What some Malaysian academicians do during their free time

>>Link<<

My take: The person writing this so happens to be a Chinese-Muslim, and appears to be a convert by marriage. I do not have any preconceptions about his political leanings, or his religion leaning either. Hence I do not know anything about why he decides to write such an article - an article which may, and probably has, inflamed a number of people.

But I still do have a couple of questions regarding his article.
1. Why does Dr Tee choose to use a census that is almost a decade old? Should he not have used an updated version of our national census?

2. Related to question 1, why does Dr Tee think that the non-Muslims have "taken over"? Are there relevant statistics to show for the claims he makes in the post/article?

It is a baffling article. And I feel that it has the potential to incite the very things that he may have sought to quell in the first place.

Christmas morning

It's 5 in the morning over here. I wonder what I'm doing, still up and about. There's no Christmas tree in the corner with presents under it.

Summer nights

They're getting shorter by the day. As I sit here typing this out, it's 9 pm and the sky's still bright, bright as the 6 am dawn sky.

As the days grow ever longer, and the nights shrink, it's sort of playing around with my mood too. There's this sense that the night, however young, will be too short to savour fully.

Ahh nostalgia is sometimes a wrecking ball for the soul.

Teach Radical Malaysian History in our Schools

>>Link<<

My take: About time. It's been talked about to death already. Especially on History. Why are we fed one side of the story and not allowed to ask or comment on the other side? And the current system does not encourage thinking. Questions asked are quashed by using the rhetoric "non-examinable questions".

Time for change. Change, which will not come unless we have a revolution [and we lack leaders for that].

My favourite question returns to haunt readers:
Q: Should he have rebelled against the Sultan?

And my answer will still be:
A: Yes he should.

Fluctuations

The mercury shot up yesterday, and now the sky's clouded over. What beautiful weather we get here in Melbourne.

I wish I had the adventurous friends here in Melbourne still. I wouldn't mind a bit of sightseeing, especially with summer looming.

Gotta get out in the sun more..

Bzzt

Lying in bed,
dreaming of what could be,
what could have been,
what should be.

The first one is the worst one
when it comes to a broken heart

-Boys Like Girls, The First One-

Results

By sheer luck I was up at 5.30 am to get my results. [And yes, I'm still in Melbourne.]

So.. Triple H1s for the core subjects means I'm rather happy today :)
Weirdly enough, even with all my complaints about Linear, it netted me the highest score. Pleasantly surprising.

Anyway that's first year done. I can't believe I'm actually waiting for next February to come along.

快到我向你们追债了。。

Repeat

It's the same old story all over again during the holidays. Looks like I'll go ahead and find something worth doing over summer. Besides playing computer games of course. Perhaps a good round of paintball might do me some good. Relieves some of the stress piling on my back now.

Racial politics and Brain Drain

>>Link<<

My take:
There are two things worth reading here, the first being the blog post itself, and the second is the long comment beneath.
Brain drain is an ongoing process, amplified by the sheer amount of racist talk some of the leaders have been spouting in the last few years. The article highlights the main reasons why we'd want to get out of Malaysia, which all hint at racism practised within the government forces. [Which is all rather true, and most Malaysians will admit this happens.]

Literate Goons and Well-trained Zombies

>>Link<<

My take: Some measure of rote learning helps us ace exams, but to gauge the true depth of our students you need to get them thinking in detail. As the article points out, one of the ways would be to make students "change" the past through visualising concepts. This has been done in the Singaporean schooling system, and it should be done in our system as well. In many ways it will help us along, although if the implementation is done in the same way as our present method of teaching Literature, the system will fail horribly.

Q: Should he rebel against the Sultan?
A: Why of course he should.

Cheer up emo kid

Can't help but smile whenever I type/see this. Dunno why I'm a bit depressed now. Maybe it's the lack of friends around Melbourne. Maybe it's something else. Doubt it would help much if I knew what was the problem though.

Owl City

Syrupy sweet lyrics, the perfect balm to soothe souls and hearts. I personally like these two songs of theirs:

From New Scientist

Found a couple of interesting articles on New Scientist.

Dear God, please confirm what I already believe
>>Link<<

My take: This might explain so much about why modern society follows certain rules that seem to have been handed down by religious beings. And it would certainly explain why the three Abrahamic religions talk about the same God, but Islam has a different set of rules compared to the Christians. In that case, I'd like to found a completely different religion, with gods like the Chaos gods found in Warhammer 40k.

The world looks different if you're depressed
>>Link<<

My take: Interesting revelation here. At least now I know why things don't seem normal..

Restarting writing

Writing random short stories should restart soon. Got inspired during lunch yesterday, so just check here if I do post anything interesting :)

Holidays

I have a feeling this blog needs a gentle nudge. Haven't found much to post about though, holidays generally make me feel lazy and stuff.

This liver feels rather lazy.

2012

It's another end-of-the-world flick, where all the Yanks manage to survive every manner of calamity thrown at them. The entire show could be construed as a philosophical discussion of the end of the world and who should survive it. It looks like politicians should not be allowed to survive at any cost, if I understood the show's last hour well enough.

Somehow after watching I just wished that we get an apocalypse movie where everybody gets wiped off the surface of the Earth instead.

Restarting brain functions...

Overdrive

Ever feel as though you've been thinking too much about a single thing, be it an idea, a person, or a concept?
Well, you've probably burnt yourself out just putting the entire puzzle together. I know how it feels, searching in the dark for that missing piece. It can get worse if the missing piece doesn't fit into the puzzle, for you then have to look for the correct piece all over again. It's an entire vicious cycle, for it will suck you in deeper the more you think.

Time to break free of that cycle.

Hidden meanings

-Falling, faster and faster
longing for a quick release
opening myself to the void
rending my mind apart
every fibre of me seeking
new reasons for
closing the door, falling
ever faster-

Woken from the dream
he's weary,
yawning and bored.

Atheist campaign in the UK

>>Link<<

My take: At least they're speaking out. Sometimes we should just analyse facts and try to justify them before discussing religion, whether it's needed or not.

Emo again

Don't ask. Consoling me would do nicely though :)

-I died in my dreams
what's that supposed to mean
got lost in the failure
I died in my dreams
reaching out for your hand-

Funeral Song, The Rasmus

Innocence

It's frustrating to always find yourself in that old position of unrequited love. Recurring problem I guess.

Three inches of air
between your cheek
and my lips

DST

It's 8 o' clock already, yet there's still a lot of sunshine coming in from the west. Gonna get some more ESD2 revision in before I find myself in bed again.

I'm finding it kinda difficult to write long, coherent posts, unless there's a precipitating factor or something.


Talk to me more,
give me inspiration,
let me freshen my tired mind.

New Scientist: Rejection massively reduces IQ

>>Link<<

Gotta say this is interesting, go check it out.

My take: Well, if that's the case, it means my current IQ *could* be higher.

1 down 3 to go

There is a certain energy that fills you once you've polished off an exam paper, especially one that you thought would be difficult or particularly painful. Maybe it's a manic sort of energy. Either way, it's difficult to describe that feeling when you've moved past one exam, ready to tackle the next one.

-虽然我现在要叫你神，明天过后轮到你们叫我神。-

Sweetness

Finally done with the text part of the newsletter. Yes, I know it's kinda overdue already. This is what happens when you think too much about exams and newsletters.

Gonna dress it up with more pix now. Can't believe most of the photos I need are on Facebook.

-The one I love
is striking me down on my knees
The one I love
drowning me in my dreams
The one I love
over and over again
dragging me under-
The One I Love, The Rasmus

Finding myself

"It's not about finding who you are; it's about creating who you want to be."

How true this sentence is. It reminds me of what I should be doing instead of finding things to do.

Melbourne Cup Day

It's a public holiday, but for uni students it's another day at the libraries, slaving away to get those four H1's. Brain's functioning fine, until the notes get taken away, that is. Gotta try and memorise all the pertinent facts and figures.

Yet another sleep deprived day in paradise.

A+ way to get the best of the best in SPM

>>Link<<

I'm sorry, I still don't see how this will help. I foresee a lot of students falling into that A+ category. Unless you're going to use something like a scaled normal distribution graph, this is not going to bode well at all. It's just dressing the salad with a different oil, the taste is more or less the same.

Cleverbot?

"Then there is no use in wanting to life at all, because that is the source of all heartbreak."

Just a quote Wei Ling got off this site: >>Link<<
It's an AI-based chat program.

Poetry

Someone asked me why I write poems in some of my blog entries. I guess it's cos to me, I find that poems are one of the easier methods of expressing emotions. In just a few lines, you can tell the world how you're feeling inside. That being said, poems are also a good way to cover up things, since everything that happens to the persona doesn't necessarily mean that it's happening to you as well. It's a good tool.

First year

Last day of uni today. It had a party mood to it, especially in the ESD2 workshop today. Well, I guess the ESD2 workshop party mood was partly due to the fact that we'd get to launch plastic balls at a mini-Jamie Evans, and we got to see all the Spiderman simulations and Andrew's reactions to our predictions. After that it was all food and drinks, party hats and YouTube videos.

With my first year of uni life almost officially over, I sense it's gonna be more of an uphill struggle for the coming 3 years. I have a plan for that though, it's called studying during summer. Although I wonder how I'm going to achieve that in 35+ degrees temperatures. It should be doable, I'm sure. It should just be a matter of willpower.

Anyway, back to studying for the impending finals.

Update

Got delayed on the trains big time today. Signal failure at Camberwell >.<
Poor infrastructure often gets in the way of decent services. Anyway, managed to hurry to uni in time for Matlab test. I was surprised to know that I can still finish the entire test in about 40 minutes.

Doesn't feel like there's much to say about today, other than that 1 hour delay sitting around at East Camberwell station. Oh wait, the weather was beautiful today. Must remember to buy myself a pair of shades for summer.

Gotta get back to writing up that newsletter.

Burnout

Don't ask me whether that's really true, sometimes even I wouldn't know what goes on with me. All I know is that this close to the finals, I'm starting to blur out, to defocus from the main stuff in uni.

I think I need some help. I know most of you think that I'm some super-genius or something, reality is I'm not that person yet. I might know more, but it doesn't mean it's all uni-related.

I guess... it's back to studying first then.


Focus, focus, it's just another 3 weeks to go...

The Forgotten - part 9

A sliver of silver light
shining forth from beneath the drawn blinds.
Furious typing echoes out into the night.

A spark of life
flaring forth from within.

Slowly, surely.
Something will change
as things always do.

Inside
the insomniac fights on
his wish to live
and he lives to wish
Forever.

News updates

RM42k for a laptop: >>Link<<

Well, once again the great toilet seat story strikes again, this time in the form of super expensive laptops. If they were inlaid with Swarovski crystals and had the equivalent processing power of Deep Blue, I'd warrant that price. But obviously it doesn't, which means someone is fiddling with the accounts. Nice job wasting taxpayers' money.

97% of parents in 7 schools want teaching in English to continue aka the Maths and Science debacle: >>Link<<

What can they really do? I'll be waiting for updates, but till then, it's still going to be a case of government reversing decent policies.

Econs experiments

Play the market. Make the trends. Earn money. Worth 3 hours? Definitely. Especially considering that I got $60 and came out knowing that uni students don't mind taking risks for a decent return, it was very much worth my time.

Thoughts on ESD2

I'm waiting for them to give out the feedback forms. We need to let them know how badly done the subject is so far. It can be improved, although I feel that scrapping it altogether has its merits.

Week 11

The semester is about to end. Most of the major assignments have already been cleared out of the way. Soon it'll be the calm before the storm, a week's rest before the finals blow in. I am constantly reminded of how quickly time flies, of how my life has changed for the better. Of the various responsibilities I took on, of what I plan to make of myself.

Time to prove my worth, time to make my mark.

Quote

Quiet contemplation yielded this sentence:

"Every flaw in the crystal is another facet from which the crystal shines brighter."

Block

Once again, I've hit that mental obstacle on the road to writing a good article for the IESS newsletter. How does Luke do it, I wonder.

Silence

It's kinda quiet today for some reason. Actually it's been kinda quiet since last night. I wonder why.

Even I've been relatively quiet on the blogging front. I speculate it's what happens when we let off steam suddenly.

18

It was a blast today. Got flooded with emails from friends, MSN was going off quite often as well. Even my friends from Malaysia messaged me with their warm wishes! That was quite something to me. And then there was the surprise this morning, after my Finance lecture. Was called over to the Engineering building, where I saw the whole gang already there waiting. I was a little stunned at first, [who wouldn't be?] and then they started singing Happy Birthday. The usual rituals then proceeded, blowing candles, cutting and distributing the cake - Liling had done a pretty fine job of baking a cheesecake!

As the weather started acting up, we decided to retreat into the cover of the Engineering building. Inside, I received my presents - the compulsory card bearing well wishes, clothes [both summer and winter wear :D] and then this.



A Logitech G15 gaming keyboard. Holy shit. I was so amazed when I unwrapped it, all I said was, "Sick."

Well, having tested it for about 7 hours now, I like its feel. It's more fun to use compared to the previous Logitech keyboard I was using, more so when you consider the LCD panel in the middle of the keyboard.


I love my birthday presents this year. And I love my birthday celebrations this year. Thanks to Jun Yeu for getting me the G15, and thanks to Liling for the cake, love you both!

Tiberian Twilight

C&C4 is coming next year. >>link<<

I want it. Badly.

Time

Assignments have temporarily messed up my sleep times. Thanks very much, uni.

...the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. - A. Einstein

South Melbourne beach trip

Late is in fashion. As the organisers put it, there were only 2 people on time [read: early]. Even one of the main planners was about half an hour late, but since punctuality is such a tall order for some of us, names shall not be mentioned.

All in all, I feel that the trip to South Melbourne beach was worth investing ~12 hours of my time. It was good fun bonding on the beach, with the sand and the surf coming together. Even the weather was pretty decent for the week, considering that the past week was cold and rather windy. In contrast, the sun blazed down and the winds were breezes at worst.

Encapsulating the day in words really fails me now, I guess. Back to reality and assignments for now.

Writing

The monotony of uni life has somehow diluted my enthusiasm for writing. Even though I have an assignment due next Tuesday, and a newsletter due within the next 2 weeks, both forms of writing seem to boring for me to touch.


Too little progress, too little time...

Theory proven?

Never envisioned myself being a social researcher, but a certain social conjecture of mine suggests that tensions change when you start relationships within a group of friends. It appears that I have been proven right.

But then again, it's just an isolated case so far. As they say, one coincidence is just a coincidence.

As the sun rays sparkled down,
I saw the truth clearly.

Blitz Paintball

One word sums this up pretty well. Ownage.

Kinda tired out now, all the running, adrenaline and shooting really burns your energy down to malfunctioning levels. Paintballing hasn't changed much since I last played at Oakleigh. There's still those voting boxes near the exit, players still get unlimited lives in most scenarios, gameplay is getting kinda straightforward. Although I'd like to try Little River next year or something like that.

Blitz

It's tiring but fun. Although I gathered more bruises and scrapes, it was good clean fun. Not really a major turnout, but it was still a success so far.

To think that we're only just getting started.

Meetings

They won't start on time, it's ingrained into us that it will definitely start late.

Sad.

Visitors

And so they arrived, the only notices on Facebook.

Became the designated tour guide for Terry and Matt yesterday. Met them in Melbourne Central, and then the first stop they wanted was Smith St.

"Why?"
"Cos we heard there was massive discounts on sports stuff."

Not a bad reason, so we headed off to Collingwood, where the next 3 hours were spent trawling from shop to shop, trying to find Terry a pair of new shoes.

After searching in vain for something that suited him, we left for Docklands, where they were supposed to meet up with some high school friends for lunch. Had fish and chips, which were supposedly inferior to that in Sydney. Then more old friends turned up.

Apparently a lot of my high schoolmates are here in Melbourne. And they meet up quite often. To think that I've been looking out high and low for any of them here. Oh well. But I found out that they are poker addicts with their own poker set, so I'm thinking of inviting them for IESS's Poker Night next semester.

After lunch, went back to the city for bubble tea. There I parted ways with them, letting them wander off with their ex-classmate to Spencer St DFO.

It's always nice to meet up with old friends.

Glen Waverley

Your typical Asian hangout, I guess. No wonder the locals get a little discriminating and protective of themselves when they see so many Asians wandering around. I "happened" to wander down to Glen Waverley alone on a Saturday evening, for some reason best known to myself, just like how I decided to wander around Port Melbourne alone as well.

Lots of Asian shops - cafes and grocery shops - around the station. Even just stepping out of the station screams "Asian" in your face. Since I wasn't looking out for anything in particular, nothing really stood out to me. Might go back another time, maybe an afternoon when the shops are still open and stuff.

Rainbows

How funny it is that life treats us this way. After the problems and bullshit we endure, then only we get to savour a fleeting taste of joy, before plunging back into the bustle of life.

Just like seeing rainbows after the storms.

Like the rainbows
they vanished
as the clouds parted
and the drizzle settled
beams of light shining forth
brightening the azure span

but at what price?

Intellectual talk

It's really difficult to find people who think critically and can discuss profound stuff. Now that I've found people of the same ilk as myself, I can finally challenge myself to discuss topics of mutual interest.


On an unrelated note, I've found some cheap food in the city. Crossways on Swanston is one pretty decent food place. Indian food [or whatever's on the menu] and a decent atmosphere, it's hard to find another place for the price.

Net

How fun it is when the Net suddenly cuts out after 1 am. It's like someone telling you that you should be sleeping already.

But coffee doesn't help things.

Port Melbourne

It's an industrial area. The only reason there's a paintball arena and a go kart arena there is because of the warehouses and open space within.

Now I have the challenge of arranging transport for roughly 50 people to and from the go kart circuit in Port Melbourne. And to spice things up further, I have to find some way of getting them there and back without half of them complaining of having to walk very far. This should be fun.

Programming

There is always that sense of achievement when you finish coding a significantly annoying program. Now I understand why I enjoy programming more than I used to.

Streaks

I've found that I tend to have a very competitive streak coupled with some degree of aggressiveness when playing games. It scares me, seeing the effects of it. Sometimes I don't feel like myself when this happens. Methinks I should find some way to cut this streak out at the right times.

Tender

"Walking her to the tram stop."

Self sacrifice, or some other reason?
I'm pretty sure we know the answer.
Or we think we know the answer.

Sometimes it's the little things
which divulge the bigger secrets.
Every unexpected decision
every non-random move
they give away the thoughts within.

No matter how much the two of you deny, I wish you luck.

Countdown

Holidays are coming. Let's see. 1500 hours, Friday 18th Sept 09 translates to about 22 hours from now. Hooray! Ohwait. Assignments and revising for finals. Damn.


Off topic: Four weeks to birthday.

Tests

Tough. Desperation leads to only one thing, ie: caffeine infusions. Time to sit back and get some study in.

UPM lecturers hauled up over plagiarism

>>Link<<

Comments: I remember doing basic research during SAM, and also now in uni. Since when did we not have to cite Internet articles?

Conclusion: UPM fails at finding quality researchers.

Life - pre Blitz

It's hectic. So much that I feel guilty for not speeding up my own stuff to make room for IESS and Blitz. Which has led to me finishing off most of the coding for a tic-tac-toe simulator in Matlab.


Can't wait for Blitz now.

Sunday night

Gah. Nice to know that trains run every 40 minutes from the city out. Not so nice when you're the one waiting at the station, for that train that's gonna be coming along in 40 minutes' time.

Housing

Hmm. Is anyone in Melbourne looking for a quiet place to stay? There's an empty room in my place now. Fully furnished is the term, I believe, for this unit in Surrey Hills. Drop a comment with your contact details, I'll try to get back to you as long as the landlady is ok with you.

Assignments

Matlab may be powerful, but it has its own flaws. Such as not being able to give coherent answers to bugs. There is no other plausible reason as to why I spent more than 5 hours trying to debug the darned Matlab code.

Solo

It looks like I prefer to find my own pace when it comes to doing anything. Whether it's simple stuff like walking around, or studying, I tend to use a speed that I'm happy with to carry out the task at hand.

So maybe sometimes I'm frustrated by slowness or slacking, and other times I don't really mind. It's odd.

Malaysian is top English student at London varsity

>>Link here<<

Hmm. Biased as I may be, this is something that we should be proud of. And it should very well be something for all of us to strive for - rebranding Malaysia as much as possible.

In other words - CHANGE.

IE meetings

I find that I just have to release this. Otherwise keeping it inside me will corrode me instead.

Why do you bring a puppy to uni? Is it just for the fun of it? If it is, please rethink. I doubt it's any fun. Instead, it saps your time and your energy just to keep it happy. And it distracts the formality of a meeting. It is VERY frustrating to keep an eye on the puppy AND listen to what the vice president is discussing. Not to mention the shrieks when your puppy disturbs other committee members during the meeting breaks up any decent train of thought.



Now I feel better getting that out of my system.

Demotivated

ESD2 is kinda boring now. How we're going to stand another couple of lectures with that guy I dunno. Matlab may be his first language, but not all of us are fluent in it.


If lecturer = professor && lecturer != white
then lecture = boring

FON

Finally it's over. Mega food carnival with a good turnout and sellout for us. I like that. Korean food tonight to celebrate.

I think it was worth the effort.

Insanitarius

Haven't bothered with an Independence Day post, it doesn't really mean much to me at this stage. I'd rather think about Festival of Nations and the great food carnival you'd have seen outside Union House today. Lovely sight, all the crowds and all the food. Particularly the smell of beef rendang simmering in the pots on the stove.

I wish I had an Insanitarius. Increased speed is always welcome.

Melt

Tis the end of winter, also heralding the 52nd birthday of Malaysia. Not that it feels significant to me, it would help us better if they stopped bickering over trivial stuff at home. Independence Day would be more welcome if problems were sorted out beforehand.

Delays

I know the scenery at East Camberwell station is nice. But you don't have to stick us there for ~10 minutes just so that we can enjoy it.

People with too much time on their hands

197 students caught for khalwat in schools

So. It looks like religious people have too much time on their hands, I think. Why else would they bother with teenagers with raging hormones when there are bigger fish to catch?

Once again, the people with too much time on their hands have struck again. *sigh*

Back again

System Restore is most likely to be the most underrated skill hidden within the Windows OS. At least it has got me back online again, which of course makes me pretty happy. Blogging and Facebooking and foruming again.

I'm not clicking on random links again.

Troy

They gave us the Trojan Horse.

And I have one of them. Dammit.

Need to flush it out of my laptop before any shit hits the fan.

MOMU AGM | Poker Night | Doncaster

I started this last night and haven't actually finished this post until this morning. Lazing around FTW.

Anyway it was hectic for the past two days.

MOMU AGM: What an organised AGM. And a half dead one to boot. I'm pretty sure the returning officer must have found MUOSS's AGM to be more lively than this one. Even I found IESS's to be more upbeat. But anyway, I don't know how promoting Malaysian culture to Melbourne Uni students will encourage people to join. It might just be me, but I'm pretty sure that you'd come here to Melbourne not to see more of your fellow countrymen. [Bias showing clearly]

Poker Night: One word covers it all: Frenzy. Why the hell did everyone decide to sign up at the last minute? I know it helps us that people show their enthusiasm, but it doesn't help the fellows at registration. Well, enough of whining. I got two prizes at the raffle draws, so I'm happy. And to round off an interesting night, one of the Poker Club members who signed up won the grand prize! Now they have their own set to use.

Doncaster: I hate linear programming now. It kinda ruined my chances of getting this particular tutoring position. I should have checked beforehand, but what the hell.

Raindrops

They make me emo and deenergised. Maybe demotivated as well. Right now I'm supposed to be doing more stuff than just this. But of course, I don't look like I've done things like that. So.

Someone give me a good hard shove. I'd like to try going over the edge sometime.


Cold fingers numbs the creativity as well.

Gumballs

I have a mini gumball machine sitting in one corner of my house. Just got it today, random encounter of the human kind in the dungeon.



I'm still thinking about how to use it. Should I sell gumballs, or should I keep the gumballs for myself?

Nothing

... characterizes the life now. Nothing much to talk about yet.

Poker Night is this Friday night. Maybe there'll be a bigger update here after that's out of the way. Maybe not.

Rush

aka The Dummies' Guide to Doing Homework.

Step 1. Look at assignment.
Step 2. Check Wikipedia for quick review of topic. If assigned topic is easy, skip to step 4 straight away.
Step 3. Google your assignment topic for more detail.
Step 4. Decide that you understand the topic through and through.
Step 5. Make a note on your calendar to remind yourself of the due date for your assignment.
Step 6. Party, enjoy life.
Step 7. 2 days before due date, start rushing. [Coffee is vital for this step]
Step 8. Submit assignment 2 hours before the due time on the day itself.

Rule of Assignments #1. The closr to the start of the semester you get your assignment, the more likely you will have to rush the darn thing.

Open Day

"Remember to wear warm clothing, it's predicted that we'll get temperatures around 12 degrees on Sunday."

Yeah right. Intermittent rain and strong winds isn't exactly going to help an Open Day anyway. Most of the day was spent guiding people to wherever they wanted to go to, and handing out helium balloons [although with the wind, I'd hate to hold on to balloons for the rest of the day].

Spring

Temperatures are rising, spring is approaching. And come mid-spring, I'll be free again.

One of those days...

... when you look at yourself, and go "what the fuck have I done with my life so far?"

Relativity

It's interesting to find that all I have to do is to get home, switch on my laptop and then the next thing I know, it's 12 midnight and I haven't done a thing at all.

Time dilation or length contraction, I doubt either would explain how time flies this fast.

Lectures

"Due to conditions beyond my control we will have to cancel today's lectures. There will be no lectures on Wednesday 12th of August."


People sitting in the lecture theatre now: FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU.....

Slackers setting off late from home: Yay :D

Trains

It's pretty awesome, the type of people you see on trains.

You get the friendly noisy stranger, who talks to you on trains. A friend of a friend of mine found one guy who could yodel very well. And that was only because the yodeller talked to this friend first.

You also get the politically motivated activist. They'd go around, handing out survey forms to passengers, asking for signatures. There was this guy I met one night, he was trying to collect enough signatures to petition to boot Connex out of handling the Melbourne public trains.

And then you get the evangelists, who'd get on the train and start asking people, "Would you like me to read you a story?"

Ah, the fun of travelling on trains in Melbourne.

Rage

"This ATM has run out of $20 notes. Please enter a different amount."


FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.....

Repetition

Life is monotonous this time of year. Although it's coming to the end of winter [spring officially starts on the 1st of September], I don't feel it. There's some sort of delayed lethargy settling into my bones now.

Wake up.
Shower.
Eat breakfast, pack lunch.
Go to train station.
Arrive at city, get tram to uni.
Go for classes.
Hang out with friends. [who don't always notice your presence]
Go to train station.
Get home.
Switch on laptop.
Stone until hungry or tired.
Sleep.

Rinse and repeat as required.


Some days I feel worse than a machine.

Writer's Block

What happens when you get an assignment barely a week into the new semester, as well as two event reports to write up, and one of the event reports is poorly written.


Headbang. No way this should be happening. But it is. T_T

Renting

450 bucks for an [almost] empty shell of an apartment.

City prices drive me nuts. And so does the Malaysian student mentality. What to do, except sit around and pray someone manages to change their mindset.

Uphill

Everything in life goes up, or so they say.


Note to self: Don't go jogging uphill again.

Laments

Every day, the same questions ring in my empty head.

Why.

A thousand times a day, the same question, repeating endlessly, as though demanding attention.

Yet there is no ready answer.

Articles

As the editor, and the guy who's taken Creative Writing, I can't believe how difficult it is to write a simple short article of something that I attended and just happened 2 days ago.



Ouch.

Questions

Life certainly is funny.

Why do two people who like each other deny that reality?

Demotivators 2

Just for laughs.

Invisible

Why am I constantly that one person who's left out of the conversations?

Why does the silence seem inevitable?

Why don't things fall "naturally" into place?

Why do relationships have to screw up friendships?

So many questions.
So few answers.
When, oh when, will the wind stop howling?

Box Hill 2

I've been up there too many times. Except that this time round, I'm just another invisible little kid, heard but not seen, wandering around.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. It was a trip which was "supposed" to cheer me up by sending me into the sunlight. Yeah right. As though it helped.

-I'm just a kid
And life is a nightmare
I'm just a kid
I know that it's not fair
Nobody cares
Cos I'm alone and the world
Is having more fun than me
Tonight-

Outings

Just another way of saying "You've got work to do while everyone else is skiing."

On the other hand we get to go somewhere, stretch our legs a bit. Trade offs seem to be the mainstay of our lives, isn't that right?