Update

Hiya!

Just in case you’re wondering, nothing much happened in Cambridge lately, what with it being a holiday and all, hence the lack of posts. To be frank, there might be a lack of posts in the near future as well, albeit for an entirely different reason. The term’s starting and the usual Cambridge suspects are arriving back again so the place isn’t as desolate anymore. However, this also means that exams are looming near. We’ll have a two-week term before that happens, though. Even if a two-week term sounds quite ridiculous to me. Oh well…

On a totally different prospect, I’ve recently discovered the joys of having a hand blender. Now I can make those heavenly chocolate milkshakes every time before going to bed =)

Yaz.

Tired

I spent three hours trying to make some meringues today. Three hours! It’s partly my fault that I don’t have a blender to speed things up or a weighing scale to check the ratio of sugar and egg whites, so the thing didn’t even turned up the way I expected. Well, at least it’s still sweet.

It doesn’t escape my attention that my starting salary as an engineer in Malaysia might be less than my monthly allowance as a student. Yet another reason to not look forward to working…

Yaz.

Philosophy

…isn’t something that I’m really fond of. I tend to like things simple, and am not really keen on questions that make unnecessarily complicated mess out of simple things. Well, another word for that is simple-minded, I suppose. But whatever. There’s nothing that says I have to like it, especially when a philosophical argument can take ages and ages and not go anywhere. And it’s really hard to take seriously a subject that cogitates on the purpose of life (often confusingly) when Muslims can think of the answer to that in a heartbeat. Anyway, to each his own, I guess.

It was breakfast in Trinity College dining hall, and I was sitting near a bunch of Maths students, and they were having a profoundly deep philosophical discussion about something that I can’t remember. Somebody might have asked me something, or I might have joined in the conversation, but I said something like, “I don’t really like philosophy. It tends to make simple things complicated.” There were a few moments of silence, and they all looked at me like I was from outer space.

Ooops!

Ironically, on the other hand, I’ve just watched ‘I Heart Huckabees’, and I liked it.

Yaz.

The Botanical Garden

Since nothing much is going on in Cambridge nowadays (except work!) my friend and I decided to experience Cambridge a little bit. We went punting yesterday, which was my first time of actually steering the punt. Luckily, with the help of St John’s College’s guide to punting, I didn’t fall down the river or lose the pole, not even once. What’s more, I made it all the way to the Magdalene Bridge, though I didn’t make it all the way to the Queen’s bridge on the other end of the river because we had to return the punt after an hour. Still, I felt proud!!

Today, we paid the Cambridge Botanical Garden a visit. No particular reason, just felt like it’s better than doing nothing. Normally visitors have to pay, even normal students, but the Garden allows Cambridge students to get in free of charge. We felt appreciated.

We spent the afternoon walking around. However, in my opinion, now’s not really the best time to visit the Garden. Know why?

Gee, signs, pots, soil and pebbles. I wonder what’s missing.

Yup, even though it’s April, apparently it’s still too early for the garden flowers to bloom.

Yaz.

The Two Things I Read The Other Day

Firstly is "The Chemical Engineer" newsletter that I got every other month on so via being a member of the IChemE (Institution of Chemical Engineers). I have to admit, I’m a bit apathetic at times, mostly because I enjoy student life and not really looking forward to the so-called ‘real’ world where you have to work and all, so I don’t really keep tab of issues pertaining to my career of choice. However, after seeing a colleague of mine reading scientific journals for fun (yes, he read journals because he was bored!) I decided maybe it’s high time to pay a bit more interest. So I ended up reading the newsletter, and I found an interesting article about the European Union’s new policy on the environment. Basically, at a current summit in Brussels, European leaders have decided that by 2020, a fifth of the energy used in EU has to come from renewable sources. Furthermore, they’re also planning to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 (Makes you think of the Malaysian vision 2020, isn’t it?). Even the UK government itself announced that it would make it a legal obligation for the UK to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The second thing I read the other day is the comments on Digg. Granted, I always have a neutral-hate relationship with the website. This is mainly because when it comes to articles about important issues, e.g. Iraq or the environment, reading the comments can make you feel really frustrated with the fact that there are lots of morons in the world who don’t have a clue but kept spouting nonsense from their mouths as if they know everything. I was always left in a sour mood, so I tend to not go there often. There was an article about global warming that day and I can’t believe they are still people who think global warming is bogus. It’s sickening. And since most of the commenters come from this particular country (which unsurprisingly does not have good policies on the environment), you can really see the difference.

Compare and contrast. On one hand you have the EU already in action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, you have the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, whose people (some of them, at least) still think global warming is a hoax and whose emissions is predicted to keep rising in the next few years or so. I hope they realize that the whole planet is gonna be affected by this, not just them, so it’s pointless if some parties don’t play a part.

Yaz.

The First Win

Remember I said something about bidding on some auction lots on eBay? Well, it was the first TEN books of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and… I won it! Or at least, I won one of the four lots selling the item. Yay, I’m deliriously happy! The bid came out to be just a bit above £20, so that means it's about £2 per book, which is amazingly cheap. Of course, add the delivery cost and it tallies up to about £3 per book, but that's still pretty inexpensive. The items arrived two days ago but I was only able to pick them up today.

Here's me going through the process of opening the parcel...




Yep, they're now adorning the shelf in my room.

You know, I'm gonna miss all these when I go back to Malaysia. Bargain hunting on the internet, having the items delivered right to your doorstep, or just the mere fact that I have a debit (and credit) card to use. Can't... really... imagine....

Yaz.

Pranks

It was the 1^st of April yesterday, and the observant amongst us will have noticed a few April fool jokes around the web. The most obvious probably is Google’s, in which they offered a new wireless home broadband package that you install by putting the cables down the toilet bowl and flushing it. Ewww…

I also noticed Facebook’s, they offered to send someone to do a real live poke to a friend of your choice if you’re one of the top 100 poker in each network. That would actually be really cool, imagine you’re just sitting there minding your own business when suddenly there’s someone in Facebook uniform (or something) who comes and pokes you. Another prank is that an author of a blog that I read confessed that he is actually a she and all the blog entries are actually made up. Of course, he has written so much that it’s obvious that it’s a joke. Either that or the person has lousy timing when making such a confession.

Those were a few that I noticed. Has anybody spotted anything else?

Yaz.

P.S. Do you actually know anybody who has gotten married on the 1^st of April? Just wondering.