Things You Never Knew...

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!

!