Lol, I just finished watching it yesterday, so I'll write some inputs on it here. Warning: Spoilers Ahead - Like Prison Break Season 3, Lost Season 4's episodes were cut down to 13 due to the Writer's Guild strike. Lost Season 4 continues from the point where the survivors of the Oceanic flight actually found someone who could contact the outside world. This someone, Naomi, was unfortunately killed by Locke but the communication equipment was still there. Three new additions were placed into the show - Daniel Faraday (an obvious allusion to physicist Michael Faraday), Charlotte Staples Lewis (pointing to author C.S. Lewis) and Miles Straume. There was a surprise return of Michael Dawson, who was unseen in Season 3 after leaving the island.
The mystery about the Oceanic survivors' "deaths" is debunked. Nope, they are not in purgatory or in a meta-physical world. Instead, some rich fella called Charles Widmore actually placed a replica and random corpses into the sea to divert the media and world attention from the island. As the story progresses, it was clear that the newcomers from the outside world were not there to rescue them. The survivors themselves were divided into two, one group following John Locke and the other Jack Shepard. There were flashbacks in Season 4, but instead of backwards flashbacks on history, it's future flashbacks, which is life after leaving the island. It was revealed that only 6 made it out of the island - Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hugo, Sun and Claire's baby - Aaron.
As usual, Season 4 has lots of twists and stuff. I think the one of the best episodes of Lost that is ever created is Episode 5 "The Constant", which deals with time travelling. The concept is intertwined with the romance of Desmond Hume and Penelope Widmore to give it a wonderful combination. Haha, the Scottish military slangs were nicely done =p. Totally loved it..lol. The producers were careful indeed not to get caught with the paradox of time travelling. It was reported that they took double the time to write this episode so as to ensure that the events won't affect or make it inconsistent with the future. So, in that episode, the viewers can see Desmond switching back and forth from 1996 to 2004, trying to search the constant of his life.
Lost and Prison Break has always been my top 2 English dramas to watch. Whenever I feel I'm in a philosophical mood, I'll tune in to Lost..haha. I think not many people outside America will have the stamina to follow Lost after the first two seasons. Lost itself deals with many interesting philosophical and scientific concepts plus American cultural reference. It's easier for many folks to keep tab on Prison Break instead. So, if you're just a common TV viewer with no interest to think further other than watching the stuff on your screen, Lost may seem to be too complicated and confusing. Not only that, if you miss one or two episodes, you'll miss lots of stuff and future plot lines may seem to be rather foreign. Haha, for me, I kinda get excited whenever I watch Lost because of the concepts and creativity that are present in the show. Some of the stuff reminds me of the things I read in my arts course. In fact, the general theme of the show is inspired from William Golding's Lord of the Flies and the movie Cast Away. Clever use of names such as Kate Austen (allusion to author Jane Austen), Desmond Hume (philosopher David Hume), Danielle Rousseau (philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau) and Juliet Burke (Edmund Burke) gives a new dimension to the characters. There always seem to be so much of talking points in the show..haha.
Of course, with season 4 concluding, viewers are going to wonder, how long are they gonna pull this islander thing on? 10 seasons?..haha. The producers gave a reassuring word that they have an end in mind and it was not made for the sake of extending it (unlike Smallville which doesn't seem to have an ending..haha). So, there will be a season 5, which is slated to be out next year and it will end with Season 6 in 2010. Wooo..I'll be looking forward to them returning back to the island (if they can find it..haha). For now, it's back to tuning in to Prison Break, with their own Season 4 now showing in America. =p
Tuesday 30 September 2008
Sunday 28 September 2008
Ronaldo Returns
Ron's favourite past-time is diving but the United fans won't mind about thatMan Utd recorded their first home league win of the season after beating Bolton 2-0. It was always clear that Man Utd were under the pressure to win this game. It's a must-win game and there's no excuse for a draw. Ferguson chose to bench Rooney and placed Berbatov and Tevez to lead the front lines instead. Fletcher and Park continued their first team runs because of their form. Even Scholes and Giggs had to give way. Anderson started in the first eleven too.
Man Utd were dominant in the match but for some reason or so, the Bolton goalkeeper Jaasklainen had some Buffon aura boost on him and had kept United out time and time again. Bolton were ran ragged but managed to prevent themselves from being thrashed by using body blocking techniques to stop incoming shots. Bolton were shitty in defence, because even Ferdinand is acting out his secret dream of becoming a striker with a few shots..haha. One can see that United's attack improved tremendously with the presence of Ronaldo. He had a couple of on-target shots and his free kicks were as deadly as ever. There was one moment in the second half where his shot actually glided past Jaasklainen but unfortunately for him, it hit the woodwork with the slightest plop at a time when Man Utd desperately needed a goal to prevent a goalless draw.
United's break came when the referee pointed to the spot after Jloyd Samuel's tackle on Ronaldo. Actually, both managers were surprised that a penalty was given. Replays showed that Samuel had a slight touch on the ball and Ronaldo with his "skill", magnified the falling momentum to 10 times more than usual. Bolton were incensed but the referee's decision is final, and Ronaldo coolly converted it on the spot. Haha, Ferguson cheekily remarked that Styles still owes him 4 more penalties! Afterthat, Fergie unleashed Rooney who is like a trapped lion in a cage, onto the field. It was a vital substitute as Rooney went to grab a goal to open his scoring account of the season. The 2nd goal was truly a superb link up between Rooney and Ronaldo. Ronaldo dashed forward past the Bolton defenders and instead trying to dribble horizontally past, he provided a nice little flick and back pass to Rooney who was just behind him. Rooney twisted a little to angle himself and rams it past the goalie. Lol, one of the most fantastic assist I've ever seen. The ball control, speed coordination and back pass were great combination of skills from Ronaldo.
The question now is, to what extent is Ronaldo indispensable to Man Utd? Can there be life in Man Utd if he moves on to Real Madrid? Of course Man Utd would continue to prosper even after their best players had left but finding a replacement for him would be a hell of a problem. It's just like when United could never find another Keane or when they needed to search for almost 7 years to get a similar Schmeichel clone in the form of van der Sar. I would say right now, Man Utd's effective focal point of attack is 60% dependent on Ronaldo while the other 40% is team effort. Until dudes like Anderson and Nani matures, and Rooney+Tevez be consistently productive, Ronaldo will continue to be in Man Utd what Henry is to Arsenal, Lampard in Chelsea or Gerrard in Liverpool. Ronaldo's been an ass in trying to get into Real Madrid, but the fans can't deny that they'll love him the moment he starts playing again. There is certainly a fine line between arrogance and bragging rights.
Looking at the other results, it's a massive shock week again as Hull City BEATS the Gooners 2-1 right at the Emirates Stadium. Oh gosh, the Gooners lost to a newly-promoted team right at home...hahahaha!! The funny thing was that none of the goals is scored by them! Even their goal had to be a Hull own goal..haha. Arsene must be wondering what his "wonderkids" are doing. 3 points lost against a noob team meant that 3 points had to be won against one of the other 3 rivals.
Newcastle is hopelessly HOPELESS. Period. The Geordies lost to Blackburn at home in St. James Park and they are feeling the miserables without King Kev's managerial presence. Some unknown manager came up to take over King Kev instead while the club owner is desperately trying to sell the club off. Another hopelessly hopeless case, Tottenham Hotspur, LOST yet AGAIN and this time to Portsmouth, who had being whipped 6 goals by Man City and 4 goals by Chelsea in their last two matches. A draw would have been decent against a jellied pounded Portsmouth, but nope, Tottenham came nowhere in scaring Portsmouth. Haven't we seen this nonsense before at previous seasons? Tottenham is currently last while Newcastle is second last. How much did Hull City spend? Look at where the Tigers are. Compare them with Spurs. Lol. 67 million pounds worth of transfer for Spurs can't even earn them one win after 6 matches. It will be interesting to see how deep the rabbit hole goes for the Geordies and Spurs. Both of their fates inevitably tied together. Dumb and Dumber. Boumsong and Bramble..hahaha.
Green Tea Candy
Mhmmmm...Wouldn't you want one of those? :)Yesterday, I went to Mid-Valley with my classmates for some chill out session. Yay! The one week slack/study week is here..haha. After walking around for a while, we went to have tea break at Big Apple Doughnuts. Gosh, those doughnuts are superb, colourful and appetizing. This is my first time having it and these are really high quality doughnuts! Lol..I tried the green tea and chocolate nuts flavour. I think they're churning in big money, because the chefs are making it continuously like factory bots and doughnuts are being sold like hot cakes at every second.
Mid-Valley had some very beautiful Hari Raya decorations. One interesting that I noticed was how the Malays buka puasa in masses. What happen was that all the restaurants, KFC etc were filled with lots of people but nobody's eating after they had purchased their food. They were just chatting away in their seats. Lol, so all the restaurants were clogged up with people and nobody's moving. Hmmm..I'm just wondering who would be giving the signal to buka puasa. Does he/she looks at the next table to see if anybody's eating? I think that's where the radio comes in handy for the announcements..hehe.
Anyways, as I was walking around, I spotted the Purple Cane shop and I recalled my aunt telling me about that shop selling tea green tea candy. I've been trying to find it ever since I tasted it..haha. I think that's the only shop that sells green tea candy in Malaysia coz that sort of candy is made from Taiwan. It's pretty cool since that candy actually contains tea powder and it's not too sweet too plus I love the taste of green tea..lol. RM 6 is expensive for a packet of candies but hey, those are good stuffs..lol. I wanna buy like 2 or 3 packets as stockpiles to keep my sleepy brain awake in the morning but apparently they only had 1 left..haha. So, I can say I'm fortunate to have the last packet =p
Thursday 25 September 2008
UUCA forum
It's feels great to serve in drums for CF yesterday! The practice really went very well and I'm feeling lots of improvement in myself already. I could do some high-hats tip-tapping easily now along with the rest of the worship team..hehe. The CF drum is quite limited with only one cymbal where the crash and ride is combined together but I'm glad I could make the best out of it..lol. During dinner, it was pretty funny when somebody actually tampered with Kelvin's coke can and when it was opened, it started spraying juice across the table much to the sudden amazement by the whole table. For a moment, I thought somebody was toasting champagne..haha.
Anyways, we had this University and University Colleges Act forum today at one of the lecture theaters. As you've known, the UUCA is meant to make university students in Malaysia to be docile animals..lol. Uhhh..I had difficulty following the first two speakers because their language proficiencies are rather inadequate but I kinda have an idea what they were talking about. I disagreed a little on the first speaker's notion that some authorities think that students are too dumb to get into politics. Rather, they know that unis are potential birthplaces for radical movements. If you look at history, especially at the 20th century, most awareness movements stem up from the universities. The founding fathers of Southeast Asian nations like Sukarno, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Lee Kwan Yew, Jose Rizal and Aung San all had their awareness of politics and nationalism awakened in their universities days. They definitely know the potential threat that uni students could pose (especially disobedient and rebel law students..haha), so the UUCA is being enforced especially during Dr M's time to silence these bunch.
Haha, I didn't know that one of the Inti law lecturers, Mr Aru, is actually a DAP politician. He's also an elected state assemblyman in the DUN. Lol, his speech was the most entertaining and it was straight to the point. The definition of students becomes complicated when one considers about working adults who do part-time studying, overseas students, masters or PhD pursuers. Are they gonna get blasted by UUCA too? What about BN clubs in the UK?..hahahaha. One amendment that was made in the UUCA this year was that students would not be charged under the criminal penal code but instead, is left to the Uni's disciplinary board to suspend. Slight improvement, but more must be done to ensure that potentials of the universities don't get bogged down by politics. The UUCA over the years had certainly achieved its aim to some extend in creating generations of students who are blissfully ignorant of the political situation in the country until recently. Anyways, it was overall an informative forum although it would be nice to have more student participation.
Lol..btw, I'm kinda intrigued by the Word Challenge game in Facebook. I can't seem to stop playing it..hahahaha..
Anyways, we had this University and University Colleges Act forum today at one of the lecture theaters. As you've known, the UUCA is meant to make university students in Malaysia to be docile animals..lol. Uhhh..I had difficulty following the first two speakers because their language proficiencies are rather inadequate but I kinda have an idea what they were talking about. I disagreed a little on the first speaker's notion that some authorities think that students are too dumb to get into politics. Rather, they know that unis are potential birthplaces for radical movements. If you look at history, especially at the 20th century, most awareness movements stem up from the universities. The founding fathers of Southeast Asian nations like Sukarno, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Lee Kwan Yew, Jose Rizal and Aung San all had their awareness of politics and nationalism awakened in their universities days. They definitely know the potential threat that uni students could pose (especially disobedient and rebel law students..haha), so the UUCA is being enforced especially during Dr M's time to silence these bunch.
Haha, I didn't know that one of the Inti law lecturers, Mr Aru, is actually a DAP politician. He's also an elected state assemblyman in the DUN. Lol, his speech was the most entertaining and it was straight to the point. The definition of students becomes complicated when one considers about working adults who do part-time studying, overseas students, masters or PhD pursuers. Are they gonna get blasted by UUCA too? What about BN clubs in the UK?..hahahaha. One amendment that was made in the UUCA this year was that students would not be charged under the criminal penal code but instead, is left to the Uni's disciplinary board to suspend. Slight improvement, but more must be done to ensure that potentials of the universities don't get bogged down by politics. The UUCA over the years had certainly achieved its aim to some extend in creating generations of students who are blissfully ignorant of the political situation in the country until recently. Anyways, it was overall an informative forum although it would be nice to have more student participation.
Lol..btw, I'm kinda intrigued by the Word Challenge game in Facebook. I can't seem to stop playing it..hahahaha..
Monday 22 September 2008
The Bridge record remains intact
Park Ji Sung draws first blood for Manchester UnitedFair result. Both deserved a point. But I thought that Man Utd would have gotten the kill steal with a 1-0 win if they had held on. So many "would be-s" eh for Man Utd in the past two big match up against rivals. Both games also saw United taking the lead first but at least yesterday's game didn't end tragically for United.
Man Utd showed their desire to attack right from the beginning. It's surprising to see Park or Fletcher starting but, I guess Fergie had put them there because of their good form. There's good variation on the right flank as Fletcher and Hargreaves could exchange each other's roles with ease. Anyways, because of Hargreaves' excellent technical crosses, he ends up charging on the right most of the time. I guess Brown got dropped because of his howler last week and in place was Captain Neville and young boy Evans who had impressed at the Villareal match.
Chelsea nearly conceded a boo boo goal when Cech awkwardly tried to close down Berbatov, leaving much space behind him. Before Cech could run back, Rooney tried a speculative lob over him. He was lucky there because the lob narrowly missed the goal mouth. Afterthat, another opportunity presented itself when Ferdinand was on the receiving end of a perfect opportunity and position to drill the ball past Cech. However, the Chelsea goalkeeper succeeded in saving it with his legs.
Man Utd were 1-0 up at the 18th minute as a result of an excellent attacking build up. Patrice Evra shrugged off Bosingwa to provide a ball for Berbatov to shoot. Cech managed to push it away only and unfortunately for him, it went straight to Park Ji Sung's boots who delightfully slotted the ball past the keeper. United held on nicely for a 1-0 lead at half-time. Chelsea tried hard to come back but I would say the United backline did well in closing down the shots from Chelsea. There were one or two panic moments, but Chelsea certainly had a hard time trying to break down the stubborn United defence. Anelka could have equalised but he helplessly watched as the ball glided across him without making contact with his boots into the goal. Btw, Evans did quite well for his starting line-up place. At the 80th minute, Rooney's clumsy challenge resulted in a free kick for Chelsea. Mikel floated the ball into the box and Kalou emerged out of a sudden unmarked by anyone and nodded it past off Kuszczak's reach. Ferdinand was late for a few seconds in realising that Kalou was unmarked. Well well, nobody would have anticipated that Solomon would whack one in his head cos he seldom does that. The score shouldn't have been 1-1 but instead 2-2 or 3-3, cos both teams had great opportunities to score. Joe Cole, in particular, was guilty of squandering two one-on-one opportunities with the goalies. Lol, I'm not sure how he could miss that.
Ahhhhh, Man Utd were so close in getting the three points! It was just 10 minutes more! Chelsea's unbeaten home record stays that way for now. Uhhh..Man Utd need some victories now. 4 games played and only 1 win. Fortunately, the next batch of games looks to be quite easy. Seriously, Rooney needs to get his scoring boots on, and so does Ronaldo, Tevez and Berbatov. For the other Premier League games, Tottenham's misery at the bottom of the table continues as they were held to a 0-0 goal at White Hart Lane. Newcastle continues to be hopelessly hopeless as they were beaten 1-3 by West Ham. Boardroom troubles and King Kev's self-induced departure are affecting the players' morale severely. Ohh..and the most impressive result of the weekend is Man City's 6-0 thrashing of Portsmouth. This is impressive considering that Portsmouth themselves are quite a decent team. Gosh, this is a sign of things to come. A 2nd Chelsea is emerging and Robinho is proving superbly well why he's worth 32 million pounds. 2 goals in 2 games. They are the team to watch out for and very soon, there could be England's Big five instead of four eh. I would say Liverpool's minimal 4th place position would be most threatened especially and their 0-0 draw against Stoke gives a little credit to the theory.
Hehe, I'm forseeing that the English Premier League will no longer be as clear cut in the past. The traditional Big Four will have to work hard for their points and emerging teams like Man City and Aston Villa are threatening to dislodge the comfortable positioning. The new boys of the block are not falling down as easily while Tottenham and Newcastle continues to underperform. Looks like we're having a rollercoaster ride of a season ahead of us! =p
Sunday 21 September 2008
Ok-lar...
Today is probably the earliest I've ever woken up in Nilai - 5.30 am. Jason's fetching us with his car, so by 7am, we are already off. Gosh, it really felt as if I'm waking up for secondary school again., and the weird thing is that that experience happens to fall on a Sunday. After adjusting here and there, we only managed to start practice at about 8am. This meant that we had less than 2 hrs to prepare.
The first song was easy enough, cos it's a slow song. But the fast songs scheduled for today's service is probably one of the hardest and complicated in terms of technicality in the Christian songbooks. They are Hillsong's "I'm not ashamed" and "Break Free". When I heard about them in the song list, I already knew about the uphill challenge that I'm about to face. These two songs require lots of two-handed 16-beats high-hat style, especially Break Free. Not only that, these two songs don't really fit into the conventional rock song pace bars and is pretty unpredictable and uneven. So, one moment it's one style and the other moment, it's a completely different set and the change has to be done in a smooth transition and not abrupt. Ack, I really need more than 2 hrs to experiment and practice on that if I were to play well. In order for it to sound decent in the rush of time, I changed the two-handed 16-beat into a single-handed one which is similiar to the Ramones' Blitzkrieg Bop high-hat section coupled with frequent cymbal claps. And man, it's freaking tiring doing one-hand 16 beat! There needs to be lots of mental focus also to prevent myself from derailing. Gosh, I thought that the 1 hr practice before CF on Wednesdays was bad enough, but the pressure in this case was multiplied ten folds. Lol, it seems that God is raising the minimum bar for me quite often ehhh..before I could even catch my breath. =p
Another challenge on playing for the main service is also to constantly watch the worship leader's hand signal. Concentration is important there so that I don't end up drifting away doing something else from the others. Haha, when the bassist starts looking at me out of a sudden, I know that I've screwed up somewhere while playing..lol. I'm the newest guy over there while the rest are pretty much acquainted with each other and have some chemistry on playing together. So, I kinda get a rather weird feeling when all of them started staring at me at the moments when I accidentally drifted away. In a short time, there's also lots of stuff to keep in mind and that could result in information overload. Unfortunately, my mind blanked out for a moment towards the last part of Break Free and I was temporarily off-course for a few seconds. I hope that wasn't too obvious..haha. Btw, it's definitely most useful if one has the skill to put up a blank face when one screws up so that people won't know he/she screwed up halfway..lol.
Of course, there are plenty of positives to be taken out from this first time experience. Hehe, for the slow songs, I'm pretty pleased that I had great control over it and managed to come up with a few variations. I've noticed that I've improved tremendously also on the high-hat clapping. High-hat clapping requires a lot of work on the left leg so, I need to practice it often to prevent it from becoming the lazy leg..haha. Yup, it becomes less monotous and more creative with high hat-clapping. In order to achieve the richest sounds, the drummer needs to ensure that all four limbs had to be autonomous from each other. Gosh, this means that my mind has to be splitted into four..lol.
Anyways, the GFS folks are very encouraging. I really wanna thank those that gave me those encouragements and yea, I hope I could have more opportunity to serve in the future :)
The first song was easy enough, cos it's a slow song. But the fast songs scheduled for today's service is probably one of the hardest and complicated in terms of technicality in the Christian songbooks. They are Hillsong's "I'm not ashamed" and "Break Free". When I heard about them in the song list, I already knew about the uphill challenge that I'm about to face. These two songs require lots of two-handed 16-beats high-hat style, especially Break Free. Not only that, these two songs don't really fit into the conventional rock song pace bars and is pretty unpredictable and uneven. So, one moment it's one style and the other moment, it's a completely different set and the change has to be done in a smooth transition and not abrupt. Ack, I really need more than 2 hrs to experiment and practice on that if I were to play well. In order for it to sound decent in the rush of time, I changed the two-handed 16-beat into a single-handed one which is similiar to the Ramones' Blitzkrieg Bop high-hat section coupled with frequent cymbal claps. And man, it's freaking tiring doing one-hand 16 beat! There needs to be lots of mental focus also to prevent myself from derailing. Gosh, I thought that the 1 hr practice before CF on Wednesdays was bad enough, but the pressure in this case was multiplied ten folds. Lol, it seems that God is raising the minimum bar for me quite often ehhh..before I could even catch my breath. =p
Another challenge on playing for the main service is also to constantly watch the worship leader's hand signal. Concentration is important there so that I don't end up drifting away doing something else from the others. Haha, when the bassist starts looking at me out of a sudden, I know that I've screwed up somewhere while playing..lol. I'm the newest guy over there while the rest are pretty much acquainted with each other and have some chemistry on playing together. So, I kinda get a rather weird feeling when all of them started staring at me at the moments when I accidentally drifted away. In a short time, there's also lots of stuff to keep in mind and that could result in information overload. Unfortunately, my mind blanked out for a moment towards the last part of Break Free and I was temporarily off-course for a few seconds. I hope that wasn't too obvious..haha. Btw, it's definitely most useful if one has the skill to put up a blank face when one screws up so that people won't know he/she screwed up halfway..lol.
Of course, there are plenty of positives to be taken out from this first time experience. Hehe, for the slow songs, I'm pretty pleased that I had great control over it and managed to come up with a few variations. I've noticed that I've improved tremendously also on the high-hat clapping. High-hat clapping requires a lot of work on the left leg so, I need to practice it often to prevent it from becoming the lazy leg..haha. Yup, it becomes less monotous and more creative with high hat-clapping. In order to achieve the richest sounds, the drummer needs to ensure that all four limbs had to be autonomous from each other. Gosh, this means that my mind has to be splitted into four..lol.
Anyways, the GFS folks are very encouraging. I really wanna thank those that gave me those encouragements and yea, I hope I could have more opportunity to serve in the future :)
Saturday 20 September 2008
CF Picnic!
The entire CF gang (about 30 of us) gathered at the bus-stop at around 8.30 am to wait for the bus. Lots of stuff to be carried there which included food, chairs, mats, a guitar, balls, frisbees..haha. Once we reached Seremban park, we found a suitable spot to place all our stuff and the view's absolutely beautiful with the fountain and the lake. We played a couple of starter games first before proceeding to makan.
Lol, some of us ended up using some of the sandwiches to feed the fishes in the lake. Those fishes are quite huge and they could swallow the chunks of bread in one gulp. After we had enough of the food, we have another set of games, this time more physical ones like dog and bone and captain's ball. Haha, I think all of us were baked thoroughly by the blazing sun. Esther was saying that she is no longer "little miss shanshine" (her msn nick) and is changed instead to "little miss very afraid of shanshine"..lol. And the funny thing was that the silly volleyball fell into the lake TWICE and we had to wait for like 20 minutes for the wind to push it to float to the opposite side. Anyways, I also took the opportunity to experiment with some photographic shots with my small digital camera. It was tiring and crazy but I enjoyed myself today..lol. Hehe, it was also a great time to know more about a few of the CF members, both old and new, after chatting with them. :)
Bless me tomorrow Lord! Help me get the beats right. :)
Lol, some of us ended up using some of the sandwiches to feed the fishes in the lake. Those fishes are quite huge and they could swallow the chunks of bread in one gulp. After we had enough of the food, we have another set of games, this time more physical ones like dog and bone and captain's ball. Haha, I think all of us were baked thoroughly by the blazing sun. Esther was saying that she is no longer "little miss shanshine" (her msn nick) and is changed instead to "little miss very afraid of shanshine"..lol. And the funny thing was that the silly volleyball fell into the lake TWICE and we had to wait for like 20 minutes for the wind to push it to float to the opposite side. Anyways, I also took the opportunity to experiment with some photographic shots with my small digital camera. It was tiring and crazy but I enjoyed myself today..lol. Hehe, it was also a great time to know more about a few of the CF members, both old and new, after chatting with them. :)
Bless me tomorrow Lord! Help me get the beats right. :)
Friday 19 September 2008
Frontline preparation
Geez..the weather is kinda hot and stuffy nowadays and it makes me feel sleepy whenever I'm in my room. I was absolutely sleepy during class today and was only half-awake during the contract law class. But I jumped up awake when I heard my lecturer said that the omission clauses of the terms of contracts are included in the mid-sessionals exams. Alright, I'm so screwed, I haven't even fully started revising offer and acceptance. In any case, I'll have all the time in the world during the Hari Raya break to revise since I'll be stuck in Nilai. I can't go anywhere without a car and it's way troublesome and time consuming to travel by bus to anywhere. There's definitely gonna be crowd jostling if I were to take bus. Furthermore, even if I do want a bus ticket, it's difficult to get them since they are all probably booked now by the masses. Ok, to cut it short, I better utilise the travelling time to do what I have to do..haha
Haha, looks like I'm going for the CF picnic tomorrow afterall =p. Last week, I was booked by GFS to play drums for this Sunday's service worship. I thought that there would be clash between the Saturday practice and the picnic but after communicating, looks like there's no practice tomorrow. Practice will instead be on the early wee hours of Sunday morning. I'm getting some butterflies in my stomach because this is the first time I'm playing for a main service. Most of the time previously, I'll either be playing in youth services or common band gigs. Personally, I feel that the level of expectations is the highest in the main service. Lol, before I could even experiment or find people for a rock band jamming session, God already threw me to the frontlines for Sunday service. Well, we all have to have a first experience someday or later and so, I'll take this step of faith. :)
Haha, looks like I'm going for the CF picnic tomorrow afterall =p. Last week, I was booked by GFS to play drums for this Sunday's service worship. I thought that there would be clash between the Saturday practice and the picnic but after communicating, looks like there's no practice tomorrow. Practice will instead be on the early wee hours of Sunday morning. I'm getting some butterflies in my stomach because this is the first time I'm playing for a main service. Most of the time previously, I'll either be playing in youth services or common band gigs. Personally, I feel that the level of expectations is the highest in the main service. Lol, before I could even experiment or find people for a rock band jamming session, God already threw me to the frontlines for Sunday service. Well, we all have to have a first experience someday or later and so, I'll take this step of faith. :)
Thursday 18 September 2008
Hillarious gathering night
Yesterday's gathering night for Christian fellowship is possibly one of the funniest I attended. Haha, instead of sermons, we had activities and games instead since it's the first one of the short semester. Lol, me and Eric can't help laughing while singing the last song of the praise and worship session because of Kelvin. =p
The first activity we had was to have the newcomers guess the person (can be anyone famous). So, he/she will stand in the middle, back facing the projector screen and then will have to ask the crowd questions for clues. It's quite funny to see how some of the questions came out. Anyways, I had a part to play in the planning of the next activity. It was kinda nice to see everything turning out well. The CF members were divided into different groups first. So, with each group having like 6 or 7 people and there were 10 groups, so we can come to the conclusion that there's about 60 people attending the gathering night. Hehe, it's great to see we have a big group =). Each group was supposed to do a sketch based on the Bible stories I have picked. The special part of this sketch is that one or two people have to be act as the "props". So, it can range from being a spear, coat or some animals. And it is possible that some people could get weird combinations, like durians in the story of "Daniel in the Lion's Den"..haha. The groups prepared their stuff and all of us had a great time laughing at the different creative methods the groups used to illustrate the Bible stories. Gosh, I really laughed and laughed until I wanna fall off my chair. Now, that was some superb fellowshipping time together!
After CF meeting, Michael and me went to meet up with Fang Hui for dinner and we went to jalan around to see the Lantern Night festival that was going on in the volleyball court. Quite a lot of stuff going on there, ranging from food to games. I bought fried ice-cream at one of the stalls there and it tasted great!..haha. That's so contradictory - fried ice-cream. It still amazes me how the ice cream inside is kept intact while the skin is submerged under the frying oil. =p
The first activity we had was to have the newcomers guess the person (can be anyone famous). So, he/she will stand in the middle, back facing the projector screen and then will have to ask the crowd questions for clues. It's quite funny to see how some of the questions came out. Anyways, I had a part to play in the planning of the next activity. It was kinda nice to see everything turning out well. The CF members were divided into different groups first. So, with each group having like 6 or 7 people and there were 10 groups, so we can come to the conclusion that there's about 60 people attending the gathering night. Hehe, it's great to see we have a big group =). Each group was supposed to do a sketch based on the Bible stories I have picked. The special part of this sketch is that one or two people have to be act as the "props". So, it can range from being a spear, coat or some animals. And it is possible that some people could get weird combinations, like durians in the story of "Daniel in the Lion's Den"..haha. The groups prepared their stuff and all of us had a great time laughing at the different creative methods the groups used to illustrate the Bible stories. Gosh, I really laughed and laughed until I wanna fall off my chair. Now, that was some superb fellowshipping time together!
After CF meeting, Michael and me went to meet up with Fang Hui for dinner and we went to jalan around to see the Lantern Night festival that was going on in the volleyball court. Quite a lot of stuff going on there, ranging from food to games. I bought fried ice-cream at one of the stalls there and it tasted great!..haha. That's so contradictory - fried ice-cream. It still amazes me how the ice cream inside is kept intact while the skin is submerged under the frying oil. =p
Wednesday 17 September 2008
Bad Day Photocopying
It was nice of Pastor Vic to drop by yesterday to have fellowship dinner with the Inti students attending GFS church. Actually, I was having the Impac gathering night from 6pm first. But some pretty bad registration delays pushed the start of the event to about 6.30 pm. When I received the sms from Eric that we might be going out of Nilai to makan, I quickly excused myself and sped off to meet the group. But in the end, the group was too big to be fetched outside, so we still ended up eating in Nilai..haha.
Ahhh..it was a bad day at the photocopy shop today. I think they're smoking weed in the morning or something to the extent that they became dazed and mabuk. I went to collect the notes from the law office to print and I thought that the photocopying folks would have the wisdom that the page behind is recycled stuff, so only the front page should be printed. It so happened that my lecturer didn't cross that out but it was obvious that the back pages were upside down from the notes. Last semester, they usually don't print behind unless stated. So, I had a horrifying look on my face when they handed me the notes with the recycled material printed behind also!..haha. The price was a whopping RM 33.60. To make matters worst, one newbie Semester 1 student came down and told me that the lecturer ask me to hand over all the notes over to her. I was like "huh?!" and she gave me the impression that my Semester 2 classmates don't need the notes. And so I passed her the notes and wondering at the same time what my lecturer was up to.
Back in class, it finally dawned upon her that she got the wrong message. What the lecturer meant was to take the original copy from me and print it for her own classmates. Darn! I was right all along! Those notes were meant for my classmates! So, I needed to run back down to print another bunch for my class...zzzzzzzz. And the photocopying folks still didn't snap out of their morning drunkeness! After printing out the new set, the price that they ask me to pay was RM 38. I was like "Are you sure?? Because I printed out more papers before that and it was only RM 33.60. And this time I tell you specifically not to print the back pages". They clarified it and what a big difference to the price I had to pay afterthat. It was half of it. Bleahz..all those printing drain all the money from my wallet that I had to immediately ask for a refund from the class or otherwise I won't have lunch to eat..haha.
Anyways, the Semester 1 treasurer was like so fierce in demanding for the receipt. Well, for the past semester in photostating stuff, they don't give receipts while the rest of my classmates also dun show receipts while printing notes. And I've never encountered any problems in that. So, in a way I was feeling kinda a little annoyed. Quite hard to pinpoint who should be blamed for the mess because it's so chaotic today and the system has always being running well with my classmates for the past semester. I voluntered to bear the cost of the mistake of the photostating folks but the Semester 1 students were nice to waiver it away. Ugghh..next time have to take precaution and remember to tell those mabuk photostating folks SPECIFICALLY not to print the recycled back page.
Ahhh..it was a bad day at the photocopy shop today. I think they're smoking weed in the morning or something to the extent that they became dazed and mabuk. I went to collect the notes from the law office to print and I thought that the photocopying folks would have the wisdom that the page behind is recycled stuff, so only the front page should be printed. It so happened that my lecturer didn't cross that out but it was obvious that the back pages were upside down from the notes. Last semester, they usually don't print behind unless stated. So, I had a horrifying look on my face when they handed me the notes with the recycled material printed behind also!..haha. The price was a whopping RM 33.60. To make matters worst, one newbie Semester 1 student came down and told me that the lecturer ask me to hand over all the notes over to her. I was like "huh?!" and she gave me the impression that my Semester 2 classmates don't need the notes. And so I passed her the notes and wondering at the same time what my lecturer was up to.
Back in class, it finally dawned upon her that she got the wrong message. What the lecturer meant was to take the original copy from me and print it for her own classmates. Darn! I was right all along! Those notes were meant for my classmates! So, I needed to run back down to print another bunch for my class...zzzzzzzz. And the photocopying folks still didn't snap out of their morning drunkeness! After printing out the new set, the price that they ask me to pay was RM 38. I was like "Are you sure?? Because I printed out more papers before that and it was only RM 33.60. And this time I tell you specifically not to print the back pages". They clarified it and what a big difference to the price I had to pay afterthat. It was half of it. Bleahz..all those printing drain all the money from my wallet that I had to immediately ask for a refund from the class or otherwise I won't have lunch to eat..haha.
Anyways, the Semester 1 treasurer was like so fierce in demanding for the receipt. Well, for the past semester in photostating stuff, they don't give receipts while the rest of my classmates also dun show receipts while printing notes. And I've never encountered any problems in that. So, in a way I was feeling kinda a little annoyed. Quite hard to pinpoint who should be blamed for the mess because it's so chaotic today and the system has always being running well with my classmates for the past semester. I voluntered to bear the cost of the mistake of the photostating folks but the Semester 1 students were nice to waiver it away. Ugghh..next time have to take precaution and remember to tell those mabuk photostating folks SPECIFICALLY not to print the recycled back page.
Tuesday 16 September 2008
916 came and went
It's approximately 20 minutes to the end of 916. Nothing much happened today other than the fact that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that more than 31 MPs would be crossing over. Of course, Pak Lah said, "prove it!" while Anwar replied that he prefers to keep the list secret until major actions could be undertaken so as to protect the identity of the MPs and prevent them from being harassed. Anwar also said that he would discuss with Pak Lah on a peaceful transition of power instead of radically snatching it away and it seems that he's willing to go beyond the date of 916 if Pak Lah needs the time..lol.
Another thing which equally rocked and shook the current government is the resignation of de facto Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim. He's touted as the first BN minister resign for sticking to his principles and conscience. Pak Lah ask him to reconsider but Zaid says enough is enough. I think that it's a real gentleman thing for Zaid Ibrahim to do so. That's why he's known to be a highly respected lawyer. That's a man who truly deserves the respect of the rakyat. If the Pakatan Rakyat does really form, they should really appoint him as the Law Minister again.
There are two sides of the camps in viewing a rather quieter-than-anticipated 916. For those that are sitting on the fence, I think they expected more radical changes or at least more dramatic sequence of announcements. Anwar may lose some support from there as he looked to be conjuring a self-fulfilling prophecy rather than a reality. However, on the other side, if one strongly supports Anwar and his vision of Pakatan Rakyat, it doesn't really matter when the day is. The day will come sooner or later like an inevitable wave. What would be interesting though is how Anwar will carry on from 916 and how long will Pak Lah hold on to his position. I forsee a repeat story of Gorbachev in the last days of the Soviet Union.
Another thing which equally rocked and shook the current government is the resignation of de facto Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim. He's touted as the first BN minister resign for sticking to his principles and conscience. Pak Lah ask him to reconsider but Zaid says enough is enough. I think that it's a real gentleman thing for Zaid Ibrahim to do so. That's why he's known to be a highly respected lawyer. That's a man who truly deserves the respect of the rakyat. If the Pakatan Rakyat does really form, they should really appoint him as the Law Minister again.
There are two sides of the camps in viewing a rather quieter-than-anticipated 916. For those that are sitting on the fence, I think they expected more radical changes or at least more dramatic sequence of announcements. Anwar may lose some support from there as he looked to be conjuring a self-fulfilling prophecy rather than a reality. However, on the other side, if one strongly supports Anwar and his vision of Pakatan Rakyat, it doesn't really matter when the day is. The day will come sooner or later like an inevitable wave. What would be interesting though is how Anwar will carry on from 916 and how long will Pak Lah hold on to his position. I forsee a repeat story of Gorbachev in the last days of the Soviet Union.
Sunday 14 September 2008
Disastrous Defending
The moment of disaster for Wes Brown and Edwin van der SarLiverpool and Rafa Benitez has finally gotten 3 points over Man Utd. Amazingly, Benitez has NEVER beaten Fergie in his last eight games against Man Utd and Man Utd had won the last five encounters with Liverpool. Well, records are meant to be broken and it got broken in a rather stupid way.
Liverpool looked seem to be doomed in another hit and run 1-0 win for Man Utd when Tevez scored just after 3 minutes from the starting whistle. It was a wonderful assist by new boy Berbatov and Tevez waste no time in ramming the ball past Pepe Reina. Haha..btw, this is a curious matchup between two former Tottenham strike partners who are lining up against each other today..lol The scoreline could have stayed nicely that way at 1-0, but noooooo..in the 26th minute, some sort of "communication problems" between van der Sar and Brown resulted in a bizarre pinpall deflection into the back of the Man Utd net. Both charged down towards the same ball at the same time and both were left clueless at the end on how they actually "gifted" an equaliser to Liverpool. It was 1-1 at half time.
Liverpool looked to be a different side at the second half and they had consistently pressured the Man Utd backline. Even so, Man Utd had 1 or 2 decent chances to score, particularly Giggs' dipping shot which Pepe Reina reacted just in time to push it away. The winning goal from Liverpool is the result of messy and sloppy defending from the Man Utd backline. Two United defenders missed the interception and were a few seconds late in closing down Kuyt. The Dutchman punished them by providing the ball for super-sub Babel to score. Haha..Babel broke the Gooners' heart in a similiar fashion last season. In the 78th minute, Vidic got yellow carded but that foul could easily have been a red card because he was the last man at that time. Vidic was always walking on a thin line. And at the 90th minute, some face-smashing push on Alonso's face resulted in a second yellow and a sending off, rounding off the Man Utd defender's miserable afternoon. This is bad, cos this means he'll miss next week Chelsea's match. I'm really annoyed by the way Man Utd lost this match. It would have been forgiveable if Man Utd lost due to some superb skills from Gerrard or Torres. BUT Liverpool weren't really playing at their best and I would have to say that Man Utd brought this upon themselves. It's shameful! The noobish "communication problem" should not have happen and Kuyt should have been closed down quicker. Vidic should have been more wiser in taking caution from being sent off. Gosh, it was just a few more minutes till the final whistle and he could have hold on till then. In any case, I still think it's not the end of the world that Liverpool win coz they have the tendency to flop somewhere else in the future against some noob team..hahaha. Ughhhhh...next week's crunch have to be at least a draw. Chelsea is one team which is not gonna make many mistakes this season. And this was illustrated in their match against the "new chelsea" Manchester City.
Cech said before the match that Chelsea's gonna make sure Robinho have the *toot* feeling that he wore the wrong shade of blue jersey on that day. Hahahaha..I seriously think that at the 13th minute when Robinho scored his goal on his debut, he was pretty sure that he joined the correct blue. Ah, but Chelsea pulled back 3 minutes later through Carvalho. Honestly, Man City looked pretty promising with their attack. Jo's giant mainframe is quite intimidating while Robinho makes good run into spaces and nice dribbling from him too. Unfortunately, Man City's finishing is horrible. There were a few times when the Brazillan strikers laid some nice balls for Ireland but his finishing was not there. I wonder if the situation would have been really different if Kaka had been at the receiving end of those balls. The major difference with Chelsea is that they take their chances well and with some excellent counter attack moves, they managed to score 2 more goals to win the game. Lampard's goal is the mark of a clean executed shot filled with conviction. Eh-heh, but Chelsea had to press the self-destruct button when captain John Terry is sent off with a straight red card 13 minutes from final whistle. I guess Man Utd and Chelsea are even now..haha..we lose Vidic, they lose Terry.
On this Wednesday, Man Utd will be having a tricky Champions League match against Villareal. Let's see if Rossi would come back and haunt his old club. Gah, it would be unthinkable if Man Utd lose next week's match at the Bridge. They have to get at least a draw no matter what. Hmm, in a way, I would say it's a misfortune on the fixture draw date to have two giant rivals back to back and on away soil somemore. Haha, I'll be looking forward to next year when these two rivals had to play Man Utd back-to-back at Old Trafford instead! It's still early in the season, so no one's gonna press the panic button yet but this means there would be less margin for errors in the future.
Liverpool looked seem to be doomed in another hit and run 1-0 win for Man Utd when Tevez scored just after 3 minutes from the starting whistle. It was a wonderful assist by new boy Berbatov and Tevez waste no time in ramming the ball past Pepe Reina. Haha..btw, this is a curious matchup between two former Tottenham strike partners who are lining up against each other today..lol The scoreline could have stayed nicely that way at 1-0, but noooooo..in the 26th minute, some sort of "communication problems" between van der Sar and Brown resulted in a bizarre pinpall deflection into the back of the Man Utd net. Both charged down towards the same ball at the same time and both were left clueless at the end on how they actually "gifted" an equaliser to Liverpool. It was 1-1 at half time.
Liverpool looked to be a different side at the second half and they had consistently pressured the Man Utd backline. Even so, Man Utd had 1 or 2 decent chances to score, particularly Giggs' dipping shot which Pepe Reina reacted just in time to push it away. The winning goal from Liverpool is the result of messy and sloppy defending from the Man Utd backline. Two United defenders missed the interception and were a few seconds late in closing down Kuyt. The Dutchman punished them by providing the ball for super-sub Babel to score. Haha..Babel broke the Gooners' heart in a similiar fashion last season. In the 78th minute, Vidic got yellow carded but that foul could easily have been a red card because he was the last man at that time. Vidic was always walking on a thin line. And at the 90th minute, some face-smashing push on Alonso's face resulted in a second yellow and a sending off, rounding off the Man Utd defender's miserable afternoon. This is bad, cos this means he'll miss next week Chelsea's match. I'm really annoyed by the way Man Utd lost this match. It would have been forgiveable if Man Utd lost due to some superb skills from Gerrard or Torres. BUT Liverpool weren't really playing at their best and I would have to say that Man Utd brought this upon themselves. It's shameful! The noobish "communication problem" should not have happen and Kuyt should have been closed down quicker. Vidic should have been more wiser in taking caution from being sent off. Gosh, it was just a few more minutes till the final whistle and he could have hold on till then. In any case, I still think it's not the end of the world that Liverpool win coz they have the tendency to flop somewhere else in the future against some noob team..hahaha. Ughhhhh...next week's crunch have to be at least a draw. Chelsea is one team which is not gonna make many mistakes this season. And this was illustrated in their match against the "new chelsea" Manchester City.
Cech said before the match that Chelsea's gonna make sure Robinho have the *toot* feeling that he wore the wrong shade of blue jersey on that day. Hahahaha..I seriously think that at the 13th minute when Robinho scored his goal on his debut, he was pretty sure that he joined the correct blue. Ah, but Chelsea pulled back 3 minutes later through Carvalho. Honestly, Man City looked pretty promising with their attack. Jo's giant mainframe is quite intimidating while Robinho makes good run into spaces and nice dribbling from him too. Unfortunately, Man City's finishing is horrible. There were a few times when the Brazillan strikers laid some nice balls for Ireland but his finishing was not there. I wonder if the situation would have been really different if Kaka had been at the receiving end of those balls. The major difference with Chelsea is that they take their chances well and with some excellent counter attack moves, they managed to score 2 more goals to win the game. Lampard's goal is the mark of a clean executed shot filled with conviction. Eh-heh, but Chelsea had to press the self-destruct button when captain John Terry is sent off with a straight red card 13 minutes from final whistle. I guess Man Utd and Chelsea are even now..haha..we lose Vidic, they lose Terry.
On this Wednesday, Man Utd will be having a tricky Champions League match against Villareal. Let's see if Rossi would come back and haunt his old club. Gah, it would be unthinkable if Man Utd lose next week's match at the Bridge. They have to get at least a draw no matter what. Hmm, in a way, I would say it's a misfortune on the fixture draw date to have two giant rivals back to back and on away soil somemore. Haha, I'll be looking forward to next year when these two rivals had to play Man Utd back-to-back at Old Trafford instead! It's still early in the season, so no one's gonna press the panic button yet but this means there would be less margin for errors in the future.
Friday 12 September 2008
Patriachal Absentism
Hmmm..I was just curious yesterday for some reason or so, and I googled my papa's tuition center name to see if there's any result of it in the Internet. I was surprised to find a blog which talked about a SPM seminar held by his tuition center approximately 3 years ago in 2005. The interesting thing was that this blog had pictures posted up with some of it containing him and the students. Well, I haven't see him for like 8 years or so. The only photos I had of him was when I was young. So, the pictures in the blog were like the first images I've ever seen of him since 2000. He seems to look ok and jolly and I'm glad about that but I'm also pissed off at the same time that he never did his duty as a papa for the past 8 years.
I wonder if he still remembers his original family or his first two sons. I guess that for the past 8 years, people would see his "second front" as the "real" family. Oh the irony! The original one actually got discarded while the mistress stays! I've grown up through my teenager years without having the feeling of having a physical father in the family. Even if he's right now here in the family, I would feel really weird. Anyways, being the firstborn, I was supposed to inherit his so-called "empire". But I don't regret a single bit that I won't be inheriting anything from him.
This is a paradoxical relationship. I had to lose something to gain something. In breaking away, I actually inherited something else and discovered my inner talents. If I had stayed on with him, I would never have discovered about my hidden talents in english literature, history, language, writing or music and be in a place to develop it well. I would most probably be a boring maths/science zombie just like any other kid. In any case, I'm just thankful that God has guided me well over that period of time. Not every single-parent kid will turn out well in the end, and I'm grateful that God had watched over me and unlocking the doors for me to pass through. I'll NEVER follow in my father's footsteps. That's why I place a high value on my level of loyalty/devotion and would only give it to my future one and only gal of my dreams who truly deserves it and won't squandered it away.
Haha...I just wanna be a blessing in some way or so to anyone that knows me. I always believed that there's always a reason that God led me to meet the people I know today.
I wonder if he still remembers his original family or his first two sons. I guess that for the past 8 years, people would see his "second front" as the "real" family. Oh the irony! The original one actually got discarded while the mistress stays! I've grown up through my teenager years without having the feeling of having a physical father in the family. Even if he's right now here in the family, I would feel really weird. Anyways, being the firstborn, I was supposed to inherit his so-called "empire". But I don't regret a single bit that I won't be inheriting anything from him.
This is a paradoxical relationship. I had to lose something to gain something. In breaking away, I actually inherited something else and discovered my inner talents. If I had stayed on with him, I would never have discovered about my hidden talents in english literature, history, language, writing or music and be in a place to develop it well. I would most probably be a boring maths/science zombie just like any other kid. In any case, I'm just thankful that God has guided me well over that period of time. Not every single-parent kid will turn out well in the end, and I'm grateful that God had watched over me and unlocking the doors for me to pass through. I'll NEVER follow in my father's footsteps. That's why I place a high value on my level of loyalty/devotion and would only give it to my future one and only gal of my dreams who truly deserves it and won't squandered it away.
Haha...I just wanna be a blessing in some way or so to anyone that knows me. I always believed that there's always a reason that God led me to meet the people I know today.
Thursday 11 September 2008
Unrepentant Ahmad
Ahmad Ismail certainly stirred a hornet's nest with his "pendatang" comments and the commotion has being going on for the past 3 weeks. Not only that, his conference with his anak buah resulted in Koh Tsu Koon's picture being deliberately torn in the public. His repeated refusal to apologise has even drawn the fury of the othe BN parties such as MCA and Gerakan. Pak Lah and a Najib had a real mess in the hands and the worst thing is that both seem to approach the matter in two separate different ways. Najib tried to offer the apology on Ahmad's behalf while Pak Lah is as clueless and helpless when he tried to issue different responses. All those solutions tried by the PM and DPM are useless because all the Chinese leaders want is the apology from Ahmad himself. Ahmad, being the moron, repeatedly refused to do so and even asked Koh Tsu Koon to apologise to him instead. His party leadership had their hands tied as punishing him would make them look like weaklings to the Malays and in not punishing him, there's gonna be social discontentment among the Chinese components in the BN and in the general Malaysian society at large.
So, there's some emergency meeting going on and the party leadership decided that Ahmad will get 3 years suspension from the party. It was a decent compromise for MCA who nodded their head in agreement with the "punishment" while many other Chinese leaders are voicing out that it's not enough because Ahmad's remarks constitute a breach of law in the Sedition Act. So, this is not only a matter of party mischief, but a criminal offence as stated by the Sediton Act. I doubt that the party leadership would take further action but I think if it were some other guy saying that, that fella is sure to be a goner, or in other words, habis lar di kem Kamunting...haha. When Ahmad heard about the punishment, he's still bossing around unrepentantly. Gosh, seriously, BN is on a no-return trip now and no matter what they do, they are going to speed up their demise with some self-destructors in their own camp.
Actually, things got rather panicky when the Army Chief steps in and give a stern warning to anyone that plays the racial line. This is bad, because for years, the army and the police had remained subservient to the civilian government. Could Malaysia possibly turn into a Thailand or Indonesia where the elected civilian government and the military are two separate entities? That would be a scary thought. But this morning, the Army Chief issued another statement that the army is not going to intervene in the politics of the day.
This latest episode gives the impression to the rakyat that Pak Lah don't seem to be the one in control because he could not even order an apology from his own party member. In fact, he doesn't seem to be in control of anything and is currently floating aimlessly on his own. Out from nowhere, Muhyiddin remarked that Pak Lah should step down earlier than the date of 2010. With Mahathir looking set to rejoin UMNO, the internal faction conflict is set to get heated up to the maximum. Btw, that was a "sly" plan to get the MPs to go to Taiwan to avoid the 916 prophecy from coming true. Haha, it doesn't matter if 916 doesn't come, it's just a matter of time before there will be a change of federal government, be it Pakatan Rakyat or a new era under Najib or Muhyiddin.
So, there's some emergency meeting going on and the party leadership decided that Ahmad will get 3 years suspension from the party. It was a decent compromise for MCA who nodded their head in agreement with the "punishment" while many other Chinese leaders are voicing out that it's not enough because Ahmad's remarks constitute a breach of law in the Sedition Act. So, this is not only a matter of party mischief, but a criminal offence as stated by the Sediton Act. I doubt that the party leadership would take further action but I think if it were some other guy saying that, that fella is sure to be a goner, or in other words, habis lar di kem Kamunting...haha. When Ahmad heard about the punishment, he's still bossing around unrepentantly. Gosh, seriously, BN is on a no-return trip now and no matter what they do, they are going to speed up their demise with some self-destructors in their own camp.
Actually, things got rather panicky when the Army Chief steps in and give a stern warning to anyone that plays the racial line. This is bad, because for years, the army and the police had remained subservient to the civilian government. Could Malaysia possibly turn into a Thailand or Indonesia where the elected civilian government and the military are two separate entities? That would be a scary thought. But this morning, the Army Chief issued another statement that the army is not going to intervene in the politics of the day.
This latest episode gives the impression to the rakyat that Pak Lah don't seem to be the one in control because he could not even order an apology from his own party member. In fact, he doesn't seem to be in control of anything and is currently floating aimlessly on his own. Out from nowhere, Muhyiddin remarked that Pak Lah should step down earlier than the date of 2010. With Mahathir looking set to rejoin UMNO, the internal faction conflict is set to get heated up to the maximum. Btw, that was a "sly" plan to get the MPs to go to Taiwan to avoid the 916 prophecy from coming true. Haha, it doesn't matter if 916 doesn't come, it's just a matter of time before there will be a change of federal government, be it Pakatan Rakyat or a new era under Najib or Muhyiddin.
Monday 8 September 2008
The long road ahead
Today's time in at the Christian Fellowship booth was rather interesting in terms of people watching..haha. It's great to see so many people signing up, but hopefully the amount who turn up would be the same. Lol, it's nice to see a few of the semester 1 law students joining CF too. The people watching session garnered some surprising observation revelations. There was this guy who looked like a typical Malaysian Chinese guy with a typical Malaysia accented English and we got a shock when he said he's from China and he's only in Malaysia for the past 8 months! Wahhh..that must be the fastest rate of assimilation I've ever seen! Then another one was a tall Malaysian Chinese girl with a really mature English accent. Instantly, we thought she's like 20 something but goshhhhh..she's actually born in '91 and is only 17 years old! Alamak..people really don't look like the typical first impression generalizations nowadays ehh..haha.
Anyways, for the English Legal System lectures today, I learned about the path of being a solicitor or barrister in England. This is very relevant since it deals with sometime about my path in a few years down. The English Bar Exams, or better known as the BVC, is already looking insanely hard by just looking at the process. Not only does the guy has to be smart, he has to act like an "elite" of the society with all the posh, prim and proper upper class manners. The social interaction in BVC includes judges, aristocrats and lords, so all the Malaysian lahs, lohs and table thumping has to go. This is seriously some divine level of standards that were set..haha.
Solicitor is an interesting job though coz in England, lawyers are divided into two kinds. Solicitors and barristers are lawyers in nature but the solicitors does the office jobs while the barrister head the frontlines at the High Courts. So, solicitors get the good pay of the lawyer but without the attention and prestige of a barrister in the High Court. Haha, in any case, whether I'll even end up doing the Bar in England depends on my exams results first, and then whether I have the finance to pull through it. Honestly, I'm fine with just doing CLP in Malaysia after graduating. Hehe, this kind of stuff is still far ahead and for starters, I should focus on the nearest obstacles called the assignments and mid-sessional exams.
Anyways, for the English Legal System lectures today, I learned about the path of being a solicitor or barrister in England. This is very relevant since it deals with sometime about my path in a few years down. The English Bar Exams, or better known as the BVC, is already looking insanely hard by just looking at the process. Not only does the guy has to be smart, he has to act like an "elite" of the society with all the posh, prim and proper upper class manners. The social interaction in BVC includes judges, aristocrats and lords, so all the Malaysian lahs, lohs and table thumping has to go. This is seriously some divine level of standards that were set..haha.
Solicitor is an interesting job though coz in England, lawyers are divided into two kinds. Solicitors and barristers are lawyers in nature but the solicitors does the office jobs while the barrister head the frontlines at the High Courts. So, solicitors get the good pay of the lawyer but without the attention and prestige of a barrister in the High Court. Haha, in any case, whether I'll even end up doing the Bar in England depends on my exams results first, and then whether I have the finance to pull through it. Honestly, I'm fine with just doing CLP in Malaysia after graduating. Hehe, this kind of stuff is still far ahead and for starters, I should focus on the nearest obstacles called the assignments and mid-sessional exams.
Sunday 7 September 2008
Influencing the youth
Haha..great to be back in GFS Banting for church after a month away for semester break. Today, we had a visiting team from Johor Bahru. Pastor Kelvin did put up an interesting point in his sermon regarding people of influence on young people. It is not only friends that maketh the man, parents also maketh the child. It continues down the generation. Well, I'm just glad that I didn't inherit so much of the bad points from my papa. It was more of his positive points..haha. Of course, the most important model that all Christians should follow after is Christ himself.
People of influence include teachers also and I agree very much with that. If one happens to get across many bad teachers in his lifetime, it does have an impact on him. That's why a teacher's role is not only to teach academics, but also be a figure of inspiration to his/her students. Unfortunately, not many had this mindset when they set out on the teaching career. Anyways, I shall be looking forward to the reopening of CF. I'm supposed to mind the booth tomorrow for the exhibition..lol.
On a side note not relating to the stuff above, there seems to be a strange phenomena among the boys I know. It's almost like a mass hysteria of relationship problems affecting them. It ranges from my former secondary school friends and even Michael's friend is affected by it. And they are all emo-ing it in Facebook. One of my friends had it the worse. He "broke up" even before getting into a relationship. Not sure how that could happen in a logical way but he still felt the sting of "breaking up" like any other guy in a relationship. Sometimes the guy gets the blues too and not all guys walk away heartlessly at the point of "breaking up".
People of influence include teachers also and I agree very much with that. If one happens to get across many bad teachers in his lifetime, it does have an impact on him. That's why a teacher's role is not only to teach academics, but also be a figure of inspiration to his/her students. Unfortunately, not many had this mindset when they set out on the teaching career. Anyways, I shall be looking forward to the reopening of CF. I'm supposed to mind the booth tomorrow for the exhibition..lol.
On a side note not relating to the stuff above, there seems to be a strange phenomena among the boys I know. It's almost like a mass hysteria of relationship problems affecting them. It ranges from my former secondary school friends and even Michael's friend is affected by it. And they are all emo-ing it in Facebook. One of my friends had it the worse. He "broke up" even before getting into a relationship. Not sure how that could happen in a logical way but he still felt the sting of "breaking up" like any other guy in a relationship. Sometimes the guy gets the blues too and not all guys walk away heartlessly at the point of "breaking up".
Saturday 6 September 2008
Law Career Convention
I had to wake up extremely early today to get to the 7.30 bus which is heading to Malaya University for the Law Career Convention. It seems many of the older students are not enthusiastic to go because it seems that they had went for something similiar already. Anyways, from my class, Michael and Vincent also went along.
Haha..this is the first time I visited Malaya University. The LCC is organized by the Law Society and Faculty of Malaya University and so, it's held at their building. The Law Faculty is situated very near to one of the entrance. We proceeded straight to the auditorium for an opening talk. I was really surprise to see who was the guest of honour that was delivering the opening talk. It's Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham! He's the deputy Menteri Besar of Perak and he happens also to be an alumnus of the Law Faculty of Malaya University (1985 batch). Haha..his opening talk touches on the sensitive issue of the judicial crisis in Malaysia. It's interesting though that he gave some insights on his experiences with some of the judges at the Malaysian court while practicing as a lawyer.
After the talk, we went to visit the various booths and rooms set up by some of the major legal firms and companies in Malaysia which are looking to recruit fresh law graduates. So, since we are not exactly graduating anytime soon, we took the opportunity to hunt for attachments and find out which of the law firms pay a salary for them. After looking around, I would say its pretty impressive of the law firms to put in a great deal of resources to print out the pamflets. booklets and goodie bags for the visitors in an attempt to get some talents. Malaysia's largest law firm, Zaid Ibrahim and Co. is also there and you can imagine the amount of wealth and resources they have with the two iMac desktops which was put there just for the exhibition. Other major law firms like Skrine even have cocktail parties presumably for some interaction sessions.
Anyways, we couldn't stay for long since the bus is gonna leave at around 11.45 am. This is definitely a useful trip since it gives me some information regarding which are the major players in the legal industry and at the same time, i manged to obtain some important contacts should I want to find a job in the future..haha.
Haha..this is the first time I visited Malaya University. The LCC is organized by the Law Society and Faculty of Malaya University and so, it's held at their building. The Law Faculty is situated very near to one of the entrance. We proceeded straight to the auditorium for an opening talk. I was really surprise to see who was the guest of honour that was delivering the opening talk. It's Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham! He's the deputy Menteri Besar of Perak and he happens also to be an alumnus of the Law Faculty of Malaya University (1985 batch). Haha..his opening talk touches on the sensitive issue of the judicial crisis in Malaysia. It's interesting though that he gave some insights on his experiences with some of the judges at the Malaysian court while practicing as a lawyer.
After the talk, we went to visit the various booths and rooms set up by some of the major legal firms and companies in Malaysia which are looking to recruit fresh law graduates. So, since we are not exactly graduating anytime soon, we took the opportunity to hunt for attachments and find out which of the law firms pay a salary for them. After looking around, I would say its pretty impressive of the law firms to put in a great deal of resources to print out the pamflets. booklets and goodie bags for the visitors in an attempt to get some talents. Malaysia's largest law firm, Zaid Ibrahim and Co. is also there and you can imagine the amount of wealth and resources they have with the two iMac desktops which was put there just for the exhibition. Other major law firms like Skrine even have cocktail parties presumably for some interaction sessions.
Anyways, we couldn't stay for long since the bus is gonna leave at around 11.45 am. This is definitely a useful trip since it gives me some information regarding which are the major players in the legal industry and at the same time, i manged to obtain some important contacts should I want to find a job in the future..haha.
Tuesday 2 September 2008
Transfer Dateline Rush
It was dramatic and substantially shocking at the same time at the transfer dateline of the English Premier League. Many had been speculating whether which of the clubs would be pulling a massive coup and eyes were actually on Man Utd and Berbatov plus Chelsea and Robinho. Well, Fergie didn't lose his patience and Man Utd got their man, at a whopping price of 30.75 million pounds. Overpriced but if Berbatov can maintain his deadly instincts from Totenham and repeat a van Nistelrooy, he'll pay off that price..haha. But I can't help feeling that Levy is a sly businessman and he definitely rip Man Utd off again on the transfer window. Btw, both Carrick+Berbatov earns Totenham a nice 50 million pounds already.
Now, I got a real laugh when I opened Soccernet this morning and saw this. Robinho is off to Manchester City for a record 32 million and NOT to Chelsea. LOLROFLMAO!! This is probably the biggest coup since Tevez+Mascherano to West Ham and Owen to Newcastle. Peter Kenyon got owned big time. It's a case either Real Madrid would rather sell to anyone except Chelsea or Robinho wanna play in any place at England except Madrid. Man City was sold by Thaksin to some Arab group and now the sheikhs are providing new cold hard cash for super transfers. Man City is looking quite impressive on paper already - Elano, Jo, and Robinho now. It seems that Man City launched a barrage of transfer bids at the last minute which included David Villa, Mario Gomez and even Berbatov also! Woah, looks like both halfs of Manchester got a brand new striker while the Bridge in London just got ditched in the dust..haha. Other transfer sagas like Barry and Arshavin would see themselves still remaining at their old clubs despite all the dramas. They can only hope that they wun get shunned by their own fans.
Anyways, I bet Berbatov would now feel good wearing the red shirt with sleeve badges that says "Champions 07/08"..haha. I look forward to seeing him in action, and he'll most probably get Saha's number 9 shirt, who has since moved to join Phil Neville at Everton.
Oh, a week ago or so, there's this hillarious comment from (surprise!) Nemanja Vidic about the weather in Manchester! Haha, he was quoted saying "In England, they say that Manchester is the city of rain. Its main attraction is considered to be the timetable at the railway station, where trains leave for other, less rainy cities." And his "preferred destination" is Spain. Lol, the hardy tough tackling Vida is complaining about the rainy weather! It's like a moment of "Oooopsss". Afterthat, he quickly issued a statement denying that he had said that and attributed it to a case of lost in translation. Haha, I think its a piece of junk from the Spanish La Liga propaganda. =p
Now, I got a real laugh when I opened Soccernet this morning and saw this. Robinho is off to Manchester City for a record 32 million and NOT to Chelsea. LOLROFLMAO!! This is probably the biggest coup since Tevez+Mascherano to West Ham and Owen to Newcastle. Peter Kenyon got owned big time. It's a case either Real Madrid would rather sell to anyone except Chelsea or Robinho wanna play in any place at England except Madrid. Man City was sold by Thaksin to some Arab group and now the sheikhs are providing new cold hard cash for super transfers. Man City is looking quite impressive on paper already - Elano, Jo, and Robinho now. It seems that Man City launched a barrage of transfer bids at the last minute which included David Villa, Mario Gomez and even Berbatov also! Woah, looks like both halfs of Manchester got a brand new striker while the Bridge in London just got ditched in the dust..haha. Other transfer sagas like Barry and Arshavin would see themselves still remaining at their old clubs despite all the dramas. They can only hope that they wun get shunned by their own fans.
Anyways, I bet Berbatov would now feel good wearing the red shirt with sleeve badges that says "Champions 07/08"..haha. I look forward to seeing him in action, and he'll most probably get Saha's number 9 shirt, who has since moved to join Phil Neville at Everton.
Oh, a week ago or so, there's this hillarious comment from (surprise!) Nemanja Vidic about the weather in Manchester! Haha, he was quoted saying "In England, they say that Manchester is the city of rain. Its main attraction is considered to be the timetable at the railway station, where trains leave for other, less rainy cities." And his "preferred destination" is Spain. Lol, the hardy tough tackling Vida is complaining about the rainy weather! It's like a moment of "Oooopsss". Afterthat, he quickly issued a statement denying that he had said that and attributed it to a case of lost in translation. Haha, I think its a piece of junk from the Spanish La Liga propaganda. =p
Upgraded Sound System
Haha..it's the first day of lesson for Semester 2. I went to enrol around 11.30 pm with my classmates. While waiting, I checked the list for the semester 1 students and saw that there were 14 students. Lol, hopefully got opportunity to have a look at their class =p. Class today starts at 1pm and my lecturer was kind enough to let us go after 2 hrs since its the first day..haha.
Someone told me to look for the mpw results online. At first I thought my account doesn't display it since it says that the result is unavailable. A few days later, I found out that I was a klutz and that there were two buttons labelled "this semester" and "past semester"..lol. Anyways, it says online that I got an A for Malaysian studies! I got it confirmed by collecting the result slip from the exam office today. Cool, it's a great way to start the semester with good results from the previous..lol. Based on my calculations, I must have done really well in the written paper since I'm only in the B region for the 60% class marks. If I'm not wrong, I scored at least a minimum of 75%..haha.
So after today's class, I went to the uni computer shop to get my own new subwoofer. I tahan enough already for one semester. Everytime I return to my desktop PC, I just missed the subwoofer boom. Anyways, it's a great time to challenge and fight fire and fire with those fools below me who think they're the only ones with bass booms. Not only that, it's great to turn it to maximum when they start a hokkien colourful words shouting match during dota sessions. Let's see then who's louder than subwoofered rock music..haha. I went back to test the new sound system and voila! Superb...superb..you can totally feel the power of Mike Drrnt (power stuff in "Holiday", Chris Wolstenholme and most especially, Flea from Red Hot Chilli Peppers! All those blitzy bass slapping and plucking from him are insane. When I played "Tell me baby", the subwoofer was vibrating and rattling like crazy! Now my room has the rock concert ambience when I play my rock music, something which I'm accustomed to for 4 years already but which was missing for the past 8 months or so. The table is already very limited with just enough space to write and now with the subwoofer, it occupies half of that remaining space. Alamak, how to study lar this boy. I don't care, the music stays..muahahaha. =p
Someone told me to look for the mpw results online. At first I thought my account doesn't display it since it says that the result is unavailable. A few days later, I found out that I was a klutz and that there were two buttons labelled "this semester" and "past semester"..lol. Anyways, it says online that I got an A for Malaysian studies! I got it confirmed by collecting the result slip from the exam office today. Cool, it's a great way to start the semester with good results from the previous..lol. Based on my calculations, I must have done really well in the written paper since I'm only in the B region for the 60% class marks. If I'm not wrong, I scored at least a minimum of 75%..haha.
So after today's class, I went to the uni computer shop to get my own new subwoofer. I tahan enough already for one semester. Everytime I return to my desktop PC, I just missed the subwoofer boom. Anyways, it's a great time to challenge and fight fire and fire with those fools below me who think they're the only ones with bass booms. Not only that, it's great to turn it to maximum when they start a hokkien colourful words shouting match during dota sessions. Let's see then who's louder than subwoofered rock music..haha. I went back to test the new sound system and voila! Superb...superb..you can totally feel the power of Mike Drrnt (power stuff in "Holiday", Chris Wolstenholme and most especially, Flea from Red Hot Chilli Peppers! All those blitzy bass slapping and plucking from him are insane. When I played "Tell me baby", the subwoofer was vibrating and rattling like crazy! Now my room has the rock concert ambience when I play my rock music, something which I'm accustomed to for 4 years already but which was missing for the past 8 months or so. The table is already very limited with just enough space to write and now with the subwoofer, it occupies half of that remaining space. Alamak, how to study lar this boy. I don't care, the music stays..muahahaha. =p
Monday 1 September 2008
Semester 2
Oh gosh..it was predicted to be 5.30 am but the bus reached Seremban in the wee morning hours of 4.30 am. By 3.40am it was already at Kuala Lumpur. It's funny but this is one moment where I don't want the bus to reach early at all. It's cool that there's no crowd but so are common transportation services..haha. So, I arrived in a deathly silenced Seremban town but thankfully it's bright with the street lights on. I made my way to the KTM station and was contemplating whether I should find a fast food restaurant and have breakfast while waiting for the first train to come. But zzzzz...fast food restaurants in Seremban do not operate 24hrs and there are certainly not open at the wee hours of 4.30 am.
So I sat at the KTM station, half dozing and waited until 5.30 am before the train came. My load is unusually heavier than usual and my palms became sore carrying it over long distances..haha. I'm fortunate to catch the green bus at the Nilai terminal and actually it seems that it's not going to Inti at all but after seeing a substantial amount of passengers heading there, the driver changed his mind. When I reached the room, I was extremely sleepy and tired because my sleep was disrupted at 4.30 am..haha. So, I juz slam on the the bed and did not wake up until like 1 pm. Since I feel too lazy to do anything, I watched a few episodes of Lost Season 4 while munching on cheesy nachos.
Looking at my new timetable, I'm quite pleased with it. It's superb in that there's no 8am classes at all! Minimum time is 10 am and each day is a 1 subject 3 hr lecture. Shitty day had just shift from tuesday to friday..lol. If there is no mpw, monday is supposed to be a free day but i'm equally fine with evening lessons starting from 3 to 6..haha. In any case, it's great to be back in a place filled with the vibrancy young people =).
So I sat at the KTM station, half dozing and waited until 5.30 am before the train came. My load is unusually heavier than usual and my palms became sore carrying it over long distances..haha. I'm fortunate to catch the green bus at the Nilai terminal and actually it seems that it's not going to Inti at all but after seeing a substantial amount of passengers heading there, the driver changed his mind. When I reached the room, I was extremely sleepy and tired because my sleep was disrupted at 4.30 am..haha. So, I juz slam on the the bed and did not wake up until like 1 pm. Since I feel too lazy to do anything, I watched a few episodes of Lost Season 4 while munching on cheesy nachos.
Looking at my new timetable, I'm quite pleased with it. It's superb in that there's no 8am classes at all! Minimum time is 10 am and each day is a 1 subject 3 hr lecture. Shitty day had just shift from tuesday to friday..lol. If there is no mpw, monday is supposed to be a free day but i'm equally fine with evening lessons starting from 3 to 6..haha. In any case, it's great to be back in a place filled with the vibrancy young people =).
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