Crushing month ahead

The month where lots of business needs to be conducted is here. Mooting bundle submission is gonna be on this Wednesday. Well, I could finally find a couple of cases to support my ground of appeal but it required a little twist and creative reconstruction as they do not address it directly. However, the argument script has not being produced yet but thankfully, there's time to do that since my mooting date is set on 18th March. Hmmm..that week is gonna be a killer too coz I'm also having a Malaysian Law presentation on that day.

For some reason or so, I met with lots of bad, ridiculous and absurd drivers today. One of the most bizarre one is one driver who was driving against the flow of traffic and he honked at me! What an audacity! Lol..I'll shove one thousand JPJ summons at his exhaust pipe if he dares to bang me. Then in the evening, as I was navigating along one of the row of shops at Nilai, two to three cars were reversing and coming out from parking haphazardly like there's no system. For a moment, I thought I was navigating through the streets of KL.

Btw, I went to one of the optical shops in Nilai to make a new pair of specs. I'm most thankful that I could get the specs frame from my grandfather's shop and that should reduce the cost by almost half. And even making just its lenses is extremely costly. Mid-range ones could come up to RM220. (I'm not sure whether I kena ripped there anot..haha) I've never thought much about the price of specs until now coz all these years, my grandfather makes them for free. Now that he's no longer around, I could feel the pinch at my pocket in just getting the specs. Somehow, looking around the optical shop reminds me of him once again.

This Monday morning will start with some hectic arrangements as I need to collect and settle the renting of equipments from various departments for the Christian Awareness Week. Haha, yesterday the committee members were tying and wrapping the giveaways until our hands grow blue. It's like a never ending job with almost 5k amount of sweets to handle..lol. Anyways, all the information boards and everything will be finalised by tomorrow and I pray that everything will go smoothly for the whole week ahead :)

Stalemate at San Siro

The Romanian and the Bulgarian slugs it out

It was a meeting of former adversaries as Fergie takes the trip to Italy to meet his former foe Jose Mourinho. Fergie didn't exactly have a good record against Mourinho considering that counting all the games including those at Porto, Fergie only won once. It was Mourinho's time at Porto and his infamous victory over United a couple of seasons ago at the Champions League using that Porto team had propelled him to superstardom and gave him the right the call himself "the special one".

The first half was dominated by United as they break constantly into Inter's backline with their pace and quick passing. Inter were clearly having some trouble dealing with the off-ball passing too. Inter's typical slow build-up style was choked up easily through some excellent disposession techniques by the United defenders. Zlatan did not terrify the United defenders as much as Ronaldo did to his Inter team-mates. Giggs was excellent too in breaking through defences but his finishing could not match up to result in a goal Just before half-time though, frustration at the referee in the substitute bench became confrontational when Toldo and Figo decided to give the fourth official a piece of what they're thinking. Too many free kicks and decisions were given in favour to United, as so they seem to have argued. Of course, the ref has no nonsense for that and slapped Toldo with a yellow. On the other hand, the San Siro crowd is getting restless after seeing the amount of chances United have against their goalie. Berbatov, Giggsy and Ronaldo all had superb beautiful chances, but none of them could add to the score.

Inter's performance in the early part of the second half was an improvement as they were the ones iniating the attacks instead. However, Inter players were similarly guilty of missing open chances too. Ronaldo's performance at the San Siro was possibly one of the best ever seen this season. His free kicks were on target but they were matched up evenly by some vital saves of Julio Caesar. A last minute unleashing of Rooney was done in the hope of getting something out of the game but nothing much came out of that coz he came into the game too late. It was the climax of the game at the last few seconds of the game when Ronaldo went up to take on yet another free kick but the Inter goalie was extremely proud of himself to deny the Portugese once again. It ends with a 0-0 score.

United would have rued the missed chances to score especially when the away goal is so vital in deciding the outcome. They were clearly dominating and had enough firepower to kill the game but failed to do so. This was the same situation when they were facing Barca at Nou Camp when Ronaldo missed his penalty and that resulted in 0-0. No away goals meant that a draw with Inter scoring at least 1 will be sufficient for the Italian club to go through. Fergie will have to beef up his defence to block Zlatan and co. from scoring there. The return of Vidic will certainly makes things easier for the defence although O Shea and Evans demonstrated that they were as capable in stopping Zlatan. The ultimate question however will still be whether those missed chances will return to haunt Man Utd.

Seven points ahead

Cheers for Wayne as he scores on his full-fitness return

It was another week of action at Old Trafford as the Rovers paid United a visit there last Saturday. Blackburn were never as potent to be the Achilles heel this season for Man Utd as they languish just above the bottom three. Paul Ince's era there was marked with boo boos, and he was never able to inspire the same kind of confidence from the team as Mark Hughes in the previous seasons. Ironically, Mark Hughes is having a hell of a time at Man City instead. Nevertheless, the arrival of Sam Allardyce was anticipated to add push up the difficulty higher than usual given his managerial experience in the league. Several interesting line-ups placed by Fergie as he leaves out Vidic, possibly for a rest, for a partnership between Ferdinand and Evans.

Wayne marked his total return to full fitness by scoring at the 23rd minute. That certainly started the ball rolling. However, a messed up moment of confusion at the back line allowed Roque Santa Cruz to be the first person to put the ball into United's net since November last year. Haha, United may have lost the record but van der Sar's record is still running because the bloke standing in front of goal at that time was Kuszchak! I guess it's second rate goalkeeping that allowed the ball in. It was understandable that Fergie left out VDS too for that match since the upcoming Inter Milan match and Carling Cup final had more importance and it was vital that the Dutchman maintained freshness and sharpness for both of them.

Anyways, for some reason or so, it's either Blackburn were looking pretty sharp in attack under the tactics of Big Sam or United's defence were crumbling without the presence of Vidic and VDS. Ronaldo's superb free kick at the second half was a dipping rocket shot and that goal sealed the win for United. I guess Fergie was kinda alarmed looking at the amount of Blackburn scares and he subbed in Vidic at the hour mark, just after Ronaldo's goal to prevent any further disasters. At the same time, it's kinda worrying to see Evans limping off as he replaced Vidic since he would most probably be needed for the Milan match considering that United have a mounting injury table from the defence.

Liverpool had to play the chasing game again as United did their part on Saturday. However, things were not looking good at Anfield as Craig Bellamy returns to haunt his old club by inducing an own goal from Arbeloa to give Man City the lead first. Kuyt equalised later at the 79th but Liverpool could not find the winning goal to keep up with United. That leaves them now with a gap of 7 points with about 12 games left to play. Time is running out for the Scousers. Even Benitez himself has recognised that the failure to at minimally win at Old Trafford would mean the end of the chase. Chelsea on the other hand, seemed to be starting on the path of rejunevation following the appointment of new boss Hiddink. Aston Villa were a tough bunch but Chelski managed to steal a 1-0 win at Villa Park to get back to 3rd place again. On the other hand, another Arsenal boo boo as they drew 0-0 with Sunderland. Looks like the arrival of Arshavin is not going to provide an instant answer to their problems. UEFA Cup matches for them next season...ahahaha :)

This week also marks the return of Champions League matches and it'll be a crunching and highly anticipated match-up between Man Utd vs. Inter Milan at the San Siro. The clash between the current no.1 in England and the no.1 in Italy. I see that the old Joga Bonito advertisment of Zlatan v. Ronaldo did happen afterall..lol..

Of Faith and Anticipation

Had to wake up early yesterday to fetch people the Inti people serving in church. Haha..last week was at a later time since no Inti students were serving, so this week is back to the time I'm used to. Anyways, I was reflecting on one of the verses that was brought up in the sermon. It was Hebrews 11:1 where Paul speaks about faith : "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". He went on in giving a whole list of major events in the Old Testament where people like Abraham and Moses placed their trust in God for future events even though they don't quite see the possibility of things happening based on physical logic and reasoning. In Hebrews 11:6, Paul further points out ,"And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him". Ahhh..that'll provide some answers to those that are curious on how does one believe in something that they do not see :) I was just thinking on some matters and was wondering how I should proceed on with it. Honestly, I was thinking what if I anticipate or predict wrongly again? What if that particular thing was not God's prompting but my own thinking? Part of me just didn't want it to fail from happening. I really want it to happen. And I forsee it being a wonderful and solid path ahead if it turns out to be my destiny. The stakes are high and the consequences are kinda disastrous on the other hand if I predict incorrectly. For some reason or so, Pastor Vic touched on that topic and he gave some conditions to know whether it is God's prompting. There were some hints and signs (I think) pointing to that direction but those could have just been some misintepretation, misdirection or wishful thinking on my part. Although the verse was comforting to me, I think I just need more signs before I'm convinced to really push for it..haha.

Btw, congrats to Pastor Vic too for his newborn baby girl! Papa Gonzalez must be feeling great to be a father! Haha..after church, some of us went to visit his house to have a first look at her. Aye, and this driver is feeling pweettyy pleased yesterday again when he saw all his passengers falling asleep in slumberland while he was on the road..hahahaha.

For today, I went out of my room at about 11am to help out to hang the giant banners. I have to commend the guys who painted and drew on Saturday coz the banners were beautifully done! Fantastic designing and colouring there..hehe. It's great and encouraging to see the preparations for Christian Awareness Week coming into place. I made some slight progress in mooting and that is producing the lead skeletal argument document..haha. After searching endlessly on Lexis Nexis, I could only find one case for my ground of appeal and I'm the leading counsel. Ironically, the junior counsel's ground of appeal had more stuff to talk about actually. The problem is that there is no case law that touches on my ground of appeal. I either have to grab some US or Commonwealth cases, or obiter statements to back up my argument. That's going to take some time and the bundle submission due date is 4th March. Argghhh..hopefully, at least 2 more will do, no matter how obscure it is or whether the source came from the Fiji Islands!..lol

Camera repaired

I went down south for a short visit to collect my Nikon camera which was sent for repairs. It's a good time to pop in and see Mama and my brother too...haha. Friday evening bus, reached in about 4 hours, grab and download the stuff that I need at the house, sleep for a few hours, rest and then I'm off at 11.30am the next morning. Of course, before I depart, I cannot miss one important matter to do and that is to grab fresh some fresh salmon sushi to munch on. Haha, no trip is complete without the raw fishies seriously =p

I managed to get the 2.30pm bus and reached back at campus at around 7pm. Woah, all done in less than 24hrs..hehe. I'm kinda glad that my camera's all patched up and fixed now considering that there are upcoming events that needed it to be operational. The cool thing that the repair team did to the camera was to push back also the slight dent that was found at the bottom of my camera frame. The main problem of motion sensors is fixed and my camera is as good as spanking new now. Woohoo..I shall be looking forward in using it again! =D.

The Speaker strikes back

Lol..really lol..really really lol..

Ahh...if one thinks the Perak drama has quieten down until the court makes a decision, he is gonna be so wrong. The Perak assembly speaker, V. Sivakumar flexes his muscles yesterday as he suspends the clueless coup MB Zambry and six of his exco members from sitting in the assembly for 18 months and 12 months respectively. BN goons got pawned. Big time..haha

Now, unlike the MB and his exco members, the Assembly speaker cannot be removed by the Sultan or the MB. Only a no-confidence motion from the assembly can remove him. Without the assembly sitting in, Sivakumar's butt is as sacrosanct as it can be on the chair. Even if there is an assembly, Sivakumar will surely bar the 3 independent candidates from entering it since he had declared their seats vacant already. This would mean there is no clear majority to remove him from assembly! Now with 7 people out of the sitting, PR would form the majority if any sort of motion were to be tabled. And the no-confidence vote against Zambry can theoratically be tabled with success with PR's majority. But that's in THEORY.

More likely, Zambry is gonna send in a legal team to question the legitimacy of Sivakumar's use of power. It's already foreseen from the time of the coup that Sivakumar is gonna be a thorn in the BN Perak government. Because of his position, he's gonna be able to slow down any attempts used by BN to reverse the decision. It seems that the courts, even if they can declare the suspension void has no power to stop the speaker. The speaker could theoratically (again..haha) enforce the suspension using the Sergeant-at-arms stationed in the legislative assembly. But practically, it would depend whether he regards the Speaker as his boss or the OCPD in Ipoh..lol.

The Perak episode is gonna spiral out of control. All these could have been prevented if snap elections were held to stop all these nonsense once and for all. Now, the ball is in Zambry's court and Najib would have to brainstorm ideas to get out of this dead-lock. Najib himself knows that he cannot afford to be embarassed again before taking office. I have to commend Sivakumar though for having the guts to come up with such a move. I wonder if the Sultan is pondering over the consequences of his decisions. With the by-elections due only in April and the on-going saga of Elizabeth Wong, it's a big mess out there with sporadic battles being fought in individual states. Nevertheless, the wishes of the rakyat must prevail above all and hopefully, let that be shown in the by-elections.

Jesus Freak

I was browsing through the music videos of contemporary Christian artists that I have gotten from Alvin and a few of them really amazes me. Just by glancing at the surface, one would assume that those are just a typical music video that people see every time at music shops or MTV but look deeper inside, the lyrics are actually fueled with Christian contexts. It's great to see that Christians are making full use of the talent of creativity which God had given them. There was one song from quite some time ago which I kinda like. It's dc Talk's 1995 hit "Jesus Freak". I think that's a masterpiece which falls under the genre of rap rock like RATM. There's also some elements of Nirvana's punk rock style in there. The common meaning of freak is "unusual" but another meaning found in the dictionary also shows it to have the meaning of an "enthusiast or a devoted follower". Thus, the term Jesus Freak became part of a Christian subculture and it fortified to become a compliment following the success of dc Talk's album in 1995. The verses of the song is kinda like a poetic rap and the chorus is a super shout-out which goes like this:

What will people think when they hear that I'm a Jesus Freak?
What will people do when they find that it's true?
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus Freak.
There ain't no disguising the truth

tobyMac, one of the members of dc Talk still uses the term and perform the song in his concerts as a solo artist. Haha..it'll be great fun if either CF or GFS can put up a band to perform this song. It's a wonderful song to rock out to and it gets everybody jumping..hehe :)

The other music video and song which is I think has a powerful and serious message in it is KJ-52's "Life After Death". This song is more of a pure rap song and the song really has this "in your face" kind of message shoved to the listener. It's direct and unbashfully straightforward. The first half of the song and rap narration gives me the creeps. It's basically down to two choices and the individual has to pick one. The chorus does provide some reflective and provocative thoughts :

Whatcha gonna do when there's no time left?
Whatcha gonna do when ya take ya last step?
Whatcha gonna do when breath ya last breath
Out the chest and you find that there's life after death?

Something to think about eh? :)