Wow…almost one year I haven’t updated my blog. I never actually intended to ever come back to my blog. I guess it was just a phase, going with the flow, peer pressure. Talking about peer pressure I came back to my blog because after looking at Esther Lee’s blog I realised that she still has a link to my blog on her’s. I felt I should update it for her sake since she has been ‘advertising’ my blog all this while. And how interesting too that at the end of my last post I had just come back from China.

Well if you wanted to know why MAS was no longer in my good books after my business trip upgrade flying back from Sydney, well it was because there was like a two hour delay flying from Malaysia. Actually things were worse, when I came back from China my mum and sisters were flying back to Sydney that same night and the queue at the baggage check-in counter was very very long, it almost strectched to the automatic sliding doors. The seats that they had booked weeks in advance were no longer available and they had to be given other seats. The same night mum and dad bumped into old friends whose children were flying back to melbourne for studies (as thousands of other msians do). If i’m not mistaken one of the sons had a exam the next day. I don’t know about you but to me flying back the day before an exam was a pretty stupid thing to do. Apparently the flight to melboune was overbooked and they were put up at the pan pacific to fly out the next day. Wow…I can’t believe I can remember events this clearly that happened almost a year ago.

Things have certainly changed a lot. I hear MAS is out of the red and are now making half a billion a year. Their target is now a profit of 1 billion a year the greedy people! Must tell my dad to buy MAS shares then, joke.

So fast forward to May the next year and I’m sitting at a computer in uni waiting for my mum to pick me up coz I haven’t been catching public since I had my torn ligament playing soccer 2 weeks ago. I could be reading my law and preparing for my tutorial but no, I come online and end up resurrecting my blog. Not that anyone reads this anyway which I guess was the reason why I stopped writing. Some people don’t mind ppl not reading their blogs coz it’s theraphy anyway but for me I usually internalise most of my raves and rants so writing to me is more about informing, entertaining, having a sense of achievement, etc which might be the reason why I’m doing a degree in Media.

        And now I’m slighty distracted by the banner advert on the left of my screen: "Pretty & Virtuous Chinese ladies for Marriage". Looks like all things China are in at the moment whether it was Beijing Olympics, protesting against China on behalf of Tibet, or helping Sichuan earthquake victims. The top of the banner has a picture of a seedy looking bald white guy kissing a chinese lady in a bridal costume. The guy has an uncanny resemblance to my Contracts Lecturer, freaky!

  Yes people, the guy on the left is my Contract Law Lecturer and Tutor. He is sporting a beard at the moment so he looks even more like the guy in the advert. But my lecturer is not seedy at all. In fact he tells good lawyer jokes and is very nice =D

Alright I better end here now and let others have the computer. I never like it when people are blogging, facebooking and checking their e-mails when I need the computer for more urgent matters like printing my assignment out.

Till I’m not sure when, Peace.

Sorry people for the long lapse in posts. Was waiting for something worth while to write about and when it did come it was followed by many many more interesting things which prevented me from updating ‘Inilah Justin’ earlier.

Where shall I start? "Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start" a quote from Sound of Music comes to mind.

                                                       ***

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity for my holidays to start I flew back home to be with my beloved family and friends. And boy did I fly! Checking my luggage in at the Sydney airport the check-in lady said that the flight was fully booked and since I was traveling alone and terminating my trip in KL she said I would be upgraded to business class. I was over the moon!! I told the lady that I’ve flown at least 50 times in my short lifetime but I have never been upgraded to business class. Reality did not sink in till later when I sat down at McD’s admiring the blue trim above my boarding pass which said "Golden Club Class".

Warning: Reading on will likely cause a serious bout of a condition called "sour grapes"

The nice thing about business class is that you can board the plane at any time before departure and you can leave as soon as the plane lands. I decided to get my self cozy and maximize the upgrade so I boarded early. After finding my seat the stewardess looking after my section asked: "Mr. Yip would you like anything to drink?"

She knew my name!!
"Umm, umm….a coke I mumbled"

Later looking through the beverage list I cursed myself for not ordering a champagne. Nevermind I’ll save that for later in the flight. The best thing about business class is the seats. There was so much leg room that when I sat upright and put my legs out straight I could barely touch the seat in front of me.There were also these buttons which you could press to adjust your seat. Some of them put the seat into different modes. There was the "takeoff and landing mode" which was the normal seating position. There was the "eating mode" which made your chair extra upright. There was the "comfortable mode" which eased my chair into a slightly reclined position, perfect for reading my novel. And then of course there was the "sleeping mode" which made my whole chair into an almost horizontal bed. Although it was a day flight I made use of all 4 modes including the horizontal mode to have an hour’s nap. Before dozing off I spared a thought for my economy class brethren who were crammed like sardines behind the curtain.

Waking up it was time for makan! While people all around the world complain about aircraft food, I can honestly say Malaysia Airlines truly deserves the best airline food awards it has often won. If I was already satisfied with economy wait till I was blown away with business class food! For the appetizer I was served satay! And it came with one of the best peanuts sauces I’ve had, the kind with the nuts crushed coursely. Polishing off my 6 sticks of satay I proceeded to ingeniously use two satay skewers as a pair of chopsticks to pick up the remaining chunks of nuts from the sauce. I didn’t care what the caucasian lady next to me thought. I was homesick so sue me! The only thing that prevented me from having seconds was the thought in my head that I had better leave room for the next few courses; and they did not disappoint. They served an amazingly fresh seafood salad. It was prawns and thin slices of salmon ala sashimi style on a bed of lettuce. It also came with a fruit salad which I gladly wolfed down. At this point I must inform you that in business class your table is covered with a small white table cloth. You are also given three sets of cutlery coming in different shapes and sizes. Your courses are also served one at a time by the stewardess from a serving cart unlike economy style where the whole she-bang is served at once on one serving tray with disposable eating-ware. Instead, fine china is used and the best stainless steel cutlery is given. But no, the knives are still plastic in case you were wondering. With my meal I decided to indulge and have both red and white wine. For the main course I chose Nasi Briyani from the menu. With business class you have 4 choices unlike the measly two in economy. The nasi was scrumptious and in true high-class fashion they gave a small serving in the middle of a very big plate. To top off a wonderful meal I was served passion fruit cheesecake, the kind which is made with Philadelphia cream cheese and set in the fridge unlike the baked variety which I do not like. A very very nice meal indeed.  I ended it with a nice hot bubbly glass of teh tarik.

Because of the upgrade MAS was in my good books, but the solid reputation planted firmly in my head soon came crashing down a couple of weeks later. This brings me to my second topic: China

I was fortunate to turn on the TV when it said that they would be showing Amazing Race All-stars at 10.30 later tonight. I don’t watch that much TV but it is a source of comfort since I’m all alone in my two bedroom bachelor pad. I don’t however follow any particular program. I like watching Amazing Race but I think it would be even cooler to participate, maybe once I turn 21 I can join Amazing Race Asia. Anyone out there wanna put up with me?

Anyway the reason why I was so fortunate to watch tonight’s episode was because the teams were going to be in KL! Whenever I see or hear anything about Malaysia I always get all excited. This used to be the case about Australia when I was growing up. *Sigh*, I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.

I was so glad that all 5 teams had a good experience in Malaysia. I was waiting for people to be rude, give wrong directions, caught on camera throwing rubbish in the street or just doing something embarrassing that would put us to shame. You would be happy to know that none of this happened, at least not on camera. All teams were greatly aided by our friendly locals telling them where to go and giving them precise directions, and I don’t think it was because they knew they were in the Amazing Race. Thankfully our transport system didn’t let them down as they were able to travel on our efficient LRTs and air conditioned buses quickly to their destination. How come it’s not like that when I go to KL?  The first stop was the majestic Batu Caves and you guessed it, they had to climb the stairs all the way to the top to get their next clue only to be told they had to go straight back down! They then travelled to the Kampung Baru Mosque where they got a detour clue having to choose between Cookies or Artistic Creation. In Cookies the teams had to go to some road side stall where this man was selling hundreds and hundreds of Malaysian cookies. They then had to bite into each cookie to find one with a black liquorice centre. In Artistic Creation teams had to reproduce a batik pattern by using a block print with melted wax and then painting over it. The batik detour seemed to be the faster and easier one. Only one team were successful with the cookies. Two other teams tried but wisely decided to swap and go for the other one. Teams didn’t have to eat the cookies so the whole ground was littered with crumbs. The owner of the store did not look too amused and was probably regretting signing up for the thing, at least he got free publicity! Because Amazing Race is popular in Malaysia many people stood around watching the teams when they were carrying out their tasks. Some were cheering them on which uplifted their spirits. Of course it did not hurt that the teams were matsalleh and one team were beauty queens. After the detour the teams had to take a taxi to Taman Sri Hartamas. I love how our taxis are unashamedly estate in their colour with combinations of red, blue and yellow and how they have the "Jemput Naik Sign"…..*sigh*, I’ve fallen in love with the touristy side of Malaysia…..oh no…..I’ve become a foreigner, HELP!

Anyway it seems like the person who organised the Malaysian leg of the race wanted to show the best side of Malaysia. At Taman Sri Hartamas, apparently as a tribute to Malaysia’s "eco-friendlyness" teams were supposed to go around on a bicycle with a small piece of board attached on a third wheel collecting old news papers from around the neighbourhood. They were even told to shout out, "Surat Khabar Lama" hahahaha! They were supposed to buy newspapers off the people but I guess it’s hard enough stopping Malaysians from just worshiping at the feet of the Americans. Knowing that the people were in Amazing Race many of the young kids actually went from house to house pushing the teams’ bicycles and carrying the newspapers for them. One of the teams who came a little late did not get much old newspapers and resorted to going to a nearby Petronas station and buying old newspapers off them. The fella told the Petronas attendant that he will pay over RM300 if he could buy the newspapers and get him to help push the bicycle back to the newspaper man where all the teams’ newspapers were collected. RM 300?!?! just for a simple job…..the guy probably thought we was dealing in Rupiahs or something!!
After the paper round the teams were directed to their next pit stop which was the Carcosa Seri Negara, some hilltop mansion in KL. I’m glad this time they did not resort to using the KL tower or the Twin towers as part of the challenges. It did feature once in awhile when driving through the city and it was shown as part of the view from the hill top mansion at the end.

So that one hour of TV was my excitement for the night. I was happy that I could see people in Malaysia going out of their way to help foreigners with a father carrying a small child jogging all the way with one team to show them to their next challenge! Then again it could just be that they were in the Amazing Race and that they were Americans.

So much for the good side of Malaysia this week. Unfortunately this week brought bad news about Malaysia. Lina Joy losing her appeal was kind of expected but that does not make it any less a miscarriage of justice. When will our country accept the freedom of each individual to choose their own religion? Why do we still have to be stuck with such a primitive mind-set? Lina Joy is born and raised in Malaysia; this is her home, and now she will have to leave the country to marry her Christian Boyfriend. Even the world’s most populous Muslim country Indonesia allows a greater freedom of personal rights. Muslim majority countries like Turkey too recognize the merits of the separation of religion from politics, can’t Malaysia be the same? Malaysia has come along way but it still has much farther to go.

Aunty Luan received one of Marina Mahathir’s columns from her sister who lives in KL. It’s good to hear that some people still have sense back home.

Musings:
By MARINA
MAHATHIR - May 2007

LOOKING at recent developments, I
think there should be a new association registered for the propagation of the
shallow and superficial. It should be called, for short, the SS.

The SS
is open for membership to people who have nothing better to do with their lives
than look for monsters under their beds, enemies in their blankets or crosses in
their buns. The first members of the SS are the people who believe that the path
to hell is paved with ice-cream biscuits.

In case there are still
people out there who only read the mainstream papers and therefore have been
blissfully cocooned in ignorance, a group of defenders of the faith have lodged
a report that a certain brand of ice-cream biscuits has (Christian) crosses on
them, and therefore this is a grave threat to our faith. If any of us were
unaware that all it takes is ice-cream to melt our faith, now we know.

The SS would comprise of people who really believe that their faith
needs to be protected from confectionery, lipstick, books, magazines, songs,
maybe even Sponge Bob SquarePants. Everything should be scrutinized for their
ability to creep into one’s soul and destroy one’s beliefs. Having laws that
allow for this scrutiny would apparently show how superior and strong their
religion is.

The SS are not in the least bit interested in any real
issues that might truly be threats to their community. Not for them the trivial
matters of poverty and hunger nor of people being bombed to death every day in
Iraq or Palestine, or dying of diseases such as AIDS. Nay, these are unimportant
compared to the dangers of ice-cream and lipstick.

In case anyone
thinks I am making this u p, some people might remember that in the days before
th e United States invaded Iraq, an e-mail listing out the brands of cosmetics
one should not use because their lipsticks were not halal was passed around.
Undoubtedly, several hundred thousand dead Iraqis later, those who boycotted
those lipsticks feel very good now.

Let us not forget other SS members,
those who should be conferred the special title Simple-Minded and Stupid,
otherwise known as SMS. These are the sorts who believe every little message
that comes into their hot little phones, no matter how unlikely.

Without even asking simple questions like "Is it true?", they pass them
on as if they were, well, gospel. Even worse, instead of just relying on
electronic gadgets, which one can always blame technology for, they pass on
these messages verbally to other members of the SS, all of whom accept
everything the SMS say is literally The Word of God.

The alleged Word
of God is then borne into action by Korrupt Kombative Knuckleheads, otherwise
known as the KKK. These will do things like throw firecrackers into churchyards,
destroy temples and raid married people’s bedrooms. Pretty soon we may find them
dressing up in bed sheets and stringing up people they don’t like on trees.

One thing about the SS, the SMS and the KKK is that they never take
responsibility for anything. Unlike hijackers, kidnappers and terrorists who
want to be known as people who do bad deeds, the Malaysian versions don’t own up
to anything. If SS or SMS talk about how Other People are bad, and the KKK then
go and string up people by their necks, the SS and SMS simply put their hands up
and say, "But I never told them to do that. I only mentioned these things in
passing."

Thus they can pass out simpleminded but dangerous messages
without having to take the consequences. Unlike Other People who are constantly
being threatened with all sorts of Dire Consequences should they so much as open
their mouths. This i s how less than a dozen people talking peace and goodwill
can be told to shut up in the face of 10,000 talking war and hate. It’s the same
sort of argument some Neanderthals make about cameras peering in inappropriate
places; the victims shouldn’t have worn skirts.

The sad thing is that
an association like the SS would have so many members in this country. While
those who are reasonable, moderate and tolerant are getting marginalized every
day.

The voice of hate is these days so much louder than the voice of
peace, love and inclusiveness. Just as we don’t see the supreme irony of
trumpeting our religious superiority while at the same time claiming that it
only takes biscuits to destroy us, we don’t see the irony of extolling ourselves
as a superior race while at the same time insisting on crutches and handouts.            

I remember learning this poem by Keats when I was in Year 11:

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

(Ode to Autumn by John Keats)

Yup, it’s that glorious time of the year again: autumn, my favourite season. Very colourful and not too hot nor too cold.

I’ve added some autumn pictures to my photograph album. Enjoy!

My sisters and I saw a funny sight the other day. As we were pulling up to a traffic light we spotted this motorcyclist with a soft toy monkey attached to his shoulder. Fortunately for you we had our camera ready

I just came back from watching the movie Shooter.
Pretty awesome movie. Put together an action packed storyline with a conspiracy twist and you can please me pretty easily. This is the 3rd time I have gone to the cinema alone to watch a movie and I’m starting to get used to it. Although walking back alone home at night after a movie like Shooter can get you pretty paranoid. Kept looking at the rooftops of the shopping centre and the apartments for any signs of a shooter trying to assassinate me…cheh wah assassinate! As if my life was that important to anyone out there.

But before I went to watch the movie I went to the local library to do some studying so I wouldn’t feel so guilty indulging myself in a movie; mind you it was only 45 minutes of studying! I think I’m going to start making it a habit of going there so I won’t be so lost in my studies anymore, especially law. Today in law we discussed a very interesting case which was actually made up by some law professor just to show us that there are many different ways of looking at a scenario. The case involved 4 men who ended up murdering one of themselves and eating him in order to survive in a cave that had caved in while they were waiting to be rescued. The question was whether or not they should be convicted of murder. Pretty interesting opinions came out in today’s tutorial needless to say.

The last week has been pretty eventful despite dad’s return back home. The 4 of us went up the coast to stay with some family friends at a beach house. Although the weather has been cold lately, the two days we were there were very nice and we could swim in the sea without any problems. We also played ultimate frisbee which is like netball but with a frisbee…tiring but very fun! All night we played card games and boardgames from old
favourites like pictionary to entirely new games like this one called Balderdash which also required you to be very creative but in a different way.

Last weekend I went with my church youth group to the Katoomba Youth Convention which was really a blast. We had great talks based on the theme ‘Follow’. One of the highlights of the conference was the participation of my youth group in a dance competition on Saturday night. The rest of us sat in our seats and cheered for those on stage. Our youth group was certainly much better coz we did more free-style and break dance moves compared to the other groups which seemed to repeat old dance moves which everyone had seen a
million times in the local disco. One of our dancers even did a full back-flip like the ones you see by some strikers in the English Premier League! The best part was that our youth group consisted of all Asians and we showed everyone else who really has the moves on the dance floor !

And my week was not complete without a visit from Latha who was in Sydney during the hols from Canberra. I became her official tour guide showing her around the beautiful city of Sydney. Later we met up with her friend who goes to the same uni as me and we went to watch the movie ‘Namesake’. Yes I know I have watched so many movies lately….but Namesake
is one of those movies you must watch, especially if you are from an Indian/Asian background. Will seriously make you laugh! After that we met up with yet another friend of hers and had Italian for dinner which capped off a good day.

Looks like I’ve watched most of the latest movies, you name it: 300, Becoming Jane, Bean’s Holiday, Sunshine, Namesake, The Reaping and now Shooter. Will probably watch Disturbia tomorrow. Spiderman isn’t out till next week and I heard TMNT was lousy. So you wanna know about any of the above movie just give me a buzz. Do write back any reviews from the movies that you guys have watched lately too.
Probably the ones worth watching from my point of view is Namesake, Shooter, Sunshine and 300.

Recent discovery: There is a fellow Malaysian living on the same floor as me!

It all started when my sisters and I were in the lift going up to our floor. There was this man who was in the lift as well with us. As usual when we don’t want strangers to know what we are talking about we start talking in Malay. Sarah started asking about Rachel’s pants which went something like-
Sarah: Ini seluar baru ke?
Rachel: Nolah, sudah lama saya beli.
Sarah: Ya ke? Tak pernah nampak pun.

At that point the man turned around and asked whether we were from Indonesia!!
Hahahahaha, we were like: No, we are Malaysians.
Then he said: Oh, I’m Malaysian too! Which part you from? (typical manglish)
We said: Malacca.
He: Oh, I’m from Sarawak.

We then just went back to our respective apartments. A few days later he knocked on our door and gave us a huge bag of bakery goods. He explained that he is in charge of one of the bakeries called ‘Baker’s Delight’
and that the left over bread etc. had to be thrown away at the end of everyday coz they have to make fresh bread for their customers. So looks like we untung to have such a neighbour! He did it again yesterday. Looks like I don’t have to worry about any meals for the next two days! My mum says that when she goes back I should cook a Malaysian meal for him and his wife and invite them over……. :X…..seilah

Talking about cooking I think I’m going to die coz my mum is going back this Saturday and I still don’t know how to cook. Looks like I’ll be thrown in the deep end and then we’ll see whether I will sink or swim. I did buy lots of Malaysian packet stuff before I came from Giant supermarket so hopefully that will come in handy. I discovered a Malaysian restaurant called Satay Queen around the corner so I guess I can go there as a last resort!

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Hey people, it’s holiday time for me and it’s been a pretty exciting last two weeks. Uni has been so-so but the last week of uni became an adrenalin pumping few days. The reason: meeting assessment deadlines!

I had two assignments to hand in that week.
For media I chose to ananlyse the horror movie poster of ‘Wolf Creek’. For law I had to write two critiques on articles written by law professors!! And there I was thinking, how are we as law students of 6 weeks supposed to criticise the ideas of law prefessors…but that was the assessment and somehow I managed to make up some stuff and point out why they were wrong or right!
My media assessment was due on Wednesday the 4th and my law one was due the following day. And being the typical procrastinator I didn’t do most of it till the day before they were both due. I didn’t submit both of them till 10 minutes before the deadline. For law at least I think I learnt the most I ever had since I started the course. I’m doing Jurisprudence which seems to be a bit of a joke with the senior law students. Jurisprudence in a nutshell is the philosophy of law. It asks questions like: what is law? is there a necessary connection between law and morality or law and politics? why do we obey the law?…etc…

It’s been pretty interesting but there are so many theorists and theories and variations of theories that it is quite hard for me to get my head around everything. Sometimes I feel so useless during tutorials and discussions because I’m afraid I might have gotten things mixed up or say things everyone already knows. I plan to use this last week of holidays to catch up on law. I have two law tutorials. One is for one hour in a group of about 15. The other is for 2 hours in a group of about 30. In the long tutorial I’ve got that Indian lecturer I mentioned about earlier. She is pretty competent but sometimes I can’t help but think we are going around in circles. Sometimes (and I think this is due to my Malaysian upbringing), I just want to shout out: JUST GIVE US THE ANSWERS!! hahahahaha

We have all sorts of people in my long tutorial. There are about 4 people who are the strong personality type and talk 80% of the time while the other 26 of us listen. And then there is this Chinese guy who speaks once in awhile and whenever he speaks he gives very textbook answers from his laptop, obviously from notes taken during lectures or from readings. He often quotes the Australian Constitution like a dictionary. Any point he raises inevitably leads back to the constitution.

Although my holidays started last week it wasn’t quite the holidays yet as I still had a cultural assignment to hand in on the 12th, last Thursday. The topic I chose was ’surveillance’; so for part of my essay I had to think how we as humans are affected by the fact that we are constantly being stared at and judged by others even when there isn’t anyone looking at us. I know, I know, me being a paranoid freak isn’t that hard. The hard part was trying to relate it to the theory I have learnt.
And so I spent the whole day in the uni library on thursday finishing my assignment in time for the 5pm deadline. If you thought I had learnt my lesson from the week before then you are sorely mistaken. I got my assessment in this time 5 minutes before 5pm, *phew* ! Haven’t had my blood and adrenalin pumping this much since dunno when.

Last night I got to go to a 21st birthday party of a church friend. It was a very Asian affair. 98% of the people were Asian but it was still a different birthday party compared to what I am used to back home. All the Aunties got together to help cook a big makan (this was the Malaysian part). The interesting part was when friends and family started making speeches "exposing" all the birthday boy’s secrets. It was a hilarious affair with lots of funny video clips to embarrass him for the next few years. Fortunately the birthday boy has been a good guy and there wasn’t too much dirt thrown around

Tonight my sisters and I went to watch the movie "Sunshine". I found out that Michelle Yeoh

was in it and it also had an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes so I thought those were two very good reasons to watch it. Upon watching it though you would notice that Michelle Yeoh has aged significantly but still looks fit. She also stands out for being the only one speaking without an American accent.

*Spoiler Warning*
The first 20 minutes I was thinking I might have made a mistake. I’m no fan of sci-fi movies and I thought at first it was going to be another star-trek kind of flick. But I was pleasantly surprised. The 8 crew members who were sent away to reignite the dying sun to save mankind reminded me of the 8 people in Noah’s ark from the Bible. Though it started out as a noble mission, the ugly side of humans did rear it’s ugly head. One by one they start dying due to various reasons and I’m happy to announce that
Michelle Yeoh’s character dies relatively
late into the film. The whole movie was
a rollercoaster ride for our adrenalin.
So many times the crew members made mistakes or something happened that made everyone lose hope of getting back alive or even just completing the mission, but almost as quickly hope was reinstalled through other events and discoveries. The movie ends in a bittersweet way. It’s interesting seeing Cillian Murphy play a good guy for once after seeing him as the baddie in Batman Begins and Red Eye. I still remember how a couple of guys at Knox were convinced that I looked like him!
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Dad has been here for a week and is going back tomorrow which is quite sad. Mum’s leaving in a couple of weeks and then I will be all alone. Not sure what to feel yet but I will worry about that when the time comes.

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This post’s top stories:

1. Malaysian Media compared to socialist/communist media of the 1970s and 80s
2. Daylight saving ends for Australian Eastern Standard time
3. I coached an all-girl soccer team

Other stories:
1. Cultural Studies lecturer says before lecture: "I think men are really yum"
2. Someone said I have a South African accent
3. Non-Friendster members can now comment on my blog

Less significant:
1. Weather has gotten cooler
2. Marina called me a careful cautious paranoid perfectionist and her
former-cute-childhood-friend-but-now-all-grown-up-adult-non-cute-friend
3. Other interesting recent discoveries by me
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A news story in today’s The Australian was entitled:

Ghosts of blogging haunt net cemetery 

This article apparently confirms the suspicions by experts that I mentioned about in my first post that blogging is in decline. It seems like celebrity blogs are no exception. Lindsay Lohan for example has not updated her blog since October last year. Blogs are now the internet’s fastest growing graveyard whereby 200 million blogs have now been abandoned. It seems that blogs are "destined to become a footnote in the history of computing". For more info click the link above.
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Guest lecturer likens M’sian media to the media of socialist states in the 1970s/80s

For my Australian media lecture last week a guest lecturer called Tamara Plakalo was invited to speak. She was a fairly young journalist who had come from Bosnia and was now living and working in Australia. She said she had been in Malaysia for awhile during the "Mahathir Era" and said that reading the papers in Malaysia reminded her of the media of the socialist/communist states of Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 80s. She said that the media in Malaysia often had stories about the various successful projects undertaken by the government. The newspapers too often had nothing but praise for our leaders. This she said was unlike the Western media who were often cynical of their leaders and made fun of them. Which is better she did not say but I thought it was interesting that she brought up the subject of Malaysia in my lecture. Although I was almost half asleep my ears pricked up when I heard her mention "Malaysia".

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Day light saving ends

For us Malaysians the deal with daylight saving remains a mystery. Living so close to the equator has given us the luxury of having predictable daylight hours throughout the year. In places like Australia however the jumping back and forth between a 2 hour and 3 hour difference with Malaysia is due to the fact that here the time that the sun rises and sets fluctuates throughout the year. To maximise the use of daylight and save on lighting, most of Australia move their clocks one hour ahead in spring. Now that Autumn is here however we have moved back the clocks one hour. So in short, the time difference between Sydney and Malaysia is no longer 3 hours but 2 hours. I am now 2 hour ahead of you guys in Malaysia. This should help with chatting since most of you don’t come online till 9, 10pm your time

Talking about living near to the equator I read in one of the local newspaper a few days ago that scientist have found that people living in colder climates further away from the equator have bigger brains and therefore are smarter. I guess that’s why people from the Nordic countries are so smart and Singaporeans are so…umm nevermind about that

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I coached an all-girl soccer team

Yes guys, it’s a dream come true; I did coach an all girls soccer team, well women might be a better word.

Lately I have been getting lifts from a girl who lives nearby and studies law as well. We were walking to her car after our law tutorial when she was complaining that her coach for her football team was not going to be turning up that night. She asked whether I wanted to stand in for him. I reckoned I owed her since I haven’t had the chance to give her a lift yet and so I said yes. It wasn’t too bad although a few of the women hadn’t played football before in their life. The hard part came when they wanted me to explain what offside was. I asked whether anyone had watched ‘Bend it like Beckham’  and a few of them had (there was one seen where the father was trying to explain to the mother with ketchup bottles the offside rule). Still I had to explain to those who didn’t understand it yet. One of the girls said someone had tried explaining it to her using a shopping analogy!! *Sigh*, girls will be girls.

She said something along the lines of: if you are going to the checkout to buy something, you have to have your wallet with you. You can’t reach the front of the checkout without your wallet and have your friend from the back of the line throw it to you because that would be "offside". But you can however, according to this girl get your friend to throw you the wallet ‘as you are running’ towards the check out….
hahaha, I guess that kind of makes sense in a gurly way.
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Accents are interesting

A couple of weeks ago I got chatting with a guy in my law tutorial. He guessed that I was from South Africa judging from my accent. Actually at least one other person thought I was from South Africa in the last few months.

But thankfully  a few people have gotten it right too. I was in the shopping mall buying a new pair of slim-cut jeans the other day when after I paid, the salesguy who helped me asked where I was from and I said Malaysia. He was like: Yeah, I thought you sounded a bit Malaysian because your accent wasn’t quite there.

Wasn’t quite there? I wonder what he meant by that? Does he mean that the Malaysian accent was inferior?? LOL….I guess he just meant that the Australian accent I was trying to put on didn’t work, darn.

He said his father is Malaysian and that’s why he knew
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Cultural Studies lecturer says before lecture that "I think men are really yum"

In cultural studies we learn all sorts of weird things and one of those is gender/feminist theories. Last week our female lecturer (we have two, one male one female) gave us a lecture on feminist theories. She thought the themes in her lecture was going to be quite strong and that she doesn’t mean to offend any guys sitting in the lecture theatre. Then she said: Anyway, in my opinion I think men are really yum.
She was met with a few giggles and a stare of disbelief by some. Hahaha, pretty awkward moment.
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Non-Friendster members can now comment on my blog

Good news for those of you who want to comment on my blog but aren’t Friendster members. You can now do so. Just click on the article you want to comment on or click ‘comments’ after the article and then login. Type in the following:
Username: justin8yip@gmail.com
Password: justin
Once you have logged in you can post your comments.
And don’t forget to leave your name after your comments!
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Miscellaneous

1. The weather in Sydney has gotten significantly cooler. Temperature between 17-25C. Anyone intending to visit in the next month or so should bring a light jacket.

2. Marina has called me a careful cautious paranoid perfectionist and
her former-cute-childhood-friend-but-now-all-grown-up-adult-non-cute-friend
Ask her for an explanation coz I don’t fully understand it either

3. Being older has not made me any less a procrastinator. I have two assessments due next week and I’ve hardly started. I guess that being very Malaysian once again. We Malaysians only think where our next meal is coming from, or rather where to go for the best and cheapest makan! Having said that however Australians don’t look too far ahead to the future either. Most Australians live for the next weekend.

Talking about time reminds me of those classic coffee shop calenders hung behind the counter telling everyone what day it is. Nostalgia! I kind of like that calender because it  tells us to live one day at a time.  It reminds me of that Bible passage from Matthew, Jesus says:

"So I tell you, don’t worry about everyday life — whether you have
enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn’t life consist of more than food
and clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t need to plant or harvest or
put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are
far more valuable to him than they are. Can all your worries add a
single moment to your life? Of course not. And why worry about your
clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make
their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as
beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers
that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for
you? You have so little faith! So don’t worry about having enough food
or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply
concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all
your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you
live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. So don’t
worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s
trouble is enough for today” Matthew 6:25-34

4. I’ve discovered that you can personalise your own Google homepage. On mine I’ve got the latest weather, times in both Sydney and Malaysia, breaking stories, jokes, cartoons and even a daily verse from the Bible. It’s pretty cool and another excuse to get distracted by the internet.

5. Friendster users have risen 15% in the last 3 months and Malaysia has one of the most users: 22% of all friendster accounts!! The Philippines has also 22%, Singapore 20% and Indonesia 12%. That means at least 3/4 of all Friendster accounts are in South East Asia.

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Stay tuned for more updates.

Remember how I said I was a bit sick in my previous post? Well it
turned out 2 days later that I had really come down with a bad case of
the cold. *Sigh*, don’t we all hate it when we get sick? I remember how
being in boarding school for the last two years I would get sick
without fail every term. I thought that my days of getting sick might
be over but looks like I did not escape it this time either. The only
good thing about being sick is that you appreciate being well so much
more.

So the last two weeks of me being sick kind of added an interesting
dimension to an otherwise so-so time in uni. Things last week started
to heat up with the start of tutorials. The readings each week are just
so much, especially for law. And to add salt to injury, you don’t have
a clue after just reading it once! You have to read a few times before
you can even get the gist of the reading. Anyway enough of my whining…

*News Flash*

It’s official people, St. David’s does produce some very smart people (yes I’m trying to puji
myself here too :P). My former classmates have come out tops in their
STPM. A special congratulations to my best mate Satpal for achieving 4
flat in his exams, he thoroughly deserved it. Also to Gah Hung of
course who was one of the top scorers in the country for his 5As. My
only regret is that I’m not home to celebrate with you guys and paint
Malacca Town red….although the Stadhuys we will paint black or
something…

(Ignore the copyright :P)

*Ahem*, back to my news. The last two weeks I have mainly been
taking public transport to uni each day except when I have a short day
and I can take the car and leave my mum stranded at home for a few
hours. So far I don’t mind taking public transport. It makes me feel a
part of society, like I belong to this great city. The ironic thing is
that almost every day in the news there are people crying out about how
bad Sydney’s public transport system
is and how more money needs to be
spent improving it. They whinge when their train arrives 5 minutes late
like it is the end of the world. I think they should come to Malaysia
and see how "good" our public transport system is, then they might stop
complaining. But I guess being in a developed country there are always
going to be higher expectations.

Walking from the station on the way back I saw an interesting
Bollywood poster on the window of an Indian owned sundry shop. I wasn’t
very impressed with the caption and neither will satpal

    ‘Funjabi’ is kind of redundant anyway based on my experience…

Oh
yeah, since
we are on the topic of India it will come as no surprise to
you that one of my law lecturers is Indian. And she is pretty much your
typical Indian woman: small, wears a sari, glasses with a sting around

her neck and quite a thick Indian accent to boot. She is quite elderly
and I’m glad that I have gotten accustomed to the Indian accent thanks
to my machas coz I’m pretty sure my course mates
are having trouble.

Actually the other day I turned on the TV and lo and behold there
was a Bollywood movie on! And not just any Bollywood movie but an
Australian one. The two leads were dancing with a big group of people
as usual but what made it very Australian was the fact that they were
playing volleyball out in the shallow waters of a spectacular Aussie beach

and they were in their swimmers surrounded by white Australian extras; talk about fusion! I couldn’t stop laughing but then decided to continue watching. Although the two leads were Indian and spoke Hindi for most of the show there were noticebly some very Hollywood influences like kissing and premarital sex followed by pregnancy and attempted abortion. The first half was quite humuorous but the story then got a bit draggy after that; I mean if you really hate somebody how can you still stand living with them under the same roof? They of course fall in love again by the end, that one no need to say lah…

***

Tonight was really good because I got to go out for dinner with Titus and his parents who are here on holidays from Hong Kong. We had lobster and abalone!! Best meal
is many months, well I guess best Chinese restaurant meal in a long time. Penang trip is in the hawker food category

***
Yesterday I went to a seminar in my church on understanding Islam. I guess it was interesting to compare my knowledge of Islam to that of the speaker’s considering that I grew up in a Muslim majority country. Daniel Shayesteh was a powerful speaker and really inspired me in my Christian walk. He was a radical Muslim from Iran but escaped to Turkey after a falling out with the then newly instituted Islamic government back in 1979. By the grace of God he found Jesus Christ in Istanbul and is now a Christian residing with his family in Australia. For me it was interesting because I got to know more about the history of Islam which is a bit surprising considering half our Form 4 Sejarah textbook is Islamic history. Apparently the prophet Muhammad went to a catholic church in Syria for awhile with his uncle and that is the reason why a large part of the Quran seems to be taken from Jewish/Christian tradition. Can any Muslims out there comment on this?

Today in church he came back to share his powerful testimony. Everyone present was truly amazed at the power of Jesus Christ to change a person’s heart. The church’s blog has been updated to include today and yesterday’s sharing: http://pointingnorthwards.blogspot.com/

Wow, today has been pretty hectic. I had an early start today. I woke up at 7.30am which is early by my standards and most other Malaysian bums. Being a bit sick did not help. Tried to leave by 8 but ended up being more like 8.15am. I decided to take a different route to uni than usual to avoid traffic but I should know by now that there is no such thing in a city coz everyone else is also going the ‘alternate’ route as well. Managed to get a very good parking spot 1 minute before my first lecture which is one of the benefits of coming to uni early. My first lecture was CHN 148 - Basic spoken Mandarin.

And that’s all for now folks.

Hello friends. I am currently in my uni’s library as I type this. The room where I am is filled with computers, almost like a huge cybercafe minus the food and drinks. I had my first day at university yesterday and attended my first lecture which was CUL100 - a lecture on cultural studies which is one of the core subjects as part of my Media/Law degree. There are no tutorials this week but my time has been taken up wandering around the various booths promoting a thousand and one clubs and societies. If you even slow down for a moment they will ensnare you and talk about how wonderful their club is and all the exciting activities that will be going on this year. At the end of their spiel they will tell you to pay $5 to join. The way they promote their clubs you would almost think they are after your soul, and some clubs actually are. Not short of them are the booths which cater to the spiritual needs of students like Christian Union, Buddhist Society, Jewish Students society, Chinese Christian Fellowship, Falun Gong, Coptic Society and the list goes on…

Some of the other interesting booths or even peculiar ones were the Movie Society, Musical Society, Singing Society, Drama Society (how much more specific do you want to get?), Queer Society, Environmentalists, Millionaire Society, Law Students, Debating, Political Societies (Liberals, Greens, etc.), the list goes on…

I did find the Malaysian Student Association. Their sign was small and not clearly marked but you could find it quite easily as the Jalur Gemilang was put up at the back of their stall. You could forgive them for being mistaken as a tourism agency because they had large Visit Malaysia posters as well as various pamphlets on Sabah, Map of KL, Malaysian Homestay, etc.

The MSA was next to the Chinese Society booth which probably was a bad thing because the Chinese booth was obviously a lot more popular due to the large number of mainland Chinese students studying at Macquarie. Directly opposite the Chinese and Malaysian booth was the stall of a juice company where they were handing out free drink samples to passerbys. Needless to say the Chinese and Malaysians didn’t resist receiving a free drink

There are certainly a lot of overseas students here, almost 10 thousand apparently and mostly from mainland china. The notice boards are filled with A4 papers in Chinese advertising used textbooks, rooms for rent, proof reading services, etc. One could be forgiven for thinking they were in China.

I regret now not sticking to my Chinese tuition when I was in form 2. Unfortunately I couldn’t fit Chinese into my timetable this year as I have too many units. I am doing linguistics instead which should be interesting.

Being a half ang moh can be difficult at times no matter where you go. In Malaysia they stare because I look different (I don’t want to say handsome for fear of getting a backlash of comments :p). In Australia, unless they are very discerning then they think I am 100% Asian and when I say Australian I mean your typical white Australian. And then you have those Chinese people whether in Malaysia or Australia who shake their head when I tell them I can’t speak any Chinese. But then again you get other Chinese people who are in awe that I can even understand a little Mandarin and write my name in Chinese (they of course know that I’m also an ang moh kiah).

Being seen as Asian can be difficult if you don’t want to be stereotyped. Especially when many Asians (and when you say Asian it means East Asian) in Australia can be seen as rude and selfish. Sometimes you just can’t help but feel embarrassed for another Asian’s actions. Only today I saw an Asian guy raising his voice and arguing with one of the staff in the library.

Being of two cultures has always given me a different perspective to look at things. I’ve learnt that there is no right or wrong when it comes to doing things. What may seem offensive in one culture isn’t in another. I particularly like the HSBC advertisements promoting it as a global bank because it shows that there are always two sides to something. I’m glad that I’m doing cultural studies as part of my degree because culture is very much a part of me. The Asian side of me is still wondering why I am not doing any science or maths in uni.

So now that most of you are into full swing at uni too do send me an e-mail or something and tell me how you are doing. Pain or Pleasure?