And just like that, my mid-sem break has ended.

Noooo. It was too quick :(( Had way too little time to do anything! Don't even talk about assignments, I barely had time to just be me, myself, and I. :(

It's ok, it's my final sem! *celebrates* As is quite obvious, I'm barely doing anything for my studies haha. It's the final sem season lah. -__-

Just a quick update before I start on a feature article that most of my friends are nearly done!

Life's been busy busy lately, meeting up with old, long-lost friends, making new friends and getting closer to current friends. :) All thanks to PKV camp!

How's the man? No no, he hasn't proposed to me yet. :P Haha, patience, I know we've been together like foreveeer to my undergrad friends (since I fell for that oh-so-wonderful man during my first semester in first year), but really, I'm only 22. So hold your horses, and relax. :) We still wanna look for a house that is (hopefully) in PJ! Ok, that's me la. I'm a bit of a demanding gf. Haha. But I'll contribute towards it also laaa, just itching to make more money once I'm done with being an undergrad!

Lookie here: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/11/06/this-is-how-much-money-youll-make-based-on-your-personality/

Joash is an ENTJ! (A pretty obvious one :-O) And my INTJ ain't too far down either. ;-)

Ok ok, I'll stop being so sampat.

Just ran 10km today (well, on my GPS it said 11km. What a conjob!) with a personal best time of 1 hour 11 mins, an average of 9.2kph. I came in #27 for the Women Open category! My training over the past couple of months have been paying off... and running is getting quite, quite addictive. :D

Will be headed to Penang this Friday with Joash, and will be meeting CP and her favourite man there! It'll be a good getaway from KL. :)

Back to work!

God bless,
Jo

Happy 58th Birthday, Daddy...

Feeling emo all of a sudden...

Sometimes I feel like losing my dad is all a bad dream, like I can't believe he's gone. :-( It's been more than 3 years now and it still hits me pretty hard sometimes...

Still, I hope that you're proud of me and all that I've achieved thus far... it's not been easy, doing everything I do, but I learnt resilience from you... you've been my source of strength during my growing up years, and you'll continue to be so in the coming years.

You rock, dad! Love you so very very much! :-) <3 p="">

Of Infuriating Questions

So you not yet graduate ah?

Still studying ah?

Still not yet work?

...

Dear curiously-irritating-people-who-ask-equally-as-irritating-questions,

NO.

Yes.

Not yet.

To answer your questions.

I know, I know. I'm freaking 22 years old, still studying, yet to land a 'real job'.

-__-

(Doesn't it count that I'm on a scholarship and work part-time in multiple jobs? Hence I'm no financial burden to anyone? Heck, I can belanja my mum and Joash sometimes! But no, I usually just bite my tongue and smile sweetly and answer politely.)

And gosh if I plan to become a lecturer I'll have to face this barrage of questions over the next few years?? Although I'll be on a scholarship + I will be working too?

Haha. Good thing I don't care too much about the opinions of others - if not I wouldn't have made all the decisions that make me who I am today.

Anyway, been doing a lot of writing lately (what's new?), but finding out how hard it is to please clients. Had to revamp a couple of articles, got me rather dejected at first, seemed so hard to please them! But they were finally happy and my $$$ is in. :D (Which is why I said yes to another job today!)

This transition from student to working adult life is actually kinda enjoyable. Experienced working adults aren't afraid of teaching me how to improve cause they definitely don't view me as a threat. :) I'll receive excellent advice for how to improve my writing for so-and-so type of client/industry/marketing strategy, and get paid for it! Improving your style (no longer academic writing, that can be saved for my future postgrad days) and earning money for doing a good job at that... I still find it amazing. :)

I emceed for a couple of events last weekend, under CiTra... it was for about 400-500 people per day, so I think it's been my biggest official event ever. Haha. Most awkward part of the day was when my CiTra staff pushed me to sit at the VIP table and talk and eat lunch with the VIPs. :| But! It was a good experience, something tough for me... after spending a few hours speaking to hundreds of people all the introvert in me wanted to do was to crawl back home and sleep. Energy-sapping!

Working in CiTra has taught me one thing... I NEVER want to work in a job that is repetitive, monotonous, doesn't require creative thinking. Of course, the permanent staff there do have to do such things, but since I'm the hired coolie there I just do jobs that they don't wanna do... haha.

Ok my blogging mojo just faded. Blurry eyes di.

Have a wonderful week!
Jo

War

In class today (yesterday rather), my Stylistics lecturer was trying to dig answers out of us for a poem... I was ding donging around my laptop (as usual) and half-paying attention when there was a lull in the class discussion. As usual, I glanced around and ask my nearby classmates what the question was that resulted in the silence.

This is when I'll try to throw out some suggestions/answers, stupid or not, to get the conversation going again cause I dislike awkward silences and I know lecturers love lively discussions.

Today, my lecturer was merely asking about war, and what happens in war, especially once one side is victorious. Students were calling out answers that she claimed were "too innocent". Once a lecturer says something like that, you know he/she ain't an old fuddy duddy lecturer (ok, none of my English lecturers are, but I wasn't too sure about this one, first time teaching me). So I immediately gave the most rational, logical answer ever: "Rape."

To my surprise, I heard gasps around me as my coursemates turned to look at me aghast and they laughed at me! I saw looks of disbelief!

Isn't that what happens during wars, and especially after wars? Degrade the women, conquer them, humiliate them. I honestly thought that it was a known fact.

Apparently not.

...

Anyway, that was the answer my lecturer was looking for.

Till the next blog post!
Jo

Hmmm

I'm trying to understand one of my lecturer's eccentricity...

He gave us a link for an Old English poem... raving about how good and 'meaty' the website was.

"The following is a very meaty article - to all intents and purposes a critical edition of the poem with a very comprehensive line by line commentary AND a long critical essay: Mertens (2010) Unfortunately, it's all in German!" Er... Yes, most unfortunately, it's all in German. If I were hardworking enough I'd add one of the pics with a man screaming in frustration. What a twisted sense of humour! I've been desperately training for my Penang bridge run. I signed up for 21km cause I knew I wouldn't have trained for the 10km run, but 21km is looking to be a distant dream now. :-O I simply don't have enough time to train for 21km! Where do you possibly find the time?? Not as a student, I'm afraid. :( Much less a working student! I spend so much time working now... tiring, yes. But definitely learning a lot, and that's the most important. :) Now, to find the time to train... barely reaching 7km most times :( God bless, Jo

S4 - Thanks My Love!

Had a pretty stressful past couple of days, was given a pretty big project on revamping the company profile of Tunas Manja (Joash's heritage!). Struggled a lot with it because the info they gave me was contradictory (one page said 24 retail outlets, another page said 26, even the company name wasn't consistent throughout the 30 pages of their original company profile). Struggled with the format - from what I know, company profiles are supposed to be short, sweet, and attractive. But their was looong, maybe for investors? Although if it was for investors, the facts and figures would be woefully inadequate.

Worked on it till 7.30am this morning (yeah, through the night). Felt extremely unsatisfied with it, but I couldn't quite put a finger on it. When I woke up at 12+, my editor/boss/money-giver got gotten back to me, and the style and tone were off.

Feel like it was the biggest disaster I've ever done during my (short) writing career. Sigh. I was grappling so much with the format and compiling the information professionally that I had forgot to look at the most important: language.

Nevertheless, the boss gave me good feedback (good as in I know why I felt the whole article was off in the first place) and I worked on revamping it with newfound confidence. :)

How I feel about writing now... I feel like a badminton player who possesses the required level of skill and stamina to play well, but needs guidance from a coach to implement the correct strategies needed to win.

It's a game of words, and it's so very exciting. I never knew writing would become such an integral part of my life, that I would find so much joy in constructing sentences and manipulating language.

So yeah, the company profile made me feel like a lost badminton match - big time - but I've learnt from it.

As my badminton coach once told me during an intense, rubber game match with a KL player... "Spirit is important. You just have to keep on fighting, and never give up. You're as good a player as her, so it'll boil down to your mental strength." I went on to win that match, possibly my biggest victory in my short and pathetic badminton career, but above all, I always cherished his advice.

One of my childhood badminton friends, "Soo Teck Zhi" was been making headlines lately, and is currently ranked World No. 1 at the junior level.

When I partnered his brother for a tournament, his father told me, "Aim for gold. If you join a tournament without aiming for the gold, you're aiming to lose. And if you're aiming to lose, why did you even join??"

His son and I went on to win the U14 Mixed Doubles gold medal, beating several 'bigger' names in the process.

But again, not so much the win, but his words have stayed in my mind.

Really, with that kind of mentality, I'm not surprised that Teck Zhi has made it so far. When I first met him, he could barely hold a racquet properly, and he was a bit behind his peers in the badminton world. Now? Haha.

Why all the rambling, you'll ask. I don't know why, just felt like writing freely without anyone giving me a structure and focus to concentrate on. Been doing so much writing these days, I just need some space to think aloud.

Ok, now I've got to go back to the real world and complete my uni stuff :-O Feels like uni is the real world and being a paid writer is my escape zone these days... just want to get done with undergrad!

If I were to advise new uni students... I would tell them to work hard in your first few semesters. If you're like me and many others, you lose the 'oomph' to work hard later on, and you need your CGPA to be solid enough for you to explore the real world as you transition between uni and work in your final few semesters of studies. If I hadn't done well in my early semesters, no way would I have been able to do all that I've done during the past year - work, tuition, writing, competitions, holidaying... all during on-going semesters.

OH!

And my dearest Joash got me a Samsung S4! :D Extremely generous of him, and shows how far he has come since we first met. The phone is real awesome, I'm still learning how to work an Android properly though (iPhone 4S for the past 2 years, bought thanks to JPA, but somehow having the S4 come from Joash just feels so much more precious), so my typing and all with the S4 is pretty slow.

I even frustrated my uni mates with weird messages like,

Me: Can add me to the (whatsapp) group?
Me: New phone.
Me: Lost!!!

and my friend Aaron tries to do some investigating to see who could have stolen my phone. Poor guy. Haha!

I think I'm slightly eccentric la sometimes. -__- Looking back at those messages, I realised that I had typed them without filling in the context of my situation. In my mind, I read those messages like this:

Me: Can add me to the group?
Me: Got a new phone.
Me: Lost all my Whatsapp groups!!!

Haha. Eccentricity :(

Ok, I'm mumbling and going on again.

I'll be back another time! With a more coherent post (I hope)!

Cyaaa

Ohh UM

My faculty posted up a photo of a girl 'sitting inappropriately' on a sofa in our fac.. her legs were dangling over one side of the sofa arm.

Got me pretty mad for many reasons and I (as usual) couldn't hold my peace and had to speak up.

"Yes, my thoughts exactly. How does taking such a photo assist UM in any way? Simply telling her that her sitting posture is 'inappropriate' for UM's Art Faculty would have sufficed - even then, she may have required an explanation as to why it was 'wrong' since she could be from a different cultural background, one which would have not blinked at eye at her posture. And definitely, blurring out her face should have been done if this photo had to be posted.

For this poor girl's sake, I hope she never sees this photo. Especially if she is a foreigner. What a brutal welcome to Malaysia.

Next thing we know, we'll be having a Wall of Shame for such 'offenders'. Bravo, Malaysia's Best University. (That's all we'll ever be.) Penetrating into the ranks of the World's Top Universities is nothing but a (very very) distant dream at this rate."

Ah UM UM, I love you and hate you sometimes.

I love you for the way you've assisted in my maturing and growth, during the vital years when I was transitioning from a teenager to a young adult. I love my degree for teaching me to constantly open my mind and explore new possibilities. I love the freedom my lecturers gave me in discovering my writing style, my opinions on issues, and life. I love the opportunities that UM has given me in joining international events and competitions, in meeting friends from all over the world.

But sometimes I detest the way close-minded people spoil my wonderful experience as a university student.

And right now, I'm leaning more towards the hate side. -__-

Nah, nothing as dramatic as that. Just needed to have a verbal diarrhoea :P

Apologies! For the looong hiatus!

Hey world, I'm back!

Well, not really. Haha. I guess being a writer during my internship sorta drained me of my zest for blogging... :-O I wrote so many feature articles and cover stories and gosh I don't know, it was like a nightmare of writing and writing and writing for 8 weeks, every single working day from 9am to 8pm that I just lost it for a while. Go and get the latest International Business Review (Volume 90) and International Business Review SME (Vol 3) in the nearest Popular if you wanna see what I wrote for.

Oh wait, no bylines. Haha. Just guess which ones I wrote then.

Never thought my life would revolve around writing the way it is now, but hey, it is! And I'm pretty happy so far.

I now write part-time for 2 different bosses/people/companies and also work part-time in CITRA UM (some branch of UM, google it if you're really interested.)

One of my pieces came out in The Star last week! (No, it was a press release for a new company so you won't find my name.) And I'll be writing another press release for a different company this weekend.

That's for the more serious writing la, I also write and proofread for a lifestyle magazine - a style I'm really just starting to pick up, but it's ok la, quite fun.

No, I'm not done with studies yet. Final semester, 20 credit hours to go :-) Don't ask me how I'm managing, I just am. Haha. For now. -__-

Bumped into one of my favourite lecturers today (whom I've not seen since before NUS cause she was away last semester), and she said, "Joanne! You promised to drop by and see me! And tell me about your NUS experience! You know, I've been following your election blog and all that!"

Er. Haha. What election blog??

Anyway, it's good to be back in campus. After internship, I have so much to think about in terms of my future, my career, what I want to do in life etc. So it's a pretty good break to return to studies and talk to lecturers about my options.

That aside, my mum is now a Headmistress! Haha! Kudos to her! :) Dad would have been so proud of her!

And Joash's Ottimo Motorworks is doing really well, so we're both pretty excited about what our future holds - for him, how far he can bring Ottimo, and for me, what I intend to do with my future.

Have a wonderful day ahead of you, till my next blog post. :)

Jo

Hello World!

So it's been two weeks of internship thus far...

I know I left some drama-mama post the last time I blogged, basically that's solved di la. It was about internship but it's been settled and I'm really happy where I am now.

Yeah, seriously. :) My place treats interns like regular employees, so I've been sent out to conduct interviews - so far Chocolate Museum, and a few more elsewhere lined up (and no way does anyone introduce me as an intern - my company told me the moment I tell outsiders I'm an intern I'll be treated differently. And its true! I saw another company introduce a few interns... and the Chocolate Museum management didn't really entertain them). I'm producing articles that will be published in the following issue. I usually reach home at about 10pm (after dinner), leaving office about 8+ or 9.

Despite the long hours, it has been really good! And after talking to many other friends who are currently interning, I've realised that I've learnt so much more compared to most... cause they are really treated as interns and given menial jobs/filing/data entry/stuff people don't want to do. After 2 weeks I feel as if I've benefited tremendously from the steep learning curve.

And I've got really great colleagues who treat us (my other UM mates in my company and me) well too. Haha. In fact, a few of us just went out for Pacific Rim with our colleagues last night! We booked the entire row of the cinema.

My office environment is a pretty relaxed one with jokes being shouted across the office all the time. There's teasing on-going about each other liking so and so, this person being racist etc. With my office consisting of like about 5 different nationalities it's pretty interesting. hehe. And there's free-flow of maggi cups for employees who wanna eat all the time. LOL.

Surprisingly, after all my disdain about the corporate world... I find myself really enjoying it instead. The challenges it offers, the politics, the real work we do... it's something I'm thoroughly enjoying so far. Challenging, yes. Exciting, definitely.

Now I'm rethinking my entire future. -__- Not sure if going back to the university and contributing to the ivory tower is something I'll really be happy with after all...

The only thing I dislike thus far are my working hours... but my colleagues tell me that other companies don't usually end that late... in my office, when I leave at 9pm most of the others are still casually working on their computers, in no hurry to leave. But from what I see they never had to urgency to complete work fast from 9am anyway... they rather walk around and disturb others when they're bored. Haha. Maybe they enjoy staying so late? I don't know.

So yeah, my first few days of work was pretty tough, but I've settled in now and I feel comfortable. Best part about working?? Once you're done with work, you don't think about it till the next working day. You never have this kinda privilege as a student with assignments always weighing you down! :-) I LOVE this part. Yes, I reach home at 9pm. But I can do anything I want after that without any worries! And my weekends are just spent enjoying myself. No need to think about work work work.

And since I'm with 4 other UM friends in my company, we always have dinner together and laugh over our crazy day at work and weird people and stupid happenings till late into the night... it's good. :)

Back to some uni stuff...

I'll be a "Pemudahcara Mahasiswa" for the international students next semester. :-) Looking forward to that.. when I went for the training last week, I enjoyed a Korean meal (bimbimbap) and a night in Chef Wan Ismail's Restoran Rebung! cause I'm under ISC (International Students Centre) who are really generous and grateful that we wanted to help out. :D

I didn't apply to be a PM of course... never crossed my mind. But the ISC called me up for an interview since I went to NUS... they selected some of us who already went overseas so we could contribute more towards the treatment of international students here. Pretty smart idea, and I had a good weekend with some other students.

I'm happy with my results last semester! After all my sweat and blood and tears and no-sleep, on top of my Cambodia trip, Bandung trip, attending multiple political rallies and subsequently writing a note that went viral which in turn resulted in interviews - I'm surprised I survived it all! :-)

It's not official yet, haven't found out all my grades yet.. but so far it's been 4As and 2A-... I was shocked. Especially for Asia Tenggara, when I saw how badly the other students did (turns out one essay which I tembaked was correct cause Pulau Sipadan and Ligitan shares about the same basis for claims as the Ambalat issue. *PHEW*) Haha. Happy shock! My mum and Joash were shocked too. Cause they of all people knew what my semester was like I guess. Haha.

Just hoping that my credit transfer gets through... I need it to get through... Don't want to extend my studies for a pathetic 1/2 extra subjects! Not worth an entire semester. And it'll make my previous semester's torture all for nought. -__-

I desperate need a... holiday. Won't be getting one till next semester's mid-sem break (even then.... you never know. haha).

Let's see... my last holiday was before the start of last semester. With my Cambodian trip during the mid-sem break and my Bandung trip during the study break (both which only allowed me 4-6 hours of sleep per night)... and internship a few days after my final paper... and after my internship I'll be having MASUM 25-30 Aug, then will be a PM for orientation 2nd Sep onwards... 9th Sep back to studies.

Hahaha.

What can I say? That's my life... and I chose it. All those things were my own choice. :-)

I guess... I'm just that kinda person.

As a friend who gets herself into deeper trouble than me once told me, "At least you haven't squatted down by your fridge and cried to yourself yet... cause you know everyone else will just scold you for making these choices."

So yeah... hey, I only live once! :-D

Not sure when my next update will be... till then, have a wonderful time, k?

God bless!
Jo

Hey World

So basically my past 2 days have been pretty exhausting, frustrating, and just plain irritating.

:-(

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did get worse today.

Anyway, I had a good time of de-stressing with some church people today... it was a much-needed break and I'm glad I had it. :-) Made me put aside my anxieties for many hours and I just remembered to laugh at life and all it has to offer us.

I'll give a full update tomorrow after meeting some people for discussion. Need to update for the records incase I don't make it back alive. Then you, my dear readers need to stand up for justice and fight for my cause.

*Ok, I'm kidding.*

Maybe not.

Hahaha.

God bless,

Jo

Why!

Me bro walks in the room about to tell me some exciting stuff... stops and stares at me sleeping with my notes.

"Why you forever student one!!!"

-__-

Yeah, why?? Been feeling wretched since the past couple of months, I KNEW I was asking for trouble when I signed up for my 7 courses this semester, but I needed to do it in order not to extend my studies.

*Another 8 hours more, Jo. 8 freaking hours more.*

Lama x jumpa!

Hey blog,

I've been so *insert vulgarities here* busy that I've no time to think, eat, sleep, etc.

So of course, no time to blog la.

Survived on 4 hours of sleep per day (yeah, DAY... sleep about 4am, wake up at 8am) the past week, another 4 days to go. Before I kiss my exams (and a few As) goodbye.

-__-

But! I've had a tremendously exciting sem, and if my mood lasts till after 10.30am on 25th June, I may just blog about it ;-) Despite the crazy schedule, it was all worth it!

*wait till I get back my results and regret those words*

hahaha. Anyhow, it's been good, busy but good.

Had to turn down a RM1.3k writing job yesterday because of exams... *heartache* My CGPA is worth more than RM1300? I don't know. Yeah it is. :(( 'Twas just a simple few hours job, one page write-up. Worth a lot cause it was last-minute in Johor - any other time and I would have grabbed it. *sigh*

Hope my credit transfer works out! Then next semester will be my final semester :)) Really don't wanna extend a whole 5-6 extra months for a couple of subjects. I'm willing to sacrifice a drop in my current pointer so I need not extend... mmm.... will definitely drop this semester.

I've been messaging my Asia Tenggara lecturers and asking for permission to answer my questions in English. Hahaha. Normally I just answer in Malay but this time around I've been so busy I only have time to read through my notes once and hope it stays inside my brain by the time exams come. I'll desperately need my photographic memory to function well by Tuesday! :-O With so many technical terms and organisations to remember I simply don't have the time to translate all their names into Malay! Haha actually I blame Singapore for my horrendous dip in my translation abilities. One whole sem there without any Malay and I don't feel comfy anymore using it for exams... I did my assignments in BM though. For reasons only I know =P

Ok, I'm babbling.

Anyway yeah so my lecturers are fine with it, I'm the one translating the questions (which are in BM) anyway. :)

Itching to find money! Need to find more writing jobs! Anyone wanna hire me? :P

Few days break after exams then I'll be interning... *excited* Probably changing company though, decided to jump ship after I had a few days to think. The whole sem I didn't have time to think so when I got a place in AMG I never bothered to look anywhere else. Finally decided to work in another company as I've done some articles for the editor there before, so it was a simple matter of messaging him and pleading for a place to intern in. Hahaha. :)

Now, if I really had to time to think and search for a place to intern, where would I go?

I think I'll still end up in the publishing line la cause I'm curious to know the process. Long term I've no intention of working in one, but learning the process itself, now that's interesting. :)

Oh! And I was selected to be a Pembantu Mahasiswa for international students in the next UM intake. Hehe. Due to my 'outbound experience'. Normally I would have automatically rejected such a thing, but when I heard it was for international students I was interested. Would be an interesting and different experience to work with them, not with the nonsense that local students undergo during O-week.

Ok, back to the books notes that I printed from the internet. Haha. Haven't studied from books in a loooong time. Life with books was so much easier, you know exactly what to look out for. Now I just absorb whatever information I can from everything I read and apply it into my essays. Didn't work out for my last essay because I missed out studying on the basis of Malaysia/Indonesia's claims over Pulau Sipadan and Ligitan.. goodbye 20%... :(

I'm babbling again!

Hahaha.

Cya!
Jo

So...

"Tesis korang camne? Dah habis?"

4 BIIIG sighs and the whole group walks away gloomily without bothering to say goodbye to me.

(Need I say I also received no response to my question.)

Hahahaha. And that, my dear readers, is the mood that all of us final year students are wallowing in right now.

I'm on the brink of despair and nearly going crazy and wondering WHY in the freaking world I took 21 credit hours this semester. With my SEA lecturers setting a minimum of 25 page essays... and I took 4 SEA courses this semester. And my Cambodian trip is about 50 pages I think, not 25.

On top of my elective that required me to goto schools and put up with bratty kids and all.

On top of my 2 English courses that still have essays staring at me. (I only read one out of the 4 required novels for one of my English classes. Goodbye exams.)

ON TOP OF the fact that my lecturers are all being nice and sweet and helpful and giving me tips on how to WIN next week's ASEAN competition. -__- Seriously! They are seriously hoping that I will win next week.

Like, seriously.

Hellooo! I'm already dying in all my assignments! Helloooo! I can't even dream about next week. And I'll have to lug along all my books to Bandung because I have one more 25 page essay deadline on June 11 - yet to even start reading up on that.

Oh dear. Give me a few more days.

On top of the fact that I actually have a couple of deadlines extended to next week but since I'll be in Bandung (and I'm unsure about how much time I have to do work + whether the internet connection will be stable) I have to finish my work by this Friday.

On top of the fact that I have to prepare Malaysian souvenirs for the ASEAN thing next week.

*Breathe in deeply*

OH and I need to prepare formal clothing for a whole week! Plus some 'traditional' clothes... I think my old baju kurungs are too big for me now.

Goodbye blog! Till we meet again...

How now?

In the midst of making the biggest life decision I've ever made... I turn to the only sturdy pillar in my life that has never failed me...

With so much going on in life, I feel completely lost. Wonder if I'll pull through this semester?

Ahhhh

You know things are bad when your lecturer asks you if you have too much work to do :(

(Because I've been taking advantage of his kind heart and I've been late for all my 'deadlines' under him.)

Hahaha.

Go Jo Go! Go Jo Go! Go Jo Go!

Ello Muh Bloggy

Sorry about the MIA-ness... I wrote something on FB that went viral, been busy trying to answer everyone (still have about 60+ unread messages in my FB inbox!).

As far as I know, it's gone on FZ.com, Malaysia Today, Malaysian Insider, the Star, Loyar Buruk, Astro Awani... hmm. That's the list I know for now. :) NST contacted me and then ffk-ed me when they realised that it had already gone viral. I was pleasantly surprised when my friend told me that even Marina Mahathir had shared my note and came to my defense on behalf of temporary EC officers. haha!

Funny how a post written to release pent-up frustration could garner so much popularity! Hahaha. Oh well, I've received job offers, I guess that's the best outcome I could have hoped for. Apart from raising awareness among Malaysians, of course.

The most peculiar part about 'fame' is that sooo many people wanted to be associated to me. Hahaha! The ones who were blur and asking me about "your post that everyone is talking about - where to find it??" were my own real friends. I guess that's what true friends are for, eh? I think the worst person was CP!

So, this is my own personal blog - I don't know who reads it, but I know very few people do. Please keep it that way! It's my own private space, I'll have to make it private if that changes... which I don't want to, please! It's not like I write super personal stuff in here that you can stalk and find me (or maybe you can! :-O) but it's nice to have a space to rant about silly things in broken English and know that some people read it just for the fun of it.

So, with all the GE excitement dying down, I had to finish a 25 page essay in ONE day (Thursday) because I was sooo caught up with election fever I simply couldn't concentrate on my own work during the previous week!

OH! I'll be going to Bandung in June - some young speakers' ASEAN competition. Haha. About... guess what? Economic growth in ASEAN countries. LOL. If there is one thing you NEED to know about me, it's that my brain turns off the moment I see numbers and figures. Argh. The only reason why I got an A- in STPM for econs was because it had a lot of fun theory; the reason why I got the - in the A was probably due to the last section: the math part. :(

The lecturer who is an econs lecturer in my Southeast Asian dep asked me why I never took any of his courses... I was pretty honest and told him I have no interest in econs, I concentrated on politics (so much more vibrant and exercising and stimulating and oh all the fun stuff you can associate with politics!). -__-

Ok, I'm not making fun of econs la. I'm just being a sourgrape cause I'm no good in math. :(

Which means I'll need a lot of help for my competition. Econs, anyone? Specifically, how to increase economic growth among ASEAN countries.

Zzz.

Just a simple post to let you know that I'm very much alive! And it's week 12! Ahhhh with another 6 assignments to go! :-| :-| :-|

God bless!
Jo

Sigh

So I clicked on a pic few days ago on FB and it posted darn hamsap stuff on my FB. Good thing my friend suspected something was amiss and asked me about it.

I deleted that post and thought it wouldn't happen again... and it did again. Zzzz.

Got rid of the (stupid) app, hope it works!

Now really, I don't go around FB posting sick stuff. -__-

Election fever, on!

Sorry, that's about the best photo I can give you since the EC has said it's illegal to post pictures of the actual ballot paper online. Yes, I have two ballot papers with me right now, one with Chew Hoong Ling (MCA) vs Tony Pua (DAP) and the other with Liew Wei Beng (Independent, my former RA president) vs Lim Choon Kin (MCA) vs Yeo Bee Yin (DAP).

Any guesses on who will win? =P Based on the turnout for the ceramah that I attended last night, it's pretty clear cut, always has been for my area anyway. Well, except for one year...

I'm pretty excited for May 5th 2013. Nothing complicated about my job but it's the excitement of being a part of an extremely important event in my beloved country.

Will be attending a big ceramah tonight in Subang - the people whom I really wanna hear will be there!

Election in Malaysia has never been this exciting. Take care people, and vote wisely!


Jo

P.S. Yesterday's newspaper had a "duh" headline. "Najib Condemns Killing of Customs Deputy DG". Oh, really? -__-

SS

Heylo,
That's me with my ENORMOUS carrot. =) Prepared for a project today, my friends and I have to conduct a session with a bunch of kindergarten kids this Monday. Had a good time fooling around with the rest in my house! Preparing for our session meant we had to create animal masks, sing songs (I wanna play my guitar to add to the liveliness! Nothing beats live music :)) and practice a simple sketch from one of my favourite childhood stories, "The Enormous Turnip".. but we changed it to "The Enormous Carrot".

That aside, I made nearly RM500 in the past two days. But it was darn hard work and I'm sooo glad I didn't land the permanent job for it (was merely replacing a friend who couldn't do it for the past few days). To make things simple, I worked as a mystery shopper. Won't go into details cause I myself don't approve of what I'm doing for this job. =P However, it required me travelling around the whoooole of PJ, and I spent nearly 8 hours travelling around yesterday. From Kota Damansara to Taman Dato' Harun to Sri Damansara to SS9 to PJS to Sunway to good ol' familiar SS3 to even more familiar SS26... *pheeeew*. By 6pm I was rounding SS3 to finish off my rounds, and totally exhausted. SS3 reminded me of my form 4/5 English Lit tuition days... and for some reason (I can't recall what), I used to eat western food in one of the coffee shops there pretty frequently with friends in the more recent years. Now, for the life of me I can't recall why we used to want to eat there so often.

My Subang friend asked me to explain why PJ was soooo complicated and disordered with the SS's all over. I'm sorry, I really can't tell you why. I can point out most of the SS's to you if you'd like me to, anyway. =P They are scattered all over PJ! SS3 is facing SS1, SS 5 is nearby SS1/SS3, SS4 is nearby SS2, SS2 is massively huge and is nearby SS22, SS23, SS24, SS25, SS26...

OH.

I just remembered. Geez. SS12-SS19 is in Subang Jaya! For goodness sake, Subang is just as messed up laaah. SS20-SS26 suddenly returns to PJ again. I usually have to travel allllll the way to SS14 to get Leia's food since that's the only supplier in Malaysia that provides Canidae. Haha. Not that far la. It's just ironical that I have to travel all the way there when there are sooo many petstores nearby home.

Don't know if SS27 belongs to PJ or not...

Ok, enough about addresses. Suffice to say, I've completed that job, just waiting for my money now, and I'm gonna concentrate on uni after this. =D

I had the WEIRDEST dream last night, vivid and detailed and I remember everything about it. T'was a long dream too! Haha it was a pleasant dream though. :-) I woke up feeling happy!

Hmmm... today I received news that my former schoolmate's mom was stabbed to death while hiking with her family at Bukit Gasing... robbery. It's so tragic and I'm feeling sad and frustrated over it. As I was talking to another friend... disease, sickness, and even accident... these are different issues. But murder? It's hard to accept. At a place we are all familiar with too.. How many times have I hiked up Gasing?? It was a shock to all of us who are so used to Gasing... :(

Just, really, be safe and take care.

God bless,
Jo

No one told me..

No one told me that removing stitches would hurt like $%&!@#!

I bit my lips and suppressed the screams coming out of my mouth as the doc removed the stitches in my foot today. :-O

After that he did more cutting of my foot (I officially have the common viral wart/verucca vulgaris and can become the world's first tree woman) and I controlled my urge to snatch my foot away from his hands.

I now have a deep, raw hole in my foot and I'm darn disgusted by it. -___- It hurts to walk and I've no idea when I can return to exercising, gym, badminton, running, and everything I usually do. Zzz.

Apart from that, I've returned from Cambodia yesterday and I've seen the light.

I'm gonna be an officer for election! *Excited*

Tired,
Jo