FIFA World Cup fever

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, part of the reasons why I decided to stop working is that I would love to follow the FIFA World Cup closely. And with the tournament about 13 days away from now, I figure I'd love to put a couple of my views on it as well as increase the number of posts for my blog. =D

The team and player I'll be rooting for: Portugal and CR7

Well, basically the main reason why I will be rooting for Portugal is because of this man: Cristiano Ronaldo, the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or winner and captain of the Portugal squad. He's my favourite player because of his style, characters and attitude towards the game. He single-handedly lead the Portugal squad to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and will of course be the catalyst for a successful tournament for Portugal. HALA RONALDO, HALA PORTUGAL!!!

The team that I hope to win the 2014 FIFA World Cup: Germany

Although Ming(he supports Germany) doesn't think Germany will win the tournament, I personally feel that this team is deserving to win the football's biggest prize. Since came out as runner-up in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the youth development of Germany's football has produced many outstanding young players that have become some of the best footballers in the world. Coupled with the fact that this team has been consistently finished among the top in previous tournaments(3rd in 2006 World Cup, 2nd in Euro 2008, 3rd in 2010 World Cup and semi-finalist in Euro 2012), I believe it is Germany's turn to nail the prize and prove to the football world they are the next best team.

The player that I hope will shine in the tournament: Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney has once been hailed as one of the best players in the world along with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi but he and England have been unable to perform to the expectation in previous tournaments. However, seeing that there are new bloods in the England squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, I believe that this tournament is the perfect opportunity for Rooney to shine and give England a good run in the tournament.

My pick for the Best Young Player award: Neymar

Seeing that Brazil is one of the favourite to win the 2014 FIFA World Cup in their homeland and Neymar is their star player, nothing less than winning the Best Young Player award is needed for Brazil to live up to the expectation from the entire nation and the football world to be crown world champion for a record six times. He certainly need to pick up the scoring load for Brazil and play like the legendary Pele. On that basis, he's my pick for Best Young Player award.

Here's the 2014 FIFA World Cup official these song: We Are One (Ole Ola)

Note: all those written above are purely what I hope would happen in this World Cup and have nothing to do with knowledgeable analysis of football since football is not the sports I play with passion.

Last day of my first job

Today marks the last day of work for me as an administrative assistant in Agile Solution Sdn Bhd/PC Mart Sdn Bhd. This is the first paid job of my life and I've worked here for about 4 months, from 6 February 2014 until 30 May 2014. I could have continue to work here for a bit longer because my tertiary education does not start until August 2014. However, I decided that I am done with this job for several reasons.

1) I've managed to shake off the first-time-working tag from myself before working in the field of my study in the future. At least when I seek a job after graduating from university, I have some working experience(I even manage to get a recommendation letter). Plus, I am feeling more and more boring doing my usual tasks and have no motivation to learn new things about business software.

2) I feel that I'm kind of underpaid and being exploited. RM7 per hour is reasonable for a part-time office job. The problem is that although my official job title is part-time admin, I worked like a full-timer(Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm) for the company. So, the fact that the maximum I could earn for a month is RM1260(my college friend, Audrey, earns around RM1600 per month as temporary worker) and I did not get EPF and SOCSO coverage, I could not find any better reason to continue working other than I can earn money(not a lot) if I continue to work.

Quoting from Ming: Typical Chinese employer is stingy and would always exploit employees to the max.

3) I figure I'd like to enjoy the remaining two months of my pre-univesity holidays. I can use these two months to have a good rest as well as getting ready physically and mentally for university life. Besides, the 2014 FIFA World Cup is about to begin on the 12 June 2014. Won't miss out the chance to follow this tournament closely when I can still find reason to do so. Most importantly, several of my close friends are coming back to KL for semester break and I must spend quality time with them before I begin my tertiary education.

On a different note:

I bought this from a shop selling old and unwanted books of all sort at Sg Wang 3rd Floor. Guess how much it costs me? A MERE RM5!!! 

Stealing a chance to be lazy from working time(it's the last day of work and I feel a little rebellious) after I went to bank in money for the company at a bank, I was in the shop searching for books that are worthwhile to buy(the 2nd time actually. couldn't find any book worthwhile to buy the first time). I managed to spot this book. And I thought: WOW this type of book can't be costing just RM5 if you're going to buy from Kinokuniya. 

Feeling excited, I tried to search for other volumes to complete the whole set but to my disappointment I couldn't. Well, perhaps I expect too much from buying in a shop where the majority of the books are old and unwanted. Nevertheless, I purchased this book in the end because I just could not let this go when it only cost RM5 and it's about the course I'm going to study in university. 

Not bad for a bit of light reading for just RM5 about my degree course before starting uni huh? Feeling Hermione-ish xD

A little of this, a little of that

Ya, as the title of this post suggests, I am going to talk a little bit of this and that in my mind that I feel to talk about. But before I begin, screw the feeling of wanting to write a decent and lengthy post. It just spoils the mood to blog(serve as a reminder to ignore this feeling the next time I feel like blogging).

University plan
2014 started well as far as my university planning goes. I got a decent results and received offers from several UK universities(3 to be exact). I thought these could perhaps serve as the catalyst for more greater things to come. It got me excited and determined to start looking for scholarships to apply. But it turns out that I am perhaps a little too naive to feel good so early about the prospect of study in oversea. What was to follow is a mixture of good and bad. The good things are getting my NUS, NTU and some scholarshio applications done as well as another offer from University of Nottingham Malaysia campus. The reason I see these as 'good' is that sometimes it feels annoying doing all these applications because there are so many details to fill in just to get it done.

The bad things started with when my application for Imperial College London was rejected. I was really hoping I could get it because I feel it might increase the prospect of getting a scholarship if I receive offer from a top university. And there the floodgate opened. I began to feel frustrated when I was applying scholarships, mainly because it requires me to write essay. As it has been such a long time since I last wrote a decent essay, the task of writing out the essay and get the application done before the deadline gave me a lot of stress. Although I got help from friends giving opinions and checking out my essays, it took a lot of effort from myself just to put a decent draft for the essay so they could help me in any capacity they can. Grateful for that, guys. Oh, not to forget all those pimples that popped out thanks to the stress from completing scholarship applications.

Perhaps the eagerness to do anything that I could in order to realise my dream of study in UK slowly gives way to reality. The catalyst of this feeling is when I decided to give up on the Khazanah scholarship. The essay(did I mention the frustration of writing essay for scholarship applications?) for this scholarship is just too tough for my ability to even get a draft out. The pimples that pop out do not make things positive to persevere. I was mentally tired and frustrated that I have to do so much compared to others in the aspect of going oversea to study. And also, the idea of giving up on the Khazanah scholarship when I had done so much to achieve my dream kills me because it goes against what I desire and why I persevere till now.

The only comfort in the midst of all these is my mother's love for me. She saw how much I work and sacrifice to achieve what I desire. I am just so glad that she agrees that I could go study in Singapore as long as my application is accepted, whether got financial aid or not. Even if the study abroad plan does not go well, she also let me to further my study in University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.

All I can do now is just wait and pray. 

Working life
Lets begin with a summary of my current working profile. I am currently working as a part time admin assistant in Agile Solution Sdn Bhd and also PC Mart Sdn Bhd which specialise in business softwares. For those who wonder how or why I work in two companies, these two companies have the same boss and I am just doing identical tasks. Tasks include calling customer to renew service support for their softwares and chasing payment(ya in some way you can put is as 'legal' dai ye lon).

As time goes on, unavoidably I start to feel a little boring because I sort of lose the excitement of working when I become used to what I should do. Some suggests to me perhaps change to another part-time job to get rid of this boredom. But consider the pay is pretty good(RM7/hour) and transport convenience from home to working place, I am quite content with continuing this job till I start my university life. I guess I just have to take it as a practice to the future working life of my career.

 Working selfie. ;)To put the finishing touch, it still feel disappointing looking at the length and contents in this post. Consequence of not writing consistently since my secondary school life I guess. Well, at least I managed to clear some dusts of this blog.

By the way, I just have to include this. Got a new basketball shoe from my second elder brother. I was planning to buy it using the salary I earned but since he's generous enough in giving me as a present(sort of), I guess it's better to save the money for my living costs in my university life.

It looks really shiny eh? =D

The end justifies the mean.

I realise I did not update anything about my college life. Well, I did attempt to update about it before this but it felt tough for me to string them into words back then.

Perhaps it seems my college life isn't exactly as wonderful as it should be for a normal college kid. All I(and of course others) remember is my college life is just about working my ass off to achieve my aspiration that I'm so desperate for. I paid a heavy price for that by sacrificing the ideal college life, just like what I did for my Form 3 life. But I would consider my one year and a half college life is a tiny bit better than my Form 3 life thanks to a little more wisdom due to age.

Someone is kind enough to remind me that I may have turn back to Form 3 Tiong Chin again. And yes, the Form 3 Tiong Chin isn't a nice person at all. Perhaps he/she is right. I took some time to reflect and think about this. Well, what I had been able to conclude for myself from the reflection and thinking is that people can change in many ways, be it good or bad or new self or old self, but old habits die hard.

Getting back to my college life, do I regret that I spent my college life like the way I spent my Form 3 life by secluding myself(most of the time) from people and the environment and just study? Let's just make it a little more reasonable and sensible for myself as a human being. I would say...well perhaps a little bit regret? OK this is a little bit of bullshitting, perhaps. Well, let's just say I'm glad that it ended the way I hope for, not exactly 100% of what I initially hope for, but close enough I guess, close enough. =)

Some final words for myself, others and my college life:

Thank you to myself for never losing the faith, determination and dedication in achieving my aspiration.

Thank you to all those college mates who are willing to lend a helping hand during my college life whenever I need it.

Thank you to my parents and family as well as all my close friends that support me and believe in me along the way.

And lastly, the end justifies the mean.