Today I had really ENJOYABLE time with vera at the movies, well we only met for 3 hours? Ha she had to rish off...anyway i really managed to catch up with her quite a lot, given that now its the holidays and everyone is more free. as in time is not so much of a constraint. however i had no idea why the train was so crowded! like literally we had to squeeeeeeeze like sardines! one thing i hate about public transport, is the squeeze. other than that, i really dont mind taking the public transport since its more eco-friendly and it isnt as boring as a car! (in a car, you talk to yourself and probably to the car in front who is blocking your way) well Vera and i went shoppin' she wanted macaroons, which we in the end did get some, and i was looking for nail polish! as in new colours for my nails. she is gonna bring back the nail polish, i have no further use of em :P i think.

we later catched the movie Easy A, of which i was a lil skeptical towards as it seemed like a rather "bimbo" show. however, since i have not watched it, i shall be open to new ideas! well thats partly what the book, Blink talks about. which is not having your stereotypes affect your judgments towards anything.

OOPS I FORGOT TO TAKE PHOTOS!! KOMENASAIII!!! (SORRYYYYYY) will take pics in future! if i remember..well maybe i was just enjoying myself eh?

oh yeah now you may be wondering why "Blink" suddenly comes into the picture? well thats because im passing the book to vera. thats why we met up :) haha after the movie, she had to rush off..so thats alllll!!

mum bought for me a new phone! No its not an iphone..well even though I like itouch a lot all thanks to its wifi function as well its apps capability :) but no i do not like an iphone cuz its wayyyy to conventional and its idiot proof. so i decided to go with something that is able to provide some fun! like, an android! my new phone is the XPERIA X10, not the mini one, not the one with the keyboard, just the large PDA looking Xperia! and yes im still figuring out the full functions of the phone to maximise its potential :) it also has the apps function, graphics wise i think it kinda owns the iphone. no biasness but it can do HD man.

pretty cool phone, i managed to link up facebook, email, messaging, calls, youtube, msn all in my phone! like ALL AT ONE GO!! i can also include twitter, but i dont have twitter :) i must say this phone sure is a blast! no surprise if the androids take the market my storm! its a really awesome phoneee! like c'mon everything shoved into one phone?!! with all the cool apps im playing with, the phone really is a wonder. seems that the battery is pretty hardy for a start! as in after one day of usage and exploring of apps using data, the phone is down to half battery.

overall, i rate the phone 8/10, cant give it 9 yet till i have fully explored the phone and all its functions!! the only letdown so far is the camera. its 8.1 meg, same as my cybershot c900 phone, but the quality is slightly worse as it does not have cybershot. however, i can take HD videos!

okay now i really got to go! (I WANNA PLAY COMPUTERRRRR)

Labels: friends, Holiday 2010, outing

heroes arent that easy to be spotted. to find one, you gotta close your eyes, open your ears. judge a person according to how he/she speaks. hear the tonality, hear the voice hear the wonder.

today, i found one hero.

and she is no where near disabled.

Labels: Junior College Life

haha i keep getting her name spelt wrong! instead of maezal, its supposed to be maezel. :) well today i went together with my cell group to surprise maezel as she was at the budget terminal to fly off to Philippines. she will be gone for a long time.. oh man! so gonna miss my fellow cell group member :) but at least she is going back to see her relatives!

today was kinda.....alright! got home and got down to work so as to earn my Xperia :P bah need a new phone pretty badly, kinda gave up on Satio as its too pricey and being heavy, once you drop it OUCH ttm! so no thanks! im opting for the android phone, xperia! sony ericsson better not put me down! D: im an avid SE fan :P and will never buy iphone, as i already have an itouch hence i dont see the need to. plus iphone is so...conventional. can you imagine everyone in the world using iphone?! thats freakin boring! its like wearing same clothes or something..

ANYWAY.. school is pretty alright..i think! (if killing 5 hours a day is considered alright to ya) well because my com is taken away, its like a disincentive to blog for me :( kinda sickening to blog through that minuscule itouch screen and its qwerty keyboard. as compared to my com screen and keyboard! :D it feels so much better typing through a computer~

ARTICLE:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Australia moves to recognize Aborigines in constitution

(CNN) -- Australia's government said Monday that it is moving to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the nation's constitution.
"The Australian Constitution is the foundation document of our system of government, but it fails to recognize the special place of our first Australians," Prime Minister Julia Gillard's office said in a statement.

A panel will consider how to advance constitutional recognition and offer options for an amendment that Australians could vote on in a referendum, the office said. The panel -- which is to include indigenous and community leaders, constitutional experts and parliamentary members -- will lead a national discussion during 2011, the administration said.

Australia will push further for reforms and investments in early education, health, jobs, housing and services, and infrastructure, aiming to "close the gap in Indigenous disadvantage," the administration said.
In 2008, the Australian government apologized for years of "mistreatment" that inflicted "profound grief, suffering and loss" on the country's Aboriginal people.
Lawmakers unanimously passed a motion proposing the apology. Then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd read the apology to Aborigines and the "stolen generations" of children who were taken from their families.

"We apologize for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these, our fellow Australians. We apologize especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry," Rudd said. "To the mothers and father, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."

For 60 years, until 1970, the Australian government took mixed-race Aboriginal children from their families and put them in dormitories or industrial schools, claiming it was protecting them. As a result of the policy, "stolen" children lost contact with their families and heritage, received poor education, lived in harsh conditions and often endured abuse.

Rudd said the apology was the start of a new approach toward Aborigines, which included helping them find their lost families, and closing pay gaps and a 17-year difference in life expectancy between Aborigines and white Australians.
The child-removal policy was largely a secret until about a decade ago, when a government inquiry exposed it. That sparked a mass movement, supported by many white Australians, demanding an apology.

RESPONSE::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Definitely a thumbs up to this move by the constitution as it steps up to make improvements and "close the gap in indigenous advantage". Due to the child removal policy, aborigine kids have been put into home and separated from their families and now that the government is able to publicly apologise to the affected for their wrong move and begin to recognise the aborigines in constitution.

After they have apologised, the next move is making up for it, which is the recognising of them in constitution and possibly ways to close the large income gap and life expectancy. However i have no idea how they intend to close the income gap.
The "making up for it" portion is the part that will give me a more sound impression of the Australian government. What exactly are they going to do and just how long are they going to take? Just how important will it be towards the government?

The damage of the child remove policy goes beyond the 60 years that it has been implemented, and in my opinion, the damage is huge. Family trees are cut off, broken families occur as a result of such a policy. These are some of the many negative effects occured from this wrong move.

On the contrary, the government is made up of people, and people do make mistakes. Moreover there is no one policy that works in favour of everyone. If one side stands to gain, the other side loses. (Although i don't really see the "gain" in this policy since the children are subjected to abuse even though the government tries to protect them.)

It is heartening to see the government being able to make an attempt to treat the people fairly and in this sense the people consists of Australians as well as aborigines but will the government succeed in doing so, is another story altogether. On the whole, i feel that this is a good start towards the recognition of the aborigines in constitution.

Labels: newspaper article reply

sheesh i have been so busy these days till i have no time to blog! well thats partly because mum took my com BIOS password. TSk! anyway last thursday ( i think ) i went to celebrate my good friend, Deborah's birthday! nono it was a friday night! oh yeah we had cell group first, then we went over to Dallas which is along Boat Quay :)

oops we = Deb, Nicole & Yao Peng, Chris, Max, Charlene, Joel, Kim and me! :D

went over to Dallas pretty early in the night, around 10+? straight after cell group. haha as usual, we were late! :P at least we were just 30mins late...? a big improvement as compared to last year when we were late for 2 hours xP

Charlene got there first, so when we reached, she was already enjoying her cocktail.. then just a short while later, all the food platter arrived! Mmm! fried chicken, squids, and some tortilla lookin food :P cant remember whats it called, well it looks like the KFC cheesy meltz for simplistic's sake.

oops Dallas is a bar ._. just a conventional one, not a sports bar. we did spend a bomb! :D well there goes my pocket x.x but still, it was a really fun time chatting, with deb being trigger happy and snapping lotsa photographs. the best part of it, was when we started kissing all the fruits! it was super funny during that part, i remembered i kissed a lemon :P and also later shared it with Yao Peng (making nicole jealous)

no pictures! thats because i didnt take any, was too busy enjoying myself :) we stayed all the way till it was past midnight, just to celebrate deb's birthday to the very end!

Labels: birthday, friends

i think i have been spending A LOT of time on this! and... probably for this week i have already spend sayyyy 6-7hours on it? hmmm its a pretty sweaty process, lots of organisation, gotta keep thinking if i should keep or throw. and the question that runs through my mind most often when doing it?

Labels: Family, friends, fun

hahah today was a pretty weird day, in terms of weather. in the morning, it looked so bright and sunny! and i thought to myself "phew! today is gonna be a really nice day to swim!" and then, just when i was about to go for a nice swim after piano lesson, the sun was covered by the clouds :( so it was just dull. as in not dark, but like DULLLLL. which kinda sucked. and i had no idea why my goggles lense kept having fog appearing in it! as in it usually happens when the sun is really bright :/

Labels: fun

Singapore
HOME > BREAKING NEWS > SINGAPORE > STORY

Nov 3, 2010
Shadrake guilty of contempt
By Khushwant Singh

BRITISH author Alan Shadrake, 75, was found guilty of impugning the impartiality, integrity and independence of Singapore courts in his book.

High Court Judge Quentin Loh found the author of A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice In The Dock had scandalised the judiciary in 11 of the 14 passages that the Attorney-General had listed as contemptuous.

In the three passages, Shadrake could be said to be making allegations against institutions other than the courts. He will be sentenced next Tuesday.

During the three-day hearing last month, Deputy Senior State Counsel Hema Subramanian argued that the 14 statements alleged or insinuated that the Singapore courts bowed to pressure from foreign governments, favoured the rich and privileged and were used as a tool by the ruling party to muzzle political dissent.

Shadrake, through his lawyer, Mr M. Ravi, maintained that the selected passages did not scandalise the courts and constituted fair criticism on matters of public interest. But Justice Loh said that Shadrake had included half-truths and falsehoods in his book and this cannot constitute fair criticism.

The judge noted that 6,000 copies of the book have been sold so far, and if left unchecked, it would result in readers losing confidence in the administration of justice in Singapore.

The author declined to comment on the judge's decision but told reporters after the verdict: 'I think I have been given a fair hearing.'

Separately, Shadrake is being investigated by the police for criminal defamation, an offence which carries a maximum two-year jail term and a fine. His passport is being held by the police.

Labels: newspaper article reply

haha the title says it all, today, i had to wear formal to school! well thats because the Kairos students who are also the retainees got to go through some programme that is able to better our skills, in this case for interview skills. tomorrow, we are having lessons on exam skills! as the J1s are slogging their brains and body to work for oral presentation for project work, we get to bask in the air conditioned MPR5 and listen to people talk!

well the programme started since yesterday, and its been pretty helpful, they threw in some social etiquette stuffs too :) which definitely does come in pretty handy sometimes!

hmmm the programme also helps us to be more positive.. (i think) and well its pretty informal session, having us sit around in a circle, luckily on chairs if not my legs are sure gonna go bust!

today was more on interview training, like what are we supposed to do, posture, what not to do, what we learnt, uh after that i dont really remember. haha kinda felt like i was switching off! not that the lessons were boring, but just probably tired? i dont know! :)

well as i was typing this blogpost, i found this super cool watch that has not yet been manufactured, but its extremely cool! i seriously dont mind wearing such a watch! (even though i do not wear watches at all) thats how good it is man :) go check it out! i got some really good pictures from the website below, and it looks really awesome :)



well the pictures are from this website,
http://www.tokyoflash.com/blog/2010/10/tron-inspired-led-watch/
just cut and paste the url into the bar on top and help to vote for this watch to be manufactured! :D cool stuff!

Labels: cool stuffs, fun, Junior College Life

haha oops finally updating blog after such a long time :P well today, there is no school so yeah staying at home and slackkkkk! good luck to all those peeps taking their exams!

yupp anyway i just completed the GN0000 plastic model, dad actually gave it to me right after my exams. i think it was last week..i posted about the oo raiser? now is the main gundam model itself :)

all the parts were painted white in the inside, except for the black parts! just that this time, i have no idea why i made 2 mistakes while fixing it. either missed out one part or broke the connecting pieces -.-



ha if you notice, the black is a little transparent from here, even though in actual its really quite transparent!


i have no idea why i took this photo o.o


i decided to paint one of the swords/gun, while the other to be left transparent, so as to show the difference in colours.

hmmm it did turn out like what i expected, so yeah! im okay with it :) just some cleaning up to do! thats about it, all the exta white paint sticking out. time to once again whip out the thinner!


oops the photo is slanted :x anywayyyy thats the finished product! :D hmmm its pretty nicely done up, gaps are closed up, but the excess paint have not been wiped off yet, will do that soon! :)

haha im really happy its finally done~ probably try another model on Macross Frontier. most likely the VF-25 models :) but until then, see ya! im really lazy to blog about models, cuz its uaully pictures! will be updating most likely tml! if i dont feel that lazy haha

Labels: model