Visit to the Planetarium!

On 31st March 2012, I celebrated Earth Hour at the National Planetarium :D

"What?! Since when did we have a national planetarium???"
That was my first response when I heard our astronomy club was planning to visit the national planetarium for Earth Hour Day :P I bet some of you also had that same response if you didn't know we had one...

But of course, our planetarium (unfortunately) isn't as fully equipped with high-end technology as the ones in other countries.

Cool side thing... my friend Nicola HAS BEAUTIFUL NAILS painted like the night sky and outer space!

The atmosphere was filled with excitement and enthusiasm by people with interests alike. Most of them were all there for one sole reason: to be amazed by Malaysia's starry night without the interference of light pollution. And to be around people who enjoy looking at God's creation in the sky too. But, we were too naive.

Anyways at 8.30pm, the planetarium turned off their lights to show their support for Earth hour. And they supplied their visitors with DIY lantern materials! But we didn't make a lantern. We took glow sticks instead.

When the lights turned off, you could hear the sounds of people ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the sight of colourful, glowing lanterns and glow sticks in the dark. I was probably one of them :)

Our surroundings were so dark, I didn't really get to see the planetarium as a whole. It had a huge dome on top and flights of stairs from the courtyard to the main entrance, but that's all I could make out in the dark.

They had telescopes set up for us visitors to look through. I saw the moon, Mars and supposedly Saturn.

But honestly, the people working there didn't even know their stuff. Liiyung saw a reddish bright dot in the sky, and told us it was Mars. She took her iPhone out and used some astronomy app to make sure. Yup, it was Mars. But the guy who handled the telescope, told it was Saturn o.O

We went for a night walk around the planetarium. The purpose of the night walk is to see KL in total darkness because all the lights were off during earth hour. Well, they were SUPPOSE to be off. Unfortunately, the night walk didn't meet its purpose (and it was really boring actually), because KL's skyline was still shining oh-so-brightly. All the buildings' and houses' lights were on. And the irony was... Tenaga Nasional Berhad's building was probably one of the buildings which shone the brightest that night LOL

And that was how naive we were, thinking that most people would turn off their lights for Earth Hour? *scoff*

So after the devastatingly boring night walk which did not live up to my expectations, we decided to go for the real thing. The Planetarium! It was like Petrosains (@ KLCC) inside. With the exhibitions and written information on the walls. They had this section with breathtaking pictures that photographers took of the sky, day and night. To be honest, astrophotography looks really interesting <3

We also went in this anti-gravity room! More like for children, but we went in anyways. Hey, you can't blame us, there was a slide :P!

Other interesting stuff:

Periodic table

Astronaut training

Nicola in her space pod

Sundial

Oops, forgot what this is. But looks interesting ;)

Taking a picture of the moon with a phone through a telescope

Here's a picture of the real moon that I took with my iPod with the aid of a telescope:

It's a beaut, eh? I couldn't believe my eyes at first :O I know, we've seen tons of pictures of the Moon on TV or the internet, but seeing it with your own eyes on a screen of your iPod, is a marvelous feeling. Not the type of feeling you can get by seeing pictures. This is the real thing!

We looked up in the sky, and saw two bright thick lines in the sky. It looked like spacecrafts! It was stationary, it didn't move and it just stayed there for a long time. We were really curious and asked around, but no one knew what it was either.

Freaky.

We didn't have much time, and we were in quite a rush, so we just passed through everything. Didn't really read through the information in detail.

In the end, the event was not even about Earth hour for me. It was mostly about how much more I knew about astronomy (which wasn't much anyways LOL) and it strengthened my interest for astronomy. :)

Okay I'm getting sleepy and trying to end this post quickly lol goodnightzz :D

Fried durian ice-cream thingy?

The snow shall stay. Because I'm too lazy to edit the HTML to take out the code -.-

Running on 3 hours of sleep last night and 5 hours on Tuesday night. Thanks to the Biology, Moral Studies and Chemistry tests. Feeling tired, but very awake at the same time :/

And CURSE my high tolerance for caffeine. Green tea, coffee, whatever with caffeine, you name it... I can drink it and still fall asleep.


Anyways, back to the title post...

I ate this wonderful delectable thingy which I don't know the name of... but I will call it fried durian ice-cream thingy. And what it is, is self-explanatory. It's a small block of durian ice-cream, bathed in thick batter and deep-fried till crispy and golden. It's like the deep fried Mars bar of Scotland. This is the deep fried durian ice-cream of Malaysia. IT TRULY IS THE SHIZZ.

You probably have seen it before, but I have not, so let me pointlessly convince you to try them :)

Let me show you some pictures so you can drool as I am now:

It's hot on the outside, cold on the inside... *cough*like some girls*cough*

Don't let its façade deceive you. One bite of this baby and you'll be begging for more.

It is a little too oily though. So remember to dab off the excess oil sticking to the fried batter :)

So, today I went for a repeat of a slice of heaven, and to my disappointment... it wasn't there.

It was like a magic thing which came out of nowhere last week and now it disappeared. :(

Yes. It was that good, I made a whole post about it.

P/S: Why can't I see fried ice-cream thingies around anymore? Craving...

Nostalgia? Pfft.

Warning: Another depressing post coming up. Don't read if you don't want to get sucked into the vortex of darkness.....



I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me but...

I hate nostalgia.

I don't even know why I picked that word for my blog. Maybe I liked how the word sounded. Noz-tal-giyea. I used to love nostalgia. Y'know... the feeling and memories of better times flooding your mind. Now that I am older (and feeling darker), I dislike nostalgia. Because I know that it won't come back. That it has passed and it has gone. Thinking back and longing for better times just makes me feel more down because I know I can't go back to those days. Reading back old posts makes me feel like I want to go back in time and relive the joyful moments where everything was alright, but obviously, I can't do that.

Some things changed for the better, but some things changed for the worst. If not, most things. I can't bring all the happy times back. But maybe.. just maybe... it'll pave the way for better things. For improvement.

Gosh, I'm so dark and twisty. My blog is so depressing, unlike previous years. Is this what becoming a young adult feels like?! Shouldn't this be happening during my early teenage years? o.O

I once gave someone advice, saying life has its ups and downs. This is the 'down' part. There will be 'up' parts. Why can't I listen to my own advice?

I pray things will get better... they must, otherwise I'll go insane.

Post SPM results

Hello blog :D (Notice I'm talking to my own blog because I don't think there are anymore readers out there :p Except my mum. [Hi mum!] Gosh I should really lock my blog.) I have not updated since I don't know when. I admit, it's because I'm lazy and I just don't have the inspiration to write. And even if I did, it would suck, so you wouldn't want to read it. I haven't been practicing my English writing due to all the Science and Math subjects I'm taking you see. Yeah I'm blaming college. Did it work? :P

Well. Hmm. The events and emotions I felt this afternoon was... Weird. Not necessarily in a bad way, just in a neutral way. I don't know how to explain this feeling, but I'll try.

I got a B for my Biology. I liked this subject amongst my other science subjects. And yet I got a B for this. But I kinda expected it because of my paper 3. I wrote the wrong experiment, totally different from what they wanted. The obvious answer was there, but I myself didn't know why I did the wrong experiment. That was probably where my B was from. I was so sad that day. Everyone was jumping around and being joyful about the fact that SPM is over... while I was moody over my Biology exam.

The suspense of getting our results was kinda cut short for us. Because we somehow checked we got 7As and above before they even announced it. It was only a matter of who got straight As. I wasn't expecting to even get 8As, but it still is kinda disappointing to miss that ONE A that could've given you straight As.

Sigh.

But hey, we kinda 'celebrated' at Leisure Mall. Ate Vietnamese food and drank Chatime. It was great. I didn't know how much I missed my high school friends till I saw them today.

There were a flurry of emotions for me today. From super nervous, being in suspense as I texted the government for my results before I even got it (which didn't work btw -.-), to somewhat relieved, to a little disappointment.

So I don't know whether to feel Happy or Sad. I'm happy I got 8As but I'm sad I missed by 1 A.

And I seriously think there is a typo error with my Add Maths in the slip (which I'm not complaining about). It was impossible. I never got an A for Add Maths in Form 5. Ever. My weakest subject is Add Maths. My most hated subject is Add Maths. I kept asking Chun Hoong and Yi Huan whether I was seeing it right LOL. Miracles do happen huh.

People keep telling me to be grateful and all, but I'm kiasu this way. I've always been. It's me. If you didn't expect me to act like this, then you don't know me well enough. I am thankful for my As. I truly am. But my gosh guys, stop forcing the notion of being grateful to me and telling me I shouldn't feel like this. I get that you're trying to make me feel better and I thank you for that. But just let me mourn for my B, okay? I was one step away. So close, yet so far. Surely, I have the right to feel this way?
I once locked myself in my room for 2 days because I also missed a B for UPSR. At least I'm not doing that today. That's an improvement.
I'm not the most optimistic and positive person. I beat myself up for a lot of things in life. I am probably the most neurotic person you know. And the most regretful person too. Also I tend to compare myself with other people a lot. The always comparing side of me had a field day today because almost everyone around me got straight As. I think it's cathartic in a way. Instead of bottling it up inside, pretending and lying to myself that I'm completely contented and satisfied.

However, I genuinely do thank God for my As :) All glory goes to Him! Wouldn't be able to do it without Him.

Haha, this morning, I prayed to God that I would be one of the people going on the stage to get their results (7As and above). I got it. Should've specified about straight As huh lol :P

Okay. At least it's over. Now, I know I have to work harder for A-levels, because that's a whole different ball game altogether. Moving on.