Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover

Social network like Facebook has been making great impact in my life, as I've been able to get in touch with lots of friends. Even though I'm no in KL physically, I can more or less tell that my friends are doing pretty well back home, or perhaps somewhere else in the region.

Some events such as graduation, getting a job, or even getting married (pretty common for mid-20s) are kinda common. Once in awhile, there's always element of surprise pops out.

As years gone by, I am quite surprised to see that some of these friends that I used to looked down, are doing very well right now. My judgement back then, was flawed.

Now, I can't help but to question myself over the perception I had towards these particular friends.

Part of the story can be traced back in my secondary school times.



I wasn’t the kind of student that scores great results academically, but my involvement in various clubs & organizations made me a familiar figure among the school admins & teachers. I wouldn't say I was a pet student, but perhaps close to being one.

Being in that position somehow made me slightly arrogant towards some others. I would tend to judge those trouble-makers as nuisance, and those who didn’t did well in the exam as pitiful ones and on extreme cases, hopeless. Because of that, I had conflict with some friends as I would tend to write them off with the “no-good” label. Elitism and arrogance is indeed, dangerous traits for a young man.



However, today I’m thankful that even though we had troubles in the past, we managed to patch things up and remain as friends (albeit on Facebook). It's interesting to listen to their post-school stories and laughed at myself for my foolishness back then.

The lesson of the day, is never ever judge someone too fast based on their current position (especially during school days), as one may take years to be defined or break through. The "bad" boys may one day be a successful businessman, and on the opposite side, a student with stellar results may not end up in a desired position (perhaps stressed out due to studying too much?).

Here in Japan, I've came across with lots of different people as well. Again, the bad attitude did kicked in initially, but as I been through various phases, I think my attitude has improved gradually.

Now, I reserve my first impression towards someone that I've get to know recently, and take a little bit of time to evaluate this particular person. Am trying not to jump into conclusion that quickly and give it some time. It's interesting that based on my own observation, people would change depending on whom they're interacting with.

Here, I'd like to quote a Chinese idiom: "路遥知马力，日久见人心".
It carries the meaning, "one will only know the horse's stamina as the route goes further; one will know someone's heart as day passes."

Admitting that I'm not a perfect individual, I'm trying my best now to patch up the flaws. Right now, I enjoy getting to know other people in depth and trying to appreciate those few that some sort of "connects" together, for it's getting harder to find real friends at this age. :\

Life After School

* This post was originally written in March 12 back in year 2008.
That was when I'm still studying in college before coming to Japan!

Title: Life After School

I say, life in school is arguably the best time in our life so far, I think some of you here will agree this statement, don't you? (I absolutely stand up for this point, else I won't be writing this lol.)

When you step out from the school compound after finishing SPM/STPM, you'll realise that you might missed out or neglected some of the best moments.... but it's too late to get things fixed now, much to your regret. In this post I'll talk about something that you can do to reclaim back the precious memories, or at least, keep a bit out of the whole chunk.

Looking back at your school days few years later, the nostalgic memories of the good old days will tackle our brainwaves. Ah, the days when you're messing together with the best mates, putting a prank on the teacher, escaping disciplinary punishments, etc.

These experiences can only happen in school, and in your entire lifetime your job as a student is just the merely ±10 years. The next time when you return to the same scene, you wont be able to experience all of it again because your role is different then.

I have a feeling that I should try to jot down all the events, activities I've been through during my schooling days. To my own satisfaction, I've started it when I'm just begin to picked up those co-curricular activities. Co-cu activities are pretty much the best part of all, I think. Also, some events happened in school are worth to take note of, like the Teacher's Day celebration, cultural performances, etc. I've recorded down most of these activities in my blog as a journal. Of course, it isn't just words that speak for the events and activities, some posts are accompanied by images and videos.

Talk about the pictures and videos, I used to bring along my camera whenever there's any events/activities going on, much like a reporter for the school lol. Although I'm not a part of the Photography Club crew, I befriended with them and I've managed to sneak into the frontline take down pics and videos, rather than sitting in the hall watching from behind where you cant really get a clear view what's happening in front.

Do beware the school's policies for students to bring camera to school. Some schools, like mine for example, requires permission from the school admin to bring the camera as they fear students will abuse it for something nasty. So, remember to consult the authority before bringing it.  ;)

Most schools I believe publish their annual school magazine right? It serves as the "official" journal of events happened in the school in the year, also covering the graduates' profiles in it, particularly Form 5 and Upper 6 students. Keeping the school magazine is a good method for preserving some of the memories, though things are looked from the point of view of school admins, which might make the magazine boring for some (admins wouldn't be pleased to have the magz full of students' stuffs.)

If you got the chance, join the School Magazine Editorial Board (aka Sidang Redaksi Majalah)!! Play your part in it to make a better school magazine for fellow students!

Why I'm concern bout preserving all the memories of schools even after I've left school for years? I believe that school is a training ground for us to pick up and refine our skills.

Say, if you're active in school debate team, you might find yourself in a favourable position if you wanna become a lawyer or presenter;


Learning how to run a society/club may prepare you for the future working in an organisation;


Playing your part as the society/club's chairperson or head can build up your leadership reputation, which is useful for further studies and job employment.

If you could see the school's role in this way, then I think you will appreciate all the things you get involved in school.  :)

One of the most important thing you have to do is to keep in touch with friends, regardless whom they are. It's also good to build up contacts early on, as they might come in handy in the future ^^. As I mentioned bout the school magazine, much of the contact details are inside there, just a matter whether it's up-to-date or not. Alternate methods to maintain the relationship, can be easily achieved by IMs, forums, and blogs. Nowadays, keeping in touch with friends is much easier than years ago, just see whether you got the initiative to do so or not. A random "Hi!" or "Hey!" in IM is good enough to start conversation with someone. Unless they hold some grudge on you, else they'll usually reply your message.  :)

I've seen teenagers write about their wonderful moments in school on their blog, accompanied with pics. Heh, if you're one of 'em, try to read those posts again years later, all the flashbacks of school life will struck you again, as if all the activities are running again inside you. I did this, so I know the "feel good" factor, heh.

My ultimate contribution to preserve school memories are condensed into a video I made sometime in Dec 2006, the time when I finished SPM. I'm glad that I did it, as I heard some peers and juniors are doing the same thing after I started it. Glad to have people who holds the same beliefs as mine, heheh.

I think this post might be useful for students who're still studying in school. If you're running your blog in such fashion, then congratz, we're the "same kind" lol. Then again, comments and critics, are welcomed here.  :)

Cheers.

A Simple Gathering

Whenever I'm back in Malaysia for holidays, one of the thing I look forward the most, is to meet with friends again. Ironically ever since I've moved away from Wangsa Maju area, I seldom step out of the home to travel downtown due to inconvenient transportation.

Just few days Tony asked me whether wanna meet up again with some friends and he's willing to ask other friends to join. Since we plan to meet on Friday afternoon, so it wasn't the best time as most friends are busy with their work or study.

So, I took LRT back to Wangsa Maju again.
 I made a point that whenever I came back, I would try to visit that area again at least once.

The township of Desa Setapak still remain as lively as it's one of the main town to cater for TAR College students nearby. Noticed some familiar shops are still around but some has been replaced by something new. It's always nice to find some of my favourite stalls still around, like the Indian chendol located close to the center roundabout can be found during noon.

Desa Setapak is the place where I'd usually get my meals whenever I'm eating out. And the closest LRT station is located there as well, so I'm used to walk 20 mins from the old home to the train station. Until today I'm still very fond of that place for it's cheap & delicious food.

I arrived slightly earlier than planned and walk around the streets feeling nostalgic, recalling the place where our family had great meals eventhough the restaurant is no longer around for more than a decade already; pointing to the spot that used to be my favourite chicken rice stall (fav menu is roast chicken drumstick with extra siew yoke roast pork); feeling amazed that some of the stationary shops are still around for so long time.

Our gathering spot was at BRJ, a local mamak restaurant well-known by the locals.
I used to have a meal or two with my mates when they're done with a few rounds of DotA at the cyber cafe next to the restaurant.

Joining me first was Tony himself and Mark.
So as usual we'd catch up by asking each others what we're up to recently.

Was surprised that Tony had already completed his 4 years studies in the UK.
Meanwhile, Mark has just finished his 4 years degree at Kagoshima University and will be continuing his Master's degree there.
We went to Japan around the same time, but Mark has completed his Japanese language course earlier so he went straight into the university, while I attended a year of Japanese language course before I proceed into the university.

Although I was from different class, but we all get along well as I played football together with Tony (brilliant keeper he was), and I've known Mark since the primary school days.

Initially we talked about life in Japan and trying to compare the differences between education culture. We agreed that ordinary Malaysian student may appears to be a little too active in a Japanese classroom, while rather quiet and passive in a Western background classroom where the students would barge the lecturer with all sorts of questions after the class.

Later joining us was Prof Goh, still as academic as usual. I had chatted with him prior this and glad that at least he appears to be normal than I thought lol.... too much books and researches huh.... Seems like he's doing pretty well with his biotech course in NZ.

Around 6pm my classmate, Vinc joined us after finishing his intern. He's one of the few friends that studies food science, which is pretty interesting given Malaysia's a food paradise.

It's been a long time since we had met so naturally, lots of topics we talked about.
Eventually we've chatted from 3pm to 9pm, when I've to leave to catch the train back.

I had 3 drinks and a Maggi goreng which everything cost less than RM 10, to my surprise. But am grateful that price in Wangsa Maju still remains reasonable for all, as for the same items could cost about RM 15 in PJ area I think.

Kudos and many thanks to Tony who helped out to organize this small meeting, well 'til I meet with dear friends again next time, when I'm back again.

My Names, CLF

Was checking through my documents today to apply for scholarship, and flipped through my secondary school's record book.
Sort of nostalgic to look at the statistics recorded in the book, while the mind's reflecting what it has been during that particular year.

One interesting thing I noticed is my names (yes, plural) written by each year's class teacher. I had 5 different teachers for 5 years, so that means I had 5 unique names written by each of them.

Let's start with Form 1, in year 2002. Written by Cik Zainab (I think should be a "Puan" by now. :P)
Looking at these words now, I thought it's just like any other writings written by girls around late-teenage years. But then, she was quite young by that time (I didn't know her exact age after all).


Year 2003, I had Pn Teoh YC as my class teacher.
Somehow I felt that there's similarity compared with my own writing (will be shown later).


Puan Hanani was my Form 3's class teacher in year 2004.
I would say this is my favourite of all 5, very artistic and similar to my current style of continuous-writing.


This, from Ms Lim GH in year 2005, was rather normal but I noticed something different in it.
Notice the letter "a" in "Fan", normally we Malaysians would write small letter "a" as what you can observe on the other examples given. We are trained to write like and it's kinda uncommon to see "a" written in such style.
Personally, I prefer the style we usually write, as it's much easier to write in my opinion.


Final year, 2006. Ms Siah SC wrote this.
Simple and pretty common, that's what I thought.


Here are a few examples of the name I wrote myself, in different times.

Year 2002, when I just entered the school. Was asked to write our details on the first page of the book.
This writing is still kinda raw, as I'm just "upgraded" from primary to secondary school.



Form 4, year 2005.
Pretty much alike with my writing today.


Hah now this is rather casual, usually this is how it looks like when I write (or rather, sign it) quickly.
Dated in year 2006.


Examples I've written today.

Should be the most common style I use currently. Notice how the "g" is written.


Slightly different styles.


Neatest to messiest; slowest to fastest.





Also dug out this old result of mine. Nothing to be proud or ashamed about it, as it has passed long long ago.

Night Outs

Last night celebrated Jia Hui & Zee Ling's birthday in Pizza Hut, after a last minute call by KY. Was sceptical how things will turn out to be because everything seems to be messed up while he outsourced others to help him when he's the organiser.

Luckily everything goes pretty well, in the end 10 people turn up for this dinner party.

Busy eatin'


Chit-chat.


Jia Hui & Hui Xuan, the perfect combo.


The birthday cake.


Zee Ling & Jia Hui, happy 19th!



I did not take many photos as my Canon is dwarfed by Khye Liang's Nikon D40 DSLR.... Will be getting more pics form him!

After the first round in Pizza Hut, the guys decided to goto another spot for another round. Some of them left as they still got things to do. I hesitated awhile, but decided to went there with the gang.

We settled in Cola Club in Prima Setapak. Well, first impression told me that this is not really my kind of place as the patrons are drinkin' all the booze down, drunk, smoking and gambling. The gang ordered Heineken beer but I modestly ordered a hot mocha. Seriously, I don't like beer, but I prefer wine though.

The atmosphere in the club is pretty lively with the live band singing. The plus point in this club is that they've some of the best singers among other competitive clubs/pubs, I enjoyed their songs there.

Chatted with them for awhile until around 1am when we all finished. Another night life in Prima Setapak. If I were to come again next time, I'd go for a more quiet place to hang out.

Perhaps I might have another shot with other friends after finish the exams? Coming these places once in awhile is OK, but of course not so frequent as it ain't cheap!

Chong Hwa Prom Night

Supposedly write this last weekend but couldn't make it, so this post is written a week later. Sorry for the delay 'coz "trial system" is activated for this week 'til next Tuesday.

It was more than a month ago when I saw my friend's MSN title citing there'll be the prom for my old school. Interested to know further, I dug deep and found out that the Lower 6 juniors are planning to organise the school's first ever prom night for the Form 6 students. My friends in Upper 6 are involved as well, and they asked me for a little advice initially.

It is certainly something new and afresh for the students there, as they're being left out from the glamour of prom night which could be one of the most memorable event they had during their last years in the school. I wanted to see this to succeed so I land my hand to help them as much as I can.

23rd of August, last Saturday, headed to the Dynasty Hotel located at Jalan Ipoh. Traffic wasn't that smooth as there's just a downpour struck the area moments ago, am glad that I managed to reach there safe and sound, I don't really like driving on a fully-packed road.

The organisers said the reception will be closed at 7pm sharp so I don't wanna be late. At least they still had some sense in them as many people haven't turn up as late as 7:30pm. Waited until 8pm and there everyone is present. The banquet door is shut, and the program begins~

Programs of the night.

Given the occasion like this, I'm glad that I can meet with all my friends again there. Likewise, it's uncommon to see all those friends dressing in their best suits and gowns, because usually I either met them in the school uniform or just casual wear. This is definitely something different, heh.

Allow me to introduce a few friends here, sitting at the same table.

Siew Mei & Siu Cheng, couple of the night.

Me and partners, Wen Ze to my right and Yuwei to my left.

Ex-classmate Haw Jiun and his gf Sze Ni.

Chin Wen & Fei Wen.

 

Kah Eng with Jia Hui.

The prom started with the emcees' introductions, and then followed by the organising chairman's speech. I don't wanna critic much bout the juniors, but given their performance in the speech I'd say their MUET would hardly score at least band 4, really.  *indirect "stab"  >:) *

Buffet dinner, as usual one cannot expect everything served would be good in hotel (except those high-end hotels such as Equatorial Hotel, Shangri-La etc. The salad was nice, the fried rice was nice, the lasagna was nice, but too bad the fish fillet & roast chicken hits below my expectations. Anyhow I managed to fill up my stomach that last me through the whole night.

Dancing has been a part of prom night, one of the main event of all. Some of the juniors took lead, and then only we seniors join in to dance~

  

Dancing was quite fun, I haven't got the chance to do so back in the college prom due to my own silliness. Now I've learn that if you restrict yourself too much, you wouldn't enjoy this! Don't be shy to ask girls for a dance! I love to dance in the waltz, they've chosen the right song.   :D   (I just dance according to the beats and melodies, I do not learn how to dance actually lol.)

After the dance there's this magic show, performed by a "magician", or should I say, professional trickster. This guy is used to perform to the little kids, and he even refer us as "小朋友", which means children in Mandrin. [-_-"]

Pulled out a long sheet of papers from his mouth. Friend commented next time should bring this guy into the loo as well, should you face any shortage of papers, you can count on him!  ;)

Yat Seng and his partner Yee Sin on the stage "performing".

Kah Shih surrounded by leng luis, Han Xin & Yuen Shi.

Recorded Kah Shih's stunt, a rather hilarious one. Just nice I recorded this down, heck it's the funniest stuff of all!

Next time we can ask for free soy bean juice from this dude!  :P

The last game the trickster played with us, not any fancy "magic" tricks but rather a physical challenge.

I didn't record down any videoclip, nor take down any pics of the singing performances by the Lower 6 and Upper 6 students. If my memory recalled correctly, the Upper 6 ladies sang "Dancing Queen" by ABBA, and the guys sang "L-O-V-E" by dunno whom. Funny songs, very nice to entertain us hahah....

Prom night is not completed by a complementary cam-whoring session, though it's not in the official program list, naturally.

Karen & Chin Wei

Yee Sin with Yat Seng

Sze Ling, Phui Ling & Leysia, with Chee Tat behind 'em.

A few Upper 6 Arts ladies.

Lei Wen with his partner (dunno name), then Chean Hui with Nan Yang.

Me and Kah Shih, this guy has been through a lot lately.

Han Xin and me, my classmate since Form 1.

Jia Hui with me, she's currently taking up a course in IMU.

Fei Wen & Chin Wei

Me with Karen, Fei Wen.

Ladies who sang "Dancing Queen": Fei Wen, Han Xin, Yee Sin & Karen.

L-O-V-E guys, Jiun Quan, Yat Seng, Meng Yan, Weng Joew.

Pretty ladies and the guys.

"Twins", Fei Wen & Karen. Both actually having the same name, in chinese.

Siew Mei and Karen, both are my Form 1 classmates.

The sweet couple with me.

Pui Teng & Hui Fen. I somewhat inspired to pose like this as I watched too much of Bruce Wayne, heh. Of course my status is nowhere near the prince of Gotham. (the reference pic is taken from Batman Begins)

Haw Jiun, a good mate since Form 4.

With my mate Weng Foo, who's sitting next to me back when I was in the school.

With Toh Wai, he used to annoyed me a lot but now he's the guy you can count on.

Chin Wei and me, another computer maniac just like me, hah.

Chin Wei, Siu Cheng, and me.

Some of the Upper 6 Arts gang.

Spotted a few Lower 6 juniors.

Friends~

Siu Cheng & Siew Mei, voted the best couple of the night!

We had lots of fun that night, a job well done for the junior organisers! You've proven me wrong and I must congratulate you all for successfully held the first ever prom! I just hope that your juniors for next year can do as good as you guys did, and even to held a better prom than this year!

Thanks to all those who've asked me about this, I've left not much chance to be together with all the school friends again, months to come everybody will be busy with trial exams (whether you're A Level or STPM), and then faced the toughest challenge of all, the real exams. My A2 exam will finish when they're just starting STPM, and after that people would just move on in their life, to a whole new journey of life~

It's a part of life, we met new friends, get along together, and finally we've to be separated by any means. You can't just hold on to your friends for the rest of your life isn't it? Others had their own life and dream to achieve too.

I thank all the friends in Chong Hwa for giving me such a wonderful time studying there for the past few years, I'm glad that the grudge some people hold towards me are now resolved, I've to admit I've done something really silly back then and I deserve to be "punished". Nevermind then, what's done is done, I do not want to mention what happened back then, it's just a part of life, where you'll learn from the mistakes. 所谓，不经一事，不长一智。

Wish all of us good luck and excel in the exams! A wonderful life is just begin to unfold by the end of the year!!  :)

 

P/S: This is post #1449, one more to 1500th! I'll be writing something bout Malaysia's 51st independence then.... another masterpiece I would say.  ;)