okie….
things don’t look so good on the homefront.
singapore bound on thursday. will call you friends. love you.
Untitled
Dear Jake,
i rarely talk about you here, or talk to you here at all, because you know, we are on msn 24 7. or mostly we used to anyways.
the above picture is what i got, exactly as it is.
This cute monokuro boo lunchbox (yes thanks for indulging in my bento box fantasies)
Some anime that you think i might like plus ones that i requested.
my first ever real recipe book (because i hate recipe books so much, since they make me look like i can’t cook)
the bottles caps.
BUT DEAR SIR. WHY THE HELL DID YOU SEND ME A VICTORIA’S SECRETS PAPER BAG WITH NOTHING IN IT?!?!
excuse me while i go bang my head on the wall.
DON’T SEND A PAPER BAG, LET ME HAVE HIGH HOPES OF SOMETHING AWESOME, and only to find bottle caps in it. i LOVE bottle caps. but underwears are a different matter. it even had a PINK tissue paper in it, as if it held some precious underwear. i mean, DON’T SEND ME THE PAPER BAG AND TEMPT ME! at least you know you could have gotten this:
or even this:
or THIS!!!!:
all pictures by victoria’s secrets.
but no…. you had to send me an empty paperbag, with candies inside. i can assure you, i can’t wear candies as a daily underwear. and it will only infuriate me so much that when i do land at any american airport with some find VS products, i am emptying it.
and selling your ass to them to make up for any amount of money that i ain’t paying them.
and no, i don’t need the models to come with the damn g strings/thongs/rio.
In the mean time, rest assured i will tell your mum when to walk in on you while you are jerking off, so you can be sexually frustrated for the rest of next year. that’s for making me all HAPPY to see a nice little paper bag in there.
your girlfriend
cheryl
technorati tags:victoria secrets, VS, underwear, jake, boyfriends, empty, packages, angsty, personal, blog
Running on a short fuse
i still am not sure what happened. at some point last night, i got mad enough, i told the kitchen to seriously fuck off and stop being so up their arse about themselves, and walked off. i was mad, i was a little uptight, and i hated being their bashing bag just because i was their first point of contact. what angered me more later on, was Mel taking THEIR side of the story and telling me i should stop stressing them out.
no, seriously?
if they don’t give me contradicting orders, if they had just stop being such pricks, maybe they wouldn’t have been stressed out by my actions. first they told me to remind them, then they told me they don’t want me in their faces. well get over it and decide what you want. i didn’t say anything. the dockets are there because that’s a common practise.
i like to stand in that posture. ems does it, niccie does it, everyone does. we aren’t too tall that we can just stare over the shelves at the pass, or too short that we can stare UNDER the shelves. so why should i do something i have never done and stand up straight and stare at the metal bits of the pass just because you aren’t feeling like my posture that day.
get fucked.
when i got let off that night from work, i could see mel wasn’t happy with me. whatever dude. between you and me, we know exactly what kind of people the kitchen is. i am surprised you even bought their story. i was a little elated when i woke up this morning for standing up for myself against the kitchen and their moronic abuse. at the same time, i was still a little pissed off. they tried to be nice when i left last night, but since i was still on my power trip, i ignored them.
heh.
It was a good day somewhat today though. i went into civic to meet up with sheetle and we had some food trip around the town. it’s just nice to not cook for yourself every now and then. it’s seriously hard to cook for just ONE person. it’s annoying. there’s always too much or too little food left over. and i really hate to have to handle leftovers since i have *SO* much space in the fridge.
after which, we had a nice little short walk to find her national convention centre, and then a cake indulgence. i got the mud cake above, and she got some lemon tart because they have no more cheese cake.
but u know what sheetle?
i think you and i, we both miss NYDC right?
introducing:
Mochamisu (tiramisu cheese cake)
AND the Goldmine Cheese cake
complete with an extra pot of chocolate too!
see! i specially dug up these pictures for you from a thousand moons ago! don’t you love me? (i can feel a virtual hit coming)
oh cheese cakes, what can i do without you? 
technorati tags:cakes, cheesecakes, nydc, singapore, food, kitchen, sheetle, friends, desserts, personal, blog
The Return from Repairs
After the huge drama between 3 and me, i finally got my line back up and going.
Subsequently, i figured that since i don’t really use my phone much here, i might as well do something about some of the “problems” i had with it. my nokia 6280 is a nice little piece of work. 2mp camera, video phone, plays movies, music and records stuff. nice little working phone. it was a massive upgrade from my usual call+sms type of phones which i was starting to get use to. the closest i ever got to 3G phones was my 2.5G phone - my Anna Sui Samsung which was stolen earlier this year that i got back. but it was locked on to T mobile for it’s 3g benefits - which obviously meant i couldn’t use almost all of the nice functions.
i moved late into 3G phones because i don’t really like all-in-one gadgets. mostly because i think something should just behave as what they are originally meant for, and partly because i see the folly that should one part of the phone break down, i would be out of the other benefits as well. e.g, if my phone dies, i lose the mp3 player side, the camera side and what not.
regardless, i bought this phone because most phones on the stand are already 3G anyways, might as well get some nicething for the same price.
right from the time i bought the phone though, there were little quirks. the phone would suddenly blank out for a sec, as if resetting itself, and then goes back to doing nothing. it didn’t happen frequently enough to annoy me, but it did happen frequent enough to concern me.
the next problem i had was discovered quite by accident. the night mode does not exude any flash. even when i press flash, there was no flash. initially, i thought it was because the flash was weak. but when i turned up at the nokia care center last week, the suggestion was - weak does not equate almost zilch presence of a light from the phone.
finally, the problem that wasn’t really all that important anyways, but got me down to nokia care center - i couldn’t get on 3’s content pages. it soon became something i wanted, simply because i can access the internet to view my online bill - something that i can’t do on a normal pc-internet thing because they don’t put our bills online per se. it must be accessed from the phone. i hate calling their customer service and press numerous numbers to get there. the thing is, i never actually was able to access 3 Contents properly. when i called last week, we finally found out the problem - the OS my nokia was working on was outdated. it had some conflicts with all these contents thing.
i felt so enlightened after that.
the hilarious part was, the repairing guy, after hearing my contents and self-reset problems, refused to take it in for just 2 hours and give me a small overhaul. his exact words - “it’s either a full repair or no repair. i don’t want to do a half arsed work” LOL!!!! i was impress (i know, i am easily impressed). and i happily left my phone in their care for a probable 2 weeks.
it’s back 
and the flash, OMG THE FLASH!!!! it’s truly a flash. who ever said it’s weak should just die. it’s so fucking bright that while i was “inspecting” it after work at the bus stop tonight, i think i blinded myself. and everyone stared at me while i was gaping at my mobile. i felt so retarded at that point.
in the mean time though, 3 loan me a phone. it’s the crappiest piece of shit from motorola that i have ever seen, complete with the fact that the phone drops my calls (yes jake, it wasn’t your phone i haven’t dared to tell my dad either :x) every like 30 minutes or something. i have also discovered how my stupid ipod is going to heaven. yesterday, it decided to die every 3 mins, claiming it was out of batt, after i have charged it for 24 hours.
the return of my phone has just increased it’s usage to me. <3 phonie~
technorati tags:6280, nokia, repairs, happy, personal, phone, blog
Breathing Freely
Being poor can be good sometimes… quite amusingly good really. I suddenly find a variety of things to do that either does not need much money, or are totally free.
Movies - $2 Tuesdays via Blockbuster - i rented some tonight, that are partially related to what i am doing. i say partially because i cave in on a couple of DVDs, especially what i considered as literary classics.
What i rented:
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth
The Company (a ballet movie with neve campbell in it)
CSI: Miami
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Law and Order: Criminal Intent
V for Vendetta
Hotel Rwanda
The Emperor’s Wife
Quite a mix range, in my opinion. but what caught my attention most has to be “A State of Mind”, which is a documentary of sorts, chronicling a pair of girls training over a 6 months period or so, by BBC - in North Korea. When i took this dvd, my main point was to find out how a normal person lives in Korea. Considering recent developments between DPRK vs the rest of the world, i thought it’s a good time to get a little educated about them.
i am not quite sure how to describe my feelings and thoughts derived from it. it’s a mix between horror, shock, annoyance and simple pleasure.
To start off with, what i actually liked about the whole DPRK thing was how they preserved the entire 1970s lifestyle into their country, sans the boom that we had… well of some sorts anyways. the housing, the materials used, even the rationing coupons, were partially pre-war british/colonial life, and partly some of the hippy era of clothings and etc. Teachers were shown to be wearing the traditional kisaeng, although i don’t know if it was a daily thing (since there were a few teachers in the school wearing it) or was it because they know bbc was filming them.
The girls that were picked by bbc in this entire filming were gymnasts. Rhythmic gymnasts might be the right classification, however they don’t seem to compete much, nor was it stated that they compete at all. they are very normal girls otherwise, going to school and what not. the difference is - their mentality.
Their training for gymnastics, another starting point, is different because of the lack of competition in the sense that we know. instead, it’s all geared towards the “mass games” that was being held that year (2003), and it seemed that they resumed training after the filming was over too. These mass games, just like any major event in DPRK, was just another self gratification event that Kim Jong Il created. Don’t get the movie wrong, while they didn’t heavily emphasise on it, it was pretty obvious from everything from before i started the film. so after the dvd, it was just even more heavily ingrained in my head:
this guy is a psychotic Narcissist.
Every year, the main holidays revolves around his dad’s holiday, his holiday, the national day (or well, celebration of the triumph against “aggression”). I am not saying that’s an entirely wrong thing to do (after all, people celebrate queen’s birthday!). But when every single national event involves putting his face repeatedly up, from photos that dates back to before his grey hair set in, i think that guy needs a reality check.
What pissed me off, and got to me the most i guess, was the heavy propaganda. i have experienced this before in Myanmar, and i don’t know why, every time i see propaganda, it irks me to no end. The school lessons, and everything that the people do, are reminded that they are to do it for “The General”, and for the people, but most importantly, “The General”. a typical history class induced some puke from me:
“It is because of (Kim Jong Il’s) great leadership… that meant that we are destinied for eternal happiness” exclaim the history teacher to her students in the secondary school class of 13 years old girls. “So… What are the 3 greatness of our Great Leader?”
everyone chanted with the teacher, “Great Ideology…. Great Leadership…. Great Aura!”
excuse me a sec while i go sit and puke, and then figure out - wtf aura has got to do with politics and economy?
it’s true, propaganda is one of the methods of perpetuating your ideas, your ideology to people, to ensure acceptance and adaptations. However, i guess because i am so used to it, LYING to people and then not fulfilling those roles is not exactly a healthy relationship. I mean, every political ideology has its own benefits. Infact, if carried out right, with the right resources, good relationship with the international peers and such, as well as various other balance of power structures set in place: it might work out.
i had like to think, none of these political methods are made with the worst intentions in mind. but over the years, the grasp of power CAN make someone stupid. If rightly managed, there’s a possibility that DPRK might have a nice equal society. They did showcase really nice strong teamwork and loyalty. However, if all those false propaganda wasn’t set in place… would people still be there? still be loyal? perhaps.
It got scary too, the type of propandic (sic) lies that they were spreading. I don’t particularly trust america anymore than most people do, but i won’t go so far as to blame every shit on them. Every time something happens, electricity got cut, etc, the first thing they say is: “BLOODY AMERICANS! IT’S ALL THEIR FAULT!” =_=”
not that i had blame them though. Before the Arduous March, the event that started everything rolling was the bombing by Americans, that resulted in casulaties and atrocities no man should ever commit on another human being. infact, every day now, this “long war” that Bush is pushing and keeping, someone’s dying, someone’s mother, someone’s son.
However, i believe a reality check needs to be called in. these people need to know that with the right governance, right diplomacy with the rest of the world, it is not entirely impossible that their country can come out of those marginal poverty lines.
I mean, they are so deluded into some aspects of their military power that they simply assume it is because of their unity…. from the grandma of one of the girls when watching how coordinated everyone is in the parades, “no wonder even arrogant americans tremble with fear to see this. as long as we have the general, we are fine.” I don’t want to burst your bubble ma’am, but it seems your general gets bored every now and then and try to incur the ire of his neighbouring countries and powerful ones too. and whoever told you that display coordination equates military might?
if i own a nuclear weapon now, anyone near me would be fearing me too. but they will also combine their military powers to kick my ass.
what i worry at the end, is their entire trust in their leader, and the capabilities of their leader. he’s not entirely sane. he’s neither emphathetic or sympathetic. Everyone trained their arse off, and he didn’t bother to turn up for the grandest of the shows, despite it being performed twice over 20 days. so the girls trained for nothing. and all they ever wanted to do, was that he had review their performance, to see him smile and clap and wave. one of the girls even stated that she was gearing herself for The General, that she conditions herself, despite the pain and fatigue, by thinking of how much she is doing for The General.
yes, they “won over the American Aggressors”, and took down “planes that dropped insects that contained plagues and all other diseases”. but i really wonder, what exactly have they won?
it gets a little sad.
you can watch some of the mass games here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOXLQethoMo
and here’s a trailer for A State of Mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVBcYEV6Wgs (it’s also the first 2.30 mins of the actual documentary)
technorati tags:DPRK, North, Korea, Oppression, propaganda, A state of mind, Documentary, personal, blog
Cyworld~!~!
yay… cyworld NA finally started their open beta. i have been waiting for the cute site since forever and ever (and yes i know i sound exactly like some moronic 13 years old now).
yes yes, i know i have too many blogs. this is STILL my main site. that’s just entertainment.
that’s how mine looks for now. YES I KNOW IT’S VERY PINK!!! but it’s not like a heavy overdose like what i did previously, so give me a break.
They can do better by thumbnailing alot of things, but i am not complaining i love it already.
here’s the link for a closer look http://us.cyworld.com/anivyl ^_^
lala… class time
metrosexuality
Haiyo…
i turned up for class today, with half the enthusiasm i have been turning up for it with. i don’t know why, perhaps just noticing my college ex classmates finishing in about a month just drove me nuts. i miss home keenly, and wish i can be home now, going out to eat roti prata for breakfast with my dad, then harng hr for dinner. and ipoh hor fun for lunch, by myself, complete with dong gua cha (winter melon tea).
of course, to be completely honest, i don’t think i can make it home anyways. but whatever the fuck la.
anyways, so i sat in class, staring lan lan-ly at the big screen, and started plotting my essays mentally, then my presentations, and whatever not. things like that happens to be routinely, while in the mean time i was semi-absorbing everything he was saying.
but what broke me into peals of laughter again and again was his attempts at humour. he is just so cute, he’s not very funny, but it’s the way he tries to be that just touches me. few teachers bothered to even try make the class interesting. here, the teachers sometimes give you OPTIONS to make life easier for yourself. real choices, hands-on experiences. Uni of canberra may not be the best, but the teachers sure make life seem smoother.
Of the whole entire lecture though, what stood out was how he used really LAY terms to describe things. It must be noted that when one initially join the Arts faculty, while it’s not overwhelmingly full of technical terms like “accounts accruable blah blah blah, monopoly blah blah” (yes i am taking a dig at econs and accounts again), there are terms that can be easily misunderstood by first year students. or… just not understood at all.
and, while he’s not the first teacher i know of who attempts to simplify matters, he is also one of the few teachers that i know of that bothers to clarify terms. and that is of huge importance, particularly to international students from places like bahrain or something in my class who tries hard to understand even the basics of the english language.
Of course… calling states that are being used as pawns are also a plus point. *ahem*
at the end of the class, i tried to ask him what he thought of singapore as. surprise surprise… singapore is classified neatly as liberalism in action. i am fairly amused, but i think it’s time i learn more about my country before i do anything else. WIKIPEDIA!!! hehe… but i am interested in perhaps finding a copy of lee kuan yew’s autobiography in the local library perhaps tomorrow. there’s alot of things i want to know, and i hope i have all the time in the world to do it.
The most interesting find though at the end of the class was…
he owns a hello kitty dangling thing. ALL IN PINK!!!! he dangles it, complete with a bell, from his usb stick. WOAH BABY! i just stared at it, and went, “erm, is that a hello kitty sir?”
he turned red, then looked at his palm, then tried to stuff it into an invisible hole in his palm, and then clenched it tight to hide it from view… “erm, yer well, i enjoyed myself thoroughly in japan..”
“i can see that… sir..”
LAWL…. i love that guy…
technorati tags:lecture, classes, interesting, learnt, opinions, ideas, hello, kitty, metrosexual, me, personal, blog, lol
Taking a hike
I went on a photographing walk yesterday around lake ginninderra (or some long winded name like that). it became an almost worthless trip anyways, because at the most important point of that photographing walk, a couple walked into my corner. they started snuggling around and whipped their heads around when they heard me walking around while i was taking picts.
needless to say, we both look awkwardly at each other, and the air became real tense. i bowed out, and left them to make out there.
granted, that is the best make out spot ever, but still…
i think what surprised me was not the pictures i took (83 in total), but the quality of them. they were generally awesome, UNTIL the kangaroos appeared. the kangaroos were on campus, and ffs, it grew so dark so quickly, that despite no matter how much i tried to take picts of them, nothing showed up. =/ or well, they are blurred images.
and here’s the best pict of the lot, in my opinion…
it’s not very obvious from this pict. i actually had problems finding a nice spot on the bed of canberra roses to take LIVE roses that hasn’t died from being trampled upon or rained down with rubbish. stupid ignorant bastards who litter and trample on pretty flowers.
anyways! i am off to class soon with funny teacher…. he’s kinda cute, stutters, dry jokes, but cute nontheless.
p.s dear friends, when i am trying to read my readings… please don’t msn me trying to tell me how BIG the rain is in Singapore. i will flood you with some buckets of water when i get home. siao char bor.
technorati tags:pictures, photos, trips, walks, friends, personal, blog
ASSIGNMENTS!
I am going to list my assignments here so i know wth i am doing. i am so inundated by both small and big assignments that i am having a hard time telling them apart now. not that it matters too much, but more so i can figure out what needs more research and what doesn’t.
Law and Society: (starting with this since i have the more complete list of questions here)
1) Field Work Report/Symposium Newsletter:
Chosen assignment: Newsletter on the DNA Symposium.
Word count: 800 words
Due Date: 21st August
2) Research Brief Plan:
Chosen Topic: uhm well, i am not very sure yet… i am very inclined towards paedophile activities though ^_^
Word Count: 500 - 1000 words
Due Date: 28th August
3) Final Research Brief + Presentation:
Chosen Presentation Format: Webpage (BWAHAHAHA)
Word Count: 2500 words
Due Date: 9th October
Social Policy:
1) Presentation Topic:
Is social justice the same thing ashuman rights and where do either/both fit into social policy? Use examples in your answer. (1 page summary of presentation and a reference list, OHP presentation preferred -.-)
Due Date: 23rd August
2) Social Media Project:
Topic: Students will select a media report (can be either print or electronic)relating to a social policy topic or issue. If the issue is on-going,it is possible to select a series of reports. Write a critical analysisof the media report on the basis of: media’s handling of the issue; howthe issue is being reported; why the issue is being reported; is thereport taking sides or apportioning blame; is the report attempting tomanipulate public opinion or simply provide information; targetaudience; likely intended or unintended outcome of the report; possibleimplications for policy.
Word Count: 1500 words
Due Date: September 1st
3) Major Essay:
Essay Question:
What are the causes of poverty in Australia and how is the problem addressed through social policy?
Word Count: 3000 Words
Due Date: October 27th (no exams then! :P)
International Politics:
1) Oral tutorial paper:
Question: What was distinctive about cold war diplomacy? (this is tentative because my tutorial time got removed due to lack of participants, my replacement tutorial was not held last week as my actual tutor was away, and i decided to just change tutorial time to late morning/ early afternoon then. but if someone else had picked this topic, i will find something else)
Time Count: 5 minutes (biblios to be handed in though)
Due date: Tentatively in Week 10 (somewhere in the third week of September)
Main Essay:
2) Question: Why did Cold War emerge soon after World War II? How Significant were glasnost and perestroika for ending the Cold War? (i might changed my mind next week though, he was talking about another topic…)
Word Limit: 2000 (so they say… he’s already thinking of lifting this limit to 2700)
Due Date: September 18th
Information Law (OR politically correct: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW DAMMIT!)
1) Seminar:
Question: In 2004 Eduardo Banderas, an employee of Infotrade, filed a provisional patent application for an invention consisting of a method of dealing in Australian stocks anonymously in real-time over the internet. The method enabled traders connected to the internet to access a series of stock prices which they could actually trade, being prices that had been determined via an automated credit check (the Methodâ€). Under the PCT mechanism, the patent nominated the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, Germany and Australia as the countries where the patent was sought. The application stated that the invention was obtained in software coding and a copy of the code was attached to the application. In January 2003 Eduardo had presented a paper on the workings of the Method to a convention of bankers in Jakarta on the Future of Internet Trading. While the paper out-lined the Method it did not disclose the code needed to implement the Method. In June of that year Eduardo demonstrated the operation of the Method to potential customers at an industry trade show held in Palo Alto, California. The demonstration was conducted in a room patrolled by a security guard. In order to obtain admittance to the demonstration potential customers were requested by Eduardo to sign a form under which they agreed to keep the Method confidential. Raphael Devries, who attends the demo, is concerned that the Bandera’s technology is alarmingly similar to an initiative being developed by his own organisation Megabank. He consults Bill, the inventor of the Megabank technology. Bill reassures him that the Banderas patent can be readily attacked as he has documentation in his garage relating to a prototype for the Method he developed years ago. He also observes that he has plenty of mates in the Silicon Valley who have been using the Method for years. Advise Megabank. (*faints* Case-Solutions!)
Word Limit: 1500
Time Limit: 20 minutes (OH WTF MATE?!?!)
Due Date: August 17th
2)Major Essay:
This damn thing is take hom exam style, with 4 weeks for you to do anything about it. i will only know anything about it in 2 weeks…
Word Limit: not stated, but since it’s in the same column at the Seminar’s description, i will temporarily assume it’s 1500 words.
Due Date: September 18th (the monday AFTER holidays. GG.)
After looking at this list, i have concluded i need no sleep. ^_^ humans are so awesome no?
technorati tags:assignments, homework, questions, plans, list, timeline, personal, school, university, classes
Symposium afterthoughts
Today’s Research Symposium was organised by the Division of Business, Law and Information Sciences (basically a long winded name for “everything that’s important for universities”). Titled, “DNA Evidence: The CSI Effect”, it turned out slightly more interesting than i anticipated, and also slightly different from what i thought.
The CSI Effect is a term given to a trend where with the present day law dramas, such as Crime Scene Investigation (therefore CSI) and Law and Order unintentionally blurs the reality for television watchers such that they believe that technology, particularly that of DNA evidence, is highly advance and reliable. In the seminar though, the focus of the majority of the speakers were strongly on CSI alone, rather than a combination of other law dramas. This would prove to be interesting, at least to me, because if one is to blame CSI, then one should blame all i had think. Particularly because if you look at the statistics as a whole there are many law/police/detective and similar genre dramas that are watched by people the world over. With similar type of concepts, backgrounds, storylines and scenes in these dramas, people can be equally influenced by all these dramas to start thinking that perhaps, DNA as an evidence is 99-100% reliable.
but i am getting ahead of myself.
One of the cases used as an example by the first few speakers (mostly from the local law scenes) was that of Robert Blake and the killing of his wife. While acquitted, it was noted that it was because of lack of physical evidence (DNA), which resulted in a comment from one of the jury, “if she (the prosecutor) would’ve had all the information, he would’ve been guilty.” This also resulted in a comment by the District Attorney into saying that Robert Blake was a “miserable human being” and that the jurors were “incredibly stupid”. And it’s not hard to see why.
Considering the evidences raised by the witnesses, short of an actual weapon with all the “dna evidence” the jury wanted to see, he was pretty much guilty beyond reasonable doubt, at least for me. to be acquitted at that point, is like agreeing to violence against women, plotted or otherwise.
Back on topic though, this raised an interesting point as well for people working on forensic sciences. with such television shows, dramas, movies and what not, juries are affected by the possibility of the reliability of DNA evidence. While helpful, sometimes DNA evidence is altogether unnecessary. besides that, there’s always the 1%-4% lab error rate, which can be fairly big considering the number of people that might possibly be a DNA fit.
Furthermore, juries, from studies, have shown to have unreasonable expectations of forensic evidence. a study of juries that were in a particular case, raised quotes like, “you can find DNA anywhere! therefore, it shouldn’t be hard to get the evidence we need!” or ” Everything should be sampled! where’s the soil, the hair, the blood, the saliva…” one juror even questioned, “how did people get charged before the advent of DNA?” (at this point, my head kind of went “dot dot dot” and i am sure everyone laughing did too)
The problem behind all those thoughts by the jurors is that they fail to compute all the costs that goes into DNA testing, as well as find out more about the technology. DNA testing could be picking out 10 points on a strand to see if they match. some evidences may not even make it into the court because they are not necessarily important to the case. if those are admissible evidence, if those 10 points were any different, the accused might have been someone else instead. Similarly, companies that provides the chemicals for DNA testing aren’t non-profit or government organisations either. As such, chemicals can get costly, and the more they test so as to “convince” the jury base on their idea of quantity over quality, the more the tax money flows outwards.
The other failures that juries sometimes fail to see or understand, is that science can only go so far as to prove that that item was indeed a part of the defendant/victim. DNA can transfer, and also, depending on the relationship between the 2 parties, there can be so much evidence it can be overwhelming. Furthermore, science can sometimes be unable to prove/tell how an item/evidence get to be at the scene, nor how long “it” had been there. Also, DNA evidence can be contaminated, rendering the evidence either useless, or incorrectly displaying another identity that might not have been involved in the crime.
on the other side of the law, because of such drama shows, there’s also a possibility of criminal minds working their way around those possibilities of being found out. from wiping out evidence, to the possibility of planting false evidence. obviously then, it would be harder to prove, materially, that the right person has done it. and if a jury is going to depend on such material evidences of criminal actions, they would not be getting any or they will get one that will colour their judgement.
All it boils down to is that the jury will have to fall back on good old common sense, something which, as one of the speakers pointed out, is sorely lacking in some trials. The jury needs to have a clear understanding of the mechanism of forensic sciences: the fallacies of it and the possibilities of admitting other forms of evidence into their mindsets. The idea of “reasonable doubt” can not be speculative, which is made possible by the possibility of errors in forensic sciences, so that justice can indeed be served.
Someone then questioned, should the judicial system consider eradicating the needs for jurors then, since they might need better education, information and understanding of the technology, something which might need too much time? However, one of the key speakers pointed out, everyone has a certain bias. when all these different biases are put together on the table, they might prove to be a fairer justice that a person is being subjected to, than that of a singular person.
My own conclusion:
Consider the impact of how “violent games and movies influence children”. While obviously children would have more malleable, gullible minds than adults, it is also true that constant exposure to such ideas presented by the television might make it harder to seperate fact from fiction. consider the book by Dan Brown, “Da Vinci Code”. The uproar caused by it was partly due to the fact that few people were able to differentiate between what are the facts in the book, and what are the fiction. They question the Church about the existence of this “family” and the Society’s existence.
and these are adults.
While i am not a psychologist, i have personally felt that: when being put alongside news, and other fact giving programmes on the television, it can sometimes be hard to differentiate the facts from the fiction, particularly when the trend is repeated across different dramas in the same genre. The media is often viewed as an information giving source, and dependency on the media can result in believing most of what happens on the media. While consciously realising that parts of it can be fiction, e.g the story line being presented, part of it might be subconsciously “recognised” as a fact, e.g the background to this storyline.
beyond all that, jurors are important to a legal proceedings though. admittedly, while it is a flawed system, it would be better and fairer a justice than subjecting people to the bias and opinion of just one person. So, perhaps, to remedy this problem of the CSI Effect, educating and informing the jurors will be better than just eradicating the need for jurors altogether. Also, perhaps if there’s a way to do this, the process of forensic sciences needs to be more transparent. E.g, reflecting the costs, the time it needs, the amount of information it can generate, both useless and useful, the lab error rates and finally - what makes this evidence NECESSARY to the trial.
technorati tags:law, CSI, CSI Effect, symposium, thoughts, jury, reasonable doubt, university, school, homework
Last holidays
My last few days of vacation now, but it’s mainly orientation. most of the stuff i already know, from visas to walkabouts and so on, so i don’t really have to attend. but some of them are obligatory, especially those for registration, so i still had to attend a couple. enrolment’s on wednesday, then i am all set. funny how quick everything just went by though, the last 9 months or so was a bit of a transition from nightmare, to acceptance, to finally moving forward.
to have come this far, i must thank everyone, everyone who stood by me, everyone who gave me advice and everyone who had offered help at every step of the way. now i am back on track, and now i just have to finish this with this one last chance i have.
Anyways, orientation today was kind of weird, at least to me. i guess i was comparing it too much with ANU’s version of things as well. Whilst ANU’s orientation batch was fairly huge in my batch (i think it was like what.. 500 students), this batch was only 200. The vice chancellor gave a short speech prior to my arrival, because i chose to come after the banking info session, and straight into the registration session. so because of that, eerything was cut short and we broke up at like 3.30 instead of 6.
i spent the past couple of days wandering around belconnen though. sounds dumb, but i figured since i am going to be here for a bit longer than i thought, and since i have been wasting my past 4 years here, i might as well get acquainted with my neighbourhood. it’s a fairly big neighbourhood in that sense, but hey, it’s good for getting acquainted with.
To my surprise, despite the fact that CHINATOWN is literally dickson, there’s about as many asian groceries and restaurants hidden at the back of belconnen mall as that damn dickson strip of asian stuff. there’s at least FOUR asian groceries, a couple of butchers, EVEN halal butchers. There’s also a fully INDIAN groceries shop, complete with a side restaurant thingy.
it’s mainly south indian, and the restaurant next to it it’s very south indian too. they even sell pre-made frozen roti prata!!! SHEETLE WE GOTTA GO THERE ONE DAY WHEN YOU ARE BACK MAN! there’s just so many shit in there, i was literally dancing. the guys in charge looked so scary though, and i didn’t dare to take a pict of the sweets then. but let’s just say, it’s like a trip into one of those little india mamak shops. smells like it too 
i know… my parents used to think i had probably end up marrying an indian when i grow up. what bullshit. it’s called a GOOD palate for GOOD food. yer. :p
The sad part is, on both days that i went, it was slightly on or past closing time, so there were alot of things i didn’t get to see. there were some craft shops that i wanted to visit, particularly this bead shop called bead street.
don’t get me wrong, i am not trying to be a wannabe and pay for a hobby that i can’t afford. the thing is, i was thinking, maybe i can try and invest in some beads, learn the craft, and perhaps sell them. sounds naive i know, but if i lose out, at least i got pretty trinkets to keep :p also, i was looking for some of these shops to learn how to sew and stuff, so i can save on altering clothes. yer. but emma warned me that the right machines to fix jeans and such aren’t going to be those mini 10 bux sewing machines i saw at big w. 
i did get a starter kit though, for beading, to see how lack of talent i am.
it wasn’t that hard after all. i know they look all wrongly spaced or something. i intended them to be that way. i had a few problems trying to finish the earrings coz the instructions doesn’t teach how to finish it properly. so i just conjured up my own idea. 
now i just have to get some artistic flair… and lotsa patience. small beads will kill me, that i know now.
Anyways, while walking back around uni after orientation, to sort out various affairs, i found this:
whoever did this is cruel as hell. it doesn’t look it, but it’s a flattened possum/koala/wombat/something. it’s not clear here, but the paw bits? there’s like tads of it’s claws still there. fucking bury that poor thing if you ran over it, you retarded monkey turd.
Anyways, i finished the day off, coming home to stretch in my bed room, inspired by some gymnastic videos i am re-watching that’s on my comp. i hadn’t realised how badly out of shape i am now. and by BADLY, i mean, real bad. it hurts now to go into splits, and my back’s still sore and stiff from yesterday (i don’t quite know how it became sore in the first place). going into the bridge position actually took effort. surprisingly… the one thing that took the least effort now is… handstand.
sigh. when i wanted to be good in handstands, even kicking it up against the wall was like “oh wtf”, now it’s like “la di da di da…”
bed time now… naoko, one of my jap classmates back from the early english classes i took, wants me to go with her on that canberra bus tour thing for orientation. more photos i guess? :p we might go parliament house and stuff. but if it’s civic only… lol, i will show them around then :p
technorati tags:school, university, beads, belconnen, orientation, food, shopping, walking, holidays, personal, blog
More Reasons to get a Mac
” Web perils advise switch to Macs
Security threats to PCs with Microsoft Windows have increased somuch that computer users should consider using a Mac, says a leadingsecurity firm.”
From BBC
Back in February, some German student found some security vulnerabilities with the mac. but despite that, Sophos has decided that Mac is safer in the long run. the question is: how long would it be before someone else have a crack at it and tries to break that “security” for mac?
technorati tags:computers, mac, security, personal, sophos, blog
Lunching out
Amidst their exams period and other stuff, i got asked out for lunch and such for the last couple and next couple of days. turned down 2 but have to go for 2 hehe…
at the moment though, despite the cold and such, and the fact that i am poor, i have been looking at cafes quite a bit. well, for the most part it’s because
1) emma’s family now owns one and
2) tosolini’s a cafe i have to go past before i reach my work place. it’s mandatory, and they have the most awesomest deserts. seriously.
sometimes, by the time i go into work, i am drooling a little, and by the end of the night, you can practically hear my tummy growling (although hilariously, before i forget again, during my exams, my stomach was HOWLING. emma kept staring at me, and peter kept trying to stifle his giggles. i am hungry guys, i can’t HELP it. -.- ). i don’t hunger for coffee though, or hot chocolate - company has so much, i just make myself latte on a daily basis. who gives a shit about being served coffee anyways?
***********************************************************************
the work in the last few days wasn’t so bad either. i had a tiff with cookie though, and about some rules and regulations i know i occassionally flaunt. i have my reasons, but a flaunting is a flaunting, and because i have done them, i do feel bad when i tell people off about it because in all technicality i did perform those acts. namely, asking for food while on duty. the thing is, i don’t sneak it. if i do ask, i ask openly. but i have a new bar dude (ok not so new now) who constantly asks waitresses to do things for him - as if we are his servants. fucking pay us then, bitch.
cookie on the other hand, has been amazing. he has not been too abusive towards us, and even if he had a fit, he gets over it by the next day, instead of holding a grudge against us for 8 months (then again, it was his fault ) i wonder how long will it be before he pms though.
***********************************************************************
the last few days have been terribly cold though, as we hit the ride into the beginning of winter, so to speak.
i wore those socks around now, even though i had them for the past 3 years from burgmann. it was their footy sock i think. had to fold them down though, coz they were kinda real long. they are fairly warm though, and still have this… new unstretched feeling to them. however, they don’t seem to like my faux-fur lined boots much. i kept slidding around in my boots today in them, and almost flew outta my boots while walking.
sadly, i can’t protect my hands in a similar way. they got real chapped and my skin split open. initially, it wasn’t that bad, skin turned yellow (as a sign of dead skin i guess) and got real rough. then the real splitting began, and i was in the restaurant working my ass off. cleaning plates off their sauces and crap, some sauces crept into the open wound that’s the split, and fuck, did it hurt. surgical finger gloves came into my mind, but i wasn’t sure if they sell it here.
next night, some new sub head chef was making salad infront of me as i worked the pass. saw him wearing one of those finger gloves though, and i got insanely happy, and borrowed one from out first aid kit the next night.
but….
as the night progressed, air bubbles started filling to the top. regardless of that though, from the beginning of the night, the girls kept asking me “why are you wearing a condom on your finger cheryl!?!?”
DOT
DOT
DOT
initially i told them the real reason, to protect that finger from sauces and pain. then i got annoyed. and various reasons started coming out (these are potential med students, so to speak… they were planning on med school). 2 main reasons of the night
“i grew a penis on my hand. it’s trying to get use to women around it, by cumming.”
“so i can fuck someone with it.”
YES I KNOW I AM VERY VERY CRUDE. SHUT UP. i was busy, they were getting on my nerves with their stupidity. it works out well.
but what was so rewarding? at the end of the night, some girl came up to me after i told her what it really was, since i had the time. “oh i thought it was a real condom, and was wonder, geez, whose penis could be so small?”
i looked at her with shining eyes.
then we both said in unison.
“COOKIE!!!!”
***********************************************************************
i made a picture book last year from my flickr picts for my dad, and finally sent it a couple of weeks ago to him. because my crazy mum decided to chalk up lotsa bills (yet again) and they were all in my name, she didn’t dare to open the mail box, for fear of seeing the accumulating amount of money, and the fact that she knows when i get back and see them, i will throttle her.
last night, some wonderful “didi” called my dad to call me (for me), coz i am low on credit. so i told him to go take a look, an early present for him yada yada…
that unappreciative…. *@&@!$##*# he started whining and whining and whining, why didn’t i have my messy room picts in there, or my soft toys collection so he can show off to the relatives. like hello? you have the ENTIRE collection back home, just take the picts of them and pretend i am in singapore then. dammit.
well, this pict’s dedicated to him then.
parents -.-
technorati tags:food, work, parents, fun, waitressing, fingers, winter, hunger, craziness, personal, blog, bitchings, cakes, australia, canberra, cafe, scones
verge of breakdown
GG…
as i was saying, i was going to cry because my lecturers emailed me saying they didn’t receive my essays. one of them is literally 3 major essays in one report. the other one is like 7 mini essays.
i have an exam at 9 am
i am so fucked, it’s not funny.
omg.
and i am doing some freeware retrieval shit now, because i deleted those essays.
and now, my pc decided NOT to post my blog?!?! wtf! get fucked u stupid pos.
technorati tags: essays, wtf, pwned, personal, school, assignments
disappointment but….
i worked towards this for weeks, because i LOVE apple computers, and thought since i was denied the chance to present ipod (an easier option), i could work on apple macintosh.
things didn’t work out my way.
dvd-drive refused to detect my dvd-rw. then later on claimed to have burnt the files, when infact it didn’t. on discovering that fact in class (it somehow showed on my pc that it WAS burnt), i was stunned. then the websites got annoyed by school pc again. as far as i am concerned, uni’s pc’s all need a gigantic overhaul.
of course, then again, i think mine does too.
by the time my speech started, i was quite annoyed, frustrated, and more than just a little nervous. my entire introduction flew out of my head. while the rest of the presentation seemed all right, my somewhat well planned introduction was gone. i had lost my audience’s interest and i was fairly fairly out of it.
i came home to kick the pc.
stupid piece of shit.
on a happier note though….
Mac has just (and i literally mean just since i was accessing all their websites this afternoon desperately searching for ways to cover my dvd’s fuckups) announced their new releases. Ibooks are now taken off, but they have (kinda) replaced it with a shinier, snazzier MacBook.
if i have the money now, that is VERY SPARE cash, i would have gone for the white one (yet again). partly coz it’s the cheapest, and i don’t need all those great stuff in a macbook pro (it has a better vid card), partly because while black is a nice fashionable colour, i had much prefer my properties to be a much innocent colour.
althought, in this case, the black one (unless they are messing around with me) appears to have better specs than the white ones. just a little bit. well ok, 20gigs of hard drive. just like… wot. 20 movies? pssh.
that aside though, these laptops are slightly different from their predecessors though. they have glossy screens!!! reminds me of dell’s glossy screens when i first looked at the websites.
it is significantly cheaper (it being the just about 200 more than the 12" ibooks) in my opinion. AND it’s white. AND it’s intel dual core AND has isight.
i love it already.
come to mama.
make up for that shit presentation that happened because of a DUMB pc. (HINT PC HINT TAKE A WALK OUTTA WINDOW THANKS)
technorati tags: personal, blog, assignment, presentation, mac, macbook, new
♥ i love… procrastination ♥
my classmate and i have agreed that procrastination is a mother of all wonders. we discovered sudden re-interests in games we haven’t played in eons, and managed to perform so many tasks with patience that is NOT related to our assignments.
isn’t that a wonderful thing? i guess it’s a motivation, and therefore they should set up fake schools to give us assignments that we may get MORE things done that isn’t related to that school!
i am just being silly.
while doing my assignment in the lab yesterday, i was busy trying to do every thing else but my assignment. it was no biggie, i could have come home and get it done as well, but i wanted to have the resources of the library close at hand. everything went to shits though, because i forgot to bring my wallet with my student id in it, as such i couldn’t even zap copies of the sections i needed. regardless, i sat in the lab, trying to work my way through the assignment as best i could. it’s due tomorrow, and i just needed some minor clarifications.
i managed to play around with some of livejournal settings and skins, and finally grasped something that kinda took me ages to understand: those "customisations" really meant that you can change whatever the skins allow you to change. i know that kinda sound stupid, and i should have realised ages ago. but previously, when i attempted any changes, they were not obviously reflected.
of course, i decided to test if my options carry over if i change the base skin, and… it didn’t. and wiped away the options that i made, which got me mad.
so everytime i got mad with livejournal, i had switch back to my essay and start typing it furiously. not because i was all that mad, but because i type fast.
and this crazy lady beside me would suddenly turn over and look at me. from the corner of my eye, i could feel her peering at me, staring hard.
the third time this happened (i was messing heavily with the codes by then + figuring something out), she literally moved over to stare at my screen. i looked sharply at her, and turned back to livejournal, and started typing some inane stuff about crazy people staring rudely over shoulders. she frowned, and went back to her station.
when i finally decided it was a futile attempt to do my essay, and packed up and left, she stared at my station then at me again, as if i was doing something wrong. i have a feeling it might be because it looked like i was busy plagiarising. see, i brought my essay that was already corrected to be re-typed. however, i forgot to save my essay on the school computer, and everything else was home (another reason why i ended up doing virtually nothing). so i was re-typing virtually everything from nothing, and had to furiously "copy" from my draft.
but that doesn’t mean it’s her business either ways.
i hate busybodies.
click to see a larger pict
that’s what i was doing anyways, changing the colour schemes plus making 2 icons. i made a green panda avatar ages ago, but decided that it simply doesn’t suit the layout. so i made a pink one. somehow, this pink panda look fatter than my green one
but i am glad i adjusted the colours somewhat, and rearranged the settings. it was all too manly for my liking~ :D
technorati tags: personal, school, assignment, procrastination, typing, busybody
being expectational
i have decided to make full use of my other blog spaces i have created. well not exactly full use, but just so that each post isn’t all lengthy and incoherent over here. i don’t really need to chuck all my lunches here after all besides, i decided to join a community there as well, so here’s my lj on my bentos.
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i got back the draft i made for communication foundation. out of 10 marks (coz it’s a draft, and they mark drafts here for some odd, irrational reason), i got a 9, sans 2 marks for lateness (what’s new?). which effectively put me the closest to perfection i have ever gotten for any single essay so far (that’s not fiction that is).
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considering the shit that i have gotten from another lecturer about how “singaporeans” and “international students” were “expected” to perform at a certain par, i am not quite sure how i should handle this barrage of hd the lecturers are giving me. would this mean they are going to expect more from me? than i rather be all reclusive and “stupid looking” like cheater is, until my final essay is truly due.
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this is not to say, i am preparing to slack, or am not ready to give any single essay my full attention. however, each lecturers might see me again next semester. and if they expect me to fully perform up to this level as well in every single course, then that’s not possible. i only like certain things, certain courses, and obviously am only well-verse in certain areas of these courses.
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if you put me in another course i utterly dislike, e.g econs, it’s not going to work out. i am not a hd student in both that, maths and anything that is related to econs, except perhaps bullshiting my way through it.
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it terrifies me too, that should i be doing so well in college, is the uni level worth of marking ideals going to be vastly different? this paper, and the others, would i get a hd in the uni as well for them?
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it pisses me off to have so many questions about it, but i really wouldn’t know until i enter uni.
Â
annoying person in the library comp behind me has this meowing thing going on…. i feel like throwing this monitor at him.
Â
i hate it when i don’t have the answers.
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anyways, Don called me this afternoon, apparently i am working tomorrow ^_^ i know i am scheduled on fridays, but i am going in tomorrow afternoon as well. first time with the lunch babies, hope i don’t fuck up. w00ta….
train of thoughts
a couple of things riled me up a little yesterday, but at the same time seemed to send some totally unrelated brainwaves through me as well.
in our class discussion yesterday, some retarded fuck from under the rocks came up with this stupid notion that just because Australia has contributed to Indonesia while they were under the tsunami crisis, that the Indonesians should acknowledge Australia’s soveriegnty.
excuse me while i puke.
money doesn’t make you a soveriegn in any manner for any reasons. if indonesia is not happy, they are entitled to it. it’s true, perhaps they shouldn’t use cartoons to further damage Australia’s image to the locals, but again, if there’s freedom of speech here, it should be applicable there too. Just coz you contributed to their tsunami crisis, does not indemnify you to that.
similarly, contributing aid to their country, doesn’t grant you the allowance to show signs of disrespect. different cultures work differently, everything is interpreted differently. the recent issue of Howard being asked to apologise might be due to some other political factor that the news isn’t saying, the officials doesn’t know, considering that it is an issue of the refugees being granted visa.
charity doesn’t create obligations. just thought you should know. retard.
mysteriously though, that and something minor in another class kinda propped something up in my head about my internet regulations paper that i have to hand in as well somewhere this week or next week (not a compulsory paper, just part of a larger report).
there are a few things i kinda need to sort out, not just how to write it but mainly how i have been “doing well” so far. it’s kinda a hard mark to live up to but anyways….
i have a few questions with regards to the paper i need to have to find out.
1) if something happened in America, and Australia have a similar case now, with no precedent case whatsoever in any of the countries using similar UK laws, could they use the precedent case in America for Internet law cases?
2) Considering how Dwight Whorley got arrested, however the laws are terribly vague still with regards to child pornography and its relations to lolicon. and then consider how the laws on that issue is a little more clear in Australia, how would the local courts in Australia deal with this case (if there is no precedent, since i haven’t really done any research on that portion yet, i wouldn’t know if there is one), base on those precedences in America (if they have to and it’s ok to).
3) considering point 2), if the case happened in both countries, whereby the server and part of the staff on the website are located on American Grounds, and the actual server owner is within Australia, which country’s law do we look at? i know this sounds like an obvious question, but what if there is two owners, and one of them is aussie? does the entire court issue settle in the united states or only the server owner gets tried out here?
if that’s the case, since both country’s laws and punishment differs, then wouldn’t it be unfair if they get different sentencing?
4) what if it’s vice versa, when the server is in Australia and the owners are american? or more than half is?
lots of brain waves, need to settle them down ~.~
meanwhile, i have uploaded my 2 other essays, for your reading displeasure since they were not erm…. really looked over before i converted them to pdf. gomenasai…. i was kinda rushed for time to get them printed as well since people were hogging the machines. but never fear! one day you would get a proper CORRECTED essay before i load it up ^_^
International communication - this is just a draft, but most of it is ok, sans the grammar (As usual la… what else is new about me?) and a few sentence structuring i suppose.
PCF Informal Essay/report/journal - this is something that’s meant to be academic and informal at the same time. i don’t quite get it but whatver, i tried in the best academic and informal way that i could.
i know it took me eons to put them up from the time i promise, but net has been gh3yed for the last 2-3 weeks, so spare me. i guess in the next one you will get to see the internet regulations one, since i have no fucking clue how to scan in my econs assignment (and also i am totally ashamed of it :P)
technorati tags: academic, blog, personal, thoughts, assignment, internet, legalities, porn
crazy Week
Gomenasai…
it’s been a very busy week, i couldn’t even find the time to just read my own blog to see how pink it is (i know, fairly narccissistic hey?), but it is over now and i am pretty glad of it as it wasn’t one of the best weeks i have ever had. of course there were the ups, but the week past has been more of downs than ups.
i am not quite sure how many of you remembered this case here. About february or so, one of the police men at the AFP called me to say i might be needed in court. as such, they would need me to say i am willing to come and to fill in some forms and so on, if they ever really need me.
so how it works is this, if either the proseceution or the defense needs me, they would apply for certain witnesses to appear and then testify for/against the defendant and etc. and then we get called by the police to be told that we would be needed and to appear on those days they really need us, since obviously not all witnesses need to be on for like… all 3 days of court or something. this one ran 2 days.
From the start, looking back on my statement (imaginarily that is, since i didn’t bring a copy home with me), i doubt i was needed. i couldn’t see anyone, because of the frosted glass, and the only ways i could identify anyone was by what they wore that day, their leg hairs, shoes and socks. and to be honest, jeans and denims are hard to differentiate from a distance, and everyone wears them.
on the days of the court thingy, i was called up pretty late (and it was also my econs test, so i thought i wouldn’t be able to have my econs test anymore), and then upon being INSIDE the court, i was basically told that my evidence was lengthy, complicated, useless, what gives you…. and i was told i can go now. the proseceution apologised and shook my hands, while the defense stared at the judge in some kinda mean spirited sneer (die die die). as it turned out, the defense was also the person who called me into court. -.-
the test didn’t go very well for me either. i don’t know why i did what i did, but part ways through the test i sat there and stared at my econ’s paper with an utter lack of comprehension. “does revenue means income or expense?” -.- I KNOW IT’S SIMPLE ENGLISH, BUT I DON’T KNOW WHY I FORGOT AT THE MOST CRITICAL TIME!!!!! of the entire paper, i only calculated 7 definitely right answers (to me anyways) and the rests of the 40 questions were….
yinniiieee mmeeniiiee myyyniiieee mo…
ehehe.
T_T not that i totally didn’t study for it, but i thought the entire thing would be harder, and i started learning formulas and how to calculate and draw the graphs rather than definitions. and the entire MCQ was just based on definitions really. and of course, the most graceful sudden lack of english comprehension just made the matter worse.
aside from that, i discovered, to my chagrin and biggest displeasure, that the very same teacher who yelled at me for my lack of urgency, again didn’t receive my assignment, AND AGAIN didn’t tell me that he didn’t receive it, despite the fact that i had seen him and communicated with him at least thrice this week.
don’t get me wrong, knowing how he has lack of technical abilities now, as well as my terrible net (everyone who has gotten me on their msn should have noticed how i am “re-signing in” every few minutes.) which i have some what clarified now, i have decided that perhaps actually spending 3 bucks to print it out (15 cents a page of printing =/) wasn’t that bad a deal after all. so i printed my 17 page ordeal and brought it to his office the day after we quarrelled, and chucked it into his mail box.
on the one hand, it is true, it is not his duty to look into every damn box he owns, on the other hand, he is the one yelling at me for urgency and crap like that. as it turned out, that mail box i chuck into was only for communication between lecturers, as such, he NEVER checks it or something like that. admittedly, i saw like a pile of transparencies and such inside it. he has never mentioned in class where his mailbox was anyways, and that was the most obvious assignment mailbox i can imagine there to be (as far as i know, in anu, there’s only 1 mailbox for all purposes per lecturer anyways…), so that’s where i chucked it in.
i still do not understand why it took him 2 full weeks, and even then, at the end of the last class of the week, while he was HANDING BACK THE ASSIGNMENTS WITH THE RESULTS ON THEM, to tell me he hasn’t got my assignment.
although, i must tell you now, i probably failed it. in his opinion, anything out of 1000 words is abominable, because that’s what the word limit was. as such, he will draw a line as to where he should stop marking, as per word limit, and just judge the paper on that. my paper is 2700 words. or thereabouts. ~.~
Group work was a source of anger as well. this is the week we are supposed to present. and still, at the very last hour or so, the viet girl in my group still “didn’t know where to find information”. in the end, she told the teacher she was sick and couldn’t finish it in time.
excuse me, but is it so hard to even type the name “sherry turkle” in google? fucking piece of shit. and because, apparently someone told us the wrong time of presentation, it was meant to be wednesday not friday, the teacher was giving us “one last chance”. in this chance of passing of failing, only those who turned up before 2.30pm and presents their share of the group work gets the mark, and anyone else doesn’t count. viet girl knew this.
and she was also the one who told me at 2pm that when she went, there was NO ONE IN CLASS. i turned up, and everyone was presenting. infact, Slovvy was the last presenter.
if you want me to fail, just say so la, bitch.
the UPS for the week tho ^_^
sheetle and i decided to take a well deserve break from school together, and sat in hog’s breath for like 4 hours or something. we went through some econs though, coz i have an assignment that was meant to be due last friday that they extended to this friday. but in between all that, we had good food, care-less chatter and lotsa shopping and gossip mongering. it was a good break, and a good breather as well, i guess.
one other thing that kinda made me pleasantly surprised as well:
my housemates have been pretty distant from me, metaphorically speaking. perhaps it’s me and my constant “let’s hide in my room coz i am shy”, but there were few things we could actually talk about anyways. like, we have similar eating habits, but our cooking habits are vastly different. e.g i don’t go fishing for my own fish of the day.
at the end of the day though, they do care about me, which is kinda surprising. i guess, maybe it’s because it’s scary should i go missing, they are partly responsible. but one night, after a dinner of the Postal forum peeps, i came home terribly tired from tests and assignments and it being the beginning of the weekened night (hurrah), i decided to take my well deserved sleep, which i left the dinner get-together early for.
my housemates weren’t quite home, they were out for dinner, as such, after a quick shower, i chucked myself in bed with no one knowing when i got back.
used to the fact that i work till midnight sometimes, they came home thinking i was still at work and just ran about doing their own things. however, by midnight, they got worried coz i wasn’t home. then at 2a.m they called me. but my phone was still silent-moded from the test the day before, and i slept nicely till 5.am, then wondered why i have a weird arse 2a.m call.
when i went out to work the next evening, the girlfriend started animatedly telling me how they were worried for me, how they saw my lights came on at 5a.m and that i was back home and wondered when did i get home o.o
nice to know someone’s watching out for my arse sometimes, even though i wasn’t noticing
all the sugar in my room
with a paper right beside me due in like… in 4 hours, and a class in an hour or so, i am kinda fucked, but i honestly can’t get myself started on this paper.
not so much as in that it’s boring, but at some point my brain decided to register that 500 words is simply not enough a length to write something that’s pretty controversial (internet and regulations on the internet). i have tonnes of things to say (e.g hongfire and child pornography) and then i remember her promise NOT to mark my papers if they are WAY over the limit (aka 45 pages in total).
so…
yer, i am kinda screwed.
i don’t get this anyways, about lots of things in conjunction with writing essays. not so much what the college is forcing me to do, but on the whole about lots of things related to just purely essay writing.
1) why make us write something that you guys intend to judge anyways?
writing essays from a levels onwards was meant to be argumentative, to encourage critical thinking, analytical skills and what have you WITH relations to the english language capability.
when i was doing my A levels though, i find that many teachers force us to read info about the relevant topics that would be examined on in general paper in A levels, AND expecting us to regurgitate similar point of views. i find that very annoying really. ok, maybe as students, some are totally research stupid, but to spoon feed us with information, and then accused us of being the spoon fed generation, don’t you think you guys are such hypocrites?
and then, expecting us to regurgitate similar opinions, isn’t that another contradictory issue? we are all supposed to have opinions, to be widely read, to be analytical, to have some form of critical thinking. if we are to have the same point of views, this world is going to be a fucking boring place (albeit perhaps less wars…).
at uni so far, i have been all right, just been mark down for either grammar, or lack of sufficient research or both. it doesn’t bother me so much though, other than the constant "we need drafts to ensure that you are on the right track".
i believe we are all in uni, heading towards uni or graduating soon or something you know. some students need help, yes i agree. but that’s what the academic skills center is for. if there’s always going to be some fool "along the way", then there’s also going to be students who would slack and depend on these help on the time.
in general though, all these "draftings" do sometimes make me feel stupid.
we ARE meant to be writing our own opinions. it made me feel like handing in my work so that people can see if it was matching up to THEIR point of views.
2) time limit
i know i am kinda in a prep course now, so everything is slightly more packed in since they are supposed to incorporate elementary stuff with the first year of uni’s education. but still, doing so much draftings and research and essays within a 3 month time frame sounds a bit off the rockers for me.
i have 2 groups works, and 3 mains essays due, not to mention 1 mid term test, one "project" and 4 main exams as well.
between all the research, trying to kill my group mates and draftings and re-draftings, i am about spent. while some people would say, "oh doing your essays would help in your exams," i have to announce some things for you.
essays concentrate on just a small area of the entire subject.
i am sure it’s not news to you, but think about it. if a 1500 word essay = 1 small area, do the maths. 3 months, 13 weeks or so, 1 small essay = about 1.5 week’s worth of "knowledge", so how much more is the exam anyways? ah hah!
3) bloody internet.
no, i am not talking about my net in general. yes i know, my net has been crappy, and one of the main reasons why i am even typing this than running away into some games is because i am lagging like a motherfucker anywhere else.
but, that’s not what i intended to say.
universities nowadays are trying to slowly adapt into an internet world. of course, not every university is dying to do that, but the net trend is pretty prevalent from what i can see. however, in courses like mine now, there are obviously convenors who see the benefits behind going online and just showing them the net world and what have you.
and then you have tutors who have 0 inkling of what the net is about.
i have a lecturer who didn’t know how to even use the technology within the lecture halls (*cough* speakers issues *cough*), and others who have no idea what i am talking about when i told them to TURN OFF THE SPAM FILTERS SO I CAN EMAIL YOU MY HOMEWORK.
of course i can bring the work to class if i can get it printed. but printed on the course guide too was "please email your draft to your tutor by 287382178398732217 date of this wonky year". it drives me nuts and i want to chew on the carpet till cows come home trying to explain to them that spam filters can be ridiculously STUPID.
PLEASE. don’t USE THE NET if you DON’T KNOW how to AND DON’T BELIEVE OTHERS when they say YOU are the problem.
*stabs*
4) Sugar levels
i know this doesn’t apply to everyone, probably only me. i have to drink farken coke and sprite to keep myself awake every night.
DOESN’T EVERYONE KNOW THAT ESSAYS ARE HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH?!?!!?! sugar + late nights + essay stress = dead people.
less assignments, more constructive shit please. ugh.
it makes be bouncy in class, and then all emo later on. i had bring rocks to school to throw at group work mates, or lecturers/tutors that i dislike *hint*
but rocks are heavy.
i am digressing. it shows that perhaps it’s time to stop procrastinating.
tata.
technorati tags: homework, assignments, school, blog, personal, essay, writing, madness
morbidity
to my dearest friends, do you all remember all these pacifiers? :p
2 pacifiers, 2 of those grip thingies, and the little bear, i have kept them all these years here, they have been with me as my carry-on when i fly, as things i had grip onto when i needed comfort.
i must say, while i am re-tidying my room (yes, yet another assignment period much worse than the previous one really), i held up this bag and these things hanging out of it, and remembered the laughs:
the ones that sent all what… 5 of us to hospital?
the little presents that sare decided was worthy of us asthmatics (or hyperventilators, depending on who you talk to) - the blue pacifier
how my dad decided the join the foray - the yellow pacifier
and my dear yj (爱 æ» ä½ )
these few days have been a whirlwind of stuff to do. firstly, i realise that even if i eat out, i would probably spend more money anyways, because i had see other things i had want and just lose control anyways. besides, nothing beats home cook-ed shet. despite the fact that i know nuts about using the right ingredients (actually i do, but i have no blender around and resorted to using pre-made pastes, much to the disgusts of my housemates), i guess i can afford to whip up something good for myself. so i shall re-attempt to go back to a proper healthy lifestyle.
as the days draw closer and closer to the end of the term though, i do feel a sense of dread. i still haven’t raise enough money for the next term, so i guess this is the end? these last 3 years have been awesome though, and i am glad to have been give the opportunity to broaden my horizons, no matter how little or how painful it may seem to have been.
i mean, hell, i get to see people FISH FOR THEIR FOOD.
i am fairly tired though, from all the work and the studying i have to input. suddenly, i wondered how i live through those years where i was studying, teaching tuition with bratty kids AND handling annoying boyfriends and having a life all at the same time. it doesn’t seem much, yet at times like these, when i so badly need a breather, i do really wondered how i handled it all.
on to happier things though, this week would be filled with a barrage of tests, assignments due in, group presentations and what have you. so i would be probably away from blogging this entire week (unless it’s to voice my frustrations *again*), BUT the girls at work asked me out on thursday night, and we have a “postal” dinner on friday.
i guess it’s more money going out as well, but i think after all these holing myself up to write assignments i deserve a good night out and getting all dead tired a la 2004 (when i was so tired that the boys had to literally carry me back on campus )
easter was great though, and mmm lotsa chocolate thanks to jake :p they are mostly uhm…. empty bags now.
I DEMAND MORE CHOCOLATE!!!
Notes to self:
1) need to wean myself from coke
2) eat at the right times
3) do laundries more often. they did wonders when the washing machine broke down.
4) recharge my ipod more often so i don’t feel half as lonely when i am doing homework or walking back
5) clean my room more often
6) keep to deadlines
7) stop asking for more shifts during assignment period -.-”
eat less chocolate and more vegies :p (ugh)
technorati tags: friends, personal, blog, homework, lists, end
Lubes and Candies
ok, when you see this pict, what do you think that advert is for?
this advert was shown to me by one of my classmates, and she asked me, and i was like, hrm, facial wash? another dude thought it was a sunscreen lotion advert, coz it was piers and the sun.
IT’S A FUCKING LUBRICANT!!! YES A LUBE!!!
now if you check it out, she’s sitting between like 4 pillars or something that holds up the piers or something. so anyways, i was like, oh wtf, a lube? and i was already laughing a little, coz i didn’t quite expect it to be like that. then my classmate, Yu, told me "it’s very creative, no?"
"hrm, i guess, but it’s very simplistic, so it’s not like it’s unethical or ethical, which is your topic for presentation tomorrow."
"oh, what’s a lube anyways?"
"oh.. uhm, u know, women gets a little too dry for sex sometimes, down there, and men find it hard to enter without dying from pain, so they use lube ^_^"
"oh, well see, that’s why it’s creative, because it means the lube was so good, she could sit on top of one of those poles and it enters smoothly!"
………………………………………………………………………
i died laughing at school tonight i swear. i couldn’t stop laughing, and i was still choking on my way home.
HONESTLY WOMAN! wtf possesed you to think that ANY CERVIX could hold in OR EVEN ALLOW AN ENTRY THAT HUGE!!!
jason: "she use qigong, and enlarge her cervix to that size…"