I Can Relate to Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Been disliking romance stories for quite some time now. It haven't been good, or I can say "it never happens in reality".
After watching trailer of the new movie "GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST", the movie look kind of cool. It's about this famous guy, named Connor Mead, whom is a celebrity photographer, almost all girls will fall for his charm. Getting a gorgeous girl for himself is just as simple as cracking a peanut. In short, he hook up with a girl, and the next thing he does is break up.
His brother Paul is getting married soon, Connor had to be there, and guess what's worst that could happen? At the same time, Jenny, Connor's childhood friend was there as well.
Out of the unexpected, this movie portray supernatural elements. It's not a horror movie, so supernatural happens for a good cause. Connor's uncle, Uncle Wayne, appeared during his stay. Uncle Wayne once lived a life like Conners, and don't want him to follow his footsteps. Using his supernatural power, he brings him to the past, present and future to find a way to change Connor. So maybe just this time, he would be able to keep his love.
It's a hilarious love story.

This is the first time I'm writing for Nuffnang to join one their competition. At certain point, I'm still considering whether I would want to write for this romance story, cause it always brings up the past memories. Well, since I knew she is no more following this blog. I guess it should be fine for me to write about it. I wanted to write a post about it for quite some time, but I can't seem to find the right words, and I'm always so confuse when thinking about this matter.

Actually I couldn't relate myself to Ghost of Girlfriends Past. But this movie reminds me of something she said. I believe to certain extend, girls always want to live a princess life, glamourous, pretty and have a prince charming, someone to be proud of to show to someone else. I'm actually relating myself to the story through a perspective of a boyfriend of a girl of one of Connors many failed relationship partners.

I couldn't seem to forget about our relationships even we have separated for 2 years plus. I tried to move on, but whenever I see her, all the promises I made to myself was broken. I made many attempts, trying to attract her back. Sometimes, trying my best to treat her as a normal friend, so just we can spend more time together. It all ended up hurting myself. It's not her fault, but it's all on me. I wouldn't want to let go every chance I have to meet her.
One of the bad days, or worst day, we were gathering on one of my friend's birthday occassion. I was very nervous and excited to know she will be there to join the gathering. I mind so much on what I'm going to wear, is my hair okay? and what am I going to say when I see her so I don't look weird. And then when I get there, I can't be normal. She is in a british-liked skirt, I was stunned, she looked great in it. It all started quite well, but she mentioned something about boyfriend. And there I thought she was talking about maybe a boyfriend inside a game, as she also had a husband before this in one of the online games. But she then describe how the guy propose and stuff, my hands was shivering and do not even dare to look at her. At that moment, I was really hurt inside, and don't seem to accept that she got another boyfriend. I finish my cup of green tea, and drove away immediately. Was shouting in the car all the way back[crazy]. Hardly describe my feelings, mixed emotions, mostly dissapointed and sad.

About a few months later, only I get to know she broke up. Then, she started to slowly at least accept me a little by spending a little more time together. We opened up details that we usually kept to ourselves. Actually I insisted he to tell me about her story with her ex. Even though, I am really risking my feelings for that, I really wanted to know what happen. Apparently, her boyfriend was previously a advertisement model. Definitely great looking. From our conversation, the guy was rich as well. I got pretty disturbed when she told me that she is the one started to hint that guy.[I've no rights to be jealous, but you know, when you like that person, I'm pretty sure you will have this feeling as well. It's not something I'm going to be proud of] Anyway, they have a few dates together, but the guy was absent without notice for a few times. One time he did that is all enough for me to terminate him, but he did it more than that. Of course I'm only paying attention on his bad sides, he might be a good person, I just do not know. I was really pissed off, how can he do this? I mean its like he don't really mind that much about the date. Asking a girl to wait at somewhere, at later on not being there without any notice. And the reason he told her was he fallen asleep. [I really want to kill that guy.] Being late is already a minus mark, and he can "fly aeroplane".

Guys like this, probably like Connor doesn't seem to appreaciate much of the things he has until he realize he's loosing it.
[Upon writting this post, I am worried that she might be reading as well. All the things I wrote here is all on my selfish thoughts. She might be happy even the guy done all those. I'm not in the position to say anything.]
Till now, we are no longer in touch. In the meanwhile, I'm living life to the fullest, as I missed out a lot for the past years grieving on my loss. Learning to share love with someone else who cares.

Anyway, I will still watch this movie. Always love the happy ending, hoping one day I will get my happy ending as well. [haha]
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*She left a very deep mark in my life. As one of my friend mentioned, people we met in our life are just passerbys. They come and go, some left marks when they leave; some don't leave anything; and some takes things away. I guess she should be the one who left a very good mark. I won't be remembering the person she is now, I will just keep what's her when we were together. Now, I'm stepping out of the circle which I consider myself loyal.

We're in Magazine. [Zhiqin, Lawrence, Jun, Kent, Henry]

Ah, one of those moments. It was really an unforgettable experience volunteering in SPCA. Before we decided to foster some of the puppies, it did not took us long time to consider about the responsibility and changes to our lifestyle. Or I could say, it was all decided withing a short period of time. Me, myself was very very kin to foster puppies, since I did not have any chance to have pets in my home back in Malacca. So, since I'm staying out for my studies, was wanted to have a different experience by having a pet. I started to ask Lawrence, whether he wants, he looks pretty positive in it. And few days later, gave Ms Jacinta a call. And there we pick up our first batch of three puppies. We named them, Belle, Apacer and Rocky. [:-)]
We really enjoyed ourselves with the puppies, and later on we fostered another 4 puppies. We named them, Molly, Ricky, Lily and Eddie.
The most saddening part was actually after three months, we were all there during roadshows to get them a permanent home, to be adopted by family. Deep inside my heart, we feel very reluctant to give them away. But it would be best for them.

I wasn't being able to sleep well without the puppies, cause I'm sleeping in the room near the window, and I could always hear the puppies playing around when I'm going to bed. However, when they are gone. It was all very quiet and I'm not used to it. Writing on this post, reminds me of a lot back then, wondering how are they doing now.
____________________________________________________________________
*Cool, missing those puppies.

Uncle Wong @ Foster Home

It was another bright sunny day, woke up early in the morning, with my housemates[jun, ryan, chew and lawrence], and we are on a mission today. Community service, by taking the children from a foster home for a day out in the bird park. It's a good time spending with my old housemates, since this should be the only time I could spend more time and tighten our bonds again after the dissapearance of me for a long time.
We arrived at the foster home about 9am, its named as "Rumah Shalom: A Foster Home For Caring and Sharing". Then, we went around searching for the kid that we are each assigned to. Lawrence and Jun, was given responsibility to take care of Asteria, while Ryan and Chew's was Esther. And me, was a fourteen years old kid, named Sam. Nice kid, smart and well dressed.
I started quite badly for the day. Was putting too much attention in taking good photographs, rather than putting more attention to break the ice between me and Sam. During the travelling in the bus, May[friend of mine, Winston partner] told me I should try to talk to him[cause I wasn't talking to him, but Sue Ern instead, she was telling me about TOA]. Well, May was true, cause I seem pretty cruel just to throw Sam aside, sitting near the side and look out into the window. Immediately, went to sat beside him and just started to talk about random topic, regarding how was life in the house, his interest, his dreams...etc. It turned out to be a pretty constructive conversation.
We arrived at the KL Bird Park about 11.30am. Took a large group photo before entering the park. The kids are happy, and a lot of people are watching as the walked past. As we form ourself into smaller groups before we enter the park, I think Jun[started with calling me "Uncle Wong", if not wrong], and some of the kids started to call me uncle Wong. Thought it might sound nothing to anyone, but at that moment, I feel really different[You know, the feeling of being more elderly? haha...speechless]. I later on urge my group of members to take Uncle Wong's Group photo.

From top left, Chew, Uncle Wong, Jun, Lawrence, Jason, May, JJ, Middle row: David, Ryan, Adrian, Ester, Winston, Jennifer, Bottom Row: Alexander, Sam, John2, and Titus.

Then, we enter the park with full heart to make the children happy. The kids were initially very attracted to some of the birds, like the Great Hornbill, Eagle, Parrots[like the one from faber castell], Owl[like the ones from Harry Potter], peacocks. However, they get even more excited in the hunt of getting large feathers for collections. I was pretty amazed with some of my friends that they actually give so much attention, care and patience to the kids as I definitely never seen before during studies. It hit me straight way that these are some of the guys and girls that will take good care of their children when having their own family. [Maybe I jumped tod fast to conclusion for this one experience, but yeah I am really convinced.]

Me and Sam

Lawrence and Asteria

David and [err...forgotten his name]

Sam

Seeing we putting those smile on the kids faces really made me feel that we are so much more than what we are. Those smile which had been taken away since they were left in that home, and no one to depend on, but only to themselves. I'm glad we had bring them one day of cheers and joy. After a tiring day at the bird park, we had our farewell late lunch at McDonalds.

Another group photo in front of McDs

Me with Nigel

After sending them back to the home, we, the childrens had a hardtime to say goodbyes. However, as said, everything will have an end. We said our final good byes to the children and leaved with an unforgettable memories and experience. As for me, I've all the photos, to remind me of this wonderful day. :-)

Albert's Appearance @ FOM Prom Night

A topic I do not wish to write about. Was feeling really out yesterday. [Weird~] FOM, or also known Faculty of Management, of Multimedia University had organised its annual prom night at Sunway Resort yesterday[24th April'09].
Was thinking it would be like a usual night I attended when I was in secondary school. So, I did not really put much attention on my attire. A long slack, button shirt, and a pair of sport shoes would do for me, typical "zhiqin". Always having the same clothing for most of the time. Anyways, I did not think much about it at that time.
After I packed and arranged some of my stuff in the new room I rented, for my stay during my study years in TOA, I went to wait at Calvin's house over in Cyberjaya as he will be going with me. However, things doesn't goes really smoothly. He seems like not really in the mood to attand such event at the moment. Yet, he had no choice since our group of friends were really hoping he would join, in which I really do think its a little pushing the limits. He went in a very "unwilling" mood, that's what I can see.
Apparently when I arrived at the entrance of the ballroom, I deeply regretted, and infinite drop of self-esteem when I see myself as the most contrast attired person compared to the others. [~~~] Everyone is very well dressed, and [err] it looks like everyone is getting "married". And I came with a .... .... [speechless, & sweat]. Well, at least there's someone accompanied me, Calvin just join us with a T-shirt and shorts. [cool]
Not having a very good first time experience, so will probably consider trice for the next prom. I'm not suitable for this kind of event. Probably considering joining in as a reporter. [haha]

This is the people on my table, elegant and high-classed aren't they. Most of their attire and newly bought, mine was from my closet, a multipurpose buttoned t-shirt. Sweet couple, I just think both of them are meant together. Nice people to hang out with. Very friendly.

Met a friend, who ais also a Malaccan!

I should be very noticeable in this photo, how bright am I. [... ... swt]

Japanese Cultural Night @ Multimedia University

Melvin was asking me to get one of the tickets for the Japanese Cultural Night about last 2 weeks ago. Without thinking much, I bought a ticket as well as my good friend, Lawrence. I think once again, E-Week had changed me a lot, knowing that organizing such events is not any easy work. Thus, attending the event is just the best way I could show my support and appreciation to their hard work.

During the day itself, I was half an hour late, thinking to skip all the speeches done by the VIP. However, I am there just in time, and their show was just about to start. I didn't put much of a expectation at first, since I got some "not so interesting" remarks from some of my friends when I asked them to join the night. It started as usual with some performance, traditional musical instruments played by Japanese, japanese traditional dance, etc. It turned out to be much better than what I've expect. Well, one thing which I think deserves some compliments is the way they embed all those performance along with a drama by their own committee members. The main actor and actress, around of applause[good job!]. Besides that, doing some interactive activities with the audiences by having everyone to fold a square shaped paper into a heart shape and submit it up for a lucky draw, around of applause again. Overall, well done Japanese Club!

Melvin, the president, it's not easy to get a photo with him. This is the best that I can get.

WATT's GOING ON @ UNITEN

"WATTS GOING ON" organised by Chinese Culture Society, Uniten is a charity concert to raise funds for the needed ones. It was my first time stepping my foot on the territory of Uniten, and it was HUGE! and there I thought MMU was big. They even have their own hotel inside their campus. Probably for the use of the guests visiting their campus. The campus was fully equipped with good facilities. Even the mosque was built on sort of a lake, and there's even a nice restaurant at the side. The landscaping was nice. Besides that, their security allows car with no sticker to enter. >.<

The concert was held in their Seri Saujana Hall, sort of MMU's version of MPH, but their's are much more presentable, and they don't charge rentals. Unlike the Grandhall of MMU, students are charge RM2500 per day, and RM625 for a days preparation work for before the event(without air-conditioner). People are asking me, why do I insist on using the Grandhall since I knew clearly that we do not have that budget. My intention was to invite and do good publicity to the public, if we were to use the MPH, it would be definitely give a different impression to the public with such old hall. Aside of that, I doubt that MPH are large enough to place all the exhibits material there comfortably. (Back to the story)
I didn't get to take some shots of the band performing, since I was sitting quite far behind and without a good zooming lens. However, I would say it was quite a successful event, people enjoy themselves, and they have a number of students from different university close by. Most of the best deserve my compliments for their effort for putting up a good show, and made their won songs. However, it started to get a little bored in the end, cause most of the songs sounded almost the same. They are good singers, but without a good song, performance aren't that interesting. But yeah, overall, it was splendid. Hope to see a better results next year!

*David! Thanks for introducing me your friends, Steward, Charlotte, ... They are really nice people to hang out with. :-) God Bless.

E-Week 2009 @ Grandhall, Multimedia University

I'm finally back with more great stories to share!

"E-Week 2009: Beyond The Sky" A name that would freak me out whenever I seen and heard. At the same time, it's one of my toughest experience that I'd gone through. Just to fill you guys that do not know what E-Week is, E-Week is an educational exhibition that has been organised by Engineering Society annually. "Beyond the Sky" is our theme for this year, which relates to astronomy.

I'm going to write my whole experience of organizing this event here. It would probably be a very long post.
Well, me, Wong Zhi Qin is the Director of E-Week 2009. It definitely sound good to me, but "With Great Powers, Comes Great Responsibility". It was not any easy job. I was firstly assigned by my president to take lead in this event. Engineering Society, or also known as ENGSOC will usually have another person to take charge as the director for the event. However, since this year we are lack of potential candidate and it was sort of a engsoc trademark event. We decided to use our existing committee members in organizing this exhibition.

PREPARING THE PAPERWORK(PROPOSAL, OFFICIAL LETTERS, ETC)
Within a week time, I managed to complete a proposal with the help of Kit, for his "Beyond the Sky" concept, and Kent for his sponsorship scheme. We had a few meetings to plan out how do we want to carry out this BTS concept. It was beautiful. Aside from completing this proposal, there's still a lot of paper work to do. Filling up official documents of Students Activity Department, witting official letters for sponsorship, official invitations letters for government bodies, official invitation letters for private exhibitors. Most of the letters had to be written from scratch since the previous year committee board didn't passed down much of those written letters for us as a reference.

Some of my opinion on preparing a good proposal. I did not know anything about preparing a good proposal at first, but I know if the proposal is not out. None of my plan can be actually executed. Just think of proposal as a written paper that you want to show the authorities on what you're planning to do, and how are you going to execute your programme. And think of it this way, if you're reading a proposal, what will you be wanting to know? Firstly, of course the background of your group, club or society. Then, introduce your concept of idea. Next, include in all the important relevant details, to support your main concept. Insert in a good budgeting, I would always throw in a 25% of the actual budget. If you're looking for sponsors, include in a good sponsorship scheme. What do private companies want? They want ADVERTISING, giving them tickets for dinner, appreciation token, etc does not attract them. They want good advertising. So, crack your head for a good advertising strategy, good advertising strategy earns you good sponsorship value. *In times, I still find networking is very important. If you've connection from the company you're seeking for sponsorship, you would stand a 50% higher chance to get it.

During the initial state of executing our plans, I find dealing with the university's related department is actually more troublesome rather than the government bodies and private companies. Since all the letters had to go through the head of students activities department, they are very sensitive with every detail in the letter; how you form your sentence for instance. I wasn't so happy that I had to go back home, get it changed, print it out, then queue for the long line before entering the head's room again. I didn't get it right after the first time, and I had to go back to change it again. At that point of time, I find the administration was not effective enough. However, I could not put all the blame on the department, they have some very hardworking people there. Sometimes they just have to be extra cautious with the students work as it will reflect the university's image. The main thing that I want to say is, there's still a lot of room for improvement on the efficiency of work.

MAKING PHONE CALLS
I do learned a lot of talking through the phone, talking through the phone as in for official business reasons. One good advice for everyone, always get to the correct person before you explaining whats the main occasion you called them for. Usually, if we called to a certain company, let's say for sponsorship as an example. You will usually get to the operator before getting to the exact person who is in charge. If you're able to get to the names of the person you needed to get to, that's the best. Otherwise, use some general terms, "Good Morning, could you direct me to the head of your marketing department?"politely, and do try to sound as sweet as possible, if you get a chance to ask the operator on the department head's name, do ask so!

And let's say you are not talking to the operator for some smaller company, always know who you're talking to. You definitely don't want to waste your time on explaining things to a person that does not hold charge. Ask politely "Good Morning, I'm Wong from MMU, how should I address you?". People would definitely feel comfortable if you mentioned them by their names. Know what you need to deliver, explain and don't waste their time on your hesitation. Thank them gracefully, as if they've helped you a lot on solving your problems.

GOOD COMMUNICATION AMONG ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Before the semester break arrived, my president called for another meeting. The meeting turned out to be a blast to me. Well, I did not expect to receive remarks from my president that I always keep work to myself. The thing is I can't manage to put trust in my committee to carry out the work for me, and I am a no good person in delegating job. I think my committee would definitely see that in me. [That's my weakest point] Too afraid of them didn't carry out the work as i expect them to be. However, they proved me wrong during the four days work. [Thank you so much to all my working committee, GREAT JOB!] I was speechless that time, and was quite defensive and sort of in denial of that statement. But of course, my president has no intention of doing bad remarks on me, he just hope to see that I wouldn't be too burdened with all the work.

The main key to good communication is to hold a productive meeting session. Often we see in school that people are not punctual to meetings, people play a fool during meeting and talk craps. My concept of having a good productive meeting is keep the meeting hours short, brief and straight to the point. Getting people to attend the meeting punctual is really a hard time, and we don't like to start a meeting till everyone arrive, caused otherwise he or she would missed out some of the important points. [Just came to mind, my greatest apologies for the last minute cancellation of meeting which not happen only once.] Chairman or secretary should always prepare the agenda before meeting, and assign to those who are in charge to prepare before attending the meeting. Thus, no time is wasted on thinking on what you need to inform the others. Communication breakdown is one of the main reason which leads to a badly organised event.


APPROACHING FOR SPONSORS
Don't ever call a company, and start with "Hello, I'm Wong from MMU, and we are looking for sponsors." You will get this, "Oops, beep beep beep...". Don't be surprise, with the status of the economy right now, approaching for sponsors is hard.
From my experience, meeting up with the person in charge is always the best. When you're asking things from people, some personal touch is always good. Asking for sponsorship through the phone is always a bad choice. Set a appointment with him, telling him you are organizing this event and he might be interested to join this event that you're organizing, so that you can further explain to him what your event is all about and it wouldn't take much of his time.
With a good sponsorship scheme, and a good presentation. Your percentage of earning a good sponsorship should get relatively high.

DEALING WITH GOVERNMENT BODIES
Meet up with the correct person. Phone calls to the government bodies would just be a waste of time. Your calls with be redirected for several times, on hold for at least 10mins, ... ... . But of course not all. Dealing with Agensi ANGKASA Negara, or also known as National Space Agency and National Planetarium was easy if you get to the correct person. Mr Redzuan from the National Planetarium was assigned to help us during E-Week. He offers us the best help he could give and did actually assisted and giving me advice in organizing this event. [My greatest gratitude to you, Mr Redzuan!] Arranging programmes with him is really easy, cause usually, mostly government officers will say no to almost everything. But yeah, he is way out of the box, a good mentor and a good friend.

I had a shock of my life dealing with the Jabatan Pelajaran Putrajaya. It was firstly appeared to me JP Putrajaya was the most efficient office compared to JP Selangor and JP Kuala Lumpur. I went to meet with the Pengarah Pelajaran of Putrajaya, along with my official permission letter from the Kementerian Pelajaran, and our official invitation letter with our program flow schedule to discuss with them whether are they able to send in students to participate in our exhibition. Since the first man is out, the second man came to discuss with me. It was Pn Farizah, she was very nice, without much of a problem, she decided to arrange 4 buses of students in(around 160 students, which was very good for me.). However, the official letter I obtained from Kementerian stated that only students from Selangor district gave me much of a problem. I made a few phone calls, to make sure I am able to get another letter for students from Putrajaya District. Well, Pn Farizah said she will proceed with the preparation work, but I need to get her the letter, otherwise she will be in trouble. Of course, I don't want to put her in a bad situation, but I was glad she trusted me and helped me in arranging the students.

On the second day of the exhibition, 4pm. I got a call from a school from SK Putrajaya, inquiring what time that the bus will arrive to pick them up tomorrow to attend to our exhibition. I wasn't sure with the JP Putrajaya arrangement, so told her I need to make a few phone calls and get back to her once I get things cleared. I called, they are very blur with what's happening asking me whether I sent in all the letters and stuff. I said yes. After that, they said they will get back to me once they checked with their advisor. 15 minutes later, I got a call and was informed that the 4 buses was being canceled. They gave me stupid reasons, but the fact is their lower officers did not carry on his work on informing the schools. Even the Pengarah didn't knew that they canceled the buses. Luckily, one of the secretary from JP Putrajaya, Ms Ida was my life saver. She helped me out a lot, and even waited till after office hours just to get my problem solved. She managed to convince her superior to send in one bus. I'm very grateful for what she had done for me.

MY GREATEST GRATITUDE AND APPRECIATION
I would like to forward my greatest gratitude to Mr. Patrick and Mr. Jefferson from Motorola, Penang for being very understanding of my situation and I am trying my best to offer them what's worth for their sponsorship. And to Jati, for giving us a simple and quick financial support. Also to National Space Agency and National Planetarioum, Mr Redzuan and their crew for offering us a very good hand in filling up the Grandhall, setting up all the exhibits. To Stargazer Scientific, Ms. Cho and Mr. Allen, for giving us their support and bringing in their telescope for the superb night stargazing. Thanks to Ms Teoh and Mr William on their informative and interesting talk. As well as Melaka Planetarium, Ms Carmen, Ms Xiao Shan and Mr. Chong for joining us in E-Week. Special thanks to Astronomy Club USM, Dr Chong and Mr Stefan for bringing in all the interesting activities for the students, teaching them to build their own water rocket and spectrohelioscope. Tzu Chi Foundation on bringing environmental awareness to the students by emphasizing on recycling.

Apart from that, thank you to Mr Omar from Student Activities Division, for giving us good guidance and keeping us to do things professionally. To our Deputy Dean, Dr. Yusoff Alias for supporting our event, and made a lot of things easier for us. Last but not least, to all my lovely working commitee, Jun, Chew, Ryan, Lawrence, Jeeva, Elaine, Xiang, Adai, Yogg, Ragu, Bala, Yuwen, Niz, Nicole, Cynthia, Ying, ....there's more... [gosh, I'm bad at names.] It's great to have all of your support! Great Work everyone!

Do visit http://engineeringsociety.blogspot.com for more write ups.