The Memorables 2009

In the year of 2009...

Final Semester of the Final Year of my BSc. - 5th Jan

This is definitely a semester that I made myself work harder, especially on dissertation. Although the whole degree, I hadn't really put my full effort (if it were to be compared with high school). And, three years seemed to be a bit short, and is it time flew?

Dissertation Completed - 21st April

It was the first time I did my assignment this way, that I ignored all the day/night time, I just worked, slept, ate.. If I was tired I just slept, and ate when I was hungry, other than that, I would be doing my dissertation all the time. The final draft were completed on 30th March and handed in on 21st April. (Well Done?)

Final Exam - 28th April - 7th May

The very final exam of my degree. Results came out in June and I've got a first class. =D

Viwawa

A gaming site that played very important part in my life this year. I don't know why as I got to know this site far earlier but I only become kind of addicted to it this year. (but it's well under control now =P) (Zany Bridge)

Attending KimFoong & William's wedding - 18th May

It was a special experience. And also a great trip with Sammi, Stephy and Bpeng. (Attending a wedding)

My 22th birthday - 17th June

I have been in the UK for 3 years yet this is the very first birthday celebration in the UK. Thanks to those great friends, specially to Bpeng! (The 22th birthday)

A special friend was also welcomed to my life few days before it..

First summer in the UK

Spending my summer time for the first time in the UK and seeing all the UK good old friends leaving one by one.

It is also a period of relaxing job hunting, got to some interviews but didn't get any job offer =(

Drug and Alcohol Service - volunteer - September- November

I went through two interviews successfully and became one of the volunteer under training for the Drug and Alcohol Service in the Independent Trust.

The course lasts for 10 weeks and it was really comprehensive and informative.

Post Study Working Permit - September

Sent the application out at beginning of September and got it back three weeks later, it has allowed me to stay in the UK for two years.

Family Visiting the UK - 7th Nov - 27th Nov

I was really excited upon their arrivals!

We visited London, Edinburgh, Bourton on the water, Avebury, Stonehenge in the UK, and Paris, Disneyland Paris, Venice, Pisa, Florence, Rome in Europe. It was my second visit to some of the places and it is really different to visit a same place with friends and family.

I think the trip was kind of long that it was quite tiring yet we had a very good time. It's good to see them here after so long not being at home, and good to show them around the places that I have been for three years.

Graduation- 19th Nov

The graduation ceremony itself doesn't worth much words but I was glad that family has been here for me and for it.

We also had a short gathering with those good old friends in the UK.

-For the past 22 years of my life, this is the only year that I'd never stepped on the land of Malaysia.-

Here comes to the very end of the year 2009, good bye to 2009 and..

Happy New Year 2010!!

Have a blessed and healthy year!!

World's Friendliest Countries

The Expat Explorer Survery revealed that Malaysia is in the top 5 list of World's friendliest Countries.. What do you think??

The top ten

1. Bahrain

2. Canada

3. Australia

4. Thailand

5. Malaysia

6. South Africa

7. Hong Kong

8. Singapore

9. Spain

10. United States

Also, Malaysia has got

#1 in "Organizing school for my children" (it's probably due to the very different standards of school in Malaysia?)

#3 in "Organizing my finances"

#3 in "Organizing my health care"

#4 in "Making friends" (I like this =D)

#4 in "Finding somewhere to live" (not so sure about what it means.. = =)

#14 in "Making local friends" (oh.. prefer making international friends than the locals huh?)

#19 in "Joining community group" (thought we could be better?)

Further story from yahoo news

World's friendliest Countries

Comments about the news (worth reading if you've got some times, I was a bit shocked with what some people have said..)

Comments

p.s. My thought is at the comment section.. or my post will get too long =/

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Some Psychology students might ask this?

Methodology

More than 3,100 expatriates were surveyed between February and April 2009.The respondents were asked to rate 23 factors related to their quality of life, including food, entertainment, transportation, health care, finances, education and their ability to make friends. Each criterion is equally weighted to arrive at a score. The overall ranking is based on the average score for a country across the criteria. Eight measures were also selected to comprise the integration score: organizing school for my children; organizing my finances; organizing my health care; finding somewhere to live; making friends; making local friends; setting up utilities; and joining local community groups. The integration score was used to determine the friendliest countries.

Zany Bridge

In the year of 2007, Kian, Limpeh, Joyce, Michelle, Bpeng and me went to a 12 day Europe trip together. During that period, the 4 of them have been really into a game - Bridge. And they have taught us some basics of it. I need to say that I had not really mastered the game during that short period, and didn't understand why they were so into it.

Then during the final exam period of 2008, Peiman introduced us an online gaming site -Viwawa. I saw my previous blog that we were like playing mahjung etc nearly every night.. HAHA (exam period ma..). After that, I couldn't remember when, but I noticed the Zany Bridge in the list of games and started trying it myself. Then I started on off playing it and until this year become really addicted to it during assignments/dissertation peak period..

Actually I've always wanted to blog about this, especially in writing guide so that I could have real life friends to play with me... (I miss playing with real cards as well =/) As I would say, none of the games in vww is (that) addicting, its only zany, an intellectual game that I would say you could hardly master it, and that you would always find ways to improve yourself, and enjoy differently when you play with different "level" players. The thing is the game is kind of complicated, if we were to put everything in words (and it's not the one you could search on Wikipedia), yet I think viwawa forum can provide you some basics.

Why am I talking about all these suddenly? Coz I was clearing my laptop earlier and I found some screen shots.. I learnt this from another player rainb0w81, that she always print screen whenever some special or weird stuff, bugs take place.. And I found these which are what we would call "sure win" in min 4 games (minimum bid of 4) that we play. (I dont really know the purpose of printing these screens, so i guess the only thing I could do is to put it in my blog, although I clearly doubt how many readers can understand what those hands mean >"<)

This is what we call 2-suit (also could have bidded 5nt).

For me, it's a hand that's impossible to lose,

yet my partner (tas) has got the ability to make this sure win game.. lose = =

as that was just he and me who had hearts, and he kept throwing hearts, so the opponents kept trump and ended up wasted all my heart set.

This is also 2-suit. but rely less on the 2nd (non-trump) suit..

could hardly lose..

I wonder how awful the other's hands are.. xD

These 3 hands, are the sure-win hand for 5NT (including a set winning by partner)

O.O

10 Trumps!! (if playing got trumps la, but I bidded 5NT- i.e. No Trump), called Ace dia, which was rain, and we got all 13 sets.

There is a player who played more than 30k games, and he said he has got 10 trumps only for once!!

But so far I've got twice already.

p.s. these players (rainb0w81, csyuan, ariel_23) are awesome.. are also those that I spent most of my time to play with.. as I seldom play with random people anymore.. and another one is Sissywawa.

Obviously very crazy and imbalanced hand.. =D

me and Lilbarbie got 13 sets too..

So... can anyone understand what I'm talking about? xD

Anyway, all those hands that were shown are just the best part of loads game played (i.e. you would hardly see cards as good as those), and luck is just a very small part of zany bridge, especially when you play a lot, what matters is always skills.

And finally... let me know if you want to learn.. if I can't teach, I can probably find you a good tutor.. =D

A letter by a Malaysian in the USA

I am a female Chinese Malaysian, living in the Washington DC area in the United States . I have read many of the letters that often talk about foreign countries when the writers have no real knowledge of actually living in those countries.

Many draw conclusions about what those countries are like after hearing it from someone else or by reading and hearing about them in the media or after four years in a college town in those countries.

I finished STPM with outstanding results from the prestigious St George's Girls School in Penang . Did I get a university place from the Malaysian government? Nothing. With near perfect scores, I had nothing, while my Malay friends were getting offers to go overseas.

Even those with 2As got into university. I was so depressed. I was my parent's last hope for getting the family out of poverty and at 18, I thought I had failed my parents.

Today, I understand it was the Malaysian Government that had failed me and my family because of its iscriminatory policies.

Fortunately, I did not give up and immediately did research at the Malaysian American Commission on Education Exchange (MACEE) to find a university in the US that would accept me and provide all the finances. My family and
friends thought I was crazy, being the youngest of nine children of a very poor carpenter. Anything that required a fee was out of our reach.

Based on merit and my extracurricular activities of community service in secondary school, I received full tuition scholarship, work study, and grants to cover the four years at a highly competitive US university.

Often, I took 21 credits each semester, 15 credits each term while working 20 hours each week and maintaining a 3.5 CGPA. A couple of semesters, I also received division scholarships and worked as a TA (teaching assistant) on top of everything else.

For the work study, I worked as a custodian (yes, cleaning toilets), carpet layer, computer lab assistant, grounds keeping, librarian, painter, tour guide, etc. If you understand the US credit system, you will understand this is a heavy load.

Why did I do it? This is because I learnt as a young child from my parents that hard work is an opportunity, to give my best in everything, and to take pride in the work I do. I walked away with a double major and a minor with honours but most of all a great lesson in humility and a great respect for those who are forced to labour in so-called `blue collar' positions.

Those of you who think you know all about Australia , US, or the West, think again. Unless you have really lived in these countries, i.e. paid a mortgage, paid taxes, taken part in elections, you do not understand the level of commitment and hard work it takes to be successful in these countries, not just for immigrants but for people who have lived here for generations.

These people are where they are today because of hard work. (Of course, I am not saying everyone in the US is hardworking.. There is always the lazy lot which lives off of someone else's hard work. Fortunately, they are the
minority..)

Every single person, anywhere, should have the opportunity to succeed if they want to put in the effort and be accountable for their own actions. In the end, they should be able to reap what they sow.

It is bearable that opportunities are limited depending on how well-off financially one's family is but when higher education opportunities are race-based, like it is in Malaysia ; it is downright cruel for those who see education as the only way out of poverty.

If you want to say discrimination is here in the US , yes, of course it is. Can you name a country where it doesn't happen? But let me tell you one thing - if you go looking for it, you will find it. But in Malaysia , you don't have to go look for it because it seeks you out, slaps you in your face every which way you turn, and is sanctioned by law!

Here in the US , my children have the same opportunity to go to school and learn just like their black, white, and immigrant friends. At school, they eat the same food, play the same games, are taught the same classes and when they are 18, they will still have the same opportunities. would I want to bring my children back to Malaysia ? So they can suffer the state-sanctioned discrimination as the non-malays have for over 50 years?

The injustice the non-Malay have to suffer in frightening silence is the most damaging problem one has to face throughout one's life. You just have to look at the mighty govt structures which completely favours only one race, the Umno Malay. The Chinese and Indians are treated no better than the illegal Indonesians. Racism and corruption are openly practised by the Malay politicians everywhere, Courts, schools/Uni, police, govt offices, contracts, GLC, NEP, ISA, local govt.

It's so powerful and intimidating that you walk with fear and keep your mouth shut on anything and everything political. Religion is taboo unless you talk good about Islam. As for being a slave in the foreign country, I am a happy 'slave' earning a good income as an IT project manager.

I work five days a week; can talk bad about the president when I want to; argue about politics, race and religion openly; gather with more than 50 friends and family when I want (no permit needed) and I don't worry about the police pulling me over because they say I ran the light when I didn't.

Have we seen the light at the end of the tunnel yet (Anwar Ibrahim)? Or is it the head light of an oncoming Umno train ? Lets hope its the former for the sake of all fair minded Malaysians.

The dream of a Malaysian 'race' in the future is nowhere in sight with the present BN govt. Where is Negara-Ku???

Paris Disneyland

Some random pictures...

Disneyland Paris.. my 2nd visit!

Errrr.. who is this la?

(I took with quite many who-is-this-la..)

Muahahahaha...!

We were too excited that we didn't realize that's not Donald xD

until then we saw ...

Can you believe this!!

Both of them took picture with me.. together!!

Remember last time in Hong Kong Disneyland, I queued so long and could only take pic with Daisy..

Hahaha.. I like this!!

Gogo and ahjeh refused to take picture with it because..

They don't even know who that is..

and they kept laughing when I told them "Ratatouile" (as if I made it up)!

Spot pama in there..

I actually laughed out loud when I saw this..

It seems that they have had enough traffic jam in m'sia!

Why came to Disneyland also got traffic jam la? hahahaa..

I think if I have got time I'm going to gather all my pics with the disney characters..

coz last time when I came to Paris one, I took with quite a lot not so well known characters also..

and it seems that no matter how many times I went, I could still be very hyper when I was there.. hahaha