Raoul In the house

Well, First I have to explain that I am a very seasonal blogger:


Sometimes I blog in quick succession, with 'gap years' in between
Sometimes I write drafts and leave them in the semi-completed state,( i currently have 36 drafts!)
Sometimes I hold up on the sudden spark of idea just a bit too long and well, all the steam just evaporated
sometimes I copy and paste. and leave very little of my interpretation on the post.

oh well, everyone is guilty in at least one of the charges above... we're only human right? :-)

I've been owing multiple blog-posts.. and I promise to clear the backlog as soon as I can.. Blogposts that should have already been posted (which of coz never saw light of day, in chronological order)

-My terengganu trip in april 2009- working with Marine turtles
-My UK ENT posting in July 2009-
-My feelings leading the team in the inaugural environmental carnival 9th January 2010
-My 14 day trip to Indonesia in a R&R (research and relax) trip Feb 2010
-My jaunts to The Balloon Festival, Liu Xuan's Talk, short reunion in Singapore in March 2010
-And finally, my upcoming trips to Cameron and Kota Kinabalu in April

damn, I've got a super long backlog of entries! YIKES

I guess being a jack of all trades can be a real drag.
Having so many interests in so many areas: (check out the labels at the sidebar: There are 22 of them, covering most if not all my secret fantasies)

And having so little time
1) pursuing my interests themselves
2) studying? (bah, don't use this as an excuse, as if you ever!)

and as I told my friends- since CNY till now, I've not had an 8 hour sleep cept on 2 days! most of the time, I get by with 5-6 (despite this being holidays!)

K,K, should really get started now...

First things I'd clear out- is a post on the reason for the name Raoul.

I've never given a full answer to that question, but some would recall I gave myself the moniker around April 2009- prior to starting 4th year.

It actually represents a brand new me, stepping into 4th year of medical school.
I wanted myself to be

bolder,
braver,
eager to take up each and every challenge.

I wanted to make sure I'll be always ready to
try novel stuff,

pick up the mike and let words come forth,
not back down at every given opportunity (and where has that gotten me? LOL!)

the name meant confidence & courage to me

I wanted myself to be less bogged down by friendship matters

Wanted to strike out and continue going against the grain

Wanted to play a bigger part in all the things that I previously did. Wanted to make a difference to the society, the country and the world I live in.

Quite frankly, I don't know whether I succeeded beyond irritating a few people with my Alias
being non-"I'm born with it", Non-christian, non-English (It's spanish)

So please be the judge if you knew me prior to 2009, and let me know if you see any changes. (Any, even microscopic)

Oh and the origin of the name? It came from here.

No Joke

Oh, and Wish me great luck in clearing the backlog. Adios amigo.

Mozzies! Shoo Shoo

We ... students of KTDI are in danger...
because the area is a Dengue Hot-spot...

and a few of the medical students have fallen victim to the black and white portable syringes... poor Yong Kang

-Hypodermic Needle Included!-

In the tiny room of mine...
I have the dual problem of extreme heat...
and extreme Mozzie mania...
Mosquitoes are attracted to UV light, Carbon dioxide and Heat
Ah.. I have the latter two in abundance...
Small wonder why my room is Mosquito central..

Ah even got a name for my room
MOZZIE SAUNA

Well... I don't like killing anything uneccessarily..
but the mozzies are an exception...sigh
(Karma dun get me... I don't kill them when I'm in their territory-jungles etc
Oh well I try not to)
So I was passively swatting...
then came the electric racquet..

tried playing Mosquito repelling frequencies downloaded from the internet in MP3 format..
didn't work.
Reason given by 'experts'- MP3s are stripped down versions of audio files.. where inaudible (to humans) noises are filtered out to make the file tiny.
the ultrasonic waves are of course lost in translation...

Played the file on my PC thruout the night.. My housemate SH tried it too..
No workie..

K.. so A file doesn't work..
so I go for the plugged in version...





It claims to cover an area of 25m square..

Sadly... Plugged in 30cm away.. it failed to deter the mozzie pleasantly feasting on my arm!
Shucks..
wasted RM13 on this thing.

Oh well.. the real deal that is supposed to work cost RM169 in ace hardware...

Well... next up...
carbon dioxide traps
from the fermentation of sugar by Yeasts...

Wish me luck!

Photo Of Mosquito taken by Nikon D60 kit lens, in Redang.

第一次JADI EMCEE

今天我第一次当了MC! 感觉很特别!
当然,之前有上过台,讲过话,但不曾在各各大人物面前撑了将近12个小时!

之前我是在很不自愿的情况下,战战兢兢,一步一个脚印地踏上那儿
站在那冰冷的一处,肚子里大肠小肠紧紧地拥抱在一起...
双脚颤抖,四处张望.... 而这只是爬上后台阶梯时的感觉...

站了很久,终于被人一拥...我站在擂台上了!!!!

看那十万双眼睛(至少我心里是那么认为)目不转睛地凝视着我
我多么希望我像蜡笔小新向日葵班的上尾老师


一脱下眼镜就如吃下豹子,狮子,大象胆似的..勇敢面对一切问题

想到这,我立刻脱下眼镜, 心想这妙计能让我看不见观众而不会胆怯!....哎!!!!

固然是妙计! 居然....

让我也看不见台词啊!

REally! That was what happened during my first speech on stage!

Eventually I did get better bit by bit but still I find it hard to maintain eye contact with the audience... looking at them my neck automatically jerks downward causing me to stare at the script and thus robotically reading from it...

I'm made little progress thus far but after going for a session by Jackson Ng,
entitled "Speaking with impact", I remember his first lesson well- NEVER say no to opportunities to be on stage.

That's why I accepted the offer to be the MC for the symposium today!


In my opinion, there are two kinds of MCs...
MCs for informal occasions- weddings etc
MCs for Formal occasions- like today- involving lecturers and doctors from the Malaysian Medical Council and Ministry of Health Malaysia

And hopefully I didn't menjatuhkan air muka UKM today!

Things I learnt include

The main thing about being an MC, is being prepared but to appear seemingly unprepared.
Also, you need to be on your feet noticing every little change in mood and be prepared for all sorts of emergency conditions.
prepare some banter speech to suit the occasion, however its pretty hard to prepare this before hand as the content must be sourced from the events unfolding on the day itself.

not forgetting
1. Get to know your audience, know their sense of humour generally
2. Know your guests of honour and get their salutations right and try to memorise it
3. Find someone in the audience that you know so that whenever you're nervous and don't know where to look to you can stare at this person for as long as you need to regain your composure.
4. Try not to be too dependent on your script. (Which I failed to do)
5. Always be alert of what is happening on stage and off stage
6. Have other members of the committee (usually from the protocol) to look out for you for any untoward changes
7. Keep yourself hydrated
8. Learn the right way to use the microphone- there is an optimum distance where your breaths won't be audible yet your decibels are not lost. Ask your friend to listen far away beforehand and to give suitable... 'feedback'. (pun intended)
9. Try to keep your words bite-sized, syllable per syllable as it aids clarity. Not to make it into Bahasa Baku tho!
10. Use terms and phrases or quotes that your audience can relate to, or else your comments will be greeted by drops of sweat and a crow flying past...

On banter speech, one that I came up with today after both parliamentary debate sessions where both 'prime ministers' are ladies was this

PPJ for partner poh jeann
KY for me

PPJ :" Hey KY, did you notice who were the elected prime ministers in both debates just now?"

KY :" hmmmm.... not really... why?

PJ :" recently we had just witnessed the election of the 1st black president in america, Obama and today we have not one but two female prime ministers, Miss Amirtha and Miss Wu! Do you think we will have a female Prime minister in Malaysia?

KY :" Oh... wait... are you trying to start a debate with me on whether females are equally capable as their male counterparts in leading the country?

PJ :" Seniors, what do you think?"

KY :" nevermind nevermind, we shall pass all the controversy and headache to the juries for they are the ones who must select the best debating team"

---
So I think managed to tie together a recent international event, parliamentary debate, what just transpired around us and threw a question at the audience to try to illicit audience participation... an important part of being a good emcee.

Well, the execution wasn't that well, judging from the lukewarm response but I'm glad that at least I attempted it and learned from it.

all in all, our effort was appreciated by our attending lecturer Prof Har and that felt great!

Here I would like to extend my thanks to abang Shukri, kak azuwa and the many many seniors who guided us. We were like the only chinese in the organizing commitee apart from Joanne senior. Hence my title today in 3 languages!

Other perks of being an MC today include knowing rather generally how a uber-formal event is being organized,
getting to know many new friends,
Getting to tinker with high tech gadgets! One of my favourite past-times is figuring out how they work!

This mike is a digital mike where you can alter its frequency ! COOL!

And I managed to practise my drawing too! compare these two with the two photos I took. I was drawing on the spot so met a little difficulty with the very actively moving participants!










(OKOK my drawing sucks! I know but I'll improve on it de!)

and getting to play "big brother"
This is one pretty old but still mighty high tech gadgetry


Shown in the video I zoomed out, Zoomed in, Panned the camera, adjusted the focus and later set it on auto mode where it scanned the entire auditorium!-last part not seen in vid-



Not forgetting enjoying the seniors doing our favourite component of PPD- roleplay!
Of course we learnt a lot from the debate and forum sessions too!


All in all its a worthy experience!
As I couldn't find much information online on being an emcee- most online info was related to being a wedding MC, quite a different job description if you ask me- I decided to write this out as a rough advice... hope it helps!

Cheerios! Thanks to Poh Jeann for accomodating this gila gila co-MC (=^.^=)

Finally It's here!

Yup yup! Finally I received the cheque that's been almost 2 months late in coming!

It's for a picture taken from my apartment.

It was right in the middle of the Hungry Ghosts' Festival and the paper effigies blown by the wind lit up the field in an ever widening circle.
I called the Firemen who came rather promptly to douse the "crop circle"



And uh... the thing on the left?
well that's um... uh a ghost... haha

Finger Lickin Good

Oh okay...If its finger licking good we have to lick it all the way to the elbow... (the dough stretched that far.)

It's been a long time since I done any backwood cooking since my scout days so Its fun to do it all over again! :-)

Well, in the scout badge USAHA, the qualifying criteria to pass back wood cooking is you need to get the fire burning with at most 3 match sticks. you get 10 points extra for each match unused. Well, This time, I failed my usaha badge.... three times over! Schucks...

Well. the ground was damp and the twigs were wet... coz it rained ytd... oh kk enough excuses... after half an hour of literally huffing and puffing we managed to get the fire going!!! Lighting up charcoal in an open space needs lotsa patience!

It was a messy affair with the dough though, using roughly 300g of "Key" brand flour,
1 egg probably of Leong Hup origin, half sachet of "Martin brand" yeast, mixed with a secret amount of water(the key to successful adherence to the barbecue stick which we learnt only too late..or in my case, remembered too late)--- we whipped up a bucket full of bread dough which grew 3 times its size in the half hour and sticked to everything it got in contact with.

Then its--
-"Stick, come meet dough"
-"dough, please meet stick"

Now the two of you meet FLAME!! Nyehahahaha..

Once its golden brown in colour we applied a think sheen of planta margerine and sprinkled sugar over it... And Despite our reservations..turned out to be extremely tasty!



Oh and not forgetting one special stick on which we melted a small square of cadbury chocolate on... that was heavenly!

Cleaning up the warzone was best left to tomorrow because we needed to meet Friends coming to town...

Bean Bean plant Chronology... (=^.^-)

Day1




Day2





Day3




Day4




Day5




Day6




Day7




Day8




Day N









Baby bean bean!!!
Nolah... Its the sprouts of a green bean and a Soya bean... hehehe

On our funny half year anniversary haha

We accidently ventured into The paddington house of pancakes!



Yup ordering was a headache. took me 20+ minutes before I settled for something



Order # 123- The appetizing dish (more appetizing than hers right?) that I ordered




order # xxx - (occured to me that it loooks like some sort of popiah)



Oh well lets preserve some photos before we dismember the innocent looking pancakes!

Ah my first drawing in a long time

Bikemania

This be my new bikey! Actually its my first bike as the rest Were hand me downs... So I'm pretty proud of it...although pretty sad looking at my wallet Hemoptysis... hehe

{--Click on the images to see the full size view--}



- Alloy body - 21speed - Front suspension - unique body design- unique welding -



Bike = (price lost in haggling)..

Miscellaneous (unhaggled price )
Lock 1 = RM 26

Lock 2 = RM 24

Basket and rear tray = RM 40
Bell = RM 5

Pillion rider Stand = RM 7


Grand total = RM 553!