journey to the south 4 - camping

Yeah going to post about camp... one week after it.

once again, I went back to PJ, for the scouts camp in school.

I took a 730 bus from Penang and reached Pj at 1pm, then I headed to yee en house to hide/sleep/rest, till camp.

Yee en and I were late for the flagbreak, Yee En just came back from his exams and rushed to camp. What a dedicated scouter, went for camp despite having exams, of course with a heavy price to pay for.the recruits

For the first night, just taught them hoe to prepare their logbooks, then we had supper. At 1.30am, we scouters had our meeting, till 2 something. Then Yee En and I went on to make our stretchers , finally, I went to sleep by 3am.

the probationer scouters

Basically, for the first night of camp, I was very happy and delighted to meet up with lots of friends/scouters. What was their comments on me? Seck Houng, you are fatter!! the effect of rotting a home for 3 months.
At the same time, I wasn't in the 'camping mode' yet, maybe it is because I just travelled down form Penang, and not yet get used to the 'new' environment. haha, well, I must admit, I'm slow in adapting to new environment.

the juniors with their pioneering project

supper time

The next day,the very same morning, I woke up at 5.30 and went on patrolling the school with the small kids. For that day I had 2 lectures, 1. isyarat sulit 2. parang dan kapak. How were my lectures? according to their feedback, they were boring....
Ah, I feel so sad.... But did I really prepared the lectures? Did I really follow the movement's motto: be prepared? Well I guess not, but If I would be given a chance to teach in the future, I'll be prepared!!

sleeping juniors

During noon, while the recruits were having their lecture on " fundamentals of scouting" I went for backwoodsman, to cook Yee En's chicken (apparently, his original plan was to cook it during the night). I roasted half of the chicken, and 'mud-ed' the other half. How was the chicken? Looks quite nice, and tasted like a chicken. Well I didn't marinate the chicken with anything, so it was tasteless.

Can you spot the other chicken?


the mud chicken, notice the other part of the chicken was exposed to the fire( failure or sabotaged?) and got BBQ. Hence I would say that this is a all new 2in1 BBQ+ steam chicken...

This camp Malam Kebudayaan, it quite an interesting one, I really enjoyed it. Especially the seniors sketches, Night walk etc.... Overall I think this year scouts performances really got standard! For the night walk, it really brings back memories. When was the last time you played night walk?

Then OBH, supper, and open talk. haha sorry Yee En, miss communication. It was supposed to be a open talk with the recruits, but it ended up to be a open talk among scouters. 3am, sleep.

Woke up late for the last day of camp. Helped Guo Qiang to pass his tenderfoot. After flag break, went home with a smelly body and a bag fully of stinky shirts. Well not actually home, but Yee En's house.

*******

How was it, being a scouter?
Teaching is no easy task.
Thru this camp, I able to understand and know myself better.
After attending the Mani Kayu course, I learnt some theories on how to be a leader, how to pass down knowledge, but did I really put all the theory into practical? Was I able to do so? Sadly, I forgotten all the theories, and just did it my way or in other word ' hentam sahaja'. It is easy to talk about the theories, but can you practise it? Knowing the theory and putting it into practical are really 2 different things. So I'm A person who can talk to you about methods of teaching scouts for hours, but can't use a single method himself.

We also got quite a number of comments/complains from recruits parents.

******

Finally,I would like to thank my parents for supporting me, financially. Thank you Yee en for offering me accommodation. I start to treat his house like a hotel, check in n check out the hotel quite frequently. If i would rate this 'hotel' it would be a 7 star hotel...haha

GONE CAMPING

Lim Seck Houng will not be around from 18 till 21 April.

He is going back to PJ, so that he can sleep in the school.

Pls do not miss him, cause he will be coming back soon.

My lecturers

I have 4 subjects, not 5 as stated in the previous post. 4 lecturers 4 4 subjects....

English, Miss Annie.
"My students always complain about this place. What is it?facilities not good? no. Lecturers not good? no. So what IS THE COMPLAIN? To few girls!"

"But you must see, PSDC is strategically located 10 min away from, Sunshine square, Bukit Jambul complex, and Queensbay Mall! There are hundreds of girls for you to see there! Every day hundreds of different girls! KDU got more girls but every year you will see the same girls only! During lunch break (12-2) you all can just go there and see till you all full!"

" your are adults! Looking at girls is normal! BUt if you look at guys, then...... but don't worry I won't discriminate you, if you look at guys.."

A joke from her " Mr. XYZ: I am not gay, but my boyfriend is"

Electronic Technolgy A (ETA), MR. P.C. Ooi
He is a very young guy, and looks like a student.

" ETA is very hard, You all will fail my paper!"
" Passing marks is 50%, you all should try to aim higher than that, but it is impossible!!"
" Rules for the 'game', Rule no.1 I am always correct, Rule no. 2, if I am wrong, pls refer to rule no.1 "
" Don't make me hate you , make me love you"

ZHA DOU!!!

note: during th second lecture, he told the class that there will be 5 questions for the finals (60%). question no.1-3, 10% each, easy questions from tutorials, so as long as we do our work, we will pass.

this one really ZHA DOU!!!

Engineering MAths, Mr Albert.
Another Young guy....
Quite careless when teaching maths, "12-1=10 , 13-7=5" what he taught us during lectures. when we corrected him, he will say' very sharp eyes, good good'

Introduction to Engineering Science ( IES), Mr Andy Soon
A fatter version of Andy LAu.
We didn't give that statement, it was from our English Lecturer!!
Well, his lectures are like telling grandfather grandmother stories, he just kept on repeating n repeating on a particular page.
Worse still, his lectures are from 2-4pm , right after lunch, the time where many feel sleepy, including me.
however, he is still a nice guy...

the end...

Blood donation drive

Today, there was a blood donation drive in PSDC, organized by the student council.

I wanted to donate my blood, really wanted to try and experience it, so I decided to 'take action' after my last class, which ended by 4pm.


Walked in there, filled up a form. Then lined up to get some check ups. While waiting, the organizers gave us a RM 3 coupon, to buy some refreshments after donating blood.

So, it was finally my turn. I sat down, passed the form to the nurse.
"kali pertama?" the nurse asked
"ya"
Placed my arm on the table, while the nurse took out an alcohol swab to sterile my finger, before taking a blood sample.

Then suddenly, she looked at my form and asked " umur berapa?", "18?" ," eh, belum cukup umur lagi!! kena tunggu hingga gam-gam 18!"

walau............

I Packed up and headed toward the cafeteria, and use the rm3 coupon to buy 3 packets of min Chipmore.

The end of the story of my "first blood donation"....

Well can't say anything, only can blame myself for being so blur, but they didn't write anything on the form also!! and I'm not the only one, 2 guy lining up behind me were also unaware of it.Furthermore it not bad right? just line up, pretend that you are going to donate blood, get rm3, and buy some yummy food!!

Funny bridge

A- the lost one, B the wise one
A: Oh wise one, I'm lost.
B: how may I help you?
A: How to cross the river?
B: Use the bridge.
A:How to cross the bridge?
B: GEt up the bridge.
A: How to get up the bridge?
B: I dunno.
A: I thought you are the wise one.
B: You can't use the bridge, that's why it is called the funny bridge!
A: ( collapses and dies of 'zha-dou'ness)
B: Hmm.... the wise one doesn't ask questions that doesn't have anwers.
Drawn with Google Sketch up 6!.
This is one powerful software!!

PSDC Orientation

Finally after 3 months of rotting, and growing mushrooms on my head,I'm going back to school college.

PSDC ( Penang Skill Development Centre). Well it is not really a college anyway, as explain by the general manager of PSDC during today's orientation. Besides providing educations for SPM leavers, it also gives corporate training, to adults, hence it is a skill training center too. So, it is a college for us, a skill training centre for adults, and a 'skill development centre' for the public. So, you can call it what ever you want.

So what am I studying there? Diploma i mechatronic. Mechatronic= mechanical + electronic. get it? It is a 3 year course, upon graduation I should be able to build something like this.
haha just joking

Basically, for this semester I will have 5 subject, which are English1, English2, Engineering Mathematics, Introduction to Engineering Science, Electronic Technology A. Ya, I'm going to study all these for the next 6 months.

The course I'm studying, I think it has the most number of people, compared to the others.. I think about 80-100. Based on the length of the list. I'm in group 5.

HOw was the orientation? Just normal. Introduction of the staff, psdc, course, rules etc. then tea break ( 1st and last time free food given by psdc), and collect our textbooks. Yes we got textbooks, psdc textbook. The end. It is a super short orientation, y some orientation last for a week, some even have camp!!

oh, I got my timetable, for the 1term of the 1 semester . Basically I will have a free day every week. Total time studying for the 1 term (April- june) is 116 hours.
116 hour divided by 8 weeks = 14.5hr/week
14.5hr divided by 5 working days = 2.9hr/day

3 hour per day!! But don't so too happy Seck Houng, wait till you get ur assignments n projects!!!

Model perintis

What is this? This is a bridge
length: 33cm
width: 13cm
height: 20cm
materials: bamboo satay stick and threads
lashings: square and diagonals

Well originally, what i had in my mind was something like that.But then, it was way too complicated, so I just modified the idea, and just made this

Look at it, it is quite cacat, ok ok very cacat. It doesn't even a the shape of semi-circle.


Well at least it is still quite strong

The dumb bell is around 2.5 kg.

But this is seriously nothing compared to some other pioneering models done by others.

So, what next? maybe will build a longer bridge the next time, maybe 2 times longer than this?

Cheng Beng 2008

Cheng Beng falls on April 5 every year, except on leap year when it falls on April 4.

Today is Cheng Beng, but am I?At home. To tell you the truth, so far I only went for 1 Cheng Beng. Not felial?

Well, my parents went back to BAtu Pahat today, and will only be back on Wednesday, so left back 3 monkeys in the house. I will be the monkeys head for the moment... in charge of cooking, cleaning, mopping, etc. To be short, I will be the temporary 'minister of house', or in a not so 'yeng term' househusband, whatever you call it.

On Tuesday, it will be the 49th day my grandmother passed away. There will be a ceremony on that day. What ceremony? Is is kinda hard for me to explain.

A Chinese poem titled, Cheng Beng

清明

清明时节雨纷纷，

路上行人欲断魂，
借问酒家何处有，
牧童遥指杏花村。

杜牧

April Fool wIth JPA scholarship interviewers

My interview was one the first day (interviews are carried out from 1-4 April), 2pm ( the last session, there was 8pam 10am n 2pm), in USM (University Sain Malaysia). Lucky I moved to Penang, if I'm still in PJ, I would have to travel all the way to Putrajaya.

Reached USM at 1.30pm. Asked the guard for directions, the interview is in dewan Indah Kembara. When there, the place was still very empty, I went to check my name on the list. check , check , and check.... LOL I can't find my name!! OMG is this really April fool from JPA ??

Well apparently there a 2 dewan Indah Kembara, and my name was listed in the other dewan Indah Kembara. My name was no.42, so I thought I would need to wait for a long time, but instead they it was 1st come first serve. I was the 5th person in the 1st group. Before going in, the staff asked our group, "anyone applied for doctor?" We said, "no". Our group consisted of 2 guys and 3 girls. 2 dentistry, 1 actuarial science 1 pharmacies and 1 engineering (me).

When in according to our no., the 2 interviewers are 2 kind lady. They explained the whole interview process. First is self-introduction, they wanna know four things
- a little bit about yourself
- what course you applied
- n why?
- how can you contribute to the country if you were given the scholarship
( All in BM )

One interviewer will listen, another one checks our certs.

Self -intro( All in BM )
1st girl, pharmacies. The interviewer interrupted by asking a few questions eg. what disease can't be cured currently? how many Malaysian are HIV positive?

2nd girl, actuarial science. The interviewer asked a few question again. eg. do you really know what is actuarial science? what does your job involves? You can save people? HOw?

3rd girl, dentistry. The interviewers looks interested, cause she is the first person who applied for such course.

4th guy, dentistry. Why he wants to be a dentist? Cause his mothers suffers from severe tooth ache for years, and it is expensive to do operation. A very kesian story, but true?? I dunno.

5th guy, me, engineering. I wanted to stand up n start talking, but the interviews just told me to sit. But sitting down n talk , doesn't give me the 'feel' to talk . The interviewer was like guiding me through this section. She asked my why i choose engineering, then after that how do u contribute to the country?

Dicussion ( all in English)
Our topic was " Malaysia achieved independent for 50 years.......what are Malaysia's major achievements in your opinion?

We where given 10 minute to discuss.
I didn't give much point, I was like Ok lets look into infrastructure aspects, ..... then next what about education? ....... so to sum things up..........
Seriously that is basically what i said....

Some one mentioned about penang food is famous we got laksa etc etc we are pround blah blah..... I was like" what does that got to do with Malaysia MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT"?? Well then the interviewer asked: " where is Penang famous laksa?" LOL.... told her a few then she asked again " run by Chinese?" Yes, forgotten, all the nice laksas in Penang are NON-HALAL. LOL.... an dour discussion stoped for a while just because of that..

10 minute is too long, We were like repeating some points. Seriously what achievement do we have till the extent that 5 fellow can discuss it for up to 10 minutes? Sending a "angkasawan up to space?" If the title was "How can Malaysia should improve ?", then 10 minutes will not be enough.

Presentation
After discussion, everyone do presentation. Everyone points was similar..... how interesting. No wonder the the interviewers were not so interested. But, ya can't blame them, they haven been there for almost the whole day, listening to topics which are similar.

I kind of screw up this part, talking about angkasawan, cant really get the date right and one of the interviewers was like going to correct me.

Question time
The interviews wanted to ask us some questions, but realized that there were no doctors wannabe among us, so nothing to ask.

What do I Think?

I dunno but i think my interviewers just wants things short n easy, hence i didn't elaborate much..

I thought i would be very stress, but it turnout to be quite relaxing. It is more like a discussion rather than a interview. Basically, it all depends on the interviewers, my was very kind. The whole interview process just took about 30 minute.

How did I performed? I will rate myself as 3 out of 10. Dunno why, just think that i performed quite bad, if compared to Taylors scholarship interview.

What is my probability of getting it?
0.001%
Why?
1. SPM results is just very ordinary. About 6000+ scored staright As.
2. Curriculum. Mine is also not very outstanding, just a very ordinary one.
3. did " ok ok" in the interview.

When in previous years, conditions to acquiring the JPA scholarship was somewhat rigid with students having to fulfill straight 10 A1s at least. Even an A2 would render the application invalid. It became disconcerting when students who obtained 11 A1s could gain a JPA scholarship while many who scored 11 A1 and 1 A2 were rejected. Ka Ting explained that “over the years, more and more people got straight A’s, hence with the bigger number of JPA applicants, there’d be more who were declined.” Ka Ting added that through MCA’s mediation at Cabinet meetings, it was agreed by JPA that having an A2 amidst a string of A1s would not render the application void provided the minimum requirement of getting 10 A1s is reached of which A1 must be secured in Bahasa Malaysia, English Language, Moral Studies, Mathematics and Science." source MCAonline.

After reading this, I would say that I am lucky to because I can attend the interview. I scored 2A for my Moral. hahaha.

Just realized, they didn't ask any current issues or general knowledge. Oh wait, they did asked. " where is Penang famous laksa?"

Haha thats about it, all the best to my friends who are going for the JPA scholarship!!

Happy April fool!! sounds so weird... n what a long post.