Wake Me Up When September Ends.

Prologue: There are actually a couple of backlog in September that I want to blog about before this post comes up...but along the way, I kinda lost of interest (pretty much like my progress in thesis. Procrastination is a hard addiction to get rid of) so instead here's my my monthly staple of Another-month-has-ended kind of post. Backlog will be continues if I feel like it. Yeah.

Before we begin digesting the end of one month and the start of the other (and everything else in between), let's start with a song because September has really comes to an end.

Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day 

Summer has come and passed 

The innocent can never last 

wake me up when September ends 

like my father's come to pass 

seven years has gone so fast 

wake me up when September ends 

here comes the rain again 

falling from the stars 

drenched in my pain again 

becoming who we are 

as my memory rests 

but never forgets what I lost 

wake me up when September ends 

summer has come and passed 

the innocent can never last 

wake me up when September ends 

ring out the bells again like we did 

when spring began wake me up 

when September ends 

here comes the rain again 

falling from the stars 

drenched in my pain again 

becoming who we are 

as my memory rests 

but never forgets what I lost 

wake me up when September ends 

Summer has come and passed 

The innocent can never last 

wake me up when September ends 

like my father's come to pass 

twenty years has gone so fast 

wake me up when September ends 

wake me up when September ends 

wake me up when September ends

 -----------------

It's already a week since September ended and the month of October started. As time goes along, there are things that comes to an end but there are things that are new started like all those proverbial saying goes. Here's are some of the those bits.

One of those monthly routine reminding me the passing of time: rental invoice. This time however, they changed the timing when they will sent out the rental invoice of a particular month to the end of it instead of during the beginning of a month. So this rental invoice right here is September. Aside from that though, nothing much has changed since the rental invoice usually come around this period too and I still have to fork out RM240 for it after making a dreadful walk to the BSN ATM Machine before going to the Bursary Department at Kompleks Cahayasiswa.

After 11 years of illustrious service leading USM on its journey to become renowned APEX public university in Malaysia, Professor Dzulkifli Abdul Razak has retired from his position as the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia. This means that the convocation during the end of last month was his last official duty as Vice Chancellor. Trivia: He has his own column in New Straits Times. Jasamu sentiasa dikenang setiap warga USM and Godspeed in all future endeavour wherever he will be.

Perjuangan Universiti Sains Malaysia dalam usaha mencapai tahap Universiti APEX terulung dalam Malaysia dan juga di seluruh pelusuk dunia akan diteruskan dengan pelantikan Prof Omar Osman, Timbalan Naib Canselor (Hal Ehwal dan Pembangunan Pelajar) USM sebagai Naib Canselor baru Universiti Sains Malaysia berkuasa 1 October 2011. The journey continues and let's hope that USM will become the university that's better than before especially with our own people at the helm. During his tenure as the DVC (Student Affair), he has been very proactive in improving the relation of admin with the general student body and organization with approachable personality. The question that I have right now though is who will replace Prof Omar's previous position as DVC (Student Affair)? Hopefully it's our own people too and equally approachable as Prof Omar is. I think any development of USM in the future will be more student centric than ever.

Talking about new things, a quick get around in USM:

After PHS Research Library New Wing has been completed for about six months or so, the long awaited 24 hour Study Area finally open presumably after sorting out whatever security arrangement that needs to be done before actually implementing it. 24 hours study section is definitely going to be very well-received among the students especially those who wants to burn midnight oil and camp whole night while going through last minute work or revision. This picture was actually taken during 12am midnight and indeed, there are actually some people there using it! (In case you're wondering why I went around campus at 12 midnight, it's because I am bored and I want to see the 24 hour Study Section in its full glory.

Another thing they implemented in the PHS Research Library New Wing is this Student Card scanner that we need to tap in and tap out whenever we goes in and out the library. This is set up presumably with wide door and lobby, people can just go and out of the library and they wish to establish some kind of crowd control. Another thing I presume is because of the vastness of the library, it will be easier to know if there's anyone that actually in the library before they wrap up their day. Either way, I still didn't see this as improving efficiency of crowd control much because the librarian is well hidden behind the customer service counter.

Back to Postgraduate block at Bakti, the previously useless television over the common room at the ground has finally got itself an antenna to receive broadcast signal. The television are still not quite ready though because most of the channel are still not tuned so the television still pretty much remains useless for our block. Plus, what else can we watch on TV using aerial besides the usual Malaysian free-to-air channels which can be rubbish at times.

Talking about new place (Ok not exactly a new place but a revisit) for me to have my daily meal, Excel Point Community Church Sungai Dua (USM) has this soup kitchen running for quite a few years now by a bunch of aunties offering affordable, balanced, home-cooked meal just for USM students. For only RM2, you can get yourself a plate of rice, stir-fried vegies, meat of some kind with a bowl of soup and a small glass of orange cordial. I've been frequenting there for quite often for the past two weeks or so driven mainly for austerity measure. It's pretty good for value especially since the auntie always give me extra rice and larger portion of dishes making it a very filling, satisfying meal. Too bad it only operates for dinner time (back then they have lunch too but I guess no one can escape from economic downturn) and from Monday to Thursday only. Still have to find some other way to settle my meal from Friday and Sunday...and I ran out of ration which can be good for my health since I will be forced to eating something proper...or I will just buy more instant noodle as an effort to mummify self.

Meanwhile in reality, Steve Jobs, the founder/CEO of Apple and God Almighty for All Hipster Apple-Tards especially IPad dicks in Starbucks has passed away on 5 October 2011 (Wednesday) after struggling with pancreatic cancer. He is 56. As the news of his passing broke to the world, there were spontaneous out-pour of grief and tribute towards one of the most iconic if not visionary technology guru of the modern computing. Because there are loads of better, more detailed tribute to him by glamour loving, IPad/Iphone/Macbook totting Apple-tards out there, here's a picture of the iconic for hipster Apple logo but with silhouette of Steve Jobs superimposed on it instead of the usual bitten off part of the logo.

Epilogue: Really need to start reading and writing for my thesis work while stop being foiled by my incredibly short attention span, ebbing motivation and being distracted of the weapon of mass distraction i.e. Internet. Procrastinator ALERT.