updates

I haven't updated this blog for quite some time now. That shows how busy I am lately, although I'm pretty sure there are some people who disagree with me, considering I had so much time before. But as always, all works tend to come to me at the same time. So what have I been doing?

Papers editing

So my faculty decided to make two books, and it just happen that I was selected to be in one of the editorial board. I had to edit undergraduate thesis in order to publish it. Since apparently these students didn't take any scientific writing class, the papers are quite a mess. Results and discussions were being put together, inconsistent use of figures and tables, wrong formatting, direct-translated/informal english..urgh.

Kursus Persediaan Pengajian Siswazah bagi Pegawai Akademik

This was a 4-day course. Monday-Thursday, June 22-25, 2009. We were given talks on how to choose university for our graduate studies, how to choose supervisors, how to publish papers, what to expect during the duration of the studies, what we should do during study leave, etc. Pretty much like a motivational talk, apart of other technical stuffs. It was a good course, but I wish it had been organized earlier. I mean, most of us had already chosen our universities and supervisors prior to the course.

Medical Checkup

On Friday, June 26, 2009, I went to the Student Medical Center for a medical checkup. I needed it for my graduate school registration. After going there, to my surprise, I needed to bring my offer letter for swine flu screening. I wasn't told to bring it, and I had to drive back to my office to take it, so I complained (a lot) to the nurses. Ha! Padan muka

The closing of the 14th International Conference on Thinking (ICOT)

This was held at the KL Convention Center on Friday June 26, 2009. I wasn't asked to go for the closing ceremony, but I wanted to go, so I went. I was able to listen to the final talk by Edward de Bono, and it was interesting and amazing. His thinking was extraordinary that left me wondering how he came out with all of them. Maybe I should buy his book.

Graduate school and class registration

I am officially a graduate student at the Faculty of Biotechnologies and Biomolecular Sciences, UPM. I registered on June 29, 2009. It was a quick process - I took approximately 30 minutes to get it all done (and also to lose RM1600 for the tuition fee). However, I wasn't given any guidelines on when the orientation will take place, which class to take, or even the courses list. After asking around, apparently there aren't any! And so I had to ask around on which class to take, and so on. Urgh.

Higher Education Professional Training Program for Young Lecturers

Earlier last week, I learned that my name was in the list for this program. I don't know how the Ministry of Higher Education pick my name of all people. But since it was an order from the ministry and was compulsory, I went anyway. It was held for 4 days, July 2-5, 2009 at the Grand Season Hotel, KL. 4 days of never-ending food, and talks. It was a good initiative, but some speakers were just boring to death, although there were some who were good. But o well, I got a certificate for it, and am qualified to be a lecturer already! Owh, almost forgot that I need to have a PhD to become a lecturer. Dang.

First day of class

Today is the first day of class, and the lecturer was late. Ha! Also, the shocking truth was, most of the students in the class were dropped from the class, without notice. Apparently there were too many students registered for the class online, but UPM only allow 80 students in each class. To meet this criteria, they restrict to class to only students from the Faculty of Biotechnology and also from IBS (what it is, I don't know). However, instead of telling us from the start, and instead of dropping those who aren't from the two categories, they dropped EVERYONE except for those who gave their names to this one person. How the hell a new student like me would know that?! And they told us about this during our first class. Ha! So ended up I wasn't registered for any class this semester, other than my Master research project (12 credit). Anyway, we went to see the person to give our names during the 5-minute break, but then found out this person was on leave today. Ha! KILL ME ALREADY!

That sums up pretty much all the things that I have been doing for the past couple of weeks (or more). And today I was smacked by another workload. Dush!

Why is today Monday..

p/s: This morning there was a car tail-gating me. It was a busy morning as always, so he didn't have a chance to overtake me. I like to sort of piss off these kind of people by not giving way to them, so I kept on driving without changing to the left lane, and I was able to piss him off for quite some time. After a while, there was an opportunity for him to overtake me through the left lane, and I was like, "urgh~." However, the road merge with a bigger road -- from 2-lanes to 4-lanes. I moved to the most right lane because I wanted to go straight. While doing that, I kept my eye on the car, just to see how fast he could go. Well, he kept on tail-gating on other cars. He couldn't change to the right lane because he was too close to the front car, and ended up, I was much faster than him. 'Haha. Learn from me, Mister. The art of smart-driving, not haste-driving.' *Proud face* Tu la drive gelabah sangat, padan muka lambat. Kancil kecik comot ni lagi pantas dari Persona kau tau!