Tomorrow is finally the start of mid semester break ,
which means , it’s time to go back to hometown again : ) , which also
means..tonight , is reflection time !
***
My team made it into the Samsung Appstar contest top 12
finalists ! This fact made us eligible to participate in the boot camp for the
finalists , which is to prepare us for the finals . I am absolutely grateful
for this opportunity , as it have allowed me to meet few of the most awesome
people ( CEOs in fact ) up to date . I have high respects for friendly, down to
earth CEOs that are humble yet successful , and the CEO for MYC company , Mr
Jason Ko , happens to be one . The boot camp was very entertaining and
informative at the same time and I am honored to be able to be a part of this
awesome event . Now that the bootcamp is over , it’s time to put in our all to
hopefully win this competitive contest . Wish me luck ! I will be needing it !
 |
| Camwhoring with the cool MYC CEO , Mr Jason Ko. Bromance yo! |
Oh , apart from the Samsung App , I have the honor to
participate in the National Programming Competition AMCP – blablabla al
khawarizmi too last Sunday . It was the first time I have participated in any
programming contest . Frankly , I don’t have much confidence in my logical and
rational thinking skills . Being someone who is quite self-conscious about his
own abilities and skills , I know my capabilities and limitations well . I can
probably think logically and rationally for some short span of time , but
beyond some simple logics and calculations , my brain will just stop thinking
and get stuck . Yet , I chose to give it a try , simply because , I believe
when opportunities presented itself , one should just take it , no matter the
consequences . The end result doesn’t matter , what matters is the experience .
Bearing that in mind , I said yes when I was asked to join it , eventhough I
was perfectly sure that my standards aren’t on par with the rest of the team
yet.
Now , there are good news and bad news from the
competition . The good news is , it’s a team event , and I have some really
smart teammates ( a senior from my faculty and another senior taking Actuarial
Science ) . And with their powerful machine-like brains , we managed to solve 2
out of 10 questions to bag the 4th placing . ( Top 5 among 100 +
teams , not bad for a first-timer huh ? ) .That was the good news . Now, the bad news is that , the prize for
the 3rd placing is RM 1000 , BUT the prize for us , who got the 4th
placing is .. well a pen drive O_O . Sad
to say , it was partly my fault that we managed only the 4th placing
. I tried to solve a question for 2 hours , and I was quite close to solving it
( in fact , I solved it the day after the competition is over , apparently just
missing a single command in my program ) , but oh well , reality sucks . I did
not manage to solve it within the time limit of the competition . If only I did
solve it , we would probably be bagging the 3rd placing. Cruel ,
harsh reality . Haiz. But well, I did gained a valuable experience , coupled
with a pen drive and a T shirt ! Aha , not so bad afterall. Gratitude
Gratitude…
 |
| This is the pendrive that each of us won . |
***
That’s all for the recent happenings in my life. Now ,
moving on to a more serious issue . As I was reflecting , a question started to
pop up in my mind . The number of “
friends “ I have in facebook seems to be increasing in a rather astonishing
rate lately . Maybe it’s because it’s a new semester , which means a new batch
of juniors will come in , and when we get to know them , a friend request is
usually expected next . So yeah, lately I have been getting quite a few friend
requests from people , ( just because we are all connected in the same college
community , not because I am popular or anything , just clarifying , lest I
sound arrogant or prideful ) . You see , in my hostel , there’s something
called Chinese community club ( as well as Malay community club and Indian
Community club , nothing racist , just a culture based club to help foster
relationship and celebrate our unique racial and cultural diversities )
Since our college is rather small ,almost all of us ,
residents there who stayed there know each other . However , knowing each other
does not mean we are close to each other . Even some people that I don’t usually
talk to in real life adds me in Facebook and lately it gets me thinking . Is
there even a point in having that many friends in Facebook , If we are only
hi-bye friends , or worse yet , if we don’t even talk in real life .So , really
, in recent days , I have been more conscious and careful when accepting or
adding friends in Facebook. Yet a dilemma arises whenever I wanted to decline
friend requests , because even though we are not close , we might still meet in
real life , and it would be quite rude and , at the risk of sounding arrogant ,
for us to just ignore their friend requests . I mean , it would be unpleasant
and outright awkward if they ask us questions like “ Hey , I added you in
Facebook a few days ago, why don’t you accept my request ? “ right ?
Hence , threading carefully between the line of proper
social etiquette and own comfort zone , I have to think twice before choosing
to add , accept or delete friend requests in Facebook . In actual fact , if we
just stop and think for a moment , the so called “ friends “ that we made now
in secondary school or even university life now , are just temporary
connections . Take for example , my college juniors . Perhaps we do meet now
and then , and have some interactions because we live in the same college
hostel and participate in same activities , but what happens next when we
graduated and walk our own path ? Will our paths cross and we meet as regularly
as we do now ? That would be unlikely to happen , and after a few years , we
may just be strangers again . Yet , all my recent activities and events are
conveniently accessible and put on a full display to every “friends” in
Facebook , and I am definitely not comfortable that he/she can have access to
those information . And then there are some friends that I used to talk to in
the past , yet in the recent years , he/she had such bizarre change that I
could barely recognize them anymore . The point is , I dislike having fake
“friends” that I don’t usually talk to in Facebook , which is why I totally
abhorred the idea of some people having a thousand friends ( even to the extend
of creating another account because their current account has reached the limit
of friends , seriously ? 5000 friends , is that even possible ? Even
celebrities don’t have that much friends ) and bragging them as if their so
called “ friends “ in Facebook are symbol of their popularity and fame .
Nevertheless , in the unlikely event that if in the near
future , you meet the same people who you don’t talk to last time , and this
time you are required to work with them closely , it would be bad to finally
accept their request or re-adding them again after deleting them right ? Ah.. I
can’t even begin to imagine the embarrassment .
Anyhow , as I mentioned before , most of these “friends”
in Facebook are just temporary connections , however ,it is up to all of us to
decide which one of these connections can evolve into permanent connections . I
have this personal rule that if I can chat with these “friends” in Facebook in
real life at any given time comfortably , even after a long separation time ,
these are the people that I really wanted to befriend forever , and these are
the people I truly grateful for and would be willing to do anything I can to
help them should they require my assistance . Of course , the converse of this
is true as well. If I don’t feel comfortable talking to them , and I don’t
think I can mix well with them , I probably won’t add them / accept their
requests .But oh well , these decision varies depending on the situation and
the circumstances .
As I always like to point out , life is very
unpredictable and we need to always be flexible in handling life’s difficult
challenges . That being said , I am still thankful that amidst all these hi-bye
,awkward “friends “ that I have , some of them actually turned out to be quite
nice , and it is these true , permanent friends that I cherish and treasure ,
and I am forever grateful for their presence and existence . To those who are
my facebook friends and seeing this , Thank You for visiting ! and no worries ,
if you are still in my Facebook Friend list , I assure you , you are important
to me , one way or another.. ahaha , THANK YOU , I love you guys X) .
