Christmas at JayBee

Christmas did not go as what I had planned earlier but God presented me a rather unique Christmas experience this year. Since I can't go anywhere, I went to Grace's place for the DNA Christmas Party on the 22nd December. Hin Loong and Hin Yew came down from Ipoh and there was Lizzie, Lerdie and Gerald coming from the vicinity of KL. We had fun enjoying each other's company and big thanks for those who gave me a present! I had a couple of new stuff this holiday season from Mama which included a phone change to Nokia 5230 and a pair of Pegasus 26+ sneakers :)

Mhmmmm..then on the next day on the 23rd, I was "interrogated" by the immigration department on my damaged passport. Lots of question were asked and they were awfully detailed on the questions. When I saw my statement being recorded onto the form, a realisation dawn on me that red tape would require at least a few weeks to process those written material in Putrajaya. My bid to reach the southern Island at least by the 24th had failed and I was right. I was handed by the officer who interviewed me that a piece of letter informing that the decision to renew my passport will only be known 1 month later. I felt really frustrated and was nearly at loss on what to do because the prospects of spending Christmas eve and Christmas back an ulu land Nilai were just terrible. After getting my lunch and sitting down to think about it a little, I figured out that going to JB was the best solution to at least spend Christmas with Mama before semester reopens.

Meanwhile, in the evening of 23rd, I went for caroling at Banting and this was my first time experience doing that. It was an interesting experience, with me going from house to house in a convoy of other carolers to the various families of the church that stayed in the different parts of Banting. We started at around 6.30pm and ended only at around 1am. I didn't eat dinner at the start of the carolling but my hungry meter got filled up as we went from house to house. Of course, the best reward came at the last house in the Choon family's house where a big feast awaits us in the form of popiahs and really delicious fried chicken. After all the caroling fun, I drove back to Nilai in a near half-sleepy and tired state and doze off quickly the moment I hit my hostel bed.

On the next day, I spend some time chilling out at my hostel room before heading out to Seremban in the afternoon to take the afternoon bus to JB at 2.30pm. I managed to meet up with Mama in the evening. On Christmas Eve, I have a nice dinner at stonegrill, where customers get to grill their own steak on a piece of hot stone..haha. I had a good rest for the night and a scrumptious breakfast buffet on the next. I spent the time chilling out around city square and enjoyed my ice blended mocha while surfing the net at Starbucks..lol. On the next day, Mama went back to Singapore in the late morning while I meet up with Reuben first to have breakfast with him. It's his territory and yea, it's great to meet up with him after so long. He fetched me to Pelangi Red Box after breakfast where I met up with Grace and her family.

In the evening of 26th, we went to St. Christopher's Church for an open house where the Bishop and his wife are there. Apparently, this is an Anglican tradition where the Bishop will kinda host an open house in different regions in Malaysia. They have always hosted it at the Klang Valley, so this time they are doing it in on the Southern side in Johor. It's quite a feast there I must say with barbequed beef, fried rice, fried bee hoon, chicken wing, burgers and various other cakes and biscuits. I followed Grace and her family to return to KL where I'll plan to hang around before returning back to campus on the 30th.

Like I mention previously, this is quite a different schedule indeed that I had planned but I would not say that it's that bad afterall. This change of sequence of events has enabled me to have a Christmas party with the DNA young adults, experience caroling at Banting and at the same time got to know a little on Anglican traditions. Most important of all, Christmas is a time to remember of God's gift to mankind, Jesus. Beyond all those celebration, it's good to have a quiet time to reflect on God's grace given to us through his Son.

Avatar

It's being quite a while since James Cameron has presented a piece from his cinema movie works. He's well known for bringing to us Aliens and Terminators and the last blockbuster feature that he had for the cinemas was Titanic way back in 1997. Since then, he's being involved in every other thing like dramas (Dark Angel, the one that propelled Jessica Alba to fame) and documentaries except for the good old cinemas. It seems that Cameron has been working on the Avatar script for quite a long time already and technology has finally bloom enough to express what he wanted his script to show. It could perhaps be dubbed as the "Star Wars" of the 21st century, with some really impressive CG graphics that awed the audiences.

Avatar's storyline on the surface may seem to be the cliche New World Romanticism but it gave a satisfying and impressive feeling after going through it. Think of it as a cross breed of Pocohantas, Night Elves and Mass Effect. It's quite straightforward but it leaves a lasting impression on the person. I think a big part of it as got to do with the character development and the deep details that are put into work for each of the characters. Kudos to the actors for doing a good job in bringing the expressions and emotions to their characters. Clever use of the camera adds on value to the movie too.

There are a couple of familiar faces that could be found there like Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriquez. Sigourney Weaver of course hails from Cameron's days of Aliens and it's fit that she gets another chance to feature in a sci-fi movie. Michelle Rodriguez's role as the pilot fits her feisty character well and she definitely looks "Rambo-ish" in the movie. Sam Worthington is a newcomer to the field but he did a good a job though in presenting a character that is really inspirational to the audiences.

Avatar contains so many influences from various sources that it itself could be regarded as a unique world on its own with its rich details. The entire environment is beautifully crafted and there were breath-taking moments in the sceneries of the planet. The indigeneous race on the planet, the Na'vi reminds me of the Night Elves of Warcraft and the Sylvari of Guild Wars with their nature-loving and "tree-hugger" characteristic and ideology. The closest link to the Night Elves and the Norse Mythology has gotta be the giant World Tree in the movie. The floating islands are nothing new as they are used in Nagrand for World of Warcraft and the Asuran's homeland in Guild Wars. The hairstyle of the Na'Vi resembles those of the Carribean and the pigtail that they have is reminiscent of the Manchu's queue hairstyle.

Culturally wise, the tribes and the musical style that the Na'vi have does seem to be quite alike the Native Red Indians in the Americas and the different African tribes. The instrumental track tha runs throughout the movie reminds me of Civilization 4..lol. The themes from Avatar can be found in other movies and shows too. Human cruelty to aliens - District 9. A foreign hero fighting a war for the locals against his own fellow foreignmen - Pocohantas and The Last Samurai. While the romantic ties between Jake Sully and Neytiri seemed alright when Jake was in Avatar form, it does form a weird perimeter when Neytiri found Jake's human form. She's big and he's well...just smaller and shorter than his supposed wife..haha. It's like having Big Bertha or a gigantic Viking Woman kissing a dwarf. Human and alien fraternalization seem to look quite wrong since Mass Effect! Of course, Jake decided to remain alien in the end and that made things alright. Jake's desire to return back to the "Dream World" in Pandora and forsaking his original identity is very similar to Lost's John Locke who decided that staying in the Island was the better choice where he could make a name for himself.

Overall, it's a fantastic movie and ranks among of the top movies that I've watched alongside with Watchmen. Its weight and impression can be felt even after movie because it is just literally "Wow!" Avatar is one of the few movies that keep getting you to reflect back on its contents and this is one movie I won't mind watching a second time in 3D. With that said, Cameron's Avatar deservedly to be mentioned as one of cinema's greatest masterpieces.

Christmas Lunch at K

Since I'm around the region for the weekend, I joined the young adults from GFS for a karaoke session and lunch session at Red Box at the Curve yesterday. I was supposed to meet them at 10.45am but I discovered in the morning that the car's brakes actually had severe damage to it in that the brake oil container had a breach where all the oil seeped out leaving it empty. No wonder it took significantly harder to stop my car and I nearly collided into a few cars on previous occasions. The mechanic took quite a long time to fix everything up because he needed time to test the brakes and pump them too.

I reached just in time for the second half and to sing Supermassive Black Hole and some Linkin Park songs..lol. As usual, Karaoke moments involve some really funny moments and Aaron adds on to the sound effects. We exchanged gifts after that, and I managed to get a mouse hand rest and a bookmark. With the "prize-giving" ceremony" over, we headed off to the cinema to catch Avatar on its first day release. What an awesome show and I could tell that it left an impression on many of us that watched it. I shall be posting a review on my next post.

I had dinner at Damansara too and stayed the night over at Grace's place before heading back to Nilai today since I still have tons to pack up and rearranging to do following the arrival of my Taiping stuff. It's gonna take some ingenuity to fit all the stuff into that tiny room.

Passport Woes

Long story and if I had the chance, I would turn the clock back to save myself from the misery. After a week having fun at Penang, I drove back to KL since I needed to drop my grandmother off at my aunt's place at Klang and my mama needed to go back down South to settle her students' exam stuff. On the way back, I made a detour to Taiping to grab the remainder of my stuff from the now derelict and defunct optical shop. Got a couple of important stuff that I needed to take like my Cold War book, Chronicles of Malaysia book, some clothes and my Premier League soccer ball. All those stuff have been lying dormant there for about a month already and I need to rescue them before they got overrun by rats.

There were a couple of vital stuff that needs to be completed like changing I/C, passport renewals and car road tax renewal once I got to KL. Since my car registration certificate was left at my hostel room, the sensible route would be to go to renew my passport and change I/C first since if my passport duration is less than 6 months, I can't travel to Singapore. I went to Damansara main town to do the passport and found out that the queue numbers were all gone. I was going to go out dejected when I discovered by chance that renewing passports in Malaysia is a breeze with the use of the kiPPas machine. As I was coming out of my car previously, I also found out that my passport back cover was actually split open for some strange reason, revealing the chip inside. But I placed it into the machine to renew anyways thinking that they would issue me a new ones anyway. Lo and behold, in the 2hrs I was waiting, I got call on my handphone telling me that my application was rejected and I would need to come back on the 23rd for an interview on why my passport was spoilt. UGGGHHH!! Why won't they just interview me on the spot or on an earlier date???!! I should have just used some glue to paste the back cover back together if I had known earlier. My passport was taken away by the immigration department and now I can't get out of the country. So much for being efficient huh.

This is extremely horrible, because it happened at the worst possible time. I desperately hope that they can renew it on the spot after the interview. What I'm worried of is the extra red tape and admin delay that involves higher authorities at Putrajaya. A myriad of annoying difficulties can arise if they dun renew on that very 23rd Dec itself, which is already very late for me. I have heard rumours that it may take 3 to 4 months and I can't find any postings in the internet on damaged passport renewal problems. Firstly, I would not be able to celebrate Christmas with my bro and my mama. The bigger problem is with the uni application and UK Visa Application. How am I gonna apply with no passport for 3 months? Dear Lord! Please let it go through well!

Balik Penang lor!

Now is the time of relaxation after all the hard work during the past one month. On Thursday I returned back to Nilai to pack out things that I don't need for the trip up north. I took the time to take the car for servicing too since it's time for it as shown by the meter reading. In the evening, I drove to pick Mama up from Mid-Valley and we stayed overnight at her cousin's place in Wangsa Maju before preparing for the trip on the next day. On Friday morning, I took Mama to have a look around the Jalan Duta Court Complex and the TTDI area. I had morning breakfast at Starbucks 1 Utama to perk myself up for the long drive to the north and use the wifi to handle some final horn sounding at mousehunt and mafia wars.

I had to go to Sungai Petani first to pick up my grandmother. I think my driving was quite fast and smooth..lol. Within 2 hrs, I could reach Ipoh and I reached Sungai Petani within 5hrs or so. Ahhh..that's a tremendous improvement when exactly a year ago, it took me ages because I was driving at 80km/h max. Right now, I'm just happily zooming at 120-130 and cutting lanes like nobody's business..ahahaha, thanks to the heavy exposure to KL traffic.

Another milestone was created yesterday when I drove across the Penang bridge and onto the island. I've always been the passenger at Penang and now it's the first time I'll be driving at the island after feeling confident to face the viciousness of Penang traffic and the never-ending one-way streets! It was fun and it's nice to see that the bridge was widen by one more lane to prevent further traffic jams. While waiting to check-in into the hotel, we discovered with curiosity that there was a Penang War Museum at Batu Maung. It seems that it was established quite recently only in 2002 and this war museum is actually a 60+ year-old British seaside fortress that was left intact after WWII. The whole place was built by British Engineers and it was used to house troops that were defending Penang from the Jap Occupation. It was later used by the Japs as a POW camp. So, we popped in to visit and it's fantastic to see the tunnels and the rooms all preserved and intact. The command centere is bomb proof and it looks sturdy, There were escape routes, barracks and toilet quarters which were all very well organised and were still structurally sound after all these years. Aha..this is certainly civil engineering done right! Like all historical places, Stan enjoys perusing and contemplating the stories that exist behind every brick that was built in that place and kudos to the private company that took the initiative to preserve such precious historical heritage.

Then this morning, it was a return back to Penang First AOG Sunday service where my mother attended while she was working in Penang.Ahhhh..the good old days of Bible study on Tuesday nights in Greenlane. It was nice to meet up with Aunty Carol and Matthew again and both of them can't recognise me after 9 years of not meeting! Haha..it's always good to re-establish connections again.

There's more to do in Penang and hopefully, I'll get to revisit all of my old favourite foodie corners like I always do annually without fail. This newfound freedom of traveling using my own vehicle and not depending on others is certainly liberating coz this is where we get to make our own choices on where to go independently. Oh well, I bet when my brother comes down, he's gonna raid all the food stalls too..lol.

A fruitful one month

I've said my goodbyes and woah, this is probably the longest stretch of goodbyes I had to say so far. That is until I fly off to UK..lol. Yesterday was my last day at work and I would say, I've managed to accomplish everything that I had planned earlier. The attachment period at the law firm was a fruitful one and I gained really lots of insights into how the practice of law works. I really wanna thank my boss for being so gracious in giving me the opportunity to draft statement of claims, writ summons and letters of demand plus file in documents at the Jalan Duta Court Complex. Indeed, while the academic version of law serves to build the foundations of being a lawyer, I would say in bold statements that almost 70% to 80% of the work done as a lawyer relies very little on just mere academic knowledge. In other words, no matter how many cases that are being memorised or known during a student's life, it's quite useless when you gotta deal with real-life litigation. A lot of law work has gotta do with processes and formalities. Just one step wrong in filing a document or process can get your case thrown out, even before you can open your mouth to argue academic points. A good lawyer is actually the fella who knows which stage of the case he's at and knows how to draft the statement of claim that hits the right spot, not the guy who gets first class degree or a string of As in his study life. Networking is extremely important because no good lawyer can work solo based on himself and he must have good communication skills to relate his points to his peers especially.

Since this is the last week before I head out for real holidays, had a last dinner and drink with my boss first on Monday at KimGary and Laundry. This was followed on Tuesday where I met Lionel and Kylie at 1 Utama and we hang out and ate at Ajisen Ramen. Wednesday dinner was with Vei Da, who's flying off to US soon next Jan. At the morning when I'm scheduled to return, Aunty was nice to belanja me to eat chilli pan mee.

Overall, it's being a great one month and I had lots of fun hanging out together with the DNA people. This one month is in a way a preview of what is to come when I come into the working world. It's sure gonna feel really funny to have a taste of the working world and then suddenly return back to a period of studying again next year. It would be perhaps a good 2 years before I would do the same working stuff I did during this one month. One thing is for sure is that I'll never look at studying life the same way as before already after tasting working life..haha. It sure needs a whole lot of maturity to deal with working life. I really wanna thank God for watching me over this period of one month. It feels as if everything has been planned by Him, from the place I stay, the new people that I meet and to the things that I have learnt in this period. The timing was just right and everything just falls into place. Every morning when I go to work, the route to office is only clogged with bad traffic at very limited places. Lol..I'm especially grateful for His watchful eyes over the number of times I narrowly have accidents in the crazy KL traffic..haha. I managed to learn how to get around parts of KL too, and this time, I won't be so lost anymore when I travel around there.

Finally, I would like to thank Grace and her family (Aunty and Jeremy) for the wonderful family homestay atmosphere. This one month of fruitfulness would not have been possible without their generous hospitality. Gonna miss all of them too :)

Digital Weekend

Pikom PC Fair was held over the weekend at KLCC and the bunch of us (Me, Kevin, Jonazan and Gerald) headed there by LRT after worship practice on Saturday. Lol, indeed I would say the LRT is a much more admirable carriage cousin than the KTM and it's frequency of arrivals can be compared to the Singapore MRT. The LRT goes through all the major townships in KL and yea, for a prolonged shopping or sightseeing trip, I won't mind parking at KJ station and then navigate through the various parts of hotspots in KL using LRT where I won't get stuck in a jam..lol.

KLCC was obviously flooded with human beings, since the whole of the tech-savvy Klang Valley population is taking note of the PC Fair. We had to squeezed through the crowd when we reached the convention center and it gets irritating when we had to go though one of those "compulsory stops" where we were forced to navigate through heaps and mountain of spams of broadband advertisement. When finally arrived at Hall 4 where the intention was to find external hard disk, we had to continue pushing against a torrential wave of shoppers. For me, I'm a personal mission to get a 500GB external hard disk since my 240 GB hard disk is near exhaustion already. I wanna get a good price for it, preferably under RM300. After browsing around, I manage to get a WD Elements 500 GB for RM 279 which I think it's quite a good deal. The best thing I discovered afterthat is that it occupies only 1 USB port, unlike my current 240 GB where two USB ports are taken up. Wheeee..now with an extension of 500GB, it's time to get those blue-ray and HD videos from Reuben! =p

The fair also had an exhibition booth for Alienware and I tell you, those machines there are just out of this world - the simple reason why they are called "Alien" in the first place. They are both aesthetically nice to look at and the laptops are so uber 1337 with the new line of Nvidia Geforce and processors. But so are the prices which starts at least at RM5000-RM6000. Imba stuff..haha.

Oh yea, the World Cup stage groups are all drawn out and at the same time, Adidas took the opportunity to launch the new match ball and the new line of jerseys for the national teams that they sponsor. I like the artistic and colourful touches that they put in the adverts and it certainly gives a sense of grandeur about the various teams. I saw in the Adidas shop some kind of collectors edition package for the jerseys. The shirt is placed in a nicely decorated box and they even provide a captain's armband with it! Hmmmm..I'm still considering which World Cup jersey to get and am waiting to see how the Nike sponsored line would look like. Lol, in any case, I still like my German World Cup 2006 no.7 Schweinsteiger jersey very much. xD