Broadband and TVB

haha.. I guess you can pretty much guess what this whole post is going to be about!

TVB is bad bad bad. BUT TVB coupled with intensely fast downloading speed is PURE EVIL!!!

Gosh.. I was just chatting with Jin the other day and he introduced me to some TVB comedy which sorta ignited the TVB search engine within me. From that comedy, I went on to google all the other dramas and now I've been watching "Last one standing" for a few days. I try to control my daily intake :P
The show is pretty good. Very intense type of drama. It's the serious type as you can judge by Kevin Cheng's face especially. hahaha.. Scary mau makan you kinda face. Btw, he's the one on the right side of the skinny chick. I wanted to circle his face with a red circle but I can't seem to find that Paint program in the uni computer. Hmm...

Anyways, back to my TVB indulgence. The internet speed is so fast, I can download one episode in 15 minutes! Happy me!! Been downloading like crazy yesterday until I reached my limit. Gonna continue today! This show is actually quite intense. I feel like I can't watch more than 2 episodes straight. I need to buffer the intensity with something goofy like Friends or HIMYM. Btw, I've been binging on Friends again!

So the usual routine now is 1 episiode of TVB followed by countless episodes of Friends plus a pinch of assignment. hehe.. A big recipe for disaster I know. Well, mid sem break's coming soon. I'll finish my TVB and lay off until summer break.. I hope.. *keeps fingers crossed*.


************

*Misses the time spent with the friend who took a big break back to land of sunshine!*

Apple of my eye

Apples.

So red, so shinny, so smooth. Beautiful aren't they?

But what hides beneath that beautiful exterior, is a mystery which can only be uncovered with some risk.

And of course, some apples do show signs on the exterior which indicate what they may be like inside. Oh yes they do. Dents and dimples, little specks and darkened marks. You gotta be smart when you choose them apples.

Some apples may look beautiful on the outside but they're rotten to the core. Oh poor Snow White and the beautiful red poison apple. Such cases are inevitable because by nature we are attracted to beautiful things.

But there are some apples with dents and dimples, specks and marks on the surface. You think that you should give them a chance. You ask yourself, what if it's just as delicious on the inside? I mean, people do say don't judge a book by its cover. So I shouldn't judge the apple by its skin, right? Boy oh boy do those old sayings screw people's life up sometimes.

Oh but some apples are just as rotten on the inside as they seem to be on the outside and I have tasted the foulest of them all. Ok, maybe ONE of the foulest of them all. I won't deny that there are worse apples out there. Just that this rotten one (on the outside and inside, mind you) left such a ground shaking impression on me.

I wonder, how would such an apple survive. Since it's rotten inside out, who would take on such a noble task to sacrifice oneself to eat it and spread its seeds? At least if the apple is beautiful on the outside, it still stands a chance or perhaps I'm just being superficial OR I could be realistc.

Oh yes, you gotta be very careful when you choose apples. Some are just so damaged they shouldn't be around people. That's why at times you shouldn't ridicule your mother's advice because after all she has seen many more apples in her life, hasn't she?

Genetics Australia

I had the opportunity to visit Genetics Australia on Friday morning with the dairy science class. It's just a short 1.5 hours away from the city centre. I had to wake up at 630am because I had to reach uni by 730am.

The uni hired a small van/bus to bring us there coz there're so few masters students.

View of the city from the freeway. You can vaguely see the city behind the complicated mass of wiring and fencing.

The grand entrance of Genetics Australia. The purpose of this visit is actually to see the process of insemination of cows to create cows of superior breed which produce more milk with good quantities of proteins and fats. This place doesn't deal with any other kinds of genetics stuff like GMO and plant based things. Strictly cows for dairy purposes only. So basically it's quite a small facility but the land is big coz they rear the bulls to get their sperm for analysis.

Suburban Australia is a very nice place to be. Very green and the sky is always bright blue and clear. The air is very fresh as well. But the bad side is that it's always much colder in suburbs compared to the city and the weather is more erratic, can suddenly rain when the sky is so bright. Good example is that day on Friday, with such clear blue skies, it suddenly poured like mad.

Resulted in this mini rainbow. The rainbow was actually really vibrant but I think my camera phone couldn't capture the essence of it. Forgot my camera in the midst of morning rush. :P

We had a short presentation by the manager of the lab. He then told us that we could go see how they "collected" the bull sperm, and he said that if we're not comfortable seeing the process we can be excused. hahaha.. Basically we're just seeing cow masturbation. I'm not kidding! They have the tools ready for it. But of couse it doesn't involve any cow porn.

This is the cow shed. The bulls are kept here when they're not forraging for food on the grass fields. Those big bulls tied to the front are erm.. sort of castrated bulls. They are tied there so that the other bulls can climb on them when they get an erection. So they're sort of there just to be ridden. But of coz they don't get penetrated, I'll explain later. They're just like.. something to be climbed on.

The picture again is not very clear. This is what happens when the bull gets.. horny? He mounts the poor stationary castrated bull and the guy at the side collects his sperm with an artificial vagina. hahaha! Cow sex toys! It happens damn fast! Like 30 seconds then the bull ejaculated d. The manager realised our astonishment and he said that generally the mounting process is as good a foreplay for bulls already and there's no passion or whatsoever involved, very straight forward process. hahaha..

This is the artificial vagina. That knob is where you put in warm water for some reason which I can't recall now. Thank goodness I don't have to write a report on this trip.

This is the tube where the sperm will be collected. His thumb marks the spot of the average amount of sperm which can be collected with each bull. This amount of sperm can inseminate almost 100s of cows.

The sperm samples are then sent for analysis. They count the number of viable sperms and the dead ones and then judge if the bull contributes to good quality sperm or not. Bulls that don't or are too old to do it so many times a day are disposed off. To where do they get disposed off we asked? He replied, I'm sure you all enjoy McDonalds............... -_-

This is to observe the movement of the sperm. He says that some sperm dart forward quickly which is good. Some just dart around in circles which is practically useless.. Somehow puts the image of a dog chasing its own tail in my mind. hahaha..

The sperm is then "packaged" into these very fine looking straws labelled with the name of the bull. They actually sell the sperm in these straws to farmers and also to international markets. Malaysia is one of them.

The straws have to be frozen immediately using liquid nitrogen to ensure "freshness" :P

That's about the field trip. Definitely an eye opener! Btw, those people handling the bulls actually had to take a cow psychology course so that they know when and how to handle them when they're aroused. This is the first of my many field trips this sem.

Alright, back to my wine assignment......

Urghhh...

I've been procrastinating on my wine essay for too long now. As usual, when the due date is around the corner only will I start to do my research. This is not any ordinary essay, this is a 3000 word essay which is quite a lengthy one. Being the "hardworking" person I'm, I looked through the essay topics aeons ago and decided on my topic.


Since I already know my topic, and being the "hardworking" person I'm, I've been to the library a few times to look for books suitable for my essay and boy did I find a thick black book on Australian wine, so yay! Oh yeah, my essay title is 'Discuss one wine region inside Australia incorporating brief history, viticulture bla bla bla you know the drill'.


So I carried this thick black book home, switching hands as I walked and walked coz it was so heavy. That was last week, and of course I researched on a wine region and read the thick black book. The wine region of my choice was South Australia. I wrote down lots of notes about it. Over the weekend, I didn't touch my books, so today I start work again.


I took a look at my assignment topic again.



















'Discuss one wine region OUTSIDE Australia'














-_____________-












Speechlessssssss............. -___________-



I think my jaw hung open for a good minute...

LE SIGH!!!!!!!!!!

Hi again

Writer's block or just sheer laziness. I don't know.. :P

Not been updating the blog. I think I'm not used to telling people my daily routine, coz it's the same everyday! I go to uni 3 days a week which is so much more relaxing compared to the undergrad years.

Random thoughts:

I feel like dancing. Maybe it's the overdose of Britney Spears youtubing. She's coming to Melbourne btw. I'm thinking of going for her concert before she has another meltdown again and may never come back.. Her songs may be somewhat nonsensical, but I have to admit she's a great entertainer and I wanna see her dance! :P

I have a 2 hour class tomorrow and I have to walk a total of one hour to get to and from uni. But I'm still looking forward to it? Maybe coz I've been at home for 2 days listening to my playlist over and over again. Sometimes the songs seem boring when I listen to them at home. But when I'm walking on the street, the songs suddenly seem to be more interesting. Does that make sense? Maybe the scenery and the people you see makes the song more interesting.

Happy songs help to dilute the intensity of embarassing moments. You will still embarassed, but to a lesser degree :P


***

Let's hope I continue blogging more often since more people have stumbled across this thing that I call a blog now.

First day

It's been a long time since I posted something here.

I just got back from my intensive wine course on Friday night. You have no idea how intense it was! I had to taste almost 20 types of wines everyday and after 5 types, all of them start to smell/taste the same and after 10, you'll feel nauseous. So that's how I spent my 5 days there.

I'll be starting classes tomorrow. Early mornings and early nights again! Same ol same ol routine. For my last day of holiday, I thoroughly enjoyed it by renting a car with my hosuemates and a friend to go around Melbourne. Really tired now, so I guess I'll post up the scarce number of pictures that I took another day. I really need to cultivate the picture taking habit.

Heading to bed early tonight!

Same ol' tug-o-war

Peculiar title for a post huh.. Well that's how I feel right now, and also the night before I left for Melbourne for my first semester. The tugging refers more to that annoying heart wrenching feeling inside.. well... my heart when I think about leaving AGAIN. A part of me tells me I actually do like being in Melbourne, but a part of me tells me that Malaysia is where my life is. I need a life over there.

This time, I leave behind more than family and friends. I leave behind my relationship, the one person I depended on probably TOO much for company last semester which in consequence I'm afraid would render me cold, miserable and lonely when I return to Melbourne without him. This is the real deal now. Truly experiencing the independent overseas life.

Things start to get complicated when the relationship reaches this point. Too many things to consider in this short time frame. People tend to take too much into consideration when the time for said things to be considered hasn't even dawned upon us yet. I'm starting to get complicated myself. I really hate being in the departure hall. Le sigh..

So, what did I do for my last day in Malaysia?

I had a buffet lunch in Boulevard hotel courtesy of some free vouchers. I ate too much probably. So much so that I couldn't have popcorn while watching Harry Potter. The movie was so so, as expected for any Harry Potter shows. I was waiting for the show to end actually. 2.5 hours is way too long! I expected it to last for 2 hours tops. We got caught in the traffic getting home coz of the extra 30 mins -_-. Btw, all the female casts seem to be a little taller than Harry! :P

Hermione is always pretty as usual.. Ginny.. Hmmmm... hahaha.. I'll let you guys be the judge for that.

I guess I better head to bed soon. Wismeluck in sleeping!

Good night world.

Quickie

Quick question on my mind at such an ungodly hour.

I know I should get a hair cut before returning to Melbourne. The question is, should I get bangs?

Would it be too troublesome to maintain?

I don't plan to visit the saloon at all once I'm in Melbourne.

Most importantly, would I be able to even just look ok in bangs? I was once told by a hair stylist that my forehead is not high enough for me to have bangs. Le sigh..


I never had confidence in adopting new hair styles. Probably coz my hair is not versatile at all. It's stiff, hard, dry, frizzy and thick. The only way my hair can look good is just by straightening it and then constrain myself from activities like swimming or any water related activities, OR better still activities that require me to tie my hair.

I know, I know.. I sound so bimbotic letting my hair control my life that way. But what to do, a girl's always vain at least in one aspect of her physical outlook.

Bangs, no bangs?

hmm... "Meditate on it I shall" or rather, sleep on it I shall.. :P

Results

For the past 3 years of my uni life, I have always felt the adrenaline rush due to the anticipation of the release of exam results. The results for Melbourne U were released yesterday and suffice to say, I'm one satisfied student.

I've been having terrible internet connection for my entire stay in Malaysia. It is so bad that I can't even load Restaurant City at all on some nights. Makes me wonder if I can actually live with such internet if I decide to come back from Australia for good.

Since I left for the land down under, I have noticed a few changes which I have adopted from living there. For one, I feel that I always say thank you to the waiters and sometimes I know they don't even acknowledge or bother to listen.

Another big difference I noticed is escalator manners. In Australia, you do not hog the whole escalator by standing side by side with your friend,chatting away throughout your ride. You get told off for doing such things! Poeple usually stand to one side of the escalator so that others in a rush can run up and down. Probably people here don't use trains or public transport enough to know that even one minute will cost you to miss a train and you'll end up waiting another 30 mins for the next train.

***

Due to my current internet state, I have been watching series on my computer to kill time. I have been introduced recently to an old series that has been around for a long time and I have always thought of it as being less than intelligent (bimbotic). But after watching it, I find it amusing and funny because each episode tackles taboo issues that people most people find awkward to discuss.

Recognize these four infamous characters? haha.. I've been watching sex and the city from season 1 and it has totally changed my mind about it. Initially, I always thought that it was about shopping and make up and looking pretty. After watching a few episodes, I realised it was nothing like that and it actually gets your mind thinking about issues that you never knew existed! :P

Anyway, I only have another week left in Malaysia. I should be out watching more movies before I head back. Just watched Ice Age the other day. The movie was so so, but the popcorn was definitely good. :P I want to watch more movies!!

Poker face

Had the usual game night in my house with the uni gang on Friday night :)

But the unusual thing was the turn out coz there was more than 10 people who came! :D The more the merrier of course, not that I'm complaining! :)

Apparently, there are no board games designed to accomodate a group this big. So we ended up playing poker, the one made popular by facebook.

I had the faintest idea about the game so I paired with the person right beside me who turned out to be Mr. Impulsive gambler.

We lost our 45 chips pretty fast which led to our photo taking session while everyone else was busy playing. Note our shocked faces, while JS as usual, is always smiling :P

JS then came to our group for round 2 where each group was refreshed with 45 chips. This time the impulsive gambler let us girls make the decisions and we had much better luck too! We won most of the chips towards the end of the night! :D

The happy faces towards the end of the night! :)



The one with the poker face :P

Dynamic duo, crazy over some Korean boyband which according to Jo consists of a hundred and one members?

Alvin in deep thought.. Wen Han has great poker face too! :P

Some random pictures from the night, taken coz Jin and I were too free (lost all our chips) :P

Justin making all the decisions while his 2 team mates behind him (Mich Tan and Jac) were chatting about other stuff :P hahaha!

Group picture taken by jscha :P

The pair beside us. So sweeeeeet :P


The chips we won positioned into a smiley face for more luck!

Our final round cards. We got really lucky and bagged most of the chips :D JS had to take a picture for remembrance.

The night ended late, but we all had loads of fun! Hope we get to do this again soon before I head back to Melbourne, and I hope the H1N1 thing subsides soon too. Le sigh, I'm more worried of getting the flu when I get back to Melbourne coz I'll be all alone!

Anyway, half the gang will be heading to Miri on Tueaday I think. I was initially very tempted to follow too! But I don't think I want to fly so much within 2 weeks. I guess I'll just have to wait for them to come back before organizing another game night. In the meantime, I shall wait for Restaurant City to load with my slow slow internet connection.

** Hope Federer wins tonight! :)

Surge of spontaneity

I've never been one who does things spontaneously. It's quite obvious that I'm not a risk taker. I tend to consider probably too many things before deciding on stuff like an expensive purchase or anything that involves me making a decision. I'm nobody likes making decisions or to be around me when I have to make one.

Recently, I've been told to break out of my self-made cocoon to embrace the wonderful thing that is spontaneity. It did help me make a few decisions and to date which I don't think I have regreted YET.

The first thing was last year when I was deciding on my final semester elective. I was undecided about it and decided to follow my guts to take a subject that was deemed tough by the seniors. People gave me discouraging remarks and looks when I told them I was taking it as an elective. I did doubt myself throughout the semester coz I didn't do too well for my coursework. But all in all, I didn't regret taking the subject.

The second big decision of course was to take my masters in Australia. It was definitely a very huge decision considering how sheltered I usually am back home. But I guess everybody has to grow up at a certain point in life. I cannot say that I do not regret the decision because the toughest part has yet to come. The past semester has been loads of fun coz I wasn't entirely alone and independent yet but i know that when I return to Melb the next semester, reality is going to be a bitch.

I certainly hope that circumstances will not reach a point which makes me feel like I have made the wrong decision by going to Aus.

***

Actually when I thought about the title for this post, I wanted to talk about my recent surge to splurge spontaneously :P

Since I reached Melbourne, I have been wanting to change my hp due to a spontaneous decision I made which I came to regret. After doing much researh and comparing phone prices between Malaysia and Aus, I decided that I should come back to Malaysia to get my new hp.

Last night in 1u, I bought a new hp without doing any EXCESSIVE online research!

My new red W705 walkman phone! I was actually hesitant about it even though I did not need to fork out a single cent for it. But I guess spontaneity won this time around! I really adore this phone, and to top it of, the colour is just perfect! Thanx to my bro, I'm now a happy girl with her very first slide phone! :D

Touchdown

I'm finally back home in Malaysia. It's as if I've been away from home for a long time. But truth is, I've only been away for 4 months! Sounds pretty short but when I reached home, there were quite a few changes and my surroundings started to feel a little foreign to me.

So I did forget a few things amidst the rushed packing spree just a few hours before flying. I forgot all my face creams and a pair of contact lenses! Besides that, we were also running so close to being late for our flight, we had to abandon our money saving plan which was to take the bus. We got a cab instead which cost us 25AUD per person. Le sigh..

The weather back home is the same as always. So hot and humid, you feel like the air is a roll of cling wrap twisted around you. I just feel like bathing all the time!

I haven't done much since I got home. Been staying home the whole day playing Restaurant City on FB and watching some movies on the comp. I really feel like I've come home on the wrong time! My plan was to come back home and watch as many movies as possible coz you can't watch movies according to your whims and fancies back in Melbourne. You can only pick really good movies and watch them on Tuesdays coz all movies are 10AUD on Tuesdays. But you still can't burn 10AUD on a silly movie right? AND, I miss caramel popcorn to bits! They only have salted or buttered popcorn there!

Let's just hope that tomorrow will be better!

Homecoming

Flying home tomorrow afternoon.

Packing seems effortless, which scares me coz I may forget something.

What am I feeling now?

Lots of things I suppose, but not mixed in a good way like a wonderful cocktail but more like when you blend stuff together without the lid on. In other words, more like a mess.

Things always get complicated when your relationship takes the inevitable turn to a long distance relationship. You have committed too much to let it go despite how much you despise the thought of LDR.

I'm reluctant to think about the future yet it plagues my mind every idle moment I have. I think people always focus on the worst case scenario when things may not turn out to be that bad in actual case. But it's just human nature and being the pessimist that I'm, my brain just goes to overdrive churning on such thoughts.

I think I'm just worried that I will end up lonely and depressed when I fly back here the next semester. I need to work on my social skills more so that I won't grow mouldy and rot at home on weekends and holidays. Le sigh..

Good day mate! Hope I'm off to a good start.

Size matters

Since the beginning of my stay in Melbourne, I have planned to reserve my IMAX experience for the Transformers sequel. Actually the IMAX theather is just right outside my apartment, but since one ticket costs a whoooooooping 17.50AUD, I wouldn't risk it on some random bla movie. They actually show stuff like Night in the Musuem on IMAX.

The IMAX theather here is definitely much better than the one in Time Square back home. Basically, it boasts a screen which is 7 stories high, and the cinema condition overall is much nicer. For 17.50AUD, we thought we'd get the best customer service but apparently the tickets do not come with seat numbers!! So being the kiasu people that we always are, we started queueing up for entrance at 215pm when the show was supposed to start at 3pm! Btw, the locals are pretty kiasu as well :P I thought we'd be the earliest birds.

The theather was full to the brim on a Friday afternoon! Don't people need to work? There were people sitting right in front. Imagine arching your neck up a 7 story high screen for 2.5 hours.

The movie was alright for me. I thought that there were too many I-love-you scenes between Megan Fox and lover boy. Sorta like a mushy script between two teenagers in a sappy love story. Come on man! Plus there was waaaay too many Megan Fox slow motion running in the desert scenes and sometimes it feels like their trying abit too hard to put in some unessecary humour into the movie. Nevertheless, watching the transformers transform and do their thing never fails to put me in awe. I would watch it again anytime, but in Malaysia of course! :P

On a different note, I was ordered by the alpha female authority at home not to visit crowded places eg. cinemas (failed), clubs (failed), bars (failed) before returning home to Malaysia. Just 3 more days to go before I fly home and get looked upon as a threat to the country coz everyone's freaking out about H1N1! Woo hoo, welcome home to my home country where I'm supposed to feel safe and secure. Can't wait.

First post

Writters block?!!

I can't seem to write anything!

I think I need to get used to this, writing down my own thoughts and knowing that people are going to be reading it.

There you go Jin... My blog!

Anyways, it's my first day post exams and I have absolutely no idea what to do! I'm just sitting in front of my comp playing Restaurant City. How sad is that!

On the other hand, I'm not too sure if I'm that keen on going home anymore! The swine flu scare in Malaysia has made us homecoming students especially from Melbourne a threat to safety. I only have 2 weeks at home and if I need to spend one week quarantined in my own house, what's the point of going home?!

Oh well, I can't seem to think of anything else to pen down. heh heh.. :P I seem to have lots of thing to say at night before I fall asleep, but I can't seem to remember anything now.

So.. until I remember something.. :P

Where I spend most of my time :)