Our First Presentation in the University

Phew, the presentation was finally over.

We were the first group to present our research on "How authoritarianism leads to democracy?". It is an interesting topic we thought ourselves. My group member came over at 12pm to practice and do some editing work for the slides (the class began at 2pm).


So in formal wear, we confidently walked into the tutorial class but deep down, we trembled in fear, as our practice was a disaster. We each spoke on different stages of how was authoritarianism able to transit democracy.

Everyone looked bored

I don't know whether did my fellow classmates understand what we presented but I think we have tried our best. Then suddenly, Ms. Chiok spoke: "Now, each group must ask at least one question on the topic which they have presented". There were 6 groups and we were like...nailed dead to the wall and had no way to run but to answer.

Ms. Chan - looked great...when her mouth is shut

So, everybody started asking questions, Well, I stepped up and answer most of the questions which I really don't like to play as the sole hero. A special thanks to Mr. Nigel for shooting 3 questions at us!

In the end, the groups were given the privilege to rate our Q & A session and also creativity of our presentation. Overall we received 9 out of 10 marks. Thank you, people!

Ms. Hooi Hoon's group

I wish to apologize to Ms. Hooi Hoon's group (Group 2) for taking too much time. They couldn't finish the presentation and have to continue on next Friday... sorry...

Presentation's over, gotta work on the written report!

What a Day...

Yesterday, I slept leaning to my right the whole night. This morning when I woke up, I was semi-paralyzed - and it was almost 7.30 am (my class begins on 8.00pm). How I wish there is a wheel-chair to ferry me across Westlake and place me straight away in the lecture hall.

Unfortunately, my dream didn't come true. After positioning my corpse onto my BMW, I mean bicycle, I sped like lightning, in my world of imagination.

Suddenly, the weather turned dark and it started drizzling. Many cyclists stopped and taking out their umbrellas and raincoat. The only two things I had was my bag and a sweater. Awkwardly, I stopped to tied a serban using my sweater.

Finally, I reached the parking area, everyone was rushing like mad. I dreadfully dragged my right leg all the way to the shelter in the lecture block. Once I stepped into the sheltered corridor, the rain was pouring giga-buckets by giga-buckets. My heart began to thank God for showing mercy on me.

I am a wet, an uninteresting workaholic, and a cripple.

P/S: Right after that, something just popped into my mind: "Hey, for the last month you were here, this is the first time you actually thank the Lord!" True enough. I had never thank God for His blessings on me ever since He brought me here. I was ashamed. P/S: The girls has finally take up their responsibility for the PS project. P/S: I remember why I was really upset by my Communicative English lecturer - he repeated "lousy" a few times.

About Political Science...

I had my first test for Political Science last Friday. The article was on the recent Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and how it affects the legitimacy of the junta government. I scored 17 over 20. I was happy with what I've got. Thank God.

There are more people coming in to our course. I was particularly intimidated by a girl, I don't think how is she like, but her presence makes me feel uncomfortable. Oh, she scored 18 out of 20.

Next week, 3 of us will be presenting our research topic on how authoritarianism leads to democracy. I was upset because they actually push all the work to me with the excuse they don't understand what the books were talking about. They just simply gave me a cut-and-paste material from books and net and that's it. Away they went back home during the weekend while I am stuck to sort out myself. I have to do the writing report and powerpoint presentation by myself, ALL BY MYSELF!

They don't deserve the earn the 40% for this task. I shall not work with this kind of person anymore.

P/S : From today onward, I shall be known as Eel Wind, due to P & C subjects. This name was christened by Mr. Daniel in the chatbox of his blog.

I Sucked

"Who is Elween? (I raised my hands). Well, I am taking his letters as an example to point out the common mistakes which students always make.

(Read my letters and pause for a moment) Does it sound alright to you (he asked me, I nodded). Do you know if you were to write like this, your reader will surely have no respect of you because of how shallow your English is? You made all kinds of serious grammar mistakes and you can't expect people to think highly of you."

I was bombarded with the magic bullets in front of my fellow classmates. My french-toast self esteem was crust into crumbs, then it was thrown to the fire of shame and disgrace to burn for eternity.

I have to admit my understanding for English grammar is just so-so, plus, writing business letters is not my kind of forte. He could have pin-pointed me in a milder way rather than how he did.

I am not aware of the the mistakes I made either.

"I have banked a cheque..." is wrong. In writing a business letter, if you put in the word 'have', it should show time at the end, like "I have banked a cheque at 2 pm". That was the first shoot.

Secondly, I wrote "class representative assistant" instead of "class assistant representative". That's the second bullet hit on me.

My night was ruin and I could hear people mocking in my head throughout my sleep. I sucked.

Diamond-drops of the Day

Ms. Sharon affirmed my stand to study in UTAR yesterday:

"Actually our students get employed faster than public U. The reason being that the public U students tend to go gor gov jobs and are afraid to take on jobs that require them to communicate in English. Which is good for UTAR grads. A university is a University. You must remember that UTAR is an MCA outfit. Can you logically think that UTAR will close down or wind up? Definately not. If you look at UTAR history for the past 6 years we have acheived more and i mean much much more than any other public university. Be it in technology or in content. The reason for that is that the university has not got any hand outs from the government and therefore we have to work very hard to get what we want on our own and because of that we can excel and we can be placed in difficult situations and we have excelled."

I was even more encouraged when I received a mail from Uncle Harry who supports me to continue to study in UTAR though he at first persuaded me to leave for USM. But when he found out that the public U actually tends to 'train obedience citizens' rather than to train professionals, he switches his stand. Well, Aunty Lucy still smses me everyday reminding me the closing date of registration for USM is on 28 June 2008. -.-

My heart finally calmed down after the tsunami hit. I was almost drown in the voices of "USM! USM!" but I managed to swim from the zone of doubts. And tah dar, once again, I am on the island of the lovely UTAR!

I have a great news for everyone - no, actually it's good for me- My PTPTN loan is approved. My friends checked their accounts and found out that there's an extra amount of money in it! Unfortunately, I left my e-banking slip at home so I waited till the next day to check out through the ATM machine and yes, there appears a 4 blinking digits on the screen. Don't worry I will spend the money wisely...
yay, first class flight, I'm coming! (kidding)

Well, the counseling department wanted two person from Journalism to report the Yoga class held this afternoon. However, Nigel and I have to attend the Mass Comm. class, so we missed the opportunity to experience the life as a reporter. I'm ok but Nigel is very disappointed, haha.

Some of my friends are skipping lecture classes because, firstly, they couldn't understand what the teacher is talking about. Secondly, Wednesday is a very busy day for Journalism (JR) students, so they wanted to have some rest and catch up with the assignments in the afternoon.
Then, they ask someone to sign for the attendance (the attendance is passed around, lecturer doesn't bother to catch those cheat), which is not something nice to do. Lecture classes are important, so as tutorial.

Since we paid so much for it, so just go to the class and increase the pool of knowledge we have! Being tired is not an excuse, asking friends to sign for attendance is even degrading themselves, sorry to say so. Well, I did 'advice' them in an angry tone but it doesn't seem to get into their heads. Anyway, it's their life. I have done my part.

I am skipping dinner today, because I have a class to attend this evening until 8.30 pm. It is tiring but I'm loving it. Chiaoz.

Of Palace...or Castle?

3 days ago - yes I'm leaving for USM.
2 days ago - I think I will stay back.
yesterday - I'm going home to preparing for USM's admisison.
Today - UTAR. and that's final.

"What a waste."

That's basically what I got from people around me when I told them I am rejecting the offer from USM, an outstanding university. I know.

I was very uncertain, even until this morning. I went to the admission department to get the form of withdrawal in UTAR. I am not firm in my decision after some advice. Some of my course mate said they wish to enter public university but just that they are not qualified.

Elite school huh...yeah...I know students graduated from USM will be much respected than UTAR students. Their certs are made of gold while ours' made of recycled paper.

Someone once told me, a cert is just a ticket for you to sail through to your career. No matter where you study, as long as you perform well in your academy, your effort will be acknowledged. What secures a job is the performance during the interviewing session. They might consider the value of the cert but they will evaluate based on individual personnel presentation.

I greed not of the invitation from the enormous palace. I believe in an ancient castle, there are unpolished gems hidden which soon shall be discovered as the gem of the century.

Tell me I made the right choice and don't give me a "what?!" look.

I am Torn Apart...

The moment has come. Before coming to UTAR, I applied for the public University. My first choice was Translation and Interpretation in USM. It is the most desirable course among many. Anyway I didn't wait for the results and went straight to UTAR.

The results were out.

I am offered a place in USM for Translation and Interpretation.

I've listed out the pros and cons of both Universities:

UTAR
Pro
1) great lecturers
2) great environment
3) stress-less
4) not exam-orientated (40% assignments, 60% examination)
5) lecture 100% in English
6) nice course mates

Cons
1) so to say - Course mates are more proficient in Chinese
2) Lecturers have to come down from the level to communicate with students - hinders the lessons.
3) Course fees - 7 times higher than USM.

USM
Pro
1) Cert is more valuable
2) Cheaper
3) they offer me my dream course

Cons
1) too many rules to abide
2) has to be involved in co-curriculum
3) Subjects are conducted in Malay and English
4) Classes and lecture classes are packed from morning till evening

I have to give up the offer. It's unavoidable. People might say to get a cert in UTAR is very easy but if I work hard to obtain a First Class Honour, that will be a different story. The only part I'm disappointed is I have to give up Translation and Interpretation.

Sigh, too bad UTAR doesn't offer Translation and Interpretation...

Anyway..journalism doesn't sound too bad too, does it? Though it's just a single word!

"The Night is Still Young"

Public University's application results is coming soon, everyone seems nervous because they hope to know what kind of courses are given to them. Some of them even thought of transferring to the public U if they get a place for the course they want.

The moment I stepped into UTAR, I have dedicated myself to complete my studies here. I just want to do my best by every means, not to impress people or to draw attention but to perform my duty as a disciplined student. People around me seems care-less about it. They ignore doing the tutorial questions, play a fool during lectures, make fun of the teachers and the worst part is that those ignorant people could actually burst out in laughter when the lecturer was teaching on the sufferings faced by the people during the time of Communist and the occupation of the Japanese. They should really sent back in time to 1941 and get bombed before expressing their stupidity.

I don't think I have a great problem to become a good student but I will, definitely have a hard time stepping into the cruel real world. Especially in the mass communication line, everybody is good in words, they could turn a myth into a belief by twisting the facts in their ways. this frightens me and I don't want to turn into another Cruella De Vil.

I enjoyed those days back in primary and secondary school. Everyone (my classmates) worked hard to achieve something that made us proud, not to say show off but it's something valuable that remained in our heart; a beautiful memory that we could pass on to the next generations. However, the sad truth is, for the majority youngsters studying in UTAR, their favourite superficial phrase is just : "The night is still young, it's party time."

Ring ring! wake up.

Elween, Their Favourite Name

The lecturers and tutors seem love to call my name when it comes the Q & A section. At first I pretended I didn't hear but sooner, after realizing there is only one "Elween" in the whole course, I have no choice but to answer the million dollar questions.

If I was given time to prepare answers, it wouldn't be a big problem. Sometimes, I really have no clue to certain questions when they question me right on the spot. Especially during electronic publishing class conducted by Dr. Choo. I have been asked so many times to answer questions like "What is a modem?" and "What is electronic publishing?".

Everyone was waiting for my answer and the silence in the enormous palace-like lecturer was creepy. Trust me, you won't feel comfortable to be in my position - waiting for execution.

Nevertheless, with my amputated creativity, I was able to twist and turn the limps of the logic and make it sound presentable. It sounds professional but I seriously don't really know what I uttered.

I guess the acting of confidence really helps during interpretative subjects like Political Science and Mass Communication, where there is no right-means-right-wrong-means -wrong answer required. I think I should join the Drama and Public Speaking Club.

My PTPTN loan is approved, yay! And oh, I might be taking up Gu-Zheng class organized by the Chinese Orchestra Unit! :) Please don't doubt my talent, ok?! Haha...

A Meaningful Gift

We had a small class gathering on the 15^th. Most of the active ones and also our beloved Mrs. Prakash attended. Well, they kindly bought me a farewell gift for me – it was a very exquisite pen. I opened the case and saw a pen.

After a few looks, I tugged it right into my bag. Then everybody started to attack me for not taking a closer look at the pen. So I drew out the case again and I was surprised to find out that my name was carved on it!

I know Ms. Kai had a hard time finding a carver for it. I wanna thank everyone who has bless me with their wishes and this gift. Thank you!