Tuesday, August 30, 2005

24/7

As I have been partying and dancing extensively in the past week, now I am suffering from the consequences – studying 24/7 to catch up with studies I left behind.

Blogging has become an important role in this cyber era. Set aside from playing a part as news hubs, we now communicate with each other through this kind of online diary/journal. Instead of sending email to catch up with friends scattered around the world, I know upload my recent life onto my blog. I also read the others’ blogs to keep track with their life pulses, although we can not see each other.

Melbourne was warming up in the last few days. In August, we had a 22C sunny day as in a late winter day today. It was a very pleasant feeling: breezed up my hair, breathed in aroma of grass, bath in smooth of sunshine. I love it.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Long time no club

Two years haven’t been down to any clubbing venues, I eventually made it again last night. After the short house party, I firstly went to a social dance studio in Richmond with my dance buddies. After that, I cut back to the city and met up with others (Jenny, my housemates, and their friends) in an underground club. The venue was not very good; the dance floor was small and the lightings were crap. Most importantly, it played R&B music, which was really not my style. I was only there for an hour or so, as I was also bearing with the inflammation problem, I escaped that turbid places with the reek of tobacco smoke in my hair. A few points want to make here:

·Very coincidently, I bumped into several groups of friends. First was William, who was in CTG and asked me whether I had been to any rehearsals. My answer was “no”. Instead of going to rehearsals, I went clubbing. Secondly was Clare. At 24, doing Master Arts management, she was still a party girl. The third one was Jess. I saw her on my way out of the club. Apparently many local grown Asians like clubbing, especially for R&B.

·One of my housemates got another hot guy on the night. She always attract guys, despite she was not at all pretty. Good luck, for both of them.

·I was very unhealthy in the past two days – pizza for breakfast, chips for supper and nothing for dinner. My stomach can not take in big meals now, and I have to fully chew the food for the sake of better digestion. However, rounds of gas keep bursting out from inside every time I drink and eat something.

I planned to go to an Irish pub on Saturday night after work. Whereas, John was a bit tired and suggested that we could go next time when we were both fresh and energetic. Despite I had never been to any Irish pub and fancied to check it out, I could not go without him; he was my bodyguard. It was also rational not to go out after a seven-hour shift. We can always choose some other time to enjoy ourselves as much as we like. Why should we choose after work when we all feeling filthy and tired?

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Law and Justics

Legal

I feel like there are two sides of me: on one side I am passionate on doing things I like, regardless of money; on the other side is avid of financial well-being. Some people can achieve success on both sides, unfortunately I am not the one. I am still finding my balance point at this stage.

I was quite embarrassed in today’s media law class. The cases in the tutorial hand-out was difficult for me to understand in the first place. I could not even figure out who was suing whom, and made wrong judgements. As the class process, Jack (our lecturer and tutor) was being very helpful and guided me through from blind and mess. For most of the time, law can be very tedious, so much so that we have to read through pages to find a supportive argument and then write another pages of supportive argument for our legal stands. It is costly and a waste of time. But these process is unavoidable.

The night volunteering in the legal service had been going very good, although I could only do one to two cases a night. Tonight’s case was about intervention order and debt collection. Within an effective judicial legal system, collecting a debt could sometimes involve many matters. For this woman I interviewed, although she had a legal written due bill, she had been pursuing for her loan for four years. She even received an intervention order went against her from her debtor. The solicitor’s advice was that if the court, in the end, enforced her debtor to pay her back the loan, there still would be a lot of processes before the enforcement could finally enact. She was upset. But law is made to be that complicated to try to make sure everything is right. The lesson I learn is I must be very careful to lend someone money even though terms and conditions are specified in a bill.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

My cure

My breathless problem was neither asthma (thank God) nor inflammation, but acid from the stomach. The doctor told me that, as it happened in the middle of the night, it was very likely that acid throw back from my stomach and thus burnt my throat. There are many sorts of reason to the cause of this. I was very down. My appearance looks alright, not showing any sign of illness. Whereas, I have to bear the pain from my throat, and inconsistency of gas coming out from my stomach. Every meal is like a torture, I could not rally eat “hard” food and have to swallow things slowly and gently. I was given a big bottle of antiacid liquor as my cure, which looks like this:


My cure

Scary isn’t it?

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Die another day

I thought I was going to die on Friday night. In the middle of the night, I suddenly choked up, breathless with a feeble cry. After struggling for about half an hour, I had to sit up in the dark, bearing the cold and coughing badly. Tears were running out and I thought I was going to die for an unknown disease. Fell asleep without conscious, I found myself still alive the next morning. Till today, I still chocked up several times during the day and could hardly eat any hard things. I suspect I am infected with a badly inflammation in my lung or throat. Have to see a doctor again tomorrow.

My housemate Brian is a good man, although he is not bright. I don’t want to comment on his attitude or life perspective in here, but I want to emphasis one point here that no matter who you are, you would find your position in the society somehow. Everyone is a treasure, hidden or shining.

My mandarin was criticised by a group of Chinese customer last night. As my way of thinking, as in food, is in English, it takes a while for me to translate them into Chinese (Mandarin). On top of that, my arrogant in speaking Cantonese and English isolate myself from the Mandarin society. I could say that my Mandarin is as terrible as Hokies now.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Smartie

“So that is why people hate university students – they are too smart and have too much time.” Jack Given said in our Media law class. We had a very interesting law tute today as we hypothetically discuss the media landscape with no copyright. We also argued the Napster/P-2-P case, which brings up the idea of boundary between providing service and encouraging infringement acts. There was a girl told us that she used to watch online movie in colleague for free, which was where the quote at the beginning comes from. In our daily life, we would have infringed copyrights without notice ourselves. In my opinion, it really depends on the commercial outcome the infringement. If you use others’ copyright protected IP for making money yourself without getting permission from the author, then you will definitely very likely to get into trouble. Otherwise, who cares about what you do inside your square room.

I have applied for the EPEC (similar to employment pass) today. The official visa will be sent from Singapore to my aunt’s house as early as next year January. I can’t wait to leave Melbourne.

I had a good chat over the phone with Big C last night. We still had a lot of topic to chat about. Strangely, I feel very comfortable to talk in English with her than anyone else. On top of that, my distaste to speak in Mandarin grows stronger bit by bit.

These week I work and study like 24/7. I would love to have time to take a rest and think about some matters in hands. Too many things but too less time after 21st.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Trinket accesaries

I fell asleep couples of time today. I am nearly drained out from my partying, working and studying state of life. To make it worse, the lecture theatres were either too hot (dehydrated) or too cold (freeze to dead). I need more sleep. Whereas, there are things queuing in my diary, the working momentum keeps rolling without a sign of stop.

I like to buy trinket stuff, especially those for charity purpose. A very special kid pen, a red nose day badge, a daffodil date brooch, and today I bought an Australian Breast cancer bracelet. No other tinkling and specious girlie ornaments can compare with these simple designed accessaries. I also like hand-made stuffs, because they emanate an unique aroma and are created from heart. I have been trying to make gifts using materials I made or picked up from scratch in the last few years. If I have more time, I would like to extend my creativity and make things wild and quirky.

Karaoke

I finally found time to call home last night. Mum was at home alone, while Dad had not been back for three days. He was dealing with an inhuman accident - one of his subordinates was pushed down by a truck while he was on his bridge toll collecting duty. That guy is merely 21 and is the only child of his family. My mum told me that he could not survive for very long as he was badly injured. The bludger who drove the tuck over him did not show any guilty at all; as he was only pushed down a cat, not a human! My first reaction was “bring him to fire shot (death penalty)!” Although China has been criticised for its death penalty described as “breach of human right”, I am still this legal act’s supporter. Managing such a large population, severe penalty is needed to retain legal enforcement power.

Also, security in Guangzhou is getting worse and worse. Thief has been around for many years, yet now these chuff from inner provincial China starts to hurt people who they steal/rob. They use knife to cut people’s bag, when a lot of time rift open people’s skin as well. *scary*

I fell into this momentum that I must go out every weekend to enjoy life. This Saturday night, which I lucky enough to have it off from work, I went to my first Karaoke in Melbourne with Jenny Wu, Brian and others in China town. We sang mixed songs as the people who went that night were mixed – Chinese, ABC, Australian, China-Australian mixed. I used to prefer dancing than singing; and hardly go to Karaoke with friends. Whereas, that night I enjoyed myself the most and sang my throat to death on the day. This group of people is going to have a house party in my house next Friday. I haven’t had house party for quite a long time now. I am going to invite as many friends as I can, and planning for a big night out.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Housemates

For some reasons, I try to alienate myself from my housemates. One is because I don’t like to speak mandarin for nonsense; another is I have a very different view as an international students from them. Although I had chance to get to know real Australian’s way of living, I hold my Asian value but twist it with some Australian influence. I feel bad about talking so little to my housemates, yet it is my psychological barrier that stop me to offer them my friendship. Interestingly, I like to hang out with Adeline, my Malaysian housemates who is working in an accounting firm. Maybe my inbeing is that I like to be with those who are older, rather than younger, than me.

I ran into Kim on Thursday and “see look, see look” with her in the city. She graduated already, and came back again from Singapore to attend her commencement today (Saturday). I did not have the sad feeling as what I used to have in farewells. When we waved goodbye, I knew we will see each other again fairly soon next year in Singapore. By then, she would have a job and I would be working in Singapore also.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Icy Winter

Melbourne today had the coldest winter so far in this year. I wrapped myself up in thick blouses but still shivered when I ran around campus. Icy winter had persisted for about a month now, and I had stocked up quite a bit of winter fat. Everyday, I drink two cups of hot instant soup to ease my orexis. Despite it has low fat content, it still not a heavy diet.

I attended the second workshop of the MUEC (Melbourne University Entrepreneur Challenge). The topic was Intellectual Property. As I am studying IP as in the media area, this night’s workshop was more in the business area. It was interested to know the whole process of applying for a patent – a future monopoly licence. The process is complicated, time constrained, risky and costly. Unless we are seriously on exploring a innovative idea and turn it into a business, it is not advised to patent the idea/product.

After two workshops, I am still waveringly on participating in this program. So many matters needed to take into account if I want to commit. I am not passionate enough to do my own business. Maybe I am not in that age group or that state of mind yet.

Whereas, I had a good chat with some MBA/Master students. The reasons for them to take further study various: career progression, career detour, a break from “real” life, or just want to linger around university longer. Whatsoever, I am the youngest and less experience among them and I don’t want to be one of them. One of the girls was surprised that I seem to know everything, from legal matter to finance issues. As a media person, my primary job, like it or hate it, is to absorb rich information and then spread them around to make ripples in people’s daily life. I don’t necessarily need to know the core of these issues, only concepts will do the job. I may never become professional in an area, but I would get my hands on everything to cure my curiosity, which has good and bad.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Dormancy

I had a very fulfiling weekend, which casused me to sleep in for 13 hours in the end. I went clubbing with all the dance sport buddies in Park Hyatt till 2am; then I worked till 1am on the following day. On Sunday morning, I looked into a mirrior and saw a dull face with pimple crept all over. My tears were running out from my eye frames while I was reading Macromedia tutorial material online. By four o'clock, I was too drowsy to stay up anymore. By the time I woke up, it was already a quarter to tweleve. I missed my Sunday dance class, calling grandma, and informing my ALG group. Without much thinking, which I could not think either, I turnt off the light and slept for another 6 hours.

Hot water was running from top to toes, I started another fresh week at 6 o'clock in the morning.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Public lecture on Politics

The recent Chinese defector ChengYonglin came to Melbourne Uni today to give a public lecture on Political Asylum Seeker in Australia and his experience of living under the control of the communist party. Having been living overseas for quite some time, I have grown my own opinion on such a sensitive political issue and my judgement comes basically from my Chinese education background and what I have learnt about CCP from western points of view.

The lecture theatre was fully occupied by the time Cheng made his speech. Annoyingly, or shamefully I should say, some Chinese audience, who were obviously not students, were grumbling when Cheng was speaking in the theatre. These people interrupted him by yelling and waving signs with words that went against him. They accused him as a “disgraceful betrayer” in an overwhelmingly abrupt manner that the police had to expose one of them in the middle of Cheng’s speech. I applauded when Cheng snapped back “I am shame of you”. It was really a humiliated moment for Chinese.

I would not repeat everything Cheng said in the theatre; there would be a lot of other’s interest to do so. What I want to jot down are the most touching points he made and my feelings towards his speech and attitude.

I don’t know much about Falungong, and I have no idea on what this network’s vision is. But I believe that the reason behind Cheng’s defection after working as a Chinese diplomat in Sydney councillors for four years is because he showed his sympathy to those Falungong believers and had helped some of them to eliminate their names on the embassy’s political black list.

I applauded for his frank claim on why he went to political school and joint CPP. “You could have good salary, and that was the most luxury job even you (those annoying Chinese audience) would admire”. Regardless the moral he holds, his claim is honest. Ask around, especially those youths, who does not want to live in a good life? Back in those days, Chinese people did not have choice; joining the party was indeed the best way to slip away from poverty. In my generation (born in the 80s), we were told that democracy was a bad thing, and communism would take over the world “in a near future”. When I was young, I believed that. Whereas, the more I touch news from the outside world, the more my view on communism changes. On top of that, grown up in the very South does not give me much influence from political issues. However, I understand that there are a large number of Chinese are angary with Cheng, most of them are from Northern and inner China where are heavily permeated with political and patriotic atmosphere.

I believed most of what he said, despite he disclosed the evil facts of dictatorship of my own country to the world. There is always someone trying to reveal the dark side of communism. As the new Chinese generation who has not suffered from the cultural revolution and are educated in the western world, I think most them are less concern about whether China should become communism or democracy than their personal goal. Political, as what I observe from my circles of friends, are dimming out of the lime line and distinguished them from their parents’ generation.

I think his initialtive is just trying to find justise in terms of communist politics. He is not a talented and typical bureaucrat, he is just a normal person. Maybe it is true that he betrays his political party and casts a bad image of Chinese politics to the world, but 党并不等于国家. I love my country, not CCP. We can not overturn communism overnight, and I don’t want to see China follows the down run of the former Soviet Union. In my opinion, giving CCP pressure on releasing liberty to its people from external organisations is a viable way to follow.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Another competition

Yesterday I attended an information session for an entrepreneur competition, accompanied by Kate, Jenny and Sing. Kate and I were astonished by the level of the competition, the knowledge level and the amount of workload required to get into the semi-final. This business competition is far more demanded than HEWSO and YAA. The requirement is, first of all, to find your own team member in whatever means, desirable MBAs or even your lecturer. Then the team has to come up with a marketable innovative idea and submit a brief business plan to the competition committees. Your team could further proceed the idea only if you get into the semi final stage. By that time, your business could start to take-off, given that you could have at least two mentors in the industry where your business will operate in. This competition is, indeed, beyond undergraduate level, whereas it opens to all Melbourne Uni students in all disciplines.

I have some vogue ideas, yet what I really need is some time to sit down and have a brain-storming myself. Sadly, I am always busy with a lot of commitments, work and other stuffs, I find it really hard to spare sometime to think for myself. When I finally have time, I could not or do not know how to think! How sad is that.

Luckily, I talked to the competition president and the winners of previous years, and was given some contacts in the media industry, both Melbourne and Singapore. I may take it from there and see how far I can make it in the competition.

For the coming weekend, I will have quite an intensive social dance event. The dance sport Friday night social dance, after that, Kenny, Freddy and many others will continue salsa rhythm in Park Hyatt; on Sunday night, another night-long dance class in Coppacabana. *legs cross*