random stuffs ~~

finally my busy hectic days are (temporarily) over!! all the classes have been completed, all the courseworks have been marked, all the final exam papers have been submitted! so i shall enjoy my serene weeks to come, reading books that i've bought and borrowed last few months, and watching wayyyy overdued movies in my shelfs, and doing house chores that takes forever to be done!! -.-"

exam

invigilating is one of the lecturer's duties - although in local uni this thing will be conducted by the exam department... but i do enjoy invigilation. and some will ask WHY? simply bcoz i like to observe people. i have a habit of watching ppl's reactions to things, and be amazed how different everyone is and unique in their own way. and during extreme situation (like exam), it's even more interesting to observe...

some are scratching their head, forehead, nose, cheeks, chin, foot out of nervousness, regret and panic... some are quickly hynoptized by the question papers and doze off... some are looking at the invigilators constantly as if looking for inspirations or looking for chance to cheat and peek over others' paper... some are frowning maybe bcoz what they read were not what comes out, or they are trying hard to memorize all the mental map they have drawn but fail to remember... some are grinning maybe they have the "spot-on" questions or just out of plain desperation... some are constantly watching here and there trying to see if others are suffering just like them or waiting to build an alliance with others... some are just write and write non-stop as if they are JK Rowling working on her new prologue or epilogue (gosh how i hate marking long-winded answer scripts!!)...

well, conclusion is, that 2 or 2.5 hours are normally pretty entertaining ot an observer like me... sometimes when some funny actions appear, i can't help but grin... :P

of exam again

on my last day of invigilation, i was the relief invigilator - meaning if some (bloody irresponsible) lecturers fail to turn up, i have to takeover their (bloody) invigilating job!!! and yes, you guess correct - i ended up invigilating- UTAR mah... what do you expect??

and on my last duty of this semester, i caught someone cheating - so unexpected!! a uni student, hiding a finely written notes underneath his answer booklet, always looking around like scary cat, flipping his answer booklet suspiciously, and reading under the booklet in a weird weird angle - come on, tell me you are NOT suspicious!! (how smart!!)

well, i told the chief invigilator about this, and we decided to slowly take action.

well, being a buddhist (haha), i gave him another chance. i stood just in front of him for at least 15 minutes, i even looked straight into his eyes with a i-know-what-you-did-last-summer look in my eyes (i thot it is very obvious liao)... so i told myself any sane creature would have get the message already. then, someone at the back raised her hand, so i walked over to her and handed her a piece of A4 paper, then i turned back and walked in front again... and guess what? that boy was happily copy the answer again from his note.

so i told myself - you treat me like an idiot, so you shall be treated as one too!! i grabbed the note, grabbed his ID card and exam slip, and reported to the chief and handed him the evidence... DONE!!

no, not done yet, the chief then told me that since i'm the one who caught him, i have to write a report and pass it to the exam department... well, nvm, i'll do that since i'm a bit annoyed and pissed... then only to find out that not only i need to write the report, when the board hold a meeting to investigate or to decide their disciplinary action to this student, i'll have to be present too... WTH!!! i felt like i'm the one being punished for catching him!!

these aside

it has been fun catching up with frens - drinking tea and talking nonsense, and window shop... sometimes it's good to just chill...

of buddhism

well, i was lucky to be exposed to buddhism although i was borned in a taoist family. i bought the ideas of reincarnation, karma and doing good deeds. but i have never have any real motivations to explore these knowledge and really read the books...

i joined buddhist society back in uni, but just for a short 1 semester, then i proceed to the swimming team and life-saving society. i read books but failed to grasp the true and deeper meanings... no one to guide me, being the impatient person, i put all these books aside.

but recently, i've chatted a lot about buddhism with my fren and was happy with the knowledge he told me. he was so kind to lend me some books for me to read. well, this time i shall start with some "easy-learning" books so that i don't get "lost" so easily and then decide to stop again. no no no, this time is for longer time, hopefully for my lifetime!

of my parents and rat

one night, i woke up bcoz of nature-call. after returning to the bedroom and trying to sleep again, i heard a noise resemblance to book dropping on table... i got up, and see a big fat rat standing on my computer monitor rubbing its feet... ok, i made this up, i was too shocked to notice any of its actions at all... i think the rat must have been equally shocked by me too, so it jumped off the table and hide under my wardrobe. i was sitting on my bed thinking and panicking of what should i do next... then in a split second, it sprinted out from the wardrobe towards the door, and squeezed itself thru the tiny door gap and escaped! i felt so relief.... gosh, i'm so afraid of rats!!! :P

then the next morning i told my mom about this little rendezvous, she told me the rat also messed up the reading room and left some shites too... hahaha!! and she knows it has been hiding under the washing machine for quite sometimes and mess up the kitchen a little too... but this time it has stepped on my mom's nerve for messing up the reading. so my mom setup a trap, hanged a piece of fried squid - the ultimate bait for rat!!

we don't have to wait for long, the same night (which is yesterday), after a short 1 hour, the rat was in the trap! my parents said let's take the cage out and killed it tomorrow morning with boiling water... a chill sent thru my spines... "should we??" i asked in my heart... okay, my parents have done that before killing an "intruding" rat with boiling water... and i never had a problem with that last time... but i felt so sorry for this small animal this time... it has done nothing wrong, it's only living its most natural way, and does it deserved to be killed?? definitely no. and there's definitely another way of dealing with this than killing it.

i calmly suggest to my parents that why don't they release it tomorrow to somewhere far... my mom said it will return... then i said far far away lah... no reaction from them... well ok then, i will release it tomorrow on my way to work... they said ok... so settled!!

then later at night around 12am, i then felt bad again about this little creature - it has been placed outside the house, and what if it rains? (and yes it really rained last night in the wee hours of the morning) the rat will be so cold!! so i walked out from my air-conded room, and approached my dad... i told him let's go out and release the poor rat now. with an annoyed look, my dad refused as he still have his football match to watch... i said i just need him to accompany me coz it's late at night... well he told me why so "mah-fan" just kill it tomorrow... well nevermind then, i'll go out by myself lah - i told him.

so here i go, in the middle of the midnight... i drove myself and the rat out to the empty ground near a petrol station 5KM away from my house, and opened the cage. the small creature walked out calmly, turned back to look at me as if saying goodbye and make itself into the longkang. i said "amitabha" and may this return goes to my parents. i am happy for what i have done yesterday night... this is perhaps my little step to practice the buddha way.