Haha. (Video)

(Video)


Haha.. it's so retarded... especially the five smile thing.

Why I read the newspapers

Sometimes, i forget why. then i wonder. why the heck i bother reading lah.
then after that, when i remember, i'm like.. isn't it like so common-sensical why people read?
then again, different people read for different reasons.
anyways, i shall gibber about it here. to remind myself when i forget - when i stop reading for long periods.

1. Know what's going on.
- to exercise democracy - must know what good/bad things that're going on with the government/political parties right?
- to react accordingly la..like those swine flu/sars flu stuff
- to find opportunities - otherwise i wouldn't have applied/gotten the asean scholarship (oklah. that time is shirley find wan.. ) - not just scholarships la... anything else also.

2. Get things in perspective.
- when read about the bombs in Pakistan, or about the Israel stuff, or about the undernourished/educated kids in Africa - it's a reminder to be grateful, that my difficulties/blunders/whatever could've been much worse. it also reminds me that there's so much that can and should be done. sometimes, they're so far and frequent that i become desensitized. but they're real.
- it expands the mind. duh. otherwise the world is just my home, my school/work, my family and friends.

3. Entertainment
- no. not just the comic section. it's just a pleasure to read sometimes. when there're a few good articles - insightful, satirical, or funny lah.

Since these are all that came to my mind just now. I think that these sum up my current main reasons. no. even though i sometimes like to read, i don't read all the time.. i flip flip flip through the local paper. and i go to www.iht.com, see the headlines, see the list of most emailed/blogged articles. and read if the article seems interesting. time is expensive. only read nice wan oni.

*

reminds me of my forwards.. oni forward nice nice wan oni.
eh. but i didn't forward for such a looong time already although i got quite a few not-bad forwards.

lazy oredi. oh wellz.

Rants - Closure for US applications

I've written about an introduction to US undergrad education for my juniors in the acjcboleh blog. It's more like a consolidation of links. hahha. Oh well, why write when there're so many authors who've said it well? :p

Btw, recently, the Wall Street Journal got 10 university presidents to answer their own admission essay questions. I SOOOOO wish I read this to have a better glimpse of essay-writing... oh well..

List of essays:

1. Barnard College's Debora Spar on daily routines
2. Carleton College's Robert A. Oden Jr. on getting lost -- and found -- in Cairo
3. Grinnell College's Russell K. Osgood on a historical figure that has influenced him
4. Oberlin College's Marvin Krislov on a historical figure that has influenced him
5. Pomona College's David Oxtoby on an experience that was 'just plain fun'
6. Reed College's Colin Diver on an experience in diversity
7. The University of Chicago's Robert J. Zimmer on "Living the Question"
8. University of Pennsylvania's Amy Gutmann on her autobiography
9. Vassar College's Catharine Hill on an influential person in her life
10. Wesleyan University's Michael S. Roth on an influential person in his life

---
*On second thought, few of the above are nice. Oh wellz. Read urself to figure out which is nice.

No. I'm not sharing mine. not now, at least.

-

After all the stress put into the essays, the SAT exams, the money, the timeee, the mind bogglement, i only got waitlisted at three places. and i just submitted a sucky letter to two of them. and a pretty good one to one of them. but, chances are like 1%? sigh. oh wellz. might as well count it as zero.

oh well, life goes on. i've been blessed and good in some ways too.

look forward, i will.

One of my favourite bible verses is Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

To know that it is and to accept that it is are two very different things.
For the first, one can be hypocritical.
Once the second is achieved, one becomes more liberated.

I have just finished my long-overdue last letter.

I only hope that it's worth all the mental disorder.
And I shall keep reminding myself of the above verse.

Now, I have to make an exam paper that is due tomorrow afternoon.
And plan my last week of classes.

Sleepedidoodah sleepedideh

You know what?
Around me, all the people who admit they sleep a lot are super tall lah.

My youngest sister, the pig, who sleeps almost 11 hours a day everyday(until i returned from singapore), is taller than me by a lot a lot.
so not fair.
a few friends in singapore also like that.
in malaysia? ok lah. not so many uber tall friends, can't say.
actually, among my sisters, i sleep the least lah. all my sisters sleeeeeeeep a lot. maybe that's why i'm the shortest :(
unlike they, who sleep until 10-11am, i so semangat wake up by 8-9am, because i don't wanna miss hours of life when i can be playing, having fun, reading, or something, more concretely beneficial than sleeping.
i totally regret. sleep more. better. grow taller.

basketball didn't help.
swimming didn't too.
taekwondo didn't either.

exercises don't help.
sleep helps.

i'm gonna sleep more once i can.


aiyoh.. at this age, still can ah?
but still have to sleep early "for health" as mummy says.

Favourite Quotations

A witty saying proves nothing.

Voltaire

The only thing necessary for the perpetuation of evil is for good people to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their colour.

Maya Angelou

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.

Anne Frank

Patriotism is to support your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

Always show the you in you that makes you the you that you are.

Chidinma Obietikponah

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

Marian Wright Edelman

If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig.

Woodrow Wilson

Beggary - Malaysian Regular Kopitiam Scene

i'm an ignorant person. I don't give two hoots about what it's like to be the old lady, and the 3.5-feet tall kid who jingle their almost-empty cups, and look intently into my eyes, in hope that i might give them money out of pity. but i'd shake my head. and they'd move on to the next table at the kopitiam. over a few weeks, this scene repeats. then after seeing me frequently, they'd just skip asking me.

this is but a regular scenario at the hawker centre that sells my favourite ang-jiu-mi-hun-ke. a stall i regularly went to lunch in after Sunday Physics tuitions back in 2006. i still sometimes see the same lady and child, when i eat there.

i don't give money to beggars. because i don't earn my own money. and if i really cared, i should get them somewhere to stay and have enough food so that they never need to beg again. it would be like half-past-six to just give RM1-5. Better than nothing? but what's the point of living when all you do is beg to continue staying alive? They'd be begging the next day, and the day after, and so on.

i wonder, what keeps them alive? a hope for a brighter future?

what should i do about them? should i just ignore because there's nothing i can do?
what if I was in that person's position?

then again, that beggar might be just part of an organized syndicate where they send out people in tattered clothes to get money, and then return to live as 'normal' people.

donating would be like helping them in their criminal activities, right?

so how? just don't bother?

i'm curious to know how the beggar came about to become a beggar.
was she violated and then forced into this? did she just give up on making an honest living because she found begging more productive? was she robbed? did she overspend her money?

but i never spoke to any beggar. i wonder why.
fear of being clinged on? safety? fear of something worse? fear of feeling more obliged to help?

i don't know.

how do you prevent people from becoming beggars? education? some kind of welfare policy? economic policies that reduce inequality? what?
what's the cause of beggarism in the first place?

what can i do? what would you do?

but i guess this is one of the reasons why i choose to study economics.
so that perhaps after studying it further, i might understand the financial world better, while making some money somehow.

---
my mind's still jammed. i randomly thought of this. i think i'm gonna submit my average letter instead of trying to make a new and better one. there goes my chances of heightening my chances of getting in. sigh.

EDIT 28 Jan 2010
Picture gallery on homelessness in Malaysia
http://www.thenutgraph.com/hope-and-homelessness