What a Merdeka eve

30th August 2008; Merdeka eve

*no photos for this post due to terms and conditions*

Was already in campus at 8am, setting up for both Project Care and AppleBox Pictures booth. Brought the stove and gas from home and set up in AppleBox booth for garlic bread sales. Later was over at Project Care setting up the exhibition board with photos and captions, the banners and the television set for the video screening.

9am; went out of campus to pick Amy and all the ingredients up for the garlic bread. We had 40 loaves of french bread, an ice-cream box of butter and garlic mixture, frying pan and paper bags. Helped Amy to bring over the things and she started the setups.

10am; Project Care booth was ready to go. Fortissimo's as well. It all went well.

11am; food sale starts! By then, the VIPs arrived and there goes the opening ceremony. I wasn't paying any attention towards the opening because I was busy helping Suhas on the press release to the interested press on our project. Not bad. RTM asked for extra press kit! Before this, I have spoken to Dr. Joan (Dean of Curtin) and she was impressed with our work; photos and video alike. Many have given compliment to our project.

12pm; gotten ready for JCLA's performances and at 12.25pm, we were up! The performance went extremely well. 14 out of 16 put our best into the performance and we were glad after having more compliments from people.

1pm; everyone was getting pretty tired. Two mobile booths were closed. That leaves Project Care with the main exhibition booth and the game booth with one mobile booth at AL building. The game booth wasn't doing well. The worst part of the day was when it rained, our booth had to be moved away!!! Damn! we changed our booth a couple of times and it just ruined everything! 

2pm; Went off for a quick lunch. Had pizza from CSS and oh ya! James told me that CSS won the LEO Environmental Project and it was thanks to me coz I told them where they were able to get tons of newspaper! So I was given to pieces of apple pie for FREE! Thanks! There was practically nothing to eat! sigh~~ 

3pm; people were dispersing. There were not many people around the stage area coz there weren't any activities going on. What la~! It was soooooooo boring~ Donations were almost to a halt. Even the games were slowly quieting down. 

4pm; we finally decided not to continue with our second performance coz there were no crowds, no one around to watch, no one around to even notice Project Care and Fortissimo. We had a short meeting and finally called off the performances.

5pm; CLOSE SHOP! Took the donation boxes to have the money counted. From Project Care, we collected RM203 from our exhibition booths. That was a big amount for just showing photos and videos. Fortissimo closed their booth as well. We started cleaning up our booth and shifted everything into the car.

6pm; met with Fortissimo and added the money and splitted 50/50, so each team had a collection of RM134 for the day. AppleBox closed shop as well. There were like 13 loaves of french bread still uncut and 3 packets cut. Great~ Garlic bread for the next 3 days...... Headed out for the closing ceremony to help Yuki with the photoshoot. It was such a boring closing too!!! OMG! The last 3 lucky draw prizes were given out and there was a short display of fireworks and that's it~!

7pm; people dispersed and Student Council members started cleaning up. The rained came down heavily and I was all wet trying to get to the car. Catherine told me we have another 2 fishes so I was holding on the cup the whole time through.

8pm; all the cleaning up done, everyone left and so do I. Drove the car home and unloaded all the things in the car. Johan came by to show us the way to his friend's house to return the TV. By the time we got home, we were dead tired and hungry. Took a quick, hot shower and had garlic bread with cold milk and milo and a piece of Apple Pie from CSS before headed off to sleep~~~

GOSH! It was so tiring!!!

If it's worth the fun, it's alright. But, it was such a big disappointment to everyone. Clubs weren't getting profits, even our fundraising were quite low in collection and it was B.O.R.I.N.G.!!!

Hope it will be better next year~!

It was one hell of Merdeka eve!

Souvenirs from Long Makabar

You may wonder why am I taking a photo of my legs. Look closely and you'll understand.

After the Long Makabar trip, I came back to Miri with 80 sandflies bites. It was so itchy and I couldn't stand not scratching so I did and look what it had become!

SCARS! SCARS! SCARS!

All of my team members had their fair share of sandflies as well. Finally, we decided to go see doctor together. At least it will stop the itchiness and to clear off the scars...

Look at my poor feet! It is so painful when I wear shoes and it is also so painful when I wear slippers! GOSH!

SCARS! GO AWAY!

The little aquarium in my house

This is my little aquarium in my house here in Miri. Catherine and I decided to get fishes to rear at home so we went around, looking for the things we need to rear them. Upon having decided that we would want Rainbow Fish, we went around Miri looking for them and to our disappointment, we couldn't get any until a nice uncle sold us 2 of his fishes.

Bought the small plastic aquarium with colorful rocks, pulp and added some plant in it with a bottle of fish food. We set everything up and walah~! the fishes new home!

Got the fishes on the 3rd August and we were actually wondering whether it will be alive after a week and to our surprise, it did!

By the way, the fishes' names are; Ah Duck - the smaller one and Ah Cat - the bigger one. 

*Don't ask why we name it like tat*

The fishes kept us company. It's relaxing to sometimes stare at them and feed them and even talk to them.

Well, only until on the 25th August, Ah Duck died *sob sob*. Now, Ah Cat is all alone. If Ah Cat were so survive for another week or so, we decided to get another Rainbow Fish to accompany Ah Cat.

IN MEMORY OF AH DUCK, MY FIRST RAINBOW FISH

Another NOT FREE 'FREE WEEK'

This is my 5th Free Week for my 11/2 years of study here in Curtin University. It's another NOT FREE 'Free Week'... *sigh*

Curtin Carnival is coming up; 30th August 2008. Tons and tons of work to do for this event. First and foremost, Project Care's first fundraising campaign to start off our project to raise funds to build solar panels for Long Makabar. This was a tough one; imagine coming back from our documentary visit on Sunday and started all our work for carnival on Monday and things to get done at least by Thursday. Everyone put their best effort in making our fundraising campaign a great success. Secondly, AppleBox Pictures biggest event of the semester. Thanks to Yuki who is the Organizing Chairperson for the event coverage and Amy, the Organizing Chairperson for the booth, they managed to sort things out and helped me a whole lot in this carnival.

Mid semester test next week and I'm still in closed-book mode. Haven't even touched a single page of notes and 7 chapters to learn by Tuesday. Wow! Will make the full effort to do my studies once Curtin Carnival is over...

Hmm...I experienced many things since I had the trip to Long Makabar and many things happened when we got back to Miri. These memories cannot be bought with money. It's an experience worth my life.

Anyway, gotta sign off from blogspot now. Back to Karen's Editing Mode. 

Best of luck to AppleBox Pictures for the carnival. 

Best of luck to Fortissimo in the fundraising.

And of course...

Best of luck to PROJECT CARE! May all our effort be worth everything to help the people of Long Makabar!

Back from Long Makabar!

Finally, I'm back from my 4 days 3 nights trip to Long Makabar for Project Care's documentary shoot in partnership with Mercy Malaysia Miri Chapter. It was a wonderful experience and one which I will never forget...

I'm very tired now, after a whole 4 days of production, working with the children and the elders and a whole 8 hours timber road drive back to Miri. Lots of things to clean up and editing starts tomorrow.

Just found out that today's Olympic's closing ceremony. Hmph... 4 days of no outside world communication really makes me lagging for the moment...

I'll be back with more stories on Long Makabar!

Leaving for Long Makabar

A day more before leaving for Long Makabar... excited... 

For the first time ever, I'm going on a documentary shoot for something other than my assignments and work. Something which I really wanted to do. Something which I want people to see. Something which I want people to appreciate - the communities in the village - away from the busy city streets and stressful environment.

Heading for Long Makabar excites all eight of us in Project Care. We have been planning this trip ever since we formed the group and decided on Long Makabar as the village we plan to help in our fundraising campaign. 

Up until 3pm, we have collected RM2600 for this trip. Another RM200 to cover our transportation expenses and we hope to achieve it by tomorrow, a day before departing. Kairul and Johan were off for some grocery shopping to stock up our supply for 4 days 3 nights there. Ming Yi, Shahul, Suhas and Gerain worked hard to get donations from Curtin communities. Catherine and I were busy sorting out matters especially on Curtin Carnival and Pustaka Miri Exhibition before leaving. Everyone in this team worked hard... *big thanks to all the hardworking, dedicated team in Project Care*

Assignments, all done... (for the sake of going to Long Makabar). Preparing, packing and final sorting out of things with the other team, Fortissimo for Curtin Carnival. 

Counting down..........

p/s: I am unreachable for 4 days. Don't try calling coz you won't be able to get me! :)

Project Care

See the small link at the top left of the screen? That's the link to Project Care webpage. Do click on the link and check out more about Project Care - a project by 8 inductees of John Curtin Leadership Academy from Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus.

All you need to know about our project are all in the webpage.

Cheers!

What a week~

It has been three weeks since I finished the JCLA Foundation Camp and it has been three weeks since I worked on Project Care with a team of excellent people. Things were pilling up as the week goes by. Assignments pouring in, projects coming up, more external projects coming up and imagine this - 14 meetings within 3 weeks just for Project Care alone - that's a lot!

This week was another long, tiring week. Speaking about stress~! We are still short of RM900 for our Long Makabar mission next Thursday. 3 more school days before leaving. Another 2 weeks before our due date. Hopefully and I'm praying real hard that we can achieve our target. But, everyone in the team is working very hard for this project.

Assignments pouring in. But, I'm handling it well. Most of the assignments are individual - which makes my life even better coz I won't have to arrange meetings (I'm full with meetings). Can't wait to start the corporate video production on Miri City Medical Center on Breast Cancer - my last production project for Degree. *sob sob* This time, budgets are allocated by the client so no need of myself to spend money on this production. More written assignments as well - reading logs just kills me when it comes to reading pages of tiny and un-understandable writings. Sigh~ *no complaints*

I am beginning to abandon my blog...NO~! I will keep it alive. But, just have to bare with me to have one post only per week. Even my JCLA Foundation Camp post is still not up yet. Will see to that...

It's finally a Saturday and at least I have today to rest, get enough sleep and recharge myself. Nice weather - raining - nice to sleep - but I'm here, awake, writing in my blog. Will cook dinner tonight, as promised. 

Am also waiting to find time to take photos of my fishes and to post it up in conjunction with their '2 weeks of being alive at Lot 3946'!

Until then, chaos~

Wall-E

Directed by Andrew Stanton and of course made by Disney and Pixar Animation, this film was a fantastic one. 

It tells a story about this extra-ordinary robot; a garbage collecting robot who cleans up the mess on Earth while the earthlings enjoys their stay in the Axion in space. Eve, a robot who was sent to earth in search for proof that life is sustainable, met Wall-E and soon Wall-E was in love with Eve.  

..........

Love this movie to bits and pieces. Although I am not a fan of watching cartoons in the cinema, but this animation just took my breath away. The characters are so human-like and adorable. The animation was just so pretty. Although there weren't much of conversation, the story is understandable. I was in awe when watching it. I would love to watch this movie again~!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MUM!!!

...I would like to make a special dedication...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MUM!!!

May God shower his unending blessings upon you and his guardian angel shield you in their arms.

Lots of love, hugs and kisses,

Karen

Blackout in Sarawak~

Surprisingly, the entire Sarawak was in total darkness on the night of 9th August. It started from Kuching and effected all along Sarawak until it reached Miri at about 7.30pm. Where was I, you may wonder?... 

I was in campus, Resource Center for Project Care dance practice and meeting. Five out of eight were in the room, practicing until the lights started flickering and it all went dark. *sweats* There was an emergency light just on top of us but it went on for only 5 minutes and later, we were left inside with only my laptop as a source of light. Outside was also in total darkness - we could see nothing, no one was around. It only took a while for the bugs to fly around my laptop and I had no choice but to turn it off, leaving us with only our handphone lights. Johan read aloud a message he got from a friend in Kuching who told us that Kuching was having a blackout, and only then, I called my parents (but couldn't get through) and later to Aaron and found out that Kuching was out too. News came in and we realize that it was the whole Sarawak.

Quite a long while later, a friend came to towards our room and asked if we were alright. He even mentioned that we should not play around in that room *creepy*. I walked out and found a whole bunch of CV! members standing at the drop off area with 4 car lights lighting the area. It was kind of Raymond to send me to the car. It was awfully scary that time. Got the car and picked up the others. We left campus, sending the others back and went home ourselves.

More to come...

Our gate is an automatic gate - powered by electricity - meaning no electricity = no gate to open! We had to climb in from the 'pagar' and opened the door and left the car outside. We were hungry. With a small candle in the kitchen, we decided to cook maggie mee with 6 pieces of sausages and only after eating, I realize that I was sweating all over; all thanks to myself for cooking curry mee in soup (imagine it's spicy and hot and there's no fan!)

It was quite an experience. We went through JCLA's risk management in the dark until roughly about 10pm, the lights came back. First thing, AIRCOND~! hahahaha~ News came out in the internet that night itself. I bought newspaper the next day. 

But thankfully, nothing bad happened throughout the blackout. Everything was fine...

Imagine life without electricity...

How JCLA helps...

I'm glad and grateful to be given the opportunity to be one of the inductees of John Curtin Leadership Academy. Imagine 2000 students in Curtin and I am one of the 16 students selected to be in this academy. Along with another 15 inductees, we are the first badge to this academy. How JCLA helps?

In a lot of ways...

I met new friends. I met facilitators from Perth; Ian, Nathan, Jarrad and Linda. I met facilitators from Sarawak campus; Haslina, Serena and Terrence. I worked with strangers who are good leaders. I worked with people of all walks of life. I worked with my housemate...hah~

JCLA gave me the opportunity to learn more about myself, my leadership skills, my patience. JCLA also gave me a chance to organize fundraising to help the communities in the rural area in Miri. JCLA gave me a peek into a the working world (after leaving the working world, I'm rusted). JCLA just gave me a feeling of home; people are nice and friendly and homely.

~John Curtin Leadership Academy~

p/s: I still haven't post up the JCLA post. Will be up soon. Stay tune~!

08-08-08

Finally, it's the Olympics~!

It's all about 08-08-08. Even the show started at 8pm.

That's 'very the chinese'.

At least there's a small TV at home with clear RTM 1 to watch the opening ceremony. Missed the beginning but at least get to see Malaysia's contingent walking into the stadium. (OMG, Malaysia's contingent is so GOLD~!) There's just so many contingents and most countries are strangers to me. 204 contingents all together.

Looking forward to watching the competition.

It's just amazing to see how countries from all over the world come together as one to play sports. It's just amazing to see the opening ceremony. It's just amazing to see how the event is being covered. It's just amazing...

08-08-08

Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Hmm...thought this movie would be nice, but it was quite a disappoinment. sigh~ Actress changed, the little boy, Alex is now a 20 something year old guy, the language was a little weird, the graphics were a little off...

Anyway, at least I get to watch this in times of business and stress. Hah~! Well, it was never too late for a movie. Thought of getting an earlier show, but as soon as we got to the cinema, the 9.15pm show was fully sold! I'd never seen any movie 'sold out' in Star Cineplex, especially in Miri! So, bought the 11.15pm ticket and went off for a 'lepak'ing' time at Tanjung - and saw the moon which was red and slowly diminishing from the sky - it was amazing - almost like an eclipse. Met friends in the cinema, everyone was in the mood of watching movies... 

Although movie wasn't that great, at least, I had a timeout from all the workload from JCLA and assignments and also stupid craps that I'm currently facing. 

Looking forward to another movie night again~

Enough is Enough

What have I done to deserve all this?

Taken me for granted, shutting me out on things I started, treating me like a nobody, using me only when you need me, expecting me to solve your own problem.

Everyone has their limits and I have reached mine.

I need you to stop.

I want you to stop.

It's either I hurt myself or I hurt others.

I choose to hurt you.

I choose not to be hurt by you.

I don't want to dig my own grave and bury myself in it.

I'm lucky to have friends who understands.

Friends who never take me for granted.

These friends are true friends.

These friends care for me as I cared for them.

They were there when I needed a shoulder to cry on.

Enough is enough.

You don't want me to hurt you.

You don't want me to scream at you.

You don't want me to not be the Karen you knew.

I'll never be sorry for what I did.

I'm proud that I did what I had to.

Thanks for everything, though.

Chaos~!

100 + 100 = MY 200th POST!

My blog has reached the 200th post today! 

Looks like I'll be blogging lesser this semester. Been so busy just these two weeks of class. Many things happened and I would really love to write but I just don't have the time to do so. I'm still behind with the John Curtin Leadership Academy Foundation Camp and CV! Gathering posts. Gosh~!

Well, first two weeks of class was a bad start, though. How I wished it started off well, at least I'll have a good start and move on to a whole stressful semester, but, no way! it didn't happen that way. Classes started on the first week and there were many clashed of timetables. One unit fixed, there goes another unit! The worse part was, MS216 and FTV243 Lectures clashed! (fyi, both are Year 2 units) Lodged a clash complain and gotten the timetable changed the day itself...phew~ Then there goes FTV334, FTV243 and Marketing Communication clashes...but big thanks to Mr. Rama who managed to solve it that week itself.

This semester's units were okay, at least there's only one production to handle. It was pretty tough on me as I was taking both Corporate Production units together (normal students take one unit in a year). I was quite isolated and lost in the class. FTV334 was quite hard on me - everyone else in the class gets to work on their clients and see whose clients would want their corporate video to be made. I was left aside because I hadn't had my FTV243. I was not given the opportunity to pitch my ideas, so alas, I grouped up with Cammy who will be working on a corporate video on breast cancer along with Amy, Yuki and Stephanie.

FTV243 was a terrible one. I see the almost exact same slides from FTV334's lecture on Monday morning during FTV243's lecture on Monday afternoon~! But, I'll work to my very best to get the client I have been wanting to work on for the corporate production...gambateh~

Marketing Communication 102 was quite a tough one too. Although there was only one group presentation, a mid semester test and a final exam, but it will be a tough one. Not wanting to dig my own 6 feet under grave, I decided to get a team whom I can arrange my time wisely with. At least working with the same people whom I will be working with in my corporate production, I don't have to waste anyone's time over the matter that I will be extremely busy... 

MS216 was one funny one. Didn't expect Mr. Sony to lecture well in class. He is seriously very knowledgeable. I liked his lectures, though - surprised! But the class was always tension to a certain extend when arguments starts... I think it'll be a fun one~!

Hah~! All about studies, and now to my other activities...

AppleBox Pictures. Not bad for the first semester, though. There were an amount of members and although along the way, there were problems with the Tshirt printing, it all went well. More events coming up this semester... and hoping to get the club's first MiniDV camera soon!

Project Care. YES! 1 Ringgit Per Person Campaign started to raise RM3000 to send all the team members to Long Makabar for a documentary production to raise funds in helping the villagers there. This team was a great one. We came together to make the posters, the donation boxes, meetings, plannings... Looking forward to the trip to Long Makabar this 21st August. 

Sometime when writing this post, I finished three classes today, dealt with crappy situations which ruined my day/week, had a really full lunch with Catherine, done with AppleBox Pictures committee meeting and awaiting for Project Care's meeting at 7pm. Looks like, I'll be in campus more often this semester. Something that I'm actually looking forward to...

Gotta go...meeting will start in 3 minutes...

Busy, busy, busy~!

CV! Gathering Sem 2, 2008

Another semester, another CV! Gathering...this time, the General Election. There were dances, games, not forgetting - votings, photo takings~ and it all sums up to this: