1001 ways to waste your time....

Yeap, my exams are over and now i'm idle. Soo much time, so little to do. Post-exams you kinda get that feeling that you've lost your purpose in life yet.. burdenless. Heh. Ah well, I'll be back in KL on the 17th.

Just a link to share if you're really bored and you've got not much to do:

www.bash.org - Quotes from MIRC (Ah, good days of MIRC...brings back memories, doesn't it?)

Example of some quotes:

random girl: hey!
me: ...hi?
me: who is this?
random girl: Jessica, I saw u on myspace
random girl: ur hot
me: thanks
random girl: np
me: this girl keeps bugging me, but I don't want to talk to her
me: what should I do?
random girl: make up sum excuse, like ur mom is kickin u off or sumthing
me: oh alright
me: I have to go
me: my mom is kicking me off
me: bye

Primus521: hey dude the funniest thing happened to me today
Primus521: im at walmart and this chick is buying a box of tampons and they are missing the upc and wont ring up
Primus521: so the cashier tells his buddy to get a price check on tampax
Primus521: the dude looks at him and says, "the kind u push in, or the kind you hammer in?"
Primus521: lol
Primus521: turns out he misheard him
Primus521: he thought he said thumbtacs
Primus521: you should have seen the look on the chicks face
Primus521: omfg
Primus521: til the day i die
Primus521: i will never forget it

.....................................................................
..................................
where's pacman when you need him?

lmao there's a wicked lookign spider on my monitor and if i move the mouse around he chases after it
haha mendo
take a screen shot
wait
that made no sense

I swear to god
I've just heard a duck tell a joke
o...k
there was as group of ducks on a pond near where i live
one of the ducks was quacking away looking straight at a group of like 10 ducks
then he stopped and all the other ducks went mental
it looked just like duck stand-up comedy


Heh, yeap.. good stuff. Profanity and mature ratings warning tho' as your probabaly have noticed. Yours truly tried to keep the profanity to the minimum in the chosen quotes. So anyone here reading this and is under 18 should go here instead.


Umm.. some good movies to check out would be : Prime, Inside Man, Butterfly effect, All of studio ghibli's movies: Sprited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli is Japan's equalivalent of Disney but way much better, just think no singing, a beautifully composed soundtrack and awe-invoking graphics/art)

Mm.. makes you fuzzy inside just looking at it, doesnt it?

I've yet to watch My Neighbour Totoro... which is done by the same guy, Hayao Miyazaki. Just don't mind the wierd names and equally wierd characters in the film as illustrated above.

The great thing about Miyazaki's films it that... it's more about the journey rather than the destination. Just enjoy the ride!

Ah well, that's all for now. Overandout.

P.S. If anyone in Notts is gonna be around till the 16th, get in touch with me for ulti frisbee/bball/Civ4/Dota or anything else which doesnt involve too much outflow of cash.

Just as I was...

Just as I was thinking life in halls isn't too bad... The fire alarm went off at 3am this morning. It makes you wonder whether there is specific level of hell for people who set off the alarms when exams are going on. Mm.

I just had my tort paper which was quite okay. It's gonna take me a while to stop associating words/objects with case names. Say a common English name like : Smith, James and case names start crawling out of my head. Ugh.

Anyway, it's contract next tommmorow morn. I'll be done in less than 24 hours.

Hmmm, the sun's up btw. Nice day it seems.

Hope to see all of you on the other side, intact and quite sane. Cheerio.

D'oh!

D'oh!

I woke up early today.. Testing my memory on over 50 cases involving tort... Had a good warm shower... Packed my stuff, ready to sit for my exam... Went down to breakfast with false bravado and a brave smile... I met my fellow law student, Eugene and in the course ofour conversation, I discovered...

My paper was tommorow and not today! Ugh. Messed up I am.

Somehow I had thought today was the 23rd and tommorow would be the 24th, and hence, I thought my tort paper would be today and my contract paper tommorow.

Well, on the bright side, I gained a day! Woohoo! On the other hand, that means my misery is stretched out longer. Bleh.

Back to the bright side, I feel kinda rejunevated. It's like... I've travelled back in time or like... I've cheated death! Not to mention the 'push' it gave my mind into thinking my paper was today.. Heheh. Ah well. Just need to hold on for another 48 hours here.

Drained... but the fight goes on..

Once again, guys do sign the petition. (I don't see your names there!!) http://www.medschoolsonline.co.uk/index.php?pageid=149
If you think it doesn't affect you, think again. It'll affect the quality of medi-care you'll receive back home. Our medics don't get the training they deserve and go back with less than what they were promised and thus, leaving us the patient with less options.

Also remember, if this goes through, do you think there's a possiblity that the government would go on to limit non-EU applicants in other fields? (ie: engineering, law) Ever heard of the mousetrap story?

Besides that, I'm severly drained. Anyone ever felt that exams have this uncanny ability of draining your soul leaving you hollow inside? Self doubt and nagging concerns start creeping in.. Hm. Makes you think what keeps you going, huh? Some have others (be it a significant other/good friends) to draw strength from, other draw strength from their faith, others draw strength from their own personal motivation. But the truth is it's probably a combination of all of the above.

Well, the strength I draw from my cup of joe has waned. I've developed a tolerance towards.. caffiene! 3 Cups and I don't get the kick I used to. A change of tactics perhps? Maybe power naps would do the trick.

Keep up the good fight people and see you on the other side. 'Till then.

Much to do about nothing...

Before I go on, on per request of a certain lovely medic in B'ham.. Sign this petition. It concerns the new legislation which creates barriers to entry for graduating non-EU medics into the UK workforce. It gives priority to EU nationals when choosing candidates for a job and it's clearly discriminatory and in breach of the Humans Rights Act 1998, art 14: Prohibition of Discrimination.

Do your part people!

Alright...

I'm half through the day and I've had an intake of over 120mg of caffiene and I've still got a redbull in reserve.. Now, I've got a slight twitching eye. A twitching eye's not a good thing as you probably already know... It kinda makes you think people around you're trying to be funny or you're probably trying to hit on 'em. In hindsightb, I should really be eliminating all social contact and subsequently, reduce all possiblity of a misunderstanding to nil.

As you can see, I'm severly caffienated or maybe a cocktail of caffiene and ginseng pills is not really a smart thing. The stuff we do (esides studying) to improve our exam performance. The only thing I lack now is Brand's Herbal Chicken Essence. Heh.

Of few words...

Just a really quick one for today. Consti was relatively bad.. but it could have been worse and yet, it could have been better.

I'm really beat. Waking up early the past few days has done me in. I've still got contract and tort remaining and I'll be done on Tuesday.

If you're looking for some real life drama, do watch our Malaysian Parliament in action on Youtube. They really should broadcast the proceedings live on Malaysian TV. Imagine the entertainment value!

Besides that, BBC has this to say about Malaysia. This whole 'us vs. them' mentality is really sickening. Why can't we all meet halfway rather than I'll see you on your side with pitchforks and parangs? What kind of times are we living in? Here's where I say I don't like the word 'tolerance'. It's a negative word meaning: ' Oh, I don't like you.. but we're stuck together so I'll tolerate you.' Why can't we have more understanding and acceptance? Bleh.

All pretty bleak stuff. Then again, life ain't always rainbows and sunshine.

Alright I'm off for some end of the day muck. ie: Hall dinner. Whoopee.

Going over the top...

Mmm.. Break in case of emergencies for instant dose of caffiene.

In roughly 16+ hours, it'll be time for us law students to disconnect ourselves from our caffiene drips, ready to leave our note-littered trenches and go over the top.

Constitutional Law.. here we come.

Besides that, all the best to everyone who's in the midst of their exams right now. The uni just sent out a circular telling everyone:

"A diet of crips, chocolate bars and coffee can only do so much good. Make sure you have at least one good meal a day."

How true indeed. Take care of yourselves, peeps! But if you're in halls like me, one good meal a day..?? Hah! That's a good one.

Mm.. puffy...

It gives a sense of serenity watching puffy clouds pass over the campus.. Kinda like some big guy up there slowly churning more cotton candy in the sky.. or like... big lumps of cotton off to clean some big ear in the sky. Heh.

Ah well, it's a stark reminder that the world goes on moving no matter what we do. Whether we stop to watch it move. Or whether we're too busy moving to notice it move. Or just too bitter/distraught to keep on going. Or just taking it all in and giving thanks to the big guy in the sky. It goes on moving with/without us.

And now.. a prayer specifically dedicated to hall food. (as you can see, I've been trying to give my right brain a workout..)

Oh Lord,
I know it's ain't much,
And it doesn't taste like much,
Neither does it look like much,
And they don't give us much,
But I hope I'm not asking too much,
When You bless all this food, (and of course the hands which prepared it)
Help me don't think much,
When I eat all this muck.

Amen.

Bleh...

My attempt to get my name higher in the Google search list was rather futile. So far, if you search on google for 'Joachim Leong Ming Yoong', you're come across two articles with the one and only, *ahem* me.. both about Mother's day.. Heh. Anyway, it was mother's day back in Malaysia on Sunday.. So, quickly call home and tell your mommas you love 'em! For us in the UK, Mother's day was celebrated two months back. Yeah, you could use that as a weak excuse if you forgot...

I'll post more on my umm.. 'experiment results' and all another time when I've got more time on my hands. I did come across a Singaporean basketball-playing Joachim tho. Also saw a poker playing Joachim making a bluff somewhere. Oh, and lots of German Joachims.

That aside, I've discovered the wonders of post-rock in the form of Sigur Ros. Great stuff. They're an icelandic band.. with a unique sound quality to all their songs. Check out their lastest album Takk. Its the kinda music to listen when you're studying. Although, I have to admit at times you'll find yourself yolde-ing along with the music. Heh. Well, I've got something to add to my study music playlist besides Gregorian Chants and sountracks from Civ4, Howl's Moving Castle, Hearts of Iron 2, Bleach, Full Metal Panic 2, and of course good old classical music.

I had a dream I was in a monastery few weeks back. Must have been the Gregorian Chants. Mm.. And Vocation Sunday was two sundays ago. Hmm...

Alright back to yodle-ing with Sigur Ros and studying ways to sue our beloved governments. Cheerio.

I don't know how...

I don't know how I'm gonna survive. I'm out of instant noodles, and left with a single banana, an apple, a small cup of yoghurt and an orange. (Yes, I know.. really healthy eh? Apparently, bananas are good at keeping depression away, apples are better than keeping you awake in the morning than a cup of coffee and well, the orange is for the vitamin C I guess)

But I am in greater need of sustainence(not to mention caffiene)! To make things worse....

All the vending machines within the library (including the coffee machine/redbull machine.. the horror!!) are either:
a) out of order.
b) out of stock.

*sigh* And I'm out of small change... even if the machines were working I can't do anything. I gave it all up to the collection plate.. *mumble grumble*

Yeap, it's time to head into town and raid the shops... but they're only open tommorow morning.. arghh! All this studying(supposedly) is fueling an unsatiable hunger... I wonder how long till I might resort to canabilism. Must start singling out suitable candidates.. who are not too muscular yet not too fat.. Hmm. And which body part to start with? The thigh? The arm? Mm... Decisions.. decisions..

*deeper sigh* It's gonna be one long night..

Hmm... I've got a theory

I've got a theory that rather than the weather affects our mood, it's possible that the general mood can affect the weather. It's not a theory which is backed up by really concrete evidence but it's supposed to be summer and the weather's turning for the worse this coming week as exams start to set in. Mm.. guess someone up there has a sense of irony.

In other news, some interesting facts from the mundane to rather serious ones... which I came across or learnt this week are:

1. Cyling really fast (especially downhill) during the summer, can result in you tasting quite a number of bugs and believe me, I think I know how a windshield feels like.

2. As reported by the uni magazine, Impact, Notts Uni is apparently one of the top profiteers from the Iraq War.. joining Oxford Uni and University of London. Apparently, our uni has been sending lawyers to support 'human rights work' at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office back in 2004.

3. Oh, those from Notts uni we are possibly reading this.. do take 5 minutes to log on to the portal and fill up the survey. The Student Union wants our opinion on whether the uni should build a hotel on campus, whether sports facilities fees are too much, whether they should convert some of the hall bars into cafes (score one for coffee aficionados!)...

4. Micheal from LOST and Lana from SMALLVILLE are both bloody annoying. I won't give away the fun about LOST but Kristen Kreuk..as hot as she may be.. can't help saying her character is such a pain in the arse. Four seasons of her antics is more than enough. Chloe for Clark any given day! Then again, I've given up on Smallville.. the season finale sucked.. I've lost faith in Smallville. Watching it is merely going through the motions to know what happens next. IMO, it has lost it's soul somewhere around season 4.

5. I came across Amatuer Transplants yet again. If you haven't heard them, give them ago. They're basically a group of doctors who sing! Listen to 'Nothing at All'.. Heh. All in good fun, chums.

6. Next, pretty serious stuff... Three words. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). I came across an email about our Malaysian government is looking into signing a FTA with the US. An FTA basically eliminates all protection for bilateral trade between us and the US. Good thing? Not necessarily.. So here we go.. we have another petition at http://www.ftamalaysia.org/. The government should show some accountability in this matter and prove to us that they know what they're doing in the form of a Social Impact Assesment. This agreement would have reprecussions on all of us... As cynical as this may sound, but how sure we're now letting them screw us over lying down?

As such, take a look at these two site:

http://www.twnside.org.sg/
- here you can see the effects of FTAs on other developing nations

Kit Siang's blog
- here you can check for updates on parliament

Do take the time to take a look. Let's make an educated choice and have our say. The people should never fear the government but rather the government should fear it's people! (watch V if you haven't already! great stuff..)

7. I find England's football obsession very interesting and daily news on how Rooney is progressing and Theo Walcott's suprise addition to the team never seems to stop coming in.

8. Having a group of 3rd year law girls (one or two are quite fit..IMHO) sit at your table while studying in the library can be a motivator in getting up really, really early and making sure you get a seat at your usual place. Hey, every bit helps, right?

That's all for now folks. The tomes of law beckon...

It's one of those days...

It's one of those days where
.. you buy a brand-new spanking suit and some jerk throws alcohol over it and you now need it dry-cleaned.
.. you go to the library and end up bringing the wrong set of notes.
.. you leave your summer job application to the last minute and end up staying up whole night and getting 3 hours of sleep to complete your CV and Coverletter.
.. you discover the dateline is today and it seem they want it delivered by today! Not emailed!
.. you need to deliver a letter where you need to cycle 2 minutes away to a letter box and you underestimate the weather. The moment you start cycling it starts to pour. The moment your task
is done, the sun shines.
.. you regret not getting mud guards for your bike and your whole back looks like lao sai.
.. you end up soaked wet from top to toe, too tired to go on with 6 days left to your first paper.


Maybe it was because
.. the night before, you and your friends tried to drag out on of your other friends to join in the post formal festivities.
.. you and your friends decided to follow suit two other groups of people and start a bonfire going in the Downs only to be stopped by uni security when the fire gets going.
.. mother nature's not to happy coz you burnt plastic to get the fire going.
.. you had just a drop too much of wine/champagne during the formal and went on for some more drinks at another hall's bar

Ahh.. it's just one of those days.

The early bird...

Something has to be said about watching the sunrise while overlooking the university campus. How it peeks out of the horizon and the shades of red embrace the blue skies. The way the sunlight slowly encompasses the whole uni park. I like to think of it as a reminder there's a light at the end of this tunnel somewhere.

It has also to be said that it's wierd bumping into your immediate corridor neighbour with her friend, carrying a foldable chair and a jug of drink heading off to the Downs to greet the dawn after a night of more dirnking... while you're off to the library at 5am.. I guess each and every man/woman to his/her own.

Exams ahoy!

Hey all, I've been quite busy with exams. Case names swimming in my head..(not to mention leaking) with a week left to my Constitutional Law exam, and less than 2 weeks to my other two papers : Tort and Contract law. After exams, I'll post something about burlesque and other stuff...

I'm planning to go semi-nocturnal for the next week or so.. sleeping at 9pm, getting up at 3am.. and heading to the library till noon and sleeping again and repeat. I just can't seem to concentrate in the afternoons.. the library can get pretty stuffy and claustrophobic during the day.. not to mention the amount of deodorant/perfume some people slap on. Its also distracting on some girls keep on playing with their hair.. arghh! Pet peeves.. I have. There's also a certain amount of personal satisfaction to be gained when you see people later on during the day and you can go like, ' Ha! I've been up and got more stuff done before you!'

Don't mind me.. the exams are getting to me if you haven't noticed. Sanity's the privillege of the few at these crucial moments of the year.

Mm.. In other news, I've updated my blog's links. Here's where I should put a disclaimer saying : I do not take any responsiblity for the content of any of these links. Enter at your own risk. Heh. No, seriously. Bleh.

Hooters....

Yet another day, yet another story of my errr.... adventures in Nottingham. This one is about our lil trip to a restaurant called Hooters. It's a chain of restaurants around the world, originating from the US which basically has food like TGIF's but served by busty, fit (supposedly) waitresses. Oh, and of course, they're famous for their wings!

The adventure started with me getting everyone lost coz I was supposed to know where the restaurant was but in the end, we did find it. We got a table for the 12 of us.. our waitress who looks kinda like Katie Holmes (unfortunately we didn't get a pic with her) was probably the best-looking waitresses in the restaurant so we felt kinda special. Heh. We ordered a hundred wings between the 12 of us and the other side of the table (comprising of Jess, Justin, Liza and Seng) chowed down on their 50 like mad-men/women! We on the other side (Me, Adrian, Prav, Julie, Shaz, and Priya) were struggling with both our main courses and the 50 wings. Had to 'ta-pau' in the end.. Heh.

For a pic of one of the waitresses check out Farid's Blog.. around his 3rd post. Nice zoom in onto the waitresses umm.. nametag. Yeah, really memorable.. Lol. Yes, we did go to Hooters for the wings and out of curiosity.. and the reason we look at the waitresses was coz of the bright orange pants. Really! >.<

Anyway, the trip was more of out curiosity than anything.. food turned out so-so and service was a bit dissapointing at the end coz our waitress dumped us and we had problem's waving her down to pay the bill.

Just discovered I have a deal of 50chicken wings + free 50 wings when I was un-packing. Anyone in Notts, wanna go?

Btw, I can proudly say.. I've been to the one and only Hooters in the UK!! Yeah!! Lol. Malaysia Boleh! That's one small step for Joachim and one big step for Bolehland.

If there's one song...

that you could download for the whole of the year.. It's got to be baba yetu. Check it out here.

It's the opening theme song for a game, Civilization 4 and I vaguely remember hearing it on Desperate Housewives. (I can't verify this for sure..)

It's a great song.. It's actually the Lord's Prayer in Swahili. A brilliant post on this song can be found here.

Justashortonefornow. Cheerio.

Real cash for virtual cash anyone?

Looking throught Firefox's news feed.. i came across this article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4953620.stm

Project Entropia

Basically, it's a MMORPG like say R.O or WoW but where you can actually convert cash into virtual cash, known as PEDs in the game and also vice versa!
There's an exchange rate of 10PEDs for 1 USD. For those unfamiliar with the MMORPGs, you basically live a second life online but in a fantasy world. Besides the usual killings and gaining experience, some MMORPGs like WoW let you take up professions by making potions or skinning animals.Project Entropia is taking it to higher level by making bytes of data into real cash.

I'm no genius.. but wouldn't it be opening up new possiblities of say.. fraud (hacking into account or exploiting a glitch on the game and converting the PED into USD) and even money laundering (say I stole 5k from a bank.. how do i clean it up? Buy a few accounts with fake IDs.. but some virtual cash and keep it there for a whole or trade it for goods and re-sell 'em) I can even imagine that if there was sufficient demand and this whole thing took off, people wouldn't need to work in the real world and can't just earn money by logging on and earning some money in the virtual world.

Yet...It's nothing new to create economies out of 'nothing'. Collectibles and even card game companies have succeeded in creating 'value' out of nicely painted figurines or pieces of cardboard in the past decade.

Mm.. how the world is changing indeed.

You've not experienced spring here till you've...

gotten a big group of friends, gone for a picnic, played ultimate frisbee till the sun goes down (which is around 9pm here), gone to a bar, got a drink, played some poker... Great stuff!

A big bunch of us got together and had a picnic at Wollaton Park which is just 5 minutes away from the hall and is also a deer reserve. (indicated by the large amount of 'coffee-bean like' droppings to quote Adrian littered around the park) Food was alright-ish. We had some frozen pizza and food from KFC. We were going for minimum preparation.. I always though food tastes significantly better when you're having it in a company of friends although this rule does not apply to hall food. We didn't have a picnic mat but we improvised using a spare bedsheet. Heh.

One sad thing was that although it wasn't raining (if there was, it wasn't.. it was just umm.. evening dew!), it was kinda cloudy. Looking at the glass half-full, it was not too windy or cold. Ironic that it was really nice and sunny (a rarity here!) the past few days but when we all came out to play, the sun wasn't out.

A picnic by the lake with deers grazing with great company and flowers in half-bloom. How poetic can it get? We kinda broke up into groups after the meal and played some footie and some frisbee throwing 'activities'. Later,we started playing ultimate frisbee which is kinda fusion of netball (can't move with the frisbee) and american football (where you've gotta catch the frisbee over the line). I basically went ballistic on the field.. rolling on the grass, making fanciful dives for the frisbee.. it was wild! We had to leave the park at 7.30 coz they closed up then but we continued playing at the field near the sports centre. Tiring but great stuff!

Times like these you know you're alive. It's the little things in life that keep you going. Great times with friends. Rolling on the grass with the grass against your skin. Or just lying on it and looking skywards. Making good plays in a game yet screwing up and having a good laugh instead. Having a nice cold beer after a long day out. Mm..

Well, I've got to keep going.. yeap.. study calls. Umm, yeah, maybe after tonight tho'. I'll be going to burlesque at Geisha which is basically a genre which originated as a form of parody of the upper classes. Over the years, it's evolved into well.. describing it as lewd and semi-phonographic would be a bit too.. harsh? It's umm....art! Lol. Wikipedia gives burlesque a description of :

"By the 1880s, the genre had created some rules for defining itself:

• Minimal costuming, often focusing on the female form.
• Sexually suggestive dialog, dance, plotlines and staging.
• Quick-witted humor, lacking complexity.
• Short routines or sketches, with minimal plot cohesion across a show."

Well, in all honestly I'm going coz it's my bro's birthday and in curiosity. Anything else would be icing on the top. Lol.

Ahh.. that's all for now. overandout.