The Network Conundrum

It’s three in the morning, your dry eyes straining as you attempt to digest the contents of your physics book. You glance through 2 lines of text without taking in a single word. Then your eyes steal a peek to the bright computer screen beside you and you give in to your impulse to click the inbox button on my hotmail page for what would seem to be the 6th time in the past 5 minutes to check for new Facebook notifications. Sound familiar? Then you, like many others before you, are suffering from chronic internet addiction.

Since its introduction, the internet catapulted itself from the pack and emerged as a growing titan of the communication mediums. We now utilize the internet in uncountable ways. No longer do we follow the old traditional way of searching through books when we can just type whatever it is we are looking for on Google, forcing libraries (such as our own) to install computers just so the students continue to visit them.

Sure, it’s fast and easy to plough through the plethora of information on the internet to find what you want, copy and paste it onto your work to be handed in. Maybe you’re hardworking and you might even edit it a bit to make it look original? Mix and match a few articles and voila, your very own assignment! Don’t laugh, it’s a tacit law. But stop and ponder: is this beneficial in the long run?

Social networking is also another entity of the cyber world held high and almost worshipped by many surfers of the web. With sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter gaining increasing popularity each day, social networking has found its way deep into our lives. If you are an online socialite, chances are you have an account in at least 2 of the said social sites. Are they really just helping you to keep in touch with friends or are they affecting your brain in an adverse manner?
Connection to the net and continually going through information actually renders us less capable of deep thinking. You see, facing the ceaseless torrents of messages, pictures, music, videos, links, Friendster reminders, Facebook notifications, tweets, blog entries, RSS feeds and other forms of distractions while working in front of a computer alters the way our brain works.

We become faster in scanning through information and making fast decisions. We breeze through, pick out the facts and move on, rarely stopping to interpret or contemplate. Reading a book is much more different. Through books we focus and take in word by word and at the same time, letting the flow of texts dig deep into our minds and feelings. Books also guide us to focus all our concentration on one topic at a time instead of the never-ending bombardment of information on the net. More information does not necessarily mean more knowledge when our poor brains are being stuffed like a Christmas turkey.

Addiction to the internet becomes another worry. Much too many of us are compulsive visitors to social networks. I personally admit to my feeble will power to resist spending hours updating my Facebook. It’s nice to be constantly connected to your peers but if the mere thought of spending a day without Facebook (or Twitter) sends a chill down your spine and that a week without them will leave you in cold sweat and the feeling of despair, then I recommend its time you see a doctor.
OR, you could just muster up the will power to stay away from the computer as long as you can. Don’t worry, do it in phases. See how long you can stay away from your inbox and lengthen the time gradually.

It’s not like you’re isolating yourself from civilization just because you don’t go on Facebook. And I can assure you that you are not a social outcast just because you don’t reply your messages. And no, your life won’t end if you don’t tweet for 24 hours.

Let’s face it, the internet distracts us, more than we realize. It causes us to lose sleep. Remember the time you were updating your Facebook in the wee hours of the morning on a school night? Maybe that’s why you experienced the state of suspended consciousness (read: sleep) in class the following day.

So the next time you’re about to announce/share with the whole world on Facebook/Twitter the GROUND-BREAKING news that you found a dead cockroach in your room or that you are going to have escargots for dinner, perhaps consider lying down and reading a book instead. Your brain could do with some imagination and creativity!

*The writer of this article apologizes to any and all Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogger, etc fanatics and/or addicts out there if they feel offended. All opinions are clearly his own and do not in any way attempt to shun, ridicule or put-down any parties. Besides, he probably spends more time on Twitter than you do breathing =)

Peace.

A Piece on War

War,
War never changes.

It transcends the history
Of our world
Tales,
Of soul and swords,
Of honour and guns,
The clashing of blades,
And the hammering of shots,
Bayonets dripping with blood,
Merciless slaughter of innocents,
Vengeful killings of adversaries,
Never ceasing,
Until all is lost

War,
Bloodshed for the shallowest of reasons,
For power, for supremacy,
Leaders,
Unyielding in their pursuit of dominance,
Over lands and over seas,
Leaders’ lust for power,
Matched only by the cruelty of their soldiers

War,
Blood is war,
Glorious battles veil the suffering beneath,
Even through victories,
Celebrated with unease,
We are stained,
Tainted by the spilled blood of our brethren,
Every inch of land gained,
Pints of blood lost,
Bones, flesh, hope,
All crushed between the cogs of war


War,
Unleashes the beast within man,
Unlocks the worst of humanity,
Unchains the ugliest of our kind,
Uncovers the darkess of desires,
Inevitable degeneration
Guns and accusations,
Pointed at one another
Blades and betrayal
Cut deep into our faith

War,
It brings forth death upon our world,
Nothing but.
It ignores the pleads for mercy,
It slaughters relentlessly,
It is the harbinger of the apocalypse
It determines not who is right,
But merely who is left

War,
War never changes.

Leon

Going Greener than Ever!

As we go through yet another hectic day of our modern lifestyles in our bustling towns and cities, we are constantly reminded to adopt a greener lifestyle. On the radio, through the television and by the various campaigns set up, the importance of saving our beloved earth continues to be hammered into us. You see, Mother Nature is getting old, and she’s been forced to smoke too much. Her home is getting warmer with the staggering amounts of carbon dioxide our modern world has produced. She’s also fed up with the number of natural disasters that she has to put up with- she does not take too well with floods as it ruins her pristine furniture. She gets very ill when toxic chemicals are dumped into her blood streams by factories. To say that earth is in dire need of change would be an understatement. Perhaps it is time we learn what it truly means to being ‘Green’.

A wise approach to forming a ‘green’ mentality would be to target the younger demographics. The members of Sunway University College’s Student Council in collaboration with Sunway Health and Safety Department launched the ambitious and no doubt successful Go Green campaign which kicked off from the 17th to the 19th of August this year. Their goal was simple: to expose the students of Sunway to the growing importance of being environmentally friendly. We’re talking recycling, reducing waste production, reusing materials and practicing a more civic and responsible attitude towards planet earth. But it was the reduction of polystyrene or Styrofoam as known to many that takes the limelight for this event.

Yes, the light-weight, petroleum-based plastic used that is used to make your disposal cups, food packages and plates due to its good insulation and relatively harmless properties is the main target that Go Green aims to eliminate. Many are confused about the difference between the term polystyrene and the name Styrofoam. The more commonly known name, Styrofoam in which many people will immediately identify as the white-foam moulded packaging our chicken rice and other food stuffs are packaged in is actually a registered trademark name of The Dow Chemical Company Inc. The substance of which these packaging are made of is polystyrene. Polystyrene is non-biodegradable, it crumbles into smaller fragments when disposed thus causing landfill and ocean pollution. So why not recycle it you ask? Well, technically it can be recycled but the recycling rates are low. The recycling of polystyrene is diminishing. In certain communities, recycling companies do not accept polystyrene anymore as people prefer to simply dispose of them. The manufacturing process pollutes the air and creates large amounts of liquid and solid wastes. Animals also choke on disposed polystyrene.

The students behind Go Green are determined to slowly but surely replace polystyrene with alternate means of packaging. The Energy Hub at the cafeteria was the centre point of the campaign with various organisations setting up booths to promote their products and to encourage students to participate in the various activities they have installed. Global Environment Centre, a non-government organisation was present to supply interesting information regarding reducing, reusing and recycling through their various posters and pin-ups on the boards. Competitions were aplenty, such as the “Caught on Camera” video challenge where students were tasked to capture bad habits and wasteful practices of people around the college on tape. There was also a rather amusing competition of designing an elegant outfit out of trash and reusable materials (we’ll leave that to your imagination). WWF (World Wildlife Fund) was present to give a talk on the preservation of wildlife. In addition, students were ushered to check their carbon footprints at one of the booths to see just how much their habits have impacted the earth.

Jasa Eco, was also present to promote Go Green’s primary agenda, that is to do away with polystyrene. Jasa Eco supplies a range of disposable food ware developed from cornstarch to help form a greener environment. Disposable cutleries made from cornstarch instead of the usual plastic (hence making them biodegradable) were given out to students. Douglas Tan, Export and Eco Development manager of Jasa Eco was present to oversee to the Jasa Eco booth. “We always look to the bigger organisations to help save our dying environment but we must realise that every household plays an equally important role. They are the ones that contribute to large quantities of wastes. If we want to Go Green, start at home,” Douglas advises. Douglas Tan admits that polystyrene has become an indispensable material, especially in the food industry. “Polystyrene will not disappear in the near future but we must nevertheless strive to kill it off naturally and seek a viable replacement in the market”. He went on to say that polystyrene elimination is just the tip of the iceberg in a world which is becoming ever-dependant on plastics.

Ultimately, it is the consumers that determine the life-span of this detrimental substance. Mentality is the key here as consumers today do not even give it a second thought when using and disposing polystyrene containers. “Attitudes must change! The mental barrier that exists within our consumers is the main issue. They refuse to accept change and are completely fine with disposing plastics and polystyrene,” Douglas claims solemnly.

So how do we reduce the use of polystyrene? Douglas hopes that Jasa Eco can aid in limiting the use of Styrofoam packaging and other polystyrene products through their range of eco-friendly alternatives. “They obviously cost a little more though,” he laughingly comments.

“A concrete approach would be to outright ban the use of Styrofoam packaging. That would be a good start,” he shares. The use of polystyrene packaging has long been banned in certain countries around the world such as the 30 municipalities in California as well as the coastal communities in the United States. The first state to respond to the issue is Penang. Starting the 1st of January next year, a ban will be enforced on the use of polystyrene which will cover all food premises and temporary hawking sites owned by local councils on the island and mainland. It’s a sigh of relief considering the mountain of polystyrene food packages thrown away at the popular spots such as the Gurney Drive hawker centre.
“The industrialists need to step up and speak against polystyrene production and use. When they talk, people listen. When the individuals from NGO’s talk, people ignore them. They have little power and influence. An outright ban should be imposed and when the time comes, companies will either comply with the ban and find other alternatives or be forced into bankruptcy,” he boldly comments. It’s harsh but it should get the job done. Douglas Tan later gave an informative talk regarding a styro-free environment to the students of Sunway University College as part of the Go Green event.

There are people who want to make a difference. But there are also people who see this Go Green culture as a way to make money. Look around you the next time you go shopping and you’ll notice the plethora of products claiming to be eco-friendly. No doubt some are genuine on their intentions, but there are those who use it as a marketing tool. Many companies produce these so-called eco-friendly products which use bio-degradable packaging but some of these plastic packaging merely ‘breakdown’ into smaller fragments of plastic and still remain in the soil for long periods of time. Though fragmentation occurs, incomplete breakdown of these substances means they are not biodegradable.

Some of students of Sunway University College were no doubt eager to participate in the programmes and activities. Even throughout the year, the student council of the college had organised events to ignite the spirit of going green. The G-Race which was similar to the Amazing Race challenge saw participants racing around Sunway, from Monash University to Sunway Pyramid and back to Sunway College to name a few. The participants faced various challenges that required teamwork and knowledge on the environment. The recent Plant-a-Tree programme in the Raja Musa Forest in Batang was also the student council’s idea of exposing students to the beauty of nature as well as the damage we have done to Mother Nature. The forest was once a reserved forest until it was cut down. Participants happily planted new seedlings in the hopes of restoring the forest, even if just a little into the beautiful place it once was.

All in all, the Go Green campaign was a huge success with many students finally realising the importance of maintaining and caring for our beloved planet. “The whole thing was quite interesting and the talks were an eye opener,” says student, Nicholas Siew from AUSMAT. Sunway University College students and staff can also look forward to brand new recycling bins brought in somewhere around September to further promote recycling. This no doubt reflects on how determined Sunway University College is in going green. Vice president of Sunway University College Student Council, Eugene Koh reminds the students, “Our Earth is not in a good shape. We must be responsible for our actions and be aware of the issues surrounding the environment.”
So true, it’s time we realise the gravity of our actions on the environment. From the poorest of families to the wealthiest of society, from the smallest of hawker stores to the largest of factories, from the youngest of students to the oldest of adults, it does not matter who or where you are, you can make a difference towards our planet and towards its future by playing your part.

Outing at TS

I've recently had a friend casually comment "Oh yeah, I forgot that you have a blog."
Yes, I do. He just forgot. Perhaps it would be considered unjust to fault him for his sudden declaration. After all, negligence can be seen sprawled over the walls of my blog, there's simply no denying it. I am unaware of the number of people actually being bothered to read what I have to say and I have but myself to blame for that unknown number to further dwindle. It was somewhere in March since I last made a new entry. Lazy perhaps? Yeah.

Ok ok. Now you have my solemn pledge that I will try my hardest to continue to blog (however unlikely it may seem due to the fact that I just got a new xbox 360 yesterday) even though i'm busy =)

Went to Old Town with the fellas this morning (as cerita-ed in the previous post) and later adjoured to Times Square to meet up with some old friends. The return of The Lee Mei Yin XD.

Something like her welcome party. Alot of people turned up at different times. So here are the pics. I'm of to play Red Dead Redemption!!



In the morning, 8am to 12pm at Old Town








At Times Square after that.

At Old Town Now

At Old Town White Coffee now with thee fellas. Kitt, Jie, Gene and round Julian =)
Quite a major disappointment as we had planned to come here to leech on the insanely high connection speeds to do some heavy downloading like we did during Kess's farewell. At that time, speeds were more than 200 kb/s which is.....fast. Real. Fast.

We're talking an mp3 in 8 seconds and an episode of a series for under an hour or so. But now here we are starring at the long download bar which is barely moving. Speed of, get ready for it.....10 kb/s.

WTF la. Drop by 2000%??!!?? Is there even such a thing as 2000 percent? I mean, i've done lots of maths questions but never have i heard of 200 percent. Lets see...

200/10 * 100 = Yep, 2000%

Yup, so lets just hang around here and drink coffee. Wow, that sounds fun..... We have nothing better to do but sit around drinking coffee....

The biggest Screw-UP ever.

Guess all the studying and revising I did for Computer Science was for naught. Physics was ok today though I cant help but feel Paddy (Phy lecturer of mine) is still out to get us. I managed to run through all the questions, all but the last 3 which I had no idea was easy or otherwise. Because, like all the past AUSMAT papers I sat for, time seemed to be more impatient then I was to leave the examination hall.

"Put your pencils down, times up! Put your pencil down, time's up!"

Again and again and again I hear these words echoing through the hall for every paper I sit for. Other than English, I have yet to turn up a completed paper, much less checked. I'm not complaining about the system, I'm complaining about my incompetent time management. I should be shot and spawn killed for this. So yeah, Physics partial fuck-up. But here comes the best, the epic fuck-up!

COMPUTER SCIENCE!

Yup, left the last 3 pages completely empty. Spotless without a trace of lead or blue ink. Amazing. And they were questions I could definitely have solved. And estimate of 35 marks gone, just like that. The biggest screw-up in my entire exam-sitting career.

Tomorrow is Maths Specialist, the most feared of all (or atleast for me) and I kinda feel my luck can't get any worst. Can it?

A certain summarised entry

God, finally got my internet back on after more than a weeks absence from society. I swear to god, the feeling of not being able to just whip out your laptop or turn on one's computer to check inspect one's mail or social network status is agonizing to say the least, even more so when one frequently takes for granted the ever-ready internet accessibility. When I'm at my uncle's, WIFI...click. When I'm at the mall, WIFI....click. When I'm all the way in Penang, hotel free WIFI...click. When I'm at the mall, Starbucks WIFI leeching...click. But a few days ago, I woke up from a nap in my room and the sudden realisation hit me. So hard that I I thought I must still be dreaming. Yes, for the first time in my life, I cannot access the internet at THAT very instant... Shocking no doubt, but what was there to be done?

But we'll just let bygones be bygones. I have a 1mbps connection speed now (which was supposed to be 4mbps, fuck you Streamyx, I hope you and TM NUT burn in the depths of buffering hell!) as opposed to my old 512kbps. So is it faster?



Dream on. Seriously, TM Nut, you suck. I mean, Kessler has the same package as me and he has speeds no less than 150kbps when torrenting. Me? I'll be lucky if it goes slightly over 50kbps. And at most times, it lingers around the 30 mark. So yeah, upgrade my ass. Giving credit where its due, my speed now touches 80kbps once in a while. But still.

I shall stop whining now.

Anyway, today was yet another typical day at the col.
For one, we almost skipped Maths to follow our Maths Specialist teacher, Mr Eric to go have some.... get ready for it..... Bak Kut Teh at Subang. Imagine this, he said that Miss Rosemarry, our Maths teacher wasn't here today and he proposed the whole class drive out in our separate cars at 10.30am to have some Bak Kut Teh (there was something about mixing Nasi lemak and Bak Kut Teh to form... some dish...Bak Kut Lemak or something like that... watever). So I said we almost went, cause we didnt in the end. On our way out of the college, we saw, much to our, as they call it, bloody-hell-potong steam-dismay, ms Rosemary walking in to college.


Self explanatory. We headed for Maths class. Mr Eric was a lonely man at a Bak Kut Teh restaurant that morning.....

I am also quite joyous today as lol and behold, I actually managed to complete a programming task for a software that displays the cost of an item, receives the tendered amount from the customer, calculates the change to the nearest 10 cents(in favour of the shop owner and then returns the change due. Oh, it also allows the use of credit card and debit card and does all the calculations accordingly.

What can I say, bangga lebih la aku ni...XD