Category: Uncategorized

Well, that’s what the translated title says – Between Angels and Demons. Anyway, I watched the film tonight. I decided on a whim to just go watch it at the cinema and I picked an obscure cinema near my place to watch it. I even managed to get good seats at a cheap price.

The film was quite predictable, from the very beginning. They gave the bad guy away within the first 20 minutes of the show. That was not very nice of them. They should have at least kept it a secret until the very end. There was seriously no need to give it away at the start. All they had to do was to make Robert Langdon look serious instead of astonished. That would have made things lot less obvious.

Regardless, the film was mostly enjoyable. There isn’t much thinking needed in the film as the plot moves from one location to another. You know from the very beginning that there will be four cardinals executed, one each hour. So, the film moves from one cardinal to the next. Thank goodness Dan Brown released this book after the Da Vinci Code. Otherwise, he may not have gotten quite as famous.

The thing that made the film less enjoyable for me was the guy sitting next to me. He kept making annoying guttural noises in his throat for quite a bit. However, I still managed to distance myself away from him for a large part of the show except when he decides to clear his throat and rip me away from the realm of illusion for a bit.

Personally, I agree that this is not nearly as good as Star Trek. Maybe I’ll go watch it again this weekend. I wonder if it will still hold its magic the second time around.

I had to fill in a few forms today. The good thing was, while the forms came in a Microsoft Word format, I had Microsoft Office to open them up with. Unfortunately, when I opened up the forms, they looked very different from what they were supposed to look as the formatting was all out of place. The problem turned out to be because the font used was missing from my system.

First thing I did was to look around for the font. Turns out that the “Sabon” font is a proprietary font. I would need to pay about US$30 for the privilege of downloading the font. That was just plain crazy. So, I tried replacing the font with an equivalent Serif font but it still wouldn’t format correctly. I even tried shrinking the size so that the form wouldn’t spill over onto the next page but to no avail.

Finally, I had to download the PDF version of the forms, print them out, fill them up by hand, and scan the forms back into the computer before emailing them in. How silly is that? Unfortunately, they don’t have PDF form versions. Otherwise, I would have used that from the start.

What this episode taught me was that there were little ways in which Microsoft Office documents would bite us. Even on Windows, there would be formatting issues. This has always been the only warning that I gave my friends about OpenOffice – formatting issues. Turns out that the formatting issues were probably due to the use of proprietary fonts too.

People should just stick with open-source fonts. There are quite a number of them around and they look good! [like the one pictured]

I think that it is dumb. According to TheStar, our government is considering to limit the number of subjects taken by SPM students to ensure fairer scholarship selection. Although I do not think that the current free-for-all was a good thing to have, I do not agree with this methodology to address the issue of PSD scholarships.

It also raises the issue of fairness. While our DPM said that it was unfair on those who are forced to take less subjects because of economic or administrative reasons. However, the suggested policy would take away the option of taking more subjects from those who may wish to do more. Personally, I like the idea of having the freedom to pick and choose subjects.

However, what the PSD should do is to only consider results from a set number of subjects. This is fair, transparent and simple to do. As a criteria, the PSD should just list down the subjects needed. Having A1s in other subjects can be ignored totally for the purpose of scholarship selection. There is no point adding in an A1 in Science I/II when you’ve already got an A1 in Physics, Chemistry and Biology separately.

If the student wishes to take more subjects in order to pad up their results, they are free to do so as long as they understand that only the results that are requirements will be considered. In fact, the students should only be evaluated based on the pre-requirement subjects. So, the student should not be penalised for getting a bunch of A2s in other non-requirement subjects.

However, it doesn’t surprise me that the government can come up with such dumb solutions to the simplest of problems.

PS: In other news, our PM has said that he intends to dismantle the decades old system of preferment for ethnic Malays. I wonder why it has not been picked up by the local press.

Personally, I am against the idea of the courts being embroiled in the current Silver Sandiwara. I like the idea of having an independent judiciary, one which is equal in power but distinctly separate from the other branches of government. However, we may end up seeing a situation where a 3-men bench got to decide who was the lawful Menteri Besar of Perak.

Whichever way the judges rule, our democracy would have suffered a setback. Whomever they choose to pick as the lawful MB, would circumvent all sorts of procedures. As far as I can tell, the lawful MB is whomever commands the majority of the Assembly and is thus appointed by the Sultan. Unless of course, we get a surprise decision where the judges rule not to rule.

You see, from what I read in a M’kini letter, Article 72 of our Constitution specifically states:

72. (1) The validity of any proceedings in the Legislative Assembly of any State shall not be questioned in any court.

This actually gives the judges a sneaky way out of the situation, by pointing out the fact that the proceedings in the Assembly are not in their purview. So, whether or not an MB commands the majority of the house, is not up to the judiciary to decide. It is entirely up to the Assembly to decide, which was the crux of the whole problem to begin with.

If what is said in this letter is to be believed, the Silver Sandiwara is far from over. According to the letter, the way in which the BN kicked out the previous assembly speaker was not ‘by the book’ and that the present speaker was not even sworn in as a member of the assembly. If any of it is true, it means another major cock-up by the members of the coup.

I think that it is important to follow the Constitution and rules of the house when it comes to these matters. You see, the state government draws its powers and authority from these documents. If these documents are not to be respected, then neither is the state government. Therefore, it is important that everyone plays by the rules, lest the laws of the jungle prevail.

I think that the situation is now so frakked up that there is no easy way out. So, the state can look forward to being so thoroughly screwed up by the politicians up until the next General Election. I pity the people who have to make a living there.

As for the candle light vigils, I understand the need to keep the issue alive so that it simmers and blows up during the next GE. However, I think that the opposition should start looking at doing something else. The only effect that it seems to be having is to get more people arrested. That cannot be a good long-term strategy. Unless of course, it is their objective to get arrested!

http://i398.photobucket.com/flash/player.swf?file=http://vid398.photobucket.com/albums/pp68/caseycarlson/adam-madXXX.flv

It ain’t no secret whom I am rooting for – the one with the guy-liner! Go Glambert!

I think not. Feel free to disagree.

If we assume that it is the PR’s tactic to run a 4-year campaign up until the next General Election, then the move by the BN to not-contest the Penanti by-election makes sense. There is a reason why the campaign period is limited by the election rules. Continually running by-elections is a way to circumvent those rules.

If we assume that this tactic is true, then there are only two ways to tackle the problem – either beat the competition to a pulp or avoid confrontation entirely. In this particular case, there is no way to do the former. So, it would be better to do the latter.

What the BN needs to do now is focus on the war, not individual battles. Of course, all wars are won one battle at a time, but it is also important to pick and choose battles and battlegrounds. I’m not politically knowledgeable enough to know if Penanti is a strategic seat, but it probably isn’t.

BN needs to break the PR momentum of winning by-election victories and cut-off the campaign flow. Instead, they should focus on fixing the problems of the previous administration and doing a good job of things. If they can show that they are able to do things right, they will have a fighting chance in the next GE.

One good thing that the last GE brought about – the political landscape in Malaysia has changed forever. That is a good thing.