29.9.09


Really, really, ridiculously...
I've just realised today that members of the opposite sex tend to look at you more when you dress up and put on contacts, etc. Common sense, i know, but it's just damn amusing to realise it for the first time.

Or wait...maybe it's just that i look so much different since i've been wearing specs and dressing in a heck-care manner for the past few weeks.

Or maybe they were aiming glances at something else the whole time. XD
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19.9.09


School un-success.
Hmm. I think i need to start finding out what kind of jobs i can do with a law degree. I find it hard to be motivated when i'm in a field where i'm not at the front of the pack, or even worse, somewhere in the middle of the rear half of the rat-race.

Which seems to be the case at the moment. I like to think that i'm very good at philosophy, creative thinking, and abstract thinking. But law does not really require much of that. Or at least law school does not. I consistently do well at "bullshitting subjects" like SLS and Legal Theory, but not at the rest.

I used to think i could do much better in law. But it's only after my first year that i realised what a small fish i am. Because the traits that i have don't help much when i'm someone who takes 5 minutes to read a page of my CLT readings, who cannot study for more than 10 minutes at a time before losing focus, and who cannot listen to the lecturer talk and take notes at the same time because, while i'm typing, i can't focus on what he's saying. Maybe i needs to attend workshops to help me acquire these skills.

When i went to law school, i realised that there are a lot of people there with special talents that you don't notice at first. There are people who can speed read pages of complex articles and digest everything. There are people who seem really quiet and shy, only for you to discover that they are experienced school debaters with great skill at impromptu speaking under pressure. There are people who can listen to the lecturer and type down notes at 100+ words per minute at the same time. There are people who can look at the confusing mess of a syllabus and organise a great study plan. There are disciplined people who can play hard for one hour and immediately get into study mode for the next hour. There are people who are so thick-skinned that they can get ready-made essays from their seniors to copy wholesale during open-book exams. There are people who can quickly make friends with professors and who are masters at making conversation. There are people who seem simple or who talk in all sorts of Singlish accents but still write so beautifully.

For those who intend to go law school, or who are interested in taking law, let me tell you this: hard work triumphs over intelligence. You're going to have to read TONS when you enter law school, so people with a lot of physical and mental tolerance tend to do better. It helps if you have a habit of reading as well. If you're still in the habit of reading one novel a day, then good for you (beware of losing the reading habit, soldiers!). And among the hard workers, if you want a rough gauge of how well you're going to do in law school, look no further than at your English scores; in particular, your summary and comprehension sections. Being good at narratives might not be a good thing. Failing at Math all the time does not preclude you from the Dean's List. Literature students do better than most.

Maybe i'm giving up early when i say that i'm probably going to get a 2nd lower honours degree when i graduate. I could practise law in a normal firm, but i'm unsure if i could go far in that field. I'm confident of having a good working relationship in my colleagues, but i can picture myself getting tongue-tied every time i have to say something impromptu to a judge or even to a client.

So, well, i think it's time i started looking into alternative job opportunities. It doesn't have to be something that is not law-related; it could still be related to a particular law topic that i'm interested in. I dunno.

Or i could just keep mugging.
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Goddammit i'm bleeding cash.
My mahjong luck is DAMN BAD. Amagad. I've played four or five times in the past few months and i've lost close to $100 already. Maybe even more. I've lost $55 from the last two times. Even worse, the odds i've been playing are really small; 20-40cents the 2nd last time and 10-20cents today (although today's paying system is different because the money doubles until SIX tai and then another one dollar each is added for 7 tai and 8 tai). Which means i've been losing VERY HEAVILY at CASUAL mahjong.

The thing is, i haven't been able to win any mahjong games with 4 tai and above. When i play smaller than that, i win quite often, but then another player just gets really big one and wipes out all my earnings, and then some. Part of me thinks it's the way i play, and part of me thinks it's just dumb luck. Horrible dumb luck. Like today, i did not get a single cat-mouse/rooster-caterpiller/2 relevant flower combination (for that extra small change) AT ALL, while i had to pay out like $3 worth to the other 3 players, who at least got their flowers and animals at a decent rate. And i only gang-ed once, despite playing pung-pung pretty often. I managed to win over $200 in a single day during Chinese New Year, so maybe it's just that i'm at the lower amplitudes of my luck-wave.

But the worst thing of all is that i've been taking money every now and then from my mum and relying on others. After deciding to be more financially independent after JC, my plans have sidetracked quite considerably. First, there was that car accident which wiped out the money i would have received from that investment deal i have with my dad. Then, during the holidays, i took charge of Rag instead of getting a temporary job, so i incurred a significant opportunity cost, not to mention the transport fees and miscellaneous stuff. And then there are the mahjong losses which adds to the amount i'm regularly bleeding away on food.

I haven't been buying any new clothes, any new electronic gadgets/fun stuff (apart from pre-ordering Dragon Age Origins) and still my expenditure has been rising. The only thing that's keeping me afloat, is that my mother has been slipping me small change occasionally - $50 to $100 every month or so - saying that it's to reimburse me for the food that i buy (which she says she's supposed to compensate, although i disagree), and my dad (via my credit card) has been paying for my petrol (my mum gives the excuse that Citibank gets a further discount at Esso). My mum also reimburses me for everything that i spend on the family (like when i buy back snacks for the family and stuff), which kinda defeats the purpose of why i do it in the first place.

In the past, i would object vehemently and insist that i pay for my own stuff. I'd take pride in my independence. But now, i find it hard to resist the money when my mother "reimburses" me. I haven't given a treat to Coco in a long while; we keep going dutch.

I know, i know, i have great parents, a great family, and a great girlfriend. But i can't help but feel that my morality is disappearing like the superficial imagery it has always been. I like to think that i'm a generous guy, but maybe it's just that i have the money to be generous. Maybe i shouldn't judge people for being selfish with their money or thick-skinned when they insist that their parents have a duty to give them pocket change. Because maybe, if i myself were penniless and had no savings, i'd be the most selfish person on earth.
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17.9.09


New tagboard!
Okay, i've installed a new tagboard.

Flooble had been quite screwed up for me for the past few years...for one thing, i don't think they've gotten any additional servers! So over the years, people had trouble posting stuff on my board, people had to post the same message twice in quick succession just so their message could appear on my tagboard ONCE, AND i never even bothered personalising my tagboard because the home page was so slow (thanks to flooble never upgrading their servers).

And it seemed that my chatterbox was down again. So i've gotten a new tagboard from ShoutMix. So far it seems pretty user-friendly. Makes me wonder how bad my inertia is, that i didn't change my tagboard after all that trouble i've had...

If you're wondering how i selected ShoutMix out of all those tagboard services offered online, well...i just typed tagboard on google, opened the first 5 links i saw, shortlisted the two homepages that loaded the fastest (www.shoutmix.com and tag-board.com) and then picked the neater looking tagboard service!

Okay anyway i've gotta get back to work. Ahhh property law is so troublesome. I think i've learnt a lot, but one week later i've forgotten everything.
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15.9.09


Should be..?
I know a man called B. In the past, my friends and i found it very amusing how much B smoked...smoked, meaning that he would pretend that he knew something "for sure" when the chances of him being right were only like...80%. Or less. His most famous phrase was "should be", a phrase he'd attach to wild theories that had a bare chance of being true. "Should be" was like a mask for his lack of real knowledge, and you were screwed big time if you believed what he had said "should be" the case (although i must admit that it sometimes made sense).

Now, i'm bringing this up because i find that, in law school, i'm using "should be" a lot, myself. The law should be this, the law should be that. I.e., the law is probably like this at the moment, but it ought to be that. It sounds a bit Positivist, but it seems like we cannot escape from this kind of reasoning during our non-Legal Theory classes.

So the law is so uncertain, that the most i can say is that the law "should be" this, and that A is "likely" to have equitable rights in B's property. This legal uncertainty is like a reflection of our own moral uncertainties, however, and given that we'll probably NEVER find two people who can agree on what's right and what's wrong for everything under the sun, legal uncertainty is here to stay.

But still, i wish i wasn't stuck saying "should be" all the time. It makes me feel like i have only a 20% chance of being correct.

Ahwell...law school is so shitty at the moment. The work is pretty easy, but everyone in my batch is working so damn hard, that i'll probably get shitty grades again come the end of the year. Very demoralising. Shitty grades, that is.

It's like, if we were just given a fixed amount of marks for naming the right case that applies and applying the case correctly, everyone would be getting A1 for their papers (if A1 is 75% of the maximum score). But instead, our grades are compared to everyone else's, meaning a few people are going to get As, and those who beat the system, but couldn't beat their friends, will get Bs and Cs. This is quite unlike UK's system, or so i hear. At this rate, i'm NEVER going to get 2nd Upper.

On another note, i've discovered the secret to getting a summit lot in school! Summit lots, btw, are the carpark lots that are the closest to the school building.

Ahaha...it's easy; just reach school before 7.15am! Lol...i hope no one was disappointed with the "secret". Probably no one was disappointed since no one reads this blog anyway. :|

Should be lah. :|

Ok well, enough slacking; it's time to start on my company tutorial!
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6.9.09


DAMN SAD.
Damn sad. I plucked this article from MSNBC (but i first heard about this story from my sister). Here's the actual link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22902512 (please don't publish this story or sell it off...you know what i mean; it's pretty old news anyway).

Appreciate your chocolate chip cookies the next time you eat them! And make sure you finish all the crumbs! Heck, be sure to appreciate ALL the food on your plate! >.<

Haiti’s poor resort to eating mud as prices rise
Cookies made of dried yellow dirt become sustenance, livelihood, concern

ASSOCIATED PRESS
updated 6:43 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2008

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums and Charlene Dumas was eating mud.

With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies.

Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Dumas said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the 6 pounds, 3 ounces he weighed at birth.

Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies also give her stomach pains. "When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too," she said.

States of emergency
Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.

The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 percent in places.

The global price hikes, together with floods and crop damage from the 2007 hurricane season, prompted the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency to declare states of emergency in Haiti and several other Caribbean countries.

Caribbean leaders held an emergency summit in December to discuss cutting food taxes and creating large regional farms to reduce dependence on imports.

Dirt cookies become bargains
At the market in the La Saline slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents, up 10 cents from December and 50 percent from a year ago. Beans, condensed milk and fruit have gone up at a similar rate, and even the price of the edible clay has risen over the past year by almost $1.50. Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5, the cookie makers say.

Still, at about 5 cents apiece, the cookies are a bargain compared to food staples. About 80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day and a tiny elite controls the economy.

Merchants truck the dirt from the central town of Hinche to the La Saline market, a maze of tables of vegetables and meat swarming with flies. Women buy the dirt, then process it into mud cookies in places such as Fort Dimanche, a nearby shanty town.

Carrying buckets of dirt and water up ladders to the roof of the former prison for which the slum is named, they strain out rocks and clumps on a sheet, and stir in shortening and salt. Then they pat the mixture into mud cookies and leave them to dry under the scorching sun.

The finished cookies are carried in buckets to markets or sold on the streets.

An unpleasant taste
A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered.

Assessments of the health effects are mixed. Dirt can contain deadly parasites or toxins, but it can also strengthen the immunity of fetuses in the womb to certain diseases, said Gerald N. Callahan, an immunology professor at Colorado State University who has studied geophagy, the scientific name for dirt-eating.

Haitian doctors say depending on the cookies for sustenance risks malnutrition.

"Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I will discourage it," said Dr. Gabriel Thimothee, executive director of Haiti's health ministry.

Marie Noel, 40, sells the cookies in a market to provide for her seven children. Her family also eats them.

"I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good for me."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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About Me...


Gregory Ang
{♠gRêCkÖ♠}
31st December
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IN ADDITION, i am not liable for any damages if, after reading my posts, you start to go crazy/doubt God/feel depressed, OR if you decide to believe my supposed "facts" or listen to my advice or any advice written in this blog AT YOUR OWN RISK and end up getting screwed/fired from your job, etc.

HOWEVER, if you are aggrieved by something that i wrote in my blog - something that damages your reputation or whatever - please feel free to send an email (with your REASONS) to greckoboy@hotmail.com, and i'll edit my posts...ONCE i've read the email (please be warned that i don't read my emails THAT regularly).

TERMS OF AGREEMENT: By reading this blog, you agree that this website is just a simple collection of opinions. I will erase this part when i start harbouring ambitions to change the world or take down the PAP or whatever. Furthermore, you agree to abide by the terms stated (rather crudely) in the disclaimer above.

REMEMBER, it is YOUR duty to read all of the above, for i have already written a post to direct your attention here. And if you feel the disclaimer is not "properly defined" and/or not clear, then i'm very sorry, but i kinda thought that you had this thing called "common sense". I know you have common sense...you do, don't you?

Finally, sorry for all that self-protection crap...it was quite fun though LOL. Just enjoy reading lah! :)


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