next On Cstar WarsE

Look out for a showcase coming up very soon on my other blog: http://cstarwarse.blogspot.com. I'm quite excited about this one, especially since it was one of my early targets but I haven't seen it until very recently.

Do check it out! I've got some showcases on other items as well. There are plenty of pictures for you to browse through over there.

a Rekindled Pastime

Its one of my favourite things, but yet I haven't done it in a long time. What would that be? Watching cricket.

If you're an aquaintance of mine but don't already know, my all time favourite sport is cricket. Of all places to get introduced to the sport, I picked it up in Vietnam. You would never have guessed that right? A game similar to baseball in some ways, but a lot more sophisticated, or refined even. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching baseball too, but cricket is still my all time favourite. From what I see, comparing cricket to baseball is like comparing a Bentley to a Ford Mustang.

It was one of my first times watching satellite tv and I turned on Star Sports and a man dressed in white with a dark green helmet came on the screen. It was Jacques Kallis of South Africa, playing one of his first test matches ('tests' is one of the categories for the game of cricket, just like football, has futsal, 3 vs 3 and so forth).

I think the first thing that caught me was Kallis' helmet. I think it looks a lot better than a baseball helmet. Plus, it gives a lot more protection anyway, with the grill across the face. I don't get why baseball helmets don't have those, it pretty much defeats the purpose of wearing a helmet to me.

For some reason or another, I just think this looks cool.

I really loved watching the game, and playing it too. Fortunately, the international school I went to in Ho Chi Minh was Australian influenced, hence my chance to play the game came from there. We never played any serious games, but just as a fun activity during recess or physical education classes.

The last time I ever watched a cricket game live for extended hours was back in 1999, the last year I spent in Vietnam. It was the final of the World Cup too, between Pakistan and Australia which was very lob sided because Pakistan literally threw away their batting order and Adam Gilchrist smacked the Pakistani bowlers left and right chasing a measely total.

Since then, I've not watched any cricket. My parents don't subscribe to those special Astro cricket packages because they don't watch cricket, only I do. Even if they did, I'm sure they wouldn't be keen to see me on the couch for the entire day and night watching a one-day (another category of cricket) match.

In recent times though, I've been on the internet watching some videos on YouTube, highlights of some ridiculously good Indian innings, and the best one day match every played, when South Africa beat Australia at home chasing a massive total 434 runs for victory. I was definitely happy because my favourite player's Jacques Kallis and he's in my favourite team, South Africa.

Jacques Kallis on his way to scoring 120 at the ongoing test match between South Africa and England.

I try to keep myself updated a lot by visiting http://www.cricinfo.com/ very often but it really isn't the same as watching the game. I'm sure any sports fan can identify with me. Which would you rather do, watch the game or just read about it?

I really wish I could watch more cricket. I guess I'll just have to settle with video highlights posted online for now. Sigh.

closing The Year, phrasing The Next

We had a small potluck gathering just last week in tandem with the holiday season. It was supposed to be a Christmas party but it didn't have too much of a Christmas feel since we didn't really bother about decorations or even music for that matter. That didn't matter though because it was just a good time to chill out and mix around a bit. With twenty plus people, there was definitely enough talk going around.

Wai Nyan got us to sit in a around in a circle at the living room and go one round answering this question, "As we come to the year end, why don't we go one round, and share your highlight of the year, what's it been like for you?"

I'll share my answer with you. I can't quite remember what I said exactly, so I can't quote myself, but I'm pretty sure it went something like this, "Well for me, my year's been kind of divided into two. The first half was me being in university and the other was me being here in KL doing my internship, being with you guys. I can say its been two quite different halves for me. For the first half, it was quite a struggle for me because I had to deal with some personal issues. As it is now, I still am, but you know, its getting better. The second half of the year came at an interesting time for me because it gave me a chance, a space to take time out from that atmosphere and just deal with things better. The second half of my year has been undoubtedly better, being with you guys here. Coming back to the question though, of what was the highlight of my year; it was definitely my birthday. Yeah, my birthday was definitely the highlight, you guys made it happen, made it pretty special. I just want to thank you guys, cos' yeah; I haven't had something like that in a very long time."

A few 'awwws' went around the room as I was mentioning my birthday; really though, they did make it a memorable one. It does feel nice when people make a big deal out of your birthday.

After all twenty plus of us had gone through that question, Wai Nyan put us through one more, "Now that we've done what this year's been like for you, why don't we share what we want for ourselves next year. What do you want to be next year? Just put it into three words, or a phrase."

I answered, "Well, three words right? Passion, patience, confidence. Well, for passion, it has to do with the whole thing of my relationship with God, and that just hasn't come together for me this year and its definitely something I want to be better, develop the passion for my lover and creator. Patience, well, yeah; I just want to be more patient in doing things. Sometimes I get agitated or annoyed easily when things don't happen instantly so that's one area I need to improve. Confidence? That comes with the discovery of myself that I think maybe there are things that I could do but I don't simply because I don't feel I have what it takes. I think its a perception that holds me back from doing more, and so that's why confidence is one thing I'd like to have more of next year."

show And Tell

Its funny isn't it, how sometimes in life, one day can feel like the only day that matters even when you've been doing important things throught the year. That's what it felt like for me, and probably Shaqifah as well when we had to present on our work in PETRONAS Carigali.

A lecturer from the CIS department of UTP, Elaine Chen came to evaluate us. I'd met her before as she'd taught me Computer Organisation some time back. It wasn't my favourite subject I can assure you, but she's a nice person. I guess you could say to a small extent I hoped that the definition of 'nice' could be stretched to 'favourable' during the presentation.

As with my final exams before this, I didn't feel much pressure until the day of the presentation itself, which was yesterday. Both Shaqifah and myself were nervous because to be frank, neither of us really spent a lot of time preparing the presentation slides, or our presentation even because we'd been pretty busy at work.

Its fair to say that wasn't a good excuse, but our minds were more preoccupied on our work than we were on our presentation although to us as students the presentation may have been more important. This actually highlights a conflict of interest. Interns always have two stakeholders to be responsible to, and its hard to tell which is more important at times, the university or the host company?

Anyhow, I ushered Elaine up from the lobby to the discussion room at PETT: Tower 1, Level 24 where we'd conduct the presentations. We were supposed to take up a time slot between 2.30 p.m. - 5.00 p.m. but we assumed it would be less than that anyway.

I went first, and so I gave short introudction of BIMa, not too much, just letting Ms. Elaine know what BIMa does which I actually kind of explained to her already as I was talking to her in the lift. Most of my presentation time was spent presenting on the work I've been involved in as well as my ongoing tasks. Other than that, I took some time to share what I've learned during the past six months.

Throughout the presentation I found myself, babling a bit at certain points because I hadn't rehearsed. Whatever came out was just spontaneous and I'm not one of those people who can speak word perfect spontaneously delivering a speech or presentation. Thankfully though, I don't think I had any lengthy pauses although that may be attributed to some panicky 'spontaenous alternative phrases/words spewing' that I did. I was unhappy with myself in that sense, that the presentation wasn't smooth, at least in my opinion.

Next came the questioning and the feedback part from my senior manager, two managers who were supervisors to myself and Shaqifah and Elaine Chen of course. I was surprised during this session because I expected tougher questions to be directed at me, though I didn't prepare at all for such a thing. Instead, the questions were more about how I felt about working in PETRONAS Carigali, with BIMa in particular and if our work was relevant to our area of study.

I'm quite thankful that the feedback I received from both Elaine and Mr. Ghaffar, my senior manager was quite good. Truth be told, I felt that it was actually flattering. I don't know if I had a wide smile on my face as they said those things, but there was definitely one big one inside. Its moments like those where you feel very happy for yourself, but at the same time you need to keep your head down and not be a show off. People tell me Elaine's pretty strict in terms of marking and things like that, so to have the good comments from her does help make me feel good.

Shaqifah had hers next, and it went reasonably well too and we were both quite happy to have it done and dusted. A private conversation between our managers and Ms. Elaine followed, which they did before during the first internship visit when Ms. Nazleeni came. Until today, I'm still quite curious as what the subject matter of those conversations were.

In any case, show and tell is over. The next part is going to be write and report.

the Holiday Surprise

When you go on holiday, you don't expect anything other than to have a jolly good time away from everything familiar. For that one week or a few days, you just want to forget everything that has happened for the past month. Whatever feelings of love and hate, of being jaded and dull are all thrown out the window. All you know is one thing, "I'm here to enjoy"

I arrive in Bandung, Indonesia just before noon, waiting at the small airport for our transport to arrive. Twenty two others stand around, the families in my tour group, anxiously waiting for things to move along. All with families, the parents had one top priority, and it wasn't kids. It was shopping. Famed for high quality branded clothes at factory prices, Bandung was a working person's dream. Finally, these working class of people had a way to get some nice clothes badged with brands of fame, without having to let go of a treasure for it.

I was there for the exact same thing, the material. I wasn't there for the culture, the sights and sounds of the place. Besides, Bandung's all about the shopping isn't it? Our first stop, Grande was my first taste of Bandung shopping. With the Espirit shirts, Nike dri-fits and Quiksilver shorts, I thought, "Yeah, this is it."

"Shop till' you drop."

I never knew the true meaning of the phrase although I'd heard it many times. I discovered it first hand though, it had only been a day in Bandung but I was already ready to drop. It was a lot harder than I thought, shopping here. It was not easy, finding what I wanted, the right designs, the right size. The next two days was going to be a challenging time of shopping. I came here to de-stress but I was getting stressed, some holiday this was turning out to be.

Riding on the bus had me feeling jaded, knowing I was being shuffled to a place where I would spend three hours walking around and come out with nothing probably. I just sat there, looking out the window, observing the jam we were in on a tiny road. In Bandung, you'd be hard pressed to find a road with more than one lane for one direction.

As I looked in front of me, suddenly two eyes and a head popped up from in front of me. A cute girl with bangs looked at me with a smile on her face. I had noticed her before when our travelling party gathered at the airport. I didn't talk to her, she didn't talk to me, so why take notice of me now? Anyway, that didn't stop me from talking to the girl that greeted me with her unusual, yet sweet hello.

We just had a little small talk on the bus, nothing deep or personal. We didn't even get to telling each other which school we were from. It's not like we hit it off or anything, she was just a very friendly girl that got along with almost everyone on our tour bus. She spend most of her time talking other people anyway, mainly her girl friends. She seemed to be very free spirited, not a surprise if you met here mother. She was a pretty outgoing woman herself.

Somehow, I was just attracted to that young girl. I knew this because I found myself looking out for her anywhere I went for the rest of my time in Bandung. I just wanted to know where she was. She suddenly became my focus of attention on the trip. I was still very much into my clothes shopping and I certainly was happy when I got what I was looking for, but I always had an eye out for that cute girl. She was with her parents and her brother most of the time, a family person she was. Venturing all over the place by herself wasn't really in her character I suppose. I wasn't much different, going around with my family most of the time too.

There was one time though, when both our families were in the same outlet. I didn't know at first actually. I was just walking around looking at clothes when I suddenly felt a hand on my arm, the girl's of course. I thought to myself, "Boy, your love language must be touch huh,". Another one could have been speech, after all, she could talk a lot. She then took my hand.

"Your hands are warm," I said.

"No, your hands are warm."

"Well, just keep holding then, because I feel cold."

She held on for a little while before letting go as I continued my shopping. Strange isn't it? It was something, but yet nothing at the same time. Mixed signals. She was just a really curious girl and I think that's what grabbed me.

On the last day, just before our flight, our tour group had lunch at this tropical resort with some nice green surroundings with a nice walkway that we'd explore later. For the first time on the trip, she sat next to me. She was awfully nice, or maybe just being very polite, taking the rice and putting it on my plate. Again, we got into some small talk at the table. She almost got to coax me into playing a kid's game too. What a weird girl, but that's what I liked to begin with.

After a while when we were done eating, a few people went to walk around the area since it was a pretty nice place. She called me to go along with her, "Come Christon."

"Why?"

"Just come, don't be lazy.."

I thought to myself, "Now, where have I heard that before?"

Again, this time she took my hand and held it tight, almost pinching it as we went along. I just obliged, I didn't reject it. After all, why would I? We took a few photos here and there and I thought, "This is nice."

The exact same thing happened later when we were at the airport. She held my hand as we walked across the runway to the plane, and that image somehow just stayed with me. I guess it has something to do with the fact you're holding hands with person in such an open space in front of everybody.

That was the last time I saw her though, after the flight she just disappeared. I don't know why I didn't get her contact to begin with. People say she's around though, that I'd probably see her sooner or later. I think I'll just wait for that to happen. That Renae, such a cutie, can't wait to see you again when I do. You made my holiday worth a lot more than I thought it would.

Who would've thought, that I'd fall for the innocence of a cute 9 year old child. If only I'd meet such people around my age.

a Really Long One

I've got a pretty lengthy post coming up next, its a story really. You could say it would fit into the category 'Fiction from Non-Fiction'. I wrote it at the place I stayed and a little more at the airport before coming back to Malaysia.

I'm trying to finish it off before the weekend so do look out for it. I think its the first time I've ever written something like this. That's not to say it's an amazing piece or anything like that, but I've just never written something like that, let alone in the style I'm writing it in.

breaking The Streak

The last time I went overseas for a holiday (or any other reason), was probably even before I started going to high school. I can't even remember which was the last place I visited, Perth, Australia or Singapore? That means I've probably not gone anywhere overseas for the past eight to nine years, or even more!

Well, at least I get to break that streak early Friday morning. I'll have more to tell after I get back to KL on Monday.



P/S: Star Wars the Clone Wars series is seriously getting better and better. Can't wait for the next episode coming out next week, there's a lot more depth in it that it seems.