Ah, another semester has passed. That means I'm on holidays now, and that will mean that I'm back in the northern regions of Malaysia. Home sweet home.

Except that it's not exactly sweet all the way. Currently there was an outbreak of Chikungunya fever around here, and a hefty lot of angry mosquitoes outside. Even my family members were affected, although the effects aren't as severe as some do. The cure? It is said that young coconut drinks and some crabs should help. I don't know, but it's a probability anyway.

Then comes to fruits. The monsoon season changes a bit early this year, but it seems that there will be fruits in the gardens anyway. Currently, mangoes and the likes. No, there is no reference to the otaku culture this time. There are a few mango tress here, and it's just too much for one family to consume it all. They are supposedly sweet, but since they're a bit young, some turned out to be sour. Not to mention fruit fly attacks. Still, since there are so many mangoes around, one of my tasks is to pluck these mangoes, and get my head plonked by them. Ouch.

My probationary driver's license will end by this month, so I'll get a competent driver's license soon. That will mean that I will no longer need to have that large "P" sticker on the windshield anymore. lol.

And finally something art related. Haha. Sorry if I made you peeps read the whole stuff just to look for some art update. I was assigned to be the art director for a new community welfare project that will be held at Temerloh, Pahang. Under the university of course. So I have to design most of the graphic stuffs (too often my rough sketches are barely understandable for other designers), focusing on traditional Malay culture as the main theme. Still, I do intend to insert some modern taste into it, because the organizer asked me "not to stereotype". I think I can do that, but I might need some inspiration. And off I went, lurking around for resources and some inspiration.

Nothing much other than that. This is a rant anyway. Strike out.

Today I've just finished my Programming paper, which means there's only one paper left for my finals this semester, Audio/Video. There's a two day gap between these papers, so my friends and I decided to hang out at a nearby cyber-cafe, playing Call of Duty 4, multiplayer.

Going overnight here, the fragfest is pretty much an awesome experience, although I need to take a short break since my mouth feels a bit bitter and I'm feeling a bit light-headed. Interestingly, I still managed to keep up the tide in these conditions, although I have to admit I faced a few slumps in some of the maps (especially the ones that are too large)

I've grown up to be an avid FPS gamer, working my reflexes throughout the day. If you ask, most of the games I play were FPS games afterall, including the well-known Counter Strike, Half-Life 2, Crysis, Far Cry 2, COD: World at War, Time Shift, etc. etc. However, most of the time I can only play single-player campaigns, since I'm the only dude who have some (budget) gamer specs on my desktop, while most of us were just laptop users.

I would say the multiplayer experience is just too awesome, everyone is playing up with unique skills of their own, unlike the predictable AI players. And it's COD4, noted for its good multiplayer modes in conjunction to it's single-player mode.

Gotta go now, I've got some fragging to do. In the meanwhile, if you are a gamer, try reading Razer's "Boot Camp For The Noob" [link] . Don't be fooled by the "Noob" word, trust me, there's even something for the pro gamers there. Check it out!

Imagine building the Great Wall of China in one night, alone. Even with the most advanced technology today, no man on Earth can complete this massive feat within this minuscule timeframe. In fact, if forced to do so, someone is going to get retarded; even if the Wall really completes, it will tremble in no time.

And a similar situation happened to me, the unusually high demand (and out-of-the-world tastelessness) designing request within three days, or, should I say, three nights.

To some people, three nights might be nothing to them. Not if you're only able to sleep for one or two hours a night, three nights straight. 64 membership cards, an ugly poster (very, very ugly), a crappy pamphlet. Three nights. Not to mention how many times they told me to redesign the whole stuff all over again (especially the membership card) regardless of how many time left, and how tired I am.

And so there I go, left alone in my room in front of my beloved gaming rig, working on my design night after night, doing the impossible. By the third day, I'm flat. I even skipped the morning class to get some rest, but I have to attend my programming test that evening. The test went well, although I'm not functioning at my usual speed.

The designs? The poster and the pamphlet is done, what's left is the membership card, about 65% done. Told 'ya, I can't do it in time. So I have to complete the remaining 35% before sundown, because we need to distribute it tonight. Still, what's impossible is impossible. No miracle happened. So it goes for a delay. Later.

Give me some rest. Ooohhhhh......

So my exams finished already. Now it's holidays, and I'm now at home.

Since this is a long semester break (about two months), everyone is required to empty their rooms before leaving. Really empty. Soon the corridors were filled with trash here and there, showing just how much trash the students kept inside their rooms. Even the cleaners have to take a few extra trips to clear all the garbage which is lying around.

The authorities allowed us to store our items in a storage room, and a box is preferred. Hell, the student-box ratio is so big it's actually hard for us to find a box to fit in our stuff. They even require a charge for RM10 for each box. Come to think about it, does it apply to relatively small boxes too? Anyways, I decided not to keep my stuffs there.

So I took my stuffs to my relative's house, which isn't too far from my college. I only take my clothes home, along with a few other stuff, and the rest is left at my relative's house. It's a pain to take my PC home, especially my 17" CRT monitor (due to cost issues, I still use 'em). So I just left my PC there. That means no gaming for two months. At least I still have the internet.

My brother is also coming home, in fact in the same bus as I do. He can't stay home for long as he's busy for his field trip to Beijing soon, working on landscapes. Although we only have a short time, we do have good times together.

Finally, home sweet home. After a few months dwelling at the city, it's time to become a villager once again. While I'm considered high-tech at my campus, my life at home is usually low-tech. In other words, simple. Fairly enough, my life isn't all digital anyway. I do a little cooking, gardening, household chores, etc etc here. It's too long since I last tasted the simplistic food of glutinous rice with coconut and dried salted fish. Combo that with some thick black coffee, and you get the usual breakfast before the villagers get to work (like kenduri, etc). Another type of food you won't find elsewhere is durians (or any very sweet fruit) with coconut milk. It seems pretty odd to me at first, but soon I got used to it.

Back to my online life, well, since gforum is down (for upgrades), I'm getting pretty bored now. I'm currently working on my tech blog [link] since it was left dead. Also, I'm currently downloading Loco Roco, a game for the PSP. I was interested in it's simple graphics as well as it's unique gameplay, provided it was Patapon's predecessor.

Anyways, I can't wait for the next semester! The sense of adventure always enlightens me.

As a member of SquadPhoto UTM, I have to join this program to learn about photography, the proper way. I don't have a DSLR for now, but I wish I had RM2600 to buy a Canon EOS 400D with a standard set. Still a newbie in photography, so I feel that this program is pretty vital for me. It was held on March 22-23, 2008. Yeah, the same day as ACGC '08 at Times Square.

The lecturer is a freelancer which is also an ex-student of UTM. Definitely, he's way better than my seniors who taught me how to handle a DSLR before. He's got some sense of humor too, and hey, I personally think he's cool. Later on we tried indoor photography, one of the most problematic areas I find in taking photographs. Since it's raining heavily outside, the lighting is pretty gloomy inside, so we need to use flash. Oddly, my pics turned out to be far better than before, although not as good as the pros, which is some personal improvement for myself. Yay!

On the second day the freelancer is no longer with us (no, he's still alive), so we proceed our program for outdoor photography (which is my favorite) without him. In the mornings we settled on Lake Gardens (Taman Tasik Perdana), taking candid shots, landscapes, and macros. We were divided into two groups, each with a DSLR and a film SLR. My group uses a Nikon D70s and a Nikon F65. The other group got a Canon 350D (I'm soooo willing to use it), and a Nikon F55.

There was also some non-Squad participants, so the Squad is the tutor this time. Pretty exhausting explaining things along, but I gain something I never knew: I can explain things! Don't know if they really understand, though. Got some good subjects, and some new friends too (more supplies for anime!). Later on we moved to KLCC, again taking shots in groups. However, the battery ran out of juice and we can't take pics anymore. So I just go window shopping instead. Later it's raining heavily late in the evening. No more outdoor pics this time, just go home.

I slept early after the program. I'm really exhausted by the end of the day.