coincidence ... or fate?

Strange, strange, strange.

Can anyone ever tell the difference between a coincidence and a twist of fate?

Mmm ...

Guess only time will tell. :]

people always ask ...

Life is a perpetual cycle.

We're going to grow and learn, and eventually, we're going to reach a point where yesterday is the same as today, and tomorrow is going to be the same as well.

So, when we reach that point, what's going to sustain us?

I was talking with my friends the other day about something along these lines, and we came to the conclusion that it's true what people say - it's the little things that matter.

There was one episode on The Apprentice where some really successful dude said that the test for whether you're happy with your life (or job) is the "Monday Morning Test". You just have to ask yourself - when you get up on Monday morning, do you, in the pit of your stomach, look forward to going to work?

Personally, I think it's the little things that keep us going. I have these silly little things that I like and look forward to, like my favourite TV shows or listening to my favourite songs - or telling my friends a joke I thought up or something I saw/read/heard - or something as dorky and as childishly curious as what mark I got for my non-assessed essay or House of Lords presentation ... or looking forward to meeting old friends in 2 months or friends overseas in 6 months ... or looking forward to turning 20, 21, 22 etc ... looking forward to Christmas, Chinese New Year, Beijing Olympics ... Commonwealth Games ...

It's like ... I see this gorgeous set-up in being alive, just because we get to see what's going to happen next in the world. We get to see what tomorrow's going to be like - because, you never know, something great and wonderful might happen. You never know if you're going to witness a random act of kindness or some great sacrifice someone is making ... you never know if tomorrow, the Middle East finds peace ... if tomorrow, the wars end ... if tomorrow, they find a cure for AIDS ...

Having a tomorrow at all is something miraculous! Have you ever just sat back and thought about how brilliant it is, how everything in our body works, how there are millions and millions of tiny little parts that make up a person, and how everything just - works? I mean, with so many things buzzing away, things could easily go wrong - so every moment we are alive, our bodies are functioning - isn't that something to be thankful for? Isn't that something to look forward to? Isn't that reason enough to be happy?

Look forward into the future - every day of our short time in this world - and I know this sounds corny and cliche and blah, but how does that matter as long as I get across the point I'm trying to make? - Aren't you curious and excited to see the friends you're going to make in the future? Or strangers that you might speak to in your lifetime? The stories they might tell you, the things you might learn from them? How their tales might touch your heart, maybe make you shed a tear or two, maybe warm you up from the inside?

I mean - and I'll give you an example - six months ago, I had never heard of PostSecrets. But then I did, and every week - and this is one of the million things you can look forward to every week - new postcards get posted up, and I get to read the funniest/saddest/most heartwarming/most heartbreaking secrets that complete strangers have decided to share with the world.

Isn't the experience of living, something pretty incredible? The world is full of surprises and nooks and crannies for us to explore and learn from - it's a neverending experience, and things are always there for us to discover, as long as you're willing to open your eyes and your mind to them.

So people always ask me - why do you always look so happy?

I guess the answer's pretty simple.

Why not?

time spares no man (or woman)

12.05pm, Sunday afternoon.
16th March, 2008.

49 days to exams.

I know I'm in a lot more trouble than I'm telling myself I am.

I know I do not have enough time, despite my incessant ability to tell myself: "Don't worry, still got time ..."

Law school is a game of numbers.

I know I have four subjects to study before the 4th of May, one 6-page Writing Credit essay to complete before the 16th of April, and three Constitutional Law essays to write before the end of April.

And within those four subjects to study, I have nine topics for Land Law, eight topics for Equity and Trusts, ten topics for Constitutional and Administrative Law, and twelve topics for International Law.

With about forty days left to exams, I still have to study - from scratch - five topics for Land Law, five topics for Equity and Trusts, ten topics for Constitutional and Administrative Law, and nine topics for International Law.

Even worse than that, I don't seem to remember the stuff I studied from the topics I actually have studied. The horror!

I do know, however, that I've worked a lot harder for Year 2 than I did for Year 1. And yet ... "a lot harder" doesn't seem to be enough.

I simply ... must ... persevere.

And if I can come out from this alive and well - well, it'll be something to be proud of. :)

across the universe

Second Year is reaching its most critical stage at this point, seven weeks until Final Exams ... and we're being bothered with Third Year details, like choosing modules as well as Writing Credit titles. It's like an extra knob of wholly unnecessary stress. For everyone who has decided not to do a Dissertation, we have to pick 6 modules.

For me, that would be: Writing Credit L3, Foundations of EU Law, Company Law, Practice of Entrepreneurship, and 2 more I have yet to decide. And even more worrisome is the fact that I've looked at the Writing Credit L3 titles and I have simply no idea whatsoever about any of them!

I feel cross.

On a final note - and this is why I wanted to blog tonight to begin with - I know more than my share of fictititious or dramatized love stories, but very little, if at all, of those in reality - but the ones in Across The Universe sure struck a chord in me.

It was actually a very good movie, with a very nice inbuilt theme and singing - but I really disliked the weird sequence in the middle of the movie where colours started going all "retro" on me. If I had to pick the Worst Scene I've Ever Seen In A Movie, the award would have to go to that scene in the tent after they got down from the bus in "Across the Universe". My least favourite element of the movie was definitely all the weird masks and costumes. Think: that scene in Knocked Up where the two guys were in the tent to see Cirque de Soleil. Now, imagine a whole lot of scenes like those.

*shudders* Honestly, if that's what being high is like, I will never see the point of getting high!

What I truly gathered from the movie, however, is this: WAR SUCKS.

Yeah. I've said it. People die in wars, die in the hands of other people. Saying Yes to war is saying Yes to violence, saying Yes to murder, saying Yes to taking people away from their families and loved ones, saying Yes to robbing people of brothers, husbands and sons, saying Yes to everything that is bad about people.

Uh-huh. Stop having wars, people. There's no problem so big that we can't just sit down and settle it. Life is short, why do we waste it with all the hating, pain and destruction? :(

remember, remember, the eighth of March

I know the quote in "V For Vendetta" was re November, but March 8th is the one I'm talking about right now. Elections were held yesterday, and it was definitely a day hereon engraved in history - democratic history. The National Front (Barisan Nasional) were denied a two-thirds majority, which means the idea of check-and-balance in Parliament will be strengthened.

Yay for the Opposition! Also super thrilled that DAP's Tony Pua Kiam Wee and Dr Cheah Wing Yin won the PJ Utara and Damansara Utama elections respectively. And Subang's Hannah Yeoh was another early winner! :D Another interesting battle was won by Loh Gwo Burne, the dude with the "I took the Lingam video" campaign slogan.

My family, friends and I were up until 4/5/6 am this morning following the election results on the Internet and TV. This has definitely been the most exciting election in a long, long time. More importantly, I'm very thankful another May 13th tragedy did not occur - this shows that we have grown together as Malaysians.

There were fierce rumours of riots and fights being texted and spread on Internet forums, but more often than not, they were just rumours. To quote one Lowyat.net forumer: "Two people standing and arguing on the street is not a riot - don't simply spread rumours okay."

I don't know what the future holds for Malaysian politics, especially now that Selangor is now under the Opposition and not the National Front. I guess only time will tell. In the meantime, all of us are definitely hoping for the best. :]

Besides the election fever, I wanted to update on how things are going in law school right now - especially since this is probably going to be my last entry for a couple of months. :)

First up - the Jessups moot was quite interesting - although I only watched the first round on the first day (it was a 3-day competition). I'm grateful for the opportunity of being able to see what the UIA campus is like - University Islam Antarabangsa, for those who didn't know the acronym - and it was definitely a REALLY REALLY NICE campus. Something Taylor's doesn't have - not until the new campus opens in 2009, at least.

But I like Taylor's. Despite the paling comparisons with the UIA library, campus size and facilities, Taylor's is small and cosy and we can wear whatever we want. ;P To visit UIA, we were first required to wear 'tudung' - can you believe that? - but our lecturers refused to accept that sort of regulation. :) I also thought it was really interesting how there were large life-size posters promoting "Kursus Sebelum Perkahwinan" (pre-marriage courses). Oh, and also warning notices plastered everywhere warning university students not to participate in political activities.

The moot itself, however, lacked the wow-factor of exploring a never-before-seen campus. I only got to watch Aarthi and Faan Jin's moot - they were brilliant, of course :D - and their opponents, one of the UIA teams. The senior respondent was a snore-inducing mumbler, but the junior respondent was like - one of the best speakers I've ever heard in my entire life! I know it's horrid to be such a fan of a rival speaker, but I really appreciate good speakers when I see/hear them - and that girl was goooood. She was like ... DJ-ians, think Suraya! Think Jean Lee! Think Samantha and the Ayob sisters! And for those who know Ahnaf, think Ahnaf!

Incredible. :)

Anyway - I hitched a ride home with Shaun and Paul after the first round - and you won't believe what happened on the way back! We got stopped by the police! T_T

Okay, okay - Shaun's car didn't get stopped by the police, Rachel's car did. But we had to stop anyway because we couldn't just leave her there alone. It was our fault anyway. This is the traffic-offence equation of youthful stupidity:

Shaun's car follows Rachel's coz he didn't know the LDP way + Shaun asks Sha-Lene to call Rachel to check if we're on right road + Sha-Lene calls despite her bad feeling about law-breaking + Rachel answers the cellphone while driving + police car was right in front of Rachel's car and SAW HER + police signals to Rachel to pull over = One Night In Jail

.
.
.
.
.
.

Ahahahahah I'm just kidding! We settled it lah. To quote Aarthi: "Three cars full of law students ..." After that, me and Shaun paid Rachel back because we felt super duper bad. But you know what ... like three minutes after we parted ways with our beloved mata-mata, my friends (in the driver's seat) called each other again!! Hahahahaha. Suffice to say .... we never learn.

On a final note about the moot, our Taylor's team came in 3rd place for submissions and 5th place for speaking. :] UIA won everything, with UM coming in 2nd.

Second up - my Constitutional & Administrative Law House of Lords Presentations are to be held this week. My group's turn is on 11th March - so wish me (and my team) good luck, yeah!! :] Head of Reading Law School Professor Leopold will be grading us, along with our lecturer good ol' Mr Joseph. We were supposed to have group rehearsals today (Sunday) but due to possible election backlash dangers, rehearsals were cancelled.

Third up - there's going to be a really interesting forum about Parliament this Wednesday at Taylor's Subang Jaya main campus from 5.30pm to 7.30pm. All Taylor's students are welcome - it's even compulsory for all Year 2 law students to attend - I'm not sure if outsiders are allowed to attent, but if you're interested I'm sure you can call up Taylor's and ask. :) Forumers include Head of Reading Law School Professor Patricia Leopold and Professor Shad Faruqi.

Fourth up - two of my BFFs in class, Cheryl Lim and Rachel Low, are participating in the Taylor's Law Debate that's going to be held on March 18th. To anyone interested to watch the debate - do come and show your support! :D I'm sure posters will be up all over Taylor's for you to find out time and venue. :)

And fifthly, my final exams are in May - date unconfirmed, but we're all assuming it's May 5th until sometime before May 17th. If all goes well, I'll be in Reading by the end of September. :)

Sixthly, I just have to mention my current TV fixes: American Idol, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader, and the Jay Leno Show. :D All my 3 favourites have made it into the Top 12 in AI - Brooke White, David Archuleta, and Michael Johns. Yay! Americans, vote for them please! :D I was a tad disappointed when Alaina Whitaker got kicked out instead of Kady Malloy (o_O?) but then again - Kady was really cool 'cause she could mimic Britney Spears to perfection. :P Nevertheless, she's not in the Top 12.

Seventhly - if that's even a word - Writing Credit fever is starting to reek from across the Straits. My title is "An unwritten constitution is 'not worth the paper it is not written on'". It's a pretty interesting title (I mean, I picked it, hahaaha). Only thing is that it's due in five weeks. Must ... persevere ...

And now I shall go and watch the Jay Leno Show properly (it's been playing in the background) - SUCH a HILARIOUS show, by the way! :D The scripts are pure GENIUS. The writers' strike must've really really really hit shows like this hard.

Take care, everyone! :)

MBPJ bermaharajalela!

Reason enough for anger!

The Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya has, WITHOUT PRIOR CONSULTATION with the residents of Damansara Jaya, APPROVED a 33-storey office block to replace the existing Atraia Shopping Complex!

No meeting, no consultation, without asking for our permission!

elections elections

The DAP advertisement rocks la. Pity they don't allow it to be shown on telly.

But thanks to the power of the WWW, you guys can view it here:
http://blog.limkitsiang.com/

or directly here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vEBfbEIxtM

We may be too young to vote, but we're not too young to care. :P

For fellow DJ-ians who ARE old enough to vote, vote for Tony Pua!
"Just Change It" lah! :]