Misc...

Remember my blog's title... well here's something that really fits it...

You get shortlisted by Khazanah, applied for unpaid leave for 10 days, pay RM 2k to go to KL, go through all the hectic regime just to get informed that

"We don't sponsor candidates to Carnegie Mellon University"

Oh hell c'mon, why can't you say so earlier? Why say now when I am already at the third stage???

That's the D-U-H-est D-U-H I've ever got... Feel so bad now... Only Stanford is my last hope... Need to get that waitlist into an admission (I'm acting as if I got Khazanah already. Maybe Khazanah should send a rejection letter into my face)

Anyway... Enough of disappointment, let's move on to some action movies =)

Your star:

MARK WONG!!!! (boo!)

*sorry, clicked wrong button... Take two and... action!

Your star:

MARK WONG!!!! (applause!)

I woke up today at 9:00 and was immediately mortified... I HAD A PLANE TO CATCH AT 1:40!!!! (Big deal, but I had other things to do...)

I quickly packed my things and proceeded to check out from Tune Hotel. Then I took the monorail at Medan Tuanku to KL Sentral... (I had to go to Cheras and my friend who once lived there told me I could take an LRT from there)

Unfortunately, he was wrong... I had to take a cab to go to Cheras... to Institut Perguruan Ilmu Khas so that I could retrieve an important certificate of performance for His Majesty YDPA.

AND THE CAB LEFT ME AT THE WRONG PLACE!!!! Time was ticking, and it was already 11:00... Gritting my teeth I had to walk 1 km to the place, AND THE MUSIC BLOCK HAD TO BE THE FURTHEST FROM THE GATE!!! Oh well, no complains (yeah, right). I finally found the person who had my certificate and luckily he offered to send me to...

CHERAS LRT STATION...

11:10 I arrived at the LRT station.

11:15 still no sign of an LRT. Malaysia's Public Transportation sucks...

11:20 Finally, an LRT

11:24 Reached Hang Tuah station, changed to KTM Monorail

11:31 Finally, a train to KL Sentral

11:36 Arrived at KL Sentral KTM station. Ran all the way to KL Sentral Station... Unfortunately, LCCT Bus already gone bye bye... I'm in hot soup now...

12:00 LCCT Bus left station... Normally it takes one hour from KL Sentral to LCCT. Remember that my flight was on 1:40? AirAsia policy strictly requires you to check-in 45 minutes before departure. I even checked with the ground staff which was boarding the same bus as I was...

12:50 Arrived at LCCT airport... Rushed like a madman to the self check-in counter... FAILED!

12:53 Checked the screen for the check-in counter. RUSHED TO THE COUNTER ASAP

12:55 Managed to check-in on time (talk about craziness)

12:56 Went to check the screen, the counter changed its status to "CLOSED"

Talk about a close shave! However, I was toally famished as I did not even manage to eat a single thing throughout the whole morning... As I was queueing for MacD, announcement was made informing me that MY FLIGHT WAS GOING TO DEPART SOON... Sometimes, you really hate AirAsia for its delay... and then they start leaving early ...

Arrived home at 4:00, EXHAUSTED!!!! Interview again next week @@

Robotics

R eally, I had quite enough,
O f this Robotics Competition stuff,
B oasting and bragging fills up the club,
O ften you hear backstabbings rub'd,
T hrow that gal away! They say,
I don't want her, she's no good, nay!
C onscience of soul, none can I find,
S cience befouled, self comes to mind.

R ude and impertinent, your action says all,
O verly confident, pride comes before a fall,
B ombastic and grandiloquent, humility's an alien,
O vertly intransigent, toleration's not craven,
T erribly, horribly, vegetably self-centered,
I ncredibly, incredulously, incessantly ill-mannered,
C ondescending to all, we're just second class,
S ometimes I really wished you all were last.


A congratulatory note to our Robotics Team (directed more to Upper form, Lower form guys are exceptionally unpolluted). Do think more of your character. Competition is one thing, personality is another. Unfortunately, the impression and atmosphere from the club is as though you are the "elite group". I'm especially disappointed with the way insults are hurtled and how people are termed "useless". Then comes the part where "they could have won if blah blah blah", "we could have won if bleh bleh bleh", "Kick that person away because s/he does nothing". And the way people talk is as if everything is attributed to him/her...(they know who they are)...What do SMK Bintulu people think about the Robotics Club?

P.S. If they were more humble, I would be very happy for their victory. As such, they aren't...

Ruy Lopez - Closed

For the Morphy's Defence - Closed Ruy Lopez

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Ba4 Nf6
5. 0-0 Be7

Now Black is threatening to play 6. ... Nxe4 (remember that 5. ... Nxe4 does not work due to the pin of Re1? Well, now it works since Be7 blocks the pin. Therefore White has to do something about his e4 pawn, and f3 is just weakening the dark squares around White's King. Therefore, the move played is:

6. Re1 b5

This move is played to chase back the Bishop. If instead 6. ... 0-0?! Then 7. Bxc6! dxc6 8.Nxe5 nets a pawn for White.

7. Bb3 0-0

This move order let's Black maintain options between playing the Breyer, Chigorin or the Marshall Attack

8. c3

This move is played for a few reasons:

(i) The Bishop on b3 maybe attacked by a future ... Na5 and thus needs to be preserved
(ii) c3 supports a later d4 advance to stake the centre
(iii) The pawn on e4 maybe attacked in the near future via ... Bb7 (fianchettoing the Bishop on the long diagonal and enveiling a threat on e4). Therefore, it is important for White to be able to play Bc2 to defend the pawn.
(iv) Bc2 takes a hidden aim on h7 and hides some ideas of mating threats and tactics AND also the Greek's gift

Up till now play has developed without a single exchange! (Normal in GM games and also high level chess to avoid drawishness). From here on we have some main branches of play:

8. ... d6 (also can be reached via transposition of 7. ...d6 8. h3 0-0)
8. ... d5!? (The Marshall Attack, giving up a pawn for a strong initiative and ferocious attack. Note that White's Queenside Bishop, Knight and Rook are still on their original squares...)

8. ... d6
9. h3 (D)












This is the only reasonable move. By denying the Bishop the g4 square White prepares to launch d4. If however, 9. d4? Bg4! (Bogoljubow Variation, -/+) And White finds himself in a deadly pin. 10. h3 Bh5 11. g4? Nxg4! 12. hxg4 Bxg4 and White has too much compensation for the sacrificed piece and a dangerous attack. The pin is still there, meaning black can regain his sacrificed piece with interest...

After 9. h3 we branch into some mainline defence:

9. ... Nb8
9. ... Na5
9. ... Bb7

9. ... Nb8 is the Breyer Defence












I will explain the ideas in a different post

9. ... Na5 is the Chigorin Defence which continues
10. Bc2 c5
11. d4 Qc7
















9. ... Bb7 is the Zaitsev variation

And thus ends our lesson for now

This is taken from my post in my school's website http://forum.smkbintulu.net


Well, now's the time to learn some openings. In international chess we normally follow some general principles. These are thus:

(i) Control the center
(ii) Knights before bishops
(iii) Castle early
(iv) Do not move a piece more than once in the opening
(v) Do not move your queen early

Of course, if the opponent violates the opening principles, you should also punish him/her. Sometimes this may involve violating the principles yourself...

Today we'll be learning an opening called Ruy Lopez or also the Spanish Opening/Spanish Torture


















The Ruy Lopez occurs after the following positions:

1. e4 e5
2. Nf6 Nc3
3. Bb5

The Ruy Lopez is a very positional yet potentially tactical opening. By moving the Bishop to b5, the Bishop attacks the sole defender of e5. From here on, we have three main continuations:

3. ... a6
3. ... Nf6
3. ... d6

... a6 is Morphy's defence
... Nf6 is Berlin's defence
... d6 is Steinitz defence

Of course, after 3. ... a6, White cannot win the pawn on e5 as demonstrated below:

4. Bxc6 dxc6!?
5. Nxe5?! Qe7! skewering the Knight and pawn (or 5. ...Qd4 forking)
6. Nf3 Qxe4+
7. Qe2 Qxe2+
8. Kxe2 -/+ due to Black's Bishop pair

Therefore the only logical move would be 4. Ba4 (The moving of the Bishop twice in the opening is in response to Black's weakening of the Queenside and is thus justified)

4. Ba4 Nf6
5. 0-0!?

Black cannot hold onto the pawn in the long run and faces serious attacking chances from White... eg

5. ... Nxe4?!
6. d4! exd4?
7. Re1! pinning the Knight to the King

Note that 6. ... Nf6 then 7. dxe5 regains material

I will post the others in a later entry =P Got complained of overdosage >_<

Sejarah

So long I did not post an entry, and so I decided I should finally pen down some of my feelings =)

This is more on 30th April's happenings haha.

As you all know (or some of you may not, whatever. An example of a useless sentence you should avoid when writing an essay...), I work as a Sejarah and PJK teacher in SMK Bintulu (for now hehe). Recently, I have earned the title "Cikgu Gila" from 4S7 and 4S1 students. From the information I gathered from my colleagues, I found out that they were horrified with my presence in class... another period of agony and torture. I mean, who would like sejarah? XD

NOBODY

Well, that's exactly the problem which I faced when I first took over the class. More than half of 4S7's students had beatiful red colours for their papers and needless to say, 4S1 was quite hopeless. According to the students, the teacher never taught them in class AND they never brought their textbooks and/or used them (quite different from our generation). They just copied notes on the blackboard day in day out and when it comes to answering questions, half of them didn't even know what to write -.-

All of that was to change the moment I got my hands on the classes

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

First rule: Those who don't bring Sejarah textbook will have a punishment of 20+5(n-1) times of push-ups, where n = the nth time violating the stated rule.

Second rule: Study Sejarah everyday because I may spring a surprise quiz anytime anywhere.

Third rule: Do not do something you would regret... I am known for my sarcasm and sharp words :)

Fourth rule: Topical test EVERY Thursday. 2 structure and 2 essay.

Fifth rule: Those who fail the topical test will be punished by (40-n) times, where n = exams marks and n <40

Sixth rule: Passing mark for 4S7 is 60, for 4S1 is 40

Seventh rule: All Sejarah textbooks are to be put on the teacher's table prior to examinations. Sitting arrangements will be reshifted to avoid "accidental stray sideway glances"

Eight rule: I will almost go in any single sit-in period available for me to continue teaching the syllabus and/or giving surprise quiz.

Ninth rule: If anyone forgot the name(s) of important historical figure(s), I will change his/her name into that person's name so that s/he will NEVER FORGET IT. Right now we have Nandiswara Wong Soon Fook, Amir Koh, Zaid Goh and Alaq.

Want me to teach your class Sejarah? Maybe you should think again =) But my stringent regiment does have its merits. From the mediocre 2 passes I got from the first topical test from each class, I now have 14 passes from 4S1 =)

And there's even a 98 scorer from 4S7 by the name of Kong Chan Hum

I feel so happy that they are finally starting to study Sejarah... I must admit, I love teaching this subject... And I never really hated it haha... (weird guy -.-)

History is important as it gives you a free A1 lolz... Good luck to everyone sitting for Sejarah SPM...