BACK!!!

*peeps out*

Good, no one arou-ARGH!!!

*stabbed by Hanzo*

Hanzo: Where have you been...?

*cough cough* I can explain...*dies*

Alright ladies and gents, got no BJE for you, so the only thing I can say is:

At first I got really busy with my college, then after that I got hooked on Devil may Cry 3. Yeah, I'm really sorry and I'll try to update more often...

Anyway, a basic update on what i've been doing:

College: Damn, I've still got lotsa work. Sat for another Accounting test last Tuesday but this time I fared better, partly because I really studied this time. My Maths could use some work though...I have yet another maths test up ahead on the 30th on a topic that I'm really bad on, and my text book doesn't help me AT ALL...maybe I should go and ask my teacher for help? Trying to make sense of my Computer Science stuff too, though I think I'm getting the hang of it. I think...not really happy about my English either. Must everything have a hidden meaning? It's getting very trying to try and peel every layer in a book/movie to see what the secret is. other than that, I have to finish reading and writing about one book that I have to select. Knowing the Orientalist in me, I picked Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club. Did around 3 chapters worth, still have 23 left *sigh*

Driving: Hmm...could be better, though not as putrid as I thought it would be. Funnily enough, I've only had a single driving lesson after the one I mentioned in my blog. During the last one, mr. Lim took me all the way to Cheras. And along the way there and back, I learned why people complain about the manual car...I got stuck in a traffic jam both going there and going home, so I had to juggle my gears. Between switching from Gear 1 to 2 and then back, and releasing and pressing my clutch, I'm quite surprised I managed to get the car back in one piece! And at least 3 times on the road (MAIN ROAD AND HIGHWAY!!!!!!) my car stalled because I released the clutch too fast. Let's hope for the sake of humanity that I get this right, or else there'll be another dangerous driver on the road...

Violin: Oddly enough, my violin is getting better. Currently I've started practising this year's Grade 7 pieces, so that's a good sign (REALLY GOOD) that I'm getting back to my old standards.

Kenjutsu: One word...PAIN. Last Tuesday I had a "stamina training" session. Basically, my Sensei asked all of us to run up and down the staircase from the 4th floor to Ground floor 4 times...I was clocked out at the 3rd time but somehow I managed to drag myself for the 4th time...after that my legs gave way. Couldn't even walk properly because my knees kept buckling underneath me! So now I've got a regime (that I can't really stick to because I am so lazy T_T) wherein I run up and down the staircase in my college twice everyday from monday to Friday. I think it's working, I don't really feel that tired these days. Today though there were three new recruits at kenjutsu class, so me, JL and KR (my other friends in kenjutsu) didn't get to do much of anything new while we showed the new girls some stuff like stright cuts down and evading. Thankfully near the end, Sensei decided to train us in something else. No, not another "stamina training" (thank goodness), but we had to practise a breathing technique. This required us to kneel on the ground and close our eyes while taking deep breathes. The difference between normal breathing and this one is that we have to breath in through our nose and expand our stomachs when we breath in, while when we breath out we have to flatten our stomachs. This is supposed to be good for our insides, but to be honest I didn't feel any better. Than we sorta meditated after that because we were supposed to continue to breath like that and keep our eyes closed. That way we could train our "natural aura" to detect stuff. I'm not too sure what this means, so I'll ask my Sensei for better clarification next week. After this whole "breathing training", I got severe pins and needles and had to get help to stand up. Man do I suck...

Family: My older brother went back to Sydney, and my younger brother and I developed a love for Left 4 Dead. =)

Games: As you can guess from above I'm currently playing Devil may Cry 3 Dante's Awakening on my PS2. But I am completely getting destroyed by the AI in this game for some reason. Seriously. The second boss took me more than 20 tries to kill (to both the amusement and annoyment of my younger brother), and I'm really struggling to finish this game. Testing both my patience and my ability to react, DMC 3 is really difficult. I'm not even playing the hard level! Or maybe too much levels of Hack & Slash in Dynasty Warriors has zapped my ability to dodge properly. Whatever it is, I highly doubt that I'll be able to finish this game anytime soon... Othen than DMC 3, I've also discovered another cool game called left 4 Dead. Yeah, that totally awesome first-person shooter game in horror genre. I played it with some buddies from college (Ally, Sairou and one of their friends) last week and I can't stop thinking how cool it was! However I think I did more to hinder than help. I kept shooting my friends accidentally and I always required saving PLUS I think the Boomer hates my guts because he always targets me. ALWAYS. I've also been watching some really funny videos on Youtube about left 4 Dead, look for this guy called Kilplix. He has some really amazing Left 4 Dead recordings, both funny and entertaining. Can't wait to play next week!!

Me: Well, biggest news about me at the moment is my SPM results. I got stright As, 8A1s and 4A2s. Funnily enough I don't feel that happy about it. It's more of relief that I'm feeling. A sense of accomplishment and completion. A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, though sometimes I can't believe that it's over simply because I got such good results. I can't really feel happy though, because some of my friends didn't do as well as they wanted. And of course, my friend JV (can't think of a good code name for her yet, but you know who you are JV!!!) got her straight 13 A1s, and my other pal Durian got straight 12 A1s. There was also Puppet, who got her straight 11 A1s, so all in all we have 3 people with straight A1s in my school, and about 6 of us with straight As. So it's pretty good overall. A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to JV, Durian and Puppet for their amazing results!

Well, that's my update for now. I'll post something new in two days time, so look out for it!!!

*gets stabbed again*

Hanzo, I said I was sorry!!!!

Hanzo:...Dissapear...

ARRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! *runs away*

A flashback (part 1)

Phew, a hectic week gone by! Here's a flashback of Ming's life in the last 6 days:

13/2/2009
I got into a spat with my mom. A light one, all things considered. It was actually pretty stupid to fight about...

Also, my driving instructor forgot to come and pick me up again!!! T_T

14/2
Wow, Valentine's day! Too bad I spent it all by myself... *sobs* I listened to Taylor Swift's Love Song and Nickelback's Gotta be Somebody over and over again till I gave Hanzo a sore throat. Even now, he's still glaring at me.

Hanzo: I hate you... *fades into darkness*

...*ahem* In the morning, I went for my FIRST Driving class. It was kinda funny and scary at the same time. The driving instructor is called Mr.Lim, and the first thing he taught me was about the clutch. I think I failed a few times before I got the hang of it. The important thing about the clutch is that you must never lift your foot too fast. You have to wait for the car to move a bit, then only you can lift your foot. Switching gear was also a bit of a problem, because I had to step the clutch first, and then I need to switch the gear. The problem is that Im trying to look at the road at the same time, so sometimes I switch to the wrong gear! Even worse is when I stall the car in the middle of the road. OMG, thank god it only happened in the practise area, and not on the main road!! Mr.Lim also taught me how to reverse, and I think I got the hang of that alright. However, I think the most heart-stopping moment was when he told me to go to the main road! At the beggining it was just the practise area. Then it was a side road near the practise area. Then it became the main road.

Suffice to say, I nearly fainted on the spot.

The first tribulation was stopping at a red light behind a lorry. Thankfully there was no one at the back of me when I did, because I'm still very bad at starting up the car after you press the breaks. It still takes me like maybe 5 seconds to really get going, and there was the fear the car would stall...

OK, so after I passed the red light, Mr.Lim asked me to turn into this side road near the police station...and it so happened a lot of people double parked around that area...suffice to say, it's like "meniti kaca", or for those of you who don't know BM, it means crossing glass. It's supposed to mean that it's as difficult and as fragile as crossing a glass bridge. Thankfully Mr.Lim was next to me, otherwise I would've had a panic attack!!! I also had to stop for another car to allow the driver to park the car, but it wasn't so bad; I think lorries are scarier than the tiny Kancil car. =)

After getting through that mess, Mr.Lim asked me to drive back to my house. My house is on a hill, so if I happened to do anything wrong...well, I'll go tumbling down...

Mr.Lim is a really good guy, I like him as my teacher he's really patient with me, even if I am a banana. I'll be seeing him tommorow for my next class, so I'll let you know about the sequel to Ming's Driving Lesson. =)

In the afternoon, I continued the seminar I went for the last week. It's a really good seminar that teaches one to be a better person and to be more proactive. For example: Did you notice that we tend to always talk about the bad things than the good? Bad prices, Bad homework, Bad teachers...well get this. Actually our mind is divided into two. A concious mind and a subconcious mind. Our subconcious mind CANNOT recognise which we want and which we don't want. It can only go "YES SIR". So while you know that you don't want to have a boyfriend/girlfriend who's possesive, because you keep moaning and complaining about it, your subconcious mind will think that you do want it! That's why most people end up getting into relantionships with people who have characteristics they don't want. Its true, try it and see!

Then at night, my family had a bit of problem trying to find a place to eat, it being V day and all. In the end we settled for Madame Kwan's in Midvalley. So basically I spent my V day driving and with my family. Hopefully this changes next year... *There's Gotta Be Somebody For Me Out There!!!*

15/2

Nothing special happened today. I found out today that my Youth Leader's going to be getting a fifth kid soon! WOW In this day and age it's rare to find someone with more than 3. My Youth Leader, Rugby (that's his code name, BTW) already has 4 other kids, a girl at 7, a boy at 6, another girl at 4, and a young baby boy at 1 year 2 months old. And now a new kid's coming out! Wonder if they're twins? I know the Bible says, "Be fruitful and Multiply", but 5!!?? WOW.

I also made up with my mum. We sorta just got back to normal on Saturday, though the formal apology was on Sunday.

16/2

Nothing much happened today, I guess. I've just been working on a "Which character are you "quiz, it's still in the beggining stages, but I'll post it up ASAP. Also went to get my contacts cleaned professionally, apparantly I don't do it right...saw some really cool Sangoku Gundam Modals that are really amazing. I'll probably pick up one next month if I have enough money.

17/2

ARGH, my kenjutsu class was cancelled! So I had to walk around the college with a wooden stick on my shoulder. It really generates a lotta attention...I still got some sparring practise courtesy of one of my new pals in college. The guy's a pro, he's got a black belt in taekwondo 2nd dan, and he reads up on martial arts. We practised out in the open, and one guy actually came up to ask when was the next class! Hope to see him next week, sincerely. I improved on my blocking and my evading, though my footwork needs some more refinement.

Will type out the rest tommorow, so look out for it!

Mission accomplished!

I managed to finish my computer assignment JUST...ON...TIME...so thank goodness that's outta my hair...however, I'm still in the war zone as there's one more attack left from the enemy!

Tommorow is my accounting open book test!!

While my accounting is not THAT awful, I still am going to need more than one night's study to do well!! I really hope to do well for this test...

For today though, I'm going to be watching a movie called Bird Cage for English. It's apparantly about this guy who's gay, and it's supposed to be really hillarious. What adds to the anticipation though is that it's a BANNED movie in Malaysia (I think so, anyway) and nothing makes something more interesting than it being forbidden. I'll type out a summary of the movie when I'm free (probably on Saturday morning).

On other news, I have yet to practise my violin! So much for practising it three times a week. It gets difficult when your older brother demands attention from you nearly every single moment that you're free, and even more difficult when that older brother is flying off back to the Down Under next week!

Also, I'm going for my first driving lesson tommorow afternoon! Let's all pray that this Ming won't end up in a car accident now, cause my hand-foot coordination is something to really worry about.

And now, for another Way-of-Ming note:

PROCRASTINATION IS A DEADLY SIN!!!

I know most people probably would be saying: "Gee Ming, that's REALLY obvious...", but seriously procrastination can be fatal and really stressful to the human body and mind! So if you have anything that needs to be done, do it ASAP or suffer the consequences! To quote Ben Franklin: "One tommorow is worth two todays."

Well, Ming's going off now, so look out for the next post in the daily ramblings of Ming!

(BTW, I'm sure most of you have noticed my lil ninja at the side. He's currently out of assassination contracts and poisonings, so I've hired him to sing songs to entertain all you folks who read my blog! His name's Hanzo, so everyone say hi!! Hanzo, say hi!

Hanzo: ...

*ahem* He's not a bad singer really, and he plans to enter the next American Idol! Too bad he doesn't have enough money to go to America...anyway, everyone be nice to him, and the same applies to you Hanzo.

Hanzo: The darkness shall consume you...

...yeah...the darkness...bye everyone!)

HAI YAH!

Yesterday, I went for my second kenjutsu class, and I finally got my bokken! The bokken is the wooden sword, BTW. It's not as heavy as my sensei's, but still it looks lighter than it seems. My arms were sore from yesterday as my sensei was trying to teach me to shift footing while aiming a downward slice at my oppoenent's arms. After I did it three times with him, he asked me to do it on my own. While I was doing my fifth slash, my sensei's handphone rang! While he went off to answer the call (apparantly it was a BIG CLIENT of his), I kept on doing the down ward slash. 1, 2, SLASH, 1, 2, SLASH... you get the idea. Now repeat for 50 times, because my sensei didn't give me the order to stop!!! I kept doing that until he finally remembered me and signalled that I could stop slicing. My arms were sore for the remainder of the day. I also learned blocking and counter-slicing, though I'm not too good at it (me = clumsy!!!). Still, I hope to get better at it soon. I'll probably post up a pic of my bokken in my next post, so look out for it!

Now, here's a VERY important Way-Of-Ming note:

THINGS NEVER HAPPEN THE WAY YOU WANT IT.

The reason why I'm saying this is because I was very lazy last Friday, and I didn't work on my computer assignment at all. I thought I could do it yesterday night and finish it.

You can guess what happened.

Unfortunately my younger brother FallenShinobi had a PJK portfolio to finish about basketball. My older brother was asked to translate the entire entry about basketball in Wikipedia from english to BM, and voila! He asked me to help. Nothing annoys me more than figuring out what dribble is in BM, or digging out a dictionary to find the correct BM word for basket rim. To add to the cacaphony of the room, my older brother was playing Carmen the opera on his lappy, and Fallen was baring out his soul singing Breaking Benjamin.

In the end, I only started on my Computer Science assignment at 10.15 at night.

It was a real rush for me, because I was one hour behind. Thankfully there were my faithful college buddies who were always ready on the handphone or MSN to chat and listen to me rant about microprocessors, PDAs and lousy brothers.

In all honesty, I can't blame my brothers for my horrible predicament yesterday night, because it was mostly me who had done the wrong. Now I won't say BLAME, because it makes me feel bad. So I'll say that it was mainly my mistake to wildly assume that I had enough time to finish it properly. So maybe the ratio of who caused the problem is 80:20, with me taking 80% and my brothers taking 20%.

Either way I didn't get to finish it properly (I'm just left with the pictures, my references and my front page to do) because my mum came into the room at 12.45 a.m (yes, my SMKTD chums, I stayed up that late. T_T ) and kicked me out of the room and into my bed. So close and yet so far. Sigh. But like I said, it is 80% my mistake, and I have to take the consequences.

Anyway, I'm going off to finish the rest of my computer science assignment now. Let this be a lesson to everyone, including me, on the evils of procrastination, and let not anyone else be tempted into indulging in such cardinal sin. Ciao!

(BTW, if anyone is ever interested in anything to do with computers, check out Webopedia. It's 100 X better than Wiki.)

RED ALERT RED ALERT!!!

RED ALERT RED ALERT...

Incoming Computer assignment!!!!! Incoming Computer assignment!!!!! Approaching at 0830 hours tommorow!!!! Status: 50% complete ONLY. EXTREMELY FATAL

RED ALERT RED ALERT...

Incoming Accounting Test!!!!!! Incoming Accounting Test!!!!! Approaching at 1030 hours on 13/2/09!!!! DANGER DANGER!!!!!!

In short, I am not going to bed tonight...

Computer Blues...

Today is going to be a very busy day for me!! I've got tons of stuff to do, and so little time! So much for freedom in college...

The most important thing on my list at the moment is my Computer Science assignment. I'm supposed to be writting a report about the similarities and differences between computers/handphones and computers/laptops. Honestly speaking I'm tech-deficient so I have no idea about the structures of all these high-tech gadgets. Even worse, I've got only one week to do it, so I'd better work on it ASAP. To everyone who's reading my blog, please read the poll and answer it. It could save a Ming's life!

Secondly, there is my open book test. I've got not one, but TWO coming up. They're Accounting and Applicable maths. I haven't studied a thing yet, so unless I start and start soon I will be seeing red... Hopefully my older brother can help me with'em, especially Applics.

Thirdly, I'm restarting my violin class tonight. Now, I love the violin. I really do. The only problem is that I seem to suck horribly at it. It's very sad, I'm an abject player. Coupled with the fact that the last time I picked up my violin was a whole year ago, I'm going to have an uphill fight.

I'm going to be so busy busy BUSY... but at least there's one good thing... next week's Thaipusam, so there's going to be a holiday on Monday!! Not much of a holiday, if I look at the amount of work I have to do, but ah well, you gotta take what'cha get. =)

The Way Of Ming...

Hello, and welcome to my blog!

First of all I should introduce myself. My name is Ming, and I'm a Malaysian Chinese girl. I like music, reading, playing video games, taking photos, exploring, taking long walks and hanging out with friends.

Why is this blog called "The Way Of Ming"? Simply put, this blog is a record of life and my life's philosophies. I may be a Christian, but I also have certain Confuncianist, Zen and Taoist believes that do not conflict with my religion. I also have certain principles, taught by others. It definitely makes for a very intersting, and hopefully, stress-free life.

Now, I must be very frank and honest that I'm also a slob. I'm very lazy and I tend to get distracted by things very easily, ESPECIALLY a good story or a good game. I get addictions and then I can't stop. It's bad I know, and I'm doing my best to rectify it, but the truth is that I may not update this blog frequently, and I have frequent intervals of absence. Please bear with me if that should ever happen.

Well, that's it for my intro. I hope to be a frequent blogger, and I thank you for reading this post! Ciao!