Record Breaking Events

1. Rafael Nadal beats Fernando Verdasco in a thrilling 5 hour match
If u read the newspaper you won't miss the headline.
One of the best tennis matches I've seen.
It's the longest match in the history of the Australian Open- 5 hours 14 minutes

Right from the start I was holding my breath... Verdasco was serving so well, Nadal looked like he was in trouble. But thankfully he managed to slug it out. He's an amazing competitor. I was getting tired from watching them run around the court, imagine how exhausted they must be.

Nadal stayed focused from the beginning to the last point, showing the quality of a World No.1.
There were some extraordinary rallies in the match, extreme angles, the ones that really make your jaw drop.

Nadal has to recover quickly as he faces Federer in Sunday's final

2. Kelly Clarkson makes highest leap in US Chart
Kelly Clarkson is definitely making a comeback. Her newest single 'My Life Would Suck Without You' made Billboard history when it leaped from position no.97 to no.1!

Man On A Mission

We are in the second week of competition, and the matches usually get better.

The first week saw many upsets particularly in the women's draw. World no.1 Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Venus Williams all crashed out. Both Serena Williams and Dinara Safina almost lost their 4th round matches too, but it's a miracle they survived.

Today, the favourite in the men's draw Andy Murray lost to Fernando Verdasco, proving that nothing is certain. But i guess this is good news for Nadal, Federer and Djokovic fans.

I don't mean to be bragging here, but Nadal is super hot. In his 3rd round match, he hit 53 winners and only 8 errors! Today in his 4th round match against Gonzalez, he only made 11 unforced errors in 3 sets. This shows just how sharp he is right now.

Nadal will be facing Gilles Simon of France in the quarter final, with Federer and Djokovic in the other half of the draw. So the only way Nadal can meet either one of them is in the final.

The women's draw is so strange now... With Serena playing badly and Safina not consistent enough, I would say Elena Dementieva is most likely to win. But i also like the way Marion Bartoli is playing.

I HOPE NADAL WINS THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN. Then all he needs is the US Open to complete a career slam. Come on Nadal!!! You can do it!

HCNY =)

Hahahahahahahahaha (in evil tone) CNY is here! 1 week off for the lazy boy!

So far I've been getting into the new year mood by eating lots of junk & spending money on things i don't really need.
I'm kinda superstitious. I always have to buy at least one new shirt to wear on the first day. Usually its red (so typical rite), this time i got an orangey one.

Yesterday nite met up with the gang at SS2, coz Tung Tung is back from Taiwan for sem break. She came along with her bf, who's a Korean that stays in Holland (if not mistaken). Very interesting......... It's always fun to yumcha with them, had some good laughs which i'm deprived of lately.

Today is my eldest sis' B'day, went to 'Wong Kok' to get the free birthday milk tea. I'm a total sucker for the giant mug! It never ceases to amaze me even though I've seen it so many times.

Tonite we r going out to makan for our reunion dinner. This is the first year that we are dining out, coz my mum said it's too tiring to cook.

To me, CNY is about ang pou, junk food, gambling and a bit of alcohol.
Have a great time every1, remember don't drink and drive! =)

This song comes to mind for no apparent reason. Been in my head for days. Once again, HCNY!

Australian Open!

I'm happy that the first grand slam of the year is here!

The conditions at Melbourne Park have always been gruelling, many players have complained about the burning heat and there has been calls to push the Aussie Open to February. But that's not to happen in 2009, as the event goes on.

The Rod Laver Arena is beautiful. The stadium has a nice roundish shape and i also like the colour of the court, it's really good for the TV audience coz of the contrast between the bright yellow balls and the blue court. I think the Australian Open is the most modern and up to date Slam compared to the other 3.

I just saw Nadal play his first round match and all i can say is WOW! He completely trashed his opponent with his super powerful forehand. The winners were coming non-stop. I've never seen Nadal play so well before. He is definitely my favourite to win the tournament. My second choice would be Murray. Sorry but I don't see Federer or Djokovic winning this year.

So glad that next week got CNY break. That means i can watch all the matches from the quarter finals onwards hahahahahaha....

=)

Not So Happy Times

Sigh. My posts lately have all been gloomy.

Right now I'm over being stressed.
But at the end of the day, I realized there is still a pile of work that needs to be completed, whether I like it or not.

I'm not stressed about it, just unhappy. Sure, i had some fun this weekend but the fact IS there's still a number of things that i need to get done.

Everytime I'm in this lazy mood, I always listen to a song to motivate myself a little.
It's called "No Work (All Play)" by Hilary Duff. If you pay attention to the lyrics, it really describes what I'm going through. This song sends out a very meaningful message, and i think it's one of the best written songs.

Finding A Balance

Gosh, the title sounds so serious, like something you can find in a self help book.

Looking back at the previous post, I can't believe how much I put myself through.
I wasn't exaggerating. At that moment I was really stressed out, but now I wonder if it was necessary... The problem was actually solved in a couple of hours.
(And i know i shouldn't be comparing myself to others, but for the record, a lot of ppl still have not submitted their proposals, in the end the lecturer postponed the deadline to Monday. WTF?)

I guess stress is good. It forces us to come up with solutions almost immediately, as if our lives depended on it. BUT i think there should be a limit. It's beneficial to feel pressured to complete something but not when it reaches the extent of driving ppl nuts.
I can't help it. I'm like that. Maybe i should care less. Not give a crap about the consequences.

IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE.

Yesterday nite i went out late even though i had to wake up early today for class. I was super sleepy in class BUT i was happy coz i had fun the night before. I had some homework to do, but i thought what the heck it can wait... This is what i need. More fun and less work. Totally.
Of course I will still focus on studies. Maybe just a little less.

Stressing Myself

Today is a stressful day. Just went through a stressful moment.

Actually it's not that stressful, but I made it stressful becoz I have a tendency of stressing myself out in stressful situations, which some people may not consider to be that stressful, either becoz they can handle stress well or simply becoz they don't care as much as I do.

If you noticed, I'm using the word 'stress' a lot... That's becoz I'm tensed right now, and I'm not thinking straight...

OK. Here's the deal. I'm supposed to submit the proposal form for my Eng research project tomorrow. But the problem is I can't decide on a topic. That's not the main problem.

You see, after I did some brainstorming and narrowed my choices down to a few topics, I began to look for credible sources. I need at least 7 articles for my proposal tomorrow, and for the whole project, I need around 20. (what the...)

So, I tried looking for info on the topics.... There r lots of useful info on Google, but the problem is most of it is not credible/reliable source, which means I can't use it for academic research. So I tried going to the Sunway Online Databases and the Library Web Catalogue, but then the problem is not many articles came up. So all my topics cannot use.......

In desperation I consulted my sis, who explained to me that sometimes the articles are not that clear cut, sometimes the articles we use are not directly related to the main topic, in the sense that the key word may not be in the article. Very hard to explain now, but I understand.... She also explained to me the process of writing a research paper, which IN ACTUAL FACT is bloody hard. Coz it requires a looooooooooottttt of work!!! I totally underestimated the situation. It requires a lot of reading, analysing and then you have to justify your stand point. Something which I suck at coz I ain't that bright. Oh man....

Haih.... Luckily my sis suggested a decent topic. I managed to find some articles for the topic but I'm still not sure yet. I can come up with the thesis statement, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to come up with the required 3 arguments to support the TS. The three arguments should be distinct, which is kinda hard coz the topic is pretty general, so you have to play around with the info u have and construct the sentences carefully to make it sound like you have different arguments, which actually is all about the same thing.

Due to the time constrain, I guess I'll have to stick with this topic. Not something I like, but at least got a lot of info. Once the topic is fixed this week it cannot be changed, but I guess I can handle any topic as long as I put in enough effort to find and study and analyse the articles........


Sorry for talking so much.
I just need to let it out. Just to let someone know about the conflict I'm going through.
I feel better now. Better get back to work. Sigh. I hate working under pressure.

I'm So Lazy

It's only the second week and I'm already sick of the boring routine.

-Wake up early
-Morning traffic
-Constantly hungry in class (even though i eat)
-Boring classes
-Annoying Chemistry quizzes
-Pile of homework
-Going back late coz of Moral Studies

By the time i reach home, all i feel like doing is eat, watch TV and sleep.
Seriously, I've no desire to do work at home.
Hence, I'm trying to get everything done in college.

To make things even more "exciting", i've had a sore throat for a while and now it's developing into painful coughing. Great, just great.

Now I remember how much I love weekends. Can't wait for the next one to come... I wanna sleep!

1 week down

And many many more to go.
There hasn't been much action this week in college.
The campus is rather quiet coz some students aren't back yet. Maybe it will get livelier next week.

Classes have barely started. Everyone's still settling down and the lecturers are sorting things out. But I already have a taste of what this semester is gonna be like. I predict a number of stressful times coz I hav 2 lengthy research projects and not to mention tackling moral studies which i know i'm gonna dread.

But things aren't all cloudy. I actually feel more comfortable with everything now compared to the previous sem. I'm trying to be more positive and outgoing (*cough*) so i hope my effort will come through to the ppl there...
(sigh why do i even bother to please other ppl? i should just be myself...lol)

Oh, and this week i've been driving to college. It's OK, except when you're late there is limited car park. Also, traffic jams are bloody annoying. That's why I hav some good music to keep me company.

I realized I haven't been talking much about tennis lately. The Australian Open starts later this month, but right now there are some interesting tournaments too like the Hopman Cup and the Qatar Open.
I think men's tennis is going to be more interesting this year becoz it has become so unpredictable. Andy Murray got off to a good 2009 by beating both Federer and Nadal in exhibition matches. I saw Andy Roddick play today and I noticed he has added variety to his game, specifically the slice which is really working well for him. Federer has a lot to prove this year, while Nadal has to work even harder to maintain the World No.1 ranking. I actually have a feeling that Nadal won't be staying at the top position for long. As for Djokovic, I really don't know. Haven't seen him play this year so I don't know what kind of form he is in. And don't forget the rising stars like Gilles Simon, Ernest Gulbis & Gael Monfils.

The women's game is equally exciting. I think Jelena Jankovic will finally win a grand slam this year. Serena Williams is so unpredictable we never know what to expect. When she's good she's unbeatable, but when she's bad, it's like watching her self destruct. Her sister Venus is more stable, she usually improves from match to match. So if she's playing well in a streak she has a high chance of winning. Dinara Safina has power, but sometimes too much and over hits. I hope Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic will stage great comebacks, coz they're both talented players. There are still so many more strong contenders it's impossible to name them all. Some that come to mind include Victoria Azarenka, Dominka Cibulkova, Vera Zvonareva.

WOW I'm so excited. There's gonna be a lot of good matches in 2009. I also look forward to improve on my own game. Had my first game of the year last week and it went pretty well. Will be playing tomorrow and Sunday if it's not raining. (fingers crossed) =)

Registered

Today's my first day back to Sunway. Feels strange to be walking around the compound. But i guess it's nice to see some familiar faces.

Don't really know how to describe it. Overall it's a positive feeling i think. I mean I can't stay in the holidays forever right... Sorry but this is just another one of my random posts.

Anyway the whole purpose of today is to register for my second sem units. I will be doing Part B of the same subjects as my previous sem: Eng, Maths, Chem & Bio. One interesting thing about MUFY is the flexibility and control we have in the timetable. You can arrange your own schedule by choosing classes from the various time slots. So it's kinda fun. But also stressful if you can't get into the one that you want. Luckily things went pretty smoothly. I picked the 4 earliest periods so that I can go home earlier.

Classes end at 1.30pm on Tuesday & Wednesday, oh and also for Monday & Thursday if I decide to skip Moral Studies which insanely starts only at 4pm and ends at 5.30pm. (Booooo)
I already know Friday is my favourite day, coz I only have 2 classes and can balik at 12.15pm.

Now it's interesting to see who my classmates for each subject are.
The moment of truth - tomorrow hehe =)

Times Ahead (Resolution)

College is reopening tomorrow (crap!) & I want to be optimistic about the coming months.
If all goes well, I will be entering Uni in July, which is another chapter.
But before I look too far away, it's way time to set some new year's resolution.
I will keep it realistic, but still pose a challenge.

1. Improve results in MUFY finals.
I know I can do better. I'm not far from the scholarship.

2. Be a better tennis player by:
(a) working on physical fitness
(b) playing more aggressively (BUT not to the extend of hitting mindlessly)
(c) working on my serve (i need it to be a weapon, not a liability)
2008 saw some good moments, but now I want to bring it to the next level.

3. Get healthier by:
(a) Gaining some weight (say about 5 kilos)
(b) Handling stress appropriately (like what I did in 2008 but better)

4. Be less anti social (yes, i know i need to...)

5. Avoid doing any negative deeds that cause harm to others.

6. Be more selfless. Help out others in the best of my ability.


That's about it. If I think of anything else, I'll just add it in.
2009 is going to be a good year. I just feel it.

In Pics: Perak Roadtrip (part3)

IPOH

railway station

'Indulgence' (makan place)

* * * * *

And finally fireworks in PJ =)

In Pics: Perak Roadtrip (part2)

KUALA KANGSAR

TAIPING