Academia Talk

I just had a meeting with the supervisor. I know he’s a stressful man, spending nearly 12 hours a day doing work at school. Yet, i’m very surprised at how he’s able to keep calm and handle things with smiles and laughter. Salute to such professionalism but i couldnt help but wonder is theres another side to academia talk..

Me: “Afternoon there”

s/v: “Oh hi Airul! how are you?”
(Jesus Christ… it’s you again..)

Me: “Good, thanks. How about yourself? Ohh! nice new laptop!”

s/v: “Yea.. they gave me a new laptop. Ok, ready for your update?”
(I wanted a Macbook pro but the bloody school took 99% out of my $200k grant… show me your work, i got important things to do, like painting my cats nails)

[and so... i did an update session with the supervisor]

s/v: “*short silence* ..haaa…interesting..”
(…Holy shit…)

[Further questionings and answer]

s/v: “Have you considered trying to apply this scenario to see if it works?”
(You forgot to do this scenario, you dickhead)

s/v: “Well… you’re leaving in a month, right? so we really need to find at least one scenario where this application is ideal for it..”
(Boy, you got pull out of some miraculous shit out of your ass within a month, or we are fucked)

Omedeto Gozaimasu!

(congratulations) to ummi.. for her private blog to be featured in list of websites visited by Shell’s weekly top ten internet users

Huwahahahahahaha!!! famous kau arah Shell tu eh ums. HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

Another Disappointing Ending

photo by Reuters

wow crap…

the new apple store in Sydney.. where have you been for the past 4 years?

Has This Happened to Anyone Else?

A picture illustration of a funny thing that happened to me last summer. To my dear friends who were involved, ya that’s right, you guys are idiots!

How rumours spread…

A Random Thought

I want to travel back in time to the early dynasties. Like Brooke has taken Sarawak, i want to conquer a mass of land…

and as a cruel joke, make the inhabitants learn the ‘G’ language.. or pig latin as the official language. A hundred years later when all is educated and civilised, they’ve realised that i’ve taken them for a ride.

On my magnificent tombstone of the great conquerer, an elaborate design carved with prayers and my name.. and underneath it all, when translated from G, reads “You fell for it, lolololololololol!!”

HUP HOLLAND HUP!!

Omaaaaaigoddddd!!

Netherlands totally demolished France!!

Netherlands 4 – 1 France

Woohooo!!

After a heartbreaking world cup, this is hollands time!!

Whot?

Hot hot hot hot hot news

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This post may not be up for too long. But crazy ISD people still exists.

I Don’t Care Where, Just Far

When i got sent to Australia 4 years ago, i was psyched because i finally had a better chance to watch one of my favourite bands, Deftones live. I was also psyched up because i had this stereotypical image of beach, sun and women in bikinis cycling around in uni giggling and how Ayer’s rock is right on the backdoor. But i was quite surprised how my uni is flooded my mainland chinese students. University of new south wales.. heh… more like University of Southern China..

ANYWAY

3 years after, Deftones made an Aussie tour and performed in a festival. But i was in Brunei stuck for vacation work. The closest chance i had was in 2nd year, when the lead singer, Chino Moreno toured with his side project, team sleep. They were playing in my uni but i had a physics exam the next morning. I did badly in the exam, if i had known, i could’ve gone to the concert. I’ve gone to a LOT of concerts here in Sydney and i find it silly that i haven’t had the chance to go for one that i’ve wished for since i was 14 years old.

The worst, probably, was the Dashboard Confessional concert. Don’t get me wrong, i love listening to Dashboard Confessional but when i went to the concert, i stepped in the emo zone. Apparently, hugging each other to tears during Chris’s solo in “So Impossible” among men is acceptable among emos, or at least during the concert, an action easily condemned as über gayness outside the musical halls. Maybe to them, this was “the night with Julio, what happens in Bangkok, stays there” scenario.

My junior, who was emo that time, suggested we join in and hugged. Like a Cobra (with arms and legs..and clothes) cornered, I responded with nothing less than a fierce hiss and an provoked defensive stance to evade any over emotional man-man affection that would taint my manly red hot mojo. I’m not homophobic but it doesn’t mean i’m prepared to give take it up the arse to see the other point of view (the wall). I don’t give a shit if monkeys raped you as a kid, i’d help you for therapy but you are not going to hug me over an emo song. We never fitted in that crowd, we were the only ones who were moshing and jumping about when “Hands Down” was played, while couples and buddies made out.

Going back to Deftones, my deftones t-shirt is probably the t shirt that has survived for the past 4 years of uni. I have always treated this shirt with TLC during laundry. It was my favourite t shirt. It’s all faded from the washings, with the graphics all cracked but you could clearly figure out it’s deftones. I got my washed out black jeans, since form 4 i believe, i stole it from my brother, which is why length was never a factor, it was always too long. My hair isn’t going to stay on for long. Judging from my uncles (from both sides of the family) non-existent hairline, baldness is a destined curse for me. I just need a smashing deftones concert to go to.

So I got my faded t shirt, my washed out jeans, maybe a bandana and hopefully, memories from an awesome concert so 30 years from now on, little children will be told that granddad is awesome and the mass produced hip-hop noise (sang by singers whose names suggest that they probably have triarchic disorders) they listen to these days, is bucketloads of shit or the very least, would probably make an elephant take a shit.

Listening back to old music sure makes you remember how you feel back then. How you wanted and strived for freedom. How you wanted to finish school so badly. The priceless idiotic things friends did at school. The people you’ve loved, liked and hated. The ninjas and useless things you’ve done at night with friends. The times you’ve wondered how you’re going to turn out after 10 years. I’ve sure been taken back for a flash back, i can’t stop smiling. This is another topic, it’s deep and it’s hilarious, i’ll be glad to talk about once the gang meets up again, after 4 years

(Title of this post is taken from one of the most liberating songs ever, “Be Quiet and Drive”)

lieben Deftones.

Lick My Batteries

I’ve gotten more environmental conscious lately. Whenever i tell people that i study petroleum engineering, i get occasional gasps and comments how environmental unfriendly these kind of jobs are. I’d put on my petroleum engineer image and brush off those comments.

But to be honest, i think those people who make those comments should be ashamed of themselves. Blatant hypocrisy! I think the world has a problem of viewing petroleum engineers as nose picking trolls who mine the deep ends of the earths and cart out barrels of oil and charge exorbitant amounts of money just for endless hours of after work orgy parties (sometimes i wish this was the case). And who are we really doing these things for? You, motherfuckers, you!

There is a global outcry of how oil prices are over the roof. A sign of our outrageous thirst for energy, luxurious and excessively affluent ways of life. We demand this, we demand that, we demand those things and a few more of that thing as if it was made by gay faeries blowing pixie dust while clicking their heels and chanting magical words, “Iggidity diggity poo, the skies are blue, it’s gonna be a shoe, designed from Jimmy Choo!”.

It’s ridiculous, and at the same time, the same people condemn oil corporations for exploiting the earth because we are motivated by our excessive profits. Where did those profits come from? You!

I’ve been reading the news of how there are awareness campaigns to point out Brunei’s excessive ways. It’s about goddamn time. Massive crowds come to the energy awareness festivals and left the place with long queues of vehicles, that burn petrol and release more CO2 (We’re aware but what’s the point?). We could start by calling anyone who owns a gaz guzzling SUV, like the hummer, a wanker.

This whole Brunei energy consumption thing has reminded me so much of back when i was a kid in Ugama (religion) school. My school is a normal primary school in the morning and turns into a religious school after 1pm ( i went to a different primary school). Whenever i come to class, i’d see a lot of food in plastic bags just sitting in the corner, uneaten and left to stale until the school cleaners takes it away the next morning. Pretty awesome, i always thought that it was unfair that students in government primary schools get free food of a piece of cake, an apple and a box of sweet drink for lunch while my dad paid thousands to a private school who didn’t even have a catering option. Anyway, I thought that hurling apples at poor victims below on the ground floor was frickin’ hilarious.

I mean, what are the bags of food doing here in the classroom anyway? obviously morning students didn’t give a shit about that. Even with the free food, i knew students would rather flock to the canteen to buy junk food and drink over-sweetened can drinks, which would end up fucking everyones health. Now that i’ve grown up, i found the behaviour appalling. I still feel guilty about wasting food that was given for free just so lil kids could keep up their concentration in class and build a better future for the country.

How is the petrol price situation any different?

Petrol is cheap, petrol is used to fire that engine to blow that air conditioner because you’re afraid to get sweaty, petrol is awesome. I have a job, i get a car, obviously a second hand is so yesterday so i buy a new car that is not only inefficient and in excess of what i need, i buy a car that is way outside my budget. I am 90k to 150k in debt for my car. I buy a loaf of bread and a pack of tic tacs and i insist on having a plastic bag. The geometry of the bag of bread makes it difficult for me to carry and i’d sound like a tambourine with the tic-tacs rattling inside my pocket so i need a plastic bag. Why oh why should i grab the bag on one hand and carry the tic tics on the other when i can carry EEEEEVERYTHING…. with one finger. I am heavily in debt, i am wasteful, i have no money left to build a house to shelter my children but i have an awesome car.

THIS is what fuel subsidy does to us.

It’s ridiculous to see people who can’t afford it, buy brand new cars to add to their collection. We‘re also the 6th highest CO2 emission per capita in the world. It’s ridiculous! Fuck the fuel subsidy and let the market run it’s course. Petrol is B$2.00 per litre here in Sydney, that’s about $90-100 for a full tank of fuel. It’s got quite bad in America, GM has axed 4 SUV factories and concentrating on medium sized, more fuel efficient cars. Sydney has seen a rise in small highly efficient cars.

Come on Brunei, i say fuck it. Let’s double the price, close our ears, wait for a few months and see what happens. If this doesn’t rise the cost, make people find cheaper ways to travel or at least save their electricity bill and change the way we spend, then we are truly the richest people on earth.