My heart skips a beat

When my ears are greeted by them, my cochlea sends signals to my brain which then sends impulses to my heart to beat faster. My hands freeze, my mind races through a number of things. In my nervousness, I worry about the next few months during which I have to endure this state of being.

There are a few masculine names that, due to recent frequent contact, I have come to have my heart skip a beat for.
.
.
Francis Katamba
.
.
William O'Grady and John Archibald
.
.
.
.
.
Paul




This is all because of
.
.
Morphology.



Laugh as much as you want. I'm beginning to feel lost and terrified of this subject. Never liked it during Introduction to Linguistics, not capable ingesting any of it now.

H-E-L-P!

Today and then tomorrow

I got another cheese cake!!! Only a slice of it , phew! Miss Chin Pei Ling gave me a New York cheese cake...one that I've been wanting to eat for months now.

Gracias, gracias, mucha gracias, PL!

Today's the last day of my exam...so we went out for a movie. Jason Behr in The Tattooist is so hot!!!

And then there's tomorrow to look forward to.

I'm gonna to watch The 11th Hour at KLpac! Yeps it's that environmental documentary produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. Yay!

Later, peeps ;)

My first first of May off the shores

I had a great laugh. Fooled by a non-existing cockroach, ate tomato cheesecake, thousand-island-sauce cheesecake, received TWO cheesecakes for that matter, went present-hunting and found myself speechless upon discovering a bleak something within a cheerful floral wrapper.

So I thought having the yogurt cheesecake my aunt Sally sent us was it. I had but 2% suspicion that when my housemates 'discovered' a cockroach in my food cabinet. It was their smart way of tricking me into the kitchen to turn off the lights (with me and my camera in hand ready to video another episode of how my housemates hunt roaches down) and surprise me with yet another cheesecake.

Really, despite the initial 2% suspicion (which I dismissed because I didn't think they would actually have another cake after the first one), I was genuinely surprised. And tricked, mind you.

So I guess I turned 20 years old twice tonight. Hehe! But it's all good because I got to make my wish twice!

The best part must be the present-hunt they sent me off to right after slicing a piece of cake. Clue (after I pleaded for one): it's somewhere you always glance over.

Hmm...I hit the food cabinet first cos some told me so convincingly to. I must be real easy to fool huh?

It wasn't there. It was in my room next to my thesaurus. And no, it wasn't there before this whole act.

So neatly slit in between my thesaurus and dictionary of quotations...

I took it out on repeated demands from Amelia to reveal my present to all. The bleak something that I spoke of is...aha! Sweeney Todd, the original novel!!!

I almost melted! I can't believe I got Sweeney!!! WOOOOHHOOOOOO x infinity

Thank you, Jo! Thank you all, Ynuoh, Mishel, Amelia, Lynda, Sushi, Lai Mun and Loo Yin, for being such sweethearts! Had fun pranking me eh?

My first birthday away from Penang looks beautiful already. Pix will be uploaded on my Facebook when I'm free. (Still have one more paper to go)

...and to think, hours before, this was all the opposite.

The night before that shouldn't be like

I don't like what I've become and I'm not feeling the way I should now.

To-do list:

1. sort out
2. feel more hopeful
3. do art
4. find someone
5. countdown
6. embrace
7. feel happy-ier
8. let my heart do some talking
9. try to save the environment because I'm sweating as I type this
10. get a mental rebirth

My Pillar

My pillar, where goes?
Where do I lean against,
where do I rest my back,
when I have a broken purple roof?

Do I rely on just any wall
or do I curl up in that familiar corner?
If you can't keep this refugee for a day
where else could she find her pillar?



Everybody needs somebody sometimes.
-Keith Urban's Everybody

Anticipation of freedom

Pimples popping
Headaches throbbing
Assignment period going
Lepak time arriving

No more enduring witching hour
Rid of faces often sour
Gone is bad grammar to counter
A break from being the stronger

Peace to the gastric
Out returns the eccentric
Chirpy, spontaneous lyrics
When assignment checklist completed with ticks

Another few sunrises to arrive at this!

One of those cab men

Being a vehicle-less student in PJ and a former vehicle-less-too intern as a journalist, I have many times taken rides from friendly and conversational taxi drivers.

One such is the cab man (I prefer to call them cab men because it doesn't make them sound so much like chauffeurs) my housemates and I had this morning.

From our brief conversation, we found out that he was 45 years old.

Our conversation went like this:

Cab man:"Kamu semua student?"

We:"Ya."

Cm:"Bila habis belajar?"

(Gee, none of his business la - safety and self-preservation instincts kick in!)

Me:" Ada dua s'tengah tahun lagi ."

Cm:" Oh. Semua sudah ada boyfriend?"

(Oi, what's he thinking? What is it to him whether we're available or not?!)

Me:"Yeah, yeah. Semua sudah ada."

(My friend gave me a look. I lied, only half of us is taken.)

Cm:"Aiya, s'karang tak mau cari boyfriend la. S'karang belajar. Belajar sampai Masters baru keluar cari boyfriend dalam Degree! Hah!"

(OMG. Hahahahhah! What la, this fella!)

We:"LOL"

Cm:"Memang kan? Macam ini baru mereka boleh dengar kamu cakap!"

We:"LOL"

Cm:"S'karang macam ini la. Nasib baik I sudah kahwin masa 21, s'karang sudah 45."

We:"Oh..."

And we talked a little more about people giving more than they should for their cab fares- some student, some tourist he had recently.

Cm:"Itu hari satu student, lapan ringgit dia bagi dua puluh. I tak ambil. I cakap itu duit bukan dia punya, bapa dia punya. I pun ambil lapan ringgit sahaja."

To believe or not to believe? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he was a tad more feminist than one of my housemates and me!

Then we're off at PC block (the block I study in) and we paid RM3, as the meter says. We're not going to waste our parents' money unnecessarily too.

In response to a hectic student life

The weekend's getting shorter
as the weekdays grow longer
It seemed only yesterday a Friday
but now a Monday morn.

I long to see the end of such
crammed, hectic schedule
The momentum of work steadfast
while mine dwindling under the heap.

Weary I become of life
in this system of deadlines
Mindful I still am
of the strength I need to find.

And faith be it, oh faith,
that I should walk away with pride
when all storm and dust are settled
and my spirit's vacation is come.

Post-Elections Analysis Open Dialogue

From left: Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria, CPPS Director Tricia Yeoh, Zainon Ahmad, Khoo Kay Peng, CPPS Chairperson Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Ramon V. Navaratnam, Malik Imtiaz and Dr Farish Noor.

That was yesterday morning in Sunway University College.

I dunno what exactly to blog about it really except that it was an event I am glad I went for. I almost decided not to because mum and dad was worried people might cause some sort of trouble at the forum (like the demonstration at Komtar, Penang on Friday) so they didn't like the idea of me going there alone.

Luckily there were seniors who are kind enough to give me a ride (thanks to Peiling and Dr Carmen and Michelle Boon! together with the other seniors.

I must say I really enjoyed Dr Farish Noor and Malik Imtiaz's speeches. Malik's eloquence was -wooh!- very very admirable!

I was there mainly to hear what these noteworthy speakers have to say and my, my, I could see that there was a joy in having the opposition winning the elections in time round (from both the stage and the floor). Then again, surely most of the floor was made up of opposition party supporters.

I had an man wearing a yellow t-shirt with Haris Ibrahim's blog URL on it seated in front of me and we had a man in the yellow Bersih rally t-shirt in the floor too.

My seniors say that this forum didn't give as much about post-election analysis as expected but well, in my opinion, what can we predict about our Malaysian politics now that our government for decades is at the losing end? It's clear who's happy and who's not with it but still, personally I think we're in uncharted waters. How does change happen systematically in a society that has not known (but want) change for so long? I thought Dr Farish and Malik gave some good ideas as to what we as Malaysians should now do but no one really even predict what's to happen. (If attendees were expecting some sort of conclusion to our election.)

Briefly, these are few of the things that had me applauding:

Dr Farish spoke about reconstructing our history so that all of us can find our place in our history books; focusing on the years before we were Malaysia when there was healthy racial integration. It's tad further back in time but I'm sure perpaduan was better than in recent years.

Malik talked about having a new language for our Malaysian politics. Something about nationalist (for those in government) and pluralist (for those not in government). Well, think of it this way, in some states BN is now the opposition party so if we were to continue with terms like "opposition party" and the government, there will be some confusion as in who is being referred to.

I'll roughly quote Dr Farish here before I'm out:"(Give the new government some time), they've only been there for a week, after all BN has been there for 50 years and they still couldn't do a good job."

Applause from the floor.

I'd really like to go on actually but my mind's occupied with everything about my assignments and the impending deadlines.

ciao

PS: For further reading, browse Centre for Public Policy Studies for the summary of the event and go Google up any of the five speakers: Dr Farish Noor, Malik Imtiaz, Khoo Kay Peng, Zainon Ahmad and Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria. The people with substance, hmm.

CPPS promised to put some stuff up YouTube too. Check it out!

Some more pics:


The guy with the http://harismibrahim.wordpress.com T-shirt.


Heheh: Peter Chen, the uncle with the Bersih T-shirt and too long a comment (he spoke so much the chairman had to keep asking him to leave the microphone during the Q&A).


The people I went with: Michelle's bro- Peter, Anthony, Kah Joon, Amy, (I didn't get her name, shame on me) and Michelle. Fahmi Reza, the dude in red and Johnny-Depp-specs behind us, was there too!

Oh yeah, my classmate Alex was there!

Stardusty

I finished the novel Stardust by Neil Gaiman today and contrary to the movie which I adore whole-heartedly, the story ended with me feeling melancholic.

I loved the movie so much I wanted to read the real stuff, the original version of the story but now I think I'd happily settle for the movie version.

As much as I find the world of Faerie intriguing, fascinating and magical, I could not find the warmth and longing to be in that world I had felt when I was engrossed in the movie. It lacked the very essence which made me fall in love with the movie in the first place. You know, I came out of the velvety cinema with this perfectly woozy feeling.

I didn't understand how the star, Yvaine could fall in love with Tristran because Neil made it so sudden. Like we were not allowed into these two characters' mind and secret thoughts as readers to understand the characters. I'd have loved to have seen it coming with more clarity. I felt as though Yvaine in the novel was almost obliged to fall for Tristran.

Instead of all the wonderful cosiness, I come out of reading with this sadness because the story ended with a sad note. Dah lah the romance lost its kick, Neil had to end it with the sense of loneliness.

The last paragraph that nailed glumness upon me being:
"They say that each night, when the duties of state permit, she climbs, on foot, and limps, alone, to the highest peak of the palace, where she stands for hour after hour, seeming not to notice the cold peak winds. She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars."

Call it empathy but I felt so sad that Yvaine could never go back to where she came from. Plus, she's immortal, Tristran wasn't, he expired. And no one know what she is now. She's likely the only left who knows herself because those who knew had taken the secret with them to their graves. Her family's out of reach, her lover's beneath the earth.

How lonely.

I need to listen to some perky music now. Ciao.

A (Big) Dream Comes True

Today...I took a great leap and possess a silver unevenly rectangular box that holds within it...the power to preserve light.

As you might remember from our physics lessons in high school, everything we see we see because there is light. So this box of mine can capture a moment's light and give me the liberty to choose to visit the photo printing shops for developing the light on some glossy paper.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I smugly present to you (drums, people, drums!)...my Nikon Coolpix L11!!! 6.0 Megapixels, ISO 800, 2.4" LCD and 3x optical zoom plus a really cute mini tripod, 1GB Nikon memory card and some free photo-printing card all for the price of RM385!!! That's the deal you get when you have people like Cai Xia with you to do the bargaining.

Ok la, nothing too fancy but hey! I've been wanting a camera since ice age! So now that I've got one, though not a very canggih one la, I can now devote my free time (or whatever's left of it) to photography!!!

Yay!

(calms down)

Now I have to do my work.

Our Red Herring

RED HERRING: irrelevant diversion.

(As found in The Little Oxford Dictionary, my little friend.)

Joshua Phua is one. A good one at it too. The class clown of my class who is always surprising us with his remarks and implications of how everything can be related to a certain taboo topic that involves activities behind closed doors.

I salute thee in some ways for your creativity, Joshua. At least he makes the class laugh a lot.

This is an example of how surprising Joshua's wit can be:

Setting: During Grammar tutorial today, Ms Wee was giving examples of broken English likely used by UTAR students.

On white board, the example sentence: He nervous.

Grammatically, that is wrong. We should add a verb in between "he" and "nervous".

Result: He is nervous.

"Nervous" is an adjective.

But no...

Joshua: "No, "Nervous" is his name, so he is Nervous."

What in the world, Joshua...

Smacks forehead, signs off.

Kerajinan yang tiba-tiba dan lecturer yang menginspirasikan

Yes, I've decided to try to be a little more diligent with this blogging thing because I know that I've just been too lazy to type out whatever I have on my mind. What more, it seems that I have gone back to my old ways of being private.

Privacy aside I realise I tend to forget what about that I would have really wanted to blog about in the day. This happens so very often. Even now. It is happening.

I might need a moment to try to recall what was it that I so semangat berkobar-kobar wanted to rant about.

There's this quote I remember from Mr Gerald Green public speaking workshop that I attended two months back that goes something like that: Ideas are like slippery fish. If you don't spear them by the end of a pencil, they swim away.

Mr Green suggested we have an ever-ready notebook with us at any hour of the day to jot down whatever ideas that dawn upon us in times unpredictable. He told us of how some people even wake up int he middle of the night to jot down ideas in the notebook. So how? My ideas are usually very abundant when I'm showering. Cham la, notebook get wet.

I'd better take his advice nevertheless. Will save a few ringgit to afford something neat from Creative Products.

Right. So what was I at before talking about my renewed efforts to fight forgetfulness?

Oh, it must be about this superb class I'm having now in this semester that has an ultra fantastic lecturer giving us out of the ordinary lectures! No, I'm not being too dramatic here. I really do think that highly of Dr Carmen Nge's classes. We're taking Critical Reading and Thinking with her and yes, if anyone could, she could make me want to go into the education line.

It takes only one first lecture with her and I dare say the whole of EL Y1S2 is definitely in love with this subject. My first thoughts were how the class seemed like a lesson in comedy and that's good. There's no falling asleep to what lullaby lecture with Dr Carmen (With the exceptional exception of Kung. His head was rolling here and there last Monday. Though I'd have to say the classroom was like a sauna).

As if being a delightful lecturer is not enough, I recently found out (via the tip-off from Pei Ling) that she writes for Off The Edge and had taught in foreign lands before UTAR.

The way she carries our lessons, guiding us on how to prod our young minds and bringing up issues that matter in our society. I have an impression of her as a person who has a thirst for life and change for the better that radiates and imbues motivation. And all this with the unmistakable humbleness: I noticed she didn't introduced herself as Dr Carmen but only Carmen.

Personally, I find it surprising that she remembers my actual name, Ying Xiang. For the first time, I'm voluntarily called that in uni, by an educator. If you know me well enough, I tend to introduce myself as Elizabeth rather than Ying Xiang because it sometimes takes a great deal for people to get my Chinese name right. What with the "Ying Xing, Xing Xiang, Xiang Ying etc" variations that have plagued my childhood, I know better. (Though I still love the name my dad gave me.)

So till I'm full of words and thoughts to be spilled here again. That is, if I remember to get the notebook to remind myself of the words and thoughts.

But I'll remember Dr Carmen for sure la.

B-a-c-k

And suddenly she has the urge to revive her lackadaisical virtual journal.

Cos she has suddenly the inspiration to blog about certain things.

About uni, ideas, pals, lecturers and ambition.

And she will do so later on because it's almost lunchtime now and she has to go to uni already.

Gosh, how she misses writing. Time to pick up the virtual pen and let her old pal know she still cares about it.

She is me and she's signing off.

Till then, my handful of audience.