quotes... Voltaire and selected others

The truth is rarely pure and rarely simple - Oscar Wilde

We are most alone when we are with the myths - Alexander the Great (unconfirmed)

“Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.”
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers”
“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do”
“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.”
“Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.”
“We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.”
“Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively”
“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong”
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
“There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts”
“Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes”

- Voltaire

the winds of change...

...are blowing gently but consistently...change after change.... the next rests upon a decision... my greatest mistake or greatest escape? I am unsure.. for once... I do not know the next step... but its a necessary step in view of recent developments... I will have to do something and soon.. but I'm afraid of the probability the step which needs be taken be the one I loathe most... nevertheless, any which way the wind may choose to blow, my camp is fortified against the storm... I only hope my hand is not forced to do which I hate most...

blessed be; so let it be.. in this or the next... in morning or night

Frasers, July 06

And so most of it draws to an end... My time in adp which started in 2004 is now over. I am officially a Murdoch prog. student. Tomorrow is my first day in the dreaded program... a step closer to Murdoch, Perth. Not that Perth is bad or anything... I'm sure its quite ok... just that I would have prefered a a different location...

Anyhow this post is not going to be on Murdoch... its going to be on adp... the american degree program... through my time in adp, kdu..its numbers have always been few... but the few were good friends & good students.. the product of good lecturers...much has been learnt... much will be remembered and cherished...

Before coming to adp I despised the thought... but I have grown to love being in adp... sure the food sucks..but thats kdu' work and not adp's... the lecturers are great... always there to help us out... offer guidance and support... and also there is less bureaucracy in it all... we don't have to be all formal... and we can actually treat our lecturers as friends...

The subjects offered are widely spread to cover a variety of subjetcs to ensure a good spread of general knowlege.. including subjects like music, history, IT, psychology, religion, sociology, drama...etc (not all offered at kdu)... this makes things more fun... less redundant and offers the students the ability to get a feel of the various fields before deciding on a major...

ahh...ok enough about that.. lets get into adp itself... the way it operates... "groups" change rather fast... friends transfer off to different uni's...friends take subjects you don't etc etc... its not like those programs where you stick with the same faces for 3-4yrs... things are always changing with the retire of the old and the entry of the new blood.... that said.. it doesnt mean that people simply stop being friends... actually no matter the location... ppl more or less stay in touch and meet up with eachother outside of class irregardless...

In my 2 years of being in adp... I've met a lot of people... and my "groups" have changed alot to include people of other departments also... but we're all friends... this post is going to be devoted to adp and to the 2nd last batch of adp students... and the "last" group trip

Frasers 2006...
With the success of the langkawi trip... the frasers trip was abit easier to plan... sure there were multiple complications... but it was all well worth it... after making complicated phone calls we were all set to go at 3pm. In all there were 12 of us... Amin(ah), Anndrina, Ashanya, Carol, Gary, Jean, Jia Shien, Lysha, Michael, Natasha, Sharil and Soon Seng...

3.5 hrs later... multiple pit stops... an oil slick incident... a 20km wrong turn... we finally reached Pine resort... we checked in... bummed ard... and then we got started on the bbq... which was a bit hard to do with the slight downpour..

Went to the "town"... got the coal and ice... and we were set... we initially tried doing the bbq in the fireplace... but that was a bust... and we had to go down to the play ground... which also seemed like a bust... however thanks to the dedication of natasha, sseng and sharil we actually got a very decent fire going... and we had a fairly well cooked meal...

I forgot to mention that all this time there were many beer cans and alcohol bottles being emptied... the exact details of who drank what and who did what with who (hehehehhe) can't be disclosed publicly... but msg me on msn and I shall provide the "blow-by-blow"

After the bbq... many bottles continued to be emptied through multiple drinkign games... ppl got drunk while the sober took care of em all... almost everyone was asleep by 6am... some had gone off earlier... or to be more exact.. blacked out haha...

bloody fun night...

the next day... some went for breakfast while the pigs slept...I being one of the pigs... after that we all headed for jeriau waterfalls... freaking cold dude... seriously... and we being the smartest lot decided to play "lets see who can sit in the waterfall the longest"... my nails were freaking blue by the time we got out... and we actually forgot about the game and nobody won the game haha...

Then there was lunch..and a couple byez as the 3 A's.. amin, anndrina and ashanya left for kl... they went back earlier...

The rest of the day was spent for the most part alcohol less... commenting on stupid malay and chinese shows... then there was the discovery of RM5/hour foosball... enough said..we spent many hours there...

here is where most of the group ish stuff ended... the "highlight" at the end was my journey home... most went by car.. but due to unforseen circumstances sharil and i had to take the bus... not enjoyable... sure I slept for most of it... but the shear length of it all bothered the hell out of me...

Frasers > Raub - 45mins (bus)
Raub waiting for the next bus - 2hrs
Raub > Titiwangsa 2hrs+ (bus)
Titiwangsa > Dang Wangi - 20mins (taxi+walking)
Dang Wangi > Gombak - 40mins (LRT+waiting time)
Gombak > Home - 1.5hrs (car)

Raub is so un-fun...2 hrs wasted there... sucky food... + damn hot...+ no cybercafe haha

And instead of takign the LRT back to Paramount... we had to backtrack to Gombak cos the LRT was too packed...

I arrived home only at 7.15... but unlike any normal person instead of having a bath and sleeping... I instead headed for the pc like the computer addict I am...

And so here ends the Frasers trip... hope everyone had fun... for me it was exactly what I needed... and I would say keep in touch except it sounds so very much like "not gonna see you again".. instead I shall say... see you later....

And perhaps there shall be another excursion in December if time allows... adios

the fish

I'm rather impressed with my pet fish, Sharil... a week without food, in 2 inches of dirty water and he's still alive!!! That what we call die-hard... not that I intentionally tried to kill it or anything la... I was just a little bit preoccupied with exams and stuff... no matter... tmr once my exams are over I am going to change the water... too tired to do it atm...

Theme's

"God never gives you a test too great that you can't handle it on your own"

Invictus OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance	5
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,	10
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:	15
I am the captain of my soul. William Ernest Henley

Superman

1.5 years I patiently waited for Superman Returns. Watching re-runs of the old Superman movie, immersing myself in Superman the animated series, Justice League, and of course Smallville.

After all the wait... after indulging myself in a certain image of what a proper Superman movie should be like... Superman Returns didn't live up to my expectations.

Due to Smallville, there were certain things in the new movie which I find rather hard to accept... or simply bad directing

1st.. How very old and country ish Smallville was made to be
2nd.. How geeky young Clark was made to look
3rd.. How very old Martha Kent looked
4th.. There was so little actual fighting.. Come on.. It’s a Superman film
5th.. Lex Luthor was made to be fairly simple minded in the film. The Lex Luthor we have all come to love is intelligent, calculative, cunning, cold, ruthless, and powerful. Not to mention not fat.
6th.. Inconsistency in strengths/weaknesses with other films/series. In Smallville/the animated series and the prior movies, a small shard of kryptonite was enough to reduce Superman to a tangle of writhing limbs. In the movie, he was stabbed with a kryptonite dagger; fragments of the blade still in him... and he still was able to lift up an entire island?
7^th.. Recovery wise... Superman should have recovered from injury way sooner... he took what a day in the Metropolis' Hospital?
8^th.. Inconsistency in speed. Superman should be able to move wayy fast... faster even than light... but in the movie... he had to actually struggle quite abit to just catch up with the plane... oo which is another example for inconsistency in strength... Superman was able to push the moon out of its orbit in one of the older movies... yet in this movie... he had trouble stopping a plane...

Hehe... Nevertheless, I reaffirm my stance as a hardcore Superman fan, and Batman hater! (ok.. fine disliker)