A good deed done today! ;)

I've helped a blind man cross the road and reach his destination today! Here's my after-thoughts. xD

So, it's the 5th day of my semester break before I need to start facing all the painstakingly difficult subjects and syllabus on 31st December later - yeah, my course programme supervisor (or whoever set the schedule) is 'smart' enough to arrange the first day of our semester on the LAST DAY of the year, bravo.

Anyways, I went shopping today with my friends, Yin Yen and Simmie, in Times Square. We went there by train and basically we need to switch from boarding the Monorail to KTM in KL Central on our way back from TS to Kepong and there's approximately a 10-15-minute walk in between the 2 stations, including a zebra crossing. So, when the traffic light for road pedestrians turned green, all of us crossed the road quickly before the light turned red again. It was at this point that I noticed a blind man, also crossing the road albeit at a much slower pace, groping the road ahead of him for obstacles with his walking stick. I've heard of moral stories and teachings all through my educational history about "You have to help when you see a blind man crossing the road." bla bla, but I've never really met one literally in real life. I mean, of course I've seen blind men before, walking by the roadsides, but never one crossing the road with me. I was hesitant for about a second before I grabbed hold of the blind uncle and helped him cross the road, with the green light still flickering on and off and the alarm indicator still making its timed ticking. When the blind man felt my touch, he quickened his pace and walked at normal pace instead of the slow walk he did just now when he was unsure of the road.

I led him all the way to the KL Central LRT/KTM Station and brought him pass the LRT scanning machine. He thanked us before slowly groping his way to the train - we could help no further as only those with tickets can pass through that section.

All these while, whenever I saw blind men by the roadside walking, I didn't really know whether to help or not. I mean, they're walking with their own ability and they might not need our help at all; I thought we'd be kinda busybodies if we'd have helped them and they might just be too polite to refuse our help. So I never really helped blind men walking except moving and making way for them to pass. But after this time, my perception totally changed. If we'd never lent a helping hand to the blind people, yes, they can still reach their destination, but they'd use much MUCH longer time than when you'd helped them. I can feel it really. When the blind uncle felt my touch, he automatically increased his speed because he know we're leading him the way and we're helping him to clear his path. It's not about helping them to reach their destination, they can pretty much do that themselves, rather it's about saving their time of groping and feeling the way.

You never know how much you can help them, so really, whenever you see someone in trouble or stuffs, do not hesitate, do not let your shyness impede you from helping the needy. HELP. Help someone reduce their trouble, even though the help is small. It may seem insignificant to you, but it may mean a lot to them. When they returned you with a smile or a 'thank you', it'll honestly bring a smile to your face.

Yin Yen snapped a photo behind me when I was guiding him. Lol. Not boasting but I guess it's good for memories?

Nyways, glad that I've done a good deed today, :D I've learned a new thing too.

Till then, peace out
Carmen N.
VIP Until Whenever

Exams are over! #121212VIDay

12.12.12.

The day has finally come. And gone. TT

The day here means my Seungri oppa's 23rd birthday (or 24th if in Korean)! HAPPY BIRTHDAY OPPA! <3 p="p">
AND the day means the LAST DAY of my ACCA paper! FINALLY completed my 3 ACCA papers, been in an exam marathon since Monday - it was a consecutive three-day of 3 papers. I feel so tired now - only had a couple of hours sleep yesterday night - but I ain't gonna sleep until I feel like it!

I only have about 2 weeks of break, starting my new semester on 31 December - yes, the people in my course have no life and yes, the time table planner of my course is a stupid person.

Anyway, due to the lack of time and due to the fact that I've got LOADS of things to do, me gonna spend some time tomorrow deriving my schedule for the semester break! I mean, I've got a few songs I wanna learn on the piano, and the guitar, and then I've got some story books to finish, all these with the Family Outing and Running Man episodes waiting for me, plus I need to go shopping for CNY clothes, AND it's high time I clean up my house already. All these, top up with the fact that I need to design a corner of my bedroom into a BigBang Corner, with posters and whatnot. Gatherings and catching ups with my friends.

Dang, HOW IS A TWO WEEK BREAK EVEN ENOUGH FOR ALL THESE?
Hence the need for my proper planning of break time. Anyways, I'm so tired now I feel like I'm on drugs.

Till then,
Carmen N.
VIP Until Whenever

The FB issue

I hate it when awkward things like this happen.

Something happened to two of my good friends from diploma. In fact, I've knew them since secondary school but it was during diploma that we got real close, like in a gang. So all of us had twitter accounts; S wrote something on twitter and B leaked it to her sister. I don't wish to disclose what it is, but anyway, without asking B to consult us, or S, B's sister posted a really hurtful status on Facebook, like freaking Facebook, where the whole world can see, or at least her circle of friends, in which some are mutual friends of S and B.

She wrote something like, "JOKE OF THE DAY.." and went on to describe the 'thing' in pure SARCASM. I mean, like what the hell? One of her friends jokingly said that the joke was too long and that nobody would see. And do you know what B's sister replied? "Nvm, it's not for you to see." Now what the fuck? That means you're putting it on Facebook, PUBLIC, just so that S can get the message? You're humiliating her in front of the world - please, in Facebook, you can say that it's the world nowadays, do you know how many silent stalkers there are in the world nowadays? It's just that they didn't comment or like, didn't mean that they didn't know. They KNOW, they just don't tell you they know - just so that you can tell her what you think of her? What's your fucking issue man, can't you at least tell B about your opinion and let her tell S? Or just message on FB maybe. Anything but definitely NOT ON FACEBOOK.

Man, I know you'd defend yourself by saying, "I didn't mention her name nor said anything likely associated to her," But DAMN IT IT'S SO OBVIOUS YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT HER. I know your FB friends may not know you were referring to her, but S definitely knows, and it hurts SO FUCKING MUCH when you are her BFF's sister. It may seem like a joke to you, what she said on Twitter, and the fact that I and my other friend actually supported her, we may seem naive, we may not have thought about it clearly, but you really didn't need to do this, you  didn't have to degrade her image and confidence like that. You didn't have the right.

S is really down right now. She cried. And we've got 3 fucking important papers next week. Like ACCA kind of important, where if we *touchwood* fail, we need to pay 89 BRITISH POUNDS to sit for it again, that's like RM450. Sigh, I don't really know how to cheer her up. I'm not very good in giving advice or anything, but I can be a good listener.

I just hope things would turn out well for all of us. It's so awkward seeing their relationship crushed into pieces just because of an issue like this. S and B have been best friends ever since Form 1 in secondary school. Their bond is really closely-knitted, not something anyone can break easily. But it just hurts to know that it is in the brink of being broken now. S had poured out her feelings on Twitter but B hadn't seen it yet - she doesn't update a lot on Twitter. I just hope things would be okay, we'd planned to go for a Penang trip next week. If things doesn't get better, the trip would be so damn awkward. :(

Till then,
Carmen N.
VIP until whenever

I'm a hypocrite!

Well, the title says it all. I. AM. A. HYPOCRITE.

Lol, I've always despised how people put weight on beauty so much. I've even learnt in my Business Economics last semester that one of the reasons causing a wage differential is BEAUTY. Beautiful people gets better jobs and higher pay. There's even prove you know, in the form of percentage and numbers. If I remember correctly, it states in my text book that people who are above-average looking earn 5% more than average lookers and average looker earn 10% more than people who look less than average.

Well well, that's so "beauty racist"!!! Ok ok... a more appropriate word would be beauty discrimination. I bet no one except beautiful people likes this type of discrimination. I mean, what the hell? People out there, employers out there, so you're sure you're gonna hire only beautiful people or people who look good? You're sure? Think twice, Sires and Madames, think twice!

Anyways, today's topic is about hypocrites, not about beauty discrimination. What made me call myself a hypocrite? Well, because despite how I loathe people who discriminate by beauty, I sometimes do so too. XD Well, honestly you can't help it sometimes. *shrug innocently*

I'll give one example. Say, there are 2 people. Both are very talented and smart. But one of them is gorgeous-looking but the other one being just normal. Who would you like? Who would be more noticeable? You'd be deceiving if your answer's not the one who's better looking. Either you're deceiving, or you've a rather unique kind of thought.

So that's just how life is, ain't it? Having lived on this beautiful planet for nearly 2o years, I've learnt to accept the fact that life is truly not something you can manipulate completely. People change and different people has different kinds of mindsets.

Okay, I'm god damn sleepy now. In fact, I'm so groggy I'm not really sure what I'm typing. Hhmm... I hope I won't wake up tomorrow finding funny stuffs written on this post due to my sleepiness.

Good night.

Carmen (2:24pm, 06 March 2011)

It's the inner beauty that counts, right?

I actually planned to just abandon this blog since I don't have much time to update every so often. But today I just had that sudden feeling where I wanna sit in front of my netbook and start typing my feeling. Hhmm... That feeling actually faded away after I spent almost 1.5 hours tryna change my blog settings, design, about me etc. I can actually shout out on Twitter but doesn't it get on you sometimes at how limited we can type? I've got so much to say but Twitter doesn't allow me to! =( Ok ok cut the crap, moving on...

A few days ago, Tuesday specifically, our college gave a talk on what we can do after graduating from Diploma, they introduced us to the alternatives of different Advanced Diploma subjects and showed us some of the photoes of former Tarcians who made it big in education. Got prizes internationally, no. 1 in Malaysia bla bla bla. And... they looked like typical nerds, you know, like wearing spects, don't smile to the camera, sort of rabbit toothed etc etc. The host looking at the pictures said they looked "one-kind".

Just thought I'd share the typical "nerd" look. =P

Anyways, some of my friends started saying that I had the one-kind look too, and that I have the potential to be like one those people, achieving good results etc. And they started laughing like it's something really funny. I was like, what?! That means I'm ugly you mean! =(

And today, some aunty told my mom and I that my mom looks better than me. Later, my mom said that the aunty was kinda mean and straight forward, but she herself later on talked about how my eyes are small, nose is flat and mouth is big. Hhmm... Who's being mean now?

Well, that's 2 cases. I'm slightly offended. Well, who wouldn't? You're called "one-kind" and you're told not-pretty indirectly. I have a very fragile heart you know, *looking innocently*

But later I thought, why am I still offended? I mean, I've always knew I'm not those kind of beautiful girls. If anything, I've always considered myself less-than-average looking. Well ok, maybe average. I've always admitted this fact since secondary school. I really have no idea why I still get offended when I'm told the same fact now.

I mean, I can't change how I look. Well, maybe put on make-up or something. But what actually counts is the inner beauty right? XP Lol, I know that's what most people who are not good-looking say all the time, but THEY ARE TRUE, you know! >=)

If there're more people who are good, kind, helpful, have a loving heart instead of those obnoxious, snobbish, conceited, mean people, this world would be a much much better place...

PS I LOVE KEVJUMBA! Don't know him? Check out his Youtube channel then! =) www.youtube.com/kevjumba

I'd recommend the video "Awkward", "Most exciting job ever!", "FITNESS trainer!" and many more!

This was when he was around 18 years old, from his video "Peer pressure and bleached hair"

Ya... He took part in The Amazing Race when he was 20 years old, he didn't win though, sadly, =(. But he survived til the 7th leg, with his dad.

This was taken with his dad, called Papa Jumba (what the internet people call him, real name : Michael Wu) on the Amazing Race.

If I have time, I may write a post all about Kevjumba. X) Okay.. I admit, I'm kinda obsessed. He's my Youtube obsession. XP

Carmen

Officially a Tarcian, =)

Okay, after several thoughts (Ok ok, change that to LOOOONG and MUCH thoughts), I have decided (FINALLY MAN!!) to take up accountancy. Well, for those who doesn't know, I've already been in a major dilemma ever since the end of last year. About what? I'd say it's about my future. Throughout this 1/2 year, I've been asking myself, seeking for others' advice until they got fed up, asked Baba etc etc whether should I take accountancy or chemical engineering. Well, many would wonder, wow, these 2 courses are very distinct from each other, how did they end up in your top 2 career list? Okay, since this is my blog, entitled "The Place Where I Can Talk, Talk and Talk", I would not tell any lies then. Honestly, when I choose a career, I automatically think of $$$. Now tell me, whoever in this world doesn't work for the sake of money? Okay, a minor minor minority would declare proudly :"I work not for money, I work because I'm interested in my job!" Well, if you were born in an average family like me, who worry over financial plight and economic crisis, you wouldn't have not worry about money problem. (Man, how many times have I gone off-topic in my last few posts? Never mind, I bet this would not be the last time... And I swear, this off-topic thingy was not planned, at all! It's just that, before I start a topic, I should start a well, pre-topic first, but I can't control from crapping, terribly.. Since I'm half way through, I might as well continue)

So... I heard that the 2 careers I've had in mind can let you earn big money, well, provided that you are a member of the ACCA if you were to choose accountancy. So I cracked up my mind to make an option, but to no avail obviously, until now. My chemical engineer cousin sister told me that if I wanna earn big money, engineer is not the way, and one of Jing Mei's aunty also told me that it has always been a custom for arts stream students to make more money than science stream ones, except doctors of course. So.... Here I am! Signed up for accountancy in Tar College, which brings us to today's topic, I'm officially a Tarcian!

TarC is a pretty good place to study in, I would admit. And I've got a full tuition fee waiver, that means I do not have to pay a cent! Well, except registration fees etc etc... haha, not trying to boast here. It has the facilities alright. An Olympic-sized swimming pool, not that I'll swim there anyway, I'm too afraid of exposing my fats in public, hahaha! I had actually thought of entering Sunway University instead before entering TarC, because I heard that its ACCA papers are more, like, original. But only overseas companies will look so deeply into these stuffs, and since both TarC and Sunway are the Platinum Award holders for accountancy, they're both good. PLUS, I am not financially eligible into Sunway, lol, I just simply do not have enough $$$. And the food there are so expensive, as told by Guan Rou (a student there), and do you know that you can have a meal in Tarc at only RM1.90?? Lol, I can save up so many bucks by just studying in TarC.

I'll be starting lectures classes this week. Last week's orientation was okay. I didn't attend the Human Monopoly Game, and I heard that it was very fun, sigh, missed it. Hope I can catch up with the accounting syllabus, as I did not take this subject in my secondary education, except a little during Kemahiran Hidup in Form 3. But almost half of the accounting students in TarC have no base too, so I guess it's okay. And you know what, just accounting itself has already got a total of approximately 800 students! Can you imagine! It takes up about 60% to 70% of the School Of Business Studies! Just like the PR course takes up about 70% of the School of Social Science and Humanities. Lol, I've heard that there are lots and plentiful of accountants in this world, but that's not my aim. My aim is to pass all the ACCA papers and be the official member of the Association of Certified Charted Accountants! Even the name is so grand, hahaha!

Okay, I think that's all, although I rarely write in my blog, but I sure write A LOT whenever I've got the chance, so, watch out for more!

My JPA interview experience (2009)

My interview was due Friday, 03/04/2009 (the last day of JPA interviews), 8.00 a.m in Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC). I departed at 6.30 a.m from my house in Kepong and reached the place at about 7.20 a.m. By the way, before I enter my main point, I would like to describe a little (not really) about the scenery in Putajaya. First, it is HUGE, everything in it is prodigious, even its road is broader than the normal ones we see in our neighbourhood (despite those living in Putrajaya of course). Its a pretty good place to drive around, haha, but honestly, without the sign boards, I'll surely lost my way. Second, its beautiful (duh~), even the traffic lights are decorated beautifully, they're all spoilt, though, but there's not much to worry about, 'cause there are only a little cars there. And the road lamps are built with patterns too. Then the residential areas, the banglos are enormous and SOO grand and beautiful (lol, how many times have I repeated this word?). I would really like to know the millionare's son living in those banglos (Chinese of course)! Then I will not need this JPA scholarship to further my studies, haha! Forive me, I like to day dream. Oh ya, I even saw our Prime Minister's and Deputy's banglos, grand and alone and massive and beautiful(again, lol, I'm starting to wonder about my vocabs), standing there on the hill, richly surrounded with trees and plants. Well, all the interviewees who went there would have seen it, they're beautiful, aren't they? Then the PICC building, haha, I've heard 2 different comments about it, Jing Mei's parents said that it looks like a graduate's hat, and my dad said that it looks like a gigantic space craft. Well, I just think it's huge, and well, different from the buildings I've seen in KL. Entering Putrajaya gave me a really different feeling, well, maybe it was my nervousness which overwhelmed me, but it really gave me a different kind of inexplicable feeling. Okay, I'm done (finally) with my description of Putrajaya, and now I'll proceed to the main topic today, my JPA interview experience.

I entered the building with my dad with a major nervous and uncomfortable feeling, the former because, well, it's normal to be nervous right? The latter because my high heels was VERY loose. It was my sister's long-time-ago heels and was also the only formal shoes I can find in my house, so I had to bear with it, but it was difficult to catch up with my Dad's speed. Wow, tell you what, I've found a new ability of mine, which is I'm REALLY good in crapping, my God, I really sound like an old granny after going through my second paragraph! Anyway I reached the well, was that the lobby? to find a large crowd gathering in front of the many boards there, with plenty of A4 papers sticked on the them. I searched for my panel room (panel 14, which I knew already because Guan Rou saw it on her interview day). I was numbered 11, which would mean I'm the 1st candidate of the 3rd batch. I met Wan Ling on my way to the panels room and went in with her, hers was panel 13, we were arranged according to our birthdates, and I heard a Malay lady saying it was because with the same birth dates, we were then supposed to have the same maturity, well, even a slight difference counts I guess.

We went in front of our panels' room to pass up our photostated documents. I met Yuen Shue (one of my primary school's classmates) who had the same panel as me. I sat on one of the many chairs and chatted nervously with one of the candidates there, he said he just came to gain experience as he had already plan to start Form 6. Anyway, after the 1st batch (with Yuen Shue inside) went in, my name was called up for the second batch. Some of the candidates didn't come, so I were to replace their places. I was the 4th one of the 2nd batch. There were 1 Indian guy, 1 Malay guy and 2 Malay ladies in my group. Luckily there was still time for me to know the guys (well, the girls sat far away from us) before our time came. The waiting period really set butterflies flying furiously in my stomach but I tried to stay calm. After approxiamtely an hour, the 1st batch session ended and we entered the room. There were 3 panels, an Indian sir, a Chinese lady and a Malay lady.

They then asked us to introduce ourselves according to our numbers. I was VERY lucky to have panels who didn't mind about our language ( I mean we were free to speak in either Malay or English, but we spoke in English throughout the interview, except one Malay candidate who asked permission to speak in Malay). But one thing i'm really angry at myself, when it was my time to speak, I spoke and things went smoothly until the time where I stuttered:" I was the Head of Bulletin Board of... um... (pause), I was the Head of Bulletin Board of, erm... (pause) KH Club..." GOD!! How could I possibly forgot that it was the Interact Club, I stared blankly for about 10 seconds, with all the panels looking at me stuttering!!! God, that was the worst part of my interview.

Aftet the introduction session, we were given a discussion title :"Do you agree that Malaysia's education system which is exam-oriented make students less creative in their thinkings?" Well, I personally think that it was not a very tough question. All of us agreed of course, with points like most of the students just memorize from text books without understanding bla bla bla... I gave reasons like there are no practical exams like lab experiment exams for science subjects, students just memorized word to word for Paper 3 (written practical exams). After that, they asked questions like what do you think we should do? One of the candidates gave his opinion and then the problem came again,I raised my hand to answer and the Malay interview forgot that I had already spoken for the former question and she told me :"You haven't get a chance to speak just now, do speak now.(something like that)" I was taken aback because I had spoken just now but she forgot and that surely will pull down my marks. But anyway I stated my opinion for the 2nd question. But its really frustrating to think that I answered but she forgot, I hope the other 2 interviewers did not.

Then we were asked one-to-one (well, 3 to 1) about our preferred course and country and why bla bla bla. I was the only one there who applied for a local scholarship. Well, the whole interview was actually for those who wanted to go overseas but, when I applied online, I remember choosing the local one, but I was suprisingly shortlisted as one of the overseas candidates, so I went anyway. Because I was applying for a local one, one of the interviewers asked me :"What can you serve for the government if we were to give you this scholarship?" I practically answered what a chemical engineer (that's my preferred course) can do for that question, I recited my answer to one of my friend after the interview and she said I wasn't off-topic, so, well, I hope not. Then we were asked to ask them questions, any questions about JPA. And our interview session ended. Then I made my 2nd mistake, I got up and turned to leave, until I saw all of the candidates went in front to shook hands with the interviewers. I was like, shoot! My impression mark is surely to be near to 0! and went quickly to shake hands and mumble my thanks to them. It was a relieve to leave the room. I made brief details of my interview experience with some of my friends there and left the place.

Well, I think I did average, not too good nor the opposite. I was told a local scholarship is easy to get, and now I regretted a little for not applying for an overseas one. But anyway, I hope my experience can help those who will attend their interviews next year. Good luck and all the best to those. The tips are:

1. Wear formal clothes or baju kurung, I heard some were kicked out form the room for wearing t-shirt and jeans.

2. Speak confidently however you can even if you're shaking like hell inside.

3. Remember to shake hands before and after you're being interviewed.(Don't make the same mistakes as me!!) Take the initiative to do so if your group members didn't.

4. Do not slouch or cross your legs.

5. Prepare answers for those questions which will surely be asked, like, why do you choose this course/country? and also answers for the introduction, both English and Malay, you never know what language they'll ask you to speak.

6. Double check your documents before you leave your house. And after the interview, remember to check your original copy of documents (inside the clear folder) too to check whether did they take your Borang Pengesahan, one of my friend didn't have hers taken and was considered (maybe) not qualified.

7. Get to know some of your group members before entering the interview room, to prevent awkwardness in the interview room and also to get you throat working.

That's about all I can give. Good luck again.