Queenbay Mall & USM Loyalty Programme

Have you heard? Queensbay Mall and USM have linked up to provide discounts for USM staff and students when they shop at selected Queensbay Mall outlet under the Queensbay Mall & USM Loyalty Programme! Among the participating outlets are Borders and Popular!

Universiti Sains Malaysia students and staff can enjoy special discounts and deals when shopping at Queensbay Mall, Penang, following a collaboration between the two parties.

Queensbay Mall has introduced the Queenbay Mall & USM Loyalty Programme to allow its card holders utilise the many benefits and privileges offered by Queensbay.

All you need to do is bring along your student or staff identification cards when you shop at Queensbay Mall. Also, you stand a chance to win exclusive prizes when you shop over RM50!



The grand prize is a Fujitsu laptop! Anyone looking for a notebook computer? ;)

x-files

why are animals going missing at the fish house?

first: the case of the missing tortoise - or is it a terappin? i still am confused with the terminology. well. we searched everywhere to no avail...the shelled one was still missing. only some days later he was found in the fish house itself. wow!

second: the case of the missing logomorpha.
the brown rabbit (dunno her name) went missing...

alas, she returned and is now safe within the confines of her cage.

today: third case - (sar)Don, the silly kitten has gone missing. wonder where his paws have led him. the foster mothers are all worried sick. i hope that he will find his way back. as silly as he is, i hope that he is ok.

anyways, i caught a few photos of Don picking a fight (or flirting) with the lonesome rabbit when the partner was missing.





well, hope u guys keep a watch on your other pets...i hope rerama's pet potted plants don't take a hike soon...

or worse, rerama herself goes missing! highly unlikely? u will never know...

:)
well, cheers to u guys. hope the Don will find his way back!

USM Bans White Coffins

Referred to as "White Coffins", polystyrene food containers are no longer allowed within the USM campus. An environmentally good move IMHO but does that mean we can't order Big Macs from McDonald's to be delivered to USM anymore?

USM bans polystyrene food containers

PENANG: Polystyrene food containers have been banned in Universiti Sains Malaysia's main campus here with immediate effect as part of its move to be green.

USM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said all the 32 cafeteria operators would stop using non-biodegradable styrofoam food containers as part of the university's green campaign.

"We have also prohibited the use of styrofoam and other form of polystyrene material," he said after opening the Sejahtera Cafe at the campus here Monday.

"From now on, the cafeteria operators must use eco-friendly biodegradable containers made of oil palm waste instead of the harmful styrofoam," he said.

A study carried out on Saturday showed that of the 7,000 food containers used in the campus daily, only 1,000 were biodegradable.

Prof Dzulkifli said the operators had agreed to absorb the cost, adding that the biodegradable containers cost about 20 sen each while styrofoam containers cost about three or four sen each. There would be no increase in food prices.

"We encourage students to eat in cafeteria using washable plates instead of opting for take-away," he said.

Prof Dzulkifli said the ban on styrofoam would later be extended to the USM health campus in Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, and engineering campus in Nibong Tebal, Seberang Prai Selatan.

The initiative to stop the use of styrofoam was mooted by the students to promote a better future.

"All the 30,000 USM staff and students are the catalyst for the initiative," he said.

During the function, "The White Coffin" signature campaign was launched for USM students and staff to pledge their commitment to support sustainable initiatives to reduce adverse impact on environment.

"We are also seriously conducting research to produce biodegradable plastics. Our aim is to eliminate all types of substances that are unfriendly towards Mother Nature," Prof Dzulkifli said.

He said 25 students from Taiwan who visited USM recently had shown that a change in attitude and mindset was possible.

"The Taiwanese students brought with them reusable chopsticks and foldable containers. The students did not even have to use the plates provided during meals.

"The students washed the containers and chopsticks for subsequent use," he added.

What are your thoughts on this?

GRE

it's all about the GRE test...
it was happened yesterday (2nd January 2008) in KL.. of course..
a frenz of my went there for d xam...he's so excited la... since we studied the GRE vocab..and words... and so on....like orang gila...maklumlah.. some of the words never heard be4
upon registration d ETS had mentioned that must bring any ID that has photo and signature so that they may recognise u... (this for local) and for foreignr: bring passport along..)
so for this fellow (a frenz of my) pun went there by thinking that he is local... he just brought the IC la....
upon the exam'n registration... they request for the passport.....he's a local Malaysian... and yet they request for the passport...
ok....that's not good....
when he said he didn't bring along..
they asked him...that did he study in KL.. or had studied ENGLISH in any center in KL....
I wonder only KL local people is considered as LOCAL meh?
anyway..rule is rule ... he has to register again..
and pay for USD 170 again.. pity him....
what ever he redha jer...of thing hapened
I'm going to sit for that particular exam on 17th Jan 2008...
and thinking of bringing my passport too but the incident that had happened just make me confuse....
our IC is not valid for the international test although it is located in Malaysia....but KL boleh la pulak....if they can call in KL region to confirm the individual status...why can't they use the same method to communicate with other places than KL?


MORAL of the day...
read instruction very carefully before doing anything..
do not skimp while reading any notifications or instructions.....

End of 2007 Lunch

actually. we do NOT need any reason to celebrate, do we?

venue: Seoul Garden in Gurney Plaza (specific location just ask us.we'll be happy to tell.)
price: RM19.99++ per person/student buffet lunch special (11.00am-4.30pm). only on weekdays. (tally up to around RM21 per person).
food: all you can eat buffet spread of steamboat and hotplate, plus desserts and free-flow of drinks.

~the centre of our attention~

~feeding frenzy~

~happily hungry?~

~the pile of plates halfway through. double that to imagine how much we ate.~

to the rest of the fishy people, how about one day we have lunch here? four of us recommend this place. (^_^)

We Have Stars Amongst Us

31st Placing "STAR" in Starwalk 2007 Women's Open Category


(click to enlarge)


The "STAR" in The Star newspaper on 24th December 2007

screw that

the revenge of the killer bottle cap

yesterday rerama and i had a terrible terrible time opening a particular chemical bottle...we employed several methods, and i'd like to share them with u [who knows? u might face this one day too]

#1 - try the blunt knife u see nearby. rip out the plastic ring attached to the cap
[but hey, the cap still doesn't budge]

#2 - oh look! there's a flat spatula thingy that looks usable. try prying the cap from underneath [hello....help....it doesn't work too]

#3 - let's try another knife shall we? a sharper one...the picture doesn't show the knife, because it belongs to the lab next door...and i ummm, kind of broke the tip...so i shall not put the photo just in case i get caught...

BLARDY THINGS DON'T WORK!!!

#4 - we got rid of most of the cap bits...but still no hope. then we had a brilliant idea! let's cut thru the cap and use the cap from the old bottle to replace this damn one!! yes...!!!

so u see, the cap looked as though it had been bitten and gnawed upon...but we didn't bite! [we used the neighbour's knife...but this didn't seem like an appropriate thing to do as i feel that one of us may have lost a few fingers in the process.]

THINK, think. what to do next?

#5 - added a rubber band for extra grip on the cap

#6 - used a cloth to help - the cap really hurts hands! it's painful... :(

so, we put in a team effort on the grand finale. one held the cap and the other held the bottle and we moved in opposite directions. [it was a funny thing this position, but we shall not elaborate, if u want a demo, we'd show u. so we ended up laughing instead....after a 1 minute break of laughter, we went right back to work.]

and lo and behold, suddenly there was a little bit of hope - something moved...
so we tried again, with all our might, finally!

we got the cap off!! yay!

the lesson learnt here: skip all the way to step 5 and 6 if u ever find yourself in this screwed up situation. or get a macho man to help...but sadly, rerama and i had no one to turn to at the moment. where's a hero when u need one?

:)

Illacrimo

A complete makeover is way overdue for this site. Since Nautica back in May 2006, this blog has not had a major redesign...until now.

Apart from a change in its looks, there are also a few other changes to the blog in this revamp. Comments are now opened to all. Previously, only members of the blog were able to comment but not anymore. It is also fully ported to the new Blogger interface as we say goodbye to the Blogger Classic Template. This move however has its own pros and cons.

We can easily add polls and other elements to the blog now but they are more difficult to configure and manipulate compared to previously. We also have labels and categories now. Search results will be displayed directly on this website now instead of another page and apart from subscribing to RSS feeds for posts, you can also subscribe to comments RSS feeds now.

These are the few changes to the blog. Oh, and the new theme is called Illacrimo. I don't know what it means but IMHO, it is a small improvement from Nautica. Don't you think so?

as independent as we can

some random thoughts on the eve of Malaysia's 50th independence day.

-seems like the "in" thing to do now is to fly our Jalur Gemilang. but is our patriotism measured by how big the flag on the building or how many small flags you have? after this, will you still drive around with your flags-laden-until-the-screen-is-blocked car???

-why am i not at padang kota/gurney drive/KLCC/putrajaya for the merdeka countdown? oh well, call me boring; call me stupid. i have tonnes of things-more-important-than-count-backwards-out-loud to do in lab.

-as much as i want to claim that i own myself, do whatever i want, go wherever i want; i'm still sober enough to know that MY.SUPERVISOR.DICTATES.MY.LIFE. (as for now...hopefully...plz god let it be over soon...)

have a nice day tomorrow.

Selamat Hari Merdeka!!

*~disclaimer: this is just an angst-ridden post by ikanrerama lamenting about her OWN life. it does not reflect the whole fishy people. capiche?~*

In memory of Rockey

"Here lies Rockey:
Son, brother and friend.
He will be missed by all who loved and knew him."

Rockey*, may your soul rest in peace.

*Rockey was a teensy baby rat...the cutest. A pest, some said. So he had to breathe his last. it was to be. he was laid to rest in the fish house grounds...even found him a nice tomb stone... :(

jerk, watch your derriere!

the damn celaka guy.
i am so proud of myself that i kept my cool...and didn't scold him (or rip his ears out off his blinking skull).

what did he do?

1. he tortures 4 zebrafish - by keeping them in the lab, in a teensy container (those choclair kind of container...dunno if u can understand...). it's been a few weeks already.

2. he put ICE into their water today. and just let them be while he does his experiments.

damn jerk. he made the water so cold the fish stopped swimming properly. they had sunken down to the bottom. and he didn't even give a wink when rerama made some sound regarding the fish condition.

couldn't take it anymore, i just went to his blardy container and started to pour out the icy cold water and replace it with new water slowly. in the end they seemed to have regained their usual prowess.

DAMN HIM.

but i am still happy that i didn't make things ugly by saying anything. haha. i am trying to be patient...BUT if he goes on doing this, i am going to panggang his behind and feed it to the haruan.

another candle on the cake

this is to wish a HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to hellerii and MoZF.

muahaha....dah tua dah....(O_o)

Take A Break

A little tired of lab work?

Washed out with tank cleaning at the fish house?

Blurry eyed reading journals?

Take a break...

Come over and play Bejewelled right on the main page of this blog!

;)

wasn't he a beauty?

steve irwin's really gone this time.

it is rather shocking to hear that he has really passed away because i've heard this sort of news before and after checking, to find out that it was a hoax.

well, i guess that's the circle of life...one day we all must go too.
may his work be carried on. he managed to give a voice to the animals.
(i just hope there aren't any other people who will go round yanking crocodiles' tails and pissing off tasmanian devils and the likes...)

yikes, watch out!!!

please be careful when u guys are in the fish house. seems that the diversity of visitors are increasing in our area. this cobra was caught by someone (HE is too shy to be named). he (...*cough...pirate...cough*...ahem...) doesn't want all the fame and glory. afraid that u guys might ask him to capture all the snakes around the fish house...


anyways, we called in on of our friends (something like spca) to bring this little guy away.

just be cautious, especially if u intend on walking near the grass/drain looking for lost car keys etc.

what's left of...

look what the strong winds did today...i'm glad i wasn't anywhere outside.

i took this picture on the way home this evening. the huge tree outside the bumiputra commerce bank was uprooted and landed on 3 cars. ouch! i do hope that no one was injured!

please be careful where u park next time my dear friends...

sorry for the bad quality photo...i was on a motor bike and yes, my camera phone is lousy...

12-hour water cut on July 16

A heads-up particularly for those with fishy business at the fish house:

PENANG: Water supply in 22 areas involving some 85,000 people will be disrupted for 12 hours from 7am on July 16.

Penang Water Supply Corporation Berhad (PBAPP) development manager Jaseni Maidinsa said the supply interruption was to facilitate important water works projects, like connecting new mains to existing ones in Jalan Thomas Bukit Dumbar and Bukit Dumbar Reservoir No 3.

"We are also doing electrical and mechanical maintenance work at the Bukit Dumbar Pumping Station as well as diverting a 900mm main beside Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia (LLM) office in Batu Uban," he added.

It is also to facilitate works to connect twin submarine pipelines to Pulau Jerejak to an existing main at the Bayan Baru Expressway and new raw water mains to an existing main at Sungai Dua Water Treatment Plant in Seberang Prai.

He said announcements would be made through the media and radio.

"We have also printed pamphlets for distribution in markets, night markets and hawker centres," he said.

Jaseni said the last water interruption that affected the whole state was in 2003.

He added that those who needed water distribution for funerals could call PBAPP's 24-hour hotline (04-5096509) a day in advance.

The places to be affected are Batu Maung, Batu Uban, Bayan Baru, Bayan Lepas, Bukit Dumbar, Bukit Gambier, Bukit Gelugor, Bukit Jambul, Cangkat Minden, Gelugor, Gertak Sanggul, Island Glades, Island Park, Pantai Jerejak (including Pulau Jerejak), Permatang Damar Laut, Relau, Sungai Ara, Sungai Dua, Sungai Nibong, Taman Brown, Teluk Kumbar and USM.

Supply to other areas and the whole Seberang Prai will not be affected.

Let's hope the 12 hours water disruption will really not be more than that!

money matters

have you guys paid your fees yet?
i cannot access my student email inbox. this is the first time i am trying to do this online thingy...something seems to be wrong!

any tips or advice from you experienced people? i have tried a combination of my user ID, upper case and lower case etc...but they keep saying invalid user name or password. as far as i know, i haven't changed the password from what they gave in the letter...

help...

A Curse Upon You

I hate thieves. The next thing I hate most after wannabes are distilled water thieves. I hate them so much, I curse they will be stuck here in this hell-hole until they become zombies and give up on dreams of a happy and fulfilling life. I curse their results they obtained from using the stolen distilled water will be all screwed up for at least THREE runs, that is considering even IF they are able to get any really breakthrough results in the first place. I curse their lives to be forever filled with snatch-thieves, swindlers and robbers. I curse their careers to be always plagued with problems, evil bosses and backstabbing colleagues. I curse them to be nothing more than just worthless beings that are looked down by everyone, anywhere they go (as if they aren't already).

Wait for your turn. Your research is important and so are others'. If you take just a bottle, at least that's not that bad but it's still wrong. When you drain someone else's container when it has been sitting there the whole day and already nearly full, you deserve to have your most intimate body parts (be it a guy or a girl, I couldn't care less) chopped off, grated, sliced, shreded, crushed in a blender, passed through the grinder machine, put in an oven to dry and go through the whole process once more. Others should not be punished for your incompetence at not being able to plan your research properly. You can just FUCK OFF for all I care because obviously, you don't deserve to be here in the first place.

P/S Just so you know, my curses have bore fruit all these while with really devastating effect, so yeah I'm serious.

Of whales and chepah...

Close call: Whalers fail at IWC!

Sorry to those who aren't interested about the whales...but here's the second part of my post:

Happy Birthday Chepah!!!

we hardly see you around, but hope that you are in the best of health and state of being. wish you all things wonderful on your birthday...god bless.
thanks for being a great friend!

-lotsa best wishes from kryptiq-
when u want to belanja us? ;)