I finally got around to buying a domain name :). I suppose I had to finally put a Nuffnang ad on my own blog lah, as well as link up all my workmates. The exporting of posts went much smoother than the last migration I did from my old blogspot blog (now a secret test site for ads!) to my previous free Wordpress blog.

I’ve changed the blog title too. justchal was just too weird (wtf was I thinking?).

Haven’t really finalized the theme yet so don’t be surprised if the layout and colours keep changing.

Popularity: 41% [?]

The Malaysian government has hit out against the 20,000 unthreatening, unreliable, irresponsible, unregistered, unprofessional, unemployed female liars who are denying the rural people their news.

This time we are warned against insulting the King or Islam (also see LKS):

“The time for talk is over, now is the time to act.” With this warning shot, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the government would be taking legal action against bloggers who flagrantly belittled Islam or the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

He told the Dewan Negara yesterday that three laws could be used against the bloggers: The Internal Security Act (ISA), Sedition Act and Section 121b of the Penal Code.

Section 121b deals with offences against the authority of the king, ruler or Yang DiPertua Negeri and carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Speaking at the Malaysian Press Institute Press Awards Night here yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government was deeply troubled by the growth of “irresponsible” alternative media.

The first thing that came into my mind was Harry Potter, and how our government resembles the Ministry of Magic - issuing ridiculous decrees hunting down citizens to maintain their state of denial and to stay in power.

Seriously, how many times do you read about people insulting the King? If I had ten sen for every Malaysian who couldn’t even freaking name our past two D.Y.M.M.S.P.B.Y.D.P. Agongs (let alone insult them), I’d be a millionaire many times over. Maybe in the sixteenth century UMNO could have used the King as an effective excuse to accuse people of treason, but not in this day and age.

And the sudden fervour to defend Islam is another blatant attempt at catering to the lowest common denominator - early elections are a certainty, and the govt can’t buy their votes this time like in Ijok. This is the cheapest method in more ways than one. And how about when other religions get insulted?

The three laws mentioned: The Internal Security Act (ISA), Sedition Act and Section 121b of the Penal Code (which forbids insulting the King) may carry legal but not moral weight - and even then, if UMNO politicians can get away with waving the keris and calling for spilling of blood, I don’t think bloggers are the seditious ones.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Linking to newspaper articles in a blog entry is very common, and encouraged - it shows you have done research.

Problem is that some newspapers and magazines “archive” their online articles. The practice varies from one publication to another. I’ve managed to find archived articles from TIME.com from all the way back in 1969 (!), for example.

For Malaysian papers, the Sun seems to keep its articles online indefinitely (at least for now). The Star archives articles after a year. The New Straits Times takes articles down after 2 months.

Just something to keep in mind. If you want to quote an article, you want to get a link from Sun if possible, otherwise the Star. For NST, after you find the article, search its headline on Google, then link the Google cache as a backup. Sure, if you’re out of your mind you’ll subscribe to the NSTP archive for RM300/year, but don’t expect your readers to do the same.

Popularity: 42% [?]

Marv, the only guy I can remember who was a classmate for all five high-school years in PFS, tagged me…

Six weird things (why six?):

1. I stutter when I’m uncomfortable, or when I’m speaking (or trying to speak) in Mandarin or Hokkien.
2. Ever since becoming more health conscious I sometimes don’t finish my food. Mostly happens with french fries, soda, oily gravy, and of course white rice.
3. Like Donald Duck, I occasionally get myself too engrossed in something. Very good when it’s an assignment, bad when it’s an assignment and I have other assignments; VERY bad when it’s something like say, DotA…
4. I shake my legs all the time (the trishawman shake)
5. When I was young I developed the habit of reading at the dinner table and in the toilet - and I still do! (Yea think twice before borrowing a book from me)
6. Coffee (and caffeine) seems to have no effect on me. I can drink a cuppa right before sleeping and it has no effect.

The rules:

1. Direct link to the guy who tagged you
   Adventures of Ah Pin (”Horsing” around in Australia)
2. List down the top 5 places to eat at your location. (Since I don’t have any transport, this mostly equates to what’s within walking distance of my house here).
   Duck rice @ Jia Jia. The skin is sinfully juicy and they give you big helpings. Comes with soup and chili that are just as delicious.
   Heritage Family Restaurant. The only (affordable) place around here with air-con, and certain dishes (Western Roasted Chicken, Chicken Chop) give you lots for a reasonable $.
   Nameless burger stall. Opens opposite Petronas (used to be opposite 7/11) starting about 8pm. What makes it nice is they slooowly grill it over a charcoal fire so you get the smokey taste afterwards. Takes ages and ages to get your order ready though.
   Cendol @ Jonker Walk - Don’t often get to go there, it’s all the way in town and I don’t usually eat sweet stuff, but the gula melaka makes all the difference.
   Can’t think of any place worthy of the fifth spot…too bad ya.

Sorry but this tag will have to stop here… everyone taggable has already been tagged recently so I don’t wanna impose. Only one I can think of is Khor Chin Hau, but he’s having his finals soon and hasn’t replied my last MSN message. If you want to know some weird stuff about him though, the ang mohs in UK call him “Chin”, and his mother is a hairstylist but his own hair is pretty generic…

Popularity: 18% [?]

Yeah.

Popularity: 14% [?]

MMU introduces a twist in its Engineers and Society course this year: as an assignment, all students are given MMU-hosted blogs, and have to update them regularly, as well as read their classmates’ posts. Link here [Might only be accessible from Malaysia].

This project is the brainchild of Pau Kiu Nai, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan Tech and a Masters of Management from IIUM, and has been an MMU lecturer since 1999. When asked how he came up with the idea, he said that having taught the subject for a number of years, he observed that students needed to interact more. He was also worried about the non-technical skills of MMU graduates. “From the feedback from industries, our students are weak in reporting or writing”, he observed. “Blog(ging) is the best way to encourage them to write”.

Mr. Pau’s class, like many others, comprises students from varying majors and years of study. By enforcing a system where students are required to blog regularly, and receive bonus points for commenting and rating fellow bloggers’ posts, students learn more about their peers - and maybe themselves as well.

To date the students have logged about 3,000 posts and more than 35,000 comments - not bad for a 10-mark assignment! Yes, there are the uncooperative ones who plagiarize articles off the Net and form “I rate you high, you rate me high” conspiracies. And the general level of English is hardly stellar. But by and large the students seem to be embracing the idea. Nearly all of them have uploaded photo avatars, and are posting on practically every subject under the sun: pet hedgehogs, stacking Pizza Hut salads, mountain hiking, stringing for a local paper, university events, becoming a cowboy, baby pictures, the ubiquitous love stories, and many more. Lecturers and tutors are regularly reading their students’ blogs - not merely to criticize or grade, but to know them better. Pau says the posts that are “written from the heart” are particularly memorable. He also pays attention to any complaints and posts that need moderating.

Some students have requested that their blogs be made permanent and retained in the system even after they finish the subject. Pau is also considering converting the existing system into a more formal one for all MMU students if the response is good enough.

The blog system is based on a modified Wordpress engine and is hosted in MMU. Popular blog posts, as well as blogs that have not been “peer-reviewed” are highlighted. Various tweaks were also made to tailor it to the assignment needs and to make it run faster.

Pau says that blogging can be a new teaching tool. “I’ve always believed learning can be fun”.

Popularity: 29% [?]

I’ve decided to move from Blogger to Wordpress. Blogger was taking too long to load and had serious issues with images. I was trying to redesign my old blog but Blogger was insisting on converting my GIFs/PNGs into JPGs no matter what I did.

Wordpress has better content-related functions like categories, trackbacks, and page creation. On the flipside, you can’t customize your templates at all. Although that can be a relief, since you have an excuse for not putting in that effort. I think they’ll get round to it someday.

Fortunately Wordpress has an Import tool so I didn’t lose my previous posts - although the image placements are mostly screwed. I also found out that IE has serious issues with Wordpress - or it could be PHP - so I migrated to Firefox as well. It managed to duplicate my old posts multiple times so I ended up with nine copies of each article in this blog (for a total of about 400+ articles since I accidentally did it twice). Wordpress oddly didn’t have a batch delete function so I had to delete every single one manually!

Anyway, welcome to the new blog, enjoy reading.

Popularity: 17% [?]

I initially skipped making an introductory post but I think I’m ready to do one now. My mother tells me my blog is too serious; my father cautions me regularly about anything controversial I write about; my sister complains I am too strict about blogging.

Blogging can be many things. Some people use their blogs as diaries, some use theirs to promote a product, some use their blogs to inform. While the concept and popularity of blogging may be relatively new, the reason behind it is simple: to communicate. Ours is an age of communication and expression where anyone can have their say, if anyone wants to listen.

Writing is the most effective means of communicating and expressing ourselves. You have all the time in the world to write and what you write can be recorded for the future. But writing for the sake of writing is meaningless, writing by its nature must have a purpose.

Writing for yourself is no doubt satisfying. It is a chance to put on paper (or screen) what you are thinking, to reflect or to keep for yourself to look back on. Before anyone attempts to understand others one must first understand yourself.

Writing for others is the next step, and it is also more fulfilling. What is more meaningful - and more powerful - than the ability to inform and change the perceptions of others? Writing for others also holds you accountable for what you write and challenges you to prove the validity of what you say and think. Both sides gain.

And that’s why I write.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Something Stupid by Robbie Williams

Today I had rice for dinner….mmm. My fingernails are too long, so I cut them, yay :))).

I got a paper cut while reading the newspaper, ouch… :(. I sneezed twice today. I think I’m going down with a cold. I’m studying now. My exams are coming soon…sigh :(.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Which I have decided to skip.

Popularity: 11% [?]