In between start and end

2 Things I Couldn't Give Up My Time For & 2 Things I Love To Do

Out of my 24 hours in a day, I just can't give up on 2 things - sleep and eat. I love my bed too much that I NEED my 8 hours of sleep. Or else, I will either be grumpy or don't have the mood to do much thing. Plus, unless I sleep early, it's hard for me to wake up early. For my meal time, I don't and cannot eat fast. I don't know how people do. And I don't know how to eat less. I'm okay with skipping meals though, but when I do eat, I eat a good amount... sometimes, even I find it too much but I always ended up finishing them lol. Except when I am full, it would take me ages to finish my food. Cos once I start eating, I HAVE to finish them... kalau tak, bazir and that would make me feel even worse.

One of the 2 things I love doing is writing. I write stuff I love to read. That is why I made this blog. It's like my own time travelling machine, cos I reread my posts again and again (don't tell me you don't). And I am glad I could improve my English writing this way. Imagine if I had no where to channel my thoughts and views, I don't think I would still be speaking English like I do today. I might have gotten worse grammar wise for the lack of usage in my daily life. Although, I have not learn any vocabulary over the years due to the lack of reading ( I write but I don't read lol... that is why I write rubbish that only I read haha). 

The other thing is making videos. I don't see myself as good bcos I only know how to use minimal editing. But this year, I was given more opportunities for it. This stuff needs practice and I need a subject, a theme, something to be based on before I could proceed with filming. I am both a planner and a winger. I prefer planning, but I also practically wing it most of the time. But bottom line is I feel like I am improving and I love it. Maybe I shall share my noob tips on how I make videos (not sit and talk ones, I'm bad at that) and ways I've improved them later on in life insyaAllah.

So those are all I have to say for now. Nothing much. I just wanted to write something while it is still November.

That day it was someone's birthday. As a friend, I bought la a present. And I have never felt so taken aback by the reaction.

I have a rule of thumb when it comes to buying someone a gift. Firstly, I would spend money on you. I won't dig out all my harta karun and give an unused item of mine. I invest my time and money on new item, so that you could feel my sincerity. Secondly, if I have no clue on what to get for you (bcos I suck at taking hints and I'm a cheapskate, so what my friends would really want would be out of my budget fosho), I would buy you something that I personally want to own. 

I have been keeping those rules of thumb ever since my primary school days. Every time I do that, I no longer have an attachment for those things and I hoped that my friends would like it just as much as I personally would (if I did get it).

I have heard someone telling me that people won't like the gift if I were to do that since it is what I like, not what they like. My honest opinion? Be grateful someone even had the consideration to give something to you on your birthday.

Honestly, I wasn't raised to accept gifts on birthdays. I couldn't even recall the last time my parents bought me a birthday present. Let alone my brothers. I could only remember the one time they bought me a birthday card and gave it to me one day earlier because my dad mistook my birth date to be 10/10 instead of 11/10. Still touches my heart just by the fact it was something the 6 year-old me least expected.

All I could remember from them was birthday treats. Now that is an annual thing, on every one of our birthdays. That's how my family celebrates it. With buffets and steamboats and sometimes, steaks and fine dining. Though I enjoyed them a lot... deep down in my heart, I really wanted them to surprise me with a present one day. It doesn't have to be fancy, just enough to be something I never once had.

It was always me earning it for myself. Sometimes, I do get jealous at people. Like the dreamy girl that I am. That is why I always like to give presents to those who least expected them, it made me feel like a godmother. Also, lowkey hoped it happens to me too.

I actually have a digital post-it on my laptop screen of my family and close friends' birthdays. I wanted to get eveeeryone on the list something, but unfortunately it's hard enough getting one person something. If only I have the money, I would!

So, I was actually very terasa when that person pointed out how "cheap" my gift was compared to what I was given. Siap check harga Lazada tu. Berkira tahap dewa kot. Padahal hadiah dia pun takde la bernilai mana. One sentence that really made me annoyed and had some sort of regret was "Lain kali aku belikan yang sama bagi kau". I said boleh je, but janganlah beli sama. Just bcos... where's the surprise?? But he said "Haa tahu pun kau pun taknak", as if what I gave was so... meaningless(?)

Oh how I wish, people could just be a liiitle more thoughtful.

UPDATE (29/11): Yesterday, I was hanging out with my friends including the person I bought the present for. Turns out, he never had such thing before. This is the first time he is owning one.  I don't know if he wanted to show his gratefulness or he just wanted to let me know... but that kinda made me feel slightly better than the reaction I got earlier. Cos I've always wanted to give someone something they never had before even if it was just something small and simple.

Dropping by,

The second speech contest I've tried out this year.

Compared to the Indonesian Speech Contest (read here) I had, I wasn't feeling good about this one. I was feeling less excited about it as the contest day approaches, but I tried telling myself "whatever happens, happens". I won't go into detail bcos I wasn't satisfied with my performance AT ALL. Nevertheless, it was a great learning experience. 

I always ask myself, why am I learning Korean? I didn't even want to work in Korea or be an interpreter. Is it really worth it all? 

Now that I have an answer Imma just say it. Because learning opens up a new opportunity. Whatever that may be. I actually did enjoy practicing for the speech. It didn't take me that long to go through everything because I knew what I wanted to say and it felt good. I learnt more about word structure as I was writing the script (and got corrected by it). I guess the prize wasn't meant to be mine in the first place, but I'm glad I participated.

I thank Ida for telling me about this and made it possible for me to join huhu. 너무 너무 감사! And Mun for believing in me 끝까지. I'm sorry I couldn't do my best after all your guidance and hardwork. I promise I shall learn more diligently and not depend on you alone when we go Korea hehe.

Speaking of which, I FINALLY BOUGHT THE PLANE TICKETS TO SEOUL!!!

I'm flying next year October during autumn. One of the outcome for this contest is whether or not I got the scholarship to study in Korea and will I be able to make it for our trip... Looks like we can now since I flopped the contest in the end hahah. 

However if I won the speech contest, it would give me another headache on how could I've afford living abroad with the financial state I am in. And I couldn't start my degree in February as I wanted to (not that it is confirmed already but still). So, the concern for it would multiple and I know I won't like it myself. As for the Korea trip, I already had a budget allocation (though it would be great if I could have more for shopping) but I'd worry less and only look forward to the fun part - planning!

I won't complain. I have no intention on quitting anyway. I need to understand what my oppadeul is saying without having to wait for the subs lol.

P.S. Thanks Shaza, Nadhirah and Ilham for coming to support. I was never available to support you guys and I feel so bad, but I would try my best in the future. Sorry yall couldn't understand a single thing on what's happening. Most of it... I didn't too lmao.

In case you didn't get it, the ambassador for this year's event is none other than uri WINNER oppas omo!!

So first of all, how did I enter this contest?

I've heard about this contest on Instagram. You know the ads we all hate that creeps in our igstory and on our feeds... That's exactly how!

When I first heard of it being a video contest, I was thrilled. Because it means that I can have fun making videos again. It didn't have to be good... I just wanted to produce something for that matter. I always tell myself "there's no harm trying" and though I kept procrastinating, I ended up submitting a video. A cringe-worthy one. Tengok la if you wish to.

The idea behind that video is simple. I knew I wanted to do a dance cover, but I didn't want to do just that, since I knew most people would go for dance covers as well (that's what Korea is famous for after all). 

This year's Talk! Talk! Korea consists of 5 categories - "K-Food", "K-Music & Drama", "K-Beauty & Style", "ETC" and a special topic for this year; "Peace on the Korean peninsula". So you are allowed to submit your videos based on these categories (can apply for more than one, but they will decide which category if yours are chosen). I submitted mine for "ETC" (bcos my video had elements of Hangeul and Taekwondo) and also for "K-Music & Drama" (which I know damn well I won't a have chance in but #siscuba).

Long story short, I made it to the final 75... fighting for the grand prize, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place. Since there are 75 finalists and 5 categories, there are 15 finalists for each category. Out of the 15 people, the rankings will be determined through online voting that happens weekly and as much as 4 times. Yes, brace yourselves if you are chosen as the finalists. Simplest way to phrase it is for each category, 5 people who lost the first voting are the 5th place winners, 4 people who lost the second voting are the 4th place winner, 3 people who lost the third voting are the 3rd place winners and the last voting determines the 2nd and grand prize winners. Hope that made sense. 

How voting works? Anyone with a Facebook or Google account can vote by logging in. Vote can be cast daily (by daily I mean after 24 hours since the previous voting). So, y'all can use all your different accounts to vote for one person or even everyone. Vote counts are renewed after every voting stage. So, you must work hard to survive again and again. However, voting only results to 40% of the scores, while the other 60% is based on internal judging.

I won 3rd place meaning I competed for 3 out of 4 online votings. Honestly speaking, on the second round, my votes aren't even that high compared to others and I was really surprised for the fact that I managed to surpass that stage. It was really unexpected to go that far considering how mediocre my video was. It's either the judges liked my work more. or that the other finalists who got more votes, were illegally buying them... God knows.

My personal thoughts on this? I hate when I have to bother people and beg them to vote for me or do me any sort of favour, and this contest requires me to do just that. To my surprise, my friends (especially my uni friends) were all so supportive and I'm glad I don't have to be so secretive about that part of me during these desperate times. But on the other hand, I can't help but feel like I'm being judged and that kinda made me feel a little insecure and slightly embarrassed.

Now, is the prize worth it? This part of the story is the one you don't see upfront. Yeah the prize they are giving are cool gadgets and a trip to Korea and whatnot. But of course, the struggle to receive that prize is real as well. 

In my case, I won a PC tablet. The receiving process actually took a long time. The contest ended officially on the end of August after the final voting. I received the email saying the prize will be shipped on September and received early October. But that didn't happen because Koreans have long holidays (Chuseok a.k.a Korean Thanksgiving) in September and it's hard to ship them(?) A month later, they emailed again saying they had to postpone the shipment due to few holidays during the first and second week of October and will deliver by the end of October instead. No doubt that it's a pretty long wait but though they did not update frequently, I still appreciate them for updating us through those emails.

Once my item reaches custom on the 25th of October, I was contacted by the courier company saying I needed a permit. So one thing I wasn't aware was that electronic goods in Malaysia requires SIRIM permit and there's a lot of procedures in applying for them. Also, these extra costs aren't supported by the sender which is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Korea and had been clarified (though was too late since I settled myself) via email as I've prompted. 

It took me a week to settle the SIRIM permit and custom clearance for it to ship to my house. The main problem is the fact that I wasn't informed on the product brand and model beforehand. In order to apply for the permit, SIRIM insisted on knowing the exact product brand and model which I didn't know. As I've mentioned the sender replied to my email quite late and as the custom clearance would charge extra for longer storage time, I knew I needed to settle it soonest. In the end, I requested the courier to open the package and get the product details for me, as how my annoyed dad suggested. 

For SIRIM permit, once I told them the required details, they sent me an email of the application procedure stating they will process the application within 24 hours for walk-in but 2-3 days through email. I don't get how the system supposed to be any different but haihh. I asked my dad to do walk-in since I was still in Melaka and SIRIM is based in Shah Alam, Selangor, just so that I could get the courier to ship the product to me soonest. The courier literally called me everyday for an update on the permit. The permit was settled within the same day (walk-in at noon and received permit via email in the evening). The courier shipped the next day or so.

Additional cost on receiving the prize? RM100 for the permit and RM116 for the custom clearance (including the handling fee by the courier company). Now was it all really worth it? The tablet costed USD250 and it's LG, so wasn't the most hyped brand for a tablet. I would probably appreciate it more if it was an iPad, but sadly it wasn't. I personally don't find a tablet to be that useful since I spend most time either on my phone or laptop to do work. I don't know if I would be able to sell it off for a good price as well. 

I guess the experience was all that mattered. I love the fact I represented my country since no other Malaysian ended up being a finalist and also, my video received so many views lol. For me to be part of a global contest, made it so honorable since it doesn't happen everyday. So I'm still grateful nevertheless, but not gonna lie this contest did gave me good amount of stress ever since the constant voting until the shipment process... I'm glad it ended well, is all I can say.

Here is a video compilation of the winners for the "ETC" category;

Thank you so much for your interest if you ended up reading all that. Sorry if I wasn't being that helpful. If you are thinking of joining next year, GOOD LUCK!! I know the struggle and am truly wishing you the best! Just believe in yourself, hwaiting!