Words get in the way* - Jewel

Like sleeping but not resting,
Like hurting but not crying,
Like eating but not tasting,
Like singing in tune but out of beat,
Like a sunrise with the clouds blocking the sun,
Like a rose without its smell,
Like seeing your photo, but not being able to touch you
Like being happy but not joyful,
Like letting go but not forgetting

Could this be the beginning of the end? For this blog, i mean.

I look back at the past few posts and even i find this blog to be getting a tad bit boring. Ok, maybe more than a tad bit?

All i have done is just linked some news report, or reproduced some cheesy lyrics of some old song, posted up some pics, talked about a book which no one is prolly reading these days and gave some abrupt updates on my less than happening life.

It's not like i dowan to blog. But when i do, i find that i can't. It's not that i have nothing to say. On the contrary... but yet, words fail me.

I could say that my lessons preparation have taken up all my time and energy.

I could blame Facebook.

Maybe it's cuz of the fact that students are reading this blog now. Or maybe i'm afraid more people would take my words and twist it around. Maybe i'm scared i may hurt people i care with my honesty. Maybe this blog should be renamed "Truly Madly..." and i leave all those things deep inside where they are. But i should let them out, shouldn't i? Well, i did start a new blog which up till now is still postless.

Maybe its just a phase...

*Track #7 from her last album, going back to her folk acoustic roots.

Red hot* - Debbie Gibson

Man, what a derby it was!!! It just sparked to life in the second half. And when it did, what an adrenalin rush it was. The drama, the baffling substitutions, the high-flying tackles, the yellow and red cards, the many chances!!!

At the end, all that mattered was how one Dutch man performed when the responsibility fell on him. Only one word can describe Dirk Kuyt - bottle!!!! He's got it. Loads of it!

For someone who has not scored in the Premiership since April, it really took a lot for him to take the penalty kick! In a Merseyside Derby!!! When Liverpool was down by one goal!!!!! I cannot begin to imagine the pressure that could have been upon his shoulders.

But he did it. Twice!!!! The second after a very unsportsmanlike act by Phil Neville who denied Lucas a Premiership debut goal.

It was however a grim reminder that Liverpool has not been winning many games - which made this win - altho on its own, as a merseyside derby, a very sweet win - even more the sweeter. What is sad is that altho this was a win, they dun look convincing enuf to (re)launch their Premiership title challenge.

Maybe once Torres, Agger and Alonso returns, things might get better. And once Gerrard gets shoved back to the right side of midfield (see this article).

Well, here's hoping that this is the start of a good sports weekend - with the Rugby finals later and the Brazilian GP tomorrow.

p/s - one thing which struck me about the game were the pre-match scenes around the stadium b4 the game. The Merseyside derbies are such special events as the city of Liverpool is suddenly divided into the blues and the reds. Husbands and wives could find themselves in different colours. Work mates and neighbours will be rooting for opposition teams. Yet, in spite of it all, there is nothing personal in it. This was reflected by a shot on 5 blokes in the stands - 3 in Liverpool colours while the other 2 in blue - how they were fooling around with each other, obviously being best of mates, so unlike international games or even other EPL matches when supporters in different colours will be separated. Thruout the game, the camera kept on going back to the 5, and those in blue and those in red were taking turns smiling and sulking - but they were together thru the whole game. Nice.

*Track #5 from her debut album, Out of the blue.

Don't be cruel* - Cheap Trick

Cruel. Inhumane. Despicable.

These are the words used to describe the former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor, a police officer and the Government of Malaysia.

Despicable. Shameful. Disgrace. An extremely bad example. That's what the said former IGP is, according to the High Court of Malaysia.

The government of Malaysia has been found to have unlawfully detained an innocent man, and subjected him to "a vile assault, unspeakable humiliation, prolonged physical and mental ill-treatment". There has been a gross abuse of power.

Read the news report here.

I just wonder how long will it be before the senior Judges in the Court of Appeal or Federal Court overrules this decision and criticise the High Court Judge.

But let us just enjoy the fact that justice is done. For now.

*Their remake of Elvis' classic which went on to hit #4 in the US way back in 1988.

A smile like yours* - Natalie Cole

Thought I'd seen everything there was to see in this world
Now I'm not so sure I've really seen anything at all
I thought life could show me no surprises
And then you came and showed me I was wrong

I thought I'd been everywhere
I've climbed a mountain so high, sailed the sea, crossed the sky
And still I was nowhere at all, until that day, oh, you came to my senses
And your smile, it made sense out of it all,

I have seen the bluest skies,
Rainbows that would make you cry,
I have seen miracles that moved my soul,
Days that changed my life,
I have seen the brightest stars shine like diamonds in the dark
Seen all the wonders of the world,
But I've never seen a smile as beautiful as yours

Diane Warren

*Taken from the movie of the same name.

This time next year* - cast of Sunset Boulevard

October the 17th. What can i say? Life has been interesting for me.

This time in 2003, i was a partner in a law firm in Selangor, Malaysia.

This time in 2004, i was unemployed, just bumming around.

This time in 2005, i was just settling in to life as a post-grad student at UoE.

This time in 2006, i was in London, looking for a job.

Today, i'm a lecturer in a private University here in Subang Jaya.

This time next year? Chances are, i'll still be a lecturer... but i won't put any money on that!

*The last song before the intermission, the cast were celebrating New Year's Eve. Love this musical!

The nicest kids in town* - James Marsden & cast of Hairspray

It's 2 am. M'sian time.

I just read mails from mates in China and India, got a growing gift on Facebook from a Korean fren and heard from another mate (who is in Sudan now!!!). Someone else was pretty pissed off at something which i blogged about - it was just an observation i made and now, i'm the horrible judgmental person.

Wat-e-va...

You know what i love about my job? It feels like i'm back in Uni again!!! I eat close to midnite and then i work until the wee hours of the morning, reading law books, cases and articles. Dun think i'll get much sleep b4 rushing off to class later. So as i sit here in the dark, lit only by the table lamp and the screen of me laptop, i am reminded of life back in UoE - so many nites like now. The only difference is that i dun have drunk Brits making noise outside!!!! And no mates whom i can disturb by going over to their room.

But the best thing about me new job are me students. Have been spending some time wif them, both in and out of class. It's prolly unfair to the other people in the world but to me, they are the nicest bunch of students ever! I really enjoyed those times, chatting away wif them. I'm thankful to God for them and this only makes me even more motivated to make a difference in their lives.

I really hope i can do that.

*Yup, who thought that Cyclops can sing? The theme song of the Corny Colin's show in the musical, Hairspray.

Too much* - Spice Girls

I definitely ate too much last weekend!!!! 2 buffets in the space of less than 24 hours! Looks like i no longer can be called "Obi-Mun" - instead, i should be called "Obese-Mun"!!!

Nope, not my lame joke. Got it from online:-

Pic taken from www.cartoonstock.com

Well, the food was really nothing to shout about, honestly. I had Hartz Chicken buffet on Sat nite and then Jap food for lunch on Sunday. What was really brilliant was that at the buffet at Jogoya, there was free-flow Häagen-Dazs® Strawberry Ice Cream!!!!!!!! :-P :-P

Pic taken from www.gohappy.com.tw

Yup, it's worth it if you just go and eat scoops and scoops of ice-cream!!! But for other food stuffs, me recommendations would be the salmon sashimi, the tempura and teppenyaki prawns, the soft-shelled crabs and the refreshing coconut water which comes in little coconut shells.

OK - since this is a part Star Wars post, here's something i just added to my dream-list - a TIE Fighter PC table!!!!!! MUST GET!!!!

*Their second single from their second album, it was their 6th consecutive #1 single in the UK. (Can't find anymore food related songs which have not been used).

End of the road* - Boyz II Men

OK - i've procrastinated finishing this post long enuf (sitting as a "draft" in my Edit Posts pasge for quite some time oredi). Was thinking, who would be interested to read a post on harry Potter's last book now??? But i'll still blog it for the memories.

In a poll of 45,000 fans conducted by MSN Entertainment, guess which Harry Potter book was named as the fans' favourite? The Deathly Hallows!!!! (see here).

Here are the results:-

1. The Deathly Hallows
2. The Prisoner Of Azkaban
3. The Goblet Of Fire
4. The Philosopher's Stone
5. The Order Of The Phoenix
6. The Half-Blood Prince
7. The Chamber Of Secret

So what say you? I dun agree wif it. The worst has to be either Order of the Phoenix or Half-Blood Prince - can't remember which is worse - both were so bad that i've erased their memory away from me mind!!!!! To me, the best is still Azkaban. But it'll be followed by either Goblet of Fire or Deathly Hallows.

Yes, i enjoyed the Deathly Hallows. And yes, i'm gonna talk about it now - so be forewarned, there'll be MAJOR spoilers herein - but if u dun know the spoilers by now, you prolly won't care, rite?

I knew i had to read it sooner or later. I was planning later rather than sooner. The pain of the disappointment of books 5 and 6 still lingers. But while i was lingering in Colchester some months back, bookless, i decided to get it from Tesco - where it was selling for 10 quid. I've always enjoyed sitting in the kitchen at Rayleigh Tower, enjoying the wonderful view and reading. And there'll always be people who would come into the kitchen to chat. Really miss that.

I enjoyed it very much, actually. prolly it had to do with my very low expectations. But it din feel draggy like the previous 2 (most of the time in those books, it was like "come on, let's move on"). Harry wasn't so irritating anymore. There were some interesting twists and revelations - like Dumbledore's past.

Yes, and Snape turned out to be the biggest hero!!! Woohoo! I always liked Snape. Poor fella. Misunderstood and mistreated, unappreciated and wrongly accused. Yet, he kept to his mission faithfully.

So while in the end, it a tad predictable, it was still nice.

But to me, it was those times when i sat in the kitchen at Rayleigh 12 reading it, or in the kitchen me mate's apartment in London, enjoying my coffee and the welcomed interruption of people coming in and chatting. I guess it was fitting that i finished the last few chapters while waiting for me flight at Gatwick, the last couple of pages while seated in the plane, waiting for it to take off. As i said goodbye to the Harry Potter series, i said goodbye to London too. And just like my life in the UK, there were really brilliant moments and there were times which made me feel really down, moments which still raise a smile or cause some tears to fall when i think about them, twists and unpredictable events sandwiched between mundane stuffs.

And so, as i end the series, i also end a huge chapter in me life that was characterised wif many moments of pure magic.

*Brilliant song, taken from the soundtrack of Boomerang.

Let me entertain you* - Robbie Williams

Reading the news never fails to entertain me. Altho there are more bad news than good these days (good new dun sell as well as bad ones), here are some gems i found in recent weeks:-

Firefighters wearing protective breathing apparatus were called to D'Arblay Street, Soho, after reports of noxious smoke filling the air. Police closed off three roads and evacuated homes following the alert. Specialist crews broke down the door to the Thai Cottage restaurant at 1900 BST on Monday where they discovered the source - a 9lb pot of chillies. The restaurant had been preparing Nam Prik Pao, a red-hot Thai dip which uses extra-hot chillies which are deliberately burnt.

Read the story here.

Reminds me of the time when me chinese flatmate made some spicy stuff in the kitchen and the Europeans were horrified with the smell!!!

And here is the list of the 2007 Ig Nobel prize winners (my favourite is the linguistics one):-

2007 Ig Nobel Winners

Medicine - Brain Witcombe, of Gloucestershire Royal NHS Foundation Trust, UK, and Dan Meyer for their probing work on the health consequences of swallowing a sword.

Physics - A US-Chile team who ironed out the problem of how sheets become wrinkled.

Biology - Dr Johanna van Bronswijk of the Netherlands for carrying out a creepy crawly census of all of the mites, insects, spiders, ferns and fungi that share our beds.

Chemistry - Mayu Yamamoto, from Japan, for developing a method to extract vanilla fragrance and flavouring from cow dung.

Linguistics - A University of Barcelona team for showing that rats are unable to tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and somebody speaking Dutch backwards.

Literature - Glenda Browne of Blue Mountains, Australia, for her study of the word "the", and how it can flummox those trying to put things into alphabetical order.

Peace - The US Air Force Wright Laboratory for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among enemy troops.

Nutrition - Brian Wansink of Cornell University for investigating the limits of human appetite by feeding volunteers a self-refilling, "bottomless" bowl of soup.

Economics - Kuo Cheng Hsieh of Taiwan for patenting a device that can catch bank robbers by dropping a net over them.

Aviation - A National University of Quilmes, Argentina, team for discovering that impotency drugs can help hamsters to recover from jet lag.

Source: taken from here.

And thank goodness for politicians who in their zeal to try to appear knowledgeable and take every opportunity to get themselves air time in the papers, but end up most of the time with their foot in their mouths!!! Here's my favourite last week:-

A new identity or even new look can be arranged for the person or persons who took the controversial video of a prominent lawyer allegedly brokering the appointment of judges, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz.

He said such measures were defined under the Witness Protection Act to ensure the person's identity was protected.

“Under the Act, they will not only be protected but can also undergo (plastic) surgery to change their look,” he told reporters after handing out duit raya and goodies to old folks in Lubuk Merbau here yesterday.

“My assurance is that we have an Act to protect them (the witnesses) ... if we don’t believe in the Government, who would we trust?"

Taken from here.

A couple of days later - after everyone were scratching their heads over this apparently phantom Witness Protection Act - this appeared:-

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz will push for the Witness Protection Bill to be tabled in Parliament as soon as possible and for it to be made retrospective.

Taken from here.

So, back to Nazri's question on whether can we believe in the Government - in the light of the above, can we? At least we know now who we can't trust.

*Peaked in #3 in the UK, this was used in most of his concerts at that time as the opening number.

Everybody's changing* - Keane

Everybody's changing. If there is any certainty in life, it is that nothing remains the same. Paradox.

I used to read her blog to be spiritually encouraged. She'd talk about her love for God, her work among his people, her struggles in life. There's this honesty in her writings coupled with the optimism that all will be well because of her faith in God.

These days, all she blogs about are about material things, the places she goes to to hang out and shop, and her appearance. There's nothing wrong about that - and her honesty is still evident. Maybe this is the real her after all. Now that she's in the secular world, she's finally discovered who she really is?

One thing is for sure - i dun think i know her as well as i used to. Or perhaps, i never knew her at all?

On the same topic but in a different vein, i met up wif me Uni mates a couple of weeks ago - i mean, the Uni mates from me undergraduate days. It was brilliant. I've not seen some of them for more than 2 years. Yes, i'm reminded that everybody's changing - some have changed their jobs, some have lost their hair, one is expecting a child, another is moving into a new house (or shall i say, mansion?), everyone is driving different cars.

Yet for all the changes in our lives, it was so good to know that our frenship remains the same. Just like wif me mates at Essex a couple of months ago (see here), we just picked up from where we left off - and the time and distance that were in between us just faded away.

Edinburgh, winter of 1994

*One of my favourite songs. I really liked how TM used the tune for their commercial a few years back.