unlimited

I think I can now say, unequivocally, that college has started. I've more or less caught up with the rest of the class vis-a-vis studying, and I don't forsee any more serious interruptions. I'm shifting back into gear, into survival mode.

At least there's frisbee =). Yesterday was a blast, there were so many people, lots of people I've not seen before. I didn't get to know all of them, but the ones I talked to were all friendly and interesting. Some are working (one lives in ttDi, yay!), but a lot are from Taylor's. Among them are a friend of friends there (HY/CS's friend Lee Yan or Lean or however you spell it =); and a few from CHS, my juniors. With luck (i.e. they all keep coming) I'll get to know all of them a lot better.

In other news, I scored 5As for my AS trials, I'm satisfied.

I was interviewed for the R.AGE part of the Star, Friday before last, as a member of Inkyhands - should be coming out soon, hehe. My 15 minutes of fame. The interview was fun, the interviewer was pleasant. The photo shoot was perhaps a little overenthusiastic, weird poses and all, but a bit lame maybe. We'll see =).

I was also interviewed for Brown last Friday, because the guy, Aidid, actually called me up. I found that a little hard to refuse, and since the venue was ttDi, I went with it. In the beginning it was a little challenging, the guy seemed on the offense with questions like why US, why Brown. To which I answered I'm not really sure why Brown, but Malaysian unis aren't that great, to which he said 'My mom lectured at UKM' (definitely an Oh Crap moment) and why aren't they great?

'Well, I believe the quality isn't there...'

'So you're saying the quality of the candidates is inferior? That they're less serious?'

'I suppose,' I said. I had decided not to blame the lecturers. I needed whatever little tact was left.

'Then do you think you're justified wasting the time of the admissions officers at Brown because you chose it on a whim? How would you compare your seriousness in applying to Brown with the seriousness of the local university students?'

After that I sorted of rallied by saying things along the lines of well, to be fair the admissions officials themselves can't spend that much time anyway, and I have worked hard on the paper application, if not the decision itself.

The end of the interview was more friendly, considering everything was done and he was giving me a lift back =). I learnt that Aidid hadn't been really keen on Brown either (first choice Cornell, actually), but applied there since a friend of his really wanted to apply to Brown and got him to try his luck too. *rolls eyes* And ironically he got in, and decided to go there instead of Columbia U since "less people were admitted to Brown that year".

He seems to be doing okay for himself now too, he's working in Petronas (albeit in the Terengganu) and already has a Volvo in his early thirties (the size of his loan I wouldn't know, but still.). This would underscore the tangible benefits of studying at a presitgious place, except that the very next day the guy who gave me a lift back from frisbee said he was from Beloit. You won't have heard of it, but it's a small liberal arts college, definitely not Ivy standard but reasonably good. I considered applying there but it kinda dropped off the radar.

Anyway, the guy, Adeno, was approximately the same age, I would say. He drove a Wira, and certainly didn't look as well off as the Brown interviewer. On the other hand... he's married already (the Brown guy still a bachelor), his wife is also from Beloit, he's got an almost 1 year old daughter, and by sound of his conversation to his wife, happily married. His wife does some tutoring for home schooled kids (which is how he found out about Ultimate@Astaka), and he seems to know a lot about what she does.

Juxtapose the two, and I can't help but feeling Adeno got the better deal. And this is my Valentine's day parable to you guys. Remember kids, prestige and fame and money isn't everything. Though I will shamefully admit it's better than nothing =).

And personally, since the notion of love at first sight eludes me (insufficentdatacannotcomputer!), and reason always gets the better of me, I'll worry about uni for now.

Enough.