Money Does Matter

One thing should you know when it comes to furthering education at a private institution is that you need to be extremely ready to accept the changes made by the policy-maker governing your place of study. Note that it's not the kind of changes as in switching from your morning freshly-brewed coffee to a sugarless organic tea, or picking up a heel over a pump. Definitely something bigger than that.

Let's say you and your family just moved to Denmark because of some business-expanding things your boss did (and in this case, you're in). Despite all of the problems faced (shipping issues, problems adapting to new surroundings etc.), he had a second thought and ordered you to re-evacuate to Alaska, providing that Denmark is a mistake and changes must be made to save the company, and you're like "FTW Alaska are you kidding me? I'm not shifting to a place where the sun remains during midnight! How do you expect me to sleep?". The worst part is that you're given with just one week to make up your mind. You're thousand miles away from Malaysia and if you decline, you'll lose your job and the company shall not be liable for any financial cost needed for you to shift back to where you belong.

Evacuating from one place to another is no easy task, ya know, especially when you have belongings which are the size of a house with you. And ESPECIALLY when it's already 15th of the month. Obviously, this is one hell money issue.

Well, the point I'm making is that we are all victims of the capitalist system, ain't we? It's the world where you have to pay for every single shit you're dealing with. Or about to deal with. Whatever. Reverting back to the whole private university things I brought up there, 3 days ago, they (the management people at my university) published a notice about late payment charges to students who failed to collect the exam entry slip just A DAY before due and expects us people to be aware of it when everyone is so busy dealing with projects, assignments and FYPs. What the heck?

This happened before, ya know, and I fought back twice. The first one was last year when they started this and I was in second semester. I was 5 days late from collecting the document only to find that I was compounded a total of RM 10. So, I asked the scornful looking lady at the counter this: "Where on earth in the student's rules & regulation book stated that students need to pay for the late charges if they failed to collect the exam entry slip?"

She shot me a surprise look. Without looking at me in the eyes, she answered "Uh, it's stated in the rules, uh, you can go to the 28th level (the finance department) to confirm... Uh". I can tell she was unsure through her "Uh-s". My mistake was that I decided not to take the issue further. I wasn't well-prepared; my knowledge about consumerism right was pretty shallow at that time. So, I paid and requested for an official receipt in which she gave me another unbelievable look.

"What receipt? We don't issue receipts for payments made on late charges. Receipts are only for people who pay the tuition fee and stuffs."

There you go miss, talking like an ass. "It's my right to request an official receipt as a proof of the payment received on the university behalf. Without a proper receipt, can you assure me that the RM10 given just now will not go into your pocket?"

The lady let a hard sigh, hard enough that a male colleague who was quietly stood behind the other wall listening to our conversation came to her. How did I know? He asked "What's the problem here?" in which she made a quick 5 seconds explanation and voila! The guy was now the master of the whole issue.

"Take her to the finance department with this," as he handed the lady the RM10, "and grant her the receipt."

And I was right.

The weirdest thing was when we got at the Finance Department, after the lady requested for the receipt to be printed explaining this and that, the department's officer himself said "What is this late payment charges? I've never heard of that before. Are you sure?"

"Yes, they, they are in the rules."

WTF, eh? I'm so getting my hands on those thick law books after this.

Okay, so the whole thing was not an Infringement of Copyright issue LOL

All In The Same Boat

I used to think I'm the unluckiest person on earth; being a 24-to-be but still don't get to prove anything in life. I know I am hell ignorant. I care less for others who struggle more than I do but they don't seem to make a big fuss out of everything. They don't rant around raising people's attention like me.

WAIT. I don't rant around, too. Well, sometimes, I have a penchant to talk about it with the loved ones. Is it a wrong thing to do?

Nonetheless, while browsing around the net, I came across a doozy quote that makes me feels much better in finding my feet. He who had said this must be a very great person himself. Well, at least, his quote sets me at ease.

"Would you like me to give
you a formula for success?

It's quite simple, really.

Double your rate of failure. You are thinking

of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all.

You can be discouraged by failure or

you can learn from it.
So go ahead and make mistakes.

Make all you can.
Because remember that's where
you will find success."

- Thomas J. Watson

I guess anything we do will grant us another level of maturity through stages  called 'the learning processes'. There's nothing right or wrong in making decisions for every wrong step comes the right lesson.

I'm learning to struggle, beautifully and gracefully.

Irony

Okay, here's the thing. I am not good in compiling programs. I have a hard time understanding some logical reasons behind every code and why they are written like that. I have, like, thousands of silly questions to be asked to the person who taught me before I could say "Oh, I get it". Now that I've choose to engage myself in this war of object-oriented programming, I'm pretty much ambivalent whether I will survive this battle as much as I enjoyed figuring out ways to overcome the uncertainty in handling the Debit and the Credit thing.

A snippet from my Java Programming book.

Yes, it's true. I came from non-CS background where most of the things I deal with were numbers, papers and calculating instruments. However, I do know how to code. I mean, most of the time, I do get my codes working correctly as I wanted; displaying the predicted output but they were only temporary. I fail to act like a sponge and ended up being a loser hours later. I forgot every explanation told by the lecturer in the lab as I stared helplessly at my laptop's screen 4 hours later in my room, trying to compile a freaking simple program that a nine years old kid like him could easily compile in less than 20 seconds.

I'm not the kind of girl who easily fall short of herself. Whenever my mind pulls a 'STOP' signboard to a certain unacceptable input and that I can't solve it alone, I let people help me see things clearly so that I could find the key to unlock the idea myself. It was always motivating to do so but not this time. Here's what I keep getting whenever I said I'm not good with programming:

"You are a Software Engineering student... Duh?"

How irony. I think I do fall short of myself this time.

Untitled

- It's gettin' late... So I'll catch with u later?

| Ok... Catch with u later in 6 months time, Nad. |

- 6 months?

| Yelah, lepas ni u akan hilang balik kan? |

Mere Entertainment

“Teringinnya nak pekena Teh Ais!”

“Nak gi makan ke lepas ni, babe?”

“Tak nak makan, tapi nak Teh Ais.”

One of the girls' answer made us crack up. It was 11 p.m. when I was walking with two of my girlfriends in a place not far from our home. Three hours of helplessly walking around looking for, at least, something worth buying will surely made one fall onto a complete exhaust, especially when you ended up spending your cash on... nothing.

The visit to a petrol station’s long queued toilet around the area completes the mission, regardless to the condition of the room which was, you know, a little bit unfavorable. Well, at least for us, lasses. We are these so-called vulnerable species best known to be having extraordinary crush to any kind of mirror, best explains why toilets are our favorite spot. That's why they need to look, urm, pretty much pretty themselves.

Not to be missed a few instant flirting activities done by the male sellers with the girls while hoping for these lads to lower the price of the selling items in return to their fake turn ons, not at least to a complete RM5 off. This is where the famous line would be used:

"Tak boleh kurang lagi ke bang?"

It is pretty ironic when you dressed up as if you are going for a serious Platinum card holder shopping at the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur but later find your well-fumed body started to generate massive sweat especially under the armpits while struggling yourself amidst the aggressive shoppers and normal commotion of which you won't care much at one of the popular pro-budget shopping heavens called the uptown or downtown markets, where neon lights and small-sized canopies made of PVC are very symbolic.

"Jom pekena teh ais!"

So it was time to leave the place for the sake of the thirst quencher. Yes, we are ordinary Malaysian people who enjoy the goodness of very cheap sales. Well, maybe just at that time, we weren't really into buying things. Just the scenario of the place itself best entertain us. Lo and behold but yes, this intangible excitement has somehow evolved into an inconceivable hobby among Malaysians. It just happens to be another form of a mere entertainment, though.

What kind of scenario? Well, go there and figure out yourself!

P.s. Yours truly is also a fan of these kind of spots... especially when the sun disappears. Sometimes, she drove to Danau Kota Uptown market with RM10 in her pocket just to kill boredom.

The Danau Kota uptown night market, Kuala Lumpur.

Funny

“Funny-lah kau ni. Kau tak rasa rugi ke?”

“Rugi? Sebab apa?” I asked her back. She was crossing her hands; her right palm was glued around her Nokia, tight. Dangly phone accessories were left hanging like a ponytail out of her hand. It was very typical; the scenario of her holding the overly decorated cell phone everywhere she goes. Anybody who had been with her for a minimum 30 minutes would notice how impossible for this lass to live without the technology wrapped on her fingers 24/7.

The Wonder Girls performing "Nobody"

“I want nobody, nobody but you! I want nobody, nobody but you!”

I was waiting for her point for asking me about the state of being regretful to something when she glanced at her newly received text message. She red every word and replied them fast. How did I knew it was a text message? Her Korean message alert tone, of course. The famous song from the Wonder Girls entitled “Nobody”. The song had been let to administer her SMS function since, I don't know, ages?

“Tu,” she finally said, her finger pointed out to the only book on my hands after she finished. “Kau memang minat benda-benda macam tu ek?”

“Owh... Ni ke?” I retorted, showing to her the front cover of the RM19.50 book. She nodded and laughed cynically.

“Babe, kau ni macam dah tak ada life. Belilah fashion mags ke, love novels ke...”

I raised one eyebrow; just a cliché expression I made whenever I don't feel like entertaining something too much. She was not the first to say so. There were some others who had pretty much said the same thing, too. Some who knew I have a huge crush on these kind of reading materials. The one they often referred to as "weird readings" for a person of my age.

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

“I want nobody, nobody but you! I want nobody, nobody but you!”

“Jap,” she warned while she red the text message again. This time she replied a longer text. Right before she gets to send the message, the Korean song filled the air again before it replayed, alerting on the two messages she received. Lucky we were in the MPH book store, not a library. The volume of the tone would sure storm a librarian right away. She giggled at the presence of her messages before she replied them excitedly. Her face was expressing as if she had won herself a BMW.

The hell I'm going to wait for these things to over.

I put aside the book and took the one next to it, put it on top of the first book and slowly grabbed them both to the counter. She followed. I stole a look at her and she was still happily texting. Boy, she was really gay. You should see her face. Even I lost interest in SMS-ing two years ago when Facebook became phenomenal. Anyways, was she aware that her annoying message alert tone is no longer on any radio charts? When she was done with her business, I re-started our conversation.

“Funny-lah kau ni. Kau tak rasa rugi ke?”

She frowned.

Professional Matter

“Nad?”

“Yes?”

“Mind if I ask you something?”

"Shoot," My eyes narrowed upon his sudden query.

“How come you tak pernah tanya I pasal my love life?”

Speechless as one can be, the man in front of me just asked a question which was negative from my circle of expectations. My prediction of the typical questions he could had asked in the first place. Honestly, I DID NOT expect that at all.

Frankly saying, he's not a friend. Not even close to someone so dear to me. I get paid for cramming my head out of one thing he's great at: Music. He is the lead guitarist of a band recently signed under a local recording company in Kuala Lumpur. We don't really share personal issues with each other. He would usually had me sit and listen to his riffs and demanded my personal comment or had me checked whether his tune sounded the way I would approve it. Everything was still of serious business the last time. Well, at least. I mean, sometimes he did unfold stories regarding problems with his band mates or the industry. Issues with his royalty and the radio stations that don't go beyond the borderline and that's about it. But bringing the whole thing into something, err, less professional by getting aware with his love life? How do I start?

“Nad?”

“Well,” I began, trying to be firm with my words which I doubted best at that time. “I rasa I tak ada hak untuk tanya you benda-benda macam tu. Itu diluar bidang I. It's personal, right?”

“Sure,” came his reply. “Professional matter. I lupa.”

I don’t know what was the real issue but one thing I could tell is how weird his voice turned out to be. It was sounding pretty much sarcastic to my hearing. I remember catching this tone from him long ago when he was arguing with the audio engineer from the company about an issue. Okay I got the hint; obviously he was not cool about this. What ever triggered the idea of this whole conversation, that thing sure as hell had caused the situation between us to become awkward.

There was a pause, probably around 30 seconds. 

Joe Satriani

“Forget it,” he violated the silence at last. “Let’s get down to business matters back shall we, Miss Professional?” he said, looking away. He took his black Fender strat and started to playfully bend the strings mere emotional despite the guitar being unplugged to any of his gears, probably imitating the style of the famous Satriani whom he adores so much.

I couldn’t help but to think of how he responded to this. Does it matter so much for him that I’d be acknowledged about his love life? Shouldn't everything just be the way it supposed to be? Sensing deep sarcasm in his voice, I decided to just do one thing.

I looked away, too.

"Could you?"

As I uttered the decision to do a Bachelor's Degree in IT, I got a lot of negative feedbacks from people close to me. Some of them were being frank with their words, some were giving undetermined facial expressions yet some had decided they should not say anything instead just stood there and temporarily became mute people. I shall not lie, I was hurt.

One of the closest persons in my life said, "Software Engineering? Owh c'mon. That is ridiculous! I mean, could you?"

His spoken thought killed a little me that afternoon; causing me a sudden heartbreak. I cried but my tears were invisible. He continued.

"Listen. I don't mean to scare you but from what I heard, that IT major has no future. The marketability is almost negative for fresh graduates. Those who got hired should be considered LUCKY."

"Eff.." I murmured. I couldn't help it. He was still in his second year of studying the major of Creative Art. For God sake, how can you be so sure about that?

He was saying something but I cut him off.

"You know what? Thanks for the 'info'," much sarcastically I ended the conversation.


I watch him walked away. He could have just exaggerate things over, couldn't he? But why won't my mind just let it walk away?

Maybe, I was scared. Obviously it took a lot of guts for me to make this super decision. I mean, if I don't have some nerves, I might just continue what I was doing in the first place and work as a certified Accountant.. later.

Fuck this shit. I'm not doing Accountancy anymore and I shall not lie. I am still scared with the decision I'm about to make.

Computer Science Undergraduates: Read This

In February 2006, the Berita Harian, a local newspaper, reported that every year Malaysia produces 60,000 graduates. 20,217 jobless graduates registered themselves with the Ministry of Human Resources Malaysia in June 2006. Tables 1 and 2 show the high rate of unemployment among graduates according to universities and courses in Malaysia.

List 1: Unemployment among graduates according to universities

Universiti Teknologi Mara 3,278 16.2%

Universiti Utara Malaysia 1,532 7.6%

Private Universities & Colleges 1,217 6.0%

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 1,147 5.7%

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 971 4.8%

Universiti Pertanian Malaysia 919 4.5%

Other public universities 840 4.2%

Universiti Malaya 531 2.6%

Universiti Sains Malaysia 505 2.5%

Universiti Malaysia Sabah 371 1.8%

Universiti Islam Antarabangsa 358 1.8%

Foreign Graduates 342 1.7%

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 174 0.9%

Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris 39 0.2%

Others 7,993 39.5%

Total 20,217 100.0%

List 2: Unemployment among Malaysian graduates according to courses

Computer Science 3,942 19.5%

Business Administration/Management 3,736 18.5%

Engineering 3,096 15.3%

Accountancy 1,923 9.5%

Literature & Social Sciences 1,283 6.3%

Pure Science & Applied Sciences 1,303 6.4%

Architecture & Building Management 540 2.7%

Agriculture, Fisheries &

Forestry 401 2.0%

Others 3,993 19.8%

Total 20,217 100.0%

Well, this was reported in 2006.