Life Of Budak

The 5 Stages of Grief (When Doing Assignments)

Sometimes, the idea for a new blog post eludes me. In the more serious cases, even showers don't help, and sitting on the 'royal throne' only gives me leg cramps. It is during moments like this that I resort to the classic Hollywood method of churning out a new blog post for all to enjoy. I scour and scan through all my old blog posts, give it a gritty reboot and market it as a brand new idea.
Which gave me the idea for this blog post. I've written about the 5 stages of grief before, in the wordy form and in a fairly emo comic form. This was about 3 years ago when I actually still had a girlfriend and could use the 5 stages of grief model to portray my teenage angst. 3 years later, I'm about as close to having a girlfriend as Tom is to catching Jerry and all the teenage angst has been pried away by the cold, slimy fingers of old age.

3 years ago, I was a child who knew nothing about the harsh realities of life. 3 years later, I have grown up to be a man-child who knows about a bit more about the world, but pretends not to. While many of my friends have moved on into the working world, I remain as a student; blissfully living out my final year as a student, free from all the stress of a working adult. I love everything there is to love about being a student.

Except for all the assignments. I freaking hate assignments.

The very fact that I'm sitting here and typing this blog post is proof enough that I live in a state of constant denial. I mean, I'm not even sure when my assignment is due, or how many assignments we have to finish up this semester. My first few weeks back in uni are spent huddled in a corner, repeating the mantra "I put the Ass in Assignments." In fact, if my assignment isn't done at the last minute, it's definitely not done by me.

SERIOUSLY. WHY? THERE'S SO MUCH RESEARCH TO BE DONE AND SO MANY WORDS TO TYPE. SO DAMN MANY WORDS TO TYPE. I FEEL LIKE KILLING SOMETHING!

Procrastination is one of the key aspects of bargaining. You've heard of a bargaining chip, used in the utmost important moments to win a bargain. I usually use a wide array of excuses as bargaining chips, to make offers with myself. 'I'll do the assignment today, right after I take a 15 minute nap.' or 'I'll finish that assignment today, but ooh, futsal.' My all time favorite is 'Tomorrow's another day.'

There comes a point in time when I absolutely cannot take it anymore. I simply cannot live with the knowledge that my assignment holds me like a ball and chain. The knowledge that my entire study life hinges on not failing my assignments, coupled with the constant bargaining I do with myself just adds on the guilt factor. The very thought of having something hanging over me like a dark omnious cloud of doom is enough to make me lose my sanity. Help. Me.

Yup. I might as well finish up this blog post because I'm probably not going to finish my any of my assignments anyways.

I would say Cheerios, but it's not very cheery when I'm dead.

11:06:00
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Jackie Chan On Running Man: Breaking Down Barriers

#RunningMondays

Who here watched the recent Jackie Chan episode of Running Man? Most, if not all Running Man fans were excited for it, and the forums and fanpages exploded with the preview for this episode. Even if you weren't a huge fan of Running Man, the very idea of action superstar Jackie Chan appearing on the show would have at least perked your interests.

Plus, I'm sure I'm not the only one who was wondering how Jackie Chan would be able to understand and communicate with the Running Man members. Of course, if you have already watched the episode, you'll know how that worked out.

The language barrier is probably the biggest hurdle for any foreign guest. For Jackie Chan, knowing a little bit of Korean helped a lot, but that didn't mean that he understood everything that the Running Man members were talking about. International viewers like us have the luxury of being able to read the subtitles, but Jackie Chan only has an earpiece with the translator desperately interpreting for him. Even then, most of the jokes fly by unnoticed by Jackie Chan. Of course, we found it hilarious when Kwang-soo was asked to translate.

"Pyeong!" - Kwang-soo translating a dart game.

Still, the fact that they actually got an international guest on Running Man proves that the producers of Running Man have definitely outdone themselves. It was a complete surprise for the Running Man members to see Jackie Chan appear right in front of them, because they never thought it would be possible.

With Jackie Chan's participation in not only providing the mission (ala the Hong Kong special) but also completing the missions alongside the Running Man members, there will be nothing stopping the Running Man producers from dreaming bigger and bigger and to bring in more illustrious guests onto the show in the future.

This essentially means is that Running Man has broken down a wall which prevented foreign guests to participate in the missions, and opened doors to the participation of other international guests. Maybe Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau will make an appearance one day? Perhaps even Hollywood may decide to cash in on the Hallyu wave and send in Bruce Willis (in a battle against his Korean counterpart, Yooruce Willis). These may seem like the rantings of a crazy person now, but 2 months ago, I wrote in this column that Jackie Chan's appearance on Running Man is "physically impossible". Look what happened.

They danced with Jackie Chan.

Running Man is taking great strides forward, in terms of international and local acclaim. I doubt that there will be anything preventing Running Man from continuing on with its current success. International races in Macao and Vietnam has shown that Running Man is immensely popular overseas. Jackie Chan has also shown that Running Man has a good enough following, enough for him to appear as a guest and plug his new movie. If the episode with Jackie Chan has proven anything, it is that Running Man can, and will break down any necessary barriers in its march towards being one of the best variety shows around.

What did you think about the Jackie Chan episode? Should the Running Man producers continue looking for foreign and international guests in the future? Leave your comments below!

Cheerios!

11:01:00
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5 Reasons I Dislike Studying in Malaysia

#BudakExperiences

So week 1 of university has passed by with a flurry. I can't really say I'm back at my study best because I spent most of this week zoned out in lectures, tutorials and while stuck in massive traffic jams. Plus, I've never really ever been at my study best, so there's that too.

I think I may have gotten used to the Aussie way of studying. For the whole of last semester, as you can see in most of my Aussie Tales, I was really living the life of a student in a foreign land. And when I resumed my course back here in Malaysia, I began to miss my Aussie study life terribly. Here are some of the things which I really, really hated in the first week of being back in a Malaysian campus.

#5 Traffic jams

This picture can be used to describe the road conditions in Malaysia both early in the morning and late at night.

When it comes to traffic, Malaysia is absolutely the best at stuffing as many cars on the road and getting everyone bottled up on a highway, where the fumes, temperature and suppressed anger runs sky high. This is especially true in the mornings and the evenings, when it seems as though everyone with a car decides to drive at the same freaking time. I spend an average of half a week stuck in a traffic jam (I wanted to insert a joke here but I realized that getting stuck in traffic for 4 hours every day is kinda already a joke). In Melbourne, my campus s a 10 minute walk away, and that time includes me admiring flowers.

#4 Timetable

My timetable requires me to attend classes at 8AM, with most of my classes ending at 6PM. If you're a Malaysian student who drives (ie: almost everyone), you'll know what I mean when I utter these two words: Peak. Hour. (refer to Traffic Jams and HOLY SH*T JAM AGAIN!?!)

#3 Weather

Pictured: A bad weather day.

Most people ask me what I miss the most about Australia and the first thing I tell them is, the weather. I miss the weather.Well, maybe except for that one day when the temperature hit 39 degrees. Every day had different temperatures; the cooling day with a gentle breeze ruffling at my hair, the harsh biting cold which I really enjoyed for some weird reason, and even the hot days when a pair of shorts and an immense amount of sunblock were needed.
In Malaysia, all you have is hot, rain, and hot with rain. A cooling breeze? Ha ha, let's get you checked into a hospital, friend.

#2 Classes

Required dress code: a freaking winter jacket.

If you think I'm going to be talking about how boring classes are here in Malaysia as compared to Australia, I'm going to have to correct you. Classes are boring no matter what continent I'm on. No, I'm talking about the huge gaping difference between a class (or lecture hall)'s temperature and the usual Malaysian weather (see above). I don't know about the rest of my uni mates, but as a warm-blooded (read: normal) human being, I'm constantly freezing in my lecture hall and burning up as soon as I leave. If I were a magnet, I would have exploded from all the expansions and contractions.

#1 Assignments

"WHEEEE ASSIGNMENTS!" said no one ever.

I hate assignments. It doesn't matter what part of the world I'm in. There's a reason they call it DEADlines.

This probably goes into the lists of being a rant post, except I make sense. Well, another 11 weeks to go before the end of the semester. I can do this.

Cheerios!