Shattered

No tickets for the footy, apparently groups can't get that many tickets cos of the deadlines and stuff. Damn.

Dreamtime

>>Link<<

It's not something you get every day, being able to watch a live AFL match for free. I'm debating on going, considering that I'll be rather free during the coming weekend.

Breather

Assessments seem to come around in bursts. At least that gives me some time to recover. And then it'll be off again for me, doing stuff that I partially enjoy [and that everyone else seems to loathe].

And that's life for me.

The Forgotten - part 10 (Reawakening)

Shivering
under the cold glare of night
he winces
a pain burning within

the pain of longing
the pain of rejection
the pain of hunger
the pain of indignity
the pain of insignificance

Walking along in the cold
he carries on
an outcast
in a world of joy

Meh

Exams coming in a month's time. Onoes.

Busy

2 lab reports, 1 newsletter, 1 online test. Work as usual for a typical undergrad I'd say.

So if I don't seem busy enough I might have ticked off some of those stuff from my to-do list already :)

It's a rush going to your head

I just came back from an awesome weekend, involving soccer, paintball and badminton. So.. who says students can't keep fit?

Now talking about paintball. One thing really riles me - the lack of the element of retribution. No, I'm not talking about revenge. Revenge is something totally different from retribution. Retribution is based on the golden rule of "don't do unto others what you don't want done unto yourself". Which means that if somebody shoots you within 8 metres even after you yell at him/her to surrender, you are very much welcome to spray the idiot full of paint, also within 8 metres. Then you get to walk away.

Retribution would make paintball so much more rewarding in terms of player satisfaction. As I bore witness at Oakleigh last Sunday, quite a number of players had sustained flesh wounds from close-range shots, even though the marshals had already cautioned us not to fire our markers when within 8 metres of an opponent. A number of them were disgruntled that the other players did not bother to obey the 8 metre rule. If the concept of retribution were to be implemented, I suppose that players would think twice before opening fire within the 8 metre zone, mainly because they would then know the pain of receiving close-range shots. This would thus reduce the number of injuries due to close-range shooting, I suppose.

Damn. I have ideas. Whether they work very well is another matter in practice.

Now back to work.

Rigged

How else would you describe a debate that has a sudden increase in the number of people supporting the Malaysian government's ideas? This shows that even in Australia, the long scary arm of Malaysia still lurks behind shadows.

The MASCA Annual Debate had a good motive behind it. Unfortunately when discussing motions involving government policies, a debate is not the best solution. People have varying views on the topic at hand; some fully support the policy, others fully oppose the policy, and there are many who fall somewhere in between the two extremes. A debate, being fully black and white in having "For" and "Against" teams, does not work well to support the full spectrum of views. Hence, I say that a good idea was tripped up by its execution.

I have other reasons to view the debate as flawed. Bad imagery on the program booklet and advertisements - are we really all monkeys living in trees? Not the best imagery I'd say. Furthermore, regarding the program booklet handed out, there is nothing inside regarding any of the 6 speakers or the moderator. No credentials, no photos, no details about what makes them suitable candidates for the debate. And why aren't there any engineers on either of the debating teams? Something to think about there, since some people say that "Engineers make the world go round, politicians come and stuff things up".

As for the handling of the debate itself, the moderator was not subtle when it came to reminding debaters about their time limits. Visual cues should have been given, or a less intrusive ringing bell would have worked.

On the debate itself, the participants had weak points overall. A single government policy does not always directly cause something, especially since you need to trace all the policies to get to the root cause of something. How do you know that the NEP directly assisted the progress of Malaysia?

Also, when it came to defining progress, I feel that the speakers could have used the following analogy: Progress is an upward-sloping line. It's not a flat line.
Thus, if you're anywhere below that line, then there is not enough progress. Really, we should be looking at natural progress as well as assisted progress. None of the speakers took into account natural progress, which would have been more meaningful.

Overall, I feel that the opposition speakers of the day are still making excuses for the Malaysian government, such as "We are still a young nation" [Young? Pfft.], "We don't want to be lapdogs of the USA" [Um. How do you progress if you don't want learn from the best?] and "If you aim for the stars and you miss, at least you still land on the moon" [Very comforting, I know, but useless when you look at the "cold hard facts", as their own speakers put it].

NB: The topic of the debate was "Malaysia has failed to progress since the inception of the NEP". Opposition speakers on the topic think that we have progressed, government speakers think that we have failed to progress.

I-Games

Fiasco sums it up. From organisation to execution, there was plenty of fail.

#1. Arrival - 20 minute walk from Domain Interchange tram stop to MSAC at Albert Park. Good job whoever planned that, when the 96/112 trams stop right at the MSAC doorstep.

#2. Games - Oh stuff was messed up, yessir. From late arrivals to non-existent soccer pitches, a lot that could go wrong did.

#3. Sportsmanship - I have no clue about the first 4 games [table tennis/soccer/badminton/basketball], but from what I saw at dodgeball, I would rate sportmanship to be non-existent when IC is on the field. Their dodgeball team got served when one of their girls copped a headshot. Thanks to their team's overall cockiness, they deserve what they got.

So, did I-Games achieve much? Yes it did.
It tells me that we have people who sign up to play and win, not to socialise, which is the first objective of I-Games down the gutter.
It tells me that organisation was pretty badly handled.
It tells me that execution was pretty well botched as well when everything was under control.
It tells me that being cocky makes nobody pity you when shit happens to you.
It tells me that we, IESS committee and subcommittee members, could have done much better to make I-Games work for us in our favour.

In short, I-Games did not achieve what it set out to do. True story.

Midway

It's the middle of some things.
It's middle of April now.
It's also mid-autumn now.
It's midsem now.

Feels kinda like any other time of the year, honestly.

Easter break

As expected, there were outings and food :)

One outing yesterday was to Springvale, for lunch, shopping and a haircut. And then we went up Mount Dandenong today for some fresh, cold mountain air. Pretty fun stuff.

Incoming!

ETA 4 hours 30 minutes.

Cue outings and meals with family :)

Scholarships

30 top SPM students get national scholarships

Since when did the government have so much money to sponsor so many more students under different scholarships? First we had the PSD/JPA scholarships, where everyone with strings of A1's would sign up and keep their fingers crossed that they would get a place in the scholarship lists.

Then came the Minister's interview, in which he said that students could go back to him for another hearing if they did well in their pre-uni course and secured an unconditional offer from top unis around the world. So we had the Ivy League scholarship programme after that.

And now this new National Scholarship. Yes, the numbers may be small [only 30 students are going] but what is the point of the whole idea? Why not just let them join the queue for JPA scholarships? I'm pretty sure they'd get a place. What if they don't want to study abroad in a fit of patriotism? How would you manage the extra seats?

On a side note, it seems that there are a lot of girls in the top 30, as well as a lot of Chinese and Malay names. I wonder whether this adequately reflects the distribution of brains in the country.

Easter

Whee it's Easter break already!

Time to enjoy some time off with family :D

Ache

Ouch.

Left arm feels like it got shot by a paintball marker. Legs feel leaden. Grrr.

Methinks I'm not fit enough.

Cluttered mind

Assignments.
Club flyers and posters.
Soccer meets.
Getting my life in order.
Social demands.

Wish I had more hands to settle things quicker.

A foggy day in...

Yes, morning fog is here, a stark reminder that summer has ended and winter is knocking on our doors. [Technically it's autumn, but winter isn't too far away]

Luckily it'll clear up way before tonight's food fest. Cue more food and more fun for the masses of Asians who stay within 10 minutes' walk away from uni.

Fatigue

I'm getting slightly worried about Fluid Mech now. I wonder how they'll test us in the exams about it.

It's been a busy couple of days so far. Barely a month into the new semester and things are heating up for IESS, with MUOSS's Night Market coming up this Thursday. Once again, we get ready for lots of cooking and selling food. To think that I have rapier/fighter training an hour before.. Thursday will be busy.

Dearth

The sparks of creativity are often quenched, until times of extreme stress, when they flare bright and trigger firestorms of emotion. Whether in the soul of the creative one, or in the minds and hearts of those admiring the works wrought, creativity is often underrated by those who do not understand its power and raw fury.

Do you remember?

>>Source<<

"In Science, English and Moral Education, Alimuddin said rural students did better than their urban counterparts."

So.. I wonder. What happened to the earlier argument that rural students would miss out if Science was taught in English? Now they are doing better than the urban students. Interesting.

A Day of Ice and Fire

Well first there was the hail. Then there were the random fires breaking out [lightning strikes perhaps].

At least we made the most of the horrible weather, and we ran for the shelter of the ERC to get our stuff underway.

*Will edit post if there's anything more to report*

First week done

It's a mix of hectic and yawns. Process Analysis was THAT boring, so it left me wondering as to how they would be testing us in the finals.

Thoughts on sem 1 2010

After having sat through lectures for all 4 subjects this semester, I can safely draw early conclusions.

Engineering Maths:
Shouldn't be too bad. Lecturer sounds like she'll be a bit slow going through the course material though.

Fluid Mechanics:
Lecturer is one of those fun kinda people who can entertain during lectures. So far it's more physics than anything else, but my interest in physics should sustain me through fluid mech.

Process Analysis 1:
Same lecturer from ESD 1, his classes weren't too bad, but I'd have to say that this course might be more maths and calculations than anything else. Shouldn't be a killer though. Maybe not now.

Reactions and Synthesis:
Sounds tough from lecture 1 already. They're sort of expecting our holiday-addled brains to function on the second day back from hols. But once the warming up ends, I suppose this will be fun rather than tough.

Back to school

Mixed feelings comes to mind. On one hand, you get to meet up with old friends and to learn new things. On the other hand, things start becoming hectic, with club activities and classes to balance.

Mmmm the sweetness of school restarting.

Fabio Capello on punctuality

Source

'Time-keeping is another issue for which Capello is a stickler. He simply fails to understand why individuals should keep the majority waiting because of their own selfish actions.

"When I met the players for the first time I told them they had to respect all the people that work with me, around us and the other players. I want the respect at every moment. When we are eating, training, working, on the bus. Always. I don't understand why 25 or 26 people have to wait for one or two. It is about respecting the rules."'

No more excuses as to why you're late without prior warning. Especially if you want to be half an hour late.

O-week ends

O-week is over, time for me to settle down and prep myself for the upcoming semester. I have a lot of drinks in the fridge, thanks to the guys from Coke and the guys running the Orientation program this year :D

Seniority

What makes a person a senior? Is it the experience advantage, or is it age?

I've been hosting a group of junior students for orientation this year. The volunteering experience has been positive so far, I'm glad to say. It gives a sense of satisfaction when you see your group of students interacting amongst themselves, making friends that *should* last throughout the rest of their uni life. It's fun stuff, and I get to promote IESS as required.

Dawkins

I think I'll look out for Richard Dawkins' book - The God Delusion. It should be an interesting read; after checking out the first 10 pages or so, I am convinced that I should read it thoroughly.

Barry Wain in Melbourne - thoughts on talk

Basically most of the people there were already convinced of the problems we face in Malaysia. Most of the crowd were either academics or Malaysians. But that would mean that the talk attracted people who already knew stuff and probably wanted an expert opinion.

Preaching to the converted.

Summer

And so it draws to a close. Almost 3 months of inactivity and boredom will be relieved.
I'm not sure if it's even premature to say such a thing, since it's only 2 weeks till uni starts. Then again, maybe it isn't too early to say it, given work has been piling up madly.

Weekend

It feels wrong to me. Spending Chinese New Year here, almost alone? Doesn't feel right at all, it's a time for family.

So now you're gone, and I was wrong
I never knew what it was like to be alone

Ambition

Without willpower, it amounts to nothing. Without adequate preparation, nothing happens either.

=================================

Some stuff conjured up last night.

"time flows by lazily
as it always does
a stream
meandering along"

---------------------------------

a shard
piercing the shroud
of the future
glimpsing something
unsure..
unknown..
uncertain?

WHAM

---------------------------------

"and it's too late

too late to regret
too late to repent
too late to forgive
too late to forget

not..

enough..

time.."

Barry Wain in Melbourne

MALAYSIA: Mahathir, Malaysia and the political challenges Australia continues to face in the East Asia region

>>Link<<

Getting to listen to the author of Malaysian Maverick will be something for me. Better than slacking at home, better than hearing one-sided views.

-Ticking off another day on the calendar-

Arrow of time

It's fast. Looking at the calendar, there's much to be noted and hence I'll sense time to fly even faster.

Next Friday [12 Feb] - Newsletter and stuff for IESS.
Next Saturday [13 Feb] - CNY eve.
Next Sunday [14 Feb] - First day of Chinese New Year.
Tuesday in 2 weeks [23 Feb] - Orientation day 1 - host group to attend to.
Thursday in 2 weeks [25 Feb] - C&S day 1 - ending of host group program.
Friday in 2 weeks [26 Feb] - C&S day 2.
Monday in 3 weeks [1 March] - Sem 1 2010 begins.

Somehow by tracking events everything seems to move faster. Oh well. Life. You know.

Solitude

Another summer day
has come and gone again

You know the rest
I'm bored
innocence fading into the night
as fast as the morning heat dissipates

It's the silence of the day
that leaves the biggest mark
a mark so deep
it's invisible

O-week

It's been an enjoyable holiday so far. Eating, slacking, sleeping, and generally doing nothing much of note, besides looking for jobs. Thanks to the upcoming Orientation week for the uni, now I finally have something tangible to do. Something with proper goals for me to achieve.

Random thoughts

It's coming to the end of January. One thing that surprises me is that summer here in Melbourne is kinda idyllic. It's not as hot most days, unlike what some people think.

So.. the first month of 2010 ending. Why the sudden focus on politics, you might ask? Well it all started with a court ruling on religion, which then inflated into a political as well as a race issue. And then there was the influence of the missing jet engines. In short, a lot of fishy things were going on, mostly attributed to the ruling coalition's mischief. Whether that is true is still open to debate. So, adding the thoughts of an observer too far away to directly probe things, it should prove interesting to see how I'm thinking about the problems.

Abandoning our country?

>>Link<<

Someone sees the light - Malaysia is losing her citizens. But is his response good enough to lure people to come back home? I rather doubt it.

42

If only the darned supercomputers we have now could tell us that.

Anyway back to reality for a while. Dr M has decided to say that 9/11 was staged. "If they can make Avatar, they can make anything," he said.

Well Dr M, sorry to jostle your brain, but you had a heart attack. Your family decided to bring you here to the States for expert medical treatment. Unfortunately you were slipping into a vegetative state, so we had to pull your brain out, transferring it into a vat. Everything you've heard so far is a fantasy, cooked up by one of our major supercomputers. Hmm? Did you say something? Oh yes, we definitely staged 9/11. Someone had to put the Muslims in their place after all.

Sarcasm wins when people start spouting their brand of nonsense.

Things...

...just aren't the way they seem. I think it's time the youth started speaking their mind. After all, we are the future generation. Let the future generation have more say in what sort of a country we want to inherit.

We don't want a country plagued by infighting. We don't want a country ruled and divided along religious lines. We might want some measure of equality. But we sure as hell don't need the nonsense passed down from you guys in power right now.

Contemplations

I once had a discussion with a friend of mine regarding the existence of God. My friend pointed out that there were several reasons why we can safely discount the existence of a creator for the universe.

Later on, I started reading books on philosophy. One of the major questions they had in common was "Does God exist?" Many thought experiments were suggested to the readers, and some solutions were proposed, amongst which Occam's Razor stood out to me.

So.. if there is a good reason not to believe that God exists,
then.. why all the fighting over which name we should call him by?

inb4 religious people start hating on me

Politics

Do we avoid it like the plague, or do we cross our fingers and hope for the best, or do we actively do something to help ourselves? After all, a democracy is one that hinges on the eligible population of the nation to form the federal government. So.. you can't run away from it completely.

Religion

What's the fuss?

Sometimes religion makes me feel as though it's just being bandied around by a couple of overzealous idiots for their own reasons, no longer being about you and what you believe in, whether it be God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Better yet, you have some of those people who surrender their lot in life to the Bible/Quran/Torah/-insert holy book name here- and their respective god(s). For example I saw a long quote posted by some devout Christian/Catholic on a friend's FB wall. After reading the quote, my first thought was: "You talk a bit too much, given that there is a saying that God helps those who help themselves. And if you help yourself out of your own troubles there would then be no need to submit to purely divine intervention."

Sometimes religion does make more trouble than it settles. Sigh.

Concede, dammit.

Conditions at home seem to be deteriorating rapidly. It sounds like anarchy might try to settle in soon.

Sometimes you just feel like shooting someone.

Rot

Who reads the mainstream Malaysian media anymore, everything sounds like woven nonsense. Then again so do stuff on blogs.

So what should we do? Stuff everything and do our own live journal reporting? Oh wait, that sounds like blogging.

Such a fair land, such a food haven, such a tourists' paradise, sadly it's for bugger all.

Perfection

It's hard to come by.

-I'm sorry, I can't be perfect.-

New year

Well, there were fireworks in Melbourne, albeit of the natural kind. Sydney harbour bridge fireworks were awesome though, caught that on telly.

I wonder what the coming year will bring forth. Hopefully less challenges, even though overcoming harsh challenges means more interesting topics to share with friends and family.

New Year's Eve

It's that time of the year again, when people sing old Scottish songs and resolve to do something to change themselves to be a better person. Being the skeptic I am, I doubt it would work, but.. each to their own.

So.. it's been an eventful year, 2009. Besides Tiger Woods' sex scandals, and the Malaysian political arena being a letdown, there have been other noteworthy events. The LHC for one, it began operations, then crashed twice if I'm not mistaken. Then came the doomsday predictions that the LHC would unleash black holes on the world, or the other Mayan prediction of the world ending in 2012.

It would seem that this year would be best remembered for doomsday predictions then. Hopefully next year will be more memorable - 2010 features the Vancouver Winter Olympics, World Cup in South Africa and the Commonwealth Games in India [Delhi I think].

Enjoy the celebrations, and have a Happy 2010!

2010

The beginning of a new decade, the end of an old era.
It's just 2, 3 days away.

I wonder what it will herald.

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.