fiddling with pen & paper

For Nanaa & Dzulrezan. (Ongoing progress!)

As usual, I was bored out of my mind in ACC114 class (because I couldn't understand what the lecturer went on and on and on and on about). My hand will start to scribble. After a while, I'd get an idea to doodle for my friend. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my sketch book with me. So, the two lovebirds will just has to settle for a lesser quality (and lined) papyrus.

Oh, I also found my other sketch book. Turns out its been in my dorm room. Until last night, I've been driving back & forth from my parents' house to class. That's why I didn't find them earlier.

Saya Kamu

I made this today. During CTU151 class, just right after my presentation.

If you've been reading my blog, or a friend of mine, you should have known that in class, I doodle. And gossips. And sleep. But mostly doodles. I even bought sketch books.

If you can understand my "art", great. If you don't, never mind.

This one during the seminar. (You know, when my BEL lecturer lashed out)


In ACC114 class.


During PAD170 or PAD160 lecture.

Empty Wall No More

Ever since I redecorated my room, (MY, not OUR, I boxed all Intan's stuff) there has been one empty wall that I've been itching to fill. In my original vision, there was supposed to be a plasma TV on the wall, with a low table beneath it, where I place the DVD player, Astro decoder and others. Not forgetting my PS3, with Guitar Hero guitars mounted on the wall.

But, that's out of the budget, and I have to wait for 3 years for all of it (one for each birthday). I have to think of something else.

I couldn't sleep last night because I took a long nap in the evening. Somehow, my creativity seems to be at it best form in the middle of the night, because that's when I usually work on my room. Yes, I work best when other people are sounds asleep. Nocturnal being, I admit.

And this is the not-so-empty wall now.








Yeah, yeah. I know. The wall is still dirty. You can see some old tapes still sticking on the wall. I'll clean it up. Its a working progress.

A Day With Mum

It's Sunday. Of course, I spent it with Mum. My Sunday is Mum's day. The reason I'm still stuck in Kota Kinabalu; so that I can accompany her. So, at least I have to spare a day for her. It's not like I have any other choice.

My mum is in property development. She rarely miss any exhibition or seminar relating to it. There's IPEX, which I think stands for Internation Property Exhibition, in Sabah Trade Centre. It's boring, of course. But I'm used to it. Thanks to Mum. As usual, we took every brochure from every booth. Mum's research data of the competitors. I think it's bloody pointless anyway. Because Mum probably going to refer them for one month only, then she'll put them in the corner of her office, and let them collect dust.Well, there's one interesting thing there. The Edible Architecture Contest. It actually exist in Sabah, let alone Malaysia. I thought I'll only be able to see them online through the monitor of my laptop. Or when I visit a western country. Let me show you some of the pictures of the creation by Malaysian students. Can you believe the first prize is RM 1500.00!? Wow! And some of these "buildings" are actually pretty impressive, and similar to the real ones. And 100% edible. Well, I'm not sure about the edible part. But they're 100% made of food products.

Spagetti Eiffel Tower

We're not sure what this Eiffel Tower made of. Crackers?

Crackers, Jelly, Carrots, Dough, Candy & others Taj Mahal.

Licorice, Candies, Crackers, Jellies Beijing Bird Nest.

Cracker London Bridge. Look pretty rundown to me. Remind me of the song, "London Bridge is Falling Down".

Crackers & Grain Pyramid.

These are only some of them. You don't expect me to take pictures of all of them using my camera phone. Did you?

Doodle is Good

Mike has given me a link to an article. He said it's concerning me. Here's the link : http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/takenotedoodlingcanhelpmemory.html. I didn't know what it was about. And I didn't read the link, all I saw was health.yahoo.com and I thought "now, what disease is he connecting me with?" But it was a disease at all, sort of. It's my doodling habit.

Take Note: Doodling Can Help Memory
By HealthDay - Fri Feb 27, 8:48 PM PST

- FRIDAY, Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) -- You might look like you're not paying attention when you doodle, but science says otherwise.

Researchers in the United Kingdom found that test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message's details than those who didn't doodle. The findings were published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

"If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream," study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, said in a news release issued by the journal's publisher. "Daydreaming distracts them from the task, resulting in poorer performance. A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task."

For the experiment, a two-and-a-half minute listing of several people's names and places was played for test subjects, who were charged with writing down only the names of the people said to be attending a party. During the recording, half the participants were asked to simultaneously shade in shapes on a piece of paper without attention to neatness. Participants were not told they were taking part in a memory test.

When the recording ended, all were asked for the eight names of those attending the party as well as eight place names mentioned in the audio. Those asked to doodle wrote down, on average, 7.5 names and places, while those who didn't doodle listed only 5.8.

"In psychology, tests of memory or attention will often use a second task to selectively block a particular mental process," Andrade said. "If that process is important for the main cognitive task, then performance will be impaired. My research shows that beneficial effects of secondary tasks, such as doodling, on concentration may offset the effects of selective blockade."

In everyday life, Andrade said, doodling "may be something we do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task, rather than being an unnecessary distraction that we should try to resist doing."

You know what I want to do? Print this article out. And hand it the lecturers. This way they can't piss off at me when I'm caught doodling in class, again.

Doodling in Class

MAT 112:
Well, those who have skipped or absent from class before were told to write a letter. Because Mr Saiful needed them, so that he can write his reports. Something like that. We started on a new chapter. I'm not sure what happened in this class as I was only in it for 1 hour top. We're allowed to excuse ourself early due to English Week. We, as in those who participated in Boggle and Spelling Bee. The class sort of clashed with the competition.PAD 120:
For some reason, Mr Arnold started the class half an hour late. As usual, the class ended half an hour earlier than scheduled. We're studying about States. Not United States. But State. Definition of state. Origin. Factors. I didn't pay much attention thou. My mind preoccupied with my defeat in Spelling Bee. And something else. I pretty much doodled all the while Mr Arnold was talking.

Doodling in Class

CSC 134:
Mr. Khairul Anwar will now keep an eye on me in class. He's marking me as a troublesome student. Why? Because I argue with him, don't pay attention to class. He knew that my SPM results was very well, so he can not say I'm a stupid student indirectly. Instead, he told the class stories about how a student with good SPM results got bad CGPA. School & Campus is different. Yes, we are very much aware. In school, I never submit my homework; In campus, I, along with the rest of the students, struggling to finish our assignments.

Oh, and he was supposed to give us our first test. But he decided to postpone it, once again. But before he start his lecture, he quizzed us. No one even bothered to raise their hand to answer. I, obviously didn't. I answered him under my breath, and got everything right without refering to the notes. I think I should have, just to piss him off. He started saying that we need to read more, and understand what we read. Make an effort, all that shit. He also said that, if we failed on our final, we'll stand complaining and blaming. We'll blame the lecture for doing a lousy job, and complaint it to the board. On that precise moment when he said those words, I chuckled. Too bad he didn't hear it. I complained on the 3 week of lecture, the 5th time I attended his class. Not after final, even before the first test! I won't blame him thou if I fail, unless if he purposely flunk me, but that's a different story. I know he's a terrible lecturer, I should have never depend on him. But I won't deny that he's a terrible lecturer, and if I make it to the Dean's List, I won't give him any credit. None. Nada. He doesn't deserve it. Anyway, enough of him. Worthless.

PAD 120:
We didn't study anything. Only more information on how to do our assignment.

BEL 120:
We sang. Yes, we sang. "Like A Rose" by A1, boyband I think. I'm not sure. And then we're asked to write and talk about a person in our life that treated us like a rose, the way the composer of the song defined. Obviously, it's not my parents. It's Intan, my one-and-only beloved crazy-ass elder sister. People who know me, or us, possibly have an idea why.

Oh, I forgot to mention that this week is I Love English Week. Tonight, there will be a talent war in the Gym. Singing competition & Battle of the Band. I'm not going, thou. Have tons of assignment to finish. Tomorrow, the Spelling Bee which I'm participating in. Let's hope I don't choke and able to think out the words.

Doodling in Class

I only went for the MAT112 class today. CSC 134 was cancelled, thankfully. And I skipped CTU because I wasn't feeling well. Luckily I didn't go, because Ustaz cancelled the class at the last minute anyway. I'm still not feeling well. I'm going to sleep. Urgh, I hate it when I got the flu.

Doodling in Class

Finally able to upload the doodles at 3 in the morning. I guess peak hour last longer than I thought. I'm just going to show you the doodle from each class.

MAT 112 - Business Mathematics :
What do you see here? Like I said in the previous post, I rarely understand my own doodles. In this one, some see a duck. Some see a snake.

CSC 134 - Computer & Information Processing :Do I need to explain further? I don't think so. These doodles pretty much cover it.

CTU 101 - Fundamentals of Islam :Instead of doing any CTU assignment, I'm drafting my PAD assignment. It's always something like this in CTU class. Ustaz talk to himself, while the students do their own things. It is not due to disrespect. But because the Ustaz's voice is so gentle and slow, and all he does is read from the text. And his way of teaching is one-way communication. Hey, at least no one is ever asleep in his class.

Doodling in Class

Doodle of the day. Ha-ha. Well, since I doodle in every class, I should put up a new section in my blog. Yes, Doodle of the Day. I doodled this with a pencil instead of the usual black ballpen. I think it is obvious what the doodle is about. Almost everything that I think about, at that moment, maybe. Or my interests.

I only have one class today : BEL 120 - English. Miss Nancy was teaching us grammar, my mind went somewhere. The usual me not paying attention in class. Until almost half the class calling my name. I was a bit confused. What did I missed? Why are they calling my name? Or more like suggesting me to Miss Nancy. A moment later I found out the reason. UiTM's English Language Club will be helding a public speaking event on weekly basis. Yes, weekly! And all classes need to submit 2 names. The director's directive. Preferably a guy and a girl. And they're suggesting me. ME!

I don't have trouble speaking up in English in a room. Or to a limited number of people. But to the public, in the public? I don't do public speaking. Why?
1 - Tried and failed in primary school
2 - I can't pronounce words properly (I can't pronounce 'R')
3 - Stage fright
4 - I'm not charismatic
5 - I have better things to do.

Okay, maybe scratch out the number 5. But still, pick someone else, please!

Doodling in Class

I doodled this in Math class. I won't call any of my absentminded doodling as any form of drawing or art. Because they're not. And I usually can't tell what they are most of the time myself. Especially this one. I started this off with a tiny circle. And every time Mr Saiful wasn't look at my direction, I added another curve, connected all of the curves and lines. And by the end of the 2-hours class, it turn out like this. Whatever it is. My classmates become accustomed to me sneakily doodling while lecturers aren't looking my way. I just can't keep my focus on their teachings. Well, everyone has their own way of learning, I guess this is mine. Thank goodness I'm a fast learner, so I can understand what they're trying to say easily.

So, what do you think about the doodle? Hani said it's a goldfish when she flashed through it in Political Science class. (she excitedly said, "ee! ikan emas!") I tried to look it her way, and she was right. It does look very much like a goldfish, big googly eyes, wings (it called wings right?) and tail.

Speaking of big googly eyes, it reminded me of someone. ;p

Doodling in Class

My class was a bore. Well, all my classes today has been a complete waste of sleep time and energy. Except Mr Arnold's Political Science class, of course. As usual, I doodle to stop myself from falling asleep in class. Here's one. I don't even quite understand what it suppose to mean.