Delaqroux inc.

Just in case you arent notified; "No Pads, No Helmets- Just Paintballs" is the name of our own Paintball team! Yep, we got qualified for the FlyFm Paintball Attack Tournament in Xtion Paintball Park, Bukit Jalil tis 30th of June and for now, 23rd of June, we had to attend a briefing session on how the tournamnet will go.

So, si, Delaqroux Inc Updates!!

Actly, we didnt even know where d paintball park is. Thinking that we might actly spend hours around the area just to look for the park, we figured that we should leave IPBA mighty early. Oh yeah, "we" i’m referring to? Actly, it’s Me, Lee, and… Princess Adam.. Can you believe it? He took hours just to get ready and by the time we were leaving, it was already 2pm. We got at the stadium at 3pm (exactly the time when the briefing session was supposed to start) and there were no signs of paintball parks anywhere.. No, literally, there werent any signboards to guide us. So, according to Lee and his brilliant, brilliant plan, we might as well just follow other team of three dudes like us (every paintball team will consist of three members) and, according to him, his.. uh… ‘balls’ will lead us to the paintball park.. After a few long walks, we reached the place where his ‘balls’ guide us to.. a national cheerleading competition.. WTF!?

That stripped us off straight of 30 minutes and now, we are rly, rly late. I wasnt sure who was the dumb one at the time; Lee for trusting his balls or me and adam to trust Lee’s balls.. Eitherways, we mangaed to ask some taxis for direction but all they could give us was ……… **utter silence** so, all hopes were lost.. and we started walking around aimlessly… only to find out a new sign of hope; A PAINTBALL PARK SIGNBOARD!!! (hell, i was so happy that we actly hugged the signboard)

Finally with the help of the sign, we managed to find the place. But something cool happen, jz the moment we arrived there (looking as dumb as ever), the organizer guy called out our team’s name; "No Pads, No Helmets- Just Paintballs". Caught the ear of other participants and yep, make us feel so proud to have such a cool name for a team *sob*

So yep, we missed the briefing and we just head back after knowing what kind of gameplay we’ll be in for the game (apparently, it’ll be a team deathmatch+ team capture the flag). Nevertheless, stay tuned for updates of our match, i’m Dark Delaqroux, we’ll see again; same time, same place, next week! 

Whew, cant believe i’m actly writing down a blog post to talk on the activity we did during LDV today. But hey, it was pretty cool and was worth a post. So, yep, as how i used to say it over and over again in my LDV Portfolio Monthly Journal;

LDV PORFOLIO JOURNAL JUNE UPDATE!!!
…doesnt sound rly nice.. bah..
DELAQROUX INC UPDATES!!!

Today, after getting another LDV assignment on some report by a god forbid woman called Jamaliah, we got back to the coursebook. As usual, Maam will just had us to talk about a debative issue (which suggestively suggested that she’s not that much of in the mood to teach us). But this time around, the issue was a ship wreck and here’s how it goes; gentlemen, we are having a ship which possibly will end up in sea bed 10 minutes from now. We have a supply of survival items here and each team of four will have to choose 7 of them. No more, no less. Godspeed lads…

So, yep, me and my team chose stuff and we had to justify them. So basically, we took an army knife, flares, rubber raft, floating devices, some flints, strike anywhere matches and 120 ft rope. what do you think? Nice array of survival tools eh? Afterwards, we had to justify why we picked on those items and generally, our main reason was to survive; rubber raft and floating device to stay out of water, flares, matches, and knife (to reflect light) to signal other passing ships and a rope for a lifeline. I think we presented out well but Maam wasnt impressed. Okay, fine, lass, we shall see what other ideas on how to survive.

Apparently, all they could think of was to bring things so that when you find a deserted island, you can live there. Something like axe and etc. so that you can build a house on the island. Some chosed a GPS device which i think will get busted up by the first contact with water. And Maam was greatly impressed by their survival methodology. She compared to ours and for the first time, she gave a grade of "L" to us; "Lame".

The hell, if you’re on a ship wreck, the last thing you would think of is getting to find a stranded deserted island to your own. Come on, get real! Our tools are basically to sign passing ships after the ship wreck, we never actly thought of ending up on a deserted island. What is this? Some sick fantasies of Swiss Family Robinsons? A side note here; that was the crappiest classic movie i have ever seen and to start building up houses so you can ’survive’ on the island like the god forbid family? The heck?!

All in all, most of the items i decided on was all the things i wish i had when playing MGS4. Comeon, you’re in a forest on your own in the game and yes, in order to beat the game, you have to find a way to survive with a greatly limited supplies (and a tranquilizer gun). Oh well, in case of we are in a ship wreck, who do you prefer to choose as your survival captain; a) Captain Dark Sparrow who took extra floating devices, extra fire making kits and a rope and a knife and said "with this, we’ll be out of here in no time" or b) some dudes who bring some other stuff and said "we’ll find some deserted island so we can build houses and hunt wild animals for food"… Maam, you gave us "L" for "Lame", we take it as "L" for "LIVE ON"..

Bah, all in all, it was fun. It’s just another lil lesson in another LDV classes and we were debating like hell. lolz.

p/s:
or c) Captain Preena who chose to bring a water purification kit and said "we need to drink clean water" :p

Delaqroux Inc updates!

Last night i dreamt on something rly weird; everyone started noticing my ear and start laughing at it. But the problem is, it is not my left ear that they’re laughing at- it’s my right (no piercing there). So i was wondering; "what is so funny?" and when i woke up later, my left ear is swollen. Okay, so maybe this has nothing to do with the prologue just now but, hell! MY LEFT EAR HURTS!!

Actly, it didnt really hurt much except after my trip to the candyshop.. THE F***!!?? What the hell am i saying! Argh!! The song kept repeating in my mind!! It’s stuck!! IT’S STUUUUUCK!!!!

Okay, so i went to the barber to get a haircut (Digg the new hair cut y’all! w00t!) and i reminded the guy that my left ear is swollen and it will be heavenly painful if you touch it. So the guy be a lil careful (though, a few times, he still jerked my ear to the sides a lil and yep, it hurts). However (a big HOWEVER), the cut was finished and as usual he will wipe the edges of my hair with a towel… and so he did- totally forgetting my swollen ear.. let’s do a lil rewind

*wipe* *wipe* *wipe and pressed left ear*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

and thus, my left ear hurts even more…

Crawford and lamb highlisght the fact that purchasing foreign products can carry high emotional implications, particularly when the loss of domestic jobs or national security is at stake.

Thus, in the intensified globalisation world, as insecurities about globalisation grows, loyalty to the nation-states increases. This helps explains why, at an economic level, the upsurge of globalisation has failed to weaken economic nationalism (Nayar)

Shimp and sharma developed a 7 point Likert mlti item scale to capture consumer ethnocentric tendecies (the cetscale) and showed that consumer ethnocentrism explains why consumers prefer domestic over imported products even when the latter are cheaper and quality is evidently better.

Netemayer et al found strong support for the cetscale factor structure and reliability across the four countris in his study.Netemeyer et, all and Kaynak and Kara STRONGLY recommend that researchers translater the Cetscale into other languages and use it in other countris and regions.

Mokhlis et al conclude thaT HIGHLY ETHNOCENTRIC mALAaysians consumers tend to be Malays who are less open to foreign culture, with conservative mindset and highly fatalistic attitudes

In netemeyer et al (1991) four nation validation study, the cetscale was found to be corelated with judgment of foreign product quality. Consumers who hold strong ethnocentriuc beliefs are more likely to evaluate foreign prioducts negatively than are those who hold no such beliefs.

In examing the role of demographics in influencing consumer ethnocentrism, several studies have found out that nmales, better educated consumers and those with higher incomes tend to be less ethnocentric (shimp, good and huddleston, sharma, shimp, shin). Meanwhile, several other studies found that females tend to rate foreign made products more favourably than men (schooler, wang)

The rationale provided for the observed relationsgips is that females, older and less educated ppl are more conservative and more patriotic. (sharma et al, Han, WEall and Henslop)

Younger consumers have more open attitudes about or are more postive towards foreign products (school, tongberg,wall, majorie and heslop; Wang) Han exaMIN CONSUMERpatriotism and its relationship with choice of domestic versus foreign products. He found that patriotic consumers were older- so does Mclainand sternquist. Mclain and sternquist also found that the lower the level of education, the higher the ethnocentric tendencies- but not ofr Han

Wang and Wall et all found that the higher the incomelevel, the less likely the consumer to buy domestic products.

Mokhlis et all found no significant correlation between gender, religion and residence with ethnocetriusm. However, the study shows that Malay exhibit greater consumer ethnocentric tendencies.In kuckemiroglu study 56 activities, interest and opinions (AIO) statements obtained from marketing literature was used to identify lifestyles of turkish consumers (well; Wells and Tiger; Mitchell;Anderson and Golden). The study shows that several lifestyles dimension exist which influence their ethnocentric buying tendencies-family concer…..etc.

Kucumirohglu showed that more ethnocentric Turkish consumers are females who are less eductaed, low income earners, more family concern and community concious.

Yep, this is my second blog post for tonite alone. Well, after the news i heard from Jem, i cant seem to get any sleep. Still thinking about it (yeah, seems like Jem wins the highlights for today). I went offline with her for around.. uh.. 3 years and the time i finally can get back to her; she’s married. She even got a baby? Man, i just cant believe this stuff. I’m happy for her of course. But i dunno.. at the same time, i feel.. i dunno how to describe it.. weird? i think.

The moment she told me that she got married; everything just like flashes in my head. All the memories with her that i have. It seems like yesterday that she complained to me that she broke up with Seth. It seems like last week when i saw this pic in her profile and i knew that she love Ciara. It seems still transparently clear of the image of her when i told her to smile when she was worried coz mike didnt return her call from campsite. It seems like our last night’s chatting session with her when i asked her "when will you get married?" I dunno.. she was like a pure teenager when i know her; Love music, found love so complicated, confused, love to make jokes, loves to swear around, loves to pose in front of cams, loves to post pics of her to me… and now, she’s all grown up now and me? hell… i feel so left behind. I’m still in college life while she’s already a mother to a baby girl. I felt like… uh… y’know. When you dropped something from your pockets only to realize a few hours later that the thing is gone. Feel sorta empty.. or something…

Come to think of it, maybe this will occur in the future. Maybe just a few years after hour life in college and every each of my friend will have news of their own when i got back to them.  Married… never know this word seems so scary. But even i dunno what i’m scared of. Well, maybe the sense that i will be left by some ppl and will need to leave some ppl. It’s sorta scary…

At this moment, i feel like i’m missing someone.. but even i dunno who i’m missing…

Dear Jem,

I cant believe how my pickup line works a marvel when i first met you. Not quite sure you remember my first message to you. Heck, i’m forgetting it myself so let’s do a lil recap; i asked whether is your myspace profile was a heaven coz your username that time was Angel. So, around that time, i used to call you Angel. Duh.. Haha.

But then, you keep on sending ‘distress signals’ all around myspace. To tell you the truth, i was getting tired of your infinite bulletin posts about you having love probs. So, one day, i descided to reply on one. Suprisingly, you told me how you appreciated my reply. Before i know it, i started to tell you my own personal problems as well. At that time, i dint have anyone to turn to when i have some probs on my own. But, you were there. Although you were having some probs yourself, we both pondered on to think of both sides problems. In the end, i cant deny; your presence meant a lot. With your username "Angel", i was about to believe you are one.

But then, we exchanged real names. Mine; Adnin and yours; Jem. I bet you didnt believe i was a Malaysian (and a Malay). True enough, i cant believe you”re a Japanese. With a twist of Philipino? Even more awesome! haha. Here’s a secret; remember the time when i suddenly call you a ‘crybaby psychotic woman’ after your bulletin post where you claim that men are a bunch of assholes? Well, i meant it. You are crazy. But then, i guess because of both our craziness we became best friends. guess we just have the same pair of wings huh?

But, later, i finished school and both of us started working so we seldom get to talk with each other on messanger anymore. Even worse, you delete your myspace profile and myspace was neevr again the same without you. Soon later, i abandoned my profile as well. let’s just say, Dark Delaqroux’s was alive because of an angel. When the angel is gone, there’s no reason for Dark to stay. Finally, i wished you goodluck for your life and you wished the same with mine. And it was our last message ever since. I still promised to keep in touch and so do you.

Today, you fulfilled your promise. Funny that i was thinking of you when your message came in. I thought my crazy Jem’s back. but i never know that you have got married. haha. It’s weird. You finally settled for good and i felt that you just told me your break-up problems yesterday. And yeah, you even had a baby girl? Man, i cant believe it! You can never imagine how happy i was at that time! Congratulations, Jem! Omedetoo! (the first Japanese word you thought me). just hope that you dont name your baby; Ciara. haha. But now that Mike’s your husband, there wont be much distress signals coming from you no more right? haha

Damn, Jem, i’m so proud to be your friend. To put it more specific, i’m glad i was saved by you (although, often you claimed that i am YOUR angel). But hopefully, we can still be bestfriends like how it was supposed to be. You dont know how happy i am to have you back. Hope we wont lost contact again. Oh yeah, i fulfilled my other promise as well. I removed my hood and I have opened up my wings (although they are still grayish from last time). Here; i think i’m gonna make a new promise. Whenever i soar the skies again, i’ll let you know that this pair of wings are not mine- they are yours.

Thanks jem.

Love, Dark aka Darkie

Delaqroux inc updates. I just saw that Manager just uploaded some shots of us during the barbeque night and the FRIM trip (which during both of those events, my camera phone was out and i couldnt take even a single shot for myself). Okay, both of them are cool but something just struck me; the caption for the group shot during the barbeque night.

It seems that Manager take great importance of us being all together as he actually ‘announced’ that that shot was our first shot (of 2.5 students all together). The same happened after the photo was taken during the two events. He seemed glad that all of us were able to be there for the shot. Now that got me thinking; i dont feel anything even if that was our first shot with all of present. Is being together still means nothing to me? I dunno. I have this feeling that i dont care whether people are together or not. i’m not saying that i liked this feeling. In fact, i hate it. Why cant i think togetherness is important? I still remember the time when i broke off with Moon. Yeah, i feel lonely.. but i dont feel sad. That’s the problem, i feel lonely and i’m scared of being lonely.. but i dont care if i’m alone.. I’m not worried if i’m alone… i dont care if people are not together..

Is it important to be together?

Gaaaa… this might be the worst update i ever wrote.. well, let’s just say i… i mean… the world… is spinning around me… I feel sick…

Great way to start a two week holiday huh? I feel sick.. Somehow, everything is like spinning around me now… and it’s making me dizzy… feels like… ughhh… **holds mouth**.. Okay, i think i got some food poisoning coming.. too much acid in my stomach at the moment now i guess.. No, seriously, i think i ate too much of those preserved plum candy thingy for dinner… and yeah…. drink some soursop juice as well… Hahaha… ha… urk… hell, how am i supposed to sleep with this.. and why is the night so long? Why cant it be morning already in just another few minutes.. I think i need a doc… Geez man…

One last sentence of enlightment; NEVER eat that plum candy again… **drops dead in front of PC monitor**

The longly awaited day of the FRIM trip have arrived and this morning, instead of having our usual boring classes, we were given the honour of visiting FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) and thus, another Delaqroux Inc Update was written…

So, we arrived there at around 8.30 and after a briefing and a quick breakfast, we departed for the canopy walk. At first, it was a walk in the park but later on, it turned out more to be hiking than walking. I dont really have any idea on what the canopy walk is like and i figured that it is some kind of a trekking under the lush forest. Actually, it is a bridge walk ABOVE the forest canopy and believe me, it wasnt a convincing looking bridge… and a survival assuring distance to drop as well. but, let’s just say that it would be a shame to miss out such cool experience such as this so we all risked our arses on the bridge in the end. No prob, no casualties… except for one girl during the trip down the hill. Going up was okay (where it turned to be more of a race as i was trying so hard to catch-up with the tour guide so that i wont miss no explanation) but going down is a different thing. The route wasnt properly built and most of them are covered with roots, rocks, more roots, more rocks, and in some places, even more roots. Quite challenging, if i may add, as i did slipped once but managed to stay on my feet. But in all, it rocks! No, not talking about the rocks along the route but it’s an adjective. Downhill hiking really rocks!

Well, we did a lot of other things there (including seeing an overgrown Arapaima… scary) but really, the hiking was a great highlight of the class outing. Well, i dunno. I’m sorta geared up for another hiking now. lolz. guess there are some outdoor activities that i like and i’m good at. ^^