Dear Diary

Remember the first time we met? I think I was still in primary school, you were pink in colour with a cute little pink lock. I was so excited when I got you, I knew I have much to write, much to share. It was the beginning of a new friendship, secrets, thoughts and emotions just between you and me.

I started writing everyday, updating you the events of my life especially when I entered high school . I met new people, my world enlarged but still small, I became a prefect, had a lot of fun singing in with two of my friends, took part in competitions in the school and won. Slowly, I started to write less, especially the times when I was sad, being bullied, called names. I didn't want to put it on you so when I read again I would remember the sad times. I just want to remember the happy times.

As time goes by life become more routine and there was nothing much to update anymore. I write to you like once in a few months, I only write when I feel it was worthy to be noted down. Time flashed I'm in college, those days were fun, lots of new friends, a change in life and a new routine. Every new semester is a different routine, to me time seems too fast and sometimes when I'm bored it would be too slow. Four years and 6 months of college life was great, there were a lot of happy times.

Remember when we had a drama to perform? The practices were so much fun, then we had moral studies, more acting, more videos. Hanging out with friends were the best time in a week. Everyday in college it can either be fun or boredom of the routine. Now looking back I missed those times, why didn't I jot it all down? Oh well, it's too late now but I'll try my best to make everyday happy, it's tough but I'll try.

Currently I'm not happy with work, the environment, people here seems lifeless, so busy, we don't have the closeness I used to have in a different project. I wish I can make things better, make a change, and life always brings challenges so that we can grow. I will break free and reach far, that's what I believe. Just watch me, my dreams will come true!

Blood+ - 1

A girl with crimson red eyes, short boy-cut hair, in her hand a katana. She runs towards the enemy with her katana ready to strike! Saya is her name and she sworn to wipe all Chiropterans on the face of earth.

I have finished this book since long ago and now only I find the time to blog about it. Currently I'm half way through the second book and it's good. I started reading this because of the successful animation that was aired in Japan 2006. I didn't watch the animation because it was difficult to find good subbers. The book is very interesting to me because I know nothing of this story. Everything is a mystery because Saya doesn't remember her past.

Other than that, we don't what is the enemy's next move, who they are and what are their motives. Saya just fights them by instinct and her urge to protect her foster family. For one whole year Saya had a wonderful life, she had a family with a father and two brothers, one younger and one older. Suddenly everything changed when she went back to school to pick up her shoes. There was a monster attacking her and a stranger comes to her and gave her the katana to fight.

The story then follows through where Saya joins a team called "Red Shield" to track down the leader of the monsters and try to wipe them out. The journey continues to Vietnam and book 1 ends where the leader escaped from Vietnam.

It is a book filled with action and also the elements of sadness. The characters are potrayed well. I don't know how well the book is translated from Japanese but I feel that I didn't miss out anything. I couldnt stop reading the book because I wanted to know more about Saya's past but sadly in this book not much was revealed. The story is quite original as I have never watched or read anything similar. I recommend this book to those who enjoys fantasy and can imagine a good sword fighting :P

How to win friends and influence people?

A skill that most people who wants to excel in : Communications. When you're in a party where you don't know many and know just a few you'll think I'm here to make friends, build up a network. In that room filled with people, you observe, you search for people to approach or you search for your regular gang. You can see that are people who stand just by the drinks table or the snacks table, some people mingle and have fun, some talking, some quiet.

You'll notice there are some people who can just keep talking and grasp everyone's attention. That's a skill that everyone wants, good communication skills. There are some people who are born with it, some who learn and build it up through the years. You will think how they do it, how you would love to have that skill.

It's simple, pick a book read it, understand it and practice it. How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. This book has been around for many years, since 1936.

It is Dale's dream to write motivational books and this is one of it. This book teaches techniques that are simple to understand. It also let me realise that the common thoughts of everyone including myself. One of the things highlighted in the book was people always put themselves first and in a conversation they like to talk about themselves. So whenever you want to approach someone always start with asking about them, their interest, their work, life and when they're done they will give you the attention. Always always be genuinely interested in what the other person say as insincerity makes people dislike you.

The writer uses good examples of his principles for this topic. Famous people's stories were mentioned such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and also his own experience. Another good principle is "Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves". There are many more that I shall not mention as it is best to read it yourself. You either buy it, borrow it from a friend and find it in a library. It's definitely good help for yourself.

The Graveyard Book

Ever wondered how it would be to live in a graveyard?? I didn't because I wouldn't want to be haunted or chased by ghost. You'll receive no help at all, nobody will save you, it's only when people visits. But nobody visits at night, you can't see in the night, there aren't lights there. If you can't experience it, you can imagine it, you can read about it: The Graveyard Book written by Neil Gaiman.

Neil Gaiman writes the most unique fantasy stories and two has been made into motion pictures, Coraline (animated) and Star dust. This book is one of the new edition into the family. The story begins with a climax where the bad guy is committing a crime, the last victim a toddler. The little toddler was not found in his crib, the villain kept his cool, searched the place. When he could not find him, panic starts to hit him, where could the toddler be?

The little toddler being an adventerous child wanders out of the house and walks up the hill and ends up at a graveyard. This is where the stories begins, the ghosts of the graveyard felt the need to protect the child so they hid him while the villain tried to find him here. Of course he failed, if not we won't have a story to read won't we?? They raised him up, and we have chapters highlighted his adventures in the graveyard. A definite unique storyline, unique characters and an ending you'll think you'll want.

There's a climax in every chapter, an excitement waiting for you. The boy who lives in the graveyard, grew up there, how he survived? I praise Neil for being unique and special, coming out with stories that none has thought of, maybe I don't read enough but this is definitely my first encounter on a story about a boy and a graveyard.

Taking one step forward

Marley and me, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Inkheart, all these movies have one thing that I feel strongly about: novel, writing and journalism. Deep down, somewhere hidden I have always wanted to be a writer. When I was 16 I had tuition for English and I look forward to it every week. The teacher gave the class a title every week and we were required to produce introductions and sometimes a full essay. I eagerly wait for my essay to return to me after being marked as I was excited with what the teacher would comment.

Since young I love to read, it started with Enid Blyton, moved on to Sweet Valley Series, Sabrina the teenage witch, Sherlock Holmes, Princess Diaries, and many more fantasy and chic flicks. I love being captured in the writer's fantasy, imaginations and their expressions. I want to write because I want to give the same feeling I get from reading, I want readers to find their fantasy, their dreams, a world within them.

Writing a novel is definitely not easy and it takes time. To realise my dream, I went to the book store to find help, to hope to improve my writing techniques from experts, to make an idea into a novel. It's still a long road ahead, so I'm taking my first step now. I will try to write one entry a week on my blog on anything that comes to my mind. Please feel free to comment on my writing, I appreciate all the help I can get.

Earth Hour 2009

It was just last Saturday (28th March 2009) that most places of the world did something in unity, Earth Hour 2009, where lights were switched off at 8:30 pm. Of course the timing is different for all countries so we wont have everyone doing the same thing at the same time.

As for me, I was at my grandmother's place and at that time we were already done with dinner. The adults were watching a DVD video downstairs and the kids/young adults were upstairs playing games. As 8:30 approaches, my little cousins told everyone to switch off their lights, unfortunately the air con was on, which I think consumes more electricity. The adults didn't bother to participate, so downstairs was bright and upstairs of the house was dark. I was typing in the dark on my keyboard and often making spelling mistakes, haha.

We wanted the children to understand global warming but they don't really get it, they're just 7, 9 and 11 years old. Well my cousin brother who is 11 understands a bit but not the younger ones, they don't even know what causes global warming. They have enjoyed the air condition since they were babies, losing the air con would be a big deal for them, they'll sweat like mad. Back in the days when I was a child, I get a fan which is quite fortunate for me.

As I look out the window, I notice the neighbours did not bother with it anyway, I guess the message was not communicated with enough power to every nation. This event was to create awareness and I feel it is important and that it should be advertised more. What we need to address is to show how global warming happens, what impact it has on mother earth, how to help even if it's just a little.

Before we address going green, I feel the first thing we need to address is recycling, it is definitely not a popular thing to do yet because you still find many rubbish in the drains causing floods to Kuala Lumpur. People are just dumping rubbish everywhere and it pains mother earth. We need to tell children, teenagers, young adults the right message, the proper thing to do or else we all know deep down, earth will be lost soon, which is what the movie The day the earth stood still tried to tell us. We are killing earth everyday!

Because I was not in the city, I did not manage to see KLCC and KL Tower with its lights off. But I did manage to obtain some pictures for other countries' event. Visit the links below to see it's beauty even though it's in the dark.

Links:

1. http://www.earthhour.org/home/
2. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/earth_hour_2009.html
3. http://www.flickr.com/groups/earthhour2009global/

I still can't find any for Malaysia Landmarks, will edit this post once I do.

Cute Game

Playing games at this age brings back the child in you, where you'll do what it takes to win, not in a mean and evil way I mean. When you're stuck at a certain level, you'll just keep trying, yes at some point you'll give up, but you see children don't give up easily compared to adults. That's my own opinion, sometimes I wish I have the type of concentration I have while I play games as I have at other things. When it comes to doing something you like, a person puts in more effort, more passion, more concentration and more love.

There are some games that I play where I lose interest half way, give up and quit. But the following games are just too cute to quit :p.
Available for both Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. I played it on my NDS, it was loads of fun, it has cute character designs, you pick how you want them to look like, what they wear, what furniture they have. In the game, your sim interact with other people in the town, you participate in festival game. Everytime you win a festival, you attract more people to live in your town. You earn simeleons from winning and you can spend it on anything you want. This game is much more fun if you play multiplayer. I played with my sister and she beat me in every minigame :(. Some screenshots below:

This cute game is only available for nintendo exclusively which is a good strategy as they are more nintendo wii and NDS owners, I have read from websites that it's still a hot demand everywhere. Good for nintendo for being so creative and coming out with the next gen of console.

Taxes!!

Nearing the month of April/May, it's time for taxes. This year is the first year that I'll be taxed but my salary is below 2500 so in the end I don't need to pay anything. I got my EA form from the company and my dad say I should open a tax file and do my filling even though I need not pay. Two options to get my tax file opened:

First method, go to the tax offices and do it manually. It's located in several places as I've heard but I really don't want to go through the trouble of driving there, finding a parking space and looking for the office. Therefore I proceed to option 2. :P

Second method is to do it online and the website is http://ekl.hasil.org.my/. I have to send in an application to open a tax file and get a pin number to do my filling online. The website is in Bahasa Malaysia and everything in the form is in malay. There were many options for how they should address you:

I wonder what will happen if I were to put Datin :p.

The funniest one was status:

I was wondering how the dead is able to send in an application , I know it can be done by family members but I didn't know the deceased still had to pay taxes >.<