next destination: redang island

Originally I intended to get back home here last night, but I thought it would be troublesome for my mom to come pick me up at Puduraya at night, so I 'troubled' my housemates instead. I stayed overnight in PJ and came back home in the afternoon today.

The trip to Penang was ok. Not really Penang actually, more like the borderline between Penang and Kedah. I think that area is called Ara Kuda or something like that, but I couldn't make confirmations cuz the I couldn't communicate with anyone there. You know, slangs and stuff like that. I think the Chinese community there speaks Hokkien, and the Malays have a mixture of local slang. Either way, I found myself a bit lost. I am pretty sure I ordered 'teh ping' (iced milk tea) but the man brought me a cup of hot coffee instead. And when I asked the makcik in the canteen whether I can refill some water she made me a cup of Milo. My supervisor said I will pick up the local slang after a few trips.

Spent 2 days out in the plantation field making assessments for my research. Collected some raw data and need to analyze and create some significant numbers so I can propose some of my ideas to my lecturer next week. Bloody, I hate statistics. But the field assessment was a great experience. Never thought I could learn so much stuff in one trip. I can do without the hot sun though...; )

My next stop will be Redang Island. Not for work but leisure. Will be travelling with Pao Ko, Nic and his girlfriend. Leaving tomorrow night. Man, a bit too much of travelling lately, isn't it? Well what the heck, it's not very often I can travel, more so now that I'm still studying, I can afford to spend some quality time to relax. I am tempted to bring my data to work with during this trip, but Pao Ko called just now and tried to convince me not to act like some nerd, so I think I'll leave that idea out. He's right, we are going there to have fun, so fun it is. I can talk my way out of trouble on this Friday's meeting, hahaha...

So yeah, Redang here I come!

big conspiracy...

What do 27 minimarkets, hardware stores, stationery shops, aquarium shops and supermarkets in Cheras and PJ have in common?

None of them sell fishing lines.

Unbelievable.

This is disastrous. I'm like, 3 hours away before boarding the train to Penang, and I can't find a single shop selling fishing lines. What the hell happened to fishing lines?! Did everyone just suddenly took up fishing and bought all of them?! 3 bloody hours searching shop by shop and none of them have any. At one point I got so fed up I went to an furniture shop and asked if they have fishing lines. No, I didn't include that store in the 27 I mentioned up there.

This is a conspiracy, I tell you. Someone is plotting some evil scheme against me. I can sense that. What else would explain the missing supply of fishing lines in Cheras and PJ? Someone is trying to stop me from completing my final year project!

I need to get a cup of coffee and beat up some dummy to cool down.

leaving to penang...

Damn, I forgot to drink coffee today. No wonder I'm so damn bloody uptight and cranky. This sucks to the max.

I'll be leaving to Penang tomorrow night to complete certain tasks for my final year project, therefore I won't be blogging for a couple of days. And probably a couple of weeks at that, since Nic, Pao Ko and I planned for a trip to Redang next week.

Spent the last few days preparing my stuff for the project trip to Penang. The workload made me succumb a bit into my 'not so nice' personality of late. Hey, I'm busy and have got chores to complete okay? Don't blame me for getting pissed when you're giving me wake up calls damn early in the morning, for every single bloody day!!!

Why can't people just call or message me during regular hours? 3am and 9am are bad times to get me talking on the phone. I bark at those times. Seriously.

I am now thinking of bringing my project work together to Redang so that I can finish up my analysis since my supervisor wants to see 'numbers' on her table as soon as possible. Are there actually any hot spots in Redang where I can surf the net (instead of the wave)? Damn, I am such a workaholic. I need to destress.

Gimme a cup of coffee.

family tree...

Earlier tonight several old men visited my house together with my grandparents. I thought they were my grandmother's friends, since she has quite a big number of kaki lepaks (it actually put me to shame). A couple of them even spoke in weird Mandarin slangs which I can't catch.

I later found out from my mother that those elders are actually separate distant relatives of mine, one of them came all the way from China. They are here to compile a family tree scripture that was started back in the 17th century. That's 300 bloody years for crap's sake!

Of course, I do know the fact that my ancestors came from China, duh. But it's very exciting to find out that we have a well-recorded scripture which contains names of all the children and grandchildren and greatgrandchildren all the way back to the first of my ancestors, though the record was temporarily discontinued sometime around 1930s (from what I hear from my mother). It is now picked back up by them and they actually travelled to many places to locate all the descendants of the 'Tan' family. How cool is that?

I was told that I am the 18th generation since the first Tan ('jou jong sap pat doi', fits me well, haha). So is one of the old men, who's about 70 plus. And I don't have to respect him, wahahaha... kidding, everyone knows I'm a polite boy.

I also found out that if I was to be named according to the scripture (they have a cycle of names to use for every generation), I would've been named Tan See *fill up something here*. Not really that bad to be honest. A lot better than Tan Ah Kau or Tan Ah Ngau right?

And check this out: I'm the first in the family tree to have an English name (my brother doesn't have his English name in his birth cert).

Now how cool is that?!!

formula one's a joke...

I'm telling you, there are no other sports in this world which is more ridiculous than formula one. I'm blogging now after watching ten laps, and there are only 6 cars remaining on track at the time of writing.

Why?

Because only 6 stupid cars started the race.

Apparently there are some problems with Michelin tyres which may pose danger to the drivers, as we saw the day earlier where 2 cars crashed during qualifying. The Michelin boss advised the teams using their tyres (all except Ferrari, Jordan-Toyota and Minardi) to not race if the FIA doesn't allow replacement tyres to be used.

By changing the tyres they'll be breaking 5 different regulations and ended up with penalties, so in the end all 14 went into the pit after finishing the formation lap. This leaves the 2 Ferraris in pole position to take 1st and 2nd place, with whichever lucky driver from either Jordan-Toyota or Minardi completing the top 3 podium finish.

I don't know what to say. I am not gonna sit there for 2 hours watching 6 cars battling (this must be a pun) it out for the top 6 positions. Maybe some will, to watch who will be stupid enough to crash during the race and miss out on points. I pity the spectators there, paying a fortune to watch shit. I can still turn the tv off and blog, the most practical thing they can do is to throw rubbish and bottles into the track (I saw that on tv) and showing the thumbs-down sign. Those with better senses would show the middle finger, and then formula one will be the first sport to receive an 18PL rating.

I can't believe this is happening. This is not good. And I am baffled that the 3 remaining teams actually went on 'racing'. Whatever happened to sportsmanship? Are points more important than the spirit?

Congratulations to Ferrari for a 1-2 finish. Unless you guys do something stupid and failed to finish the race (which would be very very very stupid). But I'll be sleeping when you guys are on the podium spraying the champagne.

Update: Sorry, I actually stayed up and managed to catch the podium celebrations. Not intentionally anyway, since Mexico vs Brazil is being shown live too, and that's quite a good match. Schumacher and Barichello didn't spray champagnes, but Monteiro did. Who can blame him? It's his first podium finish, albeit competing with a bunch of losers. Congratulations, I'm pretty sure that's your first and last trophy in formula one, you lucky prick.

happy father's day...

There aren't anything to blog about and this is boring.

Btw, Happy Father's Day. Tonight my family will be having steamboat to celebrate (I am getting so sick of steamboats and bbqs, can't we do something else?).

Nothing else is new. I feel like crap and I talk crap. Screw it. I'm going to sleep. Don't call me in the morning, I will not wake up that early. Better still, don't call me cuz I feel like bitching and I'm gonna shoot anyone who wakes me up with early morning miscalls. Which btw, why do people always call or message me early in the morning?!! I AM ON HOLIDAY!!! I DON'T WAKE UP UNTIL NOON!!! WHICH IDIOT WOULD WANT TO WAKE UP AT 8AM DURING HOLIDAYS??!!

Hope everyone got that message. Goodnight.

new wallpaper

Changed my current wallpaper. The old one looks too dark and it freaks my mother. This one looks more pleasant, and I like the pin-up idea. The photos bring back good memories and old times. Notice the nice 'love-shaped' reflection of the sunset. ;)

some girls can be awfully troublesome...

I just don't know how some people think.

When you have an argument with your boyfriend, you came seeking for advice. You tell me your boyfriend is an ass and doesn't care about you, he smokes, drinks, parties like an animal, scolds you for nothing, hates your family, and the list goes forever. You asked if you should break up with him. You doubt whether you made the right decision to be with him.

Look, I'm like, the last person around here who still haven't got into a relationship yet, and you're asking me for advice? What the fish were you even thinking? Do I look like someone who can offer a good advice?

Okay fine. I'll give you advice alright. I think your boyfriend stinks and you should break up with him. For good. That sounds sensible right?

And then you guys reconcile and go through all those traumatic hellholes again. And you again look for me for advice. What the hell do you want from me? You didn't listen to what I said before, and you asked for advice again? What do you want to hear from me?

Why do girls always fall for problematic guys? If you're smart enough to start a relationship with him then accept him for who he is lah. What's the point of complaining day and night over it? If you can't take it then don't stay where you are. Get somewhere and get a better guy. Isn't that a good solution?

What? What did I say? I haven't been in a relationship yet, so of course I think that's a good solution.

Not that I'm not a nice friend, I can be a nice little kitty (I AM a nice friend ok?) and listen to all your troubles like how you want to pour it out, but don't you think you're taking a bit too much of my life to accommodate yours? I won't be pissed if you come up with some new twists in your relationship. Third party, drug addiction, whatever. But not the same old story please. I am so dead bored with the same plot over and over again.

Just dump that ass and start a new life.

Or if you choose to stay with him, then I hope he'll magically transform into some knight in shining armour with an attitude to die for. Just wait patiently for him to see the light, he'll eventually realize he's an ass before this. See, I am a nice friend indeed.

As for me, I'll wish that pigs fly and rule the earth, and we humans will all be living in barnyards eating their dungs.

Okay, I lied. I wish for world peace. But like you didn't have enough problems yourself to listen to what I wish for, am I right?

kenny's which singaporean blogger are you?

Congratulations livingmonolith, you are...

Scarlett Ting of joewei.blogspot.com

You are independent, smart and beautiful. Its too bad you don't see that yourself because life's little difficulties brought down a lot of your self confidence. As a result, you talk cryptic and you don't trust people easily. You care a lot for your friends and your loved ones, sometimes even more than you care for yourself, although they don't always seem to appreciate it. Don't let that affect you. As the saying goes, you don't miss the water till the well runs dry. So hang in there, you're a star in the making.

Which Singaporean Blogger Are You?

I'd prefer if people say that I'm handsome rather than beautiful, hahaha... Anyway, I probably won't be blogging much in recent weeks because next week onwards I'll be somewhat occupied with my final year project. Tata...

my stand on meritocracy...

Forgive me for writing an awful lot of long posts recently, my mind wanders a tad bit too far because of the stress of reading too many journals and thesis. Plus, I AM having my holiday now, so allow me to put down some meaningful posts rather than my usual sarcastic jokes before I start my semester next month.

For sure everyone is a bit into the ‘rejected SPM top scorers’ news nowadays. Who isn’t? I mean, it IS that time of the year, and everyone will want to voice out a piece of their minds. Yours truly included.

I do not want to start blaming the PSD for the failed applications. We know there are plenty of factors in deciding the recipients, and yeah, I do believe race is one of the criteria, but I don’t think that’s the most decisive factor in selection. We don’t know exactly the rejected top scorers’ backgrounds, or how they performed in the interviews. For Christ’s sake, all the extra co-curricular certificates may even be hoax, because I have seen plenty of students receiving pathetic certs for useless participations back in my former secondary school. Not that I am saying they don’t deserve the scholarships. I may be biased in judging from that point of view, but I do not think that the government owes them the scholarships. Besides, there ARE a lot of scholarships elsewhere, right? Take whichever offer, and then pledge your loyalty to them, for they clearly see what you can do. Don’t cry despair over spilt milk. Look elsewhere and I’m sure there are others who would accept you.

However, I still hope that the PSD will be more transparent in their selection criteria. Instead of defending themselves the way they are doing now, why not publish the list of recipients and justify the matter altogether? I would gladly accept the fact if the scholarships are offered to some student with only 8A1s, but came from a difficult family background or from some rural areas. In my POV, these students certainly deserve those scholarships more than those who obtained 13A1s but have a reasonably good studying environment. Satisfy our curiosity and we shall no longer question the selection. Just as simple as that.

Now, on questioning the validity of meritocracy. For once I may sound racist, but I am sure in the next few weeks there WILL be plenty of ugly news dominating the front pages of local newspapers again like every other year; how top scorers are denied the courses they chose in entering local universities and most of them, if not all, are non-bumis.

We saw 128 top students last year who failed to secure courses of their preferred choice, medicine that is. We can argue that there are limited places for medicine in local universities, but isn’t it a bit glaring that of all the people who failed to gain entry, most (I am sorry but I couldn't provide the exact number here) of them are non-bumiputra students?

Before calling me a racist bastard, I just want to stress that I am questioning the meritocracy system and not making fools out of any ethnic groups.

Do we see any bumiputra students crying foul over failed allocations in courses of their choices? Not any that I can recall, although I believe there are some. Maybe they didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. At least that’s what I want to believe. But seriously, can you stand up and said you really believe that our country is practicing meritocracy?

And before this recent hype UMNO Youth wanted a review of the recent enrolments in universities due to the not-so-idealistic racial dominancy in critical courses. I can’t bear to think what will happen when the data is revealed. Suppose the facts show something they don’t like, what will be of us next?

Yes, people will say that all I do is complain and not proposing any useful solutions.

Say if I came up with a solution. If I say abandon the quota system wholly, does anyone think it’s practical?

Yeah, that’s not really a solution. But we can take it step by step, can’t we? Go with the meritocracy as we all do now, but we don’t have to throw the quota policy right out the window right at this moment. I do think it is necessary to provide proper education to those from rural areas (who mainly consist of bumiputras, which is the reason I think why the quota exists in the first place, after some enlightenment by S-Kay). Year by year, scrape a bit of the quota off and accept more students based on merits.

Ideally, I would like to think that very soon in the future, those who didn’t have the chance to get proper education because of poverty will then have the intellect to raise the living standards of their family and community. With them educating their less fortunate societies, hopeful youngsters capable of competing at the highest levels will be born, and we’ll have a progressive nation, regardless of ethnics. At that time we will no longer have illiterate children from rural areas. All will be competing in the same level; be it intellectually, socially, or psychologically.

Yes, we can still be differentiated physically by our skin colours, but by then it doesn’t really matter, does it?

Imagine yourself filling up a formal form, and you come across this question:

Bangsa: MALAYSIA

Sorry if I sound too idealistic, simple and naive, stupid even, but I think I made my point clear.

of racism and our education system...

You know, today I feel like blogging about racism, and Malaysia’s education system.

We have plenty of blogs discussing this issue right now. We know it’s not something that we should discuss so openly, considering it’s such a sensitive issue. But some posts just rile me up and I think I should state my own opinions here in my own blog rather than spam their comments’ box with cusses.

So yeah, racism. What do I really think of it? Seriously, I think everyone has some in themselves, though I guess not a lot of people will admit to it. I won’t deny that I enjoy hanging out with people who speaks my mother tongue language more compared to those who speak English or BM. And it’s no surprise my housemates are all Chinese; but it’s only because we have the same culture and lifestyle, and I find it easier to adapt living together with them. Does that make me a racist? Maybe a little, but definitely not the radical type.

Do I hate people from other races? No, that I can tell you. In fact, some of my best friends are of other ethnics. My best friend in uni is an Indian. I’d rather hang out with him rather than with my course mates who only enjoy talking about the latest technologies and development in biotech who are mostly, coincidentally, Chinese. Why? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because of my education background, or my reluctance to be branded as a nerd, which is kinda typical in my programme.

If there are any people that I hate, it’s those who make remarks about me mixing a lot with people of other races. What’s the problem with that? Does that make me less Chinese? I know most of them don’t mean it, but I AM offended when they ask questions like, ‘How’s your Indian friend doing?’ or ‘Your Indian friend isn’t coming to class today?’. Is it necessary to include the word ‘Indian’ there? Why can’t you just say ‘your friend’ instead of ‘your Indian friend’? Not that I just hate them for saying things like that. I just find it a little rude. I don’t like people calling my friends in racist terms, just as equal as I dislike people who think atheism is crap, but that’s another story to discuss in the future. I also find it a bit impolite to ridicule my Malay slang, something I picked up in secondary school.

I guess we’ll just have to learn to accept people for who they are and not by their skin colours. Please notice that I use the word accept, and not tolerate.

Of course, when we discuss racism we always relate it to government policies. I’d rather separate both issues when in discussion. When you put them together it’ll eventually be a ‘racist’ post. Which btw, anything after this sentence is about the pro-bumi policy and not racism.

I hate the country’s education system and I’m not afraid to voice it out. I would talk about other policies too if I have experienced them, but unfortunately (or rather, fortunately) I have yet to suffer from any. I’ve been brought up with the country’s idealistic national schools all the way up to the local university. Before tertiary education, the pro-bumi (as in bumiputra, not Malay) policies are more or less insignificant because it was never a problem. I’ve never experienced any sort of biased situations back in school, and no one even bothered because they are non-existence.

The problem begins to surface when I applied into local university. I admit the government did a better job by applying meritocracy for university enrolment. But to what extent are we actually practicing it? Is it really fully based on meritocracy like what we read in the papers? No. I can say it a hundred times. No. Nonononononono…

To tell you briefly, I am currently majoring in a programme which I have always wanted, but not without going through the quota policy like what we had before this. My course only allows majoring in our second year, where some of them are based on quota in allocating places. I only barely make the list despite obtaining a reasonably impressive cgpa, and several unfortunate friends of mine did not make it despite having good results because the ‘quota’ is full. It is an open secret here that non-bumis would need to wrestle out the places because of the ‘kiasu-nature’ in ourselves, while bumis can ease into this programme with little effort.

Next to follow, the standard of our education. Because our programme is based on quota allocations, the existing gap in academic performances is evident, and this is further screwed because (apparently) we do not practice academic grade curves in some papers. Therefore, the high scorers get higher, and low scorers lag behind. How’d it happen? For one example I’ve experienced, re-sitting tests for our continuous assessment during mid semesters. What really happens is that the poor students will remain stuck with the same results, while the better ones will get higher marks. Seriously, I have seen fellow course mates obtaining 4.0 gpa regularly, while some failed miserably. While I have been pretty much breezing pass in my studies after the quota test, I find it slightly difficult to cope with that because while some of us can discuss genomic construction at ease, some can’t even catch a thing I say. That’s how big the gap is. Segregation is bound to happen, where one group of students excels academically, another group where everyone are clueless.

It’s easy to point fingers at the policy for the current flaw. Of course, I’d prefer if we really practice meritocracy here. I know I escaped rather fortunately from this policy, but to look at the bigger picture, should we abolish certain policies we can shut the non-bumis’ mouths when they screw up, and they’ll have nothing to say. Wouldn’t that be better?

I believe it will be, but that’s only my opinion. You may think this post is all crap, but that’s your opinion and you’ll have to blog about it in your own site.

short update...

Well, what do you know, I passed the day without any problems at all, referring to my pre-proposal of course. Hahaha, damn, I know I'm good in talking cock, but man, talked all the way and impressing the postgrad in the process, bwahahaha, now that's good.

Pretty stressed right now cuz registration's next week and the timetable isn't out yet. The efficiency rate is really poor, how am I going to fix my schedule if you don't tell me when are my classes? Bad enough that I need to register extra credits this coming semester, sheesh...

I need a break. Any break. But I don't wanna use my brains and figure out what break I wanna have. Yeah, I'm lazy, sue me.

my luck's back...

Why the hell do people keep telling me when they are having PMS?!! Do I look like I wanna know?!!

Women. I can never understand them.

Oh btw, I've found my pendrive. Apparently I dropped it in my car (funny I couldn't find it that day) and my brother saw it on the backseat when he drove my car out today. So the last thing I lost is still that wallet 7 years ago, and now I can save RM150.

And be nice and wish me luck for tomorrow's pre-proposal presentation of my project, hope I can talk (cock) my way out of trouble.

thank you...

what the hell is wrong with you guys no I don't have a girlfriend and I don't give a damn about it cuz life is pretty much cool and happening right now so don't keep bugging me about it and leave me alone cuz when the time is right I will find one when I find one and no I don't have any problems so what the hell is your problem with me being single it's not like the world's gonna stop spinning because I'm still unattached at 22 and even if it does what the hell does that matter to you I am very fine thank you and stop interfering with my life.

On a totally different subject I would very much appreciate it if someone around here who knows anything about inter retro-transposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) can help me out and kindly give me any links on any websites explaining the protocols. That would be very thoughtful of you, thank you.

stupid handphone...

I so damn hate today. Okay, yesterday, whatever.

I found that my handphone's screen went blank after the futsal game (where I sucked btw, and now my left leg's cramping), not very sure what's the reason. I must've dialled a few numbers without realizing because when I checked my messages using Cheng's handphone, a few unidentified numbers messaged me and asked if I was asking them out for supper. Unidentified, because I saved their numbers in my handset and not my sim card, and I have poor memory, especially remembering phone numbers.

I can't afford to change another phone because this handset has like, 200 phone numbers saved in it, and I do not know if I have any back-up elsewhere. Changing the LCD screen would cost about RM80.

Modern technology failed me today. At the worst time.

I am having a financial crisis now. Bloody stupid metal junks. And after today's meeting with my lecturer, I was informed that I need to make 2 trips to Penang in these 2 months to acquire my samples from the fields for my thesis project. Accommodation, transport, equipments for collecting samples, arghhh...

Now I have to ditch my holiday plans to go for a solo road trip and skydiving. Nic's asking to go Redang, and my housemates are asking me to go Muar. But all I can afford now is stay at home and rot, while preparing for my thesis.

where in the world is my pendrive?

Damn I hate today.

I lost my pendrive, the one which I bought less than one year ago, costing me RM190 back then. Now I do not have any back-up to my industrial training report and several possibly important documents I saved in that stupid piece of tech junk. And I have to buy a bloody new one before the start of the semester.

This must be the first time I lose something after so many years. I remember the last time I lost something, it was about 7 years ago, my brand new wallet which I've bought a week earlier.

I hate losing things. It pisses me off.

Hopefully I won't break a leg in tonight's futsal game.