Random Thoughts

I think it’s time to publish this. 🙂

Taxi-driving PhD

Very late in the morning but have to write this before I forget.

Just now I read an article that my friend had shared in his Facebook several days ago. OK, I’ll give you some time to read it. And I’m now getting really worried.

A PhD, even from Stanford, does not always guarantee you for a secure job. The struggle for having a decent life is still there, waiting for the time when we fail to meet what we are expected to do.

Then I googled his name and found his blog. Spontaneously I started to admire his stores and also writing style. He must be well-versed in philosophy or something. He translated a Chinese poem into English while maintainng its rhyme, and yet he considered it an  “amateur work”. Quite skillful, eh?

He must be a very great guy.

And from his stories it seems like being a taxi driver can introduce you to other people’s life briefly, from which you can learn how to respect life.

I like this and this posts most, BTW.

***

Personal note

In fact having PhD as my intermediate goal is partly to search for a better life abroad. I wrote in one of my previous post that continuing your study is the fastest and easiest way to achieve it for a person in my position. But I thought once we have PhD we will have a secure life with a secure financial condition. I didn’t know about this until just now. And even further, I didn’t know that there are many PhDs doing the same thing somewhere else.

Considering my elitist-leaning nature, I am not sure that I will be prepared if in the future I happen to have the same experience as him. Will I be grateful if I can only get a job as a, say, janitor, cleaning the floor and the tables of a restaurant after the consumers finish their dishes? Even a position in an Indonesian university will not do. Really, I seem to resemble the people that he criticises.

And I am obviously a bad driver.

Oh, maybe I can strive for my second dream. To be a rock star, even if it is just in local events. My musicianship is below par, and I play guitar and bass sloppily, so I guess being a punk rocker is reasonable. I love you full, hahahahaha. 😀

Real-time Graphics Programmer

I am a computer science student, whose job includes writing computer programs, and my field of interest is Computer Graphics, with more emphasis in real-time applications such as computer games. In this application, there is a 30 frames-per-second boundary that must be maintained, so that an image is shown on the display device at least every 1/30 s. I know that today’s computers are already very fast in processing graphics, thanks to the development of GPU, but I am *always* worried whether the algorithm that I implement will severe the frame rate, even if it just computes the length of a vector using Pythagorean theorem, which says the magnitude of a vector is defined by the square root of the sum of the squared components of the vector. A very cheap computation, yet makes me afraid to implement.

Surga dan Neraka

Heaven and Hell

Buat apalah engkau repot-repot memikirkan surga yang bentuknya saja kau tak tahu, kau tak kenal, dan hanya bisa kau raba berdasar nubuat-nubuat para nabi
Jika sebuah senyuman dari orang yang engkau tolong sudah cukup untuk membuatmu bahagia
Bahkan bilapun itu adalah sebuah sumpah serapah yang kau terima, engkau tetap bisa tersenyum simpul

Buat apalah engkau repot-repot memikirkan neraka yang bentuknya saja kau tak tahu, kau tak kenal, dan hanya bisa kau raba berdasar nubuat-nubuat para nabi
Jika air mata orang yang engkau celakai sudah cukup untuk membuatmu menyesal
Jika cacian mereka sudah cukup untuk membuatmu terjaga semalaman, merenungi hari yang lalu ketika engkau berbuat salah

Buat apalah engkau repot-repot memikirkan ganjaran apa yang akan kau terima di alam barzah
Biarlah persamaan-persamaan Tuhan memberi nilai yang tepat untukmu

Political Correctness; By Default

I read this and this and loled hard.

😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆 LOL 😆

I’d already guessed that it would turn to be like that.

Of course I know that the commentator’s intention was good, but I think it is not politically correct. In order to make such a wish, you must first know whether the person you wish observes it or not. Previously, he also wished me a happy fasting, but I can understand it (and I don’t really mind about the OOT-ness; such a kind guy, amn’t I? ) since you can’t find what my religious belief is easily in this blog. However, in Jensen’s case, he has explicitly written in the sidebar that he is a Protestant, so logically he doesn’t observe the Ramadhan fast. Well, maybe the wisher missed it, but he wished it anyway since in his mindset Indonesians are Moslem by default.

This is not only to mock the commentator. In fact I suffer from this too, sometimes. The difference is that I don’t want to know what your religious belief is; I am not interested to know it. E.g., I didn’t know that my colleague who sits next to me is a free thinker until I read his Facebook profile, several months after I knew him. Therefore, by default I won’t wish you anything, until you tell me or you observe your religious practice in front of me or I just accidentally find out. In fact not only religion. I had a kawaii xD friend, a girl, who looks like a Chinese. Some friends say she is not, while others agree that she is. Therefore I didn’t wish her a Gong Xi Fa Cai during the Chinese New Year. Well, I am not sure whether this is good, but I do it all the time anyway. 🙂

But political correctness sucks, doesn’t it? 😕

BTW, I have ever been wished for a couple of events that I don’t celebrate. Deepavali. Chinese New Year. Do I look more like a Chinese or Indian, actually? 😕 Anyway, I just usually say “Thanks, but I don’t celebrate it.” 🙂 But sometimes I don’t really care about it and just respond “Thanks”. 😆