It’s April Fool!

Long time didn’t update my blog already….very tired of everyday classes with many assignments queuing in to be completed…

Ohh…tomorrow can be a good day to release or even relieve your stress, by tricking your friends…haha…because it’s first day of April, commonly known as April Fool Day…

Can’t remember last time how I trick my friends during secondary schooling…haha, it’s fun anyway….tomorrow, am I going to trick my buddies? haha…let’s see, because have to wait for a good opportunity to do that….I will be quite careful tomorrow, not to be tricked by people…but it’s human nature, sometimes people can be tricked easily…

That’s all for today….tomorrow class from 9 am till 9pm, of course there is a break between, but doesn’t seem benefitting us in term of getting rest…aahh, submission date for design, b.tech and culture assignments are getting nearer…have to go for that! bye, my blog…will come back soon…

Earth Hour 2010 in Malaysia…

Yesterday is the night when the Earth Hour 2010 was held, many iconic buildings and landmarks participated by turning off their non-essential lights for one hour between 8.30 to 9.30pm. In Malaysia, the famous former world tallest buildings and current world tallest twin buildings, Petronas Twin Towers and the sixth tallest telecommunication tower, KL Tower switched off lights for support to the global event. Everything on both structures turned into darkness except the flashing light which is essential.

There are some other office buildings in KL turned into darkness too. More buildings participated the event this time, and even in world level, the event is becoming more famous and grand in scale. I have managed to check out the turning off lights of KL Tower and Petronas Twin Towers, and even recorded the KLCC ones.

KL skyline before the Earth Hour 2010 begins.

KL skyline during Earth Hour 2010. (see the difference?)

Check out this video by shoeway72 from YouTube showing clear view of Petronas Twin Towers and Maxis Tower (besides) switching off the lights for the global event.

Malaysia will continue support the Earth Hour! We will!

Malaysia’s poster for Earth Hour 2010, contributed by Kaze Lee: (quite nice)

It’s Earth Hour 2010 tonight….

Announcement:

Tonight from 8.30 pm till 9.30 pm will be the annual international event of Earth Hour, organized by World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Everyone is advised to switch off their lights wherever they are for the one-hour period to cooperate together in achieving a successful Earth Hour. This global event is organized to create awareness on the climate change of the Earth, and that we should vote Earth!

Hence, switching off lights for that one hour together will definitely save a lot of electrical energy. We should be aware that the Earth is going to be in trouble if we do not love and care for it! Anyone may enjoy tonight, with beautiful scenes of switching off lights of famous landmarks around the world. Get yourself ready to face darkness tonight, and together, we show love to the Earth, our only living planet!

I would definitely wish to see Kuala Lumpur, my home city to turn into darkness tonight as well, especially the Petronas Twin Towers and KL Tower.

Filling my Wednesday with assignments!

When it comes to yesterday’s night, all my classmates especially my gang will be thinking of the same thing; holiday for the next day (which means today). This one-day break is definitely significant to us, as we are having insufficient time to do our assignments…

Today woke up at 10.30am (alarm actually set at 10am, but felt very lazy and comfortable on my bed, hence delaying for another 30 minutes). Woke up….start to do my assignments…thinking of design is really a long job to do, it takes a lot of time just to think of ideas to suit my designs…whole afternoon and the upcoming night will be wasted on it only..my whole table is full of model boards in pieces, cutters, glues, pens, models, and of course, rubbish….

.omg…tomorrow will be my group presentation for Culture 201 class. We are going to present on the majestic power shown in Forbidden City, China (the topic that I like the most).

Practising for several times, so that I will be more confident by tomorrow, facing the lecturers and my classmates for presentation…wishing that I will not be nervous during presentation…it’s very hot in the early afternoon, and now, evening, raining super heavily….such a good condition for me to sleep, but I can’t…..how bad is it!!! Assignments never end during semester!!!

A great concert of Love Mi yesterday night

Ahh…finally the day of the conert arrived, it’s Love Mi Concert 2010 at Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands. Everyone know the singer, she is Sammi Cheng, the famous Hong Kong diva and commonly recognized as one of the Four Heavenly Queens of Hong Kong music. I have been waiting so long to watch her concert, and I bought her ticket around a month ago at a price of over RM180.

It seems so expensive, right? Sitting near the stage? Not really, RM180 seats are still at the back, but at the center area. Luckily the arena is not so huge, so we can still see the stage clearly. Before that, we were stuck in serious traffic jams along the highway to pass through Ampang and Bukit Antarabangsa before going for Genting. Traffic jams for over 1 hour 30 minutes. Our journey began at 5.45pm and ended up at Genting at 7.45pm (the car ride usually took only 1 hour the most). The traffic jams is due to a freak car accident, and everyone is like so busybody to look at it, causing few kilometres long of congestion.

Luckily, we are still on time for the concert. Of course, we don’t hop for any late cases. I am watching with my eldest sister. We want to watch from beginning till the end, since the opportunity for her to come here for concert is very minimal. Eeiihh…she had Show Mi Concert 2008 and Show Mi Again Concert 2009 at Genting too. However, I did not attend both. How come? Forget why already….haha…When I was child, I treated her as my singing idol because she has good voice and great songs, especially those classic love songs…now also ,I like her songs too…

The tickets and the paper fan given on each seat:

The concert is amazing and great, but kinda too short, only two hours 15 minutes like that…seems not enough, I wished for a three-hours one. Anyway, Sammi is kinda humourous on that night especially when she received presents from fans and requesting for exchanging suites. Wow,,, she changed so many weird-like suites that day…it is like every three songs, she go change clothes…but beautiful also, since she is pretty also despite her current age of 30++, nearing to 40. There are two invited guests, both are music producers, so we don’t recognize them. They sang few songs but not nice.

She sang very well yesterday’s night. Great performance especially her dances. She even sang some famous English songs like ‘You Raise Me Up’, she sang another good version of it. Of course, we like her classic love songs which compacted into only one Medley song. When the concert began as well as going to end, everyone is like screaming for her. At the end, all screamed for encore which I hope for too. Haha…she went up to stage back to sing her most famous song, ‘Zhong Sang Mei Lai’, theme song for the Hong Kong movie ‘Love Diet’, starring her and Andy Lau.

The concert began not at the precise time of 8pm because the Genting ‘boss’ still not arrived yet as told by Sammi to the crowd. Who is him? Probably Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, the founder of Resort World and current chairman of Genting Highlands. He is such a ‘big’ person, until Sammi also want to take a look at him. So many people guarding him to the front seat, probably it’s Tan Sri. The concert ended on 10.30pm with not all her famous songs sang..she had also explained that she had sang for over ten years, hence all her beautiful songs can’t be sang out that night, if not, it will be until 3am concert…haha

A day off for a week, night outing at night market and Look Out Point

Currently ,I am busy with all my study schedules and assignments. Hence, I do not have pretty much time to update my blog here. Only when it comes to Friday afternoon, that I start to write something that has happened two days ago, which is on last Wednesday night. So glad that every Friday, I will have only morning class, hence can return home by afternoon.

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday are the days we have night classes as well (not to mention the morning classes). Studying from 9am till 9pm is something very crazy, and I usually get home by 10pm like that. Feels very lazy after that, and has no mood to do any more assignments, then go sleep. A day is finished like that…

Luckily, there is one day of break in the weekdays, Wednesday. But last Wednesday, we, in group, of my campus mates, planned to come to Cheras since they haven’t been here before (all from other states). First, in the afternoon, we went to the Malaysia’s longest night market (pasar malam) at Connaught. This is the first time I have finished walking through the whole market. Great but tired…

Next, we went for a short stop at McDonalds nearby and then proceed to Look Out Point, a beautiful place on hill with restaurants and cafes overlooking the amazing panoramic view of Kuala Lumpur’s skyline. I am the one who guide the rest to that place. It’s a very beautiful place up there. I seldom went there, and on that night, it’s a lucky day for all because the sky is so clear and we can see the skyline very clearly and beautifully.

Comparison with the day view taken on another day:

[The quality is just okay...not very good because pictures are taken by normal digital camera, not by those professional ones.]

It’s a nice skyline for city of KL because other buildings not in the city area are low-rise (mainly one-floor or two-floors only, with only few condominiums surrounding), hence it will be more appealing on the highrise buildings in the city area. Furthermore, the iconic world tallest twin buildings, Petronas Twin Towers and world sixth tallest telecommunication tower, KL Tower enhance the skyline of the city. No wonder the city ranks no.8 in the world best skylines. Deserving!

First All England title for Chong Wei

It’s been quite a tough day of final for Lee Chong Wei as he struggled to win his first All England Badminton Championship 2010 title. The tournament is the world oldest badminton tournament, and this year, it celebrated its 100th anniversary. Hence, winning the century edition’s men single title is definitely memorable for Lee Chong Wei, from Malaysia who is also the world number one player.

                      

Chong Wei had won many other titles, of the twelve super series tournaments and super series master final, gold prix, etc as well as the silver medalist of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. However, he had never won the prestigious All England title. This time, yesterday, he did it. He had finally won the title, which means that he had won four consecutive back-to-back titles.

The opponent, Kenichi Tago from Japan is a young player, but very talented and skillful. He gave a hard time to Chong Wei and even score higher than him in beginning of the match. However, Chong Wei’s determination leads him to get back to position and finally won over the Japanese, 21 – 19, 21 – 19, in two straight games.

It is a proud moment for all Malaysians who were willing to stay up late till 1am midnight to watch the live broadcast of the final. Even there are a number of Malaysians cheering and waving flag in the stadium. Nice to see Lee Chong Wei winning the title that he had desired for a long time. Finally, he got it, it’s in his hand! Continue your success an be a legend in world of badminton!

Sunday morning: Jungle trekking

It’s a nice Sunday morning, early morning…as usual, lazy to wake up for exercise…it’s not sunny today, cloudy, which seems to be more comfortable weather for me to sleep…haha, have to get up for another jungle trekking…

We in group of five, with my dad and cousins , planned yesterday for another jungle trekking today. Usually, we went jogging at Taman Tasik Permaisuri every Sunday. The location of the jungle trekking is at Mount Bayu, Cheras, which faces Kuala Lumpur. Since it’s on a hill, it can be considered as mount climbing too.

This time, managed to complete almost 80% of the journey to the peak of the hill. It is quite a high hill. Last time, I only completed around 60%. This time, got great improvement due to great sacrifice in energy especially on my both legs. The ground is still slippery, and part of the journey is on steep pathway, which requires us to hold on the side ropes. Kinda dangerous and challenging, but it really helps to train our muscles.

After few times of stopping and resting, finally I managed to reach to the view station, a clear area for us to enjoy the panoramic view of Kuala Lumpur and surrounding areas including, Bukit Jalil, Ampang, Bangsar, KL Sentral, KL, and of course, Cheras. It’s a worthy journey, since the view is amazing! However, the view towards KL skyline is obstructed by some trees. I did not bring camera, so photographs by phone…poor quality…

We wished no further from that point eventhough my dad can climb further to the top. I felt like fainting and nausea already, so we rest a while and return. The hardest task is to return by climbing down the slippery and steep path. We slided few times, luckily, no one is injured. People there are very kind and friendly, they greeted us ‘good morning’ during the journey. Very tired after the jungle trekking…uncontrollable sweats and body odours…went back home and took a nice bath to refresh myself after breakfast…

Bill Gates no longer the world richest people, Malaysia has the most billionaires in South East Asia

The Forbes List, famous for its’ lists of world richest billionaires, had updated the list once again, this year.

                   

This latest list, shows a dramatic change to the people standing on the No.1 spot, usually by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The current world richest people is Carlos Slim Helu, a Mexican man with approximate wealth of $53.5 billions, up $18.5 billions in 12 months. An increase of such figure over a year is really fantastic and unbelievable! Imagine if this flow continues for years or decades, Carlos will be person with over few hundred or thousand billions…crazy!

  

Second spot now goes to the famous founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates with approximate wealth of $53 billion, an increase of $13 billion compared to last year. Warren Buffett, currently ranked third has approximate wealth of $47 billion, an increase of $10 billion compared to last year.

A lot of billionaires in the list have such a huge changes compared to last year. It shows that people are recovering from the global economic crisis, and the economic situation of the whole world is getting better.

This time also, Malaysia has the most billionaires in South East Asia region, with 9 Malaysians listed in the Forbes List of World Richest People (1011 people). Malaysia’s richest, Robert Kuok, currently living at Hong Kong, is the world 33rd richest, with approximate wealth of $14.5 billion (RM 48.1 billion). He moved up from 62nd spot last year and becomes the 7th richest man of Asia.

Other Malaysian tycoons listed are, Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan (Astro&Measat,ranked 89th, $7.6 billion), Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng (IOI Group, ranked 189th, $4.4 billion), Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan (Hong Leong Bank, ranked 277th, $3.4 billion), Tan Sri The Hong Piow (Public Bank, ranked 277th, $4.4 billion), Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay (YTL Group, ranked 421th, $2.3 billion), Tan Sri Syed Mokthar Al-Bukhary (Bukhary Foundation, ranked 655th, $1.5 billion), Tan Sri Vincent Tan (Berjaya Group, ranked 828th, $1.2 billion), Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King (Rimbunan Hijau Group, ranked 937th, $1 billion).

Both Malaysia and Phillipines have the highest number of billionaires in South East Asia region. China (including Hong Kong) had the most number of billionaires outside the US with 89. However, India still had the most numbers of billionaires within Asia, taking 10 of the 25 spots for Asia’s richest.

The Hurt Locker wins big in 82nd Annual Academy Awards – Oscars (2010)

This morning (yesterday night at United States, 7th March 2010), the 82nd Annual Academy Awards was held, famously-known as the Oscars and is the greatest awards presentation in film industry of the West.

                

I didn’t care much on it, because out of several films nominated, I have only watched one or two, the most famous of all, Avatar. However, it is a great shock that Avatar is not the biggest winner of the night. The record-breaking world highest grossing film worlwide, Avatar, written, produced and directed by James Cameron lost to another film created by his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, the director of the winning film, The Hurt Locker.

         

I have never heard of this film until the results were announced through the media and internet. Many people said that it is a nice movie, but still not as good as Avatar. But then, how come Avatar did not win the grandest, Best Motion Picture? It is probably because Avatar is just famous on its visual effects and technology (which I agree in some aspects) and it’s a high budget production, as well as a comeback film by James Cameron, famous director of the film ‘Titanic’.

                

The performances of actors and actresses in Avatar is good, but not at the best, to be honest. Avatar has a good storyline, good background, good effects…but because it is too famous, it receives not only positive comments, but also negative responses. The film is even better if watched in 3D. The Hurt Locker is not as famous as Avatar, but qualified enough to defeat Avatar to win the Best Picture as well as other main awards in the ceremony. None of the actors and actresses from Avatar is nominated in leading, and supporting roles too. Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director.

Finally, The Hurt Locker won 6 awards while Avatar won only 3. Many thinks that Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay would go to Avatar, but all finally went to The Hurt Locker. What an unexpected results….I should find a time and go watch The Hurt Locker, since it won so many awards…Congratulations to both films, and another one, ‘Up’ as the best animated film eventhough I did not watch it also, but it receives many positive feedbacks.

The full official results of the 2010 82nd Annual Academy Awards:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious: Based On The Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire

Best Animated Feature: Up

Best Art Direction: Avatar

Best music (original song): The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart), from Crazy Heart

Best visual effects: Avatar

Best music (original score): Up

Best screenplay (original): The Hurt Locker

Best short film (live action): The New Tenants

Best short film (animated): Logorama

Best documentary (short subject): Music By Prudence

Best documentary (feature): The Cove

Best makeup: Star Trek

Best screenplay (adapted): Precious: Based On The Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire

Best film editing: The Hurt Locker

Best costume design: The Young Victoria

Best sound editing: The Hurt Locker

Best sound mixing: The Hurt Locker

Best cinematography: Avatar

Best foreign language film: El Secreto De Sus Ojos (Argentina)