Last day of April.

Prologue: This philosophical riddle (a very popular one to be precised) suddenly pops up in my brain today: If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? So does it make a sound? Who knows it might...vanish into thin upon hitting the forest floor! The possibility is endless, like Schrodinger's Cat! Meanwhile, Wedding of the Century yesterday and it's like everybody's following it...except me because Yes4G's bandwidth is $ and I feel lazy to march out of my room to catch it on NTV7.

Today's 30 April, Saturday. The very last day of the month of April and another month has drawn its curtain again. Today's kind of different though because I just got this feeling inside that's been telling me to go out from my room for once. Off to Queensbay I went, with a proper lunch, grocery shopping and probably a round of window shopping especially for external harddisk which the thought lingered in my mind for all too long now especially with dwindling harddisk space in my lappie.

Remembering TailouWong who works half day shift on Saturday, I messaged him on Facebook for lunch but he got permission to go home earlier today (12 noon...while I messaged him around 11+am.) so had to scratch that. Looks like I will be doing it alone again. Never mind about that I can still enjoy myself, right? Then things decided to go the way I didn't expected it to be when the bus was late. Waiting for the elusive RapidPenang 304 and 308 bus at the bus stop located right beside a busy road under the 1:45pm hot sun is never a good experience. The wait is even more frustrating when the few buses that passed through is not the bus you wanted while on the other side of the road, the buses that you're actually waiting for are making another trip to the other direction. Grr.

Waited and waited for 40 minutes and finally a considerably packed 304 finally came. Finally, a relieve and finally I am on my way. A couple of people alight at the next immediate stop and I got myself a seat! Finally things are looking good ahead. Reached Queensbay in 15 minutes. PKR's having a labour day rally/gathering at the beach front for some reason. Head towards the mall and immediately faced with a dilemma: lunch or shopping? It's already 2:45pm and now I don't really like having lunch anymore since lunch hour promotion for most restaurant is going to be over soon anyway. Jusco then. Went around Jusco picking my usual groceries (Milo, Milk powder and Hup Seng Crackers) while still pondering whether I should buy instant noodle again. Had some food and beverages tasting while going around in Jusco, one of the perk shopping in weekend. The downside though is that every cashiers will be occupied with family shopping which seems to be buying month's worth of groceries at one go like the one in front of me while I am paying for my groceries. All those credit card and products promoters as well as people making navigating through the ground and lower ground floor where most of the food outlets are a pain as well. Not the mention the length of waiting and the awkwardness of eating alone in a food outlet. So scratch that and move on to plan B: the deli section of Jusco. Chose RM2.50 Onigiri/Rice ball instead...which I almost mess up while opening the packaging with the rice offcentred from the seaweed wrap. Ate it in a couple of bites while wondering where exactly is the Chuka Idako in it. Went to bus stop. Wait. 10 minutes later, 308 arrived! GREAT SUCCESS. Boarded the bus and head back to USM! The end!

The 308 bus that I took for my trip back to USM, a definite saviour even though the interior looks pretty worn out when compared with their spanking new Scania bus.

Brought along my reusable bag for shopping. Tight fit though with all the groceries I bought.

The main reason for that overly stuffed bad is because I bought instant noodle! Double pack Mamee Asam Laksa (RM8) which comes with a free bowl! Incidentally, it was the last one on shelf so might as well help Jusco to clear it!

So what does it mean? The day of eating instant noodle using the iron mug is over with the new addition of crockery! This is what I had for dinner tonight (and most probably for the next 10 days. It's double pack, remember?)

Bon appetit, postgrad style. And my unruly bed hair.

I was thinking of Jusco Sushi initially but after buying my last Jusco Sushi Set with 20% off for clearance (after 8:30pm), I am feeling apprehensive of buying the sushi set full price anymore. Maybe I should go to Queensbay after 8pm more often just for the deli clearance. Eating discounted clearance sushi is a risk I am willing to take, diarrhea or radiation!

Last but not least, this is one of the major catalyst for that strong feeling of going out from my room: Submission of full paper for PPA-13. Yes after much brain work and waiting, I submitted my paper for PPA-13 yesterday, a day from deadline which happens to be today (30 April!) SUCCESS! This papers marks my first foray into the realm of academia and when it's published on July as conference proceeding, I will be able to used it as on of my reference for my eventual thesis! This also means I will be a presenter in PPA-13 OMG. My papers still got some kinks though especially with the attached pictures that messes up the aligning. I went through some pain of making sure the right size so that's it remain visible when printed in the proceeding but at the same time small enough not to eat up too much space and messing up the aligning. After much unsatisfied adjustment, I finally got one that's relatively acceptable and I submitted that one for my paper. I do hope that the people from UiTM (PPA-13's organizer) receive my paper safely. Godspeed my baby and reached UiTM's safely! UiTM's mail server, don't fuck up my email! Please, please, PLEASE reply NOW! *prodding around in anxiety.*

That's all for now. Tomorrow marks the start of a new month, May which incidentally is the International Worker's Day (Public holiday) and a Sunday. What does this mean? This means that there will be a replacement holiday this coming Monday! Though not entirely meaningful for a postgraduate student, I am still excited for the long weekends for all students and workers! Now where should I go next...?

Epilogue: Now that conference paper's over and done with, back to perfecting my research proposal's and presentation slides. Reality kinda sucks sometimes hence I need more escape from it. Call it procrastination if you will.