Hiatus....... argh!

First up, I would like to say sorry for this long hiatus, but I have to bring more bad news that the hiatus would continue all the way till my exam finally ends. Yeah, sorry to all out there. Haha, all this while, been so busy till I don't really have any time for anything.... mostly gaming but that's still busy >.<.... Anyway, I even got demoted by Soony to a lowly Corporal. So yeah, you understand.

Anyway, let me just summarize what has happened in the last two months or so. First, DAP won Penang, *happy*. It's about time a political change occured in this age of Malaysia. About time! Next, SPM results... maybe it's not right to mention it here. But, to be honest, I'm quite content with it....... actually, I'm more than happy. It was really good. Though, I didn't get any scholarships except maybe the DISTED 40% discount, but that's still out of the equation. Haha, life has not been good, let's just say.

Everything about happiness..... *for me of course* :
- SPM results
- Trial exam is over
- 5 states won by Opposition
- Cookie won American Idol
- Officially has Cookie's entire collection of AI
- Manchester United has done a double over Chelsea! *shame on you, we gave you the blues!*
- LA Lakers are cruising
- Nadal finally does a clay court tournament sweep
- Can now squeeze into Wayne's car just for the fun of it everyday
- LAN subjects are ripped off the pages of my life forever
- Practicals are over....
- Is able to drive
- I am finally 17....... lol....
- And a whole lot more of other stuff not worth my chemistry reading time.... *Can't believe I'm typing this halfway through my studying time before exam... gosh....*

Well, though, life has not been good for a while already. Let's just say, the examination period has started to take its toll on me. And plus all the big bad stuff happening around, you get the picture. The current equation is :

Mayhem + Chaos + Catastrophe + Tragedy + Evilexamswhichmakemesick + Boredom + Depression + Insanity + Bad Luck + Madness........

For all those Chemistry folks out there, add those up and see what would you get! Mathematics prodigies are free to finish this off too.......

For the Answer, highlight the line below this line....
LIFE BEING A PILE OF DUNK....

You get the picture..... :) Maybe the exam got into me... ugh... In that case, let's call this the end for this "update" or whatever you want to call it. Till then, signing off!

~ Kal.... searching for a brighter day....

Who Should I Vote?

Since a lot of them I know did it. Why not? Just something out of boredom. Enjoy! Go check it out if you want and please reply with what you got! XD I have to say. Boy is it accurate!

According to the 100% accurate kennysia.com Who-To-Vote-This-Election Decision Generator™, I am voting for...

DEMOCRATIC ACTION PARTY!

Who Should You Vote For This Election?

Under the Blue Light 1

It's been along time since I've last made a post, I know. I promise I'll be more regular now.... LOL. Sorry.

Okay. Under the Blue Light. What's this about? Basically, I just made this up out of boredom to talk about some of the many famous people/group/species/anyotherspecialanduniquething. So to start things off, I would like to talk about one of my favourite artists in the music industry at the moment. So, introducing..........................

Daughtry : Rocking your World!



You readers out there would have most probably heard of this rock star whose music has been up on the radio, TV programmes etc. A famous artist now nevertheless, after he has been nominated in 4 different categories for the 2008 Grammy Awards which has just passed. But come to think of it, who was he back then? How did he rise out of the sudden from out of nowhere and became one of the best rock stars the world has ever known? Here's a thing or two from Kal...... little from Wikipedia to introduce to you, Daughtry!

Daughtry is actually a band which was formed in 2006. Its name came from the lead singer named Chris Daughtry, who is one of the finalists in the famous American reality TV talent show, American Idol. It consists of five members, each having own roles in the band of course. Here are the five members :

Christopher Adam Daughtry aka Chris Daughtry - Lead Singer, Guitarist
Josh Steely - Lead Guitarist
Josh Paul - Bass Guitarist, Vocalist
Joey Barnes - Drummer, Percussion, Vocalist
Brian Craddock - Rhythm Guitarist, Vocalist

There you go. Those are the five members of the band named Daughtry. The band was started after Chris' exit from American Idol. Back then, he was one of the favourites to win that show but ended up being eliminated even though he was the best that night. What could he do? It was America who voted. Never mind that. Anyway, Chris then turned down an offer from Fuel to make him the lead singer of their band and instead, signed a contract with 19 Entertainment and RCA Records, which was the company holding contracts with several other American Idol stars including 2-time Grammy Award winner, Kelly Clarkson.

Soon after, Chris' label started to chose band mates for him, selecting Josh Steely, Josh Paul, Joey Paul and Jeremy Brady (no longer in the band). Chris knew Joey and Jeremy, who were both from North Carolina, which was also where Chris was from. Their album debuted in November 21, 2006. It was named "Daughtry" which was also the name of the band. Here's a picture of the album cover of this album.



Their first single, "It's Not Over" was an instant success, reaching a high of No. 4 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 Chart and also getting top 3s on several other charts. This was followed by other singles, which were also achieving great success. The other singles were "Home", "What I Want", "Over You", "Crashed" and the more recent "Feels Like Tonight". All of them were instant hits on the charts, having top 10 places on the charts. For instance, "Home" was used as a song played when any contestant was eliminated in American and Australian Idols, and also performed in front of live audience in last year's American Idol. Their songs were also used in several other shows such as the World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-views and also a pre-race show for NASCAR.

The band has been making tours around America like all artists do, together with several other top artists such as Nickelback and Finger Eleven. They have already started performing new songs which would be released in their next album. Another song titled "What About Now" has also been featured in the latest season of American Idol.

The band has certainly outshone many other stars including the winner and runner-up of the same season, Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee. Soon after, they were nominated in 4 different awards in this year's Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album (Album: Daughtry), Best Rock Song (Song: It's Not Over), Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal (Song: Home), Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (Song: It's Not Over). They also won awards in the People's Choice Awards, 2007 American Music Awards and the 2007 Billboard Music Awards for awards like Breakthrough Artist, Best Rock Song, Best Pop/Rock Album, Top New Artist etc. They are certainly a band to be looked out. Put them on your list of bands to watch next time around.

As for my view, their songs are certainly a refresher. It helps you when you're down. Good vocals, good performance. It features a wide range of song types from Hard Rock songs like "What I Want" to slower songs with extremely good vocals like "Home". The lyrics are pretty inspiring and touch the aspect of "love" more often. Most songs are usually about love to be honest. Some may not like the intense instrument playing which is common in rock songs, but the instrument playing is also one to be noted as it is also magnificent. So technically, it's not only the lead singer who is good. Overall, it's a well-rounded band which has hit the top of my playlist as well as several others from the statistics shown. A real rocker who rocks my world, I must say. Check him out! Here's a little more info about the songs in their album "Daughtry" and also a video or two to go along with it. Enjoy! Sayonara...... for now.

Daughtry

1. It's Not Over
2. Used To
3. Home
4. Over You
5. Crashed
6. Feels Like Tonight
7. What I Want
8. Breakdown
9. Gone
10. There and Back Again
11. All These Lives
12. What About Now

Here are some links to the video since the embedding request was disabled by the user:
http://www.youtube.com/user/daughtry

Sorry! :X. Have fun listening!

January featuring LaLLAT

It's been a while now since I've last written. Might as well just sum up January as a whole. Let's see, to be honest, the only thing I've been doing really, is getting myself occupied by college and well..... games. There's nothing much that has been done since college practically dominated my weekdays. You got to know, 8 am to 6 pm is a pretty long duration for someone like me, who has only experienced a 6 hour schooling time in my entire life. Boy is it tiring, but I guess like I like to say it, GET OVER WITH IT, LIVE WITH IT.

January was an interesting month for all of us. All of us with new year resolutions and several targets in our mind and of course, hoping to achieve it. January marked the start of a new year, the year 2008. To all those who I have not say Happy New Year to, Happy New Year and have a good one. January was the start of a new exploration. It certainly was uncharted territory for graduates like myself..... Unfamiliar territory which started to unravel by itself and the path started to clear after a month or so. How was everyone's start to a new year? Well, no matter, let me tell you my start to the year 2008.

It all started with joy and excitement. The first moments of 2008 all started with a group conversation with Soony and co. I must say that it was quite a strange way to start the year. Usually, I would be doing countdowns right in front of the television screen. But this year was totally different, instead, it was the LCD screen of my new computer. A new way of starting the year really showed that this was going to be a totally new year for me. And it showed soon after.....

Then, it wasn't long till college life bumped into me almost straightaway. Yep, it was on the 2nd if I'm not mistaken. Orientation Day! Wowzers! As told in my earlier post, it all was new to me. So many surprises, so many changes and yet, some of it still seemed the same. No matter. It just showed me how college life was..... from the surface lol. Much was to be discovered. Soon after, I got to know the many lecturers who would be teaching me in this new environment. It turns out that they really had totally different personalities. Great, more fun for the gossip gangs. But meh, at least it gives us a more "entertaining" matter to talk about instead of snoozing in class lol. Yeah, college lectures can be kind of a boring thing, maybe it's not as bad as then. Oh well, no point comparing..... Here's a little list made by Talon.... maybe you can drop by for a while if you care to know about the lot in Disted....

Of Lecturers & Snoozes

Ok enough about that. Here's some new ideas about what's been happening after the few weeks in college. First up! LaLLAT.

Alright what in the world is LaLLAT. It's simple. It's what we do every day in college, every week, every fortnight, every month? Let me enlighten the path instead of dragging you into murky water.

LaLLAT
La :
Lab! These are sessions you get to mess up your apparatus and turn them into something special. Yep, totally different. Messing up won't affect others as it's all by yourself. So, what do you do? Throw everything in and see what happens! Honest. Though, we tend to make the most of it so I don't think any of us would try it..... maybe one day. Very interesting I must say. If I were to sum up what I've been doing in the lab sessions, I would say that these sessions are the ones that actually make studying interesting for me. Maybe a list of what I've done would be nice?

Biology : Microscope! These gadgets are very different from then, especially when they are much more advanced and are of the latest designs. According to Datin Helen, who is my bio lab teacher by the way, these were imported from the United Kingdom. Wait... I thought most stuff were made in China..... Maybe not. It was fun the first few times. This time around, the magnification for the objective lens can be up to x100 for us.... multiplied by the eyepiece, giving us x1000! Wow! With these, I actually saw my own cheek cell! Not the first time we're doing this, I know, but at least I get to see them again!

Chemistry : Wow, concentration = 1.0 mol/dm3. =O You MUST think that that is really going to hurt you. Looking at the sign saying corrosive on the bottle, it was a scary fact to know. Back in those days, it was only 0.1 as the maximum? What in the world... 1.0?! Yeah, try that on your skin like Sze Zhong did and you'll only get an itch..... washed that off immediately though. Don't do this anywhere! Guess what? We actually got to deal with many other chemicals now. It's really fun....... at times..... maybe not....

Physics : YAY! The one subject which allows me to stay away from those icky gooey chemicals! Wait, am I afraid of them? Anyway, these sessions allow me to deal with.... Guess what? Pendulums and weights...... We actually did pretty simple experiments for the first few sessions. They were really not that hard, but it was time consuming knowing that I had to do it in an hour for the practical test while I'm doing it here for an extra half an hour. OMG? I need to brush up I guess. And next, graph drawing has really become a very important part of our Physics practical...... that is, only for us students. Guess what? This time around, we actually try to find out the interception point and the gradient first before plotting the points! At least, some of us did.... And what do you get? Perfection! That's how we ace the readings. See? We are really bad boys hah?

L :
L is for lecture. Lectures are like what you encounter everyday in your school life. It's when the teacher blabs out all the theory in front of class. In college, the lecturers teach in many ways, at least mine does. Some do notes, some do slides, some do textbooks, some intensive exercises and some using just talking! It really is interesting to see the many ways they try to convey their message to us. But still, it all ends up the same. We snooze in class after a while. Not even the 4th level of Halls' spicy taste would keep us up for 5 seconds! Wow, I wonder how they do this. But still, sometimes, they can be quite interesting, especially for certain subjects.... not mentioning which though, but just saying that there are some moments of brilliance..... wait, did I just say that? LOL

LA :
LAN! What the heck is that you might ask.... It's not part of the course I'm taking. It's kind of compulsory for all college students. For us, we're taking Moral Education. Moral Education.... why are we going into that again? One thing's for sure, NO MORE NILAIS. Yes! They finally got enough of the moral value memorizing routine. Instead, now you learn what kind of moral values there are? Instrumental? Objective? What in the world are those anyway? Oh ya, you get to learn about other stuff like.... how to solve a conflict? Huh????? Yep, that's pretty much how it is during these periods.

T :
Tutorials! Wow, what are these you might ask? Well, as you all know, tutorials are usually sessions where you learn how to do something. In games, you get tutorials teaching you how to play it. It's just giving you a whole idea of how it works etc. Blah, you get the story. But in college.......

These are actually sessions that allows you to sort of like, ask more questions or get more questions. It's when you get to do your exercises and ask when you don't know any of them.... and I do mean ANY OF THEM. Some are done before them. So, it's YAY! More homework to be done? Gosh, I just wonder whether they provide more help for us or just create more puzzled minds among us? It is effective though...... maybe not. At least it makes sure that we understand the whole picture instead of being totally clueless.... right?

So there you go! LaLLAT! Just a thing I would like to introduce to you all who haven't started pre-U courses. But for those who have, another reminder for those of you who still haven't any idea of what they are doing everyday..... I don't think there are any though. Well, let's just say a lot has been different. This is what I do every day of every week until now, that is, when I am in college. Occasionally, you would find a time when you have too much free time. That's when the illegal installation of DotA in the General Lab comes in handy..... Hah!

Not much has happened in the month of January. Just a couple of not so interesting events. I have to say that in a start of a project, you tend to plan and set up your targets at first. So, not much has been done usually in this start, same goes for me. I hope everyone of you out there would achieve your respective targets that have been set. And I would like to wish you all a very Happy Chinese New Year and hope you enjoy yourselves during these festive period. Have a good one, mates!

New Year. New Beginning. New Life..... New.... school?!

Alright. To all those people out there, Happy New Year! I know this is late but I'm really sorry. I don't really have time recently as there's too many things to do. As stated in the title above, it's a new year, new beginning and seriously, a new life. A lot of things are new this year. Some are really good things that happen.... some... you can't even believe it's happening. Whatever it is, it certainly has been a strange 2008 for me.

What I wrote in this particular post isn't much, just a bit of an introduction to college life and how was the start of my year 2008.... in college.

To start things off for the year 2008, let's go for what we usually would do at the start of the year. Well, I would say that we would already start school at the start of the year. Though, I have graduated from CLHS. So, you might think that it is the end of the school years and the start of a big break! All was nice until................. BAM! COLLEGE!

A long break was expected to be honest. I didn't really think that college was going to be so fast. The SPM was hard and all of us Form 5 students really needed a long break. But before you know it, you'd start "school" in January the 2nd. Isn't that just great?

Let's skip to the main point, shall we?

COLLEGE

All I can say that this is a completely new world for me. Being in an all-boys school for 5 years really does take its toll when it comes to college. Totally different scenario? That's obvious. The gender mix was one of the most obvious change after so many years. Though, that's not really hard to cope with after a few weeks. Made many new friends from many schools, from Jit Sin to Chung Hwa, from Penangites to Malacca newcomer. It's really a new environment for most of us here. As for us former CLHS students...... well, it's kind of odd this time around. It was really a surprise to me as about 30+ of CLHS students actually joined the college. "Wow!", I thought. Really a surprise. Yep, and it was out of a whole 200 students (including those who are older doing other courses, but that's unrelated) So, to be accurate, it's about 30+ out of a large 130-140 students possibly. We had the highest percentage of students there from what I saw, incredible! Some of my old friends were there. Let me make a list of my ex-schoolmates who are now my "coursemates"

Jia Rong (Talon), SZ Lim, Wei Yang, Brian Yap, Sheng Di, Joshua, Chung Ren, Bing Yuan, Huah Chiang, Kai Sheng, Kai Zheong, Yun Xiu, Pin Khiam...... and many more I guess... too lazy to list them all

It was like a large gang invading the college, so it still felt more comfortable knowing that many of those I know are there. Oh and by the way, I'm taking Cambridge GCE A-Levels in DISTED College. Interesting choice. A-Levels was because I have no idea where to go so there was no point taking SAM/Australian Matriculation/HSE. DISTED was because I don't really want to go out of Penang to study.

Enough of that. Let's get back to the topic. Oh ya. New college life. Next change was the freedom. We're finally free from wearing those white shirts and short green pants! Now, we can wear anything we want! (preferably more appropriate clothing of course). No more teachers using ultimatum to stop us from talking etc. It's really one heck of a change. No sitting plans, no restrictions on what we can bring to school...... The list goes on and on. It's pretty much like tuition except that it's more like a school's size. The timetable is pretty flexible as you can swap classes with another person if you have problems such as personal issues or clashes with other classes. It's pretty much like an all-you-can-eat buffet with an extra few rules in it, but the rules aren't strict at all. It is a fun learning experience if you compare it to high school life. High school life, though, DOES have its many advantages as well.

Here's a picture on our recent orientation day :

Orientation Day Pic. Was kinda spontaneous. TRY TO SPOT US!

Big group I must say. Though, it consists of all the new students from each course, so it ain't that bad. Well, we did a lot of stuff that day. The morning session was more of a "get-to-know" the college session, so the activities had a lot to do with it. Activities such as treasure hunts were held. Even though it is smaller when compared to CLHS, boy was the running tiring as they made us go back and forth the whole time. It was a really torturing way of showing how small the place is. It was fun though. Here's another picture from the day :

Note : Anyone from CLHS recognise the two guys in the middle...........???

Much was different from last time. Now, most students spend their time in the library, usually studying or using the computer for various reasons. We seldom see people lying or lazing around on tables anymore. Somehow, everyone got serious. Strange eh? Just shows how fast we grow up lolx.... Next, we have a cafeteria that sells pretty much a little bit of everything. Economy rice is what we usually buy. Though, we sometimes go out to other places to have our lunch. The cafeteria food is much more expensive when compared to the food we had in our CLHS canteen. But there are a lot of things there, even western food (but no one would dare to try >_>). I still miss my old canteen food though. Oh well... life goes on....

Here, it is a new start. From 8 to 6 almost every day, boy is it tiring. The work takes out a lot of your time during weekdays. That's a reminder for those of you planning to continue your studies to colleges around the world. It's not that simple any more. More work, more tiring, more challenges...... more friends, more freedom, more activities etc. It's more of everything to be honest. It's a whole new experience that I would like to share to you guys out there who are still planning their way to their future careers. College would be a good way. A twist in your life that really opens your mind and makes you think out of box for once. It isn't hard, but it would be interesting and once you have done it, you have done it. But words can only tell so much. All the excitement and experience still lies in the mind. For those of you out there who still do not know where they want to go, college is one of the answers I would give immediately. As for those of you with me in the college, I wish you all a Happy New Year and a prosperous one as well. Hope you all enjoy the college life and achieve success in this new territory!

Signing off,
Kal

Ventrilo.... what?

Finally, breathing space between tests! Today, finally decided to start my blog. Taking time of the studying a bit. Anyone seen shows where people would hold a puppet or some object on one hand while simply acting as a companion of that object? Pretty interesting to be honest. What's more amazing is that the puppets would actually "talk". I think this is pretty uncommon, but I think most should have seen these performers before. Maybe you forgot the name..... It's ven.... ventriquo...... Bah! Too hard to spell. Took a while until I finally realized that the name was pretty confusing.

It's Ventriloquism. It's pretty magnificent the way those who master this can change the tone of their voice so well. What's more? They can literally "talk" without opening their mouths. Cool, isn't it? How I wish I could do that..... Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

OMG..... Look at the eyes....

At least his puppet's less scarier...

Really, if you think these are scarier, I don't think you'd be able to sleep if you see the others. Reason? These puppets are often used in horror movies and well... associated with murderers in the movie. You might remember some if you have seen them before. But still, they are fascinating things. It shows an ability that not everyone has. To even do what the experts in this do, it takes a lot of training. And I mean, A LOT. Try doing it and you'll have to open up your mouth within seconds! Ouch.....

Seen this anywhere before? If you're not a cartoon person, you won't know... It's Batman...

Well, ventriloquism doesn't only mean that it involves puppets. And I mean, no puppets involved. It is possible. I just noticed that even Superman has a power which is related to Ventriloquism as well. Pretty cool hah?

Super Ventriloquism: Superman could throw his voice across great distances. This power was used to confuse enemies or protect his secret identity by tricking others into believing that he (or Clark Kent) was in a different location. *Thanks Wiki for this*

Though, it doesn't have to be scary all the time. Sometimes, it can be in the form of humor. There are many experts in this out there who apparently do this on stage just to make us laugh. And really, they earn a lot from this. Pretty interesting to be honest. Other than that, there are these shows which also feature some scenes with this. For example, Kyle Massey as Cory performing his ventriloquism act in one of the episodes named Out of Control in "That's So Raven". In short, ventriloquism may appear in many ways. Just try to see the good and funny side of it.

I particularly admire this guy, Jeff Dunham. Amazing guy. I have to say that he is pretty popular in the United States. His performances are outstanding. Sometimes, watching his video really makes our mind more relaxed. Better for studying :P Like they say, laughter is the best medicine! Enjoy!

Just a couple of videos from him. For more, do check out YouTube. Till the next time! =)