没有大舅的日子：第1215天

Busyness and Troublesome...

Busy, hectic. 

Those were the 2 words to describe how was my life in the past month. Almost a month since I last blogged. Bear with me. Just can't find time to sit down and write calmly. 

OK. There were many things happened for the past month, and I can say it's not the good at all.

1. Event went wrong because there was no full commitment from all members.
2. Interview assignment being delayed and until now, there is not a confirmed date and time to conduct it.
3. Phone gone missing. Daily communication cut off for nearly 12 hours. Thanks to the existence of social networking sites, I can still manage to 'survive' for the past 12 hours. 
4. Trouble from past event that should have been solve hasn't been solved at all.

These were crisis. Major stress 'invading' me. But I won't let it to have control over me.
Be calm and positive during the critical and harsh times. That's what I believe in.

On the other hand, I took the initiative of writing a feature story (based on the unfortunate Monday, where most of the incidents gone wrong took place). I had no experience at writing feature. Never learn the format and skills beforehand. But... Does it matter? Even non-journalists can write a feature piece so well, so it shouldn't be a problem for a future journalist like me. Take the risk and do it!  

Euro 2012 has ended. Spain won again. Well... Congratulations anyway. Germany, just need some lady luck on their side. They won't be forever a bridesmaid, right? 

Everyone stayed up in the wee hours to catch and support their favourite teams, right? Well, Euro 2012 may had ended, but the staying up late night habit has not come to an end... 

Don't forget, London Olympics is coming on the 27th July! More late nights at home, 'mamak' stalls, bistros. By this date, I'm already on semester break! Woohoo! I can really 'enjoy' the night hours, supporting Malaysia and other athletics in Olympics. 

没有大舅的日子：第1191天

Helping on Twitter-sphere...

OK I didn't believe it, digesting the fact, the truth that I helped a complete stranger on Twitter!!!

Yes! Heard it?! A complete stranger on Twitter! 

This took place last week on Friday, the same day as the opening of Euro 2012. 

A Tweet sent by a user seeking help through his Twitter for his friends that speak Mandarin. Out of curiosity (well, that what I always be...) I replied his Tweet, "Why you need to translate?". Later I got a Tweet reply from him stating he have to make a video in Mandarin and asking me to help. I didn't think anything was amiss on that. I figure out for a while and came up with a theory, this guy was not seeking any financial assistance from me or did not ask me to meet him at some place (It's not a rape scene like in the movies and there won't be so much of reel life scenes in real life anyway...), so why I should be so resistance? 

After considering all the facts and possibilities, I decided to help this stranger on Twitter. To be precise, it'a actually checking the grammar of a conversation in Mandarin. What he mentioned beforehand, he translated the  script in Mandarin and he didn't feel right about it. Therefore, he need help to double check whether it was correct or not. He notified me that he had sent the Word file to me later. 

I tend to prioritise stuffs based on their deadlines. That's me! If deadline is tomorrow, I'll finish it by tonight. If deadline is nowhere near, I'll do it on some other day... His deadline was not 'urgent', but it was 'soon', as he mentioned. 'Soon'?! How 'soon' actually? No further hesitation, I went downstairs in my house, switch on laptop and start working. 

Everyone that use Google Translate should know that this thing is a crap. Come on, you can't DIRECTLY translate one language to another. You can't translate Chinese to English or Bahasa Malaysia directly! You can only reasonably express it's meaning in other language (I know it well, as I speak and write in 3 languages... Well, not perfectly fluent but I can converse fairly well). 

Back to the translation story, I asked him why he need to do a video in Mandarin. He told me that he's currently taking Mandarin classes in his uni.

It was middle of the night when I was doing all the translation work. Sleepy, tired and dark. Furthermore, the weird pinyin and translation were killing me! And some of the sentences, I can hardly translate them directly to Mandarin. I sent Tweets to him to clarify more, so that I can make sense of it. 

Around 1.30 am, I had finished all and sent the file back to him... 

The person that I helped... What I learned from his Tweets, he could be a UiTM student and is doing Mass Comm as I am. 

I had a lecturer, who taught me and will be teaching me again, also lectures in UiTM. I'll just ask her if this person DO exist. 

Just for the sake of... knowing. 

p/s: Excited for Germany's first win yesterday against Portugal! Hope they can get another win against the Dutch.

没有大舅的日子：第1180天

Adapting-Learning...

I have many thoughts, questions, suspicions every time (most of the time would also fit). 

Although something/situation/instructions given were clear, I'm still unsure. Probably some lack of confidence in me. 

I tried changing. Yes. Change is good. Often at times, change is good for you, but not necessary to the people you live with around. People may find weird, annoying even of you had change to a better person (what you thought you had). 

Basically the winding thing is just a lame introduction... 

This blog post will be about changing, but the change doesn't have much affect on my life later and on. Just some temporary alteration. Nothing much. Take it as another life learning experience... 

I'm already in my 2nd year-going-to-3rd year studies. I'd encounter all sorts of lecturers and classmates. Some bad, some good. Most importantly, it's what you had learned from them, be it bad or good. I learned not to jump into assumptions and conclusions too soon (well, I did tried to kick this habit off... Just in the process of trying hard). 

But this current semester would give me a big lesson. Why?! I had never been thought by a foreign lecturer and I'm also taking a subject that teaches you... er, how to phrase it...? ... To be a discipline professional of the industry. The subject's name is Professional Development.

The foreign lecturer's lessons would be one of the eye-opener for me. He was a person with much knowledges and experiences, which he love to share in class. Someone you would look up to and respect him of what he is. He told us things that my other lecturers would never say. But... the catch is here, he expects every students in class to obey to his rules (no latecomers, no words on your t-shirts, no slippers, need a real book, no eating in class, no handphones). Yes. Those 'Caucasian style', what Chinese use to describe. 

I had a Caucasian (literally... Half-Caucasian to be exact) lecturer who taught me, since my first semester... Yes, the other subject I'm currently doing, Professional Development. It will be my last class with her in my uni. 

'Adapting-Learning' is what I'm currently doing, not only in the foreign lecturer's class, but also my Professional Development class. 'Adapting' new and different style of teaching plus 'adapting' a new professionalism manner. Also I'm really 'Learning' the subject from the bottom of my heart and 'learning' to be a professional journalist who must work under harsh conditions. 

p/s: Is this my longest blog post? I don't recall writing so much. 

没有大舅的日子：第1174天

“六十亿分之一”。。。


我发现我很久没有写中文了。。。直到现在。

最近我在听见‘小鬼’黄鸿升的“六十亿分之一”。我对‘小鬼’印象不太深刻。只知道他和‘小猪’主持娱乐节目以及在“醉后决定爱上你”里面扮演杨丞琳的青梅竹马男朋友。很巧的是，‘小鬼’在真实生活里也是杨丞琳的初恋男友。。。

不必描述那么多有关‘小鬼’的历史。。。
重点是在与这首歌！仔细聆听它的歌词。每一段的歌词完全没有再重复！
于是我去搜寻谁是作词人。。。一寻之下，原来是‘小鬼’！哇！没想到他如此有天分！

没有大舅的日子：第1172天

UEFA Euro 2012...

Yeah! My favourite football time!

Although it was not as big as FIFA World Cup, but still worth to cheer.
Which team will win this edition of Euro 2012? I have no clue...

My predictions are:
1. Germany (They SHOULD win! They had been bridesmaid for 2 major tournaments...)
2. Spain (Again?)
3. Netherlands (don't underestimated them...)
4. France (they won long time ago... been in the high and low points of France football. I believe they can bounce back)

As you might know, I'm a Germany supporter since I started watching international football matches since I was eight... Miroslav Klose my all time idol... Michael Ballack inspired me... I think Thomas Muller is the new star... And so on.

Who's on the list for Euro 2012 German squad? There's Klose (yes!), Podolski, Muller and more. Full list here.