The View From Back Then

Here's something interesting I dug out of the FT today.

Malaysian businessman Ananda Krishnan may have made money from the sale of his holding in the ExCel conference centre at the right time but may be less lucky with his gamble on stricken Johnston Press.

He bought a 20% stake in the regional paper group through his vehicle Usaha Tegas for £43m last year. One of Malaysia's richest men, Mr Krishnan is said to be an Anglophile, but may harbour cooler feelings after the bad news from Johnston boss John Fry drove the shares down to 5.62p, off 95% from a year ago.

Ops.
Too bad.

Breaking

I've got a renewed interest in breaking. and popping!!

srsly, the prospects are too addictive.

So, now I've devised a plan for an intensive (for me lah) stretching and strength training routine everyday.

It's been 3 days nonstop that my muscles have been aching. You know, the type of sore that you get when u pull a muscle. Apart from that I've been practising on freezes, baby freeze done, chair freeze done!

that's the chair freeze by the way

alright alright, those weren't actually difficult to do.

But anyhoo it's something that I'm proud of achieving. With my academic life being pretty dull, and boring, I don't spend much time on it, instead I'm pouring myself all over society activities (joined a new society!), with the remainder going onto physical activities which I just picked up this semester.

I'm guessing the million dollar question here is, "Why are you doing this?"

Honestly, it's to make myself feel more confident about how i look. Breaking shapes confidence, and character. So hell, why don't I just try it instead of loofing around with lots of free time?

I'm also thinking of getting a driver's license here, and also the possibility of getting a term time job. I realise, being too idle is shit really. Like getting your ass handed to you.

Oops, in the process I let out my resolutions.

No, this year isn't a year for relationships like last year. I'm not feeling too upbeat 'bout that.
This year is for me. I'm sick of shit happening around me and I'm doing something about it now.

Randomity

It's a private emotion that fills you tonight
And a silence falls between us
As the shadows steal the light
And wherever you may find it
Wherever it may lead
Let your private emotion come to me
Come to me

This chorus is so stuck in my head now. I love it to bits!!
and to think that I've forgotten this song after so many years.

It's Ricky Martin & Meja by the way.

--
Haha!

Alright speaking of which, I just read today that Singapore is the first Asian country to drop into recession due to the crunch.

Dear Singaporeans, as your rough, dirty and terrorist backyard northern neighbours, I'll join the bandwagon of those who laugh at you, and say.. HAHA! Now who's in deep shit!

Seriously though, it's no wonder they're the first. GDP's nearly all into financials and imports, as a result of rapid globalisation without much to fall on behind. The next to get it will probably be Japan but that's so much more complicated than Singapore's case.

Malaysia? Thank god we had mahathirism. Slow, and steady. Hahaha but doesn't mean I'm happy about it.

..

Why can't I sleep now.
Gotta get stuff outta my head and stop thinking about it.

Purgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurge
purgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurge
purgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurgepurge

Forget. Forget. Forget.

Go away please emo thoughts. I don't want you.

Running Out Of Titles

The most obvious question now probably is why am I blogging instead of mugging books. Well there's.. no answer to it. I'm having this sort of accomplished feeling after finishing one of my essays, It's like being high after a night of success at the battlefield or something omg my examples are rubbish. Besides, the deadline's 9 days away, and .. I've written.. nothing. But it's still a long way.

Anyway, trivial stuff away.. Ben said this in a chat earlier on.

ben says (6:38 PM):
ur blog doesnt speak on how u spent ur vday
ben says (6:38 PM):
what a fucking loser
HK : teehk.blogspot.com says (6:38 PM):
hahaha
HK : teehk.blogspot.com says (6:38 PM):
i never even celebrated it
HK : teehk.blogspot.com says (6:38 PM):
hence the word boycott
HK : teehk.blogspot.com says (6:39 PM):
and completely ignorance of that day
ben says (6:40 PM):
oh
ben says (6:40 PM):
i want to but cannot celebrate
ben says (6:40 PM):
what a loser

This year I had a strict .. what do you call it .. dogma to follow. I was going to boycott Valentine's Day. It was a success! .. sort of. Nevertheless the day started out with friends wishing me Happy Valentine's Day, but I told them I was boycotting it. Nothing out of the ordinary happened that day either. I had a thousand words to write so my eyes glued to the screen looking at e-journals. Made no mention of it either.. until now.

Valentine's is .. a whole load of false hype. I mean, there's no reason to celebrate it when it's all commercialised and expensive right? Restaurants have special menus intricately designed to steal your spare change, the whole world's suddenly filled with slow, sexy music, flowers start becoming so much more expensive, couples start becoming super affectionate towards each other, even friends wish love to each other.

The point is, why not everyday be Valentine's Day instead of a special day where everyone suddenly becomes a deity of love and sex. Is love sent and received on that day meant to be special? Is the Valentine's Night sex super intense just because it's Valentine's Night? Is a rose sent on VDay not any different from a rose sent on the day after?

It's only when you are single, that you realise how much emotions screw you over. People become irrational (don't speak of the word in front of me I'll go crazy) when in love. People can do crazy things no single bachelor/ette will do in love.

Sigh.

On that day itself, it's also a strong reflection on myself when everyone else is celebrating love. Why la am I still single at 19 years old. But at least I'm still 19 not 29 or 39 =P. Few girls have caught my attention since a big breakup about 2 years ago. The few that have, I've either not dared to approach them, or stand aside and watch as I drift away from them.. somehow.

I've done a lot of self-reflection since the breakup and have constantly questioned my actions before doing it so I don't screw up. It's been somewhat of a help, and I've matured became more boring considerably fast in 2 years. In the case of attraction, I've accustomed myself to being single and lusting after ladies. Besides, certain remnants from the previous relationship is still there, when I have already steamrolled the whole thing about a year ago. Add some other reasons in, and you get a very reluctant and slightly nervous to be attached person. Me.

Ahh, shouldn't be emo-ing now. *stops* Because I am going back to Concord College this weekend! Yays. Glasgow here I come on Thursday and Shrewsbury the day after! =D I can't wait to catch up with other buddies. The Scots are gonna rock CC, all 8 of us.. Shaun, Jun, Steph, Mich, Lindsey, SueAnne and YanMei! .. except Adrian who doesnt want to go =( boo.

To Start Talking About The Pound

Since I've been in the UK for about 2 years already, and will continue to be in for another 3.5 years, national issues have begun to be important already, since money's involved. One interesting political headline is the nationalisation of Northern Rock. It's an interesting issue because firstly it's the first bank run in nearly a century. Secondly, it has damaged the UK, notably the City's reputation, as a financial centre.

After the announcement of the nationalisation bill today, sterling pound's exchange rate fell by 0.5% to the dollar, and on a more relevant comparison, fell by another 0.006% to rm6.28 to the pound. It's been in a sort of a freefall since last October when the subprime issue started affecting Q3 and Q4 performance results in the US.

Comparatively there's also been a slowdown in the UK, (note, when I say the UK I don't include Scotland, no one actually does that) as seen with slowing home sales, and rising defaults. So the Bank of England has cut rates from 5.75% to 5.25% since December. However, a cut in rates and a drop in the exchange rate due to multiple factors has led to higher import costs, raising the CPI. So the wide perception is that the Bank will not cut rates below 4.75%, because of fears of inflation.

Oh well, I hope the pound doesnt fall anymore because I'm going to Amsterdam and I need more euros!! Let it fall against the ringgit hahahaha! It's good for students.

NSFW: Not Like Anyone Reads It At Work

We all know the Edison Chen (陳冠希) saga that exploded over the internet. I'll keep this short and just post the links. The rest you can find yourself, it's spread like wildfire.

Links:
Here
Here

Today's Topic

Since there's an economics exam tomorrow, today's topic will be on economics!

Boooo... sau pei lah, so free until blog about economics? Sien douu..talk about something else la tiuu..

I admit it's a desperate and stale topic, but it'll be educational! =P

Ok, to show everyone the power of failing to understand the basics of economics, please turn over to look at Zimbabwe, once dubbed the the Kitchen of Africa (or something along those lines). President Robert Mugabe (a graduate of the same university I'm at, eek!) and his version of Mugabenomics has created a typical textbook version of hyperinflation which is a good study for any economist, and in the process, made everyone in the country unwilling millionaires. The gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire will surely be condemned in this situation.

It all started when his government seized control of commercial farms, controlling all food output. That put workers out of jobs, and pretty much destroyed the agricultural industry. Then what happens, is a recession, followed by inflation.

US$50 makes u half a millionaire in Zimbabwe.

So, as each day passes during the inflation period, the government's coffers are getting emptied, so, unable to pay for the high prices of stuff, the Central Bank prints more money to finance it's expenditures. Beeep, wrong move. Effectively, as of now, the government is probably bankrupted, but it still prints money to finance it's expenditures.

Official inflation rate is at 7500%, but unofficial ones predict above 15000%. Official exchange rate is at 250ZW$ per US$ but black market rates push past 120,000ZW$ (120,000,000 in old currencies) per US$. Golfers prefer to buy drinks before they tee-off because by the time they come back they won't be able to afford the drinks.

That's gone too.

Being the master of his own version of economics, President Mugabe ordered inflation to be illegal, banks do not allow more than $10000 to be withdrawn in a day, and in order to buy support from his allies, has promised to triple current salaries to $33m a month, and printing even more money to flood his close circle of allies with.

So we all know that the theory in Mugabenomics is doing everything contrary to the economic dogma practised everywhere. One should cease printing money because printing money isn't gonna work, it only makes the current amount of money even more worthless. One should also not continue spending, but the government cannot afford to cut it's expenditure (to maintain support), and are using draconian policies to stem money growth. Price controls and economy regulation exacerbate the situation. But President Mugabe did it anyway, and even forced a legislation to say that prices are to be cut by 50%.

This corrodes confidence in both the government, and the money. So people will move back to the stone ages where barter trade is used. Once, money was stored in the bank, now money is stored as bread. The newest currency is $20million in plastic bag of $500 notes. (The $500 note cannot be used to even buy one ply of tissue paper.)

The latest currency is bags of money.

For the people, a majority of whom depend on remittances in US$, or earn in South African rands, are coping well with the situation. But poor souls who are trapped have to suffer and rely on aid organisations distributing food.

At this point, if you're still failing to grasp the theory of hyperinflation. Take your bank balance, let's say $100 push it back by 5/6 zeros, then try to buy a 30 cents loaf of bread with that. Kind of tough isn't it. That's if you were unlucky enough to have your money in a bank when that happens. Ok, enough for today, I feel smarter already typing through all this.

The author would like to clarify that he's not a boring person with no life but studying economics and talking about politics. Nononono, that's not true. He's in fact an ah-beng who slacks around, plays DotA, talks crap, and listens to trance, techno, dance, electronic, n house. He also lives most of his life on Facebook, and MSN. =P

THES-QS World University Rankings 2007

These were published last Sunday on the 11th.
The UK and Eire's top universities are here and Europe's top 150 are here.

Guess where Edinburgh is.
Number 5 in the UK, number 5 in Europe, and number 23 in the world.



Wah deng, so happening wei! It's probably not a very great feat to some people though, but for me it's coooool! Go on and check out where your university lies on the world map!

Tooooot

Just wanna say, that I won't be posting anything for the next few days. Real busy with my project but turns out I've wasted half a day because of the stupid things I've done, should have just gone out to watch a movie but nooooooo, have to do work, which I then forgot to save.. then redo.. then wrong data.. then redo again. Sigh, I sense myself becoming emo already. .. emotional.. sigh.

Note: Why is it so hard, to not get attracted to someone! I don't want to! Hatehatehatehatehatehatehatehate =(

Apatheism

Quite a number of people nowadays, when asked about which religion they are in, just say one word. "Freethinker". The western layman definition of freethought is associated with atheism, but it probably doesn't mean that all freethinkers are atheists right? Because, do atheists have the right to celebrate something that they do not believe in for say, Christmas? Some people give the reason for freethinking as "I believe in all religions, but I refuse to specifically practise a religion." I say, "F*ck it, you're probably just spiritualists, so why call yourself a freethinker?"

For me, there's probably two types of definitions for people who call themselves "free-thinkers". One is that they accept all religions, and practise non. The other is they are indifferent towards any religion at all. So am I right to call most free-thinkers apatheists - people who don't care about religion?

An apatheist is defined as "someone who is not interested in accepting or denying any claims that God, or any other supernatural being, exists or does not exist. In other words, an apatheist is someone who considers the question of the existence of God as neither meaningful nor relevant to human affairs."

So.. I'm probably right then. Right? Probably part-apatheists and part-agnostics (one who doesn't believe that there is proof of God's existence but doesn't deny that it's possible for God to exist as well). Hmm.. the study of metaphysics is.. =.= simply beyond my capacity.

Hence, this brings me to another point. Are freethinkers allowed the right to celebrate religious festivities since this constitutes something that they have no interest or simply do not believe in? To put it simply, should freethinkers rethink their stance on religion if they celebrate religious festivals? How about visits to religious places? And reading sacred texts? (I think, if you read the Bible and still profess yourself a freethinker, you're just plain irresponsible, however one might argue that one can still be apathetic and read the Bible, soooo.. argghhh I'm losing myself). Gah, things outside of your own understanding sure is difficult.

Bottom line for me is, a majority of people who call themselves freethinkers are apatheists. Simply put, you don't give a rat's ass about religion, and think that they are irrelevant to humanity.

I've Never Seen

Have you ever seen someone just breathing their last breath before they pass away? I've never, even for my paternal grandparents. So when I saw this picture, I could just imagine the poor man, exhaling his last breath, still holding his camera.. thoughts whizzing through his mind. There's this really awkward - "he's not coming back again" - feeling. I'm at a loss for words to describe this. It's kind of a depressing thought.

Kenji Nagai, a Japanese reporter, died from gunshot wounds on 27 Sept.

-----
Digressing a little, I don't get it, how come ASEAN officials are saying that they cannot do anything. UN Sec-Gen barely uttered a few comments, and all we have are the Western countries yapping their mouth off about sanctions, barring officials from travelling etc. The way the western media have been talking about things, it almost as if sounds like they are preparing the western public for military intervention in Myanmar.

It's their problem, a country's sovereignty cannot be undermined by letting others take part in their own problem, although at times international pressure (note - not intervention) has had proven success.

My thought goes out to all the monks in Myanmar.

A Little Enlightenment

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||| 43% Stability |||||||||||||||| 70% Orderliness |||||||||||||| 60% Accommodation |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Interdependence |||||||||||||||| 70% Intellectual |||||| 23% Mystical |||||| 30% Artistic |||| 16% Religious |||||||||||||| 56% Hedonism |||| 16% Materialism |||||||||||| 43% Narcissism |||||| 23% Adventurousness |||||||||| 36% Work ethic |||||||||| 36% Self absorbed |||||||||||| 50% Conflict seeking || 10% Need to dominate |||||| 23% Romantic |||||||||| 36% Avoidant |||||| 23% Anti-authority |||||||||||| 50% Wealth |||||||||||| 50% Dependency |||||||||||||||| 70% Change averse |||||||||||||||| 63% Cautiousness |||||||||||| 50% Individuality |||||||||||| 50% Sexuality |||||||||||||| 56% Peter pan complex |||||||||||| 43% Physical security |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Physical Fitness |||||| 24% Histrionic |||||| 30% Paranoia |||||||||| 36% Vanity |||||||||||| 50% Hypersensitivity |||||| 23% Indie |||||||||| 40%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were high which suggests you are very relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic..

Orderliness results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.

Extraversion results were moderately low which suggests you are reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.

trait snapshot:
clean, organized, regular, self reliant, tough, positive, high self control, very good at saving money, dislikes chaos, resolute, realist, trusting, hard working, dislikes unpredictability, prefers a technical specialized career, not worrying, respects authority, enjoys leadership, finisher, normal, optimistic, controlling, prudent, modest, adventurous, does not like to be alone, intellectual, likes the unknown, very practical, high self esteem, assertive, perfectionist, busy, altruistic

A little inaccurate. First, I am not at times, overly-organized. And I am only reclusive towards strangers. Like I said once before, once you get close to me, my ass starts talking. Oh and I managed to turn my once-low self esteem to high! Wooo my self-reflecting sorta-hiatus worked!! (Thanks~ Steph for the suggestion!)

Today is also post-what-you-got-from-other-blogs day. Credits to Sue Ling for her post... which was.. uh.. very long ago. Oops, that probably means I haven't been reading her blog for a month. =P Uh-oh..

In General Sense

My opinion about the credit crunch in America, should differ from quite some number of widestream analysts. I believe that Mr Bernanke, Fed Chairman, has gave in to pressure from Wall Street. In fact, why should anyone be taking the blame when it is actually greedy Wall Street bankers and their risk undervaluing who are to blame? It has been proven in the past in Wall Street that moving with the herd is always a good thing to do.

Anyway, there's another point. What or who initiated the housing bubble instead? No other than.. Mr Bernanke's predecessor, Alan Greenspan. His policies during the 90s, created the dotcom boom and later in the post-911 era, the housing bubble. By adjusting the federal funds rate to historic lows of 1.0% (which by common sense, encourages house owners down to the lower proportion of society - in the income hierarchy - to take up mortgages.), he has pretty much lit a match and threw it into a pool of gasoline.

Mr Greenspan also publicly acknowledged the virtues of subprime loans, as quoted.

With these advances in technology, lenders have taken advantage of credit-scoring models and other techniques for efficiently extending credit to a broader spectrum of consumers. The widespread adoption of these models has reduced the costs of evaluating the creditworthiness of borrowers, and in competitive markets cost reductions tend to be passed through to borrowers. Where once more-marginal applicants would simply have been denied credit, lenders are now able to quite efficiently judge the risk posed by individual applicants and to price that risk appropriately. These improvements have led to rapid growth in subprime mortgage lending; indeed, today subprime mortgages account for roughly 10 percent of the number of all mortgages outstanding, up from just 1 or 2 percent in the early 1990s.

Remarks by Alan Greenspan on Consumer Finance at the Federal Reserve System's Fourth Annual Community Affairs Research Conference.

So, if you ask me who caused it, I would say.. the above.

If this bores you, I know it does, go here for a lighter side, or just continue doing your own stuff.. whatever you were planning to do before you looked here aight?