Updates, randomly as I deem fit:
1. Caught The Dark Knight last weekend. An excellent show, definitely lived up to its hype and my own anticipation as must-watch movie. Dark, twisted and not a boring moment in between - this is not just an action movie, it's an action movie with heart and mind. The sociopolitical undertones are very impactive; comparable to V for Vendetta. While the latter is more direct and surreal in its social and political undertones, the former is more subliminal and seamless.
2. Local politics seem to have gone into no-man's-land. Where I've totally lost interest many weeks ago and have stopped reading the papers for a while now.
3. It had been a busy week since last weekend. With a quiz just completed this morning, I can take a slight breather. In between preparing a progress report, studying for a quiz, working on a group assignment, and take some time off to train the juniors, life couldn't be more...
Fulfilling? Strange as it may sound, I've been in quite a positive mood a couple of weeks back since my I officially started my Masters. I don't feel as hollow or dreary just going about doing my work. I feel renewed, reaffirmed once again. Perhaps it's due to a sense that my life is now heading somewhere; in a direction which I could focus and pour my energy.
It tooke me a while to realise this, but we need aims in our life. Something that makes us willing to forsake sleep, turn down outings with friends and don't mind some self-isolation. I used to set really low goals, or none at all. Just doing my best as it's just the right thing to do. But after graduating and taking up a semi-job as an RA, it really is easy and tempting to fall into an easy and couldn't-care-less routine.
People generally thrive on deadlines, or specific time frames. If you give someone his/her ample time to do a job, chances are they'll take longer to produce a work which quality might not be necessarily better compared to if given a time frame. Which is why graduate studies is a different ballgame completely than undergraduate. During undergrad, you have specific classes per semester, specific deadlines for specific assignments, and specific dates for exams. In grad school, you mainly have to complete a research project within a typical period of around 2 years, possibly more. And the few classes mostly consist of lecturers giving general overviews of a topic, and then assignments of doing a term paper (short analysis) of related articles of your choice to be submitted within a month.
It is indeed extremely easy to get lost in the illusory freedom from the constant leash of exams, quizzes and activities back then during undergrad. Afterall, you have 3 or more semesters to do your project, what's the rush? *It's 4 pm in the lab, and running the next part of your experiment will take 1 and 1/2 hours. Should you do it? Well, typical working hours are till 5, never mind that you came in around 10.30 am for staying up late last night for a mamak session. Let's just call it a day, and do that next step tomorrow. Oh, it's noon, time for lunch break! Again, never mind that you came in only 2 hours before that. Yay, my lecturer's on leave. That means he/she won't call the lab today! Which means I can sneak out to Midvalley!
Anyway, back to serious self. Having a focus, once more, really helps to steel myself against the nagging voice of inferiority, especially when meeting up friends who (knowing or unknowingly) describes in long detail their new jobs and salaries, new gadgets they're eyeing, shopping plans, weekend plans, vacation plans etc. I just need to remind myself why I'm doing what I'm doing, and that I'm to going to prove that this is not a dead-end path. I need to prove that for myself as much as for everyon else.
*For surprisingly accurate and hilarious peek into the life of a grad student, try checking out PhD comics.
Edit: Link has been fixed.
1. Caught The Dark Knight last weekend. An excellent show, definitely lived up to its hype and my own anticipation as must-watch movie. Dark, twisted and not a boring moment in between - this is not just an action movie, it's an action movie with heart and mind. The sociopolitical undertones are very impactive; comparable to V for Vendetta. While the latter is more direct and surreal in its social and political undertones, the former is more subliminal and seamless.
2. Local politics seem to have gone into no-man's-land. Where I've totally lost interest many weeks ago and have stopped reading the papers for a while now.
3. It had been a busy week since last weekend. With a quiz just completed this morning, I can take a slight breather. In between preparing a progress report, studying for a quiz, working on a group assignment, and take some time off to train the juniors, life couldn't be more...
Fulfilling? Strange as it may sound, I've been in quite a positive mood a couple of weeks back since my I officially started my Masters. I don't feel as hollow or dreary just going about doing my work. I feel renewed, reaffirmed once again. Perhaps it's due to a sense that my life is now heading somewhere; in a direction which I could focus and pour my energy.
It tooke me a while to realise this, but we need aims in our life. Something that makes us willing to forsake sleep, turn down outings with friends and don't mind some self-isolation. I used to set really low goals, or none at all. Just doing my best as it's just the right thing to do. But after graduating and taking up a semi-job as an RA, it really is easy and tempting to fall into an easy and couldn't-care-less routine.
People generally thrive on deadlines, or specific time frames. If you give someone his/her ample time to do a job, chances are they'll take longer to produce a work which quality might not be necessarily better compared to if given a time frame. Which is why graduate studies is a different ballgame completely than undergraduate. During undergrad, you have specific classes per semester, specific deadlines for specific assignments, and specific dates for exams. In grad school, you mainly have to complete a research project within a typical period of around 2 years, possibly more. And the few classes mostly consist of lecturers giving general overviews of a topic, and then assignments of doing a term paper (short analysis) of related articles of your choice to be submitted within a month.
It is indeed extremely easy to get lost in the illusory freedom from the constant leash of exams, quizzes and activities back then during undergrad. Afterall, you have 3 or more semesters to do your project, what's the rush? *It's 4 pm in the lab, and running the next part of your experiment will take 1 and 1/2 hours. Should you do it? Well, typical working hours are till 5, never mind that you came in around 10.30 am for staying up late last night for a mamak session. Let's just call it a day, and do that next step tomorrow. Oh, it's noon, time for lunch break! Again, never mind that you came in only 2 hours before that. Yay, my lecturer's on leave. That means he/she won't call the lab today! Which means I can sneak out to Midvalley!
Anyway, back to serious self. Having a focus, once more, really helps to steel myself against the nagging voice of inferiority, especially when meeting up friends who (knowing or unknowingly) describes in long detail their new jobs and salaries, new gadgets they're eyeing, shopping plans, weekend plans, vacation plans etc. I just need to remind myself why I'm doing what I'm doing, and that I'm to going to prove that this is not a dead-end path. I need to prove that for myself as much as for everyon else.
*For surprisingly accurate and hilarious peek into the life of a grad student, try checking out PhD comics.
Edit: Link has been fixed.
