In the news today...

If there was ever a contest for "Most Likely Newspaper To Be Shut Down By The Government", I think the winner, hands down, would be the Sun. Ever since my dad decided to save money on buying the Star, I've had the pleasure of reading this newspaper of few pages but with plenty more interesting things to read in terms of opinions. And the best part is that them writers have no qualms about critisizing anything....INCLUDING the Government! *Gasp!* *Shock!* *Awe!* How can this be, that government officials have yet to run down the Sun's office for such cheek? I have no idea... but I'm sure glad that at least there SOME sign that they're allowing some semblage of freedom of speech (as in COMPLETE freedom, not the 'free-to-say-anything-as-long-as-it-does-not-question-government-policies-and-the-oh-so-sensitive-rights-of-the-bumis' kind of freedom).

One article in particular yesterday got me laughing so loud, I think the neighbours could hear me. It was by this writer named Samir Harith, who was talking about the recent controversy of 'indecent acts in public'. Apparently, some top shots have decided to become part-time moral gurus and defined acts like holding hands and hugging in public as 'indecent'. And as a result, some poor couple who was caught in the unholy act of hugging in a public place was hauled up to court and summoned. Of course, a lot of people, myself included, believe that this supposed 'controversy' is really just a waste of time and the top shots should be getting their cronies.... I mean.... the police to focus on catching snatch thiefs, robbers, rapists and murderers instead of slapping summons on any couple who so much as holds hands in public. And in the hilarious opinion of this Sun writer, he asks "...First of all, what are indecent acts? For one, I can name a lot of indecent acts. Farting in a crowded car is indecent. Talking with your mouth full is indecent. Even staring at people can be considered indecent. Now are the authorities going to apprehend me if I decide to show my appreciation of the good food by belching in the restaurant?" Hear Hear, my good man! The writer then goes on to talk more specifically on what they define as SEXUALLY indecent acts. Of course, he and most normal Malaysians still believe in being somewhat conservative, hence we all know that snogging in public isn't generally acceptable. But then, is it really fair to summon a couple showing their affection towards each other, while things like swearing in public is apparently deemed perfectly acceptable? And can anyone really be in the position to decide what can be defined as sexually indecent public acts, and therefore who can be summoned? Especially when we have people in high positions who say extremely idiotic things like "All single women with kids are 'gatal' ". Good grief, to think that these people are supposed to be the ones representing the general public. Shame, shame.

Anyway, on the page just next to the one I was talking about above, there was also another wonderful letter about the reasons why so many Malaysian students go abroad to study and never come back here to work.... And far as I can tell, he hit the mark in his letter. Among some of the reasons being the lack of efficiency and courtesy among workers in government departments or counter services compared to overseas, the rising cost of living without a corresponding rise in salaries, the lack of efficiency in public transport, and the oh-so-sensitive issue of the Government prioritising the Malays while side-lining the non-Malays when it comes to benefits. And of course, there are the sagas of police corruption, monkeys in parliament and moral policing. I'm just amazed that this guy actually dared to point out the unfairness of the oh-so-sensitive government policy about the Bumis.... coz' far as I know, such questioning is enough reason for the police to come round and haul the writer off to jail. But I suppose if they did that, the Sun would the first to write about it, and hence result in more criticism of the local authorities. So they would be wise to let it slide....

And yet the police still make no efforts to redeem their ever faltering image in the eyes of the Malaysian public. In today's Sun, apparently some police officials are so against the formation of a government body to "keep an eye" on corrupt policemen, that some officials even said they would protest against it by allowing crime to rise. Well, I'm sure that that's not the sentiment of ALL the police in the country, but certainly the fact that even a few of them could say such a brainless thing speaks for itself. All the more reason for the authorities to set up that anti-corruption body. Unless, of course, the anti-corruption body is itself full of corrupt people who don't really do anything to the corrupt police officers except support their corruption by taking their bribes. *Sigh* And they wonder why Malaysians who go overseas would rather not come back here....

Another American Idol churned out....

SOOOOoooooo....was I right, or was I right? Taylor won AI! Yee hah! But then there were a heckuva lot of other people who predicted he would win as well. I have to say though, the finale was really a fun show to watch. Lotsa fun stuff, including the complusory making fun of early auditioners who sounded or looked or acted really bad during their auditions. And they even gave away 'Idol Awards' for different categories to the really bad singers. The best part for me was when they gave away an 'award' for best impersonation of another singer, and a really geeky guy who so made himself up to look like Clay Aiken won the award. Then when he went up to get his award, Ryan Seacrest asked him to sing "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" and he did. But while the geeky guy was doing his bad rendition of the song, the REAL Clay Aiken came out on stage from behind him and the guy didn't realise it until he turned around and saw Clay there, and the geeky guy was so flabbergasted. He was like a teenage girl seeing his idol, even jumping up and down. And Clay, who looked a lot cooler than during his geeky days, straight away took over the song and did it very much justice. So cool! Another good part was the 'Brokenote Cowsboys' performance, the three cowboys who were in the same group during the group round of auditions, but all got kicked off during that round. They showed again the parody movie trailer of the three cowboys, and the three of them then took to the stage and sang some cowboy songs. And they actually did really well! They didn't sound so 'brokenoted' after all. :D Then there were the video clips of cute ol' 'calamari' Kellie Pickler learning to eat gourmet food like escargot and fresh lobsters for the first time. Haha, she really is such a funny character, I'm sure this won't be the last we'll see of her. Of course, the guest performances were pretty cool too. Most of the guest singers were those who had pretty much disappeared off the face of the planet for the past few years, like Meatloaf (who sounded gawd awful at the beginning of his song. :P), Toni Braxton, and Prince (or if you wanna be technically correct, the Artiste Formerly Known As Prince But Now Is Just Some Wacky Symbol). Prince was the last guest performance, right after that naughty Ryan Seacrest said it was time for the results and there were gonna be "no more surprises". Ah well, keeps the show entertaining! Then there was Mary J. Blige who sang U2's 'One' with Elliot Yahmin. I was hoping U2 or Bono would be popping up sometime during the song, but they didn't. Well, I supposed it would be weird to see Bono performing on American Idol..... but they were singing a U2 song! Of course, they brought back all the 12 finalists (I forgot about Melissa McGhee in my post yesterday....but then she was the first of the 12 finalists to get kicked, so who cares? :Þ) and they performed a whole bunch of songs, some with the guest singers. And last year's AI winner, Carrie Underwood was there showing off her pipes too, and she sang really well. I dunno why they don't play her tunes on Malaysian radio. Probably coz' her first single had 'Jesus' in the title. Ooohh....too sensitive for our tender Malaysian ears. Bo Bice wasn't around though. How sad. But all in all, it was a great finale. And now we AI fans must go back into our own little worlds and wait in bated breathe for American Idol 6 next year. And those of us in Malaysia can also wonder when they're gonna start Malaysian Idol 3. Ladidadidaaa.....

American Idooooool!!

Tomorrow's gonna be the last episode of American Idol for the season! And they're gonna crown the new American Idol! Excitement and buzz is all around! Woohoo!

Well, I've watched every episode of AI since the season started (except for the week where Ace Young got kicked. Arrrrgh!!!) and I have to say this season's contestents are certainly more interesting than last season's (in the words of my brother, last season's final three didn't even make a bleep on his radar, unlike Fantasia, who won two season ago. But I didn't watch that one). This season's final twelve were all pretty good, diverse and interesting in their own way. There was the cute Little Chicken guy whose name I forgot and sang pretty ok but certainly wasn't idol material. And there was Lisa Tucker, who was a dang good 16-year old singer but got kicked because of too many bad song choices. And then there was Mandissa who was super huge size but a super huge voice to go with it, and I have no freakin' idea why she got kicked pretty early on. And then there was Ace who was such a cutie but not the best singer. I knew he'd go eventually, but wouldn't have minded him staying on longer just for eye candy. :D And there was Kellie Pickler who also wasn't the best singer but was also cute in her 'naughty little minx' way. And then there was Bucky, who definitely wasn't going to win and I had no idea how he managed to stay on so long in the show when he wasn't all that great a singer. And there was Paris Bennett who had very good showmanship, but towards the end, her voice started to morphing into some weird grandma-ish thing. I dunno what was up with that, but I knew she'd get kicked and she did. And then there was Chris Daughtry, the rocker dude who sticked to his rocker roots through most of the songs and should've been in the finals, but got kicked out of the final four. And last week, Elliot Yahmin got kicked out of the final three by a ridiculously small margin of less than 1% between the three finalists. But I knew he wasn't going to win either, and was pretty sure he would be booted that week. I'm wondering why he didn't get booted the week before instead of Chris, but oh well...

Now the final two left are Taylor Hicks, with his crazy stage antics and great song choices, and Katherine McPhee, whose got the big voice and the looks. IMHO, Katherine most definitely can sing super well. But most of the time she takes a perfectly good song and overdoes it with the ad-libbing instead of simply...singing the song. And she smiles too much, even during the sad songs. Of course she had a few great performances. But my money is on Taylor to win. Vocal-wise, his range is nowhere near Kat's. But nevertheless, he can still sing very well, he knows when to ad-lib and when to just sing the song as it is, and he knows how to make most songs interesting in his own way. And he dances like a spastic old man in an endearing kind of way, which makes him interesting to watch. He's definitely the one who stood out among the contestants, and in the final show, his performances were way better than Kat's. They each had to sing two songs they had already performed throughout the season as well as their supposed debut single if they win idol. But Kat really dissapointed me with her 'debut single'. Not only was the ballad super boring and 'safe' (which is not her fault but the producers' fault for being such lame songwriters!) but she was soooooooooo out of key throughout the song. I mean, even the judges agreed it was a sucky song, but even with a sucky song, a really good singer can turn it around and sorta make it a good song. She just messed up what was already a bad song to begin with. Taylor's song on its own wasn't much to shout about either, but at least he wasn't that pitchy, and in the end, he made the sucky song sound awesome. There is no doubt in my mind that Taylor will win. And the best part is that during his first AI audition, Simon didn't want to give Taylor a pass coz' he thought Taylor would never make it to the final 24. Luckily, Paula and Randy had the sense to let him through, and now Taylor's pretty much got the AI title nailed. Well, we'll find out tomorrow!

Cadbury interview and Gerald's visit :D

Well, my semester at Monash is coming to a close, and I will soon find myself a jobless bum again unless I nail those interviews I've been hoping to get. I went for my interview at Cadbury last Thursday for the Management Trainee post, and I think I pretty much got it nailed. The lady who interviewed me was named Rani, and she was pretty nice and it was more of a relaxed interview. She asked me the usual stuff like to tell me a bit about myself and my background, what my degree is all about, what extracurricular activities I was involved in and what leadership roles I took on. She asked me what I know about Cadbury and I gave her more info than she expected apparently, coz' after that she told me most of the people she interviewed didn't tell her the stuff I did. I could tell her a bit on the history of the company and the other brands they sell like Schweppes, Clorets, Trebor, Dentyne and a heap of other confectionaries whose brands I'd never even heard of before, and she seemed impressed that I did my research. Woohoo! Extra points for Carol! She also asked me what I thought they were looking for in a Management Trainee and after I was done telling her what I thought, she said I gone it 'spot-on'. And she also told me that the way I wrote my CV was already impressive enough, and she just wanted me to come in so she could meet me in person (and probably see if I match up to all the good stuff I wrote). So all in all, I think I did a pretty good job at the interview, and I'm pretty sure I'll be shortlisted for the next round of interviews, where I'd have to talk to the Human Resource Manager, and another top shot. I'll find out if I get to the next 'round' beginning of next week....so I hope I get through and I nail the next round as well. I asked Rani a bit about what the job is about and found out that they need two management trainees and whoever gets chosen (hopefully one of them, me) will be sent to different departments every 3 months or so over the year to see which department I do best in and where I should be posted. And they'll also be sent to Bangkok or Singapore for further 6 months training. And EPF contribution by the company is 15%, which is one of the highest EPF contributions by an employer. And any public holidays that fall on Saturdays (not just Sundays) are carried over to Mondays. Woo hoo! Sounds like a cool place to work. And of course, there the discounts on Cadbury stuff (*drool drool and double drool*) as well as the free hampers during celebrations like Christmas and CNY. Man, I sure hope I nail this job. If I can't get that Singapore Zoo job, this one is second on my list of dream jobs. Haha! :P I haven't gotten any reply from the Eppendorf company I applied to, and I recently saw the recruitment ad again and realised they want someone with a POST-graduate degree in molecular biology. So I suppose they won't consider me as I only have a poochie little undergrad double degree. So I gotta start applying for more jobs in case I don't get the Cadbury one and I end up with no income for the next few months.... *sigh*. My dad just went to service my Kelisa today and it turns out they had to replace the brake pads coz' they were worn out so it comes up to RM420, which I have to pay now coz I'm working. Waaaaahhhh..... Oh well, the more you get, the more you gotta give away. X_X

Well, to brighten up my weekend, my dear Gerald came to visit me on Saturday and Sunday. I think he's expecting me to gush about him in my blog... :P And so I shall! We had soooooo much fun together, skipping around everywhere and singing songs.... XD. Kidding! Nothing much lah, we just went to Summit and watched Over the Hedge (which was a pretty good movie), and the next day went to Pyramid, and just did a lot of chit chatting and walking around. Wanted to challenge him to a round of Point Blank at the arcade, but then they removed the machines. He doesn't think I can beat him at a shooting game. Cis, bedebah. :Þ Also enjoy a bit tub of Baskin Robbins with two ice cream flavours that ended up making a very gross looking colour when it melted. But it still tasted good, so bygones.... And he also went to visit my church, and he didn't much like the idea of having to wear a sticker with his name on it for everyone to see, and to be introduced to the whole church. Took a lot to convince him he didn't have to stand up in front of everyone and tell his life story. LOL. AND the best part of all, is that he actually met my parents. Such a nerve-wrecking experience, I'm sure, but he did it and everything went well. My folks actually seemed to like talking to him. And he didn't have a nervous breakdown. So it's aaaallllll gooooooood! Haha! And they surprisingly didn't have anything to say about him when he left. Which is good for me, I suppose. *Whew!* So it was a great weekend, and I applaud my dear Gerald for working up the courage to 'meet the parents'. And luckily, it didn't turn out like the movie. :Þ And now I can officially say, my man's got guts. :D Haha, ok lah, enough gushing about him. :)

Working to find work while working at Monash...

Thankfully after my little burst of frustration yesterday, I continued my marking and found a few students who could actually give me reasonably good answers. Thank goodness, not all is lost..... but I got to give them a good piece of my mind today during class... pretty much told them off (in a nice way) for not knowing how to explain their answers properly as well as copying each other or books. Hopefully I won't be getting the same problems next time around :P

Anyway, as my contract at Monash draws to a close at the end of this month (thank goodness, I can do without marking anymore nonsense for the rest of my life...), I've been doing some job hunting and sending out resumes to a few companies. One was a position for wildlife biologist under the Wildlife Conservation Society...which I thought would be something fun and good experience since I wanna work at Singapore Zoo. They're planning to do a one-year project to learn more about the ecology of elephants in Malaysia, and need three wildlife biologists to do studies in three separate forests. So I applied for that and went for the interview last week.... and they told me that if I got the job I would have to go into the jungle with a team of orang asli's for 3 weeks each month (with a one week break back home) to do the studies. And after the interview, I thought about it for a few days and decided to tell them to remove me from consideration for the posts coz' I figured 3 weeks stuck in a jungle and having to trek everyday with a tonne of camping gear will probably kill my knee. Just one weekend of trekking causes it to be sore, so a few weeks...definitely won't be good. Plus I'd be a girl in a group of mostly orang asli guys in the middle of a jungle... which I'm sure will cause my mum to freak out in paranoia. And frankly, I'm not too comfy with the idea as well. And the pay is only RM1500 a month including epf and socso, which actually freaked out my dad coz' it's a low pay. And sad to say, these days, RM1500 a month isn't much to survive on... even though my food would be provided and I wouldn't have to pay much for bills (coz I'd be stuck in a jungle most of the time!). So all things considered, I decided to tell them I couldn't take the job.

Another job I applied for last month is for the post of Management Trainee at Cadbury in Shah Alam. My uncle actually saw an ad in the New Straits Times, and I fit all the qualifications, so he thought I should apply. I thought it was a bit iffy at first since I know nuts about management, but decided to send in my CV anyway. I just got a call from them today asking me to go in for an interview next week. Of course my dad is pretty happy about it coz' he thinks it's a better paying job (and probably will be) and more stable than being stuck out in the field. And though it's got nothing to do with wildlife, I'm interested in chocolate, so I certainly wouldn't mind a nice cushy job where I can indulge in chocorgasms everyday. Hahaha! I'd probably make the company bankrupt, man.... :P

On Monday, I applied to for yet another job, this time in reply to an ad I saw on Starjobs.com by a company called Eppendorf AG, for an Application Specialist. It's a company selling molecular biology equipment, and they need someone with a degree in molecular biology or something similar (which I have), and who can give presentations and sell their products to potential customers (which I can do... I think). And their office is ridiculously close to my place... less than ten minutes drive away at the Heitech Village building near Summit! No need to drive through the jams....save petrol money....I could walk to my office and reach there faster than people working in KL. Bwahahaha! And the person who gets the job would have to travel around the Asian region, mostly to Japan, to sell their stuff. Sounds like a job I'd enjoy more, especially coz' of the travelling. The only thing is that they prefer people who can speak Japanese, so I'd have to take classes. And I'd probably have to brush up my Mandarin too... in case they send me to China or something. Don't want everyone there wondering what kind of pariah Chinese I am who can't speak Mandarin to save her life. At least I can sort of speak Cantonese to save my life, but maybe only dangling by a thread.... So to all my friends out there who speak Mandarin or Cantonese, please torture me by talking to me in Chinese so I can hopefully learn how to survive speaking my mother tongue. And if my intonations come out all wrong, try not to laugh too hard, ok? :Þ But whatever job I get, being multilingual is always an advantage. So I must force myself! Ganbate!!!! (which means "Do your best" in Japanese. Least I know a bit of Jap. :Þ)

Well, I hope I can get an interview for that job soon....then if I nail both the Cadbury and Eppendorf interviews, I can decide which one I'd rather go for. Must check out the perks first... got good pay or not.... got give car loan lah.... company car lah... insurance lah.... travel allowance lah... all that nonsense. Hehe, me thinks I'm getting a bit less idealistic and a bit more materialistic. Good thing or bad thing... I dunno. Maybe next time when I get a nice house with a big garden, I'll adopt all the poor little homeless animals I can find, or hire someone to find them a good home. Haha....still got a bit of idealism in me. :Þ Whatever it is, I hope I get a good job soon.... hopefully something will be confirmed before the end of the semester. Then I won't be a bum for too long. :D Pray for meeeee!