The 20 questions game

During my recent 6 days trip to Melbourne (24-29th November 2010) with Sheena and Ben for the Engineers Without Borders National Conference: Impact 2010, we started a game of 20 questions on our 2nd day there though we only got to question 14 by the end of the trip. I'm going to put down some of the more memorable (or the ones I remember really- it was only the day before but I've forgotten some already!) questions and answers.

Question 1

Sheena: Describe your perfect day.

Ah, an age old question! Though for a LONG time (all my life really) my answer has been lounge on the couch and read a good book, I found myself answering...

Me: A day out (or in) with my best friend.

Sheena:Who is...?

Me: Adrian.

Sheena: Because...?

Hmmm...would this have counted as 3 questions then? :D

Me: Among other (million) things I could sit down and talk to him for ages *beam!*.

Got "knowing" smiles from them for the rest of the trip :| Hahaha...

Question 2

Ben: Something you regret and wished you haven't done/can take back.

My initial answer was actually absolutely nothing as everything that has happened, happened for a reason at that moment in time and all the things that has happened in our life has lead us to where we are now.

But then again I thought perhaps there is one thing I wish I could take back and I can't possible see how drastically my life course could've changed should I have not done it. And so I answered...

Me: When I was in high school, mum would wake me up in the mornings (around 6-ish) and not being a  morning person, sometimes I got really grumpy (whoops! Sorry mum). I suppose I wished I was less cranky then. Poor mum...

Question 3

A rather morbid question but fire away (no pun intended)!

Me: Would you rather die by burning or drowning?

Sheena: Drowning. I hear it's peaceful. 

*Yikes!*

Ben: Burning.

Me: Burning. I'm "hoping" the smoke will kill me first before anything else.

Question 4

Sheena: An embarrassing moment in the last year.

Nothing in the last year comes to mind but I did have an embarrassing moment in the last 2 years...January (or sometime February) 2009 to be exact.

Me: Early last year during the second semester of A-Levels, we had to go to a "leadership camp" (it was only for 1 weekend) and on our first day there we did the obstacle course activity. The boys all went first and my team was the first girl team to go. When we got to the Tarzan swing obstacle where you  have to swing yourself across using the rope that's suspended above a tank of dirty, murky, algae filled water (no way of knowing how deep the tank was-it's underground), none of the girls wanted to go first and so I heroically volunteered myself to be the first girl to go (I've done this before though it was ages ago-should be easy peasy anyways). Bearing in mind e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e was looking at me (boys having finished first and is know just lounging on the grass and all the girls waiting in line for us to go through), I grabbed the rope, and across I went! Only I didn't make it across having not held the rope securely enough and halfway through-*PLOOP!* In the disgustingly dirty water I went (I suppose I was lucky it only went up to my midsection). NO!!! So yeah-an embarrassing moment. Lesson learned behind this? Urmmm...think before you leap? Really, I should say think before you swing :D

Question 5

Me: Best childhood memory that really "pops out".

Me: Trip to LA Disneyland when I was 7. That one Definitely "pops out" :)

Question 6

Sheena: If you could invite 2 people (dead or alive) to a dinner party, who would it be and why?

If this question had been a little differently and went "2 historical events you'd like to see", 2 immediate ones pops in mind. Though now that they're people-based, I'll relate it to my historical events.

Me: The person who designed the Pyramids of Giza and the Stonehenge simply because I'm extremely curious to know how they did it! Scientists, engineers, archeologists, historians of the 21st century still can't figure it out. Amazing!

Question 7

Me: Song you'll play at your wedding reception when the bride and groom has their first dance. (Ben surprisingly commented that this was a good question)

Me: Though I've never given it much thought, (I suppose I'll have to give it a "proper" think when the day comes-maybe something from Billy Joel?) the first song that pops to mind is Sarah McLachlan's Angel though I'm not entirely sure the lyrics is a perfect fit for a joyous wedding day but one line does stands out, "You're in the arms of an angel, may you find some comfort here". I imagine my husband would be my angel, my greatest blessing :) Nevertheless, the melody is good and I've always sorta imagined dancing under the moonlight to this song, especially those moments when I'm listening to it late at night, alone somewhere...

Sheena's followup question to that was: Song you'll play during the walk in (to the alter).

General consensus was Pachelbel's Canon in D. Lovely song! I just might stick to that one-it gives one such an uplifting feeling when you're listening to it. I definitely can imagine myself walking down the aisle feeling beyond happy to this song :)

Question 8

Me: If there was a device that could show you the future, would you like to see what the future has in store?

Ben, Sheena: No.

Me: Yes, but only if it could be erased from my mind straight after. I am curious to see just for that moment in time, what the future really looks like but I wouldn't want to remember it for the rest of my life though-things could/would go wrong at some point should you try to alter even a tiny portion of it or you'd end up living your life based on what you saw. Seems wrong anyway.

Question 9

Ben: An extinct animal you'd like to bring back.

For the life of me, I couldn't think of a single extinct animal besides the dinosaur the moment he asked that (though I started to remember a few after). Tsk tsk. And though I was tempted to reply dinosaurs (seeing I couldn't remember any other ones-Sheena already took the Dodo bird because they're so cute), it got me thinking that if I bring back one species, it'd only be "fair" to bring back all of them which would include the T-Rex and I'm not entirely sure I'd want a one-on-one encounter with a T-Rex that's on a rampage. Plus, we humans will get all high and mighty anyway and probably caged them all off and that wouldn't be fair. They should be allowed to roam wherever they want (they are some mighty big creatures). I don't quite remember Jurassic Park ending very happily-then again I watched that one AGES ago when I was little. Maybe I only remember the "bad" bits like when one of them got gobbled. 

Me: Mammoth.

Ben: Why?

Me: Urmm...why not? :D

...and my memory of the game ends there. Should I (though I don't think so) remember questions 10-14 sometime in the next few days, I'll add on.

105 days of summer

I surprised myself that I didn't straight away jumped to write up a new blog post the moment final exams finished (like I thought I would) but it actually took me a few days to properly think of how to sum up an awesome semester! :)

And so, I have finally completed finals week of  first year, second semester (last paper on Saturday, 13th November) which also marks the end of the line of being a first year student! Truly an awesome moment on the day of the last exam when you know that the end of that paper (Organic Chemistry in my case) marks that you'll officially be a second year student and hence as sister so aptly put it, no longer a newbie. An amazing feeling that I got through the whole year and I'm still in one piece! Looking back now, I could say how I can't believe that time really does flies when I remember so clearly the first day I entered university way back in February. 

An interesting year definitely, first semester being nothing short of a whirlwind but thankfully second semester was much more manageable. Perhaps the saying "experience is the teacher of all things" (Julius Caesar) really does hold true! Knowing better what to expect from a day in a life of a university student, I was more prepared going into second semester and hence a better semester all around. Getting more involved in "uni life" (clubs, university events, etc) helps as well since only through them do you truly get the opportunity to meet with other students (the older ones especially) that are doing the same course as you are (handy when you've got a million things to ask :) OR even students who are not in the same course OR staff members OR just some random person (like during the UWA Open Day, got to meet with heaps of prospective students and members of the public). 

Top 10 highlights throughout semester 2:
(...is now contemplating if I should put them in order of "rank" or in order of dates. Hmm...rank it is! :)

1. Engineers Without Borders 2010 Challenge for the unit GENG1003: Introduction to Professional Engineering
[the whole semester]

I remember meeting someone in a lecture early last semester (a second year student who failed his first year math and had to repeat the unit) that told me about GENG1003 and implied that I should be dreading it (as everyone apparently does) because by the end of it you have to come up with a 20,000 words report. Being an absolute "newbie" then, that really threw me off (honestly scared me a bit), not knowing how 'dreadful' it might turn out to be plus it's a group work; which threw me off even more! Can't say there's been a point in my life that I've had a great experience working in a group. There's ALWAYS going to be just this one person that slacks off.

Because of that (more than anything else), going into second semester though maybe not a kill-me-now-dread, I was rather weary of what I should expect from the unit. By the end of the semester however, this turn out to be my number 1 highlight!

Sure, a 20000 words report on "providing a reliable and sustainable source of clean drinking water for the Kooma Nation in Bendee Downs" (a nation I've never even heard of till early this semester) sounds like a lot of words (it is really) but having an AWESOME group certainly did help (though by law of the universe, of course there was one that did slack but everyone else being SO great still made it a terrific unit!).
There were 6 of us in a group and more than anyone, Joshua Knight and Leopold Silberstein, to me, made all the difference. It certainly wouldn't have been the same without them. Truly an AMAZING feeling when we finally handed in our finished report. The sense of accomplishment!!! Best thing about the unit, I must say, is that it doesn't have a final exam!! A definite perk!

Group members from L-R: Leo, Josh, Deshnee, me, Adam, and Kevin

2. Adrian Dudek's Mathematics Honours Seminar
[27 October 2010 (Wed)]

Met Adrian (a mathematics honours student, 21 years old) late last semester when he started tutoring a group of us for MATH1020. He’s actually a 'study group leader' under UniSkills (yet another great feature in UWA) and though group leaders guidelines told them that they weren't meant to "tutor" us and instead let the study group be...well a study group where students meet and discuss the unit and the leaders’ role was only to “supervise” us, he did end up tutoring and did an amazing job at it! During 2nd semester, got the same (thankfully) study group leader for another first year math unit, MATH1010 and I definitely would not have been able to do the unit half as well if it wasn't for him.

Anyway, he sent me an invite (thank you!:) to attend his final honours presentation on the thesis he's been working on the whole year and watching him that day was...REMARKABLE! I can't really put it into words and I can't think of a fair enough equivalent to do it justice (perhaps watching Beethoven conducting a symphony would give you an inkling of what it felt like for me to watch him present that day). It truly was, if not THE BEST presentation I've seen in my life (and I'm not exaggerating), it certainly was one of the best presentations EVER! Amazing, amazing speaking skills and his passion for mathematics just oozes out and hooks you in! Perhaps what made it so remarkable to me (more than anything else) is that one wouldn't expect mathematics to be that interesting (and perhaps talking to the wrong person might even bore you to tears) but during Adrian's talk, even to a 'layman' (like me) what he presented (families of expander graphs) made sense and was very understandable. On top of that, he presented with such an amazing aura! I really can't properly describe it to do the experience justice but it inspired me to get hyped about my final project design presentation for GENG1003 that I was going to have 2 days later.

Ah, congratulations on getting the award for ‘Best Honours Speaker’ (by the UWA’s Mathematics Department) a few days later! Why am I not surprised? :D

3. CPEC and SPE of UWA quiz night
[6 October 2010 (Wed)]

This was a fun night! Being on the committee added to the excitement of organizing the event and finally seeing everything come together in the end. Coincidentally, that night also marked my 2nd time this year though my first "proper outing'" to UWA's tavern (Lol. I know how much students love it there! The first time I went was just to have a look of what the infamous tavern actually looks like).

The night was a joint collaboration between the Chemical & Process Engineering Club and the Society of Petroleum Engineers of UWA. There were 8, 10 questions rounds (movies, music, celebrities, sports, chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, geography, trivia), pizzas, soft drinks and beer (an 18+ event) served, final turnout of 13 tables with 8 people per table (not including organizers), a table for AMEC reps and UWA lecturers each (big surprise lecturer's table came out 1st? I think not! They did gracefully give their prize to the 2nd place winners though! ).

All in all, a successful night! Though at that time I posted up on facebook as it being my "most memorable day of first year", by the end of the semester, this ranked number 3. Still top 3 though!

L-R: Prash, me, Hatim, Tom, Raawi, Andrew and Jonathan

Things I learned from quiz night:

1. Capital of Bulgaria is Sofia

2. Timbuktu is in Mali

3. Octopus has 3 hearts

4. Daniel Radcliffe's (famous for his lead role in Harry Potter) middle name is Jacob

5. The third president from the left on Mount Rushmore is Theodore Roosevelt

...among other things:)

4. Australian University Games, Sports Assistant (Touch) 
[27 September – 1 October 2010 (the study break week)]

I remember getting an email earlier that month asking for volunteers and it immediately sparked my interest. Applied for it and got a reply letter on 20 September (super excited then!) saying I’ve been successfully selected to be a ‘sport assistant volunteer’ for touch sports at Langley Park (honestly didn’t even know what ‘touch sports’ meant then…turns out it was touch football. Not having played too much outdoor sports, didn’t even quite know what touch football was even after I found out!).

Though volunteering for AUG meant I’d missed out on doing what I was supposed to be doing during the study week (STUDY!) since the events goes on from 9 am till 5 pm though volunteers have to be there by 8 to prep up the competition area (when I came home I’m usually too knackered to get any studying done), I’m glad that I did it. It was an interesting experience definitely!

UniGames day 1

Things I learned today:

1.      There's a University of Sunshine Coast in Queensland (it sounds like such a cheery place! Hard to imagine being mopey in a place called ‘Sunshine Coast’)

2.     'Player Under Protest' DOES NOT mean someone is throwing a tantrum somewhere as I originally imagined (I actually turned and looked around if that were students holding up picket signs protesting against something). It just means they don't have their accreditation on them at the time of registration.

3.    How to play touch football (having done nothing much besides watching the game for the past 9 hours, surely I must've picked something up!)

UniGames day 5
Highlight of the week (definitely! :D). During half time of the last game for gold men's division (UNSW vs Monah University), a guy ran across the field...wait for it...completely naked! Yep. In full view of e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. My first experience seeing a streaker at a live sporting event!

Touch football champion for women's AND men's division: UNSW (I think from here we can safely conclude that UNSW is good in touch)

The finals of men's division: UNSW vs Monah Univeristy

5. EWB UWA Chapter 2011 Committe Dinner 
[15 October 2010 (Fri)]

EWB UWA Chapter 2011 Committee

Another fun night out! It was especially great getting to meet with other EWB members and spend the night chilling, talking about our engineering units:D We had the dinner at Annalakshmi which is an Indian restaurant that’s charity based so you pay as much as you like for a meal. Seeing that they serve it buffet style and the food is good (!!!), I’d definitely put in a good word out for that place.

After dinner, went for bubbletea with Daniel, Ben, and Jason. It was great getting to walk around the city at night, sipping our bbt, and people watch. Plus it was a break from studying which is always such a joy!

6. UWA Open Day 
[15 August 2010 (Sun)]

Volunteered for both EWB booth and as a UWAYE (UWA Young Engineers) tour guide (gave tours around the engineering buildings that had all these amazing activities on based on their respective fields; Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, etc).

At EWB's booth with Sheena, Daniel, and Hatim

I think the one thing that struck me as this day being totally awesome was that for the first time in my life I was actually on “the other side”. Before this, it was always me that was attending all sorts of open days, deciding on which university I was going to but today I finally got to be the one that was doing the explaining (as opposed to being the one getting the explanations) to the prospective students and their parents all about UWA and giving some insights on life as an engineering student. Whoa!

UWA's Civil and Mechanical Engineering building

7. UniSkills End of Year Lunch 
[26 October 2010 (Tue)]

Loved today simply because it was the first time I got to have a proper chat with Adrian outside of our study group and it's so fascinating talking to him. I’ve never met anyone that I found so interesting to talk to! That made this the most memorable UniSkills event I went to this whole year-hands down!!! :)

8. Spring feast at UWA in conjunction with Multicultural Week 
[7 October 2010 (Thu)]

I liked it because it’s not every day that you get things going on in uni that resembles a joyous, festival like atmosphere (started at 6 pm and ended at 10 pm). There were loads of foods in a diverse range-Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, Middle Eastern (among others). Everything looked so tempting that I ended up stuffing myself with food (oh! So full!!!) Also experienced my first human traffic in UWA! (literally couldn’t turn without accidentally hitting someone-it was that packed!).

9. Carlos’ house 
[6 August 2010 (Fri)]

Today was actually the first time (don’t be shocked) that I got to try out playing Wii. I got super excited to play around with the controls (don’t laugh). He had Super Mario in his Wii at that time so that'll go down in my life's history as the first ever Wii game that I played (though only if you count *Game Over* after a minute as a "proper" play-you'll see why). Unless Mario on a daily basis feels suicidal, I don’t think the character appreciated it too much that I made him walk off the edge every single time (hey, in my defense the controls really does take some getting used to!). Carlos then decided Super Mario was “too advanced” for me that he degraded my game to the "basic starter pack". Hahaha!!! It was still very fun to play with. Played things like ice hockey and shooting down freebies. What I remember most about that night perhaps is haven't had laughed as hard as that night (I couldn't stopped!) in months...and all because of Wii :D

10. Being VERY sick the week before final exams 
[29 October – 7 November 2010]

Though this is definitely not exactly what I would call a “highlight” but it's something that I'll always remember-being sick on the week before first year finals. I was only very sick for the first 3 days (I thought I was going to die! Jeez…Dramatic much?!) and though it got better after that, I still had (and is still having it now) my cough right throughout exams *cough cough*.

I don’t know how it actually happened. The morning on the last day of uni before study week (Firday, 29 October) I was feeling perfectly fine (did my GENG1003 final project design presentation that evening with perfect poise and grace even! :D). Then, uni ended (everyone cheered), went back  home, and *BAM!* High fever, sore throat, whole body sore, terrible headache and all I could think was, “Oh no! I WANT TO STUDY!!!” Gah! Sucks getting sick so close to exams. 3 whole days “wasted” by being "bed-ridden" but I came through alright in the end. Lucky me:)

I should take this opportunity to thank:

1.  my sister - for taking such good care of me throughout the whole time I was sick, giving me all my medications (a definite perk of having a pharmacist in the house-saves a trip to the doctors!), making me soup, and above all else, being so patient with me when you had your exams to prepare for as well

2.   mum and dad - for showing genuine concern (calling, texting, asking how I was everyday) even though you’re 2000 miles away

3.  Adrian - also for showing genuine concern and offering to push back our last study group till I got better and subsequently after that giving me a lift home after the study group so that I wouldn't have to trudge in a 45 minutes bus ride back home:)

4.    everyone on fb that left me get well wishes! It was truly something to finally get out of bed, fire up fb, and see a million (well, not a million:D) notifications:)

A whole semester summed up in one blog post.

An awesome semester indeed! And after today I have 103 days of summer to look forward to and I must say, so far (between Saturday and today) it’s been an absolute blast!

This summer is going to be legen-wait for it-dary! LEGENDARY!

Selena's Dreaming of You

An all time favorite.

Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I'd stay up and think of you
And I'd wish on a star
That somewhere you are thinking of me too

Cuz I'm dreaming of you tonight
Till tomorrow, I'll be holding you tight
And there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be
Then here in my room,
Dreaming about you and me

Wonder if you even see me
And I wonder if you know I'm there
If you looked in my eyes
Would you see what's inside?
Would you even care?

I just wanna hold you close
But so far, all I have are dreams of you
So, I wait for the day and the courage to say
How much I love you (Yes, I do)

I'll be dreaming of you tonight
Till tomorrow, I'll be holding you tight
And there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be
Then here in my room,
Dreaming about you and me

Ahhh...I can't stop dreaming of you
Ahhh...I can't stop dreamin

Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I'd stay up and think of you
And I still can't believe that you came up to me
And said, "I love you; I love you too"

Now I'm dreaming with you tonight
Till tomorrow, and for all of my life
And there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be
Then here in my room,
Dreaming with you endlessly...

Silence

Why the lOng siLence?

SImply put: 1st year, 2nd semester final exams in 11 days.

8 November (Mon) - MATE1412: Materials Engineering

10 November (Wed) - MATH1010: Calculus and Linear Algebra

13 November (Sat) - CHEM1102: Organic Chemistry

'Nuff said! :D

Final paper will also officially mark the last day as a first year student! Exciting, exciting.

Will update blog as soon as exam finishes.

Btw, oliVEs explained (last impRession shouldn't be a bitter one).. [relevance of "olives and motions" in some ways relates to Marshall and Lily's (from HIMYM) olive theory-only I've added my perspective to that obviously]

Just the whole notion of going through the motions when you see so many 'failed motions' is a daunting thought. Maybe it'll work out in the end. Maybe it won't. That's life, hey. Take it in a stride I suppose. Maybe it won't be so bad after all :) *hopefully that's not just wishful thinking talking :S*

Olives

Thinking about olives used to make me freakishly SAD (I reckon only sister will get this joke). Now, it just makes me sad. Haih. Think I'll go get myself a jar from Coles on the way back from uni later...at least they're still yummy. MLIR

The discarded girl and happy endings

You know those movies you watch/books you read that has the plot of a couple where the girl is very smitten with the guy and though the guy doesn't feel as strongly for her, still they're together and she goes out of her way to please the guy in more ways than you can imagine hoping one day he'll love her back and then out of the blue, an 'odd, eccentric' girl comes along (not into the guy at all) and for some reason they guy falls in love with this new girl?

Surely you must know what I'm talking about.

And oddly enough, thinking back at all the movies/tv shows/books that had this plot, the second eccentric girl is ALWAYS portrayed as the 'right' girl for the ALWAYS portrayed dashing, 'perfect' guy and how you just know it's a meant-to-be match and surely they must end up together in the end because you just don't mess with fate and surprise, surprise-they do! Somewhere in the middle, the first smitten girl (ALWAYS portrayed as somewhat pathetic, sometimes even bitchy and you wonder why she doesn't get a life) fades away or if not towards the end she gets 'discarded' and I can't say I've ever really given a second thought on the 'discarded' girl when the story so strongly centers around this new girl and how they guy relentlessly pursues her.

Not till last night had I've ever given any proper thought to the poor discarded girl (who's to say she's even remotely pathetic or bitchy anyway?) and how she's practically devoted her life to him (as pathetic as that sounds, you'd be surprise with what love can do to your head). Despite knowing she's being a stubborn fool for someone that clearly doesn't give her a second thought, she still goes out of her way to please him. Look what happens in the end. Poor, poor girl. Was all that for nothing? How cruel of life.

Now I wonder what ever happened to her. How unfair for a story to always be told in a way to shine on the happy ending. Almost always no one gives this discarded girl a second thought, having a rush of affection for the writer to pair up the 'right' couple together in the end. For once I'd like to hear the side of the first girl. How terribly painful it must've felt AND (for lack of a better phrase) her road to recovery (hoping she does recover from it, that is).

How cruel of life to make love so bloody difficult.

How cruel of life to make relationships so bloody complicated.

How cruel of life to make feelings so vulnerable and to ever let people put their hearts on the line only to have it ripped.

Is it worth it though? I'm only 19 but maybe because I am 19 I'm seeing things more clearly now. Like how I've always had this fairy tale ending fantasy in my head , thinking everything would end up being as easy as breathing only to discover I don't think there's anything harder you'll face in your life (I'm not kidding!) than finding your other half. What guarantee do you have that he's out there anyway? None! Only books and faceless people reassuring you that he is. What do these people know? So easy to say but doing is always, ALWAYS another thing altogether.

And say you do meet your other half. How do you know this is 'the right' other half? So, you go through all the motions of going out 'casually' (I'm beginning to distaste that word-it's becoming way too overrated for my liking-not that I'm trying to sound bitter or anything), becoming a couple (apparently 'boyfriend-girlfriend' is a tag some would rather do without. Good grace, it doesn't always have to be all that terrible), get engaged, and finally get married. 

Then what? If you're one of the lucky 50% of the statistics that gets a long, happy marriage then that's great! I honestly dare say I envy you. If only everyone is as lucky the world would be a much happier place.

What if you're part of the other 50% whose marriages end in divorce? Such a depressing thought for a romantic like me.  It's depressing mainly because now I start to think (when I've never before this) that you might've vowed to love your (let say for the sake of argument) husband  (or your wife) forever but just like that one day he tells you he doesn't love you anymore, sometimes right out of the blue since he's been harboring his feeling all this while. And there you are shattered, thinking of all the times you thought things were great but only now you think it's all pretend and you feel like the biggest fool knowing all this while everything you do was for someone that was feeling next to nothing for you. What's real anymore? You can't be sure. 

How about people that have affairs when they're married? Isn't having a spouse not good enough anymore? Why, WHY?!

Past few months alone I've seen and thought of all the oh so many things that could go wrong. They're nothing short of sad thoughts.

Will there ever be a happy ending? Don't go telling me there will be because unless you've got a mystical future telling device and you'll know for sure everything is going to be fine, you know squat just like the rest of us so telling someone there will be a happy ending when you really don't know will just be another lie you tell in your lifetime. I know those words are only meant to be kind and helpful, but after a while, you just might start to think that it sorta stops being true. Of course everyone hopes life sorts itself out/karma will grant you your share/the circle will end up in a nice loop. But then again, what if it doesn't?

Mama duck, papa duck, and the 8 ducklings

Not till today have I've thought of how fast a duck grows (maybe because my experiences with ducks are limited to Donald, Daisy, and Daffy-well, what I see of them on Disney anyway). Though I was running late for my next lecture (cutting it very close really-was in a meeting with my professor), I took a moment to snap this shot.  I was so astounded  I actually, literally did a double take! Astounded because one, the ducklings have grown almost 6 times the size since I last saw them a month ago, second, I've never actually seen a family of ducks do a 'family activity' before and today was the second time I've seen them peck on the ground together as a united front, and third, I couldn't believe how coincidental it turned out that I paused to take the picture a month ago and a month later I get to take another look at them! Amazing!

Mama duck, papa duck, and the 8 ducklings.

- taken on 15 August 2010 (Sun) on UWA Open Day



And here they are again a month later all grown up!

- taken 13 September 2010 (Mon)

Fortune cookie

Today I had my first fortune cookie in 12 years and it said, "A smile will gain you ten more years of life." 
I didn't dare smile more than 10 times for the rest of the day-don't think I want to live pass 100. MLIR

Chicken

Today I was wondering why the drawing of my chicken looks weird when I realised chickens only have 2 legs. Not 4! I blame it on my subconscious mind for thinking of 4 legged animals while drawing it. MLIR

Didn't Dettol think this through?

Commercial for the new Dettol No-Touch Hand Wash System:

Hands touch some germy stuff and those germs can end up on your soap pump. FACT: Your soap pump can harbour hundreds of bacteria. But now there's the Dettol No-Touch Hand Wash System. It senses hands and dispenses soap which kills 99.9% of bacteria and it's enriched with a moisturizing ingredient to help care for your hands. The Dettol No-Touch Hand Wash System. Never touch a germy soap pump again.

Scenario:

Your hands are dirty. You go over to the sink, switch on the tap, pump 'manually' from your trusty ol' 'germy' Dettol soap pump, scrub your hands, rinse of the soap, and switch off the tap.

Dettol promises to kill 99.9% bacteria and viruses (or was that just all talk?).

Well then! What exactly is the problem of you touching your germ infested pump when after that you'll be washing your hands with Dettol soap anyway. Heck, you're not going to touch the pump again after you soap your hands, are you?! There you go. You're covered. Why then would you need the 'No-Touch soap system' like they advertised it in the commercial? It really doesn't add up.

It'll be different if Dettol came up with a 'No-Touch tap system'. The way I see it, it's not the pump that's the problem, it's the tap! Think-You open the tap with you bacteria filled hands (now it's a bacteria infested tap), wash your hands and got rid 99.9% of the bacteria (since you're using Dettol), and then you touch the bacteria infested tap again to turn it off. So, unless while you wash your hands with Dettol, you  put some on the tap as well to kill of the bacteria on the tap, you're back to square one. There you go team Dettol. You came up with the wrong invention for your commercial.

Dear CEO of team Dettol,

However, since you have come up with the 'No-Touch Hand Wash System', you really should think about changing your commercial.

Here's my suggestion to make some sense into your new invention which I must say looks very snazzy. I'd buy one myself just for the cool tech but certainly not because of the reasons you advertised.

How it should go:

Feel like you're using too much soap?

Find yourself having to replace the bottle every week because your stubborn child insists on pressing the pump 10 times every single time even though you've told him time and time again that 1 pump is more than sufficient (after all Dettol promises to kill 99.9% bacteria and viruses!).

Now, you can save soap with the new Dettol No-Touch Hand Wash System! It senses hands and dispenses soap to just the right amount. No more worries about how much soap you need to use. Dettol thinks for you! The Dettol No-Touch Hand Wash System. Never waste more soap than you need again.

Tomorrow, When the War Began

I wonder what they were thinking when they wrote "Tomorrow: When the War Began" (for those out of the loop, it's a movie coming soon to Australia and New Zealand cinemas near you on 2 September 2010).

Anyway, was watching but not really watching telly with my sister the other day when the trailer came on.

Sister: That's grammatically wrong.

Me: What is? (having not paid attention to the telly)

Sister: It said, "Tomorrow: When the War Began". It should be 'When the War Begins'.

Me: Ah! Maybe they intentionally put it like that to make you think there's some time quantum mumbo-jumbo going on. The war has already began but you just don't know it yet because it's tomorrow! You think it's tomorrow but maybe it was yesterday but you're in today and there was no war yesterday because the war really is tomorrow and because you're in today, you don't know the war is tomorrow but  really the war has already began but tomorrow. Maybe this is your tomorrow self talking so really you were referring to yesterday. Your tomorrow's yesterday is your today and your today seem so ordinary only because you've no clue really. SO the war has began (for you tomorrow self that is)! Brilliant twist, yes yes?! That's how they lure you in!!!

Sister: Eh, mmmmmm....no.

The fictional writers in my head: Boy, they sure gave a lot of thought into this. We just misspelled it!

Thought the thought was pretty funny. 

Now looking through the internet (trying to find that image from the trailer. Finally found the one I was looking for from trusty ol' Wikipedia-what would I do without you), found out that the movie is actually a book adaptation!

Tomorrow, When the War Began is the first book in the Tomorrow series by John Marsden. Smokes! Never even heard of it before this and now I find out there's 7 of them!  The last 7-series book I read was Harry Potter. Now, I'm tempted to check out this 'Tomorrow' series. If not for nothing, at least to find out WHY John Marsden used 'Began' when he was referring to an event that'll happen tomorrow. Or is he?!

Do girls just want be with good guys or do they prefer bad boys?

It really depends on the girl. I can't generalize everyone into the same category because different people like different things (or guys in this case). And it also depends on the definition of 'bad boys' I suppose (I'm way over-analyzing this but I'm looking at all aspects). Bad boys in a sense that the boy is not the nerdy, follows the rules to the tee type but still generally a good person OR bad in a sense of sleeps around, shoplifts and gets stoned every once in a while. (I wouldn't mind the first type of bad boy myself:)
I remember watching THS: Denise Richardson a few years back. E! was telling the story on when she was married to Charlie Sheen (known bad boy) but they finally got a divorce because he wouldn't change. They (the E! reporters/narrator) say girls (like Denise Richardson) are attracted to bad boys (like Charlie Sheen) because girls like to think that they'll be the one that'll change the guy to 'be a better person'. That usually never works out but I do suppose we do get one or two 'success stories'.
I myself am a firm believer of not changing someone to how I specifically want them to be like. If that someone wants to be changed because he (or she really) thinks that they want/need the changing, then that's fine. But generally people don't like it when their partners try to change them and hence the creation of the saying, "Accept me for who I am or not at all."
There could be girls that couldn't care less about changing their man and like them bad for the thrill of it. I can imagine that. We see it in movies all the time anyway.
Or girl and boy are both bad. That happens. Match made in heaven...or down below.
In other cases (like myself), girls look for those 'clean cut' man. They like knowing that the guy has a good background, good education, is a family man, and all the likes. You can imagine what I mean, right?
I must say though, I can't deny that I've been tempted by the idea of going out with the bad crowd having lived my whole life in a good, healthy, squeaky clean environment. Makes me imagine how it'll be like to let my hair loose and jump on the first Harley that rides past me. But yet again reality pulls me back and holds me to the ground. 19 years of lifestyle really can't change much in a single day. Still, a girl can dream:)

Ask me A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G!

Do you like to answer "yes-no" questions?

Sure. Simplest form of question there is, yes? And the questions only require a one syllable answer (easy peasy!) unless it ends with "...and explain why." Better yet, occasionally when we're to lazy to voice out words, all we have to do is either nod or shake our heads (which of course generally means yes and no respectively unless there's some culture in the world which uses the same gestures for the opposite meaning) or sometimes the answer yes and the nod (vice versa) go hand in hand. Must be out of habit really.

Do I like to eat? Yes/Nod nod
Is food good? Yes/Nod nod
Have I eaten today? Yes/Nod nod
Fussed about what I eat? No/Shake shake
Try everything at least once? Sure! Nod nod nod nod nod nod (adventurous girl, yeah;)
Live to eat? Err...eat to live:D

Ask me A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G!

Against the current

Do you know that feeling (WHO) you get when you know you have to do something and you know WHY you have to do it and exactly HOW you should do it and (WHEN) the time is now and the WHERE is here but you can't will yourself to do it? You know WHAT you have to do but your heart feels like a million pounds and you wish you could just rip it out. You just can't do it. You've hit the brick wall. You simply can't move forward. The path stares at you so intently that if looks could kill, you'd be dead with the intensity from the glare of the way forward but all you can do is stare back. Your legs won't take you any further and you feel your brain shuting down. There is no forward. Only the sense of helplessness.

Cure for this feeling of nothingness?

Reality.

It's when reality slaps you in the face, you force yourself to fight the current. Keep yourself from drowning even though a part of you wish the current will take you away. Far, far away.

Do you fear death?

Have you ever felt yourself slipping away? When you feel like you're hanging on to a string that's slowly unraveling and there's nothing you can do to stop it from breaking. All you can do is hang on to the little glimmer of hope that's left and watch the thinning string slowly but surely coming apart. Nothing to grab on to, nothing to live for.

Having never studied psychology or any of the likes before, I can't pretend to say I understand what goes on in the mind of someone that's about to kill himself. In the moments of your life when you feel  nothing but hopelessness and you can't think of a good enough reason of being or everything is going wrong when all you want is for one thing to go right, that's when you wish that everything would just stop and for it all to end. You curse the world and all in it for letting you live on when all you want is to disappear from the face of the Earth forever. 

Do you fear death? Are you afraid to die? Ever met someone sure enough of himself to answer "no"? In another given situation if I ask him to calmly walk in front of a firing squad, would his answer still be the same knowing then his breaths, his heartbeats, his thoughts are numbered? What will he think then? Will he think of all the things he's never got to do in his short life? Will he think of all the things he still wants to do? Will he think of all his fondest memories with his family, with his wife, with his lover? Will he then wish he wasn't where he is now and that he wants to live for just another day, do all the things he wish he'd done, see the world one last time? 

You might not fear death (hey, when I'm least expecting it, shoot me with a sniper right in my head) but I believe in everyone (or most at least) there is the fear of dying (hey, in a heist let me not be the one you're pointing the gun to my head at). See the difference? Is that perhaps why when someone wants to kill himself, he doesn't just takes a gun and shoots or why we don't see people walking right off the edge of the cliff? Before they pull the trigger, before they make the leap, there's that moment of hesitation. Hesitation of? Not wanting to die after all when coming face to face with death?

Dying I believe, is no simple thing. That's why when someone ever think of ending their life, they always try to think of the simplest, quickest, least painful way of doing it. At that moment in time, no doubt they just want it ended but when faced with it, we still hear stories of how someone managed to coax a man from jumping off a bridge or from a 69 stories building. That 'someone' probably said something along the line of "everything is going to be alright, it can't be all that bad, and you really don't want to do this." How does that 'someone' know? You're a stranger. You don't know the man that's about to jump. How do you know that everything's going to be alright? How do you know that it can't be all that bad? Do you know what his problem even is? How do you know the man really don't want to this? You don't. But then again, these people listen. While they're contemplating of jumping, all the thoughts of life goes through their head and it only takes an encouraging pep talk from someone who isn't their subconscious mind to convince them to do otherwise. And so they don't kill them self. Was it worth it though in the end?  

If you're someone who never had a 'worst than a terrible day(s)' in your life, you might not have an inkling of an idea what I'm rambling on about but then again, you might just after all know what I'm trying to say.

A young man is talked out of jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge
by a California Highway Patrol officer

Have you ever felt yourself slipping away? When you feel like you're hanging on to a string that's slowly unraveling and there's nothing you can do to stop it from breaking. All you can do is hang on to the little glimmer of hope that's left and watch the thinning string slowly but surely coming apart. Nothing to grab on to, nothing to live for.

What goes on in a sucidal's mind

Taken from:

http://www.suicide.org/golden-gate-bridge-suicides.html

It was in September of 2000 when Kevin was in high school and he started to hallucinate and hear voices because of his disorder. After a while, he couldn’t cope any longer, and one day when the hallucinations and voices were particularly intense, he decided to kill himself.

So he took a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. He cried the entire trip, knowing that his life would soon be over, but also believing that he had to kill himself to end his torment.

Golden Gate Bridge

“I had heard that the Golden Gate Bridge was the easiest way to die. I heard that you hit the water and you're dead,” Kevin said. “And I remember picking the spot. This is the good spot. I'm not too close to the pillar. I won't hit the pillar. I'm not too close to the land. I won't hit the land. I'll hit the water and I'll die.”

Kevin was ready to kill himself.

But as he walked along, some indecisiveness crept in. He wanted someone to help him; he wanted someone to show him that he or she cared.

So he began crying as he walked, silently reaching out for help.

A female police officer rode by on a bicycle, but did not stop.

Two bridge workers also passed him without stopping.

The voices in Kevin’s head were now screaming at him in a cacophonic chorus: “You have to die!”

But something kept holding Kevin back.

“If someone just showed me that he or she cared,” he thought to himself, “I wouldn’t jump.”

And then an attractive young woman appeared, and Kevin knew that his prayers had been answered.

“She cares,” Kevin said to himself. And he knew that he didn’t have to jump. Everything was okay.

Kevin looked intently at the woman as she approached.

But the woman aloofly handed Kevin a camera and said, “Take my picture.”

Kevin couldn’t believe it. So he stood there crying, took the picture, and was completely convinced that no one cared about him – no one cared whether he lived or died.

He gave the camera back to the woman, took three running steps, and jumped.

But the second that he jumped, he knew that he had made a grave mistake.

“Oh, my God,” he thought to himself. “I don't want to die. What did I just do?”

He wanted to survive. Like a brutal slap in the face, the jump woke him up, but now he was falling head first to his death.

He quickly thought of three things that he needed to do to save himself. First, he asked God to save him. Second, he threw his head back. And third, he struggled to position his legs so that his feet would hit first.

BAM.

The brutal impact shattered Kevin’s body. But he did hit feet first, and at somewhat of an angle, so he was “lucky.”

Well, “lucky” to a degree. He survived, but he broke his back and will forever be deeply physically and emotionally scarred and handicapped by his horrific ordeal.

Strengths and weaknesses

In light of our upcoming first ever mega project, we were told to answer these questions as a form of 'self reflection'. Bring on the questions!

Q: What your strengths and weaknesses are in:

• Solving problems

• Writing extended reports

• Working in teams

• Giving oral presentations

A: Both my strength and weakness in solving problems would have to be that I think too much, or so I’ve been told. Sometimes the problem is such that deep thinking on how to approach it is the way to go but if it’s a simple problem, when you think too much about it you’re really just making things far more complicated than they are and frankly it’s a waste of time.

Having never written extended reports before, I can’t say for sure what my strengths or weaknesses are but I can imagine my strength would have to be my flare in writing (or so they’ve worked well for my essays) and weakness is the fear of not knowing what to write, it being a report. What if I have nothing intelligent to say?

I can honestly say I’ve never had any good experiences working in teams or groups before. I remember dreading doing so in high school because in the end students had the attitude of ‘every man for himself’. Coming to university, I’m now hoping we’re now adult enough to work in a team efficiently and effectively.

Nerves would have to be my biggest weakness when giving oral presentations and funnily enough my strength would have to be not showing my nerves. I find that rather fascinating when I’ve had people tell me I looked calm and collected when I deliver my presentation when really I felt like I was sweating bullets.

Q: How you can develop your skills to achieve you goals.

A: All the ‘usual’ answers come to mind. Join clubs and societies, do volunteer work, attend seminars, etc. Basically go to places where you’ll get involve with activities and get to interact with people from all walk of life. You do after all acquire skills by interaction, not by being holed out in your room.

What made you decide to pursue your current course/degree?

Most people don't know this about me unless it's someone who knows me very well but the one job that'll make me a happy camper is to be a teacher. That's where my greatest passion lies, teaching! But then I thought of doing something else first-a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, an architect can become a teacher (whether they make good teachers is a different story) but the converse might not be true.

So, why Engineering? Mostly it had to do between the choices the scholarship offers. Engineering, Accounting, TESL, Medicine, Dentistry. Didn't see myself in the medical line, would love to be a teacher (will be sometime in my life!) but I want to teach one of the sciences, not a language, don't like accounting since high school, so Engineering it is. Well, if I had to choose between anything really, Engineering would have to come out first. Among other things, I get to learn how things around us work. That's some pretty interesting stuff!
Funnily enough I remember when I was little (about 10?) my sister once told me that I'd make a good engineer (I liked twiddling with things. I didn't even know what an engineer was at that time!). She might've just been saying it to make a small kid happy or she really could've meant it.
Being in the line now, I'll make sure I become a good one:)

Ask me A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G!

What is your idea of an ideal date?

Date with a stranger, with your boyfriend/partner/fiance, with your husband.
Obviously when you enter into different parts of a relationship, the 'definition' of a date changes. I often hear married women complain their husbands aren't as romantic as they used to be when they first started dating. May it be perhaps since they're now married, men tend to think 'the woman is already theirs' (for lack of a better phrase) so they don't have to make much of an effort? I can't be sure what the exact answer is having never ask a married man that before (I'll make a note to do that when the next opportunity arise).

*NB men: Despite what some may say, we DO like to be surprised with a single stem of rose every once in a while (well, not rose per say or any sort of flower for that matter but you get my drift).

Having said that, I shall come to a conclusion that the vast majority of relationships works in this manner: The 'deeper' in a relationship you are, the less 'ideal' the date becomes, i.e. the more 'familiar' one become with one another, the less one would feel for the need to impress. Fair enough I suppose. On a first date, who wouldn't get blown away when your date says he knows the best pizza place  (you're thinking , "Must be that place on the corner street!") and flies both of you out to Rome? (Got that one from an episode of Friends) By the 10th date, it could just be trip down to the pizza place at... the corner street.
Ramble, ramble, ramble. Yes, I know I haven't answered the question but I do have a point here. Since these definition changes when you're in different parts of your relationship, I'll describe my ideal date in  all 3 parts (I'm a sensible woman. I know not to expect too much. Really?! Lol). Then again, it all depends on where we are. If we're in the middle of the city, my ideal date can't possibly end with a stroll by the sea under the moonlight, or can it?

With stranger: Cliche as it may sound, presents me a single stem of whatever type of flower (I don't have a favorite one...yet) when we first meet. A nice dinner with a chance to get to know each other would be good. After dinner, walk in quiet contentment (we really don't have to talk all the time; I enjoy the silence every now and then) under the moonlight AND depending how the date went, a soft, gentle kiss with the sound of the waves lapping behind us . OR screw all that! A fun day out to the theme park! Let's get to know each other over a ride on the roller coaster! Wheeeee! 

Hmmm...No, no. My REAL IDEAL date would have to be something out of the norm or something I haven't really thought of. I'd like it if my date surprises me with something totally unexpected or something out of the ordinary. I love surprises! I really wouldn't mind my first description of a date (dinner and such) but then again, most dates is exactly that, eh?

For now, just a date wherever is ideal enough as it is (I really should get out more but then again I have my books and uni assignments buried right up to my armpits).

With boyfriend/partner/fiance: We really don't have to do something fancy-schmancy ALL the time...only sometimes. So, ideal date now would have to be a meal we both cooked then after, put on a movie and snuggle on the sofa

(Why is the TV blank??!)

OR walk down the beach and watch the sunset

OR lie on the grass somewhere and look at the stars together.

With husband: Now being married and we're both busy, busy, busy with work and all (probably have little tots running around as well), a nice evening with just us two would be nice. Maybe even a romantic getaway for the weekend!

Ask me anything

Did you have any nicknames when you were younger? What about now? Are they still the same, or have they changed?

Funnily enough, nobody outside my family has ever come up with a shorter version of any of my three names: Siearra Celastra Sarina. That does make it rather difficult when it comes to putting names on class/club/societies' t-shirts since they usually only limit it to 6 letters and both Siearra and Celastra are 7 and 8 letters each (I've only used Sarina when I was 9 years old and younger). Only 2 of my friends call me Si (short for Siearra) though it wasn't something that caught on. I remember once in high school one of my closest friend tried out Arra but that didn't work out. She only called me that for the first 2 days when she first thought of it, I think. Lol.
In my family, I do of course have a nickname. 2 in fact. Dad calls me by one, mum and sis by another:) Both the names remain the same since I was a little tod.

Ask me anything