According to http://www.bostonuk.com/name_meanings.php....

It means...

Having confidence in yourself and integrity you have your emotions under control and are rarely ruffled. You have a quiet and reflective manner and are responsive to the needs of others giving you the ability to be a mediator. You are extremely successful in the material world being organised, financially astute and pursuing realistic goals. Your caring attitude and compassion certainly makes you a loved individual.

I hope it's true. Hehe.

Thanks Manda for the site. Couldn't resist to try my own name :P

Ah, yes.

Once again another semester is almost coming to an end. It's seem so fast, no? Even though through the times when we had test, quizzes and assignments to be done, the days seemed so long. But now, I'm 3 weeks away from home. Will be going back the day after my last paper. Yahoo!

So far, I've been pretty busy. It was a season of tests and datelines for the past 2 weeks. Pressure, pressure! But lately, I've recently found my latest craze to keep me sane here in campus.

Introducing!

KAT-TUN!

Yes, these pretty boys are so funny in their talk show. Because of them, I got addicted to Japanese songs, Japanese dramas and everything KAWAII. Because of them, I've got a new must visit destination in my list. Japan! Talk about obsession..phew.

Then, there's Gossip Girl! It's finally back after the writer's strike. I miss the perfection of Miss Waldorf :P OooH! Another one! ANTM season 10! For another season of pretty girls and pretty pictures. Nice~

Entertainments aside, I still do have to try my best in the finals. Last sem's result have been a bummer for me. I don't wish for it to come back and haunt me again. Wish me luck will ya? ;)

Just yesterday, I experienced my first fever in campus. It was pretty bad, having sore throat and everything. Some more I had a report to submit and was still waiting for the data. Seeing the weather here is so unpredictable, sometimes its so hot, at night also its still warm. Never ever wanna go through to it again. I don't ever wanna be sick, except when I'm at home. Cos I would have Mummy to take care of me. Sob~!

Anyways, I guess I'll be busy again for the finals.
Then it's home sweeet home :D

Disney Princesses.

Taking a break from their poised and charming nature.

Simply HILARIOUS! XD

Do u care of what I'm even saying to you?

Do u share the load?

Do u even give a damn about the whole thing?

Why do u have to be so negative about everything?

Have u ever take a moment to think that someone is taking his/her time off just to make things happen? Do u respect his/her efforts? Where are yours?

Have you ever stopped to think that other people have other commitments too? But isn't it actually up to u to realise that u should also do ur part?

Does ur whole world revolves around u? And only u?

Do u care of what I've done to u? Do u make an effort to do ur part?

Things just don't matter to u, doesn't it?

To be heard is to listen.

Everybody's talking to be heard.

But nobody is listening....

..

..

..

..to me.

-continued-

Euphonious 2008 was succesfully held at the Chancellor Hall on the 28th of March, presenting the 5 finalist who got through the preliminary round the weekend before. The bands competing were The Capoiz, Band Jamen, Yasha, Retrodelics and The Raptors.

The preliminaries~

I called this senior of mine 'Easter Bunny'. He calls me 'Bang' (inside joke). Haih...

A short trivia about the bands:

1. The Capoiz was last year's winner for the same competition.
2. The Raptors are the only group participated by a mixture of international and local students.
3. One of the vocalist for group Yasha, The Capoiz and Band Jamen each, are female.
4. Each group had to include an extra musical instrument to add flavour to their music (and to fulfill the rules and regulations). For example; The Raptors included a violin while Band Jamen had Bonang (a local Gamelan instrument).
5. Each band were allocated a colour for voting. Band Jamen was yellow, The Capoiz orange, Retrodelics green, Yasha red and The Raptors were purple.

The marks from the performances were 70% from invited judges and 30% from audience votings. Each band are required to perform 2 songs, one of which are the songs from the list of compulsory songs. Some of the songs that I could remember coming from this list were Smooth by Santana feat. Rob Thomas, Sway by The Pussycat Dolls and Dewi by Dewa.

All the band performances were pretty good. Heck, they were GOOD. This should be expected as 23 bands competed for a spot in the finals where only 5 bands are selected. Though I only managed to catch glimpses of the performances on that night, hearing the music from outside the hall was enough to know that the bands played their best.

The winner that night was The Capoiz yet again, retaining their title as the best band in UTP. Congratulations to them! As for the runner-ups, they are all good as they have already entered the finals. Bravo~!

The winning band - The Capoiz

This year, Euphonious is a different affair for me compared to last year's. I'm proud to be part of a dynamic committee in making this event a success. Throughout the whole week, my department (ticketing) have set up 2 booths in USM cafe and Pocket D for ticket sales. We were also working overtime for a few nights to sell tickets in cafes. Tickets were selling like hot cakes, partially because the finals are near, the bands were good and we offered an irresistable package to sell the ticket (buy 7 tickets, get 1 ticket free!). Personally, I think that we did not need to look for people to buy the tickets. Instead, they were looking for people to sell the tickets to by buying the package price. So half our jobs were settled. Hehe.

Ticketing booth during the prelims - Ajak on duty

Almost the whole of Chancellor Hall was filled that night. The entrance to the hall  was hectic. A lot of people were coming in at one time. And the presence of the security personnels demanding that students must show their matric cards did not help either. Most students are unaware that they should bring their cards. But at least the personnels did helped my committee to control the crowd.

Eupho '08 ticket

I'm proud to say that we've passed the sales from last year's ticket selling. All those hard work from the whole week have finally paid off. I would like to thank all my committee for their hard work and congratulate all of the working committee of Euphonious '08 for a job well done. :-D

My entry down there doesn't look complete without a whole load of of pics innit?

So here goes =)

Yerp, that's where we went

Looking super happy - to do something I'm familiar with I guess ..hehe

Rinsing that bucket of rice ain't easy, trust me

Edgar the masseur

Andrey doing the legs

We even gave piano lessons! Well, erm..Edgar did

Ernesto's first time feeding somebody

Drama scene in session

Us with the cast of the play

Those are raw domestic wastes. And yes, it smells..

The men at work

Somehow we look happy working on the fertilizers..haha

Mark, Uncle Alex's assistant and Nick, volunteer from the UK (He's about the same age as I am)

We even made our mark - CSSUTP - on the mud sealing the fertilizer

Jamming session, erm..in session (This was in House 7)

Us with Uncle Alex

The pictures can't really do enough to describe my experience there. But this is the best that I can do to tell you guys.

Enjoy~

Hey hey! Time for another update. Don't you think so?

To start things off, on the 10th to the 13th of March, I went on an Exposure and Immersion Programme (EIP) with my fellow colleagues, namely Edgar, Andrey, Ronnie and Ernesto. I was the only girl in our small group of 5. We went to Welcome Community Home (WCH), located in Batu Arang, Rawang. It's in this center where the drug addicts and HIV infected are placed to recover and to learn living a normal life after their addiction, before going back to the society. We initially planned a 4 day and 3 nights trip but it was cut short into two days only as travelling to and fro takes almost a day. Nevertheless, I still learned and got to know a lot during that short period of time.

On the 11th, we spent the whole day at House 7 (FYI, WCH consists of many houses scattered around the kampung in Batu Arang, This is to accomodate the increasing number of residents and to provide a place to stay for volunteers and visitors). In this particular house, it is where all the sick and disabled resident stay. This is the house where obviously more job needs to be done and more manpower is needed. I spent most of my time there mostly chatting with the residents and getting to know them. I've also helped the Ah Lee (btw, he's a recovered addict), the cook in the house to prepare meals for the house residents. Everyday he has to prepare meals for 40 people and meals consisted of breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. Helping him cleaning 2 big basket of veges' and rinsing the 15-20 cups of rice to cook already tires me. What more to say him, who's been doing it for about 3 years already. Phew!

That night, we went to House 5 (if I'm not mistaken) to listen to testimonies from 3 of the residents on how they got involved in drugs, what have happened, up to the point to where they are now. They were sharing a personal experience in their lives which might have been painful to talk about so I really appreciated their courage to do the session. One was having a pretty good life, but was curious with the effects from drugs and so he tried and got hooked on it. Another one was looking for attention and appreciation from his peers. He couldn't find any group that he could fit into but he finally settled in one particular group whom he thought was 'cool' and by peer pressure, got involved into drugs. Another one was tested HIV positive by mistake and spent a lot of time going in and out of prison and rehab because of his addiction to drugs. Shortly after the sharing, we watched a theatre play by some of the residents whom have fully recovered. The play was called 'Falling Leaves'. It depicts the thoughts and musings of the addicts when they were in those days, how they felt after going through their dark period in their lives. I admire their work and effort to make the play a commendable one. In fact, that was the first time that they are showing their play for free for anybody as one will have to pay quite a generous sum of money to watch. They have performed in Bangsar Studio Arts Center and have received a great feedback from the public. Although we only got to watch 3 scenes from the play, it was still truly a great piece of work.

The next day, we went to the Sungai Buluh Hospital to have a short meet with the doctor regarding on HIV related issues. I forgot the name of the doctor but in that short meeting with him, I can say that we all truly learnt a lot. The doctor tries his best to make us understand the current situation by explaining to us in simple English with minimal technical terms. He informed us about the latest updates in countering HIV and that there is medication (HAART treatment) available to control the virus. There are some side effects when taking the treatment but at least the virus can be controlled at a reasonable level. I was also glad to know that we can only contract HIV through 3 ways: when there's blood transfusion (sharing of needles), through sexual intercourse and during pregnancies (mother to child). Not through saliva, or by touch or through mosquitoes. Phew!

After that, Uncle Alex (the director of WCH) showed us the way to make good organic fertilizers using effective microorganisms. Now, all of you must be thinking. What has fertilizers got to do with recovering drug addicts? Actually, organic farming is one of the activities keep the residents occupied during their stay at WCH. Almost all the vegetables and fruits served in House 7 are plucked from the organic garden next door. And the produce tastes definitely better that normal veges you get in the market. There were a lot of shovelling, mixing, pouring and stuffing done to make the fertilizers. A lot of hard work, but hey at least we got to know the basics on organic farming now. Actually, the boys did all the hard work. Big clap to them =D

I only did the pouring and photographing.
Hehe.

So that's more or less on our trip during the mid semester break. On the last day, we also had to head down to KL early to meet up with Anne for our Spiritual and Theological Analysis session at the youth center in St. John's church. Just to better incorporate what we have seen and experienced and relate it to the spiritual aspect in our life and to think of what we have done and what should be done.
Another eye opening experience this is for me.

My 20th birthday this year have been a humble one. This year, it fell on the same day that I was going through EIP. No cakes, no grand presents but hey, at least I've got 4 guys 'serenading' to me at once! Haha. They sang to me Happy Birthday song then some praise and worship songs in the middle of the nite. Haha. That would be the first and the last for my whole lifetime I think. LOL!

Ronnie, Ernesto and Edgar - the serenaders =P

Andrey on the guitar

O yeah, I would also like to thank everybody for their good wishes and blessings through SMS'es, Friendster and Facebook. Love all of you! And thank you for all the presents I've received. Yes, even the early (end of January!) tapao wantan mee also. Thank YOU! =)

Actually, I've got more to update.
..Eupho-d and Peeled...
Look out for the next entry =P

-to be continued-

LOVE YOURSELF :) 

Mid-sem break officially starts for me, right about now. This quiet Friday afternoon. After 3 hectic weeks of practices, tests, quizzes, tutorials and meetings, it has finally stopped.

For a while. Phew!

Prior to ICC-CNY celebration on the 15th of February, I've been having dance practices for the performance. To choreograph a Chinese song ain't easy but I've managed to make it through. The song we used was 'Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin' ( hope I spelt that right =P), meaning 'The Moon Represents My Heart' by David Tao. It's a more contemporary version of the classic song. The dancers were pretty enthusiastic too. They are eager to learn and I'm very much happy with that. Suffice to say that everyone was pretty satisfied with the dance. I know I am =)

CNY dance team =) 

That night also, we had a prayer meet at V2 meeting room. Anne, our Campus Ministry Officer (CMO) came to UTP again to brief us of more PCC updates and to get to know our campus better. I have to say, she is really working very hard to make things work in all campuses under Penang Coordinating Council (PCC). She's travelling from Penang to the north in Perlis and all the way down to the south in Perak. I really have to respect her for that.

The week after that was preparation time for all the tests and quizzes coming up. So far tests are okay. I think I can manage it all of it but as always, there's always much more room for improvement.

This semester, I'm also involved in the committee for Euphonious, a battle of the band competition in campus. I'm in charge of Ticketing department and I have my very own room-mate as my assistant. Hehe. The beginning of the semester, there was nothing much to do for my department except to select the rest of our committees through interviews and to strategize on how we should sell the tickets once it's released. The designs for the tix are done by the Promotion and Publication department. Tickets should be out after mid-sem break, so for UTPians out there, watch out ya! Look for me to go watch Eupho '08 =P Check out its promotion blog at http://www.eupho08.blogspot.com/

This year, I'm also elected to be the president of CSS. Honestly, am honoured. I have big plans for this family of mine in campus. While it's nice to have friends of the same faith, to have a group of family-friends of my own, away from home, it could get real frustrating at times. Let's just say organizing something is never easy, it never is easy but the result coming out from all those hard work can be real amazing. I'm in the midst of organizing, searching, looking, exploring and have yet to get the results. But I trust God wouldn't put me in a place where I can't handle. I hope I can make it in one piece. But, don't get me wrong. CSS ain't that bad. I loved it from the moment I stepped into its first gathering. But, I do have a LOAD to carry =)

Some of the CSS-ers during last sem's farewell prayer meet

Just last week, I went to Penang to attend Malaysian Catholic Society Council meeting with Matt and Andrey. Another new experience. It was like attending my first PCC meeting all over again. Only this time, I got to know more people than I did last time. In this meeting, we discussed on the updates each campus ministry in the whole of Malaysia. Also include, our struggles and problems faced today and upcoming activities. It is only held once in 2 years so it's actually a chance not to be missed since I have it in my term. I never knew of the impact of that meeting til the last day. That I can actually say something that would a change to the Catholics youths all over Malaysia. Yes, WOW.

Yesterday, I received a call from my Mum, Felt that she called at the perfect timing, when everything just seemed so wrong and I didn't know what to think already yesterday. After talking to her for a while, Mum passed the phone to Darrel, my adorable cute cousin of only 5 years old. Apparently, he misses me, my mum says. Haha. It's so comforting to hear his cute voice again. He's so innocent, telling me, "Saya ada Mashimaro!!!", thinking I'll be jealous that I don't have one. Cute little guy. Managed to catch up with James also, Aussie cousin of mine. He only visits maybe once in 3 or 4 years. Thought he'll be leaving for Australia this week, but his flight was actually on next Wednesday. It will be a long time 'til I see the next of him again. Huhu. Miss home =(

Mr. Carlos Darrel XD

So that's it from me now. Will be going off for an Exposure and Immersion programme soon. I'm hoping and praying it will turn out well. Will update when I'm free =)

P/s: Big Day coming soon! I feel old =P