ARUPS 2010

2 Oct 2010 - 3 Oct 2010

Finally ARUPS 2010 is over. Although I am still not very happy with the way things were planned and executed, I am very happy about the presentations that I have heard so far. It's really an eye opener and heartening experience to know that psychologists at the very core are still pretty good people (or at least people who come to conferences are).

Let's first say some of the things which I am unhappy about

1) THE VENUE CHANGE!! - i understand y they need to change the venue, but some insider told me that the committee knew a little bit earlier that the venue has to be changed. However, the committee didn't want to announce until like... 4 days before the conference. I was thinking WHY, but seems like this question is never going to be answered.

2) The seemingly last minute preparation - ok i have to give credit to those who did try their very best to organize ARUPS. I know it's a big conference, and it's not easy. But to me, it seems there are so many things being done last minute. helpers and volunteers are being recruited last minute. Schedule of presentations are changed. venue changed. and i was asked to be chairperson only during the very VERY last minute. I don't mind chairing. It's a great experience, just that i don't like it so last minute.

Also, i think it's really unfair that the helpers are treated as free labor. they need to pay, and they still need to work. not having the luxury of going to sessions that they wanted to. and the food is just.... poor!! I really pity them.

Now let's not delve on the negative side, and move on to the positive side. There is only one positive side to ARUPS, which are the presentations being done. So below are some presentations which i think are really heartening.

1) Novel Ways of Understanding the Mind - Dr. Robyn Young

So this presentation talks about autism and how her team of researchers managed to develop a scale to better diagnose autism in children younger than 12 months. It's really a great achievement because the earlier a child is being known, the earlier the intervention can be. And it's not really a diagnose per se, cause a children that young, you can't really know for sure whether he/she is autistic. But the special thing about this is that it assess some of the behavioral deficits, and instead of labeling the child as autistic, tries to improve those behavioral deficits. really cool!

2) Research on contemporary issues affecting youths in Malaysia - HELP lecturers (Dr. Hera, Dr. Albert and Dr. Anansuya)

Probably the most enjoyable out of all the presentations in ARUPS. It's good to know some of the research that is being done in Malaysia and what HELP's staff trying to do to make things better. Very nice

3) Economic Empowerment: Sustainable Support System for People with Learning Difficulties in Employment - Ms. Clarissa Chang

I chaired for this session, and it's really another very heartening presentation. Ms. Clarissa has been in the field for 20 years, advocating for people with learning difficulties. The things she does are just angelic la. It is said that nowadays, Giant no longer hire foreigners and they shift this quota to employing people with learning disabilities. Great right? That's hard work!

4) Promoting Children's Personal Strengths: Integrating Positive Psychology with Child Development.

Dr. Albert presented in this session, and the way he laughs is SO FARNEE. he sounds like he's asthmatic, but a happy one. XD So Dr. Albert constructed a scale to measure personal strength and in his session, he said that personal strength (or noncognitive ability XD) is equally important, if not more important to predict success in life. And yes, eventhough knowledge is important, being able to control and manage one's emotion and interpersonal skills definitely will bring a person a loooong way. if not, even with all the knowledge in the world, you would still end up in jail, simply because u cannot control your emotions and end up fighting with other people. lol

5) Stress Level, Life Regard and Coping Strategies of Wives with Alcoholic Husbands in Kartanaka, India: A basis for an Intervention Program - Ms. Judy Lewis

So Ms. Judy managed to find wives whom are married to alcoholic husbands (which treats them pretty badly like using verbal abuse) and measure all the things she wanted to, like meaning of life and stress level. After identifying those who have high stress level, and low meaning of life, she invented a logotherapy intervention. So these females at the end of the day manage to lower their stress level, and also mange to find more meaning in life. so cool huh?

Man, these people are the people who change the society around them. I want to be like them too! muahahaha.. it's good to see that there are advocates who are doing things to change society for the better. Often times, they work background and nobody recognizes them.

I guess i did chose a right course after all!

My supervisor Dr. Albert and me

God Bless~

Dreams

06.09 2010

This morning i had some pretty, make that very, weird dreams... hahaha..

i remember dreaming about playing bejeweled blitz and then the gems just combo all the way by itself until the time is up.. so cool, and i remember my score being something like 555 000 or somewhere there.. lol.. funny

another strange weird dream was this. it's like a combination of ultraman, Bleach and Final fantasy. XD.. i don't really remember the beginning but me and some people were travelling in a car, and the car was like... fueling on reiatsu. and we were also moving on a dimension which is not earth la..

we were on our way to do some really big business, like killing a big boss or something, but it's really important la.. along the way, there were some big monsters wrecking havoc on buildings, but we didn't stop and kill the monsters because we were having this important mission at hand remember? lol..

and then there was this particular monster which looks like Ochu (in FF10) destroying buildings.. i don't know y i wasn't in the car then, but i saw Rachel Yong and told her. "Rachel, faster transform into Ultraman and defeat that monster." XDXD

She replied "Busy la". And she was busy mending her PORK STALL!!! How ridiculously funny. XDXDXD max! and the people there are still enjoying themselves to their meals.. like the monster isn't there or something.. chillax max.

OK so that's the dream part..

ugh.. sometimes i think i really am dumb for not taking advantage of situations.. why la why?? superego too big already la.. HAIH!

God Bless~

Experiential Learning

Finally semester starts again. This will be my last semester in my course. And I badly need good grades so that I can waive my PTPTN Loan. But all the subjects I am taking this sem are experiential learning, which means I will have to go for class (not that I don't) and participate as well. A lot of hands on experience. Let's see what are the subjects I am taking

Group Process: I will need to go through group counselling with a bunch of people. Probably talking about a lot of stuffs like grief, anger, healing. Oh.. I think this would be really cool. Also there's another assignment which we need to do, which is pretty tough. ugh..

Contemporary Issues in Psychology: yea i know the title sounds so.. uninformative right. what's contemporary issues? lol.. it's issues which people debate on in present time. like, gay marriages, differences in skin colour, clash of religious views and things like that. Pretty interesting and I guess we have to talk in class (a lot of talking) to voice out our opinion. It would be an informative i suppose.

Therapeutic Play: Yay, i guess this is the awesome-mess subject of all time. lol... i need to do assignments, by playing with children. How is this not cool right? but need pay quite a heavy sum of money to buy the toys.. but oh well, i guess it's fine :D

All these subjects will be an eye opener, and definitely increase my horizon on people, things and pattern of thoughts. i just hope i do well in all 3 subjects.

On a side note, it's really interesting to see people grow u know? it's probably one of the greatest joy one can have.

next challenge: ARUPS! :0

My niece. Cute ain't she? :D

God Bless~

Thoughts in my mind

I initially didn't want to blog, but oh well, someone asked me to update my blog. XD So, this will be a random blog posting with no specific order. Just my thoughts on some of the things that I have been going through these few weeks.

1) I am so SO a thinker. I have been watching How I Met Your Mother, and boy, I think i am very much like Ted. I think i can relate to him pretty well. and Meng and Shyuan are like Marshall and Lily in the show. lol.. just that there's no Barney and Robin. Ted is a thinker as well. The problem with both of us is, we think too much. bad thing..

2) The other day, I went to UPM competition with Kepong people. My volleyball skills sucks big time. Aih.. and Chong Hwa school are dang good.. oh em gee, they look small and kiddo, and geek-o, but then they can play so well.. shame on me ><

3) As the year draws to an end, the realization that degree is coming to end is making me think about a lot of things. What will I be doing at this time of the year next year? Masters? Where? Will i get scholarship? What about WAT? i want to go so badly. What will i be doing before masters? Work? as what? urgh.. manyak pertanyaan di dalam kepalaku.

4) i think about so much stuff, even to the point of things like.. children upbringing and society's moral value. crazy right? I had always wanted children, but I am afraid of what will become of them because i don't really have the confidence to bring them up to be righteous upstanding citizen. kids nowadays are tiny monsters. :p from what i see with my own eyes, the world is bad. very bad. and it's getting worse :x the moral value is just.. down the drain man..

the other day, while i was tutoring my kiddo, we read this article which bears the title 'Mum's New Boyfriend'. When i read the title, i was like.. O.O the title implies 2 things

a) mum no longer with dad (for whatever reason)
b) and mum got a boyfriend (or a few boyfriends) before this 'current' 1.

and this article was in his English textbook. NOT COOL! but today, when i went tutoring, i got to see a video which captures what they were like when they were younger... and they were sOOOOOOO CUTE! the joy of parenting. i guess i will want to have kids after all. seeing people grow brings a lot of pleasure

5) Seeing people grow brings a lot of pleasure... i remember when i was in the Servers.. I joined while i was 14, and i helped train a lot of new servers. they were small and young then.. like 10 or 11 years old. Now they are big, tall and the moment i see it that way, i realized that time has passed by me. no more pinching their cheeks. no more touching their head. but seeing them grow, really makes me happy.

I guess I should be more of a do-er, cause nothing changes if i don't do. Merely thinking isn't going to complete things. And let's just appreciate the present

Love this photo Max!

God Bless~

Holiday Post no. 2

31th July

So i lao sai like shit and i woke up at 4 o clock to lao sai again. walao low.. i am suppose to get a good night rest so that i can have enough energy to compete in competition, but no... 1 week of not enough sleep and i still have to go for competition.. hahaha.. woke up at 6, and bathed and went out.. Aevent fetched me to tarc for masiswa and i lao sai like 3 times in tarc ok.. aiseh.. suffering..

we were in group B, and we went against IPB, UniKL and another 1 i forgot name. we didn't do very well. although we still manage to get into semis... initial plan was to be group leader, but lost out to unikl in rubber game.. aiks ><

because of that, we went against group A's leader, tar college. no need to say, kena sapu lo.. but that time all already tired shit.. i also like want to faint.. all that entered my stomach was a bread in the morning, and 2 doughnuts.. lao sai lao sai.. :x

went home and it was drizzling, and there was jam.. dang! i wanted to reach home early to go to church, but reach home late because of the jam jam jam jam.. manage to go to church still, but late lor ><

so we played for 3rd 4th placing the following day..

1st August

woke up at 7.20, before my alarm and Aevent was supposed to fetch me.. he asked me to gave morning call and i did.. for like.. a whole 10 minutes.. no answer.. i go bath and then called him again.. still no answer.. gg.com... then told my dad i will be driving there myself..

drove there myself, and wa la.. we only have 6 players ngam ngam.. but out of the 6, 1 went for ping pong. so need to wait for him... initially we thought we will lost by walk away, since opponent already there, and we don't have enough players on court.. but managed to make it la..

Shin rushed to court after ping pong and then we were told referee belum sampai. sweat max!! waited for the finals to finish, only play 3rd 4th placing.. lol.. went against apiit and we lost in rubber game.. sien ><

oh there were 3 funny part during the game.. lol..

first was when a girl asked us to take a group photo and as reward, we were being given free red bull. so Giap said that we can take the photos now, but later only give us the red bull.. and the girl said.. oh no no.. we need to take the photos together with the red bull. then only we realized.. we need to be 'ambassadors' for the red bull.. lol.. model sial.. XDXD

second funny thing.. i forgotten to bring my shoe for competition.. XD.. rushing to get out cause i was driving remember? lol.. and i forgotten to bring my shoe along.. hahahaha.. just when i was about to warm up.. i was like "SHIT!!! I DIDN'T BRING MY SHOE!!!!!" and i thought i was going into court kaki ayam.. Giap grab me and said "yuan lai zui da pai de shi ni. lian sie zi dou mei you dai lai" (translated as: seems like you are the 'biggest'. shoe also didn't bring). good thing shin got another pair of shoe.. fuiyoh.. *wipe sweat from forehead* thanks Shin!

third funny thing was Meng. there was once he served, and he taught the ball didn't pass the net and he said 'oh fuck' so loudly that i could hear it.. i bet the referees heard it as well.. XD good thing they didn't blow the whistle.. lol..

played only 1 match but eat 3 ball biscuit.. yesterday played 4 matches, and didn't eat any ball biscuit (excluding the 1 weifen slapped me with lol)

and the game point for the rubber set, i was serving... walao low.. so scared i will repeat mapcu mistake.. good thing my serving pass.. hahaha..

after the match, went for lunch with rachel and friends at yong tau fu. and then went drink tong sui at leisure mall until 3.30.. after that, came back, and went for volleyball again at mpaj.. after that went back and ate dinner, bath and went out to teach Ziwin.

wah really marathon for 1 week. now finally i can settle down for a bit..

God Bless~

Holiday Post no. 1

Finally i am able to enjoy my holiday... sleep, eat, watch tv, and then sleep again.. nice nice.. after a marathon of busy-ness for 1 week..

25th July till 27th July - St. Anne's Feast

went to penang to celebrate St. Anne's Feast (fyi, she's Jesus' grandmother) and this year celebration was less crowded.. probably there's another big feast on the saturday after we went. for the 2 days, pondered upon sickness, death, life and love. hahaha.. made me understood (or more like accepting) something really important in life. didn't get good night sleep as we can't really control the air cond temperature..

back on 27th and on 28th.. dong dong dong (learn from yean may :p)

28th - 30th - Penang trip (again)

so after coming back from penang on the 27th, on the 28th went back to penang with friends. stopped at ipoh to eat late lunch, and then went hunting for dinner.. and we ate at the ship. :p nothing much to elaborate except for the fact that on the last day, after eating hor fun at ipoh, i lao sai like shit.. and this story will bring us to holiday post no 2.

God Bless~

Parallel world?

27th August 2010

This morning i dreamt of something crazily amazing.. or amazingly crazy. i dreamt that i was somewhere in this place.. and everything was normal until i was going to sleep... and my left eye was hurting pretty badly

then i rub rub, but to no avail... then my dad came and asked me to look at him and i did... he slowly moved his head downwards, and my head moved downwards together with his head... just as my head was looking 90 degrees below, my dad pushed my head downwards strongly..

and it was then that i had this crazy experience.

it feels as if my soul was disconnected from my physical being and was sucked downwards.. my soul continued going down, passing through a chasm and then there was another me on the bed, (while this was happening, i had a third person view) where finally my soul 'connects' back with my physical self (this is another self... seems as if my soul just past through the chasm into another world.. another parallel world). and the feeling of my soul connected with my physical being is sooo SOOOO REAL! when that happened, it seems as if everything was in sync. it's like the hook found it's perfect match..

and i was physically feeling this because i was half awake when the soul 'connected' with my body. half dreaming, half awake, but i can clearly feel the 'connectivity'. i awoke seconds later to make sure i am still sane.

i know it's hard to understand.. but anyway, i am still sane.. yay! as for whether i am now in a parallel world, well who knows right?

God Bless~