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Posts Tagged ‘Life’

Being Obsessesive. Being Compulsive. And Being In Order.

02 Dec
When I was studying psychology in college, I remember the very lengthy chapter and lecture on OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I found that interesting. I think I laughed at the things some people with OCD do.

But, wait. We’re all a bit OCD in some way, right?

If I put on my right shoe before I put on the left, I feel so uncomfortable. After walking a few steps, I need to take off both shoes, and then put on the left shoe first. Then the right. Then I feel at ease.

Before I study, my desk area must be neat and tidy. Because if it isn’t, I end up putting aside all my work to tidy up my desk. Which slowly turns into a massive spring-cleaning session in my room.

When walking along a sidewalk, or on a path, or on any surface for that matter, I don’t like stepping on anything that look like stains, patches of whatevers, fallen leaves, or even tiles that are dirty. It usually looks like I’m dancing.

And oh, I like reading and typing phone text messages in full, with proper punctuation etc. Wastes space, but it’s just more fun that way.

I do other random silly and interesting things. But I don’t bother remembering them well enough to write them here. I just thought of writing this because although I should have been working on my thesis paper, I spent the whole morning cleaning up my room. I also cooked vegetable soup for lunch. Which has nothing to do with OCD. But I like the fact that I actually cooked vegetable soup for lunch.

Now what’s for dinner?
domluk1

 
4 Comments

Posted in Life, psychology, studies

 

One Day More

30 Nov

Today is Monday.

Tomorrow is Tuesday.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, my last day of class for the semester! And then I have until December 11 to pass up my final assignment which is my thesis on Handel. And then I can sleep late, wake up late, and dance in the snow (if it snows).

I have lots of work to do, but I need to wait till the last minute to do it, or else I’d feel guilty starting so early.

Tick tock,
domluk1

 
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Posted in Life, music, studies, weather

 

Tuesdays With Morrie

29 Nov

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

-W.H. Auden


 
2 Comments

Posted in Life, film

 

Snooze me, please

22 Nov

stll_alarm_clock_snooze

So this is what I have been doing lately, at least for the past 4 weeks.

I set my alarm one hour before the actual time I want/need to wake up. Because I like waking up thinking “oh, I still have another hour to sleep”.

Then I snooze every 9 minutes (I use a Sony Ericsson phone), and keep hitting the snooze button until I see that an hour has passed.

The wonderful thing is that I get such wonderful dreams and actually sleep very well in those several 9 minutes across that hour gap. Another wonderful thing is that I somehow already know when an hour has passed without looking at the time. Even more wonderful is that my hands somehow know exactly where the snooze button is, and I don’t even need to open my eyes. What scares me is that one day, I accidentally hit the OFF button. Then, I’m screwed!

I love being a snoozer.

Because I wake up thinking I’ve had an extra hour of sleep.

The things I do.

I bet you I am not the only one.

Finally wide awake and ready to Facebook work,
domluk1

 
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Posted in Life, studies

 

Listen, very carefully.

10 Nov

Soundtrack of my life.

 
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Posted in Life

 

Falling

10 Nov

It’s fall. Or autumn. Depends which dictionary you use.

The leaves have been diligently doing their part, showing the clear signs that colder days are upon us. Soon. And I don’t know what to make of it.

Should I be happy that the view outside my window will be nothing but shades of white and, white? Actually, I am excited that winter is creeping in slowly. My mind kind of follows the seasons too. I feel like I’m falling most of the time. In a good way. I am getting sleepier more easily thanks to the 4:30pm sunsets. This means I feel like I’m spending the entire night working on assignments and doing what I call work, but other people call it “spending too much time watching TV series online.”

Anyway, what do they know? :P

I’ll be in Atlanta for the Christmas holidays. I have no time to get excited over that yet. On the left side of my desk right now are books that I borrowed from the library. All sorts of books. About 100 books. They make me feel smart. I wonder what I make them feel like. On the other side of my desk, I have my laptop which acts as my life support system. I don’t know what I would do without it. Thank you Apple.

It’s been a happy last few months here. This semester has been keeping me on my toes. Literally. I run from one building on campus, to another building on the other side of campus. A hilly campus, may I add. But that’s only Tuesdays. And Fridays. Other days I work on campus. Need the money to buy groceries. And the occasional new printer when my old one broke down suddenly. It was free; it came when I got the MacBook. Still.

I haven’t blogged much lately. I have my reasons.

No I won’t bother explaining my reasons.

Till we meet again,
Mat Salleh aka Dom

 
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Posted in Life

 

Since I’ve Been Gone…

02 Aug

41michael_jackson_bad_cd_cover_1987_cdda

Since my last post, many things have happened:

1. I flew back to Malaysia for the summer – and surprised a handful of people. I love surprising people, and I love planning surprises even more! So I decided not to announce my return to a few people and ended up giving a few people a wonderful and pleasant surprise. I love making people happy.. so call me if you need help to plan a surprise party! :P

2. I went back to KK to see my wonderful parents and sister and her adorable kids. Got to see the new condo that my parents moved into after I left for Boston. A lovely new place I shall call my home because my mum says my room will always be there for me.

3. The King of Pop left us for a (hopefully) better place.

4. Yasmin Ahmad left us for (I am very sure) a better place. Now Malaysians truly understand the power of her abilities to make us think about our identities. Many of my friends who were unaware of her work are suddenly appreciative of her brilliance.

bobo

5. I have started to think about whether I am truly solely a cat lover – or not. I always thought I was nothing else but a cat lover (as opposed to a dog lover). But a few days ago when my housemate brought her dog to the vet, I was forced to look after the dog at the back seat of the car. I was annoyed at first, but my heart melted when the mongrel looked into my eyes and then put her head on my lap. Maybe I could be a dog lover too. Still discovering myself I suppose :)

6. I got to see many friends again – the “US gang”.

7. Managed to catch up with a few long lost friends from many years ago. It is always nice to talk about the good old days when handphones were bigger in size, and color screens were only in sci-fi movies.

8. I have started reading up on behavioral economics – releasing the humble geek in me.

9. Oh, I was in New York for a week before coming back to Malaysia. Will write more about that some day soon.. I love NYC.

10. Love you all more. WIll be updating more frequently now.

Turning the lights off,
Mat Salleh aka Dom

 
1 Comment

Posted in Life, studies

 

Microwaved Lessons

10 May

vita-man_600

Microwaving food over the past few months here in Boston has taught me many important life lessons. For example, foods containing liquid, sugar and fat cook faster. So I should reduce the cooking time by 1/4 of conventional cooking and then gradually increase. Bet you didn’t know that. Or, also, it’s unwise to microwave the dishes covered in aluminum foil or any metallic material because this might generate sparks.

However, I think the most important lesson my microwave has taught me, is that it’s a stupid excuse when we say we don’t have enough time to do our work or to call an old friend or to work on our assignments. We always like to blame time: “there just isn’t enough time!”

But my microwave taught me that there is always enough time.

How did that happen? Here, let me explain.

I put in my spaghetti bolognese into a microwaveable bowl, and heat it up for 3 minutes. I then go from the kitchen to my room, get on my laptop, and reply an email that I should have done earlier. I then clean up my desk because it’s messy from all the pseudostudying studying I’ve been doing. Then I send an SMS to a friend telling him I’ll be meeting him for dinner. I walk back to the kitchen… and wait! There’s still 50 seconds left. What?? It felt like it took me 20 minutes to send that email. clean up my desk, and then send an SMS. I quickly go back to my room to gather the rubbish in my trash bin and put it outside. ‘Beeeeeep’ – the food’s been heated up. 3 minutes. I did all that in 3 minutes?

It made me realize that I can actually get a lot done in just one minute. I always thought one minute was useless and if I had one minute left to do something, I’d just say… never mind, I don’t have enough time.

But the microwave made me think about how precious one minute can actually be. Imagine taking that one minute and multiplying it by 10. You’d get ten minutes! (duh). And that means I could get ten times more things done. (duh!).

I have a deeper resepct for time now. There’s always enough time to do what I need to do. The microwave taught me that. Of all things.

 
1 Comment

Posted in Life

 

Regret, Reason, Remedy.

04 May

sorry

I read about this in a book many years ago, the 3Rs to developing a longer-lasting friendship with the people you always end up making angry :P

It’s a “formula” t follow when you do something stupid, or make an honest mistake, or make a dishonest mistake but want to get off the hook more easily. It’s a way to say sorry to someone, by making you look less guilty, and making them feel more special. It’s a way for you to be bad, then look good afterwards.

The 3Rs…. Number one: Regret.

So, as usual, when you do something wrong, express your regret. Say how sorry you are. Make sure you look like you mean it, if in case you don’t really feel sorry at all about it. But whatever you do, make sure you say it nicely and politely.Don’t overdo it. Just say you are sorry.

Number two: Reason.

Why are you sorry? After expressing regret, explain why you feel sorry about what you did. And then explain further why you did what you did. Was it by accident? Were you just born stupid? Did you make an honest mistake? Did someone force you to do it? Or were you just born stupid? Or did you not know it was wrong? Did you actually know it was wrong? Or were you just born stupid?

Third: Remedy.

After saying you are sorry and then giving a reason why you are sorry and why you were born stupid, give a good remedy for how you plan to follow-up. Will you do it again? What did you learn? How can your regret and reasoning help you in the future?

For example, if you cheated during an exam and you get caught, according to the 3R formula, you would say something like:

“I am so sorry for cheating, I do regret my actions. It’s just that I did not have enough time to study for the test, and I really wanted to surprise my parents by getting a high score. They really expect a lot from me. However, I know what I did was wrong, and in the future, I will study hard for my tests and make sure I don’t resort to cheating.”

This will show that you understand, TRULY understand that what you did was wrong. It also shows that you gave serious thought about your actions, and how you plan to learn from them.

Here’s another example. Say you were supposed to meet up your friends at 8pm, and you arrived at 10.30pm instead:

“I am sorry I am late. I really wanted to arrive at 7.55pm, but my car broke down half way, and my phone ran out of battery. Then it started raining, and no one wanted to help me. Then when the rain finally stopped, my phone miraculously came back to life and I called the mechanic. So sorry I am late… I will buy dinner for everyone tonight.”

OK, that is bad. Don’t do that. Your friends will not hang out with you anymore, trust me. Do it like this instead:

“I am sorry you guys had to wait two and half hours for me.” (this shows you actually are concerned over how long they had to wait for you).
“I fell asleep and snoozed my alarm without realizing. I know how silly it was of me, but I had a really tiring day in school today and I have not been getting enough sleep the past few days.” (this shows you are honest, and you have good reasons for your selfish actions).
“The next time we meet, I will make sure I set a few alarm clocks, and I will give you my house phone number to call in case I do not hear my cell phone ringing, so that my parents know they should wake me up. If any of you need a lift back home later, I’m happy to send you guys back.” (there, you give a good remedy on how you plan to avoid this from happening in the future. You also show how you are willing to make up for it).

Try it, let me know if it works for you! :P

“Sorry seems to be the hardest word”,
MatSalleh aka Dom

 
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Posted in Life

 

“Pro-crastinatus”

04 May

Procrastination..

last-minute

That magic word that makes so much sense to me. It should to you, too, if you’re a good student. Because procrastinating produces better work, and we all know that, don’t we?

Yeah, I love procrastinating. It allows my mind to have more time to think of what I need to do, and how I want to do whatever I need to do. Why do it now, when I can do it at the last minute anyway?

And besides, we all know that the work we produce at the eleventh hour is always better than those we produce at the first or second hour, which is way too early to start doing any work!

But believe me I’ve tried doing work (like my assignments) way ahead of the deadline. It never works. Never.

I can start, but I’ll not like what I produce. I can continue, but it gets frustrating because I could use that time to do other stuff like sleeping or watching Heroes. Instead, I rather wait till the very last minute when my mind has had enough time to brainstorm and to decide the who-what-where-when-hows of my assignments.

My professor once told me something like “if it weren’t for the last minute, we’d never get any work done.”

My mantra exactly.

The adrenaline rush at the final hour gives me the push to produce much better work compared to doing it slowly and steadily way ahead of time. It just isn’t fun doing things in your own sweet time, is it?

I speak out to all those “good” students around the world, who love working way before the final hour… to once in a while, try working at the last minute. It’s like having a bad stomach ache and having only 30 seconds to find a bathroom before you have to let it out. Something like that. :)

In honour of the last minute,
MatSalleh aka Dom

 
2 Comments

Posted in Life, studies

 

Anew

14 Apr

171

I don’t like staying in one place for too long. I guess I just like moving on quickly and get curious easily. Which is why I now have a new address in cyberspace. If you’ve been following my blog since the beginning, you probably would know by now that after a year or so, I end up starting something new. It has to do with my real life, though. Being in a new country now has made me feel like I should start a new blog, and move on to greener pastures (or colder climates!).

In fact, I should apologize for not updating my last blog in a while. Honestly I got lazy. I could have done something with it, but I didn’t want to. So here’s some champagne to celebrate my new resolution to keep you entertained with my twisted thoughts.

I have started a new life in Boston. Life here is good, and obviously the studying is keeping me busy. Still, me being who I am, I have found enough time to relax, reflect, and reorganize my thoughts. I  mean, what else can I do when I need to travel to my Uni by train? Read a book? Well, sometimes I do. But I realized I get distracted easily when I read on the train. Too many things to see and people to observe.

OK, seriously. I am doing fine here. I managed to survive through the gruesome winter, which was actually wonderful sometimes. I have found good makan places that are affordable. I have visited quite a few places and met many old and new friends. So, I shall not complain. Life is good. The internet is fast here – extremely fast! What more can I ask for?

Anyway, stick to this blog when you can, and I’ll be updating it regularly. Not sure what will become of my previous blog but I’ll put it to good use somehow, don’t worry.

Shivering in my socks,
MatSalleh aka Dom

 
2 Comments

Posted in Life