Pulau Redang aims to lure the rich with room rates no less than RM1,600

KUALA TERENGGANU: Pulau Redang — rated as one of the world’s most beautiful islands — is set to be turned into a getaway exclusively for the rich and famous.

Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said said the state government would no longer approve the construction of chalet-type accommodation on the renowned island, which is much visited by the diving community.

“Only hotels rated five-star and above will be allowed to be built,” he said when met after the state assembly sitting here yesterday.

In future, only wealthy individuals would be able to afford holidays in Pulau Redang as hotel rooms will cost no less than US$500 (RM1,599) a night, Ahmad said.

He that said with the decision to turn the island into a high-end holiday destination, current chalets catering for backpackers would have to upgrade and raise their rates.

Asked if the move would draw criticism from non-governmental organisations, Ahmad said it was the only way to save the surrounding rich marine life and prevent environmental destruction due to pollution and indiscriminate littering.

“Some of the budget accommodation places on the island have no proper sewage system and waste is directed to the sea, and this destroys the corals,” he said.

Apart from that, Pulau Redang is a jewel for Terengganu and the 10th most beautiful island in the world, Ahmad said.

“Efforts must be made to save the island from deteriorating environmentally. Those on budget excursions can visit other islands like Pulau Kapas and Pulau Perhentian that are equally charming.”

Pulau Redang, a popular holiday destination for locals as well as foreigners, attracts about 100,000 visitors annually including many who flock there to visit the marine park.

source

This is typical of the stupidity we've come to expect from people in a certain political party.

Firstly, making it a "exclusive place for rich people" is not going to help tourism, its going to downright kill the business there. Even rich people and foreign tourists will go for the budget accommodations, and even the more expensive ones cost far less than RM1600 A NIGHT.

The corals are already dead due to pollution not just from sewage and litter, but also due to heavy traffic; boats discharge oily, dirty water into the sea generated by the diesel engines, and heavier ships like transport barges bearing construction materials (which sit low in the water due to their load) just plow through coral.

Hey, here's an idea. Why not save the money and further environmental damage that building and maintaining five-star hotels there and, I dunno, enforce anti-littering and sewage dumping activities?

And guess what the implications would be if they did go ahead and make Redang a 'five-star', exclusive locale? The volume of people visiting Redang would shift to Pulau Kapas and Perhentian, thus shifting the environmental impact to those places!

Perhentian is bad enough already, you can see dead coral reefs all around the island, and Perhentian didn't see the heavy commercialisation that Redang did, and doesn't have huge, ugly 5-star hotels sticking out like a sore thumb.

Keep your goddamn hotels on the mainland. Islands, especially ones with fragile marine life surrounding it like those off the coast of Terengganu should only have chalets, which have a much smaller environmental footprint than 5-star hotels both in construction and maintenance.

What I Do

Yeah, promised to make a post about this, so here it is!

I started working a couple of months ago as a 'digital imaging artist' at a photography studio that mainly handles work for print ads.

I do the post-production work on the jobs that come in, and the requirements vary greatly depending on the job. Usually its doing surgical work such as extracting the 'subject' from the studio's background, sometimes swapping out various body parts, then putting it into a new background image.

Sounds simple, but it really isn't, as every single detail needs to be attended to, every imperfection and elements that cause 'visual noise' which distracts the viewer from the subject.

Working in high-res is highly demanding in terms of attention to detail, as there is scant room to simply leave alone the areas that are difficult to fix or clean up, because even the smallest and most subtle of details really stand out like a sore thumb when it goes into print. Even the deviation of a pixel or two in a line is very visible, which makes it necessary to be very careful and precise.

Every assignment is usually a fresh new challenge, as the problems are individual to the image itself, and quite abit of creative thinking, looking through many tutorials and lots of trial and error are required to solve them. Before being introduced to this job, I really took the amount of work put into ads for granted.

Raw photographs that don't require any digital retouching are very rare, especially since high-end cameras can capture an amazing amount of detail; in fact they capture too much, and its up to the retoucher's job to make it as clean and perfect as possible.

Deadlines are quite insane, as clients generally feel that post-production work is simple compared to photography, which can't really be rushed due to a higher amount of logistics involved, and usually want to see finished work a day after a photoshoot.
Sometimes, the job is so behind schedule, (usually due to too much time wasted on planning) that they want to see finished work an hour or two right after the shoot itself, and before office hours are over. Which of course requires me to go into overdrive mode to try and get the raw photos at least into presentable shape for sending a low-res preview. Some clients even expect you to work over the weekend, giving the job on Friday and wanting results on Monday. Fun.

So, if you are part of the realisation of an ad, keep in mind that the process is like making a cake. Planning, concepting and photographing is preparing the ingredients. Digital retouching and post production is mixing the ingredients together and baking the cake. Try to rush the baking process and the result is poorly baked flour.

There's two sides to every coin, however and I can't deny that it has its advantages, as I get to train myself to work faster, plan faster and make decisions faster instead of spending hours staring at the screen thinking of what to do.

Its a very demanding job, to say the least, but i'm sticking to it for now. I consider the nice work environment, nice colleagues, boss who acts more like a friend than a 'boss' and a place where i'm picking up some skills I need for my long-term goals as a reasonably good compromise for the relatively low pay and unpredictable working hours as well as the occasional insane client.

O HAI

Very long time no update, and yes my excuse is, as always, the popular 'i've been busy' and 'working hard', but isn't it always. I realise its rather hypocritical especially since I believe in the idea that, "where there is a will, there is a way". So i'll amend my excuse to "I haven't been arsed to make the time to blog".

There, a more accurate and honest assessment.

So, with that aside, a little blogging about my freelancing life. I've grown quite fond of doing work such as this, as I feel it gives me the best of 'both' worlds: income, with a high degree of flexibility.

I've found that people by and large tend to have a dim perspective of freelancing, there's that subtle thing that often shows on their faces when I say I do freelancing, like a bulb shut off, or a slight shifting of their body like they just heard something uncomfortable.
Some gave me the impression that they think freelancing means lazing around, not seriously working and being 'free'. Others project their feelings that its a very unpredictable, unstable choice of career, and not a 'real' job.

I understand why they feel that way; I had my own doubts about it not so very long ago; it seemed to me the anathema of everything a person craved: stable job, stable income, stable life. Or put simply, a predictable, relatively uneventful, familiar job which provides a strong sense of security.

So why have I been doing it? What turned me to the "Dark Side"? Necessity, first and foremost.
Studying in university was rather costly, which meant I had to get additional income so I wouldn't have to live on a diet of instant noodles for 3 years, (like some students I knew in KTAR did, I kid you not).
And as any other university-going youth, other interests and activities usually needed "monetary reconcilliation" as well, so to speak, and I sure as hell wasn't going to dig into my education loan to fund those.

So, I took on part-time work alongside full-time study. I admit that sometimes it affected my studies especially in my second year of university, but I learnt some very valuable lessons from it, got my prioritising straight the following year and I still did reasonably well, IMO, considering how distracting and stressful it was to juggle work and studies.

But you ask, "you've graduated now, isn't it time to find a *real* job? Why continue in this unpredictable, unstable activity?"
For many reasons. Having done freelancing for more than a year now, and doing some basic expenses/income calculations, my net income is actually higher than if I were to get a permanent job. Reduction in travelling expenses alone is enormous as I mostly work from home, especially since petrol prices shot up recently.

Freelancing also gives me a constantly challenging job, usually something different each time, and getting paid, while being able to structure my time to set aside enough for friends and family, with the added bonus of minimising living/travel expenses, and practicing my skills while doing it.
To my mind, a reasonable tradeoff for highly irregular working hours, the constant need to take initiative and find more work when my email's relatively quiet, and a lack of socialising in a professional/office environment.

Still, necessity is ever the mother of invention, and its nearing time for the necessity to 'invent' a permanent job/ Thanks to having a loan to repay, and i'm not keen on explaining how i'm servicing it to the IRB or whatever body of the government tasked with regulations of such matters if i'm technically and officially "grape-ing".

So, i'm preparing to take a long hiatus from freelancing, taking a detour from the road less taken and down the commonly trodded path. Because society is a marvel to behold. It self-regulates, ties strings to your arms and legs and, for good or ill, makes you dance to its tune. And its strings are reinforced in every level of itself, from the highest corridors of power in the society's governance, to the most individual of a society's components.

The Dark Side

Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate.
Hatred leads to power.
Power leads to victory.
Let your anger flow through you.
Your hate will make you strong.
True power is only achieved through
testing the limits of one's anger,
passing through unscathed.
Rage channeled through anger is unstoppable.
The dark side of the force
offers unimaginable power.
The dark side is stronger than the light.
The weak deserve their fate.
–tenets of Sith philosophy

Anger. Anger is something i don't give in to often, nor show. But everyone has a limit, before it becomes impossible to hold back.

Anger is what i feel now.

It is a burning sensation,it burns with a passion.

Self control has let me direct the anger, render it malleable, to channel and use it. Anger provides focus, clarity, strength.

Yet, hot anger is fleeting, its power waxes and wanes as it pleases. Flames are fleeting, fickle things.
Cold, ages-old anger on the other hand, are the most powerful, and rare. Cold is patient, calculating, precise, efficient.

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

There are several distinct kinds of people in this world of group teamwork efforts.


First, is the elite. These are the perfect, productive team members, they participate in discussions and give constructive contributions to it, will try and keep a discussion going by giving ideas and suggestions, use their own initiative to bring up and clarify any ambiguities they have with their tasks as well as doing as much research as possible on the project, and are actually concerned about the project and complete their assignments on time. The team leader is selected based on the required organisational skills, or based on the extent of knowledge he or she has about the assignment topic, and is clearly elected.

Second-in-commands are similar to elites, but are different in the sense that they will only actively contribute to a discussion when the discussion is not making any headway. These types are also reluctant to take on the responsibility of a team leader, but will attempt to do a good job of it if voted to the position.
Second-in-commands are usually also competent in all the things elites can do.

Third, are the followers. These are the drones of the team project world. Followers do exactly that: follow. They will follow any plan that is outlined, regardless of its merit and rarely if ever voice their opinions or contribute anything worthwhile to the project. When doing brainstorming sessions, they will sit quietly and stare at other people or generally be inattentive to the flow of the discussion; letting other people do the thinking for them. When it comes to the time to work on the project, followers will require exact directions on how to conduct their work.

Fourth, are the illusionists. Illusionists are extremely difficult to identify, as fakers love to masquerade as elites. Illusionists are armed with a formidable array of 'important' and 'official' sounding words in their vocabulary, and mimic politians in their speech. Common phrases are "basically,", "practically,", "the fact of the matter is...", "it is imperative that we...", and use such bombastic speech to dazzle others to create an impression of competence. Illusionists will aggressively seek power, and if placed in a position of responsibility, an illusionist will attempt to delegate all the tasks to other members, and routinely request work status reports from them.

Illusionists are only identifiable when asked to explain something in detail or asked a technical question, or confronted with an elite. When this happens, their self-defence mechanism will then activate and make them spew confusing, pointless and fallacy-ridden counter-questions and arguments as well as using misdirection and stalling techniques. When an illusionist is exposed, he or she will attempt to retreat and quit the team.

Fifth are the manipulators. Manipulators are masters of manipulation,and will make every effort to make other group members do their work for them. If left unchecked, manipulators will eventually have someone else to their entire share of the work for them. Usual tactics are asking a question, followed by a request for a demonstration.... and the rest is history.

Summaries schmarmmaries.

A summary of the past couple of weeks: had a nice "reminiscing the past" with an old friend on the night of the "overly commercialised and overrated filled with overpriced flowers, overcharging restaurants and other shit" day.

Stood around with yet another friend at the Chap Goh Meh proceedings, which began as simple curiosity but what made us stay longer was mostly for the amusement of seeing those desperate people who skip the "orange throwing and fishing" excercise entirely and try to chat up members of the opposite gender (one guy's case was so much more funny that the girl looked him told him to pick the orange hahahahaah! Yes i know im an evil sadistic bastard thankyouverymuch), some "enterprising" people even printed fricking business cards to distribute!

In other news, i did an article with Pei Mei for the Star's R.AGE pullout, you can find it in today's Star newspaper (Thursday, Febuary 24 2006). Apparently its only available in the newspapers that are sent to colleges and universities, so you might want to have a look.
Though i don't claim to be the most prolific or attention whoring *COUGHNardCOUGH* writer, its nice to see something you wrote being published with a minimum of editing.

I've had a couple of very "soap drama"-like misunderstandings with a certain Joanne in the past weeks, first was the "6-10" incident where i misheard her saying that she belanja the meal.... and i was thinking "wah... got people so generous i never see before." But what she really said was "i pay first la, you pay me back later."
I blame it on the noise from the medium that distorted the message. Yes, i've been studying too much. Its bad for my mental wellbeing.

The second one was the setapak gathering thing where due to a mixup in emailing addresses, i did not receive the confirmation email in the place i was expecting it; in fact it ended up in the place i LEAST expected it. Among the dark, dank depths of my Hotmail Junk mail folder, along with all the evil and monstrous creatures that inhabit it, such as the hideous "Interest Free Loans!", the vile "Send this email to 100000 people NOW or DIE!", the absolutely insidious "PENIS ENLARGEMENT PILLS 100% GUARANTEE!!" or the ever pervasive "FreeHotAdultActionRIGHTH ERE!"
By the time the proposed gathering time came, i still hadn't received confirmation, so i called her up and found out that the time was indeed confirmed. While i was on the LRT there, i was told the other people wanted to go back already, which of course caused me to be pretty pissed, since i had parked my car at AMcorp, then i had to use the LRT to get there and the journey there takes about 35 minutes.
To add salt to the wound, the train stayed at one station for a long, long time before finally getting a move on again. Since i wouldn't have been able to make it, i cut my losses and stopped off at KLCC and brought home an armful of new Warhammer 40K books instead.

But after the whole business was cleared up, i owe her a pretty expensive meal and an apology also, since it wasn't really her fault. :p

So,the moral of the story is, as according to the highly respected and regarded sage, Confucioused says: "When someone gives you email address, use it. Other IM email address is portal to watery orfice in bathroom toilet."



And now here's the magnificent Lame joke of the day!: All original lame joke from the bullcrapping genius of yours truly, based on a TRUE real life story! Keyword "based".

Mei, pointing at someone in a photo: "This is my friend, Kate. I haven't seen her in awhile, cause she's abroad."
Nard: "Haha, i can imagine"
A certain spiky haired person: "Haha i agree, she's a broad indeed, and a mighty fine one i might add!"
Nard & ACSHP: "OMFGROFLOLOLOLOLOLOL!"
Mei: -_-;; "Die. Please. BOTH of you."

The beginning of the end of the beginning of the end....

Yep, that's Smashing Pumpkins.

The new semester started on the 3rd, and from the classes i've attended so far it ain't gonna be a cakewalk lol. Still, i welcome the challenge, since i actually get to excercise a little creativity now, unlike the last semester where we only had the *dreadfully* boring hard news writing.

And speaking of writing, let's move on to the topic of today's blog entry: the reasons for the use of proper English on the Internet.

What's the big fuss with proper spelling and grammar on the internet? Well, here's a little open letter for everyone who thinks using proper grammar on the internet is not important.

The internet is a text-based community. People communicate through text. Therefore bad spelling, grammar etc. is rude, and shows a careless, sloppy manner. If you want your opinions heard, the least you can do is make it perfectly readable.

How would you like it if people around IRL you keep

SHOUTING

all the time when they want to say something, o r spe ak in frag ment ed sen tences? Or speak so softly you have to strain your ears to hear what they're saying? Or fucking insert a goddamn expletive in every fucking sentence bitches?
Would you like that? No? Then spellcheck and prove your opinions and comments are worth reading and worth a response.

Since i'm fed up of telling people to at least have the goddamn courtesy of simply checking their grammar and getting comments like "why does it mattr lolur notmy mohter uN00b" or "than dont raed my poast yu shithed", i just ignore any comments or questions that are full of grammar mistakes.
After all, if you're too damn lazy to do something as simple as checking your grammar, whatever you have to say is not even worth reading.

That being said, sometimes mistakes *do* occur, and one or two occasional unintended mistakes is forgiveable. I've made spelling errors myself on several occasions, but i immediately edit it when i see it or someone mentions it to me.

So don't think using good grammar etc. is unimportant; if you want people to respect you and your opinions, taking the trouble to check your grammar is the first prerequisite you need to have. After all, it seperates the wannabe n00bs from the truly 1337.

Raindrops keep fallin on my head.....

Went with a group of classmates to the Starlight Cinema earlier to watch Batman Begins, which proved to be an... interesting experience.
The event is an annual one, held in the Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Resort. One of the few opportunities to see horses in person, but i never really felt any empathy towards horses like i do my doggy and kitty. But i digress.

We were fortunate enough to arrive just a minute early before the crowd came in, and by "crowd" i mean the flood of cars that filled up the parking spaces next to us which was pretty empty a minute before... proves that even in traffic, a minute counts for alot.

As it rained earlier in the day, the ground was damp so we whipped out our trusty old newspapers to cover our derrieres from the damp, but even these couldn't prepare us for what was coming *coughforeshadowingcough*.

We arrived relatively early, so we got to watch a live performance of the local band OneBuckShort, who played 5 or 6 numbers. The songs are nice enough, but sound like the countless American bands out there, then again the band members were mostly caucasians but i could be mistaken as i only watched from a distance.

As we marked our territory, so to speak, i saw a pretty interesting assortment of gear people brought. The more inexperienced ones just brought a mat or two, car sunshades, PILLOWS, one even had a portable chair.... And the attire i saw many wore was even more fantastic. High heels, leather shoes, flimsy thin-fabric skirts, "shiny" two-tone pants... the list goes on. As for myself, i wore sports shoes, plain long pants and a normal shirt, which gained me a few smug glances from these "fantastically dressed" people, or better known as ah lian and ah beng types.

Now, what they don't understand is.... this is an outdoor thing. These poor misguided (or just airheaded) people came dressed up and equipped for a trip to the mall or something, to an outdoor event where the threat of rain hangs overhead in dark, foreboding clouds. More on this later.

So, the sky decided to take a piss on us poor mortals, and it started drizzling heavily when the band was playing. Instantly the field "bloomed" with umbrellas.
A couple of minutes after the band finished playing, came an unusually long commercial section familiar to all moviegoers, and the only thing missing was previews and trailers of other movies. By the time the movie started, it was already raining steadily, and things really started to get wet.

After awhile, some people left early as a result of the unrelenting downpour, but the majority stayed on and braved the rain to get their money's worth, kiasu people that we are.

Anyway the movie itself was pretty nice, tho imo good ol' Batman wrecked a whole lot of the city he was supposed to "protect"....
Character development for Batman was relatively good, which was done at the expense of character development for the other characters and villains. But how he ended up in China with a bunch of archaic-looking stereotype oriental people who didn't really speak mandarin beats me. You expect me to believe that he, a wealthy man from America would go out on the streets and live like a petty criminal, then end up in China, then learn "the way of the ninja" there? Yeah right. Alot of elements are just too convenient, but perhaps its because of time constraints. Then again, most hollywood films aren't really imaginative nor meant to stimulate the mind.

About 2/3 through the movie, the rain finally subsided, which was a welcome relief as we did not need to hold the bloody umbrellas anymore. But by then, everyone was really, really wet. I was relatively drier than most, since i got to hide under a huge umbrella, save for my socks and butt which got soaked over. But seeing the remaining smug-faced gits who were soggy and bedraggled like bread soaked too long in water at the end of the movie, and walking around dripping wet while i was pretty much dry brought a smile to my face and joy to my heart.

Fad or Hip New Fashion Trend?

Recently, i noticed more and more people sporting rubber wristbands which had some slogan or another engraved on them.

Its amazing how fads like this suddenly pop out of nowhere, and transform rather ordinary, unremarkable things into a 'trendy' fashion all of a sudden.
When i queried Bernard regarding this, i was told that wearing these bands of rubber with "inspirational slogans" on them is a 'hip and in thing' nowadays.

Interestingly, the main figurehead for promoting these wristbands turns out to be none other than the corporate fast-food giant, McDonalds. Now the sales model for this is that McDonalds is selling these bands for RM 2.90 each, with any purchase.

And as quoted from the official McDonalds Malaysia website,

"Express yourself with the the coolest fashion item in McDonald's Malaysia- the McDonald's True Colors Bands ™ "

To make it seem less like they're selling what is basically a glorified rubber band,

"Every 10sen from the sale of the True Colors Bands™ will be donated to the Give a Gift of Smile campaign in aid of Malaysian children born with a cleft lip and palate. Its ONLY RM2.90 each with ANY PURCHASE. So start your collection, come on and donate in style! You can make a difference!"

Now, using simple logic, McDonalds is set to get a crapload of profits from the sales of these bands alone. To put a conservative estimate, all overhead & misc. costs (manufacturing, labor, transportation, advertising etc.) per band is at most RM1 (it should be much less than this), so minus this and the ten cents for the "donation", they reap a net profit of RM 1.80 each band. That is alot of money people. How? Lets look at this example.
McDonalds manages to sell 100 of such bands a day in one outlet, plus a Value Meal each. The profit from these alone would net RM180, not counting the boost in the staple sales products. Thats RM1260 a week, and RM5040 a month. And, assuming ceteris paribus, should each of the 158 McDonalds outlets in the country draw a similar mean amount of rubber band sales, the grand total they make per month is RM796,320 on a nationwide scale. RM9,555,840 a year, a pretty nice sum indeed.

Now, this product might be running for a month or two tops, but the number of customers who patronise these McDonalds outlets who are likely to buy these wristband, is certainly alot more than 100 a day. Factor in the people who'd actually collect every single one of them.... you get the picture.

Now, in the interests of professional journalism (and i don't assume i am such, well not yet anyway.), I'm not trying to give any sort of "bad name" to McDonalds, just an observation i found interesting regarding sales techniques, and sales pitch.

However, on a related matter, lets expand on the subject of donations while we're at it, shall we?

Earlier i brought up the subject of that 10 cents that would be contributed to their own privately set up foundation.

My question is, is it ethical to collect donations for profit? Most donation organisations are supposed to be non-profit, but is there any real regulatory body to serve as a watchdog over these bodies? And is there anyone to watch for frauds out to make a quick buck? Take the recent SEA Tsunami disaster, and the subsequent donation drives that were organised.

Every tom, dick and harry started collecting "donations" for "the Tsunami victims". I was approached by a group of such "donation collectors" while in a shopping mall then, who claimed they were volunteers from some international donation collection organisation. I felt something was fishy about them, so i declined to donate.
Later when i got home, i did a websearch on the organisation they mentioned, lo and behold, no such organisation existed. Immediately my suspicions that they were scammers was confirmed.

Hell, i've seen Fake Buddhist monks running around collecting "alms" (interestingly enough, they insist on being given cold hard cash in quantities of not less than RM10).

I've seen people "stranded" at bus stops, roadsides and LRT stations who somehow didn't have enough money to return to that faraway hometown in Johor or N. Sembilan, but still sing the same tune a day later, at the same exact spot even after you've given them enough "donations" to last them 2 trips.

So rule of the thumb: never, ever donate unless you're sure its genuine. And even then, do a little research first regarding their track record for delivering the promised aid. That is, if you want to be an informed consumer.

Hmm, you know, maybe i'll get one of those cool "trendy", "hip" and "in" wristbands myself.
*hears conscience committing Hara-kiri*
*hears personal integrity commiting seppuku*
*hears common sense say "Et tu, LynX!?" in pained, resigned manner before dying from multiple backstab wounds (sneak attack backstab dmg +150)*

The Best Page In The Universe

Hi, this is a PSA by LynX.

Its rude.
Its from a severely biased viewpoint.
Its downright vulgar.
Its amusing.
Its one of the best satire i've ever seen.

Be warned it is not for easily offended people, so preuse the link at your own risk.








....Piqued your interest eh? ;)

Maddox's THE BEST PAGE IN THE UNIVERSE.

An Education Diatribe

Well, results are out, and they're pretty much as i expected. An A (for english naturally), couple of Bs and one sweet Fantastic for my Chinese for Comm.1 (see how much i loathe this subject? i don't even care what result i get already.) I really don't plan on being a straight A student; there's really no point in putting so much effort into something that only gets an alphabet on a sheet of paper, but nothing much else. As i see it from a point of experience, the most important things about life, you learn it as you live.

The emphasis has been placed in the wrong place; as evidenced by the shockingly high "grape-ing" rates (pengangguran for those who don't get it.....) among grads, which is around 30-40% EVERY YEAR and we are suffering for it today.

Our institutions of lower and higher education are slowly, slowly shifting their focus as modern, "empowered" companies who value performance and skills above such superficial paper qualifications are putting demand into such people. But imo, these changes are too slow and too little to do much good, as those who control the examination and accreditation systems are reluctant to change from their exam-oriented system to a more practical-oriented approach to education. Most if not all courses are judged according lines such as this: 40% practicals, coursework and any other "fun" activity the lecturers can cook up to distribute marks, and 60% on the final exam alone.

Now, it might be just me, but i can see clearly what is wrong here.
You spend hours, spread over several days or weeks even to complete practical assignments which actually benefit you in the sense that it can be applied to real future work, which you will remember simply because you did it. But, you only get 40% for it.

BUT, you cram all the bullcrap theory in your brain, trying to remember every single point (and god help you if there's no "tips") for a paper that is a few pages long, lasts 2 hours or so at most (and you forget everything you crammed after it anyway); weighs in at a hefty 60%.

Am i the only one who thinks this is ridiculous? It should be 70% practical and 30% exams. Placing more emphasis on practical coursework lessens study stress in the sense that there'll be no "exam fever" sessions, gives students a chance to train their hands-on skills.

Of course, for more technical fields like engineering, accounting, law studies and medical sciences, exams should naturally have a higher emphasis on exams, maybe 50/50, but for social sciences subjects, following that system is just turning out graduates who "grape". One size does NOT fit all, and here is where education screwed up big time. That and the pitiful art education makes me sad.

Another issue i want to put over here is the teaching of English.
It is indeed gratifying for the government to realise the importance of English, especially since the Asean Free Trade Agreement going into force very soon, but its too little too late.

Why? Its the lack of competent English teachers that is the Numero Uno problem. And by 'competent', i don't mean teachers with a half-past-six command of english (i'm not exaggerating nor am i boasting, but i've had several teachers throughout my primary and secondary school whose english was worse than mine... in fact i had to make an appeal to the exams dept once when i got a B for an English test cause the teacher didn't really understand the essay i wrote and thought i was bullcrapping), its those rare ones with a perfect command of the language, both written and spoken English.
But those who have a good command of English don't choose to teach it in the first place, choosing higher paying jobs in the private sector or teach private tuition where their monthly earnings is higher than their salary.
Just a quick browse of the papers the other day, and i saw this amusing (or really sad, depending on how you look at it) story about some teachers in some school not wanting to teach it because they were shy of showing how bad their English is.

Those who rant, rave and decry the language and say it degrades our own native tongues, say that its cultural imperialism, fail to see it is already inseperably intertwined and assimilated ito our lives. More and more, we are conforming to Western standards, culture etcetera. Almost all our popular consumption media comes from the West, with American sources being the biggest contributor.

Beating on empty walls.

Water Pollution!

I swear the water dispensers today at uni had some drainwater or something equally vile channeled into it. I had just arrived at uni for class, and decided to take a drink before going in for classes. As i didn't bring my water bottle, i cupped the water in my palm, but as i leaned in to drink, i smelt a rather disgusting odour, but assumed it was from the loo, which was inauspiciously placed really near to the machine.
Someone passed me by just as i leaned in to drink, and i assumed the smell followed him out. But it lingered, and after the first drink i suspected something was wrong with the water (the toilet rarely smells that bad in uni thank god). Upon further invenstigation, i learned that both the machines on the first and second floor were affected, and it seems they were just "serviced" today. Serviced, you say!?

If what i'm smelling there was accumulated over several months, i have to really question the qualiy control of the water companies that supply our area. Water quality has been steadily dropping since it was privatised, but strangely the water rates has increased, even with Government subsidies! In fact, it has gotten so bad that we HAVE to buy water filters just to have clean drinking water. With the money we're paying, shouldn't we be getting clean water instead of the dirt and rust-filled water we're getting now? Or is it really a ploy to get people to buy something that was considered an unnecessary luxury before?

Look 5 years ago. Next to nobody used water filters except those rich people who wanted to show they're "richer than thou" and invest in pretty useless things. Now just look. Almost every single household from Subang and BU to PJ has at least one filter, but the norm is two now. That, folks, is how damn DIRTY the water is. You can change the filter for just a day, and it'll be pretty brown the next day.

Now call me paranoid, but seriously, is it just very convenient that this filtering business just happened to be in place when the water started getting dirty? I'm sure several individuals had gotten pretty damn rich from this. Coincidences are really rare, and when money is involved, really quite non-existent.

Pretty damn paranoid? Perhaps, perhaps i am. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Is ignorance really bliss? Well, i have my opinions, and you yours. As for my part, lets just say i've had my share of being screwed around with, and i try to avoid that as far as i can.

Singles Awareness Day

Yep, its another year, and a second Vile-overly-commercialized-overrated-Hallmark-Card Day has passed, otherwise known as Valentine's Day.

Feel especially bitter because of being forced to do last minute work on my much-hated Chinese for Communication assignment, which i have to present in exactly 4 hours from now. And to add generous helpings of salt to the wound, i was forced to "fly aeroplane" on some friends with whom i'd made a previous bachelor's gathering appointment to takei and yum char. The thing that really took the cake: the topic for discussion/persentation is: love novels. Chinese Love Novels. From Taiwan. Title of book: 3 A-Cup Women. Woo and yay. And i ain't no Mark Darcy either.

1) I don't understand shit about the crap in the book, poor as my chinese is already.

2) After much pain from trying to understand the explanations given by my experated group members, i conclude that the Taiwan perception of love and relationships is seriously outdated.

3) The only time i read romance novels was when i was too bored and had nothing else to read, and "borrowed" some of my sister's. It was not a good experience, to put it mildly. And this one is written in Chinese.

4) Been cracking my brain with a big dictionary since 10pm till now to decipher those enigmatic and frustrating symbols, otherwise known as Hua Wen Zi.

Furthermore, more bad luck graced me when i went to Amcorp after class with Woon in tow to buy ink for my printer to print my stupid assignment (Pagemaker, full color A4). The godforsaken parking token vanished right before my eyes as i was driving to pay the parking fees. A thorough search of my car did not reveal any clues to the whereabouts of the elusive chip, despite having fallen off my dashboard onto the floorboards. It must've put on the One Ring or something.
Thus, RM30 gone just like that. Greaaat.

I've an ominous premonition that this is definitely gonna be a piss poor year for me. Even fate has got it in for me. And Lady Luck has all but gone with the wind.

So forgive me if i'm not in the mood for Valentine's Day. And sorry to those people whom i didn't wish to. No energy to, no motivation to and certainly no mood to.

Current status as of 4:50AM - Numb. I am stoned due to lack of sleep, and mind numbing work of looking up the dictionary.

I've become so numb I can't feel you there
I've become so tired so much more aware.....