Some random thoughts~~~
The comfort zone, that is.
Cases and cases piling up to be read, there is of course the easy way out, by reading the case digests, which granted, is decent and healthy; but one can only get the most out of the case by reading the full judgments.
This applies to everything we do in life, take the more challenging route, ban yourself from your comfort zones, and you’ll find the final result even more satisfying. Trust me.
Just a few personal thoughts on READING, enjoy.
Throughout my childhood, I’ve not been a voracious reader, I don’t mean that I don’t read at all it’s just that I’ve had friends who have read way more books than me.
If my memory serves me well, I started reading the newspapers when I was 9, the age when a boy’s curiosity is at its greatest, but some years later, I stopped, not that the passion for reading has died, but the realisation that the mainstream media in the country is owned and controlled by the ruling party, and the quality of news in questionable, so I read the papers less, I glance through the headlines without reading much of the content, most of which is rubbish anyways.
Then came books, in my high school years, I started reading a few books here and there purely for pleasure, I was particularly fond of Chinese Wuxia Novels（武侠小说） then , there were many books from this genre in my high school library. That library is full of treasure, with many many books older than me, some limited editions not even available in the market.
It was when I started reading law that the importance of wide reading struck me. My A levels lecturer told us that if we were to do well in law, we must have a strong command of the English language, and only by reading will you improve your quality of language, both written and spoken. So I started to buy books, I bought Dickens, Austen, Homer, the Great American Novels, fiction, non fiction, etc. I didn’t have much money then, but I would usually by a few books at the beginning of each month, when I get my pocket money from my parents. Looking back, I have spent more on books than on food.
Of course, I still have a long way to go before I finish reading all of them, but at least there are books to entice, or force, me to read, and perhaps this liking of buying books is driven by the secret desire to have a private library? Many great men have had their own libraries, particularly well known to law students is the late Lord Denning, who noted how he has written books and poetry in his home library.
There is no specific way how I buy books, I just go to any bookshop, head towards the literature section and pick up whichever book that catches my eye. Another way is to find out reading lists of famous people, such as T. Roosevelt and A. Lincoln, and try to get and read what they have suggested reading.
I read books at a much slower pace compared to the average person because I like to make notes in the books albeit reading them for mere pleasure. When I read, I keep a pen and a dictionary near me, just in case any unfamiliar vocabulary appears. I write my thoughts and mostly arguments in the books themselves. Yes I like arguing with the characters and the authors of books, and my books are always messy, with writings, scribblings, underlining etc. all over the place. This is also another reason I like to buy my own books, where I can draw all over them and make them truly mine.
I strongly believe that having clean,neat books sitting on a shelf is not having book, that is having ink printed paper. If a person has a book which is worn and torn due to repetitive flipping and jotting down of notes he is considered to truly own a book.
Y.S. Chaiw.
Haven’t been blogging for the past few days, due to a rather urgent piece of work due next monday.
Throughout the years, we were taught to differentiate between urgency and importance, and from what I’ve learnt, there are 4 categories.
I was taught at school some years back this method of categorising our various tasks in life and I find it to be quite useful a trick.
Perhaps you’d care to try it out for yourself.
Source: Google.
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
~~~The Buddha.
Candles provide light by sacrificing themselves.
Candles come in handy when your power fails.
Candles mark the growing of a person every year by an increase on a birthday cake.
Candles carry our prayers to our loved ones.
Candles make light, and where there is light, there is hope. Even in the darkest nights, fret not, as long as there is light, there is bound to be hope.
No matter how careful I try to be
That little someone just sticks to me
He just loves to mess things up for me and never leaves me be
When I fancy a cup of tea
Or when I try to climb a tree
That little devil named clumsy
Always makes a fool of me
Looking back, some time later, on these little tricks of clumsiness
You’ll find yourself with a good little laugh of how clumsy you’ve been.
#amateurpoetry #novicepoet
Let me start off with a story of a disciple of Confucius, Zeng Zi 曾子.
Once upon a time, when Zeng’s wife was all set to go to the market place, their son put up a tearful scene, insisting on following his mother to the market. “If you behave and stay at home until I get back, I will slaughter a pig and make you your favourite pork dish” said the mother to the son, and of course the son, in anticipation of his favourite dish, stopped crying and the mother went to the market place alone.
When she returned home, Zeng was ready to slaughter a pig and his wife stopped him, saying that she was merely kidding with the child. In response Zeng told his wife:”A child is not to be kidded like that”. A child learns from his parents, if he is told lies by his parents, he will too end up telling lies. Zeng also said that if parents lie to their children, they will not trust them anymore, and how are they then to educate their children?
Of course, Zeng slaughtered the pig and made his son’s favourite dish.
If you read history or literature, you will find that in most cultures around the globe, people were taught to keep and honour their promises. Aristotle said “A promise made must be a promise kept” ; Song Dynasty poet Wang An Shi said “A promise weighs more than a hundred catties”. Until now, promises can be enforced in a court of law.
But, have you ever wondered why promises matter?
Promises matter, simply because, when a promise is broken, it communicates the message to the other party that he or she is not valued. When more than one promise is broken, the other person simply regards you as a liar. For some governments, they are not only liars, but chronic, habitual liars.
It is as important to stay true to yourself as to the people you have made promises with. It is common decency to only make a promise if you intend to keep it. Not making a promise is far better than making but failing to keep one. However, some promises may be broken on good faith and there are cases where you can’t keep a promise with legitimate excuses, because we never know what is going to happen next. Even if the person accepts your reasons and apologies, there will always be a little prick in his perception towards you.
In short, try as hard as possible to keep your promise, if you do fail to do so, sincerely ask for forgiveness, but the damage is done. A broken promise cannot me amended by a new promise.
The late Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher once said:”Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you”.
Students are taught at school to not plagiarise, the quality of their work is graded for its content, structure, and originality. To follow or to copy is simple, everyone can do it with ease, but to stand out among your peers, you’re required to show your talents that are unique to you.
As far as I can remember, I have always been rather different from people I know. Whilst the majority of my school mates liked the latest pop songs, music bands, K-pop stars, I stuck to the literature and classical music I so desperately love. For instance, I would find much greater pleasure in rereading Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” or Rudyard Kipling’s “If” than to listen to any K-pop song(I am by no means belittling fans of K-pop), which is considered “NORMAL” for people my age.
So, am I not “NORMAL“? Of course I’m not, being abnormal in my own ways make me…ME, it makes my personality, it makes me unique, most importantly, it makes me who I am. There are great benefits to this , let me elaborate, for example, people at school know me as the chap who likes classical music, because there are only a handful of my school mates, who obviously got along with me very well, who liked classical music, so, to a certain extent, originality leads to publicity, in a good way; if i were to be known as the chap who likes K-pop, no one would give a damn about that, almost everyone in school listens to K-pop, what makes you so special? So you see, never be afraid to be yourself and to be original.
Many, to my knowledge fail to be original due to the fear of being judged by the eyes of their peers. I have two words for you,”why bother?” Why bother what the other person thinks? He, she or it is entitled to their thoughts, and you are just as much entitled to be yourself, you have NO obligation whatsoever to please people. Just be happy being who you are doing what you are.
Lastly, let me end this moaning with a short poem I wrote. I am still a novice in the field of poetry, so please be nice and try not to laugh..HAHA
Never be afraid to part the crowd,
Leave out fear of failure and doubt.
You are your whole world and everything that’s in it.
Do what you please and be proud of it.
What is it about the glorious way you smile that makes me feel so full of life?
How do you never cease to make my heart take wing and wanting to just fly away?
How is it, that these mere little words so dear you write to me can make me feel bright for the rest of my day? Is it flattery? A fool might ask. Well, call it whatever you want, but when a man falls in love so severely he has no regard for the eyes of the world. He cares only about how his special little rose sees him.
Whenever I write to that special someone. I try to flatter her but not too much out of fear that it might make her notice my regards for her too soon and that it might make her feel uneasy. But, soon I realised that these words on paper were not of flattery nature but were sincere commendations from the heart. It is so hard to remain a friend to you, when I so desperately long to be more, but I am doubtful of how you feel, my sweetheart.
Pic: A koi pond at my friend’s house, makes me ponder a lot when i visit.
It is so difficult to wait for the right moment for me to tell my Little Darling Sunshine how i feel about her. I couldn’t bear risking a chance that she might be offended by my actions, be it by a letter of confession or by telling it to her in person how my regards to her are.
I long to tell her how I feel towards her, but every time I get a chance to text her or to speak to her, I force myself to be extra careful not to say things that might make her uneasy.
And finally, the coward’s way out I’ve decided to take, to take to pen and paper and pour my heart and soul out, have it sealed in an envelope and waiting for the right chance to hand it to her. For that mere act of handing her a letter I will need all the courage I have and more, for whenever I see her charming smile, I lose my rational thinking.
I guess this is what it feels to be in love.
Ok,here goes,figuring out how to use these one-word prompts and I’m sure I’ll make a fool out of myself in the first few tries, but please bear with me, I will persevere.
A few years back, when I was in high school I was clueless about what i wanted to be, or to be more specific, which cause I wanted to pursue after graduating from high school.
Mother recommended I try out traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), which is a growing field in my country, Malaysia and sure is going to be a prevalent profession in the future. However, I sucked at math and as a consequence i ended up in the arts stream instead of science. Being in the arts stream, i was allowed to take 2 maths but only 1 science in the SPM examinations. The TCM course required 2 maths and 2 sciences, so time to reconsider my future.
Then, realising, but not to boast, that i was quite good in my language subjects particularly English, and one of my teachers even mentioned that i was good at quarrelling and that i should try out Law. I wasn’t too positive and keen about law at that time but nevertheless enrolled into a rather popular law school and did my Alevels there.
For a law degree the requirements are two passes in any Alevel subjects, I took three subjects just to be on the safe side,they were Law,Business and Economics. It was my Alevels law lecturer who got me intrigued and interested to the subject. He was very different in conducting lectures, he threw jokes at us all the time, and as a result, the messages he wanted to convey effectively got to us. He also gave out sweets all the time because he believed that when we have sweets in our mouths, we can be silent for that duration. It is truly amazing how an inspiring teacher can have such an impact on students.
Now, I’ve got through my Alevels, securing three B’s. And have happily proceeded to do my law degree (L.L.B.). And if I’m good and diligent enough, I’ll even be spending my third year in the UK. After which I’ll be sitting for the UK Bar exam to qualify as a barrister.
Hopefully this addresses the prompt ‘realisation’ adequately…😂
FOR WANT OF A BETTER WORD 