Caramel Toffee //

The semester is getting busy yet again. It has been raining so much lately that I didn´t get to snap decent photos that can be shared with everyone. Anyways, I´m now in the middle of two assignments. One for Linguist203 and another one for Educ225. My weekly lab report doesn´t count, because that´s what I´m going to have to do every week all the time.

During our Professional Development session with Sheryl today, we were briefed about our school visits starting tomorrow and the next four Thursdays thereafter. I´m still not sure if I am or am not looking forward to the school visits. In the end, we´re all going to have to do a presentation about the teaching of English in New Zealand compared to the one in Malaysia. I think I can do that. I´m also thinking of making a flash presentation instead of just the usual powerpoint presentation. Heck, I haven´t even been using Microsoft Office for a while now. I´ve been using OpenOffice for a while after my Office went haywire after a certain update.

In Linguist203 lecture, Mark was telling us more about sentence constructions and the type of sentences. I´m guilty of not paying much attention because I was typing up my Linguist203 assignment due next week (on the 22nd of August). I think I´m done with the assignment. I may need some proofreading and clarification on my copula constructions. That, and then I can submit the assignment before the due date.

As I´m typing this, I´m currently in my COMPSCI111 lecture. Today´s lecture continues the previous topic, The Introduction to XHTML and moves on to XHTML and CSS. I´ve done the exercises. I´m really glad I´m taking this course. I have absolutely no problem with this topic, and I´m hoping for a good grade. At the very least, I´m putting high hopes on this course to make up for the B´s and B+s I got in the last semester. I hope to get at least A for this course (though I really want an A+, but alas I don´t think I´m that good yet).

- University of Auckland - Opp. Clock Tower -

… so that the stability of our country won’t be questioned further.

I’ve heard nothing but political shits when I ask my relatives and friends in Malaysia the same simple question of “How’s home?”

I’ve also noticed that more than 50% of Malaysian blogs (newly updated or pinged) are talking about political shits. The same thing over and over; all the slandering, namecalling (I swear, people can be so childish when they’re blabbering), etc etc.

Some of my international friends messaged me out of the blue: “Is Malaysia in some big political brawls now? I keep seeing Malaysians blogging about politics all the time. I thought they’re saying that your country is one of the famous mediators of peace or something…?”

You have no idea how ashamed and frustrated I feel after hearing this question.

How am I supposed to answer? Should I just give them this: “Well, actually, people simply like to fan small flames so that it gets really big. You know, make things all spicy to call for attention.” Or maybe I could simply say: “Don’t worry. I’m tired of all the political shits they’re writing about too.”

Can’t we have someplace reserved only for political bloggers? Correction. Can we have separate places for separate themes, like, ASAP?

I used to love Petalingstreet.org, and I use it still until today. But it gets REALLy tiring when all you see everyday is people blabbering about politics in the ‘Latest Pings’. And for goodness’ sake, they should refrain from double-posting the same thing. It’s a waste of good space.

I swear, blogs should have specific ratings too. We have 18PL for media broadcast. Why not blogs too?

I miss the time period between 2000 and 2003 so much. Blogs were more interesting back then although blogging platforms had less features.

- Unique Advertising of Drinks @ Symonds Street, Auckland -

Frm 1Aug, it will be $1 per call to talk to Cust Service on Prepay. You can still manage yr mob free online. For other ways 2manage yr mob &more info freecall 440.

From: Vodafone

Every service over here is all about limitation and money. I don’t know how much Vodafone would charge for GPRS, but it would surely be cutthroat. I’m upset with my internet connection, and Vodafone decided they want to mess with me some more.

Well, My Woosh wireless broadband is currently running on a dial-up speed, which gives me nothing but frustration after frustration of having to wait seemingly forever for a simple page to load.

Internet connection is datacapped. Three of my apartment mates and I share a wireless broadband plan with 51 GB bandwidth per month. The bandwidth would be reset back to 0% on the 21st of every month. And we ran out of our bandwidth last Friday.

I didn’t even get to download this month, having been busy with moving to the new server. I’ve been very conscious with my usage of the internet. I even avoided graphic-heavy websites to save the bandwidth.

Some people apparently didn’t think so.

I wish they’d be more concerned. Using Yahoo!Messenger and Skype eat up lots of bandwidth, and it actually bothers me that some of them are using both messengers almost all day long.

And the internet’s registered under my name.

How lovely.

I want Malaysia! No monthly bandwidth… Ahh…

- My Sizzling Lamb Kurma -

One of the things I miss the most aside from home (and my family, but they are not things. So…) is Malaysian food! I miss the spicy, somewhat sweet and sour, and sometimes hot taste of food like curry, kurma, masak merah, tom yam, even goreng kunyit. I think I miss the taste of gulai/kuah pedas the most.  And of course, sambal bilis is thoroughly missed too. The people’s definition of hot and spicy is quite funny. There was once when the Jewel of India owner asked me if I was really sure I want extra Chicken Vindaloo sauce on my rice.

Mak Cik: It’s really hot, dear. Are you sure you want it?
Me       : That’s the  whole point, actually.

Always, the ‘very hot’ warning doesn’t live up to it’s definition. They’re usually only a little bit spicy, but not at all hot. If I want to eat something really hot or really spicy, I’ll have to cook my own meals.

Which is what I’ve been doing from the past few months until now.

I don’t cook at home, but maybe I am blessed with Mama’s ‘natural cook’ instinct. Or maybe I’ve learned to imitate what I remember Cik Mah (our housekeeper) did in the kitchen whenever I happen to be there. I can cook lauk pauk like curry, masak merah, kurma, rendang, sup, tom yam, and many others. Nasi, mee and mihun goreng are included.

I think I’m blowing my diet. No, seriously. Geez, I know I wouldn’t eat so much if I don’t cook. But the spices and ingredients are there in front of my eyes, making it hard for me to resist the temptation to cook. Besides, the smell of onions when I’m still at tumis stage is heavenly.

Sure they sell spices here, mostly from India and Pakistan. But they don’t compare to Malaysian spices, or at least I think so. That’s why I’m always so reluctant to use the spices Mama sent over from home. She sent the spices via PosLaju, so it was rather expensive. I’m afraid I’d use up the spices! I’m really glad when I found a store in Otahuhu that imports a lot of products from Malaysia, including Baba’s spices. The only problem is that Otahuhu is more than 1 hour away from Auckland City on bus via Newmarket/Mount Wellington route, and at least 30 minutes via the express motorway.

- Behind Symond Street S4 - Auckland (02.07.08) -

The chill of winter is finally seeping through even the closed window. I’m suddenly glad that it’s winter break. Even though we don’t get snow in Auckland, its still cold enough to make me shiver every once in a while. And my feet and fingers practically turn to ice every night. I don’t know if it’s associated to the cold, but I’ve been experiencing trouble sleeping at night. Last week, I went without sleeping at night for four straight days. After the fourth day, I crashed. Slept at around 4am and didn’t wake up until 5pm. No wonder my housemates got worried when I didn’t leave the room for that long. I know I’m the type who keeps to her room, but I usually get out of my room to do the cooking and other tasks.

I haven’t been doing much. I wasn’t even able to concentrate on my writings, or any of my projects for that matter. Nothing is proceeding according to plan. I haven’t even started burning some videos in the DVDs for Nisrin even though I promised to mail them to her during the holiday. I guess I need to apologise to her. I’ll still do it, Nisrin, no worries. Just give me some time to overcome this extreme laziness.

The second semester will be starting this 21st, yet I have not yet signed up for my elective. I’m thinking of taking COMPSCI 111 (Computer Science), mainly because I need to do a subject in which I can guarantee to myself that I can score. From what I heard from the seniors, COMPSCI 111 is really easy. They only teach basic stuff about computer parts, the internet, some website making basics, histories pertaining to the computer, etc etc. I think I’ll managa, so next week I’ll proceed to sign up.

As I’m writing this, I’m still waiting for my EDUC283 result for the final exam. I think I screwed up really badly. I desperately hope I won’t fail the paper. God knows what would happen to me I if I do. I’m sure Mama would screech into my ears when she sees the result slip in the mailbox.

Joy…

I passed the other subjects, but most of them were only B+. I really screwed up in some courseworks even though the last EDUC223 (for example) scored me 87 out of 100. That was me writing 15 pages of essay. No wonder I sucked at the others, which I did in only around 6 to 10 pages.

Oh, and I don’t even want to begin to rant about my last ESOL202 assignment. I should be satisfied with the result, but I really expected something more than what I actually got for it.

So, the bottom line is: WORK. HARDER. ADLINA!

On another matter, I’m currently in the process of moving my files to a new server. I’m tired of Hostgator issuing warnings that my site is using up too much processes, so I got myself a VPS where I can at least be the boss for my own website projects. I really need to separate academic entries from personal ones.  I also bought Fantastico license alongside WHM/cPanel to ease my work, and yes, it lessens my workload by almost half. I’m getting better at SSH and MySQL too, so I’m really happy right now.

Also, Geekdom.info, which I originally intended to make my academic journal, will be bought by an SEO company for $2000. Even though I love the domain name, I really could use some extra money especially after buying the two-way tickets to go back to Malaysia for this summer. November couldn’t come fast enough!