Met my resolutions?

anyways, while waiting for vick to drive to meet Joseph i was thinking of the goals for the year.

1. Graduate with first class honors
I did graduate with first class honours, heres the proof!!!

2. Get a PR overseas and work overseas or do masters
I'm amidst my PR application and just waiting for my course certifications and some small stuff before i can lodge my application!!!

3. Settle my driving license and drive legally, prolly drive to penang or melacca before i leave for aus.
Before i left for australia i got my driving license, but im not sure whether i can drive around australia with malaysian P license. Guess i have to wait till end of next year to get it to a full license then convert it.

4. Get a job overseas to gather international working exp
Well..I did work in CycoTec part time when i was studying. Kinda gave me a clue on how aussies really work and stuff. Ill be getting a job soon...REALLY SOOON. dammit...

5. Fix my ankle so i can play sports again
My ankles all good and ready! Played basketball and squash..its all good.. not forgetting my vigorous training with PK would require good ankles.


6. Learn how to parkour or breakdance
Learnt how to PK!!!! List of vaults i can do..

Tic tac vault
Lazy vault
Monkey vault
Speed vault
Two handed vault
Turn vault
360 degree vault
ROLL!!!! weeeee!!! the most satisfying of PK things is to break a fall and roll!!!

some combos will be,
lazy to reverse vault
monkey to 360 vault

and of course


THE KONG VAULT





heres a kong vault over a table,



heres a kong vault over a standard park bench.


7. Read a book, anything but a textbook

Ok, i kinda read more than A book. more like 1 and a half books. I read half of "The are of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama and Dr. Howard Cutler. Tells you how you shouldnt take things for granted, how to feel empathetic, and what are the pure sources of happiness which doesnt root from greed, evil nor obsession. just the basic stuff to make you happy.


The WHOLE book which i read was called "Narcissist daughter" by Craid Holden. This book is kinda sick...Its about this couple, Ted and Joyce who had a daugther. Then the story revolves around Syd who is a worker at the couple's medical center who is sleeping with Ted's wife and it is being recorded because Ted gets a kick out of watching his wife getting screwed or getting picked up at bars. Syd then builds an infatuation for Joyce and at the same time dates her daugther Jessi. Which later then Jessi walks into Syd and her mum making out and having sex.

yeah...soo..i didnt buy this book actually..i took it from the South East Flats pavillion..dunno who actually bought this sick book. how could the author think of such things..

being a nomad

There are 2 difficult moments in the year. End of the year where you move out or go somewhere and the beginning of the year when you come back and move into somewhere new.

The time is here again for me where i move out to a new life. Leaving friends you love, cherish, share meals, throw parties with, drink with, play taboo with and basically share your life with like youre family. Not forgetting the one you leave behind which you just met and you got accustomed to.


Everytime you pack, remove pictures from the wall, remove posters from the door, remove postcards from the once boring wall, you see that your 4 walls, your sanctuary, representing what you were and what kinda person you lived as in your room. As I pack my speakers, memories of my neighbour complaining of noise reminisces. As remove the blue tacs on my wall, reminded me of the hectic dates in uni, targets made in academic struggles as well as the amount of receipts for the cooking group mounted after each week.


As i did all that, i realised, its the end of my uni life, another chapter comes to an end and a new chapter flips open. And here i am again, with a pen in hand, starting a new phase. And life goes on...

i love parkour!!!

I finally got the balls to do a kong vault thanks to kevin who showed me a few pointers on how far i could actually do a monkey vault from and where i land.

heres a kong vault over a table,



heres a kong vault over a standard park bench.

cooking therapy

Tumeric chicken with serai and shallots.

Ingredients
Tumeric powder
Ginger 1 knob
3 cloves garlic
1 Stalk of serai
4 shallots
Salt
Sugar

Pound all the ginger, garlic, serai and shallots into a paste. Since i didnt have a mortar..i had to chop it manually to tiny bits and smash it with the side of the knife with my palm.

Marinate the chicken all over with the paste, add salt and sugar. Add tumeric powder to the chicken till its nice and yellow all over. It will look like this. Marinate this overnight for extra shiokness. I wrapped it with aluminum to lock in the taste.

To cook, throw it in the oven at 190 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. Best in the oven till the skin becomes crispy and the paste becomes crunchy.


This is what i had for lunch today :)


Minced pork with eggplant
Took this from a website and it turned out perfect

Ingredients

• 3 eggplants
• salt
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 knob ginger, peeled
• 8 spring onions
• peanut oil (or vegetable oil) for shallow frying
• 300g pork mince
• 2 tbsp chilli bean paste ( i used the spicy black bean paste instead)
  
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 5 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine (or substitute dry sherry)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup water

Slice eggplants into short, thin strips and scatter with salt, then leave in a colander for 30-40 minutes. Rinse and pat dry with kitchen paper. This allows the salt to extract the moist from inside the eggplant allowing it to absorb the sauce and taste from the paste during cooking. Picture of the water extracted by the salt.

In a mortar and pestle (or food processor), crush garlic, ginger and four spring onions to a paste. Slice the other spring onions into 5cm lengths. Again...i didnt have a Set aside. See below

Heat a wok with a cup of oil and when hot, fry the eggplants until golden brown - it's best to do this in two batches. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain on kitchen paper and discard oil.

Heat the wok with a few tablespoons of fresh oil and add the garlic paste and pork mince. Stir-fry for 5 minutes on high until the pork is cooked, then add all the remaining ingredients, including the sliced spring onions. Cook for a few minutes until they have softened and the flavours have melded together.

Stir in the eggplant, check the seasoning (if a little salty add more water) and serve.

Serves 4

Voila!! damn nice...

how do we save malaysia? corruption?

What has Malaysia been doing recently?
Lets see..

Firstly,

As part of a transaction whereby the Malaysian government bought 18 Sukhoi Su-30MKM fighter jets, the Russian Federal Space Agency has agreed to take a Malaysian into space in 2007 as part of the Angkasawan program

They sent a surgeon/model to space with no particular reason;Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.
When he returns from space, how does he feel to be the first malaysian to be in space with no qualifications related to astronomy or particle physics? "I miss nasi lemak"

I think it was a sign from God that his brother slipped and rammed his head into a pillar and face planted to the ground, being pissed.

Im sure there are more intellectual and capable malaysians that could be sent to space for a reason. Heck, they should send Dr. Lan from Monash.

Secondly,
Malaysia claims to be a democratic country with freedom of speech allowing public rally to take course. And our Information Minister said " Protests are illegal"



The people in the crowd has two mentalities, the first would be, "hey my friends are going there for the rally, that will be fun, should get my adrenaline running" - trouble makers. The other ones would be genuine malaysian rallying for a transparent election where those are the ones who i pity for getting chemicals stuck in their eyes when they want malaysia to really make something of themselves.


I had a discussion with Riorn the other day. He said he wants to become a politician and lead Sabah and declare it as an independant state. And our conversation eventually led to why malaysia is slacking off compared to singapore.


Why are the malaysian police corrupt?
- they dont get paid enough, they get 3 figure salaries. why shouldnt they take bribes to feed their many children and few wives?
- they have no pride in their work, they dont feel proud to be part of the police force.
- there is no transparent system of monitoring the amount of people they stop

How do we stop corruption?

-what happened to the police wearing the badges saying that they dont take bribes? As suspected malaysia only is enthusiastic and carries out efforts to better the country for a short period of time, after a month or so, it goes cold and it just slides.

- pay the police more, make them content and make their pay increments proportional to the amount of summons issued.

- reduce summons to a bearable level, majority of the malaysians cant afford to pay fines, reduce fines to the amount a bribe would cost, RM50.

- introduce a system which records the offender digitally on the road and uploads it to the police server for record, and no police can issue a summon without a video proof of the offender being caught red handed. Of course this will cost alot to implement but this would be good for road blocks.

- digitize the whole summons issuing, like speed cameras, police do not have to issue the summon and the summon is issued digitally and posted to the offenders.

-breathalyzers, digitized, when it passes a certain alcohol blood ratio level, the information is directly sent to the police station to issue the summons digitally, driver's license and identification cards are scanned like how cheques are deposited, and the identification card or details can be read through the embedded chip. so you just have to swipe the card, exhale into the breathalyzer and its done. Of course this would be expensive to implement and we must assure that it is fool proof for highschool graduate policeman or they could undergo some training courses.

-video cameras in the police cars recorded constantly like in the states.

im done venting..

So are we lost or do we know
Which direction we should go
Sit around and wait for someone to take our hands and lead the way

Cause every day we're getting older
And every day we all get colder
We're sick of waiting for our answers

Wake up, Wake up, Wake up,
Yeah so tired of waiting, waiting for us to
Wake up, Wake up, Wake up,
Yeah so sick of waiting, for us to make a move

Are we meant to take the pain
Should we sit around and wait
Are we being saved
Or was I another lie you made to make us hate

How many pages does a thesis take?

ok let me break down the pages
Cover page, assessment page, TOC abstract - 7 pages
Main report - 47 pages
Page seperators and engineering drawings - 14 pages
Lab preliminary reading which i wrote - 25 pages
Lab exercises written - 11 pages
Program print out 1 - 17 pages
Program print out 2 - 39 pages
Program print out 3 - 12 pages

So thats a total of... 172 pages

the best thing is..they want TWO copies..
so thats makes spanking total of 344 pages!

just great

Jobs in Msia

Just to keep track of the pay in Malaysia for engineering fresh graduates or similar

Maybank - RM2800
Shell - RM2600
Intel - RM2500
Exxon - RM2800
Maxis - RM3000
Accenture - RM3200

anyone out there want to add to the list?

tis a season to be jolly....for now

so, let me start of with this cute picture of Jc putting his cuddlies to sleep


yeah..short weekend getaway before more hell after the holidays


Soo.. before the holidays started we (the usual bunch of ppl) had 2 balls to go to. The residents ball and the MUMSU ball. No pics from the residents ball because i brought my camera and left my SD card at home.. great.

heres the table setting for the night in the aquarium


This is the only picture i have which you can see the fishtanks as the back drop. Pity li yee who burnt her dress and had to borrow jaclyns. Amazing she can fit into jac's dress. It kinda looks like her own dress.


Here's tots and aik peeping through the holes to "look at the performance from a different angle"


This wasnt a performance i was expecting that night, i dont know whose idea was it. but it was quite entertaining looking at them dance around the poles. Reminds me of the scouting days where i tried to do all that on the thick ass manila hemp rope



This is one of the best shots of them hanging upside down. =P


Heres all the mechatronics students at the ball, except for marvin, bloody civil engineer infiltrated our photo shoot.


Heres a pic of me, su lin and jc (not sure whether i got her name right


The after party was at lavish and as usual it was so crowded that it was like celebrating merdeka on bukit bintang walk. Here is a picture or some random girl who came up to joseph and dirty danced with him. She was grinding him and flinging her hair all of over the place like a firefly in a tribal dance. I think she was really drunk or on E. She almost knocked heads with the ppl around. Joseph was too shocked to see what the hell she was doing.


Aik and li yee makes melb city look like their backyard:




Jc and me on the lawn outside crown waiting for a premonition. "lets do something crazy" we always said, i guess this was our moment.

untitled

when you envisage a perfect event
all you receive is despair

walks of two in the night
wondering why youre the odd one out

isnt it just a coincidence?
or are you the weed that sticks out of the green?

cogitations

everything passes by,
blurry images streaked by motion,
waiting for the stop,
sitting down waiting attentively.

feeling lost but calm,
looking at the bearings,
things are so close but seem so far,
keeping my eyes peeled i hope for the best

when you reach the destination,
you realise, you still have to walk on,
im not there yet.

free running

yes yes, parkour is also called free running. been working on my monkey vaults and my popvaults. have a look

heres the popvault, i need to work on my getting over the obstacle and making it more fluid. wanted to practice more but the college head's room is next door. the sound of my feet banging against the wooden wall isnt really soothing.



finally got my monkey vaults to work, once i have perfected my technique i shall conquer greater heights. kekeke

more parkour

its been a while since i posted. finally had some free time to do some pk.

from the previous post the turn vault roll i did was wrong because i was turning in the opposite direction of my roll angle when i land. So i either change my roll from over the right shoulder to over the left shoulder or i change the hand position before i jump the opposite. Thanks to my brother for pointing this out. Since rolling over my right shoulder was consistent and not risking of hurting myself when i land so i changed my hand position.

Here is a lazy vault landing into a roll, returning with a turnvault and ending with a turnvault roll


another lazyvault roll followed by a turnvault


this is a video of me landing wrongly before a roll, my footing position was in the wrong angle for me to roll.



heres a jump from 5 steps from the stairs landing into a roll. Then continuing into a lazy vault then for the prestige, the perfected turnvault landing into a roll. This taken from another angle.

parkour-ing

heres a turn vault roll
been practicing into keeping the momentum, but its harder with a turn vault cause its difficult to determine which angle youre going to land after the turn.
anyways, need to work on my landing
:)

found and lost

i love you
i miss you
nothing i do to myself will distract
everythings hollow
it hurts
its tormenting
it better to leave than to be left behind
ill see you soon
my love

the long awaited moment

1 and a half years
numbed the sense touch
dissensatized emotions
isolated from physical contact

pieces of life shredded to puzzles
jumbled up and left to be solved

1 and a half years later,
i have a few fortnights
just after tomorrow's sunset

time ticks...

its time to put the puzzle together
how much fun it would be, to slowly see
how everything fits perfectly just as the puzzle was made
every color, every shade;
harmoniously blending in

anxiously guessing
what each distinct piece represents
what important aspects it resembles;
upon completion

to finally lean back and unwind
to admire bigger picture

and figure out whats next

Happy Birthday 22nd Joanna!!!

well if you all have been wondering why my personal message on msn says "Joanna = the superest nicest person on earth"

This is the person im refering to.

Its been a year knowing you and conversations were never dull with you. hahaha. All the random stuff that you come up with...absolutely entertaining...thanks for showing me around, feeding me at your house with your mums cooking...hhmmmmm..sambal prawns....ahhhh.. and for all the happy happy times we had in kl and in melbourne

HAPPY 22nd Birthday!!! Hope your wishes come true.

you love making those monkey faces dont you.. hahha

things in my head

1) The date
I looked at the expiry date on my pineapple mango fruit juice a week ago, it stated 15th June 2007. Thats the date larnees coming down. The funny thing is when i ended the phone conversation with her last night it was "see you next week" then i laughed like a maniac...

it has been 1 and a half years since ive seen you, im so excited....i think words cannot justify the feeling... its just a few more days...i really cant wait

2) Words that mean more when given thought
My friend told me the following.
"you should go out and make more friends, you might never know when you can 'use' them in the future"

what does this imply?
till now this statement haunts me whenever i have anything to do with that person

Tactile sensing with a robotic manipulator

This is a picture of the tactile sensor mounted on the gripper.




Heres a vdo of what ive been slaving on for my thesis project. Each movement and timing and sensing is done in C/C++. It uses the tactile sensor to detect the object by searchign the workspace systematically. When detected, it stores the coordinates, move the arm to the point. It then closes the gripper once to align the cylinder to the center, rotates the gripper 90 degrees then closes it to pick it up. So much time spent just to do something to simple... irony.

Alma Mater

There comes a time where you have gone so far and experienced so much. Then you come to ponder... what was i before? what made me who i am? where did i grow? Where did i make my achievements?

Just recently i aik was talking about how his school was on wikipedia.. so bored and nothing to do i searched for my school. The sense of pride of my schooling days of a johannian returned. It was such a unforgettable experience studying here. To be a part of the rich heritage which still has not been lost completely.


Then i scrolled down to check if they had any new scoops on the scouts. To my amazement... everything was there, all the achievements, all the history AND my name..

"As the troop has endured the ups and downs, the highs and lows over his existance for 44 years, it is the undying spirit and the faith of not just the members of this troop but everyone including the parents, teachers and scouters who has enabled this troop to overcome all odds. Among those who have been highly honoured as the leader of the Eagle Scout Group throughout the last decade includes Mr. Simon Ng, Mrs Pok Mee Chin, Joseph Anthony Gomes, Joel Ng, Lee Jia Wen, Leonard Chooi, Bryan Chang and Christy Vicknesraj."

Im honored that someone really took note of the hardships that all of us went through to bring the troop back to its glory days.We really loved the troop. I do still think of it. and i how i wish i was back there to help and teach the juniors.

Click here for the article

cogitating

countless ticks.
striving for an answer
every silent step in doubt
longing for a decent path

iterating, assuming, perusing

vision failing
only the nearest is clearest
too much focus
deters your soul
seeking for the harmony
between the two contrasts

all for what?
the 6 degrees of freedom
x, y, z, roll, pitch, and yaw

when is it enough?
when is it acceptable?
when do you feel that you have accomplished something?
please define the finish line

self control

moments of panic
moments of depression

take a breath
cry some tears
then bounce back

life isnt easy
so suck it up
everyone is capable
if you push forward

no giving up
never an option
its do or die

a foot at a time
plot a path
eye a place for your first step
then a second one
before you know it
you should be there
landing on both feet
standing with your head high

life in uni, it was never easy, not for engineering of course

Happy XXII Birthday Aik!!!

I guess the theme for your birthday was suprises. Roller coaster suprises. Well for being ever so sporting, you were rewarded. First with alice and then your present. haha..

1st suprise,
Torture ala kerusi..topped with alice


2nd suprise,
Torture ala pen and bottle... garnished with an Ipod Shuffle. (thank those who contributed, me, Jc, Tots, Joleen, Li yee, Vonne AND SERN LIANG! especially sern liang)

3rd suprise, Aik's puking and he had to pay 25 bucks which we all chipped in. Save the aik puke foundation in Gin Palace

Pub crawl
Jc and I organized the pub crawl. After locating all the pubs on the map of the city grid. We drew a line of best fit so we could visit more pubs efficiently. Sorry were just being engineers. So we drew a path of 16 pubs...The number of pubs we ACTUALLY visited were

1. Young and Jacksons.
Looked kinda dead and oldish from outside.. didnt really want to go in.

2. Lustre Lounge.
As tots said, it was cramped like our corridor of our flat. Had really cheap drinks (comparisson with the others) but the music was too loud and it was too crowded


3. Manchester Lane
Manchester lane featured a live band the whole night. If im not mistaken it was a 7 piece band?


Jc had a designated driver and i had a lychee mojito


4. 3 below
3 below was quite plain. With a few places to sit and a small bar. It was kinda after working hours kinda atmosphere. I had a pisco which came in some black statue bottle which tasted like firewater. Jc had a drink which tasted like sugar and alcohol. I had to persuade jc to mix his drink with mine. aik had some plum wine and tots had some other fire water forgot the name.



Entrance of 3 below


5. Harry Canary
Harry canary, as head from bernard, used to hold gay nights on wednesdays. Torn seats, dirty table. And sucky drinks.. The one tots and I shared was the birds eye view. It tastes like chilli and lime and some alcohol. Yuck.. ended up skulling it through a straw. Alice's and atika's M3 was just as bad.



6.Long room
This place was awesome. Nice music, nice concept with sushi bars and bars. A huge long bar. Everyone was in dresses and suits and i was warned by the guard about my red snickers and jeans. hahaha. Crowd was like 30-40 ish. Not our type so we hopped on

7. Gin palace
This is where we ended our pub crawl. Aik puked. Most money spent here. The atmosphere was superb. It was like as if it was an arabic mating chamber with cushions everywhere. The bartenders were super nice. We kept on asking them to recommend shots and they managed to whip out something fabulous.

Representing westside.


tots the maniac cameraman on a frenzy. Joleen, yee vonne,me,jc and li yee. Lionel looks on


doing what they do best, way to go tots and james


This is what i drank with aik, midori, strawberry and baileys

-----------------------------------------------------------

So aik, hope you enjoyed your birthday. All of us put lotsa planning into this to make sure everything was "cekap". The reason why we went through all the trouble was because you are a great friend and a brother to all of us. Thanks for the great times we had, and for those more to come.

no plastics please?

plastic people
no... they are not people who solely relies on their credit cards to live on.

plastic people are people who puts on a mask to hide their inner insecure self about anything. It could be one's personality, the fight they just had, the plan they didnt meet, the pair of shoes they didnt get, things you long for and you wish you had..BUT you didnt. SO they put on a mask. A mask that suits the theme of the atmosphere they are in like a masquerade.

Its fine if you put on a mask to hide your displeasure and not let everyone beside you succumb to it.. But the worse are people who wears the mask and makes use of people with an alterior motive. Sly and cunning people with masks like these are the ones to be aware of. Some individuals have the gift to identify these individuals in their presence... some are just puppeted around.

People changes mask every now and then to best suit the occasion. A friendly gathering, a reunion dinner, a formal meeting, a competitive event etc etc. There is a mask for every occasion.

To all the plastic people out there. Know yourself..dont let that "mask" consume you. Knowing yourself is the best and it suits every ocassion and its all natural. those who can see through your mask find all these really irritating.

plastic people with plastic masks...
at the end of the day, YOU are the one going to wake up and stare yourself in the mirror and one day you might not recognize your reflection.

whisper

I stood too long,
In the shadow of a doubt, I need some sun,
It seems the time returns to me once more,
But I have less now then before,

And when I feel my world falling down,
I think of you, I think of you,
And when I feel I cant breath no more,
You speak to me, you speak to me,

When the brightest star,
Smiles as its square shoulders greet the night,
You let that going;ambers of my own light,
Do you know?
Your words can track the moon down from the sky,
So choose my frozen heart with your work right,
You really made me listen from a voice,
And I had millions.

neither here nor there

they say home is where the heart is...
segments of the heart strewn all over the continents
bits and pieces all over the world
canada, malaysia, us, australia
so where is home?

too many changes
too many differences
too many new scenes
just too many changes

when some things settle, its time to move again
when will it end? when will it be the place?
where would all the loved ones be? family?friends?
where would your career be? would you be happy?

only time would tell when the bits and pieces would merge and be whole. or it may never be.

to find home again. everything, everyone in a single place. just seem almost impossible
at least for me. reaching forth the green glow

Happy Birthday Lucille! April fool's baby!!

Hey, sorry im not there to celebrate you birthday back in malaysia. nevertheless, hope you have a good one back home. Thanks for all the entertaining times in shell, eating breakfast together, finding you a new boyfriend and planning your office image with carol. Hahaha.. keep in touch ok? see you soon in msia. Take care and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Happy 21st Birthday Li Yee!!

Happy 21st Birthday Li Yee!!! Hope you have a great "headstart" "deeper" into adulthood so you wouldnt drink the waters of misery. Anyways. All the best, it was fun for all of knowing you and spending precious moments with you. Alot of your "li yee" moments.


As usual, your bday is the most happening one prolly coz its the first birthday we celebrate in Melbourne. So we had dinner at Lygons.At some italian restaurant..this is what she ate, which she didnt really digest much later. Hahahha. AND GELATI!!!! durian gelati!!


male domination


Female dominate lionel..hahaha


tots, me and pei ryn




Then we went to Beach Club which was along the Docklands. It's a club by the waterfront. With the view of yachts docked nearby. Really nice..


As usual, where ever we go, we get VIP tables or nice seats. This time thanks to Thian aik..hahahahha. Kevin looks on..


Random shots at the club

Hui Wen and Jc


Kit Mey and Me


Vonne, Joleen, Jc, Li yee, me and lionel


Me and aikster


camwhoring as usual, smalls, hui wen, vonne and shaun


jun and me


Time for personal shots

Aik and Li yee, black sambuca


Tots and Li yee


Yee vonne, joleen and li yee, tequila shot


Jc and Li yee, vodka shot


Absinthe was the shot i got her..that did the trick. the strongest was bacardi 151(75%), but they were out of it. So the next best they had was absinthe (60%)


Jc posing with the bottle.


The night was complete. She was out..


More like what came out? Remember the picture of the food she ate earlier? hahhaa



Time to call the maxi cab to fit all the drunket ppl back, view of the docks behind. not very clear though.


Cake cutting time!!!