Kayaking

It's Friday again! I have always yearned for Friday to arrive every week as I don't have class that day (yay!). This Friday is somehow special as I have done something different from other past Fridays. Me and Erika (who was persuaded by me, hehe) went for kayaking (or known as canoeing) which is held for three days starting today at Bukit Expo. Bukit Expo is a place with orchards and a few lakes and beautiful sceneries. We went for the first slot which started at 8am as we didn't want to get scotched by the sun and we wished to use the canoe which was still nice and dry (well planned right? haha). It was quite misty this morning after rain last night and the air was refreshing. It has been a long time since I last having outdoor activities like this. I used to like having activities in Nature but somehow reality binds me to reality. We paid RM5 for each person for 20 minutes, which was the originally period for one person, but since we were early birds and there were not many people, we got to row the canoe for one hour (I am still very thrilled about this because we rarely get the chance to kayak and the price for each canoe is over hundred if we want to do it outside)!

We were having a great time cooperating (I was taking the back seat while she was in front of me). Left, right, left, right, no no no, left left left! Haha, it's fun! This was not the first time I went for canoeing. My first time was back to a few years ago when I was still in secondary school Form 3. I went to a camp (or I should say it was more like a vacation) with the prefectboard to Pulau Tuba, Langkawi, Kedah, a less-developed island. Yes we canoed at the seaside and it was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had in my life. I fell in love with kayaking since then but I don't have chance for this due to the expensiveness of this activity. However, this was Erika's first time that she was very nervous at the beginning (but luckily she has a very cooperative partner who was looking at her back, haha). Slowly she gained confidence and started to give commands left, right, left, right, no no no, right right right, we are going to crash into another canoe! Hahaha. I should wear slippers next time so that I won't risk getting my shoes wet as it could be really uncomfortable as I have to walk back to my college which is some walking distances away.

The sun was just warm and gentle. Thank God for the nice weather for us to truly enjoy this activity without being disturbed by the hotness of our tropical climate. Early birds get the worms! We met some fun people there too who are enthusiastic in outdoor activities. We even exchanged contact facebook accounts so that we can keep in touch and go to activities together in the future, hopefully! I am already looking forward to it! Me and Erika were given a ride back to our college (thank you so much!!!) which saved us a lot of energy and time. I believe that I will surely regret if I missed this chance to do kayaking. I am still sure that I love this activity.

Sorry that I don't own any photos of the kayaking activity as I didn't bring my phone (being afraid that it would swim in the lake). When I came back from Bukit Expo, I was greeted by this lovely white-fleshed dragonfruit prepared by my lovely roomate who was already out for class. Thanks, it's so heart-warming!

It is just two weeks away from the inter-university wushu competition in USM, Kelantan and about a month away from my final exam of this semester. So I think it's time for me to allocate more time in both wushu and studies. I might still update my blog, but just not that frequent. But I promise that I will get back to you guys here as soon as the exam ends in January. Have a nice weekend!



P/S: A reminder to all UPM students like me, registration for courses for next semester will be open next Monday. So don't forget to grab yourself a place in classes that you want!

Wushu Performance in University Kebangsaan Malaysia

I am a very blessed person that I am lucky enough to get the opportunity to participate in an inter-university wushu competition next month in University Sains Malaysia in Kelantan. Compared to others who have been learning wushu since 6 years old, I started taking wushu late, which was during my high school time. As soon as I became members of Zhong Hua Wusuh Club in my university, I get to represent my university with 15 other members of the club to the competition. So far it is the largest competition that I am going to attend although I have taken part in traditional wushu competition of state level.

Ok, back to the main topic today. Last night 13 of us went to Dewan Anuwar Mahmud of Kolej Ibu Zain in University Kebangsaan Malaysia for Night of Kung Fu 2013 performance organised by Chinese Cultural Club upon invitation. It was really touching that there was such an event held in university to promote the beauty of Chinese martial arts. Other wushu performers were from SMK Kepong and Kuala Lumpur Wushu Federation (if not mistaken). Their performances were breath-taking and really inspiring. It requires a lot of hard works (I mean really really hard works) to obtain such a high technical skill in wushu (feel kinda ashamed but somehow motivated when I saw kids doing wushu performances whole-heartedly despite their tiredness). My heart squeaked with excitement when I saw the performance of renowned Wushu Federation of Malaysia. Every movement seemed perfect and precise, complimentary to the beats of music.

This is the video of performance of our team. Although it is not perfect, but we learnt from this experience. (I am not sure what's wrong that I can't upload the video here, sorry)

Dewan Anuwar Mahmud, as soon as I saw this building, I suddenly recalled that I have been to this place before during my early matriculation life for Olympiad Mathematics Competition 2012! I love this hall, it is just so comfortable although the building is already old. (Sorry for the low quality photo. I feel regretted that I didn't bring my Nokia Lumia for a better record of memories in the form of static photos.)

(credit goes to Koo and Cheong Ching)

P/S: Sorry for the poor writing as I am not feeling well today. Anyway, am glad to be in this group of crazy and dedicated people. Hopefully our training will finally pay off! All the best guys!

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Just a refreshment of memories, haha. Miss our good old KMS life.

Random update

Ah this was the first time I lost my mood and motivation to update my blog as second wave of assignments which will be due at the end of this semester is washing upon us. This is the 10th week of the first semester and the semester will end at week 14th (one months to go!) and I will be having my five-week long semester break which I believe will be really enjoyable, haha.

Well, not much to write now. So I will just share a quote here. Wish you guys have a nice Saturday!

P/S: I have shared a couple a quotes since I started this blog. Of course I don't own the quotes but I do own the photos. So if you want to use it please drop me an email to let me know ya. =)

Nightmare Review (18+)

Hello guys! This is another 2D horror game named 'Nightmare' by Bayard Zylos which I played it all on my own (except a Google search which I believe was unavoidable due to my lack of knowledge, haha). The story is not very new to me but I still consider it as worth playing. Lucky me that when I found this game on Pewdiepie's fans' forum, it is the updated version where the game maker has fixed most of the bugs and updated the game making it more interesting. The game can be downloaded here where you can find most of the introduction about the game by the game maker. It begins when you wake up in a hotel, alone. (I don't plan to write about the intro of the game as everything is stated in the website)

Spoiler Alert!!! 

I wrote these based on my own point of view and it is not necessarily true (you know, I am not experienced in playing puzzle games and there might be misinterpretations). According to the game maker, there are two endings, the good one and the bad one. I eventually got the good ending (thank God) and I am lazy to replay it to get another ending as I have no idea where is the turning point of the game. So the following summary of the story was written based on the good ending. 

The main character of this game was involved in a road accident at route 26 with another car with a young girl and her parents in it, causing the mother's death. The mother who suffered a crash in her skull begged him to end her pain, so he took his hammer in the car and gave her a fatal blow. In this game the main character was actually fighting the guilt in his heart that prevented him from waking up from a coma as a result of the committing suicide after the road accident. He seemed like had lost his memories and was trying to pull his mind together in this game to find out what's going on, which means that everything in this game happens in his inner heart. At the end he won over the confusion and struggling on his inner heart and gained the hope to recover from brim of death. Correct me if I am wrong about the storyline, haha.

(Google image)

(Google image)

There are three levels to be choosen from in this game: Timid, Normal and Brave (you know what I chose, right?). Compared to The Witch's House (sorry but I can't help to compare other 2D horror games with this one, it becomes my standard for horror games), it is less violent (erm, I don't count blood splashed everywhere as violence but things like cutting limbs off etc) and less jumpscares. Jumpscare to me is the part of the horror games that increase our adrenaline pump and makes us feel afraid. There is not much jumpscare in it but due to my impatience which caused my character to dash around the scene I often 'accidentally' ran into the 'shadow', then there was a loud scream and game over. Haha. Silly me. So I started to walk slowly, step by step, somehow I still ran into the 'shadow'. Over all, I managed to complete the whole game, so in general it should not be a problem to you guys. The puzzles are challenging too! You have to relate one thing to another in order to solve it.

Well, I have done stupid things in the game, such as running down the seemed-like endless road for minutes (that is already considered as long). If you find that something is wrong, change the way you play or else you might get stuck somewhere forever. This game is more to a puzzle game rather than a horror game to me. Your main mission is to solve the puzzles while dodging the evil 'shadow' of a woman that seemed to haunt you. Being too focus in solving the puzzles leads you to run into her which showed up unexpectedly out of no where (I believe that soul-like thing can teleport, haha).

Anyway, I survived this horror game! My key of survival:

• always choose a 2D game rather than 3D one (you don't want to scare yourself in reality, right?)
• always play the game during broad day light (light always defeats darkness, keep this in mind)
• always play the game around people (make sure you won't die of fear alone)
• never use a headphone (you still can tune up the volume and make yourself jump)
• always keep some distances between you and the screen (so that you won't be sucked into the horrible world of the game)
• if there is an option, always go for the easiest one (or you will definitely give up playing it unless you are a pro)

P/S: I rated this as 18+ although it's not that blood and gore. Death which is not caused by old age is still a bad thing to me.

Marimos!!!

Who said pets have to be animals? These green furry balls are the legendary marimos a.k.a moss balls (we shouldn't call it moss ball as they are actually photosynthetic aquatic plants!) that originated from Japan, Iceland, Estonia and Scotland. Just like Pandas from China and Koala from Australia, they has been declared as the National Treasure of Japan (wow!) that it is illegal to harvest them from their natural habitats as it will destroy the ecosystem. One of the most popular habitats of marimos is the Lake Akan in Hokkaido, Japan.

I knew that there were such plants years ago when I went to the pet store (I love to window shop in pet stores, hehe) and I think that they are kinda boring. They were just expensive static plants at the bottom of the aquarium (probably staring at you if they have eyes) to me until recently I found out about the name - marimos - and their origins. Marimo is the symbol of everlasting love due to their slow-growing nature and very very long lifespan. They thrive slowly, unnoticably, and quietly.

So the tiny one in the glass bottle is the one who stays with me and accompany me in my dorm. Sometimes we travel to meet his lovely brothers (see the huge ones??).

These guys get 24/7 light continuously. Pampered children, haha.

Nice to see but be careful to hold.

There are plenty of informations about marimos that we can get in the internet. Just google search for them if you guys are interested in these 'fascinating-in-some-ways' creatures. =D

Mid-sem Break Update #7: Last Day at Home (The End of This Series)

Ok, these should be posted yesterday but the post was occupied by the horror game review (although it's just a demo, but you know, it required a lot of courage from someone timid like me, so please appreciate it, haha). For your information, I am going back to KL tomorrow, which means it is the end of my mid semester break (and it is the start of tension and panic *gasp*).

Ah can't get this in our university, I wonder why. Love it so much, packed with protein and it's not oily (this is the main point! haha). How I wish I can get this as breakfast every day in university.

I will eat you one by one, bwahahahahaha...

Came across this little fella at the balcony. It's ant mantis!

This was my first try of cooking mung bean soup which turns out great. Ok, it is impossible to fail with my grandma's guidance. I tried to do everything on my own but she was just so eager to help, haha. I am such a spoilt child in terms of eating at home. Although I am back in Penang, I seldom take my meals outside. Home-cooked meals are always the best because others won't have the chance to taste it, hehe.

Mung beans with freshly-plucked pandan leaves tied into a knot (which does not look like a knot). Ready to be placed on stove! It's one of the super easy desserts to be made. Just leave it on fire for it to be cooked.

I forgot about the sweet potato. Luckily my grandma reminded me about them, or else I will have to face the music when my mum was home (yeah, I made this upon her request). Later grandma reminded me again that my mung bean soup was turning into mung bean 'porridge', haha. I added too little water at the beginning. Mung beans absorb water at a very high amount during the cooking process.

Ta Da! The wonderful outcome after adding some rock sugar. It tasted perfect (just like ordinary mung bean soup though)! Nice first experience. I believe that I can do it on my own (I mean it, MY OWN) without failing. next time.

Let this mung bean soup mark the end of my holidays (boohoo)! Hello again to my beloved university life! Please be kind to me, haha...

Mid-sem Break Update #6: Fran Bow (demo) Review (18+)

(Google image)

So this is my second review for a computer game named 'Fran Bow' after 'The Witch House' which I actually played the demo without any cheating! I came across this game from the youtuber Cinnamon ToastKen (I didn't watch him playing the game, really) when I was looking for some free 2D horror games to play (my idle mind keeps asking me to do something that I shouldn't do, ugh).

I spent about just half an hour to finish the demo (we have to buy the game). The story is about a girl named Fran whose parents were killed and dismembered (yes, blood and gore). She escaped from her house with her black cat, Mr. Midnight into the forest and she fainted. Waking up in the Oswald Asylum, an oppressive mental institution for children, she determined to find her cat and look for the murderer of her parents. Before that, she had to look for aunt Grace whom she was fond of. The demo ends when you successfully open the door leading to the outside world of the mental institution.

In the game, you can interact with people and things there. The choice of your words will decide the outcome that you will get, so choose your words wisely. I love the 2D art graphics (as I feel dizzy if I watch 3D gaming) which easily brings out the horror. No worries for those who are timid (like me)! There is no jumpscare at all. What you have to do is to solve the puzzles to get the way out. As Fran is a child struggling with mental disorder, there are some red pills that will give her different vision of the world (a bloody one) that will help her in solving the puzzles.

(Google image)

(Google image)

(Google image)

The demo is made by Killmonday to raise fund for the development of this game through the campaign. So far they have reached their goal and the game will be released in July 2014! Here's the link of the official website of Fran Bow: http://franbow.com/. How I wish that I can play this game but good games usually require payment. Anyway, you guys can download the free demo to give it a try. If you like the game, just wait patiently for it to be released!


P/S: Aww the black cat did not show up in the demo. I will keep searching a good horror game to play, bwahahahahaha.......
(how? well, youtube is always a good source, haha)

Mid-sem Break Update #5: Forget about The Cream Puffs

This should be the plan of the day: Study. But it ended up me procrastinating doing random stuffs like watching Pewdiepie screaming while playing horror games on Youtube. No wait, I helped my grandma harvesting the mangos! Haha, at least. Guess that is the most meaningful thing that I have done today. Mango feast again!

Begin the day with a mug of hazelnut coffee! (erm, it's 3-in-1. I love coffee but I am not picky about it unless it tastes really bad. That's why I enjoy instant coffee too. Feeling unprofessional, haha.) I found that I have fallen in love with hazelnut-flavoured drinks. Recently I have changed my choice of coffee from cappuccino to latte. 

Mangos............ Lots of them....... Fresh from the branches...

More mangos................ Believe it or not, all these came from a single tree! I think I won't have any mango after this, hehe...

Must been attacked by wasp or something, but it is still good when the bad part is removed.

Since there were only me and grandma, no one took the photograph of me plucking the mangos. I swear I did help out!!! So here's the tools: ladder and home-made net.

Kerabu mango made of not-really-ripe mangos. Grandma cut it really thin (as thin as noodles), then added some sugar and salt. Voila! Eating them using chopsticks is exactly like eating noodles. Slurp! 

The colour should be more orange. Sweet as honey! Omnomnomnomnom.......

Besides the harvest of mangos, I tried to play a free-downloaded game named Mermaid Swamp, a game just like The Witch's House (I recommended this game before, click here). But no matter how, I still think that The Witch's House is the best among all. I didn't manage to finish the Mermaid Swamp as I got bored in the middle of the game, so yeah, looks like my childhood dream of becoming a gamer failed, not sure whether it is good or bad but I feel quite sorry for myself ten years ago...

Yeah yeah, I did put in some efforts about the cream puffs I mentioned yesterday. This was the third attempt. Some cookies turned out during the first attempt while for the second and third attempts I got some muffins. I must be a magician! Hahaha. This is not yet the end! I won't stop trying! Although I'm not sure what went wrong every time, but I won't stop trying from time to time. By the way, I love this oven very much especially when making toast.

P/S: That's it for today! Of course I have other plans for tomorrow (at least I planned), but I am not going to reveal it so that you guys won't know about any of my failure to follow the planning, haha.

Mid-sem Break Update #4: Photo Summary of This Lazy Day

Basically this is a short photo summary of today. Home is a place for me to be lazy, haha. I'm not sure why but it is really hard for me to focus on study or to discipline myself at home. Maybe it is too comfort-zoned??

Meet my big guy (top right) and small guy (bottom right). They live in the yard since I was in Form 2 (about five years ago). When they fix their gleaming eyes on you, all they want is actually fooooooooooooood. And be careful, sometimes they just can't differentiate their food and your finger, haha. I know it's not their fault. As pond sliders, they love prawns and fish very much with occasional kangkung (it is translated as kale by Google, I'm not so sure).

Yay our mango tree! We harvest a lot this year. Just imagine the orange juicy flesh melts away in your mouth, haha. According to grandma, this species is called 'ivory mango' translated from Teochew.

After I went to UPM I realise that many people do not know what is ambra fruit. It is sour and people usually blend them into juice and serve with sour plum. It tastes great and you guys should try it!!!

The small garden consists of pandan plants, oleander plants and some other flowers that I can't name them in front of my house tended by grandma's green fingers. She loves to do gardening.

The hibiscus, our national flower! The plant blossoms every day!

It rained this afternoon. I love rain when I am at home as I don't have to go to the class, I don't have to worry that my clothes are soaked again, I don't have to shiver when I go for shower because I am home!!!

I left out this guy for my precious post, very sorry. This is my second guitar which costed me RM300++. Although after so many years I'm still a beginner (please forgive me, I feel too good about my not-skillful condition as I entertain just myself, haha). Anyway, gonna bring him to my college and hopefully I get to polish up my strumming skill.

P/S: My plan for tomorrow is to make cream puffs!!! I make this declaration is to make sure that I really do it instead of just dream about it. I made cream puffs twice but failed terribly that people would think that what I made was actually cookies, haha. Cross my fingers.
(I love my Nokia Lumia 920 very much! The camera is awesome!!!)

Mid-sem Break Update #3: Count all The Tiny Blessings

When you are feeling down or unhappy (especially when you are having holidays with lots of assignments to do and presentations and tests after the holidays), counting all the tiny blessings that you have one of the is the best ways to cure your under-the-weather mood. Here is my list of blessings that I have now:

1. Finally I get to hug my familiar fluffy pillow which gives me so much comfort hugging it while slowly drifting into slumberland.
2. Hot shower is the best thing you can't usually get in university (at least not in my university).
3. Have home-cooked meals by mum and grandma which are irreplaceable by any outside food. 
4. Get to have ginseng tea made by mummy!!! (ugh it's bitter at the end)
5. Get to see my funny (annoying at the same time) sister and brother again.
6. Get to see my lovely pond sliders who are so cute as always.
7. 
   
8. I still manage to drive safely to destinations sending my sister and brother to tuition or sports although I have not driven for two months (skipped a few heartbeats today though).
9. I'm having mango feast every day at my house (hehehe).
10. I am home, anyway! It's still the best thing in the world! (although there are houseworks for me to do)

Anyhow, this is just a very simple update of my life (a bit wasting away my life though). I want to update my blog just to make sure I will do something more meaningful to post it here. It's kind of like disciplining myself saying that ''hey people are watching your life, behave!!!'', haha. I think it will work (not today though). Hey I did do a little bit of assignments, erm, a little bit is better than none, right?

Girls morning out with Miss Eten, our future lawyer today, hehe! Had my favourite teh tarik (less sweet please) and roti tissue (no one wants to eat this with me in KL, how sad). Coming home means gaining weight, who cares??? Haha. I know I will regret.  Let me do some secret promotions here. Believe it or not, this lovely lady is still single, shh...not too loud...    

Mid-sem Break Update #2: A Lttile Bit about The Farm in UPM

I planned to write a post about our first 'site visit' for our course, but after thinking for some time, there is not much that I can write about. So this will just be a sharing session about our two-hour trip to one of the farms in my university. University Putra Malaysia, which was previously named University Pertanian Malaysia (University of Agriculture Malaysia) is renowned of its agricultural studies. There are 16 farms in total (wow!) and the one we visited last Thursday is the 10th farm which is located at the opposite of the Serumpun College. The farms are very useful for agricultural and veterinarian students, maybe environmental students will need it too.

For this semester we have taken the subject 'Agriculture and Human' which is a university course. Our lecturer asked us to visit the farm which serves as a site for teaching and learning, agricultural research, consultancy and also food production. We were excited as this was our first class which was not held inside lecture hall or laboratory. However, as soon as the class started, it began to rain heavily. Rain pelted down like bullets (thank God that I didn't hang my clothes outside)! We took shelter under one of the small house (I'm not sure whether I should call it a 'house', maybe I should just call it 'shelter') inside the farm. The class was conducted by an experienced and friendly guide whose name was not known (it's our bad for not asking). He told us a lot of things about the farms in UPM and random knowledge about agriculture (one of the reason I couldn't compile the knowledge together in this post is that things that he taught us were too random, there was no main theme, so I think I will just mention it randomly under the caption of photos) ranged from hydroponics to aquaculture.

Before the rain came...

Our amiable guide who was eager to share his knowledge in agriculture. It was quite surprising that agriculture is not something simple. So do not ever look down on farmers!!!

It's raining! Those are Aromatic Dwarf Coconut (if not mistaken as I google searched the name of the species). Unlike normal coconuts, they have the sweet scent of pandan that makes them popular and expensive. According to the guide, coconut trees in Malaysia are usually mixed breed of local dwarf coconut species with Africa tall coconut species, producing coconut trees which are medium in height.

Aquaculture! This plastic enclosure was bought in 2000 and is working fine until now instead of using the traditional one made of barrels. Tilapias are being reared inside the pond which is quite deep that we should not risk falling into it.

The wheel peddle which induces air into the pond water.

Me and Erika posing above the pond (can you guys stop jumping up and down???).

The most exciting part of our visit, haha. But we can't see the fish in the water.

Red Tilapias! Lucky them that they are allowed to breed naturally, unlike catfish. Eggs will be taken from female catfish after injection while male catfish are killed to get the sperms (our face changed when we heard about this cruel fact). Unlike the ovum of human, the egg has only one entrance for sperm. So fertilisation occurs by chance to see which one is the lucky one, haha.

The cluster of plants in the middle are actually young oil palm trees. On the left there is a patch of land for corn plants while the little house on the right is for swifts, a type of birds which look similar to swallows. For your information, there are 7 species of corns which have different usages such as corn starch, oil, poultry food etc and the one we eat is sweet corn. Sweet corn is usually harvested twice per plant, the second time of harvest will be done when the corns are still small, that's how we get baby corns! Besides, for the swifts, the swift house will be built at the site where swifts are spotted (I know right!). Two eggs will be laid per nest and after the young swifts learnt to fly and left the nest, the nest will be harvested as bird's nest (someone asked the guide that why the swift house was so small as it used to be at least two-storey high, it is because this one is used for research purpose only).

Typical Malaysia's scene after rain. I want to use the caption space here to share a little but about husbandry. Some chicken are reared for meat and some are reared for eggs (I know it's general knowledge, haha, I didn't pay attention at this part so I missed out some information, sorry guys!), same goes to cows. We can differentiate milk cows and meat cows based on the shape of their backside. Milk cows' is slightly triangular while meat cows' is more rectangular. There is actually a cow barn at the farm but due to the rain we couldn't make it there, aww... The breeds of chicken or cows are usually mixed to produce a hybrid species with better yield. But some of the original species are retained as the quality of the original ones is better.

My mind tended to wander around in the middle of the class, I should learn to focus and pay 100% attention though, or else I'm afraid that my blog would be misleading, haha.

This is not green house! Haha. It is actually site for hydroponics such as water culture, drip system, nutrient film technique, aeroponics and so on.

Rambutan orchard! The rambutans are still green in colour, can't wait for them to turn yellow or red!

Pineapple plants at the front and unknown twinning plants at the behind. There are a lot more orchards in our university including durians, mangosteen and the list goes on. There is a paddy reasearch centre at the 10th farm too! 

I think that's all that I have learnt that day. Due to the increasing human population, agriculture has to be improve to meet the needs of everyone. Although we are merely consumers, we can choose to eat more vegetables compared to meat as production of meat will use up a lot of resources including grains and a lot of water. And one more thing, we should value the contribution of farmers in agriculture. Because of them, we have food on our plate. You might think that studying popular courses such as medicine, law, engineering is superior. No matter how important you will be towards the community after you graduate, your contribution will not be as great as farmers.

P/S: Oh by the way, I am reading a book named 'An Economist Gets Lunch' by Tyler Cowen. If you are interested in food (definitely!) and the relation between food and economy, you should try and read it. It's quite interesting especially if you understand the economy states of countries around the world (opps I'm bad at this).

(image taken from google)