any of the graphics in the magazine. As a result, all the graphical work was done by our Mr. James with his excellent taste in which everyone in the magazine committee agreed. Struggling to keep Mr. James from tarnishing my name as the Head of Graphics and partly fuelled by my care for the school’s image, I offered to redo the cover designs for his own designs were hideous.

So, as I stated in the previous post, he agreed to consider a few more proposals and so I happily headed home and tried cook up something. This is what I have been looking forward for quite some time, being involved in designing a cover of a magazine and in this case, my school’s annual magazine. What I am often looking for is that feeling of looking at your own published work knowing that everyone else would be looking at it too, if not admiring it.

In the same way where I was involved in designing a poster for a guitar workshop organized by my uncle’s guitar company. A lot of hard work was put into it until it finally went to the printers. I would never forget that day when I walked up to my uncle’s guitar shop in KL and saw that very poster I was working on all month, pasted up majestically on the glass door in view for the public. The posters were distributed city wide to schools and institutions in KL. Imagine the amount of people who saw it and that, means a lot to me.

No, it’s not the credit, it’s not the fame. For I didn’t slap on my name on the poster and sat on my plush leather seat in my office waiting for potential customers the next day. It’s about self-satisfaction. In the case of my school magazine though, another factor came into play — that is, to improve my school’s image. To cater to those who judge a book by it’s cover, in the literal sense of that expression. I mean, we need to have an attractive cover for a magazine that shouts out to potential readers to pick it up and flip through it’s pages, right? And for such an underdog school like SMK JA, the more we need to stand out.

Alright, I’m not saying that my work would surely appeal to all readers. I’m only saying all this because I’ve seen and heard comments, good ones, about my work.

So, I headed home and started on it. It wasn’t easy. I spent three nights, working till 1am in the morning, glued to the computer, fuelled by cookies and iced chocolate drinks. And I must say, they turned out pretty good. Confident and all, I presented my proposals first, to my peers. I wanted feedback from the students themselves, for they are the majority of the readers. Fortunately, the feedback was positive, extremely positive, I say. Wuahaha!

Then, it was time to present my proposals to the big boss, Mr. James. And guess what, it was a-huge-failure. He plugged in my handy drive into his buggy computer while I remembered wondering how many viruses could have been transferred into it that very moment.

Casually, he clicked through all my proposals without a word and reached the end of the stack in less than 2 minutes before he proceeded to unplug the handy drive. Blurting out, ‘Hm, okay. Try to make some more designs. I’ll make some too, then we’ll see who’s better’. Frowning, I told him that I wouldn’t have any more time to do more — you know, exams. I guess what I said would have been a relief to him when he replied ‘Oh, nevermind then.’ and that was it, three nights of hard work down the sewer, rejected flat-out.

Bummer. It was since that very moment I swore to give up every attachment to the school magazine and decided to curse for it’s failure so that Mr. James would go down hard. But seriously, I didn’t lay any finger on it at all after that episode and until now I don’t know the status of the magazine. SPM’s over and it’s still nowhere in sight. My only guess is that they didn’t make it to printing before the term ended. Not suprising though, ‘cos everything was in a huge mess when I left the committee.

But oh well, it’s their problem now, isn’t it? If you think you can do everything by yourself without an open mind, by all means, you’re on your own. We’ll see how far can you go with that!

Gee, I really didn’t meant for this post to be this long. I really just wanted to show what our school magazine would have looked like. Well then, I’ll just get to the point. Since these proposals wont appear in any magazine anytime soon, I thought I could just share them here for the masses. So without further ado, the proposals with it’s variations in six versions, proudly produced in Adobe Photoshop:

V1: Simplicity

This one was based on my simplicity set of wallpapers I did some time ago. Minimalistic.

V2: Grungy

Inspired by the colours of the Brazillian flag. FIFA World Cup, anyone? Did anyone realise though, that our school logo bears that exact same colour scheme? Go figure. The two stripes in the middle sort of creates the effect of being painted on by a roller. And it has a grungy (dirty) effect so those black spots and stuff are entirely intended.

V3: Photo

Nothing much, just a photo I took of our school block with a couple of bars and lines and uh, the title of course.

V4: Fantasy

Girls would like this. Just for fun though.

V5: Notepad

A drawing pad design with photos.

V6: Grids

Tech-styled goodness. Themed green to match the school’s logo. Proved itself as a promising design among the rest.

Don’t keep up your hopes everyone, people whom I had shown my proposals to had pressed me to submit them. But unfortunately, these designs won’t make it. Mr James and Pn Polin were pretty determined in keeping Mr. James’ own design. So look out for it, if this year’s Semekar even comes out.

YAHOOOOOOOO!

Ahem, back to business now. Pardon my formality ladies and gentlemen, I was just trying to keep my cool hiding the fact that I’m jumping up and down like a girl now. *Gasp did I just said that?* Wuahaha!

Today, 4th of December, marks the end of the gruelling SPM exams majority of the fifth formers are sitting for. Well, it ain’t like PMR where every candidate across the nation simultaneously leap out of their classrooms at a tick of the clock. Some dudes already had their ‘merdekas’ last friday, some even earlier, others not in another two days and some not until next week. But hell, who cares. It’s over for ME and that’s all that matters!

Dum dee dum dum dee dum dee doo.. Welp, it ended with the 3rd paper for Biology moments ago at 3:30PM sharp. All pure-science stream takers would be rejoicing like me now, with the examinations finally finally and finally..over.

I wasn’t one of them who got their itchy ass up heading for the exit before the invigilator managed to even collect back the scripts from half of the class (No offence yee heng ;P) for your information. No one actually screamed or yell or anything really, just the increasing presence of chatter spreading around classes. I for one, wasn’t smilling like Sylvester with Tweety the bird in my palms. I was partly disturbed by the tricky questions in Bio paper 3 and was still trying to make sense of a 3 mark question while everyone else stared at the second-hand of the wall clock savouring the final moments.

Ah well, bygones are bygones. So I got over that and well, here I am, smiling, and with four weeks worth of holidays ahead to spend. SPM is for us to put behind and life is there for us to look forward. So, move on! I’ll say.

Oh, and uh, yeah, Biology sucks! :p