Borderlands

Borderlands Box Art

Search the wasteland planet of Pandora for the legendary Alien Vault. Fight your way through bandits, discover native (and aggressive) creatures, and help the few settlers on the planet in your search for a Vault rumored to contain a great prize – if it even exists!

With about as much attitude as an angry grenade-wielding suicide bandit, Borderlands is a brilliant execution of style, gameplay, and humor.

87 bazillion guns!

As an intrepid treasure hunter, you’ve arrived on the planet of Pandora in search of an alien vault, the stuff of local lore and legend. The only trouble is no one really knows if the vault exists. On top of that, the moment you set foot on the planet you’re greeted by the voice of a mysterious woman who claims to be the vault’s guardian angel.

Normality Restored

Photo by Tina Keller

MSN Messenger conversation between Joanna and I:

Me: *beep [1]

Joanna: Ooh, I see you’re well versed with robot-speak now. Hello to you too, my machine friend.

*warble beep boop

Hmm, “I come in peace” has 4 tones. “Any last requests” on the other hand.. Darn, you’d think such advanced creatures come with built-in translators or dictionaries at the very least!

*whoop whoop crackle fizzzz-it is only primitive creatures like you who choose to waste time with language when entire libraries could be conveyed in a simple but well-toned “beep”.

Ah, did you not know then that it is an innate need and inherent calling for humans to waste time on nonsense and gobbledygook? Why else would we hang on to the words of say, politicians, laying bets to see which one’s more entertaining than the other?

This “innate need and inherent calling” is illogical and inefficient, and permits far too much room for misunderstanding, intentional or otherwise.

No no no.. It is proof that human nature cannot be altered or challenged by creatures of technology.

..which is the only reason why we have permitted to you continue thinking that you created us machines. Now if you’ll excuse me- *shwooop click

Ah, just you wait. I shall alert the authorities or whoever it is that has authority to not recharge your batteries! *throws female fit* ..see you around sometime my circuit-brained friend; that is, if you haven’t yet been reformatted by then!

Machiavelli and UTP

Quickie: I think I have an idea now what’s been making me feel so tired these past few days: campus politics. Lol.

I guess not.

The elections for the MPPUTP are over and the results are out, yet things have not truly ended yet.

Vote buying, conspiracies and underhanded tactics: as stories of these alleged misdeeds are beginning to spread about campus, UTP’s resident intellectual, Rausyanfikir, lashes out against what he perceives as “the unfair victory” of those now in power.

The original blog post is written in Malay, and can be found at [link]. What you are about to read is a condensed, translated version of some of his points and views on the political scenario in UTP.

An insightful, well-written article not to be missed!

Note: Only specific portions of the original blog post are translated below, with Rausyanfikir’s permission. These are the main points of his article, but if you’d like to know more, do read the original post, or leave either one of us a comment on our respective blogs.

Rakan Masjid: A President’s Response

Photo by helgabj

The post entitled “Rakan Masjid in Perspective” [link] looks to have touched a raw nerve among many students in UTP. Again, thank you to those who have taken the time to respond, comment and share their thoughts on the issue till today.

Eventually, the President of Rakan Masjid himself felt compelled to respond to this issue in his blog. I have here on The Awesomesauce Times a complete English translation of his blog post [link], which was originally posted in Malay.

Acknowledgments go out to the many people who helped me translate the blog post and ensure its meaning was respectfully preserved:

1. Akram, my friend, who also happens to be the President of Rakan Masjid himself, from whom I obtained permission to reproduce this article in its entirety and gave the translation some finishing touches of his own;

2. Khairil Hafizi [link], my good friend in ICT (Final Year 1st Sem), without whom this translation would not be complete;

3. Haniff Humam, Farashida Nazari, and Ammira Azmi, for the little things they did as friends and colleagues to encourage me along this translation and for their initial offers to translate this into English.

Enjoy reading; I hope by the end of this article you gain some personal insight into the issue of your own.

A Message from the Author..

Yeah, you read that right

Voting for the MPPUTP election takes place Wednesday, 28th October 2009.

P.S. Meet the Candidates [link]