Walaupun tak jumpa hari-hari, bukan maknanya tak sayang. Cuma I tak suka ayah you tu ajer.
I am on my 3rd mug of coffee today; my 14th since the week began on Monday. This does not include cans of Coke / Diet Coke (to date, four at last count I think). Apologies if I am a tad egdy. Although to be fair the edginess is no longer taddish, I fear. But neither are my levels of alertness, haha. When I started work I couldn’t remember how I survived on 14 hour workdays and 5 hours worth of sleep on a daily basis whilst a lowly labradoodle (read: TBBT for ‘grad student’). Now I remember the secret: copious amounts of caffeine! I should have been an investment banker. Yes, my job may be at risk today but at least I’d be filthy rich.
I am slowing down today. I am actually leaving before 10pm. I am proud of me.
*****
You should really watch The Big Bang Theory (TBBT). No, it isn’t a lecture. It’s a sitcom. It is doing for geeks what PhDcomics.com did for well.. PhD students. Yes, that’s right: it provides a sense of utter belonging. And Sheldon Cooper, PhD has better lines than Chandler Bing could ever dream of.
Penny.. *knock knock knock*
Penny.. *knock knock knock*
Penny.. *knock knock knock*
Every change needs a champion
Shai Agassi, (no relation to Andre as far as I know), former head of products at SAP and founder and CEO of Better Place, got into ‘the whole environment thing almost by accident’, according to this piece in Wired magazine. But what fascinates me about this man is this (from the same Wired article):
Agassi’s interest in energy is new. In 2005, he joined Young Global Leaders, an invitation-only group for politicians and businesspeople under 40. The four-day induction seminar was held at the Swiss ski resort of Zermatt. Between lectures, YGLs like Skype cofounder Niklas Zennström and NBA star Dikembe Mutombo pledged to find ways to “make the world a better place” by 2020. Agassi’s assignment was the environment, and he quickly focused in on climate change.
Most left the event and just poked around in their own industries, looking for small tweaks and improvements. But Agassi wanted something bigger. Back home in Silicon Valley, his day job involved coaxing SAP into the Web 2.0 era. But after Zermatt, his nights were devoted to dinners with energy experts, books on energy policy, and sessions on Wikipedia, learning everything he could about the carbon economy. Getting off oil was the key, he decided. But how? He started by looking at cutting energy usage in the home, then moved to a more tempting target: transportation. Was hydrogen the answer? What about embedding power in the street—like slot cars? Could more be done with biofuels? Agassi kept a running file on his home PC and began working on a series of white papers.
See, to me this is what Will Hunting meant when he made that quip about dropping a hundred and fifty grand on an ‘effin education you could’ve got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library. “Learning isn’t just about classrooms. It’s a lifelong process”. How many times have you heard that? And how many times have you lived it?
I ban my students from using Wikipedia as a reference in their bibliography, because it lacks academic authenticity. What needs to also be said is that Wikipedia is an awesome starting point. Go read it. Check out the reference list. Learn.
Expect some changes. I got me some white papers too, yo.
Minggu lepas hari Sabtu aku menghadiri majlis resepsi perkahwinan seorang taulan. Rakan seperjuangan, dan mungkin juga pensyarah / pendidik kepada beberapa generasi pelajar Accounting & Finance lulusan Lancaster lewat tahun 2002 hingga kini. Majlis serba sederhana, dimeriahi kunjungan sanak saudara dari serata ufuk. Sesi bergambar hampir tanpa henti, dan tiada adat istiadat kaum yang mencemari. Ayahnya lebih suka suasana yang lebih Islamik, kata adik pengantin. Aku akur dengan sentimen itu, terlalu mirip hasrat ayah sendiri.
Begitu hebat ayah beliau; berjaya menapakkan diri di negara Inggeris, berintegrasi dengan baik tanpa mengorbankan ciri-ciri budaya Islam dalam hidup. Hadirin juga terdiri dari orang Inggeris yang terlalu tabik akan kehebatan datuk bercucu satu ini. Iklan baik untuk agama yang kian luput amalannya di kalangan umatnya sendiri, yang lebih gemar memilih apa yang hendak diamalkan dari apa yang hak, seolah-olah agama adalah kaunter Pick and Mix di Woolworths! (Ah, jangan menuduh Idlan.. mungkin aqidah mereka lebih utuh dari aqidah kau yang memang hari-hari goyang tanpa sedar atau tidak!)
Seperti biasa aku kira, akulah sahaja seorang di sini pada hari Sabtu. Tapi true to form, this department never disappoints. Aku selisih dengan si Bapa Muda di luar PhD Lab tadi – kasual berseluar pendek seolah-olah tidak sedar bahawa diluar sana cuaca menghampiri zero degress celcius. Pagi tadi aku terserempak dengan Gadis Harijadi dan Tunangan; tapi mereka masuk sebentar sahaja, en-route ke tempat lebih hektik di pagi hari.
Ini hujung minggu pertama aku di Lancaster sejak sampai tempoh hari. Berjumpa dengan kakak-kakak di masjid ketika Maghrib tadi; aku berasa seolah I never left. Kenapa perasaan ini gagal terbit bila dikalangan rakan taulan di Bandar X? Malah, pejabat juga rasa begitu.. tidak welcoming. Di sini walaupun lewat hari aku masih rasa at home di pejabat tumpangan. Adakah ini panggilan? Adakah suatu kenyataan betapa ramainya bekas rakan seperjuangan memasang akar di bandar kecil ini? Atau mungkin ini alah bisa… tempat jatuh lagi dikenang apatah lagi tempat tertidur di atas keyboard. Terlalu banyak weekend dan lewat malam yang aku habiskan di koridor-koridor kelabu ini, yang sangat belies the fact that this is a 6-star management school. Aku pun kini mampu mencoret bintang-bintang di dahi sendiri, terima kasih koridor kelabu.
Set Resepsi Sayjda
*****
Kawan-kawan, aku mahu ini. Patutkah? Aku janji masa Xmas Xtravaganza di Pagar Memburu aku takkan paksa kau orang tengok punya. Betul.