Sunday, 30 March 2008

Watch Yvonne Foong on NTV7

Can you feel her world?

Help to promote this banner. Yvonne Foong will be on TV!!! Catch her live @ NTV7, 31st March 2008 (tomorrow) at 11am.

Don’t miss it!

GPA or CGPA?

I missed it. The Earth Hour. I hope I had been at home with the noble notion.

Because I deliberately dragged myself to attend a meaningless dinner for undergraduates who excelled in studies.

The event started late and, not at all in order. We arrived earlier than people at the reception! We took the seats to ourselves and try to let things settle down for the organizing committee.

Finally, they arrived. We had to go up to them and register ourselves. There were two separate pieces of paper. We were confused and asked why are our names on different sheets?

Here goes the conversation :-

Receptionist : Can you please check your name on the list?
Me : Oh, ok. But, I can't seem to locate it in here.
Receptionist : Are you sure? Then, please try the other list instead.
Me : What's the difference between the two lists?
Receptionist : One is for Dean's List and another is for the High Achiever's.
Me : Erm, ok..... [confused].

I finally found my name at the bottom of the Dean's List-with numbering as well. Little do I know of the meaning for the numbers beside each of our names until we were finally seated, according to the number.

I was the cast away from all my other friends towards the end of a dark corner at the hall, where all Dean's List were seated. That doesn't matter coz' we decided to switch tables afterwards. The so-called 'High-Achievers' were seated in front, alongside with lecturers, dean and nearer to the audience.

The best thing was, we are the nearest to the food!! Yippie, not that the food was nice in the first place either. There was the steaming kitchen on our right and the barbaque stove on our left. It was just great-great that we end up smelling like burnt charcoal [even before the event started!]. Plus, we are like a junction where we stood nicely in the middle of everyone's path-just like a desperate table set-up in the nick of time.

Never mind that. I can still live with it.

Our Dean gave a sort of motivating speech on academic achievement. Great effort huh? Good in the sense that he tried - BUT, I do hope he will look into the critical factor and try to get the facts right. He predicted a number of students who will be graduating with a First Class Honours. And, asked each of them to rise to their names. We were utterly disappointed. Not because he did not call our names [there are four of us there].

But, because the names he called were the Dean's List scorers for the previous semester. And "fullstop".

That's it, end of story. Nope, not all of them had made it to CGPA 3.7 and above. They are the ones awarded for their achievement in just this previous semester. It doesn't matter how bad/good they were before, or how bad/good they fare in future. Now, it makes me wonder how meaningless my CGPA is to these people. My advice to the Dean? Look at a more realistic side, having fewer CGPA scorer is the painful truth for acceptance. Don't dig up the present GPA 'High-Achiever's just to make things look nicer! The First Class Honours graduating would be the ones with CGPA 3.7 and above. Check!

I despise all forms of segregation now, and I hated it then. Does it make any sense to you?

What is more important? The GPA or the CGPA?

If the dinner was to award the students who did well in their current GPA, just mention it as 'High Achievers Semester 2006/07' NOT 'First Class Honours'. It embarrassed me. It is embarrassing to those with CGPA 3.7 and above.

If the dinner wants to identify high achievers, include the CGPA. It is what makes a student strive better.

Somehow or rather, it does not reach its goals. You disappoint more than you can encourage.

Here's the best part!

The award presenting ceremony. If I had the choice, I had wanted to turn and runaway. Not that I'm dying to take the certs in front of a huge crowd that don't have a raw idea how my points were dwelling all these while. I truly don't give a damn taking the certs from the Head of Department.

By the way, where do you think you're heading with a certificate of achievement printed in Bahasa Malaysia???

Palia....

It feels humiliating to take something lower that what you had achieved-with no obvious reason, directly in front of everybody where you stand alone, realizing that you are nobody. What would your lecturers/seniors/juniors/friends think of you? Yes, it is the present moment that counts, that is why, it is an overwhelming feeling of disappointment.

I set aside all my negativity and brave my steps to collect my dignity upfront. Inside the file, there were two certs - 3.58 and 4.00. The former was my point in Dec 07/08 while the latter was my point in July 07/08. So, does it make a difference to me now?

No, not at all, It is the present that I'm looking forward to. Because, it is crucial to understand how well we stand amongst the rest.

Being kiasu is not contemporary with my style. Literary saying, I prefer a proactive and progressive learning system as a stepping stone to be my milestone. What's written during examination shouldn't be gone with the paper. I want knowledge learnt to be revisable and stored for good. We aged, but not the knowledge. Time does not stop here after the night crumbles, it travels.

I've seen my friends being the top on the list, but, fall apart in skills other than those that can be written on paper. What makes you a good student then, if you have only high points which couldn't bring you forward??

I try to make myself believe that these lil' gestures won't make my day fall apart, but somehow, it did. It was personal though. It was as though you weren't given the slightest thought when you fell down once. It hurts to be overlooked, again.

Tuesday, 25 March 2008

Mongoose drowned in cages

Disastrous effects of flood in Kuala Lumpur.

KUALA LUMPUR: Flash floods following a downpour resulted in a massive traffic jam along Jalan Bangsar heading towards Brickfields yesterday evening.

Among them was an exotic pet shop, where carcasses of mongooses lay motionless in cages. From the watermarks on the wall it was obvious that the floodwaters had risen and drowned the creatures.

CLICK for more!

Poor thing. This is heart-wrenching. Enough to cause a tear. I cannot help but imagine how they were stucked in small wired cages, screaming their heads off, begging to be released, jumping up and down watching the water level rise, mercilessly get sunken along with their pretty hefty 'coffins'.....

These are pictures of mongoose normally traded as exotic pets for their dare-devil abilities to capture snakes and rodents.

Source : Curious Animals

Source : Deke Larson

Source : NubbyRat

Source : Pictures and facts about the Mongoose lemur

Exotic wildlife trade. A necessity? To whom it may be?

Yes, I have always been against animal trade and captive breed. If you really want to keep an animal, might as well adopt from shelter and nurture them for good. To encourage disruption towards nature's ecosystem is something man should not interfere with. Enough is enough. Treat each life on Earth with respect if you expect some from them.

"They are sooooo cute."
"These creatures are so adorable."
"I wanna have it because I had always dreamt of one."
"I don't care, I'm buying!"
"Well, they are only animals, who cares??!"

STOP WILDLIFE TRADE!

I care, that's all that counts.

Monday, 24 March 2008

Weekend Snapshot : Craving Snowflakes In The Tropics

Whew! The weather is really hot this few days. Barely any clouds in the sky to block out radiations emitted by the holy Sun. It is getting warmer by the end of the day with clouds gathering above our heads. Well, you see, by studying the clouds and the interaction taking place in the atmosphere, we'll come to understand the theory behind it!

Says who??

I took up Meteorology this semester and I find the atmospheric process quite an amazing one. Understanding the complexity within and how it revolves Earth and its living components, Sun and layers of extended atmosphere. Basically, I had hate physics, chemistry and mathematics all my life. But, as I have moved on in life, I find that these are the fundamentals that complete the balance created for us. Meteorology is much align to that. The application of theories make the studious process more intriguing for me!

Seriously, people in the tropics hunger for snows all their lives especially when the Sun is admirably hot. Not that we want them here forever! Being tropical is heavenly good at times, not when global warming sets in. That paints a really different picture then....

We wanted to step on inches of snow and feel its awe. We wanted to taste the icy water and let it melt in our mouth. We wanted to freeze in the open and had no idea of what hypothermia brings. We wanted to see flakes form on our windows and take dozens of picture of it.

Courtesy of 7-Eleven Slurpee!

I wish that they are for real....

Tuesday, 11 March 2008

WOW Blogger!

As I find this site had me rolling on the ground, it also delivers a story true to our nation.

I might stumbled upon this entry too late by this time that the election has ended, but it's good to let others know how idiosyncrasies took place unnoticed.