31 March 2005 6:56 p.m. but i am a generalist. local newspapers have reported that a member of parliament has requested that their allowances be increased from RM 4600 to RM 18000. anything that involves money always piques my interest - because i always want more of it. first of all, where in the world did he come up with that figure? second, surely not all members of parliament travel the same distance visiting their constituencies and all that. shouldn't such requests be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, as they are so fond of saying, and the appropriate amount offered? i'm amazed that the request was made with the certainty that it would be granted, even though there wasn't any justification in the form of records of travel expenses and the like. maybe it would be cheaper if they didn't have such large entourages? after all, it's not as if they were Mariah Carey. it's interesting because whenever a person wants more money, he has to prove he needs it, e.g. a loan (maybe he needs to prove he can repay it, i dunno) or a research grant. with a research grant, one goes through a shit load of writing, such as - 1. this is my research project. like so. p.s. i'm link happy today - blank water comics :: qwantz.com - dinosaur comics :: Boy On A Stick And Slither :: chopping block :: Go Fug Yourself :: EPIC 2014 (takes a while to load, and lags a bit; but it's worth your time, dammit!) :: i still can't believe i can hear the Simple Plan concert from my house. the venue is the equestrian park behind the hill in front of my house. the hill is in the park by the way. this is not a lame april fools' day joke - Huckapoo are real. bro22 says that Jennifer Lopez looks like a drag queen in her latest video, the Get Right song. get what right eh, when your only look is half-lidded eyes and parted lips that are meant to look sexy and smouldering but only succeeds in making you look like an undernourished trout. sorry. non-related - some of the keys on my keyboard don't work. i tried to "end" and nothing happened. most of my numbers are frozen. i will blame it on the earthquake. p.s. - the water pressure in our house is low again. mum said she saw a broken pipe outside in the neighbourhood, and yes, she blamed the earthquake. and to think i swore not to mention the EARTHQUAKE. this is what happens when you want to sing like the Red Hot Chili Peppers but don't practise. introducing Gareth Richards - senior research fellow at the AEI, probably more commonly known as the "foreign film guy" to anyone who isn't from that faculty. he sends out weekly mailers detailing the movie to be screened that week. i pretend that he sends them to me alone because i'm kinda sad like that. last night, we went to this quiet place called boatHOUSE for dinner. i think it started off as a boat-themed restaurant, but apparently the idea didn't quite float with the patrons (haw haw haw). you know how you discover something so fabulous, it makes you angry and sad that you didn't discover it earlier? your life, pre-discovery, seems so insipid in comparison. you can tell i'm really easy to please when a salad that includes straw mushrooms wrapped in beef slices sends me into such raptures. mum saw me looking at this page. she hasn't laughed that hard in a while, heheh. dad bought me a digicam. i guess i'll be putting up some self-indulgent wankery masquerading as photo-journalism soon! for now though, i just look at it and think, "omg so cute!" our taps are dry. the stench of unwashed bodies fills the neighbourhood. no one knows how long it will last. at least i will have the good times to look back on. in the spirit of this entry, i will now plug Kasabian's album, of which i have heard 80%. i can state that with absolute confidence because there are only 10 songs on it. it's such an excruciatingly cool album that it makes there was also this entry from Toby's blog. not that we're on a first name basis or anything. i practically worship Shirley Manson, so finding out that she doesn't love herself as much as i do humanises her, in my opinion. (picture from Garbage.com) look at all those links. my hysteria borders on the fanatical right now. or is it the other way round? that said, do ugly people have body dysmorphic disorders? /stupidity ALAN CUMMING IS IN KL AND NO ONE TOLD ME. I ONLY FOUND OUT WHEN I READ TUESDAY'S NEWSPAPER. p.s. Carmen Electra is in town too. too bad her husband couldn't fit into the luggage. post-grad life offers much more than research opportunities and a crash course in independence - bonus features that aren't included in the student prospectus are those such as Public Transport: An Intensive, Practical Approach; as well as Ad Hoc Legalese Comprehension 101 serve to enrich your learning experience. you also learn what a stamp duty (duty stamp? sorry) is and where to get one. well okay, that's what happens when your application for a post-grad scholarship is approved. me and Olivia had to go into the big bad city to get that last bit done, and how brisk they were up there on the 20th floor of the KWSG (the now defunct school teachers' provident fund) building. things went so fast, we were still in a daze when the lift reached the ground floor. i don't understand why there isn't a BCB atm machine in a transit station as big as KL Sentral though. instead of promising me a 500% increase in my sexual pleasure, spammers now send me the following floridity in the hopes of getting published. sorry, i don't do community service like that, nor do i hate the world that much. well, maybe just a little -
labelling is for people who don't quite get it
2. i need more money
3. this is the progress i've made on it.
4. please give me the money.
5. i promise i'll meet the goals i set forth in proposal.
6. i'd really like the money.
7. the lab needs such and such equipment.
8. please. money. for me.
29 March 2005 11:11 p.m.
music postshut up well, if you can't be good, be loud instead.
kids
hello
this diary is back from a bajillion 3 day absence to bring you a tale of abject woe.you me want to twist and shrivel yourself myself into the smallest possible knot of existence because that's how cool it is.
i pick up everything i see18 March 2005 12:05 p.m.
that's what you get for living in your own worldhe had considered nothing. But he made a quick recovery. To my
The devil take you! Levasseur had answered him. A ship's a
effort he made to steady his voice it sounded harsh and unduly lo
honour....
several long lithe blades, each with an edge that is of the keenn
disturbance. He began where another might have ended.
turned the tables on these rascally Spaniards?
preened himself as he limped beside her. She was unconscious of
do - the very thing Don Diego does not wish you to do. You must
As they returned to the ship's side, Blood's eyes anxiously scann
Have a good day.
13 March 2005 7:13 p.m.it's definitely the humidity
mum, bro17 and i went to the Popular stock clearance sale at Summit shopping centre (it runs till 20th march). it was mad. there were only three lines for people to go to, and about 300 people milling around and flipping through books. Mario Vargas Llhosa was going at 50%. ditto Kurt Vonnegut, Irvine Welsh, Camus, J.G. Ballard and gang. the books i grabbed averaged out to be RM21 each, and i refuse to say how many there are, because i'm quite embarrassed about the total. fortunately, mum doesn't mind swiping the plastic for her favourite daughter.
the only thing i didn't like was this geezer carelessly flinging books about. they're not like clothes, you old fucker!
this is the Irvine Welsh book mum bought me. mine has a bright yellow cover though, with a much smaller picture of a pair of lips on it. however, i am told that the copy with the pink cover can be found at the british council library.
when they scan the barcode at the register, the title of the book appears on the screen. realising this, i took some hasty control measures.
me: it's a book, okay? it's only the title!
mum: eh?
register: PORNO - RM68.20
mum: Porno!
me: a book, a book, just a book!
of course this post has no apparent purpose - it's sunday.
12 March 2005 4:59 p.m.bits and pieces
most memorable quote from the conference - "most of the malays in Village A were malays."
i was reading a report on the PJ district athletics meet. i scanned the results looking for my school's name and was disappointed to see it only once in the under-15 girls' 100m hurdles results. the champion was from my school (yeay), but the time they recorded was 34.7s. please tell me this is a mistake of the most laughable sort.
i stared at it in disbelief for a good few seconds, noticing that the times for the second and third-placed girls weren't even recorded.
i'd taken part in that event every year for all the years i'd been on the school athletics team, and never ever ever has anyone of us posted such a time. the time for a schoolgirl in that event is in the range of 16.0 - 20.0s, 29.0s if she's really slow, but again, no one from my school, or at least my batch, has posted such a time.
maybe it's actually 14.7s, a schoolgirl record or something. maybe she fell or something.
i was in the kitchen when i heard a housewife scolding someone.
"why can't you use a plate when you're eating?"
"do you think all i do is cook and clean for you?"
"you're 30+ already, why do you still need me to nag you to eat properly?"
it was then that i knew she was talking to her eldest son. he's quite harmless, and i suppose he can be called eccentric if it wasn't for the occasional vacant creepy gaze he has, and the fact that he doesn't seem to have a job or anything. there's 3 children in that family, and we used to hear their tuition teacher drilling them on their lessons. and then he did poorly in his SPM (equivalent to the O levels or something) and then we never heard her voice any more.
12 March 2005 12:32 p.m.parasitology and tropical medicine conference
see what happens when you don't drink your milk like you're supposed to?
"conference" has always been a pretty esoteric word to me. when i think of it, vague images of exhibition booths and name tags and people in blazers milling around, not knowing why they're there come to mind. it's actually a pretty good description of life as we know it, i think.
our preparations started 2 weeks ago on monday, when my supervisor said, "i need your abstracts by friday so i can send them for the conference."
us: abstracts?
him: yes, for the poster presentation.
us: uh oh.
i thought i'd gotten away with it by fobbing him off with a "next monday can ah?" on friday though, i handed in an abstract i'd hastily cobbled together, and omg he liked it. what followed was that Sally (S) and i went to the graphics department to make an enquiry. they use macs there and those things look so edible. one guy looked all muso and artistic-like with the beret he had on. i've never seen anyone in UM dressed like that to go to work. i guess i should go to the graphics department more often.
the supervisor-type guy (the others were busy being all muso on their macs) probably modelled himself on Al Pacino, which has the potential to be both good and bad because i love Al Pacino, but in a different way from the love i have for Clint Eastwood, even though they're both at least 100 years old or more. our conversation went as such -
me: hi, we'd like to make an enquiry.
Al Pacino (A): sure.
me: how long does it...
S: i need to make a poster for exhibition at a conference. how long does it take?
i hate it when people interrupt me to say the exact same thing i meant to say. fuckers. the point is, we got our 9 posters done by wednesday, and mine is composed of tasteful shades of pink, many pictures of cute animals infected by a parasite that makes them shit themselves, and the obligatory scientific-like text plus acknowledgements. yeah, Parasitology for Kids comin' right atcha.
fast forward to this thursday, and i had to be at UM at 6.30 a.m. to meet Olivia, who knew the way to Grand Seasons hotel, which is across the road from KL hospital. after a small delay, i.e. 2 of the other 4 people coming with us overslept, we made it to the venue before 8 a.m. the point was to put up our 3' x 4' posters and not get into any trouble. we stayed out of trouble alright, but i realised that some post-grad students can be very stupid sometimes.
me: *looking around* where's this Dr G we have to see about getting velcro tape ah?
S: *looks around* i dunno. let's ask.
this usually means i have to ask, but i refuse to move because i'm carrying the bloody posters. S looks around for Dr G's aura or whatever. a few seconds go by.
me: so...
S: where's this Dr G ah?
the posters were set up without incident, i.e. i didn't kill anyone with my scissors. in fact, i've lost my scissors. the opening ceremony took place. the guest of honour made some tired old jokes. then the VIPs had a look at the 28 posters. Terry (T) the PhD candidate told us to pimp our work, so we did.
me: look at my pretty pink poster!
VIP-type person: what a pretty pink poster!
posters are time-fillers between one session of papers and the next, or between one meal and the next, depending on your reasons for attending. what i can say for sure is that there was a marked reduction in the number of attendees the next day. i didn't do any bloody statistical studies or chi-square tests or multi-variable evaluations, nor do i know the significance of the p-value. i'm just a wanker here.
we had to sit through a mind-numbing (IMHO) panel discussion on traditional/complementary medicine before we were fed. i heard some sirens and wondered if it was like like that every day, having a hotel across the road from a big hospital and all.
Olivia and i were gawking at the high-ranking policemen in the lobby (police have conferences too?) when we met an indonesian participant who asked us where the dining hall was. we told her and she thanked us, and then said, "oh, and be careful of the murderer, ya?"
0_0
she went on, saying, "oh, didn't you know? there was an attempted murder/shooting in the carpark. that's why all the police are here!"
us: *nod weakly*
we saw some press people later on, but the call of food was stronger than that of curiousity. over lunch, however, i managed to glean more info.
me: so, liek, did you hear about the carpark shooting? (ya, i spoke thusly)
woman from FRIM: *eyes wide* ooh, i thought it was a shooting in one of the rooms!
both: ooooooooh.
later on, i chatted with one of the doctors in charge of the registration, being seated outside as she was and all. plus, she was a lecturer from my department, so yeah.
me: did you hear about the carpark/hotel room shooting?
lecturer: *shakes head* but when i went out just now i heard from the crowd that 2 robbers were killed outside the hotel.
everyone at home was incredulous when i told them what had happened. it was exactly like that time when i told them about seeing 2 cars having a go at each other on the highway. all this was finally verified when i read yesterday's papers - police had ambushed a much-wanted gang of robbers at the hotel, killed 2 of them in a carpark shootout; and arrested 3 of them in one of the rooms.
why didn't anyone tell me conferences were so cool?
the second day wasn't as interesting except for the bit where teh ebil vet man OMGWTF from the zoo told S he wanted to take her poster back with him because he was credited in it and all. why are psychos like that still running around freely? also, the fruit tarts were all gone before i got to them. i was so looking forward to having them after lunch; it's pathetic and tragic.
