D-PAN: Waiting on the World to Change

One of my favourite videos.

Deaf Performing Artists Network


Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could

Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

That's why we're waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

And we're still waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

thank you

thank you iojh.blogspot.com for the firey header!
ps: poh leong, i'm still waiting for yours. XD

"I've been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror"

(song is jason mraz, i'm yours)
College life is so fun. This semester is only two months long. I only take two subjects this sem, six hours of each per week.

The toughest part of college this sem would be being picked to be the group leader.
Of an assignment.
Which requires role-playing.
That costs 50% of the entire grade.
Of not only me but 5 other people.
Regarding workplace conflict.

...

YOU WANT CONFLICT, &^%*? I'LL GIVE YOU CONFLICT! *cue catfight*

HAHAHA it's not that easy kay. The conflict has to be observable, says the guidelines. "Observable?" I think, "Catfights are always an attention-grabber...and is observable when someone starts to bleed," Thinks.
"Or when one party starts to use office stationaries to harm the other," Now, my imagination runs wild.

Office worker A uses the stapler to staple Office worker B's shirt to the wall. Office worker C seeks revenge for B by dragging A to the photocopying machine and starts to photostat his face. By now, Office worker D senses the commotion from the pantry and grabs the sandwhich knife from the countertop... *cue Kill Bill soundtrack*

Uh, the role-playing is not Drama 119. It's for Human Relations in Administration. Long title. I like.

Anyway, my L license expires in 31 days, and I've yet to arrange for driving lessons. I see no future in driving a car that guzzles already-limited supply of petroleum. Apparently, though, my parents do, so who am I to complain.

There seems to be problems cropping up for the BRATs soundslide. Ergo, go to Menara Star tomorrow to fix it. Near to Damansara.

Maybe can drop by Curve to jalan-jalan...look for that bag that Khadi has...

But ISH! Couldn't they've told me this yesterday? I was next door then!


To end, I've uploaded these pictures of a cat I met at a mamak stall.

I know some of you hate cats...

..and no wonder, since they are animals devoid of emotions...

...it's true! Evidence shows that cats lack a forebrain...


...which is responsible for retaining emotions like love and compassion...



...But really, you're human. You and me, she and him. You've got a forebrain, right? So do I! We retain compassion.
Try to retain it forever, and the world would be a better place.

It is easy to love those who love you.
It takes real love to love those who hate you.

Peace out.

Tai Ka Cheh (Big Sister) and her koncos.

get right

My faith is not as strong as it used to be. It's a sad thing to be admitting this publicly, but there's not another place I feel I can say this out loud.

I need God so bad. =(

I hate it when emotions come out to play.

Emotions don't do good in this case,

And there's a need for child-like faith to take over.

Lord, I need you. Badly. Please pick me up.

Stop running in the rain.

picture by Chutterbug

Stop running in the rain, when droplets are coming down fast and hard on your head.

Your face stings and you can't see where you're going.

The water seeps into your shoes and slows you down.

Droplets go against your way and wet you more than you can imagine.



Start walking in the rain.

You'll be going against the current, but the results are better than running against the current.


Don't try to interpret your own faith in God.

Don't assume that your heart determines the strength of your faith in God.

Don't think that you have control of your faith.

God will take care of you.
He will make sure you're always in His hands.
He never lets you slip.

"Indeed, He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleep,"

i'm lovin' it

Exactly one week and twelve hours ago, the facilitators of BRATs camp dropped 40 of us youngsters at an unknown street in Kajang.

Behind us was Plaza Metro Kajang. Walk further down the street and we'd have ended up at Pasar Kajang.

Mission: To gather enough material for an article/soundslide/video on Kajang.

Duration: One hour.

As you can expect, none of the seniors encouraged us to write about Satay Kajang, so we ran around the small town like headless chickens. Well, not really. Half of my group went off to see an Abbex Aunty, while Jern Ian, Kah Mun and I went ahead to Pasar Kajang.

The thing is, we weren't given a specific topic to write or talk about. Which is tougher than it seems when Kajang presents itself to be like any other town in Malaysia.

Tough. Tough. Tough.

The pictures which we and other groups took were criticized (constructively!) by the official photographer, Chan, and another facilitator.

If you think you're a great amatuer photographer, think again.

Even the pictures which seem averagely okay to most of us mortals could not stand with the slightest bit of pride under the gaze and scrutiny of The Star photographers.

"Needs cropping."
"Too much head space!"
"Not full enough,"
"What's the subject?"
"Now, if you move the frame to the left a bit..."

Expected la, since they're in the business...

And you got to watch out for the soundtrack which you plan to include in your video/soundslide.
It has to fit the mood of the video and cannot infringe on copyright materials (though every other group did this). So the only type of music you could use were royalty-free music.

Thank God for free WiFi! Kah Mun found a minus one version of Here In My Home, which we used for the soundslide below. (Karaoke version of songs are considered non-copyrighted)

Every group was expected to churn out an article a day. For the article:
We cannot write about Satay Kajang.
We have to include quotes by interviewees to make the article more interesting.

The information needed to quote someone are:
-interviewees' (full!)name
-interviewees' age
-interviewees' occupation
Which is not as easy as it seems. Sometimes you just want to go up to an interviewee and talk to that person, instead of getting his or her particulars. But of course, as a journalist, one has to be polite and professional while talking to the public...

That's basically half of what we learnt.
Here's the soundslide:



-soundslide credits to all members of umbrella 08.
-all pictures in this post taken by me. wanna use please relink/credit.

cupid's chokehold in sign language

Sigh.
*bang wall*
Khadijah, come back already
I need a life. Thank God for college.

No, the hamster doesn't live here anymore. She eloped.

Death Will Never Conquer

Coldplay's extra song which they play on tour, Death Will Never Conquer sounds like something that would appear on an episode of House.

Death will never conquer those who believe in Jesus.

Sam tagged me.
Go to www.urbandictionary.com, and type in your answer to each question in the search box. Only use the first three results...

(Boring tag. Looking up a vulgar dictionary for answers? sigh. and yes that is my other blog for useless stuff.)

Hey walley walley
Wall-E is a movie in which actions speak louder than words.

Who knew robots who were only capable of saying each other's names could fall in love with one another? But then again, fishes and insects are already doing it, so it's inevitable for the robots.

What I like about Wall-E is that words do not play a big role in this movie: by the creative storytelling itself, you could grasp what was happening. Even hearing-impaired people would find this movie delightful.

Get the storyline here, but I suggest you watch the movie yourself so that you can build up your own perceptions as to why Earth was put into such misery as potrayed by the movie. Reduce, reuse and recycle, people. That's the (seriously) hidden message of Wall-E.

The typical elements of a thriller animation is still there-running away from the seemingly indestructible authorities, getting help from a band of misfit robots, good guy fighting to get the right thing for his people-sounds rather political, doesn't it?

The soundtrack is well-put together. There's like, La Vie En Rose and of course, Hello, Dolly! Yes people, the movie Wall-E and Eve liked so much was Hello, Dolly! with a !. Kind of like Panic! At the Disco. Except now they don't have the !.

Eve is such a memorable character. The typical female robot, she is feisty and smart and, at the same time, laughs at the simplest jokes from her male counterpart, Wall-E. Typical girl.

Personally, I'd like to think that Wall-E wasn't an animated feature, but more of a romantic comedy slash thriller movie. It seems to fit into the latter category better than the former. Plus, if you really watched the movie, it would have been hard for the little kids to really understand the depth of the message that the writers were trying to get across.

You will definitely tear up at the ending of this movie (all good movies make you do that). Overall, this Pixar animation gets a 4/5 stars from me.

PS: Don't miss the opening short cartoon! The bunny, which bears a similar resemblance to Bugs Bunny is SO adorable. Furry little thing.

The Dark Knight


Whenever the Joker appeared on screen, I broke into a big grin like a schoolgirl. He is THAT good.
Now THIS guy has redefined what it means to be a villain.
Custom-made clothes, self-make up, untraceable name and address, a weird sense of humor and snarky speaking style-not to mention a cult following, Heath Ledger really executed his job wonderfully, raking in millions for Warner Bros.

Not talking about anything else.
3.7/5

Oh. I just realised something. Get Smart came and went and I didn't get to see it.

What about 21?

I would like to take this opportunity to thank God and to give Him all the glory and praise for blessing me with this set of Issey Miyake perfume from a Seventeen magazine contest.

Yes people, you got to pray.

Don't ask me how I got it. Ask God.

The edition of this perfume, called Eaux d'ete', is a limited edition perfume.
IM is known for owning one permanent line of fragrance and producing various limited edition versions.


The design on the bottle was made by Santiago Marotto.
Anyway, these will go to my parents. Issey Miyake is too matured a brand to wear for me.

All bragging rights go to God!

To get hold of this prize, I had to ask my mum to send us to BluInc's headquarters in Section 13.

Doesn't look like Mode. No Betty Suarez, no Marc.

Photos

Stuff outside the villa.

Twilight.

Post-Twilight?

Ketupat

Flower power.

A weedle bit overdue...

Here are pictures from Pasar Kajang taken with the Nikon camera (previous pictures were with my phone):

The Star's BRATs camp: Kajang, August '08

Before I start, allow me to wish Janelle a sexy eighteenth birthday! More lamb stew please!


picture from The Star

You know the saying, out of sight, out of mind?

As bitter as the deadlines to the assignments at the camp were, I still want the sweet stuff to stay in my mind.

Personally, I'm grateful that the bunch in this Kajang camp were the bunch that they were. The bunch that rocks, blogs and FaceBooks! ohoho.

The Bitter Stuff:

1. Receiving an SMS about the Toastmasters Installation Dinner article that's due for TM's blog.

=_= *bangs wall* Pandai betul budak ni. Got time to blog about it but no time to write up on it.

2. A phone call in the middle of a group discussion.

Phone calls and SMS are strictly forbidden when completing assignments, tenkiuberimuch.

3. I fell sick!

On the third day I woke up with a bad sore throat. Then it developed to slight fever. And it was the day we all basked under the sun at the rubber estate ;P

4. The water piping system at our villas.

Turn the water on and a whole orchestra comes alive from behind the walls. *cue: Four Seasons*

5. WE DIDN'T GET TO GO TO KAJANG PRISON.

Our group was supposed to do a video on Kajang Prison, and according to the facilitators, they had to go through lots of red tape to bring a group in there. On the day we were supposed to go, we found out that half of our group members did not have their MyKad with them. So, we had to switch with the group going to the rubber estate. :[ o well.

PS: Learn your lesson! Always bring your MyKad wherever you go or else you kena jail time for 18 years...

The SWEET stuff
1. The food!

Oh. They had maple syrup at the buffet for breakfast and four types of cereals, including a strange unnamed one which was obviously rabbit feed (muesli la). And the barbeque under the drizzling rain on the last night-how romantic can it get?

taken from rachel's blog, edited by me

2. The people!

Melissa was my group senior who was a big help to all of us. Aimee was another senior and she drove us nuts with "How many horses?!".

Kimberly Taing (unique surname!) is the editor of Umbrella (my groups name. guess who suggested it) with a big heart and bigger patience!

Michelle is the Kajang native.

If you ever bump into Zhi Li at Sunway College, ask him to do a Joker impersonation! It's chillingly good.

Serena is the relatively quiet girl with tonnes of ideas to contribute.

Rachel has big eyes and bigger personality from SMK BU4. Also from BU4 is Alwin, tall, lanky and taken.

Lavinia did not go with us to the estate but was taken to prison!

Kah Mun is always pronounced as CarMen (lol sorry!) and is a pro at WMM.

SONIA! My long lost friend from Brats Jr '05, and we only found out about that on the last day at lunch! ahahaha.

Ian is this really poetic boy who could describe me really well, eventhough we've only been in the same group for four days!

Oh! And I met many facilitators who are seriously experienced in their line of job (journalism). Among the people you might have read of in the papers who were there were Niki Cheong, the guy behind the column Bangsar Boy (StarMetro, every Saturday) and Sharmila Nair, the youth writer.
Before the camp, I used GoogleBlog to search for MTVAA and this blog came up as a result. Who knew it'd belong to Su Ann, a Brat as well? I only found out when I got home.
Tze Hui is another Klang girl! She remembers me from Brats Jr. too, and her primary classmate Yin Xian is my best friend. Six degrees of separation at work.

3. The things we learnt.

Teamwork, meeting deadlines and dealing with problems that cropped out of nowhere. And how to take good pictures!

picture goggled
4. The fun that we had.

The games on the last evening, the Chong Wei-Lin Dan match (yes we managed to catch it) in a small hall with 25+ people cheering along, oh and Suraya! My roomie! She cracks me up with her boarding school anecdotes. XD Reminds me of Khadi.

5. Things I never knew!

Like, there's this place around Inti College area called Forensics (?) that isn't about CSI but is about debates and all that which has cute guys in it too. Do I make sense?

6. Pigging out on Satay Kajang with 40++ people.

AAAAHHH it was so much fun. Nevermind the fact that Haji Samsuni (or however it's spelt)'s satay isn't all that delicious. (There's a better one opposite Anjung mamak, also in Kajang)

7. Losing (and finding) the Nikon Coolpix cameras they provided to us throughout the camp.

Thank you Jesus for helping me to find it back! I will never neglect my belongings again. Especially if they're not mine. Not that I neglect them in the first place!

Read the report on the camp here. More details available in the Ole Brats edition on the last Sunday of this month.

Here's a preview for my next post:

make us smile =)

credits to Andrew (http://www.blingzine.com/)

This blogger will be off to Kajang Country Heights Resort for something on Saturday till Tuesday.

Gary Jules' Mad World

still windy last i checked

So I asked Iona why did UMae not get NS.
Der0nITE .::. Drive .::. says:
kuakuakuakua
Der0nITE .::. Drive .::. says:
cuz ur name starts with a t
Der0nITE .::. Drive .::. says:
oh wait..hers too..
Der0nITE .::. Drive .::. says:
oh well~ i ran outta ideas. lol!
Mama iSha says:
WTF LOL

windy wednesday

Why I Do Not Need To/Should Not Go for National Service siri 6/2009

1. I am the only person in my form who sang Negaraku every Monday and the school song everday. I even sing Keranamu Malaysia and Tanah Pusaka during Bulan Kemerdekaan. The lyrics of Tanggal 31 is etched in my head. I pray for Malaysia every week. I love nasi lemak, and I adore Italiannies. I look forward to Yasmin Ahmad's movies. How much more patriotic a teenager can you get?

2. I am under a scholarship bond that states that I cannot, under any circumstances, be distracted from my pursuit of education. Distraction here means having boyfriends, National Service and marriage.

3. My course is four years long. Upon graduation, I plan to get married and get pregnant, whichever comes first (hopefully with the same guy). Then I will build a family and a career. A career woman will not have time for NS.

4. I will only be free after my late thirties, when my career is stable and when my kids are all grown up. By then, my eldest child would be old enough to be selected for NS. Wouldn't it be embarassing and excruciating for him/her to spend three months with his/her mum in the jungle with other teenagers? I am seriously uncool.

5. I can't wash my clothes for nuts. If I get dragged to NS, I will have to have my own personal room because my clothes will stink like a garbage dump. Which means the Government has to spend more money to build me a separate room, and as a taxpayer I don't think that's a good thing...

6. Don't mind the tan, but ever heard of skin cancer? Plus I tend to forget to bring along sunscreen wherever I go...

7. I am 100% Malaysian, and I know the legends that make up her love for fashion. Lewre, Jimmy Choo, Zang Toi, Ling, Bernard Chandran, Gillian Hung, Farah Khan...do you want me to go on?

8. I scored an A1 for Sejarah in SPM.

9. I taught my friends Sejarah during Form Five when they couldn't understand it, and helped them to PASS Sejarah.

10. My favourite subject in school was Sejarah!

11. Saya tak pernah memonteng walau satu pun kelas tambahan Bahasa Malaysia. Karangan-karangan yang ditulis dalam jangka masa dua tahun di sekolah menengah telah pun mencecah "word count" yang sangat besar.


On the bright side...
1. Being away from it all for three months!

2. No technology! No internet connection! No handphone reception! No television!

3. Three months, free of stress, problematic people and house chores! Goodbye sweeping the floor!

4. No blogging for three months!

5. NS comes with a free three month detoxification plan! read: no fast food, no fizzy drinks!

6. More time and stillness to read God's word!

7. An opportunity to make friends!

8. An opportunity to be a pain in the neck to strangers for three months! (this I like)

9. No cute guys to ogle at for three months! How cool is that?!

Yes, I will stop being a whiny teenager. It's just that I don't see NS in my future: I can't even get a driver's license, and you're telling me to get lost for three months in the jungle so that I can gain weight?

duffy's mercy

Wow.

Cycle

Yawn.
Stretch.
Walk.
Sit.
Read.
Think.
Glance.
Write.
Yawn.

And the cycle repeats itself again...

Yawn.
Walk.
Love.

"our work is never over"

The hands version of Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger has been making its rounds for quite a while now. Quite old news la. Anyway, this following sign language version is as good as, if not better than the hands version:



I love this guy.

Check out his interpretation of Kanye West's Golddigger.

"You're beautiful, that's for sure. You'll never ever fade,"

Happy Birthday Cherylyn!

You rock, you tree-hugger. God bless you!

For those of you who don't know, the 10th is Cher's birthday. A gang of 16 or so ambushed her house at 5.30 much to her surprise.

Wished everyone could see the reaction on your face when we appeared. Hope you had fun, dear! And now, for some pictures:

Introducing the two camerawomen/bloggers:




Birthday girls' (in pink) SATC moment:


Oh oh and guess who developed camwhoring skills?!
The lighting was perfect! Zero make-up! We looked like Snow Whites. (Sorry Jue Lyn! lol)
credits to Khadi

L-R: Iona, Khadi, Mama iSha, Yin Xian. Diane in the background.
All looking lady-like, demure and sweet, unlike our normal rough, brash and loud behaviour.
credits to Khadi


And here's an unlady-like picture:
See see Iona's biting her shirt! So cute right her mouths' shape?! Like "U"
credits to Khadi


L-R: Shirlyn, Tien Hwei, Lay Kuan, Iona.
Note their perfectly-aligned heads!


Blogging is not addictive. Blogging is NOT addictive. Oh who am I kidding. Will have to limit myself from posting brainless posts from now on...

heavy on the labels, heavier on the love

You guys remember Sex and the City, right?

I think it's a big loss that the assistant to the Vice-President of Merril Lynch wears those sharp-toed neon pink heels. SAD CASE lah. I mean, come on! Good looking, well-groomed, flawless English and confident, not to mention working at Merril Lynch? (haha Mr. Jimmy) There just HAD to be a catch.

I took notes throughout the movie, and you guys got to check out http://www.carriebradshaw.com/. It's the exact site in the movie! There's excerpts of Carrie's books on this site, like the Menhattan book you see at the beginning of the movie. And Mr. Big's email address is john@jjpny.com. (No website available though).Carrie's is carrie@carriebradshaw.com.

These are some ads I got in my mail:
Coke and McDonalds! So Ivan.




How many brands can you recognise on this branded baby? (Awh, it's like Marketing class all over again):


Atheletic baby:

Hmm...somehow the ads add an Andrew vibe to it.