Since I haven't updated in the past few days, here's a update-dump of a sorts!

( Slightly less painful than an annual report; let's start from Thursday. )

*dusts off hands* I think that about covers it for now. Really got to pick up my LJing habit properly again.

Back from Kemaman, where we (yuncyn and I) bunked with a friend of ours, Sal, border-hopped between Pahang and Terengganu and enjoyed the heck out of two days. 8D Thanks for having us over, Sal - we had a awesomely awesome time! *hugs*

Anyway, long post is LONG and heavy picture post is HEAVY. Seriously, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

( So it all starts from the plane, y'see... )

All the other photos are over here. This post alone took me, what, an hour to compile?

All in all, it was an amazingly productive holiday (or just 'amazing' would probably do the trick) - thanks Sal for allowing us to bum out at your house! And tell your family that we're really, really grateful for them tolerating us dragging you out here and there. >DDD Only downside of the trip were the perverts who turned up at the Legend on the first day, but the way I figure it, it isn't all that surprising. And weighed against the experiences we had, it's really almost nothing but a niggle in a memorable trip.

So...Redang next time, yeah? (^o^)9

Am in Kemaman typing this:

JUST RODE AN ELEPHANT FOR THE FRIGGIN' WIN.

I CHANGED MY HAIRSTYLE TODAY 8D

Recently, my mother have been putting pressure on me to cut it and what do you know, she finally succeeded. Seriously, she was grinning like a Cheshire Cat throughout the whole thing (much to my chagrin).

( Pictorial evidence goes [HERE] )

At the very least, I don't think I look too bad...it's an interesting change, especially after having super-long hair since, I dunno, twelve?

And considering how I'm pretty iffy about hair salons and whatnot, I consider today a (minor) accomplishment for myself. I now have a new hairstyle (and no sociolinguistics revision in my head)!

Now, to survive all the 'ZOMG WHAT, ESTHER YOU CUT YOUR HAIR??!!eleventyONE!' comments I'm probably going to get from classmates/churchmates/aunties/uncles throughout the week. Not that it'd be surprising, since I haven't changed my hairstyle in ages and it's practically a running joke that I'd only ever change my hairstyle if something crappy happened to me. ^^;;

...Was how a friend of ours described the Petronas Twin Towers to a Japanese student today. >D Man, they should have asked him about KL Tower too!

A few of us were invited to participate in Skype conversations with a number of Kansai University students as part of their course in conversational English, rotating partners every ten minutes or so. ( Cue some tl;dr! )

My biggest regret? Forgetting to get their contact details, OTL OTL FAIL. T^T

But anyway! Thanks to today and Graff's prodding, I finally went and installed Skype! My ID there is 'tangibilia'; do add me (if you'd like)! Do give me a heads-up if you can though, in case I don't recognize your ID or something. :p

Also, HOTEL quiz today. Ugh, brain. Also learnt that the term '19th Century' does NOT, in fact, refer to years starting from 1900, but years from 1800 onwards. *headwalls*

Finally, after months of careful planning, mix-ups and minor mishaps, we were able to run the English Language Undergraduate Seminar without any major hiccups or hitches. Hooray for that! (^O^)

We had a run-in with Murphy's Law before the seminar even began, actually - apparently, the faculty had accidentally double-booked the venue, despite us taking the precaution of making our booking way, waaay earlier (two months ahead, in fact). Lemme just say, nothing quite wakes one up in the morning as finding out that there's a lecture going on in the room one thinks has been reserved in advance!

Just when we thought all crisis adverted, one of the presenters today fell sick, which resulted in some super-last-minute changes in the schedule. That was resolved fairly quickly though, thanks to the early notice. We had overlooked the matter regarding the control of the laptop (due to the location) during the first session in my room (203), which resulted in the first presenter having to signal to the PA person to change her slides. Thank goodness that was quickly fixed as well, and the second session saw the presenter herself in control of her own slides.

I know I flubbed some of my lines as the emcee, but my partner picked up on the missing lines pretty efficiently during those parts. Together, we also ad-libbed through the entire closing half of the seminar, having received the specific program details for that bit at the very last minute (during the plenary speech, in fact). My cough behaved itself for most parts; with luck, it'll take its leave of me soon.

All in all though, I'm glad everything went pretty well - the presenters did really good jobs; all their presentations fitted nicely into the time slots and I had very little problem ensuring each session kept to the allocated time. Watching them reminded me that I have to plan my own thesis topic soon, urrrgh - haven't the slightest idea exactly what I want to do yet.

The students from Kampar really surprised me with their assertiveness when it came to the QnA sections; they were the first to step up to the plate (or, in this case, the mike) and boy, did they have a lot of questions! *laughs* I need to learn where they get their spunk from - the water over there, maybe?

Any way, with all the major events over for now, maybe I'll actually be able to catch some sleep! Still have a couple of things to catch up with tomorrow, but I'll be glad for the extra sleeping time, nonetheless. :)

Celebrated my brother's 20th birthday yesterday - you're getting old too, Daniel! :p

We had his birthday dinner at Shogun at Sunway Pyramid; was completely stuffed by the time we came out. The variety of food there is pretty good, and well cooked to boot! It was also the second time I've had oysters, though that's not really saying much seeing that I tried oysters for the first time there as well. ;D Thank goodness I can't afford to go there often - I'd be majorly overweight otherwise!

Didn't celebrate Valentines Day this year, but to all of you who did, I hope you guys had a great day! ♥ ^^

Been having a pretty bad cough with phlegm over the past week; it's been clearing, but it's really annoying when it clogs up your chest when you're trying to sleep. I ended up losing a lot of sleeping time which, considering how little I sleep to begin with, isn't all that good. I need to catch up with my sleep debt soon, ughhh.

And after this year's undergrad seminar is over, I really need to catch up with writing, that's for sure! I've quite a number of backlogged memes to do, not to mention other stuff. >_>;;

'Urban Odysseys' was launched today; my second essay published (in a compilation)! ^^ Had to miss my Language Learning Theories tutorial to attend it, but hey, it's not like one gets to attend these kind of events everyday, right?

All in all, the launch was pretty cool; Mano Maniam was the special guest and boy, is he insightful! My mom almost immediately pinpointed him as one of the actors from 'Kopitiam'. >D

I'll admit I was pretty nervous when I collected my certificate; figures nerves would get me in the end. ^^;;

( Here's a group photo + a giant book! )

The little blurb at the back credits me with two other published works, one of which had completely slipped my mind actually, oops. ^^;; There's another MPH anthology ('It's about Time', based on YWS 2007) coming out soonish, and I was lucky enough to be included in it. ^^ yuncyn's essay is also in this one, so here's to that launch as well!

...Speaking of which, I need to work on editing one of my essays AND write another monster one due in March. (T^T) Must work hard!

'Urban Odysseys' is in MPH stores and and is priced at RM35.90. ;D

I'm officially 21 today! ^^ Today's quickly drawing to an end, so I thought I should make a commemorative post before it strikes midnight and make me 21-and-one-day old. :D

According to Malaysian laws, I'm now legally able to vote, which effectively labels me an 'adult' now. But to be honest, I feel no more mature than I did yesterday.

Not a bad thing though - while maturity is good, I'd like to keep a little childishness in me to appreciate the wonder of the everyday. ^^

Thanks for the presents, guys! The pea(?) plushie is so squishy, ZOMG, thanks! ♥ And the pig plushie is cute, Victor - thanks!♥ And Denise, please thank your parents for me; they are so super-generous, it takes my breath away. And of course, your own present is super major-awesome; I'll be sure to use it _lots_. ♥♥♥ ^O^

Also got a lot of jewelry (which is awesome for a jewelry hoarder like me; you people know me so well ♥), a pretty scarf and a daily devotional guide (Thanks, Aunty Sasha and Uncle Chris!)

To all the well-wishers, thank you so, so much - it's nice to be remembered and wished well, especially on special days like this one. Plus, I need all the luck I can get in the coming term (and soon-coming-out exam results)! ^O^ I really, really appreciate it.

Well, here's to my 21st year of living; I'll try to face it with everything I have!

(Time's running out, but thank you, thank you so much for putting up with me and making me into who I am, all of you. ♥ *HUGS YOU ALL*)

First and foremost, HAPPY NEW YEAR, GUYS~!

Ended up welcoming the New Year in church, where the service took an impromptu break to pop to the roof and watch fireworks before resuming. After service was over, followed my mom over to a church-uncle's house, where a number of people were, to quote someone, 'moved by the spirit'.

Said spirit was red (or white at times) and came in a bottle on the table. >DDD

Because I managed to request something on yuncyn's LJ:

GO GO GO TELL ME WHAT TO DRAW WRITE

I will sketch write for the first five people who comment with their request. Simple sketches DRABBLES only. The catch is that you must put this up in your journal as well. If you absolutely do not draw write, write draw something, etc.

I WILL TRY TO ACTUALLY FINISH THIS ONE AND THE PREVIOUS MEME'S ONE. (T^T)9 For serious!

Also, the kind-of honesty meme by now is still open. :p

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;


With all the hype over the New Year, it's hard for me to remember that it all starts with another day quietly slipping in. Like a new neighbour that taps on your back door just as an old friend stands to leave, thanking you for the coffee.

They'll brush shoulders briefly in the doorway, and maybe one might look at the other in mild recognition and then, they'd both move on, with one disappearing down the pathway as the other one settles in for a warm drink and the even-warmer chat.

Of course, we'll tend to welcome it in with a front-door celebration: the booms, bangs and banners hoopla. We celebrate the beginning, but never the ending, do we?

So Happy New Year and Happy End-of-the-Year, guys! May the new year be a companionable one and a good friend to you all. :)

(PS: disutansu and aiwritingfic, I got your card/postcard!\(^O^)/ Will post pictures of them in the New Year; thank you so, so, so much guys! ♥ Same goes for you, yuncyn. :p)


The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

That whole (hopefully understandable) spiel being said, I'm going to borrow a leaf out of futomimii's book:

Post anything you (have always) want(ed) to tell me here. You can rant/rage at me, advise me, drop me a word of encouragement or two, remind me to be a better LJ friend...anything goes! I'll definitely read it all and try to improve myself, so honesty would be really, really welcomed. :)

I've screened all comments and (hopefully) enabled anonymous comments as well; let's hope that works!

It's already Christmas Eve - somehow, it seems as if the year just whizzed past when I wasn't looking.

Well, except on exam days.

Point being, we're already almost on the threshold of a new year, new challenges, new surprises, yadda yadda and that whole spiel.

But before that, it'll be Christmas.

(And I haven't wrapped my gifts yet, ORZ.)

I'll likely make a post at 12.00 a.m. or something again, but hey, wishing people 'Merry Christmas' twice didn't harm anyone. :p

So MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you; have a great day tomorrow with family or friends, whether or not you celebrate it. Wishing you guys joy, happiness and all those Christmas-card cliches that we all secretly want. ^^

In other news, all those pictures of Kaito and Miku in CF08 reminded me that I wanted to check out 'Uninstall'. So off to Youtube I went (having no NicoNico account).

Daymn, some of those Vocaloid songs are good. *has been happily watching/looping/downloading Vocaloid stuff for the past hour or so*

Next time I ever go to Yumekukan, I want to do [7 Hito no] 'DEAR', darnit. (T^T)9

Went to Comic Fiesta 2008 and wow, it's all over already!

But either way, CF WAS TOTALLY AWESOME, GUYS. 8D

Had a great time over the past two days - the cosplayers were awesome, the hall was much less cramped IMHO despite the flow of people and friends make everything fun! :p

And is it just me, or were there more doujin booths this year? Saw a number of interesting doujins and misc. cute items; unfortunately, my budget limited my spending this year again, woe. T___T Ended up getting mostly doujins instead of prints and/or bookmarks. I can't say I regretted any of my purchases though, after flipping through them this morning. >D And yay, finally caught up with the current Teamworks edition after missing last year's one, LOL.

And the cosplayers this year were so fun to look at! I'm no authority on cosplay at all, but I think there were a lot of really well-done ones this year. This, by the way, includes the super-epic Odin's Sphere team whom I may or may not have stalked shamelessly; worth all the effort and hard work, guys! (T^T)b I also loved the Jack Sparrow on Day Two - he was so obliging, and cool! >D

Anyway, here are the Day 1 photos I took with my camera - I'm no professional photographer, so if the photo looks good, it's because you guys look amazing, period. ^^ All the photos I took on Day 2 are in yuncyn's camera, so you'll have to wait for her to upload her bunch of photos. I haven't reinstalled Photoshop yet, so all these pictures are unedited. Do poke me if you want them in their original resolution!

Trust me, this is nowhere close to even a quarter of the cosplayers on Day 1, much less Day 2 - I think dmjewelle's the best source to see all the different cosplayers; she took the effort to snap almost every cosplayer's picture! (Speaking of which, I need to go hunt down pictures of me on the forums, which are probably as rare as Articuno in Pokemon or something. >3)

Also met a lot of old friends this year, like Steph (whom I haven't seen in a whole year, I think!) and Jason. XDDD Also managed to meet some of the Singaporean cosplayers, both the old friends (like Lacry, Lenne and Skye) and new acquaintances like Lynn, Lenneth and Decadence - hope I'll be able to meet you guys next time! (^o^)

I owe so many thanks to so many people this year, no seriously. My mom, for one, for making my Jade costume in 4 days, despite the rush and the brainbreak and super-late nights/early mornings. The CF committee, for hosting the event and ensuring everything went well. And to the SJ bunch of people, for letting me bother you guys perpetually. *hugs* Sorry for my being a moronic emo-kid after the event on Day 2 - I tend to get really quick mood-swings when I get tired or sleepy. ^^;; It's a bad habit I need to fix. m(_ _)m Thank you for putting up with me anywaaaaaay!

Tl;dr - IT WAS AWESOME GUYS, THANK YOU. <3

If I reach a little higher, will I touch the sky?

Just have to love one's camera-phone some days. ♥ My photography skills still have a long way to go though!

Unexpectedly popped over to the MPH warehouse sale with a couple of uni friends after lunch today - not a hard feat considering how close our campus is to the location the sale is being held at. (Ah, the benefits of studying in PJ!)

The original plan was for us to make our way there tomorrow, but oh well, one trip is rarely ever enough when it comes to events like these! >3 Plus, there are some books I have my eye on that I want to check out tomorrow as well. =p (Like Ptolemy's Gate which I still cannot bring myself to read, ORZ.)

( And so, here is today's bounty~ ♥ +1 )

In other news, (as yuncyn had posted waaay earlier) there was a Cultural Exchange Program between UTAR and the Toyota Higashi High School; yours truly was working as one of the 71 facilitators on duty that day. ^^

We facilitators were divided into teams of two and assigned 7 or 6 Japanese students each. My partner and I were in charge of Group 6.

( Photos ahoy and some event prattle +5 )

Also in the belated-news department, I discovered that my laptop has a fingerprint sensor, which is really pretty darn cool! I can now log into my computer and websites with a slide of my finger if I forget my password. 8D

I end this LJ entry with ( a photo of Chiko being cute (then again, when is she never? ♥) )

Just got back from the overnight Cornerstone Baptist Church (CBC) Lock-In event; it was pretty fun - will probably go for the one at the end of the year too if I can. I just hope it doesn't clash with CF.

Next time though, I will bring a blanket and a pillow. *nods decisively* And by hook or by crook, I will figure out how to brown a sausage without turning at least one side into carbon.

Also, KJ's treasure-hung-clues hiding places are tough. >____> I spent goodness-knows-how-many minutes looking over the entire photocopier and STILL did not find the clue said to be there.

Going to go catch a few winks - Saturday was another whole day out, with uni, ECO tutoring and the Lock-In rolled into one - snowballing into an early next day meant an even higher sleep debt and believe me, I've accumulated quite a large one as it is.

Will catch up with my F-list skimming in a few hours or so. In the meantime, I hope everyone's doing okay. *hugs*

Happy Hari Merdeka, Malaysia! I felt a bit gypped regarding the fireworks though; I spent 30 futile minutes waiting on the church rooftop and forsaking the BBQ pit hoping for a few dazzlers and all I got was some distant booming noises.

Still, there is always next year. ^^;

Last lecture week of the semester - six days of study break and Finals exams will be upon us, egads. >___>;;

Coursework marks have been coming back - so far, it's all alright (phew!), with nothing that should pull my grade down. We still haven't gotten our morphology, psycholing. and academic writing assignment marks though.

The past few days have been crammed with quick trips to Midvalley Megamall from uni. Not purely for the pleasure of lepaking (hanging out) though; been searching for presents to buy our lecturers and my mom (since it's her birthday next month), the latter being a bit of a challenge. Doesn't help that I do my shopping with someone whose birthday ALSO falls in September and I can't ninja-buy her anything for fear the surprise will be blown. So how about it, yuncyn, ol' pal? A spatula good with ya?

Moral learnt: Do not ever, EVER carry a heavy bag + books when you have to ride the KTM train; if leg ache isn't enough, I'm probably going to have sloping shoulders before I'm 25.

My long-standing grudge with the KTM train has been renewed in the past two days alone. Give me the LRT any day.

Thanks to early classes, we managed to watch 'Wall-E' today and HOMG, IT WAS AMAZING, HOW CAN A ROBOT BE SO CUTE AND SOULFUL ♥♥♥ The plot was fairly simple and understandable; what really makes the movie so memorable is the emotional relativity conveyed through the various characters. The cockroach, for one, was (I can't believe I'm typing this) so likable and likewise goes to the supporting cast of both humans and robots. The emotional growth of both Wall-E and Eve was also particularly well-done and pretty subtle. And I have a super soft spot for Moe, that obsessive cleaning disorder robot; LOL!!!

Seriously though, F-list - if you can, go catch this movie. It's really worth it - am now wondering if I should download/buy it.

Oh, before I forget, lemme just post this here:

Comic Fiesta '08
Date: 20-21 Dec 2008
Venue: Sunway Pyramid Convention Hall
Time: 11am-7pm

Never hurts to spread the word! ^^

Am tired, both mentally and physically. I really need to readjust my sleep schedule. In the meantime, study week means I can sleep in to gear up for the early exam mornings. I also predict lots of either DW or Reflexive Arcade games during that period.

Am not looking forward to revision but then again, who ever does?

Expect incoherency - that's what you get from me late at night. >D

Just got back from Passion World Tour 2008, woooo! My throat is hoarse and my feet are kinda tired but wow. Just wow.

What can I say? I can't think of enough adjectives to sum it up, but here are the few I can think of at the moment: crazy-cool, amazing, God-driven, phenomenal. If I could attend it all over again, I would in a heartbeat, hands-down, no second questions.

The conference was at the Sunway Convention Center - we (KJ, Adam, Stella, Denise and I) got there relatively early, around 4-ish or so. Turned out to be a pretty smart move, considering the 4k-strong crowd that turned up (so many people!! O___O) We managed to secure seats four rows from the front, right side - with the exception of the large camera blocking off a part of the stage view, they were pretty darn good seats. Yay for assimilation? Inside joke.

Chris Tomlin was crazy-cool! Likewise with Charlie Hall (though I'm less familiar with his songs, admittedly). But really, Louie Giglio's message really took the cake - it was, for the lack of a better word, awesome. I can't summarize the full awesomeness of the whole thing, but one of the highlights is definitely how God reaches out to everyone who reaches out to him without any hesitation, even the 'screw-ups'. Oh and how we Christians are all 'fruitcakes' who go to conferences with people 'with no life'. >D

Man, I've never been prouder of being a fruitcake - I am, after all, a 'crazy person who has to act normal so that I can get along with others but am actually not normal because I'm crazy for God'. >D Woohoo! (Seriously, if I ever really do bump into Ashley in Heaven, I have to stop and thank her - her testimony is really beginning to shine all over the world. Our God is indeed mighty to save.)

A bonus was that just this morning in church, KJ showed Louie's 'How Great is Our God' message - that totally blew me away and really hyped me up for the night conference. You can watch the first part of that HERE on Youtube; the rest of the links should be in the 'related videos' sidebar. Watch it; it is mind-blowing on a whole new level of mind-blowing.

The main star, of course, was God - he was definitely there tonight, amongst us. Gotta thank Passion for reminding me that our God is awesome times infinity and then some and that he is looking out for us 24/7. ♥ And thanks God, for bringing up this opportunity to attend this - it came at a pretty good time, considering my life has been hitting a few lows these past few weeks. I'm gonna pick my self-confidence off the floor, shake the dust off it and start trying to use it; if You say I'm a miracle, who am I to say I'm worthless?

Will be wearing my wristband until at least Tuesday - I may not be able to beat KJ's 'wear-it-till-it-drops-off-my-wrist' though. >D

I also need to get my hands on a Chris Tomlin album. Now. Or soonish anyway. (T^T)9

Super-succinct post, but I have to go do some research on Garrett's speech production model for Psycholing, acccck.

Another whole day out: 7.30 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. on a cramped stomach to boot!

Spent my morning in Journalism lectures and EL meetings, my afternoon (and evening) at PC Fair and my night holed up at both the LRT and bus stations.

Swam through hoards of people, got bumped and pushed around, got lost once (when searching for my brother), gained really tired feet and endured the heat of goodness-knows-how-many-people cramped into a space.

BUT IT WAS ALL WORTH IT FOR THE 500GB EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE I GOT. ♥♥♥♥(T^T)9

And below my budget to boot! I was actually so physically (and mentally) prepared to pay more for one (and forego it if it proved too expensive) that I actually stopped and goggled at the prices until the throng pushed me along. Admittedly, I'll have to skimp on things for a few months and figure out how to rearrange the electricity sockets to accommodate for yet another plug but at least that'll be a load off my C: Drive. Plus, I can utilize my 80GB portable as back-up and for traveling purposes. (Thanks slay_x for bearing with my pestering and bother for advice and help! Owe ya (more than) one! ;D Also, thanks ultra_butterfly for the info on your HD. Really appreciate it! ^^)

Seriously, I was almost swayed into buying cheaper HDs with the same capacity - it's hard to make a choice when there's so many different brands around you and you're not exactly very tech-savvy.@_@ I'm pretty pleased with the one I got though; the brand is well-known and slay_x said it performs fairly well. Here's to hoping it works flawlessly for the next few years!

Also bought a pair of earphones for below RM20 (student price apparently, whaddya know?); joy~! My bass-picky brother deemed them acceptable; we tested every pair we were interested in on his phone before we (or rather, he) pronounced judgment. I really should up my tech-smarts before I hit PC Fair again. =p

Extremely tired now - going to have to rush my half of the psycholing. assignment possibly on Monday (since I'll be out again tomorrow). Sorry Dylane! I'll make it up to you somehow! T______T

I hadn't intended this to be a photo dump, but oh well. ^^

Finally managed to dig out the pictures from my mom's camera from Comiworld 2007...only to find out she deleted a large number of them.

Ah well, at least I rescued a few pictures out - I finally have that frontal pic of Chizuru I've been wanting!

( +2 Chizuru photo-spammage )

Also, several pictures from Bon Odori (gratuitously nabbed from futomimii ;D) :

( +4 Bon Odori pictures~! )

And because I can - a partial dare by yuncyn; partial because I suggested it first as a joke and she told me to 'DO EEEEEET!!!ONEeleventy! 8DDD'

SO I DID. >8DDD

( HERE, HAVE SOME SHOPFU-ZHUGE LIANG. 8DDDDD )