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No excuse, but I have not been updating my xanga for a long long time...

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone....if there is still anyone reading my xanga, after a long silence...Hope that everyone would enjoy the last few days of holidays of CNY!

Life for me has been more or less the same over the past half a year... I have been working in Malaysia for 20 months!!!! Time really flies...Am with Accenture for the past 20 months!

These few months have been pretty busy with various involvements:-

a) Discover U.S. Education - KL '07 (http://www.discoverUSeducation.org ), the new name for Experiences 2006 Kuala Lumpur. It is an American Universities Education Fair. Have been spending tons of time on it for the past couple of months...For more details, go to the website and don't forget to register yourself as a facilitator or attendee! Do help to spread the words too~!

b) American Universities Alumni Malaysia (AUAM). AUAM would be celebrating its 30th anniversary this coming August, so there would be a lot to prepare for a massive dinner, which is most likely to be graced by our King and Queen. AUAM would have a CNY dinner on 5th March. If you are interested to attend, email me at chenchow (AT gmail.com). Fellow American Universities Alumni, do register yourself as a member at http://www.auam.org.my

c) Malaysian Mensa Society - Life goes on for Malaysian Mensa. Past few months have seen a 60th Anniversary Dinner celebration, Forum on Intelligence, Treasure Hunt, as well as a recent Scholarships Talk. Next in line would be Malaysian Mensa Bowling Tournament on 11th March and AGM on 24th March. More info, go to http://www.malaysianmensa.org

d) MCA & Lifelong Learning - This is something that I have started to get involved in the past few months. It has been great learning experience there and able to do my little bit to help out for the community. If you have any idea on how we could inculcate greater lifelong learning among fellow Malaysians, do let me know. For more info on Lifelong Learning, do go to http://www.lll.net.my

e) Recom.org (The Worldwide Malaysian Students Network) - Guess most of you have known me involved deeply in this website for a long time. As of now, it is hitting 9.3 Million hits! Scholarships season is coming again, so the website has seen a gradual increase in number of hits lately! Do check out the resources there at http://www.recom.org . Do utilize the information at http://www.tinkosong.com too~!

f) World Vision - Famine 30 . This is a nice initiative of 30 hours fasting, while contributing to the community. This year's event would be on 14 and 15 September 2007 at Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil. I would be there joining for the 3 consecutive years! Hope that you would join too~! http://www.wvi.org

g) YMCA - For the past few months, I have been playing volleyball and occasional basketball at YMCA with a bunch of youth there. It has been great relaxation, besides occasional involvements in charitable events there like Christmas party and Valentine party with a bunch of orphanage kids.

h) Various activities within Accenture employees. It has been great working environment at Accenture, where we get fulfilling experience doing the work that we are supposed to do, to add value for clients! Other than that, we get to involve in a number of Accenture activities. Among those that I have involved quite significantly in planning and coordinating including Futsal tournament, LAN Games, Pub Crawl and 2 of the upcoming events: Charity Hunt and BUM (Business Unit Meetings)!

Guess you can see how my life is very busy....and for weekends, if I have time, I would try my very best to catch up with friends. If you are around and free, do give me a ring or message (019-6888666) or email me, and I would try to catch up too~! I love to talk, as you know!

Other than that, another thing in my mind is my Chartered Financial Analyst Level 2 exam in early June. That's another headache. Haven't prepared much...So, have to buck up!

Life really just flies past. I am on the verge of reaching 26 years old...It is just so fast, one month by one month, one year by one year....

I has always wished to be blogging often, about my thoughts, feelings etc, but somehow, I have never been able to do it for a long time. Whenever I post something, it is more like informational...It's just tough for me to pull myself to blog more frequently on anything in my mind, to share with friends.

Today, has been a pretty good day for me... This morning, when I reached my office, an email just popped up in my gmail, and it prompted me to click on it... I was stressed at that moment...my colleagues crowded over...i was saying a prayer...and i shut my eyes....and finally, i dared myself to open my eyes...I managed to pass for my CFA...It's like a stone just dropped...I have finally passed....4-5 months of hard work finally paid off...i don't need to take the exam in December....only in June 2007...sounds like long, but it's like 10 more months to go....Spent RM1650 for the exam fee and online notes for level II. I wish I could get myself to study from early on....

Really like to thank all my friends, be it my colleagues, Experiences committee, friends everywhere, for being so supportive when I was taking my CFA. My stress level was very high then, but everyone supported me... This success is dedicated to everyone...

While CFA Level I exam might not mean much or even anything in Malaysia today, I hope to build up my credential. It is better for me to take when I am younger (not that I am young still). A lot of those in US especially would have celebrated CFA passing with a lot of extra rewards. Better job prospects, better increment etc. I would not have all those, but I would say that satisfaction that I could pass an exam, which is very difficult, is very satisfying....

I didn't pass with flying colours. I barely scraped through. I only managed to get between 50-70% in alternative asset, ethical & professional standards and Financial Statement Analysis. 3 out of 9 portions, I only manage to get 50-70%. Leaving me with only 6 sections with more than 70%. Passing grade is 70% or so.

I guess I am lucky. This year, passing rate increases as well. 40%, compared to typical 34%. Lady luck shines on me....

This weekend, will have a couple of post mortem for Experiences 2006 Kuala Lumpur. Have to move my room too.....and tomorrow, will go with some colleagues to donate blood at Pusat Darah Negara (National Blood Center). It's my first time. Excited, scared, but it's a good deed...

I have to start taking more care of my health...I shall not want a repeat of my blood pressure going up to 160:100 in early July. Thanks to everyone who cared about my health. I am trying my best to monitor on it... Sleeping more etc...

Finally.....Finally.... Experiences 2006 Kuala Lumpur, American Universities Education Fair is successfully organized.

Never before in my life I had organized such an event of this scale...This is really tiring, but really satisfying...Getting it pulled through and successfully organized....

While many would compare it with MATTA Travel Fair, PC Fair, Star Education Fair etc, Experiences 2006 Kuala Lumpur is nothing....only 4,000 attendees, including 3,000 prospective students.....

However, this event is fully organized by 24 young alumni, current students and prospective students of US Universities. All of us are 25 years old or younger. All are not doing this full-time, except for Hui Lin doing this dedicatedly for a few months before she started her full time work.

It is just so amazing that Experiences 2006 Kuala Lumpur is successfully organized. YB Datuk Ong Tee Keat (Deputy Higher Education Minister), HE Christopher J. LaFleur (US Ambassador), Tan Sri Dr. Lin See Yan, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz etc attended the opening ceremony.

A large group of media attended the opening ceremony as well. Bernama, NTV7, The Star, Nanyang Siang Pau, Sin Chew Jit Poh, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, NST and Oriental Daily were there covering the event.

Really feel satisfied. Really amazed by the hard work, dedication and effort put in by the rest of the 23 committee members, many volunteers, many supporters and many helpers.

Some of the stats of the event:-

4,000 attendees

3,000 students

44 US Universities

7 Ivy League Universities

200 Exhibitors

11 Sponsors

3 Donors

3 Supporting Group

1 Official Chinese Newspaper

9 Media

5 prominent speakers

4 prominent panelists

1 Official Booth Contractor

544,000 web hits in the website

20 buntings (6 feet * 2 feet each)

1 backdrop (10 feet * 8 feet)

1 banner (6 meter * 2 meter)

300 posters (17 inch * 24 inch each)

6000 flyers (A4 size)

24,000 bookmarks (8 bookmarks in one A4 size)

etc etc....

Thank you everyone for your support~!

Update for ReComers:-

ReCom's annual subscription is actually not due.

What happens is that ReCom's traffic outgrows the server size that we get.

So, we might need to get a higher level server, like VPS or Dedicated Server. The cheapest that we could get from www.surpasshosting.com is USD45 per month. That would mean USD540 per year, ~RM2050 per year.

Might need to raise fund from ReComers. Lets wait for the investigation below.

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Some ReCom Anchors are analyzing the root of the problem. It could due to some codes that are not optimized, or perhaps more seriously some ReComers/Non-ReComers try to spam/hack ReCom.org . Will investigate.

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Further details to come up soon. Hopefully ReCom would be back soon. Sorry for the inconvenience.