Thursday 31 March 2011

Of green peas and idiosyncrasies

Hmm... Catchy title. Okay, sudden epiphany.  *Potential song title - check*

I'll cut to the chase.  We had Bio lab session this morning and it was on the study concentration of carbon dioxide gas released by green peas (hence part one of the title).  The thing was that we had to do it in pairs.

On a usual basis, my bench will consist of Genevieve, Rebecca and Jessica, Genevieve being my partner.  However, today Rebecca was late and it was "partnering time".  What an awkward term...  Aaaanyway.  My bench was clueless on what to do: wait for Rebecca, or stone until her untimely arrival...

*WARNING!!*  HORMONAL TALK IMPENDING.  CLOSE WINDOW IF YOU COULDN'T CARE MORE (yes, "couldn't care less" is the wrong term constantly overused)

...Then this incredibly hot Iranian girl (of which the obvious I would not elaborate any further nor state who is she.  Let's call her Miss I!!), which I've never exchanged a word with EVER, pops up beside me and asked whether she could be my lab partner.  Out of sudden autopilot-ness (as my brain crashed for two seconds), I said okay.  The bench concluded: sorry Rebecca, you're flying solo.  They didn't mind though, so I was spared some blushes.  Don't get me wrong, Miss I was incredibly efficient and carried out the experiment way before I read the procedures, which was more than just great.

So I learnt one minor thing about myself that is probably not worth the two minutes you guys spent reading on this post, which is that I'm still the jumpy kid I was back in Primary school, somewhere in the deep recesses of my often-quetionable mind.  I need to work on that.

AND I finally got a weekend free of replacement classes, with no tests whatsover the next week!!  Elated me.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps - The Beatles

Monday 28 March 2011

Brief

Hi, sorry for the absence.  I was darn busy with all the assignments and test I had to make up.  I'm still not done with the Philippines post... Which is very bad.

On another note, I got 7 mixed As for SPM.  My Add. Maths and Bio had a B+ grade.  Very disappointed with myself, especially for Add. Maths.  Received some flak from Mrs. Chuah on that blunder, and I can't blame her.  Even getting As for History and Malay didn't soothe me.  Anyway, I'm getting over it.  Gonna fill in the form for a recheck, though.

Just making a quick post to let everyone know I'm not dead yet.  Narcissistic me.  Oh well.  Time for more Tobuscus.  He's so hilarious.

Like A Stone - Audioslave

Monday 14 March 2011

Awaiting

Currently at the departure gate T14 waiting for my 1.20 am flight.  It's gonna be a loooooong one, 4 hours.  Which means that once I land it will be effectively 6 am in the morning.  And damn, I wish I brought a book to read...

I happily abused the free Wi-Fi at the LCCT and found out that there's a spelling mistake in my Bio Field Trip Report.  One.  Freaking.  Typo.  Error.

NOOOOOO!!!  I'm dejected already.  The drama that I am.  Hopefully this one week vacation can trigger, or I guess you can say, re-awaken my songwriting chops.  I need more original pieces coming through, since I'm having a 5 month drought already.  Not so good news.  Okay, now to read some Spawn comics!

Oh, and I'll be much obliged to blog on this journey.  Just hope that I have the time to do so, since I've got Mid-Term exams waiting for me back in college.  Eeek.

Split Screen Sadness - John Mayer

Saturday 12 March 2011

The Last Five Years

Just now, I went to KLPAC to witness a musical/play titled "The Last Five Years" for my English assignment on critical analysis of a play.  I had lots of fun there, although only Danny accompanied me among the crowd, mostly filled with couples.  So since this was an assignment, I was required to write out the  critique for the play, in the dark.  I was thankful of having the skill of writing without needing to look.  But I think I made more grammatical errors than the joint total of my current writing works, as I had to think the sentences through while watching the performance at the same time.

The play was directed brilliantly, with creative aspects and style wonderfully executed.  Loved every minute of it.  Strongly suggest it.  Now to start packing for the Philippines trip.  See ya!

Born To Be Wild - Billy Idol

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Huzzah!!

And thus, I've reached the milestone 200th post!!

HECK YEAH!!

Nothing much to type.  I kinda forgot what I was supposed to post.  Drat.

I think it was regarding my project.  But I dunno...

Finally using Skype to chat.  I'm actually chatting with Beng now!!  Damn, I miss that woman.  The Swiss gal looks so much bigger now!!

Okay, gotta post this quick!  Gotta catch up with my best friend.  So much, actually that's a heck COOL much for the 200th post.  Farewell.


The Forecast - Jason Mraz

Monday 7 March 2011

Incomplete

You know what??  I didn't talk about the Bio trip at all!!  Thus, I'll just paste my report here.

6.55 a.m. on a gloomy Saturday morning was the time I reached the foyer of Sunway University College.  It was still dark and although we students were supposed to gather here by 7.00 a.m., there were only a handful present at that moment.  We were soon joined by Dr. Uthaya, who had brought her sister and niece along for today’s trip.  Mr. Gopal shortly joined the fray and we began boarding the bus at 7.37 a.m.  However, some 5 minutes later the bus pulled up at the Sunway Medical Centre for David wanted a cup of coffee from Starbucks.  We resumed the journey soon after.

At 9.00 a.m., we had finally reached the place.  Most of today’s participants were already feeling restless as the long drive took some toll on them, even me.  We were relieved to finally disembark from the bus.  We headed to the information counter first.  There we met up with our tour guide for the day, Laila.  She gave us a rough idea of what to expect from the inhabitants of the forest, including the often-annoying mosquitoes and the mischievous monkeys. We then took some time to look around the flow charts and information boards.  There was even a scale model of the entire compound placed in the middle of the room.

15 minutes later, we proceeded to the bags deposit booth so participants can lighten the load for the energy-sapping 4.5 kilometer walk ahead of us.  Later, we gathered at the entrance to the forest and Laila gave us an introduction to the place.

We began our walk into the forest at 9.29 a.m.  We witnessed some Silver Leaf-monkeys early into our journey and also came across a termite mound.  We cross the nearby bridge, with a T junction, and went straight.  We walked past a rather muddy terrain before reaching the end of the path.

After 20 minutes of brisk walking, we reached a watch tower.  We all ascended the stairs to the top so that we can start bird-watching.  The tower overlooked the lake which is situated at the heart of the Park.  Quickly, participants took out their binoculars as they gazed upon the lake.   Many herons were resting atop the trees and Mr. Gopal noticed a Monitor Lizard swimming in the lake.  We later descended from the tower to collect some samples for our upcoming lab session.  We walked back to the bridge and Laila revealed the muddy path we passed earlier was the work of wild boars.  She explained why she did not tell us just now because we may attract the boar if we panicked.


            Afterwards, we took the path at the left and it turned out to be a very big circle around the lake.  After half an hour of walking and cropping plant samples, Laila stopped us at this petite plant resembling Mint.  She explained it to be a Neem plant and insists it is edible but very bitter tasting.  She asked for any volunteers.  I accepted.  As I took a nib of the leaf, the bitterness quickly sat in.  I can say that it was bitterer than Bitter gourd, as it left a very strong after-taste.  As I was trying to kill the taste, Mr. Gopal told us that Neem was a common herb used to cure the itchiness of those who got Chicken Pox.

At 10.49 a.m., we reached the mangrove swamp section of the nature park.  We got on the bridge and walked along, while looking at the swampy terrain below, searching for crabs and mudskippers.  We saw the Sonneratia sp. followed by Rhizophora sp. and lastly Brugeria sp.  Then Moloud offered us some Pistachio nuts from her country, they were good.  At the end of the mangrove walkway, we had a “catch & release” session, where Andy and David had fun catching crabs, while Safa screamed out loud when she startled one back to its burrow.

At 12.10, all of us had completed the tour around the forest and walked out the nearby town for lunch.  Mr. Gopal had stayed back to guard our bags as some of us left them behind.  Dr. Uthaya then asked us to rendezvous back at the entrance to the park at 1.00 p.m. for the hike up Bukit Melawati.  Kevin, Joseph and I were the first to finish and went back to the park at 12.50 p.m.  There, Kevin had sudden bowel issues and had to use the toilet while Joseph and I waited at the hut with Mr. Gopal.  We waited and waited, but no one seemed to return.  Then at 1.40 p.m., we saw Dr. Uthaya’s sister and niece approaching the hut.

She explained to us that the others were waiting at the outer entrance and had hiked uphill since 1.20 p.m.  Noticing that it was too late, the three of us stayed back and learnt more about the hill from Mr. Gopal, since he is quite familiar with the place, coming here on several occasions.  At 2.00 p.m., we tried to catch up with the others via the shortcut stairs but they had just descended as we made a move.  At 2.10 p.m., the exhausted participants of the trip happily boarded the bus home.  We had a 20 minute rest time as the bus had to change tires.  Kevin and I went down to get some food to eat and we lost track of time.  Thankfully, Joseph called me to give a heads-up and we frantically rushed back to the bus.

We reached Sunway University at 4.00 p.m. and immediately went to the lab to press our plant samples.  Mr. Gopal gave us step-by-step instructions and we submitted our samples at 4.30 p.m. and headed home after that.

Cheers :D

Warning - Green Day

Saturday 5 March 2011

Bittersweet Nature

Today, Dr. Uthaya's fledglings, me included had a trip to the Kuala Selangor Nature Park for what was seemingly fun in the name of science.

We left at exactly 7.37 am, as I logged almost every incident in my notebook for the later 500-word report.  The bus had a brief hiatus at 7.41 am as David needed his Starbucks coffee from the Sunway Medical Centre.  After one and a half hours of headbanging music with Kevin on the bus, we finally reached our destination.

It was like any trip to a nature park: lots of mosquitoes, cool birds, mangrove swamps, more mosquitoes, you get the drill.  Lucky for me, I foresaw (ish) this problem and wore a long sleeve t-shirt.  I was surprised to be the only one who did so.
There were some beautiful plants and fauna around, although the otters were a no-show that afternoon.  Here are some of the pics.

 Fungus on the wooden railings

Colourful caterpillar


 Wild boar footprints


 All along the watchtower, bird-sighting


Termite mound

Note that all these pictures are taken with my phone.  Hehe.

Now to kill myself over the report.  Nuts

Lyla - Oasis

Friday 4 March 2011

Crash

Dang my bus just rammed a Mini Cooper at the turn right before entering college. Man was that guy mad. And I just assured my friend that our bus driver is a very capable one yesterday. I hate being wrong...
Jamming in 40 minutes time, I'm here in Moral class SIX HOURS before it starts.  Another achievement unlocked.
Crash - Gwen Stefani

Tuesday 1 March 2011

May-er??

Yesterday in Sunway, in my 4 hour free period, I read 10 comics continuously from The Oatmeal and still got bored.

Achievement unlocked.

Started going on a John Mayer streak now.  Trying to get my hands on all his albums.  Seems that I'm getting into the "Blues" era of my musical influence.  I still think Battle Studies and Continuum are tied for "His Best Album" award, in my often-questionable musical opinion.

Pre-Calculus was quite enjoyable today.  We're halfway through at Chapter 4 out of 8.  And Chapter 4's Circular Measures are VERY therapeutic.  No brainer work, for a Mrs. Chuah disciple.  EGO!!!

Anyway, it was also my first time witnessing a young woman, I'm guessing a few years short of her 20s, actually swearing out of frustration on a Pre-Cal question.  It was funny, and scary at the same time, since she sat beside me.

And I realised that this blog is 3 post short of hitting the 200 post milestone, after this one.  YAY!!!

She's a Mystery - John Mayer