Expectedly Unexpected

This video is cold hard proof that Americans have no idea what is going on outside their own country’s borders. Heck even their own state’s borders look blur to them.

Just answer this question for me.

What is the religion of Buddhist monks?

A. Muslim

B. Orthodox Christian

C. Buddhist

D. Animism

Updated Lights Out! A Plea for your Help.

P.S. My Apple-fy post seems to have captured several people’s attention and thus has started a heated debate on the techno topic of scripts and ports (which I am totally blur in). Pretty fascinating though the amount of time people spend just to type out an arguement so long and detailed just to point out ONE point. Didn’t know that deciding to Apple-fy my house could spark such situations.

Well, it’s 1 hour to the New Year in Malaysia and another 9 hours more to the New Year here in England. Therefore, it’s time to recap the year that is going to pass.

2006…

January 2006.

Started my 1st year Chemical Engineering twinning course with University of Birmingham in Taylor’s College, Subang Jaya, Malaysia. (3rd)

Got to meet many new friends too.

Febuary 2006.

Workload starting to pile up to the ceiling. Lab reports, assignments, revision, quizzes, mini-projects, essays etc. Wasn’t an eventful month for me.

March 2006.

Engineering Fair I (22nd)

The School of Engineering even got into the papers for the first time ever second time since it’s founding through this fair due to the wonderful discovery of generating power through potatoes.

Starting to get worried about my UCAS application to the University of Sheffield. Running around everywhere to get my reference done from Miss Ng (she’s such a wonderful teacher) to sorting out my immigration forms to getting my air tickets booked etc.

April 2006.

Mid-year exam. Was horrible but managed a second upper.(3rd-7th)

Roberta’s 19th birthday.(11th)

Trip to Genting Highlands with coursemates. (12th-13th)

That’s us after conquering the Solero Shot (in the background)

May 2006.

Hon Wai moves into his new home in Bandar Utama and I went to his house and scrutinized every inch of the house. (1st)

2nd term of my 1st year Chemical Engineering course begins. (2nd)

Start receiving offeres from univerisities in the UK.

Hon Wai organizes a birthday-cum-house-warming-party at his new home. (27th)

June 2006.

Second last month of the term. Here is where I focused more on my studies.

Engineer’s BBQ (30th)

July 2006.

Engineering Fair II (13th)

Finals! (24th-28th)

1st year Chemical Engineering twinning course with University of Birmingham is officially completed. (28th)

August 2006.

Received an offer from the univeristy of my choice, Sheffield! (7th)

Final preparations before leaving to Sheffield next month. Did lots and lots of shopping. Went out with friends countless of times and settled everything needed for me to leave the country (legally of course!)

Got my very first laptop, a Dell Latitude D620. (19th)

Chemical Car competition organized IEM (Institute of Engineers, Malaysia) at APCCHE (Asia Pacific Conference for Chemical Engineers). Didin’t win anything though. But it was pure fun. (27th)

Finally free from the bonds of Taylor’s College. No more a Taylor’s College student officially. (27th)

September 2006.

Farewell dinner. One last dinner before we depart from each other never to see each other again for some time.

Last day in Malaysia before leaving at Sheffield. (16th)

Fresher’s Week. (18th-22nd)

University term starts! (25th)

October 2006.

Trip to IKEA, Leeds. Organised by MASSOC. (Malaysian & Singaporean Society)

Dan’s 18th, celebrated at The Place pub.

The birthday boy.

My birthday! Nothing much though. Just had a nice lunch in Nando’s on West Street with a couple of close friends. (3rd)

November 2006.

Trip to Birmingham. (3rd-6th)

My first ever attendance to a live orchestra performance by the Sheffield University Wind Orchestra. (19th)

December 2006.

Attended the Sheffield University Symphony Orchestra performance in Firth Court. (3rd)

Last lecture of the term. (14th)

Christmas Crackers in celebration of the last day of the term. (15th)

Trip to Skipton for 8 days. (16th-24th)

Christmas eve dinner party at EiLeen’s flat in Broad Lane. (24th)

Boxing Day shopping at Fargate and the Moor! (26th)

Well, that was basically my year for 2006. So wishing everyone reading this a very happy new year 2007! Forget about new year’s resolutions. They hardly work for everyone unless the resolution is I want to get older one year this year…

I just found out a couple of minutes ago that, Taylor’s College now has been awarded University College status (officially)!

Somehow, although my connections with Taylor’s is now terminated, deep inside me, I feel some kind of joy and happiness for Taylor’s. After 37 years of being a college, it’s hard work and contributions to the country’s appalling education system is finally recognized. Unlike some other University Colleges that were upgraded in just months after establishment, Taylor’s is different and will be different from the crowd. Taylor’s College… No, Taylor’s University College (still used to the college word) shall produce high quality, highly talented and highly sort after graduates for the global industry (like me! ).

Congrats to the amazing people that made this a reality and of course Mrs. J, principal. Her never ending passion and continued hard work will push to improve and expand Taylor’s to achieve University status one day (that’s what she told me! ) and I’m sure it’ll come true.

It just crossed my mind something that I’ve never notived before although it’s like so obvious in front of my eyes.

Ever notice universities in the UK, there’s always a university that has an almost duplicate name with another univeristy in the same city? For example, Sheffield has two universities. The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University.

Other examples include, Nottingham University and Nottingham Trent University. Oxford University and Oxfird Brookes University. University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. The University of Bath and Bath Spa University.

An interesting thought to ponder…

Week 8 is officially the longest as in THE LONGEST week ever since the start of the semester. I has lectures and tutorials and labs until 5pm almost everyday.

On Monday, I had computing until 5pm. Tuesday I had lab until 4.45pm. Wednesday I went for a career talk which took 1.5 hours more off my normal Wednesdays which usually end at 1pm. Thursdays are the worst days of the week, 9am – 5pm with a 3 hours tutorial session in the last 3 hours and finally Friday, I usually end at 12pm but yesterday I had extra MATLAB tuition for second year direct entry student for us to catch up with our MATLAB knowledge.

For those who don’t know what is MATLAB, it’s a computer software that does mathematic calculations. From very simple primary school additions to very complex evaluations and optimizations that will be solved in a few minutes that would otherwise take a human days and weeks to hand calculate the result.

So that was my week. But Week 8 is already here! This means that I have 4 weeks left for this semester before the Christmas holidays invades and it’s going to snow! Yay! Snow! Snow!!

Sometimes it’s just hilarious reading discussions of what people from all over the world has to talk about.

This link here, is a place where people come together to discuss the world’s oldest countries. As the discussion becomes more and more detail and debates betting more and more heated up, people tend to go off the topic. They’re supposed to discuss about the oldest country in the world but at the latter part of the discussion, people start saying that the Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Sumerians are the world’s oldest country.

I guess people do get confused with what is a civilization and what is a country. Some even started claiming that Iran/Iraq is the oldest country in the world because Persia was there. Like hello? Persia WAS there. Past tense. So Persia IS gone. No more, non-existent, vanished. Then some started with Etiopia because some of the oldest human skeletons were found there. What does that got to do with the founding of countries?! It doesn’t mean that if a country has the oldest skeleton, the country is the oldest country in the world! What rubbish!

It’s also hilarious how some people claim things that they think is right. For example, some claim that India was once part of Persia. India was NEVER part of Persia. The Persian empire may have stretched out around the lands of India but not into India. the closest it got was until modern day Pakistan.

The list of the oldest countries in the world listed in the site are: San Marino, France, Denmark, Portugal, Andorra, Switzerland. If I were to pick out of the list, I would definitely say San Marino is the oldest standing country from the list. However, everyone there is just focusing so much on Europe and ancient civilizations, they totally forgot all about Japan. Japan has the oldest reigning monarch in the world. Founded in 660 B.C. However, the longest ruling monarch isn’t Japan. It would be China but it was overthrown in 1912, so it isn’t the oldest reigning monarch anymore. Japan’s monarch has been ruling the country since then and slowly evolved from a monarchy to a constitutional monarchy of what is modern day Japan today. (correct me if I’m wrong). Japan was never invaded and ruled by another power, so Japan, in my opinion should be the oldest country in the world.
Anyway, it’s a good laugh reading opinions of other people all around the world arguing on a single topic which every now and then slants out of topic. It’s just surprising how shallow some people’s knowledge on history can be.

Here’s the link again. Click here.

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot…

So here’s the kick. The 5th of November, a day where Britain celebrates the day where a terrorist plot which nearly took place but didn’t 401 years ago. The story goes like this:

Guy Fawkes & the Gunpowder Plot
Words of “Remember Remember” refer to Guy Fawkes with origins in 17th century English history. On the 5th November 1605 Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament with several dozen barrels of gunpowder. Guy Fawkes was subsequently tried as a traitor with his co-conspirators for plotting against the government. He was tried by Judge Popham who came to London specifically for the trial from his country manor Littlecote House in Hungerford, Gloucestershire. Fawkes was sentenced to death and the form of the execution was one of the most horrendous ever practised (hung ,drawn and quartered) which reflected the serious nature of the crime of treason.

The Tradition begins…
The following year in 1606 it became an annual custom for the King and Parliament to commission a sermon to commemorate the event. Lancelot Andrewes delivered the first of many Gunpowder Plot Sermons. This practice, together with the nursery rhyme, ensured that this crime would never be forgotten! Hence the words ” Remember , remember the 5th of November” The poem is sometimes referred to as ‘Pleased to remember the fifth of November’. It serves as a warning to each new generation that treason wil never be forgotten. In England the 5th of November is still commemorated each year with fireworks and bonfires culminating with the burning of effigies of Guy Fawkes.

excerpt from rhymes.org.uk

People here celebrate this day just like other countries celebrating Independence Day. Judging by the fact that England doesn’t have an Independence Day because there isn’t a reason why they should celebrate the day the monarchy was overthrown, although it was overthrown in 1649, it was restored in 1660, so it’s the same monarch ruling the country. If there was one, they would have been celebrating it since the Romans left the land around the 5th and 6th century A.D. That’s like 1500 years! Probably one of the oldest surviving monarchs in the world with Japan being the oldest, officially founded in 660 B.C. I guess they have all the reason to celebrate a failed terrorism plot to kill the king and all parliament members one night in 1605.

*hoping to see fireworks in Sheffield but I highly doubt it*