ihavetwobacksides's Xanga

A success story in the making?

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:09:50 GMT

The 14th Malaysia National Lion Dance Championship at Genting which I have been so occupied training for has finally concluded over the past wekend. Following my previous post in which a team mate of mine had fallen and broken his arm, I was left redundant for 2 weeks with no role in the team to play for in the competition as there weren't any more vacancies in the other teams that the association was planning to send for the competition.

It was only last Monday when I was fitted into another team and had to memorize the whole routine within 2 days before ascending to Genting on Wednesday. Even worse, training for the double lion category started on that same day, and I was playing in another team with a very different routine to memorize, including lots of footwork and action. Still, I hanged on.

I first stepped foot into the arena on Wednesday afternoon, not feeling the least bit jittery or nervous. But as Friday loomed and seeing all my other teammates doing well in the preliminary rounds, my confidence started shaking to the high expectation of joining them in the finals.

Saturday was the day when I first took to the stage. My first event was the single lion category, and I was feeling the pressure of making it into the finals. As I was clanging on the cymbals, my mood slowly starte flowing away when I noticed that the dancers that I was playing for couldn't overcome their nerves and were making mistake after mistake.

We finished our routine and my mood was at it's lowest. As expected, we were given a very low score. I felt like all hope was lost.

Going back for our final training before the double lion category that night, my mind was blank and was making mistake after mistake. That was when I starte feeling scared for myself and the team.

Thankfully a few unexpected messages came from an unexpected person, and my mood was lifted up a tad bit. I walked back to the arena with a little more confidence.

This double lion team that I was playing for is the main team that my association is sending, so there was high expectations on us to do well. Running into the performance area at the start of our turn, there were thunderous cheers from our fans and supporters.

As we performed, the rupturous cheers grew louder and louder as we executed move after move with precision. My mood began to grow again.

At the end of the performance, we were awarded the highest score thus far, which subsequently remained as the highest score! We did it! The gold medal, finally in the hands of my association for the first time. The association has won countless national and international titles before, but no title is as prestigious and valuable as the ones won at Genting. The highest honour in lion dancing, finally in the grasp of my hands.

The whole experience was so surreal. Precious memories that I will cherish on for the rest of my life; as corny and cliche as it may sound. More so for the fact that this is probably my last competition at Genting before I become a slave to the audit working world.

On a last note; thank you Ms shorty AC for coming all the way up to support me! And also Ms fatty LKS for those messages

Now another battle looms ahead of me; conquering ACCA! Time to put it away for good! Good luck to all fellow ACCA-ians with the exams! All I need to do is to clear my P5 and I'll be freeeee! That'll be the perfect ending for me this year in both my studies and lion dance career..

Until then!

When it doesn't pay to do your best

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:52:16 GMT

Firstly, I'd like to apologize for my super long hiatus. Life sux.

Now on to the topic. Over the past few months, I've been caught up with my lion dance training, all for the purpose of the upcoming Genting championship, which is THE competition to win in the world of lion dancing. Nothing is bigger than this.

So my team is sending 4 teams (as in 4 lions) to this competition and all 4 have been training hard over the past few months. This pair of dancers that I'm playing the music for, has been training particularly hard and were on good course to making waves at the competition.

This is because the tail dancer really has a burning desire to win the competition, which will be his first and last chance to participate at Genting. He has been dancing for a very long time now and has gotten many awards,but has had no luck to go to Genting. The previous time they had this competition, he fell and broke his arm. That would have been a career ending accident, but he bounced back and continued dancing within a couple of months, defying all odds.

So, hoping to get his fairy tale ending to his colourful career in the art, he has been labouring hard day and night, both with his job and training.

Alas, what he got out of it was a very bad fall due to fatigue last week. Mind you, this was no ordinary fall, as his bone got dislocated and potruded out of his right arm. Definitely not a pretty sight.

It is really sad to see so much effort and dedication going down the drain just like that. Especially when there was so much hope, desire and will put into it. Seeing him lay there broken hearted, a blank look on his face and tears streaming down as he wailed about his faith was a really unforgettable experience.

Out of all these, the bitterness and dejection is there, but God works in mysterious ways and I'm sure He has bigger plans in store.

I guess now I appreciate life a whole lot more. Just a day after the accident, a lightbulb broke and came crashing down on my head, thankfully without permanently injuring my eyes. Luck is certainly not with me lately.

To end this long winded post, I just want to make a shout out for all you friends to be careful and appreciate life more. You never know what's going to happen to you. In our pursuit in the rat race, remember to take a few steps back once in a while to appreciate the miracle which we call life.

Reflections

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:34:14 GMT

As much as I would like to update this blog as often as I can with pictures of latest events going on in my life (as what this blog was created for in the first place anyway), I've been too busy and lazy (yes, yes, I admit it, dammit!! Haha..photobucket is quite a bitch to use, more so the fact that most pictures are all up on Facebook) to do so.

As such, here u are reading yet another boring picture-less entry about my thoughts from deep within.eheh..

The past few weeks has been quite eventful for me, so much so that I'm now breaking down from the fatigue that had slowly but steadily been building inside me.

The biggest thing going on in my life now is of course my upcoming competitions. First one coming up is a visit to the Wong Fei Hung memorial park in Foshan, China. Those who've known me during my younger days should know that I used to idolize everything and anything WFH, so this is indeed a dream come true. Won't be an easy one against all the Chinese heavyweights on their home ground.

My ACCA life has taken a huge step backwards in my list of priorities. It's beginning to seem very bad that I only have one paper to do this sem. I guess I'm feeling too arrogant and big headed about passing 3 out of 4 papers the previous sem, hence the major slack now with only 1 more paper to go. I'm still not feeling that remorseful about the fact that I've yet to touch my P5 notes, despite it being a totally new paper for me. Time to buck up..friends, please knock some sense into me!

That aside, I've been having the time of my life, catching up with a number of people who mean the world to me. All's good on this part of the world..hehe..some utterly weird shit has been going on though, but I'll save that for an entry on it's own. Hopefully I can find the time and mood to do so in the near future.

Till then, lights out~

Of overheated heads and failed graduations

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:50:18 GMT

So...17th of August 2009 turned out to be a gloomy day for the majority of ACCA graduate-hopefuls, me included. As most of you would have known, I sat for what I had hoped to be the last four of my ACCA papers back in June, but it was just not meant to be. Out of the 4 papers I took, I failed one paper, thus further delaying my graduation to at least another 6 months..sighh.

On hindsight, I actually did pretty well. Considering the fact that I was doing 4 professional level papers together when the majority of others were only doing 2; missing a whole lot of classes due to the numerous lion dance performances I had the first half of this year; sleeping in most of the classes that I actually went for due to fatigue from all the performances; missing another deal of classes due to a variety of illness, several bouts and sprouts of crap that had caused me to be emo; absolutely no study stress before the exam (ask those who were studying with me in the library on this one..lol); giving too much attention on my 21st birthday bash the month before exam; and a whole lot of other shit, passing 3 out of the 4 is actually quite a feat by itself.

But then again, a fail is still a fail and of course I can't feel contented. I may not be a perfectionist, but I would prefer not to accept failure either. It keeps haunting me back..all the what if's... What if I had not missed that many classes; what if I had slept less in class; what if I didn't let my feelings overwhelm me; what if I had stressed myself up more and scared myself to study harder; what if I didn't waste so much time on my birthday.. Still, at the end of the day, I thank God for giving me what I've gotten. It could've been much worse, and I'm pretty sure that He has some plans stored up for me.

In stark comparison, most of my classmates who've been doing pretty well and had not failed prior to this examination did pretty badly this round. Out of the two papers that they sat for, many failed one paper while a good handful failed both papers. Sure is a pity to see so many of them stumble at their final hurdle.. On a lighter note, a heartfelt congratulations to all those of them who did make it through! I'm still waiting for my Jogoya, Miss Chayanne!

That aside, I've been down with a bad fever since Sunday night. Having spent the whole morning and afternoon performing under an exceptionally hot scorching sun, I was already pretty knocked up when the lorry I was in got caught in a freak thunderstorm. No suprise, I had a bad headache the rest of the day. The whole night I wasn't able to sleep thanks to that unbearable pain in my head. First thing I did in the morning was to rush to the hospital and ta-daaa, my fever was as high as 38.9c, which is pretty darn high.

It is now Wednesday and I'm still ill..no need to worry as it is confirmed that'm NOT suffering from the infamous H1N1 influenza. Sighh...hope I can recover by tomorrow. I have another competition this Sunday and I really do wish to participate! Wish me well people!

8 totally awesome natural phenomena you probably didn’t know about

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:38:32 GMT

Written by Mihai Andrei

The Maelstrom

When you hear a name like maelstrom, you just know it’s about something wicked. Introduced in English by Edgar Allan Poe from the Nordic languages, from which it came from the Dutch word maelstrom (maalstroom in modern spelling), it literally means crushing current, which is quite a very good description.

digital representation of a maelstrom

A maelstom is basically a very big and powerful whirlpool, a free vortex; a free vortex with quite a downdraft. The original maelstrom was Moskstraumen, which is caused by a very powerful tidal current. Both Poe and Jules Verne depict it as a giant vortex that leads to the bottom of the ocean where it is in fact a crossroad of underwater currents. Well.. they were a bit off, but still, it’s quite a view to catch.

Fire Rainbow

The term ‘fire rainbow’ is really misleading; the correct term is circumhorizon arc. It’s basically an ice halo formed by ice crystals located very high, in the cirrus clouds. This huge flamboyant lovely display of colors is really not as rare as you might think, and how often it appears depends mostly on location, and especially latitude. For example, in the US it can be seen several times a summer in each year in the same place, but in Central or Northern Europe it’s very rare.

Of course, this rainbow is not formed the way ‘classic’ rainbows are formed. Light passes through the hexagonal ice crystals via a vertical side and leaves through the nearest horizontal bottom face. If there alignment is just right, it makes the whole cloud shine rainbow-colored.

Waterspouts

Waterspouts seem to be taken out of the Captain Planet series. You know, earth, wind, fire, all that? Well, here it’s all about wind and water actually, because a waterspout is in fact a really intense columnar vortex that takes place over a mass of water and links it to a cumuliform cloud.

Most of the time, they are weaker than land tornadoes, but some are extremely big and bring the water upward with immense speed and power.

They can actually be tornadic or non-tornadic. The non-tornadic ones are way more common and less dangerous with winds being slower than 70 mph (30 m/s). Tornadic waterspouts are similar at their core to a tornado, but they add huge masses of water to the show, making it a scenery hard to forget.

The even rarer ‘cousin’ of the waterspout is the snowspout (or icespout). They are basically a very rare form of waterspouts that form at the base of a snow squall. There have only been six (!) pictures taken of such an event, so there’s not really much we can give you here.

The Honduran Rain of Fish

Oh this one’s good. We’ve all probably heard about this in one form of another, but most just chalk it up to folklore. Well, this isn’t the case! The department of Yoro is host of one of the most bizarre and amazing phenomena to ever take place: the rain of fish, that takes place every year for more than a century now.

Each year, between the months of May and July a dark clouds appears in the sky, followed by a massive thunderstorm, it rains a lot, the whole nine yards. It all lasts 2-3 hours, at the end of which people go out on the street where they find hundreds of living fish on the ground; yeah, they eat them.

There aren’t any clear conclusions, but a theory that’s accepted sometimes is that the strong winds and waterspouts take the fish from 200 km away. However, a significant number of scientists claim they are not sea water fish, but fresh water fish that swim from a nearby river to an underwater current, and some fish stray from the current and appear on the ground. But here’s the good part: National Geographic sent a team to investigate this, and they found that the fish aren’t found in any surrounding bodies of water, and also they’re all blind, so they came up with their own theory: they live in underground rivers, because they are blind. Anyway, if you ever visit Honduras in the summer, this is something you really should see.

Moonbows

We’ve all (probably) seen rainbows, at day. But how many of us have seen rainbows at night? Yeah, this can actually happen, due to the light produced by the moon (thus moonbow, or lunar rainbow or white rainbow). Of course the light emitted by the moon is much much fainter than that of the sun, so as a result, so is the formed rainbow; most of the time, it’s even hard for the human eye to separate the colors there.

The biggest chance you have of ever seeing a moonbow is when the moon is full (or near to full), when it’s the brightest, but there are other conditions required. The sky has to be very dark (close to black), and, of course, there must bee rain falling opposite to the moon.

Penitentes

These sharp ice spikes can only be found at high altitudes. Ice (or snow) formations that take the form of blades or spikes varying from a few centimeters to 2 meters (or even more) have fascinated researchers since Darwin’s time, as he was the first to ever describe them.

He had to squeeze his way through such a field and was the first to notice they generally follow the direction of the sun? But how are they formed? The mechanism of their ‘birth’ is a bit complicated, and it relies on differential ablation. Basically, for penitentes to form, the dew point has to be below freezing. As a result, the snow will sublimate, which requires more energy than melting. The geometry of the surface provides a positive feedback mechanism for radiation, which is trapped by multiple reflections, creating hollows. These hollows, combined with wind that increases the dew point temperatures provide the right conditions for the sublimation to create the steep walls and peaks.

Supercells

Supercells are rotating updrafts within severe thunderstorms; they’re big, and bloody scary.

They can appear anywhere in the world given the right meteorological conditions, but most of the times they appear in the Great Plains of the US, last generally 2-3 hours and they sometimes split in 2, with the two resulting storms going in opposite directions.

The supercells usually produce huge amounts of hail, torrential rainfall, strong winds, and substantial downbursts and they are often carriers of giant hail. There are a whole lot of technical details left to be said, but I’m not gonna stress that here (maybe in a future post), find the anatomy of a supercell here. Scientists have given quite an interest in supercells, because, as you could have guessed from the pics, they’re really dangerous. Really.

Ice Circles

Ice Circles are pretty much what you’d expect from them.

However, they’re very rare, appearing only in slow moving waters from cold climates such as Northern Europe or America, but some have also been spotted in Britain, including a huge one bigger than 3 meters. There are two types of ice circles. Here’s the general necessary conditions for the first type to form.

No rain and temperatures below 0 Celsius for several days near a slow river bend. Thus, the water creates a force that is called ‘rotational shear’ and breaks a chunk of ice, twisting it around and grinding it to the surrounding ice, turning it into a perfect circle.

The second type is perhaps even more spectacular. Also called ice pans, these formations are basically surface slabs of ice that form in the middle of the river, and not on its side. They’re explained by sudden shifts of temperature. As the water cools off, it gives away heat that creates frazil ice (randomly oriented ice needles loose in the water). These ice particles can of course form an ice pan, and if the lake has enough frazil ice and the current is slow enough, the ice pan can reach the sizes that baffle people and even become a hanging dam.

Of course you have to understand there are some weird or amazing phenomena that have eluded us, so if you know of something good, we would be ever grateful.

Source: http://www.zmescience.com/totally-awesome-natural-phenomena-you-probably-didnt-know-about-000033

Another feeder post

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:07:34 GMT

I actually set this blog up as a medium to publish my pictures, as how I used to when I first started out with my www.xanga.com/liondoncefreak blog. Looks like I'm doing a real bad job with my photojournalism now seeing as to how I've not been getting any posts up with pictures.

It's been a month since my last entry, and this will be not much different from that post. Just a slight recap on what I've been doing. I should seriously find the time to get the pictures up, but time is what I'm lacking now =p

In a nutshell, the past month has been a rather enjoyable and hectic one. The highlight of my July was the 7th anniversary celebration of my lion dance troupe, and boy did it take up a heck lot of effort and time. Countless hours of planning, preparation, training, meetings..it was an astounding success though! Read more about the event here. Check me out in the video of the 24 festive drums!

Aside from that, it was just more of the same old, same old. Outings, birthdays, work. The monotony of it all doesn't irk me though, as life has never felt this good during my 3 year stint as an ACCA student. Really hope that's the last of it, come 17th August when my results come out.

Another 'highlight' from July was the Sunway CAT/ACCA Prom, a first for Sunway ACCA and also for me. Did not initially plan to go, but some last minutes blessings paved my way to the event, at a killer discounted deal to boot! As expected, the event was poorly managed and handled as was the Social Gathering that they had planned prior to this, but it's understandable since the whole committee are inexperienced students.

My trip to Saudi Arabia was also cancelled due to unforseen circumstances. My next outstation venture would be to Muar on the 7th for a competition. Many competitions are brewing up, and hopefully we can do fine. You guys have got to come for the Genting championship in Nov from the 20th to 22nd! Please do come and support for that, which is the biggest lion dance competition in Malaysia! =)

I'll end here for now and continue on with my hiatus. All the best to everyone with their lives!

Post-exam life

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:44:21 GMT

It's coming close to a month now since I started my holidays. After a grueling semester doing my final 4 professional level ACCA papers, life has taken a turn to a favourable direction. Although it was what I hope to be my final sem (if I pass all 4 papers, I'll be graduating. If I fail any one of the papers, I have to re-attempt the failed paper in the coming December examination period), I didn't have the same enthusiasm and passion towards studying and college life as I did in previous sems. Must be getting tired of the same ol', same ol'.

As mentioned earlier, life has taken a wonderful turn for me. Although I might be complaining about how busy I am and how little time I have for myself, I'm actually having the time of my life. Finally breaking free from the monotonous life of an accounting student (haha!), I've been keeping myself occupied with what matters the most: family, friends, and of course lion dance . Been tryin out new shit, learning new things, just chillin and takingt he days at it comes by.

Now now, I'm not trying to be a total bum. Most peers who have already attempted all their papers and are waiting for their results like me have already started job hunting, with some of them already employed. I have yet to do so only because I do not have my OBU degree which seems to be mandatory in applying for jobs in the Big 4. Aside from that, I've been busy with some other work and really do not have the time to start working yet. Maybe in August things will slow down and I can continue on to the next stage of my life.

Many of you might've heard that I was supposed to go to Saudi Arabia on an 11 day trip for lion and dragon dance performances. I was due to leave today, but shit happens and the trip got cancelled. Frankly speaking, none of us were too excited to go anyway. I, for one, am quite relieved. This way, I have more time to work on my urm..work.

I have received complaints that I don't update frequently enough. My bad..haha the only reason I created this blog was to post up pictures, something which is unusually irritating for me to do now, as I somehow despise waiting for my pictures to upload. Entries full of words like this was never mean to be...heheh.

I've a number of photos from recent trips to be uploaded. Maybe in the near future. Or maybe never. Everything can be found on Facebook anyway.

So many things to look forward to..hope everything turns out fine. Thank you and goodbye!

My 21st birthday celebration

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:21:36 GMT

As most of you who actually visit my blog would've been aware of, I celebrated my 21st birthday on the night of my actual birthday itself, which happens to be on th 16th of May.

After a long gruelling day of revision classes, I made my way home at close to 7pm, just in time to give a briefing to my just-arrived excellent lion dance teammates who took the effort to come and perform for my big day.

This was also when the frenzy of guests started arriving. It was nice to see most of my friends swarming in, especially those who I've not met in years. I couldn't even recognize some of them!

Of course, as anticipated, I also began receiving many messages from last minute defaulters who came up with various reasons for not being able to come at the last minute.

Bon appetit~ I only had a taste of the food past midnight when most of the guests had already left. That was when the food was all cold and hard -__-

It was a veeeery long night for me. With a turnout of around 150 guests, I was kept busy and on the move all night long. I had very little time to play the role as a host, as I had to rush here and there to receive greetings and gifts from the guests who were coming at a constant flow.

Me an my bro before we performed the lion dance. It's amazing how the two of us would do a simple performance with the children's lion head for visiting guests at our CNY open house back then when I was onl 4 or 5 years old. Now here I am at a ripe old age of 21, performing the real thing for my friends and family. Take note that my brother isn't a lion dancer and this is his first ever performance after undergoing just two training sessions prior to this performance.

Our performance kicked off the 3 lion ances performances that were scheduled for the night. Mine was a short single lion stint, followed by the acrobatic lion dance and the drunken lion performance.

Guests enjoying the show.

Next up was the acrobatic lion dance performance.

Receiving well wishes from the team.

What do you get when you serve a lion some alcohol?

A drunken lion of course! Glad to see that the majority of the crowd seemed to have enjoyed this performance.

Family potrait.

Sungai Way Khuan Loke Dragon & Lion Dance Association.

High school friends from LSPJ.

NS friends. There would've been more people, but ALVIN LIM got lost on the way... -__-

Church friends...lol.

Sunway College girls.

Sunway college dudes.

Lol...best picture of the event! Wee Ven's gettin high over Desmond's ass.

With my parents.

Happy family~

My siblings. Any resemblence between the 3 of us? Hahaha.

My aunty and cousins.

The people whom I grew up with at home.

The few relatives who weren't shy to get a picture taken.

With my lion dance team members again. Go Khuan Loke~!

Cake time.

Thanks to my sister for using special candles that will relight up after being blown. For that, those of u who had the cake will have a taste of my saliva..hahaha.

Check out Wee Ven's face in the background. Spoiling my birthday pic weii!

Being the good friends that they are, it was only apt that they got my face mashed into part of my birthday cake. Hahaha didn't really reach the extent that they were hoping it'd reach though.

Had a special request to open the present that I received from Shin Yii, Michelle and Ker Shin. Hats off to them for coming up with such a creative idea and present.

Among the other presents that I received..before opening

..and after opening.

All in all, I'd like to extend my gratitude to all those who made the event possible, most notably my parents who offered to throw this birthday bash for me, the people at home who worked their asses off to ensuring the party went on smoothly, my lion dance mates who put up an excellent performance, and all those who took the trouble to attend it. You guys rawk~!

21st birthday

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:09:32 GMT

For those who've been asking, here's the pictures from my 21st birthday bash on the 16th of May. You can find more of them on Facebook over this 3 albums:

Donovan's Key party 1

Donovan's Key party 2

Donovan's Key party 3

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Wed, 20 May 2009 14:34:00 GMT

Exams are coming reaaaaal soon. Good luck to everyone!

And thanks to everyone who made it last Saturday! An even greater appreciation for those who had a hand in making the event the success it was, namely my family members and the guys from Khuan Loke who put up an amazing show, not to mention those who took the time and trouble to come for it. Sorry that I didn't get to attend to any of you much. Pics and vids will be uploaded only after my exam ends on the 10th of June.

Till then~!