erfly's Xanga

Monday, March 19, 2007

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:55:30 GMT

hey! check out my new site at erfly87.multiply.com ! there'll be a lot more stuff there...blogs, music, video, reviews and a photo album too...

Friday, January 12, 2007

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:42:39 GMT

I just came back from watching the movie, The Guardian.

after watching the trailer in church, i decided that this is a must watch movie...despite people saying cheh...what movie is this.the guardian? .i'm glad some of my friends did not care and decided to watch it with me....thanks ! and it didnt let me or them down..the 10 bucks was worth every cent!

i must say that this is one of the best movies I have watched ever...for a moment i thought of changing career, medicine to rescue swimmer...lol...can do what i want to enjoy what i'm doing at the same time...save lives and swim...but after doing the some research of the net, malaysia doesn;t even have an academy to train rescue swimmers!...anyways....it was truly touching at the end...just amazing...inspirational....i really can relate to the storyline....

i shall not reveal any spoilers here just in case some people havent watch it...

this is the soundtrack at the end of the movie, Never Let Go, by Bryan Adam..lyrics are sooooooo meaningful!

NEVER LET GO
(written by Bryan Adams, Eliot Kennedy & Trevor Rabin)

can you lay your life down , so a stranger can live
can you take what you need ,but take less than you give

could you close everyday, without the glory and fame
could you hold you head high, when no one knows your name
thats how legends are made, at least thats what they say

we say goodbye , but never let go
we live, we die , cause you cant save every soul
you gotta take every chance to show that you're the kinda man who
will never look back will never look down
and never let go

can you lose everything, you ever had planned
can you sit down again, and play another hand

could you risk everything, for the chance of being alone
under pressure find the grace, would you come undone
thats how legends are made, at least thats what they say

never look back , never look down, and never let go....

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 15:51:58 GMT

As I enter the new year of 2007, it’s time to reflect what has happened, learn from my mistakes and also relished the memories J in 2006

Some highlights of 2006

January

2^nd year of A levels in IS, I remembered other than chemistry, for bio and maths we were behind the syllabus, so we all knew we had to work hard from Jan to june. Other than that, the 1^st years came in and I had all the Election Board stuff in my hands. Busy busy busy every day, calling for meetings, arrange this arrange that. I wondered how I managed at that time. Thanks to the whole team. Plus the leadership camp in Kundasang! A camp that I will always remember, particularly because I organized it, hahaha, but also in the sense that I got to know more of my batchmates especially the commerce people and councilors (they are really nice people).

February

The fixed and free campaign started. Some days where the committee would stay back till late night for election and swearing in ceremony preparation and then next morning have to come early to arrange the chairs. I still remember how dead tired I was that when I got home from school I dropped onto my bed and slept for 2 hours then only have dinner and study. I also received a call for an interview in KL with PMC. And the interview was on the day of the rehearsal of the swearing in ceremony. So I wasn’t there at all for the rehearsal. Left it totally on my VPs and committee and I flew back at night after the rehearsal ended. Was really touched to see my committee staying back waiting for me at the hall when I said I wanted to come and see everything. The swearing in ceremony was good, thanks to all the hard work the committee put in. learnt a lot of protocol stuff after receiving some feedback after the ceremony.

March and April

Study, test, study and trials….life was quite boring…hahaha..but had to get my a levels done and over with!

June

In the middle of A levels already. I was stress but not very stress, partly because of how IS made me study in my first year, so I can say I was quite prepared. Although chemistry practical was really hard! Graduation finally arrived! One of the most memorable days. Even though its just my a levels, it’s that sense of satisfaction that after studying so hard for one and a half years, u finally get honored for it. Unlike SPM! Prom was good too.... Received conditional offer from IMU also…

July

Worked in GCC office with aunty mag and Mel. It took me a few days to get accustomed with the new setting and environment and also some rules! It was fun though, working with them and joseph lai too…got to know more of the office staff and rules as well…not much rules but it was different from school!

August

A levels results released! I made it… It marked my entry into uni after all the sacrifices that I had to make, especially after all the swimming fiasco …prepared all my stuff and left for KL on the 20^th

IMU orientation. I would describe it in 3 words, crazy, memorable and disgusting!lol… Something, perhaps on IMU medicine ppl, will experience..hahaha…what we did during that one week goes way beyond ur mind…. when I think of it, I cannot imagine myself missing all that fun!

September and October

This 2 months have really been great…got to know more of my batchmates as well as people from IMU….There are really endless activities in my uni….since I was still in semester 1 during this time..i just decided to have all the fun I can…hahahah…didn’t wanna regret 5 years later…. IMU Cup to going rock climbing to those mamak nights out, camp in Genting, we still have 2 more years to go in Bukit Jalil!

November

When we came back from the camp in genting, we started to prepare for the CF Friday night play. Both Christians and non Christians really worked hard together to make this play a success for the glory of God. We had dance practices, acting practices and script writing time…all of it were worth the time spending..

December

After the Friday night performances, it was studying time! Our summative was before our Christmas break, so everyday study study study only in library…..16 weeks of lecture..hahaha….ok..i have to confess that I don’t think I will do very well in my first test in uni coz it was very hard!!!anyways…after the summative, went back to KK for Christmas….GCC Funtime was really good…everyone enjoying themselves…really got the festive mood…hahaha….then went to manila for holiday! And also for eugene’s swimming competition..i had a great time there…bought lots of clothes and stuff too…and the food there is really good!!! Especially TONY ROMA’S PORK RIBS…juicy tender and yummy..lol..hahaha…lachon and crispy pata are awesome too although they are all so unhealthy! Celebrated new year’s in church this year…had thanksgiving service and countdown there…

Yup…that was practically all that happened this year…although still got a lot of smaller details…

Looking forward to..of course a great year ahead..but I can only trust God that this would be a year I would look back in January 2008 and say…”I couldn’t have done it with you, my BIG MAN!”

Some New Year Commitments instead of resolutions that people never follow!

My relationship with God

My relationship with dad, mum , bro and sis

Study more, in a sense be more nerdy la…..must do well for eos 2 and eos 3

Know when to go out and when not…especially if I already have something else to do on that day…

SWIM more,

And lastly EAT MORE…..hehehehe….food is life!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 16:16:06 GMT

thank God for coffee! it keeps me awake

1. during lecture...although it doesn;t help when the lecture is really boring

2. when i feel sleepy and i have no choice but to study!

yup...coffee rocks!

Friday, December 08, 2006

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 18:35:12 GMT

i jus came back from IMU's Friday Night, my uni's talent time...once again, it made me go "wow" after the whole night which lasted like 6+ hours all together...after Variety Night, IMU Cup closing ceremony and cheerleading competition, and the Diwali Night, i thought Institut Sinaran or known as Sunshine Institute in IMU...lol...yea..erm..i thought IS's talent time rocked..but it is no where near IMU's 30 performances man....the same goes for the orientation too...hahaha...IMU is one of a kind...no doubt the students here can go a bit crazy when it comes to having fun! i wonder whether public unis or other private Us are as happening as IMU...talk about being a MEDICAL school...lol...

IMU is truly a unique university, a university where the students not only have the brains, but talents, not only good in sciences, but arts as well....i'm not talking about my self here..but the 2000+ students who are seriously multi talented....this person can sing, that one can act really well, can dance, can create a video, cheerlead, draw, play all sorts of instruments from the chinese to western, can put on a wushu performance that's actually entertaining instead of the usual moves....wah...the list can go on and on.....i think i didn't mention that even the lectures performed, act and sang in a few performance too!

yes yes....we all have talents and it is He who gave us these talents...and when a person uses his or her talents, it makes him stand out of the crowd...like "wow...this guy/girl is damn good!"...but ultimately i come to realise that no matter how good a person is in his talents, they are bound to have weaknesses too, lessons and mistakes that they have to learn from in life. this is a fact of life. sometimes, when i look at some people who have the talents that i don't, i wished i could exchange mine with his...hahaha...especially music talents..i found out how hard it is to play a violin yesterday when my friend taught me how to play "mary had a little lamb"....it was jus 3 notes only..and it was not easy at all...hahahaha..but then again...these people will come up to me and say "how do you swim butterfly? it's damn tiring!" but then again...i think playing the violin like Vanessa Mae is way cooler than knowing how to swim butterfly...lol..

this becomes another one of my hard thinking thoughts in my mind...where i seek for answers as to why do our weaknesses haunt us? and yet our talents are never put to good use..or they were never your real talents..just something you were good at a little....some of u may not understand what i wrote..but it's ok...maybe only I can understand...hahaha....

to Sem 1 CF play ppl...u guys did very well...so proud of you all!!! even though it took up quite a lot of time...i'm glad that i was a part of it....NO regrets!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 02:55:53 GMT

christmas is coming, exam is coming! feeling so stressed....cause of all the studying that needs to be done...the thought of 16 weeks of lecture notes.....can only trust God and have faith that He will help me through!

Friday night is this friday, IMU's talent time..i'll be performing in a play with my batchmates, we passed the auditions last week, brushed up on the dance and acting on saturday...and now we're all set! last rehearsal on wednesday....it seems like this year's christmas is different than the my past few years....last 2 years were spent in church for workshop preparing for Glory Kids Christmas Party and before that all the while was training only....this year, it's the play and studying!!!

u guys, especially those in workshop must take care!dont overwork....and dont fall sick...i know this year's party is gonna be so great with the new bunch of leaders!btw...SPM finished today for some..hehehe...so happy for u guys...

ok...need to get back to my notes and books now....*racing against time*

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 16:43:17 GMT

finally got the photos from my friend! know it's kinda late..but anyhow...hahaha..enjoy!

the bunch of them before i arrived!

some of them up there as well...

before....

after!!!

one for the camera..before i took revenge..

run away!

finally got one!

one group photo before we left!

cutting birthday cake...

and the IMU tradition..biting the last candle from the cake!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 10:12:17 GMT

ok...2 days ago...i wrote another long entry...and when i clicked 'submit'....my screen read "the page cannot be found"...argh..my line got dc...so i was lazy to blog again that day and decided to blog again a few days later...

it has been a week since my birthday...hahaha..yea..i know i have not blog about it yet....

on tuesday my friends were talking about going to pasar malam that night...so i said i wanted to go also...then ru fah, said see first, i call him tonight again..so i said ok...then throughout the day ru fah acted sick...he asked me whether he looked sick and i said yes because i he did look sick..hahaha

so at around 5, i called him, and he told he was too sick, couldnt go...so stay at home lor.....then around 11, his housemate, ghi waie called me and said ru fah has high fever, need to go see doctor...so since ru fah brought me to the clinic last time i was sick, i decided to go....when i got in the car, he was wearing a jacket somemore....then when he started driving..he said he felt like vomiting...so he turned into a road (still at my apartment area) and i saw my other frens car there also...at first not too sure whether it was his car, but then as he drove closer, all of them were hiding behind the car..so when i got down, i had a choclate cream cake smashed on my had and wiped all over me! yup...then i started messing up everyone else..since they were so clean..especially ru fah the liar....didnt play too long coz the next morning got early lectures..when i went back..had to clean up all the cream from my hair to my slippers! the next day, since it was Behavioral science week, we had lectures both in the morning and afternoon. so during lunch time...i cut my birthday cake( from secret recipe) at the cafeteria...then at night, after cf we went out for dinner....yup.that sums up my birthday..not forgetting all the calls and smses from u guys in kk! thanks guys!

last friday, had my first patient interview with a simulated patient....i was quite nervous but it turned out quite well...haha..then lead worship and played the guitar in cell group too..for the first time...it was okay also...didnt make many mistakes...

i'm in a musical/play representing the uni CF for imu's upcoming talent time or known as Friday Night...all has been planned, we started practising the acting and dances already..so far so good....next week is the audition...hope we get through!

ok..gtg do some studying now...summative assesment one 1 months time..

birthday pics on next post!

Monday, November 13, 2006

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:47:07 GMT

As the Doha Asian Games draw closer ( starts at 1 Dec), I have been pondering and thinking of the decisions I made when I decided to take a break from my hectic yet enjoyable swimming career. After a good outing (1 bronze in 100m butterfly and a gold in the relay) in Sukma 2002, me and about 14 other swimmers were selected in January 2003 to be projected and trained for this Doha Asian Games 2006.

2 weeks after the New Year, I checked into my new home and base, Bukit Jalil (or known as Bukit "Jail" as we soon called it later.). I didn't know what to expect when I arrived, I have to admit that my expectations were a bit high though. As I checked into the Bukit Jalil Sports School on my first night, I knew LIFE would not be easy here. Staying in a room with 5 other athletes of different sports, race and age, and religion, with just 3 small wall spinning fans was going to be a challenge. I was also rather lonely because the only other male swimmer who was supposed to stay in school was Daniel Bego (current swimming sensation if you do not know who he is) but because of some reason(not sure whether even it is true) he moved out and stay with his mum in his comfy apartment. The food served was horrible (unnutritous and tastless) if to be eaten by athletes who use twice as much energies as normal people a day and also hardly enough for me (despite many complains) and dining hall was hot, full of flies and cats! yuck....

The classes were fairly okay, nothing much to boast about, teachers were doing their job, you would think a sports school would have the best teachers, but NO, they even send trainee teachers. Most students here are not interested in their studies(maybe only 1% are) and do not even bother to come for class. Teachers would not want to teach if there are too few students and therefore we were also slow compared to other schools. Mind you, we all took the same examas, PMR and SPM like all schools nationwide. No exception for us! there is even compulsory SPM subject here- sports science!

As for my swimming, our coaches were a russian coach(who has now left ) and also a local coach, the russian being the head coach, writting out the programs and deciding when we should train. I followed their program obediently and didn't question them much even though many times I was struggling to move in the water. the first year, i improved a significant bit, about a second in my hundred butterfly. I had good exposure in the many competitions i went during the first year, best achievement was Gold in 50m butterfly in Asian Junior swimming Championship in the 15-17age category. I continued to trained hard and following their program , hoping deep in my heart to be selected for the Vietnam Sea Games at the end of the year, but I did not improved any further compared to the likes of my younger team mates who were doing very well. the older ones were not improving much either. I would't say i was a "i want results only" kind of swimmer because i had trained hard enough to deserve the results..A few of them got selected for the Sea Games while i thought hard whether i wanted to continue the next since the next year i had SPM and I wanted something to fall back on should I fail in swimming.

I decided to go back the nexy year, but this time I moved out of the school, making arrangements for an exception for me to stay in the non-schooling athlete hostel which had better conditions and food too BUT i had to pay for the food i ate at this different canteen. every meal was worth a penny even though if i did not eat there. but at least I had better food and rest....That year, I set a high target, that was to qualify for the B category for the Athens Olympics. my time was 58 and the qaulifying time was 56. i believed I could do it. i wanted to push myself beyond my limits, but I felt that somehow my coaches did not think I could do it. I wasn't even sure what they wanted me to achieve that year, maybe it was just Sukma 2004.

But still, I had a good time in Kunming, China when I was the few that went there for altitude training. the whole team was supposed to go but at the end, some political reason caused the team to split into 2. in the end our local coach and a few of us went while the russian coach stayed back with the rest. I'm not sure whether i benefited from the altitude training because of a number of reasons 1. I couldn;t sleep really well because my room mate brought his PS2 there and he ends up playing late at night...afternoon too...because he was a lot senior than me, he did not really care, neither did my coach, he just asked me to use earplugs which were of no use coz i am extremely sensitive to sound when I sleep, so the sleep affected my training directly. 2. we had to go back early because of the political reason, some party was not satisfied that we got to go and they did not. 3. No support services like a masseur to loosen up my muscles after a hard day of training. my former china coach which trained me in Sukma 2002 did it for us because she knew if we didnt have one, we would die(literally) during the next session.

I did OK in the Sukma 2004, winning a few medals but no individual gold medal. i was expected to win the 50m butterfly but I was clearly not the "best man" that day, as I lost in a close fight to the now swimming sensation Daniel Bego. it was really the race to watch that day, it was either me or him. as he had already won many events, i had the support of all the other states(really touched) but the pressure took its toll on me. that made the defeat even harder, i remembered i was devastated after the race. when i was cooling down in the diving pool, tears filled up my goggles. that was how hard it was. nevertheless, i took revenge in the relay, beating sarawak in the 4x100m freestyle which they were expected to win...

after Sukma, i could say i was depressed..very....i did not qualify for the Olympic Games..was not even close..my best time up to now is only 57.9....I talked to my officer in the National Sports Council and he said after the Malaysia Open, i could go back home and concentrate on my SPM. I packed my bags as soon as Malaysia Open finished, enrolled in All Saints for 2 months and then came back to the sports school to take my exams. after my exams, I told myself I need a break from swimming, explore life, discover new things, i decided to come back home (KK) after 3.5 years training away from home. enrolled in Institut Sinaran(IS) for a-levels. joined Glory Kids as a youth staff, commited myself again to church and serving God again.

Life started to be brighter when I was back in KK. Made lots of new friends in IS, made better friendships in church and also commited my life to God again. I had a great time in IS, serving the school in many ways, receiving good lectures and life lessons from the lecturers there, which helped me to score the straight As I achieved in my A levels. I had not tasted the sweetness of success for such a long time until I received the phone call from my principal about my results. also, I could now fulfil my dream of becoming a doctor( glad to say I am a medical student now...hehehe...proud to be in International Medical University). Giving back to the community what they have given me before.

so now, when I look back and wonder, did i make the right decision when i decided to stop swimming? I think i can truthfully say YES. I would never imagine what I would turn out to be if I had not stop. I would say a very selfish, lonely and depress Jeremy? maybe.........2 years have passed since I stopped, I would never exchange the these 2 years with anything else. not even if i had the chance to go to Doha now....

* by the way, 14 of us who got selected, 12 of us eventually left the team( really sad...what went wrong in this project???), seeing no future and hope at all, we left wanting to pursue something better in life. Daniel is the only one from the team that is going to Doha ( well, I never really considered him part of the team since he was hardly with team except during training hours)..oh well, i still wish him all the best...

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 06:34:44 GMT

some community awareness

Just something to keep in mind...........

This mail was actually forwarded by a nurse in the Critical Care Unit of a
local private hospital. Just turn off our phone next time when you are in
the hospital. The person being affected may just be someone you love.
When you enter a hospital, do look out for signs that say, "NO CELL PHONES ALLOWED".
You might not realize what unfortunate things can happen due to your negligence. Be considerate!

A 4 year-old girl was admitted due to leg fracture. As it was an open
fracture, she had to undergo an operation to stitch the protruding
bone back in place. The girl was hooked onto a life support system during
the operation. The doctors input data into the life support system
before she began the surgery. The operation went well until all in a sudden the life support system went dead.

It was found out that an idiot was using his/her hand phone outside
the operation Theatre. The frequency had actually affected the system.
They tried to track the fellow but to no avail. The little girl, young and
innocent as she was, died soon after due to the failure of the life
support system.

Message : Be considerate. Do not use your hand phone at any hospital
or places where you're told not to use it. You might not be caught in
the act, but you might have killed someone without knowing it! Please
pass this on to as many people as possible!