Happy Birthday, Malaya

Happy 51st Birthday, Malaya. Yup, that's right. I'm wishing Malaya a happy birthday, not Malaysia. Malaysia's birthday's coming up- 16th Sept. See, I remembered what I learned in Sejarah Malaysia back in Form 5.

I love Malaysia. I'm proud to be a Malaysian. I was born here and I flourished(??) here. But that does not mean that I love the fascist those-who-governs-the-country. It does not mean that I am in all for the oppression of minority shareholders’ rights because I am NOT.

So why do I love Malaysia?
Easy. Malaysia is ruled by a supreme government who has developed my interest in the concept of human rights and of what is fair and reasonable.....

Now don't say that I am not apathetic about the direction our nation is headed.

I'm part of the generation of change so I'm rising up and grabbing the mantle.

But first, I've got to continue on with my MKT3007 assignment 1. Can I do a case study about our current political situation in Malaysia, instead of the Steinway: Buying a Legend case study??? Please..... Assignments bores me.

Okay, I bashfully admit that I fall into the category of those-who-wants-change-but-wants-someone-else-to-effect-the-change-for-us. (for the time being).

Sorry, freedom fighters.

Just a filler post

I always start my day with logging on to my e-mail account and checking mails, then skimming recently-updated friends' blogs and scanning through some political analyses and reviews.. the list goes on...and so, I will spend hours and hours facing the computer each day, be it online or doing my assignments..

Anyway, I reckon there is a serious need for me to strive for an equilibrium between the many things in life so as not to allow my internet addiction affects my studies and other interests!!!

Like any other day, I logged on to my hotmail account and discovered 23 unread mails in my inbox. 23 mails in a matter of 14 hours since the last time I signed in to my account was last night at 11:30pm. 23 unread mails at 2:30pm.

I scanned the list- 22 from the StudyDesk, 1 viral marketing junk, and 1 from a familiar person which the title didn't sound convincing for me to click it at first sight. what now???

So where shall I start??
Easy: delete that viral marketing junk....
So there, 22 unread mails. 21 from the StudyDesk- at this point of time when the assignment due dates are so close, I get nervous when reading those emails.... Can't help it, I nearly had a nervous breakdown last week thanks to it. So I shall leave it to the last- save the worst for last!!!!!!!..

I decided to click on the sole not-from-uni mail. Oooh, short one and it's c.c.ed to me.
"Good," I thought, "It's not really directed to me."
Suddenly, I saw: To (my name) and XXXXXX, *reads the mail*

I wasn't too happy after reading it. It was related to the Plom Nite. *I AM STILL NOT GOING..*
Obviously, some people is desperate and someone is being a kind-hearted soul, practicing CSR......
I didn't know whether to be tickled or appalled.
I thought to myself, "#@!%, the 4 hours John and I sacrificed that day is apparently not enough to save us from further hassle."
I'm wondering if the kind-hearted soul knew what about our "community service". To ask or not to ask.
I chose the latter. John does not seem to mind anyways.

Me?? Oh well........., I'm signing off to get ready for work. Will be back in front of my monitor tonight to continue my assignment.

Permatang Pauh P44???- May the best man win. In hope for a better Malaysia, I'm rooting our former Opposition leader and incumbent's husband. Sept 16, possible??

Oh-wimp-picks

MR. LEE, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU??

How come you got demoralized so soon?

With Lin Dan's aggressive style of playing and Mr Lee's all-round defensive style, I expected this match to be one hell of a match since the gold medal is at stake. RM1,000,000 out there waiting for Mr Lee. I expected smashes that break rackets and unbelievable dives to save the shots...

However these are all expectations. Just like how I expected Josiah Ng to enter the kierin finals.

Perceived performance was below par. Mr. Lee made too many unforced errors. 21-12, 21-8 in 39 minutes :(

Well, maybe Lin Dan was just too good for Mr. Lee. Maybe Mr. Lee was too complacent- that's what my parent's says. Maybe it's just not his day today as most of his shots weren't accurate. But Lin Dan had the home crowd advantage too. Ah, whatever it is, at least he went into the finals so it's quite an achievement.... CONGRATULATIONS, anyways. Good job. At least Mr Lee helped put Malaysia on the medal tally- 1 Silver :)

CRAP, I better get back to work for I have spent far too long minding how Mr Lee played when I could have used this energy on "marketing" my recommendations. Application of Service Gaps model and ServQual model, how??

However, life has been generally dull. It's hard to gather the will to complete your assignments when you've being distracted by grander plans on the horizon such as watching the Olympics- y'know like watching Michael Phelps winning his 8th gold medal before getting myself over!!! The hardest part to telling myself to just settle down and be patient for the finishing line is nearly there.

Recently, I just realised that my behaviour has been a tad hypocritical. I've been advising people to have passion in whatever we are doing when I, myself, am unable to fling open the doors to my own heart and embrace my love for my subjects for all that it is.

And it does not help a single bit as my assignment due dates are in two weeks time (and one more on the 5th of Sept. *phew*). However, as the day moves closer, the pressure is mounting, and I’m beginning to lose the coherent flow of my thoughts...

Finally....

Ah, finally after a 12 year drought, Malaysia is finally assured of an Olympic medal...
-at least a SILVER. :)

Yeah, I know that I sound like a desperado but hey, at least the people's money has been well spent to send Lee Chong Wei to Beijing and back. Anyway, IF LCW gets the silver medal, he has proven the ranking to be accurate too!!!! After all, LCW [2].

Congrats L.C.W. for your brilliant performance.

The semi-final match between the two Lee's was an interesting one to watch. Lee Hyun Il was brilliant in the second game and I thought that he had a real shot at winning. I mean, look at his spirit in retrieving all the shuttles!!!
Anyway, LCW showed who was the king of the court to make every Malaysian proud for once. 21-18, 13-21, 21-13. Especially those die-hard badminton fans who was so depressed after WCH lost to the Taiwanese 14-21, 21-17, 21-18. He could beat Taufik 21-19, 21-16 but he could not beat the Taiwanese!! Taufik seeded 7th, WCH- unseeded, Hsieh Yu-Hshing- unseeded. Apalah???

So yes, LCW's happy, Misbun's happy, Everyone's happy :). but I could be happier if it weren't for those ASSIGNMENTS.

Now we will just wait till Sunday 17/8/2008- 20:47 to see who's the REAL BADMINTON KING.. LCW (MAS) vs LD/CJ (CHN).

Okay. This post stops here.
*Crosses fingers*
KJ is back to Services marketing and AirAsia

GAH
**

Lee Chong Wei vs Lin Dan, I mean since Chen Jin got bronze.

Glamarous

Soon, it will be the night when over a hundred and fifty plus students strap on their best mask and strut their stuff to show the world they are beautiful while enjoying themselves in a pandemonium of rapture.....

Apparently, the beloved College (do you sense the sarcasm? *pretends to bat my eyelids and eyelashes in the most innocent manner possible*) will be having its Prom Night on October, during one of my hellish days of assignments...

So, are you going?

This is it. I am stating this here and now....

I am not going to the prom this year. Not even under the threat of a slow, painful death. Not even if there's anyone generous enough to pay for my prom ticket.

And The People say, "It's once in a lifetime! C'mon, it's your last year in college..."

To which I will swiftly reply by promptly and vehemently telling them that I do not have the time. I got to recuperate from the stampede of my Services Marketing assignment 2 and get ready to face the stampede of Marketing Strategy assignment 2. (Though my Assignment 1s are DEAD, I'm still going to find time to watch the Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremony later, even if it is for three hours. Benchmarking, y'know)

Then They will say, "Yeah, go there and enjoy. It's going to be fun. There'll be live band, prom king and queen, games and etc..De-stress yourself there.."

Prom Queen?? *LOL* I refuse to be one of those poor things up on stage to awaiting votes to be crowned the title of Prom Queen. I am too old for that thirty seconds of fame up on the stage with a bunch of deluded and too-enthusiastic-to-not-be-annoying attention-seekers prom queen candidates. But there again, I doubt I'd be eligible to circumvent that occurrence!!!

Those smackeroonies would counter that statement with a million POIs and a budget list as long as Swan River itself with a great big "Come and socialize..."

Since it's going to be hard to give a diplomatic reason why I'm not attending the intended-to-be-glamarous night, I've decided to simply say, "Because I don't want to go."

Unless the Prom would be as spectacular as tonight's Olympic's opening ceremony;

Unless 29,000 fireworks will be released during the event into the Kuching night sky;

Unless the College gets an Oscar-nominated film director to oversee the event, and not the Film Club or one of the college head honchos;

Unless the event is also due to see Chinese pop star Liu Huan, together with British singer Sarah Brightman, sing a specially commissioned theme song, and NOT some "live band";
Unless the price of the ticket is below MYR40.00 and mine is sponsored;

Unless somebody pays for ALL MY PROM-RELATED EXPENSES too;

PERHAPS I will reconsider my decision....

I'm not being fussy. I'm just using tonight's Beijing Olympics opening ceremony as my benchmark. Is that too much to ask for?? I don't think so. I'm merely applying what I have learned.

Customers demand more and are much less tolerant of failures. As customers, we often compare our experiences against highest expectations (Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony, in this case) and expectations are a moving target. What used to delight customers yesterday may only satisfy them today and mere satisfaction is insufficient for customer satisfaction to achieve customer loyalty since customers will be easily lured away by competitors. Delighting the customer is the key to customer loyalty. So to all those smackeroonies, if you want me to attend the Prom Night and go all out to push your Prom Night ticket which isn't an easy task as I gotta sell a promise, delight me first. See, it's so easy as I have expressed my demands. Thus your job is to fulfill it....

This is my analysis of how much time am I going to waste if I attend the prom:

• HAIR (wash, blow and etc.)= 2 hours plus
• NAILS= 2 hours
• MAKE UP= An hour and a half
• THE RIGHT OUTFIT= It takes days, weeks even...
• MISCELLANEOUS= 2 hours

See, attending the Prom is no laughing matter. It is a matter of grave significance and hard work. And I am not so self-sacrificing as to sacrifice my time and money to pull all the big guns out, the high-heels, manicures, pedicures, lip gloss, everything. Therefore, I wouldn't be a good arm candy during the prom.

But I just received a phone call saying that I got something to do with ticket sales. *exudes profanities* ..hahahahahaha.. Damn, if i knew that the College is capable of doing this to students, I should have spent my entire tenure as a student there being as low-profile as possible, revolving my entire life in the company of books and books alone. No ECA, no anything, only studies.

Interestingly, I do not know how much does the ticket cost. I will only know the answer tomorrow when I meet the smackeroonie who suggested I'd make a brilliant promoter. Eff%&^* you, man... But I bet you it's going to be priced at some over-rated price, using image differentiation (venue as the image differentiator) to position itself. But for your information, smackeroonies, that don't impress me much...... After all, I spent my childhood days at that venue. Well, like all other smackeroonies, their selling strategy for social events remain the same, which is good for me as this enables me to get my strategy all plan out. :)

No offense to all parties but I think that this whole brouhaha's not worth it. A waste of time and effort, not the mention a whole lot of tears involve in the painful squeezing during facial.

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S yeah
G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

We are flying first class up in the sky
We are flying first class, livin' the life
In the fast lane and i won't change
By the glamarous, ooh, the flossy, flossy

The glamarous, the glamarous, glamorous,
By the glamarous, ooh, the flossy, flossy,
The glamarous, the glamarous, glamorous,
By the glamarous, ooh, the flossy, flossy

*dances to the Glamarous song by Fergie feat. Ludacris*

Have a great time at the Prom, people!

I'm not a Fergie fan. But this does not make me a Fergie-hater either. Meanwhile KJ is dealing with her work load. At her own pace.

Update 09/08/08: The opening ceremony of the Olympics last night was exhilarating. The SCROLL and the lighting of the Olympic Torch at the end was superb.
The Plom Nite better be as good as that and I mean it. Still got plom plomoson lonching summor, got gif de flee copon for i-dono-wat, wor... so gland, so glamour-less....

And SESCO, what happened to our electricity supply just now?? A massive state-wide 3 hour black out until 9pm+ wasn't very FUN.. Anyways, I'm just thankful it wasn't last night and I'm thankful the electricity is back.....

Weaknesses

I'm laziness personified. It's official.

I am not doing my assignment which I should be doing at the moment. I'm a chronic procrastinator. And I ranked myself among the highest, for it is there I rightfully belonged. The procrastinator's prayer availed me naught. Cruel truth.

My command of the English language (as in Oxford English) has gone down the proverbial drain. I used to be able to pull witty neologisms from my butt crack but now I struggle to find a different way to describe anything. I can no longer string a proper sentence containing coherent and well-mediated thoughts together without losing its mojo under the burden of time constraints and the fear of someone finding out I’m whining like a petulant child instead of being a good little cogwheel playing my part in the national economy.

So my weaknesses has been revealed. What am I going to do about it?

Obvious answer. Continue my assignment, pay attention in class, answer all the discussion board questions, revision and ........*arrgh* I can't continue. My head hurts. In short, just do what I got to do to pass my assignments and exams. The fear of repeating the oh-so-cursed form of memory evaluation@ exams is indeed a much better motivator than fear of failure!!!!

Thus, I shall look forward now, with bright hope and the wind in my hair, to even tougher weeks ahead and even longer hours and even more responsibility that will push this weak slacker psyche to it's very limited limits.

Actually I'm blogging from Level 4 in college now, awaiting the club briefing to start at 10:30am. Just as I was about to click "publish post", Mr Adviser entered and I found out that I had "forgotten" to print out the application form for the Club project. Another proof that I have short memory; a true blue analogy of Dory!! Was I supposed to print it out in the first place??? I do not know and I seriously cannot recall any instructions to print it out though the club's head honchos said there was. All I remember was Mr Adviser saying that he will photocopy it. I do not recall him asking me to print out the form. So it's official that I'm in deep shit. Nevertheless, I just put on my Grammy award act and asked innocently whether I was supposed to print it out in the first place. Of course, I apologised for not listening to instructions with a bit of humour lurking in the depths. Thank God, I got out of the shit. Well, sort off, I guess as there was nothing anyone could do since the briefing was going to start in 15 minutes time. Whatever it is, Mr Adviser wasn't outrightly pleased or amused with my irresponsibility. I don't blame him either. I have failed to fulfill my responsibility. It's my fault. *sorry Sir* I am a klutz. It's official.

Anyway, I went for dinner last night and overheard this phrase from the man sitting at the next table, "An answer that is not understood by the receiving end is not an answer at all."

Hmm, imagine telling the teacher that!!!!

**

Okay, I gotta go now. The meeting has started. Maybe I'll just pretend to faint to spare myself the embarrassment of making a fool out of myself later or any further wrath of the head honchos. Haha.

Update: 5pm- I was attacked by Bobby, my parent's and my sister's new dog. I absolve myself of the responsibility of owning him. How did it happen? Bobby came back from the vet after being neutered this afternoon. Yup, he's going to remain a virgin for the rest of his entire life. He's never going to be able to enjoy the joys of fatherhood and this is the end of Bobby's generation of the crossbreed between a Spitz and our local breed. Apologies to Bobby's ancestors. In my humble opinion, Bobby does not fit the conventional mould of what it takes to be a cute dog. And this isn't your average friendly dog; he barks, and has sharp teeth. Sometimes he gets temperamental, especially towards me. Sometimes his most basic instincts take over and anything goes at that point. I've been "bitten" by him twice actually but the teeth never sank into my skin. Only teeth marks which disappeared after one hour.

I know Bobby was (and still is) in pain so I was stroking him, calming him down. He put his snout on my lap and gave me that sad look. When I went away, he made a whining sound as if he didn't want me to go. Oooh, he's so sweet (only today I mean. He's never that kind towards me). Five minutes later, mum went to see him and came back telling me that Bobby didn't look fine. So I went out to see Bobby. He was in pain. I squat down and patted him again to soothe him when suddenly, WAAM. Bobby pounced on me and scratched me. I panicked and quickly ran off, cleaned my wound and rushed to see Dr Chen for a jab. Ok, it's nothing serious cos he didn't bite me. It's just three cuts. No stitches needed or what. Thank God. So if you see a nice plaster on my right cheek, thank Bobby for that. It doesn't help that I'm going for class tonight and Dr's instructions is to cover the wound for a week. Oh well, maybe Bobby wanted to give me a love bite but he couldn't bite me so he resorted to that to leave a mark on my cheeks so that I will always remember Bobby's love for me... So that's it. I heart you too, Bobby.

Time to get ready for class. See you.