BEDA...something?: An attempt at procrastination

I completely forgot about my turn to blog. And then I decided I wanted to procrastinate from my ever increasing mound of work, so I figured I would do it now. Even though it's not my day, but then again, we've mostly failed quite spectacularly at the whole blog "everyday" business. 

Nonetheless, here goes. 

• Where are you right now?

Nowhere. Everywhere. Somewhere. 

• What are you doing? Are you working? Are you studying?

I am a corporate slave. 

• How is work?

It's fun and challenging. It's tiring. It's also a lot of bullshit. 

• WHAT IS WORK?

It is what I do to fill my weekdays because it is socially unacceptable for me to survive off my parent's money and use my time to scroll through the internet. But to be more specific, I do talent assessments for selection and development purposes in corporations. I.e. I play with personality testing, observe people and judge them. 

• ARE WE ADULTS YET?

I've come to terms that adults are simply people who have figured out how to pretend very well. Adulthood is a lie. But I will continue to believe that when I become an adult, I will have infinite wisdom. My wisdom remains very much finite. So.. no, not yet. 

• And tell me what you're obsessed with at the moment.

Getting as much sleep as remotely possible. 

• Any big plans for the next few months?

Continue to survive. Apply for post-grad. Try not to get fired. 

• What makes you feel nostalgic?

90s music. 

• What are you reading?

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How we lie to everyone -- Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely. It's pretty good. We're all liars, and that's pretty much it. 

• Apples or Oranges?

Apples. always. Except when it comes to phones. 

• What appliance purchases have you been considering?

I've been needing to buy a new microwave since mine died a while ago. They're quite magical. 

• How many pillows do you sleep with and do you have a specific order you pile them in? What is your system?

Too many. Like.. 5. As long as they take up more than 50% of the space on my bed, they're good. I enjoy feeling cocooned by pillows. 

• If all the chocolate Easter animals came to life, craving human flesh, how would you handle that? (I know you just thought about eating them all. I know. But would you eat a chocolate bunny that's been eating people? WOULD YOU? Or would you maybe figure out something else. Would that something else work? I have provided only poorly defined monsters! You must go on without me!)

I would probably still eat them. Chocolate is chocolate. But my questions would be if this be worse than the zombie apocalypse? Does this count as a zombie apocalypse?  Oh I might carry a blow-drier around. Melt them as they come. Would that work? 

• Do you dream in first person view or in third person view or do your dreams not involve you at all most of the time? Does your dream self look like you? 

This is too difficult a question and requires too much thinking. I sleep. That's the most important part. 

And that was a wall of answers to questions I just wanted to answer so I wouldn't have to look at emails. Who will read this? Who knows? Should there be more questions? Of course there should be. 

• If you have to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
• Would you rather be deaf or blind? 
• How are you? 

Cheerio. 

BEDA 15: It's the last day.

This is a little overdue, but let's ignore that.

As I write this, it's the night before my last ever day of class in university. I almost didn't realise this until like ten minutes ago, and now that it has dawned on me, I haven't decide how I should feel about it. I've been grappling with the idea of finally being done with my undergraduate degree and leaving university for the past semester, often with a rollercoaster of emotions alongside it. But right now - it's just blank. It feels like it should be another day, but the fact is - it's not. In fact, it's pretty momentous. With the exception of sitting for two exams, I never have to set foot in a lecture hall as an undergrad ever again.

I think the main question that I need answered right now is: Where the hell did the last 3 years and 3 months go to? And how the hell did I find myself about to embark into the working world as a... *gasp* adult?

It's weird. It feels like I've outgrown the place, but at the same time, I want so much to cling onto the comfort and familiarity of this place where I've spent so much time in. Where I've learnt, and grown. Made mistakes and friends. Cried and complained. It's been the ups and downs. And in the end, it's the last day and I'll have to bid goodbye to "the best years" of my life.

In the end, the memories have been made and it's time to go. Tomorrow changes nothing.

Some of you have graduated already. Did you feel like your last day was momentous?

CDSM #23 - Confessions

Today, I'll be talking about this new trend that has surfaced on Facebook, that of University confession pages. I've only seen pages from unis in Malaysia and Australia, so I'm not sure if it has spread or came from  other unis worldwide.

So basically, people have been setting up Facebook pages where you can anonymously submit "confessions", usually uni-centric things about fellow students, staff, life on campus etc. Then these "confessions" are posted up for all to see, like and comment on. They can be pretty harmless stuff like complimenting people or testimonials of embarassing moments. But the more scandalous ones are those professing love for others (SO MANY), happening across x-rated situations, stuff about lecturers and others.

It's mostly all in good fun, although some things said can be very mean. I've seen some pages where you can submit pictures and people have posted pictures of girls whose butt cracks are showing. But like I said, it's a source of entertainment more than anything. Given the anonymity, most of these things are probably made up and shouldn't really be believed but it's still super fun to read all these crazy, outlandish stories.

I first came across other university's pages, but one for my university popped up a couple days ago so it's all hot and fresh. The posts have been rolling in like hotcakes. As much as I enjoyed reading other university's pages, it's incredibly amusing to read when you know who the subject is. Plus, people will often say all the things you don't want to say out loud yourself.

Some of my favourite ones include a post talking about how great an ass one of my lecturers has (totally agree), close calls of getting caught making out in places and people professing their love to some of my friends. Heck! One showed up today with someone calling me a "total babe". I have a feeling it was one of my friends who put it up as a prank, but boy was it a surprise. 

So is this a thing in your universities? CONFESS YOUR SINS, PEOPLE. 

BEDA #26 - The best questions are the stolen ones

I almost forgot to do this, so I'm just going to pick questions from everyone's past question posts and answer them!

THE tree scent question: 
I've never actually registered the smell of many types of trees in my memory. It's kind of just all trees. I'd probably go with Pine cause it feels so fresh. Or the general smell of a rainforest. It's kind of heavy scented, a little bit musky, but smells like what Oxygen should smell like.

What constitutes a good night in?

Cup of tea, some fruits, maybe chocolate and the internet.

Describe each of your toes. 

The big toe kind of leans in to the second toe. I think they like each other. The fourth toe is quite a bit shorter than the third toe, so I think it's insecure. The tiny toe is happy to just be a toe, but wishes there was more toe nail (but seriously, my tiny toenail is tiny.When I went for a pedicure, the lady laughed at me and asked what the heck was she suppose to be painting)

If you could have any skill uploaded to your brain via plug in your neck (matrix style), what would you like to learn?

Physics/Engineering knowledge. It baffles me.

What would your patronus be? 

Probably a raccoon. Beady little eyes, tiny hands meant for evil scheming gestures. Sounds like a good match.

BEDA #16: Let's talk about weddings

So because my brother got married last month, it's a topic that has been omnipresent for the past 6 months. Particularly because I helped plan the reception so I am well versed in the details involved.

Often, I'd be complaining to my friends about how stressful the wedding planning was going and how much it was a pain in the ass, only to be replied with either "But weddings are beautiful!" and "Wait til it is yours". To which I mostly reply that I would much rather elope, and am subsequently greeted with a lot of "WHAAAAT?"

Which brings me to my point - are weddings really that necessary? I mean, I get it. It's a celebration that every person gets once (or twice.. or thrice) in their life. It's an opportunity to have the day of your dreams to celebrate being married to the love of your life in front of your friends and family. Its a nice excuse for people to get together, dress up and party.

But really - I don't see how it's worth all the stress and months of planning that are put into it. From menu choices and linen to table arrangements, there's an infinite amount of detail that needs to be decided. I can think of many other uses of my cognitive resources. Weddings involve blood, sweat and tears that eventually culminate in one single day where you're likely to be too out of your mind tired to really enjoy.  Also, family all in one enclosed location? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

If you're asking why don't I just have a small wedding? Yeah, I can't do that. By default Asian standards, weddings are huge affairs. From tea ceremonies with family in the morning to wedding receptions that have like 400 people (every single relative must be invited. Even if you have spoken to them a grand total of once in your life. My brother and I used to joke about how it's akin to inviting the whole "kampung", i.e. village. But really, this would be considered a small-ish wedding. Weddings in India can last up to a week and have thousands of guests. /shudder). And because there are so many people around, it doesn't become about celebrating the couple anymore. It's more about trying to entertain and feed everyone. Mind you, my plans for eloping might actually involve people coming along so it's not like it'll be completely devoid of people.  Like my best friends, who I probably want around. Or maybe not.

So many girls I know have dream weddings that they've been planning in their heads for years and simply can't wait to be able to make it a reality. I don't, and sometimes I wonder whether I am weird. I have no opposition to getting married and what not, but I don't think the wedding is really all that necessary.

What are your thoughts on weddings?

BEDA #6 : Cats, Farts and stories for your hearts.

It almost rhymes. Almost.

Cats 
They're lovely creatures, but mostly evil. They're nice when they purr and want to cuddle, but otherwise they seem hell bent on attacking me. Damn cats.  My favourite thing to do with cats, but mostly when they're young and not so keen on sinking their claws into me, is to lift them up and present them to the world Simba style. A plus point is if they're orange and actually named Simba, which has happened before.

Why Fart Jokes Are Funny: A study.
 I don't actually tell Fart Jokes. Ever. But I will laugh at them, because farts are funny. But why are farts funny? What about Flatulence is so humourous? I believe it would be because everybody farts, but nobody wants to admit they do. Humour works when the ending is unexpected. Being considered impolite, it would appear that farts are not expected to occur in society. Thus, whenever it appears, it is greeted with gales of laughter. It also doesn't help that the word itself is funny. Fart. Farted. Farting. It both sounds crude but such a short and concise word. And then there's the sound of farting. Gas escaping from your butt is one of the joys in life. It can either make a cute squeaky sort of sound, or sound like the ghouls of hell have been unleashed upon earth. Farts, ladies and gentlemen.

I consulted the wikipedia page entitled "Flatulence Humour" and have now learnt that far jokes have existed in common society as early as 5th Century BC. Evidently, we have not matured since then. Fart blaming is also quite salient in everyday life, because there is nothing more fun than trying to identify who unleashed the ghouls from hell or who is single handedly attempting to suffocate the surroundings. Before I end my spiel on farts, allow me to leave you with this gem: He who articulated it, particulated it. 

Dad Jokes
At my brother's wedding, my dad gave a speech. And being a dad, he has personal access to a repository of terrible jokes that will make you cringe and want to simultaneously cry and vomit all at the same time. I truly believe that when dads are handed their first child, they also simultaneously become initiated into a secret club of dad jokes where jokes are filed away by degree of horribleness. It ranges from Genuinely Funny to the ultimate facepalm jokes possible.

I leave you with the joke he used to end his speech after he had given a spiel about how my brother told my nephew to pick lego over girls and not make the mistake he made "Remember that Lego has one leg, but girls have two legs".

Yes, yes. He really did say that.

Leave me your best cat stories, fart jokes or dad jokes. :)

The day I turn twenty.

Wake up in the morning feeling like P.Diddy, Grab my glasses... wait. that's not right. 

Okay let's start again. Friday morning. My alarm rings at 8 but I blissfully ignore it until my mother wakes me up half an hour later telling me to get out of bed. I'm out of the house 45 minutes later to run errands with my mother before sending her to work I'm suppose to be going to practise dodgeball (There's a competition coming up - I don't know why I joined) but it was one of those days where all I wanted to do was sleep so I bailed. I go back home and take a nap because the weather was gloomy and because I can. 

My friends call and I have to fetch them, so I grab a bun and the car keys and head out. I get them, we come back to my place and proceed to watch The Walking Dead for a couple hours while we discuss the fact that logic is essentially thrown out the window when watching the show and wonder whether the rest of the world was also undergoing the zombie apocalypse. Eventually it's around three and its time to go to the hotel. My dad drops us off in the city, we check in and then melt into the bed under the covers watching X-men until it's time for dinner. 

We catch a cab to this almost-100-year-old restaurant that we suddenly decided would be fun to go to since most of us haven't been there since we were children. We get there and the place still looks old as hell and right out of a Country-Western movie. We eat. Food wasn't as great as it used to be. I had grilled fish. I like grilled fish. Everything tends to taste better when it's grilled. We finish eating. We go to a grocery store to stock up on coke as mixers and then go back to the hotel. 

It's still pretty early and some of my friends weren't there yet, so we get back under the covers and proceed to watch The Perfect Catch. Typical corny-as-hell chick flick, but we're a bunch of girls so we still watch it anyway while remarking how young Drew Barrymore looks in the movie. Finally, the last two friends arrive and they show up with cake. CAKE. A real one. Not a watermelon one like for my 18th birthday. they pull our party hats and we put them on. They sing, I sit on the floor holding my cake awkwardly. We take pictures, I blow the candle and then we eat cake.

The drinks start, and we failed to pace ourselves. I put on this video - which I discovered a couple weeks ago and we all agreed would be the central theme of the night. The kiki. Dancing occurs. Old school 2000's hip hop and pop songs are played. Terrible singing occurs. More drinks.  Somebody decides we don't have enough alcohol and goes and buys beer. Cardinal rule of alcohol consumption, Don't mix drinks, thrown out the window. By then, everybody is declaring their love for each other and there's just a lot of high fives and hugging going on. People are rolling on the twister mat or on the bed. 

Then I decided I need to puke, so I do that. I later learnt that out of all my friends, I am the best at puking because I aim well and can do so unsupervised. The little successes in life are the best. I alternate between lying down on the bed and puking until I eventually fall asleep. I wake up at 3 am to see my two friends sitting in the dark on the floor discussing how shit faced everyone is so I make a cup of tea and join them. I stumble around looking for my glasses, put them on and then check my phone.  This is when I discover the drunk dialling that I did, and the 40 or so text messages that my friend sent to some of my other friends.I read them and laugh uncontrollably for a good 5 minutes and then decide I want to sleep so I grab a pillow and sleep on the floor.

And that was my day. Not exactly the typical day in my life, but it happened.

This is where I keep my stuff

The slightly creepy but entirely adorable bear on my wall welcomes you to my room! Before we begin this tour, it is advised that you keep your fingers on the left mouse button and your eyes on the screen for safety reasons. Some explanation will be needed for the state of my room. I have the largest room in the house (it's a studio room), so there's a crazy amount of space. As such, both my brother and I store our stuff in the room and use it equally for doing stuff and entertaining guests. I don't actually even spend that much time in the room cause I prefer sitting at my dining table cause there's better Wifi connection. So I'll show you my stuff and the general room area. My brother is moving out soon, so it'll all be mine soon enough. It's all very complicated. 

This is the general area of the room. There's a little bit more behind me where I'm standing, but that's where my brother stores his Lego and it's a mess. So you will pretend it's not there. 

This is my corner where I put some of the stuff, and most of my university books and notes. I never actually sit here, but the table is there if I ever need it. I love it mostly cause it's orange. 

This is a close up of my wall of stuff. There isn't a lot, but it's expanding. Mostly I like to put up tickets from gigs I attend or postcards. The pictures on the left are my class pictures from my five years in high school and my last year of primary school. And then the pictures on the right are just pictures of my friends and family. The larger framed photos are of the peer counselling society I was president of, and my high school graduating class respectively.

                               

 The other desk that is in the room is the one my brother uses for assembling his Lego, which is why it's in my room cause there's no where else to put it in the house. He's a huge Lego fan, but I reckon the picture should explain it.

                                     

And then there's a CD rack for all our CDs. Most of our favourites are kept in the car, but here are some of the rest. Anybody a fan of these bands? : D

Now, the tour will move to my favourite item in the room, the bookshelf! This is located at back part of the room that wasn't in the picture above, which is why you couldn't see it. It's a limited edition one IKEA Billy (yay for Billy fans?) which features Shakespeare quotes all over it.  It's really pretty, and I have no humility in saying so! 

That's pretty much all the I have in my room that's interesting enough to show. As a bonus, I took out my badge collection to show you guys. I keep them in a Bart Simpson lunch box tins, which incidentally is part of my collection of Simpsons tins (I like Simpsons merch). So the middle picture are all of my pins and badges, while the right picture are just the lapel pins on their own. 

And that's a wrap! 

Millie procrastinates

This place sure is dead. I have exams... but what better way to procrastinate then to try and revive this place?

I know I missed the food theme, but I thought it was necessary to introduce you to Nasi Lemak, a Malaysian specialty. Literally translated it's Rice Fats. Which should give you an idea of how unhealthy it can be. Essentially it's rice cooked in coconut milk, served with a boiled egg, fried peanuts/anchovies, slices of cucumbers and a spicy "sambal" which is some sort of chilli.. gravy/sauce type thing. It has onions most of the time.

Okay, moving on to this week's theme: Favourite Activity.

Simple enough: Sleep, Listen to music, Read, Internet and talk to people.

Yes, I'm boring like that. I've never been one to have extraordinary hobbies like crafting or playing football or anything, so I always stick to my usual. Unfortunately nowadays I spend wayyyy too much time on the internet. Whether watching videos, finding music, blog hopping, reading articles/trivia or looking at random stuff, it entertains me for most of my day if I'm not doing other important things.

Well.. that was a post.

Thoughts from Places: HELP University

4am, last day of May. What better time to find inspiration to write a thought provoking piece stemming from your university campus, right?

Here's the thing about my university campus. Calling it a campus on it's own is almost ridiculous. There is no campus. It's merely a hodge podge of random buildings in which students exist within. It's a day university, so everyone comes for classes and leaves. The "campus" is split into three parts, all separate from each other and all located in the midst of a offshoot of the city centre. Everywhere you go, you see offices and office people interspersed with students. It can be quite amusing.

The pre-university building is located underground, below a whole stretch of office buildings, and affectionately known as the "dungeon" because that's really what it's like. Sunlight was a scarcity. Every single student from my university will have complained about the campus. But then again, other private universities across the city tend to share our sentiments about their own, although some really are better off than us.

As I walk to crammed hallways and the busy streets from lecture hall to lecture hall and building to building, I complain too. But in the end there's one thing that hits me. The place doesn't matter. It's the people. Because the fact is, many years from now I will not be able to remember how messed up the place was but I will remember the antics that occurred within the walls. What I'll remember is the times I spent rolling on the floor just because I could, and the conversations that were never ending but never went anywhere either.I will remember attempting (and partially succeeding) to stuff myself into a locker because the holidays were approaching and my friends asked me nicely.  I will remember the heartbreak, the joy and the laughter.

Concrete and steel will eventually lose to mother nature and the sluttiness of time. Memories won't.

The campus is what you want it to be. A receptacle of memories, or simply a place.

Beach tales

                          

For freestyle week, I'll tell you about the trip I recently took with my coursemates to Pangkor Island in the state of Perak. It's about 3-4 hours drive and a 30 minute ferry ride away from the capital, KL. It's not one of the prettiest islands we have, but it's pretty popular cause it's one of the closest and easiest to access. That and it's famous for anchovy and cuttlefish by-products. We went in a ridiculously large group (19 people) so it was kind of like a class trip. Given that we took up half the bus, we made a crazy amount of noise to the disdain of the other passengers who just really wanted to sleep. Whoops. 

Anyway, we took a boat ride around the island and the adjacent privately owned island before heading to a snorkelling area. It was my first time snorkelling so I had to get used to the mask and breathing through my mouth. It doesn't help that I can't swim (I know, hopeless). It was quite hilarious cause everyone was looking for the fishes all over but when we returned to the boat, we found a whole school hiding under it. The rest of the day was spent frolicking on two different beaches, suntanning and playing volleyball. We also went on a banana boat ride (I'm assuming this is a common water sport, but I may be wrong) which was pretty frickin' awesome. 

But with all trips, it was the people and the stupid things you do together that make the experiences. The two nights were pretty much spent playing twister, taboo and drinking (in a moderate, healthy fashion of course). We even decided to play "3D twister" where you used your clothes or surroundings instead of the mats so we had our limbs on each other or the furniture. 

Because we had so much junk food by the last night, we decided to play an eating game to try and get rid of as much as possible. It turned out to be simultaneously disgusting and hilarious. People were eating marshmallows off each other's faces, trading half eaten chocolate, chocolate soaked in wine and rum and even marshmallows dipped in tomyam-flavoured instant noodles. 

This is a tldr version, the full one can be found... here on my blog. Till next time!

Millie is late and early.

Evidently, I am late for last week's theme. It's been rather crazy in university cause we're near the end of the semester so all the due dates have been within the last two weeks. And then when it was finally over I had a few make-up-for-lost-time hangouts that I haven't been able to sit down and blog. So I reckon I will do a quick double combo of last week + this week!

Questions!

What's the thing you find most interesting in psychology?

I think in general I just really enjoy figuring out why people do the things they do, think the things they think and so on. Unfortunately I haven't quite found a sub-field that I find the most interesting as of yet. I love them all equally. Except personality. It's way too vague and abstract for me to wrap my head around. Social Psychology is really fascinating though!

Do you think it will be challenging for your to work with people and their serious problems as a clinical psychiatrist?
I begin with clarifying that psychologists are not psychiatrists. It's a common misconception, and I think every Psych major always ends up having to explain this concept to others. Psychiatrists have medical degrees and are allowed to dispense medication. Psychologists are not. Psychiatrists tend to focus on the more serious psychological disorders (schizo etc), whereas psychologists will look at everything.

Aside from that, If I do end up going towards clinical psychology, I think it will be intensely challenging. Especially when you realize just how difficult life can be for those who have disorders, and how stigmatized they are due to it. Some disorders can be pretty frightening as well.

Do you have any practical experience yet?

Not as of yet! In general, you don't get clinical practice within the undergraduate degree modules, unless you yourself go find a clinic that will let you do an internship or something. Practical experience is only incorporated into the Masters in Clinical Psychology program.
We undergrads mostly spend a lot of time doing research and sometimes experiments. In fact, I just ran my first ever experiment this semester which was pretty cool.

When I was a kid....

Like all Malaysian (and possibly all other) children, my childhood ambitions were to be: Teacher, Doctor, Scientist. Basically parent approved ambitions. But I ventured out to include Policewoman into that list as well. Wasn't entirely creative when it came to future ambitions.

Corresponding to the doctor ambition, I decided that I would be a gynaecologist when I was about 8 years old. Except I didn't know the term gynaecologist, so I just told my teacher I wanted to be the "doctor who gave birth to babies" (Translated directly from Malay). She then proceeded to tell me all women could do that without having to be a doctor. She does have a point....

Til next time, DFTBA!

Books, Glorious Books.

Phew, it looks like it's been a busy few weeks for everybody! I caught The Hunger Games movie yesterday cause I couldn't wait any longer to watch it and it turned out to be more than I expected it to be! It really wasn't that bad for a book-to-movie adaptation. There were some things I would have changed about it, but it didn't turn out to be as bad as some of the Harry Potter movies *coughmoviesixcough*. I'm not as attached to the books as I am to HP, so I guess I was less critical, but still! Did any of you watch it? How'd you like it?

Now, to the books! I'm going to skip on the usuals like Harry Potter, LOTR or the Hunger Games cause they're pretty much staple on almost everyone's lists. I'm even going to skip over John Green books because that's a given, but not really high on the list. So here are some of my favourite go-to books !

Tuesday's With Morrie - Mitch Albom.

It's a non-fiction account of how the author came to have a new relationship with his favourite lecturer from university as the former was dying from an illness. Morrie, the teacher, basically imparted a lot of his life knowledge to Mitch through these Tuesday visits that they had over the span of a few months. The reason I really love the book is because the topics that they talk about are things that are important in everyone's life and it teaches people how to not sweat the small stuff when there are bigger fish to fry. It's a simple read, but very thought provoking. I tend to go back to it every now and then and it says different things to me as my own perspective of life changes with age.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon

The book is about a 15 year old guy with some form of Autism who is a mathematical savant of sorts. He finds his neighbour's dog dead, and then attempts to investigate what happens which ends up revealing much more than her bargained for about his own life and his relationship with his parents. It's both a very humourous and emotional storyline, but written in a light-heearted

first person narrative style. It reminds me a fair bit of An Abundance of Katherines what with the math in the novel. It was one of the first books where I encountered Autism, and it really intrigued me even though it was a work of fiction and isn't an accurate representation of the syndrome. But it would lead me towards reading more about the subject, something I still do have an interest in. Besides, how can you not love any book with an upside down poodle on the cover?

Matilda - Roald Dahl.

This should be every nerd's favourite kid's book. It's all about embracing the power of intelligence! For those that don't know what the book is about, it's basically this extremely gi

fted little girl called Matilda whose family pretty much ignores her and doesn't see how special she is. When she starts school, she meets Miss Honey who notices Matilda's potential and tries to get everyone around her to help Matilda embrace what she can do in life. And then there's

something in there about telekinetic powers. It's just a really beautifully written book that carries Roald Dahl's signature humourous style all the way through. It's still a book I enjoy reading even now because it's so empowering and gives me hope that there's always a way out of the rut that you're stuck in.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by David Levithan (same guy as Will Grayson, Will Grayson!) and Rachel Cohn.

This would be my favourite YA novel pick. I love it because it's got to do so much with music and how central it can be to someone's life, an all night adventure and just a lot of typical young adult musings. I actually fell in love with the movie before I even got to the book, which may have biased my opinion a fair bit. But I believe the book and the movie are two distinctly different gems that are hard to compare. The story line is just really engaging and it gives you a lot of ponder about and personally, for me to relate to. I think it captures the feeling of invincibility of youth really well, all while knowing that there's more to life ahead and it's only just the beginning.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

This is a novel with so many different themes that are so important for us to dwell on in life. From racial injustice to stereotyping, gender roles, principles and compassion, the themes are still so prevalent and applicable in society even with such a different setting from what the book is. The characters are neither perfect nor idealist, but flawed and realistic, yet such great role models. I think the world would be a much better place if everyone read this book and really internalized what it stands for. This book has thought me so much about standing for your own principles, even when everything points in the other direction. It's just a great book with a great storyline.

So there you go! Five of my favourite books that I would recommend everyone to read!

Till next time, read on!

Animated Movie Magic

I love the older Disney animated movies simply because they have this air and grace about them that's simply breathtaking. The songs were top notch. Everything was beautifully drawn, but with that faded touch to it since HD meant just about nothing.

It's hard to pick a favourite when they all speak volumes about your childhood and each carries a different strength. But the ones that would top my list are: Pocahontas, A Bug's Life, Beauty & the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella, The Lion King, Monster's Inc, Finding Nemo, and Lilo & Stitch.

But I think I would pick Mulan as my favourite Disney princess simply because she was a little bit more bad ass compared to the others. Plus there was Captain Shang. Oh Captain Shang.

As for Disney/Pixar collaborations, my favourite is without a doubt Toy Story. I mean seriously, I bawled my way through Toy Story 3 while I lamented my chil

dhood being over. But outside of that, Wall-E is a top pick all the time. This one is a little bit more of an unpopular choice cause a lot of people never really favoured this one. Somehow or another I was really taken by the simplicity of the storyline and it was just something completely different. Any movie that starts off with 10+ minutes of zero dialogue has to be one of a kind! Together with this comes the unpopular opinion of the day: I don't quite like Up. I know so many people that bawled their eyes out watching it but I never took to it. To me it was simply mediocre!

Rambling:

The reason why so many of us love these animated movies of our childhood is simply cause we watched them during our childhood. We remember them in a simplistic manner without looking into the details of the cinematography, or the storyline etc. We don't spot the holes that exist within them like we do now. We cling to that innocence.

A recurring theme that arises when teenager and young adult revisit these movies is how messed up they actually are. Or how creepy the villains were. Or how fake the storyline is. That's the fact of life. We no longer view it with the childlike innocence that we used to. But we still love them because we can remember the original joy of watching these movies. I love watching them back, but sometimes I view them with a conscious decision to do so light-heartedly for fear of losing that love I have for the movies in view of the fact that they weren't perfect.

Case in point in this, which I found on Tumblr when looking for a picture to post here:

Thanks a lot, Internet.

But nonetheless, these movies are a beauty. The songs were a beauty. The characters were a beauty. Scratch all that. They are a beauty.

Vegetables, fear and love (not entirely related)

Hello hello hello.

Freestyle week is almost over and so here I am for my post! It's been a relatively quiet week for me, quite a bit like the calm before the storm because the next month or so will be incredibly busy in University. I have midterm examinations coming up, so I've been busy (well.. not really) preparing for that.

Today I needed to go buy some vegetables to cook at home for meals cause my mum was feeling a bit under the weather. Instead of going to the supermarket in the mall as I usually do, I decided to go to the local wet market that was open near my breakfast place. And in I went and it was quite an adventure cause I rarely, if ever at all, go to the market on my own. All that fresh produce is too intimidating! I ended up buying the wrong vegetable cause apparently I can't differentiate leafy vegetables from one another. So that's the most exciting thing that has happened to me.

Yes. Vegetables. I don't like them.

Also, I was watching a video where this guy asked some people on a subway in NYC about whether the best motivation if life is fear, or love. Since it's a question I've been wondering about, I shall let you guys wonder about it too!

Til next time and hope everyone is well! :)

Nerdfighters, what's up?

When did I become a Nerdfighter? No frickin' clue. It was one of those things where it just happens and then life goes on.

I was first introduced to the Vlogbrothers through a fellow nerdfighter friend who had been following them for a while. I was never into Youtube, but she thought I'd enjoy the videos and showed me a few (although i don't remember which). I think this was probably in late 2008, early 2009. I watched it on and off, but only started really watching religiously in late 2009 to early 2010. In between all that I was introduced to John's books which I really enjoyed and made me like the Vlogbrothers so much more. They were just so.. intelligent.

I've never really been one of those who are very involved in Nerdfighteria. I was always just lurking and checking things out. I mucked around a fair bit in the original Your Pants but that was it really. When TFiOS was announced, I pre-ordered and made a conscious decision to be more involved in the community, so here I am !

I know a handful of Nerdfighters in real life, which is cool. I have high hopes for planning a gathering in the future !

The best Nerdfighter IRL moment that happened was when I just started University. I was in a lecture and the girl in front of me had Your Pants open on her laptop. We had met each other a few days before but we weren't really friends until that happened and I was all "OMG ARE YOU A NERDFIGHTER TOO?". Friendship made.

That's that. Cheers!

Malaysian Education System

In Malaysia one begins pre-school/kindergarten between the ages of 3-6. Like the other countries, it's mostly a few hours of structured play time and a little bit of learning as you advance with age. Pre-school education isn't compulsory and there are very few public facilities. Most people send their children to privately owned kindergarten so it can be expensive.

Primary education starts at 7, and goes on for 6 years (Standard 1-6). The Curriculum is standardized and you take the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR; Primary School Evaluation) at the end of it. We learn the usual Science, Math, Malay Language, English as a second language which are tested in the UPSR. Then there are other subjects that there are no standardized tests for. It's automatic advancement through the grades even if you fail, which is a really stupid system.

After Primary School, you advance into Secondary School for 5 years (Form 1-5). For the first 3 years, everybody learns the same things as they did in Primary School, only deeper. There's additional tested subjects like History, Geography and Life Skills. At the end of Form 3, you sit for another standardized test: Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR; Lower Certificate of Education). Following this, students are allowed to choose which streams to enter. The options are Science, Arts and Sub Science (mixture of both). The Science stream is straightforward, so you learn Biology, Chemistry, Physics etc. In the Arts, you can choose to actually do art, business, accounts or more vocational subjects. But no matter what stream you are in, you still do certain core subjects similar to the ones in the PMR. Finally at the end of the 5th year, everybody sits for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM; Malaysian Certificate of Education).

Once you're done with the SPM, you can either continue on to Form 6, Matriculation or take a Pre-University Program (Like A Levels). They're all equal to each other and only differ by duration. This is where it gets tricky and unfair. Public Tertiary Institutions in Malaysia work on an affirmative action policy where Malays and indigenous people (Known as Bumiputeras " Original inhabitants of the land) are given almost 90% of the spots. Considering 30% of the Malaysian Population are made of Chinese, Indians and others, most non-Bumiputeras don't end up in the public system after high school. The Public system is heavily subsidized and almost free.

So like me, we go into Private Tertiary Institutions where we pay through our noses for education. They're all pretty new and aren't any older than 50 years. After high school, we join private colleges for our pre-university education where we either do Foundation courses or Australian, Canadian, American and British pre-university courses. Following this, you then enrol yourself into an undergraduate degree programme of choice. Basically one ends up picking your major from the get go, so it doesn't work like the Liberal Arts systems like in America. After the undergraduate degree, one can go on to do Post-grad programmes like Masters of PhD.

Specific to me, I did a Foundation in Arts programme for a year at HELP University followed by me joining the Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) program there. My degree program is 3 years long, after which I graduate with an BA Honours Degree.

The education system in Malaysia is quite frankly very lousy. Like many Asian countries, it's very exam based and people are obsessed with grades. It's not a very holistic education. Most people can get through with merely regurgitating what is in the text books.

That may have been too long. MY BAD. Looking forward to reading more posts!

Millie says Hello.

Hello everybody! I'm Millie and I'm a 19-year old Psychology student from Malaysia. I just started my second year at HELP University. The reason I got into Psychology was merely cause it seemed like a darn interesting thing to study and I just couldn't see myself studying anything else. I figured if I could sit in a shopping mall watching people and wondering about them, I could sit in a lecture hall and learn about them for real. I also did like the idea of it being a social science in the sense that there's a somewhat methodological approach to it, but there's an element of never really knowing what's going on. It can get quite frustrating when everything is in the grey area, but it's fascinating all the same.

What am I going to do after? Well right now I am merely drifting about aimlessly with a really vague goal of continuing on to getting my Masters and becoming a practicing Clinical Psychologist. At times I choose this goal just because it seems one of the harder things to do and I want to be motivated to go above and beyond to get there. At the same time, I have an inkling that I will be staying in the academics line and might just end up as a lecturer. But we'll see.

I'm one of those people that really enjoys learning things, but never really puts a lot of effort into it. If I had to really strive to learn things I would actually not like it very much so it all works out. Admittedly, I am blessed with the ability to catch things at an above average rate. I'm also the kind of person who people stare at for acting really childish and weirdly. But at the same time, I am also the person people commonly call out to be the most "adult-like". I do quite enjoy having dual roles to play in my life.

What do I like? Books and music are the two top things that come to mind. I love reading, but I have slowed down over the last couple years because the internet killed my attention span. But I've been working on that and am going to try and read 50 books in 2012 as a challenge. I'm already five books in so I'm on track so far. I absolutely love Harry Potter and most recently, the Hunger Games. Other favourites are The Picture of Dorian Gray, Tuesdays with Morrie and the list goes on.

Now for the music I like. I, unfortunately, have not been blessed with an inclination to instrument playing so I am merely a listener. I lean more towards the indie genre, with a fair dose of Alternative and Folk. My favourite bands are The Hush Sound, Relient K, Owl City, Noah & The Whale.... and so on. I also really really like live gigs.

Other things I like are TV shows like Community, Big Bang Theory, New Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Bones and some others. I have been told I watch too many tv shows. Other than that, I like potatoes, collecting pins and badges, hanging out with my friends and talking. I really like talking.

Stuff I don't like : Overplayed music on radio, people that think reading is boring and people who demand respect without returning it.

Random facts: I'm short. Even by Asian standards. 5'1" yep.

Till next time then! DFTBA.