McD's Marathon

I am glad that despite having McDs at least once a week after 10pm, I have not outgrown my pants at all.

This week's highlights are as follows:-

1. Major blowout with mum. I don't want to go into the gory details but the silent treatment lasted 3.5 days and we're still tensed until today. The weird thing is that I make one minor cold, slicing remark (the size of an ice shard) and she looses it but my sister can aim at her a flame thrower at 300 degrees Celsius for the entire evening but nothing is brought over to the next morning. Mebbe it's because she thinks I'm often the one who knows better between the two, so any transgression by me becomes 20x more severe. Sigh. Unfortunately, she needs to get used to the fact that she can't throw her weight around 100% of the time and not expect people to retaliate. I'm no longer settling to be their subdued puppet for life.

2. I went into the wrong class for the 3rd time this semester. Actually, they changed rooms and didn't even make mention about it (again).

3. About studying at PIA, I can tell you that it's so much more relaxed than TOA. As in a thousand times. *avoids rotten tomatoes from former TOA classmates* College life here is totally different. Apparently, I'm not the only one who works part time and attends class. It's normal practice. A lot of students here come from Chinese background hence the heavy domination of Mandarin and loud talking people. (It's okay, I overcame my culture shock after week 2. I'm a painfully shy person but am actually very easy to be friends with *nonchalantly pushes the initiative of making friends to other people*)

I am learning a tonne. In one class, I think I am learning more than I did in 2 weeks in TOA. The lecturers here are very technically orientated and they tell you everything to its finest detail. I wouldn't call this spoon feeding because all these are things we paid to learn and to improve ourselves on. In TOA, I think what they are trying to do is force your creative juices to keep pumping even though when you're asleep. (I remember moaning in agony as I squeezed my brain for inspiration for my Typo class)

Assignment wise, the style is really informal and casual. For example, TOA expects us to generate ideas and print out our research and progress every week. I spent more on printing/materials more than I ate. I had to print stacks of paper every week in TOA but I was only asked to show my lecturer my works through my camera's LCD. (o,O) They never compel us to splurge on materials. I think there are pros and cons to this.

Pros: Not all of us are that well off, hence we will try to save as much as possible and use only the necessary. In TOA, I remembered I got a C- because my printed research was only 1/10th the thickness of my classmate's (who got an A). Based on the amount of research compiled, it was no doubt a well deserving grade. On the other hand, I thought the idea of having every student using this unreasonable amount of resources for school work is total BS. Our so-called research consisted of information printed out directly out of Wikipedia and other web content, and there wasn't an ounce of self effort in modifying the contents. If that was the case, I would have just listed the URL and let the lecturer go online and read it. (Off the record, but if this happened in Law school, we would have been expelled on the spot.) This thick RM20-50+ research folio becomes useless right after the lecturer goes through it and gives us our grade. Being a environmentalist, that would be an equivalent of hacking a plank out of a tree. Plus, look we're just students, most of us are not even working and some of us are being supported by scholarships.

Cons: There is a sense of high professionalism in TOA's upbringing of its students. It's so strict and demanding, it's not even funny. I believe that being in the art stream, one has to be passionate and work harder than any other stream because this is a field that most traditional people look down upon. If you can't even pass through this kind of hard training, it will be a struggle for you to make it in the industry. It is a given that only by showing your effort and your works in the most attentive way is the best habit for an artist at the expense of your health, sanity and finances. However, I'm ambiguous as to whether training this hard will burn out anyone's passion and interest. It really depends on the person. I think that one with the constant will to surpass his limitations and overcome his obstacles will shine the brightest in the end.

4. Work. Work is like a curse cast upon the less financially fortunate people of this world. You are bound to it and will suffer severe consequences should you break free from it but at the same time you are so discontented and grieved by the fact that you need to endure it. Work is a security and yet a constraint to your life. Give up your mortgage, car loan, insatiable lust for luxuries and the unnecessary kids (the spawns of your uncontrolled sexual desires or a broken condom) so that you can break free from this bondage of repaying everyone else but yourself. But humans are greedy and impatient creatures and will break their backs to satisfy their never ending desires. They use someone else's money to cover up their own debt and keep doing that until they die unsatisfied because their debts are never settled. When will they realize that the only cure to their torment of not having enough is moderation and control over their finances and stop spending and borrowing money like a crazed monkey?

Anyways, on a lighter note, 45 days till retirement day from the firm. LOL.