Wednesday, August 31, 2005

selamat hari merdeka daripada batu bernyawa(?)...

Ya, mata-mata saudara/i tidak bermasalah. Saya memang sedang menaip dalam Bahasa Melayu untuk entri 31 Ogos ini. Sempena hari kemerdekaan, sebagaimana yang sedang dilakukan oleh kebanyakan penulis belog kebelakangan ini.

Hakikatnya, penulisan ini memang merupakan suatu cabaran yang besar. Bukannya saya tidak berkebolehan untuk menulis dalam BM, tetapi perlulah ada di sisi sebuah kamus dwibahasa untuk membantu penterjemahan beberapa perkataan yang saya tidak dapat luahkan sebagaimana yang saya kehendaki (cuba bayangkan 'livingmonolith = batu bernyawa?).

Oleh kerana penulisan ini adalah menggunakan BM tulen, maka saya tidak mahu menggunakan perkataan-perkataan yang membawa sedikit sebanyak bentuk pertuturan rojak ( contoh: wahlau eh, fulamak, rilek, brader, dll). Ya, pertuturan harian saya memang sebegitu rojak, dan ia menambahkan lagi tahap cabaran saya untuk menulis dalam BM tulen.

Entri ini tidak mempunyai apa-apa mesej yang nyata, cuma sekadar satu lagi entri untuk memberitahu kalian kita akan menyambut hari kemerdekaan pada hari ini. Saya juga tidak berpeluang untuk ke mana-mana hari ini, kerana pensyarah saya hendak melihat laporan amali kita di atas meja beliau pada pagi esok. Terpaksalah berdepan dengan komputer saya sepanjang hari ini untuk menyiapkannya. Dan dengan satu ujian pada hari Jumaat, sememangnya hilanglah sebarang rancangan yang seronok. Sudahlah itu, malam semalam telah keluar minum dengan seorang rakan dari universiti yang baru tiba balik KL dari Sibu dan saya tidak kembali rumah sehingga pukul 4 pagi. Aduh, peritnya kehidupan macam ini.

Selamat menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan kali ke-48, rakan-rakan sekalian. Saya perlu menyambung penulisan laporan saya. Jangan bimbang, entri yang berikutnya akan ditulis dalam Bahasa Inggeris semula.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

please tell me it's a joke...

Michael Owen to Newcastle United?

Heck, I seriously didn't see that coming.

If you ask me, I'd rather see Liverpool sign a right-wing less and get Owen back to Anfield. Talks about Stelios and Tom and Dick aren't really materializing yet, but Owen WANTS to return to Liverpool. He's desperate to resign for Liverpool. What else can we ask for?

I know many still can't forgive him for walking out the door when the club didn't do well, but he never said a single bad thing about Liverpool during his spell in Madrid. Come on, we all know Owen's a Red, and he'll remain one. Even though he might be donning Newcastle's zebra stripes in the near future.

Sign Michael Owen, I say. We can compensate the bad defence with Owen's 20-odd goals. Don't make me weep seeing Owen getting a hattrick against us.

Monday, August 22, 2005

happiness...



You know, sometimes life is just too short and fragile to reflect back at all the unhappy things that have happened...

Probably we should just live life simple, and be happy no matter what.

It's just not worth the hassle.

What's important lies in ahead of us, and it's up to us whether or not to walk forward and let go of the past.

Life's filled with too much great things. You know there are so much happiness out there.

Have you found it?

Thursday, August 11, 2005

orientation: good or bad?

I’ve just read an article in The Star submitted by a ‘Worried parent’ regarding local universities’ orientation programmes.

With all due respect, I have to voice out my disagreement. Not that ‘worried parent’ didn’t have his/her valid reasons, but I do not think that prohibiting the orientation programmes will benefit the students. I, for one, believe that these orientations shape up the current crop of students into becoming better persons in their future lives.

Let’s face it; you and I both know how pampered youngsters nowadays are. Handphones when you turn 12, police reports when your kids got caned, etc etc. The list goes forever. But that’s not what I’m trying to stress. You can buy your son a new bungalow for his 10th birthday if you feel like it and I won’t be jealous. But I just can’t stand people younger than me showing me no respect because their parents never taught them about it.

That’s right. Respect.

I don’t deny most students who came into local universities are brilliant individuals. But sometimes it gets into their heads. They think they’re the best around and therefore need not respect others, and I’m not talking about just seniors. The staff in residential colleges, the aunties who work in the kitchen, the cleaning lady, and even the lecturers.

Don’t believe it? ‘Worried parent’, you ought to come into the campus and see with your own eyes.

Over two years that I’ve spent in the university, I have seen many rude juniors who think of no one else besides themselves. Coming for classes, go for meals, and lock themselves in their rooms. They don’t greet anyone who passes by, they wear shorts to public places (which is very rude when you’re staying together with people from various ethnics), insult the aunties who spend all day cooking their breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I don’t even want to talk about how they treat the cleaning lady who washes their dirty toilets. Is that what you want your son to be doing? Nothing but just a rude booksmart?

Being a junior once, I've experienced similar situations too, or perhaps even worse. If I can go through it, along with thousands of people who went through the local tertiary education every year, what makes your son so special that he is to be exempted? The way you put it makes your son sounds like a wimp.

We do not orientate juniors merely for fun and revenge. There is a meaning behind everything we do. We’re trying to create a bond between seniors and juniors so that in the future we can help each other when problems arise. And we try to teach them valuable knowledge on various aspects in becoming a better man, not just a top scorer who doesn’t care a squat.

Orientations bring all of us together. We want to treat everyone as family. That’s what we’re trying to instill to the juniors who has just stepped into our ‘second home’. I agree some parts of the orientation are unnecessary, but we mean no harm. Why in the world would we want to orientate a junior for no reason? Do you think we have nothing else better to do? I have my own final year project going on, enough that I’m already taking extra credit hours this semester, and I still go back to help out with the orientation programmes in my former residential college. Do you think I really enjoy that?

No, I don’t. But I’m doing it nonetheless. Just for the sake of bringing the juniors to see the outside world, to gain valuable experiences that you can never retrieve once you’ve missed it.

‘Worried parent’, try not to criticize the seniors in the university without knowing the entire truth. I don’t think your son told you the whole story in his uni life. I know a friend from the medical faculty who personally prepared soups for the juniors every day throughout their orientation. She said she’s afraid the juniors couldn’t cope with their new surrounding, more so as the weather’s getting nasty lately. She’s having her finals the following week, but she said she felt obliged to do that. I bet your son didn't tell you that.

Last year during my college orientation, I was in the middle of a lecture when a friend called me to help bring a junior to the hospital because she sprained her ankle. I spent the entire day with her in the hospital and missed a whole day’s lectures and lab. But I’m not complaining, because I’m doing what I’m supposed to do as a senior. That she understood why we want them to approach us during orientation is good enough, and I don’t regret to have done what I’ve done.

I hope that ‘Worried parent’ will change his/her perception on us seniors. We’re not power-crazy people who enjoy torturing juniors. Your son will understand why we’re doing all these when he enters his second year in uni.

And I hope by then he can proudly tell you he’s sacrificing a hell lot to help bring the juniors out to see the outside world, just like what we’re trying to do now. I'm sure your perspective on these orientations will change in the near future.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

the workaholic...

My labmate commented that I am a one. Kinda true I would say; tonight (Friday) is the fifth night in a row I work overtime in the lab for my final year project. And by night I actually mean wee hours in the morning (p/s: it's 2am now). Scary huh?

Given a choice I wouldn't want to be doing this too (what? you think I enjoy staying overnight in the lab for the entire week?). Too bad the project requires me to do so, and I'm left with no option. Right now the only times I go home are when I need to take a shower and probably to catch some short naps. Classes from morning till evening, and lab from evening till morning.

I wonder if anyone else are taking their final year projects as seriously as I do. A couple of my coursemates stayed overnight for a few times before, but that's it. I haven't seen others spending so much time on their projects. I think I'll fall sick soon.

After this gruesome week, I feel like taking a break from my project and concentrate on my other assignments and tests. Three weeks into the new semester and I haven't started reading any lecture notes yet. Next friday's progress report meeting with my lecturer would be the perfect time to inform her about my decision. Yep, that's what I'm gonna do.

Right now I'll have to go back to my work. Hopefully I'll finish it in time to have breakfast with my housemates. Haven't really spent time with them for the past week.