Life was like a box of chocolates.

My degree finally arrived today. Yeay~  Do I sound excited enough for you? How fun... It does not change anything, my results is still low. If it is any help, it only enables me to prepare my documentations for work soon.  I am still very frustrated with myself.  In retrospect, if it was possible for me to foresee this result that I got, perhaps it would be better for me to allocate less time to worry about my studies and enjoy myself a lot more. To be honest, throughout the whole year, this was all I can think of, yet take a look at where I am now, miserable and numb.  No use to fret on spilled milk, huh.    This is what you get when you do what you love instead of what you are good at, people!  Listen to me, if a good and bright future is what you want, then DON'T, under any circumstances, EVER DO/ THINK about what you like. ONLY do what you are good at. Because at the end of the day, values such as passion and interest count for absolutely NOTHING.

So what does three years in uni taught me?  If I were to sum it up in just one word, it will be this word, 'Intuition'. Why? To start off, that is the word that I kept hearing every year without fail. Sure, we all know the meaning of 'intuition' but what exactly was this 'intuition' my lecturers kept telling us about? That was how I felt during the first couple of years in UCL. At the time, for all I know, this 'intuition' was the understanding of the concepts and theories, that was it. I was pretty much shooting in the dark during those two years. Hehe. Then as I proceeded into 3rd year, it finally occurred to me. Perhaps the true context of the this 'intuition' that is frequently said is a deep understanding of a certain topic that it became second nature to us. In other words, it is that instinctive way of reasoning borne by deep understanding about something. Guess my shot in dark was not too far off, eh?  So there it

Here is brief essay on Wilde's quote that I recently stumbled upon. As of late, I am not in a very good place. I am still pretty crushed with what happened a couple of weeks ago. Haish...  Anyways, hope you'll find this interesting.  "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."(Oscar wilde) Nowadays people kill themselves to eke out a living, improve their living conditions or keep their high standard of living, but they forget to live. A Scottish proverb says; "be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead." In fact, people don't live, but they survive each day, for they are too busy, too tired, too stressed and too worried to really enjoy the pleasures of life. Everyone says; "time flies." Thus, hours become days and days become years and years become a wasted precious life, and what for? Of course, for a better living. It's believed that to be successful in life and improve

  Here are the things that I usually carry with me every day to uni: MacBook Air 11" (credits to Lin, a lady in Kelana Jaya who sold her Air to me last summer. This laptop is strictly for work purposes as it's fitted with only 64Gb of flash drive) a couple of cables and a USB adapter- in case my i5 runs out of juice, but that rarely happens USB drive big enough to load my whole work folder- just in case I needed work done in places where WIFI is off limits lots of A4 papers- blank papers work best for me since I mostly work with diagrams and equations. black, blue and red pens, one of each drinking water (I really can't leave the house without one these days) beanie- in case of light rain along the way. gloves (my hands tend to get cold easily) As you can already see, my bag's content is pretty basic. I don't really carry too much with me when I'm working since I found it counter-productive. *This segment is inspired by the 'What's in Yo

Last week, my uni results was out, and frankly it was not so good.  I was utterly gutted the moment I found my candidate number buried among the many of them. If last year's experience taught me anything, it is for me be prepared for the unexpected to happen, and that is exactly why I am so shaken as the result day arrived. Some part of me wished that this time around, things are going to be different. Perhaps time around, all of my hardwork will finally be paid off, all those times spent worrying, being indulged in nothing but work.  I am devastated right now.  Last year, I did poorly in my essay subject, Macro but excelled in Micro, which is more Maths-based. As such, I thought to myself, that maybe this year I would have the upper hand should I go with Maths-based subjects such as game theory. And I could not have been so wrong. The table has finally turned, leaving me numb, speechless.  My results merely affirmed the fact of how confused of a guy I am. I

You are expected to do the readings That long reading list that your lecturer uploaded at the beginning of the year is no joke, he/she expects   you to go through them! Some lecturers may even be helpful enough as to categorise the readings: core reading, supplementary, empirical. Have a separate Readings folder for every topic, and read them according to the order of importance to save time. Before you begin reading, make sure you understand what exactly that you are looking for; is it just the main findings that you are supposed to know (argumentative), or are we analyzing the authors' methodologies (empirical methods discussion)? Doing so would make the task more objective, helps to shape your expectations, hence making the text more comprehensible and digestible. Basic economic knowledge is assumed From the first lecture, you are expected to know all the basics: proving the concavity of the utility function, solving a Lagrange optimization operation, implications of

That video was supposed to be my upcoming project as soon as I finished my exams, well at least it was, until a friend of mine came along and pitched his idea to me.  You wanna know what his big idea was? He asked me to tag along with him on a cycling trip to Brighton.  Is that it? To cycle all the way to Brighton, which is about 100km away from the metropolitan city of London? Was that it?  So that's how far London- Brighton is. In all honesty, this route has been done by many. Heck, from the research that we did, we found out that some university's cycling society even managed to head there early in the morning and still managed to return to London for their 9am lectures! How crazy is that? And to top it off, they managed it using just normal commuting bikes, not the racing road bike types that both and I are thinking of right now! Now that's mad.  The proposal did not end there.  The trip to Brighton is just the medium goal, the main event is to cycle all t

Last week, days before I sat for my first paper, I had this crazy idea for a video.  Given that this is the third and final year for my friends and me, I figured why not film a video about it. In the video, the host could ask them questions like: what is your best experience here so far?  how do you feel about finishing your studies soon?  will you miss being a university student? having studied overseas for the past three years, what are your words of advice to students back home?  then somewhere in there, if possible, we could even make some sort of a shout out to our sponsors! Thank you this/ that for making our dreams come true or something like that.  Alright, maybe the questions sound a bit cliche, but I am hoping that the participants would give out interesting responses to them. I had a vision of filming them in various location, just so that they will be more relaxed as the camera is rolling. In fact, the more chilled I can get them to be, I hope to get a more h

Lee was here the week before, and luckily during my trip to the local Tesco I realised that the cream cheese was sold half price. Then it occurred to me, hey why not I make another batch of cheesecake so that we can all just sit down and enjoy it while we talk.  So there it is, a plan was finally in place; ingredients sourced, so the only thing left was the execution.  Luckily enough, I need not wait long for an opportunity to present itself... That Monday night, as soon as Lee and Nik left for the library, burning the midnight oil, I finally got the kitchen for myself. Time to set up shop... After two hours being in the oven, then left overnight to chill in the fridge, voila~ I present to you, the final product.  Dig in guys... The next day, as I was about to officiate the cake, I ran into Sara. It so happened that she was actually on her way to Sainsbury's to get a cake, hence, it was only fitting for me to invite her over. Rezeki ko lah, Sara.  I e

This is sad. It's like, the end of an era for me. I've followed the show eversince it began, and now it is finally over. It's just so surreal!  Ted finally met his wife, the much-awaited mother. Yeay him.  But in the end, she died. After much mourning coupled with the blessings of his children, he finally got back with Robin, his life-long best friend. Surprising? Well not really. Those two had a very long history of being on and off countless times.  Some say that the ending pretty much resembles the movie Definitely Maybe, again one of my favorite movies. In that movie Ryan Reynolds got married, had a child, then he got divorced. He told her the story of how he met the mother, then after some drama here and there, he finally tracked back his old lover, April (played by Isla Fisher) and they got together. Yeay them. If you ask me, the main moral of the story is, nothing in life turns out the way we think it will be, hence the best that we can  

They say Asians have a thing for food, unlike their counterparts in the Western hemisphere, when it is time to eat, we'd rather go for a dish that tastes good rather than the one that is healthy. It is not that we are oblivious of the health benefits of the food in front of us, but instead when it comes to enjoying our food, we trust our mouth more than our head, savvy? After Friday prayer yesterday, the three of us, me and my friends decided to explore a new dining place near Euston station that serves roti canai.  The place is a bit small with only about ten tables, and there aren't any waiters around too. In front, there was just this guy who makes the roti canai together with this Chinese lady who by herself served, manned the cashier and cleaned the tables. Regardless of all that, like I said, we only came for the food. So we could not care less about the fact that it took the lady quite some time to take our order. She looked scary at first, but as we joked w

Have you ever felt that you are out of place? That feeling that no matter how hard you try to fit in, you just don't belong there? That was exactly how I felt last Friday night during the engagement session with my organization.  As I looked around me, I noticed how enthusiastic my friends were. They were asking about career prospects, work benefits, how the environment in the HQ was like and many more; you know, the 'heavy' stuff. And there I was, sitting in a table with just me and a lady from the London office, talking about her family.  As far as I can recall, the most serious topic the two of us talked about was about the return ticket booking. Other than that, we chatted about her life experience: back in the day, she did not managed to sit for her final exam because her second child was due at the time. Left as a single parent, with two kids, she grabbed any opportunities that came her way in order to survive. Then, she got into our organization. Person

It was a celebration.  These people were a combination of both families and friends of the bride and groom. The atmosphere was fun, everybody seems to be enjoying themselves. In a nutshell, the day was simply glorious. The celebrated couple looked very happy. Smiles never seemed to leave their faces.  Then the celebration ended. Everybody made their way home after wishing the best of luck to the couple and congratulating them.  The groom He stood by the balcony, looking far into the rainy evening. Unfortunately, there was not much that can be seen at the moment, covered by the rain and the clouds. As his eyes gazed upon the vast body of land, he felt so blessed that finally found her. After looking for so long, he finally found her, the one who would complete his life.  The wife Done with his alone moment, he returned into the living room to continue his job. There is still much work to be done, he thought to himself while taking a seat near the coffee table. 

Today I would like to share a story with all of you; a story about a father and his son. Si anak sedang menuntut di sebuah kolej di ibukota, manakala bapanya tinggal di kampung bersama si ibu. Pada suatu hari, si bapa menelefon anaknya untuk bertanya khabar. Mereka berdua mula berbual tentang pelajaran si anak, kesihatan dan perihal keadaannya di sana; suatu dialog yang sering didengari antara seorang bapa dan anaknya. Setelah beberapa minit, si bapa memulakan ceritanya. Rupa-rupanya, si bapa ingin bercerita tentang kereta baru yang dihadiahkan oleh si abang kepadanya. Si bapa bercerita dengan penuh semangat sehinggakan si anak yang berada di hujung talian mula tersenyum. ‘Alhamdulillah, betapa gembiranya bapaku dapat kereta baru’, detikan hati si anak. Kemudian, si bapa pula memberitahu yang dia kini berada di hospital. Si bapa jatuh tergelincir seawal pagi tadi semasa dia baru sahaja keluar dari rumah. Dia mengalami kecederaan ringan di dagu dan kaki. Setel

Back during my school days, I used to write my English for Science and Technology under the pseudonym, Jack Garbeth. At the time, all of friends laughed at me as if I was some sort of a fool for using such name. Given how naïve I was at the time, I succumbed to peer pressure and put the name to rest. And I thought that was the end of all these made-up names… At least it was, until I sat for my Physics paper during my SPM trial. It was Physics paper 2. As always, I got confused with certain concepts and formulas. As soon as my attempt to force my head to churn out some any memories that could be in any way useful failed me, my mind began to wander. If you must know one thing about me, it is this; my head likes to wander, a lot. With a pen in hand, I began to scribble down my own name and started to write anagrams of it. Unfortunately because of the way my name is spelled, I could not get much out of it. By the time the exam was over, the best name I’ve got was Faw Dudini.