Swine Flu Bull$#!t

Like SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!!!

This swine flu is practically the same as the normal flu. Just accept it and move on with life. If you get the flu, then all you have to do is take a course of antibiotics, rest, and recover! So what if other people get infected. We don't quarantine people with the regular flu. And that causes more deaths than the swine flu does! Meh.

I think the Malaysian Health Ministry is massively overreacting - closing down schools, quarantining people who've been in contact with infected people, asking students studying in Australia not to return home. But wait, there's more - you could be fined up to RM10,000 or jailed for up to 2 years for withholding health information about yourself... :s

Seriously, I think the resources wasted on all that can and should be used for more important things.

Found these cute little works of art/vandalism in Melbourne. I totally agree with the message that the people who did this were trying to put forth. Basically, there are these cute life-sized sculptures of 3 skinny men in business suits, holding their briefcases and random Melbournians have taken the opportunity to use them as part of their mini awareness-raising campaigns (I once saw them with cigarettes in their o-shaped mouths - so cute!). Here, they are wearing masks. Lol!

Gotta Love Malaysia! :p

First day back in KL and this is what I see:

• Street lights lighting up the roads at 12 o'clock in the afternoon...
• Some random dudes working for a bakery, selling their goods 'market style' i.e. they were yelling at the tops of their voice. About bread. Lol.
• Man sweeping the... (wait for it)... HIGHWAY!!

And for all that, I have only one thing to say - it feels good to be home!

:p

The T-word :p

I bought turkey by accident at the supermarket. Came home, read the packaging for the first time, and realised that it wasn't chicken, but turkey! Meh. Only someone called Shobie could do something as silly as that :p It said 'TURKEY' on the front. But I didn't realise that when I was buying it :s

Didn't want to waste it. So I cooked it anyway. Surprisingly, it tasted good! Probably because it was fake turkey... tasted a lot like chicken... and quite unlike the turkey I usually have... but that's only roast turkey, for Christmas - so maybe it's meant to taste different :p

So having the other turkey breast today. Yumm :)

I think I'm going to start using short sentences from now on. Like this. Hee.

(NOT YET PSYCHO... but getting there... as you can probably tell)


And just a little something on the side - found this printing error on a sign at the Asian grocer's here :)

Australia vs Japan

My first real life football (soccer) match!! :)

Didn't really know what was going on... Spent most of the time laughing at the fouls and referee's antiques and the players' dress sense :p

But it was still fun.

Did the mexican wave ONCE... Missed it TWICE. Seriously, how was I supposed to know there was one going around the stadium (massive as it was) when I was busy keeping my eye on the ball?!?!

Ate some super salty and MSG-laden chips (that tasted awesome nonetheless!). Put myself in the best situation to catch the swine flu... :s One stadium with 70,000 people - at the rate Victoria's going, there must have been a few people with the flu there... Don't want to get QUARANTINED!

Heard the Australian Boys' Choir perform before the match started. Sadly, not many of the other spectators shared my enthusiasm for that performance :( Boo. But they sang my favourite Aussie song, "I Still Call Australia Home"!! ♥ ♥ ♥

Saw Tim Cahill (the 'star' of the Aussie team) score 2 goals - according to my more football-savvy (I fall under the 'football noob' category :p) friends, they weren't exactly awesome goals... But then, both teams had chosen to rest some of their best players.

I've decided that I like Mark Schwarzer!! He made some pretty cool saves :)
(though I think he looks better from afar rather than up close... :p)

That's all for now.

Nyeh.

The crowd at the MCG

Australia scoring their first goal!

Some Aussie fans letting off flares after Australia's first goal... :s

*The pics shown here were taken by my friend, Tai Jia*

I ♥ Glee!!!! :) :) :)

I love love love love love this version of 'Don't Stop Believing'!!!!

It's from a new TV series called 'Glee'.

*sigh!!*



Did I mention that I LOVE IT??? :p

(And also, the main guy is pretty darn hot. Hee :) )

Seeing Ghosts...

I'm trying very hard to study for my first exam on Tuesday, but my mind keeps going back to one thought - triggered by my seeing a certain 'ghost' from my recent past.

I'm usually one who is big on the whole 'forgive and forget' attitude. But as I've only just learnt, some things once forgiven (or maybe not really...) cannot be forgotten. It's like a wound that keeps closing on the surface but never heals properly on the inside. Just ruin the skin covering it, and the wound is exposed once more.

No matter how hard I try to justify certain events that have happened, I keep coming back to this one huge, gaping question that I simply cannot find the answer to - how can there be such cruel, selfish, and hurtful people in this world? How can someone, a totally normal human being, do something so inherently evil and just carry on with their life without an ounce of guilt or remorse for their actions?

It just doesn't make sense.

Or perhaps the remorse and guilt are there... Only that they choose to bury them and not look at them.

But at least I have a cure for the confusion that thinking about something like this brings - think of people like Barrack Obama and Dr. Charles Teo and Elizabeth Gilbert and I feel so much happier knowing that there are still are so many good people around :)

In 'The Sound of Music', Maria sang about raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, and all her other 'favourite things' to make herself feel better when she was down. I guess the people mentioned above, along with my awesome(!) family and friends are MY 'favourite things' :p

That, and 'Sex and the City' :) :)

Dr. Charles Teo

He sounds like an awesome guy - Just yesterday, I stumbled upon a book written about him in Borders about how he successfully operated on a brain tumour in a 26 year old concert pianist's head. He's based in Sydney.

He's had similar success with lots of his patients... Though most of the time his operation only helps to prolong their life and not cure them of the cancer completely. Still, it's an extension of their LIFE. That must certainly count for something.

I'm so glad that there are people like him in this world :)

Here's a link to an article about him and his medical contributions.

♥

This picture was taken one cloudy day, when I looked out of my window in Melbourne and saw not one, but TWO rainbows!! :)

It's the hard times that teach you to appreciate the good times so much more...

Been slowly catching up on 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's having a positively positive effect on my outlook on life. I find that I can really relate to the emotional roller-coaster that is Elizabeth Gilbert - her thoughts, feelings, temperament and rationale are all so similar to mine. We share the same zodiac sign... And very nearly the same birthday (3 days apart!). Coincidence? Or am I just seeing what I want to see?

My good friend, Nishi, told me what her Behavioural Economics lecturer told her class when he couldn't figure out one of the economic models that he was trying to explain (but kept getting confused) - "Well, I suppose if you think about it enough you'll start believing it. I mean, the Pope probably just kept thinking about God until he eventually started believing in Him, right?"

...

Lol! That was an actual quote (might have been slightly different when he said it, but you get the picture).

Laugh. Coz you know it's funny :p

I keep forgetting what I wanted to say...

I need this blog to be remotely wired to my brain at all times so it can record my thoughts whenever I want it to.

Meh.

I'll try to remember tomorrow... :s

I FOUND MY PENGUIN!! ♥ ♥ ♥

:) :) :)

I found it!

See, when I reformatted my laptop, my msn emoticons got wiped out along with all the junk I had in it. And my penguin that waves goodbye to everyone I chat with on msn was gone too.

As expected, I searched high and low for this emoticon. But none of the people I asked, whom I thought would have it, had it. Not a soul... It was as if this poor, cute little waving penguin had disappeared from the face of the world of Windows Live Messenger without a trace. Boohoo :(

But then today, my cousin Dhaaren who was bored to the point of insanity in his home started sending me all these random emoticons over Messenger. And then I realised that there was a good chance that he'd have that ever-so-elusive penguin emoticon! AND HE DID!!!

:)

So now I have my penguin back - to wave goodbye to the people I chat with. Yayyy!!

I should be studying right now. But I think I'm allowed to have a break seeing as I've just finished reading the lecture notes of one of my four subjects for this semester :p

This whole week has involved me doing 3 things - going to the library, eating, and sleeping. And when I'm asleep, I dream of what I'd studied that day - my subjects even haunt me in my dreams!! Meh. So needless to say, I am taking a well-deserved break :) This is the first day since Saturday that I haven't gone to the library - nerd much?

As far as I can remember, I've never been so diligent (and, to an extent, disciplined) in walking (all the way) to the library and actually getting some (nearly) solid studying done. However, this year is different because during the semester, all around me I saw my fellow coursemates paying attention in class (unlike me, they actually knew what the lecturer was going on about!), I saw them keeping up with the tutorials (unlike me, they knew what the tutors were going on about!!) and I saw them so well-prepared for the assignments that we were given.

o_O

Yeah, so I kinda realised that I REALLY need to study to even have the most minute chance of being as prepared as everyone else in my class will be for the upcoming exams. I think I'm slowly bridging the gap... But not too much :s

And this leads me to think "I really should start paying more attention (and talking less) in lectures" and "I should attempt to do my tute questions BEFORE my tute". Yeah right... It's what I think at the end of every semester when I'm frantically attempting to stuff as much knowledge as my brain can absorb and hold in this short 2 week span. But come the start of the new semester, I'm back to my old lazy ways again.

But I will try A LOT harder to make it happen next semester... :p
Must be more hardworking (i.e. nerdy)...

:s

We'll see how it goes!