If i could change the world.
Ever had a day when all the music you hear seems two tones lower?
Happy birthday.
Ever had a day when all the music you hear seems two tones lower?
Happy birthday.
"this little wonders. this twists and turns of fate"
I'm glad MCW is over. seriously. But i'm more glad that Spring Feast this year was the creme de la creme of Spring Feasts since I've been in Uni. Such a shame I'll probably end up not doing it next year.
A storm is brewing outside. And I need a job (among other things).
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Feels like the stage before the peak of an economic boom.
I think i'll leave it at that for now.
Yeah i realize it's been awhile.
But some stuff you definitely have to blog...
Yes, more important than my alcohol-infused 23rd birthday, the detiorating state of my education and the catastrophe which is MCW Media.
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I'm going to be an UNCLE
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I was telling my housemates last night, I have never, ever in any point in my life thought of (planned for) myself as an uncle-type figure. I honestly don't know what type of an uncle I will be (are they types?). What's a good uncle? OMG, what if i'm a bad influence? It IS a plaguing thought ever since my mom told me that my sister-in-law is pregnant last Friday - due next March. I won't even be around when she's born...
Heck, by the time i come back to Kuching again end of next year, he/she might be walking around! This is the first time I'm actually worried that I might be a bad influence to somebody... *shudder*
Yes, I do need to get a grip. 2 midsems coming up, and a MCW Media responsibilities to fulfill first.
With any luck, this would be the last tag/meme i will EVER do (mainly coz i'm not much of a tag-fanatic) ...though i have to admit it is a bit fun to a certain extent. I would have to change some questions though, to reflect that i'm something like a hetrosexual male.
You must answer each question in three words
Where is your cell phone? Charging, low batt.
Girlfriend? Could use one. (original question read..."boyfriend, in which case not applicable)
Hair? uh...huh? wha?
Your favorite item(s)? currently, the iPod.
Your dream last night? don't sleep enough (for a dream).
Your favorite drink? teh-c peng special (artistic license say i can get away with teh-c being one word)
Your dream girl? need more sleep (for a dream).
The room you are in? The Living one.
Your fear? losing loved ones.
What do you want to be in 10 years? Saved the-world-from-global-warming guy
Who did you hang out with last night? Basketballers @ social basketball
What are you not? hardworking, normal, sleepy
Are you in love? Love..bleargh. No.
One of your wish list items? Unattainable, don't ask.
What time is it? Close to midnight.
The last thing you did? Took a shower.
What are you wearing? track pants, shirt.
Your favorite book? Popcorn - Ben Elton.
The last thing you ate? Domino's Pizza. Burp.
Your summer? Scorching, 40-degree heat.
Your relationship status? Enjoying the view (guilt-free, i might add). *snicker*
What is on your tv screen? TV is off.
When is the last time you laughed? an hour ago.
Last time you cried? Hmm..don't remember
School? Could be better
Your mood? wish could sleep
Your friends? have more sleep.
What are you thinking about right now? Lyrics for "20 Good reasons" (music is in the background)
Your car? Could use one.
What are you doing at this moment? Should be Sleeping.
Your life? Needs more sleep.
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I don't tag anyone. Coz i refuse to conspire with the tagging gods, unless they deem right to strike me down. But i won't stop anybody who reads this from replicating this process...
Changed my mind: Lest i be cursed, I tag...
1. Nai Lin Kong ~payback for the previous tag
2. Michelle Sim ~since you are already procrastinating reading this, you might as well spend a few more minutes.
3. Housemate J. ~coz you didn't really do your tag properly the last time
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Divergent: My brother (the England-residing one) called me the other night. I told him one of my plans for the holidays is to take up reading again, coz for the past few months all i've been reading - besides blogs - is just Economics material - one of which is a 100-year old book, a reproduction of Adam Smith's original. I mean it's great and all, but i have to concur with the older sibling, that I need more perspective. Having a one track mind is really bad for the soul, eh? - Speaking of which... my first subscribed issue of The Economist finally arrived the other day-
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I'd like to say that I haven't been blogging enough because I have been busy with the last assignment, but that's not exactly true. The assignment, which involves reading the above mentioned derelict book, does take up a fair bit of time but it doesn't really prevent me from not blogging. Just lazy I guess. Will blog soonish after I go through the last class of the semester tomorrow, or maybe after I hand in this mad assignment.
I do not know why I'm blogging. Maybe it's just from a lack of anything to do, or to get started.
I just finished my 2nd of 3 assignments, all due during the exam period. So far so good, i guess. Just another 5k-6k words to go. Muahahaha
Ah ha! I just figured out what I can blog about.
The other night I watched "Letters from Iwo Jima". Among the heroes - villains - depending on who you are - of this story is a former Kempeitai (Japanese secret service police, think KGB or the Nazi SS). So the story goes, he got drafted into the futile yet very, very bloody Iwo Jima defence because he was disobedient to a superior officer.
The protagonist in question was supposed to shoot a barking family dog, which his superior deemed "a disruption to army communication". I really thought he was going to turn the dog into bullet-ridden fertilizer.
So anyway, the dog didn't die...at his hands. Makes you wonder whether we, like the dog will get shot, because of a gross misinterpretation of our natural actions. Maybe the other moral of the story...if we shut up, we won't get shot. Or maybe next time we should ask our conscience to stfu!
Besides this metaphorical dog-story, the movie was leaps and bounds more exciting than its predecessor Flags. Action movie fans should actually watch the craziness inherent in the movie. Artisically done, but could have been a lot more nail-biting.
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To start my final assignment...am I capitalist or socialist/communist?
I attended Jeremy's (and Alex's) award ceremony last night.
Quote Jon "We must be on our best behaviour tonight, there's a lot of smart people here."
It prompted this response from me "But we're stupid...."
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Later on... Jon pointed this person out from the list...
"This guy does Maths to relax while the rest of us go out and play, etc."
It made me wonder, what does it take to win an award? Being gifted in your field is one thing, but being that insanely passionate about your degree is another. Anyway, it was a real divergent thought from what I was thinking earlier that day (some economic thought, won't bother you guys about it).
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We lost another social basketball match last night. It's starting to be something of a trend for us. Grr...
So I've been tagged. I'm usually not a big fan of tags but there are some people you generally don't say no to.
I think, all i'm supposed to do is er... list 10 <entertaining> things about myself. So let's give it a whirl...
1. I lose a lot of sleep during the Australian summer. Like a lot. Housemates and other close OZ friends think I need to see a psychotherapist or a sleep doctor before i go completely bored.
2. I eat realllly fast, but i don't feel it. I think it's more because i end up using hands to eat anything that has a bone. i.e: chicken, lamb, etc. I used to eat the slowest in my family, and sometimes they leave me all alone on the dinner table. I think since then, i've been clearing my plate the fastest.
3. Truth be told, when I speak, I hear a different voice than the rest of you guys. I think so far, the only person I told about this is Terrence. *crazy, eh?*
4. I'm a huge fan of clubs, societies...yet i don't know why. Red Crescent and the ISS. Sometimes i wonder why I'm overzealous of such things. Maybe I constantly crave human contact.
5. I walk slow. Painfully slow. Whenever I'm walking with a group of friends, I tend to drift furter and further behind. Yup, I really don't know why I do that too. Maybe I'm just a lazy walker.
6. I'm eerily calm during exam periods. Not confident, just calm. My housemates think I'm crazy that I'm not going crazy about the papers. In fact I get more worked up on insignificant stuff like Lighthouse rather than the following day's exam.
7. I'm a very nostalgic person. Whenever I'm in a conversation, I tend to draw a lot of references to the past. Sometimes it's not even relevant why I talk about the past too. Yeah, I'm that much of a conversationalist.
8. My guilty conscience is generally the reason why I keep hesistating on almost everything, and feeling horrible about everything i do. It always takes me awhile to get over something bad i did, however intentional it was. Yup, it's that frustrating to make any decisions afterward.
9. My mom tells me... that i'm rather facially emotionless when I'm upset. It's a reflexive thing, i think. I used to try really hard not to show people how upset I am, now i think it's in-built into me.
10. I burp. like...buuurrrp. I can drag my burps out for a while. Yes, it's disgusting to have that ability, but I've run out of things to write.
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So now... apparently, I have to tag some other people with this.
1. & 2. The housemates
3. Li-Ann. ~ coz i know she has interesting (weird) habits. hahaha.
4. Steph Yeo ~ coz i know she'll be bothered to do stuff like this.
5. Um...yeah, anybody else who reads this I guess. I shouldn't actually have discriminated against everyone else.
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Ow. still aching body from this morning's game. Presentation the other day was great (i think). Despite what I thought, they didn't actually rip through my work but was greeted with stunned silence for at least 5 seconds...which i thought was great, considering how controversial it was.
The 11,000 word campaign begins....tomorrow!
Tomorrow is all-important (ok maybe not THAT important) presentation day. Truth be told, I'm not really looking forward to it. I've the feeling that come tomorrow, my entire class of 13 students (incl. lecturer) will rip my presentation apart.
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The presentation is coming from a perspective which is more or less the antithesis of the course. Yes...yes...i know it's my fault for choosing something so controversial, but I couldn't resist it. It's even going to be more exciting (horrifying) since lecturer wants the entire class to participate in Q&A's after each presentation for extra marks. Sigh.
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Shouldn't have been so ambitious. Blah. Last night, i figured out that bibimbap and basketball don't go well together.
Inspired by the Housemate J, I've decided to give blogging another shot. Just a quick snapshot of what happened between the last post and this one...
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Entire family was back home for Christmas, spent the New Year's at Bali (excellent place, honours to sister for pulling that off), boring January (probably why I stopped), entire family was back home for CNY, back to Uni (and missed a good portion of Masters' orientation), missed a *(&*#%&-ing driving test (set me back $40+), attended awesome graduation with entire family, I survived my family in Perth (and my family survived Perth), currently MCW Media Exec (so far so good....but could be better.)
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You would notice that I seem to emphasize this "entire family" thing a lot, it's just because it's really quite amazing that all of us can get together at any one time. My Dad and my sister spend a good portion of their time in airports, my eldest brother is a cardiologist in Sarawak GH who gets something like 20 hours of sleep a week if he is on call, and my other brother is in London err...building train stations or something. I was actually stunned when i realized that we've all met up 3 times in 4 months. Not likely we're gonna repeat this anytime soon though, but I'll try to be optimistic.
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This Masters stuff that everyone is asking me about? Is it tough? Are you piled under with work? etc.? Well, the simple answer is no. I'm not quite struggling under the burdens of the thesis yet, but so far the material is a whole lot more interesting than undergrads, so it makes for really interesting tute answers as well. Below is an excerpt of the typical material they make us study...
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During the Victorian-era (late 19th to early 20th century), birth rates in all "developed" countries - Western Europe & the United States - have declined rather dramatically.
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(Male) Economists far and wide sought an answer for this really strange problem. Then, they came out with two rather flimsy reasons:
1) It was era of the Great Depression, many economies were doing so badly, nobody needed another mouth to feed. (Unlikely, I think people will still have sex regardless)
2) Contraceptives were finally liberalized in the Western World, so more and more people were using it. (Still highly unpopular, because there's still a lot of stigma attached towards it)
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Amazingly, these reasons were widely accepted until the 1980s. Apparently, there's (according to the Lecturer) a thesis somewhere locked in the vaults of the UWA business school that had the actual explanation. In the thesis, the actual reason was neither economical nor psychological, it was the sense of fashion during the era.
THE WHOLE CLASS: ??? *were women that ugly for 4 decades?*
Anyway, if you must know, during the Victorian-era, waist clinging corsets were very much in fashion (you know, the stuff that ensures you will always look like an hour-glass). As a result, the average waist line for women during the Victorian era was 17inches (i've been told that's positively tiny). This amazingly was the best reason so far!
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Women who wore corsets all day long will lose their libido as they will develop chronic headaches due to blood being restricted to certain areas of their bodies. They also suffered a high rate of miscarriages due to their restrained pelvic region. There are of course other medical complications as a result, but I'm obviously not a doctor/medical student.
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Well, if anything, I think this post will help discourage all those chronic aneroxic people.
"Your tiny waistlines are sooo Victorian-era, girlfriend!" quoth coursemate.
It's pretty strange isn't it?
Where one country is having the worst recorded drought in history and another country is literally submerged in rain. I hate the news. It tends to be so dramatic and pessimistic to drag our attentions. ***yes, yes I do know that's how mass media works***
Paraphrasing Scott Adams "If God had a sense of humour that would explain everything"
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Regardless...
I'm tired. Like literally exhausted. Full court games really are that much harder. I walked off the court and went to Joe's potluck in zombie-mode (obviously after a shower). I slept halfway through Joe's party, and woke up aching. But it's been a good day nevertheless. Met up with so many people, who I've conveniently neglected over the years. Yeah, meeting everyone again is always a good thing.
Sorry, my last few sentences seems very incoherent thanks to my supreme exhaustedness. I better hit the sheets.
Happy X'mas eve readers.