Stepping up

No, I am not talking about Step Up the dance show/movie. I'm just talking as human beings.

That moment when you feel like giving up? Don't. The greatest things in life do not come from giving up but rather persistence and perseverance. I am glad to have a sister who is an example of that. In the past semester, I had the thought of going "hey, why don't i do something different and do the electrical engineering project instead of something that is simpler or more close to home?". Hence, I took up electrical engineering for my design course and was one heck of a ride. It was one of the toughest things I have ever done in my life. One reason I picked aerospace engineering is because I do not have to deal with electronics and here am I doing it. It was hard, difficult and painful as I did not have a slightest clue of what was I doing and what was I suppose to do as a group member. I told myself one thing. I said at the beginning that I would do it means I would do it properly. I don't care how hard it is, I will try my best.

The best I did do with the consequences of neglecting my other subjects. I began to slack in math, physics and computing as a result of that. I spent so much time researching, stressing, asking and trying that I reached the point that this is ridiculous. During the final stages of completing the project, I and all my teammates stepped up and did what would normally take four weeks in just a few days. I said, "Hey guys, it's either we do it right or we don't do it all. I know we can just hope for a pass but we already are doing this. We might as well go all the way."

On the day of acceptance testing where final submissions are marked and tested, our autonomous delivery system was nothing close to one. The circuits was not working. The car did not have enough power. The string was not long enough. It was a disaster to say the least. I then said, "Well, we tried our best. " Then a miracle happened. We were the last group to go for our submissions so we had about four hours to work on it. I hesitated going should I work on my circuit. How much could I actually do? I and my teammate took a go at it, keep working and working at it, asking our demonstrators as much as we could. It was a nerve wrecking process to begin with and felt like being on the edge of the cliff towards the end. WE ACTUALLY GOT IT TO WORK. We got the simple circuit to work fine. All in the matter of hours. My teammates did their parts as well.

Unfortunately, our car did not have enough power as the weight was too heavy. But we were one of the better teams. We did not quite get the full marks but we got a really good mark for uniqueness, speed, concept and circuits. I just couldn't believe it. In a matter of day, when all was gone and seem hopeless, we turned the wheel around and got back on track. It was a miracle that I thanked God for.

I went into the lion's den coming out feeling "hey, I did not do too bad. I didn't get bitten. Maybe a bit. But it's one of the steepest learning curve for me."

In the midst of perseverance and persistence, will come a sense of victory and satisfaction. You're a winner then already even if you didn't win. :)

A tribute to a great man

I am flashing back to memories of when I was 16 years old in a hotel back home. My grandfather was asked by several of his old boys to sing a song. At the age of 88, he didn't have much energy to do much things to say the least. He was reluctant at first but after much persuading, he sang one of the most wonderful arranged and written songs in a century, Unforgettable by Nat King Cole. He couldn't sing much but he sang the word Unforgettable each time it came in the song and a very good friend of my uncle was accompanying and helping him along. It was indeed an unforgettable memory to me. He has just lost his wife a few months back that time and he was still saddened by it and regretted over certain things. This picture is still vivid in my mind as I do not have much memories of my grandfather as I went to east malaysia at the age of 10. I came back often to see him and my grandmother but I couldn't do it on a daily basis. The dinner that day where he sang was on his birthday and today would be his 91st birthday if he was still alive.

My grandfather was a great man in many ways. I never got to learn much about his stories. The ones about his younger days, his music, his days of being a hero for someone or just plain funny moments. Even if he told me before, I must have been very young and I can't remember now. One of my greatest regrets is not learning latin and french from him or even read his novels stored in the house. He always ask me to read them and I will say okay but I never did. He was a great man in many ways. A teacher, mentor, model, guide to those around him. He has his principles and he never lets go of them. Did I mention he had a really great memory? At the age of 90, he still remembered his students and their names from his teaching days. He was a such well respected man that his students still call him Master whenever they see him in a restaurant or on the road.

He passed away last year on December 7th. I was there in the hospital with him. Almost every family member were there. I was sleeping and my father woke me up and said hurry. I stood there and I watch him held his last breathe. I didn't cry then as I was prepared for it after a week being with him everyday in the hospital. My cousin was very emotional that day and cried for a long time. Over the next few days, we were alright. you know? it was alright because we have to accept that one day people will go. Someone has to go to Heaven everyday and someone comes to this earth everyday too. I accepted it really well as I saw my whole family including my uncles and aunties and cousins helping each other out in the funeral. It was a touching scene. The last act of my grandfather pulled my family even closer than ever. I am happy I had such awesome people in my life and I had the chance to know him. One day, I hope to be a teacher as well as it is a noble profession. Something many teachers take for granted. His story will be told to my kids for sure. A story that is unforgettable. Happy birthday kong kong!

Chosen

I am sure everyone has watched plenty of movies before where some dude or dudette gets chosen by some group, God, people to be the Hero. Here is a list of some of them.

The Lord Of The Rings (frodo, aragorn)
Spiderman ( spiderman)
Green Lantern ( can't remember the name)
Harry Potter (harry potter)
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief ( i don't have to put the name here again do I ?)
Hercules
Lion King
Transformers (all 3 of them, Sam Witwicky)

AND MANY MORE. BASICALLY ALL MOVIES HAS THIS THEME. (well not all but most) where a man rises to the challenge and be the hero. If I am not mistaken, J.K. Rowling writes that Harry Potter is the Chosen One.

Today, I am going to write from a more Christian view if you do not mind. At church today, the altar server asked me to light the Advent candle. For those who do not know, Advent candles consist of four candles. Each week leading up to Christmas, one more candle will be lighted. The priest (father) not knowing that I had been called by the altar server to light it called me again to light the candle. Twice in a day is never a coincidence. Deep down in my heart, I know I have a calling to be involved in Christian work in the future. I just do not know when or how.

Meanwhile, all of us have been chosen somehow or rather to do something for someone or some group. In the eyes of many, to be the chosen one is always a privilege not knowing that it is a challenge itself to the person. There will be some that feels threatened by the person's sudden meteoric rise in popularity and there will also some that will be glad. More importantly, the person must regard criticism and compliment of them as important tools to guide him or her. Compliment must never be underestimated as it gives a sense of encouragement and optimism to the person. Constructive criticism on the other hand is important as well to help you improve.

Here's a food for thought. How many times have you been the chosen one?  And how many times have you rejected it?

Rule #1

Sometimes you're wrong. I remembered watching NCIS season 7 finale. In the episode, Gibbs write his own new personal rule which is rule#51. It says, " Sometimes you are wrong". You must understand that Gibbs isn't always one to admit his mistakes as he is somehow or rather correct for most of the time.

My point here is that I feel the need to make this rule my own personal rule as well. This is what hinders us to look at things from a different perspective as our pride takes priority over everything. For us human beings, we never like admitting we make a mistake. We like to think we are correct. Don't get me wrong. There is a difference between sticking to principles and being stubborn.

I myself am a stubborn character. Being stubborn is my greatest strength and yet my greatest weakness. I always know that and it's just something I live with. We all would like to be right and say that others wrong. Proving that someone else is wrong actually gives you some sort of satisfaction for some reason. Unfortunately, that can't happen for everyone, would it? If everyone is right, who has made mistakes then? Conspiracy theorists would be rich if they earn a nickel for every thing they say if that's that case.

In a nutshell, you and I just have to humble ourselves and be brave to admit that rule #1 applies to everyone of us.

The end?

I have successfully made it through foundation studies. I got to say it was a whole new ball game for me. During this year, it was tough, enjoyable, laughable, difficult, fun, exciting and definitely a steep learning curve for me. There are some new things I have learned about myself which can be of aid to me or capable of becoming a disaster to people around me in the future. 

I definitely didn't expect myself to surpass expectations set by myself in the beginning but I did in the end which is a blessing and a welcoming surprise. There are still some things I am working on and I am getting there ( i hope). In situations that needed me to hang on and be strong, I manage to overcome the timid me and lead my own way. 

There is no greater blessing than to be taken care by loved ones while being abroad and I know I am lucky. I have come to know many people from different places and they were all very kind to me and some became really good friends of mine. Facebook, Twitter and Skype has certainly been a great tool for me to keep touch with family and also plenty of good friends. 

It has only been a year and I am sure there is more to come in the near future. Thank you Lord for another great year and to all those that cheered me up and prayed for me when I am down, thank you very much. :) 

p.s. no one reads this blog. it's just a tool to express my emotions. :D

A Difference?

I realised that my blog says the Life and Mind of Xuric. I haven't really posted much about my life so i decide to dedicate this post to it.

What major event has been going on this year?
Turning 18 has to be one of the biggest things.

As you know turning 18 here means:
a) clubbing ( don't need fake IDs anymore)
b) drinking alcohol (yes, it's true. you don't have to sneak out anymore to buy beer)
c) others ( you know what i mean, i don't have to mention it)

zone-chanteq-collection.blogspot.com

By the looks of (a), (b) and (c), it calls time for celebrations. Ring the bells folks! FREEDOM AT YOUR DISPOSAL!!!! 

Then i ask myself, do I have to go clubbing? Do i have to drink lots of alcohol? Is there a difference between wanting to drink and go clubbing AND drinking and clubbing for the sake of "growing up". Sometimes I really don't have a clue. My friend who is younger than me, has a fake ID from some foreign country and goes clubbing frequently. Should I be part of that circle?

I guess at some point our lives, we have to try out stuff ( refer to lab rats post) but do remember there's a fine line between wanting to try out something new and being adventurous AND trying it because everyone is trying it. 

So each time we do something, ask yourself if the decision you are going to made is solely your opinion or is it because of pressure and influence from several people (i.e. peer pressure ... well peer pressure can be good and bad sometimes).  We are all afraid at times but sometimes we just got to take courage to face our dilemmas. I know i face more than a dozen of them and it bugs me the whole day. At the end of the day, we trust our instincts, the ones we love and God to guide us. :D

Have a nice day! 

Lab rats

I am sure we all been through it before. Yes we becoming lab rats. You never? OMG! I was. I remember i was abducted by a guy masked in black and being brought to a lab. I was laid on a shiny rectangular table, being strapped on to it. These bright lights (like those irresponsible idiot driver's car lights) were shining at my eyes. Dissected because of I had super powers. Oh, you didn't know. I can breathe and pea at the same time. Yea, IKR. It's a fantastic super power. Who am I kidding? I have never been abducted or whatnot before. Jokes aside. 

My point being at some time in our lives, we are going to have take that extra step to become lab rats ourselves. When we are at a new place, we got to try something new and go on an adventure. I am not asking you to smoke weed, do drugs and etc... As a matter of fact, a friend asked me today, have you smoked weed? I said no. His response was WHY? I said well, I don't want to. Other people try it doesn't mean I have to do it. Sure it looks cool on TV when famous music icon, Mick Jagger consumes it. But do remember there are consequences in everything. I do not need to tell you about those escalating accidents rates and suicides due to drugs. Nor do I need to mention about several lives of pop stars such as Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse ruined by drugs and alcohol. 

What I am saying is that we should try become lab rats and take that extra step with caution and guarded optimism. Try new things and life will treat you better. But be careful no matter what. Anyways, that's all from me. Cheers! :D