Futsal!!!

 

So I’ve finally understood my role within my regular futsal team.


In that team, I’m none other than Michael Owen.


No no, not the begrudgingly good Michael Owen of Liverpool.





I’m that Michael Owen at Manchester United.




Derp, derp. Ball? I iz kick the ball?


Yes, yes, that Michael Owen who you look and wonder, wait, what’s the point of that guy again?


You see, I’m not in the first team. In fact, I’m not even the first choice substitute. I’m the guy that gets called upon when they look around the bench, see me and also an old lady mopping up the stands, thought really hard who to pick and decide to put me in eventually while heaving a loud sigh.




I cannae believe I’m doin’ this. Fuck me, get in, Mickey. Sigh.



My primary attributes are, well, I can’t dribble very well. I can’t control a high pass; I can barely control a low one. Like Michael Owen of ManYoo, my passing is abysmal; my positioning substandard.

In fact, my only purpose within the team is to be on the end of a passing move to finish it up and score. That’s right, finishing! And actually, you know what, I’m not very good at that either. I chip in with a few goals every now and then through a scuffed shot and that’s about it.


Yes folks, that’s me. The Michael Owen of Manchester United. A complete mirror image. /facepalm


Actually, you know what, I think I hustle more than Mickey when the team loses the ball. So fuck that comparison.


Me>>>>>>>>>>>> Michael Owen

Dead exhausted..

.. from working 16 to 18 hour days every day for the past 35 days.


I’m now nearing the end of my stint here and looking at all the work that I’ve managed to get done, I have to say I wouldn’t have it any other way.


No matter what happens results wise, I can truly say that after giving it my all, I have no regrets should things fuck up. The next 2 days are absolutely crucial. Re: the last post, I’m so close to doing the treble. Wish me luck!

Things rarely go as planned.

Before I came to Taiwan, I imagined myself working hard to meet my objectives and seeing the country during the weekends. When I came home after the 4 month stint, I thought I’d have completed most of the work and got a great travelling experience out of it as well.

Well, let’s just say things didn’t go as planned. I did do what I set out to do but in vastly different proportions. To begin, I worked hard. Ridiculously hard. 12 hour in the labs, 4-6 hours in the room typing up reports/reading up on lectures, and 6-8 hours sleep. I had to juggle my Malaysia project and the project my Taiwanese advisor cooked up so my day was often a carefully coordinated overlap of tasks. Leave this in for 4 hours, use the time to do something else, come back to it, finish it up for 2 hours, back to the other thing.

The only break I got from the 7-days-a-week routine was when there were power trips that forced me to stay at home. Also, when experiments didn’t go my way, and science experiments rarely do, I got really down mentally. It was just the thought of expanding all that effort and having little to show for it that really killed me. Science is a bitch that way. Unlike accounting or corporate jobs, where it’s more muscle than brain, research is a crazed amalgation of both. You need to put in a hard shift in the labs and also have the critical thinking to dissect the information you’ve obtained; how and why it’s failed or succeeded. More often than not, there are no references for you to fall back on and if there are, they are often intentionally vague. In other words, it’s all you out there, nobody’s there to save you, not even your advisor. And I’m saying this for all forms of science, not just chemistry.

Now you might think reading this that I’m bemoaning my fate but although it was really exhausting, I think I really grew as a person after this experience. I mean, I thought I’ve dealt with setbacks before, but what I experienced here was unreal. Experiencing failure after failure, I learned the value of perseverance the hard way and success tasted so, so sweet whenever it came along. It’s a very exciting ride, if anything. I really do think now that if/when I step into the corporate world, I’ll be able to handle anything it throws at me. There will be problems on a bigger scale and I’ll struggle sometimes, sure, but I’ll look back at this and think, nah, I can deal with it.

Of course, I haven’t survived it yet. In fact, I’m still walking a tight rope. I’ll really say I’ve made it when I’ve survived the viva voce and donned the red robe. And so, back to the Taiwan attachment, with less than a week remaining, it comes down to this. In a strangely identical image of Man United’s treble season in terms of order and significance, my projects come down to 3 defining tests: the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League.

I just won the Premier League today and I’m over the moon. There’s the FA cup tomorrow, which I’ll be more than glad to win but won’t be overly disappointed if I don’t. And then there’s the Champions League, a big bitch of a test with even greater rewards if I conquer it. Sure, I have the Premier League, but like United when they lost to Barcelona, the victory will still feel a bit hollow without Ol’ Big Ears. The silver-titania nanocomposite photocatalysis test is my Champions League final.

5 days to go. Game on.

On a new adventure..

So I’m typing this on a plane en route to Taiwan. Air Asia’s Premium Economy class is fantastic by the way. I don’t think I can ever go back to bog-standard Economy ever again. I’ll write about how awesome it was in a separate post complete with pictures. It’s freaking ace!

I had mixed feelings about this trip and still do actually. For one, I’m not sure how well I’d be able to cope travelling and staying alone in a non-English primary speaking country. During the UK trip the last time, I went over with some friends and I knew of others who were studying there as well so it was a little easier to adapt away from home. This time, I’ll be heading there without knowing a single person in the entire bloody country. Fuck me..

However, I’ve talked myself into doing this as a character building exercise. I know it’s hardly Zimbabwe that I’m going to but I think it will be a very enriching experience if I focus on the positives. Besides, there’s some serious work to be done when I’m there so there should be ample distractions.

Socializing is going to be interesting. I’m very comfortable socializing in English but not so much in Mandarin, much less Taiwanese Mandarin. I have no idea how outgoing or friendly the people there will be like or if I’ll have much time for a social life. I promised myself I’ll make time during the weekends though but I can foresee some lonely meals for the first week at least.

Still, this research attachment should provide for plenty of interesting anecdotes later in life and really, staying in an Eastern country for an extended period of time is definitely a sort of stepping-into-the-unknown thing for me. I know of at least 2 people from work who genuinely would like to swap places with me and would do so without a moment’s hesitation so I think I should definitely extract the best out of the situation.

Besides, when I take a step back and look at it, how wimpy does it sound for a full grown adult (I am one, right?) to be all nervous and scared about a relatively short 4 month stay in a pretty developed country (not so sure about the place I’ll be at, though)

All the new customs, culture and culinary experience to be had. This should be a good one. To an enjoyable and fruitful stay ahead!! *clinks wine glass*


P/S: I’m not asking for much. Just give me a single room and my own bathroom and I’ll be bloody overjoyed!

Upon reading my past few posts..

… I realize that the this blog is getting too critical of things, like I’m all perfect and everyone’s rubbish. I am not, in fact I practise self-deprecation so much in real life it’s unhealthy. Anyway, here’s a cute picture to lighten the mood:

Ego-boosting via criticism

It may not be true at all but I’ve come to a conclusion lately that most people, I’d give it an arbitrary 95%, think they’re on a higher intellectual level than the average crowd, including myself. I’m not saying that they think they’re smarter than everyone else; that’s a different kind of delusion altogether; just that they think they’re smarter than most people, the average Joes.


It’s easy to come to this conclusion as it would explain a lot about why people criticize everything all the time; often about things that they don’t fully understand. I’m sure you hear people ranting about things everywhere: the fuel subsidies cut, the raise in taxes, the standard of education in Malaysia etc, football tactics, price of goods and the choices other people make.


The latter is particularly annoying for me because the tone in the criticism says they think they know better, that anybody doing anything contrary to what they perceive is right is an idiot. Now it’s perfectly fine if whatever the critic says makes sense or contributes towards a proper debate but if it doesn’t, then he/she comes off as a massive twat. I have to stress that this is directed towards people who use a self-righteous tone when talking. The “I don’t understand why…… Stupid or what?” tone.


There are many examples but I’ll give a mild one.

Critic: “I don’t understand why people queue up for hours to get an iPhone. Can’t you just wait a few days more and just stroll into a shop to get one.” /self-righteous

.. and then you have people agreeing and sneering away. I’ve witnessed this scene on more than a couple of occasions but there’s a personal satisfaction in refuting this one because I did queue for hours (4 to be exact) on the first day to obtain one (not for me). Probably why I took offence to this particular statement.The simple reasons are early-bird promotions and scarcity in stocks.

There was a free RM89 case and a RM100 rebate for anyone who got it on that particular day. If that wasn’t a good enough incentive, there are also massive shortages in stock throughout the country with Digi adopting a rationing system; selling only 20 units a day per store or something. There is also a scarcity in the total available stock. There are people reporting that the wait is 2 months at certain areas for the new batch to arrive.

So by spending approximately 4 hours to wait on the first day; the bulk of which was spent at a Mcdonald’s reading after getting a queue number, I saved myself the time and hassle of running from store to store trying to locate a place that sells one and I got a nice little RM189 rebate. That’s the reason why people queue for hours on the first day. Because unless you’re lucky or have connections, you *cannot* stroll into a store a few days later to get one. Well, that and they have mad gadget lust.

This particular anecdote, besides getting it off my chest, highlights why when you don’t understand what you’re talking about, it’s better to ditch the self-righteous tone instead of being an empty vessel to seem intelligent. If the subject matter seemed laughably trivial to you, then another example would be the criticism of the government over the cutting of fuel subsidies, and criticizing is a mild way of putting it.


Now this subject matter is particularly tricky. Malaysia, after all, is a net exporter of oil. One side argues that the oil reserves will eventually run out and the subsidies are a huge drain on our resources, the other argues that new drilling sites will always be found and that as a net exporter, fuel should be made cheaper to the people who are already being taxed heavily on vehicles and sold a lower grade of fuel.



Now I don’t claim to be an expert of the matter and I personally feel that the subsidy cut should be done but gradually in small amounts so that an efficient public transport offering a suitable transportation alternative can be put in place. I may be wrong and may be missing out a few points worthy of consideration but the fact that there are so many sides to this argument means it warrants more than a simple “Stupid government, useless, always raise fuel prices, absolutely corrupt”.



This used to bother me when it came to football-related chatter but these days, I don’t care about it much anymore. As for other matters, I try not bother to correct the ignorantly loud nowadays. After all, a wise man once said don’t argue with fools, because people from a distance don’t know who is who.

Literary Cliche/Faux Pas

Now I have to admit that I’m no writing genius myself but it grates on me whenever I see any of the following being used; worse still if it’s used wrongly. Maybe, I am being a pedant and there are probably instances of literary cliche here that would annoy some other reader but it’s bothered me too many times for me to keep it in.

Off the top of my head (hmm is this a cliche? It probably is), the list of phrases that I’ve seen used/misused too many times:


1) "Just my 2 cents”. I’ve seen this phrase used to the point of tedium in local online forums and comment sections and it’s usually followed by a smiley doing a peace sign. Every time I see someone use it, it’s like having the phrase morph into a hand, extend itself from my laptop screen and slap me in the face.


Why does it annoy me? I’ve been trying to pin-point the reason and I’ll just put it down to the regularity with which it’s used. It’s the “it’s no rocket science” effect. It seems like people think it “smartens up” the post or as if the 4 words will magically quell any tension caused by his/her preceding post.


“Yeah, I think the Mac is a brilliant machine but the amount of software that is coded for Windows just makes it the more sensible choice especially with the introduction of Windows 7. Just my 2 cents” Why the fuck use it? To me, it’s like writing a sensible post and then scribbling all over it with a marker pen. I have and always will disregard any post which ends with Just. My. Fucking. 2. Cents. Yeah take your change and fuck off, yeah?


2) “Literally”. I think there really is no more going back on this one. It’s a lost cause. People on Facebook do it, I’ve seen blog posts with this mistake and the media does it. Heck, if even the media does it, what hope do these copy and paste fucktards have? I don’t mean you can’t use the word at all but please use it right. People seem to think that “literally” is a word-for-word replacement for “really”.


Here’s a hint for you:

lit·er·al·ly –adverb

1. in the literal or strict sense: What does the word meanliterally?

2. in a literal manner; word for word: to translate literally.

3. actually; without exaggeration or inaccuracy: The city wasliterally destroyed.

4. in effect; in substance; very nearly; virtually.

IT’S NOT!!


So you can’t literally die for someone (well, actually you can, but you weren’t going to), literally explode with happiness, go literally out of your mind or one that I hope to see actually, literally go head over heels.


Unfortunately, this is one abuse I don’t see going away anytime soon, which is literally annoying the shit out of me. Okay, not really.


3) “Random”. I’ll keep this one short. IF IT’S PRE-PLANNED AND DID NOT OCCUR PURELY BY CHANCE, THEN IT’S NOT FUCKING RANDOM! Moving on..


4) “.. however, your argument has a fatal/serious flaw in it//your argument is fatally flawed”


Not quite a cliche yet, but this one’s beginning to piss me off too; yes, I’m a very angry person. So why does this phrase vex me? Well, it’s because the use of this just smacks of smug pompousness. It’s like the person using this thinks he’s fucking Sherlock Holmes or something. It usually starts off with the person agreeing with the post.

”Yes, I agree that the Mac is free of viruses and is generally very user-friendly. iLife which comes free with OSX is a great productivity suite as well and on the whole, the build quality of Macs are indeed impressive.”

Oh cool, so we’re all agreed then. Cheerio. But oh wait, hang on, there’s a mother fucking reveal.

“However, there’s a fatal flaw in your argument.”

Look at him, like he’s from Scooby Doo revealing the masked criminal’s plot to the police officers.

”Macs are only free of viruses because of their incredibly small user base. Cyber criminals will always prefer to spend time and effort coding for something that 90% (pulled-out-of-ass-stat) of the world is using. This coupled with the brilliance that is Windows 7 and the number of programs that are compatible with Microsoft’s OS and suddenly, the Mac becomes a lot less appealing.”

There, who’s the smart one now? He can almost hear the original poster going “..and I would have got away with that one if it wasn’t for you meddling kids!” Just argue your point for fuck’s sake, what’s with The Pledge, The Turn and The Prestige? It’s unnecessary and you come across as a bit of a twat.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


I’m sure there are more but I can’t think of any right now. I’ll be back with more once they decide to show up again in my head. If I sound like a very angry person in the post, I have to stress that yes, I do indeed feel that strongly against the above.

Also, checking the number of blog posts/year at the sidebar, I noticed that I usually do most of my postings towards the end of the year. Interesting stat. Shall investigate further.