Things You Never Knew...

Not mine, originally from here, but these are the ones that make the most sense (to me at least)

Don't put all your baskets in one egg.

A master of all trades is jack of none.

Those who teach, can.

A bush in two hands is worth one in the bird.

(Alternatively, a bush in the hand is worth two in the bird.)

After the calm comes a storm.

Don't feed the hand that bites you.

He who laughs longest laughs last.

Stones and hurt may break my words, but sticks will never bone me.

Evil is the root of all money.

Never speak dead of the ill.

Better never than late. (Sometimes oh-so-true)

Too many broths spoil the cook.

Fondness makes the heart grow absent.

Out of the fire and into the frying pan.

Never book a judge by his cover.

See Link.

Please do this (extremely short) quiz! Thank you!

I never knew The Economist could have such a sense of humor.

In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful. What might an honest one sound like?

“GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.

The flight attendants are now pointing out the emergency exits. This is the part of the announcement that you might want to pay attention to. So stop your sudoku for a minute and listen: knowing in advance where the exits are makes a dramatic difference to your chances of survival if we have to evacuate the aircraft. Also, please keep your seat belt fastened when seated, even if the seat-belt light is not illuminated. This is to protect you from the risk of clear-air turbulence, a rare but extremely nasty form of disturbance that can cause severe injury. Imagine the heavy food trolleys jumping into the air and bashing into the overhead lockers, and you will have some idea of how nasty it can be. We don't want to scare you. Still, keep that seat belt fastened all the same.

Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.

Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft's navigation systems. At least, that's what you've always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn't sound quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on board at all, if you think about it. We will have to come clean about this next year, when we introduce in-flight calling across the Veritas fleet. At that point the prospect of taking a cut of the sky-high calling charges will miraculously cause our safety concerns about mobile phones to evaporate.

On channel 11 of our in-flight entertainment system you will find a video consisting of abstract imagery and a new-age soundtrack, with a voice-over explaining some exercises you can do to reduce the risk of deep-vein thrombosis. We are aware that this video is tedious, but it is not meant to be fun. It is meant to limit our liability in the event of lawsuits.

Once we have reached cruising altitude you will be offered a light meal and a choice of beverages—a word that sounds so much better than just saying ‘drinks’, don't you think? The purpose of these refreshments is partly to keep you in your seats where you cannot do yourselves or anyone else any harm. Please consume alcohol in moderate quantities so that you become mildly sedated but not rowdy. That said, we can always turn the cabin air-quality down a notch or two to help ensure that you are sufficiently drowsy.

After take-off, the most dangerous part of the flight, the captain will say a few words that will either be so quiet that you will not be able to hear them, or so loud that they could wake the dead. So please sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We appreciate that you have a choice of airlines and we thank you for choosing Veritas, a member of an incomprehensible alliance of obscure foreign outfits, most of which you have never heard of. Cabin crew, please make sure we have remembered to close the doors. Sorry, I mean: ‘Doors to automatic and cross-check’. Thank you for flying Veritas.”

Original Article

If, likeunlike me you have all the time in the world, and you also like word association puzzles (and wacky puzzles in general), check out The Funny Farm.

I think the puzzle is more or less self explanatory, you enter guesses in the text box on the left and slowly watch the mind map fill up. 2 hints - the mini map on the top displays a view of the giant mind map and you can click on different parts of it as they are revealed, and the number of dots in each box show the number of letter in that particular word.

To start you off, try the following words:

Chicken, Cow, Horse

Good luck!

Ya. Really. I worked very hard on my tax assignment, and when it was time to go for dinner, I happily shut down my computer and along with it, MS Word. Then came that standard prompt, do you want to save changes to your document?

AND I EVEN HAPPILIER CLICKED NO

And 2 hours of work went *poof*

>_<

This post is late. Very very very late. But yay to me for finally getting round to doing it! I had the very fortunate experience of coming into posession of two different brownies, both home made. And coincidentally, there was some leftover vanilla ice-cream in the fridge, and some bananas lying around. And I felt oh-so-hungry at 1 a.m.-ish.

So. Midnight feast! (With pictures)


The feast, prepared.




A close up shot that's unfortunately out of focus (Phone cam leh! Give chance!)




And... the aftermath!




Kudos to Meihui and Cheryl for absolutely fantastic and yummy brownies! Thank you very much! I get hungry often you know! *hinthinthint*

NB - Anyone else wants free advertising publicity for their culinary and baking products, feel free to contact me. I will be very happy to oblige.

Er, just to say that there is no #4, except that:

Time spent watching movie - 2 hours
Time spent blogging about movie and related items - 1 hour
Time which could have been spent doing tax assignment instead - PRICELESS

Moon River

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end--
waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.

Is it just me, or does this song make little or no sense? Or am I missing something here? WTF is a moon river?

This post is actually related to the movie itself, not a spin-off.
In the movie, Audrey Hepburn's character is persued by her upstairs neighbor, who falls in love with her after a few seemingly flighty encounters and a trip to Tiffany & Co. New York. Initially she rejects his advances but at the end of the movie she reciprocates his feelings - after almost marrying some rich Brazilian dude (What else?)

Only at the movies can two complete strangers meet, fall in love, get married in about the time it takes for a first date. Granted, its the movies after all, and movies are presented precisely for the everyman to escape from real life for 90 minutes, but sometimes didn't you wish that your life, though filled with twists and other plot devices would all come out in the wash so easily as well?

And then there's the thing which sandra alluded to the other day. Wouldn't life be much easier if people just spoke in plain and simple english without the innuendos and (double) entendres and goodness knows what? And you actually said what was on your mind, and meant it? It'd sure be nice to have a script of lines (or maybe a song!) to follow instead of bumbling your way around conversations, especially conversations of that kind. Yeah, I know life is more interesting and fun this way, but then I'm a boring old codger. With absolutely no sense for the subtle.

Oh, and how come in movies guys are allowed to potong jalan but in real life guys who do it (if they can actually pull it off) are called b*****ds?

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something

You'll say, we've got nothing in common,
No common ground to start from,
And we're falling apart,
You'll say, the world has come between us,
Our lives have come between us,
Still I know you just don't care.

And I said, "What about 'Breakfast at Tiffany's?'"
She said, "I think I remember the film,
And as I recall, I think, we both kind of liked it."
And I said, "Well that's, the one thing we've got."

I see you, the only one who knew me,
And now your eyes see through me,
I guess I was wrong,
So what now? It's plain to see we're over,
And I hate when things are over,
When so much is left undone.

(chorus)

You'll say, that we've got nothin in common,
No common ground to start from,
And we're falling apart,
You'll say the world has come between us,
Our lives have come between us,
Still I know you just don't care.

(chorus)

Oooooo

And I said, "What about 'Breakfast at Tiffany's?'"
She said, "I think I, remember that film,
And, as I recall, I think, we both kind of liked it,"
And I said, "Well that's, the one thing we got."

And I said, "What about 'Breakfast at Tiffany's?'"
She said, "I think I, remember that film,
And, as I recall, I think, we both kind of liked it,"
And I said, "Well that's, the one thing we got."

Drop me a line for mp3 goodness, including a fabulous a capella rendition by the King's Singers.

Wikipedia to the rescue again: Sung from the perspective of a young man faced with a potential break-up with his girlfriend. Desperate to find common ground, the singer can only think of a vague memory that they both like the film Breakfast at Tiffany's, and argues that that tenuous link between the lovers should serve as enough motivation for them to work out their problems and stay together as a couple.

Anyhow, the lyrics kinda made me think about relationships, and things that draw people together. Opposites attract, yet what exactly do two people so opposite have in common? They happen to like the same movie? And is it possible for two people who had so much in common at the beginning of a relationship have absolutely nothing in common at the end? Or is that just a trick of the mind?

Caught it today at a friend's place and as movies go, it was so-so. I remember watching it from long ago but it didn't make an impression. It did today, but for a different reason. Oddly enough, the movie made me think about all sorts of other things, which I shall attempt to frame into issues.

Audrey Hepburn is pretty and I like her accent/voice, but that's about it. For all you uncouth heathen who've never watched classic movies before, plot spoiler lifted off wikipedia:

The movie is about Holly Golightly, a young woman always on the run from herself. Lacking a stable childhood, she marries at the age of thirteen, has the marriage annulled, moves to Hollywood to start a film career, leaves Hollywood for New York (where she earns money as a call girl and by unwittingly carrying coded messages for an incarcerated mafia boss), and plans to leave New York for Brazil to marry one of the world's richest men.

The main plot of the movie is Holly's relationship with neighbor Paul Varjak, who has confidence problems of his own. The film is basically a romantic comedy involving the relationship between Holly and Paul, Holly and her other paramours, and the resolution that occurs within Holly's own mind and between Holly and Paul. The film includes Audrey Hepburn singing the original performance of "Moon River" and the famous closing sequence that shows Paul's "lecture" to Holly and Holly's self-discovery of who she really is and who makes her truly happy. The film ends with a famous scene in the rain.

In the interests of decency I have decided not to title this post, which should serve as enough warning. NOT SAFE FOR SCHOOL, WORK, PARENTS, YOUNGER SIBLINGS.

I know computers > humans at face recognition. (Especially yours truly, who is partially face blind) Not to mention matching ordinary faces with celeb ones. But I'm sure one and all will agree that some matches are undisputed...



Your celebrity match - some random model on an advertising billboard in JB. Congratulations!

J Schnorng (a.k.a. RamboTan) writes...

‘Did I really take up that much of your time?’ she asked me; she didn’t think she had, these past couple months. I suppose she was right; I’m always kind of reluctant to go anywhere, and I always seem to have a project I’m working on, or a friend who I absolutely have to catch up with, or a football match which is critical to the continued existence of the universe that I need to watch, or another episode of a drama serial which just can’t wait. I suppose that, all things told, she really didn’t take up that much of my time, perhaps because I’m just not a person who has that much time to give.

That being said, I can’t seem to account for the emptiness in my gut - I’ve had a couple shots of Martell, a plate of nasi lemak, cheng tng at Adam Road, watched an episode of All In, read the latest soccer scores, and yet there’s still a strange hollow feeling somewhere below my left ribcage which keeps frustrating me, a feeling I can’t quite banish or ignore, one which distracts me and leaves my thoughts uncollected and unfocused; I’m not thinking of her, or the things that we did together, or the times we spent together, not really, but I know, somehow, that this feeling has to do with the fact that she’s not here, that there won’t be an inevitable call to see what I’m up to, that there won’t be the nights walking to nowhere, that there’s no more us, only me, and somewhere else, somewhere far away, her.

I suppose this is all for the best; in time I’ll learn to think about finishing the little tasks I’ve neglected, cultivate the overgrown gardens in my life, build a new, cleaner way of getting through the day without the long conversations which end with me falling asleep on the phone - you’ll see, there’ll be a better, stronger person at the end of all this, more fulfilled, more purposeful. It’ll be good, and I’ll be good, and everything will be as it should; there’s a plan, and I’m going to work on it, work so hard, do everything so well, just wait and see.

Now, if only that hollow feeling would go away so I can start.

Ok, I originally wanted to summarize but I thought that would take away from the entirety and completeness of the post. Except in my case there wasn't any 'time' taken up, and part of the hollow feeling consists of anger and resentment.

I really do. And in case you missed it the first time...

I HATE THE AIRPORT

With a vengeance. Nothing good ever comes out of a visit to the airport. Except maybe loot from Cocoa Trees, but that's like a distant consolation prize. Or maybe one of those 'thank you for taking part' cards from scratch-and-win thingies. Anyhow.

If you are the departing, it most probably means time spent away from loved ones. Possibly, a journey to a foreign place, a new environment, which may or may not be agreeable. Tearful good-byes. 20395809 people who have come to see you off, which averages to about 0.03ms spent with each well-wisher. And then there's the whole trouble of immigration and customs, which can be a real hullabulloo. Not to mention the actual plane ride, which can be the subject of a whole separate post.

It's worse if you're the well-wisher. You show up at the airport, get all misty-eyed, say your good-byes, maybe a photo and a hug for good measure, and then that's it. You face the long journey back home (only time i wished I was an eastie!) with nothing but memories, and the vague notion that the person who left will be back in due time. Why on earth do people get all perked up and excited about seeing friends off? I don't get it.

Oh, and there's the slight problem of seeing people you don't particularly want to see... But again, that's another matter. (see above)

Alternatively titled, what I have been doing instead of writing.

25 Great Calvin & Hobbes Strips

I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't like Calvin & Hobbes, so here's a bunch of nice ones with pretty amusing commentary. Enjoy.

... about btc (what else?)

• Why is the library so removed from the rest of the world? Going there feels like going on this great expedition or something. Bah. Oh, and the closed stacks aren't available yet. After like 7 weeks of school.
  
• The co-op closes at 2. I mean, how slack can you get? The way it works right now, they're closed before some people even get to school (if you have 3 o'clock classes) On the plus side, it's chock full of some very good junk food. Ritter Sport and Droste for example. Which you can't get to if you happen to be in school at 8. Or even 4.
• There is a SingPost mailbox, but no one sells stamps.
  
• The study room has this wierd musty smell. And the glass door doesn't seem very good at keeping the noise out. If it's meant to do so at all.
  
• Why are there random locked doors in stairwells? And why are they only locked sometimes? Like, some kind soul will put masking tape on the lock thingie in the door, but it disappears from time to time.
• The toilet on the first floor outside the study room is extremely badly ventilated. The guy's one at least, no idea how the girls one works. And you can smell it walking from the coop/canteen to the lift lobby.
• There's no place to conduct 'academic discussion' a la benches outside student's counter at KR. There are a few lonely round tables outside the MPA, but that's it.
  
• The mailboxes are in deepest siberia. In other words, remote, located in a hard to get to, frigid environment.
  
• General lack of variety and quality in the canteen/cafeteria. Though the drinks stall uncle is nice. And there's my happy meal at the western stall. And the jap food is decent. Then again, there's Adam road and all that so shouldn't really complain.
• On the first day of law school, R said to me...
• It's mid-term break and the place still freaking reminds me of Little India on a Sunday afternoon. The other day there was this dude yelling so loudly into his mobile in some foreign language I could hear him from 2 floors away. Wasn't all construction work supposed to be completed before school began and we all moved in?
• In case you missed it the first time round, parking.
  
• On a related note, the diarrhea-ed birds that populate the carpark opposite the canteen.
  
• Whats up with the gym? It looks done. Why isn't it open yet?
• THE STUPID BEEPING DOORS THAT AUTOMATICALLY LOCK
• I AM GOING TO FAIL MY TAX ASSIGNMENT
  

Ok, that last one isn't really a rant about btc. Whatever. I'm still screwed.

What's your rant?

My obligatory Singapore Idol post. For the record, I spent 60 cents voting for jon.

why so many pages!? says:
cos i HAVE to get home by 8pm
why so many pages!? says:
by hook or by crook
why so many pages!? says:
to watch JON LEONG
why so many pages!? says:
hahaha
why so many pages!? says:
i think i have a crush on him
why so many pages!? says:
hahaa
why so many pages!? says:
he's an idol
why so many pages!? says:
aren't we all supposed to have a crush on him
why so many pages!? says:
WHO ARE U VOTING FOR
why so many pages!? says:
i spent like heh.
why so many pages!? says:
almost $10 on jon
why so many pages!? says:
HAHA
why so many pages!? says:
DON'T TELL AH!
why so many pages!? says:
i think i voted.. 15 votes. heh.
(L)(W) says:
this is the kind of msn conversation that appears on blogs.
why so many pages!? says:
OEI
why so many pages!? says:
cease and desist!

Why do I have such a sucky work ethic? Why can't I be like one of those types who finish essays/assignments a few days before they're due and rest assured that I have completed my work, and even had time to revise it a few times before submission? Why do I always have to wait til the 11th hour (and 59th minute) to get things done?

Hard work often pays off after a time, but laziness always pays off now.

Which is true (I've spent the past 24 years of my life living like this) but sometimes I wish I could put in the hard work now so I can enjoy being lazy later, instead of furtively being lazy now and regretting it, and still having to put in the hard work.

I've spent the past hour surfing, chatting on msn, looking at baby photos, snacking. Oh and obviously, blogging. Doing everything except what I should be doing, which is writing about gst and financial services.

Die.

Tickle Me Elmo, eXtreme
If you liked the original tickle me elmo, this new version will rock you out of your socks! It laughs hysterically, clutches it's belly while doing so and even thumps the floor!

From Engadget

Read original story

P.S. My birthday is tomorrow.

This is what I've done today:

(1) Did up biz n finance tutorial (including balance a company's cash flow statement and income statement. I feel clever!)

(2) Went jogging

(3) Mugged evidence

(4) Read up for tax project/assignment (though I'm still majorly stuck)

(5) Not fall asleep at anytime during the day even though the day started at 8 a.m. (though admittedly I was zonked til lunch)

The only blemish was 2 hours wasted listening to W****** ramble on about goodness knows what. But oh well.

per Lord Cross of Chelsea, p 458-459:
The feature in the two stories upon which attention was concentrated in the courts below is that both youths said that the appellant suggested not that he should bugger *459 them but that they should bugger him. This was said to be an 'unusual' suggestion. If I thought that the outcome of this appeal depended on whether such a suggestion was in fact 'unusual' I would be in favour of allowing it. It is no doubt unusual for a middle-aged man to yield to the urge to commit buggery or to try to commit buggery with youths or young men but whether it is unusual for such a middle-aged man to wish to play the pathic rather than the active role I have no idea whatever and I am not prepared, in the absence of any evidence on the point, to make any assumption one way or the other. As I see it, however, the point is not whether what the appellant is said to have suggested would be, as coming from the middle-aged active homosexual, in itself particularly unusual but whether it would be unlikely that two youths who were saying untruly that the appellant had made homosexual advances to them would have put such a suggestion into his mouth.

The bit in bold raises all sorts of questions in my head, but I shall... refrain. Hats off to Lord Cross for delivering all this with a straight face though. Law Lords have this amazing ability to take the juciest of fact situations and turning them into boring, mind-numbing long-winded judgments.

If you are reading this, I assume that you are A Friend. Or something along those lines.

If you so qualify, you are hereby invited to a PARTY this coming Friday, 22 September 2006.
You WILL: Play Charades/Taboo/Cranium and other wholesome games, and laugh until you are rolling around on the floor.
You WILL NOT: Drink copious amounts of alcohol until you pass out on the floor.

Contact me for details. RSVP required!

Because I figure a very large proportion of my readership is made up of law students, I try not to post any geeky/techy stuff, but I am so utterly bowled over by this that I just absolutely had to share it.

Some enterprising dude went to take apart an xbox 360, added a watercooling system and a widescreen LCD and managed to fit it all (including that huuuge power brick) into a svelte - albeit slightly heavy - laptop-ish form factor, complete with keyboard.

He basically went from something like...


To...

Read.

(Mind you, I am suitably impressed, but I'm rather content with my current 32" LCD setup. And my couch is comfy enough, I'm not planning to take my 360 anywhere.)

I would be pretty happy at the standings. True, Chelsea wouldn't win, but Portsmouth would be the talk of the town. Which might make for some interesting coffeeshop discussion. Do you know they're funded by their own mini version of Abramovich? More importantly, Liverpool would have escaped relegation by one point, which is more or less where they belong. (To wish relegation on them would be pushing it a little) Arsenal would be languishing in mid table. Everton would get another shot at the Champs League. Shame about Newcastle and Spurs though.

I am very obviously blabbering. It's 3 a.m. in the morning, and I'm procrastinating by blogging instead of sorting out my tax project, which makes me want to cry. Really.

Creative mp3 players suck. I bought one for my dad a month or two ago [he wanted one with a voice recorder, otherwise it would've been an ipod] and today the screen started flickering. Grr. Now I have to go and get it serviced, etc. Bah.
In contrast, my sister has a 1G ipod that is about a billion years old. It's battery life is somewhat sad, but it still works fine.

In other news, I want one of them new 5.5G ipod videos. Although I have absolutely no use for an mp3 player whatsoever.

(As you can probably tell from the nature and time of this and the previous post I can't get to sleep and my brain is working overtime. Maybe that mocha elephanccino from NYDC wasn't such a good idea after all. And tummy is acting up real funny. Ouch.)

Another question that has been sloshing about my head for a while (unrelated to other peoples' lives though, but my own)

Do you marry the person you can live with, or the person you can't live without?

That is the question! No, not really. Musing brought about by reading a post on some random person's blog [I forget who, but was blog searching for 'law iv' (more on that later, if I get round to it) and happened to read an interesting post]

Anyhow. To girls who don't drive:
Would you rather have
(a) A boyfriend who drives and sends you everywhere

OR

(b) A boyfriend who does not but will take the bus home with you to make sure you get home safely then take a bus/cab home himself after that?

And a question for the boys:
If you don't drive, would you go out with a girl who does?

Dear Sir/Mdm,

I understand that from sometime last week, the card readers in the Faculty of Law were activated, requiring students to swipe their matriculation card to access certain areas, such as the Computer Cluster. It appears that the Seminar Rooms in Block B have also been locked in this way, except that only staff are allowed access to these rooms. However, I believe I am not alone in saying that this policy has caused extreme inconvenience and no small amount of consternation to the student body.

In the current implementation of the system, the professor conducting the class will 'open' the seminar room for the students some time before the lesson begins. It is the common practice of most faculty members to then return just in time for the beginning of class, leaving the students who are early for class to open the door for their arriving classmates.

There are two ways to do this. First, to leave the door closed (and locked) and for the students sitting nearer the door to get up and open the door each time a student outside wants to enter. Of course, this is assuming the student outside is able to catch the attention of someone inside. Alternatively , we can leave the door propped open either with a chair or a doorstop. This is far more convenient, except that the keypad by the door will start an incessant buzzing if the door has been open for approximately 30 seconds. The same procedure is repeated during break time, which is not so inconvenient as there are students coming and going for the duration of the 10 or 15 minute break.

The time I feel this system is totally untenable is when the lesson has already started, and for some reason or other students are late, or leave the seminar room for a short time. To require students seated near the door to keep an eye out for students wishing to enter is, I feel, asking too much of them and distracting them from paying attention. To leave the door open will lead to the unpleasant buzzing sound accompanying the lecture, which would possibly distract everyone in class.

I understand that this system is for the security of the seminar rooms, as there is some valuable equipment in them, including projectors. However the way the system works currently is a joke. What is there to prevent a determined 'thief' from lingering in the seminar room until after everyone else leaves, and then removing items as he pleases? I understand if the objective is to secure the room against outsiders and strangers, but from the student body?

We are all students at the Law School. We have an interest in seeing facilities maintained, and classes being conducted smoothly and without inturruption. Would it be too much to ask that we be granted access to the seminar rooms?

(Endnote - who knows where I should send this to? Dean? GMY? Estate Office? Or, dare I say it, R***** gasp)

Edits/Comments requested. Am I being too whiny/foreceful/long winded?

R.I.P Elizabeth Choy, 1910-2006.
War heroine, teacher, politician, humanitarian.

CNA Story

Because of the 234059802934850925 people who think parking at the canteen is a good idea, yet lack the requisite parallel parking skills to actually do so! I know we all want our 15 minutes of fame, but being made fun of watched by people having lunch/tea/dinner doesn't count. Neither does appearing on Parking Idiots.

Driver of white-car-with-black-scratches-on-your-front-bumper, you better look out, cause I'll be coming to get you!

From the Straits Times this morning (2 days late, I know, but I don't usually read my news off the 'net, but with my breakfast) I know this isn't the first year it's being done, but I thought the picture looked kinda nice.

PS If you don't know what's going in the picture, which planet have you been living on?

Edit : Apparently a number of people have been living on Mars, or Pluto (technically not a planet, but I'll let that one slide) so. Monday was September 11, 2006, 5 years on from the attacks by Al Qaeda in New York. The Tribute in Lights represent the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which collapsed when airliners crashed into them.

I am exceedingly, extremely, enormously irritated by the IndianLLM students in my Biz & Finance class. As a back story, being LLM students they have first dibs on all classes, meaning they filled up a third (10 out of 30 places) of the class even before law ivs - technically at the top of the pecking order - had a chance to have a go. Which means my friends all the people around me who wanted to do this course couldn't. Or will now have to do it next semester (Which might not be such a bad idea!)

Anyhow. There are 2 particular students who have been seriously getting on my nerves. They always insist on speaking very loudly, often drowning out someone else who had been speaking earlier. They always chiong to answer every single question, even the obviously historicalrhetorical questions. Even more amusingannoying, they are oftentimes slightly slow in their answers, when someone else has already said the correct answer. Undaunted, they will repeat the answer to irritate everyone for everyone's benefit in case they missed it the first time. (Whether they knew the answer already or are just repeating someone elses' answer, I do not know)

Edit : Apparently it happens in Admiralty too.

Edit 2 : They're everywhere! Credit & Security and IP as well!

As Meihui will (gleefully) tell you, I generally look rather unglam in photos. Nevertheless, here are a few of the slightly less unglam ones from law iv for your viewing pleasure, including a couple of others.

I had meant to put up law iv photos and video(s), but blogger is being singularly uncooperative and refusing my uploads. So, I shall blog about Eileen instead.

(Previously, I had pulled a whole bunch of hearsay cases off westlaw and lawnet. Not that I read them, but Eileen apparently does. So anyhow)

Earlier today, I passed Eileen a thumb drive for her to copy the cases onto her laptop. When I got home at about 10-ish, this is the emergency message I saw...

[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
EY HELP
[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
i cant rem where i copied the cases to
[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
dont laugh! or roll your eyes
[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
can you msn them preety preeety please???

I duly sent them to her again. To my extreme amusement, when I plugged in my thumb drive 2 directories popped out: /hearsay cases and /Copy of hearsay cases. No prizes for guessing where she copied them to!

[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
i copied them to your thumbdrive???
[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
are you sure??
[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
ok please dont tell anyone
[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
i have had a very embarassing day
[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
i just figured out
[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
that i couldnt see properly because....
[eileen] Marc owes PSC a treat says:
i wore my left contact on my right eye and vice versa

And all this drama over and above lunch with uncle henry....

Whyyyyyy? Lunch on me for the first person who can provide a satisfactory answer.

... and forget what I want to say.

NB: I'm not usually very loquacious and all, and I don't even have any idea who reads this, but I figure this is a good a place as any to pen some thoughts, at least as opposed to writing little notes which I completely cannot do as my handwriting looks like chicken scratchings.

Anyhow. To:

Char & Nawaz : It's been great working with you guys, and despite the murmurings and complainings, at the end of the day you two 'directed' a fantastic show, which is the part of law iv I will remember and cherish. And Char, I can't thank you enough for 'forcing' me to continue with this when I was feeling lousy and wanted to pull out. In hindsight, singing and dancing helped a lot more than moping about and feeling sorry for myself.

The Band : (In particular, Zhihao and Liangying. And also Shane, who technically wasn't band but anyhow) Exceedingly talented in multiple ways, and most possibly the most talented group of musicians I have had the privlege of working with. Next to any of you, I feel extremely amateurish and generally n00b. Thanks for the great times, and the many lessons learned.

My three 'proteges' : Which isn't exactly the correct word but you know who you are! Remember my most important lesson - you sound good, so start believing in yourself and singing out! It's been a great experience working with the three of you!

Mel & Char : Thanks awfully for putting up with my two left feet and general lack of grace, and exceeding patience in showing steps over, and over, and over, and over again.

Fellow Pupils : Many things I could say, but I guess our lines sum it up pretty well:

Six months of pupilage
There'll be stories to tell
Stories which are always the rage
Still there're fears that I can't quell.

Taken out of context but oh well...

More to follow...

The blogging drought! Well no not really, but law iv is. To horribly misquote Khadijah, /sadface emo time! More posts, pics, even video will follow soon, but before I collapse into bed, the congratulatory laudatory comment which really made my day.

PS I enjoyed the play. It was very well done.

While I knew the producers and the marketing comm were actively trying to market the production to the faculty, it was still a pleasant surprise to see such a comment. Yayness.

... are tired when... you go to sleep at 1 a.m. thinking "ok, I'll sleep for 8 hours and wake up at 9, nice and early" and the next thing you know, it's noon.

... are lazy when... you need a lift from outside the canteen to the carpark at ETS.

... are behind on readings when... its week 4 and the textbook is still in it's shrink wrap.

... need to clean up your desk when... you can hardly see the original surface.

... are doomed to fail law school when... you get tutors like W*****W multiple times.

... need better tennis skills when... you manage to hit out 93529 balls in the course of one session.

... are exceedinly geeky when... you're on a first name basis with retailers at Sim Lim Square.

... have law iv on the brain when... you constantly quote lines in the course of daily conversation.

... need to get out more when... your idea of a good time is playing a card game involving dwarves and wizards.

If we, being slugs, have moved to BTC, leaving all the snails behind, is KR now snail-land while BTC is slug-land?

Why are all my friends closet Munchkin players? I never knew that such a geek oriented game could have such mass appeal.

If you have played Munchkin before, or find the idea of a game where you can sabo your friends to your heart's content exceedingly fun, let me know and we'll see what we can work out!

* Because I can't think of a clever name. I wouldn't normally blog about my life, but I accumulated a couple of photos over the course of today so...

Our dear directors being kind enough to give us a day off from law iv, I had the day to do as I please. After somewhat obligatory and somewhat perfunctory attendance at banking lecture (yay for starting and ending 15 minutes late. not.) Anyhow, it was off to lunch at some somewhat-swanky japanese bento box place at Tanglin Shopping Center (not Tanglin Mall; I have confused the two on a number of occassions) Two old, but still very dear friends provided company for the afternoon. Sharon, back for summer holidays from med school in London (which precipitated the meetup) and Elsa, teacher of English Literature at WafflesRaffles Institution.

I'm rather amazed (but very glad!) that though the three of us come from vastly different backgrounds, we're still able to get along so well together. Sharon, though from MGS, did prep school in England before starting Med school there, and Elsa was from a very Chinese-y SAP school before that-green-and-white-garbed-school-formerly-situated-across-the-buona-vista-divide, then NUS and NIE. Well to be honest they get along well with me a la Meihui - basically making fun of me at every opportunity. But I digress.


From left to right - Elsa, looking amazingly youthful despite her slightly auntified hairdo, Sharon, who claimed to want to be in the midle of the shot to 'hide her monkey ears', and yours truly, looking slightly bemused at the whole affair (We had to ask a waitress to help us take a picture with a camera phone)

After a short interlude at Queensway buying sports supplies, next stop was Settler's at HV to play *gasp* Munchkin! Elsa was a seasoned pro so we taught Sharon who picked up extremely fast. Of course they happily ganged up against me at every opportunity.

Random card from Munchkin that rather amused me. For those of you too lazy to squint at the unfocused picture, it reads:

LEVEL 6
LAWYERS
Will not attack a thief (professional courtesy). A Thief encountering a lawyer may instead discard 2 treasures and draw 2 new ones face down.

Bad Stuff: He hits you with an injunction. Let each other player draw one card from your hand, starting with the player to your left. Discard any remainder.

The evening was spent playing tennis with my brother, sister, brother's girlfriend and a couple of friends from church. And I use the word playing in a very loose sense here, where I mean hitting the ball and hoping it goes across to the other side. Well, it seemed that way to me at least.

Anyhow, here's a pretty decent series of pictures taken from a camera phone - albeit the Cybershot k800i. With such funky technology, who needs proper cameras? The 3.2MP camera on the phone is as good as, if not better, my first digitcal camera. Person in question playing the ball is my brother, and the phone in question belongs to my sister. No idea what I was doing at the time. (Random extra person wandering around in the scene is brother's girlfriend)

A couple of days ago, during some random law iv rehearsal, someone said to myself and Liangying, "No, I'm not musically talented. Not like you guys." Which made me think of how much of a charlatan I am. I don't actually have much/any musical talent. I just put myself forward as such. Haha. Sure, I can play a whole host of instruments. I can sing passably. I've taken music lessons in any number of forms for a gazillion years. But in terms of having that actual gift (a la Liz) and the ear and the hands for music, I'm nowhere.

Which got me thinking about the whole jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none thing. Would you rather be exceedingly talented at one particular skill, or be averagely mediocore at a whole host of things? The first person people mention when conversation moves to some field or other - the star, standing tall, or just another brick in the wall? (Apologies for the law iv references! No prizes for guessing whats foremost in my thoughts nowadays)

I can sing decently, play (averagely) the piano, the organ, the guitar, and novicely a bunch of other instruments (am learning the drums, yay!) I'd also like to think I'm a passable music and voice teacher. But I'd give all this up for the ability to play one particular instrument superlatively. Or am I being greedy and asking for too much?

For those of you visiting from meihui's blog, hi2u! I will try to keep you entertained and riveted by my interesting and eloquent writing.

PS. For those of you who are thinking of stalking me, xiaxue has some hints you might be interested in...

Dear Sandra and Lingwei,

I heard from Cheryl Tan that you are willing to take on the roles as President and Vice-President of the Year 4 Class Committee respectively.

Thank you for your support!

I understand from Cheryl that you are busy with law iv right now. Just to inform you, we need more people to form the Year 4 Class Committee proper. Below are the following positions which need to be filled up:

1. Secretary
2. Secretary (Academic and Welfare)
3. Treasurer
4. Sports Secretary

No rush. You can take your time to form the committee once you are done with law iv. Just email me when you are done k? Thank you!

And all the best for law iv! I will be there on Saturday! J

Regards,

xxxxxxxx

OH NOES! WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!

Edit: Law 4s, please take note of the bold print and respond accordingly!

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