I've the Joy!

Something's changed. I feel a whole lot better. Happy. Joyful. Hopeful. Not afraid. But everything hasn't. In fact it's got worse. I still can't do contingencies in the time limit, (which i assure u is the least of my worries at the moment - getting half of them done right is the one i'm after), IM is nearer now than ever and i've only just finished reading the module and looking at past year exams i've no idea what the question wants even after doing my reading. So in other words it look tougher more than ever now. And not to mention I've forgotten half the stuff I studied from 2 weeks ago.

But a couple of days ago after that post of despair, I don't know. Many prayers have been said. Many complaints of despair to both daddy's, earthly dad and heavenly Dad. Friends from home have been there to listen and to encourage.

And today. Today i woke up with a sense of joy. Of peace inside. With that sudden realisation that, no matter what comes my way, no matter what happends in the end,

"Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strenghten you,
Yes I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Isaiah 41:10

That's the promise. And countless more of them. I do not fear anymore.

Sigh. Funny how God uses mundane boring things like exams to bring you to your knees and closer to Him.

Time to not run with my strength anymore. It's time for battle.

i am scared

I am afraid. Truly I am.
My heart is gripped with fear like never before.

Never have i ever been in such a position before exams, the 1st paper is about a week away, and despite 3 weeks of studying 6 hours a day minimum, which subsequently went up to 10-12 hours in the last week, still render at the stage that if i were to take any paper now, I almost definately won't pass.

If only I have one more week. That would make a hell lot of difference.

But I don't. I am scared. My heart cannot deny the fear that grips me.

Fact is, humanly speaking, no matter how I prepare this last few days, there's no way I'm going to be able to scrape it this time. Knowing my abilites and my limitations, I know there's no way. And thoughts like this have been going through my mind even as I went to bed last night.

I woke up with the same thoughts this morning, but I was reminded of the song, which goes:

God will make a way,
When there seems to be no way.
He works in ways we cannot see,
He will make a way for me.
He will be my guide,
Hold me closely to His side.
With Love and Strength for each new day
He will make a way.

By a roadway in the wilderness,
He'll lead me.
And rivers in the desert will I see.
Heaven and earth shall fade,
But His Word will still remain,
He will do something new today.

His word will still remain. Times like these, when everything is beyond me, all I can do is hold on to the promises of God.

Psalm 25:1, 2, 15, 20

To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
O my God, I trust in You;
Let me not be ashamed...

My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
For He shall pluck my feet out of the net...

Keep my soul, and deliver me,
Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.

And this is the one that I want to be able to say with all my heart.

Psalm 27: 1, 3, 5, 7,9

The Lord is my light and salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?

Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I willbe confident.

For in the time of trouble,
He shall hide me in His pavillion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice!!
Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

Do not hide Your face from me;
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not leave me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation.

Psalm 28: 1, 2, 6, 7

To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock;
Do not be silent to me,
Lest, if You are silent to me,
I become like those who go down to the pit.
Hear the voice of my supplications
When I cry to You,
When I lift up my hands toward You holy sanctuary

Blessed be the LORD,
Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices
And with my song I will praise Him.

Psalm 27: 14

Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!

I will wait on You O my God. I need a miracle from You.

Random

It's been a long three months. Lots of work, capped of with a final marathon of exams needing to be done at sprint speed. 6 papers in 2 weeks!! No wonder people say 2nd year of Actuarial Science is the hardest. Third year what so hard? FYP only marrr... :P (i know that statement's gonna come bite me back in the ass...watch out for a post on it in about 6-8 months time)

Anyways, enough of exams and work. Who wants to listen to boring stuff like that. I'll always remember what a girl from church told me when I told her I had spent the weekend doing my assignments : "You're so booorrrriiing..." =_=" like i had a choice....hmmph!!

So i think i'll blog on something else. Like for example my guitar heroes....

Well I'm no fret flying rockstar of a guitarist, my housemates (and generally the entire block of apartments) will testify to the noise that they hear on a frequent basis. Hey, i know its bad, but thats why i practice maa...

Anyways, let's not digress. On to my guitar heroes:

Tommy Emmanuel


You won't hear him on the radio in our pop/hip-hop(dangdut??) music culture today, but heck, he's one of the maddest guitarist around. If you listen to his music, you'd think there's a whole band 3 guitars playing when there's actually only one. Totally superb. I don't really dig his style (but mainly because I won't be able to play like him even after 100 years of practice), and neither does my playing have much of his influence, but something very basic and simple that he said kept me going through the times when i felt like chucking my guitar out of the window (more like sell on ebay) when i was frustrated with non-existent progress, "Whatever you do, never give up." That sentence has kept me doggedly going all these while. *looks to housemates, sorry guys, blame uncle tommy*

Eric Clapton


I think he was my first ever guitar hero. Some people don't think he's that good, but this guy's guitar playing gives a whole new meaning to term emo-music. This one la real emo, not the rubbish called simple plan that 14 year old kids go crazy about. Aiyo he coming to london la this may, but one ticket now costs 145 pounds.... eeeeek!! If only i knew earlier.

Slash

Ok, so maybe he's not the best role model for kids out there, taking drugs, smoking ciggies onstage pulling of solos, but heck man, I think every guitarist at one point of their lives wanted/ still wants to play guitar GnR style. Very very influential. And I like that hat.

John Mayer


Ok Ok i confess I'm a fan. AND HE'S GOOD OK! Partly because I invested some money buying his Room For Squares CD out of impulse one day. And also the tab book. And many hours of practice. *smirks* By the way he has a new band now called John Mayer Trio, and they have pretty good stuff too. Blues rock style.

Zakk Wylde
His music is not for the faint hearted. Screaming guitars punctuated with pinch harmonics ever interval, mad solos. But anyways heard his playing from Ozzy's No More Tears album and liked it very much. I'll be singing Mama I'm Coming Home this May 19th. Nasi lemakkkkk!

And finally,

Paul Gilbert

If the romans worshipped guitarists, he'd be one of the gods. Probably zeus (although that is open for debate). He's one of those guys whose playing skills are on a totally different level from every one else. I've been listening to his stuff daily at least twice a day. Haha. Its mad la. He's mad. Whoever heard of using a power drill to play guitar? I mean, Hendrix used his teeth, but man, this guy uses a BLOODY DRILL. And he's got the coolest website ever. Plus usually when I hear these guys playing, i wanna give up straight. But his playing inspires me for some reason.

And i just realised i forgot to put Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi's gutiarist) and Mike Einzieger (Incubus) in. But I also malas want to type, and I doubt anybody made it this far down reading it anyways....

Oh well.

Time for pro evo before apu comes to take his controllers back.

[Edit: Oh shit we played to 6am in the morning. I hate myself for doing things like this... sigh]

this says its all

a conversation on skype with my housemate (which i shall not name) which got me quite worried.

[10:50:10 PM] choongchingyek says: well at least i'm not un-gay

I guess one can conclude that being un-something means that he is something.

I'm bolting the doors tonight.

Stupid blogspot

I was looking at my past archives when i noticed the header titled February 1990.

Wait a minute. I was only 6 years old in 1990. There was no internet at that time. There was no computer in our house. Internet not invented then too. Curious, i clicked on it.

SO THATS WHERE THE MISSING POST WENT!

stupid blogspot.

Investment Markets

Shit happens. Too often in the past few days.

This is probably the most painful piece of coursework i have ever done. More interestingly, it is also a group project which i managed to complete without meeting my group member. Interesting.

Yes it was hell for 4 days, no sleep, countless redoing due to initially misunderstanding and then later misinformation. What the heck. And when i handed it in yesterday i was so relieved thinking that this bitch of a coursework is finally over.

And when i woke up this morning, guess what i found? A page of the coursework that i left out. And its a saturday today so the office is closed and i cant take it in. Gotta wait till monday.

Oh yeah, did i mention that the deadline was yesterday?

Just when I thought it was clear to cross the road, a truck came right up and ran over me.

Sigh. Life, oh life.

Now to do that thing called stochastic modelling.

Tired

Dear God,

I'm tired
Tired of a life that I shouldn't be in
Tired of trying to do things that I can't
Tired of fighting in leagues I don't belong
Tired of failing to meet expectations
Tired of smiling when I don't feel happy
Tired of being bold
Tired of lagging behind
Tired of being frustrated all the time
Tired of fighting inferiority complexes,
When I truly am inferior
Tired of always not being good enough
Tired of dreaming big
Tired of trying to reach things beyond me
Tired of falling down,
And not having much strength left when each time I get up
Tired of trying
Tired of it all.

I need rest.
No, God. I need You.
I need to hear Your promise again.
I need to feel You near me.
I need to know that You are looking after me.
I need to know You're right beside me
I need to know that when I can't make it to the end
You will carry me there.
I need to see You.
I need You.
God I need You.

hahaha huh???

Its the time of the year again when the courseworks are piling up to no end, and the difficulty of this course is sticking its butt out real high. As of the "status update" post which i did a few weeks ago, the grand total of courseworks came up to 12 due in 5 weeks. This friday again there are 3 due. But at least after that it will be 6 out of 12 done.

Aiya, this is madness lah. Madness I tell you.

And i bet you exactly one year from now i'll be complaining about the same thing again.

Babi punya courseworks!

And really, the 2 guitars a proving to be the death of me. Electric by day and acoustic by night. Surf internet and chill out in between. Where got time to study? Wannabe rock star mah.....

Aiyah have to go face the courseworks.

*Cue scene from LOTR-The Two Towers where the King Theoden ...erm actually i can't remember what scence, but what the heck... anyways, all of the riders of rohan shout in a great voice*

TO DEATH AND GLORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

I think there'll only be death and no glory in the case the courseworks.

Newspaper headlines near you soon.

22 YEAR OLD STUDENT DIES DUE TO EXCESSIVE COURSEWORK
Hot Rock Star Prospect(note: wannabe) Found Dead in Room Holding on to Guitars.




Wakakaka.

Hahaha.

Saw this post today on the star online.

"Your right to expect good service"

read the headline, in regard to the public transportation issue. I think someone should tell them

"Your responsibility to ensure good service"

Sigh.

The Malaysian Public Transport System

I should be studying, but what the heck. Anyways, i originally wanted to blog about arsenal's amazing week capped off with the win against liverpool today, but then reading the star online about malaysian public transport system made my mind turn to other things instead. Yes and turn away from studying mortality rates.

But anyways, i very very seldom put my country down, but our transport system, to put it very gently, needs some work. Some serious work. So much so that i even dare say that the government should consider nationalising the whole freaking system.

Basically, what should be done (in my opinion) is pretty expensive at the start, but in the long run should prove worthwhile IF THEY STICK WITH IT AND DO NOT LEPAK HALFWAY LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO!

Anyways if i was a rich guy with a few billion to spare (hint goverment with money from fuel increases) , this is what I'd do:

Firstly, unite the entire transport system under one company. These will prevent idiots from petty squabbling about profit margins on stupid issues like 5 or 10 sen profit from touch and go cards.

One company for the trains and LRT, and another one for buses.

Make (ie force, with the threat of RM5 million fines with failure to comply) the touch and go card be available to use on every public transport system in the capital (and of course PJ, subang, damansara or whatever parts of selangor. Heck just chuck the whole selangor in.). But then if everything was united under one company we wont need to force people right?

Make the KTM trains run more frequently. Especially during peak hours. There must be trains passing a station every 3 minutes during peak hours, not a 15 minute wait like it is at the moment.

The LRTs are working fine, as long as they sort out their touch and go card issue it'll be all cool.

And now the buses. The buses. Those damned buses.

Under the unified system, buses are made sure to run on schedule (ie not waiting at a crowded kota raya road for the bus to fill up first before moving). Every 5-8 minutes the bus should pass its designated bus stop. Inspectors must go round making sure bus drivers stick to the schedule (actually all they need is to periodically check the stop points). And fine the drivers if they stop and lepak for a limau ais at the nearby gerai.

Routes are to be set out clearly. And routes must not be too far and too long. Each bus stop must have a proper map of the buses stopping at the bus stop, and where they are going, how long are they expected to take.

Standardize the fares. It should be a flat rate for any bus trip. Point A to point B or point A to point C should be charged at the same rate. This helps streamline the fares and the use of the touch and go card. It should be the same for the LRTs and KTM too.

Divide up the capital into zones. Zone one should be the centre and most busy parts of KL, zone 2,3,4,...progressing outward from there. Flat rate within zones, and of course from zone 2 to zone one should cost more than within zone 1.

Have things like day travelcards, or monthly passes, for bus only, or for bus and train. This works in such a way in the case of a day bus pass, that the commuter pays a flat rate say, RM4, and can use as much of the bus as he wants on that day.

And what about funding? How does the government keep this up?

I suggest the use of congestion charging. Follow singapore or London's example. Charge people a rate of RM5(something like that lah) a day, when they enter into the capital. Then u can abolish the tolls within KL already. Use cameras, whatever needed to enforce it. But of course for this to work the public transport system needs to be working properly. Else there'll be riots. And of course, exempt commercial vehicles like lorrys and other goods transporting services from it. We don't want to completely hinder commerce now, don't we?

Another controversial move is to tax every 2nd/3rd car that a household has. Increase the road tax by another 100% or something on the extra car that the household has. Discourage people from buying so many cars (at this point i know if i ever run for PM i'll be shot dead at my campaining rounds). But then again this is a trade off in national interest as i believe we wanna promote proton and perodua. Heck then tax only if its not proton or perodua. Wahaha i'm a genius. Again not a popular move. But it'll work i'm sure.

Make sure ONLY BUSES USE BUS LANES. Fine the offenders to bits. Set up cameras everywhere and more importantly, make sure they are working (ie not only empty cameras with no film or whatever inside).

And of course, simple economics, peak and off peak pricing. Encourage the use of the LRT and KTM during off peak hours. Especially to school kids. Give them half price discounts, student rates or whatever for them to travel on the LRT. And make it cheaper to travel during off peak hours on the LRT and KTM.

And make full use of the current feeder buses. Not when the putra bus drivers stop at the Terminal Gombak and cram into their little cubicle and smoke while passengers wait frustratedly for the bus driver to finish his ciggie and teh tarik before he decides to drive the bus. If only the feeder buses worked then the LRT will be fully utilised.

Encourage companies to promote car pooling. Or a company bus or something. Give them incentives to do so. But of course insurance companies insuring that particular company will cry foul in the event of a tragedy when all the worker perish in an accident. Pokai straight the insurance firm. (That an actuarist thought for you).

OK la i got to read mortality rates liao. Its not a perfect solution above but i'm betting that its better than the one we have now. Why doesn't the goverment just send people over to study how successful public transport systems work and learn from them? And if any dungu fella opposes the move (worker's unions, ministers, politicians) make sure they don't get a car to themselves and ask them to take public transport to work. That'll teach them to complain.

Kesian all those people who have to take public transport in Malaysia. Heck if we had the power to do something about it. IF. But then those in charge supposed to do their job la. So its their responsibility. Not ours. We complain in our blogs in far far away lands like london. And when we come back we still drive our papa's car. wahaha.

Thoughts and suggestions welcomed (a implicit way of knowing how many people actually read this blog... *grin* . If u see 0 comments u know la....)

Status update

Death is in the air. I sense it. Near me.

Death not of physical form (although one can never be sure of that) , but death in the mind. Here's a reality check:

Assignments due in the near future:

Subject: Financial Economics
Type: Individual project
Due date: 7th March
Completion status: 75% (barring errors)
Difficulty level: OK

Subject: Prob and Stats
Type: Groupwork
Due date: 9th March
Completion status: 0%
Difficulty level: can die

Subject: Stochastic Models
Type: Solo project
Due date: 10th March
Completion status: 0%
Difficulty level: Sure die

Subject: Actuarial Planning and control
Type: Group work
Group meeting date: 3th March
Completion status: 10%
Difficulty level: Do-able

Subject: Finance and Financial Reporting
Type: Group work
Due date: 24th March
Completion status: Haven't even downloaded the coursework yet -25%
Difficulty level: Not assesed

Subject: Investment Markets
Type: Group work
Due date: 31st March
Completion status: 0%
Difficulty level: OK

Current health status:
Severe sleep deficit
At the brink of illness

Chance of survival: low

DIE LA DIE! the courseworks i mean. Not me.

----------------

Inexplicably we lost to blackburn. And they are above us in the league table now. BLACKBURN ABOVE ARSENAL??!!! Troubling times indeed. But anyways, through thick and thin man. Through thick and thin.Go gooners. GOOOOO!

----------------

This CU job is as tough as i expected it. But its great fun. It'll be all worth in the end.

----------------

And on friday night i ate on of the best meals ever since coming here - which of course does not really say much about my cooking skills - but anyways, we were at auntie Lilian's place, the kepala of Bank Negara in London. Wonderful lady. Inviting us over to her place. And we even got leftovers which we're goona cook with phall. Oh yeah baby yeah!

Time to eat. I hear the food calling.

Henry! Henry! Thierry Henry!!!!

HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!
HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!

oh by the way just in case you don't know, arsenal beat real madrid 1-0 at the barnebeu tonight. And guess who scored.

Truth is, next week they could come to highbury and rape our arses by 4 goals or something... but for now i shall enjoy the moment.

HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!

--------------------------------------------------
Blogspot is rubbish. Not too long a go i typed in a long entry with pictures and all about my new guitar, and then when i clicked the post button it all but dissappeared.

STUPID BLOGSPOT.

U administrators better do something about it before the world switches to xanga. then u die. u dieeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

-------------------------------------------------
Oh yeah i got my new guitar too!!

Ah my baby....

--------------------------------------
And today I found out that i have 6 courseworks due in 3 weeks. The first one is due this fri (contingencies - what can be better by starting of a glorious tuesday morning with the probability of someone dying??) , and i have yet to complete it. Not to mention that 6 page report i have to do for prob and stats. or stochastic modelling. Or FFR. Or investment markets. Or Financial economics.

And just one last time, all together now....


HENRY HENRY HENRY THIERRY HENRY!!!

A matter of Choice.

George, my housemate, trying hard to inflate an inflatable mattress without a pump. I know he plays a clarinet but this is pushing it.

Over the past few days i've been staring hard at the accumulating pile of work that sits on my table. Well, not that it all sits on my table -in fact not enough space - its just a figure of speech-lah! But anyway i continued staring hard at it for some time. Nothing happened. Dang. Was hoping it will magically go down.

Now to put some of the things i have to do into perspective:

1. Prepare for this friday's prob and stats test.
2. Prepare songs for tmr's CU meeting.
3. Read and research actuarial planning and control presentation.
4. Study contingencies.
5. Do contingencies corpsework.
   
6. Find out dateline of contingencies corpsework or be a corpse.
7. Do prob and stats 2 lab sheet 7 & 8.
8. Do prob and stats 2 corpsework
   
9. Look through mistakes made in previous prob and stats assignment.
10. Study financial reporting - corpsework come soon.
11. Study FFR - there should be another corpsework coming too.
12. Get some sleep.
13. Get that new guitar.
14. Get a life.

You see with the unending list - i bet there are more that i havent found out/remembered about - means that i'll perpetually be busy. When i complete all those there's bound to be more things that need to be done.

So i make a choice. I choose not to be busy. I'll make myself free to do the stuff I WANT TO do. Which of course in no way justifies that 6 hours spent in Apu's place playing PES5 and ending up missing church meeting at night.

But then hey. Back to work i guess.

busy people everywhere. haha....

Not observant enough..........

This is a picture taken during the ACTS games back in August/September. Volleyball competition I think. I was going round taking pictures of people, and I saw little Jonathan sitting alone. Tried very hard to get him to smile to take a picture but he refused to which I found all so puzzling. Only after the picture did I notice what he was pointing at and why he wasn't smiling....LOL. Silly me.


I think it hurts a bit ;P Just a little.

12pm

10am....
11am....
12pm....

I woke up from my 9 hour nap. Looked dark in the room. Lifted up my hand and pulled the curtain away a bit. Hmm, not too bright either. Stupid London weather. Sat up, checked the clock. 12:02pm. Laid back in my bed for a while. Thought through yesterdays events.

.......arsenal won 2-1 at cardiff.......my new cd came....eeeK! there was football yesterday??!! That meant yesterday was saturday. WHICH MEANS TODAY IS SUNDAY!!! WHICH ALSO MEANS THAT I OVERSLEPT AND MISSED CHURCH!!!!!!

And the world was dead silent for a moment.

Arghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BLRGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupidstupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid

Sigh. The folly of me.

-------------------------------------

Woke up yesterday morning and greeted the sight of an amazon.co.uk package at my door. Yay! My CD is finally here. And it was:



Paul Gilbert's Live in Tokyo Acoustic Samurai album. Cost me 10.50 pounds. Including delivery and VAT. Which after an subconcious mental conversion of the currencies leads to the grand amount of RM70+/-. So it better be good.

And it was good. I actually heard one song of this album, his acoustic version of Abba's Dancing Queen. And man it rocked. Which was the reason that possessed me to go and buy the entire album. Even though I've not heard much of Paul Gilbert's stuff before, save for a few clips of his guitar clinics (which btw, is absolutely amazing).

This album seriously rocks. In an acoustic kind of way. A must have for guitarist I guess. Man who needs to play electric guitars when you can play acoustics like this guy.



Oh wait he's holding an electric guitar. So yeah we still need electrics for that maddening solos. Which is already maddening in itself but more maddening when he does it on acoustic guitar.

Speaking of acoustic guitars. There's been one which I have been contemplating for a long time. OK maybe not that long, but its been a couple of months now more or less. Weighing up reasons and different alternatives:

1. Buy now:

Cons:

• Financially not secure enough yet. Even if I used the taxpayer's money which has been given to me I'd prolly be able to buy it but there's no certainty that I won't starve to that before end May. Now we don't want to uncover no skeletons hugging on to a guitar 5 months from now in my room.
• Buying now means have to carry back home. Which leave's me with the problem of having 2 hands for 2 guitars in cases and not forgetting my luggage. Siao. And there's no guarantee that the wood is suited for tropical climate. Not to mention then after that I have to carry back two guitars to London.
  
• No time to play. Already have have electric guitar is like having one girl. Takes up most of your time. And even that when the courseworks were pouring in like the Malaysian monsoon rain it was neglected. Another guitar? Lu mai siao.
  

Pros:

• But then buying now means I get to hold it in my hands now. Feel it, play it, make some music/noise with it. Priceless. Something which makes the "buy now" alternative most appealing.
• I get to give Paul Gilbert's acoustic songs a go!! WHEE! (note I just said "give a go", not play like him :p )
  

2. Buy back home in Malaysia.

Pros:

• Definately cheaper than buying here. Buy RM 400 at least. And they can throw in freebies too. Like a guitar case. With cables. And a couple of picks. Which you are unlikely to get if you buy in London. And I have a car which I can put it in and not have to lug it back all the way in the bus instead.
  
• I have the time to play. Cos i'll be free in the summer and have nothing to do for 4 months but play Paul Gilbert's Dancing Queen. And i'll probably be able to play it properly then.
• I would be able to buy it without having the fear of starving to death. Mama cooking at home. No worries.

Cons:

• I might not have any money left to buy then. All spent eating ikan bakar at alai.
• Even if got money, probably can't get the model in Malaysia. Have to go to Singapore to find. Which in itself will sky rocket the cost to bits.
• My dad will think I'm too rich and not give me any pocket money.

Don't buy at all:

Pros:

• No need to worry about money, time and all that stuff above.

Cons:

• NO ACOUSTIC GUITAR!!!! booo hooo.

Anyway this is the baby I've been looking at:


Sigh. Decisions decisions.

What to do?

Anyways it's time for lunch.

And I blame Civilization IV for me forgetting today is Sunday. BLEH!

It's alive!!!!

Happy New Year folks! Peace to all of you!

Woohoo! Dust off the cobwebs, take out that vacumn, time to bring this blog back to life again. Laziness is the ultimate danger to a blog i tell you. Not flaming, not hacking, but laziness. But anyways it's time for an update.

First and foremost, belated seasons greetings. Super belated merry christmas and belated happy new year to everyone. 2006 is here, and its a new year, time to make your resolutions if you're a resolution making person. Funny thing as i spent some time thinking of what happened to 2005, you know, the annual review kind of thing, i realised: dang i can't remember the resolutions i made at the beginning of 2005. Bummer. Out of the window went the annual review.

But anyways looking back again on 2005, it has been a pretty good and happy year for me (of course you gotta forget about the forgotten resolutions).

I spent yesterday reading this guy's blog: http://kennysia.com/ If you haven't read it yet, go read it, i bet you'll laugh your teeth out. But then again one man's meat is another man's poison. BUT WAIT! Don't go till you finish reading this. I'll make it worth your while. (I'll lie to get people to read my ramblings....muahahhaha)

I seem to have forgotten what I want to say.

Anyways, i went skiing in france just before Christmas, and it was one of the best holidays ever. Skiing's the thing. If any of you have the opportunity to try it out, go do it. And here's a great site to get you relatively cheap skiing. I recommend them. 2 thumbs up. The place is great, the food is great, the instructors are mad, and the cost is very affordable even for students (studying in UK on taxpayer's money, that is). It's a non profit organisation btw.

And anyway here is some of the pictures:

Posing for the camera on the last day of skiing. This place was La Flegere, 1894m above sea level, plenty lots of beautiful snow. And also killer cliffs. Awesome. From left to right: Kuok How, Rubin, Me, Alvin, Muz, Chia Wei

Sunset in the alps, while we were waiting for the cable car to bring us back down.

And this was up in La Flegere, while we were chilling out eating lunch in the snow.

The sun shining down on the town of Argentiere. A frozen river.

The sight which greeted us when we opened our room window. Pretty pretty.

So that was the ski trip in pictures for you. (say thanks to the malaysian taxpayers) Unfortunately I could not get any shots of us actually skiing cause none of us were good enough skiiers or cameramen to take pictures of other skiing at the same time without crashing into someone or something.

Funny how you meet people. When we were there, we bumped into a huge group of malaysians from cambridge. Like 20 of them. A lot. A freaking lot. Malaysians were taking over the place. It was mad. Haha. And by some freak accident, we met another BNM Scholar (short form for using-malaysian-taxpayer's-money-to-go-skiing-scholar). Rubin. Also known as Robin Hood to the ski instructors. Real funny guy. I got this theory that most BNM scholars are mad. Either mad scholars ( that is those who study real hard) or mad mental (ie bonkers). I think Rubin falls into the latter. And I think I'm in it too.

Anyways i think thats all for now. I wanted to blog a bit more but I can't get blogger's pictures to come out where I want them to when I upload them, and then it involves a lot of cutting and pasting which is too much trouble and not worth it. Anyone has a better way of uploading pics, let me know.

Have fun!

I is 21

Today, or yesterday rather, i celebrated my 21st birthday. A joyous and momentous occasion, which the first few hours was spent rushing to settle my probability and stats 2 coursework. Hard life aint it?

But anyways, coursework was duly and promptly settled, and after a long day of class till 6pm, i went home, took a bath and waited for alvin to blow dry his hair before we set off again to chia wei's place. Anyways we had a nice meal there, lots of tembaking of each other, especially chia wei(poor boy got shot to bits). But anyways the delightful surprise of the night for me was the birthday present which i got from the whole lot of them. Really nice of them.

And now here i am, 21 years of age, deciding wearing my new arsenal home kit, sitting in front of the computer blogging about stuff.

And they just rushed up saying its time for dota.

So i guess i'll stop here now, show san loo i can pawn him but i give chance, and more importantly just have some fun....lol.

Before the throne of God above

My favourite hymnm. It's basically the Gospel and the love of God all rolled into it.

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea
A great High Priest whose name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there,
Who made an end to all my sin

Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Before the throne of God, I come
Before the throne of God, I come

Behold Him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace

My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in Heaven, He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart

One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased with His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God
With Christ my Savior and my God

author unknown

Time for another update....

Its about time for another update, but i have no time. Not to mention that this post that i typed earlier was screwed up by some technicalities. So i guess i'll cut the crap and go straight to the point. Last weekend we had a day trip to Bath(the city that is, not bathe for one whole day). And here are some pics which i took:

1st stop was the stonehenge, which at the end of the day, is just a bunch of rocks.

The Stonehenge

The Stonehenge from far. With the many people invading it.

The Stonehenge. With the sun above it. Nice lens flare though.

After that we headed of to Bath, and was loafing and trampling about the city for the rest of the day.

Autumn leaves

The pathetic english version of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Quite disappointing really.

The big church in Bath. I forgot the name. AND WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING ON THE LOWER LEFT!! GAH!!! SPOILT THE PICTURE!!!! FOOL!!!!!!

One day if i ever apply to be photographer for National Geographic this is the pic i'll send in with my CV.

Chia Wei always wears the same pants as me. Don't know whats wrong with that boy. Anyways we're posing on a tree here, as u can see. And alvin looks gay as usual.

Another duck.

Group picture under the Trees of Echoes(I named it that)

An extraodinary moment. I dont know how we got Shin Fei to do this picture, but we did it. And man if you're reading this.....let me know.

And after a long day Alvin shares a philosophical moment while Ding looks on skeptically.

Anyways that was the trip. Now back to reading so i can finish the coursework and go for more trips.

--------------

But I might just blog a bit more on second thought.

Was in the bus today and some talk came up among me and my friends which revolved around fuel prices, corruption, race favouritism(or more known as Affirmative Action elsewhere) and governments. And my conclusion of the whole thing was that, sometimes we are too easily critical of our leaders (and hence more often than not as a result of that being hypocritical - which i myself am extremely prone to at times) and the people that govern us. But as far as my country is concerned - sweet sweet Malaysia - despite what people say, it's the best place to be in. Not because we're better, not because we have warm sunny skies all year round, not because of anything else, but because it's where I belong. And I'm thankful and grateful for it. And for all the people who live in it and but yet diss it so much,

don't bite the hands that feed you

While the chicken defrosts in the microwave...

So i'm here typing away while waiting for the chicken to be defrsted in the microwave after a long week...dammit its only tuesday. But anyways mondays and tuesdays are the worst days of the week as it has the heaviest subjects all crammed nice and tight together (and its compounded by the hangover of DOTA over the weekends), so it's pretty much a holiday again. Tmr's a day off, and so is friday, while thursdays is just a blip in the weekend.

But anyways i was playing this new virtual trading game called fxstudentchallenge where one assumes the role of a currency speculator armed 50 million pounds in cash. So there i was, not really bothering about it until this week's prize -the iPod Nano- was up for grabs. Suddenly that damned game mattered. And heck i was winning big on the 1st day ie Monday. However as the proverbial goes, "It isnt a sunday everyday" and today life came crashing down back to earth with record losses. What the heck. I need to fine new vices. I reckon that if i took a job for titicaca selling tickets for trips around UK in city uni i'd have a higher chance of getting enough money for a Nano. Not that i need it (Nano) anyways.

A few lessons can be drawn from this game:

1. It's never enough. Human nature is such that we are meant to want more. No matter how much we have. Like how when i had 170k on monday morning i decided to let it go higher but the only direction it went was down. And many more times today which led to my demise in the game. So dont be greedy.
   
2. If you have 50 million, go do yourself a favour and invest it in something better than currencies. Feed africa or something. I'm serious. The risk is just not worth the returns. Coupled with inflationary effects and making losses half the time, you'd be better off doing a desk job and donating 50 million GBP to those starving people in Niger.
3. Go do something more worthwhile with your time. Spending lots of time looking at the screen analysing (vain attempts) graphs and trying to predict where the currencies are heading next (only happens if you are a mad fella like me) with money that never existed and will never exist is a real pathetic way to spend your life. Go read a book or something. Or maybe play DOTA...no DONT PLAY DOTA! That's bad too. But you get my drift.
   

But anyways that's my conclusion of the game while i'm flicking tabs looking at my USD/JPY climb higher and higher while my earnings are rapidly disappearing (damn youse USD!!). And that was the bell for my chicken.

Adios folks.