Royal Debate 2007

Damn, it's been almost 3 months since I last blog here. Well sorrie for not keeping up to date due to the hectic schedule that I was suddenly dumped with. In addition, I was unfortunate that my faithful laptop, DurBy, was malfunction since then. However, that's all changed and things are looking good... :D

Just previously, I participated in the Royal Debate tournament that was held at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam. It involves only with all of the public universities throughout Malaysia, and students would debate in either of the three languages: English, Bahasa Malaysia, or Arabic. Of course I opt for the english debate since that's the only language I would be more confident to speak. Anyway, UMT sent two teams for english: 1 senior and 1 junior team. The Junior team compromises of 1st year students: Aizat (1st Speaker), Manu (2nd Speaker), Wan (3rd Speaker) and Pahsia (Researcher). As for the Senior team compromises of 3rd year students: Me (1st Speaker), Sabby (2nd Speaker), Hanushia (2nd and 3rd Speaker) and Berry (3rd Speaker). Hanu debated once as the 2nd speaker and twice as the 3rd speaker. The UMT also sent 3 teams for the Bahasa Malaysia debate, but I'm not sure who's who in which team. Although I do know about Uzair and Kama, since both are my coursemates (yeah marine biology rocks!).

Overall, I wasn't satisfied with the 2007 Royals because it wasn't properly handled as compared to the 2005 Royals in UKM. Not to mention, UKM really made the event much enjoyable. The only thing I did like about what the UiTM have done is just the t-shirt they managed to produce. Other than that, I sure had a lot of fun memories from discussing about the physics of the human body with the UTM boys to the disapproval of the loss that the UM judge gave us over the motion "This House Believes That Genetic Modified Food is the Answer to Global Food Crisis". For goodness sake, there's no such thing as GM food to be much costlier than organic food.

Here's a short photo essay for y'all to enjoy:

The BM debaters practising by having a mock debate. I forgot what was the issue they were debating at the time.

That's Uzair, the man in charge of handling the BM debate and training the BM debaters. I wish I could understand what's he saying most of the time. Hehe..

On the way to UiTM Shah Alam, as ya can see there are those who are enjoying the time by having a good chit chat.

Here's a good junior debater at work, James, just busy looking for casefacts. :P

Of course other than chit chatting, there are those who would doze off and sleep in the comfort of the new bus such as here with Kama and Erni.

The new UMT bus that dropped us off at UiTM Shah Alam and picked us up from there to UMT. The bus and the driver should have been there with us throughout the whole time.

Despite our bad performances, I'm sure that everyone learned an invaluable experience that we will never forget. I do hope the juniors will take this oppurtunity to promote more on debate at UMT and that this would act as a catalyst to spark more interest toward the future students at UMT. With that Dear Speaker, I finish this blog by bid you a pleasant thank you.

aaahhhhhhhh.. ^_^

It sure has been 2 crazy weeks since I last blog. The last time was about the soft-shell turtle that I helped Prof Chan to excavate and wash up the bones. Then last week from Thursday (23rd August) to Sunday (26th August), I took part in being the exhibitioner during the Convocation at the campus. Since I was doing my final year project (that's my thesis for those who are from out of Malaysia) on marine turtles, of course I would definitely have to help out Prof Chan in attending the Sea Turtle Research Unit (SEATRU) booth. At first, I only did it because I felt like I had nothing much to do. Then afterwards, it was fun having to answer all the questions the visitors kept asking. I was there only to educate the people about the sea turtle conservation that University of Malaysia, Terengganu (UMT) does. Prof Chan was more than pleased that I was able to attend the booth because I told her that I do not feel comfortable having to leave the preserved hatchlings unattended.

I mean of course it does look cool, but anyone can easily steal it and keep it for themselves. Leatherbacks are no longer to be seen in Malaysia, so of course anyone would love to keep a preserved hatchling. Anyway...

Then a few days back, I got busy with my proposal report for my Final Year Project. Owh yeah, my final year project is titled:

"An analysis on hatched hawksbill turtle nests incubated under hatchery conditions in Padang Kemunting, Melaka".

So exactly what does that mean? Well, my final year project focus on the conditions of the eggs of those that have been hatched and unhatch. I will be highlighting what are the causes why some hawksbill turtle do not hatch, and what are the ways to improve the hatching success. So overall, my research will help a lot to understand on hatchery management as to how to run the hatchery efficiently with high hatching success with the hawksbill turtle nest.

Well speaking of hatchery, guess what? I got a job offer!! I was so suprised about it that I was like in a state of shock when I had the conversation with that lady on the phone. Well the job offer was given to me through one of my professors, because she knew that I was the right person for the job. The job offer is having to be hatchery manager at the sea turtle hatchery in the east coast. I can't reveal all yet, but this is as much I can say for now. I'll keep up to date with more info later.

Okie lah, I guess I better go to sleep. I'll be picking Chin up from the airport by 8am. Life sure is sweet once again..... ^_^

dug up the grave...

Today was just another ordinary day, except for some reason I did felt poetic. I end up typing sweet sms to her bcuz yeah, I missed her and of course I was thinking a lot about her. Damn, I wish I could recall what I typed in the sms though. Hehe... Yeah, back to the story...

For the lab we had today for our Marine Biodiversity and Conservation class, we had to do a beach cleanup. Of course I knew what to expect since I did like a few already. However, Prof. Chan, who is the lecturer for the class and also happens to be my supervisor for my final year project, asked me to recall the spot where we had buried the soft-shell turtle back in January.

It was really an amazing day to find a dead body of an animal that once thought to be extinct in Malaysia. The body of the soft-shell turtle was washed on the beach, and I remember going there with Azri, Pian, and Fidzam to have a look at the body. We buried it after taking the length and width of the the poor animal. So 7 months later, Prof Chan decided to excavate the body to collect the skeletons. It took a while to find the spot where the soft-shell turtle was buried because somehow the sticks we used to mark the grave was removed. We dug at 4 different places, but we found the soft-shell turtle on the 2nd spot. It was that I didn't buried the hole deep enough to find the bag that contained the turtle. We dug out, and Prof Chan asked to washed the skeleton from the remaining of the decayed body. It sure was a freaking and messy job. My first reaction was EEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!! What shocked me was that not even the lab assistant was willing to help to clean the skeletal remains. So yeah, I volunteered for the job because somehow, it was an interesting thought to having found a very rare animal. So I did the whole dirty job, and of course got the higher respect from Prof Chan. Soon enough, we'll have to clean the skeletal remains furthermore and then to assemble it. I can't wait to do that part, as in the assembling lah. :P

I miss her...

It's almost 2 months since I last update my blog. I guess I haven't done so due to the amount of work and the longer duration of rests I'm having. Either that, or I just feel like I got nothing to blog at all. So does it mean I got something to blabber about today? Hell yeah....

Each time I look myself at the mirror, I do feel like I'm a hypocrite. I don't seem to learn the lessons that I advised to others or when I know that I ought to do so. I do want to be a better person, but I hate it when life just isn't going my way. Then again, we can't just have it all in life. I wish I could have her to be happy, but after how I behave, I guess I don't deserve her at all. I really do miss the happy times that I shared with her, especially when I'm next to her. Waking up this morning brought me back to the nightmare I'm still in. Yeah, I really do miss when I could smile just waking up to each morning. I'll never forget the moments that I did had with her, and for now, life will just go on.

On the other hand, I'm sorta relieved that my proposal presentation went real smooth. So now, I just gotta finish up with the proposal report, and keep myself busy with other things in life.