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!

I Refuse

namewee has a new single out. Check it out here.
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Sometimes we are faced with situations which make us think back, and ask ourselves some simple questions. Was I wrong?

I've had it with all these thoughts. I refuse to be dictated by other people's thoughts of me. I refuse to be made to think I made a wrong choice. I refuse to question my own decisions. I refuse to be a pawn on a chessboard. No matter what, I'm now doing what I've chosen to do, although it might be second best. But I'll prove everyone wrong in the future. I'll make those who looked down on me retract back all they said. I'll be my own self. I don't have to follow the pack. I'm pissed.

Self Individuality

I was told that this year there are a heck-lot more 1st year Malaysians staying at Pollocks and that area south compared to places near my flat (north of George Square). Last two years there were a plentiful amount staying in the latter areas. Sigh, poor people like us are isolated, and end up hanging out with the 2nd-3rd year Malaysians who are staying nearby and the Brits.

It's not that it's bad, but then again hanging out with the Brits has it's own merits, like learning to be a heck lot more open and socialable, learning the cultural differences, being able to speak with an accent a lot more quicker (I've got a moderate English and very slight North-eastern accent when I speak now) which is quite cool, but it's influencing my other styles of talking nowadays.

Even my Manglish has a lot less lahs in it already, my Cantonese which has picked up a lot during the summer holidays, has begun to lose some of it's pronounciation too. I guess I'm getting more comfortable talking with an accent instead of last time when it took some effort to speak it out fluently.

I used to think whether would it be better if I stayed in the halls of residences. Would I make more friends? I'd wouldn't have to worry about cooking, wouldn't have to worry about not being excluded from big fun gatherings.. and all the sort.

But then I realise, living in a flat, somehow demonstrates living in a real world, at a time when everything is still raw in the eyes of the unexperienced fresher. I get to dictate my own time at my own pace, get to learn the skills essential of surviving for a day (the dreaded idea of what to eat and how to get it), and get to know the little things that didn't used to be important.

It's the biggest leap I've taken in life so far, and I'm beginning to understand more.. about life and myself. Best thing of all, I love it, I love the idea of being independent, of being an individual, of finding my own way. I simply adore it, the uncanny thought of music-and-religion-infused pathfinding. However random it may sound.

Bleak

Who noticed that my titles make little or no sense to what I'm posting about?

Anyway, my camera died so there's no hope of me posting up pictures at least for this term. No it's not technically dead, apparently when I turned it on it just showed Lens Error, so I googled it up and apparently it was mechanical failure. So.. I'll have to get it fixed back home.

My hopeless 1.3M mobilephone camera .. is definitely a nono when it comes to pictures, which brings me to the point of why of all of a sudden did I want to use my camera. EMSA had a bowling competition, which every team supposedly wins prizes. 8 teams, 8 prizes. Brilliant. Everybody wins, well my team of Julian, Imran, ChoEe and me got fourth. I was lousiest in the team, scoring only a total of 119 in two games (49 in the first <-- noob)
So, there goes half my weekend, along with the afternoon loitering around at Imran's place, ended up sleeping over because I was too tired lazy to walk home at 12. Sunday was a blast too, nobody had plans, so half the day I'm playing Warcraft III by myself with AIs, the other half, understanding more about sportscars, misfiring systems, rotary engines, 4WDs/AWDs from wikipedia. Damn happening right? Now I have to start working on my 2k word essay. Sigh.

Emotional Fallacy

Minister Zamzam alakazam.. got owned by a journalist, first saying, "We allowed it! That's why we are a democracy.. then say it was illegal, why was it illegal?, because there's no point to hold this gathering." Was that a professional rebuke or answer?

Along with Nazri, Zam's lost credibility in my eyes. Made a complete fool out of himself.

Anyway, we've made it to foreign press. BBC, CNN, Reuters, Al Jazeera and ABC has stories on this. Quite the contrary to what Bernama has published. Anyway, when I first saw the descriptions and the pictures, I had a tear in my eyes. The feeling of love towards a country, is just so great.