Friends

I have 3 types of friends - acquaintances, good friends and close friends/inner sanctum. Like the colours of the rainbow, the boundaries aren't clear at all, so don't take anything I say here to heart.

#1. Acquaintances - I know you guys for a short time, haven't really known more about you than just your name and where you stay. Mostly known through social gatherings and introduced through friends. We'd hardly meet in uni or on the streets.

#2. Good friends - I've known you guys for at least 3 months and counting. Probably would have trusted some of you with my history, so you'd know something about me from secondary school, or even further back. Usually people whom I meet at social gatherings, and then bump into regularly at uni. Oh, and we'd most likely sign up for events together.

#3. Inner sanctum - I've been into your house at least once, and stayed overnight at least once as well. Might not know you guys for long, but we see each other regularly enough to be comfortable. People whom I "trust" with secrets, and who trust me with theirs as well. We're gonna rule uni with our ways. And we're the core of any gatherings we plan.

So it is good that I have some amount of people in my inner sanctum to dig me outta the mud I sank into. Thanks to you guys, I'm more or less stable again. I owe you guys one.

What I would give to get a sign from up above
Letting me know that everything would be okay
I wish someone would pull me up from outta the mud
Will anyone out there
Say to me
I'm here
For you
Don't worry
Cos I've got you
I've got you baby
Don't dread
Don't sweat
My life seems to be heading
Over the edge
-Over the Edge, Akon-

Erratic

Lately I haven't been sleeping properly. I'd go to my room, try to read a book, then I'd get my head down on the pillows and sleep. And then I'd get up at 2 am the next morning. Which really isn't very productive at all.
I know I need help, but I can't find somebody trusted enough to discuss this with. Unless....
Any suggestions, anyone listening?

Forgotten part 3

if i were to disappear for a day or two
i wonder
what my friends would do
or what they'd say

since i'm invisible
they might not know to ask
"what's wrong?"
or
"what's the problem?"
i don't wear my heart on my sleeves
so nothing is apparent

but when you're the one suffering in silence
nothing is fun
the day is gloomy
the day is gone
ice forms in your heart and mind
you'd snap at anything that talks to you
or you'd just snap without warning
and rampage through whichever unfortunate
soul standing in your way

Super Junior fever

Thanks to my good friend in Malaysia, and another good friend over here in Melbourne, I'm now addicted to Super Junior, and more specifically this song. Enjoy!

Dead blogs

Blogs don't die out in one shot unless someone decides to assassinate it. Blogs die when we neglect them. And usually nobody bothers to resuscitate it, leading to a painful and slow death.

Somehow the Commerce students seem to have more stuff to do, causing them to ignore their blogs. Or maybe it's just me and them, the difference between us. I don't know, and honestly, I'm not really bothered.

Or maybe I'm a slacker, one of the worse slackers.

Box Hill

Half an hour from my place. I go there regularly now, but so far only one of my friends has been up there with me. Maybe it's just me, but I can say that I love exploring. I've been around quite a bit, and I'm planning to go further out if I can, or get the opportunity to. For one, I haven't been out to Doncaster or Glen Waverley. So I'm gonna find my way around while I still have my monthly passes. Once I move down to the city I doubt I'll do a lot of weekly suburb trips. Maybe once in a while, I'd travel.

But I'm going to treasure this time now while it lasts. Suburbs are quiet, and the scenery is good pending on the suburb.

Sleep - it's optional

I finally broke my awake streak yesterday at 38 hours, by sleeping at 9 last night.

And I still managed to go for badminton today.

So I've confirmed 2 things - I'm solar-powered, meaning I'm a day person, and I'm also a random sleeper - I don't sleep at fixed times.

And I've just remembered one thing - even though I'm staying in the suburbs and I've gotta get up earlier than most of my other friends, I still sleep later than those in the city itself.

I'm just plain crazy.

37 hour run... again.

Hi, it's me again. That crazy impulse to ignore natural sleeping instincts has kicked in again. Oh wait - that's for tonight. Last night was another story altogether. That was "forced" due to us watching Cape No. 7 and also playing Gears of War for the early morning sessions. So I basically had a uber long day - starting on 7am Friday morning, and ending sometime late tomorrow afternoon. Whee.

I'm kinda hyper now, at the same time the lack of expansion room is inhibiting my hyperactivity. So I'm in the middle of a conflict of ideas - emo-ness and overdrive. Both of them together may not be quite as useful as you'd think it'll be.

Anyway, back to my coffee regime and stimulants to keep me running. I think I'm kinda solar-powered, explaining why I enjoy the mornings more than evenings. But that's just a random idea out of nowhere.

Whee.

Forgotten part 2

i am still the Forgotten.

know that well
for what you do shapes me
and who i'll be

i'm still gonna be around
to listen when you wanna be heard
to help when you're in trouble
to cheer you guys up when everyone's down.


but i'll raise my question now:

who's gonna be there
to hear me out
when i wanna be heard

who's gonna be there
when i need help

who's gonna be there
to cheer me up
when i'm down

tell me
tell me now
tell me if you know
tell me if you can
tell me if you will
and just...
tell me all i wanna know

for i am the Forgotten
but i want to be remembered.

Forgotten part 1

I am the Forgotten.

But that doesn't make me forget people
nor does it make me ignore people.

I know people forget about me easily
but I'm still here.

I'm still gonna be around
to listen when you wanna be heard
to help when you're in trouble
to cheer you guys up when everyone's down.

Even when you don't see me
even if you don't hear me
even if you don't know it

I'll still be here.

Human interactions

I find it interesting to note that sometimes what you expect is not what you get, and you don't always get things your way.

Last night I decided to take an early night, so that I could wake up early to prepare my lunch for break time in uni. I left my computer and mobile phone on throughout the night though. So when I got up at 7 today, this is the list of stuff I missed through the night:

1. 3 SMS
2. 1 missed call
3. 2 instant messages

There could be more, but this is quite a bit for me already.


-Once again, everything is relative to our perceptions.-

Exams

There is absolutely no mood for me to study now. When I saw what Michelle posted in her blog I was stunned that everyone [or almost everyone I know] is studying much, much harder than me.


I'm screwed, bloody well screwed.



-People tend to judge you when you feel relaxed?-
-Yes.-
-Psychoanalysis testing-

Freedom

No more ESD workshops for next week.

No more Chem labs for next week.

Hotel 626 to play.

This is one hell of a slack period for me, even though exams are coming up. I'm screwed.

Tuition

Just got back from Box Hill.

Tutoring is not easy, repeat not easy even though you understand the topic well enough. It may be easy for you to understand, but it's the explanation to your student which is slightly harder. But luckily for me I got a student who kinda understands what I'm saying, so I'm fine for now.

-I will not say the words "easy money".-

Winamp + Live Messenger

Toaster - some plug-in I found online.
Basically it's a plug-in for Winamp, which lets Live Messenger read the currently playing song and display it as your personal message in Live Messenger. Which basically is the similar to using WMP to play your songs, and then displaying the Now Playing song in your PM.
If you're like me - anti-WMP and prefers Winamp - then I strongly suggest that you get this plug-in. It works, and it appears to be slightly more versatile than the WMP version.

WMP - replaces your PM with your Now Playing song
Winamp/Toaster - adds your Now Playing song to your PM, as shown below in the red box:Final comments: I like this plug-in. It works with Vista although it's only rated for XP, so that's an advantage for most of us.

-Google is the most useful tool here in Melbourne. 95% of anything you need is online, and Google has 99% of that 95% catalogued, you just need to know where and how to look for what you need.-

Dinner

I eat in front of my laptop. Some people have said it isn't good for digestion. I don't know.

I don't think I'd try either.

Creative writing fail

Ok, this is a piece of short fiction we "wrote" in class today. By saying "wrote", it actually means that 5 different people had a go on different sections of the story.
Try and see what is wrong with it - it should be quite obvious!

***

I am an invisible man. With my magic axe, I disappear behind my enemies' backs, trying to reach the orb of power before it slips away. Skeleton warriors and ents clash furiously, whilst I blend into their midst and head for my enemies. I see the orb of power hanging from his back. The undead general, proud and tall even in undeath, he marched with his troops, his orb glowing bright. I sneak towards him, trying to be as quiet as possible. The crunch of my feet on the dry leaves scattered around the graveyard is masked by the cracking of bone in socket as the skeletons mill around confusedly, trying to find the smell of meat that has awoken them. I am close now, the orb of power is mere feet away. I can feel its otherworldly power drawing me in, the world disappears, fading to white. My energy starts to drain away, I know I don't have much time. If I take too long I'll just collapse in a heap, pray for the scavenging skeletons that are getting ever closer on their quest for fresh meat.
In my peripheral vision my eye catches the undead general's rotting corpse as it plunders around the graveyard. "He knows I'm here" is the only thing that I must avoid. Be decisive, I told myself firmly. There is no room for uncertainty on the battlefield.
Gripping my axe firmly, I slithered forward silently, shrouded from the general by my axe. I held my breath, careful not to give away my presence.
Within striking distance now. I swung my axe high - and then I woke up. Feeling, once again, that I don't belong in this reality, that I shouldn't open my eyes to see through my window the tall buildings and barely moving cars in the streets. I know there is somone out there who needs to be saved from skeleton warriors.

Talents

Talents are everywhere. I've been seeing a lot of it since I got here. Most of my friends can play some instrument or other. Some can talk a lot and make it seem as though they really know what they're talking about. Some like me, write long [and hopefully good] stories.
I'm starting my final creative writing assignment, writing about a crystal shatter-proof sword. I'm hoping the idea actually works out, since some of it is based on the idea of Tiberium. Haha.

-Some people can sing, some can play instruments, some are good at sports, some can write well, and some can do nothing.- 5 random observations

Job applications

I have seen some of the most outrageous stuff on job vacancy advertisements ever since I started looking for part time jobs. My favourite so far:
Location: my house/at my home.

I mean, come on, we know you'd like home tutoring sessions. We'd like to know where your home is, or else we can't go to your place to give tuition, right? Just let us know where you stay. That's what the location means. Horribly sad.

Ski Trip

Argh. Just got off the phone with my parents. Mega ski trip is bloody well cancelled for me, and this isn't an event I can just write off and disappear round their backs for. I mean, they'd know if $540 just vanished from my account. So to disappoint all those hoping I'd go, I can't make this year's ski trip. Parents and money permitting, I'm going for the next one. Bloody hell, I want to go for this year's trip. Don't get me wrong on that.

Resonance

There was a mini-debate yesterday as to why some people tend to join in all, if any, activities or gathering of friends. I must say that I gathered this from the debate:

#1. If you tend to stay further out from your friends, you'll prefer to join in all activities/gatherings planned by friends.
Reason: You're cut off from your friends by distance. You can't just call them for a gathering at Melbourne Central.

#2. If you don't have many classes with your friends, you'll also prefer to join in all activities/gatherings planned.
Reason: You know they're in uni somewhere, but you can't meet up due to classes and timetables. You'll also wanna see more of them.

So there you have it. That's why I tend to join in when anyone asks me to join them for lunch/dinner/games etc etc.

Lunch

It's a good time for us friends to get together. We catch up with each other's weekends. We catch up with our non-mutual friends. We just spend some time together, enjoying each other's company. Eating and chatting brings some sense of kinship and comradeship during these times, especially with tests and exams drawing nearer. We need some protection, don't we? And so we find solace in our friends. Of course. We just kinda have to find a shoulder to cry on, a caring fellow to listen to you and your hopeless problems. It makes sense, doesn't it?

Refer to first pic you see below.

Creative writing

Finally managed to finish writing the nonfiction piece I'm supposed to write for my current assignment. It's due tomorrow, 4 pm. I'm done with the writing part, now I just have to put in the other section on aims and influences, where I'm required to expound what suggested to me to write on whatever topic I've chosen. If that doesn't sound right, its because I'm writing this at 2 in the morning, so that I can catch some quick shut-eye in the afternoon tomorrow.

When committees get together...

Magic happens. Anyway, it was fun. We went down to SK's [IESS ex-president 2 terms ago] place in Maribyrnong. Karaoke session, and lots of food, and better yet, we learnt bridge! Although not everyone likes singing, I was pretty sure I could hear the whole house full of people sing when "Mandy" played. Although I'd wager not all of us sang. It was a potluck lunch, with plenty of stuff to go around. Lots of fried food, as well as pasta. I think that's one of the easiest to cook when it comes to students. As for myself, I brought jelly.
Induction meeting this Monday [tomorrow]. And I'm going to have to finish off my work fast to be able to spend time on that.

Malaysia

No, this is not some soppy nostalgic post about how much I miss that "fair land".

I want to highlight the common perception that foreigners have of Malaysia.

It's a good place for shopping. It's a tourist haven. Food galore!

To tourists, they see more of the scenic part of Malaysia. We see the hopeless side of Malaysia - the constant bickering in Parliament, the idiocy between the two biggest political parties at home, and a myriad other hopelessly useless things we witness daily.

Well, I guess the best thing is that 80% of Malaysians at Melbourne Uni are Chinese. So we get to whine and do stuff we really wanna do, like studying properly, or working.

HA.

Good morning again!

I'm back to my laptop, and I'm continuing from where I left off yesterday. Today looks like the start of a 26 hour marathon. [and the clock's still ticking.] The heater cleaning guy is in the house now cleaning all the heating stuff, getting all the residue from the renovations out of the ducts. The jelly is still sitting in the fridge, waiting for me to take it out to the potluck lunch later.

Anyway, 26 hours is just a start. I'm seeing if I can stretch this to tomorrow night, when I literally crash for the night. So just keep an eye open on this blog. I'll update whatever stuff happens in the meantime.

Morning

Another sleepless night in Surrey Hills. Midnight snack's still sitting next to me [a delectable mud cake], and my laptop's blaring Korean DBSK songs. Jelly's setting in the fridge, haven't checked it since I left it in the fridge. Since I've nothing better to do, I'll start ranting and grumbling.

First off, it's disgraceful how democracy has been perverted in Malaysia for so long now. How can you drag the speaker of the house out, "escorting" him with police? That's disgusting.

And secondly, I'm sure of another thing. The Malaysian education system has been a hopeless failure since some smart aleck decided to start using only Malay in teaching. Now, the conventional argument is to ask, if the Chinese can do it, why can't the Malaysians? Ok, the answer is simple. Look at a simple book like Harry Potter. When the 6th book, The Half-Blood Prince came out, within 2 weeks the Chinese translation was on the shelves. Look at how long it took the Malay translation to hit the shelves. Now change the book from a popular novel to academic texts. Then you tell me how long it'll take a Malay translation to hit the shelves compared to the Chinese translation.
So, Muhyddin, take a hint. You don't need your local and foreign experts to tell you what is going on or going wrong. Ask your students, they'll tell you all you really need to know.

This is Malaysia [not Sparta you smart aleck], and we're just gonna have to demand change or force it ourselves. Which is no longer democracy if we take to the streets like in Thailand.

Study

ESD is hard. Especially when your team members decline to help you out enough. So far only Constantine on my group is helping me to complete the report. Which is good. But the girl isn't doing much.

I'm gonna stop whining and get on with the job. Currently updating my Matlab coding and scripts.

Another attempt at productivity

Whee. My Thursday is going to be another "record-breaking" day. Firstly, I'm going to try and get my Matlab part for ESD done with. That's due on Tuesday. Secondly, I'm going to have to finish off my Creative Writing article, which is due on Monday. And then I'm going to have to try and break the sleeping record. I'm going to sleep soon, so that I'll be charged up for tomorrow morning. Ha. This will be fun, I'm sure. Await my next few posts to see what I'm up to!

For the record

I am not gonna go without sleep for that long again. Because of sleep deprivation, I missed some lectures, stoned all the way to uni and back. But then, on the plus side, I managed to go to Crown, had good food, and got elected into a committee.

37 hours 45 minutes sleepless in Melbourne. Epic.

-Trade offs are difficult.-

IESS AGM update

Ok, I was half stoned when I went into the meeting, all owed to my epic lack of sleep - 29 hours without sleep. So going into that tiny lecture theatrette made for a little incoherence, as well as an accompanying disdain for authority. And so, in delivering my policy speech for the editor's position in IESS, I inadvertedly took swipes at the outgoing editor, Luke. I mean, it wasn't, and was never meant to be, a personal attack on him. *Side note: If this were in Star Wars it would have been the master [Luke] being dug at by the student [Kyp]. *

Jun Yeu also made a similar slip, taking a jibe at the outgoing publicity chief, Daniel. Luckily for the both of us, our outgoing seniors were sporting fellows, who understand what the IESS voting process is like. So for now, we can get along with our seniors and the exco members quite well.

New IESS exco:
President - Kok Keong
Vice - Wai Kit
Treasurer - Eric
Secretary - Luke

General committee:
Activities - David, Rachel
Logistics - Chun Yu
Publicity - Jun Yeu
Welfare - Shu Jie
Sponsorship - Michelle
IT - Kee Ching
Editor - Me

This will be fun. I mean it.

30 hour marathon

Ok, I've been up for 30 hours now. I'm not tired yet, but my mind is playing tricks on me. I'm getting a little blur at times, and sounds aren't particularly clear at times when I don't focus things.

More updates soon to come.

Sleep deprivation

Good morning, guys and girls! I have now gone 24 hours without sleep. Let us examine the effect of this on me throughout this whole day. Watch here for any updates!

Inflation? NO, I don't think so.

It's about the economy, stupid

I must say that I agree whole-heartedly with RPK on this matter. After doing some amount of grocery shopping over here myself, I find that the prices over here are much more competitive. I mean, I stock up on groceries, it only comes out to around $20 a week. At home, doing the same thing would cost me something like RM 60 a week. So pray tell me, who's profiting, dollar for ringgit? Us over here, of course!

How are we supposed to survive at home, tell me? Clever government we have indeed.

Random conversation

.:*Liling*:. says:
- since u insist tht u r unique

Kyp Chia-Yang - God save the good work says:
- then?

.:*Liling*:. says:
- and u said tht unique not equal to normal
- therefore, unique is not normal
- Thus, chia yang is not normal

Kyp Chia-Yang - God save the good work says:
- cool
- i like that

.:*Liling*:. says:
- =.=||

Kyp Chia-Yang - God save the good work says:
- lol


This is me. Random, unpredictable.

the Westlife generation

I'm feeling nostalgic today, hence the title.

Back in Taylor's, I always felt that S4 was the place I belonged, not least due to almost every one of us liking Westlife songs. The Irish band occupied a special place in our playlists - the most played list.
I guess the best one of their songs would have to be 'Flying Without Wings', the one featured in the first Pokemon movie [the one with Lugia in it]. Kids like me back then liked the message in that song.

And then on S4's class trip I remember vividly the whole back half of the bus singing along to 'If I Let You Go'. Well, almost all of us were singing. Those of us sleeping didn't sing, for obvious reasons. I should have brought some of my Westlife CDs on that trip. Dammit.

But anyway, what is past is in the past. Time to look to the future, and to burn the idiot who reinvented the crash helmet in a pit of embers.

Sleep

This is morning. And I'm very sleepy still. Sleeping at 3am doesn't always agree with me. The last time I slept late was at 6am.

So, I'm in a lecture which is kinda boring the pants off me. I feel like sleeping, and my head's throbbing and threatening to take me out.

I'm gonna sleep this one through.

Good morning... not

Technically it's morning now. But the sky outside is dark as night. So what counts as night, and what counts as day? Someone once asked me about that. To me, night is whatever happens before you sleep for the rest of the day. And day is when you're actively doing something. So theoretically I'm now in a time crisis - It's dark outside [thus suggesting night-time], but I'm awake [suggesting it's day].

Paradox?

Interesting conundrum. I'll try and untangle it.

Boredom + Assignments

Assignments and boredom simply don't mix. Imagine this, I have a handful of assignments to complete, and I'm bored. What do I do first? I fire up my games. And then I go to bed at 3 am. Ha. So how the hell do I get my assignments done?

Anyhow, it's time I did something. I should go back and do up my various assignments, but I have good reasons not to do them. Procrastination reasons:

#1. Creative nonfic piece - No inspiration, so I can't do it up this week.
#2. ESD report - Not enough Matlab experience to do it up properly.

So I'm gonna stone for a while before heading back.

KL transport against Melbourne transport

"Wednesday April 29, 2009
Time to revamp KL transport system"

-theStar online, 29th April-

As if we don't already know. Bloody system has let us down since God knows when. Even KTM is worse than Connex, and Aussies consider Connex's train system as bad. Even with >95% efficiency, they aren't happy with that. Imagine Aussies living in KL. They'd kill us first.

Hopefully when I get back I can look forward to improved transport in KL.

Burnout

I think I'm slowly burning myself out.

Seriously.

I mean, I set all my alarms for 6.30 this morning. I got up all right, then I went back for a 10 minute nap. I ended up sleeping for another 2 hours. And this considering I slept at midnight last night, I think I'm seriously sleep-deprived, and burning out. I used to be able to survive on 6 hours or less sleep, but now...

Sleep is good, but not sleeping is better. And no sleep is... FAIL.

Poker night

I sense fail in the air. I spent $9 to enter, and then to enjoy lots of b33r. I also now know that it's not necessarily good to hang out with your cousin's friends, you never know what they do. Oddly enough, there were many higher year students around. Only a handful of first years were around, and if I wanted to make friends with them, I already know most of them. So it's kinda defeated the purpose of looking for new friends. But then I got to know more third years, most of them through my cousin.

Oh well, gotta make more friends. My little gang is kinda like the first years who actually attend most of the events and meetings, so I guess we'd stand a better chance of running for posts in the general committee.

Random quote: Russian search engine ranks amongst top 10 search engines in the world. It's ranked 9th, actually. -ABC radio-

Triple dump

Ok, imma dump all the stuff from the last few days in one long post. Forgive me if it sounds like rambling at the end, I was really emo at that time.

Tuesday:

IESS info session - kinda interesting. On one side of the theatrette you'd find these first years, and on the other side you'd get all the committee members and higher year kids. My friends and I seem to have a good plan for getting posts in the IESS general committee. Let's see:

Jun Yeu - publicity officer [cushy job, all you'd need to do is to get more members for the society]
Kee Ching - IT officer [even cushier, if you're good at web management and Photoshop. All you'd need to do is to maintain and update the society website.]
Shu Jie - welfare officer [as the President himself put it, the big mom/dad of the society - just need to take care of everyone]
Michelle - [crap forgot. for some irrational reason I forgot what she's running for.]
Me - Editor [why I'd run for this isn't exactly clear, but it's kinda apparent to some of us that I can write. Hope so, I'd just be updating the society newsletter.]

We've now gotta write policy speeches, just to advertise ourselves. How to do that isn't clear yet, but I'm hoping somebody would write it for me XD. Two weeks until the AGM, so that's a lot of time still - it's next month.

Yesterday:
Yes, I did what I said I'd do - wake up at 5 am to study for Calc 2. Thank goodness for Coke - the black liquid, not the white powder - for helping me through the morning. Slept at 11, got up at 4am for my study plan. And this turned out to be a reasonably good plan, since I manaaged to spot one glaring error in my workings. Not good if a similar question came out, since quite a number of people relied on me teaching them the right stuff for the test. But I managed to let those guys know about the error, so it wasn't too bad. It looks like it will be worthwhile coaching uni students in calculus, it's gonna be a repeat of SAM.

Afternoon, before Chem tute - I still need to release some stress over this:

Michelle: Where's Camberwell?
Me: Wait a moment... [digs in pocket for timetable, gets it out]
Me: Ok, this is the train line, Camberwell is somewhere... [fingers dancing]... over here.
Michelle: That's far wei.
Me: Ok, if that's far, try me, staying somewhere around... [fingers dance again]... here.

End of conversation. Silence reigns supreme.
I must be some kind of conversation breaker, whereby any one of my statements would just unbalance everyone in the conversation and thus kill off anything anybody can think of saying. I kinda hate it, it makes it hard to carry on a conversation with anyone.

Damn, it's hard being me sometimes.

Early this morning - around 1am to be close:

Emo problem T_T. Started around early last night, culminating in the following conclusion:

One part Wednesday night, one part emo songs, one part kitchen knives, one part semi-depressed state. Stir well until blended. Guess what you get? Suicidal thoughts.

Anyway, my dad's in town for the next 3 days or so starting today. Ohshi- gotta behave like a uni student - wait - what's a uni student supposed to behave like? Just realised that's a good question.

Pray I get to enjoy meself at poker night this Saturday.

Calculus

Sleep is good for the soul.

But not when you have a test tomorrow.

Especially when after your exam you have a bloody mind-splitting assignment for a workshop session.

So I think I shall sleep early, get up at 3 and do things. Otherwise I might just keel over and sleep during the test or the assignment. That would be pure WTF material.

Or maybe I should get up even earlier. I dunno what I'll do then.

Suburbs

There are some good suburbs, and there are some not so good suburbs. Guess where I stay.

Surrey Hills is a nice quiet suburb, yes, that much is true. But after Friday, I've had to reassess my own thinking about my place now.

1. There's no shopping centre nearby, oddly enough. No Coles, no Safeway, no Kmart. Very odd. And so my groceries come from 3 different places - Box Hill, Camberwell and anywhere from the CBD.

2. It's at least 25 minutes to the city by train. If you're late on a weekend, good luck - next train is in 30 minutes time.

I mean, at least places like Chadstone or Doncaster are still liveable - you've got somewhere to do your weekend shopping within 5-10 minutes walking. But I guess the advantage of staying somewhere where almost nobody has heard of is good - not many people are gonna bother you. I've lost count of the number of people asking me "Where's that suburb?" It's kinda repetitive now, I just say "Look it up, it's on the Lilydale/Belgrave lines."

Imma need a new place next year, gonna look for somewhere near the city. Any suggestions?

an art

I can't help but say this: I'm officially a slacker. Not becoming a slacker, but I'm a slacker.

At least some of my friends are hardworking enough not to fill up their Easter week with outings every day of this week. Unfortunately, I'm not following their stellar examples. My Easter week is full of activities, almost every day. Thank goodness I get tomorrow off, then I can spend some time doing things that matter to me, such as revising for Calc 2 [even though there are some people who think I don't need to revise Calc 2].

Anyway, let's see what is upcoming in this week:
Thursday - Lunch, Sofia's in Camberwell
Friday - Lunch + mini-reunion, somewhere in the city
Saturday - Swimming + possible touch rugby

That's three days of stuff. Where's the time for studying? Non-existent, hence making me a slacker.



Quote: Do you like her? - Yes. Does she know? - Yes. Does she like you? - Yes. -anon-

Night out on Lygon

When you want Italian or Greek food, go to Lygon Street. Where else near the CBD can you find good Italian food without breaking your student budget?
And so me and my friends went down to Lygon last night for dinner. There were lots of Italian blokes out to drag unsuspecting customers into their shops. Of course, with such a big group, those blokes would try to catch our group. Luckily we had plenty of will power not to listen to offers of 25% discounts and free drinks on the house.
Dinner was reasonable, pasta and pizza as usual. The real hit was the dessert - ice cream, drinks and poker at one of my friends' place. Luckily nobody took my suggestion to play strip poker just for the fun of it. Instead we used nuts, which was kinda safe and boring IMO.

I think I should invest in a bottle of vodka.

Professional stalking

I'm now blogging from Animal Orchestra with my Creative Writing tutorial group.

Creative Writing is fun. We get the license to stalk people as part of our observation of people project. And the observations and speculations that you get, wow! Anything goes. You can stalk almost everyone and anyone for our project. So, there were people in my group who stalked a couple. The resulting conversation they recorded was something odd I've never heard of before. Pauses, unnaturally long pauses. And some of the other conversations they recorded were weird. Like how some people were flirting, and it was as though they didn't know how to flirt. That was funny as well.

People watching is fun. Watching people is fun. And making speculations is fun as well, it teaches you something about people in general.

Rain

It screws everything up. Especially the trains. I guess that's why the lecture theater is so darned quiet early in the morning. Usually around this time [8.30 am] the theater is already half packed. Anyway, the trains were screwed up this morning. I had to wait something like 10 minutes for a train to Melbourne Central from Richmond due to a power fault at Parliament station. At Richmond, the Connex staff shunted us passengers around. First to platform 3, then to platform 5. Bloody hell. To top it off, it was drizzling, making the temperature drop to single digit regions [I reckon]. It was so cold, you'd see the condensation blowing out of your mouths.

Well, I reckon I have to get used to this.

I-Splat - engineers' way of having fun!

I know this was last week's event, but what the heck, I'll just post about it.

So last week I went for paintball at Oakleigh, just outside of Clayton. Of course I got shot up, quite a few shots, to be honest about it. Partly due to something called Highlander mode, which I'll elaborate in due time. The place is called World Series Paintball, near Huntingdale station, even though it's in Oakleigh. That caused a little confusion when we got on the train to get there.

Leader: Ok, we're getting off at the next stop. [we were at Oakleigh, the stop before Huntingdale]
Someone: I thought the place is in Oakleigh, shouldn't we be getting off here?
Leader: No, this shows you haven't done your research before coming.

Me: OMGWTFBBQLOL

Anyway, we managed to find our way to the place. The inside is damn modern, it looks way better than most outdoor places. There are four different fields inside, with four different layouts for playing. There was only one difference in the playing style - instead of deathmatch, we played normal respawn mode. Which ultimately led to lots of dodging. Anyway, there were quite a few new playstyles I saw that Sunday - money rush [grab bags of cash], poachers [grab furry toy animals], border crossing [like bombing run] and the highlight of the day being the WTF Highlander mode. That mode ultimately led to most of my soreness, aches and pains of the day. Basically in Highlander mode, you become a Highlander who can't die. You can get shot over and over, but if you don't like the feeling, then you can opt to retreat. Like heck we'd retreat that fast. So of course, whoever decides to go in charging, you'd amass lots of bruises and shots. Such as these shots to my forearm and neck.
At the end of the day, the guys gave us these little tags to vote for satisfaction. Guess who was the lone mad guy who dropped his tag into the green box. No prizes for guessing correctly, though. All in all, I think I justified my expenditure for the entire trip. Fun the whole day long FTW.

Rushing

I think I know how the rest of my assignments may go from now on. Take my Creative Writing assignment for example:

Final changes done - 7 am
Printing assignment - 8.30 am
Dropped assignment into chute - 8.45 am

I think this is gonna be a small problem for me. Help anyone?

Some ranting

I now know why the heck some of the JPA scholars complain that they don't have enough spending money for the month. Let's see the breakdown of numbers for them.

Spending money for a month: $1200

Rent: $200 a week = $800 a month, assuming electricity and water are paid for.

Food: $200 a month, assuming that they eat at home, ie: cooking their own food at home.

Phone: $79 - $149 a month for an iPhone.

Total spent in a month: $1079 - $1149, leaving $51 - $121 as savings.

So tell me why they need an iPhone here. Bloody hell. It's too common here. Everyone who can afford one has one, so they think they need one as well. Honestly speaking, since I can't afford one, I don't think of having one. So please don't think that since the government is paying your bills, you can afford to have an iPhone.

Bantering

Try reading some of the emails I get in my uni mailbox. They're a very good way of killing time, especially when the people replying hit the reply button without thinking of editing the recipients. So my mailbox is full of rubbish mail, clouding the real mail from lecturers and tutors.

*********************************

I think IT services in the uni is not good enough. They seemingly can't install Firefox 3. Maybe they won't install Firefox 3. Which isn't any good.

For lack of a suitable title

The life of a university student is quite monotonous, if you only consider what you do in lectures, practical sessions and tutorials. It's the things you do outside of uni hours that actually is the spice of our life.

Here you get all sorts of things to do. Paintball, BBQs, beer parties, you name it, they have it.

*Crap, ran out of ideas to write.*

Signing off first then.

Due to popular demand

Here you go. Guys, this is my room. Bloody dark. isn't it? This is in the morning, as my eyes see it. Just a single sliver of light. Darkness. Complete and whole.

Silent times

I realised something's wrong with
my room.
It's too dark, especially in the morning.
Cause the blinds don't work,
the light's too dim.
It may be good
for playing L4D at 2 at night,
it isn't good for studying
by midnight oil.

The blinds are thick,
it's quite quiet.
Sometimes too quiet.

Now I need the lights on
to sleep. Not for comfort
but for precaution.
Against sleeping in.

***Trying my hand at Creative Writing. Comments?***

***I can't think of a suitable title for this post, so I'll leave that out first.***

There's a lack of coverage of EPL football over here. I kinda miss that. But Champions League is readily available here.

It is kinda crap that you have to be 18+ to play paintball here. Bloody hell, it's not fair. But I might find some way around that rubbish. I hope to do so, or else I'll be missing out on a hell lot of paintball. 4 hours! I'm not going to miss out on so much fun. Not so fast.

Looks like I'm ranting. A lot.

uni life so far

One phrase sums everything up pretty well. Bored but tired.

So far the stuff seem to be a revision of topics from pre-uni level. Which is fine for most, but not for me. Come on, bring in the heavy guns, we need 'em! I mean, A-level students can master hyperbolic functions pretty well. Maybe the Aussie syllabus doesn't allow for hyperbolic functions, so that's why we're learning them again in Calculus 2. Oh well, I've just gotta live with what I've got.

Chem is fine so far, starting with organic chemistry. Isomers ftw. Molecular chemistry should actually go hand in hand with quantum physics, but that's my personal definition.

I think that's about all I can think of for now.

More to come!

More updates!

***A word of warning first: Don't expect massive, daily updates like some of the other bloggers' blogs. I'm now busy, so I can't possibly update as fast as others. And I try to make meaningful posts, so just be patient and wait for updates. Most likely I'll update on a weekly basis.***

Anyway, life in Melbourne isn't as boring as I thought. But it isn't as fun as most of you will think. Living in a suburb with old folks as your neighbours, that's definitely kinda boring. On the other hand, going to uni, hanging out with a couple of friends, now that's fun. Although the windchill gets to me a lot. Don't laugh.

Now I have to go and figure out whether to buy my lab stuff and other books. I think I might not. And yet I still might.

M.I.A. --------------> Revival

Hi friends, I'm back! Finally found some internet access. My cousin disconnected his internet service before he went to Malaysia for Chinese New Year, so when he came back there wasn't any access for us guests. Oh well. So now I'm blogging from the Uni of Melbourne.
Well, I know I've been M.I.A. for 2 weeks now, so it's time for an update on what I've been doing so far. Basically I've been preparing for uni. Packing, making arrangements, saying goodbyes... the list goes on and on and on. Besides that, I've also been finishing off my last days at work. Kinda fun, the whole process. A little annoying, though. And frustrating as well. But it's all part and parcel of moving to a new place, as well as moving on from an old place.
I know some people have asked about my Valentine's Day celebrations, whether anything special happened. Well, the answer is the same - nothing new. Just sitting in the office for the last official day at work, finishing up the records for the annual reports. That's what I did on that Saturday.
Melbourne is a fine city. A bit cold at times, although I'm getting used to it. The clear blue sky, the lack of clouds, bright yellow sunshine even at the tail end of summer, all fun. It's different, totally different from home. At least I'm away from the miserable politics of home.

random things

#1. I strongly dislike Pos Malaysia. Why are there 30 sen postal charges, but no 30 sen stamps?

#2. I'm bored at work.

#3. Someone has asked me to watch Hetalia, whatever that is.

#4. IDP and my office are often mixed up by mailmen, although the offices are 5 blocks apart.

#5. The guy next to me is counselling a student over the phone.

MAS is overrated again

What does it mean by competitive fares? To MAS Airlines, it simply means this:

"How can we surpass all the other regional airlines and make the most profit this quarter?"

Lousy crooks. I mean, MAS has the most expensive total fares in the region. Even Singapore Airlines is cheaper than MAS. And they fly a slightly longer distance to Australia [stopover in Changi compared to MAS's direct flight].

Better still, MAS is also a real con-job. They tell you that you pay less for the fuel surcharges and taxes and stuff like that. However, they backstab you and raise your fares. So in the end, MAS wins. Hands down.

Yet why does everyone still support MAS? Half of my classmates flying to Australia fly MAS, even though they're being cheated epically of their money. The Malaysian mind boggles.


Malaysia is the Land of Boleh.
Yes, under Mahathir corrupt people could murder and get away with it, in a manner of speaking. BOLEH indeed.

Under Badawi you can sleep in front of him and he won't know it.
BOLEH indeed.

Under Badawi you can also literally murder and get away with it.
BOLEH indeed.

We memang BOLEH. BOLEH EPIC PHAIL.

countdown begins again

In about 16 days I'll be leaving this "fair" land to pursue greener pastures. Haha.

Anyway, a simple checklist looks like this:

• Passport renewed? Check.
• Visa granted? Check.
  
• Clothes bought? Check.
• Luggage ready? Check.
• Uni stuff prepared? Check.
• Air ticket? On its way...
  
• Mind intact? I don't think so...

Oh well. Watch for more lunacy from Melbourne as I've mentioned before. It might not compare to the lunatics over here, but it'll be interesting.

Regarding the lunatics here, its all a load of mind games. Anwar and Badawi. I guess Badawi may not be able to stand this. But then the rakyat is being pushed too far. Either plan may backfire, at least that's what I foresee. It's only a matter of time now.

CNY and Kugan

I had a good balik kampung experience this year. Taiping, Penang, both my stops in this country to collect angpau. Steamboat makan for both stops. I must comment that for some reason I am closer to my mother's side relatives compared to my father's side relatives.

On to Kugan's case. Why do you need to bring in the FRU to keep order outside UMMC? I must say that the security guards there can do a good job. Maybe better than the FRU themselves. I don't think that the crowd supports a criminal. They're just protesting against the unfair treatment of criminals in police custody. I mean, if the police think that they can do it against criminals, what about innocent people in police custody? Wouldn't the innocent be hurt, or worse, killed? Not good at all. Such is the situation in this crazy country. How sad.

respect / time

I guess this afternoon told me a lot about the way a boss or leader should be like. You see, I work in an education agency. With the coming Chinese new year, of course, we all start cleaning up. Most other bosses will just tell the cleaning lady to clean up the place, but no, not where I work. The boss actually came down personally to clean up. Yes, clean up. With a broom and dustpan. So, leadership by example is an important aspect if anybody wants to be an inspiring leader. I guess that's why my boss is quite respected by my colleagues.

Next, time is relative. Always.

Whenever you are doing something that you either like or dislike, the flow of time is distorted by one's perception. If you like that something, you'll feel that time passes extremely fast while you enjoy yourself. If you dislike something, then you'll feel that time passes slower than usual. In either case, you'll feel that someone is cheating you of your time. For some unknown reason. Oh well, it's all a feature of the space-time continuum.



-When a pretty girl sits in your lap, an hour feels like a minute. But when an old crone sits in your lap, a minute feels like an hour.- From Einstein's biography

random updates

I think I have found a long holiday break analogous to the Aussie long Christmas break. It is known as the long Malaysian Chinese New Year break. Well, it isn't exactly that long in comparison. But then look at our festivities. We celebrate Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali.... and the list goes on and on. So maybe their long Christmas breaks aren't as long as ours in comparison.

It's good that the Pakatan have won over Kuala Terengganu. But they now have a long way to go in convincing me that they are the way forward. Yes, I haven't lost faith in them yet. But that faith is slowly fading away. So, the first thing they need to do is to stop arguing over hudud implementation. Just present a united front, and the BN will have to back down on the hudud issue. So guys, just stand firm, and fight like the Spartans.

Work is now getting quite hectic, what with students' last minute applications, and last minute cancellations, and also not to forget those students with last minute course changes. You know who you are, don't be afraid to admit it. I know I'm one of them, due to my age. [Aussie visa requirements want students under 18 to have a student guardian, and most states haven't been able to solve this problem yet]

Oh well, another update, another post for the count.

a real update

I think I lack the crucial factor required to be a good salesman. After spending most of last week trying to sell my SAM textbooks, I am bloody well tired out. I hate bargainers and hard-drivers and rip-offs. How can you sell calculators for almost 50% off? It's a freaking rip-off. But never mind that.

Melbourne here I come this February. Be prepared to see some insanity and lunacy in the campus of the University of Melbourne. Hopefully some interesting developments will come out from me over there.

That's all for now. I'll be busy for quite some time until February, so this site will be quiet for quite a while.

updates...finally

the Gaza Strip issue

Shout all you like, but shouting alone won't solve the issue.
Demonstrate all you like, in the end all you'll be doing is wasting your breath. Plus, you'll get a nice tan or sunburn.

Then why are all those people do this unwanted things? Is it race, religion, or human rights? I can't tell you now. I'm still thinking.

What I do know is that the Israelis are playing right into the hands of the Hamas. The more Palestinian civilians are killed, the more anti-Israeli propaganda the Hamas gets. And also the more worldwide sympathy is generated for the Palestinians. The only obstacle left in the way of the UN is the US.

New Year wishes

Here are my New Year wishes [not resolutions, I'm lazy to stick to my resolutions]:

Either Anwar takes over, or Najib steps down.
May there be a freer blogosphere. And stop flaming my Cbox please. I don't need a flame war on my blog.
We need better interreligious and interfaith understanding.
I hope I can cure my addiction to coffee, the casual drug.
I need to get off my arse and start studying again.
I need to sell off my old textbooks.
I need to rearrange my eating times.
I need to figure out how to live on my own in Melbourne.


To all the blog readers and bloggers out there and in here,

Have a good time celebrating the entrance of 2009!

religion in this country

There are some people advocating that Malay versions/translations of the Bible should be allowed in our country. I think I agree with them. It would promote better understanding among the different races and religions. Especially if the Malays read the Bible, they would understand the Christians slightly better. It isn't that we don't want to understand you guys, it's just that it's harder for us to coexist if you don't understand us as well as we understand you.

While on the topic of religion, let's look at another interesting development. Feng shui is a mainly Chinese practice, involving changing one's environment to better suit one's luck. [Yes, I believe in this as well] Lately, a lot of people of other races have started practising feng shui as well. The Indians have a similar practice called Vasthu Sasthra. [not sure if the spelling is correct, correct me if I'm wrong]
Now, does practising feng shui erode a Muslim's faith? I wouldn't know for sure, since I'm not one. Yet another good question for the Fatwa Council to answer.


-Revelations 21:6 - I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him that thirsts.- Fallout 3 quote

our problem in the world

I see my Cbox has been filled with comments regarding my idea on cosplaying. I have not much of a stand, since I'm not really into cosplaying or manga or anime myself. I just want to get a rough idea of the situation our country and its people are in now.

Where else in the world do prices rise and fall, oblivious to the global market?

Where else in the world do coalition members disagree with each others?

Where else in the world are we involved in disagreeing to disagree?

Where else in the world are opposition leaders considered to be more influential in the global scene?

I think the answer to all the questions above are the same.

I rest my case.

just wondering aloud

I went to Comic Fiesta in Sunway Pyramid yesterday. Now as it is, cosplaying is very popular around here. I think I saw many Malays around there cosplaying.

Question: Islam says you cannot worship anyone else but Allah. Is cosplaying considered worshipping other idols?

[No offense meant to cosplayers at all]

SAM results out

I still hate TM dial up for denying me fast news. Press one button, and it takes the page a minute to load. So it took me half an hour just to find my results on the SACE page. Bloody hell.

Anyway, ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is pure heaven. I got a TER of 99.65. It simply means that I got a result above 99.65% of students sitting for SAM finals '08. Being in the top .35% isn't too much special. You can't differentiate these students on the road if you meet them.
At least I got an A for English, which is better than my trial result.

Oh well, now I've secured a place to university. Now to cure my DotA problem. This Sunday's gathering won't help it too much. Never mind that then.

thoughts on work so far

Work is simple. Tire yourself out, at the end of the day/week/month you get paid. Then again, its tiring when you have to do data entry and read other people's pathetic handwriting. I found that there are some Malaysians who can't read a simple form properly. My favourite example should be this:

Where did you hear about us from?
[ ] Friends/relatives


[ /] Others - _friends_

So much for coming to an education fair.
At least one thing I enjoy about work is the entire experience. Having colleagues who treat you decently is a bonus. Now I'm considering working as a student ambassador for SAM next year, when the term starts.

Science and Maths in English

http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/15922/84/

This page above suggests the miserable state of our education. We worry about our students, whether they can do Science and Maths in English, and worldwide, others are worrying about whether their students are performing well amongst their global peers. And the Chinese are just as bad as others, infighting over whether Chinese or English is better for Science and Maths. [I'm sorry, I'm Chinese too.]

I guess the single school system suggestion is overdue, although many parties are against it for their own reasons.

Malays: Against single school system.
Why: Not sure, but so many of them are shouting about Mukhriz. Most likely reason: They don't want to lose their "superiority" when the non-Bumis come in and take over everything their students had.

Chinese: Against single school system.
Why: Apparently single school system will erode the Chinese culture. Yeah, like it hasn't been damaged enough with the national school system.

Indians: Not sure.
Why: Cos they haven't been talking loudly enough to be heard.

Ok then. One of the first reasons why the national schools are not widely liked is because of the policies in place. Some of us fear that the national schools are slowly being Islamised. You have all sorts of complaints coming from non-Bumis in national schools.
But there is another reason why not many of us like the national schools. I once joined a maths competition back in primary school. My school team made it all the way to the finals of the district level. Now, the four schools which made it that far were 3 SJK(C) schools and 1 national school.
Ranking after finals:
#1. My school team [SJK(C)]
#2. Some other SJK(C)
#3. Another SJK(C)
#4. The only national school

Guess which school team made it to the next round.



Surprise of surprises, it was the national school team!

I don't remember the reason given, but it was something along the lines of some policy. [don't ask me what] But it shows the miserably poor state of our students from the national schools. How sad.

Bumi vs Non bumi

Taylor's open day this year is relatively boring. However, I guess the spectre of economic recession is not an obstacle for next year's students. It is actually quite enlightening to be a flyer distributor. You get to know what goes on in people's minds when they approach you or ignore you. So I can conclude this:

#1. Indian parents are most concerned about their children's future, hence they will always try to get their kids to go overseas to study.
#2. Chinese parents are also quite concerned about their children's future. But they will try to save money, so when you ask them whether they want to get their kids to study overseas, they will usually say no. After that they will cross the road and go into IDP.

Unfortunately I have to segregate the people by race. Otherwise how would I show this situation in M'sia? Everyone would think that Chinese and Indians studying overseas are from rich families, just like what Mahathir said on Al Jazeera. Rather, these people persevere like crazy. They work overtime. They work 3/4 day on weekends. They work on Sundays. Compare this to "normal" bumis. They work 9 to 5, but from 9 to 10 they have breakfast in the office, and at certain times throughout the day they go for prayers, and they have 4 to 5 for tea before going home. They have the luxury of working half-day on Saturdays. They can rest on Sundays. Why? All because the government takes care of them. More quota in the local universities. More scholarships to go overseas. [Some of them actually take very long to finish an UNDERgrad course.]
I'm not saying all bumis are lazy. Some are hardworking. But most aren't. When we complain about lazy civil servants, the image that comes to mind is usually the tudung-clad lady.

Oh well, such is my country. That's why most of us non-bumis go to private colleges. Then we go overseas for further studies. All because the opportunities locally are very limited. Bloody sad.

oil, oil and more petrol

I think many of us don't like the current trade minister Shahrir. What with lower world crude oil prices and possible economic problems, he is suggesting a FLOOR price for petrol in M'sia. Bloody hell. Others are thinking of a CEILING price and he suggests a FLOOR price, what nonsense is this? Anyway, when has the petrol price ever reflected accurately the current trading price for petrol? When the world price was high, the price here was low. Now that the world price is dropping like mad, the price of petrol here is still massively high.

Only here, can we find such idiocity. How sad it must be for us. No wonder so many of us flee the country as fast as we can. No wonder also that the ministers send their children overseas quickly to spare them from the hell we face here.

national schools vs. vernacular schools

Mukhriz suggests that we abolish vernacular schools. Most likely this means that he wants national schools to be the only schools available, besides private schools. Now, most of us don't actually trust those schools enough to send our children to such schools.
Commonly held notions of national schools:
#1. Malay schools
#2. Overemphasis on Islam, for example reciting Quranic verses.
#3. Little emphasis on Pupils' Own Languages, eg: Chinese, Tamil.
#4. Favouritism/bias towards Malays

So, if the general public believes this, then they should send their children to national schools to learn, so that the true story of national schools emerges. From my experience with my college classmates, the average national school student has more exposure to a multiracial society. Although I must note that national schools don't actually have a dazzling reputation for academic achievements.

Now today he comes out to say that Malay will be the main language of instruction in his ideal school system. Damn, he just lost his status in my eyes. Why doesn't anyone want to emulate the Singaporeans and use English as the language of instruction? Oh yeah, the inferiority complex comes out. Damn, should have thought of that earlier.

Ah, what the hell. Screw those who can't think straight to save a nation from suffering. Screw those who can't think right to think of a systematic way to help the nation's graduates. No wonder the education system here is going down.

may God save us

I believe that many dumb people still stay in Malaysia. God help us, but FOMCA is the best example. Floor price of RM 3 for petrol? That's ridiculous. Yoga being unislamic and can erode faith in Islam? That's another round of hogwash. Although some Christians actually think the same way as the current fatwa council. But never mind them.

Well, let's start to turn this rubbish around. I have a theory that goes like this: Ignoring all previous theories already in place, we can usually find a new idea/theory.
So I thought I'd try it out with my theory regarding the clumpiness of the universe, ie: why the mass in the universe is not evenly distributed.
1. A black hole was formed during the start of the universe.
2. Particle-antiparticle formation led to the black hole losing mass.
3. Asymmetrical particle-antiparticle formation caused more particles to be formed than antiparticles.
4. Thus causing the uneven distribution of mass and gravitational centres in the universe.
5. The black hole evaporated soon after, possibly leading to the big bang.

I'm not sure if this is true, because most of the theories may not be satisfied by this phenomenon. Anyway, I hope somebody appreciates this. Because I doubt the local standard comes near it.

class trip to langkawi

For the past 4 days I was wet, sandy and wasted in Langkawi. Not to mention nearly broke. But no worries, now that I'm back in Subang, I'm fine again. Well, almost.
I must note that people who don't know enough about technology shouldn't mess around too much with tech. It can have catastrophic results. At least not in my case. First thing when I got back yesterday, I had to deal with a computer which couldn't hibernate properly. Not too bad, because there is a documented fix available online.
Anyway, about the trip. It was very enjoyable. [including the part where half of us were wasted] We had a karting session, and lots of driving around finding stuff to do and buy. I believe most of us are sunburnt, since we went to beaches for frisbee and football. But I must say that the worst of the trip would be the hotel. [Please reming me never to go back to that place.]

***

It's also through this trip that I realise how little how organisers are valued. When anything goes wrong, they get the blame. When the trip is a success, no one complains, but not many people congratulate the organisers much. I guess the best compliment you could give the organisers is the pleasure of enjoying a hassle-free trip.
So, to 1G, three cheers for the wonderful trip you helped to organise. I had a fun time at Langkawi. Thanks a lot, man.

-yaaaaa man check me out. i'm so..... wast3d!-

after prom, what comes?

I believe I do not really have that skill to survive in a party. But hell, who really cares? So I will not talk about the SAM prom night last night. There are others who are better at capturing the atmosphere last night in words.
Anyway, I now have a much different problem. What to pack for Langkawi. Quite a good question indeed. A preliminary list looks like this:

#1. Clothes for 4 days
#2. Games
#3. Snacks and coffee
#4. Some movies
#5. Football
#6. Myself

To be honest, I think most of us feel that prom night isn't really the last night to see your classmates. It is just another giant get together for the whole intake. I'd rather go to Langkawi with my class if I wanted to see them for the last time. At least it'll be a whole lot more memorable.

Oh well, back to packing.

-It isn't that we'll miss Taylor's as a place. It's that we'll miss the memories and the people in Taylor's.-

petrol and corruption

Some people in the government do not know how to count the days. For some reason, the fortnightly petrol review is 2 days late. Maybe our esteemed PM is sleeping on the job again. Anyway, we still have RM 2 petrol now. But then again, the biggest problem with decreasing petrol prices is that the rest of our expenditure doesn't go down accordingly. Hypermarkets sell stuff at prices close to the old prices [when petrol was RM 2.60+]. Public transport fares went up when the price of petrol rocketed through the stratosphere, and now that petrol prices have come down to earth again, the public transport companies insist on further INCREASING their miserably high fares. How is the average city dweller going to afford public transport? This will only contribute to global warming, since most of us will choose to drive rather than take the bus or LRT.
Well, as usual, most of us feel that it is corruption in the government departments which contributes to the whole problem. Actually, this could be closest to the truth. Everywhere else, when crude oil price drops, the petrol price drops correspondingly. Only here, with the government subsidy, the petrol price stays high until 2 weeks later. Then, a very minor decrease of 15 sen is announced. Of course, corruption IS the best answer to most of our problems. Anything wrong in M'sia? Blame it on corruption.

freedom

Since 10.10 am yesterday, we of SAM and Spec Maths are free. Truly, officially free. Yet now most of us are bored. What should we do after the finals? Granted, we have a prom night to prepare for, and another class trip is coming up. So we should be busy preparing for both occasions. But what do we do after that? Most of us are willing to play RO all day, whilst some of us are gonna look for a decent casual job. I wonder what I should do. At least I know of a few places taking casual staff.
#1. Carrefour
#2. Holiday Villa Subang

So if I decide to take up any casual jobs, don't be surprised to see me [or someone who looks like me] anywhere around in Subang.

-Freedom without restriction is not freedom, self-restricted freedom is true freedom.-

young voters

I have good news and bad news.

Good news: The government [or some people in it] have high hopes of us, the young voters.
Bad news: I believe they hope to use us to retain their dominance over the country.

After Obama's win, I doubt anyone of us believe so much in the racist and biased current government. Most of us will most likely vote for the opposition for change in the next elections.

Oh well. Good luck to BN for trying to court young voters. Firstly, change your image. Then maybe we might change our minds. But it doesn't confirm that you will get our votes.

-Good news is that we're landing. Bad news is that we're crash landing.- Madagascar 2

fuel floor price

This is absolutely ridiculous. Everywhere in the world you hear of crude oil prices coming DOWN, and only in Malaysia, an oil PRODUCING country, does one hear of a floor price for petrol. Something is wrong, and it is very wrong. I personally feel that there are some parties interested in keeping a floor price for petrol to line their own pockets. Suspicion immediately falls on the Petronas gang, but I doubt it. Someone else is behind this floor price idea. Not the petrol station owners, not the ministry, but someone else very high up.

countdown in hours not days

With only 2 more papers to sit for, I fear that my mind has settled into "playtime" mode. Some people interpret this as confidence, others fear it is overconfidence. Ok, whatever you like.
It's like this: There's a lack of past year questions to do ever since I finished the last ones a fortnight ago. So I've settled for gaming instead of going over notes. Which is BAD, unfortunately, for my mind. Oh well.

-Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the modern world- Einstein

of police stations and ISA

It seems that this country has not much to offer lately. So there is nothing much to comment about. Except for 2 things.

#1. The police station in Chow Kit has many reasons for being moved. First it was to protect the police from unhealthy elements. Now according to Syed Hamid Albar it is because the owner wants the building back. How interesting. How many more original excuses can we hear from this Home Minister of ours?

***

#2. RPK is out of ISA detention. It seems that he has a massive following. When I watched the night news, the camera showed hordes of people massing around him. With such a large fan base, we now await further revelations from him as he exposes more misdeeds of the current government. Hopefully he doesn't disappoint his fans, because we want the present government to change its tack, or at least, be kicked out and be replaced with Pakatan.

the attractions of Sunway Pyramid

I wonder why all of us students love to go to Sunway Pyramid so much. It makes the mind boggle. Because somehow, we aren't bored of the place and entertainments. Granted, each time you visit the place, the cinemas have different shows on. But that can't be the only good attraction. I know why I keep going there, it's because I go there to eat, then I visit the CC across the road with my gaming buddies. But it's a lot different with my classmates, we go there, catch a movie, then we stroll around aimlessly. Sometimes ice-skating is on the list, but rarely do we skate.
Some people I've asked suggest that the management has done a good job of pulling in the student crowd to Pyramid. I think they might be right.

But I hope we're going to MidValley after Spec Maths next Friday. It's kinda boring, only going to Pyramid to celebrate the end of exams. Finals deserves a different place. Maybe Times Square, or MidValley. Besides, I'm looking for more new books. MPH in Pyramid is too small, hopefully MPH in MidValley has the stuff I want.

the Malay problem [not dilemma]

Some quarters will never give up their rights to be stupid. First we had the young Malay graduates who didn't like one Gerakan VP's words because those words were "historically true, but hurt us much". Then now we have the accountant who's trying to block the Penang state government from putting up those multilingual road signs. Apparently it "was against Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, which made it clear that the Malay language was the country’s national language." This blatant abuse of the law is becoming more and more common among our citizens.
We non-Malays can also take some people to court for what they have said:
#1. Ahmad Ismail for calling us pendatang [most famous case]
#2. all those fellows who kiss the keris and call for Chinese blood

Actually these fellows should have been ISA-ed a long time ago. But these are not the only offenders. It will take a long time to find the rest of the culprits. Sad for us then.

views of a slacker during the exams

I will not be commenting too much on the ongoing SAM '08 finals, since any views published now will be biased. Rather, the ongoing fiascoes in the country seem to be more interesting to discuss. So, here goes.
The PAC has cleared the government of any wrongdoing in the Eurocopter deal. I wonder whether the ACA will come out with a similar report. If they do, there are 2 distinct possibilities, one of which is the truth:
#1. The present government is squeaky clean. All the ministers involved in the decision are not at fault for making the [expensive] decision.

OR

#2. Someone very high up instructed the PAC to report that nothing was amiss.
I can tell you that any thinking Malaysian will know which is the truth.

***

Recently some people did a survey of our school children to find out whether they support teaching Science and Maths in English. From what I read, I am inclined to suggest to the Education Minister to continue the program. There is no use going back on the decision, especially if it only benefits him politically. Unfortunately, our people are disunited. Some Chinese quarters want mother tongue [Chinese], most Malays would like it to be in Malay [for unity purposes they say] and some Indians would like it to be in Tamil. So there is no win-win situation. Unless we continue teaching Maths and Science in English, there will NEVER be a win-win situation.

Ok, now back to studying Physics. Must stop ranting on about this [unstable] country. The only thing to thank God is that we are not Zimbabwe.

-There are 2 things in life that are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe.- [slightly paraphrased, Einstein]

Books, books and more books...

Went to Popular Sunway today to try and find this book.
For some reason, even though the book was supposed to have been released 2 months ago, the bookstore didn't have it in stock. What a royal pain in the arse. So I asked the salespeople there.

"Where can I get this book ah?"
-salesperson checks computer-
"Popular Klang."

"If I order how long will it take to come?"
"Aaaa.... about 1 month."

Well, at least it wasn't as bad as Tim's predicament with Percy Jackson. They only sent me to Klang. MPH sent Tim to Cheras, and as if that wasn't far enough, Kinta Parade as well. LOL.

Oh well, till the stock arrives, I'll have to make do with my schoolbooks and Jeffrey Archer.

perpetually slacking

What do you do when the exams are only 5 days away and nothing much has been done?

Simple: do more studying. But what if there IS nothing else to study? What if there IS nothing more to do?

Even simpler: slack.

So that's what I seem to be doing now. LOLOLOLLOL.

Except that I am busy. Tomorrow I need to teach maths. The day after is majlis perpisahan at Catholic High, so I shall go to see and take part in the "merriment". Then after that I have an appointment to visit Matthew for a study trip to his house. Technically, this is NOT slacking.

But I seem to be doing nothing much at home either. Either I am DotA-ing, or else RO-ing, or else doing physics past year, or else spec maths past year, or else... nothing else.

I'm just bored. Every time a major exam draws near, I find that I get too bored too easily.




How damn sad. Someone help me from this chasm of depression please.

Can't wait for November 21st. At least it will be sweet release, pure heaven.

two things plaguing me now

#1. Music
#2. Social contract

Lets look at #1 first. Somehow, some psychologists have tied musical influence to creativity and better academic performance. I beg to differ. Does it really mean that if you learn to play the piano you will be inclined to better performance? I really have to disagree on that. Although my classmates will disagree with me, I think most of the ability comes from innate ability, then perseverance.
A second question I have is somewhat simpler. Why is the piano the favoured instrument for most music learners? Why not drums or guitar, especially when you take into account the cost of a piano compared to a guitar or drum set? It doesn't really make sense to me.

Now to the social contract. This is actually a very complicated issue, made worse by the government's various interpretation of the said contract. It is known that the initial contract said that the Chinese and Indians would be given citizenship in M'sia, but that they must respect the Malay special rights. The crux of the problem is that this is enshrined in the Constitution, and most of the younger generation live in bliss ignorance of any contract. So we wouldn't know if the government decided to amend the Constitution. Besides, the social contract should be renegotiated. Times have changed a lot since the 60's.
To those people who dislike historical facts, are we going to consider all history to be seditious? Because the fact remains that the same event will give one party happiness and another party will be unhappy. Are we going to deny our younger generation the right to know the truth? It doesn't make any sense.

Quote: The truth hurts, doesn't it?

On the M'sian education system

I was reading the morning papers when I came across this report on Moral. So, here are my views on the report.

#1. Moral is not a useless subject. Right now the debate is about Moral exams and the painfully rigid marking scheme. I, for one, suggest that the marking scheme be revised completely. Stifling creativity is one thing our education system is famous for. And secondly, the exam style HAS to be revamped. I mean, you can't ask subjective [personal view] questions in an objective [syllabus based] exam. Marks won't be awarded based on the creativity of the answer, rather marks will be awarded based on the accuracy of the answer in relation to the syllabus. Thus the familiar words come to echo and haunt us: Correct answer, but not in the syllabus.

#2. Who ever heard of memorising values to prove your moral worth to society? I agree with one of the students interviewed in the report. Quote [slightly paraphrased]: Some of my friends who are better behaved didn't do as well as me in the Moral exam. The major problem with the Moral exams is that again, subjective questions are expected to be answered with objective answers.

#3. Datuk, please be sure that your facts are accurate. It is comforting to know that students are only required to know keywords. But what happened between the top and the markers at the bottom? Has the message been altered in transmission? Because I clearly remember my Moral teacher reminding us to memorise value definitions word for word.

There is no substitute for Moral as a subject, only a substitute in the teaching of the subject and the exam system for the subject.

While on the topic of education still, I think History is another subject with the same problems as Moral, namely the problem of asking subjective questions and expecting objective answers in return. For example:

Question: Imagine you are a sultan of a 18th century Malay state. Your kingdom is about to be colonised by the British. What will you do?
My answer: Let them come in and take over, then learn from them, then throw them out eventually.
Correct textbook answer: Use force of weapons to repulse the British.

So, this tells us that martyrdom is a way of life of the Malays. Referring to the textbooks again, every Malay state under British rule has had its fair share of rebels. All of them died in the end. So, martyrdom IS the way of life of the Malays. How bloody sad, that we have martyrs as our role models. No wonder most of us look to Anwar or RPK to free us, rather than stick with the ruling coalition of BN.

happy birthday to me

I must say that this year, I have had the most memorable birthday. Especially since most of my classmates in the previous years had let it go by unnoticed. Then again, my birthday always seemed to be during the exam period. So, I can't really blame them for that.
Oh well, enough reminiscence. Time to move back into the real world.
Last Saturday, some of my gamer friends came to Pyramid to celebrate early. It was enjoyable. BBQ for lunch, then off to Point Extreme for some DotA. To top it all, a nice cake and a present of books [Eragon, Eldest]. Thanks a million, guys. Won't forget this treat.
Then today I had another cake. From S4. They almost got me creamed, but somehow I managed to worm my way out of it. And so I got a second cake, and some extra for sharing around. Thanks a million as well, guys, you are super.

So, I think this year I have had a much more interesting birthday celebration. To all wishers, thanks a lot for remembering. Love you guys.

This is our next PM

This is the deal cut by Najib when he was Defence Minister. Interesting what power does to people nowadays.

http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/13721/84/

With him as our next PM, I wonder how we are going to deal with the people next. Especially if he is not put away for his involvement in the Altantuyaa business.

it's who you wanna be, not what you do

I don't know why, but lately I've taken up old games again. For example, Jedi Academy. It's a 2003 game, which makes it 5 years old this year. Yet, so far it is the best PC Jedi game I've played. I guess I like the hack and slash method of playing with an [almost] invulnerable Jedi and his lightsabre. My favourite combo? Force grip the enemy over the cliffs. Clearing out evil with Dark side powers is a different way to play the game.

Quote: It's not what powers you use, it's what you use it for.

when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade

It's interesting how we humans tend to gravitate to doing similar things. For example, the RO trend somehow got introduced into my class by Matthew. So now most of us are hooked by it. Oh well. How the heck do we play on a massively laggy connection? But never mind about that.
I like this tendency. Cause it means that we can take advantage to socialise. How interesting. That's why whoever came out with the above statement means that he/she was a good observer of human nature.

But I like lemon sherbet better.

Double tags

For some reason, most newbie bloggers love to tag others. Here are some of the bloggers tagging me:

Tag #1: Chee Meng, Evie
Instructions, Remove 1 question from below and add in a personal question, make it a total of 19 questions. Then tag 8 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged.

1. What Are Your Nicknames?
Mad Scientist [I hear this rarely now]

2. What Is Your Most Favorite Thing To Do?
Paintball [when I can get it], computer games

3. What Kind Of News Do You Read?
The radical kind [think Malaysia Today]

4. Describe yourself in 10 words or less?
Underappreciated genius [I think so]

5. Is There Someone In Your Heart Right Now?
Yes

6. Do You Believe You Can Survive Without Money?
There is always a card called credit card

7. What Are You Afraid To Lose The Most?
My mind

8. What Do You Feel Like Doing Right Now?
Nothing

9. If There's Someone That You Love, Would You Confess To Him/Her?
Maybe

10. List Out 3 Good Points Of The Person Who Tagged You.
short, Pokemon freak, quite a good football defender [PJK]

11. What Are The Requirements That You Wish From Your Other Half?
Not whiny about money

12. Between family and friends, which is more important to you?
Neither, the world is waiting for me

13. If You Had To Eat One Thing For The Rest Of Your Life, What Would It Be?
Pork, can't do without this essential source of protein

14. If You Had A Choice To Be Rich Or Happy, Which One Would You Pick?
Happy with myself

15. If You Have A Chance, Which Part Of Your Character You Would Like To Change?
None, I like me now

16. How Do You See Yourself In 10 Years Time?
Somewhere in a research lab trying to blow up the country

17. What Is The One Thing You Love About Yourself?
Radicalism in me

18. If You Can Bring Only One Thing Along With You To Another World, What Would It Be?
My mind intact

19. What Kind of Movie(type) You Like To Watch?
Anything interesting, no particular preference

So I shall tag these people:
Andrew, Anderson, 1G, Mayjee, Kay-Li, Hann Tat, Sher Hann, Jie Han

Tag #2: CPU
The last person to tag you is?
Chee Meng

What is your relationship with him/her?
That little friend of mine

Your 5 impression towards him/her.
a) cute
b) small
c) short
d) good at art
e) fast

The most memorable thing that he/she had done for you.
Being my friend

The most memorable thing that he/she has say to you.
[nothing]

If he/she becomes your lover, you will…
I am not Saiful

If he/she becomes your enemy, you will
Face it like a man

If he/she becomes your lover , he/she has to improve on..
[nothing]

If he/she becomes your enemy , the reason is...
There is no good reason

The most desirable things to you to do to him/her
[nothing]

The overall impression to he/her is
Little short guy with a big ego

How do you think the people around you will feel about you?
Mad, unloved [so far]

The character for you for yourself is?
No idea

On the contrary , the thing you hate about yourself is?
No/almost no social skills

The most ideal person you want to be is?
Artemis Fowl

For the person who cares and likes you, say something about them.
Grow taller please...

Ten people to tag-
1 Andrew
2 Anderson
3 1G
4 Mayjee
5 Kay-Li
6 Hann Tat
7 Sher Hann
8 Jie Han
9 Ding En
10 Charlene

Who is no.2 having relationship with?
Alfie [heheheh]

Is no.3 a female or a male?
Male

If no.7 and no.10 be together would it be a good thing?
Maybe

How about no.5 and 8?
Not for Jason, no

What is number 1 studying for?
SAM

When was the last time you have chat with them?
Almost say, 6 hours ago

Is number 4 a single?
No clue

Talk something about no.2.
Any short guy with an ego disproportionate to his size