(In a random 3a.m. MSN conversation about inter alia, relationships)
a year 4 who went on exchange:
i never been attached before leh. so i am like an expert witness with no qualifications
Dunno how many of you remember watching The Electric Company as a kid (kinda like Sesame Street, but only with wayyyyy cooler songs) Anyway, here are two of my favorit-er ones, sung by Tom Lehrer, WHO IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. If you are into math or chemistry, go check out his chemical elements song. Hahahahahahaha. This >>> studying for tax.
As much as I enjoy studyingphotoshopping for exams, what I'd really really REALLY like to do right now is go on a looooong drive. Like, a long, straight road with absolutely no one in sight, a glorious, clear sky with a few wisps of clouds for company, rolling wheat fields on both sides of the road stretching to the horizon. And maybe a good (Christmas) CD on the stereo.
No, the N-S highway to KL does not count. I'm thinking, some interstate in Wyoming.
Road trip, anyone?
This one's a 5-minute photochop, so no guarantees on quality.
Just in case Sha's (already rather large head) doesn't get too big so it explodes (see previous post)
No rice cooker epiphanies or anything of that sort today, but (i) I was late because I was buying tau huey for Sha, (ii) I didn't bring my pencil case (that sounds so primary school but true :(, (iii) 4 questions in 2 hours is WAY TOO MUCH TO WRITE IN WAY TOO LITTLE TIME.
Oh, but for what it's worth, kudos to Sha for spotting one question! Which we (she, actually) prepared for!
For the uninitiated, what you're looking at is what used to be an upright piano, but has been gutted and stuffed full of electronic goodness, including a digital weighted keyboard, a mac mini and some speakers. It's now a home recording studio.
In a nutshell: Cool! I want!
But why do I feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick?
Princess Leia Sandrana
(Yes, I know the blending isn't perfect. In fact, it's quite dodgy in places. But please remember that (i) this is done on my laptop and (ii) [more importantly] I HAVE BANKING TOMORROW AND TAX ON THURSDAY AND I'M SPENDING ALL MY TIME IN PHOTOSHOP INSTEAD OF STUDYING)
Ok it doesn't look so good here, but the original picture is on the left and the picture on the right is meant to look like it's been snowing. Anyway, if someone has a nice picture of someplace distinctively Singapore (like BTC) please send a copy my way so I can winterify it.
PS If you can't tell, I haven't been doing much studying lately. Lots of photoshopping though.
Diediedie.
Alternatively titled, Why We All Can't Get ICF
Because the people higher than the year 4s in the pecking order took a whole bunch of spots :(
Master of Laws by Coursework: 2
Master of Laws (Corporate and Financial Services Law): 23
Master of Laws (Intellectual Property and Technology Law): 1 (WTF?)
DipSing:1
That it is extremely profitable to trade in toilet paper
Rutledge v. Inland Revenue Commissioners (1929) 14 TC 490
A taxpayer bought one million rolls of toilet paper for £1,000 and later resold them at £12,000 for a net profit of approximately £11,000. (The rest of the case is irrelevant and it talks about whether he could be counted as trading in toilet paper or not.)
Sometimes the cheesy love stories can be nice too!
It was a comely young lady fair,
Was walking out for to take the air;
She met a sailor down by the way,
So I paid attention,
So I paid attention to what they would say.
Said William: "Lady, why walk alone?
For the night is coming and the day near gone."
She said, while tears did fall,
"It's a dark-eyed sailor,
It's a dark-eyed sailor that's proving my downfall.
"It is seven long years since he left the land,
And a gold ring he took from off his hand;
He broke the token, gave half to me,
While the other lies rolling,
While the other lies rolling in the bottom of the sea."
She was distracted midst joy and woe.
"Oh welcome, William, I have lands and gold
For my dark-eyed sailor,
For my dark-eyed salor so manly and bold."
In the little cottage down by the sea,
They joined in wedlock and you'll well agree.
Young girls be true while your love's away,
For a stormy morning,
For a cloudy morning brings forth a pleasant day.
Alternatively titled, Why I Am Going To Fail Evidence. (Even though I spotted Presumption of Innocence essay)
Before I left for Canada, my mom bought me a little small rice cooker to cook rice with. "Just in case" I couldn't get one there. Or something. It didn't take up that much space in my luggage (I stuffed it with socks too) so I bought it along with me.
For some inexplicable reason, it didn't cook rice all that well. It came out soggy. At first I thought it was me, so I kept experimenting with water proportions and timing and all that. No joy. After a while I gave it up as a bad job and bought instant rice.
Fast forward to Evidence Exam, November 2006. A good 4 months after exchange. Halfway through the exam, it suddenly hit me.
MY RICE COOKER DIDN'T WORK SO WELL CAUSE IT NEEDED 240V POWER AND THE MAINS WERE ONLY 110V IN CANADA.
And don't ask me why I was thinking about rice and rice cookers while doing my exam. I want to know why too.
So that's why I'm going to fail. Oh, and the other slight problem is the fact that of my 3 questions, my LPP/Opinion hypo is at best mediocre, my PoI essay was incoherent (EVEN THOUGH I SPOTTED. BAH) and my EA/CL essay was incomplete.
sighbomb
Since "This Time Last Year" posts are all the rage nowadays, I thought I'd do one too. To remind me of happier days, when ICF meant nothing to me and Burden of Proof just meant either Beyond A Reasonable Doubt or On The Balance Of Probabilities.
So anyway. This time last year...
I was having a jolly good time ... (Editor's Note: The content following has been removed because there are young innocent and impressionable people reading this blog)
From left to right, The Maxim Playgirls (and friend!):
Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Yours Truly, Frou-Frou, Clo-Clo, Margot.
Oh, to be back in Paris!
If you...
Got ICF, DIE ONCE.
Got ICF but are going into liti, DIE x 100.
If you got ICF but are planning to drop, please let me know!
In honor of the occassion, a rhyming couplet:
If you got ICF
Please DIAF.
In the past 2 days, despite spending something like 20 hours in school, the grand sum of all work done is: *drumroll* 2 evidence article summaries. Yay.
Yay, exams are ending. That means Christmas is coming. My absolutest favoritest time of the year!
Not sure what there is to celebrate right now but Sandra wanted a party so who am I to say no?
The banquet, all prepared.
Your lovely hosts for today.
Can we be any more obvious?
People having a good time...
... and stuffing their faces.
We even played party games! (Well, Old Maid isn't exactly a party game but...)
Before.
After!
Old Maid #1
And #2!
The people are gone but the decor's still up!
If you missed out, SUCKS TO BE YOU. Tune in next time for our End of Evidence Party!
Not like that will ever happen but...
Maybe you can line your desk with it!
True story! Well, at least Universal CEO seems to think so. Juicy quote:
"These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it... So it's time to get paid for it."
Universal Music is charging Microsoft USD$1 for each of its new Zune music players sold. Which is yet another episode in the music industry's war against mp3s, PMPs and the internets in general. (Yes, that plural is an intended typo) A war they are, mind you, losing badly. What can they possibly hope to achieve with this latest stunt?
Assume 10 million Zunes are sold. Yay, Universal gets $10m, and they claim they will share at least half of the proceeds with artists. I have absolutely no idea how many artists are with Universal, but I daresay it would finally work out to a pittance for each artist. And let's admit it, $5m is a drop in the bucket in terms of the bottom line for Universal, which probably measures its cashflow in terms of billions and not milions.
All I can see coming out of this the music industry getting yet another black mark. Not like they don't have enough already.
(P.S. As far as I can tell, > 80% of music on my iPod is legally obtained. I can't say for sure where the rest comes from)
Oh by the way. IP lawayers. Does copying less than 10% of a CD come under the same provision as photocopying books does?
Why do I allow myself to be subject to such abuse?
Taken from the New York Times, Thursday 20 April 2006. Yes, that bastion of incisive journalism.
The moment that 13-year-old Miley Cyrus knew for sure that her life had taken a surreal turn happened just a few weeks ago, when her 6-year-old sister, Noah, sheepishly told her that she had entered a contest on the Disney Channel Web site to win backstage passes to a concert featuring the network's newest star. It was Miley.
''You live with me!'' Miley said she told her sister, before issuing a warning: don't even think about swiping anything from my bedroom to sell on eBay.
It sounded like something that might happen to Hannah Montana, the character Miley plays on the new hit Disney series of the same name. The half-hour sitcom is about a 14-year-old girl (named Miley Stewart), regarded by many of her middle-school peers as an outcast geek, who has a secret identity by night as the pop sensation Hannah Montana. (Imagine Britney Spears, only more chaste.)
The series' premiere episode received an enormous boost on its opening night, March 24, by being packaged as the lead-in to an encore showing of the movie ''High School Musical,'' the most-watched film in the 23-year history of Disney Channel. That night, with Corbin Bleu (Chad) of ''High School Musical'' as a guest star, ''Hannah'' attracted 5.4 million viewers. Since then, in its regular time slot (Fridays at 7 p.m. Eastern time), the show has drawn an average of more than 3.5 million viewers, most of them 6 to 14, making it the most popular show among so-called tweens on basic cable television nearly every week it has run.
Little wonder that Disney has already asked the producers of ''Hannah,'' who include two veterans of the sitcom ''Murphy Brown,'' to add 6 episodes to the 20 that were already scheduled for the first season. Believing that ''Hannah'' could also serve as a marketing platform akin to ''Lizzie McGuire,'' the Disney Channel series that catapulted Hilary Duff to stardom and that spawned a cottage industry, Disney is also planning a ''Hannah'' soundtrack album, to be released in the fall, a Miley Cyrus album for early next year and, in all likelihood, a line of accessories that would probably include ''Hannah'' clothing.
Miley -- who was born Destiny Hope Cyrus, but who has long preferred her nickname (Smiley Miley) -- beat out more than 1,000 aspirants for the coveted role of Hannah, though she had little dramatic experience beyond some acting lessons and scattered roles in school plays in her native Nashville.
What ultimately won her the job, the producers and network executives say, was her cool confidence (a quality that stopped well short of cockiness), her intuitive comic timing (which seemed, at least to the older adults, evocative of what a teenage Lucille Ball might have been like) and a husky singing voice not unlike Mary Chapin Carpenter's. In the bargain, Miley, who sings the show's theme song, was able to infuse Hannah with a real-life sense of the joys and perils of superstardom.
Miley is one of five children of Billy Ray Cyrus, who became known in the early 1990's for the foot-stomping anthem ''Achy Breaky Heart'' and who, until recently, could be seen in the United States and more than 40 other countries in original episodes of a drama called ''Doc,'' a show about a country physician who relocates to New York City. That series, on PAX, enabled Mr. Cyrus to parlay his ''Achy Breaky'' exposure into an improbable career as an international TV star, in much the way David Hasselhoff used his fame as an American TV star to become a pop singer abroad. (Attentive viewers of the 2001 David Lynch film ''Mulholland Drive'' may have also noticed Mr. Cyrus in the bit part of Gene, the pool man.)
Mr. Cyrus, 44, has a role on ''Hannah,'' too. He plays Miley's father, Robbie, but he was asked to audition only after his daughter landed her part. And when he was offered the role, he says, he wasn't sure whether he should take it.
''I didn't know if I was right for her dad,'' he said, seriously, as he strummed an acoustic guitar in a cavernous dressing room on the show's Hollywood soundstage, where he and Miley occupy adjoining alcoves, separated by a frilly curtain (hers). ''The last thing I would want to do is screw up Miley's show.''
Mindful that Miley is working alongside her father at an age when she might be craving a little less togetherness, Mr. Cyrus said he had been careful to give his daughter lots of space. He has, he said, made a point of biting his tongue hard to avoid giving her any unsolicited acting advice.
''I never say, 'I'd do it like that,' '' he said, before adding that Miley was far more likely to tell him, ''It might be funny if you do it that way.''
Of working so closely with her famous father, Miley said: ''At the beginning it was a little bit weird. We'd get into little arguments.''
''Now,'' she added, ''it's really good.''
To devote themselves full-time to the production of ''Hannah,'' on which Miley, a seventh grader, is tutored on the set, Mr. Cyrus and his wife, Tish, moved her and her four siblings to Los Angeles from Nashville. She reluctantly left behind her family's seven horses, as well as a number of good friends.
Young viewers will be pleased to know that she has helped fill that void by befriending two co-stars -- Emily Osment and Mitchel Musso, both 14 -- who also play her best friends, Lilly and Oliver, on the show. At least early in the series, Lilly and Oliver are the only schoolmates whom the fictional Miley trusts with the secret that she is really Hannah.
In real life, Emily, Mitchel and Miley say they are constantly sending each other text messages offstage and gathering, at least electronically, in the evening for three-way conference calls in which they talk like the teenagers they are.
The message underlying ''Hannah'' -- one meant to strike a chord with parents, as well as with their children -- is that celebrity is not to be confused with real life, and that happiness comes when one stays true to oneself. Thus, the on-screen Miley is constantly faced with the temptation to reveal her alternate, bewigged identity to her schoolmates, who pay her little mind but have Hannah pictures plastered inside their lockers.
The real-life Miley still has to make her bed and clean up her room at home. In her father, Miley says, she has a role model as grounded as a daughter (and teenage star) could have. A thoughtful man who is readily self-deprecating, Mr. Cyrus has, for example, written a tongue-in-cheek song for a forthcoming album that tries to turn jokes about his 1990's hairstyle back on his critics. Its title: ''I Want My Mullet Back.''
On more occasions than she could possibly count, Miley says, she has also watched her father get button-holed for autographs during meals out, and, however much he might have been inconvenienced, watched him sign his name with a smile.
''He'll say: 'These are people supporting you. Be good to them,' '' Miley said.
Which is not to say that the real-life Miley has grown comfortable with the notion of being recognized in malls, among many other places.
''I have always been known as Billy Ray Cyrus's daughter,'' she said. ''Now they say my name. I freak out!'
I seriously need to watch less cable tv. In particular, the Disney Channel.
Most folks think that I'm not real
'Cause I'm half girl and I'm half seal
I'm a little seal girl livin' in the real world
And it's so hard to get by
'Cause seals can't even cry
But in this endless, boundless sea
Is there no one who looks like me
I know I must stay chipper,
One day I'll find a friend to hold my flipper
'Cause I'm a little seal girl livin' in the real world
And it's so hard to get by
'Cause seals can't even cry
(The audio is pretty crappy but this is the only copy I can find on YouTube. Make do! And Sandra, stop sniggering)
I seem to have just spent an inordinate amount of money on songs in the iTunes Music Store. It's so... seductively easy to buy music, at the click of a mouse. Everything looks so spiffy and you feel inclined to spend money.
Sigh Apple.
The irony is priceless.
Download this song!
Why why why oh why didn't I go to school to mug instead of staying at home? I just spent the last 4 hours painstakingly organizing my mp3 library, adding missing tags and album art just so I can use the funky Coverflow effect in iTunes. Grrrgrgrgrgrghhhhh. (But if you've never seen it in action, you have to. Seriously!)
Well, at least my spiffy new video iPod has fully loaded and ready to rock with properly organized playlists. But I'm going to fail tax.
Then again, I know that already.
Because I'm staying at home all day today, I have the luxury of reading the papers properly, as opposed to flipping through them hurriedly before I leave the house. Two newsbites of note... (ONE VERY WORRYING)
Indranee Rajah is my new hero! From the looks of it she is a big Star Trek fan. She compares the PAP to the Federation, and says it is not like the Borg. Take that how you will, but fwah! for mentioning something like this in an interview with the Straits Times. Wayfunkycool. (In my book at least) Oh, and she thinks there should be a Starbucks in Parliament House too.
There is a (albeit slight) chance that EPL will be moved to PayTV sometime down the road. WHICH TOTALLY DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF ME GETTING CABLE.
epifjweopifjwopeicvnmawopemicvnawoeifnaw;oevinawe;ovipnmawelkvnal;sfn wefn ao;weifhj a;oeiwfhj ao;weiufh aowueh foaweui fhao;eijnf ;laksdnjc lzksdm c.a,ksenfoaiuwhjef;oiejf ao;wiefj awepf
If you look at it closely enough you can tell that its computer generated graphics, but you gotta admit, it looks preeettttty darn good right?
(I wouldn't normally blog about my religion or force it on others, but this is just so well-written and true that I thought I'd share. Please skip if you are offended by such things.)
Malachi 3:3a says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.
That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"
He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it"
If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.
Specially dedicated to Sha, whom I'm sure is hard at work studying and not reading blogs!
I know everyone has already been to Corduroy but I figured I'd do a foodie thing on it anyway. And since the place needs no introduction I can dive straight into the food.
French Onion Soup: Extremely dissapointing. Generally tasteless except that it was really salty. Lots of onions but could hardly tell they were used to cook the soup.
Mediterranean Platter: When they say for 1, it really means for one. A morsel of 9 different antipasti, but what wonderful morsels they were! Particularly delightful was the sun dried tomato and very lightly seared slab of pork.
Cobb Salad: Generous helping (but then at $16 a portion they'd better be generous!) with heaps of avocado, chicken, cheese, bacon bits and egg. Halfway through the meal it looked untouched! I particularly liked the egg, which was very finely diced but strangely didn't feel mashed. Taste to believe!
Some Spinach Truffle (I forget the exact name) Spinach drizzled in a creamy sauce topped off with fried onions. I didn't particularly like the onions but the spinach was good. Slightly soggy, but that's the way I like my spinach and the sauce was wonderful.
It took me a good 10 seconds to get it but...
She's always on my mind. From the time I wake up Till I close my eyes.
Why does the sun go on shining? Why does the sea rush to shore?
And now I'm all alone again nowhere to go no one to turn to...
I'm lying alone with my head on the phone, thinking of you til it hurts.
I haven't slept at all in days, it's been so long since we've talked.
If you're not the one then why does my hand fit yours this way?
How could this happen to me? I've made my mistakes, got nowhere to run.
Can't believe that I'm a fool again! I thought this love would never end.
Why love when ends? I know how it feels when it turns and pretends.
Im all out of faith, this is how I feel. Im cold and Im ashamed bound and broken on the floor..
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again.
A lobster dinner might do the trick. Finished off with some cheeeesecake!
My sister isn't normally a soccer fan, but recently she's been watching EPL on Saturdays with my brother and I. Some choice quotes, all in the space of 90 minutes. (Manchester United v. Portsmouth and Liverpool v. Reading were on)
"Why he never tuck in his drawstring! So unglam" (Referring Evra, or some other ManU player) [Note to self: I am guilty of this sometimes too]
"Is v-neck or collar nicer?" (Comparing ManU's and Portsmouth's jerseys)
"Wah, Wayne Rooney's jersey so tight"
"Is it when the defenders are too lazy to defend, or they know they cannot make it, so they all run away?" (Trying to understand the offside trap)
"Ee I don't like his hair. Look like worms" (Dirk Kuyt of Liverpool)
"He needs to shave his sideburns" (Ryan Giggs)
"Huh? How come he suddenly become so dark?" (Confusing Jermaine Pennant with Ryan Giggs, who both have very thick and bushy sideburns. We were swapping between both matches)
"Can you all stop changing the channel? It's very confusing for me to remember who is scoring which side"
"Their thighs must be all very muscular, that's why the shorts are all so tight"
"He runs funny" (Peter Crouch, who has the longest legs ever.) - Actually, I have to agree with this one.
"I think Reading will never be a popular club. Their jersey so ugly, who will want to wear out" - Again, I think I'd agree. Then again, I think ManU's new muscle fit thing isn't too pretty either.
Makes for entertaining viewing, although I think I feel slightly stupider, football-wise.
Since I now have cable tv, and have way too much viewable programming than I know what to do with, I decided to see what, exactly I could do with it. The original germ of an idea came to me around 5 a.m-ish a couple of days ago, right before Didier Drogba equalized for Chelsea at the Nou Camp. But that's another story. My thought was - this is great, but it would be even greater if I could watch it in the comfort of my room. Or even better, huddled up in bed! My couch and tv are nice and all, but in some situations comfort > a great viewing experience.
So. How can I get my cable tv signal to the computer in my room? Or a laptop? (For the technically unitiated, I will try to keep this next bit as idiot-proof as possible) Here's how I'm (trying to) do it.
Starhub cable tv box
TO video cable connected to a TV tuner card
IN A computer which also works as a streaming video server
WHICH streams the video across my home network
RIGHT to my laptop which recieves it as a windows media streaming video.
Except that right now, I'm stuck between step TO and IN A, cause I can't get windows to recognize the starhub set top box. Watching one channel is nice, but it sorta kinda sucks when you cannot channel surf. Grr. I'm about to tear my hair out.
WHY DOES WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER HATE ME SO!?!?