An update, finally! 0 lalalas

Preparing for 捞鱼生

The excellent food and uncle's two sons (大煞风景, no la just kidding); see the wine?

The dessert. The ice cream is durian-flavoured. 赞！赞！赞！

财神！Did I mention that there's a 鬼佬财神？不伦不类

Kung fu performance. Pretty unpowderful and unimpressive, to tell the truth

The woman in red was extremely excited during the course of parade, even little girls couldn't match her excitement. I suspect she was on serious crack, but she was REALLY fun.

one of the best 舞狮 in the parade, too bad there weren't poles

Two hideous monsters

Found this when we are loitering in Chinatown... Yum yum!


A few day afterwards, I went to Vancouver Island with a Malaysian friend. We explored a bit the city of Victoria, capital of British Columbia (Vancouver's not the capital!). They have amazing architectures there - some of the highlights are the Parliament building, a hotel, and some other old buildings. I don't know the name of the building style but they look good. However, we couldn't go whale watching because it's not the season. We also went to a castle built by a coal magnate years ago. We also visited a very nice bookstore. And then that bugger of a friend insisted on going to a far away place which involved 30 minutes of bus trip and 40 god damn minutes of walking! Damnit stupid idiot! After we reached that cursed place, we only spent like 5 minutes there because we couldn't afford to go back to Vancouver too late (because there won't be bus to go back to UBC). A damn 20 minutes walk again. And about 5-6 hours trip back to UBC, with a deep seated grudge against that freaking idiot. But besides of his criticising my photographing skills 25/7 and that retarded decision to go to that Ford Hill Rock (the crazy useless walk), he's a pretty nice guy - and he's Malaysian.

Night view of the Parliament building

The day-view of the Parliament building

Craigdarroch Castle, built by someone who's too rich

The 5-star Munro's Books

The Parliament debate chamber

The magnificent Empress Hotel

Is that all I've done in this month? Pretty much, yes. I'm bored, but I have to study. To make things worse, I've got addicted to Youtube. I've been watching TheHill88 and boh3m3's videos lately. TheHill88 is an oh-my-god-she's-so-hot-and-mouthwateringly-cute-and-perky girl. She mainly does weird videos of herself doing/saying weird things, dancing, and she's got that cute Australian accent. See it for yourself . Boh3m3 looks like a guy from my church, and he's hilarious. He mainly does videos that criticizes or in a more mild term, commenting on EVERYTHING and some miscellaneous stuff. And.... back to work!

p/s: The retardedness of Blogger's photo uploading is unparalleled.

p/s2: I spent 1 hr and 15 minutes uploading the pictures, and 6 hours checking for cool words on Dictionary.com to use so that people will say," Ow, wow! Your English is so good that I can't understand the words"

Signing off~

Time to study... harder 0 lalalas

It's been a tough time indeed. I find this term much harder to cope with compared to the previous one. I'm taking 2 physics, 2 math, a computer science, and a philosophy course.

The physics are driving me mad. Despite my valiant attempts to understand the notes, enlightenment continues to elude me, and it takes me longer time than my counterparts to finish my assignments. So, I've decided: no more fun time - tasting good food or walking around - until I catch up with my studies. But how long is it going to take? I have no idea.

Now picking philosophy as my elective was one of the greatest mistakes I've ever done in my life. Now the professor's very boring, using the word "this guy" "that guy" for an average of 100 times each hour and a half lecture (yes, he was so boring that we traced the number of times he used this phrase). It might not be his fault, maybe he's born with it, but he gives me the impression of a grumpy old man trying to teach some kindergarten children. After attending a few lectures, I felt that it was such a waste of time that I skipped 4/5 lectures in a row (woohoo, a new record!), thinking that I'd make it up by studying the lecture notes at home. I couldn't be further away from the truth. His notes were so incoherent and disjointed that I nearly tore out my hair trying to comprehend it, and the best part is, I'm taking a quiz soon based on these "notes". I've decided to attend the lectures instead, since trying to stay awake in his lecture will be much more easier than understanding his notes. I've read some of the materials and they aren't that bad. It's amazing how some people can turn good stuff into garbage, and some garbage into gold. Once again, this emphasizes the philosophy that guns don't kill, men do (Postal!!!! Was it?)

My current state: tired, fat, and limping. Tired of studying all the time (mainly Physics, other subjects still manageable); haven't worked out for a month (since U.S. trip started), only exercise is walking from class to class and writing/typing/brushing my teeth; 1st ski trip without proper tutor and without knowledge of how to brake had left me with a twisted knee. My doctor told me to straighten my knee gradually and apply ice but I'm too busy to do that (and I'm busy playing Titan Quest when I'm not busy studying, how ironic). Now I'm walking as if my left leg is shorter than my right, because I can't straighten my knee....yet. How fun!

As of now, I'm having a Physics midterm tomorrow. I've studied quite a lot, yet I'm still pretty unconfident whether I'm going to do well or not. Unlike other people, I won't say that I'll fail for sure because I know I won't. But man, Physics is sure tough this term. I just couldn't figure things out. Maybe I'm afflicted with some kind of lost-of-focus disease, maybe I need to get a girlfriend, maybe I need to get some drugs, maybe.... back to work!

p/s: Uggghhhhh.... (zombie's noise)

Status: Chaotic 0 lalalas

Life's totally getting out of hand. I sleep late at nights, sometimes because I'm studying, sometimes because I'm playing Oblivion, most of the time a mixture of both. Like the tragic hero who knows his actions will only lead him to his doom yet sadly and deliberately walking down the path to destruction. Hopefully I'll never have to face that.

So finals are going ok. Had my APSC quiz, it was so-so. English, for which I've studied very hard, didn't turn out as well as I'd hope to. One essay got out of hand, loss focus and consumed too much time, leaving too little time to brood on another short essay. Crappy, slightly, but I'm consoled by the feeling that I did better than my first in-class essay, which earned a B-. Physics was sweet, a lot of questions were actually from past year papers and assignment. I don't want a brag (note the paradox - am I even using the correct term?), but I finished the paper in an hour and a half and spent the remaining hour checking my answers and deriving a formula that I forgot. Slightly un-challenging, but at least I felt better than having done a crappy job after preparing so hard, e.g. English.

Tomorrow's Math. I've prepared sufficiently I guess, although there are still rooms for uncertainty. Hopefully no mental block this time. I've to sleep early (note the paradox), and it's 2.00 a.m. and exam's on 12.

Enjoying Oblivion frequently now, which is something that I wasn't supposed to do, at least for now. My character's getting stronger, but the NPCs' got stronger too and kicked my ass really hard it cracked for a few times (Reader: But isn't the ass cracked already in the firsy place? Me: shut up, will ya?). Just found out how to get the maximum out of leveling up, can't wait to try it out, but Math comes first.

Oh yeah, did I tell you guys I watched Borat. Crazy movie. Loved that part where he fights the fat director naked and running around naked. And when he exclaimed to the rodeo audience that "We support your war on terror", then spoils it all by singing Kazakhstan anthem in U.S. anthem's music (or was it the other way round?). And when he finds out from his driving tutor that you need woman's consent to marry her in U.S. Funny movie and very vulgar. Nevertheless my favourite movie is still V. It has a sort of elegant beauty and tragically heroic atmosphere unmatched by other movies I've watched, not to mention the depth and the frequent references to Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favourite books.

Haven't watched anything since then.

It stopped snowing and started raining again. Vancouver is known for largely snowless but rainy winter. But it's still snowing in my room because my hair is too long (Reader: ewww~ you're so gross. Me: Thank you.) My glasses are also slightly damaged because of paintball helmet and haven't fix it yet. So much is yet to be done, yet so little is the will to do it. Gotta curb my computer addiction, but as always, easier said than done.

Gotta get back to studies now. Sleeping really soon. This is all for now. You guys in Malaysia, I miss you a lot!

Why do I live in the shadow of the past?

[Exeunt]

Finals coming liaow!!! 0 lalalas

Walao, so long never update liao. How long a? More than 2 weeks!

I'm preparing for finals now. Having English on Friday and Physics on Saturday. I'm more afraid of English than Physics because there are 2 short (3-paragraphs) and 1 normal (~5 paragraph) essays in English. Previous experiences of getting stuck while writing essays in class have already left me with a trauma. I told my friend about this, guess what he said? "Die die lo~" Walau! Not yet die say die liao, you want die meh? No, I refuse to die! Even if it means no sleep, I have to fight on. A man's got to do what a man's got to do!

Current revision status: Still got 4 physics finals practice to do (each may take ~2 hrs 30 mins) and 45 poems to read and some brainstorming of ideas (for essays) to do and maybe practice writing essays....

God damn it!!!!!!!!! Arghhhhhhhh!!!!! Muahahahaha!!!! Nyuk nyuk!!!! Meh meh meh~~~~ Mooo Mooo MOooo~~~~ Zzzzzzzzzz.....

3 down, 1 more to go 0 lalalas

Phew, I have finished my Engineering, English and Physics tests by now. Only one more, Math on Friday remains. I'm just gonna chill tonight, even though I haven't started revising Math, because I have basically an empty day ahead. Just a lecture of 1 & half hour on 2.00 p.m. then I'm done. Plenty of time to revise. Haha!

Laptop's arrived at UBC and stuck in the sorting centre. So I couldn't have my hands on it yet. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Library's closing.... Signing off now~

I'm not dead yet 0 lalalas

For all of you who think I'm dead because of various undesirable and unforeseen circumstances, this post serves the function of informing you of the opposite.

Everything's well with me. Today caffeine has elevated me to a higher level of consciousness, so I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Last Saturday, I went to an open house at Malaysian tourism's boss's house. I ate a LOT of food, picked up 10kg of weight and packed bunch of food back to my house. I still haven't finished it and I think it's going to last me for this week, which is going to save me some money.

Talking about money, the notebook which I spent about CAD2000 (inc. taxes and shipping) on, Asus A8JS is going to arrive next week. I've already bought a multi-function printer and plan to buy a headphone and perhaps some games in preparation for its arrival. I can't believe after almost 17 months of waiting, I'm finally getting a laptop, and a darn good one.

Next week's going to be really busy - a quiz on Tuesday, English exam on Wednesday, Physics midterm on Thursday, and Math midterm on Friday. Crazy! But if I can just pull this off.... Bad thing I can't enjoy my laptop fully when it arrives since I have to study...

Weather's getting pretty cold (compared to the air-con rooms in Malaysia). However I observed that it's coldest after the rain stops. Oh yeah, it rains all the time now, the rain is not heavy, but it is continuous - raining, stop raining for 2 hours, then raining again, etc. Sometimes it's so cold that you can even see subtitles during people's conversation.

I have to halt this unorganized, poorly structured babbling because I have a class in 10 minutes.

Adieu! Adieu! Remember me~

Midterms & other stuff relating to studies... 0 lalalas

I took 3 midterms recently, Math on last Friday, Physics on this Tuesday, Chem on this Friday. Although I've been constantly revising on stuff that I don't understand, I've been so nervous that I've to do last minute revisions; and not being able to solve textbook questions do not help much.

So how did I do in the exams? Everything was ok except Physics. Just 3 mm from screwing up that paper (A bad analogy, I know). I managed to finish the paper just about 1 minute before time was up. It's both a good thing and bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

Just as I thought I'd be carefree for a few weeks, my English TA handed me an assignment sheet on some tough poems which is due in about two weeks. And I have an Applied Science Quiz on Tuesday, which is similar to a mini-Midterm too.

Guess I'll have no rest till the day I die.

p/s: In a state of utter despair as no one replies to my messenger messages, loaded with work, loaded with plannings (laptop, winter trip, etc.). No one listens~ Does God listen to a sinner who keeps sinning?

Messed up my assignment again... 0 lalalas

It was a nice Friday, and I have high hopes of doing a good job at my APSC assignment because it involves a lot of calculations and literally zero reasoning. Guess what? I was foiled again. There are 3 questions in the assignment. We divided the questions between the 4 of us. 2 worked on Q1, another on Q2, and I on Q3. There were 2 other guys who skipped the class because they had Economics mid-term. One of the guys who skipped mid-way even wanted to ask me the answers to a Physics assignment which was due that day. I nearly said, "Fuck you, lazy bastard! You're not only not helping us in the APSC assignment, but you're asking me to help you on THAT when we're supposed to do the APSC assignment! You should scramble back to India and eat cow dung". But I didn't say that, I just broke his nose and forced him to drink the blood from his nose. No, I'm kidding. My mind can be extremely violent but my fists aren't, which you guys should know well enough.

So the tutorial leader gave us a briefing, which took around 20 mins (for a competent English speaker, it should take around 10 mins). Then we started on our assigned questions. I took about 20 mins solving mine. None of my group finished theirs yet. So I helped the Q2 guy to solve his question.

The tutorial leader barged in to give a briefing on our next assignment, which theoretically speaking we should do in class on Monday, which is the holiday for Canadian Thanksgiving Day, which the people who planned this course (arrant knaves) somehow failed to foresee that it's a holiday, which means that practically speaking we couldn't do it in class on that day since we don't have class that day, so we are supposed to finish Q1 of the next assignment on this day (I forgot about when we are supposed to do other questions). Enough said, the tutorial leader took about 15 mins of precious time.

Next, the other guy and I worked on balancing the equations and calculating values on Q2. I found the correct workings eventually but I (foolishly) was persuaded by the other guy to use the wrong way, which I later found out was wrong. So I tried to explain to the other guy but he didn't understand (about 10 mins wasted) so my plan was that I'd do the question by myself while he'd help the other 2 (with beyond-repair head damage) solve Q1 (they used up the whole class period trying to figure out Q1, to no avail) . He seemed confused and didn't know what to do. I told him, "You just help them with Q1 and I'll do Q2". Finally when he was about to do what I told him, the class ended and all the teaching assistant (who is marking our assignments) cared was to get out of the class as soon as possible, and he claimed that he'll not mark late assignments, which in turn caused all my group cared about was not to submit the assignment late. I was only halfway through Q2, while the duo was still unsure whether they did Q1 the correct way. Since the TA will not accept late assignments, and I had an English tutorial in 5 minutes (and the class for the tutorial is 12 minutes of walk away), I had to give up on what I was doing. In conclusion, we didn't finish the assignment. Fie for shame! We could do Q1 for the next assignment at home, though.

I was so pissed off. Are these guys coming to university to study? Or did they come just to get away from parents or to party? They are so dumb that I think I can work more efficiently alone. Fuck you! Fuck your brains! Go work in the nightclubs since you're so dumb! Why are you wasting so much money on university?

p/s: When I reached my next class, I found out that I left my sweater in the previous class. Going back to retrieve it and returning to English class caused me to be late by nearly 20 minutes. When I nearly arrived, someone called me. Lo and behold! It's my English TA: he and the whole class is at the outside because there's a fire in the building. Ha ha. Weird thing is that the fire alarm didn't rang. So we had out-of-class discussion, which was new and slightly interesting (and cold).

Flunked my English exam? 1 lalalas

I just wrote my English in-class essay and I can tell you it's foul beyond words. Never have I written something so ridiculous. I feel like I'm the producer of Naruto anime series, inserting a bunch of fillers just to keep things going. I'm so disappointed with myself. What have I done wrong? Is it because I didn't understand the plays? Is it because I haven't written an essay in 4 months? Is it because I delayed my revision until the last minute? Oh, this heartache! Break, heart, prithee break. Don't think I'm just a good student who whines even when he does better than others : thou art a liar and arrant knave if thou thinkest so. God damn me. Cursed brain! Cursed hand! Cursed mind! Damn, damn, damn, damn.... Have the results in Taylor's deceived me? Am I nothing but a fool who deceives himself with the thought of greatness? Huh? Is this illusion? Where goes the flow, the ingenuity of mind, the seamless thoughts, the acute, subtle insight, the precise diction, the solid structure? Whither art thou???!!!!!!!!!

Alack, I'm doomed...

'Tis a sorry sight 0 lalalas

I feel like shit. Groupwork sucks, from the beginning to the end. Today was the last assignment and I've done my homework on it, so I thought I can finally hand up a good job. However, as Hamlet says, "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will", everything went wrong. The m*****f***ers in my group just did what they want without paying attention to my suggestions, and the f***ingly annoying things is that they didn't do any preparation before this, not to mention that they weren't that smart. Stupid m*****f***ers messed up my assignments again, retarded hare-brained cheese-face bastard~

I say, groupwork never works unless all group members are open-minded and they are about the same intellectual level.

Today I slept in my Chemistry lecture. So I'll have to do my own revision to get what the lecturer taught. That sucks! Why do I feel so sleepy? I don't know. I've slept for about 7 hours yesterday? Isn't that enough? Back in Malaysia, I can stay awake even with 5 hours of sleep! There must be a prawn behind the stone. The stone is small but the prawn is large. Hmmm, that's deep....

Come out, A8js. I'm praying everyday for my dream laptop model to come out. My hair is getting white out of waiting.

I need alcohol. The world is sick and weary.

My first few weeks at UBC 0 lalalas

Finally, an update! This few weeks have been extraordinarily tiring. Every day I have to walk a total of 10 km or more from class to class and I'm still not used to it. Getting a bike? I'm too lazy to maintain it and lock it or unlock it. Bike (or even bike wheel) thefts on the campus aren't encouraging either.

Due to my kiam siap nature, I always go to further places to get cheaper goods, like food, books, comforter and stuffs. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail. But despite of the results, I always end up using up a lot of time. I'm in a dilemma now: is the time loss and energy loss worth the money saved? It's a good question that I have to think on, that is, if I have time and energy to do that. But again, is the time and energy worth the answer?

Homework and assignment are slowly piling up. The absent of a laptop is taking its toll. Yet I will wait. I have waited for so long, if I can't wait now, what's the point of waiting in the first place? Every day, I pray for my liberation.

I'm also contemplating whether or not to work. It's not that I don't have enough money or what. But it's always good to have more money right? More money = better food, better clothes, better shoes, more travelling. Where should I work? Easy work like cafetaria work or harder work like... ? I don't know the options available...

Tomorrow is the club day (finally!). One of the very few things I look forward to here. Life's here is not as happy as I expected. Works don't get done, not many people to talk to; even when there is someone to talk to, I'm not willing to spend too much time chatting because I need to get work done; I'm getting fatter and fatter and I have no time/energy to work out and I don't have the energy to fast; I feel inferior to others because I don't know how to assemble a bike, my experiment-related skills suck, I get stuck on my physics assignment, I never designed a cool gadget before... the list goes on.

But I will always remember what Mr. Sarno told me: "Any problems you face in your life, no matter how complicated or how tough it is, you have to face it with the best of your abilities". And that is precisely what I'm going to do. Tomorrow is going to be a better day.

Update 0 lalalas

Walau! About 10 days didn't update already. FYI, I've been busy with tests, quizzes, and an English assignment (from Mr. Sarno). The English assignment consists of analyzing and presenting one section of T.S Eliot's masterpiece, The Waste Land, after which we have to submit a set of notes to the lecturer. For the few days before my presentation ended (yesterday), I've been working my ass off for this assignment. The poem is simply brilliant, and "endless" as Mr. Sarno describes it. There is so much to research about, so much to think about, so many layers of meaning surrounding the seemingly meaningless fragments of text that I thought I was going to die before I can finish this assignment - believe me, a few days with less than 3 hours of sleep can kill, even though I did take long naps in the evening (2~4 hours). Nevertheless, when I grabbed hold of the general drift of the poem, the sense of revelation and enlightenment was simply overwhelming. I was hit by waves and waves of satisfaction in learning the truth, or part of the truth. It was like you were trapped in a maze, and finally found the way out. Or, you were solving a huge puzzle, and suddenly something fitted into the right place. Or, you were travelling in thick forests without any sense of direction, when you were about to give up, suddenly the area ahead was clear. Or, it's like Siddharta Gautama cracking his head over the matters of life and death, and suddenly received enlightenment under the Boddhi tree.

The presentation was pretty good, a bit miscommunication with my group members (their understanding of the poem varies slightly from mine), but pretty good. Today Mr. Sarno told me that my group got 90.5 out of 100.

Cheers for the poor farmer who reaps what he sows!!