Keeping up with everything.

All, or well most of the people I know are in love/dating/crushing on someone.

This stinks. And its really depressing.

I was just talking to a friend yesterday and said person was telling me about how there’s this current love of their life that they so wanna have/hold/fuck (you get the idea).

I find it sweet that this is actually happening- not many of my friends i know tell me about the whole “oh I love so and so and I did this and that”, not since the oh-so-eventful-days of elc. Oh the flirting and the dropping of hints, the ” OMG do you think she got it?” or “OMG do you think she likes me?” simply was so fun now you think about it. Instead now its “OMG ASSIGNMENT/EXAM/LAB REPORT” which so does not bring the same vibe.

I remember I was such a love nut back in elc that when I had that crush on so-and-so, I actually went online to learn up elvish (LOTR style) and construct a lovey-dovey phrase in that language. Everyone would be like, “whats that?” when they see my msn nickname, and I’ll proudly announce that its elvish. Good god. Throw me in some tight clothing and call me a fag.

Faggy as it ma get, I really miss those days. I kinda wonder what happened to that side of me, regardless of how teenage-love-crush it was. I think we all still need abit of that in our lives. I was laying in bed (and missing my bolster) yesterday when I thought…Oh nevermind what I thought. Dammit this is why blogging doesn’t work that well. I can’t really convey what I’m thinking right now or everyone (especially Jeff) would start laughing at me ” AHAHAHAHA stupid science nerd is being gay!”

I really don’t know where this is going. Yesterday I was online doing my healthy dose of stalking on facebook when I came across this girl whom I thought was like really hot. I showed it to everyone and they were like…she’s fat. I was like “FUCK no she’s got curves man!” and I realised- maybe these guys just like their girls…skinny. I don’t. Skinny girls look weak (my opinion anyway) and I’m an ass man so a girl with no ass is a total turn-off. Okay now calm down I know I’m no Brad Pitt but its just my thoughts okay. I’m just typing as I think, so bear with me. Anyway I’m deviating again. So back to this girl- Wei Xen saw her and he was like “HEY I know this girl! want me to intro?”  I said no like 50,000 times and proceeded to say…”I know what league I’m in”

Which got me thinking, really, What league AM I in? And does it really matter? I mean yea everyone will quickly go’ No of course it doesn’t matter, yada yada” but thats in an IDEAL world.We’re talking about the real world here…and thats the world we live in.

Oh isn’t that just what I do all the time. You know what?  Now I’m worrying that I’m not worrying enough. There’s something very wrong with me, don’t you think?

I’m just worrying that I’m not worrying about the exams enough. First paper’s this Thursday, and I don’t seem to be giving a rat’s ass about it. I mean of course I’m studying and all, but I don’t seem to have that URGENCY that drives me to study harder and all.

I worry about my summer. I’m thinking of taking a summer research project, but again I worry about me writing my report and everything, since the grading of this unit depends all on the report. Its an amazing chance for me to work with scientists who knows their stuff, but it might just hamper my chances of getting into honours even more.

I worry about jobs. Summer jobs. I’m fussy about them. I wanna do something related to my study field, but no one ever employs useless lab rats like us so I’ll probably be stuck doing some stupid restaurant/shopping mall job again which I COMPLETELY HATE. I find it such a waste of time, seriously. It doesn’t contribute to my work experience, really, eventhough it gets me the money.

Everyone tells me to worry less, but I suppose thats just me. I’m a worrier. Here’s to me hoping it doesn’t shave years off my life.

The title really sums up what I want to say here. Prior to this I never really understood why people wanted to leave the comfort zones and awesome food Malaysia could provide, regardless of the political situation it has, paticularly to the other ra ces (besides the obvious ones). Being in Australia really opened up my eyes and allowed me to raise a comparison between the environment here and back home. Life is more than Nasi Lemak and Beef Rendangs, really.

Malaysia can boast their first proclaimed “angkasawan”, but not many back home will know, thanks to media cencorship, that everyone else in the world labelled our first “angkasawan” as Flight/Space participant. As a Malaysian, I am EMBARASSED to have to know that we are spending RM 90million to send an idiot to space when we could do so much more with the money. This is obviously another move by UMNO to boost their inferior complex. Speaking of media cencorship, it is also another glaring difference I noticed here in Australia. here, the newspapers can critic the government however they want, and as the elections draw close, even opposition parties are allowed to critic the government in advertisements on TV.  In Malaysia this would spark up a major frenzy, at where people in said opposition party will get jailed/hauled in by the ISA/suddenly be involved in some gay sex scandal.

Ever since I’ve got here I’ve been very into reading political blogs such as jeffooi.com to keep up with the political situation back home. It is through these political blogs and being in Australia that I come to realize how corrupt, inefficient and useless our government is. It is no wonder why our tiny neighbour down south is considered a developed nation while many people around the world still think Malaysians live on trees.

Anyhoo moving away from anything political, coming here has also allowed me to find what I really enjoy doing. In Malaysia we either do Biotech,Biomed or Environmental Management. Here in Clayton you can choose to major from zoology to cell biology and to astronomy. Ever since I was under Dr Yeo I had thought that my passion was Biochemistry- but it is now I realize that my perception of Biochemistry wasn’t even all it is here. It is now I know what I’m really into is Molecular Genetics- and although this sounds like a whole lot of shit to you guys, (“Isn’t it all the same thing?”) I’m just happy to announce it because it shows how far I’ve come- I remember when I started degree I thought that all these definitions were a whole lot of horseshit as well- that microbio=biology=cell biology=molecular biology = biotech = biochem. Ah how wrong I was.

After going though some old stuff, I suddenly got rather emo.

Its all about thinking of old stuff, and I don’t really wanna discuss it cuz I have before and well, nothing fruitful came out of it.

Ah well. To bed.

Its amazing how time flies. Its already three months since I’ve landed here. And to think like three months ago I was all excited about coming and experiencing life in Australia- I would think about all the tiny details, like, what kind of phone operators do they have, or what TV channels do they have?

Everywhere, especialy on facebook I see like people posting pictures of them clubbing in Melbourne city or visiting Mt. Buller- but here, I thought I’ll give an inside view on the more intricate but overlooked details of Australian life-
TV channels
Theres like channel 10, channel 9 and channel 7-My TV is on channel 10 permanently cuz it has the most Simpsons and Futurama episodes- It also has the lastest season of House, Californiacation, Life and huge doses of Law and Order. Cable TV here is called Foxtel, and is run by Optus.

Transportation
Taxis here are expensive. More often then not, you will also see an indian sitting at the driver’s seat. So when we travel its either bus, train and well, to a lesser extend, the tram. Why? oh no paticular reason you know, its just that Clayton’s a bitch and it seems like the only suburb that has no damn tram lines. Its very systematic here, one ticket applies to all the modes of transport, eventhough they are managed by different companies. Trains are run by Connex, Trams by Yarra Trams and Buses…a whole load of companies.

Shopping
Shopping is rather different here as compared to Malaysia. When we say shopping in Malaysia, we have Midvalley, 1 utama and KLCC, etc etc- but when it comes to Melbourne, you don’t really get everything under 1 roof. Say if you want to meet friends for lunch or dinner, chances are that you would meet at where theres a HUGE clock in Melbourne Central, and you would proceed to individual restaurants.

Melbourne Central and QV (Queen Victoria) are the two places that remotely resemble a shopping mall in Malaysia. Melbourne Central sells rather upmarket stuff, though they have Krispy Kreme there- not too sure about QV, since I’ve only been there once, but I know theres Max Brenner there. In the suburbs, there are more of the shopping mall kinda places- the closest to Clayton is probably Chadstone, which would remind you the MOST of our shopping malls in Malaysia. You just have to do some substituting- Myers for Jusco, Coles for Giant and Hoyts for GSC.

Food
I’ve taken to vietnamese food ever since I’ve got here. Its one of the cheaper choices too, so its usually the cusine we go for. If we’re in the city I would go for either of the two shops on Swaston street, but if I’m in Clayton I’ll hop on a train to Springvale for a vietnamese dish. If you crave italian, there’s Lygon street which is basically little italy, and if you want chocolately stuff theres koko black in Chadstone or Max Brenner in QV. If you’re completely famished you could hop on a train to Camberwell, where you can eat at Sophia’s. Its a italian-ish restaurant that offers mind-bogglingly gianormous portions for ridiculously low prices, especially when you share the dishes with a bunch of friends.

Phone network providers
Theres quite a alot of network providers here- there’s Optus,Vodafone, 3, Telstra and Soul. People usually opt for Optus, 3 or Voda- I don’t see that many people with Telstra or Soul.

So there- a small guide to the details of Melbourne as I know it. Back to work.