I HATE standard procedures

I wasted four hours of my life today. Went to the immigration to make my passport. When I bought the form, I asked if all I needed was my IC and 2 passport sized photos. The man at work looked at me and ignored the question. He took the form, took the one ringgit, and clipped a number then asked me to go elsewhere to wait.

The current number was 1028. My number was 1113. So I waited patiently, just to hand in one stupid form. I wonder why it has to go through so many people. It's just a form, and their standard operation procedures are so inefficient, to put it mildly. But no worries, standard procedure. After all, a passport only takes a few hours to get these days.

Then after 2 hours plus, it finally got to my number. When I went to the counter 5, the man working took a look at my IC and then remarked "ini IC mana? Kamu dari mana?" Then I told him, Sabah. "Ibu bapa mana?" (said in a tone like I'm some illegal immigrant or something. So condescending!) I said Johor. Then he asked for the birth certificate. Whhhaaaattttt!!! I don't have my birth cert here. It's back in Sabah I told him. Is the IC not enough? Then he said need proof of my keturunan. Proof? what proof? Are you saying that a MyKad is not proof enough that I am a citizen of Malaysia? Just because I am a Sabahan with Johorian parents, it makes me, what, STATELESS? Poor me. Fair enough, then I asked if a certified copy will do. He said cannot. He asked me to call home and ask my parents to post my birth cert. Is he crazy? POST my original BIRTH CERTIFICATE?? If it gets lost in the post who is going to be responsible? I won't be stateless then, I'll be nationless. So many problems. If I am born in Sabah with sabah-born parents NO PROBLEM, can use MyKad. If born in semenanjung with semenanjung-born parents, no problem, can use MyKad. But since I am a Sabahan with semenanjung born parents, they insist on my birth certificate as they say they need proof of my keturunan?!! I told them the number of my birth cert, but no, even that in unacceptable. This is just absurd! It's not like I was born on the plane that just so happen to fly over malaysia and then I got a malaysian ID. Some more everything is computerized now. They can just access the database for verification! But oh, its NOT standard procedure.

Then I went away, and remembered the MyKad had a chip. That has all the particulars, doesn't it? So I went back to ask if they could get the proof they want from here. He tell me cannot. I kept asking and asking, in the end he asked me to go next door to the IC department to see if they can get an extract of the birth certificate.

So I went over to the kad pengenalan department, and asked one officer after another. In the end they gave me a number (I don't know for what, there was no queue. Another stupid standard procedure). So I went to ask about extracts and she said that because my birth cert is from sabah department, it cannot be extracted from kl immigration. Which was reasonable. So I asked if she could access what is in the MyKad. And sure enough, all the information of keturunan, including parents name, place of birth (including the clinic), its all inside the chip. Wonderful, don't you think? Apparently not. "Ini tidak boleh print, Data ini private dan confidential" WHHHHhhaatttt!!!

So I went back to the passport department, and I told the officer, the proof keturunan is inside the chip of the MyKad. He said yes he knows but cannot use. MUST USE ORIGINAL BIRTH CERT! Why? What is the use of the chip in the MyKad when you don't even acknowledge the contents? FAILURE!

I was getting very pissed by then. So I decided to go across to the mamak stall opposite for roti kaya and then called dad about the birth cert thing. How the hell am I going to post it?! Cannot take the risk lah, malaysian postal system u think so great ah? Then at the end dad said, ask them if the high court or the immigration department of kk certifies the birth cert will they accept it.

Then I went back to ask. He didn't want to layan me anymore... but in the end he did and said it was ok.

Stupid.

Can't they just say earlier.

Four bloody hours.

I have so much better things to do. I hate the system!

PS. why is a sabah born citizen with west msian parents facing so much nonsense with the immigration?! It's so annoying! KONONNYA we are all citizens of MALAYSIA. The country we are so proud of, a nation united. HAH

interesting

hey... I found this in one of my files.. must have gotten it off the internet sometime ago.. i think i was searching for a topic for presentation for my cell biology during the 1st sem hehe

IF U WERE BACTERIA:

# You can have sex, with males possessing a sexual apparatus for transferring genetic information to receptive females. However, since you are both going 30 mph it is difficult to find each other. Furthermore, if you are male, nature gave you a severe problem. Everytime you mate with a female, she turns into a male. In bacteria, "maleness" is an infective venereal disease.

# Also, at fairly high frequencies, spontaneous mutations cause you to turn into a female.

Friends

Suddenly felt the urge to post something about all of you.

Just to let you know..

If I had to choose gold and friends, I would choose friends.

That is how much I cherish you.

Angel's dust

Swirls of mist so fine, so light. Angel's dust softly sprinkling towards earth, sparkling as it reflects the rays of the sun. Catching the flakes as it drifts softly towards outstretched palms... A sweet reverie, an escape of dreams upon dreams.

A world where strangers are friends, instead of friends being strangers. A world where ties are not swept away by the winds of change. A world where people are intertwined at heart and not separated by prejudice. A world where you are celebrated as you and I am celebrated as me.

Alas, is this merely a fragment of imagination? Standing amongst people, yet alone. So alone. How many people are feeling this way? With the smiles and the laughter, nothing of pretence, but when it quiets down... what is left but emptiness? When the morning dew drips from the morning glory onto the grass below, every drop magnified by the slow motioning of time, I wonder.

to never never land

Never been so busy. Never have eaten so many mangoes in one shot. Never felt so stressed yet so motivated. Life is a series of complications, but in spite of all the hard work and the time constraints, in the end it is all worth it. When you see the fruits of your labour, you'll smile of relief when it's all over, and deep down there you know, its your work, its your effort that made it all possible. As your dreams unfold itself to reality in front of you, you will realise nothing is more satisfying. Nothing is more pleasing. Nothing feels as fulfilling. You deserve it.

When everything screams for priority, and the pressure is there to give them all 100%, sometimes I start to wonder if I am really capable of it all. Today is the last day for me to study for Monday's forensic chemistry and biology exam. Tomorrow, I am heading for a day's workshop for the Young Entrepreneur's Award. Then I'm checking in at Eastin and have the public speaking workshop training camp over the weekends. I'm supposed to have an improved speech by now, but even though I put as much time as I can spare into it, what is there right now is still something that I am not satisfied with. Furthermore, I haven't restructured the speech in my head. It's still the old one, and it just won't do. I'm coming back on Sunday evening. Just enough time to scan through the notes one last time and sit for exam on Monday. Then I have to make my passport the day after. That leaves me with two more days to study for the next exam. After that, I have around a week to prepare for both the international public speaking comp and also the young entrepreneurs award finals. For that, I am sacrificing a class trip to penang. A little sad, but I've been thinking and rethinking about it, and even if I might be able to manage squeezing it in, I would probably die in the process, or at least be exhausted. That's almost akin to being dead, for the competitions require focus, preparation and being alert. Lacking sleep will not be a good thing. Ah. Just had to make further improvements on my speech. It's already 5.37pm. I still need to finish studying today. This is totally CRAZY. Only a superwoman can do all of this and still excel in them. But I can do it. There is no other option.

I have learnt to not doubt myself, because it is with doubt that I lose my footing and I fall. This time, I am older and wiser, and I know that somehow someway I will pull through, and I will give it all that I have. That is what is most important right now at this very moment. It's about putting all my heart into what I do, and the results themselves will show the effort behind. I will not give up. I will not lose the motivation. For once in my life, I will not complain of the stress and the lack of time. I will make it work, and I will make it work well.

I think I'm just trying to convince myself. Whatever.

Stupid clock!!

I woke up on time. 10.10am my alarm clock showed, just right for the 11 am class. So I took my own sweet time, stopping by on the way to talk to a friend, and a lecturer, before popping into EMSD to speak to the lecturer in charge as my final BM paper clashes with the training camp. I'm sure that did not take more than 15 minutes, so I was just in time to go for class. Alas, when I approached the k block, I saw my friends walking away from the classroom. So I called out to them, not going for class? Then they raised their eyebrows and said.. class already over lah. A glance at my handphone tells me is 12 noon. wtf. In my head I remember CLEARLY my alarm was set at 10.10am. I can't possibly have taken over an hour to get to the classroom venue. But my clock in my room was still ticking, that I'm sure of. That spoilt my mood, first thing in this stupid day.

When I came back, I checked the alarm clock to solve the mystery, and oh it IS one hour behind. And I did set it at 10.10am. How the hell did it move itself an hour back I have no idea. The battery? But it's still running like usual.. and six hours (from the time i came back till now), the clock shows no sign of keeping time at a slower pace. So why in the world was it an hour back? I'm sure iet showed the right time the day before. No one would have purposely set it back and hour. Firstly its just absurd. Secondly, I've been in my room the whole day yesterday anyway. Was studying for the online test today till 5.30am. Or maybe it was 6.30 am if the clock was already an hour off. What the hell. Maybe lack of sleep also contributed to this foul mood. It's 11.40pm now and I'm still irritable.

Exam starts next week. I don't know shit. I hate chemistry. I don't give a shit about how to calculate the wavelength of a bloody compound from it's fucking complicated organic structures. I don't know what the syllabus covers. The only thing about drugs that will faintly spark my interest is if you get some for me to test (not on myself, maybe on mice, or you).

Going to genting tomorrow. Skipping class again! Damn. I have been cutting classes more and more. I KNOW I shouldn't have started the habit. Have to make my passport soon. Wanna go to IDP and make inquiries, but friend is going on thursday. Skipping class =( NOOooooo. sigh. I'm too stupid to study on my own. I need to attend lectures.

I hate this internet connection. It is fucking stupid. It can't stay connected. And it IS bloody annoying. And it also annoys people coz my msn signs in and out. Even when I sign in as appear offline, my friend tells me it signs in and out as online. Screw this.

I think my computer is virus infected. AVG can't detect anything.

I slept in the evening. SO i'm awake now. And I should revise.

Ah shit. I hate it when I keep typing I need to study. I need to revise. I'm sure its f-ing annoying to read that too. I know it's annoying when I read it back.

Screw today. The day is unlucky. Oh, and my handphone has been barred today. Hate postpaid. They have to be SOOOO efficient in cutting lines. SHIT lah.

But one good thing came out of today. I got 90% for the online test.

I think I would stop studying chemistry and biology. But that means spending half a decade more learning something else and sitting for MORE stupid redundant exams. Think of all the trees we chop down to make those stupid papers. Wasting the earth's precious resources. For some bloody alphabets. A or B or C or D. Or what-not. POINTLESS. This world's systems are so stupid.

BAh.

Crystallised

When one mentions the word crystallised, what comes to mind may be of beauty and elegance, of brilliant angles that catches the light and reflects the subtleties of the different colours that split in its prisms. But being crystallised is also being trapped, being stoned in a fixed place, unable to move, unable to be free. Being forever prisoner in a palace that is cold and hard, yet oh of what grandeur. As people admire the brilliance of its sparkle, the soul trapped within is encased in everlasting solitude, cut off with cries that fall on deaf ears. The falsity is ubiquitous, the beauty only surface. Crystalline, so tantamount to greatness and yet ironically equivalent to pity. Is this a world of lost hope? Where smiles are merely plastered and laughs are but empty sound waves? How far has this world been crystallised? How long have we seen things with rose coloured glasses? How many a time have we admired the sparkles and forsaken the silent screams? If we can melt the crystals and set free the rigidity that binds the matter, would it be a sacrifice worth it? Or should the mysterious aura of the ones crystallised remain to be admired by the rest with the sacrifice of desolation behind closed doors?