The first sem

I have been so looking forward to the end of exams that I have quite forgotten that when law paper ends tomorrow, it will also officially mark the end of my first semester here in Sunway.

Wow.

So I thought before it ends tomorrow, I ought to recall just a little bit about what has happened thus far. It is also to take my mind off all the twisted voting systems of the world that I have to read. Blah.

So anyway, there was the Genting trip over one of the weekends with 13 other people. We had a tour around the casino (with Alexie's help :P), watched a late night movie (Detective Dee, some watched Blood Ties but I was a coward so I didn't watch the horror flick) and had super early breakfast at McD (at 4.00 a.m.).

We also had a fantastic time squeezing into the beds at 5.00 a.m. Olivia got pushed down the bed twice! Hahahahahhahaha!! So the boys had to give up their beds for us. xD

We also had a random trip to Petaling Street some nights ago where we ended up in SS15 for supper at Snowflakes and Asia Cafe and eventually walked home at 12.30 a.m. with Chee Zhen as our "tour guide". Before that was also a random trip to Klang Pasar Malam on Siew Chee's car for soya bean and fried oyster omelette and fried lala. As you have probably deducted from now, we are great eaters.

We have also had plenty of celebrations among us Ausmat kids. We'd celebrated Hari Raya together, Diwali and also Mooncake Festival. We'd watched people dancing and singing. We had dinner together at some Chinese Bak Kut Teh Restaurant and lit lanterns and sang songs about the moon. And on birthdays, we have thrown people into the pool, faked blackouts and ate tonnes of cakes.

Not forgetting our many bizarre presentations where I've seen guys cross dressed as girls and girls cross dressed as guys - although it is less awkward for girls to act as guys! xP Watched some really silly re-makes of novels. Eelyne sitting in trolley and Yeong Yeong holding a comb as a gun. Watched some disturbing clips as well *cough*naz*cough*joel*cough*. I think I had a rather disturbing clip of myself abusing Vee Vien's sister with a belt... in a re-make of A Thousand Splendid Suns. Lol. Olivia said I looked "pian tai".

Of course they were also good ones like Alexie and Olivia's video on The Joy Luck Club. Definitely more believeable and less disturbing! Alexie's singing after that made 4 or 5 people cry! Eric and Pauline's video on The Life Of Pi was quite hilarious too. And Ben and Raul's song on To Kill A Mockingbird (Sweet Home Maycomb County, parody of Sweet Home Alabama) went better than my version of Hey There, Laila (parody of Hey There Delilah).

The late suppers after youth at SS15 are also memorable. :) We were supposed to have a picnic at some park in KL once but the idea of being stuck in a jam was far too scary so we ended up having a picnic at the youth centre. Lol! And we played board games in Meeples. :D Oh, and last week's embarrassingly awkward experience of going up to receive blessings while completely forgetting about the dress code *cough*Evelyn*cough!*

And of course, those times spent with my "family". Even as I study now, I can hear them watching movie and talking nonsense in Sheau Jiuan's room. We have mostly been adventurous. We'd sit and talked to each other on the eve of our examinations about everything - from our history to sports to birthdays and pads. Speaking of sports, we had also walked all the way to Mydin just a few days before our exams for the sake of watching Chong Wei's showdown against Lin Dan in the Asian Games.

We did spend many nights cooking (mostly cabbage - shudders!) and talking about life and playing card games. And those nights before exams where we re-enacted ancient Chinese customs of palace talk. Yeong became the Maharaja and Michelle was the Pemaisuri. Yi Hui became the prince and Pit Yung was the maid. Lol! The rest of us became princesses. The hilarity of it all! What with Yeong Yeong banishing Michelle to the "Cold Palace" and later on got attacked by her wife. Hahahahahahah!

Exam stress, I tell ye. And the last things that I can remember are those moments we spend in the bus ride home playing random games. Vani, Kim, Uhen and I played some really lame games once. Vani has weird fingers! xP And the day Sue Yinn, Stephenas, Hafizul and I went back really late and we shared a lot of lame jokes! Or that time Yu Heng and I kept disturbing Kim about her "presents" from Sabah. Or those dinners after CF where again, lame jokes are shared. :)

I wish I can remember more but like I have once said, some memories didn't get imprinted in my mind. But on the brighter side, tomorrow we will be having yet another celebration. =)

PJ

Popular in Summit Mall is currently having a book fair with mark down prizes. I have never purchased to many books in my life. In fact, I have not purchased a single book for a long, long time!

So now I have this small collection of books that I doubt I will ever find the time to read. Exams start next week and I'm supposed to have finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird. I have read one chapter. ONE.

On the other hand, I went to Petaling Jaya Street on Tuesday! :D

It was most adventurous because we later ended up in SS 15 and walked all the way back from SS 15 to Casa at 12.30 in the morning. It was past midnight so we didn't want the cab. And we didn't want to wait for U 63 at the bus station in Pasar Seni because it was 10.30 and the conditions of the bus station was... let's just say not so nice.

Reached home at about 1.00 a.m. after food at PJ, Snowflakes, Asia Cafe and McD. ;)

Celebrated Chee Zhen's birthday on Monday with mushroom soup. Lol.

And my unit organised a huge dinner last Saturday for 14 people. ;) Games. Talk. Blackout. Talk some more.

Anyway, after spending an entire hour walking around the Popular book fair today, I only came home with a RM 2.95 pocket dictionary while others came home with plastic bags of books. Sigh!

Street sweepers, toilet cleaners and garbage collectors

Warning: A long post with all words and no pictures.

During a random outing to Sunway Pyramid for lunch on our AUSMAT Independent Study Day, a few friends and I discussed about economics over sushi in Sushi King. At one point we talked about wages for labourers and professionals. Now it has always been a personal belief of mine that labourers deserve a way higher pay than professionals. I find it wrong for teachers to tell students, especially young ones, that if they don't study hard, they will wind up as street sweepers, toilet cleaners and garbage collectors. I used to argue that if it weren't for the street sweepers, the toilet cleaners and the garbage collectors, the world will become so dirty that even doctors and professors and reserchers will be out of jobs. Why? Well, how will you keep things sterile? Bacteria will be circulating the air that even doctors will become patients themselves. Pills and medicine will be contaminated and spoiled before they can even be tested and administered.

You may say that you can keep your own things clean. But the streets? Unless you plan to live in your own house for the rest of your life, you are going to have to drive your own rubbish to the landfill. You have to sweep your own neighbourhood streets and clean your neighbourhood's public toilets. There will be a duty roster so everyone in the neighbourhood gets their own fair share of work. That could work, you say.

But hang on.

So now everyone is a garbage collector, a street sweeper and a toilet cleaner - 3 in 1 like them Nescafe packs!

No so glamourous now isn't it? Is it really that shameful and degrading to be working in these jobs? Are these jobs ranked that low in the imaginary hierarchy of jobs? You say that their jobs require no specific skills. Well, I say who are you to define what skill is high and what is low. At the end of the day, what is more important: Is it really your ability to use your laptop and surf the Internet that gives you life? Or is it the hygiene in your food and water that keeps you alive? Isn't it embarrassing that you know how to balance accounts and treat people yet do not know how to wash your own clothes or work the oven or clean the toilet until it is sparkling?

Then again, it will be completely unfair to say that the professionals have it easy because I know they don't. In Politics and Law, we learn about proportional representation in voting systems. I wonder if anyone has thought of proportional wage redistribution - a system where everyone gets paid what they have worked for. This theory basically works like this: the firm divides its profits proportional to the number of workers in each department of profession. So skills are categorised.

And then, from there each department will have another distribution in terms of their own skills. See, what is different about this is that you compare the scarcity of skills in the market of its own skills. Like for example, there are many kolo mee sellers but only a few stalls' kolo mee are good. You can't compare kolo mee with laksa because they are of different natures and therefore, the eventual judgement will be biased. Likewise, you can't compare the skills of one toilet cleaner with that of a lawyer. So you would compare kolo mee with kolo mee to be fair in determining what defines a good kolo mee, no? Similarly here, you compare which toilet cleaner is more efficient in his or her work with other toilet cleaners. Who cleans more toilets in a given period of time? Or whose toilets are cleaner? From there, you derive a definition of good toilet cleaners. This induces a scarcity of good toilet cleaners and therefore, these toilet cleaners get paid a higher wage that is proportional to their skill in cleaning toilets and which justifies their effort and efficiency.

The only reason why these workers are being paid minimum wage is because their skills are deemed as homogenous (that means identical). It does not matter whether you clean the toilets sparkling clean or not. What matters is that the toilets are cleaned. And if the boss is not satisfied, boss merely scolds the cleaners and order that the toilets be cleaned again as if it were such a easy task to clean toilets. There is no scarcity in the supply of labour for toilet cleaners because toilet cleaners (and other similar jobs) have no trade unions to control their supply. In professionals, there is a clear standard to distinguish a good lawyer from a bad one. The good lawyer inevitably gets paid a higher wage. But because this is not the case for labourers, they get paid the minimum wage no matter how hard they work or how skilled they are at labouring.

The world needs to interact. The world cannot be kept in balance if everyone is so selfish. That is why we cannot compare labouring skills with professional skills. Fundamentally, both are already different! It takes no genius to figure that out. So there needs to be another different set of standards. Through the proportional wage redistribution, you recognise the skills in a labourer and they get paid better if they do a better job. In a way, it serves as a n incentive for them to work harder. And you get better toilet cleaners and better security guards who do not doze off during their working hours.

Because the amount of wage for each department is allocated, the best worker will earn more and the weaker workers will earn less. This keeps the competition alive. But rest assured, as mentioned, the profit is redistributed in proportion to the number of workers so even the weaker worker will be paid the minimum wage. This theory applies to the professionals as well. Goodness knows how many under-qualified doctors, lawyers and accountants there are out there. So through this system, the good ones get paid more and the lousy ones get paid less. It will motivate the weaker ones to improve themselves so that their standard of living, material wealth wise, will improve.

This is not communism because not everyone gets paid equal. You reap what you sow - that is the basis of this theory. Of course in practice, it will be far harder to perfect, but hey, like perfect competition, if everyone aims for this, social welfare will definitely become better. And with less government intervention!

In EALD, I had to write a movie review about The Blind Side, explaining on whether one person can make a difference. Yesterday I read in loyarburok.com that today's generations of Facebookers and Twitterers are promoting laptop activism - as the name suggests, it is social activism behind screens. We stop working towards making a change. We think that writing a status in Facebook and Twitter is enough. It is not, so they claim.

Well, in the spirit of the movie review I have just written, I believe that if I post this up, I will at least be able to influence a few of my friends to be nicer to the uncles and aunties they see sweeping the streets they walk down everyday. And perhaps as the very good friends that they are, they will help to to preach what I have just written.

I concluded my essay by stating that it takes one initiator and a lot of influenced people to make a difference. I hope this peice has changed your perspective at least a little bit. I have the utmost respect for my friendly neighbourhood cleaners because I know that I will never be able to find the strength in me to serve people like they do.

I'm not lame!

So I went back to school on Thursday and actually had a lot of fun chatting in the staffroom with teachers.

I even taught Pn. Yii Ling and Madam Tan this hilarious Indian dance I learnt from Ashley! They were so excited to learn!

Step 1: Tukar lampu.

Step 2: Cuci baju.

Step 3: Snuff out cigarette.

Step 4: Hide behind a tree.

Step 5: Sambut air liur.

Before long, I had 4 teachers (Pn. Yii Ling, Madam Tan, Madam Fu and Miss Susie) practicing the moves behind their cubicles! It was really a sight to behold! :P

Miss Susie: You have to tell them to have their expression right! *does a really, really, really silly face*

Then when Madam Euphrasia walked in, Madam Tan pulled her to try it out as well. Haha!

It is times like this that I really miss about high school. Watching people having fun while not fearing about making a fool of themselves and laughing really hard about it. And being reminded of how vain everyone can be – yes, even teachers!

Madam Yii Ling: *shows everyone their dance practice video*

Everyone: Hey look here! Wrong move! Hahahaha! Eh! This part so funny! Hahahaha!

Madam Yii Ling: *after a lot of hahahas* This last part is about me dy! Cannot watch! *closes video*

LOL!

But the best part is perhaps just being able to be vain myself without feeling wary of being judged. Hey, everyone in STS is vain after all. That was the whole point they fixed this gigantic mirror at the back of the assembly hall (on the stage!).

Me: Why is there a mirror at the back of the stage?

Miss Susie: So that we can see our reflection. We’re too vain! xD

Me: Then when there’s a speech being given, everyone just look straight and adjusts their hair la?

Miss Susie: Hm… no. We’ve seen too much of ourselves. We’re bored of the reflections now!

Lawl.

I think I sort of miss being close to teachers. To be able to make fun of them, even. Heh. But that never turns out well. Sometimes, I just gotta admit that no matter what, they’re still smarter. I went back to school to claim my magazine and told Madam Tan that mum didn’t give me any money. So she was asking me to claim a receipt from Miss Susie.

Madam Tan: Ask Miss Susie to write a receipt. She’s not a Math teacher. You can ask her to put a decimal point after the zero!

Miss Susie: Ha?

Me: She says you’re a language teacher so you don’t know where to put decimal points. This magazine costs 15 ringgit. You can put a decimal point anywhere after the zero. xD

Miss Susie: After? So I put it after the second zero!

Me: CAN!

But after that, I discovered that Miss Susie has to calculate these marks for some 5S competition in the staffroom. And because I insulted her calculating abilities, she entrusted her work to me (even making me recalculate her own marks!). Get what I mean about clever teachers? And as it turned out, I was the one who calculated wrongly! So malu. I gave her a chance to gloat but she didn’t want to because that would mean I didn’t have to continue checking her calculations anymore. Cleverness, see!?!

Me: Shitsuke… isn’t that a mushroom?

Miss Susie: ….

Me: Oh no! That’s shitake!

Miss Susie: And I thought I spelled it wrongly!

Anyway, Madam Fu also offered me chocolates.

“Smuggled chocolates,” she said. “From Madam Euphrasia’s room.”

Apparently, Madam Euphrasia has a stash of imported chocolates in her room and these teachers keep entering for the sake of the chocolates until sometimes, Madam Euphrasia gets so annoyed, she pours out a whole lot on a piece of paper and goes “Nah!”.

Lol!

I also witnessed band practicing. Ah, band. They are supposed to call me “Ma’am” now.

Miss Susie: *drags me into band room* How are you supposed to call her?

Eleena: *on the drums* Hi, Ma’am?

Miss Susie: HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Eleena: You bored souls!!!

She made Alicia call me Ma’am too.

While the band was practicing, I was busy signing yearbooks at the back. I tell you Christine has this huge pencil case full of colour pens which can no longer be used (most of them anyway) and you have no idea how remarkably tedious it is to search for a single colour!

I was trying to search for brown to draw a tree but I couldn’t find it so I drew a purple tree instead. Christine said I have bad colour taste. But she told me later on that her brown disappeared. =.=” And I really accidentally dropped her entire case on the floor trying to find that colour.

I also watched them try out some of the games for band camp. :) Looks fun.

So ya, I kinda wish that such classroom days can return but it’s ended so what can I do. In the mean time, I shall bask in this:

See, this is teacher introducing my dance.

And this is Christine Ling calling me lame! And one Super isn’t enough. It has to be squared! INSTANT K.O SOMEMORE! And in CAPS!

But… Teacher says I am NOT lame! This is like… major accomplishment! Abigail will agree! I used to make UNfunny jokes before school even starts!

Kim: Lip, that’s not funny.

And if you need a closer look!

But of course, the glory has to end.

What has the world come to.

P/S: I think this post feels more normal now. It's more shallow. Phew. Can you imagine life being like a deep, deep well and everyone has to struggle to understand the maksud tersirat?

I think everyone misses the time when everything is simpler. When Math is NOT done on a RM 500 calculator. When the only graphs we need to know are line graph and bar charts. And you still think the moon is stalking you.

New take

There used to be a time where I believe that every day, something will always happen to make my day. It may be from a random chatting session where random topics are discussed or it can be from a particular event. Nonetheless, I pay attention to these details and later in the day, I pen the events down to remember the funny jokes. I still laugh looking back at some of the silly things that have happened.

Unfortunately since I entered college, this habit has ceased to exist. Even though I laugh occasionally every day, I find no significance in the jokes or events. In short, I didn’t find anything worth pending down and I don’t know why.

Today, I have decided that I want to pay attention to these details again. Personally, I think it will do me good. If I can think back and remember all the good things that have happened every day before I end the day, I believe I will cherish the life I have here a little bit more. I will be less of a walking zombie or an automated robot that wakes up on a Monday and looks forward to Saturday before the first class even starts.

So I have decided to write the posts below to remember the things that have happened.

It is also as a sort of my new take on life.

Granted, it has not always been so easy adapting - especially this year. Like it or not, close friends are hard to come by. And there will be times (as long as you're standing at a new beginning) where you miss all that was familiar. More often than not, I am so self-absorbed with the past and the future that I fail to see the significance of the present. I've let moments of fun slipped by my memory. I've dusted away whatever print these moments may have left. Or worse: I may have hardened my mind that prints can no longer be printed.

Today, I have decided that this is not the way to live. Oh, no.

Today, I take my first step to remember details again.