Tuesday, December 10, 2013

What to do after finals

Farewell party for my ADTP's friend
Learn Flat UI in depth - Finally have time for this
*and considering to start my own website too - and mobile apps
Run. And run. Newton Challenge 25km on year's end.
Swim. And swim too. Haven't used my swimming card like for 2 months.
Play - there is a new tactical mmorpg game released in 6 more days.
*ah and don't forget star conflict, it's the best.
Teach, possibly. New batch of members for echo! More designers!
Tinker with my tablet, the deep sleep function is not working properly.
Clean my room. Really. Especially my table.
Sleep 7 hours a day. I have been recording my sleep time with an app. The sleep debt was horrible.
Travel. I want to go somewhere that I never went before in Malaysia!
*maybe batu caves, or maybe port klang, melaka, or maybe cameron highlands. Who knows?!
Comic Fiesta 2013.
Microsoft Virtual Academy - because no coding is no fun.
edX - Coursera - MITx - because even programmer need to learn linguistics and business.


all these, while I'm on my way to the second day of my finals. Good luck everyone!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Re:Post

For month and months I have strayed far enough from my track. Sure, I gained something worthwhile in attending multitude of events that keep popping on my schedule every week. Career Conference 2013 for example, opened my eyes to the employer's perspective, what they see in people and what they are actually looking for. Company visits to big firms gave me an insight of how an organization operates and volunteering in a highly regarded event such as Perdana Leadership Foundation or Malaysia Public Policy Competition teach me the essence of professionalism. Responsibility does matter and I will say I learned it the hard way by crashing here and there, committing mistakes that I still regretted as of today. It shaped me in a fashion of a hardly-tempered mineral, but we all know that "No pressure, No diamond" saying live up to its definition. I'm just trying to be a little bit better than what I could do yesterday, which resulted in my running threshold reached 7km as of today - the distance I could run comfortably without stopping. I regained this little passion of mine back in Xterra Malaysia when I witnessed people, young to old, male or female completed the astonishing triathlon challenge in Putrajaya. From there I joined various training and races with my fabulous teammates, improving my stamina notch by notch and could finally smiled to that little Leo in the past as he watched Marathon and Olympic Games coverage in awe. However until today, there is something that still doesn't feel quite right. I like programming, yet I hate it. It's a love-hate relationship that revolves around neatly-tabbed codes, behind-the-scene logics and the struggle of finding the correct people that envision the same goal as yours. I went to the extent of nearly dropping the back-end parts off while being focused on Sunway Echo Student Newsletter designing side, in which I truly enjoyed. The decision was heightened when a wonderful yet strong community existed in the particular side too - the surface side that concentrates on people, a hub, a bridge to the crowd. Afterwards, it was a close call. I joined the Google Developers's DevFest Kuala Lumpur 2013 which flipped the entire table, erratically changed my train of thought and reshuffled the pieces of puzzle in the complexity of my animus. I met someone who worked 6 years in investment at France, decided to start creating things on his own and ventured to Asia and built his own start-up. I met someone who never coded before, yet become a full-time system developer by learning in autodidact. I met someone who came from mobile app industry and told his stories from a developer perspective. I met someone, my colleague who recently released his start-up project and networked with way more people than me. I met someone who finally defined the term start-up to me, a realistic person that turned off Microsoft's offer because he enjoyed what he's doing now. I met someone who is presenting Malaysia in next regional programming challenge in Phuket next week. I met an actual googler who actually never purchased an app. I met a team of company workers who came from various backgrounds yet performed really efficiently. I met people who sit on the floor, typing frantically on their laptops and could pitch their idea the moment you opened up conversation. These aspiring people, their eyes are glittering with spirit, and dream, and ideas. And they are most welcome to share theirs since they won't lose it. The only valid formula for idea is addition apparently. Amazing foods and frequent tea breaks are made with the objective of providing a platform for networking, a chance to talk that could potentially turn ideas into existence. I was wrong. All this time I thought the tech community was not strong enough, at least in Malaysia. But no, I am rightfully wrong. It was there, you only need to know where to look. You could either basks in joy for finding the right environment for you, or hold it tight by keeping close contact to each other but heck, why choose when you can get both? Maybe because it's Google, maybe because it's the people, or maybe because it's you? You decide, I'm done for the night. I am a proud developer-yet-student dreaming to put on the original Google's name tag. #gdg #devfest

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy birthday Edward!!!

Have a blast there! (literally a blast!) and how about we play some quick game? Just to commemorate your birthday(actually I'm just too bored :p) so yeah, I had uploaded something on the net that you will need to find, but of course I won't give it to you that easily. You need to put some effort there to successfully decode and receive your prize.

The final link for the file would be in this format:

http://bit.ly/*******

you will need to uncover the asterisks hidden in some special places :D
to simplify things, I will give you the first two codes '1a' so good luck!!!

HINT: view the page source of this article(right click in your browser)

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The answer will always be tea

Be it to calm you down, spice up things or a complementary to an awesome lunch - or a terrible one.
I'm writing this quick post with regard to a new method - a way to enjoy the damned Nestum that has been lingering around since previous terms. I bought it on a whim to try out its taste(Honey) but what I found in my cereal bowl is something between the definition of oatmeal and oat drink. It is not that hard to chew(less fibre) but couldn't be gulped down instantly like a drink.

It was terrible(and I just found out they had others 3 in 1 series; an official oat drink from Nestum;this one's fine) but finally after some time of experimenting I found out the good way of enjoying it.

I made a tea beforehand and poured the Nestum in the cup, stir it slowly and let it soften. I added some sugar to add some sweet traces to the tea, and poured few drops of fresh skimmed milk in the end. I wanted to use condensed milk but I remembered throwing the container away after it was surrounded by ants. With all the tight schedules stabbing my agenda day by day, I was left with little time to actually have a break. Unhealthy eating behaviour has eroded my daily nutrition intake, with instant foods keep adding up the toll with their little-to-none preparation time :/

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Just a thought

Someday I want to be able to go to the Arctic region and watch the star trails, or circumpolar stars. That number of lines and lights never fail to mesmerize me

north star

star trails from banff national park, Canada

Monday, October 14, 2013

New goal

Aside from academic goals that I have in mind, I thought of something new to achieve which coincide with my running activities now. I have a really strong habit to wonder around everywhere whether to gain ideas for my design or just for the sake of curiosity. I think I wrote it before that I played a game called Ingress from Google which requires the player to walk around the city and hacking portals - or popular landmark that attract people attention. I wondered quite far last time till the National Monument and ASEAN Sculpture Garden in Kuala Lumpur and ended up in Dataran Merdeka while witnessing my first double rainbow XD

I do like travelling, but since my schedule for studies and extra-curricular activities are quite packed now(more than busy actually) so I decided to scale it down a bit. I wanted to visit all(if not most) the parks and greenery in this city(preferably with lake, I love lakes coz it makes you feel the breeze), and jog around the area. Sunrise and sunset setting would be the best since nobody wants to run under the scorching sun. And I don't mind drizzle to slight rain unless it turns to a rainstorm.

So starting now I'll post back a lot of pics and stories of how I ended up in those respective places :D

double rainbow!!! :)

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Checked.

Last friday before this term's mid break starting from the 14th.
Computer Network's test on the morning and free time afterwards, ah and I need to submit Social & Professional Issues reflective journal for last week lecture.

What comes next, especially during the break itself; would be the not-surprisingly intensive study period. There's a lot of topics that I need to review on and group assignments to discuss. Most deadline would be on the eighth week to the tenth period, so at least we have 2-3 weeks to complete those multiple coursework.

Anyway I have started listening on soundcloud again and this particular singer - Barsena, really catches my attention. His voice are great and I liked his cover so much! Here's the playlist that I'm building right now to sort his songs collection (and few other exceptional singers too)



Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Hit and run

I'm talking about ideas here, not accident by any means.
That exact feeling when you keep searching for ideas and finally after few days it struck you when you're washing your face in the sink.
According to the workflow, I'm on my final page of design for ECHO issue #3 - which is considered as late despite the hasty performance. One possible reason to explain this was the writings submission delayed by quite a few days, and even upon the start line of designer's job, most photos haven't uploaded yet. Thus the waiting and redesigning. You made one, they said you lacked few things, you countered by saying it was not available from the start, they simply dismiss you and say 'Oh I just uploaded it now'. 





Seriously?




Do you know how design works at all? 
It is impossible to incorporate something to the article when the particular page was made without pictures in mind. Thanks to the absence of the pictures I spent few more extra hours to think what should I do with it, which ultimately resulting on one of my best pieces I created so far. Yet you pulled the trigger, asking me to place something that was not supposed to be in the draft, even to the extent of me finding the pictures for myself by asking external sources. (Which is partly good, cause I have the rights to choose the one which suited the design as overall)


Just my two cents, the design didn't move by their own. We move them. By clicking and dragging the mouse. By repeating the time consuming process over and over to ensure it was not off. Changing something to an already fixed design require us to check the page as a whole again. Then again, It's actually good that people could provide feedback to you thus the learning but please, respect our work. It was not as easy as modifying or editing paragraphs, your Microsoft Word(thanks to its algorithm, or any word processor program) would ensure the document would always looks good and that's what you have taken for granted all the time. 

I will need to complete everything by today to ensure I have enough time to study for my computer network's test on friday morning. Juggling your time between clubs, studies, exercises, social interactions and rests is hard, but totally worth it I could say.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Yeah 3x

I won the t-shirt design competition by accounting and commerce society!!! Rushed to the place after a shopping spree in RSH warehouse clearance(in the end some were too big and some were too small but nvm that).

My design, first place :3
Anyway after that I went to cinema to watch the newest movie on the blockbuster list, GRAVITY and now I developed a new fear towards space, or more precisely zero-gravity.

Outer space is scary and this piece was really an eye-opening towards astronauts working up there
Watched it on IMAX 3D and was really glad to do so, it seems so realistic that you forget the entire thing was computer processed o_o

*And yes, I really liked the ending :D

Friday, September 27, 2013

In times of weakness

This is an open letter addressed to myself, Leonardy Kristianto in the future.
At time of this writing you're currently recovering from a severe stomach-ache of yesterday's two full-blown cup of coffee in Running Man event conducted by Sunway's Game Show Club, which induce the same amount of throw ups in the night before. If that doesn't really triggers your memories, you're currently on your 3rd design out of 6 for your campus official newsletter - ECHO for the fourth issue of the year, after spending time being scolded in our last issue for terrible time management. Anyway you're doing great now since you decided to take revenge by giving it your best. You're working on Sunway Dance Club's Annual Dance Production - Genesis article in which you never attended although one of your best friend performed there(reason being you're out in town, with your fellow Monashian, Taylorian and Lim Kok Wing's from the same home town having a rare chance of gathering).

Please note that you're typing this while sitting on your dorm's corridor after a terrible sleeping time since your room mate decided to keep the fan on, but don't blame him since this is your own trouble to begin with. After waking up at 5AM you are somehow able to move on your natural instinct of hunger, taking little steps to the kitchen only to realize the stove was out of gas, the induction cooker gone haywire and anything you ate tasted terrible. Thank your room mate for keeping his water boiler intact and for him to save you twice when you are suffering this ordeal too back then when both of you are still staying at previous dorm nearby. All in all, remember to express your gratitude too for that precious friend of yours from the student council that had helped you to purchase your fried rice, in which you barely finished half of it in opposite of your usual big appetite and for him to escort you back at 11PM yesterday.

You have two reasons of why you are crafting these gloomy and out-of-place paragraphs now. First, before you successfully closed your eyes and went into your slumber, you suffered. Living by yourself(not literally, you do have your room mate though) in another country is never as easy as staying in your parent's comfort zone. You are considerably healthy for most times as your involvement with the athletic club developed your fitness and you just love to swim with closed eyes to feel each strokes pushing against the water. However bad times do and would occur and this is just one of those time where you are at your weakest. Negative thoughts often dominate us when we are dealing with something bad and believe it or not, you are even uncertain of whether you could wake up to see another sunrise tomorrow. Thankfully your iron will pushes you through the night, partly because you remember you still have three group assignments to do and Standard Chartered KL race on Sunday. By typing this you hope you remember that you survived the night and are still able to witness the sun rays through the window. Bird's chirping never sounds this beautiful before anyway.

Arriving on your second reason, after realizing that sitting on a chair or any elevated surfaces would make you dizzier than before, you decided to sit on the floor after that quick bites of bread and few sips of chamomile tea. As the relaxation settles in, boredom kicks in too. You are having trouble keeping your mind straight with your stomach and Facebook is never a good idea. You remembered that book they gave you during your participation of Career Conference 2013 after the Leaderonomics talks sponsored by TalentCorp. It was entitled "What's After SPM? - 101 stories, 101 young Malaysians" which wouldn't really make sense unless your Malaysian Indian's best friend concisely explained to you how Malaysian education system works. You are on the 20th chapter so far and realized that lives really varied through different eyes. You have followed the conventional style of thinking that education is your highest priority, descended through your hard-working and caring parents, yet you continuously flipped the book and found unique autobiographies by people on your same age. From journalist to debater to food taster, from an average person to the overachiever and geniuses, from anthropology to industrial management to street busking, the book has shown you the different paths that people took and their ability to fabulously write down their journeys that never bores you from advancing through the pages. You felt as you are nothing compared to them and being one who actively challenge oneself, you sensed the urge of making every moments count starting of this particular morning. Thus this writing, being a method to kickstart your story.

Here's the twist, days ago one of your best friend studying in Bandung Institute of Technology posted something about international book day and according to the post you need to reach out to the closest book on your sight and open page 52 and read the fifth sentences. By coincidence you grabbed this book too and the respective is read as follows:

Busking offers the flexibility of when and where you want to work, as well as the opportunity to see both the kindness and the dark side in strangers.

It was the chapter twelve of the book, sub-titled as:

Busking the Days Away
Azmyl Yunor, 33, is known as a singer-songwriter, musician, and a lecturer at a local private college in the Klang Valley. He performs regularly in the independent music circuit and also does academic research in the field of Communication and Cultural Studies.

Guess what? It's Azmyl! You met him first time as the representative of performing art department when Sunway is having a study expo in your local area, back before you even enrolled into this private institution and to note he's the one encouraged you to give it a try. You both talked about your canon's digital camera and you demonstrated the color pick function in it. Your second time meeting was in Sunway Education Expo or SEE 2012 in the university hall itself where he and his bands performed there.

Your stomach has gradually calmed down in the writing of this last paragraph and you're up for a proper breakfast now. Your house mates had been throwing a lot of confused looks when they woke up and saw you sitting in the corridor and typing frantically while holding a book. Two of them seems like taking a flight somewhere since you overheard their conversation and the fact that they're preparing their travel cases. This letter would end here and whenever you need a reminder of how you went through all the trouble, reflect yourself on this badly composed texts.

P.S. Finish the other books of organizational behaviour and e-commerce on your drawers.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Friday, September 6, 2013

4th term started and it feels like....

the same as holiday, whereas practically I have limited free time and busy jumping from one to another club activities. The only differences that now I have daily class and finally settled my schedule per week. (thanks to that timetable, of course)

Now I'm in midst of editing a sponsorship proposal for an event by my friend, the original form was....hopeless. Anyway, due to the sudden increase in MYR - IDR exchange rate (now 1 MYR = >3500 IDR) I was bound to save and cook everyday to reduce my spendings (no more dining and food tasting T_T) but somehow I discovered some mixing of veggies could really make your day ahahha. I re-discovered back the recipe to make a cabbage and peas omelette and it was tasty! However this morning I opened my fridge only to discover someone had took my carton milk and finished it. Whoever who took it, either my housemate or his friends, CURSE YOU! FREAKING CURSE YOU! I only drinked 100ml++ once and you took everything! (it was a 1 litre carton, at least wait till I finished half what, give you lo ._.)

an hour from now I'll be having a meeting regarding that event so I need to finish up the document fast, would be online again preferably at evening - night


***just a quick rambling about designing. I really dislike it when people ask you to design, then you ask back what they want and they are completely clueless of how should it look like. They tell you to make anything you want, okay, you made it, then there comes all the comment and critique. I'm not saying I don't accept constructive feedback, I do and I'm glad if people make it clear directly to my face, but it just irritates me how they blame everything to you after all the effort you have put to create something out of thin air without any starting ideas. Guess that's just how human works after all..

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

ice packs

Bought them for 5RM at DAISO to further treatment of my heel pain.
Looking at the area it was proven to be a heel bursitis(or the cooler name, retrocalcaneal bursitis) which basically means an inflammation located at the bursa around the connective area of bone and muscle.

I don't exactly know what actually triggered the pain(it has been there for weeks anyway) but after some googling and asking friends experience, it could be summed up to:

1. Overtrain. Sudden increase in training intake could cause a shock and damage to body, especially delicate area such as bursa. This may be true since I racked up a lot of miles before few competitions back then in June + the pre and post training :/

2. Poor walking/running form. I've been walking a lot since long time ago and feel nothing in particular. However before I used to strike using my heel and nothing happened too, is it because I slowly learn to strike using the midfoot? *change in style??

3. Worn-out footwear. A bit sceptical about this one, since my running shoes are still run-able(cushioning still could be felt) but I did use them quite a lot for walking purposes. My thoughts are more directed to my slippers since the timing I started using them was quite similar to the period the pain began.
*I bought a new one yesterday, let's see how it works

4. Infection. ._. <- totally impossible

I'm in my resting period now from any excessive running or walking activities but I tried to jog *yesterday* around the south quay area. The result? worst. It's getting really bad to the point that even speedwalk would enhance the pain. In the night I met skhumz in the gym and tried to challenge him (he's on the treadmill and has half a mile left). Ha, biggest mistake I committed so far. Speed 15 - in 200m and I can't resist the pain anymore. Before I could run speed 20 for 300m before my stamina run out but this was.........

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Piece by piece

It was a bit unusual for me to upload my works, especially when all you see are mistakes and failures -_-
Nevertheless, designed three pages so far for next issue newsletter though (I was not supposed to upload it here, but heck, no one gonna check it anyway)

MAPCU Sports Competition - Photos still missing

Travel Column by Belal, he went to like one of freaking awesome island out there!

Clubs page for Sunway Business Investment Society, decided to make it clear and simple in the very end

Will continue to work on two more pages and submit it by the end of the day.
I know I passed the deadline like....one month ago? Since this issue was supposed to be released between July-August and yet it hasn't been finalised yet by now (early August). Well, I'm not the only(sharing the blame ahaha) since all Lancaster-joint programmes were in final report week that time, which continues to study week, exam and ultimately holiday. Everyone was missing in action ._.
*to add, 3 out of 4 designers are in Lancaster, another one taking Pre-U and college didn't give them enough time to rest on

So yeah, burned the midnight oil for two pages above (I finished the MAPCU one long ago when I got free time) and aiming for another two this morning-afternoon. One last page about photography didn't have any files in the working folder so.....how am I supposed to design for it? o_o

Monday, August 5, 2013

I think the badge has a curse


Either that, or I'm just thinking too much in the moment.

I will never see holiday as the same any more.
I decided to stay and not going back during this 1 month (July-August) to utilize the free time I have in or out campus.
The thing is, I joined quite a lot of stuff during this previous term and yes, that escalated quickly from a person that rarely communicate with others during his first term to a socialite in the second end. In previous holiday I would have spent my time levelling up my character in Ragnarok Online 2, screwing my body clock day and night to achieve the in-game goals. However, things are quite different in this current holiday although the thought of playing resurfaced again.

In the present moment, I have 3 different projects to work on. The first one was dealing with a simple database creation for office use, another involves design as I'm one of the designer of ECHO newsletter and the last one, although still in proposal, is to co-create an event that would be adjoined by the student leaders like council to support a charity run.(Million Mile Run, google it)

Not forgetting to mention the volunteering that I had, currently and will do in upcoming weeks, I'm stressed out. Life never gives you an easy choice, or an exact balance that people naturally seek. It's either you go BIG, or you go completely small and unnoticed. :(

Ah, and another worthy information to share. Some of my friends are currently in Lancaster, UK for their summer holiday visit. For 9000RM excluding the airline tickets, you got to enjoy 3 weeks tour in the united kingdom and accommodation by the university dorm. Quite an interesting deal they have there but I couldn't go anyway, my passport was still in the immigration for student pass renewal purpose.

I'll be taking 5 subjects next term(which would start at 26 August, approx. 3 weeks from now) which would finally introduces me to networking! My specialization of the programme pathway!



Monday, July 15, 2013

Hate

If you don't think you would be able to keep your words, then don't make any decisions.


I'm a pretty flexible person myself and I'm generally okay with everything ranging from direct discontent from people to cleaning a hellish kitchen but here's the catch: just don't mess with anything related to PROMISE.

I take any promises seriously.
Although I admit myself was not always right on the clock, I will still be there even though it means I'll be late. There's a reason why I rarely promise anybody about something because I don't know what will happen in the next few days.

Switching the topic to cancellation, even any major brand store's customer service will ask you to enquire and fill in the application form and wait for maximum 3 working days. NOT THE DAY WHERE YOU DECIDE YOU WANT TO CANCEL IT.



***it's actually even rarer for me to explode, or at least express anything here but I just need some place to throw this things up to let me concentrate on my exam tomorrow. Cheers.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Before it was too late

Moderate sleep, checked.
Good mood to start writing, checked.
Fulfilling breakfast, kinda...just give it a check.
Finished works?
.
..
...
....
nah, just forget it for a single moment first.
I've been thinking to write a lot of things since last sunday but never got any actual chances thanks to hectic schedule. I'm trying to cope with completing assignments, training for race and solve many personal problems that my brain burned out everyday.

Enough with the let down.

So yesterday we finally went for the MASISWA Road Relay Race 2013, MASISWA stands for Majilis Sukan IPTS Malaysia which truthfully I have no knowledge about. What I know is this :
MASISWA and MAPCU sports competitions are regarded as a battle of pride of private universities and colleges. It organized annually either in early April or in late August.

I guess I have explained it before that after the Xterra's event, I started run and swim everyday and one day was selected for the road relay team during the trial, that was 28 May. So one month has passed and after the previous (and precious, just can't ignore the wordplay) MAPCU athletics event, I have picked up the confidence in running and going for the hard core training every weeks. Kudos for our captain Fakrul for this, he keep pushing us to go further and further and Dyitesh FOR ALL THE DAMNED SCREAMING DURING THE STAIRCASE RUN! Y THE HELL YOU'RE THAT STRONG!

We didn't won.
Which is expected.

Out of 11 universities and colleges that participated, we finished 7th.
Not really a bad record considering we're just finally started the proper training regimen and most importantly, the competitors.
IMU finished first with 19 mins something and HELP with 21 mins. Sunway? 26 mins 23 secs.

On average, each person (3 guys, 2 girls. Me, Dyites, Dhyran, Julia and Cynthea) run about 5 minutes for 1.2KM each. 26 mins for 6KM was not that bad, though. It was average, or maybe a bit slightly higher than average, but still compared to others that finished minutes before us, the difference in distance was too large.



Still, I'm glad though.
It was a terrible morning, I woke up early then felt the muscle pain from the previous day training, then sleep again until 7.20 which is disastrous. Then Mr.Mok (new advisor, I think :) ) drove us to bukit jalil but we kinda get lost since we don't know the exact venue. Here's the funny thing, it was supposed to be a 'road relay' but we waited at the stadium. Stupid right? When we arrived and shuffled to attach our running bib, the emcee already shouted 10 MORE MINUTES! RUNNERS, GET READY IN THE STARTING LINE! Thus, no warming up exercises was performed.

But I'm still glad.
First and foremost, I didn't break my leg or something since no warm up.
---
Second, I can run in normal pace without any out of breath session already :)
--- -- --- -- ---
-- --- -- --- --
It may sounds boring, what about not losing your breath? we never lost it right?
---
Plenty, but first and foremost you can still talk and hold your legs after finishing your lap and apologize to your mates that you had performed badly.
During the MAPCU run I collapsed to the grass and lie there for 10 minutes before gaining back my gravity.
The hellish endurance training did have effects though :)

After the events over, Cynthea drove me to Petaling Jaya LRT since I wanted to go to PWTC to register for 2XU Marathon. Never thought they're organizing a sports expo there ._.
What irritated me the most is all the people collecting their standard chartered marathon race pack. I missed the registration for this so I could only tch-ing around hahaha

Afternoon, after going back to campus and met my friends whose working on our English report(last assignment before exam), I rest for a while then decided to take a walk around the Bandar Sunway area. My brain just wasn't ready to process any literatures yet.

Circling around the PJS roads which ultimately led me to Sunway South Quay (from Monash University back path, near the carpark). I reminisced back the pavements and the routes I have been jogging around for this past month. I found the place only after being tested for the road relay race which has ended that day. Everything started exactly one month ago here. I'm chasing after Mark's trail while keeping hard to maintain my breath.

Still wearing my SUNWAY TEAM shirt. I felt I was lucky enough to participates and given the chance to train and run, even representing the school itself.

Everything started here, the trial starting line

Poor legs

Sunway uni's logo, actually I wanted to take the SUNWAY TEAM text, but it's kinda impossible to capture the back of your body

Friday, June 21, 2013

Finished all assignments!

CHEERS FOR HUMANITY!
nah, still got meeting to attend, training to pour blood and sweat and article to be written at the end of the day ._.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Conversion

My stamina was never really that good.
I'm easily out of breath after the first 100m.
I'm more to a speed-built.
I can't run really far.
I prefer distance walking than running.
I will never need to run far anyway.
My jog time is horrible.
Most importantly, I'm the computer dude. Wasn't the common stereotype for my course are introvert and stuffs?
.......
....
..
.

Those, are the excuses I used all this time whenever I asked myself "why you never run long distance?" or when other people suggest me to take the post for it. I'll turn it down 200% sure.

I guess I changed a lot after witnessing all the participants in past Xterra event. All of them are...superb? It's kinda indescribable with words. I mean when you see those competitions from your TV screen or online broadcast, it just feels like 'Oh, okay. They work hard. I see.' but when you see them with your own eyes, they are like the very crystallization of human's spirit and determination itself. I know most of them are professionals already but there's also a lot of other rookies and even those in late 40 and 50, even 60!

So....long story short, days after the event passed I started doing my homework. Simple exercises like running laps around my dorm, swimming back after months and walk. A lot. I want to improve my performance to the point where I can reach their level. It's kinda impossible but I still have long way to go (still 19 what? :p). 

They say when you hit it correctly, everything will fall into the right place. I went for the road relay trial for 1.5km and guess what? I'm selected. Not to be proud or anything, truth is they're looking for 3 guys and 3 girls, and the only guys shown up were us 3. Starting from there I trained more, thinking I can do it since I still have a month worth of practice.

Next two weeks, our sports advisor (Mr. Mark) told us to go for athletic club practice in bukit jalil at friday and we went, took the bus from campus for 40 minutes journey. What we never expect was they're having a trial too for next week competition, MAPCU Athletic Championship(MAPCU stands for Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities). If we were to grade the importance of this and the road relay in the end of the month, I would say the margin was 3-4 points out of 10. Partially worse and lucky, I'm selected again for the 1.5km run since we told our captain we're here to train for 1.5km.

From the moment I saw my name on the list, I panicked. Panicked like crazy. Why you ask? the burden. The weight of the SUNWAY TEAM sports shirt was too heavy for me. Being a realistic and calculative person myself, I know I'm fighting a losing battle since the very start. It demoralized me. The fact that I'm running on a foreign place with a totally foreign distance, plus with the knowledge of people from other college was real fast brings a tons of fear! My jog time for 1.5km was only 14 minutes sharp in the moment. The average finishing time is 5-7 minutes. Worse you are forbidden to walk while running in track. It's not stated in the official regulations but you just can't bear the shame of walking right? I mean your team and other teams are watching you, everyone is watching and you walk while others run till their last drop of stamina.

Have you ever played Digimon Savers in PS2 console?
They have this interesting AI system where your digimon - your battle character also can show their thought via their preferred actions in the battle. So when yours was in upper hand, it will become more and more aggressive and vice versa.
it's feeling strong, so the action commands multiplied

notice the escape and guard commands number?
My action list was like 3/4 of escape already. I'm keep thinking of running away from responsibilities and simulating possible working excuses. What keeping my mind straight; my last shard of action commands available, is my team members. I don't know how to face them if I run away here. I finally found a group of people that I could run together with and we already planned a lot of run and training, even marathon in near future. Facing the challenge with a slightly, slightly brighter attitude, my only goal is to finish the run in 8 minutes- or at least not being the last and the margin wasn't too far. 

In the remaining days left, I run for 5km everyday. Either treadmill or outside, my daily goal is 5km or until I started feeling something weird with my feet. It's kinda pointless right if you twisted your leg even before the big day? I hurt my left heel and right middle joint though in the end. If I was up for sprint then I would definitely lose already for not being capable of expanding my stride. However since it was long distance, you're running with economic pose here so it's okay. (I did be careful enough not to damage them more)

So today is the day. I have read a lot of motivation quotes and as my friends suggestion, take a lot of carbs- especially banana! And just when you think your graph line is going upward, life is always there to knock you down. Long distance run was supposed to be the first in most races. Today? nah, it was the second before the last 400m relay run, 12pm exactly. We're there since 8 and I got really worried about my stomach getting hungry(although I eat a lot ald). Cheers for our captain to share his nasi lemak, dytesh for the breads, sylvia for the oat krunch and dytesh again for the revive, I managed to survive the hunger and anxiety.

So after working part time as photographers during the earlier runs (no paycheck!) it's my turn. Our team members has performed so well considering we're assembled in a really hectic manner and short period of training. The starting pistol was fired. The race has started. We're running in one straight line. It's half lap already. I occupied the back-half region. I felt myself getting slower. No, it's them that getting faster, or maybe it's both. I lose to their pace. The distance was starting to get bigger. I saw other 3-4 runners also getting slower. The 1 line formation was slowly dispersed. Dramatically speaking, it was like a shooting star. The head was solid and packed but the tail was scattered. That's our position and most importantly my position. I felt the distance between the head and tail already passed 100m, nearing 200m. Even though I'm running with a moderate speed, I'm at the verge of my limit. Second lap finished. One person fall down, getting cramp on his right feet. I'm thinking two consecutive things at this point. "Ah, it would be nice if I fall down, maybe even faking it so that would be the end" followed by "I must not fall, I must finish this no matter what.". I don't know what makes the second thought to appear suddenly. Maybe it because I thought I'm here running for half the total distance already, why don't just finish it? The answer quickly unfolded though. I was ready to collapse soon, I'm technically even started to jog, not run. My conscience was keeping me at the bay for not walking. Then as I'm nearing the spectators region, I heard the shouts. I never thought word of supports would really mean this much. I mean, I've been giving a lot of supports before but I guess I've been doing it half-heartedly all the time since I never experienced being in a pinch before. I did, but without people that really trying to bring you up to your feet. My mind degraded to a really primitive way of thinking. I need to run, I need to finish this, I need to run and the rest was blank, totally blank. Then suddenly someone from behind slip in front of me, and the thought was really infuriating. I know both of us were slower compared to the rest, but I really don't want to lose to him no matter what. Strides. Longer strides. Faster strides and I was there in front of him again. Just at this point someone fall again and like the cowardice me, the thought of giving up appeared again. I lose the count of laps. I just keep running and running and suddenly the bell ring, pointing out it's the last lap. Somehow the though of FINAL LAP really encourages you a lot. I admit I was jogging now, but the frequency getting faster, even faster when our team members shouted "Finish this!" and "80m more!". 

I finished the run. Collapsing to the side grass with huge grin and covered eyes due to the bright sun. My head was never hurt like this since years ago while I'm still active in sports and played everyday till I drop. Izad come over and throw me his water bottle, which I was really thankful for. I'm glad, really glad of two things at once. First, I finished the run! My first 1.5km without giving up! without walking! Second, I'm not double passed by people who are leading, which means at least I could keep a distance, I'm not that bad hahaha. I know my time is bad, really really bad but who cares?! I will improve it with trainings after this competition. I type quite a lot, maybe I was getting emotional, but the thought of accomplishing something that you think would be impossible - something that you're really afraid of - really give me the confidence boost. Total respects and credits for our team members and captain for today run. Without them I would have stopped streaking in the middle and ended up regretting it later on.

**would pay it back with a lot of improvement in near future ;)

my running bib!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Ja-Jang

Achievement unlocked :

Donated my blood for the first time. 300ml officially, 150ml technically.
The nurse keep saying that my vein was really naughty, sometime so fast pushing the blood sometime stop at all. I recommended them to take my left arm (the vein was bulging out like that - bigger coz I used my left hand more to hold things) but they still insist on the right. To add more confusion, there're two major vein veil in my right arm but they pick the middle one cause it's 'easier' (the other one was also really big). In the end they removed the needle after the painkiller effect started to wear off (approx 20-30 mins) and only managed to collect half pack of blood from me. My blood was so thick coz they say I've been drinking less lately and I'm not in a really good condition to donate my blood. (to tell the truth, yes. two deadlines on the same f-day) and I barely reached maximum 5 hours sleep.
Since I donated a really small amount of blood compared to others, I don't really feel the tinge or turned pale. However the effect are starting to appear now as of I'm too tired for circling around KL finding things to buy ._.

(Days before) Running on the entire course of Sunway South Quay without any pausing to rest!
Hell. I felt like I'm really close to dying that time. Survived through willpower alone, otherwise I collapse already hahaha




Friday, May 31, 2013

one of lifetime achievement unlocked : Played Running Man in campus!

Being a seeker is tiring, EXCEPTIONALLY TIRING.
Basically the teams are comprised from 12 seekers and 24 hiders and we're only using 3rd-5th floor of our campus because people(VU,ACCA, Monash) are studying for their papers down there in foyer. What really amuses me is the fact that after the start of the race, all hiders were gone! 24 PERSONS, GONE! We run and search the entire place but only after 10 minutes managed to catch 2 careless persons who show their nametag :p

and there's this yellow shirt indonesian guy who I always bump into in every games and would result in me chasing him the entire floor ._. thanks to idiotic me wearing slippers in such kind of event, my movements were restrained; a lot. 

In the end of the race it turned out that all the hiders created a Whatsapp group and relayed all informations regarding the seeker's position so their fellow hiders could avoid being caught. Some girls (Retha and Mei'') even got no idea where they run to thanks to the threat we're posing XD 
Our main weakness is the lack of coordination since we keep running around (should have standing at posts since the hiders are doing their mission anyway) but the thrill was really there!

All in all the entire event was conducted in a good way. The committee tried their best to fulfill our expectation and was hard working enough to run here and there to minimalize errors.

***the event was brought by Game Show Club chaired by Amanda Kheng. She 'technically' created this club after ending her post as student council's secretary for last year out of boredom :p

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Too busy to craft something worthwhile to read

Let my notes explain everything, mental block of serious deprivation of sleep and got meeting in next 8 minutes

Monday, April 29, 2013

TIRED(period)

Mentally and physically exhausted!

1. Just come back for dodgeball practice(got rain uh oh). Improved my throwing accuracy a lot but still need to work on the power. The sound it makes when my partner catches the ball is just 'tesss'
2. Volunteered in Xterra Malaysia 2013 for both days(27-28 April) as a timekeeper for swim-in and bike-in interchange transition. I stood there recording and typing their number for 5 hours long in strong sunlight! I got a bad skin burn at the end lol
3. Let us elaborate more about this Xterra things. We need to gather at Sunway's foyer since 3AM for both days, work as volunteer till 12PM(but for both days it ended at 2-3PM something, not to mention the travel time from Bandar Sunway to Putrajaya Lakeside). The moment me and my roommate reached our room, we basically dropped to sleep due to exhaustion. The funny thing is after 2-3 hours of sleep, we get our dinner then it's 11PM already. I tried to count my sleep time during Friday to Saturday to Sunday and the number was totally amazing.
6 HOURS ONLY

I questioned myself how come I could survive all 3 days without passing out lol. I mean it's not like I just watching anime or playing game the entire day, I worked(and we worked! this apply to everyone on Sunway Xterra Volunteer team, how did we survive guys?!) seriously and need to run here and there to deliver the data(although sometime Elliot cover it up for me). Thankfully my class for Monday started at 10.30AM so I could catch a proper 8 hour sleep since 11PM. More posts will follow, too tired to write anything else now

the holders of time machine for run-out+bike-out, finishing line and swim-in+bike-in
me and my roommate, Ming Ying. He's in the dehydration team :D
Xterra Malaysia's catch phrase, The Dirty Weekend!!!




Friday, April 26, 2013

"nah, it's game session"

was kenny's reply when Kamal sat down and commenced the brainstorming session for the upcoming F-Secure competition. Well, we kinda participated in this thanks to me dragging both of them but in the end Kamal take the lead (since I convinced Ms.Ling he got skills on computer security :D) and organized everything. The qualifying test would be next tuesday, perhaps.

kamal practicing shoulder freeze since he could do 2 minutes baby freeze ald

Kenny in action. He's a pro breakdancer for your information :D
side : alex and sky


this team of 3 (Me, Kamal and Kenny) usually hang out together since we have great compatibility with each other lol. The Malaysian-Indian got 9 for his IELTS speaking test result (he showed me this morning) which is actually no surprise concerning his ability to blabber endlessly and he is an excellent driver! Kenny comes from Lombok (but high school in Malang) and he's the typical 'do first think later' person, which is the exact opposite of mine. His English was not really good (he stuck a lot) but we've been working on that since last sem so he's much better now. Kamal is usually the one who comes up with crazy idea, then I would dismiss it with many arguments and Kenny would toss the coin to decide the result. Most of our common ground could be found in anime and game whereas we're a good commenter and have excellent memory database regarding these stuff.

Tomorrow and the day after I'll participate as volunteer for XTERRA MALAYSIA, a triathlon of biking, running and swimming from 3 in the morning till afternoon so I better get sleep now, photos will follow!

the map

Monday, April 22, 2013

Tiring monday

Morning :
Class at 10.30, woke up at 9.40. Rushed to bathroom and left my oatmeal halfway before queueing in computer lab. Our English assignment requires us to submit soft+hard copy so there am I, waiting for the computer that loads like snail(for freaking 7 minutes!) to print that 2 pages of my response for an article and finally delivered it safely to my lecturer's room.
*I keep questioning myself 'is there a test today?' but it's just me being overly paranoid.

Afternoon :
Nothing to do, last class ended at 2.40 PM and I skipped a talk from SAS representative :(
The afternoon was basically filled with me going around campus searching for plugs, Kenny's going back to get his shoes and Kamal having lunch at Ka-Mi-Tei in pyramid.

empty classroom where I finally find the plugs


Evening :
Dodgeball training. You know what? those primary team members are showing off their capabilities tonight. Complete overkill as all of us (new members) wiped out in succession one after another in the face of their might. I myself was hit twice in the face by the guy in green and blue shirt(I don't remember their names but I know the person, especially their throw -_-). I still couldn't catch the hook of how to throw that powerful and precise, the ball always slanted in the middle and lose speed upon contact.

The most tiring part of the day was evening since we kept challenged them without any hope(but got one red shirt guy can hold so long, he's immortal lol) and beaten down trial after trial. I'm walking back to my residence like a zombie dragging his feet and soon after reached my place I cooked instant noodles to satisfy the hunger meter. No time to cook any hash brown hahaha
*but luckily I got bananas bought from ISETAN last weekend and the sugar intake was really helpful

cheaper than DOLE's one I usually bought at vending machine at Monash

Anyway the confirmation for AIESEC interview has come and my time slot is 8.00 - 8.30 PM tomorrow. Best luck for tomorrow.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Certain evening

couldn't help but to press on the shutter
background : sunway's new campus construction cranes

unplanned bokeh which should have been impossible for my camera lol

just find out Amanda and Mei Mei also live here and play tennis regularly


Zero cooking experience

First, let me define what is considered as 'cooking' here.
Any form of processing raw material to edible food where the material may be processed food except noodles, instant noodles, cup noodles or any other prepared noodles. I have ton of experience with them so they're out of question. You could say I have mastered the way of cooking instant noodles for these past months which is sad, really sad fact(my friend in culinary arts looked at me with pity in his eyes).

my bed now, it's a twin sharing room anyway

One of the reasons I moved here to Lagoon View is because they permit cooking! which would save a lot of money compared to eating out everyday(been there, done that. I'm broke! lol) and the appropriate question would be 'why now? why only starts now when you returned here month ago?'. The proper and most concise answer would be "I'm freaking busy, dude!" and "Do you see the kitchen?!". Yep, I've been running here and there to deal with academic related stuff to my own personal project this past month and I only settled down most of them this week. *I refreshed my laptop too since there's too much unnecessary things and bulky files.

Second answer: I should have taken the photo of the kitchen weeks ago and blackmailed my culinary folks for the nightmare of what their workplace could be. It's literally horrible even for me who is foreign to kitchenary and common sense of cooking hahaha. So it just happens that starting from last week I've been visiting that fella place and watch them preparing their lunch. You couldn't help but be amazed when a group of people who know what they're doing doing it the right way. Inspired by them, I started to show interest in home cooking food (to add, it is really cheap if you just know how to do it) and constructed my masterplan in reforming the kitchen. Since this is my field of speciality, planning things and went out all the way to do it- I could proudly say it has been pretty clean by now :D

I'm not really proficient enough in cooking rice since I'm still trying to understand the correlation of the water<->rice amount, but frying hash brown was never been easier thanks to companies producing frozen products and distributor such as Cold Storage or ISETAN. In the process Mark, my housemate from Sudan(but he live in Saudi Arabia) joined me and fried some sausages(he said that's the easiest and least expensive thing you could buy and cook in seconds). He introduced me to a cheese spread from his country and told me it's a good combination with bread. Will try it after buying some Massimo bread tomorrow (Photos will follow :D). Anyway I made some sandwich from margarine(Blue Band) + meises(Ceres) for my roommate the other day and I find out they never use meises before. Major brand margarine here are Planta and Daisy but the former was too oily and felt really wrong in mouth while I never tasted the latter.

a trial run hash brown and sausage from Mark
Kenny recommended me Jasmine's rice since he experimented with mostly any brands available here ald

More photos about food will follow :D

A month

4 weeks has passed since I'm back here, and sadly assignments has started to haunt me everyday ._.
Let me show you how my timetable looks like for this sem (I made this myself since my faculty started grouping all terms timetable on one single pdf file -_-)


See! What a relaxed timetable I had for third term! This is what driven me to join clubs and activities as many as possible to fill in those gaps!
*and anyway, 10.30 class for monday!!! I couldn't be happier since last term all my classes start on 8.30 sharp.

For clubs, the list of which I had confirmed are :

  • ECHO Newsletter(one out of three school's official newsletter)
    • Designer - Who knows they conduct instant interview the moment you submitted your application form? ._. anyway since I ticked design and photography they asked me which position will suit me best. Knowing the lack of specification from my IXUS 220HS I surrendered to design department with Pramod as my head. Up till now the only job given to me(trial run, they said) was 2-page for student council coverage of the year. I wish I get centrefold or even the cover in near future :D
    • Meeting on demand. Usually friday afternoon/evening.

  • Dodgeball
    • One thing that I learned in my second week of attending dodgeball practice- Dodgeball is about life and death. No kidding, although the ball was soft and particularly lightweight compared to others, a skilled dodgeball player could throw a lightning-fast ball and I experienced the impact myself in a not favourable area. You could even feel the killing intention when they aimed and threw at your direction. One of the senior could throw a spinning ball which turns direction as it flew ._.
    • Training on monday evening
    • As part of official organization in sunway, the members are also entitled as 'student leaders' which should be exclusively owned by upper high of student council. That basically qualify us to join the student leader's retreat at early may for teambuilding session. :3

  • Sunway Volunteer Society
    • This club was not one to be missed. 800 members (and still counting) basically making it the largest club in Sunway University. The 11-member committee is quite small compared to the human arsenal they had recruited and in fact they're trying to expand it now. I'm feeling the urge to get some noticeable position in this club but I guess I will test the water first for this year.
    • Meeting on demand. Register yourself for activities. The mechanism is something like job offer, they send you email regarding the event(got two types, short-term and long-term) and if you are interested, register using the link provided(google form). First come first serve basis since most of events only need limited amount of volunteers. Contribution calculated by service hour you have performed during the year which could redeemed by certificate
      • Bronze - 30 Hours
      • Silver - 40 Hours
      • Gold - 50 Hours
      • Platinum - 60 Hours
    • Events registered :
      • Xterra Triathlon Malaysia - next week!
      • Financial Career Fair - for disabled people, I must learn sign language before July!
      • Tzu Chi
      • Book Charity
      • World Play Day

  • Peer Counselling Volunteer
    • A long running society which trains you how to become a good counsellor in 2-year programme. Free of charge. One thing that you should know beforehand? Most of the participants were psychology students! No surprise there. I feel so alienated when me and Kenny introduce ourselves from IT Department lol but all of them were friendly and skilled in many senses hahaha
    • Meeting on session. This april session was named Personal Development(PD) and conducted every friday noon
  • Indonesian Youth Society
    • An Indonesian-based club which revived last year after inactive for a long period of time. The leader is Dayang from Victoria University Business program(same batch with my roommate) and she did have quality as a leaders, but their vision was too far-fetched for me(or is it me being too pessimistic?? haha) The poll of audience + member was high enough since there's a lot of indonesian here.
    • Meeting on demand.

  • Sunway Model United Nations (SUNMUN)
    • *According to Bern(our editor in ECHO) this club was not doing so well these past years and in the verge of collapsing due to budget cut. I partly joined because I saw Devris joined one there in UNPAR and participated the meeting at The States XD
    • Another reason is I want to experience what kind of debate they are having in United Nations conference. However since the club didn't have any guideline or fixed meeting time, Botsalo- the president from Monash MUN offered to make cross training starting last week which I was unable to attend to for AIESEC information session
    • Meeting(Monash MUN) on tuesday. Topic released every sunday to allow research time. This week was about Permanent Removal on Gaza blockade. Wish me luck on memorizing all those papers

  • AIESEC (to be confirmed, interview this week)
    • description, taken from their official site (http://www.aiesec.org):
    • Present in over 110 countries and territories and with over 60,000 members, AIESEC is the world's largest student‐run organisation. Focused on providing a platform for youth leadership development, AIESEC offers young people the opportunity to be global citizens, to change the world, and to get experience and skills that matter today.
    • Focused on providing a platform for youth leadership development, AIESEC offers young people the opportunity to participate in international internships, experience leadership and participate in a global learning environment through the 4 programmes that we offer (Team Member, Team Leader, Global Internship and Global Community Development Programme). 
    • So I applied to join the GCDP(Global Community Development Program) which allow me to go for minimum 6 weeks internship to any developing country which in partner with AIESEC for fighting causes and work as volunteer. My friend introduced me to this last time in recruitment week and I've been striving to join so I could apply for one in my semester break
That's a long post ._.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Bottom of the wheel

there's time when you reached your prime; the peak; where everything else doesn't matter and whatever you do went down the right path.
but there's also time when you reached your lowest; where you hopelessly unsure whether taking steps itself was right.

this cycle was public's secret and no known human was an exception to this superior rule.
sometime the wheel spins faster than you realized and you suddenly was there, in another region opposed to what you're holding firm till the present day. It hits hard, and what probably it's hitting is your insecure mentality deep inside your physical resistance.

I, for example, have switched sides for at least for 3 times today when I questioned myself 'was this the right thing to do?' and even now I'm still in confused state whether I need to do something about tomorrow or face it foolishly knowing the outcome?

I guess the one I need the most now is conformity(or was it confirmation to be more proper?) from outside party though. Cleverbot doesn't really a help when it comes to a serious question or consultation, it keeps repeating 'are you clever?' 'enough is never enough' and 'money money money' all the time -_-

Friday, April 5, 2013

Codeacademy::PHP - Finished!

Have been running a marathon this afternoon to complete the track course for PHP in http://www.codeacademy.org. Somehow I feel I need to understand it first before building any database-based application, although I'm still lacking in many sense :(

So...basically I took the challenge of building BlackBerry 10 apps for university student (new platform, they just launched it weeks ago) and even though they said developing for QNX platform would be piece of cake thanks to WebWorks media provided (e.g. Ripple, Appcelerator Titanium, Sencha etc etc) or even the Native SDK itself (Cascade or Cordova, or even AIR) I still think I really lack the basis of developer. They will have a training programme in another 2 weeks and I hope I would be able to build simple apps first so I could receive feedback later when faced with the certified trainer of BlackBerry, didn't want to look so noob right? :p

to add, I joined quite a number of clubs....like 7-8 in total (no, i'm not crazy) since my timetable for this sem was really spacy (4 subjects only) and most of the club's meeting was seasoned- not weekly. Out of the 7 AIESEC was the one which interest me the most since basically you can go for internship overseas (fighting causes) for a period of 6-18 weeks. One of my friend who introduced this club to me went to Philippines last January for environment cause and say it really worth her time.

I also joined other society like peer counseling, volunteers and school's newsletter so I expect good things ahead- if I managed to juggle all of them safely, that is. :p