Panas weyh, panasss.

It's happening alright.

Definitely, unavoidably, inevitably happening.

" Keisha, this is your foray into the real world."

The statement above is tantamount to the severest of truths.

Venturing into the unknown.
Speaking of vents,

Can I get an air conditioner and install it in the dorm room?
PLEASE? :)

Do you dream in Black and White, or in Technicolour?

Subconscious wants.

When we close your eyes, it's no longer the world we are accustomed to seeing, no longer the world our eyes have adapted to. It's a big black hole, infested with stories.

Sometimes, dreams are so unfair.

You try so hard to stop yourself from heading to that hole in the ground, but you still fall through.

You try so hard not to wake up when you see that face, so perfect; but in a split second you're staring at the ceiling cursing under your breath for waking up too soon.

You try so hard to scream for help; but not a single sound ever comes out.

You sit up and open your eyes, tears streaming down your face, glad it was just a dream.

But sometimes, dreams are better than the reality of the lives we live.

It's this world where anything and everything can happen, where the rules of reality don't apply.

Some people are lucky enough to be able to set the scene for their dreams.

And some, just don't dream at all.

The tangibility of our dreams is naught, obviously, but there's something so real about them that we do feel we are in that situation at that moment in time. We subconsciously analyze our actions and act them out in our dreams.

To me, your dreams, are a invisible scale of your imagination.
Recent and or dusty old thoughts and feelings come into play, and intertwine with eccentric, uncanny happenings to create a original film that normally only runs once in our little theater.

Dreams can mean so many things.

A physician believed dreams were sort of a dump truck for removing ideas that weren't fully developed or unnecessary memories from the day.

Others say dreams are result of firings of neuro patterns while the brain undergoes memory consolidation during sleep.

I say, dreams make sleep less boring, and gives us something to think about when we open our eyes in the morning.

Simple as that.

Hoarders.

Spring Cleaning day today.

My father, mother and I took out all the junk in the store room, and sorted it all out.

There were so many shoes in there, that we forgot were there.

So, as my father was passing me the forgotten things from the store room, he handed me this see through black plastic bag containing a baby pink, oblong shaped object, that had a smaller oblong shaped hole in the middle.

It was, a toilet seat -_-.

I swear! I don't even know WHYY it was there, or how it got there!
Had a right laugh pulling it out of the store room.

" Why on earth have we got a toilet seat in our store room?!?!?!"

I think it was partially broken even.

I cannot even conjure up a cover-up reason, honestly.

We found, sun tan and deodorant in there too. Rexona for men. Full bottle. Haha.

Then came all the motivational books that were stocked away in a big square box. Found some I thought I ought to read. Look out for them on my Unputdownable section eh ? :)

It's good we organized the store room though, much more space. Good organizing day.

Next, my room. Eeek. :S

College.

What do you think it's going to be like?

Away from the place you've been for 17 years for those of us who weren't in boarding school.

I'll miss my parents, soo much. I can feel my tears accumulating waiting to gush out right now.
I'll miss my chicas when we go our separate ways.
Nadia's been gone a while, 4 months now, and I miss her bad.
I don't know what will happen when I don't see Sarah, Aisyah, Daia Nadia and Khairani altogether for 4 months.

Ah. Don't want to think about it right now.


SKAND for life :')

Relevance.

Maybe I know somewhere, deep in my soul,
That love never lasts.
We've got to find other ways to make it alone,
Or keep a straight face.

-The Only Exception; Paramore

I see you shine in your way,

Go on,
Go on,

Go on.

- Giving Up the Gun; Vampire Weekend

The Town of Everlasting Peace

I can't help but feel at peace every time I visit Taiping.

I love the smell of the air there.

This time round, my favourite part was Saturday morning in the cool cool waters of this place you're about to see.

Indulge;

The view from where we were.

We swam in that water. The pool is much bigger, you just see a small portion of it up there. It's mostly sand and big rocks underwater. The water: SUPER cold!

And to the right of that pool is...

This:

Family members had a blast sitting under it trying not to get whooshed away. They said it was like a big old back massager, haha. There was a big uneven slippery rock from under the waterfall right up to the bottom of the picture up there, so it was sort of a natural water slide :D Had a good laugh trying to crawl up it on all fours :P

The surface was so smooth you'd think it was buffed! Look really closely in the middle of the above picture :P

I love this one.

(I'm still working on my photography skills :P )

One of the best weekends ever!

Short 2

Err.

:D

Short 1

So alright.

I've given this blog (and you, whoever you are, you are out there reading this aren't you?) extremely long entries recently.

So what I've decided to do, is give this blog a couple of short entries to do some "damage control".
I honestly doubt anybody actually reads this stuff I'm posting.

I just send all this information out into a big giant void by applying light pressure on the Enter button of my keyboard.

Well, I know my friends and Mother :D read this, and that's cool :)

END.

Familiarity

What do you feel when you're approaching home?

Seeing the tall trees, the shrubs, the road; indicating you're just moments away from comfort and safety.

The same trees and shrubs along the way, the same road taken every other day, all leading to this place you wake up in every morning (almost).

You're lying down across the backseat of the car, or on the reclined passenger seat closing your eyes. If you've been living there long enough, as you enter the neighbourhood, you'd memorize every turn, every bump, even that pesky little pot-hole in the middle of the street, and you'd know where you are without even having to look.

Why don't we ever get bored with that?

It's because we know, when the car stops at the end of our journey, we're home.

And home, is just too comfortable a place to be for us to say that we're bored of it.

Where do you feel like going when being out and about has drained you of your energy?

Where do you want to go after a long day at school or work?

Where do you want to spend a rainy day with a cup of tea to sip while flipping through the pages of a good book?

At home :)

Nefertiti; A Novel

The most amazing book I've ever read. Hands freaking down.

Happiness, hatred, anger, sadness. I felt all of these emotions while reading this first novel of Michelle Moran's. I fell in love with so many characters, they all came alive.

The story is about Nefertiti, one of the most remembered Pharaoh's of ancient Egypt. Most remembered by the bust she had made of herself. The story is told through the eyes of her sister Mutnodjmet or more fondly known as Mutny. Simply put, the story revolves around the reign of Nefertiti and the influence she had over the people of Egypt at the time. How she and her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten had created a new religion and had built a new city from scratch where no other Pharaoh had built before. The city of Amarna.

Here's a link to a review, because I don't really want to spoil it. But my gosh. I can't tell you how good it was to read!

http://novelreviews.blogspot.com/2007/06/michelle-morans-nefertiti-novel.html

These are some pictures of the famous bust that Nefertiti had made of her.

You can see the an eye is missing a pupil and iris; it was never finished.

Below is a picture of Nefertiti's mummy. Her face and chest were smashed when thieves broke into her tomb for the gold, so the story goes.



After discovering the mummy, the experts scanned it and managed to reconstruct the face of the mummy based on its skull. So, this is what Nefertiti might have really looked like:



And these are statues of her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten. He had statues made to specifically depict himself. Others before him had the same kind of pictures and statues just to let everyone know they were Pharaohs, but not Akhenaten, he had his statues made to look like him, with sharper and stronger features. He also made the statues look feminine and masculine, with the face being long, and the hips wide and curvy.

So there you have it. The story of Nefertiti, the self proclaimed reincarnation of the goddess Isis.
Beautifully immortalized for eternity; as she had wished.

JPA Interview Experience and Tips 2

Straight after, the guy interviewer ( there were 2 women and one man by the way) asked us about Medical Negligence. So this time I asked to speak in English because his question was asked in rojak anyway. So, I answered (not so well, I might add) in English. So did the rest. Then they asked the meaning of INTEGRITY. I have never in my entire life, looked up the meaning of that word, and ended up telling them my perspective of it. After which I received the disappointed shake of the head of the interviewer in return. How unexpectedly not so delightful that was. I remained smiling.

They then asked us about how to confirm H1N1, the steps to reduce the spreading of H1N1, what cough etiquette is, what the working hours of a government doctor are, what to do when faced with an emergency situation (in our case it was a woman and two children, bleeding after being involved in a car accident), what attire was used to protect ourselves if we were to be in the A & E department of a hospital, why those protective garments were needed. We were asked for an example of an airborne disease, and finally, why we wanted to go overseas. I think that about sums up the questions they asked us. The thing is, they'll ask you questions to do with the field you've applied for. Like in my interview, 4 applied for medicine including me and 1 for pharmacy. So the questions asked were more associated with medical news. That's how it goes. For example, they see it as, " You want to be a doctor, you have to know about the issues to do with the medical and health care field"; naturally.

So during the interview:

7. Be confident, but don't be all snobbish. If you honestly cannot answer a question, say I don't know. But try your best to avoid that from happening.

8. Sit up straight, and put your hands on your lap. Smile. You can use your hands when you're talking if you feel comfortable.

9. Listen to the questions carefully. Start processing the question the minute the first word of it is uttered. This will prevent from you taking a long time to come up with an answer, you need to be quick on your feet and on your toes. If you need the question to be repeated, don't hesitate to ask, it's better than rambling about something entirely off topic. DO NOT talk without giving anyone else a chance to. Be fair. Yes, you want to show them your leadership and communication skills, but don't overdo it.

10. Bring your own notebook and pen.

11. Wear something smart. Don't go flower power. Go smart and cool. Suave ya know what I mean? Haha. Black is the safest option. Be careful not to blind the interviewers with big earrings (HEHE) or bright colours. Show you're serious about it. Wear covered shoes, I made the mistake of wearing my black crocs, but they looked like leather and no one noticed, so it's alright. You don't HAVE to wear leather shoes. Put it this way, wear something that adults would wear to work. There :)

12. Treat the interview like it's just a 45 minute discussion. The interviewers are there to test you, yes, but the calmer and more confident you are, the better you can articulate your answers and give a good impression. So, just treat it like you're just discussing certain topics with a few people, you'll be A-Okay.

13. Bring some water and try to have some food before you leave home :)

14. BE YOURSELF! :D Give it your best shot.

For our year 2010, the number of scholarships offered to specific countries are as follows:

5 to UK

5 to New Zealand

10 (or so) to Australia

And the rest (the interviewer did not mention how many) are sent to Russia, India or Indonesia.


That's basically it :D Hope you guys with upcoming interviews found this useful.
I'm not saying I did all of the above, and that's probably the reason I'm writing it all out.
I made some mistakes in my interview, the word "some" could be an understatement, but I honestly feel that I did my best.

Sources for all the tips up there:

- Mother and Father. All the good stuff up there's from them.
- Personal experience in the interview room.
- Tips read and remembered from all sorts of forums and blogs on the world wide web, :P


Good luck!
And sorry for the extremely long entry.

Toodles ;)

JPA Interview Experience and Tips 1

Ok, so after my search for the most information on the previous years JPA interviews, only a handful had useful information. So I have decided to write down what it's like and how to conduct yourself when faced with the reality that you are to attend an interview with JPA, so those searching for information, may find what I am about to write as helpful as they need it to be.

This is a REALLY long post. So I'm breaking it down into two parts. JPA Interview Experience and Tips 1 and JPA Interview Experience and Tips 2. Still, both of them are long, so I apologize!

First of all, Congratulations on getting the interview. You're one step closer :)

So here's the deal-io. The moment you find out whether you got called for the interview, make sure you read the letter. The one that you have to download as proof you got called for the interview. READ IT carefully. And please take my advice on this, from that moment on, do the following:

1. Get all the necessary documents ready. Who cares if it's still early. Prepare and be calm. If they say they want documents of your Ibu/Bapa/Penjaga, I advise you to not follow their instructions and print and copy either ONE. I advise you to print and copy ALL. My father go back to Shah Alam from Putrajaya to photostat his IC and birth certificate and then back to Putrajaya again because I had followed the instructions on my letter and photocopied only my mother's IC and birth certificate. So yes, please photostat ALL. Better safe than sorry. Make sure ALL copied documents are certified or "DISAHKAN". A lawyer, your mother/father's head of department. Just so they know that it's not forged :)

2. Read the newspapers. DO NOT take the of-little-importance-to-you news lightly. Chances are if it's related to your field of choice, they'll ask about it. Even if it's the smallest thing, read up on it. You spend too much time reading about the government, you're going to die. Do some research about the field you're interested in, you have to know some advances and breakthroughs. Have some good answers to questions that are expected of them to ask, i.e "Why do you want to be a doctor/engineer/accountant/veterinarian?" or "Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?". Prepare the answers to those questions in BM and English.

3. Take the online test. USE INTERNET EXPLORER. Not Mozilla. It'll freeze and tell you you didn't complete the test in the allocated minutes. Don't worry, it's just a personality test. You'll face some trick questions like whether you'd take an offer to work overseas and so on.

4. Start talking to people again. It's been almost 4 months you haven't been conversing in BM and or English properly. If you have/had a job, then fine, you have been conversing with customers. If not, brush up a little bit because chances are you're a little bit rusty with the vocabulary. I'm not saying you have to read a dictionary day and night. Just make sure you can speak with an uninterrupted-by-stammer flow. I didn't do this. Resulted in a me almost having a gelabah moment in the interview room.

So before I get to the next number on the list, I'll tell you about my experience on the 5th of April, the day of my JPA interview.

I got up at around 5.50am. I left the house at 6.30 am (I live in Shah Alam). My interview was stated on the letter to start at 8 am. So I got to Putrajaya International Convention Center at 7.10 am. 50 minutes early. So I went in, looked for my name that was listed in one of 15 papers each with 25 names on them.

There were 15 panels. 25 people per panel. All panels start at the same time. 5 interviewees per session. So, 5 sessions per panel.

Capiche? :)

I was panel 7. Number 12. But anyway, so we started moving into the sitting area. Each interview lasted about 45 minutes, give or take 10 minutes. So I went in at about 11.20 or so because the interviewers went out for a break at about 10.50 and I came out at 12.15.

5. Okay, so when you're there waiting your turn, make sure you can hear the secretary who's in charge of your panel. Because chances are you won't be able to hear when he/she calls you unless they come to the corridor and shout your name (which one secretary did do). Also, while you're waiting, get to know others around you, it'll calm your nerves if you are encountering those pesky stomach butterflies.

So I was instructed to knock and go in. I greeted the interviewers "Good afternoon" when it was only 11.20. Felt a complete fool, but oh well. Haha. Sat down when we were told to.

6. The first thing they asked us was to introduce ourselves in. She spoke to us in BM, so having read all the pointers I could about the interview beforehand, I answered in BM. But the next guy asked permission to introduce himself in English and the interviewers said they had no problem with it. Might have been a way to test us, but the fact is, they only wanted us to speak in BM when they said " Okay, now answer me in Malay." So that is something to bear in mind.

*CONTINUED IN JPA Interview Experience and Tips 1.

The i-Unexpected

We decided to go to i-City this afternoon. We didn't think of going down to walk around, just planned to drive and have a little look. But when we got there, oh my, it was just beautiful! Definitely difficult to resist not being in the midst of the forest of colourfully illuminated trees. So my father convinced us to go down and walk, and so we did. I took some cool pictures as you can see below. It was really impressive, and so awesome. It's the kind of place you want to take let's say, your foreign friends who come to Malaysia to. Or even friends in general for that matter. It's just a cool place to be, and take lots and lots of pictures. Which, I'm sure, us girls wouldn't mind doing :P Guys too maybe, hehe.

Anyway, I said it before and I'll say it again, it was A W E S O M E :D

The first non blurry picture I took when we first got there.

Everyone was literally going "Wow! Wow!"

- I absolutely love that purple, blue, turquoise-y green and white, Whooh! The red doesn't really do it for me, but it still looks nice, hehe.

- I like this one, it was cool to be able to walk in between the trees.

- I love the striking colours against the dark night sky, really nice bright neon like effect. Sigh :)

First of the Month

First post on Macster :)

I was at the supermarket just now, and on the way back to the car with a trolley load of groceries, I had to cross the road. Naturally, as we all were taught many times when we were wee little lads and lass', I looked right and left to see if it was safe to cross. Not a second later, I felt a bit dumb, because who looks left and right on a one way street?

Maybe it's because it's so, routine. Or the fact that you can never trust Malaysian drivers. Haha. Jokes jokes.

Excuses, excuses :P