Monday's Musing on Perception

It's Monday again, the start of another week. Unlike before, I was not late this time, thanks to Dionne and Beng (my housemate) for waking me up...somehow I feel like there's a surfacing need to show public appreciation nowadays, no? Hahahaha...

My mind was wondering as I sat on my problematic bed (I broke one of the wooden supports under the mattress... :p) and thought about what to write in this very entry. The sucky internet connection earlier did not help at all with improving my thought process...sigh...luckily the connection managed pick up or there won't be any post out in this blog today...

Somehow ( I seriously don't know why) I started to think about what we had learnt in the last Social Psychology class. It was about the topic of Perception, yup, it's back to perception again as we already did this particular subtopic in Intro to Human Communication 2 semesters ago. But I guess there's no harm in re-learning old stuffs right?...There might be some new found revelations...isn't that what history is all about as well? Anyway, perception plays an important role in our lives, it actually dictates our views, opinions or impressions of a person, object or an event (God knows how many time I recyled this very line). Therefore, what we perceived is what we understand. How we perceived is how we shall react...okay...I had made up these three situation below to better illustrate the power of perceptions:

This is my friend Akil. He's tall, thin and has a pair of the bushiest eyebrows I'd ever seen. This is what we call first impression. But what do you think is Akil doing in this picture? What is his feeling at that particular moment?



In order to deduce his emotions, we will have to read his non-verbal cues, meaning his expressions, gestures and so on.

Akil's seemingly sweaty forehead tells us that he is somehow nervous or anxious, while both his tightly closed lips and fingers suggested that he is trying to hide a certain emotion or eagerness within himself. From all of these cues, my perception of Akil is that...

He had avoided the toilet for many days and now is suffering from its ghastly consequences...poor Akil...eat more papaya la...

Moving on, the second series of pictures show Steph cuddling a fluffy toy dog (used as a pencil case by Dionne...) while smiling from ear to ear, so to speak. What do you perceive of her?

Let's take a closer look at her non-verbal cues...

Faraway eyes and a somewhat too forced smile kinda show the fragile nature of Steph's mind that get emotional easily. However, bottle feeding a non-living toy dog with mineral water bottle just scream one thing:

Please someone get this girl a shrink!!!

Lastly, we have this wonderful picture of a fresh faced college student. I wonder who this person is, looks very approachable and friendly...but is that really how he feel?

We will need to examine his non-verbal cues before jumping into conclusions...hmmm...

Good memory with great knowledge, coupled with a stylish appearance (not only the eyeware). It is apparent that this guy is a cool intellectual soul...how interesting...aiseh man! Wakakakaka...

Well, there you go...a lesson in perception..lol...no offence ya...it's supposed to be a spoof...hehehe...

Oh one more thing, we finally got our 2nd semester's result slip after so many months. But we'd already know our GPA and CGPA from our student portal...so no surprises...and since recycling is such a hot thing (since when? since forever...) now, Dionne and I weaved a small basket from the tear-off sides of our result slips...hahaha...

Akil asked whether we are having Art Class or Media Appreciation Class...both la...

Last but not least, do you guys think Dionne will be out of the spoof? Well not really, since I can't find a useable picture of her for the perception thingy and as she had been bothering me about not giving her enough credit for taking all these wonderful pictures I use in my blog. Ta-da!! Drumroll...I would like to present her with a certificate of appreciation...something that she pestered out of me...hahahah...pay attention to her pic...that tacky hand gesture suggest that she crave for attention...muahahahahaha....

That's the end of the craziness for today...I'll post soon. Take care guys..

New Header...

Hey guys, just a short update. As you all know, I'm currently trying my best to give my blog an Extreme Makeover (maybe not that extreme la...nothing much yet...lol...) and that banner or header up there (look up la) took me 2 days to create. Nice? What I'm most proud of is the fact that I managed to make it using only Paint (not even Paint Shop Pro, ok!!)...hahaha...Anyway, I'll blog more tomorrow...my bed is calling and I was already nearly (nearly ok) late twice for my 8 o'clock English lecture. I guess the weekend just slow me down. Finally, for those who can't seem to look up (shy maybe... :p) Here's the new header, not complete yet...still need to insert my blog's title in the yellow notepad...any suggestion?




P/S: Millions of thanks to the creator of Paint and thounsands of gratitude to all the photographers that took all those wonderful pictures I'd use...Thanks!!

X-SAL part 2 and Scarf Day...

X-SAL team picture taken before the race...

Haih...as you can see, laziness kicked in again. Sorry la...I know I promised the 2nd part of Adventurace...but seeing the little respond from you guys (comment) I thought that you guys must had find the race, or at least the retelling of the race to be boring...anyway...I'm too lazy to actually write it in details, but here goes the summarization:

Our 1st task the next day at 4.46am was to trek up a hill and to retrieve a clue at the peak of the hill. It was pitch dark and cold and definitely scary...worst still...the hill I'm talking about happened to be Bukit Cina. For those who don't know anything about Bukit Cina, well, it's a Chinese cemetery, yup, packed with hundreds of graves and tombs and crypts and what ever you wanna call it...scary!!! The small road that we followed kept going up and down, sometimes getting very wide and at times super narrow...but we managed to get the next clue without any supernatural encounter...thank God...fuhh...

As always, the Adventurace committee with their twisted minds and all sent us in the difficult task of selling 10 packets of Chicken Rice Balls to earn at least RM100 (which mean 1 packet must at least be RM10...crazy right?) and the rest of our earning can be use as transport fee for the remaining of the race. We were flailing our hands at random cars and motorcyclists along the roads like mad hitchhikers...lol...imagine the faces of these people when they found out that one packet of our Chicken Rice Balls cost RM13++...but as always...we managed...

Adventuracers fooling around after 2 days of racing...

The next checkpoint was the slaughter place for a few teams as many quit because they were not able to finish both choices of task. One was the Fast Forward and it involved solving some over-the-top-fantabulously-messed-up-effing-hard maths question...many teams chose this and failed...only one team managed to get it right...after 6 hours of calculation that is...I wonder how Weijian will fare...hehehe...As for our team, we chose the other task which was Anyaman or Weaving in English...it was hard ok...and needed a lot of concentration...not gonna go into details about that...I'm exhausted thinking about it now...

Then we were asked to find this school called Pay Foong High School...it was the first time that we got perfect directions from the public if you considered the wild goose chases some of them sent us on. At the school we had to search for 5 numbers and place them in a certain equation to obtain the largest sum. Surprisingly, we did that quite easily...lol...maybe we should have taken the Fast Forward...wakakaka...We texted the correct answer and got an address in return...So off we went to find 10B, Jalan Laksaman 2, Taman Kota Laksamana...

It was hell, I tell you...what with the annoying Guide and the scorching weather! But in the end we did found the house after asking a postman...at this house we were asked for the 2 last digit of our IC number which stand for a myriad of ingredients. These ingredients were then blended together to form the most vile beverage ever and we had to gulp it down. Our special shake consisted of: 2 raw eggs, red chili, ginger, raw sausage and bitter gourd!!! Yuck right?!! Our next task was a bit more relaxing, separating a mixture of red beans and green beans with only one container. We were quite good at it I must say, beating the team that reached before us and even managed to find time to bitch about people we dislike...haha...

And the grossness continued after that small break. We were required to hike up St. Paul hill and to transfer 10 living cockroaches from one container to the other...not too bad actually...but the smell was plain vile...lol...the next task was (to me personally) the most ridiculous task ever: counting the vertical bars on the railing of Melaka's biggest bridge...and it was a BIG bridge...under the hot sun!! Arghh! But somehow and someway, we did it...hehehehe (winking at Steph and Akil)...then it was the jigsaw puzzle challenge which was pretty easy.

Remember that key from our 1st task? Well our next stop is to pass that key to a crew or also known as a "mobile keyhole" at Melaka Sentral. After doing so (we nearly missed that guy), we were required to travel back to Kelana Jaya Recreational Park to assemble some bicycle. Long story cut short, we assembled the bicycle and Akil rode it around the park in search of another crew who gave him an individual challenge of arranging all the tasks that we did throughout the race in the correct sequence...then it was off to the finishing line at Michelangelo's Italian Kitchen!!! I think we came in 6th or 7th place...quite good right? Considering how the race started out with 21 teams...hahahaha...the night continued with some fantastic buffet and prize giving ceremony...fewhhh...there you go...the Adventurace 2008!!!


Group photo...nice experience!!

On to another story, yesterday was Taylor's College bowling tournament...so me, Leh Bin, Kel Zoe, Elaine, Aina and Manpreet went to support Akil and Dionne! But somehow we missed the 1st part of the game as we got carried away by our little pre-tournament shopping spree...hehehehe...As expected, Dionne took 1st place in the female category, while her sister Evonne (hahaha...I know how to spell her name already!!) took 2nd and her sister's friend whose name which also happened to be Evonne took 3rd place...Akil didn't win though but he put up a great fight (aiseh...lol...) and got quite a good ranking considering there's quite a few pro-bowlers in the male categories...



The winners...

Talking about shopping, I bought a scarf yesterday at Forever 21!! It's so nice!!! I love it to death...Akil was being mean and said that I'm shopping on impulse again...where got?? Hahaha...scarf is the IN thing now...and because of my new scarf, I declared today as Scarf Day and forced everybody in my class to wear scarves to class...but only 3 of us did...hmph...

Me, Pooi Yee and Leh Bin...the honourable founders of Scarf Day...17 April...

OMG!! I stained my scarf with sambal while eating Nasi Lemak...sad...sad...I hope it washes off...huhuhuhu...

The sambal stain close-up...sad case...

And to prove my point on scarves being IN right now...here's an article by Malaysia Today in their Fashion Police section...scarves rock!!

Classes were as vague as always...we (Dionne, Steph and I) decided to do our own fashion spread on the many uses of scarves after Econs class and our model is none other than Stephanie a.k.a. Miss Lew(d)...hehehe...it was damn hilarious...hahahaha...enjoy:

1. As a head covering to protect your precious locks from the oh-so glaring UV rays...




2. From keeping out bad cigarette smoke during the day to part time Arabian belly dancer at night...a scarf is your best friend ever...

3. Throw a swath of scarf over your body when you get that "kampung Melayu" feel or when you accidentally stained your top with unidentified chocolate substance (like Steph)...

4. Finally, relive your childhood dream of becoming a super hero with the aid of a scarf as your fashionable but not necessarily practical cape...

Somehow Steph's hair and top today remind me of a Tyra Banks picture I saw sometimes ago...and guess what? I found that pic...here goes..you judge how much the resemblance is...lol...

Sorry la...bad photo editing skills...

So that's all for now to all of you out there who complained when I don't post and never comment when I do...bluek... :p

X-SAL...part 1

The Taylor's Adventurace 2008 is definitely not for the faint hearted (keep reading, you will know why). It's craziness was extreme, it's hardcore-ness was crazy, I'm out of word basically. Out of breath too most of the time during the race...

The race started out around 4pm on Friday, each team was assigned a guide who will be following us through out the race. Our (Me, Akil and Stephanie) guide was Josephine a.k.a Spy. She must have been the most annoying (seriously, don't get me started on that) and endearing (surprising, but true) individual you will ever meet in this world. A rare specimen I would say. Anyway, after some briefing and warming up, it was flag-off time and off we went with our first passcard (clue)!!

Task 1: Missing Key

"We lost a key when paying for parking this morning somewhere in SS15. Please help find the missing key and keep it for future use."

Our first clue sounded something like the above (I'm writing this base on my memory) and so we set off on this key hunt looking for parking meter cause it would only made sense that one would pay for parking at one. It turned out to be a quite ridiculous hunt as SS15 is a HUGE area! Imagine how many parking meters we searched. It was by luck that we finally found the "key" made out of black mounting board with the second clue stuck on it beside a parking meter in a creepy back alley on a pile of rubbish.

Task 2: Taro glasses

"Go to Malaya Optical and count the number of glasses under the brand Taro in the four display tables. Team must report the correct number to the crew. If there's an error, the team will have a 3 minutes penalty before another chance to recount the number of glasses."

Our hunt continued as we try to track down the location of Malaya Optical which we eventually found after some wrong turns and all. And annoyingly, it was also the same time when our guide decided to have a footwear-malfunction as the sole of her shoe was torn off completely from her sport shoes. We were already having a hard time catching up with the other group and she wanted us to find some glue to repair her shoe...arghh...guess what? We told her to wear her slipper.

We got the 3 minutes penalty though. We missed out on one of the glasses and had to wait outside the shop for 3 minutes before counting the glasses again. Thank god we got it right this time and was given the next clue.

Task 3: Crossword on the bus

"Travel to the central bus station of the state shown by the pictures (pics of A Famosa and a Red Building) and complete the attached crossword puzzle before reaching the location. Give the completed puzzle to the crew at the entrance to retrieve the next clue."

Any Malaysian will be able to tell that the state with A Famosa and red colored buildings must be Melaka. You can't imagine how excited we were at the thought of crossing to another state for our next task. But first we had to decide our mode of transports as we had limited budget (RM120 for 4 people throughout the race). Taking the train to KL Sentral and then the LRT to Pasar Seni which is nearby the Puduraya Bus Station was a practical choice. But mind you, we had to walk quite a distance as the nearest train station was not that near after all. Our guide took this chance to grab another pair of shoes from her house which was along the way to the train station.

We managed to catch up with some team who were also waiting for the train. The train was so packed with people that we had to literally shove ourselves in. Stephanie was yelling "Tolong masuk! Masuk dalam sedikit!" and managed to get the whole team into the train. So "terror" la that girl...

The same thing happened on the LRT and we had to pay RM72 for 4 bus tickets (other teams got cheaper tickets). We crack our brains the whole way to Melaka on the crossword puzzle and I managed to catch some sleep before we reached around 9++pm. We were given the next clue after our crossword puzzle was checked.

At Puduraya bus station waiting for the bus to come...I looked horrible...damn exhausted...

Task 4: The Eye of Melaka

"Travel to the Eye of Melaka. There are two choices of tasks 1)To Hang and 2) To Flip. Only one member of the team can perform this task."

Who would had known that there's something called The Eye of Melaka (Dionne did told me before, but I kinda forgot). It was late night and there was not much choice of public transport, a lot of teams chose to take taxis. Our team on the other hand, was on some economical lucky streak that night as a bus literally stopped in front of our faces and happened to be heading towards the area we wanted to go.

At the Eye (of Melaka that is), Steph who had chosen to do the To Hang task was required to rock climb to the top of a stone wall and memorize orange colored alphabets that was pasted on the top of the wall. She was very quick, it's so her...lol...her element la. And we also managed to arange the words rather quickly which spelled "JONKER" and was given our next clue.

Task 5: Torturing Clogs

"Each team will have to wear a pair of special shoes and walk from one point of Jonker Walk to the other point to retrieve a ribbon from a crew. Teams then must walk back to the starting point to complete task."

Those special shoes turned out to be a 3-in-1 clogs with those poking base that really hurt our feet. Mind you, it was such a torture...I was near tears...it was so embarassing...hahaha...that was basically our last checkpoint for the day and was given a clue to our pitstop which was right behind Jonker Walk.

It was an open air community hall (with roof but incomplete walls). We were required to have a 6 hour rest...we bathed and ate and chat a little. Akil and I were trying to sleep, but Steph was still feeling the adrenaline and can't seem to close her eyes. Akil slept so soundly that I became Steph's victim...she kept on disturbing me when I was about to fall asleep...she never slept that night...lol...we reached at 10.46pm...so we were set to embark at 4.46am the next day...

This post is becoming too long...I'm tired from recalling and writing all these stuffs down. I bet your eyes are tired too. I'll continue again tomorrow with what happened on Day 2...

Taylor's Adventure Race

With only a few more hours before the Adventure Race, I'm starting to think of what kind of hellish situation I'm getting myself into.



Only RM120 to spend among 4 people for 2 days and 1 night...no luxuries...no comfort...



Constant raining every evening...6 hours of rest...good grace!



Anyway, I won't be updating until this Sunday...wish me luck guys!



P/s: Stay tuned to see what happened to Leonard (unsporty, low stamina, high metabolism dude) and his friends during the race...if they made it back on time that is!!

Social Psychology and Cici

We finally had our first Social Psychology class today after 2 weeks of cancelled classes. Needless to say, anticipation was high as my coursemates and I longed for a subject that will finally break the tepid monotony of the other classes, maybe with the exception of Media Appreciation. I'm starting to like it. Unfortunately, dreams that we build our hopes upon were nothing but fantasy as this class happened to be quite "studious" in the case of both the lecturer and his lectures. I'm not implying anything here, but my expectations of the class were not met. Sorry, the truth hurts...

However, I tried my best to make the best out of this situation and made my own mind map for today's class. Well, it might seems more like a self-gratifying action, but I assure you it did help get some facts into my brains. Let's hope it goes uphill from here...

Went to Sunway Pyramid just now with Dionne, her sister (wanted to put her name, then I realise that I don't really know how to spell it...hehehe) and Akil. Both Akil and Dionne played 2 games so as to get ready for the upcoming college bowling tournament. Since I was not playing, I took the chance to practice taking some action shoots of the bowlers. Too bad my phone's camera is crappy...don't have any great pictures, but it did help me pass time while waiting for the 2 to be done.

I don't know why, but I like this one. I love how Akil is seen bowling through the gap between Dionne's hand and body that somehow framed this particular shot. I just hope the picture quality is better...

Anyway, did some shopping after the bowling session. Bought sleeping bag for the Adventure Race on Friday and then I deviated and got myself a new pair of jeans...I'll wear them tomorrow... :D

Had dinner at Alif, a "Mamak" restaurant and then me and Akil crashed Aina's place while waiting for our future landlady to come and show us the rooms we are renting. Well, everything is confirmed. I'm moving this July.

I'm out of bombastic lines for today...but I did saw a dead cat on my way to college. Its rigid, soulless body pulled mixed emotions out of me. I'm sad at the death of such a beautiful creature but I'm disgusted by the state of its remains...I don't know...it's just sad...I miss Cici.

The Day After Tomorrow...

In today's Media Appreciation class, we had a screening of the film "The Day After Tomorrow". As always, we need to do a review on it, which is due this Friday. Anyway, the movie turn out to be quite interesting, especially how they manage to associate global warming (which is suppose to generate higher temperature) with the disruption of the Artic winds that in the end causes a new Ice Age for humankind in the film. One of my favorite line from the movie must have been: "The cost of doing nothing is even higher".


True, isn't? We sometimes choose to ignore mistakes that may seem trivial at first, but these mistakes will eventually manifest into something more frightening than what we had imagine. By then it would be too late...What will happen in the day after tomorrow? Or the days after that? Well, we will never know until the day comes...


It rained again this afternoon and the drizzling never did stop. And as I wrote this, the slight drizzle has picked up its momentum so that the constant noise ( somewhat similar to white noise ) is now a melancholic symphony that shroud the growing night. My shoes, drying under the bed, with its rubber soles cold from the many puddles that dotted the open-air car park are a testament of the bleak weather.





Nevertheless, rainy days are somewhat special to me. There's some kind of reverence in the gloom of its drizzling or the malevolence of the mighty thunders. It put me in my place, telling me how helpless we can be when dealing with the forces of nature. It enhances the warmth that we never realise because we are too busy complaining about the heatwave and hot temperature that we dread so much. I don't know. But there's peace in the pitter-pattering of raindrops that draw me deeper into my own thoughts, regardless of how silly they may be. Moments of self-analysis that I so often appreciate.


My state of dizziness continued from yesterday to today. As of now, I'm still feeling a little lightheaded. My appetite from the evening eludes me as taste of nausea trails everything I consume. I think I'll skip dinner. I feel the cold now. A tender chill that pricks the skin. I think I'll rest now.