Recap

Its been really long since my last post. I guess I have been too caught up with work, and hadn't realised how fast time flies. Today is the last day of June. Gosh.

To recap on 2nd year, it was really one hell of a journey. Now when I look back, I had mixed feelings - felt phobic and nostalgic at the same time. Let's see how much I can recall.

October 2009

Start of the academic year. Had my spirits high only to be dampened by the incoming workload, steadily increasing as time passes. Nevertheless, had a fun start to the term with a weekend trip to Oslo, Norway. Love that place. Just cant seem to get enough of travelling. Everywhere I go, there are always new things to be discovered.

Amazing sunset.

However, weather was pretty cold despite me being there in October. Had no idea why so many people made trips there last winter. After me, so many friends when there in winter. Ian told me he couldn't feel his feet and had to beat it to make sure its still there =_=

November 09

Start of our Mechanics Design Project. Totally clueless on what to do at the beginning and came out with many random and useless ideas. Was stuck with no proper design in mind right until before the start of the Christmas Holidays.

December 2009

Germany and Poland Trip. Was really looking forward to this one as its my trip with Premnaath! Has been so long since I've met my fellow secondary classmate. We sat together in class in Form 4. Still remember him dozing off with his pen drawing on his Physics Notes duing Puan Goh Chee Peng's class. LOL.

Munich was white and the town hall was really pretty.

The Christmas markets were also colourful and cosy.

Met Yi En in Stuttgart. Spent Christmas with a bunch of fellow Malaysians who were friends of Yi En. First time baking a chocolate cake too!

Poland was, well, really a new type of country I've been. Its gives a sad feeling with its horrible past. People stare at us because we were Asians. According to Premnaath, they dislike foreigners in their land because it was the foreigners who made what their land look like today. Warsaw was almost 90% destroyed in World War 2. Really sad and tragic place.

Warsaw had a wedding cake - a gift from Russia to well remind them of what happened in World War 2. The older generation really hate the building.

Zakopane is awesome! A cosy little town with skiing resorts and Christmas markets - I just love the atmophere there. Really dont mind retiring there though. Just only the language barrier that matters.

Oh, and I must thank Premnaath for being my translator over there! His Polish is amazing lah. I only know how to say "Jinkuya" (don't think its the correct spelling) when I see people all the time. LOL.

January 2010 - March 2010

End of holidays and start of the term. I guess I was just lost in my academic work during that period. Can't really recall much as my daily life has been going to lectures, doing the Mechanics Design Project and attending Japanese lessons.

Japanese lessons were like a haven for me during the tough times. It was sort of my source of entertainment/relaxation at the same time a place to venture deeper into a new culture. I realised how much I love Japanese culture. I love their healthy food, their polite demanour, their work ethics. I love the beautiful scenery and places they have, their technology, and them taking pride in the culture they have - anime, manga, otaku etc.

For this I must also thank Miwa sensei for her teaching - it was one of the best tutors I have ever had. Ever friendly and cheerful, and never failing to answer any queries I have. Made me amazed and interested in Japanese language at the same time.
I hope I wont fail you, I can still remember some of the things learnt! :p


Mechanics Design Project was the highlight of 2nd year. For my group we were assigned to design an artificial knee, mainly for landmine victims in Manipal, India. It was something I had not done before - coming up with a design and actually manufacturing and testing it. Special thanks to Marcello, Tazeen, Kavitha who had made so much contributions to the group. It was really fun to work with you all and I am really proud with our work. As proven, we won the design project prize! Let's hope the patent can go through.

Still remember the days which I spent hours on SolidWorks, editing tables in the report, doing animations for our design, attending countless meetings throughout the week. It was really both phoobic and nostalgic at the same time. Now when I look back, it was really bitter-sweet - but I didn't regret it.

April 2010

Spain and Portugal Trip with Edmund. This was one of the trips that I enjoyed the most. It was only the 2 of us - we could go anywhere and do whatever we wanted, and we pretty much did.

Barcelona was an amazing city. I just don't know how to put my love for the city in words. Let the picture do the talking.

Las Ramblas, the main tourist street (something like Jonker walk in Melaka)

Port Vell and the amazing beaches - and lying on the lazy chair for free only to be told off by the guards! :P

Plaza Catalunya - my FAVOURITE spot in Spain. Birds flying around and towards the people ready with food, people relaxing, couples kissing, teenagers showing off their skateboarding skills, young children with ice-cream running around.

Madrid was pretty much a city like London - busy people walking without a second look, and nothing much to do.

Gran Via - the heartbeat of Madrid's night life.

Portugal was also pretty awesome.

Portuguese egg tarts which is something very different - I felt out of this world when I tried it - it was just something I had not tried before - really really good.

Lisbon reminded me of Melaka - the forts they have just like A Famosa, and the weather during then which is also bright and sunny all day. A good escape from Nottingham which we previously came from.

Porto is a laid-back town with friendly people and nice architecture.

May 2010

Start of the final exams. Right after my trip, I was so afraid that I was behind until I studied so hard everyday - really everyday from 9am to 11pm non stop. It was also another horrible experience - but we went through together. Special thanks to Kangwen and Siew May here - you guys made my revision period so much more interesting. The contents were so much until we were so desperate - we actually joint effortly divided the notes and made notes separately then exchange and combine them - you could imagine how much of stuff we need to learn for the exams. Revision divided into 3 people! But it was really great to have support from you all.

The language lab (my suggestion! instead of the packed library) is also another nostalgic place in Imperial College from now on. Place where we would meet up for revision and do past year papers together. All the best for the results!

June 2010

Almost reaching the end of exams. Lost momentum towards the 10th and 11th paper - just couldn't care more. Just needed my first class so I meet A*STAR requirements. At the same time my family came over and visit - it was my idea as I could only return home in August and I wanted to see them so badly, so I proceeded to book the air tickets, only then telling Dad after :p

Really glad to see them love London and Paris. To my surprise, they preferred London, which was the opposite for me. London was a hell-hole with sardin-packed tube, and cold faced people.

I guess my busy life made me felt that London wasnt the right place for me. There are so many places I want to live but London - Barcelona, Zakopane, Oslo, Lucerne, Edinburgh... the list goes on.

Their trip made me realised how much I under-appreciated London. Brought them to so many places which I haven't been myself, and find myself loving it. I guess its just a different feel of the place having your loved ones around, eh?

Also got many good food recommendations around London. Tried Japanese, Korean, Thai, French, Italian, Chinese and of course Malaysian. You can really have all the food of the world right here in London. However, I still prefer my wantan mee and chee cheong fun back in Melaka XD

Now that they have returned to Melaka, it is the start of another new chapter of my life. I am currently doing an internship with my personal tutor at Imperial College - finally a chance to take a good look how research in Imperial is like.

My research project has a pretty interesting title - "using small angle light scattering to imperfect bone".

This is my 3rd day of work and I am loving it. Seen the laser machine that I will be using soon. The principle behind is really interesting, and I am really lucky to have such a superb tutor! Together with her ever-dedidcated Phd student, I'm sure this will be a fruitful attachment.

Wish me luck!

7 more weeks to Malaysia! Can't wait!

寻找遗失的自我

每一次在电台听到这首歌都会起鸡皮疙瘩。

歌词特别有意思。

Malaysian Night 2010!

Imperial College Union Malaysian Society proudly presents:

Malaysian Night 2010 - Born to be Vile

The performances, in chronological order:

- ACT 1 -

Opening

Melodi + From This Moment

Asmaradana + Indian

Mamak Mia

Smooth Criminal

- ACT 2 -

Stomp

Curtain Call

Malaysian Night 2010

OK, sorry for the long long long no update. Have been super duper busy. Entertain yourself with this for the moment. More updates to come.

Find out more here.

Singapore-London

Gosh. Didnt realise I havent not been updating my blog for so long... Shall start with my trip back to London.

Flew from Changi Airport, transiting at Dubai, and then to London. Feels nostalgic because it reminds me of how I departed the first time of London, especially at Heathrow, the corridor where I first walked past, the customs, everything looked the same, just that I was not lining up at the first-time students queue anymore. Gosh, how time passes by.

Bumped into Kenneth when I alighted at Earls Court Tube Station. Found my way to our new place. My room was still empty! Thanks Kenneth for helping me move my things from the senior's place to our flat! Really appreciate it.

Moved furniture and cleaned my room for the whole of Sunday. I practically assembled my room from scratch!

I was so happy with the new place. It's strategically located next to Earls Court, where all the food are found, and also 5 minutes away from the Sainsbury that I always shopped at. I used to walk 20 minutes carrying heavy groceries back to my hall, and now it feels great to be able to save the trouble.

South Kensington is really dead, now I have seen Earls Court. No food, no stores, nothing. No wonder I used to have a bad impression of UK food. Not anymore! Maybe I can even stay near to Chinatown/Oxford Street next year!

The construction of Eastside hall is completed. Reminds me of the days where the construction noise wakes me up for the day to get ready for school. No need for alarm clock. Now my room faces a backyard, which gets creepily quiet at the night. Nevertheless, I enjoy this. Peace and quiet has always been my thing.

A fresh start of the term greets me with newly refurbished lecture theatre RSM2.28, which is now much brighter, yay, but lower seats, which make a tall guy's back ache everytime after a lecture. LOL

Lectures are geting tougher by the year, and I just got my Mechanics Deisgn Project, which is to design a transfemoral prosthesis aka artificial knee for amputated victims in India. One of the more interesting modules of the year.

However, the thing that keeps me looking forward everyday is Japanese lessons! Its the most fun, most interesting, and most awake lecture I have ever had! I managed to learn to read and write Hiragana so far, but there is still so much more to learn! So exciting! Asian/Oriental stuff appeals to me more, as usual. ^^

Sometimes I think whether I made the right choice by going into chim chim sciences/engineering stuff. I feel like I am losing my interest in Science when it comes to abstract ideas like modern physics or computing protocols. I used to love Science/Math so much in A-Levels, its the simplicity and the ability for me to relate them in daily life thats sustains my interest in all these subjects. Now Japanese is the one doing it.

There is something dampening my interest in learning what is being taught. Is it the university education system ? Or the British education system? Or the lecturers' accents which I sometimes find hard to understand? Or the abstract content? I really dont know.

On another note, Hanyang, YiJet, Ting Yu and me went to Oslo, Norway during the 2nd weekend! No one cant resist the temptation of a 16pound return flight to Oslo, so I skipped my last Solid Mechanics tutorial on Friday, just for the trip. Will post more pictures up soon!

Looking Back

I have been complaining to so many people that work life is boring. Now its time to think otherwise. Looking back at what I have done,

Learning to use a whole new programming language to write brain programs for the lab is actually quite an achievement.

Going through thousands of data to derive statistical models for future reference is actually quite meaningful.

Having crazy lunch partners talking about random things and ocassional *censored* topics is actually quite fun.

Squeezing myself into packed sardin MRT trains every morning, listening to the humours of morning DJs and observing the daily busy-fast-paced-solemn-tired-face-hectic life of working Singaporeans is actually quite interesting.

Feeding the head with another kind of working experience is worthwhile. Life is all about lifelong learning!

1 week left to the end of my internship. School, Hospital, Working Office and now Research Laboratory. What's next?

Work

I want to do this:

Not this!

1Malaysia

Najib’s 1Malaysia a two-faced scam?

Kim Quek
Monday, 10 August 2009

Take a look at the following two scenarios which were spectacularly contradictory to each other:

Scenario 1: Prime Minister Najib Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor put up a stellar performance in a charity dinner that helped to raise RM 2.3 million for a Chinese primary school in Segambut, Kuala Lumpur on Aug 6. Rosmah not only serenaded the audience with a popular Mandarin song (which alone netted RM 200,000), her group of ministers’ wives gave rendition to four songs each in a different language - Mandarin, English, Malay and Tamil - to give full expressions to her husband’s ‘lMalaysia’ motto. She heaped praise on the Chinese community for their unfailing generosity to support Chinese education and urged other communities to follow suit in the spirit of ‘1Malaysia’.

Scenario 2: Almost at the same, mass circulated Malay paper Utusan Malaysia, which is UMNO’s mouthpiece, spat racial fire through an incendiary article. Writing under the title ‘Melayu jangan jadi bacul’ (Malays, don’t be cowards) on Aug 4, journalist Noor Azam accused the Chinese and Indians of wanting to “destroy Malay political power held by UMNO since independence” with the help of Anwar Ibrahim and PAS. This supposed power grab was pursued with Chinese-dominated DAP manipulating the Malay leaders in Pakatan Rakyat. The writer further claimed that “The attacks and the hatred shown by the opposition and Chinese and Indian political activists towards the Malays have worsened”. To goad the Malays into action, he even went to the extent of calling them ‘cowards’, saying “The Malay race has become stupid cowards, and people who are cowards will die before even their deaths.”

Such bare-faced incitement of racial hatred and racial clash should have landed the writer in lock-up and the newspaper’s licence revoked under Malaysia’s repressive laws, particularly if they are on the other side of the political divide, but Noor Azam and Utusan Malaysia not only escaped untouched, but had the honour of being defended by none other than the UMNO’s Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who ridiculously and inexplicably blamed the opposition for causing such heightening of racial temperature. That Noor’s racist blast bears the stamp of UMNO’s policy is unmistakable.


The objectives of this two-pronged strategy are obvious. Strategy 1 (Scenario 1) is meant to coax the return of Chinese and Indian votes which had exited the BN pen in a mass exodus in the 8 Mar 08 elections. And Strategy 2 (Scenario 2) is geared towards splitting the opposition and re-uniting the Malay electorate under the UMNO canopy by appealing to the primordial instincts of race and religion through pressing the panic buttons of lies and deceit, of which the nonsense of Scenario 2 is typical.

This explains why Najib’s new measures are mostly ad-hoc, piecemeal, populist and election-centred – every move calculated for electoral gains.

My Personal Opinion

I don't usually like to talk about politics, but looking at these depressing Malaysian news like the article above almost everyday, I would also like to share my perspective regarding this matter.

Let me bring in the concept of the "invisible hand" by Adam Smith, which I strongly believe in. Things work naturally to bring maximum benefit to society.

In ecology - the prey-predator mechanism maintains the balance of the ecosystem.

In metaphysics - there are attractive and repulsive forces balancing each other in the most fundamental level of matter.

In economics - the "invisible hand" drives the demand and supply of a free market to achieve optimal price and quantity.




The biggest problem now lies in the fact that the affirmative action policy of Malaysia is resisting the natural tendency of this "invisible hand" to drive Malaysia's economy to greater heights.

In investment - companies listed in the KLSE must find bumiputeras taking up a minimum 30% of equity under this policy, driving away foreign investors and funds, resulting in reduced foreign investment.

In education - this affirmative action policy is draining away local talent by having quota on public tertiary education and scholarship opportunities, lowering the standards of education (e.g. poor command of English, the Science and Math issue), increasing unemployment rate etc etc etc.



Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad has bemoaned the extreme reliance of Bumiputras on their privileges. Of course he has to say it nicely to the people first, and he couldn't remove this policy right away, otherwise he wont get to say it again after the next general election, you know.

THAT IS THE PROBLEM.

Do the leaders truly want progress for our nation, or remain popular among the people and continue to stay in office?

Thanks to this policy, the mentality of being complacent and taking-for-granted-because-the-government-will-give-me-what-I-want is already deep rooted among the people today. And the Prime Minister is having a hard time dealing with this mess. I am not sure if beliau is really trying, but based on the article I just saw above, I am quite convinced that it is more towards rallying support from the people and prevent the repeat of the 08/03/08 election loss. Ever wondered where will Malaysia be heading to in the future? Now you know. Quite sad huh.

As what I have learnt to write as conclusion for my Economic essays on free trade - "Protectionism may be necessary to let infant industries grow amidst a crowd of economic giants, but may breed inefficiency and complacency in the long run."

OK, now let me rephrase:

The affirmative action policy may be necessary to help the bumiputeras escape poverty during the post-independence era in the 1960s, but it is breeding inefficiency and complacency in the long run, which is NOW, TODAY, SEKARANG. With news like Anwar, Teoh Beng Hock and the ISA, YO, the people up there, can you see the current situation already? @_@

Please, for optimal benefit for the people, the economy and the nation, just scrape it.

Just my two cents worth. What do you think?

新加坡

Happy Birthday Singapore!

My favourite national theme songs of all times.

龚诗嘉 - My Island Home/幸福的图形


孙燕姿 - One United People/全心全意

成长

最近看完了一部香港连续剧《师奶股神》，给我了对人生很大的启发。



我发现在工作界高层的人士一般都不比平凡的打工仔生活得开心。反而在剧中的家庭主妇们最真实，不假作，有话直说，虽然对一些人来说会显得很粗俗，不太雅观，但这是我佩服她们的一点。

随着岁月的流逝，随着时间的推移，我们一天一天的长大，慢慢地成熟懂事，但我觉得我们已渐渐失去一样东西，那就是纯真。我们开始接触社会，看到它真实的一面，in response 就得跟着社会的某种方式行事。我们一定要上学读书，做工赚钱，建立家庭， 这是society 对我们的expectations。

人懂得东西越多，想要的也就更多，因为人的心总是不会满足的。这就是人的本性。我们总是提醒自己做人一定要知足，一定要珍惜身旁所拥有的一切，因为我们是不会自动这样子想的。虽然是个很悲观的想法，但我觉得这就是事实。

有时候，没有学问的人讲起话来会比我们读书人讲得更有道理，因为他们单纯的思想点到了许多人生的道德观念，反而我们被社会的许多东西（金钱，地位，名誉等）模糊了眼睛。

我真的希望能够回到以前小时天真无邪，无忧无虑的生活。我要求的只是一个简单、平凡、快乐的生活。为什么一定要跟着社会的步伐走呢？