Jo's Blawg

Somewhere in between...

2007-02-01T16:08:00.000Z

The great thing about this term is the fact that lectures are in the 2nd half of the day, ie: the afternoon. Good for nocturnal people, bad for morning birds, ie: me. My attention span is lacking during the afternoons and I end up dozing off in the middle of lectures. Bleh.

And another addition to all this is that lectures are staggered an hour apart. What do you do when you have an hour to kill on campus? Well, surely any good, hardworking law student would be take the succinct opportunity to revise before and after those very lectures, no?

So here I am instead... stalking people on their blogs, facebooking and giving people the chance to stalk my life. I like to think blogging of a safer way of stalking and its much much less invasive and of course, a great way to burn time in between lectures.

Well, I've survived the aftermath of exams. Results are out next week but I'm just gonna keep that at the back of my mind.

It's strange how life during exams are. So isolated from the world. I didn't even know it snowed in Notts till the next day when everyone's msn was like: It SNOWED!! OMGWTFBBQ! And I just looked out the window and went like , ' Oh yeah, It snowed alright.' Bits of unmelted slow littered out on the backyard. Hm.

Although, this has been an interesting January for the UK in general. Typically, January is the most depressing month of the year with mounting debts from Christmas, exams for us students coupled with gloomy, depressing weather but lo, and behold! With global warming comes one of the warmest, sunniest January for the UK. Mm.. guess that gives extra meaning to the saying ' There's a silver lining behind every cloud'.

It's Warwick Malaysian Night this weekend and after having a hand in Nott's last year, I'll say it's good to be just a spectator for once. I've heard soo much about Warwick's Dikir Barat and their moment of judgement approaches! Joachim Leong shall has a say whether they live up to that expectation (yes, I like the sound of my own name)

Well, that's all for now. Cheerio.

Indieee music!

2007-01-21T19:28:00.000Z

It's inevitable. It's a calling. It's your vocation as a student.

As a student, you have to appreciate indie music. It's only natural to support the underdog, no big labels behind them, usually just talent and a sincere voice behind it.

One such indie artist which has my thumbs up and head filled with his songs is Mark Wilson. It's really strange how I came across him. You see, there's this guy Mark Wilson who used to be in Rutland Hall and he joined this We love Mark Wilson group and turned out to be not referring to him but this indie artist. Long story short, I checked out www.markwilsonmusic.com, downloaded the free Extended Play (which is basically a short album, somewhere between a single and an album) and here i am, raving about him.

His voice is unique, reminds me of Pete Teo abit. There's this one song, Stones and Sticks on his Myspace page which has this sense of a climax coming with the crescendos but yet, the climax never comes, proving that it's not the destination that matters, but the journey. Some of his lyrics are really cryptic, yet to decipher them all really but beautiful nevertheless. Amazing how his voice and the music weave together to form excellent compositions.

Brilliant artist. Oh and the EP is free. Didn't I mention that?

Everything comes down to poo!

2007-01-19T14:05:00.000Z

Yeah, you heard me. Everything comes down to poo! Well, not really. But the latest episode of Scrubs was a musical one, kinda like the Buffy's Once More With Feeling musical episode. Whereas in Buffy, it was a musical demon, here in Scrub's, it's a patient who keeps hearing everyone in the form of music. Not bad plot devices, no?

Anyway, here's the video of one of songs featured, "Everything comes down to Poo!":

EDIT: Oh, and I found that NBC posted on youtube the Guy Love song and even a short clip on the making of the episode.

Guy Love (not as gay as it sounds, but it's a real Hoot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF6rSGfUdyg

The Making
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE9EaCKsFUU

This episode of scrubs is an absolute classic! A must-see!

This blogger...

2007-01-17T14:25:00.000Z

can't really be arsed to update to his blog it would seem. :s

I'm deeply apologetic to people out there stalking me but of late, I've had little to no motivation to update.

Summing up my Christmas and New Years would be.. I stayed in the UK. My parents came up to spend Christmas with me and my bro. Lots of nagging, babying, pampering and somehow parents always have this tendency to go mental and start cleaning and rearranging the whole house.I had a hard time finding my stuff the next few days after they left. Although long gone, their mark on our house still remains. Tons of 3 in 1 drinks/instant stuff, you name it, I have it. 3 in 1 Coffee, Ice Peach Tea, Ice Lemon tea, Milo Fizz (which is a mix of coffee and milo), lots of Maggi Mee, meat jerky (although I have to say in relation to my last post, my bro has raided most of mine but hah! I got most of his too!), instant soup and the list goes on...

But don't get the wrong impression here, it wasn't all pampering on their part! Me and my bro did quite abit of cooking for them! Well, especially my bro. I made brownies for Christmas, best batch I've made so far I've got to say. Made braised lamb which I shall dub as Joachim's signature dish!

Mm.. I'm in the midst of exams. I've got two papers in one day on Thursday. Family and Criminal Law. Mm.. so I've been reading on how it's actually legal to marry your cousin (UK's one of the few Western countries that allow this), a case on how a woman discovered her 'husband' was actually a woman after two years of marriage after discovering a fake penis in the drawer and much more. Neat stuff.

Well, that's all for now. All the best to those out there with exams!

Tripping the light fantastic, baking and umm..family tax.

2006-11-30T17:57:00.000Z

Meep. I'm back! After half a month, here I am.

Much stuff has happened of late.. took part in Notts Varsity Ball which is a ballroom/latin dancing competition. Me and partner, Liyana got thru 'till the 2nd round for jive, cha cha and waltz and got thru till the 3rd round for quick step for the individual part of the competition. Some of the other Nottingham beginner couples made it 'till the semis and two even made it till the finals! One couple which really made it through quite far in most of the dances was this couple comprosing of two girls. What really set them apart was the fact that they were really confident and you could really see they were enjoying it all.

That's probably a stark contrast to my thinly-veiled smile with my mind actually really in deep thought about the beat and the steps. Lol.

Ah well, baby steps. Not a bad outing for our first competition still. Cambridge really stood out and swept most of the prizes I have to say. For the team event, I couldn't take part as Liyana had to rush off to Warwick to tend to her boyfriend. *sigh* Yes, tis be sad. I, Joachim Leong, left on the dancefloor. Heh. Nevertheless, that didn't stop me and Leanne(who came to support a friend from Manc) from shouting out our support for Notts! (Although I have to say, the hordes of Cambridge students possibly drowned our voices out..)

At the end of it all, it was one of days where I was so beat that I slept like a log till the next morn. Mm.. Sleep.

Hhmm.. In the culinary department, at a pure whim.. I baked something. Edible. And no paramedics had to be called in thankfully or neither was the services of my brother or Alex, my housemate (both 5th year medics) were required. I baked Jamie Oliver's recipe for Brownies! Lots of sugar, butter, sour cherries, pecans, Gold and Black's dark chocolate and a touch of the family baking magic (courtesy from my mom's side.. alright i'm possibly making this up, but do humour me.) and an hour and half later, voila! Umm.. slightly soggy but yummy brownies! I possibly did a mistake of taking it out of the baking tray too fast resulting in the brownies unable to retain its square-ish structural integrity due to the fact that the chocolate takes sometime in solidifying. Hm.

The next morning, the brownies seem to be in better shape although they were kinda crumbly and were not squarish as they are meant to be. For the tasting bit, I took some to lectures and tried to find guinea pi.. I mean, honest food critics. It was well recieved... so, it was a success! Just have to work on getting them into the squares and I'll probably try 'em with some cream with lemon zest.

A common question which I get after I let it slip that I'm staying with my bro, is: how's it like staying with my bro? Well, I've gotta say.. something's never do change.

Before my bro came down to the UK for his Alvls, we've practically been living under the same roof for the whole of our lives. And we still did each time he came back in the summer. What usually transpires back home... is my mom, being the rationer and supplier of the household's goodies would store goodies (chips, sweets, chocolates, goodies in general) usually for either as gifts for others or mostly for special occasions(ie: family outings). When me and my bro were much younger, we would actually 'forage' through the cupboards in the house in search of these goodies and share it among ourselves. (and also effectively share the blame with each other when my mom usually finds out, which she usually does, being the acute, sharp Mom she is... God bless her)

Over the years, we've changed tactics and so has our mom changed hers. She started hiding stuff deeper in the house and had secret stashes usually in her bedroom and we also started to 'hunt' these stashes individually. (so we could get more to ourselves, you see..) Usually we'll get hold of these stashes and hide in our rooms and finish the food off before the other or my mom finds out its gone. When one of us discovers the other has found something, we usually force each other to share it (or if we're feeling guilty.. we'll tell the location of the goodie and share it to effectively.. ahem.. share the blame.. i mean, guilt) Lol. But in most case senarios, the other would have nearly finished the can of pringles, the bars of chocolate and a fight for the last chip or the last square of chocolate ensures. Survival of the fittest and all that stuff.

In hindsight, maybe it's the urbanization of our survival skills. Honing our hunting/foraging skills.. I mean, isn't it a jungle out there?

Alright.. So I've probably given you a bad impression that me and my bro led an improvished childhood and we fought over tooth and nail over everything. Lol. Nah, it wasn't like that. There were many a time where my mom would usually buy something and ask us both to share it out. This usually resulted in either of racing to finish it up to see who could get the most of it. Like a 1.5 litre of ice cream usually lasted 48 hrs tops after being purchased. Mom would always said "Learn to enjoy it slowly, don't race to finish it off...!"

And well, here we are today. We still race off to finish stuff we bought together for the household or poach each other's goodies. Each time we buy ice-cream, we're race off to finish it to get as much of it. (ie: the 8 Mars Ice Cream a month ago. grr..^%^*%$@*. Yes I do keep track!)

Why, just a few weeks back, I bought some jellybabies and left it in my cookie jar and it was meant for a couple of friends I had asked over for dinner. I left it on the dining table and left for class. When I got back, I went up to my room and the jar was right there next to my comp, half finished! *sigh*

Something's don't change alright although nowadays we don't actually duke it out but cuss and swear at each other for a while. (usually.. it's me doing the cussing coz I usually buy most of the sweet stuff/crisps) But thinking about it.. my bro buys most of the comics and I read it off him. (And he cusses and swears when I don't put them away nicely) Hmm.. Maybe we've got a kinda symbiotic relationship here going.

Well, I term this phenemenon... Family Tax. In our family, whatever's yours is mine and vice versa. Resistance is futile.. hiding the goodie will merely result it in being finished or taxed even more heavily.

The guy who said, "Nothing's certain but death and taxes"' probably didn't know the Leong brothers staying on 45, Highfield Rd, Dunkirk... But he certainly knew what he was talking about. Hm.

Overandout.

Easy listening...

2006-11-08T15:25:00.000Z

Alright, let me be forward here. I'm not probably the last guy you'll want close to your comp/radio if you're trying desperately to keep a party alive. I'll opt out for Keane, Coldplay, Travis rather than any rap/RnB anyday...

Came across this cool artist, Final Fantasy (no, nothing to do with the FF series) . All he plays is a violin but he remixes it to come out with cool effects for his songs... This one's called "The Dream of Win and Regine". I find the girl in the video kinda cute.. in an eccentric way with her massive headphones and red hiding hood cloak... Lol. Each and every man to his own, now. I'll admit it's umm.. an unique video. Then again, most indie videos are.

I find this even cooler.. It's his renderation of Bloc's Party Modern Love. You've got to know the original to appreciate it tho'.

But above all, here's the song which is currently stuck in my head. Sentimental lyrics, they are but that's me.. a sentimental easy-listening slob. The video's nifty too.. it all seems sterile, precise and flawless. Everything's in synch, how things can seem to just fall in place. Or maybe it's celebrating the electronica component of song. Hm.

Enjoy!

Maritial Bliss... (no goats this time)

2006-11-06T17:55:00.000Z

Finally, after a long hiatus.. I'm back!

It's been an eventful hiatus with my cousin's wedding a few weeks back and Notts Malaysian Games on this weekend. Add in tutorial preparations and viola! Jam-packed, hectic weeks!

It's ironic that after my last post, I managed to get a peek at Birmingham's Bullring and have a quick stroll and a coffee in Cambridge on my way to Bath. It was funny (as in ironic funny, not haha funny) when I was having my packed sandwich (yes, economical I am) and coming up from the escalator from the train station in B'ham and lo, and behold! A starbucks waitress was serving free mocha and a free brownies right in front of me. If a ray of light was to shine right down on her, heck, I'll convert my religion to Starbucks! It was like.. dessert and coffee to compliment lunch. Booya!

Mm.. I'm familar with it's stone buildings after my last trip down here last Christmas. It's a picturesque, hilly town. Unfortunately, the weather was rather dreadful while me and my bro were there but the wedding went well, nevertheless. Basically, we went down on Saturday morning and reached there in the evening.Toured around Bath abit on Sunday Morning before the wedding service at the chapel in the afternoon and there was the wedding reception later in the evening.

Photo composition ahead! (photos, thanks to my bro)

A rainbow over the horizon as we were changing trains. Neat, eh?

Bath!! Limestone buildings,river and all...

'Brotherly love'. 'Nuff said.

In deep thought with hot chocolate. You can't call yourself a tourist without stopping by somewhere for nice hot drink, now..

My cousin, my uncle, my bro and me in a pre-wedding photo.

The wedding progamme booklet...

The groom and the best man await the arrival of the bride...

Yeap, the wedding vows bit. If anyone has any legal reasons why this couple should not be united, speak now or forever hold your peace! Yea, he really did say it.

There goes the newly weds!

A wedding reception photo of the the lovely couple...

The first dance as husband and wife for Anthony and Eunie...

Can't blame a guy for grabbing a few winks on the long ride back...

Yeap, well those are some of the pics I scoped out. I think I'll be loading the rest on to facebook in time to come.. it's just so tedious to post pics on blogger.

A few other points of interest of the wedding were:

1) It's English tradition to hold the bride's arm on your left, so that the man's right hand was free to wield his sword to defend his bride. No kidding.

2) The priest, a rather nice guy, gave a joke about how the congregation always thinks about the bride's and groom's nerves but never the priest's! And he said he would always get someone remarking about the weather and whether with his 'connections', he could do something about it. His reply to that would be, " I deal in sales, not management.

3) Me, my bro and my uncle were the only relatives on the groom's sides. We're related to Anthony through our mom's side (the foochow Lau side) and in my uncle's speech he mentioned about his 9 brothers and sisters and how our family has mushroomed to over 160 neices and nephews and hinted to Eunie that we expect her to keep up with our former PM's call to increase our nation's population to 70 million. We, Laus have been keeping our 'qouta' up.. I probably shouldn't be typing about this coz I might be scaring my prospects away. Lol. Noooooo! Come back.. it's all negotiable!

Heh. Well, that's it all from me, peeps!

'Till next time.

Of Onions...

2006-10-15T22:51:00.000+01:00

An old school mate, Pi Xie (yes, unique name, no?) apparently is coming down from Canada with a few other friends from around to visit the UK in December 'till January.

So, she asked me where in the UK I was and I told her, Nottingham. And then, she asked... What's there to see in Nottingham?

And it hit me. What is there to see in Nottingham? Notts games is coming up (4th of November) and my parents are visiting around Xmas. I'm bound to be asked this question again soon.

It got me thinking hard. What do I know about Nottingham? Well, there's um.. Hooters? Oh.. and of course our massive, green campus with the spiffy lake. It's quite a nice lake.. the Trent building overlooking the lake with shrubs, wild geese, swans, paths all around the lake. I have to say you've really gotta watch where yer stepping so if you're thinking of pak-tohing, it's good to look down and not really a good time to go goo-goo eyed with your loved one.

Thinking even harder and I've realized Nottingham's got its layers. It's like an onion! Lots of layers to discover. So far, I only know.. where to shop and get groceries. A couple of clubs I've actually visited - Oceana, Faces, Geisha, Bar Snug, The Works. A few pubs. All three comic shops in Nottingham City. The main Uni campus and it's sister campuses (Sutton Bonningtan where you can actually see rabbits frolicking on campus and oh so, industrial Jubilee Campus). I've been to Wollaton Park a few times for picnics and cycled once around it.

And then I realized there's quite a number of layers I've yet to discover. I haven't actually been to the Nottingham Castle which I've heard is just really a large wall and not actually a nice big castle. I've not been down south to the Peak District which is treat for nature lovers apparently. And of course, there's a seedier layer to Nottingham.. the strip clubs. One not too far from Dunkick at Isis. One right smack in the centre of the city, Bar Hambug.

Looking at the larger picture, I've yet to discover much of the UK either. I've visitted Manchester, Bath, Blackpool and of course, London. I haven't been to Newcastle, Edinburgh, Warwick, Birmingham, Oxbridge or anywhere else actually. Mm.

Then, I'm starting to realize.. i'm running out of time here. So 'lil time, so much things to do. If I was to look everything metaphorically.. I'm only past a few layers into the onion.

Hm.

Isn't she a beauty?

2006-10-14T11:36:00.000+01:00

Yeah, there she is. My poor fragmented uni card. She's only 2 weeks old mind you. Then again, perhaps I should look at the glass half-full. When life gives yer lemons, make some lemonade!

It ain't wrapped.. It's contoured! How the curves fit into your palm.. giving a sleek feeling as you slide it across the library automated gates!

It ain't broke.. It's merely umm.. detachable! Makes it transporting around much easier! The larger piece is usable for getting into the library and getting books and all.. the smaller one would be ideal for times I can't remember for my life my library card no or my id no.

But most of all, she's unique! Of the thousands of Notts Uni cards out there, she's one of a kind!

Heh. If anyone needs a spindoctor, you know who to call.

Two sidenotes:
1) I've taken down my tag board as you've probably noticed. Feel free to leave a comment or just hit me up on MSN. I'm sorry that you can't leave a comment if you don't have a blogger account, but I left it as such to prevent people from spamming my comments.

2) I was looking around the net and I came across this guy on myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/jamescarrington
A song of his was on Smallville's latest episode. Ache. I didn't watch it but I heard it was a good song from kryptonsite.com. Yes, I've given up on Smallville.. occasionally watching it if I'm bored out of my wits. In my book, Smallville has gone to the dumps. Check out this new show: Heroes. Good stuff!

While on myspace.. I also did a search for Rendra Zawawi. A talented uni mate of mine. Check him out here: http://www.myspace.com/rendrazawawi Heck! Even, Pete Teo left a comment on his myspace so he's definetely worth checking out.

Pete Teo's right here: http://www.myspace.com/peteteo

Enjoy! Cheerio.

Of Dreams, Uni Cards, Free Stuff and Looking Korean ..

2006-10-11T06:36:00.000+01:00

You know you're gonna have a eyebrow raising day when you've had a dream the previous night where: You're on the Deathstar. You're a Jedi. Princess Leia and Darth Vader makes cameos. Safwan, Praveen and Jeannie are in there too. You save everyone by slicing 'em with your lightsaber and using jedi mind tricks. And you say in your dream: If Luke Skywalker can escape the deathstar, I'm sure we can!

That was the most out of the world dream I've ever had. It was like some badly written essay by a 10 year old brought to life. I would know.. with my mom telling me some of the essays her students write. I can guess why Saf and Prav appeared in my dream coz that day there were over here watching the George Lucas in Love parody with me and I remember talking to a guy from UNIM who knows Jeannie from Taylors CPU. Still, that was one far out dream. I told my law mates about it and they laughed their heads off. Mm.

On with my day...

I went to the library with my semi-broken, cello-taped, warped uni card and guess what? I still can get in and out with it and borrow books with it. The only downside is that the uni sports centre doesn't seem to be able to read the barcode well. That means they doesn't recognize I have a season ticket and I might have to pay a pound each time I go in. Good thing I still have my receipt for my season pass with me.

I did go down to talk to the uni card people but they said they're giving priority to the people who haven't gotten their cards.. So that means, I've got to wait 2 weeks to get it fixed and it'll cost 20 quid. *sigh* But my earlier experiments showed it still kinda works.. so maybe, just maybe, I'll survive with a warped, cello-taped, broken uni card for the rest of the year.

For lunch yesterday, I thought I'll be lazy and just head down to the Portland Food Court to eat rather than pack something coz I was rather low on resources back home anyway. Before that, I popped by the SU shop and they were like giving loads of free stuff. I headed down the stairs, I got a free pack of Levels. Wahey, that's like... dessert! I was about to enter the SU shop, and behold! Free samples of juice! That's part of my 5 portions a day! Exit the Su Shop, Lo and Behold! Free sliced up wraps and sandwiches. Yay, for free protein and carbs! So technically, I could have like walked around like 3 times and gotten like enough free samples to count as lunch. But, nah.. I didn't. Instead, I spent like 4 quid on lunch. I really shouldn't have gone for the strawberry cheese cake. Cursed sweet tooth. In hindsight, I should have been kiasu enough to have pulled the stunt off.

But it wasn't lunch that was particulary interesting. While I was waiting in line to enter the food court, this Korean girl suddenly popped into my range of version and like stared at me and then apologized. So, I asked her whether did she mistaken me for someone and she said.. I looked Korean! She said it was the leather jacket, the way I dress, the hairstyle and all.. And I have to say, I was flattered. I mean, back home.. we've got girls go stark-raving mad at some of the Korean stars (I can't name any to save my life, btw). Even my bro has been said to look like that Korean guy in Winter Sonata. (Although, this was by an aunt and there might be a bit of family bias, but hey it still counts!)

So, here's the deal. Why fantasize about some Korean star far beyond your reach when you can go after either Leong brother.. easily accessible, just as good looking but twice the charm (it's the Leong family charm you see) Heh. It's gonna be awhile till I get my feet back on the ground.

Not bad for skipping the freebies and getting a boost to the ego instead. Heh. Priceless!

That's it for now! Cheerio!

Alive and well/ Calamity Jo

2006-10-09T12:07:00.000+01:00

I've got a rather long post in the works but it seems I'll never get past the draft state.

It's been a week or so of money flowing out my pockets. I kinda left my brand new Uni card in my pants and threw it in the washing machine. It got all warped and the barcode readers can't seem to pick it up. It'll cost to get it changed.. and worse still, I ruined my house's washing machine by forcing it open. The door handle came off and the technician should be coming in around now while I type this. He quoted me 41 quid over the phone. Calamity Jo, I seem to be.

Count in costs like books, sports membership costs and tv license and all... That's alot of cash outflow.

On the inflow side, I haven't been credited the cash from working at the conference centre yet but I've got another job interview lined up for me. It's this company which does crowd management at concerts and other major events. From what I've heard, basically you'll all there is between thousands of mad-raving fans and the celeb. A co-worker of mine at the conference centre did a brief stint with them and helped herd Beyonce off the venue apparently. I guess I'll check out the brieifing/interview thing and see how it goes.

If you're looking for a challenge, check this out: http://www.robmathiowetz.com/
See whether you can get everyone across the river. Apparently, it's used in job interviews in Japan.

Well, that's all for now folks.

Lots going on...

2006-10-07T12:49:00.000+01:00

A week plus of neglect! Well, If i could sum up what I've been up to in a rather non-sensical and convulated post, it'll be: (in back chronological order starting from last night)

Last night
A group of us banded together to have our own little Lantern Festival dinner in Beeston. Most of the food was provided by Weng Yau, Eugene, Daniel and Kwan Wei but a few of us brought a dish or two. I came up with the most Asian dish I can cook.. Fried Wantans! They came out quite okay although quite a number were squished and ended up like eggless mutabak 'cause the skin split. Nevertheless, it was well recieved and an hour of wrapping wantan seemed to have gone appreciated!

Some pics of the night:

(L-R) Esmund, (some HK guy I met during International week), Jin, Kwan Wei, Daniel, Lai Ling, Han, Charlene, me and Eugene.
Cameo apperance: My fried wantan behind the furthest pot on the left.

Chow time!

Yes, centre of attention. I like it that way.

Making myself at home...

Past week
In the academic department, I've dropped commercial law. I intented to change that module to Public International Law (PIL) but it was filled up and I ended up fifth on the waiting list. So now, I'm currently on Family law. Nevertheless, I attended the first two PIL lectures and it was fantastic. In the first lecture, the lecturer brought an inflatable globe and we were to name a country and point it out starting from A to Z. So, it was like a mini-beach ball session with the globe flying across the lecture theatre and the receiver having to name a country with the alphabet we're on. Some were trying to avoid the globe like the plague when the harder alphabets came up.

The second lecture didn't involve any gimmicks but still, PIL seems right up my lane as it's to do more with current issues. It's interesting to note that to the public's eyes that Public International Law does not seem to exist because it's pratically not enforceable but in truth, it's not the enforceability which really makes the law exist but it's existence itself. This perception is further enforced by media reports of conflicts involving Public International Law but in actual fact, PIL does exist. Take criminal law, it's there but yet people still murder,rob, etc.. Does that mean Crim Law doesn't exist? *

The other modules I'm taking this year are Criminal, Land and European Union Law. So far, Criminal has proven the most interesting but Land and EU law at times, prove as interesting and as painful as staring into the sun.

In other areas of my life, staying with my bro has its ups and downs. Someone to cook for you in exchange for well, cleaning up. One of the downs is that my bro tends to live up to the animal of the Chinese Year he was born in (1983.. go figure) He came back from Malta with a bronze tan, Maltese drinks and interesting tales of his adventure there. In fact, we had a Maltese themed house warming on last Tuesday.

Mm.. There was one interesting thing that happened last week too. It was at the Inter-society clubbing event at Faces. It was still rather early around 11-ish when we got into the club and as I was walking past the dancefloor, a hand whips out and grabs me. As I look around, I notice this Korean girl I've seen from somewhere and her group of friends looked just as confused as I did. Then, she said something like about knowing my brother from church. And it struck me that she was at church on Sunday and was talking to my brother. Then, I asked her name and with the music suddenly turned up, all I could barely hear was two syallables! ( I later asked my bro and her name's Nadine) So, I just stuck around 'till she shifted her attention to a different guy and made a discreet but swift escape to the bar. Hm. Talk about wierd, random encounters. I mean, if you want to someone better, there's gotta be better ways than to enlist his help in getting the dancefloor started and trying to get to know the person better in a club. o.0

'Till next time, peeps!

Bounty ahoy!

2006-09-28T00:23:00.000+01:00

One shot glass, one mug, 2 massive voucher books, 2 bars of fairtrade organic chocolate, lots of drink coupons, one muffin, tons of lollipops and sweets, 3 pounds worth of '1 pound' vouchers for Wilcos, coupons for Sainsbury's, a number of keychains, an array of different flavoured condoms, two samples of mostuirizers and facewash, 3 teaspoons, 2 ladles..

Not bad work for 3 days of free goodies from Fresher's Fayre. There goes FF 06/07!

It's amazing what a thick face and kiasu-ness can net you in free goodies.

Can't wait for that time of year where all the law firms to get together and try to court us law students with their goodies. Ahhh.. Excellent....

Of hide and seek, dodgeball and Jehovah witnesses...

2006-09-25T23:58:00.000+01:00

Fresher's Fayre!

It's the new academic year in Notts.. which means its that time again.. to go around grab lots of free stuff, people guilting you into giving up your email address (I lost count how many times I did this), being approached by Jehovah Witnesses.. (I get approached by 'em quite often wherever I am.. Do I look that God-forsaken?) and of course, signing up for societies!

I remember blogging about the bellringing society last year.. This year I came across, the hide and seek-soc. The ideal soc to seek the inner child within! (their words, not mine) I can't help thinking it's more for people who've had deprived childhoods but i guess...hey, whatever floats your boat!

I'm thinking of taking up dodgeball this year. Partly inspired by the movie and also looking to try something different. Yeah,I've got to remember the 4 Ds! Dodge, dive, dip and Dodge! And.. if you can dodge a bullet, you can dodge a ball! Lol.

Hmm.. The dilemma you face at this time of the year is... so many societies/activities, so little time. I'm thinking of taking up salsa after a brief tryout of ballroom dancing. The problem is all these societies will do everything short of duress (posting their most attractive members is a common tactic) to recruit members just to boost their treasuries knowing that most people sign up and don't end up participating in most activities. Choose wisely, I must.

In other news....
While browsing through youtube.. I came across clips from an episode of Buffy where it's a 'musical' episode(Once more, with feeling)! Joss Wheldon's pure genius! Basically in this episode, Buffy's sis, Dawn summoned a demon who causes the whole town to go into a musical frenzy. This has to be one of the best episodes as it captures the backstory of the characters (ie: Buffy's reluctance of being the slayer, Buffy and Spike?, the 'Buffy' gang, Tara & Willow) Check them out here:

The Buffy gang has a theory - Jazz hands and it's the bunnies, I tell yer! Heheh.
I'll never tell
Buffy's going through the motions
Buffy goes to save Dawn.. Giles: 'She needs backup!' LOL!
Where do we go from here

Be sure to check out the other clips. The singing's not bad and the tunes are rather catchy. Good Stuff!

Ahh, yes Joss Wheldon infuses comedy, good drama, good dialogue and good taste. Buffy's much more than just a fit bird prancing around with a wooden stake with Joss around. Sadly, all good things must come an end.

'nuff said.. till next time.

Iron Chef.. Here I Come!

2006-09-24T00:59:00.000+01:00

Breakfast. Very English. Mushrooms, Onion & Cheese Omelette (not tossed very well as you can probably see), tomatoes. Just missing the bacon and sausages...

Spaghetti Cabonara! Voila! Abit too creamy, to the point of 'jelak'ness. *sigh* Still working on the proportions.

Dinner. Roast Chicken made with honey, soya sauce and chili powder. Mom's recipe. Ahh.. Yes. Decorated nicely as Seng and Liza asked me over to dinner so needed a dish to bring over. Picked up a few tricks on food deco from working at the conference centre. Sprinkle some parsley and frozen peas to give your food some colour!

Yes, still a long way to competing in Iron Chef perhaps but tis a journey I enjoy! Although I have to admit I'm at the mercy of the expiry dates rather than me cooking and eating at my whim and fancy. That explains the common theme of cherry tomatoes in each dish! Heh. Btw, cherry tomatoes are supposed best kept out of the fridge to perserve the taste.

The roast chicken came out abit raw but Seng gave some advice he picked up from cooking class that I should have pre boiled the chicken and then tossed it into the oven then. Mm.

'till next time peeps.

A hard day's work and random stuff

2006-09-21T16:50:00.000+01:00

You know you've down something with your day when you've polished 15 cases of glasses, served coffee/tea to hundreds of people attending a convention, cleaned up like 30 over tables, cleared those tables and chairs and last but not least, clear the whole exhibition area. *phew* To top that up, I came back to discover my housemate doing housework so I got guilty and volunteered to do the bathroom and all. Nevertheless, a day's work does not go unrewarded. We all got some lunch and some ice-cream (it's really hot today.. almost like M'sian weather 'cept much windier)from the guys in the conference centre. Self reward's good too.. nothing quite like a cold glass of raspberry smoothie *insert product placement here, leave a comment below with contacts and we'll possibly work something out*

To top all that off... a good night's sleep.... mebbe after a good night out. Heh.

I've thought of loads of stuff to blog about during those 'the body is there, but the mind is somewhere else' moments. So, to be fair to all those moments.. I shall blog in numbered form on certain random things.

1. Having a nice solid ass helps in butting doors open. No, I'm serious. And who needs to do butt firming/toning exercises when all you've got to do it some waitering/waitressing. Just use that ass!

2. It's amazing how you can spend 3 hours of pay in just an hour on a mediocre Italian meal. (my bro can cook food just as good ffs)There's this restorant in Beeston called, Amour (yes, love in Italian) towards the Beeston train station. A couple of us went there for a farewell for a friend. Entering the classy restaurant, the imagery of pound notes flying away was clear in my mind.. *sigh* But it's not everyday, you bid a friend farewell..

3. Frankenstien Food. I made a special trip down to the city to complete my ingredients for my Cabonara. Thing was.. I forgot the bacon! In the end , I had to improvise with tuna... Another akward thing was getting the proportions right cooking for a single person. In the end, my cabonara was abit too creamy and I ended up using Tuna instead of Bacon.

4. The pope. Yeah, so he did quote someone who thought Islam was rooted in violence but that doesn't make him believe in what the man say. The media's just out to get him to sell more papers, isn't that obvious? I could quote say Hitler or Chairman Mao but does that make me a facist or a communist? It would really depend on the context, no? In the Pope's speech.. he was talking about dialogue.

5. 911 conspiracy? http://www.loosechange911.com/
It's interesting stuff. Yet again, it tells you to question everything, not to take anything for granted. It really does get you thinking. The gist of it is did the US government create 9/11 to get things done? A must-watch.

6. Ahh.. lighter stuff. ROBOT CHICKEN.. I've said it before, I'll say it again.. good stuff. Mostly dumb but some parodies are good:
Starwars Parody
Rapper Bugs
Harry Potter

7. Since we're on the topic of Star Wars.. there's this video on google:
George Lucas in Love (yes, parody of Shakespear in Love and also how he got his ideas for SW)

That's all for now folks!

Of Cooking, and Work...

2006-09-13T21:53:00.000+01:00

I could swear I posted a post about what I've been up to lately and Yoda Speak and even posted a comment on Jess' blog but nada! Wierd. Bleh.

And the show goes on...

Decent home away from home meal, I did have today. I had left over curry from yesterday and cooked up some rice. I can proudly say the meal was 80% Malaysian, 80% coz of the salad and frozen peas in the curry. Heh.

I'm feeling quite confident with my cooking although finesse and presentation ain't really there. Tossing a cheese onion ommelete usually results in egg splater on the stove or a semi scrambled omelette. And in the all threes times I've cooked curry, I've had to fish out my veg/potatoes to spare them from being burnt coz they cook much faster than the meat. Ah, well... baby steps.

It's good to be back to work as well. Something to make the day feel as if it's gone squandered and this may sound well but I haven't dreamt till I got back to work. (Tis was a wierd dream of fishing and Mrs Kang taking over the school with an iron fist and we were all wondering why Mr. Liew didn't do anything to stop it.. wierd indeed, no?)

An interesting thing was that the place I work at (East Midlands Conference Centre) came out
in The Evening Post with this black lady complaining on how she was told to leave coz of the dresscode of black skirts and no black trousers. I didn't get to read it but that really raised an eyebrow.

Ah, well.. that's all for now, folks!

P.S. If you're in search of Entertainment, watch some Robot Chicken on Youtube. The 2nd season's quite decent. There's one SW spoof of Emperor Palapatine and there's a Harry Potter skit on Puberty.. Good stuff!

Of random things...

2006-09-08T14:19:00.000+01:00

A post dedicated to random stuff. Coz I'm currently unoccupied, unemployed (for this week at least). Nuff' said.

1.0 - Maritial Bliss. A man gets married to goat. The owner of the goat married the man to his goat and forced him to pay a dowry for the goat after he caught the man having sex with it. To quote the brilliant owner of the goat,"They (the elders) said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife"
Talk about shotgun weddings, eh?

2.0 - Melbourne's Uni got their own Malaysian Society now eh? I heard the former one was shut down for embezzlement and I'll like to wish all the best to this new soc. A good friend of mine's the liason office, Jerome Chin! It's has a pretty nifty name MOMU. Lol. Check it out here: http://momumomu.blogspot.com/
They've got even a video on Youtube explaining about our 'mamak' culture. I didn't make it past a minute of the video but the guy explaining it sounded a bit stiff.. then again, he was probably trying to be loud and clear. Good stuff still. This goes some way explaining our mamak culture compared to the culture here to get a few drinks at a student bar (the booze there is cheaper you see), dance the night away and order takeout after that. Mamak's still pretty much cheaper and the food, the glorious food!

3.0 - This is a rant a long time coming. I had the oppurtunity to witness firsthand shabby leadership the past year and this past month particularly. It has led me to believe that leader's certainly aren't born and common sense ain't that common. With a year of a phase of reading self-help books (John Maxwell's books on Christian Leadership are great btw) and some limited experience, I'll probably have a few things to say. You've heard of the Dummies collection and possibly the KISS! (keep it simple stupid!) series but now, you're gonna hear about Joachim's FFS series on leadership. Heh.

It'll go something like this. (I've lost most of my steam on this issue but I'll try to express it as best as I can)

FFS, Communicate! Know the people you're working with and take a genuine interest in them and keep them in the effing loop. Communication leads to better tranparency and members will definetely happier knowing what's going on. It makes them look less like an idiot when they're with you. If you're socially disabled, pick up the book: How to make friends and influence people. Rant: For example, if you ask a member of yours to go all the way down to the city to meet the rest of committee, fucking update him on what's going on. Rather than let him waste the trip down only to find out they don't need your help.

To hammer this point home, I quote John Maxwell: “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

FFS, give low expectations and deliver high not the other way round! Don't mislead your members into believing things such as disbursements for travelling all the way down to London and back and promising your customers something they potentially won't have.

FFS, get off your high horse. Humilty is key. In most cases, you're there coz the people put you there and so them a service and serve them. Don't serve yourself. Apologize if they're any hiccups and admit it rather than pass the buck around. I personally have a low tolerance for such people. Cover-up all you like but the truth will find you and bite you in the arse eventually.

There's more to write about the person I'm trying to dedicate this to. Your whole committee doesn't have a high opinion of you and neither have I. In truth, after our next event, I'm glad and satified to be done with your committee.

*sigh* Rant done. With such 'leaders' at this stage at life, I don't look forward to the so called leader's in the working world. Btw, in my eyes, politicians (especially in Malaysia) can't be called 'leaders'. They're precisely what they are. Politicians. But don't you get me started on that. Pff.

'Nuff said.

Cooking 101

2006-09-07T14:21:00.000+01:00

Alright. I told myself I'll start actual cooking this week and I have. The house hasn't burnt down and my fingers are still intact.(I cut my finger last time we made fried wantans at the medic girls' place >.<)

It was a simple dish made with pre-made thai curry sauce so that made it much easier. Tossed in some meat and potatoes and some brinjals (it's called aubergines here but some call it eggplants..wierd) I had to keep on adding water to keep it from burning and I had to fish out the brinjals or risk them being disentegrated coz the bloody meat and potatoes took so long to cook! Argh. But I have to say, there's a sense of pride of doing something for yourself by yourself.. at least till the point, the food goes into your mouth. It tasted slightly above edible at least and I could swear the sauce tasted better when I was tasting it while cooking it. Furthermore, I was kinda impatient and the food tasted slightly raw. Medium-rare in fact. >.<

Ah well, with cooking this bad, it can only get better. Still months away from cooking a decent candlelight dinner if the need ever arises. *shrugs*

It's that time of year...

2006-09-02T18:19:00.000+01:00

Sources have indicated to me that the Malaysian Society of Notts Uni just had their Pre-D briefing just today. Ahh.. yes, that time of year.

I remember last year's Pre-D. I was keen to meet a fellow Sarawakian in the form of Rudi but he couldn't make it in the end. It's akward going to Pre-D although everyone probably looks just as lost as you are. Looking back, I can only remember meeting Priya, Teong Weng( who sat on my right) and Praveen asking a question something to do with the internet on campus...

But most of all, I remember asking, ' Do they provide soap and shampoo in halls?'. Yes, so if you've gone to a Pre-D and not asked a dumb question, you're successfully one step ahead of me. In hindsight, it was a "Big Moose" moment (ref: Archie) or what we we at 4/5 s might consider a "Jo Ong" moment.( You see, back in our Form 4/5 years, we always had this guy, Jo Ong who would ask out of context or wierd questions out of the blue... especially in Mr Alex's Chem class. Lol.)

I guess asking such a question also goes towards building your 'persona'. Yes. Persona. Perhaps, people might remember me better, yeah.. that's it! (For the wrong reason perhaps >.<) I mean, see, I remember Jo Ong! But then again, our class only had 30 plus people. Leanne and Prav remember me asking me that question. Heck, I also introduced myself during the one of the NMS meetings as 'the guy who asked about...'. Then again, you're reading about the guy who addressed himself to his coursemates as a 'cheap bastard' in the course of trying to run for a post but that's another story for another day.

There was an article in.. Fortune on Personas, I think it was an editorial... where it wrote about how companies hired CEOs based on their personas. It's not who you are or what you can do.. but in how you portray yourself and how it helps bring in the MOO-lah to the company. Talk about creating artifical value, eh?

Then again, I doubt the writer had anything in mind about a guy asking about whether halls provided shampoo or soap. Meh.

I hunger....

2006-09-01T10:59:00.000+01:00

It's been 3 days here and my tummy grumbles periodically. Maybe it's to do something with the fact that I was locked out of the house yesterday (and hence, sucessfully alienating myself from true food sustenance; Kit Kat bars and bananas can only do soo much) after running errands/buying groceries. The bloody key couldn't bloody open the lock. Rather than wait hours for my housemates to return I decided to drop off the groceries and head to the library. In the end, I got in thanks to Alex returning early. Marco's advice was to turn the key more violently next time. Hm.

Argh. I've got something against keys now!

Mm.. I'm no expert but I think my tummy's grumbling could be transalated into 'We should have had more Malaysian Food dammit' or "Where's the bloody inflow of Malaysian Food??!!" or somewhere along those lines. Hm, a saying comes into mind : The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

And home is where the heart is.

My advice to those still in Malaysia: Enjoy it while you can!!!

It's got to be the PJs...

2006-08-31T09:08:00.000+01:00

There I was locked out of my room, Wonder Woman comic in hand, dressed in my PJs at 6 in the morning. Brilliant. I've locked myself out of my room after taking a dump with the keys in my room in the 1st 36 hours I've been back here in Notts. Wonderful. As such, I've no access to all my instant noodles or any goodies which I brought with me. Excellent. 13 hours later which I spent by polishing my shoes, doing some housework, reading Simpsons and Philosophy, watching Police Academy on VCR and a day-time talk show about a 31 year old man who wants to marry a 17 year old girl and a kind hearted housemate to drive me all the way to Derby to pick up the keys from the landlady and I'm back in my room.

The last time I wore to PJs to sleep in Notts when I first moved in to halls, random people barged into my room (I didn't know how to lock the doors then, you see) in the middle of the night. Bleh. It's the PJs and doors I tell you.

That aside, I managed to survive travelling with a 7kg backpack on my back, dragging a 10kg hand luggage bag and exactly 29.7 kg check-in bag. All thanks to my mother's impecabble skill in packing bags.

I had travelled a total of 24 hours. 2 hours to Bangkok. (Thai Airways food sucks btw.) Transit in Bangkok for 3 hours. (You know it's a Thai airport when at almost every corner they offer you a foot/body message. It's also the only airports where you can possible enjoy a coconut...)

A flight of 12 hours to Heathrow. (The food sucked yet again but breakfast was ok. They showed THE SENTINEL, starring Micheal J Fox, That 24 guy, Eva Longaria.. but it was a below decent film. The Manchurian Candidate a much more better film with a similar storyline) Although, I did sit next to this fit Aussie girl who was travelling with her partner. It's amazing how much you can learn about a person when you just casually ask, "Where did you get that toothbrush?"

Oh. Those travelling back to the UK? Liquids/Cosmetics are a BIG no-no. That explained why most of the women on board looked rather haggard.

Arrived in Heathrow. It was a rather long line at immigration. I had to wait another 2 hours for the coach to Notts.

I was a 3 hour ride on the coach where I sat next to a plump 67 year old Tanzanian. Talked to him for awhile at the beginning of the trip. One great thing about travelling alone is the amount of people you can meet and the interesting backgrounds they have.

*sigh* And here I am. My brother's away in Malta but an exchange student, Marco from an Eastern European country (I can't remember which atm) is staying in his room and Alex, my bro's coursemate is around.

Weather's quite wet, typically British.

Well, here I am. Although I have to say, in mind I am, but it's true what they say. Home is where the heart is.

Blogging may be hazardous to your personal liberty...

2006-08-15T15:03:00.000+01:00

Slight exaggeration? Perhaps.

But someone should come out with a caricature with AAB pointing his finger with the caption," Bloggers, Pak Lah is watching you!" (Old new I know but still mention-worthy)

Read the article from reuters here.

Oh. And in other news, Dell is recalling it's batteries coz of their tendency to blow up due to overheating. My Dell laptop is one of the models affected but thankfully, my batterys in the clear. If your laptop is a Dell, get the battery serial number checked.

Read about it here.

Thanks Edwin for the head up here.

An old love revisted...

2006-08-13T10:22:00.000+01:00

It's been a year since I've last saw her. After all those evenings and saturday mornings I've spent with her over the years, I decided to pop by and visit her yesterday evening. I can't remember exactly the first time I met her but I don't remember having a good first impression of her. Can't say it was 'love at first sight'. Rather than desire, it was more out of necessity. I guess like all loves in life, you tend to lower your standards and settle for less.

I've got plenty of memories of her... Dating before my days in Stella Maris. Friends from my S.M. Bukit Bandaraya (SMBB) days would know her well too. Not many from Stella have met her although I've introduced a handful of my college mates to her. That's how long it's been. A love affair lasting 7 years. But I had moved on... Yet, I had to go back to her. Just for old time's sake.

When I finally met her, I realised the years haven't been kind to her. She had withered away and she didn't get the response she used to.

Ahh Yes.. Bangsar B'sar Basketball Court. It's right in the residential park next to SMBB and a lush jungle surrounds -it which explains the frequent visits by monkeys.

Strange. When it's over and you've moved on.. (Taman Desa Bball court that is) then, do you realise the faults you closed your eyes to. Maybe it's the familarity of it all over the years. I never realised how low the rim was, or how small it was or how hard the backboard was. Taman Desa Bball court has a better rim, better backboard, bigger court (making full courts games a rarity and unfortunately, I do miss full court games) but slippery ground I have to say. Not to mention, you might get people more on the Ah Beng (AB) side rather than the 'trying to be black' type of people in Taman Desa. Which I have to say, is a lesser evil I have to say IMHO. (the writer had nothing personal against such people, just what they wear and talk and finds it hillarious)

My dad, my bro and I used to spend our weekend evenings and saturday mornings there. My dad famous for being the martial artist training near the monkey bars, doing his over head kicks and drawing admiration from passer-bys. Its not rare to have a kid or two run over and start punching and kicking his punching bag/hanging bottle.

It was sad to go back to find the court deserted. There wasn't a single soul on the basketball court. Back in those days (Yes, I say this at the risk of sounding old), you would have to wait for a game on a weekend. A bit later, an old friend from SMBB, Andrew turned up and then, there was the three of us. Me, my dad and Andrew. I asked him whether anyone plays anymore there and where's so-and-so? Do they come back often?

It turns out... Everyone's moved on. Me and my dad went back out of curiosity. It was more intiative on my side rather than his. I mean, why drive 15 minutes all the way to B'sar for some bball when we could take a 5 minute walk down to the court in our hood?

I've got memories of losing lots of stuff back at the B'sar Court. I lost a number of basketballs and I once lost like several weeks of allowance worth of Star Wars Episode 1 TCG Cards.. Back in Form One. *sigh* I had foils of Darth Maul, Darth Sideous and many others! ARGH!! (for the unitiated, foils are basically shiny cards and are very rare.. odds finding one in a pack are like 9:1 and a card's geek equavilent of hitting 4D)

Ah yes, well. I can easily think of the good times there. Had many with my SMBB friends in Form 1. I realised I actually never hung out at shopping centres then.. perhaps that courts was the closest place I had to a 'hang out'. Many an incident there. I remember my bro being threatened by some gangster after school hours (the park was near the school you see), my dad telling off this one cracked up lady who was practicing her golf stroke with cars parked in the carpark and kids running around the park! WTH! Plenty of jerks play basketball there.. Usually bullied most of the younger ones. One great thing in T'man Desa Court is everyone gets a game. Yay for Equality.

Mm. Well, this post's dedicated to B'sar Baru Bball court. If you ever pass SMBB, look out for the park. You won't see no Bballers but you'll still see families bringing their children there or people just taking a jog there.

Oh, and remember. Don't feed the monkeys.

I'll like to thank the little people...

2006-08-10T09:17:00.000+01:00

Lest ye forget the people.

Remember this, at the end of the rat race, guess what?

You're still just a rat.

Kuching and back.

2006-08-07T03:58:00.000+01:00

If there's one thought in my head after my trip to Kuching, it would be:

" I don't remember salt water being that salty..."

Our stay in Kuching comprised of 2 out of 3 nights stay at Damai Beach (one night being at a relative's place). Damai is kinda like Port Dickson except it's not polluted, no ships in the distant, there's a nice tooth shaped mountain (Santubong) facing the beach and yeah, it's probably much nicer than Port Dickson... Well, its name conjures up thoughts of peace and tranquality rather than ships passing you while you take a dip in the sea. (Don't mind the East Malaysian bias-ness here.)

Besides the beach, trips to Kuching are always formulical and involves trips to visit family and gorging on Sarawakian delicacies. It's practically the homebase of my dad's family on both sides. The Leong and the Chan family. The former more renowned for it's rascal-like ways (in a good manner, think Han Solo but not your local street thug rascal way) and the later more renowned for it's scholarly ways.

I've never got to know either of my grandparents on my dad's side with my grandmom passing away when my dad was in his early teens and my grandpa passing away when I was just five. My parents tend to make up for that by visiting my granduncles and grandaunties. These visits usually invoke memories of my dad growing up in Kuching with his cousins and also memories of me and my bro being being brought up here.

Apparently, my stubborness was evident ever since I was a young child. Each time my parents used to drop off me and my brother at my granduncle's place to drop by the Sunday market, I would cry my head off and nothing would stop me. Chocolate or a bottle would temporary shut me up but I would continue my resolve to cry till my parents came back. Greatness in the making, I'll say. Heh.

A few days after Kuching, I was hit with some viral infection. I was down for the count with headaches and a fever but not with the usual output of mucus and snot. The doctor suspected it was dengue ( but I didn't have bodyaches or spots on my skin and I got better)

Thinking about this, maybe each time we get a flu or stricken with something.. it's like God saying,"Here, son. Take it slow, take a rest."

But looking back on the last two months, the opposite's probably true for me. Haven't done much to my name in the time. Now, I've got 3 weeks left in Malaysia till I go back to Notts early. Time to speed up on the gorging, building up some muscle mass, improving that basketball, catch up with an old friend or two.

A new chapter begins in 3 weeks. A chapter where Joachim is thrown into the deep end... home-alone and has to fend (to be more precise, cook) for himself for a few weeks before he can attempt to freeload off his unsuspecting friends. Will his skeletal remains be found in his room as it dawns upon him too late that a diet of bread with Nutella and maggi-mee does little good for the body? Or will he rise above to establish himself as one of the better cooks in all of Dunkirk, Nottingham?

Tune in next to find out folks!

Till' next time. Go with God.

Careful what you ask for.

2006-07-25T06:49:00.000+01:00

I asked for inspiration.
And I got a breakdown in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.

I asked for a brief break from blogging.
And my Streamyx was down for the whole weekend right up to today.

Perhaps God does have a sense of humour. At the very least, a sense of irony. I mean, weren't we all created in His image. (for the sake of the women reading this.. yes, God could be a 'Her'.. But I don't feel like going into that right now)

Well, good one, God. You had me there.

37.4 KM off the Elite Highway

2006-07-20T07:24:00.000+01:00

37.4 km off the ELITE highway to KLIA. I won't forget that point of the highway any time soon. That's one of the many thoughts as I rode back to my home in front of a tow truck with my mom's car being towed at the back.

Somehow things always go wrong for my mom's car at the worst possible times. It's an 11 year old C180 Merc. It's been with us since Labuan around 1994-1995 before we moved up to KL.

I remember the time where it was our turn to pick up the Taman Desa gang (a bunch of us lived in Taman Desa and carpooled to school occasionaly) and that day, we were headed to school for our SPM examinations. My mom was driving and that was the year where the merc's air con was acting up. It was practically a sauna in the car with me, Wei Xian and Tracy (I think there was possibly one more person) in the car and remember what a dilemma it was. Sweat in out in the air-conless car or wind down windows and shorten our lifespans by breathing in the lovely air spewed out by the numerous buses surrounding us. (Our school was right smack in the city near Puduraya)

And that time Jess came down to visit KL and I remember driving her around in what she fondly recalls as 'the kinetic powered car'. You see, you had to drive really fast to get the air con going. We later fixed it discovering that some leaves had gotten clogged in the system and got it fixed.

I remember another time when I was driving with Terence and we just had picked up Sarah and Jessica from Midvalley and we were on our way to Bangsar for Chinese New Year visiting. Suddenly, one of the lights lit up and Terence, being my co-driver got the manual out of the glovebox and we discovered we were low on coolant! We had to pop by the Bangsar Petronas for a quick fill up on coolant. The pump attendant knew what he was doing and gave us a quick fill up on coolant. I remember apologizing to the girls saying somewhere along the lines," Sorry, ladies... your knights in shining armour are having some technical problems with our mechanical steed."
Thankfully, the car didn't have any further problems and we managed to carry on with our annual ang pau collections.

But! That wasn't the end of the 'coolant saga'. My mom and I had to go for a refill the coolant once again but we later discovered a leakage and had to get it fixed.

Fast forward to the 18th of July, 2006. I was supposed to go pick up Liza from Midvalley at 2030 hours and proceed to reunite her with Seng at 2145 at KLIA and return home where they're be spending the night at my house before they move on to Terengganu, Liza's homestate the next day. (where Seng was to meet her parents and family.. but that's his story. Lol)

So that was the plan. But as you probably already can tell, Murphy's law did me in.

I started the car about to leave for Midvalley and the accursed light lit up again! Gah! My dad was kind enough to take his car and pick up Liza with me. We decided in the car that I'll get coolant before heading to KLIA.

So we picked up Liza and reached home. Dropped off her bags. Got into the Merc. Drove to the Taman Desa Shell. And... They didn't sell coolant! WTH!

Nevermind, I thought. We'll try Old Klang Road Shell. Eureka! They had coolant! I passed the coolant bottle to the pump attendant and ended up doing most of the work ourselves. WTH! He was even asking me,' Cukup air kah?' Then the two of us would look at the bottle's directions and go, ' Sikit lagi.. ah! Cukup! Cukup!'

So we got in the car and I called my parents saying everything should be okay. They warned me to come back and my dad would drive us instead in his car but I said it's be alright. So we set off for KLIA. Passed the toll booth. The engine temperature was doing fine.

Then, it happened. After we passed the Nilai KLIA exit, there were wierd noises. Like something caught in between the fan. I didn't want to risk it so I pulled over. Both of us checked the car.. The tyres were alright. Then I saw like leakage. (actually It was just the air-con apparently but I didn't know at this point of time =.=) So, I decided against driving on and there we were.

My mom's car broken down in the middle of the ELITE highway. Surrounded by palm trees. at 10pm at night. Me stranded with my good friend's girlfriend. (Not that I tried anything, btw)

If you thought thing's couldn't get worse.. I made a call to AAM. They asked for my membership no before they would send assistance. I had to call my dad for that and my handphone's battery was running out. Thank God Liza had spare Nokia phone batteries right then. Lesson learnt here: ALWAYS, ALWAYS keep your phone charged!

Called AAM and they had to send one of their panel members from Nilai because we were out of their range. My dad was also going to come to our rescue. We were also frantically trying to get a hold of Seng to tell him our situation and to get him to take the coach back to KL sentral.

Then, the both of us decided to find one of those nifty SOS phones along the highway. We had stopped right next to the sign saying '37.4' and the SOS phone was behind us according to the sign. So we walked down the highway looking for the phone. We reached a point where we couldn't see our car behind us and looked ahead but we couldn't see any sign of a phone. All we saw were banners and power stations. So, we walked back to the car then. It's not like we had anything better to do.

A funny thing that happened was Terence called me and the conversation went something like this:

Terence: Hey man! Where are you?
Me: Oh.. Around 20km to KLIA.
Terence: Errr..whatcha doing there man?
Me: Oh nothing. Just stranded in the middle of nowhere. 37.4 km from the Nilai Exit. My car kinda broke down.
Terence: Ah. I actually wanted to call you out to yamcha. Um.. Do you need any help ar?
Me: Nah, it's fine. Tow truck and my dad are on the way.

Yeah. And he said he could hear the restraint in my voice. Heh. I probably owe him the whole story the next time I see him.

Long story short....

My dad arrived. Not in his best moods with me going against his orders to return and not taking up his offer to pick up Seng with me.

I felt really bad for Liza. Putting her in such a position. And also for Seng. We tried reaching him but his phone service was Bruneian and hence, unreachable.

The tow truck arrived 20 minutes later. The merc was still mobile... The guy did a 3point turn in the middle of the highway and we backed it up into the tow truck.

Liza went into my dad's car to go pick up Seng from KL Sentral.

Me. I was stuck with a chinese speaking tow-truck driver and I was getting a chance to practice my limited mandarin on him. I've always had this phobia of practicing my Mandarin. Maybe it had to do something the torture-like methods my 1st Mandarin tutor used to employ on me to teach me our mother tongue. She used to rub tiger balm under my eyes to keep me awake for crying out loud!

Well, that was quite an experience. Really. My 2nd car-breakdown story. My 1st with Jee Wayn near Midvalley but that's another story. Not that car-breaking stories are good experience. Maybe they make good fodder for the grandchildren or possibly mamak sessions.

The next day, we sent the car for check up and servicing. As my mom drove the car down to the mechanice, we were both kinda paranoid. My mom thought she smelled something and was worried it would like blow up.

Apparently, the thermostat had to be fixed and the noise was coz something was blocking the water from flowing. Would I have made it back and forth from the KLIA? Hmm..probably but the car might have been damaged. The towing came up to RM250 btw. That's how much it costs to get something towed from Nilai to Taman Desa. Bleh.

So that's the unfolding saga of the my mom's car. The rose-wood coloured c180 Merc with the Labuan number plate of LA2996. One more 'fond memory' to associate it with.

37.4 Km off the Elite Highway.

untitled

2006-07-15T13:39:00.000+01:00

Ever had one of those days where you felt like you were just umm... an insignificant dot in some giant space? It's one of those days.

I'll be back once I get my muse back. My kingdom, my kingdom for some inspiration!

Joachim shall now take a brief hiatus from his blog as he scours the Himalayas, dives into the great Marianna Trench, splunks through Gua Niah and Gua Mulu, swing from the tree to tree in Borneo, journey to the centre of the earth in search of something worthy to blog on.

(Oh.. I'm actually going back to Kuching, Sarawak at the end of this month too btw.)

In the words of the great action hero now governor of Califonia...

"I'll be back."

Just another post....

2006-07-02T15:08:00.000+01:00

It's been two weeks since I've been back. In that time, I've rediscovered my propensity to sweat, reintroduced my tastebuds to good old M'sian food and in the process, fortifying my stomach.

Hmm... for this post, due to limited head-space and creativity, I shall merely recommend some films/books.

Cars is a good film to watch. 'Nuff said.

Another good film is... If you ever turn to Astro and come across a film called 'The World of Lily Wong', give it a watch. It's similar to Pretty Woman where it's about a prositute with a gold. Set in 1960s HongKong, it's about an American artist who comes to Hong Kong and meets a Chinese prostitute, one thing leads to another and yada yade yada.. It's got hilarious dialogue, the typical American saviour complex (think 'The Last Samurai'.. why does everyone die left,right and centre and the American hero is the last man standing..tsk) and it'll probably get women's rights activists up in arms but it's a good, entertaining film to watch.

Two books I've picked up recently are: Neil Gaiman's Anansis' Boys (AB) and Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down(aLWD).

Kinda a contrast in the two books... But highly recommeded reads.. I picked up aLWD in Easter but only finished it up lately. It's non-fiction about 4 sucidal individuals who coincidently decide to commit sucide off the same rooftop on New Year's Eve. But its kinda hard to commit sucide with an audience waiting in line to do the same ain't it? Well, it's a good book as it's very... human, the story being told in first person by all 4 characters. Hornby's a great writer and pulls off a great story which you can relate and it's not only an entertaining read but a good pick me up when you're just feeling jaded about life.

Anansi Boy's is written by Gaiman who's more famous for his work on comics and he's famous for his work on Sandman in particular. AB is semi-fantasy... and it's about a guy who discovers his father who he has been estranged from (and also has the tendency to humilate him in public.. yes, all parents kinda do but this one is kinda extreme you can say) is actually, the God of Mischief, Anansi(the spider god of African original.. think of an African Loki). The story starts to unravel with the father's death and his life will never be the same.. yeah, kinda cliche but the gags/plot is gripping still. I didn't go to sleep till I finished this book. Bleh.

Anyway, good reads IMHO.

'Till next time.. God Speed.

Animation v. Animator Flash

2006-06-23T11:50:00.000+01:00

I'm working on a post but in the meantime, check this cool Flash Animation out:

http://abum.com/file/shadow/animations/17632.swf

Animation v. Animator. Enjoy!

Somethings never do change...

2006-06-21T07:37:00.000+01:00

Jetlag's foreign to me.. flying through 8 timezones to get home.

Back home, somethings never do change. I'm not just talking about the food, the heat, the afternoon showers and the lovely traffic jams but also the people closest to you. In my family, there's always been 'division of labour'. My dad tells my bro to do something.. and then my bro ends up telling me to do it.. and I end up doing it. Ahh.. yes, the wonders of being the youngest in the family.

Another interesting thing is how the elder one gets something by saying, "Mom/Dad, Jo wants *insert object of desire here*"" where by saying I want it, the elder one enjoys it too. It's something which has been done by the elder one since I can remember. He rides on my younger sibling right to be spoilt and gets something out of it too. He's in his twenties and still does it! *sigh* Elder siblings...a simbiotic relationship, perhaps?

It's strange. My body accepts that it's home.. the smells, the sights, all embedded in my muscle/visual memory. Yet, the brain is still in shock. Maybe its the jetlag or maybe its a combination of the worldcup timetabling and jetlag.

Ahh.. Still. Somehow, it's good to be back.

Offtogorgemyselfandfindsomethingproductivetodo.Overandout.

Bittersweet & an Ode to Rutland Hall

2006-06-16T12:26:00.000+01:00

First off, I deeply apologize for my time away from my blog. M.I.A., I was. Numerous picnics, outings, gaming, football, an attempt of CAMPUS 14, and BBQs have kept my pre-occupied.

Well this is it, as I write this, by this time Sunday I would be back in Malaysia. Alot of cliche-d stuff I could say. But have you ever had that feeling... after you watched the very final episode of a series or reached the end of a novel*? Or when you're on the plane which has just landed after a holiday or a trip and there's that cheesy elevator music playing in the background and you got that feeling? It's a sort of a bittersweet feeling...I call it the 'bittersweet' or 'all good things must come to an end' feeling. That's what I'm going through plus a cocktail of other emotions.

*If you ever read the actual LOTR and not just watched the movies, it's like that part where Frodo reveals that he would be sailing off to the undying lands and Sam sees him off as he sails away with the elves and in the last paragraph, he comes back to his wife, Rose and the last line was, "I'm back". (yes, I was quite a hardcore LOTR fan.. I've read it 3 times all 3 books >.<)

I've seen off a number of friends. And for next year, I've made a resolution.. If I'm going back, I'll rather be the first few leaving for home so people would see me off and lug my baggage around for me!

And for my last post for the academic year, I shall dedicate this last paragraph to Rutland Hall. I pleed for poetic licence for the next few lines!

Oh Rutland Hall,
Is indeed wonderful,
With it's midnight druken fervour,
And the morning after odour,
Hallways littered with takeaway boxes,
And quite a good number of foxes.

It's memorable fire alarms,
At the worst possible moments,
Faces along the corridors,
Most will fade into distant memories,
Only to emerge for akward reunions.

Ahh.. Yes, Rutland hall and its spires. Its people. A good word has to be said for all the staff in the hall.. they were really helpful and all. After everything said and done, it was a home away from home,

I really need something to look forward to. Let it be home.

1001 ways to waste your time....

2006-05-31T11:06:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-23T13:01:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-05-22T13:32:00.000+01:00

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..

2006-05-21T14:41:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-20T12:48:00.000+01:00

Before I go on, on per request of a certain lovely medic in B'ham.. Sign thi s 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...

2006-05-18T17:22:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-17T16:03:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-16T16:59:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-15T14:03:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-14T21:35:00.000+01:00

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

2006-05-13T18:32:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-12T14:22:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-11T07:02:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-05-10T17:44:00.000+01:00

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....

2006-05-07T10:24:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-04T09:56:00.000+01:00

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?

2006-05-03T06:18:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-05-01T06:40:00.000+01:00

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.

Pics from 2nd time down to Manchester....

2006-04-29T10:36:00.000+01:00

Ah.. pics for the 2nd time we were down at Manchester. Thanks to Eve for the photos... One of the most memorable moments in Manchester was when the 6 of us, Rudi, Eve, Seng, Liza, Justin and I went for Laser Quest at Trafford Centre. It's basically like paintball except you use laser tagging guns and body suits with sensors. The 6 of us were on the same team and the other team had loads of little kids. At one point of the game, the six of us were holding the higher ground (Sun Tzu's Art of War states that- He who holds the higher ground, holds the advantage) and a whole load of kids were accumulating at the ramp. At a whim, I shouted 'Advance!!' and the six of us starting charging at them and all the little kiddies starting screaming and running in all directions. It was a really, cute moment. We just couldn't help but go awww.. and then of course, continue shooting them in their backs as they ran. Lol.

We basically spent most of the day down there and lepakking and eating.. living up to our truly Malaysian heritage. Photos in reverse-chronogical order.

Got a quick shot before we caught the cab back.

Some new game on the PS2... cool gimmick.

Taking out Terrorists is no laughing matter as you can see...

Posing abit before we continued fragging...

It's 1.30 am..

2006-04-22T01:39:00.000+01:00

And I can get no sleep. It's Spring and the sun rises before six and sets at eight. Long days and short nights. And I had to make the day longer by taking a cuppa and redbull... Heh.

How time flies... For the past 4 weeks, I've been squating in my bro's place in his lounge. How I miss the sweet caress of a bed.. Ah well, sleeping on the ground must do wonders for the posture.

Student living conditions are always appalling I have to say. If you take a step back and look around, you can just how badly kept the place is. Ah, but like one of my bro's housemate's say.. eventually you do get used to it. At times, I just can't tahan and end up doing stuff like vacumming, wiping the tables, taking out the trash.. then again, I shouldn't complain coz beggars can't be choosers.

Can't say I haven't squandered my time away this hols but yet I can say I could have made better use of the time. I finally got around to try my hand at making omelettes and making Cabonara. Add that to my repertoire of making sandwiches, making fruit juices/smoothies, milkshakes, making/frying wantan.. and I've still got a looong way to go. I'm no Jamie Oliver yet but heck, maybe one day I'll get there. I seem to learn better when I get thrown into the deep end. At the moment, my bro does most of the cooking and I do most of the clearing/cleaning up. We had kolo mee (a Sarawakian Delicacy) with char siew for lunch. Great stuff. He usually cooks Italian tho'. (ie: loads of Olive oil, cheese and pasta)

It's weird. I've been apart from my bro for the last 4 years and yet somethings still don't change when we're living under one roof. We still 'compete'/race to finish the tub of ice-cream first, generally quarrel over the hoard of food, and we still get into fights whenever I take his comics into the umm.. 'reading-room'. Yeap, comics can be a big flashpoint for the both of us.. it's like 2 countries claiming property over a giant piece of rock bordering between their countries. But I digress...

It's funny how people comment how uncanny me and bro are alike. Our mannerisms and apparently the way we speak. Especially when we both try to perform magic. Damn genes! Lol.
All this gets me all self-conscious and yeah, it is true.. whether we like it or not, we do share the same laugh among other things. Apparently, I have a deeper, sexier voice. Hah! Lil bro 1, tai kor 0.

It's something I have to get used to coz I'll be moving in with my bro next year with a friend of his. It's a small, well-kept house not too far from the one I'm current squating in. It'll probably take me 15 minutes on foot to the law building. We've got a whole community of Malaysians living in the general area. I can see it now...Lan-game parties, BBQs, Cook-overs and watching football at whoever has subscription to Skysports. Lol.

3 weeks plus left to year-end exams. My plan for the nxt 3 months is.. possibly go for a quick holiday (1 week) after the exams are over on the 24th of May, stay back for summer in the UK for one and half months to work. Go back to Malaysia around mid July and stay there for a month plus. While back in Malaysia, I'll try to get some experience in a law firm.

In all honesty, I feel the prospect of me going back to practice is rather bleak considering the stories I've heard. Dealing with the incompetant courts back home where it's common for court documents to be lost and how clients tend to take drafts from lawyers and then look for other lawyers who will do it for a lower price.. such stories dishearten me. Explains why some lawyer prefer to handle corporate stuff where they keep their hands off the courts.

Mm.. law. It's bad enough I'm heading down the path to fire and brimstone and damnation.. But they've got to make it harder for me? *shakes head*

For next time, I've got to make some decisions. I've got to choose which modules to take which is alien to me. In the first year, it's compulsory for us to take undestanding law (for the 1st term), tort, constitutional and contract. For me, it's more of a matter of interest rather than ease when it comes to making the choice. Commercial law is where the dough is.. Family law is something I've had a affinity towards.. I like playing peace-maker but at the same time this is an area of law which can be extraordinarily emotionally exhausting. Another option is to do adminstrative law where I can definetely look forward to bringing actions against the government... Wheeee!

Hm, I'll most definetely be taking a module out of law. We can do so in the 2nd year and I'm looking forward to doing economics. Philosophy in sex would probably be my 1st choice but they took it off the list this year. Darn!

I've been back to reading the Economist. It's not all that boring as people may think. There was a write-up on Malaysia's 9MP laying praises but also criticisms on it. Its sad how the aid doesn't really go to the people who need it the most but rather the people who cling on to power. It's true what they say about absolute power. 'Open discrimination' is something I do not look forward back home.

Another write-up was how easy fame can come to some. There was this clip which was posted on Google where 2 chinese guys in Rockets basketball jerseys were singing along with a Backstreet Boy's song. They've been dubbed the Back Dormitory Boys by the Chinese Media and bombarded with requests for appearance on radio,tv, etc.. Even their roommate who is playing a computer game (looks like DOTA) in the background gets star treatment! It's kinda like that that guy who got famous after singing along with the Numa numa song. However, that didn't end up too well for the kid as he ended up hating the limelight.

It goes to show globalisation has made it possible for normal people with tons of guts or possibly lack of foresight to achieve fame.

Well, it's now 2.30 am. I really should be getting some sleep. Gotta slave the next few weeks for exams.

That's all for now. Overandout.

www.getfirefox.com

2006-04-21T13:15:00.000+01:00

Just found yet another way to waste time on the net. Watching ads for Firefox @ firefoxflicks.com. Fans of Firefox submit self-made ads which would eventually be chosen to be shown on US TV. I'm pro-firefox.. so if you're not using firefox... you must join us, resistance is futile!

They range from:
The absurd - Whhee? Can't figure out why people find this funny. More for the geeks I guess..
Rapping - White men can't rap? Heh.. Liked this one tho'. Get firefox and some some chedda!
Cute ad with kids - You can't go wrong with kids...
Billy's Browser - My personal vote goes out to this one. Looks good for TV.
Cool animation - Very professional. Yet another ad which would look good for TV. My 2nd personal favourite.

Well, my job's done! I have hopefully suceeded in wasting more of your time online. However, if you've chosen Firefox over IE after this exercise.. good on yer.

Just a quick one.

2006-04-15T15:20:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post... I just recently heard a band I used to really like . They're called Kings of Convenience. Check them out here.

They're very mellow kind of music.. relaxing... the kind you listen on cold, lazy, rainy afternoons.
Yeah, guilty as charged.. I'm a sucker for easy-listening.. heh.
Sound quality at the site is mediocre at best.. doesn't really do them justice.
Check 'em out.

One more thing.. yet another petition. This time in interest of a better police force. Comeon now, I'm sure you've had at least one encounter with our highly acclaimed officers. Do sign the petition. Every bit helps.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/betterpf/

A good read..

2006-04-07T12:20:00.000+01:00

I was by the Uni's Blackstone and picked up a book I've heard of sometime back. Freakonomics, anyone? Econs has always been one subject I found interesting. Freakanomics deals with issues such as crime, parenting, drug-dealing, sumo-wrestlers and such.. Putting numbers to uncover the truth and we'll learn that conventional wisdom isn't that wise after all. After all, the numbers never lie. For example, incentives encourage/discourage people, dont they? Or do parents actions actual have any effect on their children's outcome? Professionals (ie: doctors, real estate agents) have our best interests in our mind don't they? And did crime in New York really drop because of better policing? The answer for this one is really shocking but he does have the numbers to back it up. His answer really fans the flames for the pro-choice v. pro-life argument although he doesn't impose his moral judgements on the argument but merely gives the figures to illustrate his point.

As the tagline goes,' Assume nothing, question everything.' Which is precisely what this book does. One point which I'll like to pick up is how he goes to prove that what parents do doesn't seem to effect their outcome of their children. Its more on who their parents are rather than what we do. This would probably come to a shock to most but this can be seen from the fact that African Americans don't do as well as the whites in the US not because of their skin colour but because of their socio-economic background. He readily implies that generally, the outcome of the child is long before the parents even pick up a book on parenting. Yet, he does concede that there are always exceptions.

His methology in proving/disproving things involve using anecdotal and statistical evidence.

It's a damn good read. 200+ pages tho'. It's a really short read but entertaining and shocking but funny at the same time. Doesn't matter whether you're in interested in economics or not. All you need is an interest in human behaviour or more specifically, life. It's better than Micheal Moore coz somehow you get that Micheal's just hyping everything up but here in Freakonomics.. it feels more truthful and the numbers really do seem to back it up. Highly recommended.

11

2006-04-05T14:39:00.000+01:00

I seem to come across the number 11 a bit too often. Firstly, I'm born on the 11th of November, hence.. 11/11 (no, this is no way a subtle way of broadcasting when's my birthday..heh..) Malaysian Night was on the 11th of March. Last night, I waited at table 2,11 and 16. Coincidence?

Mm.. the 1st time I went to the casino, I bet on 11 in roulette and made a small win. Odds are 36 to 1.

Last Sunday, Seng and I went down to Gala Casino. Yes, we've got to find less risky ways of spending our nights.. Lol. Don't get me wrong here.. I rarely go down to the casino. Anyway, I played a bit of roulette.. did badly. And then I headed down to the blackjack table to accompany Seng. He wasn't doing too well.. He was on his last fiver 3 times I was there. Then, the others around the table left and Seng was left alone against the dealer. The dealer required two players at the table so I decided to play. I used the system my dad's system where after losing you bet more.. ie: lose 20 cents, increase to 50, lost that 50, increase to 1ringgit..etc and once you win back you losses.. go back to your original 20 cents.. umm.. the low dominations coz he thought me this when I was a little kid back in Sibu, Sarawak gambling against relatives. Lol) I was a good roll on luck coz I never lost more than twice consecutively for like 10+ rounds.

Besides that... On two games, I had double aces and each time I split I made quite a good sum of money. I doubled up with 11s a few times too and those fell through too. We both were doing well and I remember caressing and keeping track of the stacks of chips I won.. lol. We were doing well until the point where two other guys came over to our table and I guess our feng shui shifted or something.. coz from doing great.. we dropped down to mediocre. I knew when to stop.. I set aside my base cash and the lost I last made at the casino and went on playing. I pulled out at the point where the dealer had two 21s in a row. At this point, it's tempting to get pulled in and go on. But i knew I had made enough from the table.. best, to take the money and run!

After blackjack, I took out my overall winnings and put it into roulette. The 2nd time I was here(this is only the 3rd time I've been here..), I had lost some money but I had made it all back from the game on roulette.

In roulette.. I was doing impressive. At the last round of roulette.. Once again, I bet a pound on lucky number 11. And Viola! I went back a happy man. My total winnings for the night was equalivalent to working 10+ hours. Seng did well too that night.

Well.. I have to admit it's quite tempting to head back after a good roll of luck like this but you know the saying 'easy comes, easy goes'.

Mm.. I really wonder how far this roll of luck can take me. There's this pharmacology experiment where they need volunteers. My bro was telling me they pay quite well like over 1k pounds. All you need to do is pop in a few pills daily and oh yeah.. there's that death waiver form you're probably have to sign. And I mean.. comeon, after that last incident of those drug trial people being sent into hospital (and some fatalities >.<), what's the chances of it happening again, right? RIGHT??

Heh.. nah, on 2nd thought, I'll keep to relatively risk-free experiments involving psychology and economics.

Wouldn't want to push my luck..

Asking the right questions..

2006-04-05T14:08:00.000+01:00

I woke up this morning after a night of waitering at the conference centre. It's not easy serving massive heated plates to 300+ people but the pay's worth it. I checked my email as i routinely do and discovered I've got mail from the Yahoo Malaysian Lawyer's Group which I'm somehow a part of. Well, doesn't hurt to get ahead of the game, does it?

One of the current issues brought up was this. I remember the couple being 'caught' slightly before I left for the UK and now the matter's been brought to trial. One of the lawyers on the group posted that '.. to get the right answers, we need to ask the right questions.' His thinking was that the lawyer on the defendant's side who had argued on the moral grounds of his defendants' actions should have instead argued on the officer's discretion in deciding what was defined as 'indecent behaviour'. IMHO, the situation was probably a case of abuse of power by the officials who most definetly slapped the fine on the couple after they refused to pay 'coffee money'. Furthermore, I think the judge is setting bad precedent giving further oppurtunities for such incidents to happen and I'm not very comfy with the notion of moral-policying.

That aside, I remember attending this one advocacy workshop and I remember being told that one of the hardest things about advocacy was not actually questioning the witnesses like you see on most courtroom dramas but choosing the right questions to ask. That can determine the difference between a case lost and a case won.