Saturday, March 29, 2008

Cancelled

I didn't get to go to Miri after all. Was eating lunch and getting ready to go to the airport when I found out that the trial got postponed and hence the Miri trip was off for me. Bleh.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Miri

Flying off to Miri later at 12:30pm, accompanying my dad and my boss (yeah, I've been working at my dad's friend's law firm since Feb 29, for exposure) there for a court case. It's pretty damn hard to get a flight from Kuching to Miri and back for the next few days, both MAS and AirAsia were fully booked. I heard it was because of Qing Meng.

I didn't write about my trip to Sibu. Well, Sibu is, in my opinion, a small, sleepy town and was boring like hell, and I was just there for 3 days. I can't imagine living there, I'd go nuts with boredom. Not surprising lah, Kuching is already quite boring at times, what more to say Sibu.

It's all a matter of perspective though. I assume that KL citizens would say the same thing about Kuching and if I grew up and live in Sibu, I'd get along just fine in Sibu.

Oh, and there's something I'd just like to mention about my stay in Sibu. We went to the MAS ticketing office there to sort out our flight back to Kuching, it was the FRIGGING longest wait I've ever had to endure in my life. There was only two staff working the counter, but they took like 20 minutes each to serve a customer. I don't know whether it was because of the incompetence of the staff or what, but we had to wait two hours before it was our turn. And there was like only ten people or less they had to serve first before it was our turn. If I'd known earlier, I would have gotten my number, gone and catch a movie at the cinema before coming back to do my ticket. And I think there would still be ample enough time for me to grab a drink after the movie too.

I was so bored that I started playing Sudoku on my phone, the first time I've ever played Sudoku. And I've never had much of an interest in Sudoku too. Bloody hell.

Here's a pic of that heavens-be-damned office that I took out of sheer boredom.


There was also this lady who came in, took her number and it must have been at least 20 more numbers to go before her turn, so she started rummaging through the pile of discarded numbers that some people left on the table because they couldn't afford to wait and she got the number closest to the one being served. Pretty smart. Some of the waiting customers saw her do that and started doing it themselves. Hehe..

My dad also brought me to one of the places he used to stay at when he was a kid. It was a shophouse on the highest floor. There's a karaoke now on the first floor, here's a pic of the entrance. Ghostbuster's Karaoke & Lounge. Heh.


He also told me he buried some coins next to a tree on a tiny piece of grassland opposite that shophouse when he was a kid. The tree is gone now (and with it probably the coins), in its place are some newer trees.

Anyways, I've been to Miri before once for a short while, in 2001. Can't remember much but I think it's better than Sibu. I wanna go see how the waterfront looks like now, it was still under construction last time I visited.

And oh, just got my driving license renewed on Monday. No more 'P' now, yay! Haha..feel more pro now, haha. Took the wrong road on my way up to JPJ, was halfway to Kota Samarahan before I realised I took the wrong path and turned back. Heh. Had to get my photo taken the previous night as I've run out of photos, had nearly forgotten to get it taken. Van says my photo looks like a police mugshot..ahah. It's probably because of the hair.

There was one thing that didn't make sense to me. If you get your license renewed before expiry, you can only renew up to a maximum of one year. Getting your license renewed after expiry will allow you to renew up to five years. What's the difference between getting it renewed before expiry and after expiry? Make life hard only..typical Malaysian bureaucracy.

Friday, March 21, 2008

I am hope

"What the shit is he talking about?"

That (or something similar) may have been running through your mind ever since you first read my 'Alter ego' section on the top right of the page.

If you've been wondering what's the deal behind that but never bothered to ask, this has been a long time coming but wait no longer, it's finally here, my explanation for it.

It's actually from the pages of 'The Sandman', my favourite graphic novel. It's an extract (the ending actually) of a conversation between Morpheus and Choronzon.

To shed some light on the background of the conversation, The Sandman (a.k.a. Morpheus, Dreamlord), who is essentially the anthropomorphic manifestation of dreams, travels to Hell to regain possession of an item of his which has fallen into the hands of Choronzon, a demon and duke of Hell. In order to take back what is his, he needs to play and win a game of 'Reality', which is a verbal game. Losing will cause him to be a slave of Hell for all eternity.

It's a bit hard to explain how the game works, but you should be able to understand it from the full conversation between them, which I will quote below.

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

CHORONZON: I am a dire wolf, prey-stalking, lethal prowler.

MORPHEUS: I am a hunter, horse-mounted, wolf-stabbing.

CHORONZON: I am a horsefly, horse-stinging, hunter-throwing.

MORPHEUS: I am a spider, fly-consuming, eight legged.

CHORONZON: I am a snake, spider-devouring, poison-toothed.

MORPHEUS: I am an ox, snake-crushing, heavy footed.

CHORONZON: I am an anthrax, butcher, bacterium, warm-life destroying.

MORPHEUS: I am a world, space-floating, life nurturing.

CHORONZON: I am a nova, all-exploding... planet-cremating.

MORPHEUS: I am the Universe -- all things encompassing, all life embracing.

CHORONZON: I am Anti-Life, the Beast of Judgement. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds... of everything. Sss. And what will you be then, Dreamlord?

MORPHEUS: I am hope.

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

Choronzon had no reply to that, and Morpheus won.

What I really like about it is that it shows how powerful hope is, that it's virtually impossible to find anything that can defeat hope.

It also says a lot about what each of them personifies. Choronzon is a demon, and basically the dark at the end of everything, while Morpheus (who is the
anthropomorphization of dream) is basically hope, as hope is quite closely connected to a person's dreams.

Which brings me to the lyrics of the song 'Forever Young' by Alphaville. There's a part of the lyrics which says,

"Hoping for the best but expecting the worst"

which I think is very sensible advice. Heh.


Freedom of Choice

Freedom of choice
Is what you've got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want

~ Freedom of Choice, Devo


The above is an excerpt from the song 'Freedom of Choice' by Devo. It's a political song about the issue of choice that one has to make during an election.

First off, I'd just like to say it's really cool that with just the change of a single word, replacing 'of' with 'from', the meaning of the sentence 'Freedom of Choice' is completely changed. In fact, it means the exact opposite. Instead of getting the freedom to choose whichever options are available, it becomes having no choice at all in your options. Aaah, the power of English.

Anyway, the lyrics in the excerpt above poses an interesting situation. An individual possesses the freedom of choice, but freedom FROM choice is in fact what the individual desires.

All of us usually desire to have the freedom of choice in the matters that we are dealing with, but they are some situations where I've personally felt that it's better to have the freedom from choice.

Right now, with the completion of Form 6, I'm dealing with the issue of deciding what to study. I've always been unclear as to what I would like to do in life. I believe it's important to choose a career that I'm happy with, because it'll be something I'll be doing for my whole life, and I don't intend to spend my entire life doing something I don't like, even if it's really good pay. That doesn't mean though, that I want to do something that I like but pays like shit. It's important to pursue a good paying career, but it's equally important as well that it's a career that I like.

The problem is I can't really see what it is that I'll be happy to do for my entire life. Sure, I've got some ideas in mind, but those are a bit too fanciful to be realistic. It's one thing to say 'Chase your dreams!', but we need to be realistic about our dreams too.

I guess it's hard to decide because you never know if the route you choose is the correct one for you unless you're walking on it and by that time, it's too late to turn back.

Anyway, right now I have the freedom of choice to choose whatever career it is I intend to pursue, but the problem is in making the correct choice. Maybe there is never a correct choice, as one never knows until he looks back in hindsight on the choices that he makes. Which is why I wish that I have the freedom FROM choice right now. It definitely would be easier to make a decision because there's simply no choice at all, but then again that may force me into a career that I'm not happy to pursue.

So in the end, it seems that freedom of choice, though the harder option, is the best option to have right now.

Freedom of choice or freedom from choice? Which would you prefer? You decide.


Friday, March 07, 2008

Kuala Lumpur

So yes, it's happening. Will be leaving for Kuala Lumpur later at 7am with Chester. A bit sad lah..only us two. With college classes starting already, it's hard to find penganggurs like the two of us. Andrew N and Yew Inn can't go due to parents issue. Oh well.