The 14th just passed yesterday and it was rather like a small celebration for a few of us. Thanks to Elaine for mass cooking and guys at 80 Noel Street for loaning their house as the hosts, we had our famous Malaysian Styled Steamboat~ Wee~ Tom Yom paste, fish cakes, fish ball, lamb slices, mushrooms, noodles, yum, yum~

To set the records straight from the start, the party wasn't held because of extreme boredom or stress whatsoever. First of all, it was my Birthday (yay me! ^_^) , the 3 master students are graduating (so sorta a celebration much? ) and a farewell party as some of us

Games of Mixed Feelings

Wow, it's been 2 weeks huh? as par usual, a status update is in order! For some who didn;t know, I was away for 10 days in Europe. The Eurotrip was fun as we visited Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, and Rome with Venice in Italy. As fun as it is, this post is dedicated for something else, the Malaysian Notts Games. For now, there's only the teaser pic form the inside of the Roma Colosseum.

Ok, after getting grounded on the plane for 4 hours in Venice, finally landed my arse back in London thus ending the tedious 10 Day trip! Without delay, this got followed by a 5 hour arse dragging journey on the bus back to Nottingham. At long last, I reached home and reunited with my dearest bed bed. =)

Since Nottingham Games was the next day, I had to recuperate myself or I would have slept through the entire days festivities. After a peaceful 18 hour sleep, it was Saturday a.k.a. Malaysian Nottingham Games! (Wee~ Fireworks in the background). As glorious as it sounds, despite being a year shy over it's jubilee year, it wasn't as much I would have expected.

First of all, they are less food stalls this year. (Oh come on, how could you not like MALAYSIAN FOOD!) Turns out that the contract this year changed as stalls were required to pay unnecessary insurance fees and unaffiliated private stalls are not allowed this year. Needless to say, the amount of stalls were reduced to a mere 12 this year? (Might be slightly off by one or two stalls). Weirdly enough, there was a stall selling cupcakes and fudge under the 'Malaysian Food Fest' banner. How on earth can people relate to that? My friend even commented that the food sold this year sucks big time cause of no satay being sold and no post-graduates cooking at any of the food stalls? His logic was that Post-Grads cook better than others. Hence the question remains.... 'Am I considered a good cook then?' o.o

Spirit of One Malaysians, sitting together and eating =)

Most of the people hanged out in the eating area till it was time to be shooed away by the NG Committee Members

Anyways, it was a bit lonely for me as many of my friends did not attend the 'great' festivities this year. Some were busy with assignments to be handed in on Monday which is excusable, but others did not even know that it was Notts Games Day. Others got lost to the wrong uni's campus (Nottingham Trent instead of Nottingham Uni) and some even didn;t attend cause they claim their respective Uni. did not promote the event? So much for one of the most attended Malaysian Event in UK huh?

Badminton this year was also another topic to be of note. Unlike last year where the match ups were evenly spread, this year's lineup was rather weird. All of the seeded teams were concentrated in the first block, while the unseeded ones were left in the other. This resulted in early fierce eliminations in the preliminary rounds. A bit of a let down as the teams i wanted to root for got eliminated by the second rounds. =(

Overall I'll just rate this year's games as half hearted. On the bright side, I got to met some long lost friends, my cousins and new friends to boot. Anyway, there's always next year right? =)

On a side note, the leaves are STARTING to change in colours, but the weather is just going downhill towards subzero lately! Oh well, i guess even the wise old trees can't keep up with raging mother nature. Gonna finish up my Eurotrip pics for now. Till then, Ciaoz~

Eurotrip, Here i come~

With 2 hours away from departure time, 'THE' day is finally here! Right now, sitting patiently listening to some K-Pop songs while waiting for the time to be 10.30pm. As the time ticks away and slowly passes, the anxious me can't wait to finally leave Nottingham for a long awaited holiday trip!

Gah, typing in non-melancholic tone really doesn't suit me at all! ;p

So, this time got planned myself a 10 day trip to Spain and Italy. Will be visiting famous places like Madrid and Barcelona in Spain and Rome and Venice in Italy! Wee~ Can't wait to be in those lovely cities, especially during the warm but still chilled weather of fall! Will be takings loads of pictures, so just patiently wait for my updates yea? Goanna make so much people jealous by random taging then, wakaka, yipee~~~

P/S : Will not have internet access for the next few days, so no sneak peaks or spoilers for anyone till I get back :-)

See you guys on the 5th of November

~Ciaoz~

Anti Cams

And yet, another boring week solemnly creeps by without me noticing. As melodramatic as it sounds, I actually did something rather peculiar this week. While waiting for my MSc results to be released, was actually reading some books! Yup, you've heard me right, ironic right?

Well, since I had so much spare time in my hand, I decided to read some books that I've brought over from Malaysia and those that I bought over here in Nottingham from back in May! Judging from the bookmarks of each book, I'm sure one hell of a lazy reader. (Blames it all on busy uni life!). For the past week, been actually piling up more and more interest in one of my later books 'The Digital Photography Handbook'.

I'm still reading books even after my studies has ended!

Sure some might say "Why on earth did you buy such stuffs? Ain't most of the stuffs common sense?". Well, the first few chapters are agreeable, but heck, unless I read something that is off a printed book, I'll never find any information legitimate. :-p

The book itself ain't half bad. Gotta learn the basic stuff of photography and the reason of choices of added equipments that come with it. Who knew there were so many tricks and tips for taking the 'right photo'. One important thing that I'm still working on is using the famous 'Golden Axis Rule' of photography. No wonder most of my holiday pics look out of proportions...

Some might say, "just go get yourself a high end camera and it'll solve everything". I may not own a SLR (Single Light Reflect) or DSLR (digital ver.), but heck I have a handy dandy Nikon Coolpix which was given to me by my dad. Most might not know, but I treasure it a lot, to the point of not letting anyone else besides me using it. Still, a digicam is good enough for me, as I'm a travelling compact photographer. Those bulky ones are just meant for a more professional line of job. Heck, I don't even have the peas and brains of using a camera professionally yet, let alone taking top notch photos.

Isn't this retarded, using a camera to take a photo of another camera

Epic~! XD

This reminds me of a hateful mindset that only beautiful pictures taken by high end DSLR's as the can have more pixels in their photos. Well newsflash, it's not! DSLR just eases the process of photo taking with loads of high tech gadgets pre-installed. A normal digital camera can do equally the same work, but just needs more experience and knowledge of use. This is kinda like the analogy of choosing an auto or manual geared car.

Well, if you are the landscape picture lover, a DSLR is terrific due to the high details. But if you are the trigger happy kind and only store your pics on social sites and on your computer, a typical 6 to 10 mega pix camera is more than sufficient, since higher details are meant for large prints. But oh well, since half of my friends own a DSLR or equivalent, I can't say more or I'll be sleeping with the fishes tonight!

Anyhow, results came out last night and got a borderline distinction. Could have gotten higher since I only had one module that scored low, thus bringing EVERYTHING down. FYI, that module was due to miss information by the module leader, thus giving me just 3 days in completing the given work. No compensation was even given to me afterwards. Well, at least I will be graduating with a distinction, unless the final exam board decides to lower it again. Tough luck for me as I seriously poured in lots of effort. Nothing left to do but to wait till graduation.

Signing off,

~Ciaoz~

Well deserved break

Wee, it's been a pleasurous 2 weeks, and I'm gonna keep this ASAP (as short as possible, keke) ~ November is coming soon, and so many stuffs are lining up to happen! Vivas ended few weeks back with a good impression, and I'm seriously hoping for a good grade for it. After all, I did spend lots of effort into this project, and in truth it's even more to what I contributed for my degree project. Well, generic marks are coming out within the next few days, and the finalized marks will be released on my Birthday day itself. Glory much~

Speaking of my birthday, I'm gonna reward myself with an early eurotrip present! This will actually be my first decent trip in 8 months! Try beating that! Anyhow, the trip this time will include Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, and Rome and Venice in Italy. Best part of all, this 11 day trip is less than 500 pounds! So, Spain and Italy, here I come next week~ =)

Last night was our the annual Malaysian social dinner and there sure was many people! Sure that some left for better pastures (no, I don't mean drop dead -.-") but more than two thirds of the people there were new. Would have mingled around, but being isolated for my project for the past 8 months sure takes it toll. Sincerest apologies to those affected by it last night.

Activities moved on to delicious chocolate cakes and coffee at Coco tang, and drinks back home. As an added bonus, I even got to play the new Naruto on the X-Box Console! Happy much! With a new gaming and dueling system, it sure was hard to get accustom to it. But after the entire night of drinking and more playing, finally got the full hang of it by 8 in the morning! SO yea, I actually played through the morning, and slept at 9! ~feeling proud right about now~

Well, don't judge me too much, as I finally finished my masters and have nothing to do till my graduation. With people starting classes and all, it sure is hard to find anyone to accompany me out these days. Anyhow, my graduation is on the 27th of November, so anyone who feels like giving me flowers, feel free to do so on that day itself. =P

Signing off

Ciaoz~

Completion of another journey's step

It's been almost 2 months since my last posts, as I was being hiatus from 'Blogger World' you see. All was due to good reasons of course as I was busy finishing my MSc Project. With a project that heavily deals with both hardware and software, all of my hardware arrived not only late but in separate intervals. Hence the last 2 months of rush circuit building, testing and integrating was hellish! On a brighter note, the 2 months went by rather quickly and soon it was dissertation hand in time.

To be honest, the report itself wasn't very pleasing as they were too much technical design information to squeeze in, but yet, I managed to finished all 100 pages of it (excluding appendix of course). Well, that's what you get for having 2 pieces of software and 4 circuits right? :p

My Hardware Circuits

For those who noticed, "Yes" it's all on one board since I was resourcefully limited in the university. But oh well, both of them work hand in hand seamlessly. Since I can't reveal too much details, nor I can thrill with with the trailer of the system, I'll tickle you with a teaser instead~ =D

Part 1

Part 2

With the dissertation handed in, project 90% done, it's time for a well deserved break! (Remaining 10% left for my Project Vivas 2 weeks after) This time it was off to Historic Windsor, home to the oldest castle in England. If it wasn't because of the fire incident back then, it would have still been the royal palace instead of Buckingham in London. It wasn't such a bad trip actually, as we got to see many interesting stuffs belonging to the royal family since 3 generations back!

Entering Windsor Castle Grounds

pics taken at main gate and centre tower

One interesting thing that I've learned during the tour was, there's the King and Queen's Chambers respectively in the palace. However, the King does not use the King's Chamber at all. Instead, it's used for official morning waking ceremonies, where royal and foreign dignitaries would greet the king in his morning attire. I dunno 'bout you guys, but it sure bewildered me when I heard it.

My munchy-licious 4 pound chicken burger. How to you eat something that's 30cm in diameter in one go?

Well, Windsor was the morning as we had plans elsewhere for that evening. With a 2 hour drive away, our next destination was yet another historical site, Stonehenge! Yup, you heard me, the weird stone formation that has been here since Mesolithic times. We arrived rather early to the site to view the stone formation and toured the ground. Not forgetting, while we were at it, who can resist taking random shots of everything! Day ended with us watching the sunset at Stonehenge which is noted as one of the 'Must See things in UK'.

Clear skies greeting us at Stonehenge

our photographer Lynn with all of her out of focus shots XD

with driver, housemate and fellow masters coursemate, Xiong Ling

Stonehenge in a distant view

Encapsulated picture moments after sunset

After a long day trip, time for a 3 hour drive home and man, trust me it was surely tiring like hell trying to stay awake after a long day like that! Thank goodness we had some entertainment in the car, Lynn trying to learn Cantonese and Malay at the same time! It was rather funny as her native tongue is Mainland Mandarin. With the slurs and slips of the tongues, almost everything came out wrong. But I have to say, she learns Malay rather fast! Even we were impressed! O.O"

So that's pretty much what the latest happening in my life. Will update the other 4 unfinished blog posts that I've made during the MIA duration. But first, gotta prep for my project viva tomorrow. Somehow I can;t seem to feel anything definite about tomorrow's major agenda at all. Maybe it's because of the super short 10 mins of time given? Oh well, we'll see~

Signing off

~Ciaoz~

P/S : 4 days ago marked the 1 year anniversary of me being in the UKs. Celebrations you ask? Only had 'Mee Magee with Perencah Ayam'

LMAO!

Sentimental Blues

When one lives through their life, it's normally their first and this applies to so many. It's like the first time when you walked, the first time you rode a bike, the first time kicked a ball, first time sitting for an exam, first crush, meeting new friends, crying and all. Regardless the explanations, the bottom line here is that it's definitely an unforgettable memory. The only problem that had always bothered me is, because it's the first time I tend to get nervous and lost of words. This soon leads to imperfect situations where i tend to fumble up or don't express myself well. And for that, I constantly fret on how I actually express myself around other, hence regret comes soon after and how much I could have done better.

I guess I haven't scoped in to my actual title have I? The campus or rather city itself seems so lifeless and barren right now. The college students are done with their summer courses, lecturers on break, shop owners on vacation, Ah, peaceful city life~ All this emptiness got me thinking on something peculiar for the past few days. Truth be told, I actual miss the people and most importantly lots of friends that I used to have.

**Warning, spoiler alert! It's gonna go sentimental from here on out**

Dunno why, but lately I've been watching some shows during my free time to escape from the tedious project work and all. In one particular scene of these shows, they was setting whereby the group of friends or such were sitting in a large circle, lights out, and holding a candle each. During this time, they expressed on how they were thankful for one another, and such. If one would have been watching the show since the beginning, you could understand how much that means and how touching it could have been.

As for me, I'm very burden by such acts. After reflecting on this for quite some time, it gradually became a bigger guilt day by day.

Bending 101

Time for a movie update once again! This time it's all about the lamest movie of all time, 'The Last Airbender' or more commonly known as, 'Avatar TLA'. The animation itself was a prestigious one and dare I say one of Nickelodeon's Best production ever! The silver screen version directed by M. Night Shyamalan seriously ranks lowest of all time! Seriously, all the move databases that I found say the same thing unanimously, "IT SUCKS BIG TIME!" Well, maybe not in that exact phrase but you get the general idea dont'cha? To make it simple, how on earth can you get the main character's name wrong? That alone is enough to enrage many people.

Anyway, to restore some needed honor back to the franchise, this post will educate people about the real Avatar, The Last Airbender. I'm gonna explain about the world of bending in the storyline, whereby garners most interest among fans and all. I'll simplify loads of stuffs here, especially for the sake of first timers to the series. So please don't expect too much of or down the the point details here. After all, the producers (3 of them, Micheal Dante, Bryan Konietzko and Aaron Eahasz) went to great lengths of research and learning of different cultures and martial arts just to produce a perfect show for the viewers. =)

The 4 nations

Here's the actual and proper opening taken from wiki. Somehow the theater version changed it dramatically, and that's still an understatement...

"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four Nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an Airbender named Aang. And although his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world."

So, let's talk about bending shall we? The art of bending is the ability to manipulate the respective element based on your movements and the bender's will. It's not magic like what most people think, and you can't definitely bend the elements with just your mind too, but wouldn't that be great! Each bending style are normally associated with an actual martial arts, which in turn depicts the nature of the bending element and also reflects the culture that inherits it. However, due to the movie, almost all of the bending moves are done with excessive kicking and punching, since the cast only knew taekwando and karate..

Water bending - The art of water bending, inherited by the Water Tribe of the North and South pole. This form of bending is associated with the Push and Pull techniques of Tai Chi. It's strength comes from the power of the moon, whereby the bender gets gradually stronger as the moon changes phases every night towards the full moon. Water bending is smooth, elegant and clear, as it's nature of a flowing river or moving sea. Able to control any form of water, and turn them into ice, mist or even as it is, a bender's form is limitless as water takes no form and can be used in variety of ways. A variation of this bending would be the swamp tribe which uses water bending in more offensive and direct movements. Regardless of the origins, some water benders are able to heal others by redirecting the flow of chi in a person's body. But don't let the gentle water put you off, as on full moons, some benders can even use blood bending, whereby they can control the blood in your body and bend it to their will.

Earth Bending - This art would be mainly found in the Earth Kingdom, where the people's strengths and beliefs are as solid as a rock. Some people of the desert also uses a sand bending, which is a variation of this. To master earth bending, strong solid movements are needed, as such as the martial art of Hung Gar, created by the famous Wong Fei Hong is associated to it. Hung Gar would be mainly notable due to it's horse stance which is practiced for endurance. Hence, this style mainly focus on defense, and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back. Besides the hard style of Hung Gar, there's also the soft style of Chu Gar or the praying mantis style, which uses softer but quicker stances. A high level bender is able to manipulate crystals from the depth of the earth, and rarely metal-bending, whereby the tiny earth pieces in metal are manipulated to control the metal itself.

Fire Bending - Mainly used by the antagonist race, the Fire Nation. Being warped by it's original teachings, it is fueled by anger and hatred, thus strong emotions will control the strength of the created flames. Like fire and flames, the Fire Nation are people with heavy machineries, powered by coal and flames. The people itself are aggressive and in the series, mainly tyrannical, due to the 100 years of world conquest campaign that it has been leading. The art of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu is seen by most firebenders. The art shows great aggressiveness and ferocious speed, like a small fire quickly burning down a thick terrain of forestry. As such, most firebenders train in self control to avoid destroying both themselves and the nature around them. High level benders are able to increase the intensity of their red flames into blue flames which are much stronger and hotter. (Relate back to high school science of you don;t know why >.<). Some benders are even able to manipulate and redirect chi in the air into blue or even white burst of lightnings. A feat that only 3 person in the series are able to do.

Air Bending - The style mastered by the Current Avatar, the main protagonist, Aang. From small breeze, to streams of air and even big tornadoes, an air bender can do all of that. Inherited by the Air Nomads who were free spirited and never tied down, it represents freedom or an unbounded soul. Too bad that they were totally exterminated by the Fire Nation, fearing that the avatar is going to be reborn into the Air Nation. As an air bender, Aang uses the art of Ba Gua, which incorporates circular movements to avoid being hit or capture and follow up with direct hits and strikes. Think of it like a free moving breeze which can suddenly turn into a violent gust of wind.

Well, that was a simplify version of JUST the bending arts. Like I said, the producers spent many months in research and production of the three series spanned animation. I guess, this alone should suffice in peaking people's interest of the actual series right? A job done well mediocritically I suppose, but still enough to quell my anger on the recently released film. But honestly, to properly enjoy it, do watch the animation or perhaps go spend sometime reading on Wiki instead?

And on yeah, don't give me crap like I don;t watch cartoons, so I'm not gonna watch it, when on the other hand You read and watch series like Naruto, Bleach, One Piece or even Pokemon! Well, birds of a feather flock together right? So spare me the ever endless drama or ego and just watch the original series kay? Problem solved =)

Gonna continue my project for now...

Supposed to be busy guy, signing off. Ciaoz~

P/S : most information were referenced from Wikia, [ http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar_Wiki ]

Cheesy Much

Squeek, Squeek!

Hehe, contradictory to what the pic and title says, this post ain't gonna be about cheese and their natural predators, the mice. Just gonna rant about a movie I recently watched, "Knight and Day". Check out the synopsis provided by 'Internet Movie Database'

"June Havens finds her everyday life tangled with that of a secret agent who has realized he isn't supposed to survive his latest mission. As their campaign to stay alive stretches across the globe, they soon learn that all they can count on is each other" - sourced from www.imdb.com

At first glance, the movie seemed not too shabby right? Your typical spy movie starring the ever famous Tom Cruise, and actress Cameron Diaz the movie was sure eye attracting at first. Just one prob, the entire movie was CHEESY! As if the typical storyline of girl gets between the secret agents and bad guy wasn't enough. The main char gets to be trapped in the mid of a shooting scene, with just the standard issued pistol, and maybe an extra round of reload magazines. Even being shot from every direction, firearm-trained federal agents sniping at him, he still never gets shot and every shot he makes hits his mark dead on! Your typical James Bond much?

The far by most over the top scene was, him walking leisurely across a hallway with hails of bullets shooting around him. The moment ends with him grabbing the female lead who got high from a truth serum injection for a romantic kiss.... (I just don't see the flow here...)

Don't get me wrong, cause I liked the movie overall, but it's just plain cheesy for me. As a leisure afternoon movie, it might be fine. But, for a reserved Saturday night movie time? A big NO NO.

Overall personal rating for this one, 6.5/10 just because of the overcheesy factor.

P/S: Can't wait for Avatar TLA this friday. Critics say the CGI's great, but they changed the storyline too much to fit the silver screens. Oh well, will rant about that when the time comes.

Ciaoz~

Summer Stories - Day 3 In Hull, swimming for fishes

Oh dear, day 3 has finally arrive, marking the last day of our summer trip! Saddening as it was, we still enjoyed ourselves fully, stuffed till we exploded (well, not really boomed~) and saw many great things! Back to the trip, a visit to Hull is incomplete without visiting the famous underwater museum, 'The Deep'.

Don't let the shabby exterior fool you, cause like I said, it's underwater. For those doofus out there, that means underground as well! (all pun intended, sorry for those who didn't get it! Wa-ri :D)

Well, the admittance was a tad costly but it was worth the 5 hour tour. Inside, you'll be able to find jellyfishes of all colors, starfishes, Sharks, Manta rays, octopus, sea snakes and so many more! You name it, you've got it! Truly an aquatic paradise, and that's still an understatement. Equipped with the latest science gadgets and gizmos as well as mini games, the museum hopes to let kids enjoy the tour experience to its fullest and yet still able to learn about aquatic life as well. Man, they should actually pay me for doing free promotions for them.

Sadly to say, those fancy devices and stuffs were aimed for 8 to 15 year olds. Heck, we are about the ages of 21 till 25, and yet we don't care! XD

Back to retrospec, enjoy the following pics =)

First thing on display, Live action of 2 seahorses making out! Aww~

Up next, colour displays by the jellyfish platoon =)

How can something icky be so elegant!

Baby Lobster

Baby Seasnake

Giant Yellow Sea snake trying 'hard' to blend in, LOL

After the Aquatic museum was the maritime museum back at the heart of the city centre. But before going into the place, some random graffiti on the ground caught our attention

The Hull Maritime Museum

For those who do not know what maritime is, please look it up =)

Graffiti by the local kids

Now, that was 10 mins of my life gone wasted, haha! Back to this particullar museum, it houses displays on fishery, sea hunting, and the various ships that once docked in this once glorious fishing port. Not much to describe here, cause I've been blogging for 4 hours and am sleepy at the moment. XD

Skeleton left behind from hunting a 'Right Whale'

Called 'Right' cause it was the right size of the right type to catch

Stuffed Polar Bear

and the skeleton remains.... ;-(

Man, the poor baby didn't want to depart from the mum, even after she's dead..

Too many ship models to show, so just gonna show a few of them...

Well, besides looking at antiques, we still had to fool around right? :D

Notice that this dog doesn't have any tail at all! O.o

Woo-kie! With the museums done, we finally headed out for lunch! And oh-boy were we HUNGRY! Try walking and touring for hours without eating! And, no, 'makan angin' does not count! (Lame sia!).

Lunch was at Princess Quay (pronounced as Princess Key) which is the largest mall in Hull and sorta felt like 1U's new wing. Even though it was a Sunday, we didn't get to order their famous sunday roasts as they ran out of vegies. Heck, who need vegies right? Still the chef insisted that he would not cook if some of the core ingredients. Go figure~~~

Next up on the menu's choice was pizza. Well, good enough for me!

(lol-ed when we notice that we went to York the day before and didn't even try any famous York Puddings!)

Bought this from the perfume shop right before lunch. High time that I needed one.

Some say it smells like Beckham's sweat, LOL!

Simple Lunch

Once we finished lunch, we we only had 20 mins to rush to the next location, which was Fort Paull. The upside, according to history, some airplane crashed into the middle of the fort and no explosions or lost of lives occured? The downside was, we arrived like 10 mins after the supposed last entry time. Extreme bummer indeed...

Instead, we just went touring the country side, admiring the landscape before heading back to Notts for Kebab and Curry Rice! And thus ends my first summer holidays~

and finally, Ciaoz! Signing off,

~L'Heure Bleue~