Selling Myself

So this is a bid for me to sell myself. You know, after graduating I'll have to try to increase my personal value. So...

Qn: Am I Geeky Enough?

Never once in my entire life do I have to ask myself this question.

Or did -- I immediately questioned my geekiness once I heard about the search for the World's Coolest Intern over at http://breeze.standardchartered.com/blog.

You see, Standard Chartered is looking for the World's Coolest Intern, who has a particularly strong online presence, is a strong communicator and someone who "knows how to build and engage with online communities".

Many of my closer friends may think I have the shot, but I was still rather paranoid. Standard Chartered's Breeze team may have extremely high requirements and expect no one to perform any worse than Barack Obama.

Besides, I have reasons for my doubt. Born into a family of visual artists, I was in no way born nor made the next Mark Zuckerberg (nor will his successor arrive that soon, but that's another story). Sure, no one's surprised when they discover my passion for music.

People naturally expect me to inherit some of my parents' skills in fine arts. Well I do... to a limited extent, barely enough to give me the courage to embarrass myself by putting my pictures up at my blog.

Having practiced Chinese calligraphy since the tender age of 9, I am also very adapt when it comes to typography and visual designs.

Those, coupled with my love for photography really should have defined me as an "arts" person.

To make things even more confusing, despite my parents owning a private art business, I knew from a young age that I would not take art as my full-time job in the future. At least not directly. Instead, I favour science, especially Physics, and chose to get a Master's Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering instead. And I think I'm doing quite OK as an engineering student.

But then again, my CV is telling a totally opposite story.

Of course, I am one of the people who have so many online accounts they have trouble remembering their passwords. Facebook, Yahoo!, Google, Flickr, Youtube, Twitter, I have them all, but well, that's of course -- I haven't been living in Mars for the past 10 years.

The thing is, unlike a big majority of the people I know, I have three Operating Systems installed my computer -- Ubuntu and Windows 7 are in dual-boot configuration and Windows XP runs virtually in Ubuntu. My 640GB hard disk is split into so many partitions if my laptop could talk, it would complain.

I also happen to have a large number of browsers installed -- two versions of IE, three of Firefox, three of Google Chrome, and one each of Opera and Safari. And I haven't even started on my mobile phone's yet. A sure symptom of the web-programming addiction I've been developing for the past few months.

And while I'm not the fastest, I can type at over 110 words per minute, easily placing me among the geekier ones out there.

Think I'm geeky? Not so fast, Tiger, I'm not done.

I'm probably one of the very, very few people you know who does programming as a hobby. Yes. Some people sleep after their exams. Some people get drunk to de-stress. Some people game for hours non-stop after their final paper. Me? I'd just sit down in front of my computer after the conclusion of a good semester. I'd be there, typing JavaScript programs away, for so long I'd miss dinner and the sun comes up before I turn in.

Yes. Never have I found a game or drug even more addictive than programming. I'm so addicted I'm prepared to learn even more languages despite already knowing five.

I have to admit, I haven't owned a single iPhone (or any Apple devices, for that matter) so far. Nor have I queued for hours waiting to be the first Malaysian to own a PlayStation3. Nor do I own a prosumer DSLR, three high-end mobile phones, a desktop with Blu-Ray drive, a gaming laptop and a dual-core netbook. But I remain fully updated and informed about their specifications and features, thanks to the many gadget sites I follow on daily basis. And xkcd.com. Well that site's not exactly a gadget site, but it's so cool I just have to mention it.

"A geek without an iPhone?!" This you may utter in disbelief. In my defense, having one doesn't make you the king of the web, and I prefer open-source software to proprietary ones. Trust me -- you can rarely find someone who has so much to complain about Microsoft.

"Well I don't see you holding an Android device either!" Well yeah, I don't, but having an Android emulator running in a Linux-based operating system is THAT much cooler.

And I DO have that.

Oh wait. They said "World's Coolest Intern". And that's the exact opposite of "World's Geekiest Intern".

Argh. Got carried away with all the fun. Hit me with the right topics I talk non-stop. Yet another point in the Geek-o-meter for me.

Either that or I've succeeded in embarrassing myself yet again.

Yeah that makes sense too.

What I've Been Eating in UK

One thing about spending so many months away from Malaysia is how much I miss Malaysian cuisine.

Oh Nasi Lemak, how I crave for thy fragrant rice covered with spicy curry...

[HiRes] Nasi Lemak, sold during an event organised by Nottingham Malaysian Society (NMS). Imagine buying Malaysian food in UK price.

One would say it's a good opportunity to start trying some foreign stuff instead. I would totally agree, if not for the ridiculous price of things here. I ended up preparing practically every meal at home after failing to secure a part time job.

I have a feeling this post will answer mum's question of "what has my son been eating for the past 9 months" and save a lot of pointless worrying.

One of the dishes I serve most frequently is the classic fried rice.

One of my earlier fried rice. Doesn't look too bad, especially when you consider the fact that I've never ever cooked rice before stepping foot in UK.

Notice how the fried rice is in a food container? Well it was obviously one of my lunch packs. To save a few pounds (the currency, not the weight unit), I would wake up before 7am to prepare lunch if my lunch break wasn't long enough for me to travel back to cook. I kept this up for a whole year, which kind of amazed even myself. Perhaps that's why they say money is a good motivator.

Anyway, you can throw anything into fried rice so there's little chance of getting too fed up (pun?) eating the same thing over and over again.

A more Malay style fried rice, with Ikan Bilis (dried fish) and chilli. That wasn't a bad dish, actually, but I hated spending half my afternoon peeling Ikan Bilis one by one.

Congee (or rice porridge) is the easiest thing to do.

One of my earlier servings of rice porridge.

I used to hate porridge, but I've been eating it a few times every week for the past few months. It's the best when I'm busy. Just throw everything in and wait for 15 minutes. I don't even have to worry about burning it if I dozed off for a few minutes. And with Marmite (FYI, Marmite is English), it isn't actually that bad.

Another variant of my earlier porridges. I always use Marmite these few months.

Soup noodles ain't too hard either, but I don't like the idea of consuming artificially seasoned food regularly, and I'm just too lousy to make good soup noodles without seasoning.

And I've also made sandwiches/burgers!

Nope, not this one. These are from BK's.


My sandwich. It doesn't look good, but I assure you, its taste is far better than its looks.

Then there's sweet and sour chicken. Yum!

Learning to cook is perhaps one of the most significant accomplishments since my arrival in UK. The good thing about cooking is I get to control food portions. When my tummy was rumbling I'd probably subconsciously pour more rice into my measuring container. I'm also more confident with my food's hygiene than those prepared by grumpy strangers stuck in oven hot kitchens for hours a day. On average, a cooked-at-home meal costs about £1 to £2, at least twice as cheap as eating out. And most importantly, it's way healthier.

But no, I won't be cooking this regularly in Malaysia. What, haven't you seen a hypocrite before?