Come to think of it, ma whole life I've been surrounded by guys.

Boy's Brigade, 10 years.

Karate, 13 years.

Embry-Riddle, next 4 years.

So sometimes, I do wonder, hmm… what exactly are girls? No, I'm not a sexist( or at least I dun perceive myself to be one).

You be nice to them, they shun you (cause a lot of them like duschebags). They're nice to you, you dun like them(cause they're easy).

You be friendly, you're a stalker (legit in this school with an overwhelming guy population, 85%!!! ). You be cool, they'll never notice you. You be loud as you are, you're obnoxious. You be quiet and gentle, that's not YOU!

They're not smart enough, they're not pretty enough, they're too clingy… GOD!

Food for thought: What if you don't find the ideal girl? Can you live alone?

Well there is THE girl, but she's too damn far! Both geographically and emotionally. : /

Two cents’ worth

I'm an emerging engineer, aerospace field to be exact.

I've had the good fortune of being educated at a few of the most outstanding institutions known to local knowledge. I'm here now in the States, and am on a life-altering journey. The road will be long and I will be tested, due and again, but I am ready.

But the question keeps popping in my head, is my country ready for me? I want to serve HER. But is she ready?

It's not exactly classified material that I am one among a huge number of Chinese educated students with comparable results, but will not be acknowledged by our own administration, for political reasons.

Science needs money, science needs materials. But above all, science needs cultivation, of scientists and of culture; of a secure future and of a sacred commitment; of a color-blind system and of a meritocracy environment.

We cannot import discarded technology and expect state of the art results. We cannot sign decade-long contracts and expect them to stay for a lifetime. We cannot expect to cast out our best talents and import "foreign talent" sustainably.

Is she ready?

She ISN'T, they bellow. Then again, she never is, according to them. She wasn't ready for the Twin Pillars, neither was she for her own national car in the whole of SEA. She isn't for a change, but then again, who decides whether she is? WE DO.

"Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change." Barack Hussein Obama

Importance of Archiving

Right, consider this. All modern and advanced nations have a national archive, and their various districts and states have their own resource center of old file, documents, photographs, sound files and videos etc. A collection of artifacts in short.

However, it is a very lacking culture in Malaysia, not least at the grassroots level. Yes, we have a National Archive, but how many actually know what it is, let alone where it is? Arkib Negara, Jalan Duta main branch, Google it.

Let's first take a look at the few famous examples of archives. The American Congressional Library, Harvard and MIT's libraries, a presidential library for each outgoing American library, Google etc.

What's so important about archiving?

POLITICS

Obama is 44^th president of USA. All big publications want to dig up facts about him, where to go to?

Academicians and historians want to know about the voting record of a politician, see what is his stand on things, where to go to?

We want to know what was Anwar's stand on vernacular education, back when he was in Deputy PM and compare it to now, see if he is a chameleon because he wants to please the crowds and win popularity or if he has been consistent in his stands. Where to go to?

We want to know what role Najib, our prospective PM in three months, played in the 513 riots. Did he fan the flames of racial tensions? Where to go to?

We want to know how Mahathir rescued the Malaysian economy from potentially hitting 231 million percent inflation rate (Zimbabwe). Where to go to?

 

SCIENCE

Pluto was downgraded into not becoming a planet anymore. How was it done? Astronomer, Mike Brown was doing field research to find larger bodies out there in space. He had a telescope take pictures of the same piece of the sky at alternate periods of time, say every two hours. Then when they were stored in his computer, he compared them to find a difference in the skies, i.e. a difference in the brightness of a light source, or the different sizes of a blinking light source. When he did find something that he thought to be of importance to his field of study, which was basically a huge chunk of mass, he then had to figure out its period. (The Earth's period about the Sun is a year.) Now these bodies took a long time to change their locations, say ten to twenty years to move the distance of a millimeter! He couldn't wait so long to figure it out, for very practical reasons. So what did he do? Go back to the archives and look for photographs of the shining mass in the sky for as long back as they could and generally compare them to each other and calculate the path it took from say 30 years back to today, and hence, you could get the whole period of the mass! So, once again, where to go?

 

GENERAL

You have Facebook? You have Photobucket? You have Friendster? You have photo albums? Then you're keeping an archive of your photographs, that you'll cherish ten years from now.

You parents have love letters from back then when they started courting each other? You have yourself an archive of your parent's romantic history.

You backup your computer files? Why?

 

SIGNIFICANCE

Humans are beings of stories. We watch movies, read newspapers, story books and even listen to song lyrics because they have a story to them. Archives that are well maintained and that keep key artifacts will tell a great story for our kids and grandkids and generations to come.

We are a race that builds our future on the achievements of the past. As Newton put it, he was successful for he had stood on the shoulders of giants. And although these giants were dead, their work was archived in the form of paper or drawings, and we, the future generation could tap on these resources. So now, we don't have to derive calculus from its foundations all over again, we just have to apply the methods to everyday problems.

Humans are but mortals. Our memories will fade and we will die. So what happens when I leave this world? Do my knowledge, experience and ideas have to follow me to the grave? Can my friends and family and colleagues not know what I had done or thought in my lifetime? Will my grandkids not know what I had gone through to get to where I am? Will the next generation not know about my wife and our romance? Yes, if there were no archiving of any form.

The importance of history is learning about it and not repeating the blunders and mistakes that people before us made. It means learning from previous mistakes and emulating past successes. It means a shorter but more prepared journey. It means saved resources and increased efficiency.

 

So, start archiving today. Archiving does not mean keeping EVERYTHING! It means keeping key things, like your first movie tickets with a girl you cherish, like your test results, good or bad, which motivated you to study hard, like meeting minutes, like the historical issue of TIME when the first black president of USA was elected.

 

START ARCHIVING TODAY!

Yours Sincerely.

Hey people out there who have yet to go to college,

Just a reality check.

Well, this begins with my experience in America. Not that it has been a whole long experience, but just wanted to share it with you guys before you take the plunge into an American college. Note: This article applies exclusively for American colleges, I'm not too sure about the rest of the world.

So 9/11 hit America, so the global war on terrorism was waged, so the American economy is going into a slow but sure recession. So how would this affect you?

Well if you're planning to come to an American college, here are a few thoughts to ponder over.

If you're coming here, you're probably thinking of exploiting the industry here as well. But be aware that America is not the land of endless oppurtunities it previously was. 9/11 seriously changed the whole American landscape. Imagine you're the world's leading superpower. The last time your free land was hit was back in World War 2, particularly by the Japs in Pearl Harbour. You took them down with two atomic bombs, they surrendered and you were world heroes. Then you went on to ride the wave of an economic surge. All other big players in the economic realm had humongous debts but you were rich from cash by selling weapons and planes and wartime tools. You had the world's largest consumer base which was capable of spending. (China and India were big, even back then, but more than half of the population was under the poverty line, surviving on US$ 1 and below per day.)Consumer spending was big, real big. Economy was booming, then the Space Race was won and everyone loved you. You were at the top of your game.

Fast forward four decades, your symbolic World Trade Centers were bombed by your very own airplanes. Your very military headquarters, the Pentagon was also a target for airplane crashes, albeit a failed plan. More than two thousand American lives were lost, on your own free soil. (Now if it were lost in a self-inflicted war for a cause on foreign soil, it's a hero's death. But two thousand innocent lives on your own ground? Unacceptable.) This meant war, two wars in fact.

Seven years on (or last year, 2008), your credit market has crumbled so no more money to lend. Economy is floundering and globalization is threatening to outsource all jobs to China. Other governments are prospering, like communist China, largest democracy on Earth, India and your northern neighbor, Brazil as well as European Union. This is just about the best situation to be skeptical, protective and on your guard.

And that is exactly what is happening right now. If you're in the aerospace or aviation field, almost no company will hire you. In fact, so long as the job requires security clearance by the FBI (which requires a track of your files ten years back), companies most probably will not hire you. One, because it takes a long time, two because it takes a lot of paperwork, three because it takes a lot of money. Might as well hire an American to do the job. So corporations and companies that involve national security are basically very tight-fisted.

 

Second point, the Americans are not faring well on the economic scale. Less credit, less jobs, outsourcing to cheap labor markets and a recession basically are forcing them into a self-knit web of self sufficiency. Aliens can and must wait (Yes, that's what they call you if you're not a citizen. Non-immigrant aliens). First, get the economy back on its feet, then we'll negotiate.

That's about as bleak as it gets. Getting a job in America post-graduation is not at all easy. In fact, it could be downright impossible if it goes on like this.

However, there are other things to be cherished here if you will.

Freedom. Education is still very liberal and free. You will be exposed to a whole new degree of freedom, of expression, of style, of form, of schedule and even of contents. This, I believe is the bedrock of the renowned American innovation, which still remains at the pinnacle of its realm. Creativity cannot be taught, it is a culture. You have to experience it to get it. You'll meet people of all walks of life, who do crazy things, and will inspire you tremendously. And the most precious of all, you're allowed, even encouraged to be different here, unique they call it. That's freedom at its best! That, I believe is the beauty of American education. Freedom.

Science and technology. Need more be said.

Obama. Yes, he is a very big factor in America today, and for the next eight years, I predict. He has a lot of great plans, but one of his most inspiring factors is hope. Hope to re-energize America to become a world leader in all aspects again. Hope to build a renewable energy sector. Hope to heal a divided and bitter nation, which contributes to foreigners being treated as potential terrorists. Hope that the free world is truly full of possibilities, for even a black man can be president in a predominantly white country. Yes, hope. Not to mention history in the making.

So weigh your options, hear the pros and cons and choose what you seek out the most. Be under no illusions though, that you will be welcomed with open hands, either in this nation or in your respective industries. There is definitely skepticism in this nation towards aliens, but it's only going to get better, even more so when we start making the right moves and start winning the war on religious extremism and terrorism. The recession is killing people, but we have a great team of experts on the drawing board trying to fix it. It won't be an easy decision, and the journey will be even harder, but the light at the end of the tunnel will only get brighter and brighter. Your call.