A Change In Perspective

After todays Introductory lecture by one of the Law Faculty Lecturers, the depth of my perspective on the subject of Law has somewhat increased.

in this Lecture, Rick (the lecturer) asked all of us..

"what is it that you want in this field of study?"

i wouldve almost answered "because it was more intresting than sheer numbers and calculations and the pay was reasonably good".

apparently thats not all to it.

Law doesnt just confine its practitioners to the area of courts and firms.

Being a law student now, in the future "as a person that you are now, you have the obligation to take a stance"(Rick, Lecture:2006). my choices would have to forceful and my opinions, would mean the life or death of another person(client). because i now have in my hands, the ability to change the course of someone's history, or even history itself. it is because of this exposure that i have now,i might have called a fellow student sitting in that very same lecture theatre because he is close to someone, who has the wisdom to help a fellow man in trouble, in my community in which no one else couldve helped him/her in the way that i can, BECAUSE i had that connection. i might be the person with the authority and power to change the laws of today into tomorrow, thus, altering the hundreds of years before us and the history, that would soon become history, in the even distant days of tomorrow.

that is of course, if i made use of my degree and made "lawyer" my sole proffesion.

Now why would i want to study law? my answer to that now is , "because i am passionate about it". Rick mentioned a few novelists which from that handful i could only comprehend 1 name(John Grisham- Runaway Jury) who wrote their novels based on Courtcases and had Courtrooms as a setting. Those books were written with passion and good malice. Even the renowned poet and playwright -William Shakespear wrote a number of plays revolving around the legal system of that time, namely successions, land rights even murder cases for the more dramatic end.

those books, plays and stories were successful, the reason was simple- the authors were passionate about it, they were passionate about -law.


other than the awe and inspiring lectures about law, Rick and the Dean of the Law Faculty did remind us of the skills and abilities we have to have during the course of the study.

"be organized" =p

"those people who succeed are usually organized people" -Dean

(its a problem i have to remember the names of people let alone be organized, the Dean for example, guess its gotta change somehow or another.)


other than that, there was another point Rick highlighted...

"look at this painting of young men from 1905. they were full of life and spirit. but where are they now? in this year 2006? they are food for worms in their respective graves... theyve had their days.... and so will you"

"it maybe today it maybe tomorrow, it may last a decade or maybe 2. but when it comes, seize it." (Rick:2006)

"Carpe Diem" its called, in another language... a famous saying but not all too popular.

Sometimes, Id Rather...

when i first arrived here at Tassie, of course my 1st priority was to get a permanent place to settle down. and that was further broken down to another set of priorities. they are:

number 1: gives me access to fast/reliable internet connection with a reasonable allowance.
number 2: my own toilet
number 3: my own kitchen

the place which im in now (80th, King Street, Sandy Bay, 7005 Hobart) well its a shared house. so i could strike 2 and 3 off the priority list. with the landlord promising me hes gonna set up an internet connection, i had no other choice but to book in this one. houses were running low because its the new year and more students just came in..

its the 2nd week that ive been living in this house now, together with 4 other chinese from Mainland China (2 male 2 female), now, more than ever i really wished i had more of a choice so i could fulfil the 3 main priorities/prefference i had.

starting from 3.
i really hesitate if i should use the cooking oil, salt, pepper my housemates had left around the stove. but after 2 minutes of thought i decided not to, so i got my own set. its nice that they always wash up everytime they use the pots and pans, but maybe it hasnt wore in yet when they start to get lazy and take things for granted. lets hope they wont. ill keep up my end of the tidyness. but because we are not intimate, we cant jsut, cook dinner or lunch for everyone...yet... i wouldnt want to anyway, its plain weird.

so we make our own dinners. that causes 1 problem. 5 people, have 5 different dinner times. so starting from 6 all the way to 9, the kitchen is busy.

2: same goes for the toilet. you have approx 5-10 minutes on every morning use where everyone is going to uni. you have got to finnish whatever you have to do in the toilet before coming out. say you took a shower and wanted to shave or comb your hair. if you forgot to bring the comb or the shaving cream with you into the toilet, you can forget about it. because once you leave, its gonna be occupied for another 10 minutes or so.

there are 4 sets of shower gels, shampoo, tooth brushes and facial accesories etc on the bathroom sink.

but the worst has yet to come.

because the house has 2 males excluding myself, the toilet bowl...well...isnt always at its most hygenic state. when 1 of the males just moved in (i was the 1st residence there btw) i realized theres a patch...almost like a small puddle of liquid at the front of the toilet seat on the floor.

having watched one too many CSIs i know that pattern can only be made by someone of an above average height because well, the penis has to be some distance from the endge of the seat to miss by that far. so its easy to assume that at the end of every "business" the stream of liquid will lose in pressure and the distance into the bowl would surely be reduced. thus the puddle in front of the bowl.

i know...its bloody disgusting. i had to clean it up with toilet paper everytime i use the water closet. i just cant stand that shiny reflection i see every morning against the rising sun.

yesterday, one of the female resident told us that she wanted to live with her boyfriend, so another male would be taking her place. now im not immediately accusing this malaysian bloke with what i have to say next. but this new hygene problem wasnt apparent before he moved in.

this morning when i had to put on my contact lens (yes i waited 8 minutes becauce i forgot to bring in the case 1st time round) i noticed a new menace. at the back of the toilet bowl. on the rear end of the seat...it was merrily hosed down by someone, i know that because, water is transparent and the liquid behind the seat - wasnt. cant possibly be the girls unless they had a masculine anatomy.

foncusing...

so far the ladies hasnt been contributing to this little grotesque awareness of mine, and im sure they wont. its the blokes that i have a slight problem living with.

i once had this problem as well,sure it took me sometime and my sisters were very against me littering the bowls hygene, but i still got it done,in the end.

if you guys ever see this post, i have nothing personal agaisnt you, its the flaw of the male design and it irritates me you have not yet made amendments to it, as i have.

The Rainbow Aint That Colourful

last week, Thursday 23rd of Feb i think, i went to the international students orientation for my University. i was a tad late but still didnt manage to interrupt whoever was going to speak that day.

so i took a quick glance around the theatre and noticed most people were sitting in pairs and groups but at the corner of my eye, i saw this guy sitting alone. he had blonde hair and i said to my self "hey why not meet someone from across the ocean?" so i sat next to him. quickly i managed to get his name "Yan" and he was from Germany. my guess of him from Berlin wasnt as accurate as his guess on me-Kuala Lumpur. at least we conversed in english because i quickly realized that i was apparently, surrounded by a throng of chinese students. chinese from mainland China.there were alot of Malaysian Chinese as well.. their numbers were, overwhelming compared to the 2 Germans, Anglo-South Africans and Americans.

so i asked myself - "Australia?"

anyway, lunch was free and guess what? its a barbie -truely Australian if you ask me. after 2 short sausages and some salad which i could not identify, a Thai girl managed to get me into her ring of friends (after the Yan had to leave of course). we sat down on the floor in a circle. on 2 ends of the circumfrence were 2 who apparently did not belong to the group. one was called Daisuke, yep and from the name you can tell he is Japanese; on the other end -me... they spoke in Thai and i was having a VERY hard time, TRYING (futile)to understand what they were talking about. to my surprise there are quite a few words that resemble other languages...or dialects.

the next day, Arts students orientation.
i entered the hall and immediately realized, i was the ONLY asian amongst the throng of Anglo-Australians.

not kidding. save for a few aboriginals.

oh and i also joined the Malaysian Society (the biggest around, not that it matters) but i dont entirely feel that i belong in any of the categories.

then comes the fundamental question;

what am i?

Picture Prefect

http://davors.blogspot.com
the post on Saturday November 19th.
"Say No To A Fake Smile"

well, a smile is a humble gesture..the lowering of the muscles surrounding the eye sockets "Obitularis somethingthingamagic" according to certain scientists ive read about in college days, said that these traits can be traced back to primates (pre-human entities).

item # 1: humbility can also be interpreted as a sign of retreat, and is generally pleasing to the eye. i casual picture, taken at a picnic, a trip to another country, with friends or whatsoever usually is a form of friendly documentary. for future reference or times of nostalgia. and one way to achieve this portrayal of humbility, is to smile. but the main reason someone smiles in this category of pictures is without motive or intent, the reason is plain and simple "they are having fun" and smiling is an effective and ALSO innate body language no human can escape (save the persons afflicted with stigmatism)

item # 2: the only persons who do not smile when their pictures are being taken have reasons of their own, usually proffesional ones. Magazine ad or cover, or on subjects touching a serious and solemn matter, then a smile is not required, to reflect the current mood to future audiences (people looking at the picture).

so when youre on an outing with family and friends, smiling while your pciture is being taken is a sign of you having fun. when looking back at these pcitures, the audience will immediately regard that time and day as a happy one. but if youre not happy, dont smile. a fake smile isnt worth smiling.

thats alright

but personally, i have something against people who pose a fierce face (seriously) when taking pictures categorized under item # 1. i mean, its a happy occasion, you were smiling before the picture was taken, you were smiling after the picture was taken, why frown and tighten your lips during the picture? when your picture is being taken, when you are the only subject, for comical purposes its alright, but as a group where the rest of your friends and family are smiling, a frowing face appears on the horizon in the back. not only its not photogenic and ruins the consistency of the pciture, it also shows certain negative qualities of that person. at least thats what people who see the picture will think.

no fierce faces are NOT cool.

facial posing is worse than camwhoring.

sure if youre not happy, dont smile. thats evidence of that time of your life isnt going as great. but if you are happy, smile for a picture. you never know how much it means to the people in that picture with you, the cameran man and the people who look at the picture, much later in life.

2 days of delight-tenment

yester day was Saturday and today is Sunday.did a couple of stuff. and heres what i did.

to my great surprise, a drive from Hobart to Launceston takes alittle more than 1hour 45 minutes IF you abide by the law and didnt speed....

HAH!

but what was more surprising was that i learnt that i could actually drive back to Melbourne ^^ but there are certain complications...1 of which is i dont have a car, well i could rent one, but driving someone elses car just doesnt give you the kick... and returing wont be a problem because places like Avis and Eurocar allows their customers to return their cars anywhere if that location has one of their outlets or branches. convenient...right... another problem would be the time, it takes 9hours ++ to ferry a car by boat from Devonport to Docklands in Melborune/Port Phillip, i think. and thats way too long. it also costs 110 big bucks. a plane ticket would cost around the same..but driving there and brining back all my leftovers in Melbourne (amplifyer, guitar, skates/boards etc) would be alittle easier since the maximum weight allowance thingy is no longer and issue. oh well..you get some you lose some.

also learnt that theres a place for snow sports inbetween Launny and Hobby. thats a nice thought...heard the road leading there is pretty treacherous, but nothing can stop this fan from hitting the white slopes xD hopefully that can be arranged sometime this winter.

Launceston, the 2nd biggest town/city in Tasmania. and upon saying that, i want to express my gratefulness..(english?) because im staying at Hobart. Hobart is JUST NICE, i mean size..wheter you drive or not, its not too big nor too small. id youd drive at the edge of town, a good 3 minutes and you will whizz past it. yes, its THAT small...lotsa McDonalds littered all over the place, hmm...good stretch of restaurants and shops, boutiques etc, an okay place to visit, but for a teckky like me, its living hell. met a few more of Yina's friends, 5th year med students...i finally got to meet one who is sane..best of all she plays WoW lol.

Launceston..if id talk more about more it this blog will grow moss and ferns..

that was yesterday (today is today btw), and today i learnt the best thing of all :)

are yall ready for this?


really?



here goes...





THERE IS A SKATEPARK IN TASMANIA ISLAND!!!!!!!
aaaaaaaand according to Yina, is HUGE with complete halfpipes and launch boxes.. *droooool*

yum i could eat up the concrete. cant wait to paint some graffiti on the ramps with my skin and blood. that WOULD be 1337.

just before i got to write this post, i was able to witness the Commonwealth priliminary, tri-athlon race. pretty awesome. will get all the pictures up here by the time i get my goddamnedbloodym*therf*ckinginternet.

kthxbye

Feast For The Eye

Woke up in a cheap hotel, with the traffic blazing just 2 floors down. the sun burns the side of my arm and the light was so intense i had to squint to get out of bed and shut the curtains. it was 9am...ive got to check out at 10, so many things to pack so little time. anyways i got it done. next phase, cash out 400$ for my rental bond in King/Regent St room. so off we go.

btw, right after the previous post was up (which was yesterday afternnon), i hitched up on a bus that took my sister an i up to Mount Wellington, once almost the top i poped a head out the window, and i was hit by what would be equivalent to a stunshock. a good 30seconds. because the view was just ....so....magnificient...awesome...beautiful (understatement)...youve gotta see it for yourself..ima post the pictures ive got here soon (once i get my own connection and not blogging from a public computer). you can actually see the whole of Hobart, if the fog could be slightly lighter (it was still light nonethelss, guide said we were lucky to even have a view) we can actually see the airport =p which was a good 18 kilometres away from the city.

after that, had a good dinner at the wharf/pier...seafood yum..and its CHEAP i tell ya..


so back to this morning. i was walking down Sandy Bay Rd (dont believe the name, the bay is 2 kms east of where the Rd is, and it isnt even Sandy, Rocky morelike). hungry as a jackal id pounce on the next gwei lou i see walking across and take a bite of their juggular vein.


nah kidding


so back to this morning, on the horizon, i saw what would be my salvation. a yelllow "M" painted on a red background.. McD or Mackers for you Sydney-ans. i picked up the pace and pushed my 2 feet to the red zone. but as a got closer, a white tag under the sign shattered and completely broke my morale..it wrote

[1KM --->]

arrrgghhhh! the drumming sounds from my stomach could fuel a war effort. but i walked into Banjos..some sandwich/bakery place, they could offer what that old farmer called MCDonalds cound and more.

breakfast done, and lunch awaits..so until next time..

Ta and bye

Yippe Freebie Tassie

the "freebie" part is not entirely true. i had to purchase a whooping 5$ card to access this internet point. oh yeah, it only lasts 35 minutes.

as enthusiastic as i am to finally be able to come to Tasmania, nothing was as frustrating as airplane weight limits. trying to be as compact as i could, i stuffed half of hell into a suitcase, hailed a cab at 5am in the morning and off to the airport i went. wasnt too bad until the plane took off, and the baby right infront of my seat started crying due to the change in air pressure (the irritating swell you have inbetween ear to ear, yawn and it will pop, then you'll feel a whole lot better) but of course, we couldnt tell that to a 6month old kid, unless you spoke wawish (baby language). so he/she was crying from take off to landing. and the landing was probably the best part, because Tasmania is a "little" island off the sputhern coast of mainland aAustralia, the runway isnt as smooth as those in Melbourne or any better developed country. just as soon as the wheels touched the floor, the fuselage roared and trembled and shook and *insert any adjective that would suggest unrest and turmoil here*. the sound was so horrible its almost as if the plane was about to crash. after 30 seconds of *insert* the plane taxied smoothly into the terminal...

now the best part...the baby actually "shat upped". then i thought to myself "GOSH i have GOT to learn how to roar like that". might prove to be very useful in im sure many occasions.

no airport pickup because there was a major screw up in the dates that i was supposed to arrive...14th feb into 4th of feb... alot of luggae hauling, nothing out of the ordinary except the fact that im moving my base of Ops from Melbourne to Tasmania.

we(my sister and i) were utterly lost in this "new found world". the a blessing came in the form of a lovely young girl. her name is Yna (dont sue me please for usinmg your name without consent) but really, she was an old friend of my eldest sister. she took us around in a car that had rear-wheel suspension problems, how i wished i could crawl underneath the car and suddenly have the knowledge to fix it becuase she was truly an angel-cometh during judgement day. with all my heart id say "Thank You".

still, alot of problems still linger and i need to solve it asap. for instance, a place to stay. my university chucked us into a backpackers hotel which they called "temporary accomodation". the rooms are actualyl dorms. we got our keycards and swung the door open, to our surprise there were 4 beds...4 DOUBLE-DECKER beds... zOmG. so were sharin the room with 6 other strangers. we soon found out that theyre not too bad. thats actually somthing new, not that i havent slept in the same room with strangers, but actually having to PAY for it..20$ a night. then all of a sudden im glad ive joined the Youth Cadets back in highschool, kinda trained me up to be able to sleep/live in almost any condition known to the civilized world.

after all those things, i was finally able to give thi lovely island/city a good tour, again thanks to Yna. we covered alot of places with minimal time and stress. wheels beat the helloutta legs if you ask me. a really good place all together, theres club, casino, seafood restaurants, caFes, bakery, coles, woolsworth, banks, court house, parliaments and most importantly - University. so yeah its apretty cool place.

the houses here maybe old, but for a young man like me who has certain affinities to old stuff (antiques mainly) they are quite perfect. the bigggest drawback to the houses recommended by TUU (Tasmania University Union) is that none of them, comes with a phone line...let alone internet access... i know its crazy, so i had to look elsewhere, some places run by private companies or groups rather than those of the TUU. aside from that, this palce isnt really waht some would say "technologically impaired" because the techs here arent bad at all..theres sonar technology programmers here, and once your car pulls up to a ticket machine,a ticket is dispensed immediately...not even the capital of malaysia had such luxuries..

talking about luxury, some stuffs here are SOOO cheap your jaw would break thru the floor and land on some undiscovered gold mine. whats cheap? CARs, is my prime example. a decent car would cost about, 2500$..and they go all the way down, to 3 digits..the absolute, minimum, of 3 digits...yes ladies and gentlement, im talking 100bucks. 100bucks for a working car....

upuntil now, i havent got a place, ive got lots more to talk about this lovely island, but my internet card is running low, so until next time, this is Roy with lotsa splinters in his head, pleasant or not, reporting live (well almost) from the again lovely, beutiful city of Hobart-Tasmania.

Its The End To That Time of Year

yep people, its the end to that time of year. and i mean Christmas and Chinese New Year (Lunar Festival to you overseas readers, i mean, i hope i have readers from across the seas... or...even readers at all =S ) so anyway, Its the end to that time of year, or yearS since christmas and cny spans across 2 years when combined...yeah... SO ANYWAY its the end to that time of year, and to me, its generally a good thing, because the end of these 2 seasons would also mean the end of the "artistic embargo", wheter in the fields of music, performances and decor.

these 2 seasons had completely killed any variations of artistic expressions; every musical note seemed to sink back to the millenia-old tunes sung by my great grandfather's uncle's wife, and was taught to them by their great grand father's step dad's brother who was a composer, who learnt his basics from another musical master 2 generations older. personally, i have no problems with such ancient melody, but to my own belief, ancient music should be played using, ancient instruments. todays christmas carols, like, "12 days of christmas" are played using synthesizers, electronic keyboards/organs and even a turntable. electric guitars are cool for songs like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" but its a no no for "Silent Night". Santa Clause would fall of his sledge and smack face first into a chimney if he ever flew across the modern skies of today.

the BASS is what gets to you the most when it comes to christmas and lunar polkas. DUM tsk DUM tsk DUM tsk DUM tsk....then a song switch DUM DUM tsk DUM DUM tsk DUM DUM tsk...you get the idea.

imagine - snow covered christmas tree = appealing....zoom out with the focus alittle, burning hot highways with traffic jams like no other = not appleaing, quite the opposite infact.
yep, christmas isnt for some countries, those too close to the equator for a start.

back to the temporary death of variety. aside from the things you hear, the human brain is constantly stimulated because of the overwhelming shades of red (for cny, green for christmas). red packet, red lantern, red decors, red clothes...anything you can think of is smeared in what looks like chicken blood. "this time of year celebrates prosperity and financial boom", what they meant was "you can get alot of money from your health insurance that covers hearing ailments, eye defects and chronic boredom".

admidst the nothingness, i fell into a series of deep thoughts, almost to a state of trance. and there lay the question "was cny ever fun at all?" and a deep sounding voice, so full of bass it blows women's clothes off, abit like a cross of Luciano Pavaroti, Elvis Presly and the guy who sang that song who mentions the green-ness of trees and and reds of rose. well anyway, he said.... " uyes...."




what was the question again? yeah right, did i ever had fun? yeah...the man said yes. and then i asked............."how?"

simple. 2 words - "fire crackers".

again this reflects the lack of common sense among the people of this country. some people would buy firecrackers, and read the label

"CAUTION|WARNING|ACHTUNG": flammable, keep out of reach of children, use as instructed: light fuse, run away".

somehow, is JUST DIDNT GET TO tHEIR ASSES (assuming thats where their brains are). their feeble asses would read the above label as

"unroll tube, pour out grey pixie power inside, put pixie powder into big big metal tube, press pixie with another metal tube to tight tight it, repeat 100 times with more pixie powder everytime, light fuse, hold in hand. Big big tube = more fun fun, yay, gg"

usually the "fun" is prematurely ended at about.. "repeat 100 times with more pixie powder".

instead of educating their people even more, the government did what people did best..point the finger and blame. not at the people who made firecrackers for a living, not the people who misread labels, and definately not the people who wrote the labels themselves, they blamed "T3H F1r3Ckr4k3R". thus banned it.

HECK IT ISNT EVEN THEIR ETHIC GROUPS CELEBRATION!

oh boy i remembered the fun i had when firecrackers were still legit...


legit, that brings me on to the next point...at this time of year, i really hate to go visit the houses of my friends. this i admit, its just me... because the moms and dads of my peeps would hand me redpackets that contain cold hard cash. i dont even know them =/ i feel somewhat disgusted of myself. its asif im there for the jingaling. i know i know its been practiced for generations for centuries.

some say its honouring the tradition, id say its legitimized extortion. carried out by us unmarried-teenagers and below.



so...where do you live again? *evil grin*