Spring

Again, I apologize for the absence.  The semester started off with a shocker and I got overwhelmed in the opening days.  At that point, I didn't look forward to the semester at all.  But now since I've calmed down, I think I'll be okay haha!

The Orlando Roadtrip back in December was awesome!  The people consists of Lynn, Yen Fei, Kevin, Jerome, and I.  Although we had one d-bag of an acquaintance with us (sorry, just had to let it out), we had a great time running past 6 different states and exploring cultures here and there.  I'll run through with lots of pics:

Day One: Fine dining on New Year's Eve, at Fleming's Steakhouse and Wine Bar, St. Louis, Missouri

From left: Jerome, Lynn, Me, Yen Fei and Kevin

Day Two, at the St. Louis Arch, St. Louis, Missouri

Kevin with his Indian dance concept

(no pics on Day Three)

Day Four: Georgia Aquarium (the world's largest aquarium) at Atlanta, Georgia

Outside the World of Coca Cola

We also get a complimentary bottle!

Day Five at CSI: The Experience in Orlando, Florida

Day Six: DISNEYWORLD!!

The Magic Kingdom, in the night

We then met up with Cassie, Rachel, Moy, Chuu Nern, and Lip Yong for dinner at the Crystal Palace.  There, we celebrated Cassie's birthday.

Above row: Chuu Nern, Me, Cassie, Rachel, Lip Yong and Moy

Bottom row: Jerome, Kevin, Lynn and Yen Fei 

Day Seven : Universal Studios

Butterbeer!  Cold Butterbeer on the left, and Frozen Butterbeer on the right.

Like a mild root beer, with a creamier float

The Hulk Coaster.  Yes, I went through that.  So happy I did.

And yesterday, AMSISU had organized a ski trip to Boone, Iowa.  I had my first attempt at snowboarding and it is super fun!! The pain may be a little bit of a drawback, but negligible otherwise.

With Gordon, snowboard veteran

To tie this post up, here's the video of my last board down the hill, with skiing veteran Allistair (not seen in video) taping it.  Enjoy my show of bad balance.

From my Facebook

It's Okay - Coin

Fixation

I know I'm not a mistake.  No, I'm not.  But it's different when I make the worse mistakes in life.  Many of which could have been avoided, but still I regressed to being careless, selfish, preoccupied.  My demons show up at the worst of times, and I feel worthless.

One simple mistake, and all it takes is a minute of realization: I had forgotten about my father's birthday.  There is no punishment severe enough to correct this mistake, and I will forever bear this reminder.  I had forsaken my own father, of whom I share flesh and blood with.  Tell me, what more wrong can you do but forget the one you love, who loves you more?

Mentally, I'm a mess, through and through.  Afraid to commit at times, ashamed to admit, always living in the fear of being marauded, of being alone.  Most days aren't like this, but in the back of my mind, I had always held these doubts.  The issue?  I fear that in an intrinsic way, I want to feel like this, to give myself a challenge, and that it will affect everyone around me, and it may take me a lifetime to fix that.

Primavera - Ludovico Einaudi

Merry Christmas!

Hey ho!  First of all, Merry Christmas to all!!

It has finally snowed!  Yay for that.  I even have a scab on my knee to show it.  Here are some pics of what we did when it first snowed.

First signs of snow, at Adli's place

Helping Kennard brush off all the snow accumulated on his car

Yen Fei and Cassie, with Kennard's new dog, Lucky

Me, being me

Even my dorm (well, included in the pic is the neighboring dorm) looks nice for a change

But honestly, it has been an uneventful week, staying at Cassie's place, apart from the Winter Solstice celebration we had.

 Tang Yuen, it's a traditional desert to commemorate the Winter Solstice.

Basically starch balls with pandan syrup.

Plus, goofing around in the snow, of course. We borrowed the snowman to take some pics.  Tried making our own as well, but the snow was too fluffy to ball up.  As for the un-eventfulness, we've been having the same good things over and over, it does get somewhat repetitive.

Except for the time when I exited Freddy without barefooted in shorts.  It was to open the door for Patrick, Jon and Kennard plus Lucky.  Then, Patrick grabbed me and pull me out into the snow.  Then, he wrestled me onto the ground and it was freezing (hint, -17 C)!  What's worse was that Cassie also exited the building and had left her key in the dorm, and the door would only open with a key card.  Yen Fei was the only one in Cassie's place but she didn't pick up her phone.  I had to call in my friend to get the door open and it was some 5 minutes before we entered the building.  By that time I had lost all sensation in my fingers and legs.  That, was crazy!!

I've been so preoccupied with movies, cooking and LAN parties (Left4Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, and Borderlands 2) that I didn't update this blog much.  But yeah...  Christmas is here, I feel bad for not getting presents for my friends.

That's it for now I guess.  Merry Christmas!  And to all (in Malaysia), goodnight.

Follow - Crystal Fighters

Winter

It beckons, it eludes, and I yearn it still.  Why won't it snow?  Consistently?  I had only a 2-hour display of snow before the flurries receded back to the wet, rainy Fall climate.

A one-day-only spectacle

Well, it's now Winter break and I'm near-death from boredom.  I've gotten some of my grades back (this soon!) and I have already one let-down.  I got a B for Philosophy 230 when I was on course for an A-.  That's two grades apart and I bombed my finals with a 19/30.  Thoroughly disappointed with myself.  On the bright side, the other result I had received was my Microbiology 302 Lab.  I got an A with a perfect score for my "Identifying Unknowns" experiment.  To add the icing on it, I was the only one in my section to achieve this feat, and although my final grade of 179/200 wasn't a standout in my section, I still had a good performance overall to merit the A grade.  At least some of my efforts paid off.

Oddly, I am rather bummed out that the semester has ended.  I had tons of fun in (most of the) classes and working with the International Students Council was a great experience.  Next semester will be a whole different story as I'll be taking more credits as well as having a lot more responsibilities, in addition to the much-maligned Recycling Chair position I hold in my dorm.  Idiots can't tell glass from plastic...

Next sem I'll be taking tougher courses like General Physics II (of which I've almost nil of familiarity with) and Microbiology 374, which is on Insect and Plant Pathology (I think that's what it is called).  Moreover, I intend to rejoin ISC for another bout of stress-sessions as VEISHEA (it's a parade, and the biggest thing to happen in ISU every year) will be a blast.  Moreover, I want to be more involved with the Microbiology club as they get to make their own root beer for VEISHEA!  My favorite soft drink (or "pop" as they call it here).  I'm not done yet: I'll be a Teaching Assistant for Micro 302L (say hello to goofing around with microbes) and will be a Research Assistant for a fellow Malaysian graduate student here in ISU.  I may just bunker in my room all day.

I've even made some plans for Winter break.  Four friends and I will be taking a roadtrip from Iowa all the way down to Orlando, Florida to go to Disneyland and Universal Studios.  Yes, the Magical Kingdom and Harry Potter can only equate to a "WIN" in my books.  As we're driving, we'll be stopping at each state along the way.  I've attached a map for some reference.

*Iowa is in the Midwest of The States, by the way*

We'll be heading southwards to St. Louis first (Missouri) and will spend a night there.  The next day, we're heading Southeast to Nashville, Tennessee and again, we're bunking over for a night there.  Our next destination is Atlanta, Georgia, which is the state below Tennessee, before reaching Orlando, in Florida.  Of course, we're going to sight-see and I wanted soooooo badly to visit the Center of Disease Control (CDC) at Atlanta as it holds the only sample of the deadliest diseases such as smallpox and the Spanish flu.  Sadly, the group got weirded out and decided to visit the Georgia Aquarium instead, which is the largest aquarium in the world, apparently.  December 31st is our departure date and the trip will be a week long.  It is gonna be awesome!

Speaking of plans, I've already made a couple of them for next Fall as well.  From my Micro 302L class, I was given notes on how to ferment your own wine.  Because I have to let it age for at least 6 months in a stationary location, I can only start the project once I move out of my dorm and settle elsewhere.  So if I ever die from this experiment (touch wood), you'll be glad to know that I did it in the name of Science.  Also, I'll be relearning Chinese as it's something I need to do.  Laugh all you want but I'm not gonna care.  This is what I want, and what my grandfather wants.  And I have to honor his wish.

That's it for now.  Time to start reading some books and watching my TV series!  Tata for now.

Ghost - The Preachers

Growth

Clearly, we all have our fair share of conflicts and disagreements.  This was the Facebook post regarding on of the major issues:

It's clear to see that we have internal rifts going on.  I would like to mention that Freedom of Speech has made this morally permissible.

Isaac, you have a right to express those concerns as you're addressing it to a friend.  However, it was rather offensive to attack someone in the open.  That being said, I can understand why you took such drastic measures as I felt this group has been inaccurately represented as of late.  To summarize my points, never rely on social media.  Go talk to the person, and get the actual message through.

As for Steffi, you too have a rightful say in this.  I too agree that someone should be approached directly if there's any concerns gravitating towards a said individual.  Unfortunately, I'm partially on Isaac's side here.  Before any misunderstanding occurs, I'm not against getting into relationships (that's a healthy thing).  But when things don't come out as planned, it makes everyone feel uncomfortable that you go around bad-mouthing about how he's a perv/ jerk, etc.  In all honestly, we've been here to see multiple similar scenarios.  So yes, we are concerned.

Let's be honest here, this group doesn't represent all of us.  We had our fair share of voices drown out and put down by others and that is unjust.  I've spoke out before, Danny has spoke out before, even Suzanne has spoken up before; still we were all silenced. This is looking less like a group of friends and more of a therapy session.  It's not as explicit as I am conveying it now, but that's the truth.

All in all, I blame the over-reliance on social media for the deviation of ideals and messages.  You have an issue, you can bring it up, I have no qualms against that.  But you say what you mean, and you take it in like an adult.  We're not kids anymore!  It's high time we stopped acting like one.

It's Time - Imagine Dragons

Treasures

Yes, yes.  I'm at fault for putting social life and video games ahead of blogging and studies.  Honestly, my punishment should be more severe.

So I left this blog in the midst of International Week as it was just events day in, day out and I was left with almost no breathing space.  Luckily I had no quizzes or exams that week or I would have blipped right off and get tripping with caffeine (as if that works).  International Week was nice, although I am drawing comparisons to nothing of the sort as it was my first time experiencing it.  We had a theme for I-Week this time around, and it was the "Discovery of Treasure".

Before International Week kickstarted on Saturday, I volunteered to represent ISU as an international student to talk to the Boy Scouts of America for their Citizenship in the World badge.  I wore my scouts shirt from Malaysia and was really excited to meet the kids.  It was fun to share the culture I have to a captive audience, especially when they are eager to know more.  Although I did screw up some parts, as I didn't know we had to prepare a speech (mine was totally impromptu, boo).  They even had some hard questions like "What are your rights?" and "What changes would you like to see in America's foreign policy?".  I'll be honest: I dislike politics; not hate, dislike.  So giving me these tough questions to answer?  Sorry, bud.  In the end, we took a large group photo.  Yay!

We had our first intramurals, in which the ISC team (myself included) got obliterated in dodgeball in under 24 seconds.  Yes, you read it right.  Twenty four seconds.  We were bad right off the bat!  But hey, we had loads of fun.  Moreover, I was rather happy as I finally had an actual workout in a month!  On a sidenote, I think my left knee ligaments are straining up, as I always feel tweaks when I play any sport which involves running...  Hope it's not too bad.

I'll just skim through the events before this gets too wordy (although it might already be).  We had a Desserts and Snacks Fair, Scavenger Hunt, International Movie Night, International Bazaar, more intramurals, and the culmination of I-Week was the event I worked on alongside 3 others, International Night.  I-Night was okay, with a fantastic reception but not-so-good execution.  The major letdown was the douchebag of an AV tech as he was running amok without a clear plan in his head.  I got so worked up by him that for the first time in any event, I didn't say a word to him.  He didn't earn that word of thanks or acknowledgement.  Heck, if I knew how to work the equipment I could've done a better job.  Not to say that I'm good, but he was subpar.  Still, we had a great time!

After I-Night ended, everything seemed so lax to me.  Then again, I had not studied AT ALL so that may just be the case.  Yan Yao, with his tech brain similar to Roger, helped me get Borderlands 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.  Add that to my new GameBoy Advance emulator I got in my phone and BUH-BYE boredom, with a hint of discipline.

Thanksgiving break soon followed and Kevin Yan, Yen Fei and I found ourselves staying over at Cassie's place as her roommates had left and we all needed some company.  So for the entire week we cooked extravagant un-college-like food for ourselves to gorge upon.  It was so lavishing for a lifestyle.  Every night, to my dismay, we would watch a horror show, and you know how much I hate horror shows.  I think I gained a little more cajones after that.

Thursday saw us heading to Minnesota for Black Friday shopping.  On our way there, we had a flat tire, flurries and Malaysian food.  Awesomeness at it's finest.  So we shopped from 11 pm until 5 am in the morning.  Got solely essentials, with some wants like earphones and a gaming controller.  It was a good trip, I must admit.  I even had Kyoto Sushi for dinner, which was a Japanese buffet.  Win!

Last night there was a potluck at Tripp Street, where a majority of the Malaysians reside.  It was a great night and we had great food, a good atmosphere, and a good Taboo party game.  I need to play more in that game, it may just be the best party game I'm good at.  Needless to say, guessing the words like "polygamy" and "spank" did gain me some popularity, in the wrong way.  It was a great night, and I made new friends.

Moreover, today will be full of scholarship applications, emailing my lecturers, and hopefully, gaming studies. Dang it, I need to start applying soon as the deadline is a fortnight away!

So Good - B.o.B

Ping

You know why is it so hard for me to get closer to people?  It's not that I'm antisocial and like bunkering in a 30 x 30 ft room by myself.

I just lack the ability to show my personality.  That, I learned yesterday.  What a kick in the teeth.

Shotgun - Wallpaper