Mirror, mirror, who is the prettiest guinea pig of them all.

A random picture taken out of boredom. My mum bought me a pocket mirror from Turkey and I was playing around with it with my guinea pigs. One of them got scared after looking its own reflection. While this one, just stood there stone. Haha… Cute little animal they are.

In October, I submitted my photos for MYC’s Veet Stand Out Challenge. Was just giving it a try and to my surprise, I received an email from them informing me that my picture will be out on the MYC’s November issue. I got so excited that I was impatiently waiting for the magazine to release.

On the day when the magazine was distributed in college, I received a sms from a friend questioning me why my name is under Taylor’s College?

So I called up a friend that is working with MYC and told him about the typo error. Immediately, they corrected the one of the website.

According to one of my college mate, it seems like most of the time students from APIIT got mistaken for another college. Makes me wonder what is so wrong with APIIT? We may seem nerd coming from an IT college, but we do know how to rock!

Anyway, it’s almost end of the month and I still haven’t received any news from MYC to whatever is going in. Frankly speaking, I never like how MYC does things. Even the website is not up to date most of the time. But I admit that their magazine’s contents and layout have improved a lot over the years.

Personally, I thought my team would at least get second place for this round. But turn out that we lost and one of my team mate and I got fired. I guess my performance was not up to their standard as a Microsoft Student Ambassadors. Well, at least I gave my best. There are certainly more room for improvement. I was a little disappointed but the final decision was not in my control.

I told myself, “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

Overall, I’ve learned and benefited from the competition. I learned how to work under pressure, having to manage my time for the competition and my studies, having to work with new people and meeting deadlines. I would sincerely thank Microsoft for giving me the opportunity. It was a good experience going through the Microsoft Student Ambassador Apprentice Program.

Winning is not everything. Most importantly is that, I know did my best.

I believe God has better plans installed for me. Maybe it’s not in Microsoft…

After winning the first round of the Microsoft Apprentice Program, as a reward, Vico brought us to Madam Kwan’s at KLCC for lunch. They serve mainly Malaysian Cuisine. The place were nice and the price per dishes were pretty reasonable for their standard.

Over lunch, we had time to get to know Vico a little bit more as well as the duty of a Microsoft Ambassadors.

Somewhere during October, I received a sms from my talent agent - TFS Creative Co, to do an extra for Pizza Hut TVC ad. The respond was pretty quick since after I updated my portfolio. Guess it does play a big role for client to select their cast.

The shoot took place at Pizza Hut, Wangsa Maju. It was so far the biggest Pizza Hut that I’ve been to. I noticed most of the previous Pizza Hut TVC was shot at the same location. But who cares.

We gathered at 7pm and the shoot only took place at 10pm because they can only start shooting after the restaurant is cleared. There was a lot of waiting during the shoot - shoot, cut, shoot, cut… And the whole thing ended around 2am. The next day, I had Unix lab test and was reading my notes during the shoot. Haha…

Overall, it was really fun. I got to know some new friends and best of all, free pizza and drinks too.

There are different version of commercial advertisement and this is one of them.

Can you spot me in the background?

Let the Hunt Begin…

On the 13th Nov, I received a call from Vico from Microsoft and he told me that I was shortlisted for the Microsoft Student Ambassador Apprentice Program. I was taking a nap during that hour and didn’t know how to react after hearing the news. I was pretty surprised that I got shortlisted because I didn’t thought I would make it through the audition. Having to know that I hardly get this lucky in competition. Probably my effort pull me through.

Following are the schedule:

Round 1 - 15 Apprentice Candidates
* 14th November 2006 - Apprentice Kick-Off! & Week 1 Assignment Giveaway
* 20th November 2006 - Week 1 Assignment Presentation
* 21st November 2006 - Week 1 Candidate Elimination

Round 2 - 9 Apprentice Candidates
* 21st November 2006 - Week 2 Assignment Giveaway
* 27th November 2006 - Week 2 Assignment Presentation
* 28th November 2006 - Week 2 Candidate Elimination

Round 3 - 6 Apprentice Candidates
* 30th November 2006 - Interview at Microsoft HQ, KLCC

Grand Finale @ Zouk KL! - 4 Apprentice Candidates
* 3rd December 2006 - 2 Apprentice HIRED AND 2 Apprentice Candidates FIRED!

For our first assignment, our task was to do a presentation on any topic provided in a .NET CD given by them. I was assigned the Project Manager for the first round of them competition and we won. I didn’t expect to win because I didn’t think my performance were all good. But I was glad that my team made it through. As a reward, we won ourselves a dinner with the Microsoft Staff. For the losing teams, 3 candidates was eliminated. And thus, only left 9 candidates to move on to the second round.

As for our second task, I personally enjoy working because it is more interesting compared to the first one. The second task required us to come out with our own marketing strategics to promote a hand-held devices within APIIT/UCTI environment. I have believe that my team will win again.

Two (2) weeks ago, I went to Italiannies at 1-Utama for dinner with my dearest and his grandpa. I’ve been dying to go there ever since I read reviews about it, besides I’m also a great fan of Italian food.

The overall environment of the restaurant was pretty impressive. It classy and warm look are suitable for both families and special occasions. The waiters/waitresses were very friendly too.

We ordered cabonara, lasagna and lamb steak. The cabonara was good but lasagna was so-so.

The lasagna was pretty hard that I was having problem slicing it. Didn’t really like it though. I prefer it to be soft and warm like the one at Secret Recipe.

Dearest’s grandpa ordered a medium lamb steak but was too tough for him. One of their waiters was kind enough to help get it well-done.

Overall was okay. I didn’t have the chance to try their deserts because I was bloated after two (2) dishes. The next time, I will drop by for their deserts.

… our Software Development Project.

This is our group project for Diploma. This big mama, took us several sleepless night to complete and FINALLY, we had to see it go…

…for marking.

Yesterday was the submission date. We checked through the program and did our last debug before burning it into the CD. The assignment was over 260+ pages and hard cover binding cost us RM30. There was a project that is over 400+ pages, not too sure which group it belongs to.

One and a half year ago, Joshua and I had a shoot with Flamin’ J, Hartamas Shopping Center.

Two weeks ago, I dropped by Flamin’ J after my last visit which is about a year ago, for their appetizing nacho cheese. There were lots of changes from the interior to the menu. To my surprise, I saw myself on the back of their menu. It says “Challenge the Python”. Obviously the model is not included.

Then, there was a picture of Joshua on the entrance menu.

On October 17th (Tuesday), Emily and I were invited to Toni & Guy Hairdressing for a hair set. I remembered the last time I went there for a hair cut was about three (3) months ago. If price is not an issue, I would personally go there to have my hair done because they never failed to perform.

On that day, I had my hair straighten (temporary). It’s quite good to be able to try out new style without forking out any penny and yet look good with it. Well, rebounding is not what I want for long term because I have very little hair and it will make my hair look flat.

As for Emily, she had her hair curled and it does look good on her. Martha, another friend of mine also had her hair curled the last time we went there. The result was pretty impressive too.

Hair set thanks to Koo and Roy.

By the way, any girls out there would like get their hair done. Do let me know. They are constantly looking for models for hair set. Promise you, you won’t regret.