Random Hipster: Chapter I

People say we need to let go of the past because life moves forward. No contest. We are left with remnants of memories from ages ago. There is nothing special about my childhood but the fact that many awesome films, music, games and fashion trends were cropping out before the millennium have somehow made this empty life of mine as meaningful as ever. So today I am going to share with you some of the artistic creations I grew up with.

David Cronenberg version of The Fly

Originally conceived in 1958 by Kurt Neuman, Cronenberg later remade the title with more engaging storyline and magnificent special effects. Other than being a sci - fi piece, it also tells a story of how jealousy can lead to fatal consequences; a trait not so uncommon to us humankind. This is one freaky s**t!

John Landis' An American Werewolf in London

Whenever people are talking about werewolves, most likely they will mention the ever lame Twilight or the sexually charged bloodbath True Blood. Better yet, Underworld series will also come to mind. Released in 1981, John Landis broke new record for setting the standard for werewolf films to come with An American Werewolf in London. It basically deals with two American college students who went for backpacking adventure in England where they were attack by a werewolf. David survived the ambush but Jack did not make it as the hungry man - beast torn him to shreds. The rest of the story revealed his transformation phase as well as David falling for a beautiful British nurse named Alex Price (played by Jenny Agutter). Seriously, this is the best werewolf film I have ever watched in my entire life. The use of computer generated imagery is almost non existent and Landis production decided to take advantage of prosthetic makeup and animatronics. Jacob? Who? You can kiss that poor puppy goodbye; this is the real deal!

Stephen King's Pet Sematary went silver screen

Directed by Mary Lambert and released in 1989, Pet Sematary was perhaps one of the most scariest films I ever watched as a child. Even without reading the book penned by the mighty Stephen King, the visual representation is enough to make you cringe and shrink into a ball of flesh at the corner of your sofa. A tragic story of parents who lost their little boy and subsequent attempt of resurrecting the deceased kid by burying him at Indian burial ground. The ancient curse in the area has somewhat raised the dead with evil predisposition. I am sure most of you have watched this film. Even watching it now provokes a sense of discomfort, especially when you are watching it alone with the lights off.

Neal Sundstrom Howling V: The Rebirth

Another werewolf film that I used to watch as a child is Howling V: The Rebirth. Basically a fifth entry in The Howling series (which is originally written as a novel by Gary Bradner), this is probably the best Howling title of all time. Featuring cohesive storyline with obfuscating dramatic irony, Sundstrom cleverly employed the 'who done it' style as part of the plot device. Released in 1989, a group of invitees coming from different walk of life are given the opportunity to stay at the ancient castle somewhere deep in the snowy region of Hungary. However, they soon discovered that there is something that connects each of them with the castle. With members of the group began disappearing without trace, the patrons realised that their lives are in danger. This worth a watch, people!

One of the greatest disaster films: The Towering Inferno

From haunted cemetery to werewolves, we now look at a disaster film directed by John Guillermin with action sequences supervised by Irwin Allen 'The Towering Inferno'. The title made its screen debut on December 13 1974, becoming one of the most profitable films of its time. Originally adapted from two different novels, the premise is about a 138 - story - building goes up in flames with people trapped inside the skyscraper. Its eventual destruction is partly attributed to human arrogance and arrogance has its consequence.

The Poseidon Adventure

Two years earlier, The Poseidon Adventure drowned theaters worldwide with its breath taking action and captivating storyline. You all know Gene Hackman right? He starred in this film as Reverend Frank Scott. If you think James Cameron's Titanic as the one and only naval disaster film; you are wrong! I almost forgot about this movie but luckily I was able to recall some of its plot; the ship is overturned by a huge tidal wave, sending it down to the bottom of Crete waters. Few survivors remained and they struggled to make it out alive. Definitely a must watch for noobs and moviegoers alike. Highly recommended.

Dario Argento's most astonishing work to date; Suspiria

Let's fast forward to 1977. Here is the film from my childhood years. At the height of VHS craze, this is one of the titles that has a lasting impact on me. It deals with an American ballet student who transfers to a well known dance academy in Germany, only to discover that it is being controlled by a coven of witches. It's really not that scary but the psychedelic nature of its colorful visual appeal will leave your jaws agape in awe. One of the most memorable scenes in this film includes a girl being stabbed multiple times and subsequently strangled with a length of cord around her neck. Yes. That's how scary it is!

John Carl Buechler 1986 film 'Troll'. You don't say?

This is also one of those films that I nearly forgot to include in the list. The premise follows a troll who steals the body of a young girl named Wendy in order to transform human environment into the realm of magical world. It is not entirely scary but it is quite entertaining to watch, considering the fact that one of the young protagonists is named Harry Potter Jr. Now mind you, this film was made in 1986 and that's exactly 11 years before J.K. Rowling books hit the shelves. Who's plagiarizing who? Go figure.

Brunei: Land of Untold Mysteries

A few days gone by without updating anything on this blog. Since I was unable to come up with something interesting, two of my friends have come up with the most astonishing claims about possible sightings of a previously undocumented creature. And yes, it has been sighted here, at Meragang Beach.

Meragang Beach. Taken from Google Earth

It is roughly around 24 feet above sea level. You can see the road strip stretches far from Jalan Jerudong. For coordinates, easily refer to the bottom of the above image.

So what are the stories that people have told about this area? Over 90% of the tales involved some sort of paranormal phenomenon. All of which have many locals spooked. Somewhere along the highway leading up to Meragang Beach is thought to be a gateway to another dimensions, and one of the primary checkpoints for creatures of darkness to cross over onto our world. As outlandish as it may sound, people have reported sightings of strange occurrences along the highway. A woman was involved in a self accident when she was driving past the reputedly haunted area. Luckily she survived the ordeal. While bedridden at the local hospital, she told her husband about a huge, tsunami - like wave towering from either side of the road with height reaching up to 30 feet. It nevertheless defied logic because there was only a small stream nearby and that the beach was about hundreds of meters away from land. The poor woman swerved her vehicle out of fear and shock, in which she eventually collided with steel barriers along the road. What she saw quickly vanished with her unfortunate outcome.

Another story that is told by a friend of mine involves a strange encounter on the same area where the woman had her car accident. On one evening, a man was driving home with his family, wife and kids in a Mitsubishi Pajero. While passing by the 'evil gateway', him and his family witnessed a few vehicles coming in and out of a huge tree by the side of the road! The cars themselves were without any driver! A number of high end cars magically appeared out of nowhere, including a BMW X6 that was not yet available in Brunei at the time, only to vaporise into thin air after seemingly crashing themselves into a menacing looking tree. This place, according to my friend was somewhere close to a small electric power house and a U - turn. The land was slightly elevated due to the presence of a bridge that was embedded beneath the highway. What function it served as of now is still unknown, with many speculating that it channels a small stream nearby all the way to the beach.

Tanjong Pelumpong, or Pelumpong Spit at Pantai Muara. A place where some people would spend their time kayaking

Now we have come to the primary interest of this post. Despite lacking in personal experience, I managed to collect some accounts from associates who happened to know the mysteries surrounding Brunei's own Meragang Beach.

First story. My friend used to be a member of UBD Adventure Club. One day the club organised a kayak tour, covering a distance from Pelumpong Spit to Meragang Beach. My friend and his other supervisors intentionally left behind two people. As a result, the boy and a girl have to kayak on their own all the way to Meragang Beach. While my friend, only referred to as Joe, was relaxing on the beach, the two eventually made it back to the beach. Upon getting off their kayak, the boy took off his life jacket and threw it at Joe with anger. Him and the girl were crying for real. They were afraid of something. Joe did not really pay attention to them because he thought the two were just pulling pranks. After they were calmed down, the boy told a story of how they encountered a huge marine creature swimming past their kayak. He described the creature as having a head the size of a 4 - door - sedan, huge red eyes and having a series of protrusions at its back similar to a porcupine. Many speculated that they were just seeing things but the boy insisted what he and his partner saw was real that the animal scared them half to death. Hence they were crying upon reaching the beach. According to Joe, this was not the first time people have encountered such a mysterious creature. It remained unidentified to this day although sightings have been occasionally reported by the locals. In addition, the poor boy said it resembled something of a turtle but the proportion and physiology were nothing like any turtle he has ever seen before.

Image showing huge alligator snapping turtle. Could they have mistaken an ordinary animal for something monstrous?

According to Wikipedia article on alligator snapping turtle, the largest known species has estimated weight of 249 lbs (113 kilogram) from Chicago. Plus, this animal does not grow beyond that size due to its ecology, diet and habitation. Its carapace however has three distinct rows of spikes and its body has several thorn like protrusions, especially around the neck area. We cannot confirm anything. The evidence lies with the people who have encountered the mysterious creature first hand. Before we even dismiss it as nothing more than distorted illusion or paranoia, we first need to consider some facts about the area.

Our country do not have anyone who specialises in marine biology. We do not have sophisticated tools and underwater exploration gadgets needed to discover what lurks beneath the glassy surface of water. Public is only educated so much. There are however things that we do not fathom. As a result, over 70% of our waters are still unexplored intensively. Why? Because our government does not feel the need to.

Can you spot where Brunei is? We have South China Sea that reaches as far as Thailand. Huge sea that is.

I do not know about the depth of the Meragang Beach but I am sure it is deep enough to support various marine lifeforms out there. I believed the food supply is abundant, given the fact that Brunei fish market is always littered with catch from the sea.

The second story. This was told by a friend of mine who now worked with local custom. While excavating on an area for construction purposes near Meragang, a man operated his bulldozer to dig out the Earth when suddenly he felt that he had hit something underneath. Something so hard that it made the tractor unable to excavate any further. When he tried another shot, the dirt was scattered upward, as if a bomb had went off inside. Startled, the man stayed in his bulldozer but got closer to the windscreen to see what was actually causing the seemingly explosive reaction. Suddenly, a huge, dark, leathery skinned creature rose up from the ground, apparently disturbed by the tractor's presence and its operator. The man described the creature as having red eyes with a reptilian head the size of a SUV. He operated the tractor's arm, swinging toward the creature's head in order to make it go away. However, the digging arm could not outdo the animal's strong head structure. The tractor was almost toppled to the side as a result. Perhaps feeling a little hurt, the creature scurried away from there, leaving the man watching in disbelief. How can a creature so big moved that fast? Too bad for him, nobody was there to witness the incident since most of his co - workers were having their lunch at the other side of the construction site. When he told the story to his colleagues, some quickly dismissed him as hallucinating due to the heat and fatigue. Just like the boy in the first story, the tractor operator insisted that what he saw was real. Only he could not explain what it actually was.

Theories

Some locals have proposed several theories. One of the most well known suggestions is that the creature is not actually real but a manifestation of jin that has lived there for centuries. People who come looking for this allegedly shape-shifter will not encounter any because it is invisible and has the ability to read through our hearts and intentions like an open book. In short, when you go looking for this creature, it will simply cease to appear before you. This is because jin just like shyaithan have the ability to live on land, in the oceans or roaming the skies as well as the forests. They can also hear what our thoughts are and from there these creatures of darkness can whisper motivating ideas of wickedness into our minds. This is perhaps the most accepted theory among Bruneians. It is no surprise in a country rife with Islamic beliefs and practices that some folks are still superstitious. However, in Islam these beings do exist and they can shape - shift into various malevolent forms, most of which are dark - colored reptilians.

The second theory deals with deep - sea gigantism; a theory that suggests deep - sea dwelling creatures to be larger from their shallow water friends. This is not just a theory though; scientists from different parts of the world have encountered several huge animals and even caught some alive, including the notorious giant squid. This follows the Bergmann's rule where larger organisms tend to be found on colder area and smaller on warmer regions. However, what the eyewitnesses have described seemed to defy this rule; first, the creature is only sighted in Brunei where heat blazes up to 32 degree Celcius. It swims on the warmest water near Meragang Beach. Secondly, the creature is told to be hiding in the ground, on land before running away from the tractor operator. At least we know this creature can live both on the land and in the water. Amphibians? Go figure.

Island Gigantism: Second theory

This is perhaps outlandish because there are no huge islands in Brunei save for a few small ones. It is also a possibility that some unknown species may have lived on the island and become big enough to scare the daylights out of anyone who crosses path with it. We have many examples in insular gigantism theory, such as the terrestrially known large species of Komodo dragon that lives off carrion and flesh in Flores. Whatever the type of animal that huge creature may be, it somehow has survived through evolution to become the most dominant species that is yet to be documented by experts. That is, if it is a real animal to begin with. Perhaps it has lived in isolation for so many years, feeding on other marine animals such as fish and molluscs. Only to come to the land in search for breeding ground. Theoretically speaking, if it does search the land for breeding spot, then it has to be a significant number of them living around the waters. Mating is also important for animals to ensure the continuity of its species for without, they can just simply go extinct. If the creature really is the size of a sedan or SUV, then it needs a huge amount of food source to sustain its bodily needs and functions. It also has to consider its encounter with humans, whether we can also be part of their menu. Many huge reptiles required a good amount of sunlight to power their huge physiques since they are cold - blooded. They need energy to digest their food as well. Then again, people reported this creature to be a cross between giant snapping turtle and a huge sea serpent, most notably the head. However, we have never heard of any report of strange animal carcass lying strewn across the beach in Brunei. That is definitely strange because an animal will definitely die from many causes such as disease and old age.

We can only know so much about this world. There is a lot of things that are kept hidden from mankind due to our destructive nature. I hope someone will notice this post so that they can investigate into this story because it may yield something that is beneficial to the academic society worldwide.

Adrift...into the Realms Unknown

It's been awhile since I updated anything on this blog. Silence of the world beyond conquers every nook and cranny of this timid diary of mine. This too shall pass and soon to come to an end. My presence is ultimately a void of essence, the one that exists only in silhouette. No mortal can harness its own shadow.

Perhaps some of the best things I've learned this semester include editing articles on Wikipedia and creating my own personal website. The latter which has prompted me to reinvigorate my html vault long dead. Yes. After I switched from using Friendster to Facebook, the memories of html I stored in my head slowly get erased. This is because Facebook has no apparent utilisation for skeletal frames. Basically a plain text input, one can only write, post and edit their statuses as well as notes in a simple format. Wikipedia on the other hand requires basic skills and know-how for users to edit or create a page on said website. Interesting experience after all.

Grail's Mysteries

A week passed by since my last blog entry. Everyone now is busy what with assignments and all. Looking past this wall standing erect before our eyes, the only option is to destroy it with anything at our disposal. Lame metaphor, yeah I know.

Teamwork has never got any better than what we are currently running at the moment. Like a clockwork, students are working hard gathering information and preparing what needs to be done. Communication in Advertising is one of the two group works where I have become part of the congregation. Despite its overall taxing nature, working with diligent and courageous people makes up for half of the fun. We need to produce a brochure for Public Relations Office that, if successfully accepted, will go into mass production line as part of promoting UBD to international students and researchers alike. We learned something valuable from our presentation today, which did not work. We need to keep our minds open and try again with new ideas. The latter in which I am in shortage of. Perhaps we are getting used to being shot at by unmerciful yet constructive remarks. The weaknesses in our pitch have been addressed thoroughly by Mr. Chris Woo. Lacking in concept is the primary element that is completely absent from our proposal. To add to this blasphemous misfortune, our client has yet to give us the relevant content materials for producing the brochure. This bureaucratic disparity really slows things down around here. Well, I'm guessing she is still busy with things on her hands.

That's all for now though. Nothing major.

Entry No. 2 in D Minor, Opus #1

In this second entry, I attempt to reflect my understanding by trying to connect the dots of relevance where applicable. Flirting with the idea that men and women differ from each other not just on physical basis, but also the linguistic capacity of the two, makes it clear that we are indeed separated by idiosyncratic functions especially dedicated to perform various tasks in life. Generally assuming that women possessed a superior array of vocabularies is nevertheless inches away from the truth. Before this we already come under ballistic assault from many an academician, men or women matters not, that females are inclined to use richer spectrum of words to describe colours and emotions. The embodiment of this analogy can be found in any particular poem whose words flow steadily like a cold, mesmerising stream deep in a forest of stars.

As with the case in our country, this largely depends on how well educated a person is and what kind of family background does he or she come from. Yet, these two elements are too delicate, able to shift its once immobile ceiling with everything but persistent efforts to learn at educational institutions. Although some might argue that even the most underprivileged that happened to not attend any hours long academic brain work can outperform those degree holders with their lifelong experience. The emphasis is somewhat frustrating, that one has to have exceptional linguistic skills as a prerequisite to become a formidable social animal. Allow this word to be used here, for grim are the truths that hide behind the fading light, we are animal to some extent. We have been nurtured to believe that women and men should act in a certain way, thanks to the ceaseless efforts exercised by mass media and cutthroat corporate giants around the world. Women are expected to be all soft in their manners, which in fact has been perpetuated by subconsciously submersing misogynistic anchors at the back of our minds. We are then used to such ideal images, or worst, the invocation of bestial lust within men that the opposite sex should bow down before their every need and want. However, reality is somewhat non conformist; women are of course louder than us double Y and this is somewhat frowned upon by most conservative masses who have consumed the habitual diet of imposing servitude and desecration towards female. Decades of aggression seem to suggest that men triumphed over women by working at some of the challenging, most dangerous places on Earth. The glass ceilings have always stand before women and the firmament above, where men can gaze a hole through them without having to face severe feedbacks from the society. Why does this happen? In a world ridden with insatiable avarice, people in power (whether you disagree; most are men) have apotheosised such an issue before the altars of politics. We then worshipped these gods and goddesses created from our image whose idealisation expends our cognitive resources to the point of exhaustion that, we refused to disassemble the foundations without having to change our mindset.

Now we come to realise that language itself reflects not our behaviour to a greater extent vice versa. In minute concentration, this notion can somehow prove the theoretical assumption in which women seem to be the pivotal perspective when it comes to discuss language and gender. Like previously mentioned, it all comes down to expectation from the society in which we lived in. Malay women, more so of Muslim faith, are bound to behave modestly, to be chaste before marriage and to devote themselves only to their husband and children. It goes without saying that our women are, without sounding overly chauvinistic (not that I have such an intention whatsoever), the walking invitation to carnal sins. This is the fact that has many non Muslim scholars brewing with agitation, pointing out to women’s apparent subordination in Islam in which they believed to have contradicted with the idea that Islam upholds the status of women unlike any other beliefs that come before and after the deluge of poly – cosmic theism that inundates the landscape of contemporary human faith. What does this have to do with language and gender? Again, the relevance is that we need to hover above the confusion to actually see the common element that connects the dots to many stellar theories; that women are created different from men but the two need to communicate properly in order to survive.

Wild Things

When administration staffs miscalculate our units,
We still get the blame,
We take more courses,
To compensate for their mistakes,
Their rudeness forever prevails,
Take no actions as none shall be done

When we ask for more funds from clubs,
The answer you get is disappointment,
Money is short on the tray,
But their month ends with holiday,
See through the lies they fed you,
It's just something they always do

When the forests are cleared and the hills are flattened,
New buildings spring up from yesterday's ruins,
We shout the loudest to save the Earth,
We do the most to deface its landscape,
What exists within our reach,
You take away what we do need

When neo communism rules over us,
They taught to us MIB,
Brought up to not question the authority,
Our creativity is murdered,
Those who followed blindly,
They stand tall before the Almighty's creed

When you armed a farmer with ten nukes,
Do you think he knows how to fire them?
From operating theater to Vice Chancellor,
How far can your eyes see?
Hand him the scalpel and he will cut,
Give him money and we will rot

When men of God speak in tongues,
When the fallen angels speak with hearts,
When diligence is ruined by the lazy one,
When the fresh blood boils,
When hatred explodes over martyred soils,
We will soon have our wounds bleeding

Illuminans Tenebrea

A week gone by, now it's time to write.

Never stare at people. If men, you are not allowed to gaze a hole through women. You'll have your eyeballs gouged out by the angels of Jahannam.

It's nice to know that our women here at UBD are dressing decently and properly. After all they have to fulfill the politically correct dress code to appease no one but the Creator. Oh nice thought there fella, I am here to tell you that some ladies at our campus are still clothed like porn stars. Or should I say, insufficient?

And they pointed out to the guys who glanced at them as being sexually perverted whose brains are everywhere but in their teabags. Point the gun to your head and pull the trigger, have someone to blame written all over your suicide note. You have the rights to kill yourself, are you not? If you can't get what I'm trying to say, don't ever scroll down. Leave this blog at once.

Well, this is perhaps one of the most controversial topics for both sexes especially over this horizon. Sexuality is pretty much a taboo topic and one should never discuss it openly. Things changed now. With many people now leaving their former faith, morality goes down the drain as well. It is not a problem in many a Western country when women wear something outrageous (or wear nothing at all!). In Brunei alone we can see all sorts of fashions that are either expressive or modest (I wouldn't want to refer the latter as conservative). In such a diverse academic environment where people of different background and personality intermingled with each other, we can observe this phenomenon. Some of the expressive ladies have put the emphasis on the fact that they can wear whatever they like and men have no right to stare at them, even turn their heads to steal a glance or two. They are of course correct in that sense. In a world where God and His rules are more or less decapitated, the burden of making choice has been awarded to both men and women.

Real Kodak moment: A Malay lady in her office. Keep showing them titties and you'll be raped in 4 minutes

99.1% of men will agree that they like to stare at sexy women; a fact that is almost impossible to divorce from us. Psychologically we are conditioned to fancy the assets of our opposite sex. We are born, you included ladies and gentlemen, because our parents had sex! Deal with it. We are neither Isa ibni Maryam who was born out of the void into this world, nor are we Adam the forefather of all mankind. We live and procreate, we nurture and raise our offspring regardless whether or not you are the type of person who puts no emphasis on family life, and we work hard for our lives. Sadly, the world is sick to begin with and there are of course sick people walking about like a roaring lion, seeking whom they may devour. Perhaps the relevance is clear when we put this in context; some girls are well endowed and their Bs and Cs refused to go stealth. Let's face it, guys will always have their eyes trained on your boobies because of their significant size. The lesser the attraction, the least attention you ladies will get. Women like these may have to work with naturally perverted males as part of their semester long assessment called group work. Now, this may cause the female to feel alarmingly uncomfortable when the perv is around her, knowing that he will always try to set his eyes on her body, which is ridiculously truthful in this respect. Neutrality is absolutely non existent. There is no gray area. You either work with him or you don't. There seems to be no solution to this problem. Even the most brilliant and polite of all the guys will always have to regulate the urge, the curious urge to see beyond what is visible. Not all girls in UBD dressed like what you see here, and we guys are not all born to rape you. To execute the balance one must cooperate with the other, and that is where our now 'deceased' faith comes into play. In a lot of people's hearts God is already dead, He only lives on their lips every now and then. Question me, and you have to question yourself. I draw this issue as a symbol of frustration over how some girls are wearing eyes jacking and penis boning dress while ironically detesting the semi automatic glance that men have upon them. What? Hence the cooperation. That is, if you are willing to cooperate and cooperation, folks, are my middle name (Ha!). It wouldn't surprise me if some of you ladies start to become blind in my presence after reading this post. Do what thou wilt. The multitude of consequences you face is [sic] just the beginning. We are never good at everything but a few. Try to remember that. You despise my existence, you are as good as dead because everywhere you go, things are always meant to be the same. Your fate follows you to the grave. Go on and gather around with your friends talking shit about me while I write this unrepentant blog about reality, while you can only know me so much.

Has your education ever taught you anything?

Booze up and ready to die!

They said Coca - Cola contains alcohol. Received the news ambivalently; just didn't know what to feel. I have never liked to drink one myself. However, this is yet to be confirmed by health officials. The same goes with Monster energy drink. Pretty tight world for Muslims eh?

Such an asphyxiating society for a man like me who likes to grow long hair, especially in UBD. Beginning from my family, everything about it has been blown out of proportion. A bad guy, small time criminal, alcoholic; all these go in one sentence with long haired men in Brunei. How sad. This is nevertheless arbitrary and totally irrelevant in real life. I grow mine long as a metaphor for liberation and rebellion. Yes. I am rebellious. If we happened to switch souls with yours living inside my body, then you will know exactly how I feel. See through me eyes. Be me for just a minute. I hate to say this but in my opinion, having short hair signifies complete submission to others, allowing yourself to be overpowered by their will and greed. As for now, I have enough. Well, I am just going to enjoy it while I still can, before I become an unwilling participant in slave and master relationship with the bureaucratic government in years to come. Apocalyptic revelation.

Desecration and Sodomy!

Shallow end.

Language and Gender, or How to Philosophize with the Hammer

Before anything, I hereby acknowledged the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche, a title derived from his book Götzen-Dämmerung, oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert.

Victory.Intolerance.Warfare.

Throughout ages, men have always been the leader in a lot of things. However, let's face it, men are less intelligent than women but that does not mean men are entirely stupid. To put it bluntly, men do hell a lot more stupid things than women thus ended up getting themselves killed beginning from their adolescent years. Action and men often get  into conflict with women and their emotions. While we guys are known for our egoistic predisposition, ladies are willing to receive assistance from people around them.

Going into the realms of language and gender, how can this shackle of expectation be broken? We see the rise of post modern feminists out there speaking ever loudly against the abuses and objectification that men have made them to be. Groups advocating women's rights have been quite successful in combating our testosteronic rampage for the past decades. Education is women's greatest advantage because they have higher thinking capacity than us men. Just look around you; girls are everywhere in our campus whereas the boys are pretty much scattered in small numbers. We are easily overwhelmed for God's sake.

Taken from some random blog

What are some of the words commonly associated with men and women? Let's start with the most common elements at our disposal. A guy sleeps with hundreds of women and it is still okay. Imagine if a woman does the same. What kind of treatment would she receive by the society? Women of that sort will be called slut, bitch, cunt, whore; the list just goes on and on. A man who does exactly the same thing to the opposite sex would probably be called a playboy. Sounds less abrasive if you ask me.

Click for larger image

Language proficiency is arguably high among women. Taken from Talbot (1998), girls are less likely to experience speech - related problems since they have advanced language learning capacity as compared to boys. Apart from that, the reading also suggests that environmental factors may have a significant role in determining human language acquisition at an early stage.

In Regno Sapientiæ

Words of internet censorship have been buzzing around the internet for sometimes. For people who are not familiar with One World Government conspiracy, SOPA and PIPA are just the beginning. The crooks behind this massive covert organisation tend to employ compartmentalization; a practice that "limits to information to persons who directly need to know certain such information in order to perform certain tasks". That means, we only have to know what they need us to know. Who are they? They are the very same people who control our global media industries, toying around with our currency, mowing down innocent lives with artillery shells and gunfire in pretense of keeping the world peace; Illuminati. No introduction is needed.

People called me paranoid.

So what does this have to do with compartmentalization and internet censorship? Our lives revolve around the internet. Whatever information that we received through such a means will definitely shape the way we think based on our worldview, which by now may have expanded greatly due to the latter. Censoring internet will surely have detrimental effects to community as a whole. People connect easily with each other through social networking site such as Facebook and Twitter. What happened during the Arab Spring taught many global superpowers a valuable lesson, that people will not stop from keeping in touch with each other as long as internet is accessible. Therefore, the rogue authorities have attempted to resurrect SOPA and PIPA in order to limit the flow of information to people around the world. This is scary because about four to five years ago, there have been rumors that internet will be taken down by the US government. Alex Jones has mentioned this on one of his talk shows. And that was about a few before this whole thing started to occur.

In essence, the US government do not like you gaining insights on your own; they want you to accept their version of politically correct information. That is so painfully obvious. People who stand for nothing, will fall for anything. Having said that, it will be very easy for the players to toggle the joystick and push the buttons whenever they want and however they want. Do you honestly think that we are all free enough to live in this world? No. The chip embedded on our identity card and passport say it all. We have all been fooled from the start. We have now become too attached to money and money, makes the world go round. Gold worth hell a lot more than paper currency. That is fact. That is why the bandits at Wall Street keep on printing paper. We cannot live without it no matter how much we try to deny it. We just can't. We have plastic. We shop and we shop until we drop. By the end of the month, headaches starts to kick in as unpaid bills come crashing onto your heads. The rich becomes richer, and the poor stays in the gutter. Loan and interest; the greatest nemesis of many Bruneians so far. One cannot survive without loans.

To supplement our growing needs to survive, education is imperative. Since it is free here in Brunei (we students are even paid for to study), this opportunity should never go to waste. There are people who born with silver spoon on the mouth, but others may be less fortunate yet are still able to feed themselves. Somehow there are those who have everything they need but refused to be schooled for whatever reasons. Forever they will be perpetuated in wretched ignorance unless they push themselves to stop fooling around and start studying.

From internet censorship to conspiracy theories, to money and education. See something in common? The difference is knowing what you know while restraining yourself from dismissing things that lurk behind the shadow. Fact or fiction, there are truth and lies in between and lies, are the most convincingly hidden between two truths. Life is all about learning new things and honing the already existing skills we have at our disposal. Connect the dot and you will see the spot, where it was once dark and the light was not.

Can you imagine a world without internet while you keep telling yourself that money is good? Can't help but ask; are we slaves?

Between English and Bruneians / Embrace the Thorns

It's 2012 now. A year that has long been predicted by Mayans to be the end of human civilisations on Earth. Whether this is true or not, us Muslims refused to accept such widely hysterical phenomenon. The truth lies in those who see. Who knows better than He does.

History

Now, detaching away from all this apocalyptic thingy, I am here to discuss my opinion on Bruneians (some) attitude toward English. A kingdom divided it seems, this issue has been my favorite ever since I first learned to love the language in question many years ago (after ultimately failing at mathematics time and time again!). Personally, learning English has given me some, if not all, opportunity in trying to move freely between the layers of today's society. It is as important as Arabic to Muslims worldwide. One of the first things I have noticed in the past is that people, especially students, are tend to be more ambivalent with English language. This so happened when I was still in secondary school. I'll have to be honest, some of the Kedayan - born children appeared to have been brought up to loathe foreign language (i.e. English). Teachers who taught English at school (the one I went to) are subjected to ridicule and mockery. In their minds, English is not the national language as opposed to Bahasa Melayu, Brunei Malay or Kedayan so why bother learning it at all. In the end, a lot of my past colleagues do not make it to high school, let alone university. During my stint in UBD, my female friend (who by now has given me cold feet; call it disconnected if you like) and I are the only two students from the class of 06 (out of 30 plus students) who have managed to set foot on this campus, with she pursuing major in Bahasa Melayu dan Linguistik. Others have either worked and married, while two or three colleagues decided to continue on studying backed by parents' funding. This however should not be taken at face value; some of my former classmates are quite good in English and they even taught me a few things, especially the grammar. Looking back I realised that their Achilles heel is vocabulary. Ironically, the latter is my forte since it is very interesting to know the meaning of many English words. Once dubbed a 'living dictionary' by Ms. Farida, who are often torn between scolding me for being lazy and praising my ability in helping her to translate certain sentences to friends of mine who do not get what she has just said. Second comes Mr. Ravi (forever known amongst class of 06 as Mr. Vivid), a Mauritian import personality with whom we are nevertheless attached to due to his patience in keeping up with our slothful and combative attitude. He was, and still is one of the best teachers who taught us English with passion and dedication. It is sad that a lot of my classmates in the past treated him for granted, ignoring his every word as if he does not exist at all.

Transient period during high school years is fortunately free from language issues and rivalry. At least that is how I see it. By then everybody has realised its significance both in academic settings or informal, outdoor environment. It is this time where I began to actually 'learn' English, giving my full attention to it as I have now completely abandoned disheartening frivolousness and superficiality that once plagued my performance. This fact is supported by a totally trivial and unrelated reason; my interest in black and death. Both played a significant role during the early development stage of my English learning capability. Such extreme genres employed vastly rich vocabularies, some of which are not entirely made available in English (a lot are Norwegian, Swedish, Latin, Hungarian and Portuguese). Songs like No Jesus, No Beast, Behead the Prophet (No Lord Shall Live), and I Cum Blood are some of the most profane lyrics I have ever read. The complicated vocabularies and non - standard grammar usage have forced me to open up my dictionary, with grammatical consultations provided by my high school tutor who at first was quite reluctant to do the explanation, as the tracks are completely offensive and Satanic. This, coupled with my fascination over science fiction and horror films have done me a great favor in leading me onto the next steps. With the advent of internet technology, knowledge is simply one click away.

Notable Issues

Things do not just happen without reasons. This universe exists with a chain of reasoning. It is up to us humans to apply the knowledge and logic to what people see throughout their lives on this planet. Similarly, positivity cannot exist without the opposing forces of negativity in what can be called as symbiotic relationship between the two. One can actually begin to comprehend the analogy here; what drives people to hate English while at the same times it is highly regarded among academicians and students alike. Theoretically, this issue is culture specific in a sense that the pinnacle of this discussion is not a problem to begin with; yes, as you may have it all figured out, people are the problem.

Now, this is rather a controversial analysis of some of the issues that are currently rampant in Brunei's society. First, education begins from home. Any disjointed misconceptions about the real world may have been permeated by generations - long indoctrination, which is to remain hostile to anything considered alien to the existing culture. Theoretically speaking, one can assume that enmity towards English stems from conservative thinking. As such, inability to accept or learn something that is perceived by fellow community members as 'different' will be subjected to defamation. There is also this subconsciously embedded fear towards English that, coupled with stereotypes, have [sic] actually forced people to believe that whoever speaks well in such a language will have lower proficiency in Malay related issues, culture included. Domestic situation and a person upbringing do play a significant role in early stages of development towards hating English in general. This is perhaps the basest of all misfortune, the one that grows with age and it will not stop unless the person does something to mitigate any misconception regarding his or her conviction on English language.

It just did not stop at that. Some locals even go as far as to accuse non - native English speaking bunch as being stripped of their Islamic beliefs that they are too Western to even be called Malays anymore. I have no further comment on this except that I am quite disappointed with how negative some Bruneians can be with something beneficial as English.

Solutions

There are no real solutions as of now. As long as people do not change their attitude, things will stay the same.

Entry Wounds Number 2

As sagacious as I was on the first post, with blasphemous rants trickling slowly from my slashed wrists, this blog of mine is meant to be created for academic purposes.

I am running two blogs simultaneously, this and the other which is solely dedicated to file sharing purposes where people can download music in popular audio containers such as .mp3 and .flac. My interest in electronic media has led me to do independent research (sort of; free of charge and funded by none. Ha!) about how each format works and how far can a single song be compressed without sacrificing the playback quality. For those who are yet to understand the reasons behind my motivation, you can go on to read about audiophile. If you want to learn how to rip your favorite CDs securely and accurately into lossless audio format, I strongly suggest you visit this blog. There is a couple of things you need to do before getting a headstart, all of which has been explained on the blog itself.

Enough with the pot hobby! Now let's get down to business. So far the greatest challenge comes in a form of phonetics and phonology. Every time. I mean every time. Allophones, phoneme and IPA symbols are some elements that made up the entire fun. To master at this particular field, constant practice is required. Being a fourth year undergrad with noticeable aversion towards phonetics, I might as well take this challenge head on. It's a shame if I graduate out of UBD with insignificant achievement under my belt; a fact that even the filthiest of students dread of. Now, several new assignments have arrived onto our desk. I take no chances. Like life itself; one can only prolong it but death is certainly inevitable.

Will it then be worth it to live in inescapable agony? I leave you all with this (in memory of Jon Andreas Nödtveidt June 28 1975 - August 13 2006. May thy soul rest in Chaos!)

Learning My Lessons

Often referred to as the Lone Gunman, the Devil from the pits of Hades, I am now a fourth year undergrad studying at local university; University Brunei Darussalam. Currently studying my major in English Language Studies with Sociology-Anthropology as my minor. Being in this university close to four years now, all that I gained is [sic] a maelstrom of bittersweet learning experience, most of which are nonetheless beneficial to me in the long run as a student, a person and a human man.

So far, I have learned quite a few substantial lessons that are useful for survival as an undergrad. Learning from different lecturers also meant that I get to understand how each person differs in their methods of teaching. This is of course not limited to them tutors and teaching staffs, but us as students as well. With this, I slowly began to grasp the importance of teamwork and cooperation. Slacking off is not an option when you are in a team. Despite the fact I've always preferred to work on my own in the past (especially during high school years, where misanthropy permeated me the most), being actually involved with people's thoughts and differing opinions are something that excited me nonetheless. At first I tend to say opinions are like a**hole; everybody has one but after spending sometimes at this seemingly colorful institution, I might as well disagree.

I beg to differ but my interest has always been revolved around arts (especially music, paintings as well as performing arts; acting). I once joined Fonemik Club for two semesters in my first year but it did not benefit me so much. My passion for drums and extreme music was [sic] not very well received among the locals here in the campus, let alone the Bruneian community as a whole. Most of them lot are poseur and untrue. They have the talent but lacking in esoteric understanding and passion. Therefore, I decided to quit the said music club and continue to focus on English as my major, learning all sorts of things that are both interesting and excruciating at the same time. I often see myself as an average student who are good at certain things and worst on others. How do I maintain this equilibrium of irony I do not know, neither do I intend to find out any sooner. Letting things go the way they are seems to be a good idea. Certainly I have difficulties when it comes to phonetics and phonology. Nevertheless, media - related studies are something that I truly enjoyed for most of the times.

The leaves are falling to the ground, withered and dying. Soon, they will all be swept away by the wind, being carried far across the void of our memories. This is what happened to our campus; new buildings springing up along with the money that flows beneath the caverns below but the existing facilities are sadly neglected. There has been rumors about a girl student got raped by two men at The Core (like an apple; always rotten at the core!) but until now, people said campus admin covered it up so as to keep up with UBD's seemingly good reputation. Last year we got thieves stealing projectors, some iPad and a few laptops. Who were the perpetrators? Some dudes working with Setia Protective Security Guard and ABMS janitors (exact number of bandits are still not clear; could be a few of them). Plus, an encounter with two rude UNIBRIDGE bastards by the name Mohamad Safrizan bin Morsidi (01-035904) and Izzul bin Haji Zakaria (studying BA in Politics and International Relations) respectively. Elitist attitude and rivalry between T.E.S.L. and ELS students, scandalous student and tutor; all this added some more pages in my diary as an undergrad at UBD. Not to mention some paranormal encounter during the last few days during revision week.

...till then...