A day at Brighton

Hey hey! Another day is dedicated for relaxing..geez! Been having fun a great deal of time here! oh..not good..So what's happened today? Well, I had a day out with a couple of new friends at Brighton.

These people who are friends of my uni friend came from London. Most of them are Phd students studying at Imperial and King's College..very young and intelligent people! Most are doing biology related courses. When first met,I thought those peeps were undergrads! Awet muda! There were 9 one them. The uni friend of mine, Ghows and myself were the host and brought them to Brighton Marina, our uni, Bighton Pier. Eventhough I've been here for almost 3months now, it's only yesterday that I discovered new places(tho they're obvious) at Brighton! Yes, yes..I should be blamed for not knowing these places in advance, but hey..i've visited other places! (heee..in hope for a good excuse).

The weather was unpredictable..it was gloomy,windy,raining,snowing and the day ended with a great sunny evening! Were we consired lucky? Maybe, considering we had 4-season in a day! It's strange to get snow during spring when you should see flowers blooming.

We spent 7 hours walking around. They were most fascinated by the sea which reminded myself when I was small (until now!). Felt like I was the one visiting when snaping photos around..hehee..

Snow during Spring

I can't believe it! No wonder it was really cold today! It is snowing!! Yippie! For the first time in my life, I'm looking at real snow falling out my windows..but it's already dark, cant snap lots of photos..I heard that it's not easy to get snow in Brighton as it's supposed to be the warmest region in the UK. Isn't it strange getting snow during spring when flowers should bloom? The weather in the UK is totally unpredictable..

Evening snack

Uh..it's a totally boring day today...the heater isnt working, im shivering as a scared mouse! it's really cold right now..i wonder when the heater is gonna work back to normal..i hated the heat so much back in Mesia but right now, I'm begging and feel like paying for heat! hehee..

According to myself, as an alternative to prevent prolong shivering..the best thing to do is to eat without stop! Aah, i love eating. I been eating so much since morning..maybe I had a short pit stop. I had sweet potatoes, cereals, rice, fruits, juice, yogurt, crackers, chips and now I'm having tea (but without actually drinking tea). Thought of having something different and here I created something tempting but not so good for health. I call it Cheesy Nachos..But, hey..it's easy to prepare...the ingredients are - nachos, mozarella cheese, onions, ripe tomatoes, corriander and a sprinkle of herbs..mix them together and medium bake for 10mins and walla..here's the results..

Arundel Castle & Littlehampton

It's a bright sunny day today! Yippie! A couple of friends and myself made a day's trip to a place in West Sussex called Arundle Castle and Littlehampton. The Arundel Castle is so huge and beautiful! We had so much fun discovering the castle itself, there were magnificent architecture, fine interior with fascinating furnitures, tapestries and rare collections of paintings, rich history of the Dukes of Norfork, well groomed gardens and so much more. We could see the beauitful download in the South England and out to the sea from the top of the Keep (like a tower). It's amazing to know that although the castle looks old, it is still a home to the ancestors of the Dukes of Norfork since the past 900years!

We had a picnic by the sea at a near by place called Littlehampton. It got really windy while having lunch. We were shivering! But, it's a nice place and great location for playing kites which makes a helicopter sound due to the strong wind.

Another happy year

It's 19th March 2008! Yippie! Another year of hopefully stronger and closer relationship between me and Tomet! On this exact date, we've now been together for 4 years since knowing each other 8 years ago. =)

Can't believe how time got us this far,bless god! All ups and downs througout the friendship which then grew to a relationship that represents further commitment taught me abt sincerity, trust, forgiveness, gratitude, bond, support...a few examples of my endless list. My hope is to have brighter future together! All best wishes for us!

Worse and humiliating

heyya..don't know why, as i surf i coincidently approach sites which directs me to the worse of stuff like fashion and names..but found these amusing (in a way). A good approach to release stress i thought!

1st site, I came across about weird runaway looks..like rubbish can lid on top of head, discoball hat, one eye brow which connects both left and right brow, a nest-like hair style, uhh..endless! check it out at http://www.stylelist.com/ Poor models! I doubt they like it very much, guess models can't choose to look nice all the time..heheheee! here's a snapshot taken from the website above..

2nd site is about weird names given to babies...even worse! They've to carry such embarrasment for life..gosh, i can't imagine..the names are adopted from

• diseases(e.g: Hysteria Johnson , Cholera Priest, Kathryn E. Coli);
• food(e.g: Lunch Magee, Bread White, Plum Sellers, Mayo Head);
• sins(e.g: Wrath Gordon, Envy Burger, Pride Saint);
• professions(e.g: Cook Cook, Doctor Love, Gamble Moore);
• uncommon celebrities babies names are also listed (e.g :Apple, Kyd, Pilot Inspektor)

To parents...please have some mercy! There're more names listed at the website at http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23631411/?GT1=43001&pg=1#TDY_Names_Bad . Check them out!

3rd site is..i dunno what to say..crazy maybe..it's about this lady who sits in her boyfriend's toilet for 2 years! without leaving the bathroom..unbelievable..yea..i couldnt as well, but after reading the story at http://news.aol.com/story/_a/woman-stuck-in-bathroom-for-how-long/20080313080209990001 , i guess it is really true..The woman has a phobia leaving the toilet, so she sits on it all the time. It's just recently(5days ago) that she's been transported to the hospital by the authority after the boyfriend finally calls the police after she acted groggy! Geez..I think both of them have got some judgement problems. At the end of the story found at link above says that everyday the bf would try to convince her to leave toilet, but her reply was "Maybe tomorrow.." ..heheheeee!

More weird stories can be found at http://news.aol.com/weird-news . Among them are Illinois shape cornflakes up for auction at eBay where the bid is currently $500! ; there's also a flying saucer shape house in Tenneessee(maybe the owner had a passion for aliens or ufos); 800 dogs in a mobile house (gawd, i cant imagine!)...uhuuu..i shall stop..otherwise, i might be contributing to these weird stories...

Malaysian dinner menu

It's a wet day all day long..Felt really lazy fr morning until nite! Geez..not good! The laziness of me doing things included cooking. Only had tortillas earlier on and only managed to get myself moving around for dinner preparation around 9pm..late dinner, thanks to lazy me!

Luckily i didnt stop cooking halfway through! hehehe..yippie, food's cooked and I'm now having dinner. Somehow, I craved for 'ikan bakar'!(grill fish). Couldnt get the type of fishes in M'sia so i came with my own style of cooking and here i present my dinner menu for tonite - ikan bakar with air asam (tamarind sauce), fried mixed vege and white rice.

BarCamp Brighton2

howdy! how's it going on? i had a full of informative day today..how and why? well, i went for this event called BarCamp Brighton2 . It's a free 2 days event where 'computing' people from different level(e.g : developers, designers, games geeks, programmers, researchers, etc) gather around to share ideas and experiences on techninal and non-technical computing stuff. The idea of barcamp is that, the organizer responsible for getting sponsors like yahoo, amazon, madgex, microsoft, cogapp, realtimewords wouldn't actually setup any program for the event..but the attendees will..so, only when u show up on that day that ppl start picking up slots for a half n hour presentation on practically any topic! So, there u'll get diverse discussions ranging from ease of mind to mind bloggings topics! These run simultaneously in several rooms over the entire day.

The one i attended today and tomorrow is organized on campus at Falmer House. They're so many technie ppl, some fr amazon, yahoo, cogapps and many other leading companies! Though i don't much abt these technical stuff, but it's great to know their existence and capabilities..I might consider using them when needed. I learnt quite a lot from today's event alone..lemme list a quick recap on what talks/workshop I found interesting :

1. Accessibile Javascript : a bit programming tips and tricks
2. Twitter : status sharing program, kinda cool -(check it out below)
3. How to express yourself clearly : did a workshop and a small scale practical exercises
4. Widgets : intros to widgets and a bit abt creative thinking (interesting presentation!)
5. Second life : virtual reality environment

So, what am i getting from this event...a great deal of networking with ppl. I managed to make new friends, of young and not so young but very successful ppl! I'm so impressed with what they do. It's interesting knowing what ppl from various levels and expertise are working on. This has, somehow set me a stronger focus and motivation on the type of work I'm currently doing. Yippie!

Before signing off, here are some pics and vids of the things I said earlier on..

Love physics, love science

Hey there..it's Friday, 14th March 2008. Today's the last day of the spring term. The undergrads will be on break for a month! The Easter holiday! Enjoy enjoy..well, not so much for me tho', but that's alright. I had another productive day today, managed to submit all the review assignments for the ACT class, had a fruitful discussion with my supervisor which has opened up new ideas and yeap..my stomach is getting so much better(i had a terrible stomach upset 2days ago!), and that means..I can now resume to my craving for food! Food..i love food.. :)

I was jz browsing the net a while ago and found out about this link, http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/63302/high-wire-act. It's about the hillarious teaching methods a Physics professor at MIT teaches his students, so funny and crazy..a bit nutty! It's impressive that a passionate academician/scientist would go all out to make his/her student understand what the subject is all about. I never thought that learning Physcis would be fun all together. Guess, my views change after watching the clip of this cool, joyful, ecentric and commited lecturer. Prof Walter Lewin says that "by adhering to three principles; clarity, timing and suspense -- keep the focus tight, be precise and end with a big finish". Further, it's interesting knowing that he also has passion for contemporary arts which influences the creativeness for new inventions used during this lectures. He's even more impressive to have the momentum of teaching and inventions at the current age of 71! This line of his inspires me.."It took me a decade to come to the realization, that really what counts is not what you cover, but what counts is what you uncover." He's hope is that students love physcis, love science and see the beauty of the physcial world around them.. Inspirational isn't it?

Here's a clip of one of his lectures, the remaining is by the side bar..enjoy!

ATC - Blog 5

The term is almost ending, and so does the ATC course. Time really flies, can't believe that I've been in the UK for almost 3 months now. But, I like it here. So, it doesn't matter, really. Hmm, today I’d like ponder a lil about what I've gained from the Advanced Technology Communication course. Honestly, enormous amount of information! A great deal of knowledge and helpful tips related to academia. ;)

Briefly, over the past few weeks, the course covered issues about explaining a research work within a few seconds; writing good publications which includes writing abstracts, understanding the general structure of a publication, peer reviewing academic paper, etc.; giving effective presentation for both posters and oral. I learnt the most from poster presentation discussions. Although I’ve had previous experiences publishing posters at conferences and exhibitions, the skills and guidelines shared within the class are the few ‘easy-to-follow’ and ‘why didn’t I think about..’ tips which could tremendously change the appearance of a poster to a more appealing and interesting presentation. We had to do a poster presentation as part of the assignment. There was a class where we had to bring our poster drafts for discussion before they’re finalized and printed for presentation. I find this session valuable and helpful as there’s room for improvements. So, here I present the enhancement made to the poster after a fruitful discussion with classmates and lecturer, thanks all!

Before :

After :

ATC - Blog4

During the previous ATC class, (last week and today), each of the student had an opportunity to do a presentation. Most of the DPhil candidates presented a brief overview of something in relation to their current research while the Masters candidates presented topics they’re interested to work on in the future. The 2 presentation sessions were very informative and interesting. From my observation of my classmates’ presentation, I could pick up a few good and bad presentation skills, thanks to the session that we had discussed in the previous ATC class.


Good :

• Use of proper PowerPoint slides that aren’t distracting to the audience. Instead, only important information is presented with mostly contrast colours between the background and foreground.
• Most presenters manage to finish the presentation on time. Always keep up with the time given!
• It’s good that almost everyone introduce themselves sufficiently before they begin with the talk.
• Questions were mostly answered pretty well with examples given along the explanations.
• The use of props such as leaflets makes the presentation interesting.
• Demonstration that involves auditory and tactile focus also interests the audience.

Bad :

• Good posture is important during a presentation; this affects those ‘visual’ audiences. Leaning on the wall or having hands in the pockets are a few examples that should be avoided.
• Reading slides isn’t at all defined as a presentation! Never read slides while showing ur back to the audience!
• Slideshows are not the presentation, the presenter is. Therefore, keep the presentation concise and include only relevant information. Don’t overload textual information on a single slide, do keep to 3-4 points with appropriate text size.
• Sometimes, presenters are not aware that they mumble during the talk. Staying alert about the things you say out might help to overcome this.
  

I think I’ve used most of the tips shown by others during the presentation session, except the use of props. I intend to employ this method in future presentation. Apart from that, I should learn to answer questions by giving examples or analogy to make it easier for the audience to comprehend the intended message. Finally, practising a presentation improves your skill and boosts your confidence!