Meet the kids

A few months back, I volunteered to help adjudicate for a HELP College interschool debate. Which was when I found out that my old secondary school took part in it, though I didn't actually get to meet them.

I've been considering for a while on helping some secondary school kids on debating. It seems to be the 'in' thing these days for a *cough*washed-up*cough* debater to do. Sweeks' helping out his old school St. George, while Fea's helping with RMC. And I was thinking what better than my old school? Unfortunately I haven't seen the name LSPJ in some of the interschool debating tournament I've been to, and I didn't want to go through the hassle of starting an entirely new debate team, recruit students etc etc. So I was encouraged to find out that my old school actually sent a debate team for a tournament.

I got in touch with a formerly-Miss-now-Mrs. Sheela and told her about helping to train some students who are interested in debate. She agreed, and after working out a suitable time, I agreed to meet the kids for the very first time yesterday.

Where I was initially a little nervous about. People skills have never been my strong point, especially kids. Alright so they aren't technically "kiddie" kids, but still I'm known to be the most patient person around. So I turn to our resident mother-hen of the UKM team, Fea, for some advice. Which she tried to dispense as well as she could over the phone, and in the end admitting that she was also a little worried for me didn't really help my nerves much.

So then yesterday I left around 11 from Bangi, only to get stuck in traffic jam along the KL-Seremban highway (which later I found out was due to unnecessary police presence with the whole Anwar thing in KL). Luckily I managed to arrive in time, with a secret weapon in tow - Kenny Roger's muffins! Hopefully it'll be enough to bribe the kids to stay put for the entire duration*.

I met the-now-Mrs. Sheela at the porch, and the stepping into my old school again after a long time was a bit disconcerting. I asked her whether she recognised me, to which she said yes and that she had taught me before. I decided to save her the embarassment that no, she hadn't. Just that she had been one of the teacher advisors for Leo Club.

Anyway, my fears were quite unfounded. The kids seemed interested enough, and among them were those who went for the debate in HELP college. Their language proficiency were quite good, and they seemed willing to speak when asked to. I was worried earlier if I might need to use a crowbar to pry their mouths open.

As for myself, I was still a little nervous as I'm not exactly sure how to pullf off this whole mentoring thing. I didn't wanna get too technical with them on our first meet, so I just ran through some basics with them, and sort of did a mini-impromptu debate between them. All in all, I'd like to think my first meet with them turned out quite alright, and we've already made a tentative date for our next meet.


*The kid were ravenous for the muffins, and I didn't even get one as I didn't have the heart to take if from them.

Oil, oil...not a drop to waste

After 51 years, local politics has taken centrestage in the lives of most Malaysians. Ever since the 13th general election in March, suddenly the political arena is scrutinised so much more by everyday people, excited and wary of every by-the-minute development. Right now, the biggest thing on everyone's mouth is the Anwar fiasco.

But let's skip that for now, what I'm more interested on is the recent huge price increase of petrol, which initially triggered a wide panic by the people who tried to stock up as much as they can before midnight. Just like everyone else, I'm affected by it too. Now I need to fork up 40 bucks to get almost the amount of petrol I could get for 30 bucks. In other words, every 3 refills right now is just almost equivalent to 4 refills in the past.

Unlike most people, I'm somewhat glad by the price hike. Because suddenly, things never heard hitherto - how to save petrol, saving electricity, cutting costs - became nationwide obsession. Things which should've been everyday practices are now touted as the 'new-age' tips of surviving the current situation. We hate to admit it, but all of us are incentive-driven beings - with economic incentive being the strongest. We're only motivated to move our b**ts when our pockets are hit. And it's starting to show too - less jams along roads in KL and highways, and more people taking public transport.

Which in the whole big picture, is good for the environment. Especially with the latest piece of news on global warming. If we're really to go all-out to do our part for global warming, here's what I would suggest:

1. Increase prices of plastic - customers should be charged extra for take-aways using styrofoams and plastic bags. Shopping complexes too, should start charging customers for the number of plastic bags they hand out.

2. Compound garbage collection per weight - When throwing away more will cost you, people will attempt to throw less and recycle more. In fact this is widely practised in countries like Denmark (a recycling haven that should be adopted by every other country).

3. Further increase prices of petrol - but at the same time, improve public transport and provide welfare cushion for the lower income. In countries like Singapore and France, driving is actually more troublesome and takes longer than taking public transport.

Yeah, sure the oil price hike hurts everyone, especially the lower-income group. But with proper welfare structuring and good infrastructure planning, the oil hike in hindsight could be one of the best things to happen. Like the jolt that revolutionised our apathetic attitude to climate change.

New kid in town

I've never been a religious follower of reality TV, though I do enjoy regular doses of *cough* America's Next Top Model, and sporadic views of others like American Idol, Amazing Race, Hell's Kitchen and Project Runway. So anyway, a few weeks back I caught some of this season's American Idol (AI), and got a bit hooked. I've kinda lost track of AI, only briefly aware of the winners once it's all over.

Anyway, I was deeply interested in one of the participants - David Cook. Yup, the dude who went on to be crowned the Idol title last Thursday. I watched the grand finale this week between the two Davids - Cook and Archuleta. A nail-biting and grand contest between a boy wonder of crooning ballads and a mature rocker.

Frankly, I can't see the fuss over Archulete - he's a great singer, I grant him that. But he's just a really good pop/ballad teen prodigy. Compare this with D. Cook who proves himself beyond a rocker. I mean, c'mon, any guy who can pull off a brilliant cover of a Mariah Carey song gets top marks in my books. Check out his performance here:



I didn't watch the actual episode for the Mariah Carey week, but some information net-prowling revealed that apparently the girls had a tougher time. I can sorta understand, it's a tad tough to match the diva's legendary sixteen-octave range. Most girls (and guys too) chose her power ballads, and well D. Archuleta chose When You Believe. It was quite good, but predictable and boring; and doesn't hold a candle to D. Cook's performance. He was smart enough to realise he couldn't match Archuleta's vocals, so he picked one of MC's most pop-ish song, rearranged it and came up with something totally awesome. And as Simon said, being really brave about it too, as usually most people would pick songs that allow them to show off their long breaths and glass-breaking voices. Like in the finale, D. Archuleta performed 2 ballads, and for individual choice, chose to perform 'Imagine" which he did a few weeks back. D. Cook started off with a crowd-rousing pop-rock "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by U2, followed by a power rock song, and finally for individual choice; chose a totally new song and performed an acoustic version of it. His choice song was panned by Simon Cowell, but thankfully it did not influence the voters much.

And as to proof himself that he's not a flash-in-the-pan, check out D. Cook's rendition of a song from Phantom of the Opera. Not that I'm music expert, but I think he has excellent vocal control. He sounds breathier and craggy during the rocks songs, and yet can sound polished and soaring for musicals. Just compare the craggy screech he did for Always Be My Baby and the rich, soaring vocals reverberating in Music Of The Night. I find it refreshing to see a singing contestant who exercises control and not try to shatter eardrums at every chance.

A more than deserving winner of American Idol; with proven versatility and star quality beyond that of just a singer. And I'll be keeping an eye out for this dude in the future.


p/s: Try checking his other renditions of Billie Jean and Hello too.

New flash

Been a bit busy lately - research has been going well, so I've got some results and stuff to work on for a bit. And my college is also undergoing renovation, so I've to move back to my own place for the holidays at least. Which is kinda tiring, as I now have to drive to and fro everyday. Plus the extra burned cash on petrol and toll, not to mention the extra greenhousey-fumes. Not to mention it's a little more crampy, as I can't simply wake up a bit later - or do a quick dash to dinner or Midvalley for something.

And well, I'm also on a bit of a happy mood currently - working and playing with my BRAND NEW Dell laptop! I've been keeping an eye on this for quite some time, waiting patiently for a few weeks for the price to drop. I timed it with its estimated delivery time for about 3-5 weeks, as I need a laptop before I jet off to Spain for an initial discussion with my future attachment co-supervisor. So I placed an order last Tuesday, and lo and behold, it suddenly just turned up on my doorstep last Saturday.

This baby packs quite a punch, in my opinion, for a reasonable price - Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00 GHz, 3 GB RAM, and 160 GB hard disk space. And not t mention a dedicated graphics card - NVidia's GeForce 8400M with 128 MB. Woot! But of course, there's some things I need to get and do first before making this laptop fully-indispensable. Things like an external drive to transfer old files from my PC, partition the hard disk to run a Mac OS, and getting a pair of earphones.

Top view - mine's Midnight Blue skin.



Running on Windows Vista - takes a while to get used to. Some features are better than XP, some are a little worse.

If there's one things I hate most,

It's packing or unpacking. Ok there's a lot of of other things I don't like as well, but that's for another entry for another day.

Right now, I'm (supposed to) unpacking the things at my lab. The renovation work for my lab has just been completed, so now it's the second phase of unpacking all the things we just packed hastily to be stowed away. And also throwing a lot of things that's not needed or used. I really hate throwing things away too, it's such a waste (pun intended) and simply disposing them like that is a burden to the environment. So far I try to separate the paper and cardboxes, though I've no clue as to whether they'll be recycled or simply discarded just like that with the rest. Sigh...Did I mention that I hate packing?

Yesterday I got an awesome surprise - an enjoyable lunch with a friend who's been AWOL for quite a long while and a cool belated birthday gift too. Totally made my day; well until I have to start unpacking things today. Sigh...

It ain't easy as ABC..

I'm really impressed by how witty most columnists are in international papers like The New York Times. Locally, some of the wittier columnists whom I enjoy reading are Mary Schneider's "But Then Again" (Star2, Mondays) , Marina Mahathir "Musings" (Star2, Wednesdays), and Azmi Sharom's Analysis (The Star, Wednesdays). It really isn't easy, to me at least, to write with a certain flair that switches effortelessly from amusing to sarcastic to serious in a way unique to that writer. I've to admit, my (supposedly existent) blogging style is quite influenced by what I read, and that includes those writers above.

Like one of my friends, WW, is working for The Star now. I'm always quite amazed to see her work - how on earth does she come up with articles of 2 pages in length every other week simply eludes me. Writing is certainly a skill to be acquired, and unless you were born gifted by the literary gods, it takes a lot of time,effort, and patience to develop. Efforts such as constant reading, writing, and learning.

Anyway, here's an example of witty column which I'd just read recently from NYT; thought I'd share it:



***

Op-Ed Columnist

The Fat Bush Theory

By GAIL COLLINS

George W. Bush says we’re on track to meet the nation’s goals for curbing global warming.

I see some hands waving out there. Didn’t know we had any goals for
curbing global warming? Where were you in 2002 when the president put
us on the road toward reducing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions
by 18 percent by 2012?

So there.

Bush held a press conference in the Rose Garden this week to give us
a warming progress report or, in his words, “share some views on this
important issue.” He almost always refers to global warming as an
environmental “issue.” As The Times’s Andrew Revkin noted on his blog, Dot Earth, most people talk about environmental problems. But perhaps the White House regards that as overly alarmist.

“I’m pleased to say that we remain on track to meet this goal,” the
president said, in a tone that sounded rather belligerent considering
this was supposed to be good news.

Let’s back up here. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had
trouble getting my head around goals that involve reducing the rate at
which something is growing. To appreciate the administration’s efforts
on the, um, issue, let’s try to imagine it in terms other than
greenhouse gas emissions. (As the president noted: “Climate change
involves complicated science.”)

Suppose that two years after taking office, George W. Bush
discovered that because of the stress of his job, he had gained 40
pounds and was tipping the scales at 220.

The real-world Bush would immediately barricade himself in the
White House gym, refusing all human contact or nourishment until the
issue was resolved. But imagine that he regarded getting fat as
seriously as he regards melting glaciers, rising oceans and drought and
starvation around the planet. In that case, he would set a serious,
management-type goal — of, say, an 18 percent reduction in the rate at
which he was gaining weight, to be reached within the next decade.

Cut to the Rose Garden in 2008 where partial victory is declared.
“Over the past seven years, my administration has taken a rational,
balanced approach to these serious challenges,” the 332-pound chief
executive announces. He delivers this good news sitting down.

2012: Bush hits his final goal and 400 pounds at approximately the same time.

I hope now you can appreciate just how useful the Bush
global-warming initiative is. But the president isn’t satisfied with
merely delivering on his promises. In his Rose Garden address, he upped
the ante, vowing to stop the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions
entirely by 2025.

Let us forget, for a second, that this is a man who’s only going to
be in office for nine months of the 17 years in question. Furthermore,
let us skip lightly over the fact that Bush did not give any hints
whatsoever as to how this goal is supposed to be reached except to say
that “the wrong way is to raise taxes, duplicate mandates or demand
sudden and drastic emissions cuts.”

Since the president never suggests actual behavior changes on the
part of American citizens, that leaves us with what? More efficient
refrigerators?

Lots of things! There is, for instance, the ambitious new fuel
economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020; we sure do have a lot
to look forward to in the future, people. There’s new federal spending
on biofuels. Much of this is for ethanol, which has the unfortunate
side effect of creating more greenhouse gases than it eliminates, and,
of course, helping to create a planetary crisis over rising food costs.
But nothing’s perfect.

The president’s real focus seemed to be on fighting the strategies
for global warming that he doesn’t like: the Kyoto Protocol, court
challenges and legislation pending in Congress. Almost all of them,
interestingly, were referred to as “problems.”

Instead of Kyoto, the administration is pushing for “a new process”
in which the countries that do most of the polluting will get together
and work on a climate agreement. That process was in fact chugging
along this very week at a gathering in Paris, where Bush’s speech was
greeted with a round of excited reviews. Germany’s environment
minister, for instance, dubbed it “losership instead of leadership.”

The Europeans have a perfect right to look down on the United States
since they’ve set much more ambitious targets for reducing global
warming. While they do not appear to be likely to meet any of them,
it’s the thought that counts.

If the Bush strategy seems a little ... little, go back to our
metaphor. Imagine it’s 2025, and you’ve got a 486-pound ex-president
being wheeled in to accept the congratulations of the world on his
excellent physical fitness program. Really, that’s big.

***

By the way, the album I just bought - One Republic's Dreaming Out Loud - has really grown on me. I've been practically playing it non-stop since I got it.

Some things don't change, some do...

Sometimes I get too wrapped up around myself that I tend to forgot the simple things in life like spending time with good company. On some unknown-post-birthday-slightly-daring streak , I've been asking quite a number (actually a few, but for me it's a new record) for outings like lunch etc. Really hope it's not the old-age-crisis/loneliness fear that's driving me.

A couple of days ago, went out for dinner with Fea and realised that's been quite a while since we the last time we really just sit relaxedly and having a great time. The next day I went out for lunch with PY, whom again I haven't seen in ages and had since undergone an almost remarkable physical transformation. And I too realised how few are the people whom I'm really comfortable and sharing a similar wavelength. Just being in the company of a that person and letting yourself loose can be extremely therapeutic.

Today I went for breakfast and lunch with two different groups of friends. The breakfast one was with a few old secondary school friends. It started of like this - In my (rare) semi-desperate moment of getting a lunch date last weekend, I tried contacting some old friends from Form 5, also collectively known a "the gang". It didn't work out but I guess Eric wanted to make up for it, so he asked me for breakfast this morning at Raju's, an undeservingly hyped-up and overpriced mamak directly next to our alma mater. Supposedly there would be Ben and Chong too.

The crowd turned out to be a bit bigger - Weng Yew came along, with Kok Wei and one of their ex-Scouter sir joining in. It was getting kinda awkward; firstly since I've never been close to at least 2 people on that table, and secondly their former Scouter was a complete stranger to me.

Surprisingly, it turned out much better than expected. Meeting up with old friends (and in turn their companions) is something I dread, especially ones you haven't kept in touch or seen for so long that you've drifted too far out of each other's life to be able to relate and connect with substantially. Which would translate into awkward briefs of silence and resorting to fillers like the weather ("Been raining quite a lot these days huh?" "Yeah, that's true." "Yeah...") and jobs ("So what do you do now?" "The same - ..." "Oh" "Yeah.").

Of course there were those awkward pauses when everyone momentarily runs out of conversational topics, and I was a little self-conscious too, feeling as I'm an outsider attempting to push into another's clique. But they didn't last long. And apparently time seems to be kinder on others' impression/memory of you. Everyone at the table was treating me fairly well, even those whom I've barely exchanged more than 20 words during school last time other than the usual pleasantries. Almost everyone also shook hands as they arrived and left, which left me scratching my head a bit. Guess I'm quite a stranger at this meeting up with old friends thingie

I must be sounding a lil' like a broken record by now, but it never ceases to amaze me to see a friend after a long period of time. They looked a little older, relaxed and mature; but still with bits that allude to their former selves as you remembered them. And it's also interesting to see how a certain someone turned out - contrasting their present pursuits with their past selves. From those days of being a carefree student to a *gulp* working adult. Like who'd picture a reckless outdoorsy guy doing a PhD in science ? And the topics of conversation, well naturally it went from current occupations to listing other old friend and what they're up to now. And of course on a guys-only table, it also went to social status (ie. girlfriends) and physical (ie. losing weight and building muscles). I kid you not, I strongly believe it's due to Hollywood's brainwashing where beautiful guys and girls are a dime a dozen and looking average is an exception. Not to mention the recently published and much-awaited Cleo issue with The 50 Most Eligible Bachelors. It's not easy being a guy these days - we have to dedicate as much attention to our physical aspect as much as our career and play. What happened to the good ol' days of merely bringing home the roti?

Sigh... Anyway, I realised that after taking a small step of initiating contact with former acquaintances, that it isn't that scary. And the results can be really rewarding. Guess my extremely-late-new-year-resolution would be to take up more initiative on asking out friends, both old and current.