when ETP meet EDX

Just realized I had not being updating my blog since August. wow.. that was long... >.<
I was really busy with academic stuff this sem, especially ETP...
For those who don't know what is ETP (Engineering Team Project), it is meant to kill all engineering students in UTP.
Each team consists of 6 people, one from each engineering major, and the teams are supposed to come up with a certain idea or prototype, which is favorably marketable, in the given period of time.
Well, it sounds like fun to do, but the problem is, we don't only have that subject for the whole semester!!!
When other subjects' assignments and tests are piling up, ETP became an extreme pain in the ass while we trying to spare time for it...

Anyway, I got my team, all from other courses, together we brain-stormed, came out with numerous ideas, got rejected by our SV (supervisor), bla bla...
I think the worst part of the whole project is when u have to come up with one...
Then in the end when we were all clueless and can think of nothing else to do, our beloved SV, Dr. Z, throw to us something brilliant: a hovercraft on land.
Hovercraft on land, hovercraft on land... how the hell are we supposed to make a hovercraft that can move on land?!?!
That was the suggestion given by our SV, and the rest, we have to find out ourselves.
As stupid as I am, I still know that the only existing hovercrafts on this world only floats on water. On land?? Never heard of it...
So we began our hell-way researching on how to make a hovercraft that can float on the land, taking ideas online and even from animations and cartoons, going back to the most basics of physics application.
The idea is there, but it's a whole different story when u're trying to make it into reality.
We fabricate the model, tested, failed, redo, tested, failed, redo again...
Shit happened now and then, and sometimes it make u so frustrated that u just feel like throw the whole thing away and determine to take the subject next sem.

I still remember the week before our fabrication evaluation, the hairdryer (which we initially planned to use for our hovercraft lifting) burned.
I didn't know how it happened, I was outside having club meeting, and the next thing I know is, someone from my group send me a sms, saying: "Raymond, hairdryer tu letup..."
I was like: "WTF?? ARE U KIDDING ME???"
I still remember spending the night staring at the 'letup' hairdryer, mind struggling hard to figure out what to do.
One thing about my groupmates, when it comes to working in a group, they are quite okay, but when it comes to properties' damage, they will go blank.
It was up to me to do all the damage control, basically the work of a janitor who cleans up whatever shit they left behind.
So there I was, asking my leader to tell Dr. Z to postpone our evaluation, and at the same time squeezing my not-so-bright mind to come up with something to fix the situation.

At the end, we went to meet our SV with an empty hovercraft body and the broken hairdryer.
He looked at the thing, totally un-saveable, then he angree to lend us his personal air inflator pump (which is powerful enough to replace the hairdryer).
Well, ok, now we got the air pump, so, how to make it float?? That was a question that we haven't solve yet by that time.
So we stayed back after meeting with SV, discuss on how we should do it, but find no solution.
This is when Prof VJ came out of his office, going to one of his daily jogging session, and saw our broken hovercraft.
I still cannot forget the one sentence he said after we explained to him what we're doing:
"if I were your SV, I will give you FAIL."
Oh man... that was like hundreds and thousands of needles poking into my chest, so devastating.
But lucky for us, he gave us some information on how he had did his hovercraft project before, and it just struck my mind, on what and how we're supposed to do.
After he left, we changed our whole thing, using a whole new different concept, spending another few days to redo the whole calculations and measurements, and finally, the thing floated.

It almost feel like as if it's my graduation day.
That kind of happiness, beyond description.
Later we went through our fabrication evaluation smoothly, Dr. Z was impressed that we managed to 'revive' it, and poster presentation, oral presentation, we all completed without much problem.

Ultimately, our ETP made it to EDX (Engineering Design Exhibition).
Not to say I'm boastful or what, but I kinda got a feeling that we will enter, and I'm grateful we did, cause as a EDX member for 5 sems, I would pretty much like to one day join the exhibition with my own project.
So there it is, EDX, the 2nd largest event in UTP.

The 1st day judging was smooth, basically because I've been in EDX for long and I know the rules, it was not until the 2nd day that I got a shock.
The 2nd day of EDX, all my groupmates are feeling a bit lazy (including me XP), because normally there won't be anymore judging going on.
So we were kinda slack-off, until a group of 6 people came to our booth.
The 1st thing that came into my mind, these are not ordinary people, because they all had files in their hand, and they were the JUDGES!!!
Then only I realized that our group was one of the finalists, and fyi, it takes 90% and above for a project to enter final judging round.
I was thrilled, and then started to get nervous, because the amount of people around us suddenly increased dramatically (u know lah M'sian, anything also we like to just join in the crowd...).
And to make things worst, there were only 3 of us at the booth that time. The other 3 (including my team leader), don't know hilang to where already by that time.
Lucky for me, they didn't ask where the rest of the group are, and I managed to present the whole thing to them, although I remember taking a long time just to complete the sentence "...there's a cushion of air bet...twi..we..een... the land and the hovercraft..."
It was a relief that they didn't ask much questions, or else I think I would have gotten the 'worst presenter' award.

After they judges left, we were all above cloud 9, started thinking about the gold medal we're about to receive (above 80% is gold medal), how many medals we're gonna purchase, etc etc...
Basically we took the rest of the exhibition time to plan what we wanna do afterwards, from getting gold medal to taking winner pictures then celebration outside.
Just as we thought nothing could beat that happiest moment of our day, drama happened.

We went for the closing ceremony in the afternoon, bringing that "sure-gold-medal" attitude and sit there, waiting for our turn to go on stage.
When the ETP lists were out, something was wrong... Our group is not in the slides!!
"ok, nevermind..." I thought, "maybe ours won a bigger award..." "these EDX people ah, must be purposely one... my last sem in EDX and they won't let me go easy..." and so on...
My hands were trembling for the next one hour, waiting eagerly for our turn to come.
It was until the MC says: "...that's all for the prize giving ceremony, please rise for the national anthem..."
I turned to my leader sitting beside me, and I can see from his face he was very tension.
Well, I was very tension too.. I thought we're supposed to get gold medal??
Later after the ceremony I gathered all my groupmates, and I asked the EDX committee to check for me.
I can see from their faces that anxiousness and confusion why our group didn't win any medal.
As for my team leader, he left straight after the ceremony, I also don't dare to ask where he went.
Later they check and informed me, we got gold medal, but they missed out our group, and it wasn't put into slides.
Man... I swear I would have swear a lot back then if I didn't have to take care of all my group members.
Come to think of it, these groupmates of mine actually helped to cool me down.
After all that drama, the committees promised to give us our medal the next day.
We all also no mood wanna take pictures already, so everyone went back, decided to celebrate another time.

ETP is considered done for the moment, what left is just the final report to be submitted this week.
I kinda felt sorry for my juniors who kena during the postmortem, and I heard they were screwed pretty bad partly because it was my group, and I feel guilty.
But anyway, I don't hold any grudge against EDX committees. I was a part of the family, so I understand, we all make mistakes somehow.
Maybe they just weren't as good as us last time, kekeke... XP
Well, what more could I ask? EDX, finalist, a drama, and a gold medal, just a perfect end for my 5-sems EDX life.
And later FYP, who knows?

Lastly, not forgetting to thank all my dear group members:

Shahrohman, the team leader. always-ok guy, good fella ~

The girls, Fatin & Eikin. With them around, I don't need to worry about the paperworks~ ;P

Luqman, our technician and electrician. I never need to bother with what he's doing, cause I can trust him 100% with all the circuit and electrical parts.

Adnin Aziz, the one that always 'spiced' things up. But I like him though, cause he'll do whatever I ask him to (guess he feels guilty too everytime he screwed up). It feels good to have a big fella like him under your control,
u know... *evil grins* XP

Some pictures we took after getting the medal:

finally we got our certs ~

the 'Project Director' and his gold medal ~ ;P

some photoshots at Academic Complex ~

I guess that's all from me now. May glory all be to God ~ (^_^)

Dragon 5ive Design

New semester of the year, and we're back!!
After the postponement of the business last semester, I seriously hope it will work out this time.
Since it was quite some time for us during last semester break, we had added on one more agenda to our T-shirt, a cool logo that will appear on the sleeve:

I gotta admit, I'm really impressed by the work of our designer (my ex-roommate, Adi) to come up with these logos.
For me, both of them (the round one and the triangle one) are as good, what'd u think?
Anyway, to cut the story short, I'm proud to announce that Dragon 5ive Design is back on business!!

Chemical Engineering

Civil Engineering

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Petroleum Engineering

Information Communication Technology

Business Information System

the right-hand sleeve~

the dragons~

Details:

Type: collar T-shirt
Material: Lacose
Price: RM26 each
Deposit: RM15
Custom: add ur name on the right sleeve with only +RM1
Discount: -RM1 each if order > 10 pcs at once
Estimated date of getting the shirt: mid October
Due date for order: 10th September 2009
~ Attention for all females, u can have ladies cut for the T-shirt, and the price is the same. This is specially for females only ~

To order, u can find me personally, or u can order from here, just give me ur name, contact number, custom name (if u want to add), room number, design (course), and T-shirt size.
We will only take 3 weeks for ordering, because since we want to distribute the T-shirts before the final exams, we'll try take as short time as possible to make it happen.
Any inquiry please do contact me or any of our team members. And of course, this service is exclusive for UTP 'residents' only.
I hope I can get good response for the business this time, so please do give ur support, thanks!! (^_^)

p/s: we are still looking for female runners, so girls, if u're interested to join our business team, feel free to contact me~

Movie of the Year

* Warning: this post is a spoiler for those who has not watch the movie "Transformer 2"...

I wrote this post almost two weeks after the movie was on theater, so that most people would have watched it before reading.
Honestly speaking, it was not as nice as I expected.
Yes, the movie is grand, full of terrific actions, Transformers fighting, but I wouldn't call it a good movie, because it simply doesn't have a good storyline.
This film is absolutely plot-less, just a 2-hours long video made of all the 'woo's and the 'wah's...

There are so many new Transformers appeared in the movie and were not introduced, and I wouldn't know their names if I didn't check online.
The bad-asses (a.k.a. Decepticons) all look basically the same as the others, and we have to keep figuring which one is dead and which one hasn't.
For me, that's a big failure in making a film.
Let's take a closer look at the characters in the movie...


The Autobots (good guys):

This female Autobot, I wouldn't know her name's Arcee if I didn't look up the internet..
All I know is there are 3 motorbikes in the movie, probably no action at all, got shot straight after they met with Sam and transformed to robots.
I was like, what the hell? An absolutely useless role created by the director, just to make both sides look balanced a bit...


This is Sideswipe, another new Autobot in the movie:
I didn't really spotted him throughout the whole movie. All I saw was a silver car, and I mistook it as Jazz, and I was like, "I thought Jazz was dead already??".
After some research online, then only I know it's another new member of the Autobots, and the car it transformed into is so cool, Corvette Stingray, and I pretty much like it (I used 'stingray' as one of my nicknames.. ^^)

Corvette Stingray concept car

It appears to me as a pretty awesome character, so I wondered why it has so little on-screen role in the movie.
Like I said, the director's concept of balancing...

And we have Skid and Mudflap, the most 'screened' Autobots beside Optimus Prime, I believe..
They first appeared as an ice-cream truck, and it was so damn 'cacat', but the cars they became afterward are so much better:

Chevrolet Beat (Skid)

Chevrolet Trax (Mudflap)

Anyway, these two are the jokers of the team.
Useless I would say, pretty stupid, and I wondered why the director gave them the black American slang...
Discrimination huh? I wouldn't know... >.<

Here is another Autobot I liked in the movie, Jetfire:

Transformed from Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, this old man is pretty much a big fellow, making it seems all gigantic and superior, matching its characteristic in the film.

At first when I saw symbol below the aircraft is that of a Decepticon, I was like, "oh shit, this is not good...".
Luckily it turned out to be an Autobot, which I kept thinking, "if he has switched side, why don't he changed his symbol as well?".

But anyway, he's an adorable character, funny and wise at the same time.

And of course, not forgetting our main character throughout the whole movie, Optimus Prime.
In this 2nd movie of Transformers, he seems to be a lot powerful than he was in Transformer 1.
Apparently he is the descendant of the great leaders, the Prime family, and he was killed by Megatron at the middle part of the film.

The movie became dramatic at the end when he was revived, and Jetfire gave him his body parts, then he suddenly turned into some super-strong hero, kill The Fallen so easily while he once wasn't even able to defeat Megatron (Fallen's pupil).
I still haven't been able to accept that drastic change, and I believe a lot of people felt the same way.
Sorry to all the Transformers' fans, but there is only one thing I could say about it: absolutely ridiculous.


The Decepticons (bad guys):

This one car really attracts me at the beginning of the movie, Audi-R8.
It's cool, the kind of car I would have if I got the money, but too bad it's a Decepticon.
Speeding along the street, then got cut into two by Optimus.
I'm not sure Audi company will be pleased by that, or maybe it's their idea of promoting their car?


Ravage, a beast-like Transformer, looks like a tiger to me..
It appeared pretty strong in the beginning of the movie, releasing the tiny steel-like marbles to destroy the lab and steal the all-spark piece.
However, I was kinda disappointed when it was skinned alive when the battle started off at the desert.
Bumble-bee pulled its 'skeleton' out, that sucks... >_<


Devastator, the monstrous combination of 7 Decepticons:
I thought it would be very strong, seeing that his size is so big.
It seems like he knows only to 'suck' things, climb up the piramid with a huge effort, and try to destroy the upper part of it, then get shot by a ship's missile, and die... what a loser....


And here's Megatron, revived again after been killed in Transformer 1, and as usual, turn into something very cool, a huge-ass tank.
I gotta admit, these Decepticons even though they are bad, they've got the style.
War jet, tank, helicopter, sport car; a lot more fashionable than those trucks and domestic cars of the Autobots, way cooler...


And here is The Fallen, once the member of the Prime family, the master of Megatron:
He does look scary for some reason, and he doesn't have any facial similarity compare to Optimus Prime, even though they are from the same family (in fact, none of Optimus' ancestors look anything like him.. weird...).
But anyway, he is quite strong among the Transformers, but he ended up face torn and heart pierced by Optimus, too bad for him...


Last but not least, Starscream, the coward of the century.
I kinda like him when he said to Megatron at the end of the movie, "I'm not saying that u are a coward, but sometimes, being a coward can keep u alive".
Hahaha, that was like throwing a hot fresh shit to Megatron's face.. so embarrassing... XP


Apart from the shitty plot and lousy characters I mentioned, there is one more reason why I hate to watch Transformers, that is...
Megan Fox is smoking hot!!!

It kills me everytime to see this hottie on screen, especially her 1st scene when she lean on the bike. Fuu yoh~~ Mind-blasting!!! (*Russell Peters)

How great could it be if there's someone as hot as her in UTP, or even half as hot will be good enough.. Agree with me guys? XD


As a conclusion, Micheal Bay proved to the world that even though the storyline of this movie sucks, Transformer 2 still becomes the most-watched movie all around the world.
I wouldn't say that the movie is a terrible one and strongly discourage people to watch it, but it's a no-no for me.
Let just hope that Transformer 3 will not be worse~ >.<

Another sem finished...

2nd year is officially over for me now. Currently staying back in the campus, enjoy myself with this slow and un-hectic holiday life.
Many people asked me, why are u staying back in UTP, since u've already finished ur paper last week?
Well, I've always say UTP will be like heaven if we don't need to study, and now I'm enjoying heaven. (^_^)
Thanks to bro Kana, now I am able to have a high-speed internet connection in my room, and update about my 2nd year 2nd sem since it has already ended.
This sem has been eventful to me, as in a lot of things happened;
a lot of surprises, new relationship, troubles, tears, and of course also happiness, excitements, joy, and fellowship.

I started the sem like every other previous semesters, lazy, reluctant to go class, always think there are still a lot of time.
Then along it came a new relationship; got to know a junior girl from Ipoh, fell in love, started dating, then ended within weeks.
I was surprised how quick things came and go, but at the same time I am grateful for this wonderful meeting in my life.
After all that there came events, where I wore myself out in participating: EDX, church events...
Although tired, but I enjoyed myself.
I always believe working for the good of others is worth it, and it brings me joy in the heart.

And like previous sems, I had troubles in relationships and friendships with others.
Friends changed, and I guess I changed too.
I spent a lot of time with the final year final sem seniors, a lot more than the time I spent with my own batchmates.
They are all nice people who helped me through my difficult times, advise me when I have problems, understand me when I'm upset, gave in to me whenever I'm emo or angry.
God knows I'm gonna miss them so much next semester, since all of them are graduating. I just can't imagine how my UTP life will be without these people around.
They are my mentor, my guidance, my model, my partner-in-crime, my buddies, my mates, basically my everything.
I guess my mistake of booking ticket to go back late is somehow a blessing for me, since I can use these extra time here to spend with them; these friends who had impacted my life so greatly, these angels sent down from heaven to watch over me.
I truly believe that my life is gonna be so much different without them, and I'll have to learn to stand on myself soon.

Now the holiday has started, most of the people had already went back home.
I sit here alone in front of my laptop, wondering where did my usual lengthy story-telling style of blogging went...
Had very enjoyful days last week, where I had outing to Ipoh with my friends, went clubbing with some seniors and so on...
Man I do love clubbing. The loud music just took away all my problems and worries in just seconds. Hopefully I'll have a lot more chances to do that again. ^^

I guess that's all from me now. Wanted to write more but no words are coming into my mind currently.
Just want to thank God again for this wonderful sem here in UTP, for everything that has happened to me, and for all the people who had took part in my life.
To all my senior friends who are leaving, may God's blessing shower upon u, like the rain pour down from heaven falling on u.
I'll see u guys again when we cross paths in the future. Take care ~