It's over

The title says it all. The battle between the pen and the question paper is over, for now. I am in the throes of recovering from the physical and mental battering the exam (and the process of waiting for the results) so exigently and successfully contrived.

I stared at the USQ Study Desk with eyes wide opened.

The rest, as they say, is history for the result says it all.

Finally after 3+6+5+2+3=19 years of formal education, I can proudly proclaim that I am educated! And the statement, "KJ Loves Marketing" is no longer so very hard to swallow!!

I'm extremely happy and thankful. Thankful to all my Tutors, course mates, parents, God- the source of all wisdom, and to everyone else who supported and cheered me along the ups and downs throughout Semester 2. Happy because I aimed for 3As but if I do get 2As, 1B, I'd be happy anyways.

So I cleared the hurdle with flying colours! Strange that just weeks before I was in a total state of despondency, I now find myself drowned in a sea of bliss. Months of grinding hardwork and sacrifice seemed immeasurably justified in retrospect.

Needless to say, I'm heading out to fête. Might not be back to the virtual world till Christmas.

Till then, take care.

God bless all you readers. It is time to look forward now. If you are taking any examinations, DO YOUR VERY BEST. Nothing else matters. JUST DO YOUR BEST For GOD will do the rest.

I know I did my very best. That is why I am happy.

Today, I honour ALL who have taught me, including the author of this "Engaging student in learning microeconomics" article. Even to those teachers since kindergarten to primary school and up to Form 6, who dubbed me as a slow learner, I still honour you for I would not have achieved my goals if none of you had prepared the stepping stone for me through the Malaysian Education System.

But interestingly, the weird part is that no matter how much shit is in the pile each semester, you will always seem to (just) be able to make it through.

I can testify to that. Read my previous entries as a proof.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

My Dad taught me: Judge People By What They Do, NOT By How They Appear.

The Royal Highness is here. Day 3 and I'm waiting impatiently for her to just go back to where She rightly belongs. Thank God she's going back tomorrow.

As mentioned in Part 1, she shall be bunking in my room during her stay here. Yes, she is bunking there right now and that is not all. She butts into every single conversation I have with my Dad, even though it does not concern her, and starts giving her two cents worth of every single thing. It's really annoying how condescending some people can be, thinking they know every damn bit of every damn bit of everything. It's irritating but there's nothing I can do cos she is Dad's beloved sister.

Scene 1: Mum asked me to heat up the pastry for her using the toaster (note that it is like the kind we use to make cheese on toast or the one for dry cooking under high heat). the Royal Highness was sitting on there and said, "Oh, why do you need a microwave as well as a toaster? After all, the microwave can do the job of a toaster."

Scene 2: The technician came to service the gate's mechanism. The Royal Highness said in the car, "That is the problem with auto gates. Very high maintenance and it costs money. What a waste of money to install this thing. It is a liability, just like air-cons, you know." "You gotta maintain an air-con too. It is not a one-off thing of installing it and done. You gotta ask people to service it and refill the gas too," she continued, as if none of us know anything about air-cons.

Scene 3: She asked me to help her check AirAsia airfare for this weekend to go back to where she belong. "I saw in the Borneo Post, the fare is RM0.99." The Royal Highness said.
"Did you check the travel period?" my sis asked.
"Ya, I doubt you can get RM0.99 airfare for this weekend. AirAsia's yield management does not work like FSCs. Anyway it's already the school holidays. Peak period." I said.
"No lah, school holidays aren't considered peak periods. Only festive seasons. Only hotels raise the price during peak periods, not airlines," The Royal Highness retorted.
"Oh yeah, so much for doing an assignment about managing capacity and demand." I told my Dad.

I'm online in my bedroom now (rightfully her room at the moment), in front of the laptop. My study table has turned into a mess and I suspect she has been messing around with my stuff cos it is in a different position now. Thank goodness there's nothing much on the table except for my study notes and my 2007 organizer. The Royal Highness just came back from her trip to Boulevard with her friends. And she had the guts to invite her friends into the house and brought them round the house, as if it was her own house. Luckily I was playing with Brandy just now so I escaped from her but poor Mum, who was in the midst of doing her work, was disturbed by them. She came into her room. "Oh, you are here. I want to change," she said. I refused to budge and started mumbling to myself. Yeah, I know I'm rude but this is what she gets for saying that I was blind yesterday.

Scene 4: Dad was asking me to check something online. "You know how to check or not? You know some websites cannot be trusted?" The Royal Highness butted in, as if I am some kind of imbecile.

Scene 5: The Royal Highness saw the Just Follow Law DVD lying on the table and insisted of watching. "Your DVD player can play or not? Only good brands like Sony can play all sorts of DVDs, you know," she said.
The DVD player at home is an LG. Mum said that it would not "pick disc". The Royal Highness continues on, "LG not as good as Sony. Our VCD player at home is a Sony. Why buy DVD? VCD is cheaper. Only RM5. DVD in Sibu is RM8."

Scene 6: My cousin called my phone. God knows who gave her my number. I was upstairs at that time so when I got down, I saw a miss call and an sms asking The Royal Highness's sister to call her back. I made a mistake by passing the message to The Royal Highness's sister. She does not have a handphone and refuses to get one though she can well afford it as she's a government school teacher who works as a tuition school teacher during the weekends (moonlighting). So she asked me to lend my phone to her. Fine. She called my cousin and spoke for 5 minutes, thus burning my credit away by chit chatting asking my cousin whether she has eaten, is she working today, and all sorts of unimportant stuff. I sulked. I complained to my Dad who said just let it be.
"WHAT IS THIS? I reload my phone with my own hard earn money and you are asking me to just let her use it? She is worst than a leech." I exclaimed.
I went down and retrieved my laptop. Thank Goodness she hung off. "Oh Thank you. I didn't use much, isn't it? After all, yours is postpaid." she said.
I gave her an incredulous look, "My phone is a prepaid and I reload it with my own hard earn money. I do not leech off people." I said and walked off. I looked at my balance. She used up RM1. RM1 used to talk rubbish. Not even I call my friends and waste RM1.

Yes, both of them are leeches and Dad hates it when I call them leeches. They deserve that name anyways.
Reminder to self: I will be on holiday with her. Remember to reject my cousin's call. I am not fond of being victim of leeches.

Scene 7: There are two dogs at home and The Royal Highness was saying that we are being stupid and spendthrift to rear two dogs. "Ha, you are going to send your dog for vaccination. Haiya, see. I said earlier on that taking care of dogs are time consuming. Why are you wasting money on this kind on unnecessary things like vaccinations? Dogs can leave for a long time, even without vaccination. Remember the dog in Sibu, it was with us for a long time. For 12 years. Never had to go for vaccination."

I know that the Bible is imbued with its teachings, everything from an eye for an eye, to love your enemies, to love your neighbor as yourself.

I know that the Bible instructs us to forgive as the Lord forgave us:

Colossians 3:13
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

But forgiveness does not come easy for me. My natural instinct is to recoil in self-protection when I've been injured. I am one person who doesn't naturally overflow with mercy, grace and forgiveness when we've been wronged. Yeah, I got a lot of things to learn. One thing for sure is continue forgiving until the matter is settled in the heart.

Back to one of the Ten Commandments, I think the concept of loving your neighbour includes our non-human animal brothers and sisters. Not that I am an animal lover, but I am not an animal-hater either though I might scold Bobby at times for misbehaving. I'm just indifferent towards animals but I got to play my part to take care of Brandy. Even if the Bible does not explicitly include animals in the notion of one's neighbour, there is enough in the substance of biblical teachings and scattered passages to invite such a reading and the implementation of this reading into our daily lives and protective laws, isn't it? Is there anything wrong keeping dogs?

"Stupid is as Stupid Does" -Forrest Gump-

That's how I perceive The Royal Highness to be. Stupidity is a matter of deeds, Not looks.

Oh yeah, I'm BAD.

The Royal Highness

So it's over.

I'm free. It's just so surreal to experience life once more.

Hello world. I'm back.

For the first time after God-knows-when, I had a blissful 10 hours of sleep. Expected, because while waiting to enter the exam hall, we were making post-examination plans and the first thing on everyone's list was SLEEP right after lunch till the next day. So my 10 hours sleep could have been longer if it wasn't for the coughing fits that I'm having. Obviously, my immune system has taken a plunge as a result of turning into a nocturnal animal for the past three weeks. Good timing, indeed. Thank God it hit me right after the group of us declared freedom on ourselves.

Despite the irritating infected throat of mine filled with those green phlegm and the constant pressure in my skull, I'm obviously feeling well enough to stay conscious to go online so it should be fine.

But something's not fine. My privacy is going to be invaded next week because a relative is coming to stayover for 5 days. And for that, I'm being chased out from my room just so that The Royal Highness can sleep upstairs (with Brandy, Bobby's enemy as her neighbour, as Brandy sleeps in the balcony), rather than sleeping in the guestroom and have the whole ground floor all to herself (with Bobby as the guard outside).

So to prepare for The Royal Highness' visit, Mum insisted that I go on a cleaning spree and clear my workstation in in my room by this weekend, instead of the deadline of next weekend. But since I study downstairs most of the time, my supposed workstation is pretty dusty and filled with all my junk. The only blessing is that my book cabinet is an enclosed one so it is one thing less to clear.

Don't get me wrong. I'm perfectly fine with moving out of my room to let relatives stay. However, The Royal Highness is different. I do not favour her that much because of her bitchiness that just makes unlikable and because of how she judges people- based on academics (You are good if you are straight A scorer). To her, people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Michael Dell who made it big without ever finishing a college education is just pure luck. It's nothing to do with personal courage and sacrifice, and finding and doing what they love.

And so who are The Great People in The Royal Highness' opinion? Straight A scorers, graduates from the Dean's List in science-related fields, and only those taking Business in prestigious Ivy League and Russell Group universities. Don't bother asking her about Australia's Group of Eight. Thus, I'm sure you can guess where do I stand in her eyes.

I know the success stories of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and their ilk are truly stories that can make you feel like you can do anything in this world. While I cheer for all those brave enough to pursue their hopes and dreams and dream of following their footsteps, I do bear in mind that the only stories you and I hear are the successful ones. For every Bill Gates story we hear about, there are a hundred failures that you DON'T hear about. Probably that is also the reason why I am contemplating to settle for mediocrity!

I am well aware of the advantages these prestigious univesity graduates have over me. I am aware that many corporate icons are graduates from these universities. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, formerly head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc: Louis Gerstner, and Meg Whitman of eBay are all products of Harvard Business School. The same goes for Jeffrey Skilling (Enron Corp’s former chief, who is serving a 24-year prison term for fraud and deposed CEO Stan O’Neal (Ousted by Merrill Lynch & Co after failing to know about mortgage risks)- they are also products of Harvard Business School.

So in short, The Royal Highness thinks that with stellar academic results, one can conquer anything and become extremely successful out there. That is why I have been slighted by her because of my less than stellar results back in primary and secondary school.

Anyway, since The Royal Highness is my relative, my room belongs to her next week. No choice and she better be thankful that I'm going to clean my room for her despite being in a semi-"comatose" state- Hey, I supposed to be resting. I'm actually going to clean my room to give face to my Dad, the person who told me last year when I told him my intended major, "Your life is yours to examine, and the choices- yours to make. Make them well. While I expect you to get your degree by next year, always remember that you are also there to learn, to grow and to become a better person. Never mind about what people say. Likewise your perceptions should be independent of man-made bias."

I can do all things through Christ who strengthen me

I'm supposed to be mugging at this moment but thanks to AirAsia and their brilliant free seats and "no fuel surcharge" promotion, Mum has been pestering me to help her find a "cheap" ticket to West Malaysia. So right after lunch, I went online to help her find a "cheap" ticket that fulfills all her requirements.... and AirAsia's website is taking super LONG to upload. BTW, please note that admin fee + insurance surcharge is RM22.50. Can anyone tell me what AirAsia's admin fee include, besides giving us our boarding pass?

Anyways, two papers down. One more to go. My last paper (MKT2012)'s tomorrow. Sheer HAPPINESS. Tomorrow I'm going to breech through the last wall to FREEDOM!!! Soon I'm going to have good days too, to counter those tense and stressful moments...

Oh yeah, I can't wait till tomorrow. It's been a torturing three weeks studying in the wee hours of the morning, reading through those burgeoning stacks of papers and books. Being obsessively occupied with the notes and stress was NOT at all FuN.. But the finishing line is nearly there.. Yay-ness.

My first two papers were pretty okay, I should say. Well, it has to be okay or you have to make it sound okay if you have your lecturers entering the exam hall to have a glance of that blue paper sent all the way from Australia and coming up to you after the exams with the first question coming out from their mouths, "how was it?". and not to mention the extent of calling or sms-ing you one hour of your short-lived freedom because they didn't get to see their outputs after the paper. Yup, I'm indeed blessed with such caring lecturers, at least towards yours truly :)

Exam was okay. Thank God. At least I could answer more than half of the essay questions, though I can't guarantee a really high mark like 9/10 or 8/10. And yeah, I screwed up Question 6 of MKT2004 by getting two questions wrong. Oh well, I'd have to settle for 8/10 for that question and probably a 4/10 for another essay because I did not read up on that part. This is what you get if when you have too many things to study (practically the whole textbook) and not enough time. It's time to spot questions, hence the risk to take.

"Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles;they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:30 - 31)

Thus, I humbly say with confidence that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)". Product of St Mary's. This phrase has not left my head ever since I heard it in Form 1, C.M.

While my course mates are probably mugging their way through the textbook and memorising every single thing, I find it pointless to actually memorise for the sake of exams. Memorising will not make us any better, except academically and that's it. I don't think it will bring you very far in life, unless you become Tony Buzan the second... So it is worthwhile to memorise all the concepts for the sake of exams? Will it serve any purpose in future? I mean, how many of us have the same brand capacity as Tony Buzan? May be everyone, except me. So yeah, if any "memory powress" are offended by my annoying habit of stereotyping or making extremely hasty assumptions and generalizations about the population to bolster my self-image (as some may say).

Anyway, it's time to bring Bobby to out to answer his call of nature before I start my final round revision for the-Morrow's paper.When is my brain going to reboot?

Good luck to all having their exams. Together, we shall beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.