Summer

A season of hope
of fears
of dreams

A time to
discard the old
welcome the new

Some say this
is what you do in spring
when the birds and the bees
are out in force

I disagree

Summer
is when change reigns
is when life bursts forth
but most importantly

summer
is when there are
no exams

Spring exams

They always result in you studying inside, while the sun and the bright blue sky taunt you by shining brightly through the windows.

It can get depressing sometimes.

In other news, I really should re-immerse myself in creative writing over the coming break, let the ideas flow forth from onto paper, or let these ideas take shape on a computer screen. Preferable to sitting around and doing absolutely nothing.

Information deluge

A broadband connection is a wonderful thing: it allows you to connect to the internet, which then brings in a constant flow of information right into your lap. Anything you need, anything you want, you'll get it.

But who should we put in charge of a broadband connection? The two most likely people who can be put in charge of this connection are companies and governments.
If you let an internet service provider (ISP) do it, they'll be interested in making money, not just providing service. And that means people who don't earn enough money to afford a broadband connection won't be able to access the information some of us take for granted.
If you let the government of a country do it, they'll be interested in protecting their position in power, which leads to censorship issues... which may or may not be a good thing for the people of the country.
Conclusion: the best options we have for now are not the best options.

Someone should pioneer a method to allow humans to connect to the internet directly without the need for a new interface. For all we know this could utilise existing technology, and everyone around the world would be instantly connected to massive amounts of information.

Scrabble

I wonder if I should bother getting back into Scrabble. There's a new wordlist coming out for next year... which I find to be rather similar to a new patch for computer games.

If life was a game, this is how it might look like

start

define:
energy_max = 10; //maximum energy available to perform a task, also starting energy
xp = 0; //starting experience
task_action = 0; //0: no task has been assigned, 1: task has been assigned
task_status = 0; //0: task not completed, 1: task completed
task_count = 0; //starting number of completed tasks player has

while task_action == 1 and task_status == 0 //task has been assigned but not completed
energy_max = energy_max - task_energy;
if energy_max < 0 //check that character has enough energy to carry out assigned task
then print("Not enough energy, need energy boost. Task will be aborted.") //warn player that extra energy is required to complete task
else xp = xp + task_xp; //increase player's experience from completing task
task_status = 1; //task completed
task_action = 0; //assigned task has been completed
task_count = task_count + 1; //note number of player's completed tasks
end

Lure

Aaaahh.. It's been a while since I've written anything in here. So many things to do, so little time. Small wonder that I've pretty much left this by the wayside, even though I did try to encourage myself to write something by designating this blog as my homepage. Wonder why that move didn't really work out.

With classes starting again next week, I'm sure I'll be able to find further inspiration to write things here again. There must be something in life to inspire people to do things, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to find that spark.

Exams

I'm bored.

The Youth of the Nation

How is it possible that people complain so much about voting fraud in Malaysia, and yet when a similar thing happens over here in uni, nobody says anything to the people in charge? Sure, the consequences don't seem very much on the surface. It's nothing on the scale of leading a country into ruin, at most you'll just be ruining a perfectly good club.

However when you delve deeper, you start thinking about other things. University students are involved here. As the clichéd saying goes, the youth are the leaders of the future. If they learn that power is easily obtained through manipulation, what's stopping them from using their power to continue their manipulation to stay in power? And hence you can sense a vicious cycle starting already.

The sad thing is the current constitution for said club allows for this sort of voting fraud to take place, simply because there is no provision for the closing of registration of new members [and hence new voters] prior to the Annual General Meeting. Little wonder that people tend to exploit this for their purposes.

But as they say... if you live by the sword, you tend to die by the sword. Just beware of the temptation of power, people.

Do sheep dream of farmers jumping over fences?

Wastewater treatment methods are boring now.

Online Gaming

It's debatable as to whether it has detrimental effects overall, but I find it to be a good barometer of a person's teamwork skills. In fact, I did draw upon my online gaming experiences to answer a personality test recently, and I found the results interesting.

Heh. Suggesting that online team gaming has benefits = priceless.

Night Market again

*yawn*

It's on every year, but someone decided this year should be different. There's a Geek Central gaming booth set up this time round, as though people would be interested in playing while eating exotic food. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case.

Anyway it's time for us to make some money.

RPK and Nurul Izzah Live in Melbourne

Never in my life have I laughed so hard. RPK is a seriously good orator, no doubt about that there. Nurul Izzah isn't too bad either, it's just that RPK knows how to engage an audience like us.

It was an education just attending the talk. Just taking a look at the audience, you can see that students in Melbourne are definitely worried about the situation of the country. And the same goes for all the ex-Malaysians in the audience tonight. Even though they were white-haired and had hearing aids and all, they were still loyal enough to attend the forum. A salute to them for turning out!

And then the forum itself.. Basically there was a lot of political talk. Even so, it was dumbed down enough for us to understand that there is so much corruption and fraud going on in the country. However, the main event had to be RPK taking the stage. Every other sentence he spoke was met with guffaws and hearty laughter. It's quite easy to see how he's such a lovable personality, with the way he connects with us.

All in all, it was a great experience :)

Silence

Yawn.

In Melbourne.... again :)

So I'm back. And now I have some house moving to do.

With classes just starting too, there's just so much to be done. Time to dig in and get some work done :)

Off

So..... I'm off to Melbourne in 3 days, and that means leaving this country behind. Some days I wonder whether that's the right thing to do.

Channel

Malaysians are a passionate, energetic lot. We care a lot about our ideals, that I'm sure of.

But why just stop at trying to name and shame the poodle abuser? Why not go on and try to achieve greater deeds with the power of the people? The French did it with the storming of the Bastille. And now in the Middle East, with the Tunisians and the Egyptians doing it too, isn't it time for us, the humble rakyat of Malaysia, to stand up and speak out? We don't have to talk about ousting the present government [if that's what Najib is worried about], we should probably start with cleaning out corruption first.

Stand up.
Speak out.

I guess that's what Malaysia needs, a knowledgeable and vocal public.

Just waiting

2 weeks to go now... Hopefully the weather in Melbourne clears up, otherwise we'll all be walking in summer thunderstorms for the first few weeks of classes.

Can't wait to get back to Melbourne :)

"bzzzzzzzt..."

And that was the sound of the arrow of time zipping by your ears.

So it's been 2 months since I got back from Melbourne, and a month and a half since I went back to work. That leaves me with about a month's worth of time left here in Malaysia.

I wonder what I'll do with that remaining time.... any suggestions?

Books

After working amongst books for a month, I've been doing some amount of thinking about all the books - English and Malay books in particular.

English books: For some reason, the bestsellers are books that were turned into films. Good examples of such books would be Eat Pray Love, and Norwegian Wood [written by some Japanese author]. Conclusion: Get a movie deal, you'll be able to become a bestseller in no time.

Malay books: It's not totally true that they only have one theme. They actually have two major themes - religion, and romance. Does this accurately reflect what the Malays read most? If it's an accurate reflection, then it says a lot about their mentality and psyche.

That's all for now I guess. Will get round to more reflections when I have time.

Coffee

I once said that the Internet was the most useful thing invented. Well, the discovery of coffee should rank as the third most useful thing then. [I forgot the second most useful thing.]

It's pretty much the only thing that actually works to keep me awake nowadays :)

Managing people

It's a life skill. Without it, you suffer hard. Especially if you're in a managerial position. And you won't see it, but people will start talking about you behind your back. It's an unenviable position to be in.... having power, but not having the support that you'd need to stay in power.

"Sorry, can't afford to go overseas"

Apparently there are plenty of people with that dilemma. One wonders how the misconception of the "rich Chinese" really came about.