SOAR: the Motive behind the Motive

Before I say anything about the topic itself, I would just like to declare that this post is just a voice of my thought and opinions. Call me a critic, call me selfish, call me rude, whatever makes you happy, but I write this, just for those willing to realise, or those willing to read at the very least, to see what goes around in my mind.


SOAR Advisors, Student Orientation Advisory and Registration Advisors, so-called, were one of the first people I saw in Curtin. The first day of uni, they were the ones. The "Men in Black" you could call them, with their black shirts and pants, fitted with a tie to heighten the standard of their looks. Professionalism, was what it stamped in my mind.

The one and only purpose for the SOAR advisors, are to lead, to guide, to teach, and to advise students during the orientation. And after 1 week of my orientation, and another week of mixing around, I got to know more about what, and how SOARs were. And then, I decided.....


But why? A lot ask me, why I want to become a SOAR. In the interview, there was also this question, "Why do you want to become a SOAR advisor?". My answer to the interview, "To learn new stuff, new skills, socialize, get to know more people, and lastly, gain experience."

That wasn't, of course..... all of it......

There's always an ulterior motive to everything nowadays......



And back to the image that was imprinted by the 2 weeks orientation period.

What I saw was.... "SOAR...... what a beautiful name..... ", I thought. "But it's a pretty high name to live up to at the same time..." but then again.... ".... a bunch of people, wearing black, carrying the air of elegance around, but themselves radiating none."

And 1 week, that very 1 week, proved sufficient to analyze and see whether the SOARs lived up to their name.

Like I said before, the very first day I stepped into Curtin, the first people I see.... are these very SOARs. Speak of 'First Impression'. Yet, honestly speaking.... no harsh feelings.... but they were a letdown. The games, the activities, the handling, the leading.... the only thing I could see was a huge empty space, that had plenty of room for all of that to grow into, to expand, to improve.

Time keeping was somewhat befuddled; the games were desperately screaming for change and help; the group advisors themselves were walking on water..... not to mention with a croc below.....; the higher ups pointed fingers without knowing what and why they were pointing..... and more......


And so I thought, a person knows one's self best, and decided to be one of the 'Men in Black', to find out what lied behind the black clothings....

I wanted to bring about change. A change that would let the SOARs live up to what they are called. I don't know how, I don't know when, and I don't know why. It just makes me feel that I want to do this. It just makes me sick seeing such a beautiful name, given to people with so much opportunities..... and yet all used wastefully.

In things that I really AM interested and capable in..... I can say that I'm a perfectionist. I want everything to be perfect, or at the least, as close to perfect as possible. Maybe that is why.... seeing others who deperately could use help just makes me feel awful inside....

And that was my ulterior motive..... to reach into the roots, and carry out some sort of coup d'état to this current pathetic organization.

Well.... that is all I can say for now...... until I soar.....




Hmm.... the post turned out to be somewhat different than what I actually had in mind, but anyway, haha. Some might hate me maybe, haha, especially if any actual SOARs read this. But anyway.... please comment!!!


じゃあ。

Long Bedian - Part 2

Finally, time for the long awaited update of part 2 (IF you waited, haha). Was a bit busy and knocked off track by the recent turns of events and activities.... so well, here it is.

Part II

(This is continued from part one, if you haven't read part I, I suggest you do so HERE)

Day 2 came around..... at 6:30 in the morning.

After having a heartfelt breakfast with our foster families.... chit chatting about who we are, where we're from, what we do..... (which reminds me of a song....), we finally took off for our next stop, which was the Kayan people's very own Sungai Tenyok Resort.

Then, we took something like the 'First Generation' Old-skool Land Cruiser.....

Figure 1. Our ride to Sungai Tenyok.

It was basically a three seater.... so we had to hitch onto the back of it, giving ourselves a chance to experience the fresh air which could only be found miles away from the city.

Figure 2. This..... is the old-skool refueling method.....

Since the day before when I arrived here, everything seemed so..... "amazing" to me. It was a wonder how the whole kampung managed its water supply: which was taken from a self built dam nearby; it was another wonder how they managed to wire their houses to their generators: where they used at night and turned off during the day; and the picture above again....... I wonder whether I would've thought of such a method to pour the fuel into the tank........ ingenious, I have to say....

And after the refueling.... we set off.... for yet another mind jolting ride.... but this time, with fresh air blowing into our nostrils.....

Figure 3, 4. More roads....

The sceneries were nice....... even better than the day before's.... but then again, all the bumping and "massage" made all the views kinda lopsided in my mind...... I could never get the time to remember a straight scenery....

After about 30 minutes of humping in the rear of the pickup...... we arrived......

Figure 5. The suspension bridge near the entrance....

Indeed, this place..... since the first day till today.... everything I saw.... never ceased to amaze me.

Figure 6. The river..... (duh)

(I guess it doesn't look so nice on picture again..... well, cameraphone, what to expect.... you have to see the real thing to appreciate it)

Oh the scenery of nature..... something so rarely are we able to see nowadays..... like right now, what I see when I look outside my window..... is my neighbour's window... but overthere.... everything was perfect. So natural, so peaceful, so beautiful.


We spent the morning.... helping.... wait..... helping? Lol.... I guess not, all we did was attach a few pipes together, that's all. We were supposed to help out the villagers with their plans in affixing a hydroelectric generator and some pipelines for their eletricity and water source..... but turned out that..... they had a change in plans, and asked us to go swimming.


So.... we spent our morning swimming in the icy cold (maybe not icy cold) river..... which was something new to most of us..... swim swimming swim.... until lunch.....

After lunch.... I was already tired from being in the water for the past few hours...... but more was awaiting us. What we had in queue was a visit to their waterfalls..... And so..... half reluctantly (cause I was sleepy and tired), I got into the back of the pickup again...... and jolted my way awake to the waterfall site......

By the time I reached there, I was already fully awake, with my eyes watching my feet and the ground in case any pink-purplish squishy creatures adhered themselves to my feet (leeches). 5 minutes walking distance from the road........ and behold:

Figure 7, 8. The ________ waterfall (fill in the blank, I forgot the name)

My eyes were like "wow......". This was really the first time I actually saw a waterfall...... THIS big..... (though it wasn't really THAT big, but...... yea.....), and this wonderful...... Around it were rays of light that came down from heaven, like those light rays you see from movies and animes..... "So, there really ARE such scenes in real life........"

The one in the pictures was the smaller waterfall, there was another, much HIGHER waterfall..... maybe 3 or 4 stories high, which we could only see from the top since there was no way of getting to the bottom (imagine standing on the 4th floor of TTSS's CCA building and looking down, that's about how it looked like from standing above the waterfall)

The pictures I took didn't turn out nice....... so no pics on the 2nd waterfall.


After the 1st two waterfalls and some swimming below them, we went to yet another one....... but this time.........

Figure 9. Errr...... "Widescreen" (The pic is a bit small because it's wider than taller, click on it if you wanna see properly)

The water fall was BIG....... not high, not much water...... but the rocky part where we could stand on was wide and cool, "cool?..... whatever.... it looked cool I guess.... kids these days seem to use 'cool' to express everything"

And here, we did........

Figure 9. Waaaah.....


Figure 10. Weeeeee........!!!!


Figure 11. Buuuuussshhh!!!............

Before we realised, it was time to be bumping another 5 hours back home..... Four 4-Wheelers.... once again, 5 hours.... of bone jolting butt flattening ride..... shaking us back to reality.


The rest of the trip was basically time we spent together with each other and the villagers..... getting to know each other, learning about the culture and so on.....

All in all, this was really an experience to remember.... all of it. From the free "massage" sessions to the drowning feeling after jumping from waterfalls........ it's all worth it.....

It was actually like watching the dawn of modern mankind..... seeing how they improved, seeing how they maintained their lives.... learning, improvising, improving, it was what brought humans to be who we are today. It was truly a trip that changed my perspective of life.


So long.

Long Bedian - A Trip to Remember

A trip to remember eh? Why? You'll find out shortly.


Since I felt that my expressing ability is kinda deteriorating, I'll stick to less explanation and let the pics explain for themselves.

Part 1

"FIVE HOURS!???, WHERE does THAT leave me!?? Back in KK??", was what I thought, when I heard that our trip to the long house would take 5 hours.

Anyhow, the inevitable came..... and after a troublesome morning of phone calls and sms messages to and from us, our group 5 OC (Organising Chairperson, Ms Aileen), and the Longhouse people..... we finally managed to depart on our "Journey to..... ..... uh...", at loss of words....

But not before a "Transit" at one of Miri's Bus stop..... where we sat, next to the Rambutans and their owners, which all of them had the same thing in common, "Manis ka?" (Is it sweet?), "Ya! Ya! Manis punya, RM3 satu kilo aje" (Yes! Yes! Sweet, RM3 per kilo only)..... Whether they really were sweet or not, I really couldn't help but wonder.

Figure 1. The Transit station, rambutans to the left.....
there were more to the right too.


Figure 2. A "Useful" notice at a "Useless" place....

Something just felt kinda weird when I saw this notice..... I doubt anybody really saw it..... needless to say call the number on it.

Figure 3. The Air purifier beside the "transit station".

During the whole 2 - 3 hour wait at our "transit station", beside us laid a 1.5 meter wide air purifier. How does THIS work? Well, basically, all you have to do is throw anything you feel is of no use, or anything that you don't like it's smell into it, and it'll work to produce a new fragrance by jumbling up all the mumbo-jumbo everyone threw into it.

The Result, is a Light Headed 2 - 3 hour wait....... which kept my stomach feeling full the whole while.

Figure 4, 5. Our "Mass Transport" vehicle.

Toyota HiluxS'..... FOUR of them, it was actually five, but one's tyre got punctured and had to turn back. FOUR four-wheeled vehicles.... to bring 11 people to a place 5 hours away..... (it's said that busses won't go that far, and the road is toooooo "off-road" style).

At the same time, my mind was like "Why do WE need to go all the way to their place to do charity work when they have the money to afford these kind of cars!!?? Even my mom can't afford such a car....., I really wonder how many there are......"


Anyway..... I then realised the reason for the Hiluxes....

Figure 6, 7. Jalan Lapuk, the name of the road....
No, I didn't make it up, it REALLY is Jalan Lapuk!

(Pardon the tilty photoshots.... because taking a proper picture while sitting on a Hilux Rodeo ride was Mission: Impossible 5)

From the pictures, the road doesn't seem too bad...... but in reality!!!! (YES, 4 Exclamation marks!!)...... it was like.... "the ultimate test to car sickness" there was:

• Level 1 - Butt Massage, session length, 30 minutes
• Level 2 - Butt Massage and Vibration, session length, 1 hour
• Level 3 - Whole Body Vibration Session, session length, 1 hour
• Level 4 - G-Force Simulation and Full body 1 second "Air-time" simulation, session length, 30 minutes.
• Level 5 - Teh Tarik production using stomach: Pre-requisite - must have drank Teh-C before the first 4 levels, session length, 1 hour.

Figure 8. But anyway, on the way..... there were some cool things to look at

Figure 9. Err..... Ferry? "Why couldn't they just make a bridge??"


Figure 10. Self Explanatory..... ah, nevermind.... us going onto the ferry.....

At 6:30pm, after a head-dizzying stomach-lurching ass-splitting bone jolting balls shaking 5 hour ride...... we arrived....... at Long Bedian

I was light headed.... thanks to the lunch skipping because of the fragrant air purifier.... and the Teh-C turned Teh Tarik inside me was bursting to come out of my mouth..... which I left for the microns in Long Bedian's side drain to consume....

*Writes in notebook* - reminder - "If my mom is pregnant and went to Long Bedian, the baby will come out along the way"


Tired.... I retired to my foster family, which were going to 'keep' us for the time of this trip.



Night came, along with 5-hours-away-from-town Darkness..... and the gigantic insect species left untouched in the forests, they collided into walls and windows..... flying blindly.....

Being such a long distance from town, electricity was no where to be found. But thank the clever Kayan people (I forgot to mention, Kayan is the race of the people living in this Longhouse area).... they prepared generators, and used them to supply the current to their houses....


That night, we had our "orientation" about the Kayan tribe and some of it's simple history..... which, would be too long to tell here. So I'll just keep the best parts to myself.

Out of good fortune.... we had with us that night, some Penang borned Sarawakian..... Mr James Ritchie..... whom it seems was a journalist.... who happened to be there when we were.

Figure 11. Mr. James Ritchie, doesn't look local does he?

"Who is this guy??" I wondered when I first saw him. "His English is excellent..... even though he's a kampung guy?" And THEN, he spoke Malay! "What the hell......??" and then Cantonese! "What's next?? Japanese!?"...... fortunately.... that was his limit, it seemed.... Anyhow.... he proved to be an interesting character, which I wouldn't mind meeting again in the future, really....



Next was....

Figure 12. Wild Boar Leg

The cheapest source of meat in the kampung..... the price of a bullet and the petrol needed to carry it around. Yes, they use rifles..... on the contrary to what most people think...... they no longer wear a piece of cloth around the waist and use sumpits to shoot down prey..... "The guns are easier, BANG!! and we have meat...". But after seeing the Hiluxes'.... I guess this isn't a surprise anymore...

Figure 13. Well.... somewhat gruesome.... but well, you get to learn new things...

And after finishing up our "orientation", we all flunked home to get some sleep for the next day since it was already quite late..... 12 at night.....



I didn't expect this post to actually be so long. So I'll post a Part 2 later.

Happy Reading!, uh.... a bit late to greet now I guess..... you must've finished reading already, anyway.....


Later.

Bored and Hopeless...

Here I am again, 1:30 in the morning, with Electronics 104 Exercises to do, that has to be handed in in another 10 or 11 hour's time, yet, here I am, blogging.

Why haven't I finished my work by this time?? Well, once again, I got lured into some fun things to do on the internet, like THIS, which my friend introduced, which kept me busy for hours and hours..... till I decided to skip lectures and play this instead, lame huh.....? Anyway, it IS pretty fun, those of you who are free should go try it out.

The other reason (or excuse you could say), is that the work is tooooooOooo darn hard. I guess I haven't been paying attention to lectures, neither have I been studying..... the only thing I've accomplished this week so far is: I Finished the -"My Boss My Hero" Japanese Drama Series, which in turn, I would ALSO recommend you people to watch it. Nice, comedic and interesting movie... ... and touching too, btw.


Anyway.... I was sleepy and bored.... so I just decided to give my blog a quick post before I sleep. I guess my posts ARE getting kinda boring..... I'll try post something that's "not-so-full-of-words" next time..... but..... yeah.... nvm, next time....


Tata.

頭が。。。塞がった。。。

Hey there guys, it seemed like my blog kinda got stuck. I was actually planning to update on the Longhouse Trip that I went for, with the beautiful waterfalls and all..... But I don't know what actually happened to me, but I lost my ability to write.

My posts seem to get more and more boring, and I don't know what is it I'm missing.... that made me lose my ability to express...... my head recently..... is just blocked..... like a mental block.

Heh, I guess the Longhouse story will have to wait a bit..... for the meantime, I'll post about something else.

*************

Recently, I've been having mental blocks once in a while, it's feels like constipation, you know.... like there's so much in there, but it can't come out. But then again, you don't know WHAT's in there..... other than crap....

Recently also, I saw my cards..... lying in my drawer.... sitting together with my Add-Math II papers, which I haven't touched since last semester after my Math exam...... same goes for my cards..... I've barely touched them, and they're getting old..... new but old.....

And then it dawned on me. I've used more than hundreds of bucks on my cards; more than hours and weeks and month's of practice; and cramped my fingers countless times trying to do weird feats like card throwing and flipping and everything. Yet, am I going to give up on them? Right here, right now?

"Learn to Amaze", that was the word that captivated me. "That was it!" I thought, when I saw that phrase. "That was what I needed..." was all I knew. Then came another phrase "Magic Beyond Belief". That was it, I took it up, gave in my time, my effort, my heart, my trust.


What do YOU know about magic?


In today's world, magic proves to be solely for entertainment purpose I guess...... people today, they forget, they never realise.... how someone could jump from a plane without a parachute and not die; how someone could disappear behind a piece of cloth and appear in hawaii; how a hungry beggar could pull a hamburger out of Mc D's driveby menu; and even how magicians manage to turn back time..... just by the snap of their fingers.....

Then again, today's society think that magic is all tricks, that it is all lies, that all you need to know is "the Secret". Sorry to say, but that isn't it. Magic isn't a trick, it isn't a lie, and EVEN if you know "the Secret", you don't know Magic.

I myself believe, not everyone can learn magic. It's neither for the weak nor faint, nor the idiotic and lazy, nor the bone-breaking hardworking or Albert Einsteins'. It is for those who have the heart, not to learn, not to dedicate, but to Believe.



Okay, enough talk about the background of magic. K, I saw my cards, I remember what I used to do, what I used to like.... now what? I realised that I'd nearly forgotten what I used to love, what I used to feel like when performing, the sigh of relief and joy when seeing the word "Amazed" on the other's face.

What stopped me, what's holding me back, I don't know really...... but each time I see my cards, my heart hurts, my head hurts. Will I turn back time.....? (Same goes for my piano.... but that's another story)



まあ　まあ。。。。
人生に、　問題実に沢山いるよ。
俺何を待ち受けて？　自分も解かんね。
けど、段段に。。。　そろそろに。。。

時間が未だある。


じゃあ、　今日はここまで。

FIFTEEN

Hey there guys. I'm back from the Longhouse visit. I was actually back yesterday, but was somewhat too tired, and still having a bit of 'aftereffects' from the 5 hour overpowered-overreved Long Lapuk Ogawa massage session (the ride back from the longhouse). I have a lot to talk about the trip, but I haven't got the pictures ready, in the meantime.....


I was tagged by siaunee............
State 15 weird/habits/little known facts about yourself. The 10 people I tag are then supposed to follow in my footsteps and state their 15 weird things, habits, and little known facts.

1. I'm too lazy for my own good.

2. I don't talk much. Though I DO have a lot to say sometimes. Lets just say I can express myself better typing than talking.

3. I don't drink water right after eating (most of the time, sometimes it can't be helped).

4. Sometimes when I'm bored, I take a shower, for no reason whatsoever.

5. I have a long fuse (I'm a patient person). Though some specific things piss me off Right Away.

6. I Love thrills. I like to do daring stuff and things that other people would think twice to do.

7. I don't give a damn about what people say. I do what I like, sit beside the road, put my legs on the table, lie down on the floor. If I'm not doing something, it's all out of courtesy only.

8. I'm a dreamer. In other words, I like to dream...... whatever it is.... I just like to dream..... In class, at the canteen, in my room on bed, on the rooftop.... wherever.

9. I like to spend my time being alone sometimes.

10. My brain runs like a multiprocessing supercomputer, taking in everything I see, processing everything I hear, and storing everything in my memory..... I think more than I talk.... and I think before I talk too.

11. I like to bring a lighter with me most of the time.

12. I love to take photos (not of myself though). I like having a camera in my hand, it's like given the ability to freeze time and hold that image forever....... and I strive to improve my photo-taking skills.

13. I prefer doing work alone..... if you're gonna give me a partner, it'll depend who the partner is.

14. I like to cook alone, for myself.

15. I like to observe, watch, and see what goes on around me...... teaching my own self about this world.



I want to tag:
Whoever wants to put this up in their blog. (Too lazy to think of names right now, haha)



So long.
Till I get my photos ready.

3 days "Vacation"

After a long and tedious struggle with Management 100, I finally get..... 3 days, not really vacation.... but, just.... some time away from Everything.

I won't be around for the next 3 days, since I took part in Curtin's John Curtin Weekend (JCW) rural outreach camp. Basically, we're going to the longhouse, to mainly.... help out, probably.... so, I'll be back on Monday, and if things turn out to be interesting, I might post about it.


Somehow.... I'm not really in the mood to post anything right now.... so.... here's a video my friend introduced to me while I was doing my Management assignment one night, and because of it, I ended up not doing anything for the rest of the night.

So.... enjoy.




See ya.

Ventilating.....

I got bored with doing an un-proggresable (coined my own terms, hehe) assignment. Why un-proggressable you might ask??

Okay, first of all, I'm not the "Group" person. Giving me a group assignment just makes things harder for me. I always end up taking up all the work and doing it myself, or letting all the others do it.

Well, but this time, that isn't the case. I just really really hate working in groups, DOING ASSIGNMENTS. And Now!?? I've got 3 people in my group including me. That mean's I've got 2 other people to work with, while all other groups consist of at least FOUR, 4, or FIVE people!!

Seriously, I don't wanna make anyone sound bad. But honestly, One of them is practically useless... even if I have him/her something to do, it'll end up either being totally different from what I expected or something FAAAARR from ANYONE's expectations. And sometimes, his/her works and answers are just pure lame and like.... ..... duh....... How the hell do these kind of people LIVE?!? I really do wonder.

Secondly, I won't be around for this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, meaning I'll have to finish everything by tomorrow, Thursday. And up till RIGHT NOW..... I haven't gotten ANYTHING yet, from any of the two. How the hell do I get started with MY part if I haven't even got anything from them??!! I'm supposed to compile everything and include the information I found and complete the report. But I'm missing my head and legs now..... what do I do with a body without legs to move and a brain to control it!?? And I've only got 1 day to go. If we get bad marks for this assignment, sorry, don't blame me please.


Sorry guys. Just ranting... you don't really have to read it if you don't want to. Was just a little frustrated while still WAITING for the two of them to give me their information.


Later.