Sunday, April 27, 2008

Chem 6A

Hello all!

In our chem class recently, we studied Markovnikov's rule, and unless you’re a die-hard chem fanboy, I doubt you’ll be interested in reading a whole post about it. Srsly.

Srsly -this means Seriously, in LOLspeak, a language I happen to be quickly assimilating, unfortunately, for you. :)

A paragraph of LOLspeak would sound something like this:

Yo! Like srsly, I don’t fink u wanna heer mi speek abowt dis Chem thingy bt u’d radder heer mi talk abowt thingz asploding. Eryone luvs watchyng things asplode. Like OMGWTFBBQ! It asploded! Yeah I like asploding things too bt the teory bhind the thingz iz also impowtant. Like srsly yo. So I has made talk abowt dis Markovnikov thingy coz itz impowtant for organik chem synthesis yo.











I think you get the idea so I’ll stop now :)

I liek bizkits! w00t!

Sorry.

So one day we were sitting down in a Chemistry lesson. It was actually pretty dull. I mean honestly, as much as I love Chem, the Markovnikov theory isn’t the most interesting thing in the world. So when you’re bored you start doodling. And because you are a lifeless IB student, you start doodling and drawing cartoons about CHEM.

But srsly, how do you remember a name like Markovnikov? This is where the brilliant Riza comes to the rescue.

‘It’s pronounced My-konek-cough la!’

Liek OMGWTFBBQ yo.

Okay, so Mr Lawrence could tell we were a bit restless. I think.

‘You know Markovnikov? Have you ever seen his face? You hold on!’ and with that, Mr Lawrence disappears into his mysterious preparation room to get something. I thought he was getting a picture of the M-dude la, duh.

But no! Mr Lawrence came out with a big wad of cotton – and we were all like WHATTHEHAM!?!? Okla, it was just me coz no one else likes ham in my class.

‘You know Mr Markovnikov? He’s really hairy! Like, super bushy’, exclaims our sprightly teacher. And guess what he does?















Hilarity ensues. I tell you, we’ve lost track of how many ‘facelifts’ we’ve given the skeleton. But well, I suppose they do look quite similar.








With all do respect Sir, you’re a great Chemist, but copious amounts of hair in the scientific society always lead to you being made fun of. Think Einstein.














Who ever said scientists had no sense of humour?

And because I recognize just how important the Markovnikov theory is to man(and woman)kind, I’ll give you a brief rundown of it.

Eh, no grumbling yo, or I maek ur head asplode wif my cuteness.

Just to make it bearable, I’ll add little black and white diagrams! Ain’t that something?

Okay, let’s start with a molecule.











This is the Chick molecule, for want of avoiding ‘standard IUPAC nomenclature’ (fancy-schmancy names)














Srsly. Too complicated wei.

Ok lah. So right, the reaction involves two molecules reacting. The other one:











Okay, so the current chick atom attached to Jon is angry, because of his promiscuity and numerous reactions with atoms of other elements. But Jon spots the Chick molecule, with so many chick atoms in it, and is then attracted. Angry chick atom has enough, so they break up, leaving the Jon atom unattached.

And because the Jon atom has really high electronegativity (high degree of hotness or whatever), he gets an invite to join the big big molecule really soon after the breakup! So shallow eh? But they’re atoms, and it’s all about the chemistry! Heeey, don’t look at me like that.

But there are two places he can sit. So the big question is

WHERE WILL JON GO?











That’s all there is to the theorem. It was made to answer that question. Heheh, I feel kinda important all of a sudden. :)

Right, so back to the case of where Jon would sit. Logically, if you were an electron sucking atom (or well, in our human context it’s probably equivalent to a hot-blooded male) you’d want the spot with more electrons right?










That’s a happy molecule, if I’ve ever seen one.

That’s all there is to the My-Konek-Cough theory. Given the option,the Jon molecule sits on the side where there are more chicks la! So easy! Tersangat kekacangan! Hen pian yi! Eh, I mean, rong yi.

Cheh wa, I should become a Chemistry teacher and draw more pretty pictures.

Hope you enjoyed the lesson.

















Putting on what Khairul calls my 'mischevious look'. Don't we all look so happy? Not the guy in the middle though, he's a real heartless dude.




























The Professors.

We're asploding your head! LOL.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

What happens in the dark?

You know how people tell you that humans are most 'productive' when the lights go out (or when there's a power shortage).

Let's see if the old adage holds true. Without much ado, I present to you . . . (air drum roll)

Podcast #1



Kinda mo liu/tak ada isi/pointless, don't you think? But the lights were out, and I didn't have anything to do!

Watch out for Podcast #2! Don't worry, it'll be brighter this time round.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

IB Bowling Outing

Today the IB students of Sri KDU went bowling, you know lah-to get rid of some steam so we don't kill ourselves slaving over Internal Assessments. We had plenty of fun, although there were a lot of longkang balls from our side of the game. All in the name of good fun :)

And here we have pictures! Everyone loves pictures. I set my camera on auto, though, so some pics didn't turn out so well. Lazy mah, what to do?

















Jorrel bowling. He was pretty good, actually. Much better than my straight-but-straight-into-longkang throws.
















Yvonne's throw. Quite funny to watch, though her expressions were probably funnier. (Picks up shoe and throws it at you!)

















Heh. I had my share of longkang as well.

















Shafiq Psychoe's exuberance. Quite amusing to watch him bowl as well, and seeing his leg pop out at funny angles when he throws. Heh.
























Eugene here, shuffle-bowling. Another happy bowler. I remember him jumping on Andrew after striking. Why though, I don't recall.

























Aleen (left), one of the co-conspirators in this whole bowling fiasco. Caught her (literally) red-handed!


















Mr. Danny contemplating his next shot. Tension betul.

















We met Ru Ann there, somehow. I thought she was somewhere in Australia when she popped up all of a sudden. Funny eh. And I do wonder what that huge thing is that Daniel's wanting to get his hands on.


















Scorpions in One Utama! What a huge publicity gimmick. Admittedly though, it piqued the interest of curious shoppers, as there was a huge crowd milling around that area. Eg: yours truly.


















I was shooting this particular snake with my Canon (man, I love that pun) when Riza pointed out a snake on top of the cage, just sitting there idly, OUTSIDE the cage. I got a fright out of that, when he so gracefully laughed in my face. It was fake. Blah.




There you have it, the IB people do have lives, after all. I personally doubt my team will win that much-coveted food voucher, since we bowled quite badly. Well, at least we had lots of fun. Alrighty now, back to work. EE for me, as Mr. Sai Mun so nicely pointed out.




Warning: Long rant ahead.

And on the way back, something happened that was pretty infuriating. I caught a cab from the taxi stand right outside the complex. I wasn't really expecting any trouble, having taken the cab plenty of times. It was a quick 5 minute hop to my place from One Utama, and usually cost anything between 4-5 ringgit.

But What-The-Ham, when I got home the meter said 7 ringgit. I so desperately wanted to expose his evil rigged meter scheme, but I thought better against it. He was this Indian guy with piercings. Not that I'm racially discriminating against Indians, but when guys like that have piercings, he might not be your average Muthu.

So right, I was already fuming and everything lah, but I parted with my 7 bucks. But no, Mr. Scary Piercing Dude told me that it costs another additional RM5, because it was a special taxi. WHAT THE HAM? It didn't look at more special than other taxis. After arguing for a bit, I relented lah.

12 ringgit indeed. This just screams daylight robbery. And bad consumerism on my part. Bah. A word of warning. Don't ever get into a cab from a company called 'Bestoden Sdn. Bhd.'. I might just be sore from my little scuffle, but I happen to think they're cheap conmen, so don't get into a taxi from the company.

And the thing is, once I got home, still fuming, I called up 103, the phone directory to get the company's number to go lodge a complaint. The company wasn't listed. I wanted to go like this: -______-"

Never mind, I consoled myself. I turned to the Almost Almighty Google and hey! they did have a listing with a number to call. But WHATTHEHAM again, the number wasn't in service.

Something about this smells terribly fishy, and no, it wasn't my socks. So, girls and boys, remember that 'Bestoden Sdn Bhd' is a bad bad cab company that cheated me of some 8 ringgit, so never never never get into a cab from them!

Muhahahahahaha cough cough cough choke faint die.

Okay, bye.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Some never learn

A lot has been said and done about the release of 'Fitna' in the recent days. I was flipping through the newspapers today when a particular article caught by attention.

The headline read 'Dutch embassy in Indonesia attacked'.




















Now, lets not jump to hasty conclusions here. I don't condone the movie, neither do I support its viewpoints. That's not the point.

First, let's follow this simple thought process.

  • Movie that equates Islam with violence is released.
  • Muslims get angry, because its a mockery of what they believe in.
  • Therefore, we conclude that Muslims should be peaceful, since they are protesting against violence.
  • Indonesian students in Indonesia (duh) angry too, because they're students, and students are naturally more emo.
  • They rally, burn flags and tires and tear down the gates over at the Dutch embassy.
  • Proved their point that Islam does not equate to violence.



















What? Of course it's a peaceful demonstration where we wave around posters connoting that Geert Wilders (the producer of the film) should be shot!


It's not the nicest thing to do, is it? Burning the flags of other countries and all that.

Honestly, some people never learn. By inciting more violence with your rallies and passionate speeches, your shooting yourself in the foot. At the very least, I'm sure Geert Wilders would have expected protests denouncing his film, maybe even a few people being bashed up along the way. You're not denouncing the film through those actions, you're proving him right. Actions speak louder than words, after all.

I sound a little angry here. Alright, put it this way.

Extremism = bad

Instead of wasting precious time and energy being angry at the Dutch for something that ONE person did, shouldn't Muslims unite to instead curb extremism within their own ranks? After all, at the very root of the problem, its the extremists who are giving Muslims around the world a bad name.

Just my two cents, but have your say as well;

It's good for the brain.