To my dearest godfather.

To my dearest godfather, Uncle Thoo,

Hope you and Aunty Thoo are in the pink of health. Here's a book i bought with my pocket money and i would love to present it to you as a belated birthday present.

Thank you for being such a fatherly figure in my life. You and Aunty Thoo are worthy of all the love and respect in the world! Thank you for letting me know that the world could be mine. Your words of encouragement got me through the time when i doubted myself.I don't think i could ever reciprocate enough, your love and kindness.

So please continue to stay in good health! More books are on the way!

Hope you will enjoy reading this book like i always did with all the magazines you generously subscribed for me!

Look forward to visiting you and Aunty Thoo in Kuching soon!

Love,
Ying Ying
24/4/2011

(p/s: my dad said people from peninsular Malaysia are not as warm as people from Kuching..i beg to differ..in my case, i'm just very selective about who i want to show my love and warmth to.)

Privacy? Really?

Watching CNN always remind me of a dream that i had. To be a newscaster, to be an anchorwoman, to have a one hour show in my name. Can't tell you how much it flatters and fuels my ego when my classmate refers me as Oprah. Ok..talk show host or anchorwoman..i'm flexible!

But then my childhood dream( still is my dream) is not the point in this entry. While i was listening to CNN and also multitasking at the same time, something caught my ears..the host ( a particularly good looking one) was commenting on how social media is actually stripping our privacy.

Interesting i taught. And out of boredom, i decided to verify for myself if it is as easy or more difficult that what they told us. Of course, i'm just playing the role of a nosy person and not super good hacker, guess that is a whole new context.So where best to start but Facebook!

I started typing in a name.Half of us on fb allows only friends to see our wall and our info. But still i come across an account of "Someone" that allows me to see everything..wall..posts...photos..friends..u name it.

I sure never meet this person before..but imagine what i can find out via facebook. A complete stranger can see where you're from..where do you live..where do you study..whats your mother's name, sister's name..when is your birthday..And all of these are in the first glance..

If i look deeper..i can tell what course are you doing..what club/society you're in..who is your room mate..which hostel you're in..who's your best buddies..your relationship status..

At this point of course, my patience run out. But i think it is clear to everyone how we're exposing bits and pieces of ourselves via social media like facebook, twitter and even our blogs. People can find out so much about us with a few clicks..that is assuming you leave a virtual footprint which would include more than 80% of the gen y. After all, there's got to be a reason why Mark Zuckerberg is so so rich. That's not the end yet..if i'm a hacker (hypothetically speaking)..credit card info, all your purchase be it books or movie tickets will be at the back of my hand.

We gotta realize with a tool that helps us to record our lives and interact with others, we are also inevitably stripping ourselves of our privacy.It is ridiculous to deactivate an account..ask any of the current users. Most will ridicule this idea because we have built either useful or huge virtual network. You got to understand the charm of connecting with people from ALL over the world for FREE and in such an interactive way.

So i know it is impossible to leave social media behind,it will be like discarding our cherished memories altogether( anyone remembers friendster?). But do yourself a favor, at least go look into your privacy setting and see if you're okay with it.

Lucky for my case study, i am just a blogger not a virtual stalker.

Put A Smile On Your Face..=)

Happy Chinese New Year!

It is nothing new to say that Chinese New Year seems to be so much more different now than when we were 10 years old. When we were 10 years old, CNY is THE time, in fact THE BEST time. It is when we go out with parents to get brand new clothes, get lots ang paus from relatives, having to wait while our parents chit chat with their friends during visits while finishing all their choc cookies. As for me, i remembered memorizing some Teochew "gong xi fa cai" so i can re-chant it to my grandpa. It was very very joyous.

Of course, it is still a very joyous festival. We still buy brand new clothes, we still get ang paus, we still do relative visits..but despite the all-too-convincing "still"s I cant help but realized something changed. We still love CNY of course, but we cant deny a big factor of that affection is because we get 1 whole week of holidays for it. We are excited in some way for it, but we no longer have that adrenaline pumping, heart beating super fast moment when we hear the fireworks.

Perhaps we grow up or perhaps we grow out of the CNY cliche...either ways are sad..

I hope it is not too weird coming from my mouth, CNY is still a great and huge tradition we Chinese should always remember and live up to. If ever you're like me, even for one second doubt the meaning of CNY, maybe it will do us good to perhaps drop by at Chinatown to see with our own eyes, how this thousand years old tradition managed to so effortlessly give us all reason to be happy.

And if that wasnt enough, you can still count on the scrumptious yee-sang, beer/wine drinking with your friends, and jin rummy/mahjong to cheer you up!

See really...there is no reason why we shouldn't enjoy ourselves!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The Jogging Experience

Wow i think i'm sort of impressed by myself..i went jogging after class with 2 good friends.And yes please dont doubt this, it is definitely OH-MY-GOSH worthy on my behalf!I'm the last person who will want to carry out the idea of an evening jog even my neighbour whom i bumped into in the park was genuinely surprised to see me.

And the jogging experience confirms beyond a doubt that i am indeed super unfit! it only took less than 5 minutes of slow jogging to get me hyperventilating.And when my jogging buddies came, it took less than 30 seconds for them to outjog me and for me to lose sight of them! And yes i am deeply ashamed as this level of fitness is appalling for a 23 year-old.

Even though i stayed in the park for half an hour, less than 10 minutes was the actual "jogging"..i'll like to call it "leisure walking" or "brisk walking"..you get the picture right..=P

So whats the remedy? If god is willing, i'm going to be jogging every Monday after class. A battle has just begun, its my laziness and cravings against exercise regime! At the moment, I'll like to think exercise regime is on the winning side, after all i did switched that roti canai with papaya for supper!

God bless me.=)

My Rule This Time

Ok..i had enough of formulas/equations/laws (from a lot geniuses whose name i cant even pronounce )to last me a lifetime..but now now my turn to get creative..Allow me to introduce to the world Ying Ling's Rule of Good Chances of Success both in the chemistry labs and when you're 23 years old.

Now when you're in the labs, from Ying Ling's Rule of Good Chances of Success came the following equation:

Good immunity towards super bad smell +
Ability to withstand overwhelming annoyance from demonstrators +
Ability to stand for 6 hours straight +
Wisdom to face failures due to bad luck+
Courage to face failures due to bad skills+
Ability to resist the temptation to copy senior's reports
= GOOD CHANCES OF SUCCESS

Now if we can translate this to real life, it would probably be:

Immunity to people who brings you down/pull you low +
Ability to withstand overwhelming criticism +
Ability to persist/to not waver in the face of adversity +
Wisdom to face failures due to back luck+
Courage to admit that sometimes you're not good enough +
Ability to create your own dreams and paths
=GOOD CHANCES OF SUCCESS

See, life does emulates chemistry in some ways.

Disclaimer : The one who derives these laws is not yet successful, but there is a good chance she will. After all, if you went through enough screw-ups, you're bound to come across thumbs-ups some day. I'm just clocking in on screw-ups just so you know.=)

For the wonderful day waiting for me tomorrow..cheers!

Science,Technology and Media

It has been one week since university started and all was well so far.I have some pretty wacky lecturers and some very cool sounding chemical technology along the way but still i think i can handle it alright.

But there was one subject that really interest me!As the title of this entry implies, yes so far my favorite is science technology and media. Not because it gives me a much needed break away from chemistry but the fact that this subject and our lecturer, Ms Yasmin Rasyid(also founder of The EcoKnights) challenge my point of view beyond any other discipline areas. She never stops to encourage us to look at both sides of the coin when it comes to all the news we get from any form of media and its true the fact that we especially students have grown so complacent in accepting any kind of message without second thought.

When we take a deeper look into media and communication, it is easy to realize that the combination of both has affected so much of our lives from the way we think, right down to the kind of phones we buy. It has a huge role in our lives with or without us knowing. But the problem is this, quoting Ms Yasmin , " The one who owns the media has power like the one who runs the country", a statement which i strongly agree! The media can paint a pretty picture and has the magic ability to turn an ordinary girl into a princess OR it can tear you down and reduce you to nothing but an ugly frog. Hence it is so imperative to analyze all the information from all angles and sources and to actually question them. We need to have the ability to analyze, collect information, interpret and attempt to put it in the big picture and think for ourselves if it is fit and logic. And above all, we have to stop being so complacent and easy going in the things we deem as the truth, what this course has taught me so far is that, we have to stop blindly digesting all sorts of information and really take the time to ponder and examine its truthfulness!

I have a strong feeling i'm really going to enjoy myself in this class! Finally something that could significantly expand my horizons and revolutionize my mindset! God! I am seriously anticipating this intellectual challenge!

Go check out
http://www.ecoknights.org.my/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
http://1hijau.tv/

Till the next time! xoxo!