My Little Mousey

Introducing…. THE Micro Mouse!

Nickname: Mousey

Age: 3 months ++

Parents: Diane Teng Sim Lean and Lee San Nien.

Top view

Side view

Hahaha. Does this micro mouse look micro and look like a mouse to you? Hahaha.

We spent a great deal of time giving birth life to this mouse. Haha. It is in fact a line-tracking robot which can only track lines in the presence of sunshine. Haha. The thing is, we did not include front lights (in the form of bright LEDs) to enable to see the lines more clearly. So to those who are planning to build a line-tracking robot like this, please learn from our mistake. =)

Anyway, we are proud of our little mousey though it’s a little blind sometimes. Haha. Hooray Diane! We made it!

Not So Deprived After All

This is a story of how a Mak Cik Indon saved my day and made me feel less miserable. I was complaining a lot recently, mainly about how deprived I am in UTP; deprived of food, deprived of Internet connection, deprived of fun. I thought that I was living less of my life when I’m back here. I thought that life in UTP is so depressing.

Then, on the way to class on Friday afternoon with Diane, we saw a Mak Cik, hanging from the roof of the shaded path to Pocket D, with her legs trying to juggle and balance a ladder. We couldn’t understand what we were seeing till she shouted “Tolong! Tolong!”. Only then we knew that she was in danger; her ladder was falling out of position and she was hanging on to her life. Only then we knew we had to help her put her ladder back into position and help her down from the roof. So we rushed there and supported the ladder and helped her come down from the roof. She was in shock. She was actually painting the roof of the shade when the ladder went out of balance and there she was, hanging on to the roof with both her hands. If she slip, she would have fallen into the drain and suffered serious injuries. She was not wearing any helmet or any safety gear.

The Mak Cik was deprived of her own safety, working in that condition. She said she requested to be given another task as she was short and it was dangerous for her to paint the roof. Her supervisor rejected her request. If a taller man was doing the painting, he could have just jumped down easily if his ladder fell out of position. A jump like that is too high for that Mak Cik.

I am certainly deprived of the luxuries I should have, being stuck here in UTP. As bad as it seems, I am fortunate enough not to be deprived of my own safety. This struck me and I began to see how good my life is, has been and hopefully, will be. We often forget how lucky we are to be what we are, where we are and how we are. Seeing the Mak Cik hanging on to her life, I realised, life is not so bad after all. I went back home last weekend to get over my emo-ness and I am back to normal now. I don’t know when I will have these sad thoughts again but I will try to remember the Mak Cik then. =)

That’s so you, UTP!

This is my first post from UTP. I am back in this ulu, deserted, desert-like place.

Before I came back to UTP, I kept wondering to myself, how will life back in UTP be like? See, I have been away for such a long time, eight months to be precise, doing my internship in Penang and having all the fun I had as if to compensate for 4 years of quite-mundane life in a lonely town called Tronoh. So, I was afraid that I will not be able to like UTP (not that I really liked the life here before), let alone live here for the coming year.

All wasn’t that bad actually, in fact, everything seemed very familiar. The moment that cat greeted me on the walkway when I wanted to see my new room for the first time, I knew I am back. Cats are abundant here. Cat lovers, you will love it here in UTP. Haha. Apart from cats, insects are also making their presence felt. Students studying Biology can easily all get specimens they need here. Yesterday, Melissa literally cut off the head of an innocent cockroach! The buildings look the same too, I mean, how much can they change anyway? Haha. The best thing is, the orientation of my new room is the same as my old room; we still face the cafe, I still sleep on the left, Melissa still sleeps on the right. Cars still outnumber the available parking lots, the Mak Guards and Pak Guards still check for your matric cards and the food here still sucks. Don’t blame me for not liking the food, I was spoilt in Penang!

Not much have changed since I left UTP eight months ago except that there are so many so many new faces, a couple of new roads and the fact that I can’t remember all the shortcuts to my destinations anymore.

Welcome back (to myself and my batchmates and everyone else)!