Now, using the computer and surfing the internet is one of my hobby. I am also very good in computers. But do you know when and how I started to learn how to use a computer?
I started using computer when I was 3 years old. At that time, I went to my father's house in Subang Jaya, Selangor. There is a computer in his house. That is a HP Desktop computer with Windows 3.1 . It was actually an old computer. I liked to play with it very much. Therefore, my father brought it back to Kulim for me.
At first, I don't know how to use a computer correctly. I played a few games but I just simply play because I don't even know how to play it so I always lost. Later, my parents tought me how to play the games, then I began to know how to play. Besides playing games, I didn't know anything else about computers. The games were only very simple games.
Then when my brother knew how to play computer, he always play with my computer when he came back to Kulim. This is because there were no computer at his house. Several times I fought with him just because of the computer. At the year 2002, he wants to bring my computer to his house. I tried to stop him. My father told him to give that computer to my brother and promised to buy me a new one. The new computer I have is installed with Windows XP and I used it until now. Now it is already 8 years but still working!
When I started using this computer, I only use it to play games. The games were much newer and more advanced that the old computer. My father also installed TM Net internet service at my house for me. I knew very little about computer at that time. I only used the internet to download games. However, the internet was very slow and most downloaded games have a trial. At that time I never knew how to crack and my mother only purchased one game for me. Sometimes my mother downloaded the games using Streamyx and wrote them into a CD for me to install.
However, later I moved house. In the new house it is very troublesome to use the internet because I had to connect the wire over the living room floor. At the year 2006, I read a comic. Behind the comic are computer teachings. On that year also, my computer got infected by virus. I tried many antiviruses to remove the virus but at last I failed. I had to send my computer for repair. But, I began to know more about computers. I began to be less-interested in computer games. I prefer to download and use different types of softwares.
In Form 1 and 2, I had the chance to use the computer and internet in school every week during the ICT class. I began to use the internet widely. I also signed up for Friendster, Tagged, Facebook and much more. But it is difficult for me to use the internet at home. The TM Net is very slow and I had to connect the long cable over the floor. Once somebody fell down because of the wire. My father had a Maxis Broadband but I could use it only when he comes back to Kulim. My phone could surf the internet but it is very expensive.
Finally, at the end of year 2009, my father signed up another Maxis Broadband for me so that I can use the internet easily. In order for the Maxis Broadband to function properly, I moved my computer upstairs and reformatted it. I could use the internet whenever I want. I also know a lot about computer now. I also upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. But because of my PMR examination, I don't use the computer or go online too often.
After my PMR examination, I played computer very often for more then 2 months until the 2010 year-end school holiday is over. I went to Kuala Lumpur for holidays on December 2010. My parents bought me a new Acer laptop on 9 December 2010. It has Windows 7 Home Premium, Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB RAM and ATI 512MB Graphics Card. It is very fast and good. However, the Maxis Broadband internet was very slow when I used it on the Acer Laptop. On 14 December 2010, my father took me to the Maxis store and replaced my Maxis Broadband modem. After that, the internet could work very fast. I concluded that the old Maxis Broadband modem was not compatible with Windows 7. Since then, I usually used the new Acer Laptop rather than my old Packard Bell desktop. I only used the Packard Bell desktop for testing purposes. On January 2011, the Acer laptop had a problem. The problem started after I attempted to install Microsoft Office. I tried to repair it but I failed. My mother took it back to Kuala Lumpur for repair. It was successfully repaired and I used it until now.
When I entered Form 4, I took the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) subject. The reason is it is easy and interesting. After I took ICT, I could learn more about computers. I was interested in ICT and could score well in it. In the 1st, 2nd and 3rd school exams, I got 96 marks for ICT. In the 4th school exam, I successfully got 100 marks for ICT. I could also complete most of the coursework for ICT. At the end of Form 4, all students are asked to choose the subjects for SPM. Some students decided to drop ICT because no one got A+ in ICT for SPM 2010. But, I took ICT because I was confident that I could score A+ as long as I worked hard for it. After entering Form 5, I continued to take ICT and I registered it as a SPM subject. In the 1st exam, I got 97 marks. In the 2nd exam, I got 100 marks. For the SPM Trial exam, I got 99 marks. For the actual SPM exam, I got grade A+.
After my SPM examination, I played computer and surfed the internet almost every day. I upgraded my Acer laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Initially, I planned to dual-boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 on my computer. The upgrade was successful and I liked Windows 8 because it was fast. However, due to some mistakes while partitioning the hard disk during the installation, I had to delete Windows 7 and all the files stored in the hard disk. I had to recover all the files and programs on my computer manually. Although Windows 8 is good, I still missed Windows 7 so later I installed Windows 7 on VMWare Player on my Acer laptop.
Friday, 11 November 2011
Thursday, 1 September 2011
PMR Examination Tips
NOTE: These tips are outdated. Please do not use these tips for the new Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3 (PT3) examination because PMR and PT3 are very different in many aspects. I am unable to give tips for PT3 examination because I do not know the format and style of questions.
I got 8A's in my PMR 2010. Some people have been asking me for tips on how to score in the PMR. So, I am sharing a few tips about PMR here. The tips depend on the subject. These tips are intended for Form 3, Form 2 and Form 1 students.
Bahasa Melayu (Difficulty: High)
Bahasa Melayu PMR is rather difficult. Basically, Kertas 1 is more difficult than Kertas 2. Kertas 1 consists of Tatabahasa and Pemahaman Komsas. Tatabahasa is the most difficult part. You will need to do a lot of exercises. You should pay attention when your teacher discuss about these questions. Try to take note on what your teacher says, especially regarding how words are used. Do revision regularly on this kind of questions and remember them. Some of the questions are often asked, so take note on them. Pemahaman KOMSAS is not very difficult but can be tricky. Make sure you understand everything in the Antologi from Form 1 to Form 3. A KOMSAS revision book is very helpful, so you should have one. Make sure you read and understand the Tema, Persoalan, Watak & Perwatakan, Latar, Nilai and Pengajaran for all stories. When answering this kind of questions, read the passage given and all the questions carefully before answering. Kertas 2 consists of Ringkasan, Pemahaman Umum, Karanagan Bahan Rangsangan, Karangan Respons Terbuka and Novel. Ringkasan is quite simple. Make sure you have at least 5 correct isi and make sure your tatabahasa is correct. Just copy if you cannot use your own words. Don't simply change the words until it is different from the original meaning. Do not add your own ideas. You can write more than 5 isi but make sure the 80 word limit is not exceeded by 5 or more. For Pemahaman Umum, there are 3 questions. For question 1, you will be asked the meaning of a phase. To answer, just replace every words in the phase with a word with same meaning. After that, insert your answer into the passage to see if it is suitable. For question 2, read the passage to find the answer. Copy the answer from the passage. You must give at least 2 answers. For question 3, you have to give your own opinion. You can write as many answers as you can, and only the correct ones will be marked. You should give at least 3 answers. Do not look for the answer from the passage. For Karangan Bahan Rangsangan, look at the question and the material given. If the material given is relevant to the question asked, then you must use it. If it is not relevant to the question, then you need to give your own opinion. You need to write 1 Pendahuluan, 3 isi and 1 penutup. Provide elaboration for each isi. Make sure that the 120 word limit is not exceeded by 5 or more. To score, you need to read and write more. For Karangan Bahan Rangsangan, there are 5 choices. Choose the question that you are most confident to answer. Read the question carefully and answer. You can write down the important isi first but this is not necessary. You need to provide at least 1 Pendahuluan, 4 isi and 1 Penutup. Elaborate in each isi as much as you can but do pay attention to the time to ensure that you have enough time to answer. Make sure that it is at least 180 words long. To score, you need to read and write more. For novel, it can test you on any novel, either Form 1, Form 2 or Form 3 novel. Sometimes, you may be asked to compare 2 novels. Therefore, you must understand all three novels very well. A KOMSAS revision book can help you a lot. Make sure you read and understand the Tema, Persoalan, Latar, Watak & Perwatakan, Nilai and Pengajaran for all novels. Answer in paragraph form and not point form.
English (Difficulty: Moderate)
English PMR is not very difficult but not simple as well. Both Paper 1 and Paper 2 have equal difficulties. For Paper 1, there are 5 parts. The first part is about Information Transfer, second part about Grammar, third part about idioms and phasal verbs, fourth part about comprehension and fifth part about literature. To score in all parts, you should read more and do more exercises. Pay attention to grammar usage. For Literature in Paper 1, you also need to understand all the poems, short stories and drama (if any) in the Collection of Poems and Short Stories. A literature revision book can help as well. For Paper 2, there are 3 parts, Directed Writing, Summary and Novel. For Directed Writing, materials would be given. Read the question, instructions and materials given carefully. In your essay, you must have an introduction and a closing. If it is formatted writing, the format must be correct. Elaborate on each point given. You may need to at other relevant ideas if you are asked to do so. Make sure your essay is longer than 120 words. Pay attention to the time so that you have enough time to answer. To score, you need to read and write more. For summary, read the passage and instructions carefully. Begin your summary with the 10 words given. Give at least 5 points. You can give more than 5 points but don't add in your own ideas. Do not exceed the 60 word limit at all. For novel, you can choose between the novels you have studied. Make sure that you understand every novel fully. A literature revision book is very helpful. Make sure you read and understand the Theme, Setting, Characters, Lessons and Moral Values for each novel. When answering, choose the novel that you are most confident. Give your answer with elaborations and examples from the novel. Give your answer in paragraph form and not in point form. Make sure your answer is more than 50 words long.
Mathematics (Difficulty: Low)
Mathematics PMR is one of the easiest subject in PMR. It consists of Paper 1 and Paper 2. Paper 1 has 40 objective questions while Paper 2 has 20 subjective questions. Paper 1 is easier than Paper 2. For Mathematics, you need to understand every topic from Form 1 to Form 3. You must know how to answer the questions as well. You should pay attention in class and do a lot of Mathematics exercise to improve your skills in answering Mathematics. Do not memorise the definitions and explanations in the book. Most questions tested involve calculation but some involve drawing and sketching. For drawing and sketching, use pencil. For others, you need to use pen. You need to know how to use scientific calculator as well. If you don't have one, you should buy one. Scientific calculator is very helpful in Paper 1 but cannot be used in Paper 2. During PMR of my year (2010), both 350MS and 570MS are allowed. 350ES and 570ES (Natural display) is also allowed. Before the Mathematics paoer starts, make sure to bring pen, ruler, pencil, eraser, sharpener, scientific calculator and geometrical sets. For Paper 2, you need to show the workings. Make sure to write all important steps. Ask your teacher to find out which steps are necessary to show and which steps are not. If an important step is wrong or missing, the answer and other workings may be considered wrong, even if they are correct. Do pay attention to the time so that you have enough time to answer. After you have finished answering, check all your answers to make sure they are correct.
Science (Difficulty: Moderate)
Science PMR is not difficult but not easy as well. It has Paper 1 and Paper 2. Paper 1 has 40 objective questions while Paper 2 has 2 sections and 8 subjective questions. Paper 1 is generally easier than Paper 2. All topics from Form 1 to Form 3 will be tested. Form 3 topics are the most difficult while Form 1 topics are the easiest. You must understand all topics fully and do not memorise, except for facts that require memorising, such as examples of animals and plants. You need to pay attention when the teacher is teaching so that you understand all topics. Do more exercises to increase your skill in answering. Revise all topics regularly so that you don't forget. The science textbook doesn't contain all the facts, so you will need a revision book. Buy a revision book that is thick and contains all the facts. Scientific calculator can help you to answer some questions involving calculation in both papers, so don't forget to bring it for your exam. When answering Paper 2, read the questions carefully and write your answers as clearly as possible. Make sure the spelling for scientific terms is correct. If you are asked to explain or give a reason, explain it fully. You may need to explain in more than one sentences, depending on the marks allocated for that question. Certain formulas are provided in front of the examination paper, so refer to it if you forgot or unsure. For calculation questions in Paper 2, write the formula if it is not given and write down all important workings because some marks are given for workings.
Sejarah (Difficulty: Moderate)
Sejarah is easy to answer and easy to understand but difficult to memorise. It contains one paper only, which has 60 objective questions. All topics from Form 1 to Form 3 will be tested. Form 3 topics are the easiest and Form 1 topics are the most difficult. Unlike science, Sejarah requires both memorising and understanding. Certain topics in Sejarah requires understanding, especially those related to events. You need to understand before you can remember it easily. If you try to memorise everything, it will be more difficult to remember. Some topics, requires memorising, especially those related to names. For these topics, you can only remember them by memorising. To study Sejarah, you should not wait until the last moment before exam. This is because there are quite a lot to memorise. If you study only at the last moment, you will have problems memorising. To make memorising more effective, do your revision. You can also try using the imagination method (Refer to here: http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2010/10/tips-to-remember-names.html ) . The Sejarah textbook for all forms are good and complete, so you should read them. You should also do more exercises to familiar yourself with the questions. A few Sejarah questions are questions about Nilai murni, so you may need to think to get the answer.
Geografi (Difficulty: Moderate)
Similar to Sejarah, Geografi is easy to answer and easy to understand but difficult to memorise. It contains one paper with 60 objective questions. All topics from Form 1 to Form 3 will be tested. Form 2 topics are the easiest while Form 3 topics are the most difficult. Geografi has 2 parts, Kemahiran Geografi and Geografi Fizikal dan Manusia. Kemahiran Geografi is much easier than Geografi Fizikal dan Manusia but it only makes up 10% (6 questions)of the Geografi paper. Geografi requires both memorising and understanding. Some topics such as explainations requires understanding. It will be difficult to remember if you try to memorise them without understanding. So, you need to understand them. Other topics, like name of places, require memorising. Therefore, you should not wait till the last moment before exam to study Geografi. If you study at the last moment, you can't memorise well. To make memorising more effective, do your revision regularly. You can also try using the imagination method (refer to http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2010/10/tips-to-remember-names.html ). The Geografi textbook contains most of the facts but not all. You need a complete revision book to get all the facts. You should also do more exercises so that you are familiar with the questions. You also need a protractor and scientific calculator for the exam, as you may be asked to measure bearings and do some calculations.
Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu (Difficulty: Easy)
Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu has 4 types, Kemahiran Teknikal (KT), Ekonomi Rumah Tangga (ERT), Pertanian (PT) and Perdagangan & Keusahawanan (PK). Every student has to choose one of them. However, in SMK Sultan Badlishah, only KT, ERT and PK are offered. The Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu has 2 parts, Teras and Elektif. Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu has Paper 1 and Paper 2. Paper 1 has 60 objective questions, while Paper 2 is a project. As Paper 2 carries 40 marks for the PMR, it is very important to complete the project. There are 4 projects. Make sure you do all of them properly. Ask your teacher for help if you have problems doing the project. The projects are not difficult to do, and as long as you do it properly you already have 40 marks for PMR. Therefore, Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu is considered as an easy subject. For Paper 1, all Teras and Elektif topics from Form 1 to Form 3 will be tested. Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu mainly requires understanding and some memorising. It is difficult to remember the facts if you don't understand and just memorise. Some facts, like names of tools, requires memorising. It is not difficult to memorise facts in Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu as long as you understand it. The Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu textbook for all forms are almost complete. A complete revision book can help you. You should also do more exercises to familiarise yourself with the questions. Pay attention when your teacher is teaching so that you can understand all topics. You should do revision regularly. A scientific calculator can help you in your exam as there may be some questions on calculation, so don't forget to bring it.
Chinese / 华文 (Difficulty: High)
Chinese PMR is difficult. It consists of Paper 1 and Paper 2. Paper 1 and Paper 2 are equally difficult. Paper 1 has 40 objective questions and is made up of 3 parts. The first part is Modern Text Comprehension. In this part, there are questions about information transfer, grammar and comprehension. For information transfer, read the questions and material given carefully and answer the question. For grammar, you need to understand the topics in grammar. Grammar for PMR Chinese is quite simple except for Hanyu Pinyin. For comprehension, you need to read the questions and passage given carefully then answer the questions. Although modern text comprehension is easier to understand, the questions asked are often more difficult. The second part is Classical Text Comprehension. It includes comprehension and translation. You need to read the passage, meaning of words and the questions carefully. It is quite difficult to understand Classical Text, so you may need to read it several times and refer to the questions. For translation questions, try to translate word by word into Modern Text, then put it into the passage to see if it is suitable. The third section is idioms. You may be asked the meaning, author and source of idioms. You may also be asked to fill in the blanks with idiom or choose the sentence that used idiom correctly. You must know the meaning, usage, author and source of all the 150 idioms studied from Remove Class until Form 3. For the meanings, you must understand and not memorise. For the author and source, you must memorise. You can use the imagination method to memorise (refer to http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2010/10/tips-to-remember-names.html ). To score in Paper 1, you need to understand all grammar topics and all idioms from Remove class to Form 3. To do so, you need a PMR Chinese revision book. A number of PMR Chinese revision books are available at many bookshops. You also need to do more exercises to increase your skills in answering. For Paper 2, there are four parts. The first part is Caligraphy writing. You must know how to write medium sized caligraphy. Your writing must be nice in order to get high marks. It is easy to get 3/6 marks as long as all the words are correct and tidy. Try not to write wrongly and never use liquid paper or 'cut-and-paste', otherwise that word is considered wrong. You need to practice a lot to write caligraphy well. Remember to bring a writing brush and ink for the exam. The second part is summary. You need to summarise the important points in the passage into a few sentences, usually 2, 3 or 4 sentences. Do not write it in a paragraph and do not add in your own ideas. You do not need to use your own words but you can replace words with shorter words of same meaning. Do not exceed the word limit by 5 or more. You need a lot of exercise to score in this. The third section is Directed Writing. You are given a material and you need to write about the material given. You must include everything given and elaborate more. An introduction and closing is also required. Be sure to write more than 100 words. To score, you need to read and write more. The fourth part is continuous writing. There are 5 questions and you need to choose one. Choose the one that you are most confident of. Read the question carefully. You can write down the important points at a side but this is not necessary. Your essay should have at least 1 introduction, 1 closing and 4 points. If it is a formatted writing, make sure that the format is correct. Your essay must also be longer than 220 words. To score, you need to read and write more.
Pendidikan Islam
Bahasa Arab
Bahasa Tamil
I do not take these subjects, so I cannot give tips on these subjects. If you take these subjects, ask your teacher or someone good at these subjects for their tips.
NOTE: These tips are outdated. Please do not use these tips for the new Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3 (PT3) examination because PMR and PT3 are very different in many aspects. I am unable to give tips for PT3 examination because I do not know the format and style of questions.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
My Best and Worst Dreams in 2005
Sometimes, we dream when we sleep. The dream may either be a good dream or a nightmare. Usually, it is difficult to remember what happened in our dream after we wake up. However, I can still remember the best dream and worst dream I had in 2005.
My best dream in 2005:
The dream was about a maze and a house surrounded by nature. I had this dream during my year end school holidays in 2005. At that time, I didn't like a girl in my school, TT. She was previously my friend, but I hated her after an incident where she broke my ruler and pencil but refused to be responsible. I had the habit of trying to find out the address of the person I hate, so I tried to find out TT's address. As a result, I had this dream.
In this dream, one of my friend told me that TT was having a birthday party at her house and she invited everyone in my school. My friend also told me that TT's house was surrounded by nature and there was a big maze in front of her house. My friend said that TT's house was actually just behind our school but we could not directly get to her house from behind the school because her house was separated from our school by a small private building. The owner of that building strictly prohibited anyone from entering the compound of the building and the guards would shoot anyone who does that.
I was interested to go to TT's house. My friend told me that to get to her house, we had to make a big detour through Kulim town, and we also needed to find the correct way through the maze in front of her house. I then followed my friend to TT's house. When we arrived at her house, there was really a big maze and there were a lot of people there, including my friends. I tried to get through the maze by myself. However, after an hour, I still could not find the correct way through the maze. At last, I asked one of my friends for help. She led me through the maze easily and I finally reached the entrance of TT's house. The entrance was small, allowing only one person to pass through at a time. After going through the entrance, I saw her house. There were two swimming pools and many people were swimming in there. I was interested to go swimming as well. I swam in the shallower pool at first, then in the deeper pool. The water in the swimming pool was warm, it was like a hot spring.
After swimming for some time, I got out of the swimming pool. TT's house was just beside the pool. Around her house, there were many trees. The walls of the maze were made of stones. There were birds flying around. I really liked her house as it was surrounded by nature. My friends asked me to enter her house but I refused due to my poor relationship with TT. Then, I decided to leave her house and return to school. I had to pass through the maze again. This time, I somehow decided to keep to the right all the time, thinking that this could be the way out of the maze. It turned out that this really worked! It took me less than a minute to get out of the maze. I then walked back to my school, while trying to remember the way to her house. It was already around 5pm when I reached my school. I went to the top floor of my school and tried to look behind my school. There, I could see TT's house and a small building between her house and the school.
I thought that I could get to TT's house easily by just going through that building. My friend had told me that anyone who enters the compound of the building would be shot by the guards. However, I wanted to take the challenge by secretly sneaking though that building. Then, one of my friend told me that he was having the same thoughts as me. So, we decided to sneak through the building together. Another friend warned us not to do so but we did not listen to him. We climbed over the fence of the building. We could not go through the external compound of the building as there were guards. Instead, we had to enter the building through one end and then exit through the other end. The doors of the building were made of transparent glass. After we entered the door, a guard knew about that and he walked towards us, carrying a gun. We began to feel scared and we tried to hide behind a door. Unfortunately, the guard still saw us and he prepared to shoot us with the gun. I were so frightened and I woke up from my dream because of this.
I consider this dream as my best dream because it was really nice to be in a house surrounded by nature with a big maze in front of it, although the ending was very scary. I never had any other dreams as wonderful as this. Not long after I had this dream, I reconciled with TT and she was my friend once again.
My worst dream in 2005:
The dream was about myself being attacked by ghosts. I had this dream sometime in the 2nd half of 2005. At that time, I often went to the Pacific hypermarket in Butterworth with my family. I had always felt that the upper floors of Pacific hypermarket were quite creepy because those floors were always quite dark and usually there were not many people there. As a result, I occasionally had bad dreams about Pacific hypermarket.
In this dream, I went to Pacific hypermarket with one of my teacher. My teacher brought me there as a reward for winning a Mathematics competition. We were in the upper floors of Pacific hypermarket when we came across an escalator to the lower floor. I tried to look below and the lower floor was very dark. Further in front, there was another escalator from the lower floor. I was curious about the lower floor so I wanted to go down using this escalator, and I thought I could just come back up using the escalator in front.
My teacher warned me not to go down because he had somehow heard stories about ghosts there. I did not believe him and I insisted on going down as I was really curious. My teacher refused to go down with me so I had to go down myself. The escalator was not working so I had to walk down by foot. After walking down, strangely, I could not see any escalator in front. I walked forward trying to see clearer, but there really was no escalator. I was a bit frightened so I turned back. At that time, I could no longer see the escalator that I just went down. In fact, I could not see anything at all as I was in complete darkness. I was very scared and I screamed. Suddenly, a few ghosts appeared and they attacked me. I tried fighting them but I lost. My body was destroyed by the ghosts and I fainted.
When I regained consciousness, I was still in my dream. I found myself inside an aquarium in a nice house and I realised that I had turned into a fish. Then, a fairy came and told me she had saved me from the ghosts. She said that she would recover my damaged body but she needed some time for that, therefore she had to place my soul in a fish temporarily. According to the fairy, the place below that escalator was controlled by ghosts and anyone who went down that escalator would be killed, while I was really lucky that she was near that place at that time so she could save me. Later, when my body was completely recovered, the fairy transferred my soul back to my body and I was brought back to my house. Then, I suddenly woke up from my dream.
I was definitely very frightened by this dream and for quite some time after that, I refused to go to Pacific hypermarket. This dream is the worst and scariest nightmare I ever had. I rarely had nightmares involving ghosts.
Monday, 29 August 2011
Tuition Classes I Have Attended
Do you go for tuition? Nowadays, most people go for tuition because they think that going for tuition can help in their studies and help them get good results in examinations. If you are close to me, you may know that I had not went for any tuition before Form 4. The reason is that in the past I always think that I can score in my examinations by myself without the need of any tuition. However, starting from Form 4, I begin to think that I really need tuition, so I started going for tuition classes. Actually, I have went for tuition before Form 4.
I went for my first tuition when I was in Standard 3. I went tuition for Arts subject. You may be surprised of why I went for Arts tuition, as Arts is not a UPSR subject and I was never interested in Arts. I went for Arts tuition because all the while my drawing is very bad, and I could not draw at all during Arts lesson in school. The Arts tuition center was located near the old Nola supermarket in Kulim. I went there every Saturday from 10:30am to 12:30pm. However, the teacher was not good at teaching arts. Instead of teaching everyone together on the board, he lets everyone draw their own. He would go from one table to another and teach each person for a while. He was also a fierce teacher. Once, someone accidentally spilled the water in her bottle, and she got a terrible scolding from the teacher. Whenever someone couldn't draw properly, the teacher would scold. I went there for a few months, but it did not improve my drawing. The only thing I learnt from the Arts tuition was how to colour using poster colour. I stopped going for Arts tuition after a few months, and I never went for any other Arts tuition. Until now, I am still very bad at arts.
My grandfather is a Mathematics teacher and he is giving tuition for Mathematics and Additional Mathematics at his tuition center. He gave tuition for Form 3, Form 4 and Form 5. My grandfather's tuition center is located at upstairs of the old Cosway in Kulim. When I was in Standard 5 and Standard 6, sometimes during the holidays I would follow him to the tuition center for Form 3 Mathematics and sometimes even Form 4 and Form 5 Mathematics and Additional Mathematics. He would ask me to go if he felt that I was able to understand the topic he was teaching. I usually had no problems understanding what he thought. However, I would go there only sometimes during school holidays.
At Standard 6, I had my UPSR. The school made it compulsory for all students to attend school tuition for every subject. Instead, we did not need to take part in Clubs & Societies for cocurriculum. The tuition was held daily from 1:30pm to 3:00pm, one day for one subject. I was not happy to attend the school tuition at first because I thought that I only need to attend tuition for Malay and Chinese but not the other subjects. However, I had no choice but do attend it. Everyday, I had to eat lunch in school. The school tuition was also held during the school holidays. During the school holidays, it was held daily from 8:00am to 12:00pm. Later, I began to get use to attending the school tuition but I was still unhappy to do so. If I had the choice, I would have attended the tuition for Malay and Chinese only. We did not need to pay for the tuition.
At Form 3, for the later half for the year, the school organised night classes for the PMR. All Form 3 students could choose whether to attend the night class or not to. Those who wanted to attend the night class had to pay RM50. Since I was given the choice, I decided to attend the night class for all subjects except Mathematics which was my best subject. The night class was held daily from 8:15pm to 10:15pm, one day for one subject. One night, I mistaken the time table and attended the night class for Mathematics. Then, I felt that it was fun to attend night class for Mathematics so I decided to do so for every night class of Mathematics. During the night class, the teacher would let us do exercises then discuss the answers. The night class was held for 2 months, from June until one week before PMR. However, there was no night class during the Ramadhan month.
At the end of Form 3, November 2010, my grandfather started his tuition class for Form 4 Mathematics and Additional Mathematics. Some of my friends and former primary school classmates went for his tuition. The tuition was on every Monday and Wednesday. In the beginning, I did not want to go for his tuition because I wanted to watch my favourite drama series 'My Family My Love' from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, while his tuition was until 7:00pm. I did not want to miss the drama, moreover it was after my PMR. Later, my grandfather changed his tuition to Wednesday and Saturday. I could attend his tuition and only need to miss one episode of the drama per week. Starting from the beginning of Form 4 until the end of Form 5, I go for my grandfather's tuition for Additional Mathematics and Mathematics every Wednesday from 3:15pm to 6:45pm and every Saturday from 2:30pm to 6:00pm.
In Form 4 and Form 5, I also attended tuition for Malay language. Although it is slightly easier to score A in SPM Malay than PMR Malay, I still think that I need tuition for Malay as it is quite difficult and very important. I asked my friends for recommendations, and they recommended me to go for Malay tuition in Pusat Tuisyen Inisiatif Utama, where Cikgu Yazid is the teacher. My father registered my name at that tuition center. I started going for Malay tuition after the 2011 Chinese New Year. I felt that Cikgu Yazid is really good at teaching Malay. He helped me in writing my Malay essay. In Form 4, the tuition was held every Friday from 8:30am to 10:15am, while in Form 5, the tuition was held every Friday from 8:00am to 9:45am. Pusat Tuisyen Inisiatif Utama is located near my school. I go for that tuition until I completed Form 5.
I also planned to go for tuition for Chinese language because it is a very difficult subject. I was recommended by my friend to go for a tuition center at Keladi, Kulim. However, the tuition was held at Wednesday night after my grandfather's tuition. I felt too tired to attend that tuition after studying for the whole day. So, I decided not to go. There are no other Chinese tuition centers I know in Kulim so I could not attend tuition for Chinese. Later, at June 2011, I decided to drop Chinese in SPM because I am not confident to get A+, not even A, as Chinese Paper 2 is very difficult. Therefore, I am not attending tuition for Chinese anymore. My friends also suggested me to take tuition for Chemistry in Puan Yeap's tuition center but I did not want to. The reason is that I think that my Chemistry teacher is good enough and I want to depend on myself for Chemistry. I do not attend tuition for any other subject except Malay, Mathematics and Additional Mathematics.
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
2011 Chinese New Year Diary
The 2011 Chinese New Year fell on 2nd February (Thursday). The school provided 10 days holiday for Chinese New Year, that is from 28 January to 6 February. This is the my dairy during the Chinese New Year.
28 January 2011 (Friday) - 31 January 2011 (Monday): Pre-CNY
These few days were school holidays. My parents and my uncle's family were not back from Kuala Lumpur yet. I just did some revisions.
1 February 2011 (Tuesday): Day before CNY eve
I went to my grandfather's tuition centre in the afternoon. The tuition ended on 6:30PM. My parents had arrived in Kulim in the afternoon. They picked me up after my tuition. After going home to take my bath, they took me for dinner in a Japanese restaurant. That night on 12AM, my uncle's family arrived in Kulim. I played with my cousins for a while before going to sleep.
2 February 2011 (Wednesday): CNY eve
Today was Chinese New Year's eve. I woke up early on 5AM to follow my grandparents to the market in Bukit Mertajam to buy the ingredients needed for the reunion dinner at night. My father followed along. We bought breakfast as well. After returning home at 6:30AM, I slept until 8:30AM before waking up and had breakfast. After that, we went to a temple to pray. Then, we went to the Kulim market to buy some fireworks. Next, my parents went to RHB bank to do some work. We returned home next. For lunch, I had noodle soup cooked by my grandmother. Then, I played with my brother and cousins. My parents, uncle and aunt went for shopping in the afternoon, leaving me, my brother and my cousins playing at home. At 7PM, we had steamboat for reunion dinner at home. After dinner, we enjoyed lychee and longan. Later, we played fireworks. At 12AM, my grandparents, my uncle and my father went to another temple to pray but I did not follow along.
3 February 2011 (Thursday): CNY 1st day
I woke up at 8:30AM. I greeted my family members Happy Chinese New Year. I also received ang-pows from them. I let my mother keep all my ang-pows. We had a Chinese New Year meal for breakfast at home. At 11:30AM, we went to McDonald's Kulim for lunch. Then, we went to visit one of our relative's house for a few hours. We returned home at 4PM. I played with my brother and cousins. At 7PM, we had dinner together at home. Then, we again enjoyed lychee and longan. Later, we played fireworks again. Then, we went to a nasi-kandar restaurant to eat roti-canai.
4 February 2011 (Friday): CNY 2nd day
In the morning, we had breakfast at a Chinese restaurant. Then in the afternoon, we went to Penang. We had lunch at a roadside stall. However, most of the stalls were close because of Chinese New Year. Therefore, after that we went to Gurney Drive to eat more. Then, at 4PM, my parents and I went to my mother-side grandmother's house in Penang. I wished my relatives staying in her house Happy Chinese New Year and got ang-pows from them. Next, at 6PM, we went to a Chinese restaurant in Penang. My mother-side grandfather held a dinner there. After dinner, we went back to Kulim. I played fireworks before sleeping.
5 February 2011 (Saturday): CNY 3rd day
In the morning, we went to a Chinese restaurant in Bukit Mertajam for breakfast. After that, my uncle's family went back to Kuala Lumpur. I stayed at home in the afternoon. My grandfather's students visited my house. At night, we went to a Western food restaurant in Penang for dinner. After that, we went home. I played fireworks again before sleeping.
6 February 2011 (Sunday): CNY 4th day
I had breakfast at home in the morning. After that, I went to Penang. My mother-side grandfather held a lunch in a Chinese restaurant in Penang. Then, on the way home, my father visited a tuition centre to register Malay tuition for me. My parents also took me to a bookshop to buy me some revision books. In the evening, my parents returned to Kuala Lumpur after dinner. This was the end of the 2011 Chinese New Year. The school reopened on the next day.
I really enjoyed the 2011 Chinese New Year very much. Every year, I would be very happy to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Sunday, 5 June 2011
From Best Friend to Enemy
Just imagine, is it possible for someone who was once your best friend to turn to become your enemy? Well, this is definitely possible, although it may be uncommon. The fact is that, this had happened to me once.
11. In May 2008 when I was in Form 1, we had an oral test for the Malay subject. There were 36 students in our class. Our Malay teacher wrote the numbers 1 to 36 on pieces of paper and put them into a container. All students were asked to pick one of the papers randomly. The number written on the paper picked would determine the order which the students would take the oral test. For example, the student who picked number 12 would be the 12th person to take the oral test. Unfortunately, I picked number 5, so I would be the 5th student to take the oral test. In the previous oral test, I was the 3rd person to take it. I felt that it was unfair because I was always unlucky enough to be among the first few students to take the oral test. So, I cheated by adding 2 in front to change the number to 25. It turned out that the student who actually picked number 25 was Mr X. I told Mr X that the teacher made a mistake so there were two number 25's. Although he did not see me cheating, he was very sure that I cheated. Later, the teacher distributed a name list and asked all of us to write down the number we picked. I wrote number 25 in the name list. The teacher said that on the first day of the oral test, the first 8 students would be doing the test. I did not make any preparations for the first day because I thought I had written number 25. However, on the first day of the oral test, I noticed that on the name list, my number had been changed from 25 to 5, obviously by Mr X. I told the teacher that my number was actually 25 but Mr X told the teacher that I cheated by changing 5 to 25. The teacher believed Mr X and she forced me to do the oral test on that day without any preparation. I could not speak well and I scored only 16/30 for the oral test. Although I cheated in this case, it was because I still could not speak Malay well so I needed more preparation time. Mr X was a prefect and he always spoke very well, even without preparation. In addition, during the previous oral test he was the last few students to do the test while I was the 3rd person. So, he should have agreed to exchange with me. The marks for that oral test was carried forward to Form 3. Luckily, for my year it was not included in the PMR examination, otherwise I probably would not be able to get A in Malay which would result in me not getting 8A's for PMR.
12. On 14 October 2010 after my PMR examination, the school organised several activities for the Form 3 students. One of the activities was the Treasure Hunt competition and I wanted to take part in it. My friend AF was in charge of the name list, so I asked him to write down my name for the Treasure Hunt competition. Each class could send 5 students for the Treasure Hunt competition. There were already 4 girls taking part in the Treasure Hunt competition, so I wanted to be the 5th participant. However, they did not want me to take part because I had already joined 2 other competitions. They felt it was unfair if I were to take part in so many competitions. Therefore, AF wanted to remove my name. However, I noticed that Mr X was taking part in 3 competitions as well. So, I argued "Why does Mr X get to take part in 3 competitions while I don't?" I insisted that if AF were to remove my name, he must also remove Mr X's name from one of the competitions. Mr X angrily asked me "What proof do you have for that?" Another boy, AFZ got angry too because he thought I was intentionally looking for trouble with Mr X. The girls were also angry that I insisted to take part in the Treasure Hunt competition. However, I refused to give up. A week later, AFZ told me that the 4 girls had chosen AF instead for me to be the 5th participant for the Treasure Hunt competiton. When I asked the girls about that, they said that Mr X complained to our teacher that he felt they were unsuitable to take part in the Treasure Hunt competition. They were really angry with Mr X so they went to meet our teacher, and the teacher supported the 4 girls. When the teacher asked about the 5th participant, the girls called me but I ignored them because I was busy playing chess with someone. Therefore, they decided to choose AF instead of me. I then met the teacher and explained to her that I had given my name for the Treasure Hunt competition before AF. The teacher, the 4 girls as well as AF agreed to let me take part. Eventually, I took part in the Treasure Hunt competition with the 4 girls. In this incident, my statement that Mr X was taking part in 3 competitions was a truth so he should not be angry about that. It was also wrong for Mr X to judge the 4 girls as being unsuitable to take part in the competition.
When I was in Form 2, I was a close friend of someone, and we were together most of time in school. However, starting from the latter half of Form 3, we were no longer friends, instead we became enemies. So, what caused us, once very good friends, to become enemies? I am telling the whole case here.
I won't mention his name in this post, instead I will refer to him as Mr X, since the letter 'X' is used to represent unknowns in Mathematics and he was a great fan of Mac OS X. I will also use abbreviations to refer to other persons. There were several incidents that eventually caused me to stop being friends with him. Before I talk about why we stopped being friends, I will first mention how we knew each other and became good friends.
When I entered Form 1 in January 2008, I was initially allocated to class 1A13. Mr X wasn't in class 1A13. Three weeks later, all Form 1 students were asked to select the elective option for the Living Skills subject, either KT, ERT or PK. I chose KT, but PK was the only option for class 1A13. Therefore, I had to switch to another class which was 1A11, on 28 January 2008. Many other students had to switch classes as well. Mr X was in class 1A11, and I soon began to know him. He started the first conversation with me by asking me about my family. Then, we started becoming friends and I often talked to him. However, he was not my best friend at that time, instead my best friends were MA and AF. I sat beside MA instead of Mr X in class.
In January 2009, we entered Form 2. Everyone remained in the same class. This time, I chose to sit beside MA again, while Mr X sat in front of me. Because of that, I could talk to Mr X more often and we became closer. In February 2009, one day before the Chinese New Year holidays, I followed Mr X to take part in a chess competition. During the competition, I had the opportunity to talk to him a lot and I gave him my mobile phone number. Then, one night during Chinese New Year, he telephoned me and talked to me for a while. After that, we became very good friends.
At that time, I was facing a problem. One of my friend often sat with me in the canteen during break time. However, he usually ate slowly. Most of the time, I would finish my meal first and he would ask me to wait for him. As a result, I was often late for class. I really disliked that, but it would not be nice for me to refuse to wait for him. When Mr X knew about the problem, he invited me to eat with him behind the school's bookshop during break time. With that, I would not have to face the problem I just mentioned. Later, our teacher rearranged the tables in my class. Previously, only 2 tables were joined together, but after the rearrangement, 3 tables were joined together. Mr X chose to sit on my left, while MA sat on my right. Since then, we became even closer.
As time went on, Mr X would phone me almost everyday just to ask about some simple things. He liked to talk to me and we shared our problems together. During break time, we would eat together. During ICT class, we would share the same computer. We were often together anywhere in school. Mr X often told me that I was his best friend. Starting from May 2009, I started considering Mr X as my best friend, replacing MA and AF, and that lasted until 10 August 2009. During that period, it was the peak of our friendship.
Now, I will talk about why I stopped being friends with Mr X. As I stated earlier, there were several incidents that contributed to this. The 1st incident happened in August 2009, the 2nd was in February 2010, the 3rd was in May 2010 and the 4th was in August 2010. Problems in our relationship began after the 1st incident and our friendship completely ended one year later after the 4th incident.
1st incident:
In August 2009, a tragedy happened. The H1N1 influenza lasted from May 2009 until September 2009. Among that period, the most serious was in August 2009, because it was widely spreading in Malaysia and it spread into my town, Kulim. On 10 August 2009 (Monday), Mr X did not go to school. Then in the morning on the second day, 11 August 2009 (Tuesday), he phoned me. He told me that he did not go to school on the previous day because he was sick. I hoped that he wouldn't be going to school on that day but Mr X told me that he would be going to school. My grandparents asked me what he said to me. Usually, if I refused to tell them, they won't force me to say. However, on that day I was being silly and I told them everything. After hearing what I said, they were worried that Mr X might spread his sickness to me. They told me to keep away from him, but I lied to them saying that he wouldn't be going to school. I regretted telling them about it. As soon as I arrived school on that afternoon, one of my friend told me that someone in our school had been diagnosed with H1N1. During the assembly, the teacher announced about that and gave every student a mask. Then, I saw Mr X. In class, Mr X stayed quite close to me. I did not stay away from him because I was afraid that he might get insulted. Then, a teacher came to my class and asked all those who were sick to go home. A few students went home but Mr X did not. I then said to every student "If you are sick better go home and don't pretend that you are not sick, otherwise you repay is you will get H1N1 !" Mr X suddenly showed me his Panadol and said to me "I never knew you would curse me. I thought you are my friend." I was unhappy about that but I just apologized. In my opinion, he should have gone back home, as this was the instruction from the teacher.
Throughout that day, I stayed quite close to him and I did not wear the mask all the time as it was uncomfortable. I was not worried of getting infected, but I had to make sure that my grandparents would not see me being together with him. When the school was over, I quickly walked in front of Mr X. As I walked out of the school gate, I saw him stopping at the gate to talk to one of his friend. I was relieved and I just walked to my grandfather's car. Out of my expectation, Mr X just stopped at the gate for a few seconds and continued walking. He called me a few times from the back. I ignored him, quickly reached the car and opened the door. At that time, Mr X was already beside me. He touched my back and said goodbye before he walked away. As a result, my grandfather saw Mr X and felt worried that he might spread his sickness to me. I was unhappy with what Mr X just did. On that night, I used my newly-bought electronic dictionary. I had stored the email address of my friends in it earlier. When I browsed through them at that time, I came across Mr X's email. I suddenly felt annoyed looking at his email address and I thought of hacking his email. The reason I had this feeling was that I was unhappy with his actions on that day. On the next day, 12 August 2009 (Wednesday), Mr X did not go to school again. MA also did not go to school. As I was sitting alone, I asked my friends AFZ and AF to come and sit beside me. I then asked AFZ to hack Mr X's email and told him Mr X's password. However, AF heard that and he reported to Mr X. Mr X was unhappy with me because of that.
On 13 August 2009 (Thursday), I felt a bit tired and drowsy in school. After returning home, I took a long bath because I could not 'concentrate' on taking bath. I tried my very best to finish my dinner so that my grandparents wouldn't know that I was feeling unwell. After dinner, I lied down on the bed. My grandmother saw that and felt my forehead. Then, she walked out of the room to tell my grandfather that my forehead was warm. Immediately they took me to see a doctor. I expected my fever to be around 37.5 C as my forehead was not very warm according to my grandmother, and my vision was not blurred. Usually when I had a high fever I could not see things very clearly. However, the doctor said my fever was 39 C. He said that it was unlikely that I had H1N1 because my breathing was normal, but he gave many precautions. My grandfather still suspected that I had H1N1 because of the precautions given and the high fever. On the following week (16 August - 20 August), there would be a school exam, but I could not study for it as I was sick. I remembered that Mr X told me that his fever was also around 39 C. My grandfather then telephoned him to ask him about that but he said that his fever was only around 37.4 C. I suspected that Mr X was lying. On the next day, 14 August 2009, my grandparents took me to see another doctor. This doctor use a more accurate device and said that my fever was only 37.5 C. My grandparents and I were relieved. I fully recovered on 19 August 2009. However, as I did not prepare well for the exam, I performed poorly in it. When the results came out, I was disappointed that I only got 6A and 2B. The subjects which I got B were Chinese and Geography. I had no time to study Geography and I could not write my Chinese essay well due to my sickness. My position was 64th in form and 10th in class. In the previous exam, I got 2nd in form and 1st in class, so this was really a great fall for me. I blamed this on Mr X, because if he did not go to school when he was sick, I wouldn't have fell sick and scored badly in my exam. Worse still, Mr X managed to get 8A in this exam. After this incident, I no longer considered Mr X as my best friend. MA became my best friend once again.
Throughout that day, I stayed quite close to him and I did not wear the mask all the time as it was uncomfortable. I was not worried of getting infected, but I had to make sure that my grandparents would not see me being together with him. When the school was over, I quickly walked in front of Mr X. As I walked out of the school gate, I saw him stopping at the gate to talk to one of his friend. I was relieved and I just walked to my grandfather's car. Out of my expectation, Mr X just stopped at the gate for a few seconds and continued walking. He called me a few times from the back. I ignored him, quickly reached the car and opened the door. At that time, Mr X was already beside me. He touched my back and said goodbye before he walked away. As a result, my grandfather saw Mr X and felt worried that he might spread his sickness to me. I was unhappy with what Mr X just did. On that night, I used my newly-bought electronic dictionary. I had stored the email address of my friends in it earlier. When I browsed through them at that time, I came across Mr X's email. I suddenly felt annoyed looking at his email address and I thought of hacking his email. The reason I had this feeling was that I was unhappy with his actions on that day. On the next day, 12 August 2009 (Wednesday), Mr X did not go to school again. MA also did not go to school. As I was sitting alone, I asked my friends AFZ and AF to come and sit beside me. I then asked AFZ to hack Mr X's email and told him Mr X's password. However, AF heard that and he reported to Mr X. Mr X was unhappy with me because of that.
On 13 August 2009 (Thursday), I felt a bit tired and drowsy in school. After returning home, I took a long bath because I could not 'concentrate' on taking bath. I tried my very best to finish my dinner so that my grandparents wouldn't know that I was feeling unwell. After dinner, I lied down on the bed. My grandmother saw that and felt my forehead. Then, she walked out of the room to tell my grandfather that my forehead was warm. Immediately they took me to see a doctor. I expected my fever to be around 37.5 C as my forehead was not very warm according to my grandmother, and my vision was not blurred. Usually when I had a high fever I could not see things very clearly. However, the doctor said my fever was 39 C. He said that it was unlikely that I had H1N1 because my breathing was normal, but he gave many precautions. My grandfather still suspected that I had H1N1 because of the precautions given and the high fever. On the following week (16 August - 20 August), there would be a school exam, but I could not study for it as I was sick. I remembered that Mr X told me that his fever was also around 39 C. My grandfather then telephoned him to ask him about that but he said that his fever was only around 37.4 C. I suspected that Mr X was lying. On the next day, 14 August 2009, my grandparents took me to see another doctor. This doctor use a more accurate device and said that my fever was only 37.5 C. My grandparents and I were relieved. I fully recovered on 19 August 2009. However, as I did not prepare well for the exam, I performed poorly in it. When the results came out, I was disappointed that I only got 6A and 2B. The subjects which I got B were Chinese and Geography. I had no time to study Geography and I could not write my Chinese essay well due to my sickness. My position was 64th in form and 10th in class. In the previous exam, I got 2nd in form and 1st in class, so this was really a great fall for me. I blamed this on Mr X, because if he did not go to school when he was sick, I wouldn't have fell sick and scored badly in my exam. Worse still, Mr X managed to get 8A in this exam. After this incident, I no longer considered Mr X as my best friend. MA became my best friend once again.
2nd incident:
In February 2010, our English teacher gave an oral test. That was the only oral test in 2010 and it was held in groups. The teacher divided us into 6 groups. The teacher did not allow us to choose our group members. She asked Mr X to divide the students into 6 groups and ensure that each group had a mixture of boys and girls from different race. She also asked Mr X to choose the leader for each group. At that time, there were 5 top students in our class, who were me, Mr X, OJK, JV and NVP. Mr X chose himself, OJK, JV and NVP to be the group leaders for 4 out of the 6 groups. However, he did not make me a leader for any group. Instead, he placed me in his group where he was the leader. I really wanted to be a group leader as well and I strongly believed that I deserved to be one. For the 2 remaining groups, Mr X chose two other students, MTG and RB to be the leader. MTG was quite well disciplined but RB was not well disciplined. Therefore, I felt that Mr X could have let me be the leader for RB's group. I knew that he wanted me to be in the same group with him, but he could have let me be the leader for his group. He was already a prefect and the leader of several clubs and societies, while I was just the treasurer of our class, so he should have given me the opportunity instead. I felt that he was selfish because he wanted to be the leader and at the same time wanted me to be with him. I was really upset about that. Worse still, Mr X failed to carry out his responsibilities as a group leader. I then boycotted the group during preparation and I joined the group only during the oral test. Eventually, I got a score of 28/30 in the oral test. After this incident, I no longer considered Mr X to be my close friend.
3rd incident:
One night in May 2010, my mother telephoned me. She told me that KPP, my primary school friend who was studying in SMJK Chio Min, posted a photo of all my primary school classmates on Facebook and tagged me in it. I logged into Facebook on the next day to see the photo. There were some comments for the photo. The first comment, written by a Chio Min student, stated "I really missed that. How I wish we could be together again!" Another Chio Min student commented "We could meet last year during Daniel's birthday party. I don't know why he did not have a party this year." DG, a student in my secondary school (SMKSB) replied "It's because Mr X is Daniel's best friend now. He has forgotten you all." Then, MXY, another girl in SMKSB replied "Daniel is so close to Mr X. They always hold hands everywhere they walked." Not wanting the Chio Min students to misunderstand, I replied "Mr X is just my friend, not my gay partner, MXY likes him instead." TWS, a SMKSB student replied "I support Daniel. What he said was right." Then, a Chio Min student replied to TWS in Chinese "How did you know? Is it because you and Mr X know each other's feelings?" This comment was written in Chinese except for the word 'Mr X'. I didn't continue replying to the comments and I turned off my computer. After a while, Mr X telephoned me and kept asking me "What is happening on Facebook? Is it true that MXY likes me? They said that we are gay?" It turned out that when I commented on the photo, it appeared on Mr X's home page and as a result he saw the comments. I said to Mr X that I was just joking about MXY liking him and I told him to ask DG and MXY if he wanted to know more, since I was no longer online and I had limited internet access at that time.
In school on the next day, Mr X was still not satisfied and he asked me the same questions again. He said that DG refused to tell him anything. I told him that I was not sure what happened later because I only logged into Facebook for a short while. However, he would not believe me and he kept on asking me. Eventually, I could not bear with him any longer and I said to him "You should be banned from Facebook!" He replied "Go ahead and ban me!" Then, we had a minor quarrel. In my opinion, he should not have bothered about the photo since it had nothing to do with him. On that evening, Mr X telephoned me to ask about the same things again. He wanted to know the meaning of the comment written in Chinese, as he could not read Chinese. Since the comment contained the word 'Mr X', he knew it was about him. Although I did see the comment, I had forgotten what it was about, but he would not believe that. On the following day, he continued asking me the same things in school, threatening to end his friendship with me if I refused to answer his questions. I decided to just ignore him. He told his friend that it was his father who wanted to know everything. Then, I also told my friends that I would not mind losing Mr X as a friend. Later, he tried apologising to me, saying that he wanted to be friends with me again. I continued to ignore him. On that evening, he phoned me and apologised once again. He said that TWS had explained to him about the whole incident and he had understood everything so he would not continue asking me about that. I then agreed to forgive him. After this incident, we talked to each other again like before, but I no longer considered Mr X to be a real friend. I think that in this incident, every one including me did something wrong. However, the reason I said MXY liked Mr X was because I wanted to divert the Chio Min students from the thought that he was my gay partner. It would be better for them to think that a girl liked Mr X than to think that he was gay. However, Mr X blamed me for doing that instead. The fact that he kept asking me so many questions clearly showed that he was blaming me.
In school on the next day, Mr X was still not satisfied and he asked me the same questions again. He said that DG refused to tell him anything. I told him that I was not sure what happened later because I only logged into Facebook for a short while. However, he would not believe me and he kept on asking me. Eventually, I could not bear with him any longer and I said to him "You should be banned from Facebook!" He replied "Go ahead and ban me!" Then, we had a minor quarrel. In my opinion, he should not have bothered about the photo since it had nothing to do with him. On that evening, Mr X telephoned me to ask about the same things again. He wanted to know the meaning of the comment written in Chinese, as he could not read Chinese. Since the comment contained the word 'Mr X', he knew it was about him. Although I did see the comment, I had forgotten what it was about, but he would not believe that. On the following day, he continued asking me the same things in school, threatening to end his friendship with me if I refused to answer his questions. I decided to just ignore him. He told his friend that it was his father who wanted to know everything. Then, I also told my friends that I would not mind losing Mr X as a friend. Later, he tried apologising to me, saying that he wanted to be friends with me again. I continued to ignore him. On that evening, he phoned me and apologised once again. He said that TWS had explained to him about the whole incident and he had understood everything so he would not continue asking me about that. I then agreed to forgive him. After this incident, we talked to each other again like before, but I no longer considered Mr X to be a real friend. I think that in this incident, every one including me did something wrong. However, the reason I said MXY liked Mr X was because I wanted to divert the Chio Min students from the thought that he was my gay partner. It would be better for them to think that a girl liked Mr X than to think that he was gay. However, Mr X blamed me for doing that instead. The fact that he kept asking me so many questions clearly showed that he was blaming me.
4th incident:
One day in August 2010, we went to the Science lab during Science class. At that time, the teacher gave us back our Science paper for the PMR trial examination. Due to some errors in the marking, all students could receive extra marks. Many students including me got only 1 extra mark while a few students got 2 extra marks. However, Mr X got 3 extra marks instead. I wanted to know the reason for that so I took his paper to have a look. He then said to me "Why are you looking at my paper without my permission? If you are so impolite I will not want to let you see it." I still managed to find out why he got the 3 extra marks. I was unhappy with his reaction. Although it was indeed my mistake, Mr X had done the same thing to me many times in the past. Back when we were sitting together in 2009, he often did not bring his textbook to class and whenever that happened, he would simply take mine and place it on his table without even asking me, resulting in me having no textbook in class. I never scolded him for that. This time, I did it to him just once and he scolded me. On the next day, we had class in the Science lab again. Our teacher asked us to finish an exercise within 30 minutes. Mr X said "There are so many questions. It is impossible to finish it in 30 minutes." In my opinion, he should have said "I will try" instead, so I answered him back 'Everything is possible in this world!" He replied "The ability of humans is limited. Only God has unlimited ability!" He said it so loudly that everybody in the lab could hear it. After we completed the exercise, our teacher discussed the answers with us. One of the question was "Name the object in the picture above" and the answer was 'satellite'. Almost everyone in the class answered 'satellite', but Mr X answered 'solar-powered satellite'. He had always liked to give his answers as long as possible, which made me feel that he was just trying to show off. I said to him "The answer is satellite. There is no need to write solar-powered." He replied "The picture shows a solar panel on the satellite. Are you blind? Don't you see it?" I was very annoyed with that. Later, someone asked the teacher "Is the space shuttle a spacecraft?' The teacher answered 'Yes'. Then, I asked the teacher "A rocket is also a spacecraft right?" Mr X immediately said 'No' while the teacher said 'Yes'. Mr X insisted that a rocket isn't a spacecraft and as a result even the teacher was unhappy with him. I said to Mr X "Teacher said that it is and I believe her." Mr X replied "If you take a rocket, you would be bombed to death!" I got even more annoyed with him. After these incidents in the Science lab, I completely ended my friendship with Mr X. I never talked to him again and I considered him to be my enemy. This is the case until now.
Apart from the 4 incidents, there were also several other reasons that contributed to the worsening relationship between me and Mr X.
1. Mr X was very concerned about his hairstyle. He often told me that many of his friends and teachers disliked his hairstyle but he felt that there was nothing wrong with his hairstyle. As a result, he hated his hairstyle but yet he refused to change it. He would also bring his comb with him all the time. In my opinion, boys should not be too obsessed with their hairstyle.
2. Mr X was not confident with himself. He kept thinking that he was not smart, that no one likes him, that he was ugly and so on. Therefore, he was often unhappy and depressed. I felt that he had way too much negative thoughts.
3. Mr X often shared his problems with me, especially problems with his relationship. Initially, I was happy to listen to him. However, as time went on, I felt burdened. He also would not accept the advice I gave him.
4. Mr X would phone me almost everyday. Most of the time, he just asked about simple things like the homework, the timetable and so on, which was really annoying. Worse still, most of the time he would call my house's landline phone instead of my mobile phone. Therefore, I could not know that it was him calling until I picked up the phone, so I could not ignore the phone call. I really regretted giving him the number of the landline phone.
5. Mr X always wanted to take part in every competition in school and he would do anything to enter the competitions. Besides, he always wanted to be the leader. Actually, he had taken part in many competitions and he was holding positions in several clubs and societies. In my opinion, he should give others the chance at times.
6. On 4 August 2009, Mr X came across a blog owned by some girls in our school. He felt that the name of their blog was inappropriate. Therefore, he created another blog to tell them the mistake. However, he was really worried of the consequences that he would face for doing that, so he used my Blogger account to create that blog instead. Worse still, he let me know about that only after he had done that. I was alright with that in the beginning, but I later realised that my popularity among those girls could be adversely affected because of that.
7. Mr X was a very sensitive person. Once, my friend MA was practising his oral test with me. Suddenly, Mr X came to say something to me. When he realised that MA was practising his oral test, Mr X apologised for interrupting. However, after apologising Mr X continued to talk, so I ignored Mr X. Just because of that, Mr X thought that I no longer wanted to be friends with him.
8. Mr X would always share the computer with me during ICT classes. However, most of the time he was the one using the computer and I had little opportunity to use the computer. This became worse after he had a Tagged account. He kept using the computer to browse his Tagged account. It was me who signed him up for the Tagged account after he received an invitation to join Tagged and I really regretted doing that.
9. Every year before 2010, my secondary school (SMK Sultan Badlishah) required every student to donate a minimum of RM25 to the Parent-Teacher Association. Many students including me felt that it was too much and that it burdened our family. In 2010, the school suggested increasing the minimum donation to RM50 per year. Many students including me were strongly against that. However, Mr X agreed with that by saying we should 'follow the river' instead of 'going against the river'. In reality, he supported that because his father held a position in the Parent-Teacher Association and would benefit from the donations.
10. Whenever a classmate or a teacher asked Mr X a question, he would answer as long as possible, but most people could not actually understand what he answered. He also liked giving strange answers.
12. On 14 October 2010 after my PMR examination, the school organised several activities for the Form 3 students. One of the activities was the Treasure Hunt competition and I wanted to take part in it. My friend AF was in charge of the name list, so I asked him to write down my name for the Treasure Hunt competition. Each class could send 5 students for the Treasure Hunt competition. There were already 4 girls taking part in the Treasure Hunt competition, so I wanted to be the 5th participant. However, they did not want me to take part because I had already joined 2 other competitions. They felt it was unfair if I were to take part in so many competitions. Therefore, AF wanted to remove my name. However, I noticed that Mr X was taking part in 3 competitions as well. So, I argued "Why does Mr X get to take part in 3 competitions while I don't?" I insisted that if AF were to remove my name, he must also remove Mr X's name from one of the competitions. Mr X angrily asked me "What proof do you have for that?" Another boy, AFZ got angry too because he thought I was intentionally looking for trouble with Mr X. The girls were also angry that I insisted to take part in the Treasure Hunt competition. However, I refused to give up. A week later, AFZ told me that the 4 girls had chosen AF instead for me to be the 5th participant for the Treasure Hunt competiton. When I asked the girls about that, they said that Mr X complained to our teacher that he felt they were unsuitable to take part in the Treasure Hunt competition. They were really angry with Mr X so they went to meet our teacher, and the teacher supported the 4 girls. When the teacher asked about the 5th participant, the girls called me but I ignored them because I was busy playing chess with someone. Therefore, they decided to choose AF instead of me. I then met the teacher and explained to her that I had given my name for the Treasure Hunt competition before AF. The teacher, the 4 girls as well as AF agreed to let me take part. Eventually, I took part in the Treasure Hunt competition with the 4 girls. In this incident, my statement that Mr X was taking part in 3 competitions was a truth so he should not be angry about that. It was also wrong for Mr X to judge the 4 girls as being unsuitable to take part in the competition.
So, that's why I was no longer friends with Mr X. We won't be friends again, not now, not in the near future and probably never will at all. Lastly, thanks for reading this!
Thursday, 17 March 2011
My 2010 Year-end School Holiday
I am sure that most people will like school holiday, especially the year end school holiday which is very long. However, for the year 2010, I do not like the year end school holiday. The main reason is that I could not play with my friends in school. After my PMR examination and before the year end school holiday starts, I enjoy going to school very much. In school, I can play games like chess with my friends and I don't have to study. At home, I could only go online and play computer games. Also, starting from the next year, I and my classmates will no longer be in the same class and will be seperated. Therefore, I did not want the school holiday to start.
The 2010 year-end school holiday started on 16 November 2010. In should start at 17 November 2010 but the school made the school holiday start one day earlier. On 17 November 2010, I went to Kulim Landmark Central for a gathering with my classmates. There, we ate at Pizza Hut. After that, we went to play Bumper Car and bowling. Some other classmates went to watch a movie in the cinema. The purpose of the gathering is to give the classmates of my class a chance to be together before we are separated next year.
For the following days, I stayed at home in Kulim until 5 December 2010. I played computer games, surfed the internet, watched television, studied Form 4 topics and attended my grandfather's Maths tuition class. My holiday life is basically the same as before the school holiday and after my PMR examination, except that I do not go to school. It is quite fun, but I preferred going to school.
On 4 December 2010, my parents came back from Kuala Lumpur. On the next day, 5 December 2010, I followed them back to Kuala Lumpur for holidays. There, I stayed at my parents' house in Subang Jaya. My mother bought me a new Acer laptop. I occasionally visit my parents' new house at Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam.
On 19 December 2010, I went to Singapore with my parents for 4 days and 3 nights for holidays. We went there by my father's car. We stayed at Marina Mandarin Hotel. I went to a few places such as the Singapore Flyer, the cable car of Sentosa Island and the Singapore Zoo. I had been to Singapore a year earlier but I did not go to these places.
On 22 December 2010 afternoon, my father drove us back to Kuala Lumpur. We rested for a few hours. At night on the same day, my father drove us to Kulim because I had to take my PMR results on the following day. I expected earlier that the PMR results will come out on 28 December 2010 but it turns out to be on 23 December 2010. That is why we had to rush back to Kulim from Singapore. We arrived at Kulim on 1:00AM.
On 23 December 2010, I went to school in the morning to take my PMR results. My father took me to school. My grandparents did not go because at that time they were in Kuala Lumpur for holidays. My mother stayed at home with my brother. I was very worried of my PMR result. I was so happy to see that I got 8A's for my PMR. Many of my friends also got 8A. For the whole school, more than 200 students got 8A and the percentage of passing the PMR examination is 100%. This year's PMR results is the best among the previous years. After taking my PMR result, I telephoned my mother and my grandparents to tell them about this.
That afternoon, we went to Penang to visit my mother-side grandparents. We had dinner with them in Penang. After dinner, my father drove us back to Kuala Lumpur. I will stay a few more days in Kuala Lumpur since the school had not reopened yet. We arrived at Kuala Lumpur at 12:30AM.
For the following days, I stayed at Kuala Lumpur for a few more days. My grandparents were also at Kuala Lumpur. They went there a few days before we went to Singapore. On 28 December 2010, my father took me back to Kulim with his car. My grandparents followed us back to Kulim. On 29 December 2010, my father went back to Kuala Lumpur. I had a few more days of holiday before the school reopened on 3 January 2011. The school should reopen on 2 January 2010 but the government announced that 2 January 2011 to be a public holiday because Malaysia won the football match against Indonesia.
3 January 2010 marks the end of my 2010 year-end holiday, as well as my after PMR life.
Monday, 27 December 2010
Similarities of Chinese Calendar and Muslim Calendar
Our country, Malaysia is a multi-nation country. 4 types of calendar systems are used in Malaysia, which are Western Calendar, Muslim Calendar, Chinese Calendar and Hindu Calendar. Generally, everybody in Malaysia uses the Western Calendar. At the same time, the Muslims use the Muslim Calendar, the Chinese use the Chinese Calendar while the Hindus use the Hindu Calendar.
If you compare the Chinese Calendar and Muslim Calendar, you may notice that they both have some similarities. This is because both the calendar systems follow the cycle of the moon, while the Western Calendar follows the Sun. These are the similarities between the Chinese Calendar and Muslim Calendar.
First, both calendar systems have 12 months in a year. They are the same as the Western Calendar, which also has 12 months in a year. In the Muslim Calendar, every month has its own name, such as Muharram, Syawal and Zulkaedah. In the Chinese Calendar, there are no name for every month. The months are just called as 1st Month, 2nd Month etc. However, in the Chinese Calendar, not every year has 12 months. There is a leap year every 3 years. During a leap year, the Chinese Calendar adds 1 month. Therefore, a leap year of the Chinese Calendar has 13 months instead of 12. The Muslim Calendar has no leap year, so there will always be 12 months in a year.
Second, in both calendar systems there are either 29 or 30 days in a month. The number of days in any month will never be less than 29 days or more than 30 days. Every month does not have a fixed number of days, it will have either 29 or 30 days. For example, for the first year a month has 29 days, then on the second year the same month may have 30 days. In the Chinese calendar, a month with 29 days is known as a 'small' month, while a month with 30 days is known as a 'big' month.
Third, both calendar systems follow the cycle of the moon. In both calendar systems, the 15th day of every month is the full moon day, where the moon is the brightest and biggest among all other days in a month. As the same time, the first day and last day (day 29 or 30) of every month are new moon day, where the moon cannot be seen on the sky. For the Chinese calendar, the 15th day of the 8th month every year is the Mooncake Festival.
Fourth, for both calendar systems, there are about 355 days in a year. Because the Western Calendar has 365 days in a year, the Chinese Calendar and Muslim Calendar are slower than the Western Calendar by 10 days every year. Therefore, for festivals like Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri, their date will be earlier than the previous year by 10 days. However, the Chinese Calendar have a leap year in every 3 years, where one additional month is added to the year, making a total of 385 days in that year. Because of that, during a leap year, the Chinese Calendar is faster than the Western Calendar by 20 days. This causes the Chinese New Year to always fall between 20 January and 19 February. The Muslim Calendar does not have leap years, so it is always slower than the Western Calendar by 10 days, and festivals like Hari Raya Aidilfitri can fall on any month.
Fifth, the date of both calendar systems are always close to each other. The Chinese Calendar is always faster than the Muslim Calendar by 1 or 2 days. For example, if it is day 7 on the Chinese Calendar, it is definitely day 6 or day 5 on the Muslim Calendar; if it is day 8 on the Muslim Calendar, it is definitely day 9 or day 10 on the Chinese Calendar. It is not possible that the dates in both calendar systems to be exactly the same. It is also not possible that the difference of the dates in both calendars to be 3 days or more. This makes it possible for Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri to be on the same date. This happened on year 1995, 1996 and 1997. Starting from year 1998, they were no longer on the same date because of the Chinese leap year. On year 2031 and 2032, they will be on the same date again.
The Chinese Calendar and Muslim Calendar have some similarities as well as differences. As Malaysians, we should understand and respect the cultures of other races and religions so that people from all races and religions can unite together to form 1 Malaysia.
Thursday, 23 December 2010
My PMR Examination
My PMR examination was from 5 October 2010 to 12 October 2010. All Form 3 students in the whole Malaysia sat for the examination at the same time. Here's my dairy for every day during my PMR examination.
4 October 2010:
This was the last day before the start of PMR. The subject on the first day of PMR would be Malay and I was very busy studying for it. On that night, I was very worried of Malay as I was not 100% prepared. I could only hope for the best.
5 October 2010:
This was the first day of PMR. The subjects were Malay Paper 1 and Paper 2. After finishing Malay Paper 1, I was quite worried as it was very difficult. I predicted that I would get 28/40. Later, I sat for
Malay Paper 2. It was not too difficult. I estimated that I had 99% chance of getting A for Malay. On that afternoon, the subject was Pendidikan Islam and I did not take this subject. After returning home, I studied for English and Geography.
6 October 2010:
This was the second day of PMR. The subjects were English Paper 1, Paper 2 and Geography. Both English Paper 1 and Paper 2 were moderately easy. I was very confident of getting A. Geography was the subject on that afternoon. It was very easy and was much easier compared to the school exams and the PMR trial exam. I was very sure of getting A. After I went home, I studied for Science and History.
7 October 2010:
This was the third day of PMR. The subjects were Science Paper 1, Paper 2 and History. Science Paper 1 was very easy, but Paper 2 was quite difficult. Still, I was confident of getting A. History was the subject on that afternoon. It was very easy and was much easier compared to the school exams and the PMR trial exam. I was very sure of getting A. After that, I had 3 days of break. I slept on that afternoon and started studying on that night.
8, 9 and 10 October 2010:
I had no exam during these 3 days. There were only 3 subjects remaining, which were Mathematics, Chinese and Living Skills. I spent most of the time studying Chinese and Living Skills. My grandfather also taught me some Mathematics. The only subject I was worried of was Chinese, since I was good at Mathematics and Living Skills.
11 October 2010:
This was the second last day of PMR. The subjects were Mathematics Paper 1, Paper 2 and Living Skills. Both Mathematics Paper 1 and 2 were easy, while Living Skills was moderately easy. I was sure of getting A in these 2 subjects. After that, the Malay students could enjoy themselves since they had no more exams, while I still had to study for Chinese which would be on the next day. I was quite worried of Chinese.
12 October 2010:
This was the last day of PMR. The subjects were Chinese/Tamil Paper 1 and Paper 2. Only the Chinese and Indian students went to school. Chinese Paper 2 started first. It was quite difficult which made me feel quite worried. Luckily, Chinese Paper 1 was quite easy. I estimated that I could get 39/40 for Chinese Paper 1 and that my chance of getting A for Chinese was 99%. After that, I had lunch with my grandparents in OldTown WhiteCoffee. I enjoyed myself for the whole day, and for the rest of the days until I began Form 4 on 2 January 2011.
The PMR results was originally planned to be released on 28 December 2010. I estimated that I had 98% chance of getting 8A. I really hoped that I would get 8A in PMR. Later, it was announced that the PMR results would be released on 23 December 2010 instead of 28 December 2010. This made me feel more worried.
4 October 2010:
This was the last day before the start of PMR. The subject on the first day of PMR would be Malay and I was very busy studying for it. On that night, I was very worried of Malay as I was not 100% prepared. I could only hope for the best.
5 October 2010:
This was the first day of PMR. The subjects were Malay Paper 1 and Paper 2. After finishing Malay Paper 1, I was quite worried as it was very difficult. I predicted that I would get 28/40. Later, I sat for
Malay Paper 2. It was not too difficult. I estimated that I had 99% chance of getting A for Malay. On that afternoon, the subject was Pendidikan Islam and I did not take this subject. After returning home, I studied for English and Geography.
6 October 2010:
This was the second day of PMR. The subjects were English Paper 1, Paper 2 and Geography. Both English Paper 1 and Paper 2 were moderately easy. I was very confident of getting A. Geography was the subject on that afternoon. It was very easy and was much easier compared to the school exams and the PMR trial exam. I was very sure of getting A. After I went home, I studied for Science and History.
7 October 2010:
This was the third day of PMR. The subjects were Science Paper 1, Paper 2 and History. Science Paper 1 was very easy, but Paper 2 was quite difficult. Still, I was confident of getting A. History was the subject on that afternoon. It was very easy and was much easier compared to the school exams and the PMR trial exam. I was very sure of getting A. After that, I had 3 days of break. I slept on that afternoon and started studying on that night.
8, 9 and 10 October 2010:
I had no exam during these 3 days. There were only 3 subjects remaining, which were Mathematics, Chinese and Living Skills. I spent most of the time studying Chinese and Living Skills. My grandfather also taught me some Mathematics. The only subject I was worried of was Chinese, since I was good at Mathematics and Living Skills.
11 October 2010:
This was the second last day of PMR. The subjects were Mathematics Paper 1, Paper 2 and Living Skills. Both Mathematics Paper 1 and 2 were easy, while Living Skills was moderately easy. I was sure of getting A in these 2 subjects. After that, the Malay students could enjoy themselves since they had no more exams, while I still had to study for Chinese which would be on the next day. I was quite worried of Chinese.
12 October 2010:
This was the last day of PMR. The subjects were Chinese/Tamil Paper 1 and Paper 2. Only the Chinese and Indian students went to school. Chinese Paper 2 started first. It was quite difficult which made me feel quite worried. Luckily, Chinese Paper 1 was quite easy. I estimated that I could get 39/40 for Chinese Paper 1 and that my chance of getting A for Chinese was 99%. After that, I had lunch with my grandparents in OldTown WhiteCoffee. I enjoyed myself for the whole day, and for the rest of the days until I began Form 4 on 2 January 2011.
This is the ranking of the PMR subjects from the hardest to the easiest:
1. Bahasa Melayu Paper 1
2. Bahasa Cina Paper 2
3. Science Paper 2
4. Bahasa Melayu Paper 2
5. English Paper 2
6. English Paper 1
7. Bahasa Cina Paper 1
8. Mathematics Paper 2
9. Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu (Kemahiran Teknikal)
10. Science Paper 1
11. Mathematics Paper 1
12. Sejarah
12. Sejarah
13. Geografi
The PMR results was originally planned to be released on 28 December 2010. I estimated that I had 98% chance of getting 8A. I really hoped that I would get 8A in PMR. Later, it was announced that the PMR results would be released on 23 December 2010 instead of 28 December 2010. This made me feel more worried.
On 23 December 2010, I was so happy to see all A's on my PMR results slip. I successfully got 8A for PMR, which had been my target since Form 1. My next target would be getting 11A in SPM.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Zip File in Computing
Nowadays, a lot of computer users like to share files with their friends, especially pictures, music and video. I am sure you do that too. The most common ways to share files are sending them as attachments in e-mail, uploading them to file sharing websites and tranfering them in pendrives. However, I am sure you may face the following problems.
1. The file size is larger than the maximum file size for e-mail attachments. Therefore, the file cannot be sent as attachment in e-mail.
2. The file size is larger than the maximum file size for uploading. Therefore, the file cannot be uploaded to file sharing websites.
3. The file is very large, causing the time to send, upload and download the file to be very long.
4. The file is too large to be saved in pendrives.
5. The file saved in the pendrive uses up a lot of disk space of the pendrive.
6. You want to share a folder that contains many files, but usually it is not possible to send or upload a whole folder.
To solve the problems above, it is quite simple. You just have to zip or compress the file. After zipping it, the file size will be much smaller. A zip folder that contains many files can easily be sent and uploaded. Computers with Windows XP or later have a file zipping feature that allows you to zip files.
To zip a file, just right click on the file, select 'Send to' then click 'Zipped (Compressed) Folder'. The file will be zipped and the zipped file will be saved in the same folder. The zipped file will have the same name as the original file. To zip more than one files, press and hold 'Ctrl' key, select the files you want to zip, right click, select 'Send to' and then 'Zipped (Compressed) Folder'. The zipped folder will be saved in the folder that contains all the original files. The name of the zipped folder is the same as the folder that contains all the original files. When files are zipped, the original files are not deleted, changed or moved.
A zip file or zip folder that contains all the original files is known as a zip archive or compressed archive. To open a zip archive, just double click on it and you can see all the original files. You can open them but not change or modify them. Also, if there is a program in it, the program may not work correctly.
To edit files in a zip archive or to use programs in a zip archive, you have extract or unzip it first. To extract all the files in a zip archive, just right click on it and select 'Extract to'. Choose a location to save the extracted files. To extract just a few but not all the files in a zip archive, first open it, press and hold 'Ctrl', select the files you want to extract, then right click and select 'Extract to', finally choose a location to save the extracted files. The extracted files are exactly the same as before they were zipped. When a zip archive is extracted, the zip archive is not changed, deleted or moved.
The file zipping feature in Windows only allows you to create, open and extract zip archives in .zip format. If you often zip files, then you can download 7-Zip or WinRar to use. They allow you to add files to a zip archive, split a zip archive, set password for a zip archive, create a self extractor, use software in a zip archive without extracting and much more, besides creating, opening and extrating a Zip archive. 7-Zip and WinRar are also more convenient to be used. You can download them from the following websites:
7-Zip: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
WinRar: http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
Zip archives created using Windows are in .zip format. Besides .zip , there are many other formats for zip archives such as .rar , .zipx , .7z and many more. You can only open zip archives with those formats using 7-Zip or WinRar. To ensure that you can open and extract all kinds of Zip archives, you should have both 7-Zip and WinRar installed. Besides that, 7-Zip allows you to create Zip archives in both .7z and .zip format, while WinRar allows you to create Zip archives in both .rar and .zip format.
1. The file size is larger than the maximum file size for e-mail attachments. Therefore, the file cannot be sent as attachment in e-mail.
2. The file size is larger than the maximum file size for uploading. Therefore, the file cannot be uploaded to file sharing websites.
3. The file is very large, causing the time to send, upload and download the file to be very long.
4. The file is too large to be saved in pendrives.
5. The file saved in the pendrive uses up a lot of disk space of the pendrive.
6. You want to share a folder that contains many files, but usually it is not possible to send or upload a whole folder.
To solve the problems above, it is quite simple. You just have to zip or compress the file. After zipping it, the file size will be much smaller. A zip folder that contains many files can easily be sent and uploaded. Computers with Windows XP or later have a file zipping feature that allows you to zip files.
To zip a file, just right click on the file, select 'Send to' then click 'Zipped (Compressed) Folder'. The file will be zipped and the zipped file will be saved in the same folder. The zipped file will have the same name as the original file. To zip more than one files, press and hold 'Ctrl' key, select the files you want to zip, right click, select 'Send to' and then 'Zipped (Compressed) Folder'. The zipped folder will be saved in the folder that contains all the original files. The name of the zipped folder is the same as the folder that contains all the original files. When files are zipped, the original files are not deleted, changed or moved.
A zip file or zip folder that contains all the original files is known as a zip archive or compressed archive. To open a zip archive, just double click on it and you can see all the original files. You can open them but not change or modify them. Also, if there is a program in it, the program may not work correctly.
To edit files in a zip archive or to use programs in a zip archive, you have extract or unzip it first. To extract all the files in a zip archive, just right click on it and select 'Extract to'. Choose a location to save the extracted files. To extract just a few but not all the files in a zip archive, first open it, press and hold 'Ctrl', select the files you want to extract, then right click and select 'Extract to', finally choose a location to save the extracted files. The extracted files are exactly the same as before they were zipped. When a zip archive is extracted, the zip archive is not changed, deleted or moved.
The file zipping feature in Windows only allows you to create, open and extract zip archives in .zip format. If you often zip files, then you can download 7-Zip or WinRar to use. They allow you to add files to a zip archive, split a zip archive, set password for a zip archive, create a self extractor, use software in a zip archive without extracting and much more, besides creating, opening and extrating a Zip archive. 7-Zip and WinRar are also more convenient to be used. You can download them from the following websites:
7-Zip: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
WinRar: http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
Zip archives created using Windows are in .zip format. Besides .zip , there are many other formats for zip archives such as .rar , .zipx , .7z and many more. You can only open zip archives with those formats using 7-Zip or WinRar. To ensure that you can open and extract all kinds of Zip archives, you should have both 7-Zip and WinRar installed. Besides that, 7-Zip allows you to create Zip archives in both .7z and .zip format, while WinRar allows you to create Zip archives in both .rar and .zip format.
Friday, 29 October 2010
Download A File Easily
Do you often download files from the internet? If yes, I am sure you may face the following problems:
1. The download takes a long time to complete, especially when the file is large and the internet connection is slow.
2. The internet connection is accidentally interupted when the download is halfway done, and you need to redownload it from the beginning.
3. You want to pause the download and resume it later, but Internet Explorer do not let you do so.
If you face the problems above, you may hate downloading files. But don't worry, these problems can be easily solved. You just need a free software, Download Accelerator Plus. It is a program that you can use to download files. These are the advantages of downloading files using Download Accelerator Plus.
1. It splits a downloading file into 5 parts, then it downloads them at the same time. Therefore, the download speed can be increased to 5 times the original speed.
2. It allows you to pause a download and resume it later.
3. If a download is interupted, Download Accelerator Plus pauses them. You can resume the download after you reconnect the internet.
4. It allows you to preview certain types of files while downloading them.
5. It scans the file for viruses after downloading it.
6. The download is more stable.
NOTE: Most download servers support resume, but a few do not. If a server do not support resume, you can't pause the download and the download speed can't be increased even by using Download Accelerator Plus.
To use Download Accelerator Plus, download it free at http://www.speedbit.com/dap . After downloading, install it on your computer. While installing, select the free version. You can choose not to install SpeedBit Video Accelerator or other softwares that are promoted by Download Accelerator Plus. Set it as your default download manager.
Download Accelerator Plus will run every time you turn on your computer. Whenever you click on a download link, it will display a download dialog box. Click 'Open' if you want to open the file automatically after downloading or click 'Save' if you want to choose where to save the downloaded file. The default saving location is the 'My DAP Downloads' folder in 'My Documents'. To pause a download, open Download Accelerator Plus, select the file, then click 'Pause'. To resume it later, open Download Accelerator Plus, select the file, then click 'Start'. After the download had completed, click 'Open' to open the file.
Besides that, Internet Download Manager is a program similar to Download Accelerator Plus. Unlike Download Accelerator Plus, you may use Internet Download Manager free for only 30 days. If you want to try Internet Download Manager, you can download it at http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com/ . After that, install it on your computer. Set it as your default download manager.
Internet Download Manager will run every time you turn on your computer. Whenever you click on a download link, it will display a download dialog box. Click 'Start Download' to start downloading. The default saving location is the 'Downloads' folder in 'My Documents'. To pause a download, open Internet Download Manager, select the file, then click 'Pause'. To resume it later, open Internet Download Manager, select the file, then click 'Resume'. After the download had completed, click 'Open file' to open the file.
Both Download Accelerator Plus and Internet Download Manager have advantages and disadvantages. Internet Download Manager is faster but is less stable and has lesser funtions compared to Download Accelerator Plus. Some downloads work better with Download Accelerator Plus, while others work better with Internet Download Manager. You can use both of them. However, you can only set one as your default download manager.
1. The download takes a long time to complete, especially when the file is large and the internet connection is slow.
2. The internet connection is accidentally interupted when the download is halfway done, and you need to redownload it from the beginning.
3. You want to pause the download and resume it later, but Internet Explorer do not let you do so.
If you face the problems above, you may hate downloading files. But don't worry, these problems can be easily solved. You just need a free software, Download Accelerator Plus. It is a program that you can use to download files. These are the advantages of downloading files using Download Accelerator Plus.
1. It splits a downloading file into 5 parts, then it downloads them at the same time. Therefore, the download speed can be increased to 5 times the original speed.
2. It allows you to pause a download and resume it later.
3. If a download is interupted, Download Accelerator Plus pauses them. You can resume the download after you reconnect the internet.
4. It allows you to preview certain types of files while downloading them.
5. It scans the file for viruses after downloading it.
6. The download is more stable.
NOTE: Most download servers support resume, but a few do not. If a server do not support resume, you can't pause the download and the download speed can't be increased even by using Download Accelerator Plus.
To use Download Accelerator Plus, download it free at http://www.speedbit.com/dap . After downloading, install it on your computer. While installing, select the free version. You can choose not to install SpeedBit Video Accelerator or other softwares that are promoted by Download Accelerator Plus. Set it as your default download manager.
Download Accelerator Plus will run every time you turn on your computer. Whenever you click on a download link, it will display a download dialog box. Click 'Open' if you want to open the file automatically after downloading or click 'Save' if you want to choose where to save the downloaded file. The default saving location is the 'My DAP Downloads' folder in 'My Documents'. To pause a download, open Download Accelerator Plus, select the file, then click 'Pause'. To resume it later, open Download Accelerator Plus, select the file, then click 'Start'. After the download had completed, click 'Open' to open the file.
Besides that, Internet Download Manager is a program similar to Download Accelerator Plus. Unlike Download Accelerator Plus, you may use Internet Download Manager free for only 30 days. If you want to try Internet Download Manager, you can download it at http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com/ . After that, install it on your computer. Set it as your default download manager.
Internet Download Manager will run every time you turn on your computer. Whenever you click on a download link, it will display a download dialog box. Click 'Start Download' to start downloading. The default saving location is the 'Downloads' folder in 'My Documents'. To pause a download, open Internet Download Manager, select the file, then click 'Pause'. To resume it later, open Internet Download Manager, select the file, then click 'Resume'. After the download had completed, click 'Open file' to open the file.
Both Download Accelerator Plus and Internet Download Manager have advantages and disadvantages. Internet Download Manager is faster but is less stable and has lesser funtions compared to Download Accelerator Plus. Some downloads work better with Download Accelerator Plus, while others work better with Internet Download Manager. You can use both of them. However, you can only set one as your default download manager.
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Tips to remember names
For many subjects in the PMR/PT3 examination, especially Geography, you need to memorise names of places or people. I am sure most people will take it very difficult, since there are so many different names, and sometimes people may get confused. How do you usually remember them? I can give you a tip, that is to relate the names with something you are familiar with. Use your imagination fully. Don't understand what I say? Then look at the example below.
Lokasi Perlombongan Arang Batu di Malaysia:
Batu Arang, Bukit Arang, Silimpopon, Merit-Pila, Mukah dan Silantek.
To remember Batu Arang and Bukit Arang, I am sure everyone knows how. Just remember the word 'Arang'. But what about the others? Its quite easy.
I just think of this story: Ada seorang sedang bakar arang batu. Pembakaran arang batu banyak mengeluarkan asap yang mencemarkan alam sekitar. Disebabkan itu, dia telah kena d'merit. (d'merit > merit > Merit-Pila). Orang lain marah dia padan muka (muka > Mukah). Mereka kata kat dia , "Arang batu hanya orang zaman silam saja yang guna!" (silam > silan > Silantek).
For Silimpopon, I think of this: Kereta yang bakar arang batu selalu berjalan lambat, jadi orang lain asyik hon dia. Kedengaran bunyi pon-pon. (Pon-pon > Silimpopon)
The story above sounds funny and not logic, but never mind, most important is that it helps me to remember the places easily. You can learn my method.
I have another two examples below.
Example 1 -
Telaga petroleum di luar pantai Terengganu:
Dulang, Semangkok, Tapis, Guntong, Tiong, Duyong, Bekok, Sotong, Pilong dan Pilai
To remember these, I memorised only the first one, which is Dulang, then I came up with a story to remember the rest:
Seorang pelombong telah melombong bijih timah dengan kaedah mendulang. (mendulang > Dulang). Hasilnya sebanyak satu mangkuk. (satu mangkuk > semangkuk > Semangkok) Dia telah menapis bilih timah yang diperoleh. (menapis > Tapis) Selepas itu, dia menggantung bijih timah di atas bumbung. (Menggantung > gantung > Guntong) Anaknya yang nakal telah menuang bijih timah tersebut ke dalam sungai. (menuang > tuang > Tiong) Sungai itu ada banyak duyong. (Duyong) Sungai yang berliku-liku itu menyebabkan bentuk bijih timah menjadi bengkok. (bengkok > Bekok) Bijih timah itu nampak macam seekor sotong (Sotong). Ia dibawa ke satu tempat yang bernama Pilong. (Pilong). Di sana, seorang budak yang bernama Pilai ingat bijih timah itu sotong, jadi dia telah memakannya. (Pilai)
Example 2 -
Telaga gas asli di luar pantai Terangganu:
Pilong, Lawit, Damar, Noring, Jerneh, Tangga Barat, Bujang, Angsi, Telok, Bintang, Inas, Resak, Bedong
I only memorised the first one, Pilong, then I came up with this story: Bapa Ali ialah seorang guru yang mengajar di satu tempat jauh yang bernama Pilong. (Pilong) Bapanya berjanji untuk pulang ke rumah pada masa cuti sekolah untuk membantu Ali dalam pelajarannya. Tetapi, bapanya lewat pulang selama seminggu. (lewat > Lawit) Ali marah lalu bergaduh dengan ayahnya. Ibunya berjaya mendamaikan mereka. (mendamaikan > damai > Damar) Sepanjang cuti seminggu itu, dia berasa sangat boring. (boring > Noring) Ilmu pengetahunya sangat cetek kerana bapanya tiada di sisinya untuk mengajarnya semasa cuti. (cetek = jernih, jernih > Jerneh). Akibatnya, Ali telah gagal dalam SPM dan tak dapat masuk universiti di Malaysia. Bapanya menghantarnya ke negara barat untuk masuk universiti. (negara Barat > Tangga Barat). Di sana, Ali enggan berkhawin dengan perempuan barat. Oleh itu, dia masih bujang, sedangkan rakan-rakannya dah berkhawin. (Bujang). Akhirnya, dia terpaksa mengkhawini seorang perempuan yang bernama Goose. (goose > angsa > Angsi) Malam itu, dia pergi ke sebuah teluk. (teluk > Telok) Dia tengok bintang di atas langit (Bintang). Bintang-bintang membentuk perkataan 'INA'. Dia tiba-tiba teringatkan girlfriend dia dulu yang bernama Ina. (Ina > Inas) Dia berasa sedih lalu menangis teresak-esak. (teresak-esak > esak > Resak) Oleh sebab terlalu sedih, dia lompat ke dalam air untuk membunuh diri. Pada masa itu, kedengaran bunyi be-dom. (be-dom > Bedong)
So, this is the way I memorised the names of places in Geography. I also used this method in History , Chinese (ming-ju-jing-hua) and Living Skills. You can try to use this method to memorise. For you, you can come up with your own stories or use mine as above. This may help you in memorising. However, you must not depend fully on this method. Basic understanding is also very important.
Lokasi Perlombongan Arang Batu di Malaysia:
Batu Arang, Bukit Arang, Silimpopon, Merit-Pila, Mukah dan Silantek.
To remember Batu Arang and Bukit Arang, I am sure everyone knows how. Just remember the word 'Arang'. But what about the others? Its quite easy.
I just think of this story: Ada seorang sedang bakar arang batu. Pembakaran arang batu banyak mengeluarkan asap yang mencemarkan alam sekitar. Disebabkan itu, dia telah kena d'merit. (d'merit > merit > Merit-Pila). Orang lain marah dia padan muka (muka > Mukah). Mereka kata kat dia , "Arang batu hanya orang zaman silam saja yang guna!" (silam > silan > Silantek).
For Silimpopon, I think of this: Kereta yang bakar arang batu selalu berjalan lambat, jadi orang lain asyik hon dia. Kedengaran bunyi pon-pon. (Pon-pon > Silimpopon)
The story above sounds funny and not logic, but never mind, most important is that it helps me to remember the places easily. You can learn my method.
I have another two examples below.
Example 1 -
Telaga petroleum di luar pantai Terengganu:
Dulang, Semangkok, Tapis, Guntong, Tiong, Duyong, Bekok, Sotong, Pilong dan Pilai
To remember these, I memorised only the first one, which is Dulang, then I came up with a story to remember the rest:
Seorang pelombong telah melombong bijih timah dengan kaedah mendulang. (mendulang > Dulang). Hasilnya sebanyak satu mangkuk. (satu mangkuk > semangkuk > Semangkok) Dia telah menapis bilih timah yang diperoleh. (menapis > Tapis) Selepas itu, dia menggantung bijih timah di atas bumbung. (Menggantung > gantung > Guntong) Anaknya yang nakal telah menuang bijih timah tersebut ke dalam sungai. (menuang > tuang > Tiong) Sungai itu ada banyak duyong. (Duyong) Sungai yang berliku-liku itu menyebabkan bentuk bijih timah menjadi bengkok. (bengkok > Bekok) Bijih timah itu nampak macam seekor sotong (Sotong). Ia dibawa ke satu tempat yang bernama Pilong. (Pilong). Di sana, seorang budak yang bernama Pilai ingat bijih timah itu sotong, jadi dia telah memakannya. (Pilai)
Example 2 -
Telaga gas asli di luar pantai Terangganu:
Pilong, Lawit, Damar, Noring, Jerneh, Tangga Barat, Bujang, Angsi, Telok, Bintang, Inas, Resak, Bedong
I only memorised the first one, Pilong, then I came up with this story: Bapa Ali ialah seorang guru yang mengajar di satu tempat jauh yang bernama Pilong. (Pilong) Bapanya berjanji untuk pulang ke rumah pada masa cuti sekolah untuk membantu Ali dalam pelajarannya. Tetapi, bapanya lewat pulang selama seminggu. (lewat > Lawit) Ali marah lalu bergaduh dengan ayahnya. Ibunya berjaya mendamaikan mereka. (mendamaikan > damai > Damar) Sepanjang cuti seminggu itu, dia berasa sangat boring. (boring > Noring) Ilmu pengetahunya sangat cetek kerana bapanya tiada di sisinya untuk mengajarnya semasa cuti. (cetek = jernih, jernih > Jerneh). Akibatnya, Ali telah gagal dalam SPM dan tak dapat masuk universiti di Malaysia. Bapanya menghantarnya ke negara barat untuk masuk universiti. (negara Barat > Tangga Barat). Di sana, Ali enggan berkhawin dengan perempuan barat. Oleh itu, dia masih bujang, sedangkan rakan-rakannya dah berkhawin. (Bujang). Akhirnya, dia terpaksa mengkhawini seorang perempuan yang bernama Goose. (goose > angsa > Angsi) Malam itu, dia pergi ke sebuah teluk. (teluk > Telok) Dia tengok bintang di atas langit (Bintang). Bintang-bintang membentuk perkataan 'INA'. Dia tiba-tiba teringatkan girlfriend dia dulu yang bernama Ina. (Ina > Inas) Dia berasa sedih lalu menangis teresak-esak. (teresak-esak > esak > Resak) Oleh sebab terlalu sedih, dia lompat ke dalam air untuk membunuh diri. Pada masa itu, kedengaran bunyi be-dom. (be-dom > Bedong)
So, this is the way I memorised the names of places in Geography. I also used this method in History , Chinese (ming-ju-jing-hua) and Living Skills. You can try to use this method to memorise. For you, you can come up with your own stories or use mine as above. This may help you in memorising. However, you must not depend fully on this method. Basic understanding is also very important.
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